Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dmbfan]

OK, everyone. It has been some time since I made a rant about Korea. I've spent the last four months observing the boards, making a few comments and sitrring up the hornets nest in the Current Events forum.

But now.......I've got to vent.

So, I hope you have a good, strong coup of coffee to go with this post.


After spending 8 months back home seeing my family, seeing a few friends and realizing that I simply did not have a lot going for me at the time, I decided to come back to Korea. After all, a good break does work wonders for the soul and gives one time to reflect on mistakes and how to do things better.

So, after a few months of being in contact with a hogwon in Gyeonggi, I decided to take the plunge. I spent a lot of time chatting with the teache I would be replacing and I thought I made a good decision. After all, I was honest about my pitfalls in Korea, what kind of teacher I am and what I expect from a good school (quiet housing, 10 working days of paid leave, no micromanagment, a director that will step in if needed and tell students to either "behave or leave").

I arrive in Korea (four months ago) and I was really excited. It felt like things were different and were turning for the better. Although, I was a little irritated that nobody informed that after a 17 hour plane ride, there would not be anyone to pick me up at the airport. OK, fine.....no problem.


So, I meet the director who seemed like nice gal. The school was a but run down, but I don't care. The curriculum kind of sucked but I can work around that. The apartment was a "stu...." (not even a studio) but I knew it would be a little small and that was fine...............AS LONG AS IT WAS IN A QUIET AREA, WITH NO BARKING DOGS AT ALL HOURS.

Well, as it turned out, my apartment was right next the stair well. That means, I could hear EVERYONE and EVERTHING walking up and down at all hours of the night. What was especially annoying was the Korean gals with wearing the same type of high heels........."clank, clank...clank, clank", at 2, 3, 5 in the monring. Also, there was a rooster that enjoyed making its presence known through all hours of the night.

That sucked, especially when I was clear about my housing needs.


Now, I knew I would be working more then the average joe. I was prepared to be teaching about 34 classes a week. But as it turned out, I was teaching 37, PLUS two overtime classes that I agreed to do (mainly because the teacher I replaced did it and I wanted to start off on the right foot).

My korean coworkers were ALL women (uh oh). Now, honestly.....I have never met one Korean coteacher who could teach an ESL lesson. Seriously, I call it as I see it....from my experience. But, I made an effort to be friendly and be cool. This was not given back to me, for some reason. One day, a korean teacher (a female "christian") decided to give her students (my students after she is done teaching) a snack party right before they finish the "lesson". She informs me and well...5 minutes before class starts, there is not much I can do about it.

(are you guys still with me?)


I walk in the class (which in the first couple weeks, seemed fine) to have them all eating, slurping and not being respectful. It was as if someone told them "go ahead....phuck with the foreign teacher". After 20 minutes of trying to teach, I gave up on it.

After the class was over (thinking about past experiences and trying to make sure I handle this in a good way), I ask to speak to the Korean teacher alone, in another classroom. I inform her that although I understand she was trying to do a nice thing, I would hope that next time, she does it so it does not interfere with MY classtime.

Her responses.........
1. You shoudl have taken the food away.
2. You should know that hogwans always have snack parties.


So, I try to avoid an arguement and just stick to the point. Unfortunately, she will not conceed and keeps pestering. Finally, I tell her......"The conversation is over. We are done".

Oh no.........she follows me and continues. She goes in the teachers office and starts rambling in Korean about it, of course......NOT telling the truth (as Koreans are incapable of doing).

Finally, I had enough.

You can imagine what happened there.


Moving on........................................I decided to start asking questins our pay and taxes (after a "mistake" when I received my first pay for a last week in October). What did I find out?

Oh........we pay 5.5% INCOME TAXES (also found out the director was changing her sponsor name.............and I also found it funny that she would take out over 100,000 won in taxes yet only take out 60,000 won for pension)

Ahhh....OK, well I mention that not even public schools take out that much for income tax alone.

This does not go over well (as I'm brewing with..........lack of sleep in the "stu"......teaching nearly 40 classes a week........already having an issue with a korean teacher, in which I truly tried to avoid).

Wonderful.


Then we have a meeting, concerning our vacation. As it turns out, we don't get 5 working days in the winter. We the get the scam of having a national holiday thrown in with the weekend. I pointed this out (being the only foreign teacher with a paif of balls...................although, the only foreign teacher was a gal, who well........I'm not going to talk shit about her. I just wish she had backed me up, thats all). So, we work really hard but when it comes down to getting something in return.....nope.

So, at the time (well, I must confess............by this time, I was pretty upset with the situation and I called the director "obtuse"), I thought it was the last straw. The Korean teachers were upset that I was not asking them questions about Korea, lavishing them with attention, etc. I was able to sleep. I was being ripped off with the taxes AND the pension payments....and now, I'm not getting my vacation as agreed BEFORE I came back?

*beep* this.


But ya know........I tried to think about it objectively. What's a few vacation days? Get over it. It's the hogwan business. OK, I"ll stick with it.

(meanwhile, the other foreign teacher has been reporting back to the director about me........................nice. ).


In the end, I was able to leaave the school.


Now, a public school job falls in my lap. Wow! I did not think I would get it.

OK, and they promised (in writing) to reimburse me my airticket, in which I paid the hogwon back for. OK!!!! GREAT!!!!!! I was informed that I woudl be working in a state of the art ESL Center!!!! SWEET!!!!!!


OK..............the week after I turned in my documents to immigration to have the visa transferred, I was informed by the coteacher (who I truly do NOT respect and is in fact........a mental midget) that I would not receive my reimbursement due to "missommunication".


OH boy................I had planeed to go home for a couple of weeks during my vacation, AFTER three weeks of winter camps.

I tried to let it go. I tried to be cool. I tried to just put it all behind me and do my job. But, the coteacher and I clashed. I pointed out her stupid passive aggressive games, reminded her to "stick to the facts/points" during certain arguments/discussions. NOPE (Koreans are incapable of doing that).


So, minus a few other details (a meeting with the principle, addressing every point that has happened, watching him change is tune, listening to him talk around everything, denyign that he knew about the air fare fiasco,etc)............................we agreed that a letter of release would be the best thing.

OH, and I found out what the ESL Center really is. It is a place where students don't have to bring books. It is a place where parents have the opportunity to be OUR manager and boss. It is a place with no set curriculum and we just teach out to cook, dance, sing songs..............nothing but eye candy, bullshit.



Now, I know I am leaving myself open for interrogation on this board.
Fine.

I'm not looking for sympathy.

I'm just venting. I'm truly disappointed that I have tried to be cool about things and yet, not matter what I do...............I make wrong choices.


What has happened to my life?




Thanks for listening.


dmbfan


P.S. Yes, I know my spelling sucks.[/b]

[sarbonn]

It sounds like you had a couple of bad situations happen in a row. I can't comment on whether or not you're looking for problems, which others probably will, but sometimes not everything is going to work out as we desire. I'm at a hagwon right now that on the surface seems really cool. Then this week was the first time where pay was late (still haven't received it yet). I have no reason to suspect we're going to get paid in a few days now, but it easily placed a somewhat decent job into the category that causes me to want to get out of dodge as soon as possible. And I like everyone here with whom I work, including the boss. Sometimes, the very little things can be distinctive problems that overwhelm everything else.

Some may argue you might be letting the little things bother you too much, while others may actually say that you've gotten the short end of the straw a couple of times too many. I hate whenever I see someone unhappy with their current situation in life and hope you find something better or work out what you already have.

[Thewhiteyalbum]

Wow, you know, I was just talking on skype to my Mum and she asked how I was, and I said everything was fine, yes the weather has been cold, can't wait to get home to see my new niece...

But I admitted to her that I was really worried. Dmbfan hasn't been posting very long posts, I said to her. And I have noticed he hasn't had ONE SINGLE RANT in over 4 months! All he's been doing is stirring up a hornets nest in the current event forum!

She was as shocked as I am.

And today, here we are. A rant to put my (and my Mum's) minds at ease.
Pheeww!



(but seriously that sucks about your situation. My Mum is sending you a care package.)

[dmbfan]

[madoka]

[dmbfan]

[cruisemonkey]

dmbfan,

Bummer, that sucks!

But... on the bright side, you have a LoR and can easily get another job. Try another PS - your luck is bound to change soon (hopefully).

[gazz]

Ok so you know your own pit falls. That's a good thing don't get me wrong, i'm not going to knock you for that!

But do you learn from them?

If you spoke to your Co-teacher in that way about the 'party' is it any wonder she possibly pissed in your tea?

If you are working for such an institution (I assume an after school thinnnnngy), where again i'm assuming they have had a full day at school, and again i'm assuming this is at the start of your contract woudn't this have been a nice time to get to know the kids in an informal setting? (thats maybe why she did it!)

If I was you and again i'm assuming you're still at the same school. I would eat some humble pie. Take your Co-tecaher a present and say sorry. (make up a BIG lie about something) - maybe a close relative dieing and explain that you were vvvv stressed!

And in future count to 10, or maybe in your case 100!

Good luck!

[dmbfan]

[dmbfan]

[gazz]

Maybe it was your tone, maybe it is you 'stature' I'm 6'3 and you need to be aware of 'small things like that�, did you get in her face?

When you took her to one side did you 'call her out' in front of the kids or other members of staff?

It would be esp bad if you did it in front of the staff because they would of course wanted to know what you said!

I have taught in the UK as well and teaching, I believe was ranked as the 3rd most bitchies professions in the UK, at least but I imagine it the same in most countries. It sure is in Korea!

Reading the stuff about your sister (in-between the lines) maybe there is something more deep seated? (Don't respond to that by the way), but previous experiences shape the person people become. (From what I have generally observed teaching in the UK anyway).

Maybe teaching kids isn't for you? It can be stressful, esp in a foreign country where you cannot communicate clearly. Surely that will just add to your stress?

But where ever you are teaching now, I hope you are happy. And more importantly I hope the kids are learning English as well!

[Ya-ta Boy]

Hmm. 2 jobs in 4 months.

[losing_touch]

Surprisingly, I read through that entire rant with a bit of sympathy. While I have not found myself in such a situation ever, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be in your shoes. It could easily happen to any long term expat. I count my blessings that I have not been so unfortunate.

That being said, I think you are handling everything quite well. However, I wouldn't be so quick to call someone spineless or without balls. I have been screwed over on things like taxes and pension. My best recourse has been to let someone else handle it. Instead of getting all worked up and burning potentially important relationships with a quick temper, I have found that feeding this information to other people works well. There is truth to the fact that misery loves company; however, sometimes it pays to point it all out to someone else. Let someone else fight your battles if you can. Raising your objections every single time you have one doesn't fly so well in Asia. There are better ways to approach the situation ....

[dmbfan]

[John_ESL_White]