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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Roch
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:23 am Post subject: |
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| Young FRANKenstein wrote: |
| lvasia wrote: |
| aim is to let people know what's going on using true strories witout any rudeness, criticism of koreans, their culture, etc. that's my main objective. |
Without cricitism of them or their culture? They are quite sensitive about the tiniest of criticism, so if you could accomplish this, that alone would be a monumaental accomplishment.
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a few reasons...
1 - i think many koreans don't know what's going on.
2 - there are checks for teachers now but not for hagwons, owners, managers...
3 - i really would like koreans to know more about the treatment some foreign teachers have received. |
IMO, most Koreans don't care about any of those points. As several Koreans have pointed out to me, foreigners rank lower than even Korean children in the scheme of things, simply because they are not Korean. Why would they care about beings who are not even children in their eyes?
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| i said earlier i don't want to hear about little things like being paid late or forced to come in early unpaid. |
While those are mild complaints, there are numerous problems that are much more serious... no medical insurance, no pension, not being paid at all for the last month or so, not being paid severance, being fired without notice for no acceptable reason, being fired in the 11th month to avoid paying severance and airfare... there's also the whole deal with the Letter of Release and schools are not required to give one to you, effectively "owning" your legal employment opportunity until the end of your contract. Less common, but still happens, are things like being evicted without notice, or the school not paying the utility bills and the gas/electricity gets cut off (this happens in the winter, typically, when utility bills are higher).
I've been through the system numerous times for several of the above reason, including court and filing lawsuits. The biggest problem, simply put, is that the system doesn't make it easy to correct the situation when you have been wronged. Just look at the whole "independant contractor" business. Immigration says you cannot be an IC due to the nature of your visa, yet the tax office says being an IC has nothing to do with your visa status and you employer can register you as an IC if they wish. Tax office won't change it without permission from the boss. Immigration won't force them to change it. Pension office follows their lead from the tax office and denies you your pension. Three offices all saying different things, all not doing anything to help you, all pawning you off onto another office to deal with, no central authority to sort it out and solve the problem.
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| i also want to write about experiences with korean students. i want to let koreans know about difficult experiences such as poor behavior and management doing nothing, low kids put with high-level kids, etc. |
I don't teach children anymore, but there are still level-inappropriate students. Whether they group students according to age or major, they are still not level testing anyone and placing them where they would get the most benefit.
You might also want to mention the widespread use of plagiarism in university and how it goes, by and large, unpunished. And if we do punish it, it is WE who are made out to be the bad guys, not the student. |
Allegations of sexual assaults, beatings, attempted murder, the list goes on.
Again, OP, I'm here when you want to interview me. I called you this afternoon as scheduled but your phone was turned off. |
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crash bang
Joined: 11 Jul 2007
Location: gwangju
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:41 am Post subject: |
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| how is this not up to 500 pages now? |
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Atavistic
Joined: 22 May 2006
Location: How totally stupid that Korean doesn't show in this area.
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:02 am Post subject: |
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| crash bang wrote: |
| how is this not up to 500 pages now? |
Because it quickly became clear that she didn't actually want to read/hear about experiences when she thought that Ian in Ilsan was a minor complaint about being paid late. |
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lvasia
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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dear av, i never in a million years would say ian's complaints were minor.
what i meant was being paid late a few times, but getting your full salary and otherwise being treated well is not that serious. if you are promised to be paid on time again and again and experience this and other problems are added in then it can become more serious.
cheer up please!!!!!!!!! |
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crash bang
Joined: 11 Jul 2007
Location: gwangju
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| Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:38 am Post subject: |
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Because it quickly became clear that she didn't actually want to read/hear about experiences when she thought that Ian in Ilsan was a minor complaint about being paid late.
that, and everyones probably shot their load complaining on all the other threads  |
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lvasia
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: update |
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well, a few things happened. first of all since last posting i've been very busy. second, i question the reliability of some of the stories i hear when, for example, one teacher writes me with a story sounding clear and believable, then someone who knows them such as a co-worker writes me telling a completely different but also believable story. it's a toss up. i can't know for sure who is telling the truth, impossible. so it seems the only choice is to forget about stories like these.
lastly, i bought the book [i]Faces of Korea [/i]and like it, though it's not quite as good as I thought it would be. Some of the stories are interesting, others seem to only talk about things like adjusting to the spicy food, language, climate or Korean in-laws. I think it's great that the author chose to write such a book, but if I were to write something like this I would try to use only stories of powerful experiences. Some stories in that book definitely are.
it's hard to post here knowing i will probably get more criticism and rudeness, but here goes. |
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Atavistic
Joined: 22 May 2006
Location: How totally stupid that Korean doesn't show in this area.
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| lvasia wrote: |
dear av, i never in a million years would say ian's complaints were minor.
what i meant was being paid late a few times, but getting your full salary and otherwise being treated well is not that serious. if you are promised to be paid on time again and again and experience this and other problems are added in then it can become more serious.
cheer up please!!!!!!!!! |
Again, DID YOU READ HIS WHOLE THREAD?
Did you read MY whole thread?
NEITHER of those were about being paid late "a few times." |
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