Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Globutron]

Well, Let it be known that I'm the favourite member of staff now, told by parents and by Korean staff...

I actually raised a point in our contract that we never got training, because I DID stick up for them. I pointed out that if you're not going to follow the contract and give us actual training, how are we expected to be perfect - why yell at one person and say the same thing in a loving way to me? It's unfair to have heavy favouritism, and if it keeps going, your foreign staff are going to keep quitting and you will keep losing out.

As for the garbage thing - Yes it would seem pretty obvious to clean up your own mess, and easy to say 'i'd rather clean it myself' but when a korean grabs your hands as you go for it and insists for the cleaner, It is even more natural for me to allow it. I don;t like being touched anyway and get a little blind-brained, if that makes sense in these situation where they stare at me with a gleaming smile.

The actual point is, if you want to tell someone to clean your rubbish, you tell them, not yell at them. If I yelled at my staff for every first time I confront a situation, I wouldn't have any staff within a week. And you CERTAINLY don't yell at the staff in korean in front of the kids. How unprofessional do you want to be?

However I am 23, so college dorm attitude isn't that far off. However I do usually clean up after myself, my apartment is...almost spotless (korean books on the floor and the wet shirt I just threw down).

It's difficult to 'bite back' for me in a place I am not used to, in a job where I am basically the underdog that salutes to every command - as in, the koreans do ALL the work, they just give me the schedule and I follow it, as much as I've offered to contribute more. Especially because the Koreans themselves have a limited vocabulary, I'm not good at confronting. When I eventually did that's probably the first time in my life. Korea really is character building for me.

The presentation turned out pretty well, it was like being back at university apparently, However, after mine, nobody else did it, the koreans conveniently 'forgot' or something. Yay to me blowing them away. Pretty professional eh. But I give credit at least for trying ideas on how to improve things.

ANYWAY, things are better again after the confrontation, they're actually being NICE to the other foreign teacher recently and bought vegetarian food for once (Admittedly just a massive watermelon but they at least thought it through), rather than providing meat and egg, knowing full well he can't eat it.

I still consider this honeymoon period, FIVE months in. Will it end? Dunno. Times are just too good to know for now.

And thanks all of you who raised FAIR points, good and bad, rather than being trollish. This kind of post is EXTRAORDINARILY rare on this forum, from my experience.