Korean Job Discussion Forums

[overandout]

I spent 3.5 years in Korea from 2003 to 2006 and then again from 2008 to 2009. I met several shady characters in that time and would like to share with you the worst one I encountered, so you can avoid ever having to come across this particular person. He is a Korean-American who abandoned his US citizenship to become a Korean. The person I�m speaking of is Rockie Park, a.k.a. Rockie St. Jean. He is the owner of a school in Dongducheon, a US Army town, called Dongducheon American Community School. http://dacs7.com/30048558731

The worst job I was ever offered in Korea was by this person and that says a lot. He offered me 15,000 won an hour with no housing, no visa help, no flight money, nothing else. This was in the same conversation that he told me he had been making 25,000 won an hour teaching English in Seoul 9 years earlier. Later he told me that I was lucky that he didn�t offer me 12,000. The language schools in Dongducheon hire Filipinos who are willing to work cheap or US soldiers� wives who don�t know enough about Korea to know what a teacher�s market value is, so the compensation packages are well below average market value. That�s why you don�t see Korea teaching vets/long-term expatriate teachers working up in Bosan-dong (the northern part of Dongducheon) next to that Army base. Concerning Rockie, if lowballing me wasn�t bad enough he saw fit to bully me and attack my character on repeated occasions, many times over the course of several years.

I initially encountered this person in 2005. He�s such a bitter person that he was still bullying me 4.5 years later because I didn�t take his lousy job offer. In October of 2009 he was still trying to con me into working for him. I hadn't talked to him in a few years and he came up to me with a big warm smile on his face like he was my best friend, like he had never bullied me before. Then, he told me he had a teaching vacancy coming up soon. When I politely refused his attitude changed quickly back to the old, familiar Rockie. He responded by bullying me again. In a drunken tirade he told me that I didn't belong in any of the bars he normally drinks in and then he said he would make sure that I would never work in Dongducheon. This guy is so arrogant he thinks he's the dictator of Dongducheon. A few weeks later I dropped by to meet with a friend and he started up again. Now I let this go several times thinking that he was just a mean drunk but the problem did not go away because he�s an alcoholic, i.e., he's drunk a whole lot. He chose to repress the fact that I had helped him find another teacher -- back in 2005 I referred him to a soldier I knew from Texas' wife -- who ended up working for him cheap and he still insisted on bullying me even though I didn�t charge him a recruiting fee. The last time I encountered him the trash talking went on for a good 15 minutes. Then, he left and went to another bar. When I showed up there 10 or 15 minutes later he was ranting like a madman, smearing my character and telling everyone in the bar that he wanted to kill me. I kid you not, he said the word KILL. I may dislike people but I don't go around town talking about killing them. It takes a certain and disturbed sort of person to express that sort of hatred.

To sum things up, let�s just say it didn�t take me long to figure out that I was dealing with a person of inferior character which is why I generally tried to avoid Rockie but he loved to talk trash and egg me on whenever I was in town having a drink with someone else in the hope that I might take a swing at him and wind up in jail for hitting a Korean. I showed more than patience with him, but after years of dealing with his cruelty and stupidity, enough is enough. But if you think it�s a good idea to work for a person who would abandon his wife and children including a newborn child for a woman 19 years younger than him, then you can work for him and find out that he doesn�t only cheat his family but also his employees as well. He�s got money to fly to China 30 times a year to see his Chinese trophy wife. He�s got money to buy a house in China and another one in Korea. He�s got money to plan to open a language school in China. And, he�s always got money to get drunk and go downrange to flirt with some bargirls buying them beers for 20 or 30 dollars a pop. But he doesn�t have money to pay his teachers a fair wage, especially if he feels intellectually threated by them. Avoid him at all costs!

[some waygug-in]

I hope you will post this story on other sites as this will slide into the back pages in a day or so.


http://www.tokyojon.com/

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=3452

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7377498567&v=wall

http://hagwonblacklistkorea.blogspot.com/

http://hagwon.wordpress.com/2007/04/21/black-white-lists-of-english-academies/

[dirving]

Thanks for the post. My friend from Uganda lives near Bosun and wants me to visit him in a couple of weeks. He hangs out at some of the bars there. I'll know to avoid a Korean named Rockie.

Do you have any pics of the guy?

Good luck!

DI

[wylies99]

Thanks for posting the warning for others.

[overandout]

It's always nice to get positive feedback, so thank you all for that. I'll have to post on those other sites, waygug. Rockie is 50 years old and half black, half Korean. He hangs out at the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and at OB's/Beavers which are both within a block of his school. Those three places and the Army base are on the east side of the main street that goes north/south through Bosan-dong. On the other side of the street is where the subway and most of the bars are. Be careful on that side of the street too because the bargirls will try to con you into buying beers for them at $20, $30, or even $40 a pop. A decent bar on the subway side of the street is Mojo's. It's near the plaza. Just ask around and someone can point you in the right direction. It's a heavy metal bar and Rockie doesn't hang out there. Have fun!