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balzor
Joined: 14 Feb 2009
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 Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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| egrog1717 wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| Wait, so you mean that someone in an authority position in Korea told you something and it didn't work out that way? The first lesson you need to learn in Korea is to be flexible and be willing to accept change or else you're going to have a miserable time and you are gonna end up quitting or hating your life here. Second lesson, GET IT IN WRITING. while it is not the norm here, on something that is really important like a new job, you have to ask for something in writing or be prepared for something to get bungled up. Quit hating on people and learn that this is how things work here. Learn to play the game or go home. Personally, i can't remember all the times something has happened last minute, but I don't come here to complain or place blame. |
Blame cultural misunderstanding and tell people to move on... You sure you don't work for SMOE HQ? lol... |
nope hakwon last year and SMOE middle school this year. Plenty of BS has happened, but crying and complaining doesn't help anything. |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 12:13 am Post subject: |
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| balzor wrote: |
| egrog1717 wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| Wait, so you mean that someone in an authority position in Korea told you something and it didn't work out that way? The first lesson you need to learn in Korea is to be flexible and be willing to accept change or else you're going to have a miserable time and you are gonna end up quitting or hating your life here. Second lesson, GET IT IN WRITING. while it is not the norm here, on something that is really important like a new job, you have to ask for something in writing or be prepared for something to get bungled up. Quit hating on people and learn that this is how things work here. Learn to play the game or go home. Personally, i can't remember all the times something has happened last minute, but I don't come here to complain or place blame. |
Blame cultural misunderstanding and tell people to move on... You sure you don't work for SMOE HQ? lol... |
nope hakwon last year and SMOE middle school this year. Plenty of BS has happened, but crying and complaining doesn't help anything. |
Ya, but complaining on the Internet has a better long term payoff than say, climbing a clocktower with a high powered rifle...  |
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balzor
Joined: 14 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:39 am Post subject: |
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| egrog1717 wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| egrog1717 wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| Wait, so you mean that someone in an authority position in Korea told you something and it didn't work out that way? The first lesson you need to learn in Korea is to be flexible and be willing to accept change or else you're going to have a miserable time and you are gonna end up quitting or hating your life here. Second lesson, GET IT IN WRITING. while it is not the norm here, on something that is really important like a new job, you have to ask for something in writing or be prepared for something to get bungled up. Quit hating on people and learn that this is how things work here. Learn to play the game or go home. Personally, i can't remember all the times something has happened last minute, but I don't come here to complain or place blame. |
Blame cultural misunderstanding and tell people to move on... You sure you don't work for SMOE HQ? lol... |
nope hakwon last year and SMOE middle school this year. Plenty of BS has happened, but crying and complaining doesn't help anything. |
Ya, but complaining on the Internet has a better long term payoff than say, climbing a clocktower with a high powered rifle... |
point taken |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| balzor wrote: |
| egrog1717 wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| egrog1717 wrote: |
| balzor wrote: |
| Wait, so you mean that someone in an authority position in Korea told you something and it didn't work out that way? The first lesson you need to learn in Korea is to be flexible and be willing to accept change or else you're going to have a miserable time and you are gonna end up quitting or hating your life here. Second lesson, GET IT IN WRITING. while it is not the norm here, on something that is really important like a new job, you have to ask for something in writing or be prepared for something to get bungled up. Quit hating on people and learn that this is how things work here. Learn to play the game or go home. Personally, i can't remember all the times something has happened last minute, but I don't come here to complain or place blame. |
Blame cultural misunderstanding and tell people to move on... You sure you don't work for SMOE HQ? lol... |
nope hakwon last year and SMOE middle school this year. Plenty of BS has happened, but crying and complaining doesn't help anything. |
Ya, but complaining on the Internet has a better long term payoff than say, climbing a clocktower with a high powered rifle... |
point taken |
Your avatar inspired me, LOL |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 7:31 am Post subject: |
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| Is Mr. Bling bling's new partner any better for resolving issues? |
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Sody
Joined: 14 May 2006
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Manuel_the_Bandito wrote: |
| They promised 100 teachers jobs and then turned them down at the last minute after they had already made arrangements to come to Korea. That alone is enough to avoid ever applying to them. |
;p
Anyone who applies to SMOE is either dense or just plain desperate. What Manuel wrote is a fact. It's fact. How can anyone deny that teachers went through the trouble of applying, paying for airfare and then they got ripped off last minute? |
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ThingsComeAround
Joined: 07 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Sody wrote: |
| Manuel_the_Bandito wrote: |
| They promised 100 teachers jobs and then turned them down at the last minute after they had already made arrangements to come to Korea. That alone is enough to avoid ever applying to them. |
;p
Anyone who applies to SMOE is either dense or just plain desperate. What Manuel wrote is a fact. It's fact. How can anyone deny that teachers went through the trouble of applying, paying for airfare and then they got ripped off last minute? |
And the teachers themselves were blamed for being unprofessional  |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Xuanzang wrote: |
| Is Mr. Bling bling's new partner any better for resolving issues? |
I emailed his female assistant once... I got a message back about 10 minutes later asking me to phone her... 30 seconds later I was told over the phone that she was out to lunch and wouldn't be back for an hour, lol... |
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Ji
Joined: 15 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:42 pm Post subject: Perspective |
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While I have no doubt there are individuals with horrible or frustrating experiences, I think one has to have perspective. Having worked HR/Customer Service, you have to realize the position is normally understaffed and overworked.
For every legitimate complaint/issue, there are dozens if not hundreds of falsehoods/misconceptions/ignorance. It's impossible not to gain a certain level of cynicism and have bad days.
The coordinators wield very little authority. They are the facilitators between the native English instructors and Korean bureaucracy. While it's easy to paint them as the villains, they actually get the worst of both worlds.
The native teachers come at them with issues/frustrations. The Korean administrators/teachers come at them with issues/frustrations. And the coordinators are stuck trying to work solutions in the middle. As in all things, no side is ultimately happy and the messenger suffers the ire of both sides.
It's a high pressure job. When I worked for one of the larger hogwons in Seoul, they went through 3 head coordinators because of resignations. The job is a lot of work, a lot of abuse, and a position that is generally reviled by the unsatisfied and otherwise ignored when people are satisfied.
I don't look to change the minds of anyone but, I think we all could benefit from some perspective.
For better or worse, we've all decided to work/live in Korea. Korea isn't going to become "western". For all its good/bad things, it's us as the foreigners/expats, who have to adjust to Korea. |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject: Re: Perspective |
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| Ji wrote: |
While I have no doubt there are individuals with horrible or frustrating experiences, I think one has to have perspective. Having worked HR/Customer Service, you have to realize the position is normally understaffed and overworked.
For every legitimate complaint/issue, there are dozens if not hundreds of falsehoods/misconceptions/ignorance. It's impossible not to gain a certain level of cynicism and have bad days.
The coordinators wield very little authority. They are the facilitators between the native English instructors and Korean bureaucracy. While it's easy to paint them as the villains, they actually get the worst of both worlds.
The native teachers come at them with issues/frustrations. The Korean administrators/teachers come at them with issues/frustrations. And the coordinators are stuck trying to work solutions in the middle. As in all things, no side is ultimately happy and the messenger suffers the ire of both sides.
It's a high pressure job. When I worked for one of the larger hogwons in Seoul, they went through 3 head coordinators because of resignations. The job is a lot of work, a lot of abuse, and a position that is generally reviled by the unsatisfied and otherwise ignored when people are satisfied.
I don't look to change the minds of anyone but, I think we all could benefit from some perspective.
For better or worse, we've all decided to work/live in Korea. Korea isn't going to become "western". For all its good/bad things, it's us as the foreigners/expats, who have to adjust to Korea. |
Having been on both sides of customer service s well, I can tell you that anyone else with the number of complaints that person has would have been fired long ago...
I'm all for adjusting to Korea... I'm not for a representative of my head office lying/weasingly/pushing people around as has been the general message from this thread so far...
But by all means, if anyone has had a positive story with these people let's hear it... Add some perspective, if you will... |
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Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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OP and balzor,
Posting these things on the web are warnings about SMOE and their admins. It helps other people make better choices in deciding who to work for.
SMOE used to be seen as "better than hogwans" and the admins used to say that to new SMOE teachers. Their small staff size inhibited them from helping the large number of teachers they employ. Hiring arrogant and apathetic admins and admin assistants expands the problem. SMOE has lost their "better than other jobs" reputation.
A lot of my friends who worked for SMOE moved to good hakwons or to public schools out of SMOE because of their horrible SMOE experiences.
Many people do have good experiences, but it is based on the luck of your school and school admins. If a school i breaking the contract or policy, getting any help from the SMOE office is rare. And about your "get it in writing" comment, balzor, the contract does get broken and the grey areas of the contract are abused, but the teachers hit dead ends when trying to get resolutions. |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:49 pm Post subject: |
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| SMOE or public education needs an ombudsperson to help out. A bulldozer of sorts that could get things done for foreigners in trouble. Mr. Bling bling is supposed to help us out but most people are sick of his arrogance, condescesion and heel answers. I used to think the vacation time and holidays made this job better than hagwons. However, after having 1-2 negatives experiences with my school and being hungout to dry by the district, Mr. Bling bling and the local NSET rep. It's just another job (on the decline). |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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And how quickly everyone forgets last October when SMOE and the great cloud keeper in the sky told us that we weren't allowed to leave the country without loosing a week of sick days due to an ineffective quarantine policy after H1N1 had already been in the RoK for weeks...
When I inquired to the GCKITS what SMOE would do about people who left the country without telling them, he told me that they couldn't really do anything so long as you didn't get sick... But then asked me to keep the information to myself because he didn't want people to leave w/o telling SMOE...
In the end SMOE backed down and no quarantine was issued, but the fact remains the misinformation, lies, and overall weazelyness (my new word ) that was rampart at that time (right on the heels of the hiring issue in early Sept.) was a dark dark time for SMOE that they havn't really come out of - if only because they havn't really said anything in the last couple of months...
(Couldn't tell you the last time I got word from SMOE HQ about anything to do with teaching, whereas last year it seemed every few weeks they had some sort of memo crossing my desk about this or that...) |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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Actually... Speaking about a lack of communication...
http://eng.sen.go.kr/
Was that not the SMOE website?... Which is now telling me there is no website there, lol... You would think that a government-run city-wide school board would at least have a website that worked?
Or if they changed address, that they would tell their employees about?  lol
EDIT - My mistake... The website is still there... But the Q&A boards from the English version have been taken down...
EDIT(2) - Managed to find two other sites as well that are from SMOE... lol
http://etis.sen.go.kr/
http://www.smbe.seoul.kr/eng/main.htm
Love that centralizion of information... |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:18 am Post subject: |
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| egrog1717 wrote: |
Actually... Speaking about a lack of communication...
http://eng.sen.go.kr/
Was that not the SMOE website?... Which is now telling me there is no website there, lol... You would think that a government-run city-wide school board would at least have a website that worked?
Or if they changed address, that they would tell their employees about? lol
EDIT - My mistake... The website is still there... But the Q&A boards from the English version have been taken down...
EDIT(2) - Managed to find two other sites as well that are from SMOE... lol
http://etis.sen.go.kr/
http://www.smbe.seoul.kr/eng/main.htm
Love that centralizion of information... |
Now there's a Facebook announcement page for SMOE teachers. |
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