Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hotpants]

Hello, I'm trying to put together a(nother!) book, this time focusing on teaching in South Korea.

Can anyone help me with contributions to a section which is intended to be a collection of annecdotes about the highest and lowest points that teachers have experienced in Korea.

What is the highest point you would say that you've ever experienced while in Korea?

What is the lowest point you would say that you've ever experienced while in Korea?

I guess I should put forward my highest and lowest points, but my ideas of superlative experiences are a bit oddball, and probably won't do much to motivate others to post here! (If the contributions flood in to this post, then I will tell you what they are!)

If you wish to keep your contributions concealed from this board, please PM me. Please note that by sending me/posting any annecdotes you agree to them being published in my book if found suitable. Identities/names don't have to be revealed.

I'm really grateful to anyone who replies. Thank you 100x.

[mikekim]

highest: payday
lowest: not payday

[princess]

Highest: My great days, payday, and taking trips, seeing those I care about.

Lowest: Seriously thinking of taking my own life after I didn't get to marry my ex 'cause he chose his family over me. I am just now getting over him after on/off relationships with him over the course of 7 years. I never want to experience that kind of pain ever again. I still don't have total closure, and I even accidentally ran into one of hid friends Saturday night. Shocking and it brought back memories.

[peppermint]

my low, rather too personal to share on a public messageboard, and not related to teaching, but to being in korea. Maybe I'll send a pm about it

high: there were a few. The best one related to teaching was when my I had a sprained wrist, and the kids wanted to decorate my bandages. I of course let them, and I noticed they were writing very sweet things about me, but more importantly they were doing it in English, and not even thinking about it!

[mikowee]

highest: leaving Korea
lowest: coming back. Also, one time I was going to have sex with my girlfriend, but then she got her period and said there was no way.

[gwhitey09]

highest: soju night
lowest: next morning

[PeterDragon]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My lowest point as a teacher was while working at a crap academy [I'll PM you the name and location if you wish to publish it outside Korea], teaching a small class of middle schoolers I had just taken over. The first few weeks I spent a lot of time preparing new material for them to use, hoping to make it more interesting for them, only to have them refuse to do anything but games or puzzles; one of them making a point of refusing to do even that. At the time I was a polically correct newbie with no idea how to deal with insolent Korean kids, unaware of the fact that in any other context than crap hagwon (they were pretty rude to the Korean teachers, too) Korean students who talked to teachers the way they did could expect an immediate slap across the head. They would swear, throw things, walk across desks, fight, scream, throw tantrums, and write vulgar graffiti on any flat surface they could reach (there was even some on the ceiling). After finally losing it one evening I marched into the directors office demanding that something be done. He promised me he'd call their parents, blah blah blah, which of course he never did. When they were just as bad the next week if finally got through my thick skull exactly what was meant by the term 'teacher' at crap academy - I was just a white idiot to be used in his scam, and was in fact expected to play a role in what was essentially fraud and fostering delinquency. That was my lowest point as a teacher. I resigned a week later.

My highest point came last year at our school district's speech competition. By this point I had quite a bit of experience in prepping students for this sort of thing and the KTs at my school, who really wanted to win, knew that the best course of action was to leave me in charge of everything, from choosing the students to writing the speech to coaching them through it. One of the students I chose was clearly the best in our school. The other was one who'd be in the top 20% but not the top 5%, who had such natural confidence and enthusiasm at times, but also seemed to have a bit of self-doubt about her abilities. She really didn't believe when I told her I was sure she'd be in the top three and quite possibly number one. Well, my students won first place and the reaction on her face when the results were announced is something I'll never forget. The other girl (they did their speech as a pair) was used to winning lots of awards but she wasn't; to come in first place not just at our school but in the whole school district just left her glowing for days afterwards. Almost a year later she usually breaks into a big, beaming smile whenever she sees me and she's really involved with the broadcasting club this year, confidently announcing away during school events. I have to say that when her and my other student finished their speech at the competition last year, and I looked around at the other teachers present who were coming to the realisation that they were probably shooting for second place, I felt at my highest point ever as a teacher.

[mercury]

Highest day......

Saw my Japanese wife in the Professors cafeteria. She was eating alone, and she was a goddess! Most everyone was afraid to talk to her, then I come along and had a conversation with her, found out all about her life here in Korea, she was about ready to go home but I convinced her to stay another semester, best day of my life!

LOWEST DAY

first night out in Korea, met something called SOJU, thought it was harmless, the room spinned, me and some poor taxi driver trying to find out where the hell my place was.

[princess]

[Newbie]

Highest: The birth of my daughter

Lowest: Every year when I fly back from my inter-contract vacations. Walking through Incheon is lie a punch to the gut. Thankfully, last month should be the last one I have to do.

[sojourner1]

Highest: The exhileration of climbing a mountain and looking out onto the world. Korea has many very beautiful places with built in trails and stone stairs.

Lowest: Flying back to Korea after visiting home last month to make more memorable times with relatives and friends. I felt like I was going back to prison, a very confined and limited lifestyle, but I made my bed and now I have to sleep in it. I didn't want to leave home, the place where the land from the air looks like squares of milk chocolate filled with many memories of good times.

Note: Going to live in a foreign country makes you appreciate the qualities of your home country that people commonly take for granted. Things like good home cooking, ease of talking with people, and the purest air in the spacious rural American country side. You realize how North America is a gem in the rough when you see how the rest of the world is badly polluted, over crowded, and lacking in natural resources. I could not hardly imagine having to live the rest of my life in a polluted place with no fresh air where there is only 2 feet of space between houses and you can hear all your neighbors running their polluted non-potable tap water down their toilets and sinks. Gimme some damned space and fresh air. Living abroad has showed me that I really want to own a piece of land in North America where you have lots of natural space, a large pond, some woods, a grassy field, a whole house, a few pets, no stench, and lots of fresh air.

[Atavistic]

Highest: A few. Earning my black belt, not because it's black, but because my studiomates were so proud of me. It felt nice.

Learning the soju rules with kwanjangnim after class one night.

Falling in love.

Lowest: Getting evicted cause boss didn't pay rent, getting fucked out of my money, being homeless and jobless.

[shaunew]

highest: marrying my wife, birth on my son. The money, getting my MBA.

Low: Working all month for a crapwon and them not paying you. Was homeless in 2004 for about 2 weeks with my friend.

[jaganath69]