Korean Job Discussion Forums

[philipjames]

My school has gone bankrupt. I have worked here for 7 months. I'm a bit annoyed that I won't get my year end bonus. I have informed the school, however, that I expect to be paid part of severance pay, equal to the time that I did work. In other words, seven months is equal to about 60% of a full year, therefore I expect 60% of my bonus. After all, it's of no fault of my own that I couldn't complete the contract, and at my next school I'll have to do a full year again before getting a bonus.

Is this a reasonable request?

[Zyzyfer]

If the guy's a true slime, yes. If he's not, I personally wouldn't get on his nuts about it. Yea yea yea, it's a big chunk of money, but I don't like kicking good people when they're down.

If they're pretty shady, though, have fun.

[Austin]

[weatherman]

Only my take on this but, but you will not see any coin in terms of severance pay. He has the legal footing...

[ulsanchris]

op unfortunately you have no right to your bonus. YOu can only get your bonus if you work one full year at your school. If your school is going out of business the guy probably can't afford to pay it anyway.
Austin unless you know how the ops raporte with his students is and his teaching ability I would advise to keep your accusations to a minimum.
There are numerous reasons why a hogwan will go broke. A bad foreign teacher is one of them but so is bad management. Maybe the Hogwan director is a bad manager. Maybe he failed to hire the right teachers (foreign and korean), maybe he was bad at marketing, yelled at parents, set up a poor curriculim, who knows.

[rapier]

I was in exactly the same boat a year back. My school went belly up after 10 months. They paid me an equivalent % of the bonus.
Wether I had a legal right to it, or they were just being nice, I'm not sure.

[philipjames]

Austin, you must be the biggest asshole that I have ever encountered in Korea. It's probably not unfair, moreover, to say that you're the most disrespected person on this board.

I'm an excellent teacher. The children and their parents love me. The school's financial problems have nothing to do with me. It's a symptom of your complete obnoxious attitude to other posters that you would assume that it had. The Korean economic situation and poor promotional techniques brought this school down. I'm a victim here *beep*, not the offender.

Here I am trying to get advise on how to move forward with this situation. Instead of expressing sympathy for a fellow teacher who has lost his job you opt to antagonise.

You're a scumbag.

[Austin]

This is the same character that was running GnB in Incheon into the ground eight months ago. He was fired for the exact same reasons that his current school is going out of business.

Watching him teach is like watching paint dry, and the sad thing is, he thinks he is a great teacher!

How many people do you know that would actually claim to be a "great" teacher?

The kids were bored out of their minds at GnB, and it does not sound like he has changed much. Too bad his current school did not cut him free early to prevent such a tragedy.

Will some of you people wake up and call it the way it is?

PJ is the kind of teacher that has no clue why every job he has goes to crap, whether he is in Korea or back in Canada. He blames every other person, except for the one that is truly responsible, himself.

I hope that this time around he will wake up and recognize the things that he has so far refused to consider.

Ulsan Chris, if you think I have it so wrong, why do not you give GnB in Incheon a call? The women is very kind and will tell you her side. Better yet, why not ask PJ for the number to his current boss to get his current employer's side of the story.

Sympathy is not always what some people need to read.

A dose of the truth now and again is not such a bad thing.

[philipjames]

Austin is contemptible. In his last post he gave the pretense that he knows me and implied that we even worked together.

Readers should be aware that I have never met Austin and that he knows nothing about my situation, past or present. He simply read my past posts and then, plagiarizing and distorting what I wrote, pretended to know me and to know that I'm a "bad" teacher.

I invite readers to check out my past posts re GNB and you'll see that's where he got the information on my past experience.

He says that "watching me teach is like watching paint dry". We've never met!!! He pretends that he knows the "nice" lady at GNB. He talks about me "boring the students to death". What I wrote was that the GNB textbooks were boring the children to death, not my teaching.

The name of my posting was "GNB Incheon...Hell on Earth." And that it was. The teacher before me took off after four weeks the owners were so evil. I stuck it out in the hell hole seven months. I encourage readers to read this post and you'll see where Austin got his information about me. Then stop and think about what kind of person plagiarizes, distorts and twists other posts like that?

Oh I forgot, Austin is the same great mind who advises people who are verbally assaulted by drunken Korean bigots on the subway to apologize to them for existing. This is the same person who talks about tolerance for Korean excesses on the one hand then refers to Jewish dating services as "Zionist" dating services!!!

As per my present school closing it has had nothing to do with me. I love the children and they love me. I have a Masters degree, and can teach university, but I chose to teach children. I adore them and care very much that they actually learn. This school teaches many subjects and there are 14 teachers here. Only three teachers, myself included, teach English. Does Austin really think my "bad" teaching really brought this school down. Is he that thick?

I have had zero complaints from parents or management about my teaching style in the whole seven months. The parents like me very much and can tell that I genuinely feel affection for heir children. This school is going under due to financial matters unrelated to my teaching ability.

I have already received a strong reference letter to give to my next employer.

I find it incomprehensible that a fellow teacher and expat chooses to jump over every poster on this board in the manner that Austin does. If Koreans beat up a foreigner, Austin suggests its the foreigners fault. If an unscrupulous hogwan owner fires a teacher in the eleventh month of a contract, it's the teacher's fault, not the scumbag hogwan owner. If a hogwan goes under because of the mismanagement of the owner, blame the English teacher. Surely the foreigner should have been up to date on the school's financial situation and warned the owner.

I can't believe that a mind so twisted is actually charged with educating today's youth.

[Joe Thanks]

Austin's a troll and needs a taste of his own medicine. Ignore him. I doubt few people take what he says seriously and he's a sick soul who gets off on pissing you off. Ignore him and he can't feed off of you. Of all the things that require mental rent, don't give it to such vermin.

Cheers,

Joe

[rapier]

Its a big mixture of things that causes a school to sink. My first teaching job ever, and my first school, sank. Of course I admit my fair share of blame, probably about 5%. The other 95% was a poor economy, poor management, no curriculum,poor morale ( I was the only foreigner I knew for a few months), competition from bigger chain schools in the area, etc etc.
Of course any teacher should accept a fraction of blame when a school goes down. But on the whole, its usually more a result of bigger forces at play.
I felt bad for that first school cos they treated me quite well and were fair with me.

[Austin]

PJ at his best:

[some waygug-in]

cancelled

[jajdude]

I assumed Austin was joking. If not, well..... whatever someone's got a chip on his shoulder.

[Austin]

Some Waykukin,

Odd...

I have never claimed to be a great teacher. I am always striving to make improvements on my lessons and on keeping up with the changes in the field. I love what I do, and I love my students.

If you consider my calling another poster's comments into check an "attack," then I am guilty, but I find it wholely necessary to question people on their sweeping statements and emotional banter. It is not a one-sided event! Though they rarely get posted, there are other perspectives that are equally as important to consider.

Is it so difficult to put your life experience into perspective?

Just because you had a bad day, does not mean that others are going to have a bad day. However, your negativity can spread, so why not spread something positive instead!

Life is all about experiences, and I hate to break this to you, but not everyone is so daft as to seek to deny themselves all aspects of life. What can be considered "good" or "bad" depends on the perspective of the individual.

Some people are more prepared than others, and a great many people never prepare for anything. Korea is no exception. You can meet people that learned many things about Korea before arriving here, people that brought many teaching resources with them to their placement, etc., but there will always be others on the other side of that scenario.

If a person is not prepared, is it not their burden to carry the consequences?

Who is to blame for your actions, other than yourself?

Tell it the way you see it, and I will tell it the way I see it. Why is that so difficult for you to understand?

I have faith enough in the users to decide for themselves! They know that one person's nightmare is another person's bliss.

Complaints? Are they constructive? What are they to accomplish?

Life is an experience no matter where you are, and I firmly believe that the true character of people is revealed when they face great levels of adversity. Moreover, if people came here with absolutely no expectations, I believe that they would have a wonderful experience every moment of everyday. Sadly, people pack too many expectations on their venture to Korea.

BTW, I only worship one. I hate to break it to you, but I am not it!