Korean Job Discussion Forums

Gladiator · Joined: 23 May 2003 Location: Seoul

I'm writing an autobiographical novella/memoir based on my Hagwon teaching experiences in this country and am coming to the part where the story's central character is preparing for a midnight run. We all know hagwon mafiasio are well known for using scare tactics on their teaching investments to discourage this action. A well known one is that the school has a paid stooge in immigration who has the wherewithal to waylay the fleeing teacher and prevent flight boarding (I guess in cases where the school can alert them fast enough!) and allow the school to 'recapture' the teacher (it's a nightmarish image eh?).

Does anyone have any stories that would give credence to this or actually know of any teachers who were prevented from escaping in this way? We all know legally there is nothing passport control can do to prevent a teacher clearing out if no crime has been committed (and running is not an illegal offense) but thinking back to the bad old days of the mid nineties when almost all officials seemed 'buyable' I wonder.

So, I would be interested in hearing any actual instances of this.

bellum99 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: don't need to know

That has never once happened. It is a stupid story that just keeps going around. People at immigration do not have the authority to stop you from leaving unless you are being barred departure by the Ministry of Juctice. Like most countries.....the government is not one entity. There would have to be a police action against you. Immigration cannot just stop departure as they do not have the meansto do so without actual paperwork to show just cause.
People are so gullible.....here is another story. A teacher came here and couldn't eat korean food, so he only ate macdonalds. He caught scurvy and later died. Next week it will be all over korea and someone will have actually seen the guy at Gecko's before he died.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

Its bullcrap...just something the director tells you to stop you running.

diver · Joined: 16 Jun 2003

Gladiator,

The stories are probably not true. I don't know if they are stupid...I have seen Koreans come up with some stupefyingly harebrained schemes in my time, so I never dismiss anything in Korea just because it sounds crazy.

Hakwon directors simply don't have access to the guys that could detain you. The chances of a hakwon director in Gwangju having contacts at Incheon Airport are not that great. Even if he did have a ontact (a relative, former classmate at Uni), and even if he did tell his relative/friend to be on the lookout for a foreigner by a certain name, the immigration officila would not be likely to keep that name at the forefront of his/her brain during a busy day at the immigration desk. They also probably rotate positions, so it is very possible that the director's contact is not working the departure desk when the teacher runs. Added to that, if the teacher runs on a weekend, the teacher is gone before the dirrector could give his immigration contact a heads up.

Given all that, if your story is fictional, make the immigration official a relative or former classmate of the director, have a confrontation between your teacher and thier director that makes the director suspect that the teacher may run, in which case he notifies his contact as a precaution. Have your director trump up some charges (damaged apartment, unpaid bills, anything that might interest the police eg: a fake assault charge so that the police, through the Ministry of Justice, could put a hold on the teacher at the airport).

Just a suggestion...Good luck.

peppermint · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 10:34 pm Post subject:

Two years ago, a friend did the run. She didn't have troubles with immigration, but her director phoned my school and yelled at my director. This guy claimed that she was hiding out at my appartment and he demanded to search it personally.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

Kwangjuchicken · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 11:12 pm Post subject:

But still some pretty stupid stuff happenes in Korea. This is a true story. When I was teaching at my college in Pusan, one week-end I was planning to go to Japan for a week-end. I was preparing well in advance for this, and wanted to go by plane and get my ticket a couple of weeks early.

I was there with a friend who was helping me, and he was also the head of the personnel department at my colege. The airline did not know that at first. They just knew I was with a Korean who was helping. Anyway, the airline acted strange at the ticket window and then came back with immigration.

The refused to sell me a ticket until I had a letter from my college saying I had their permission to go to Japan Shocked

. At that point my friend told them who he was. That still did not help they wanted a letter.

So, the President of my college wrote a letter in Korean to the arline for me to take and get my ticket. In the letter, in Korean, he said, xxxxx does not need our or anyone's permission to go to Japan.

I got my ticket then.

panthermodern · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Location: Taxronto

OK ...

So the dierctor bribes a guy at immigration ...

Which one ... The last time I was at Incheon there were more then 12 Gates, each with it's own immigration guy ...

Did the director bribe all of them or the supervisor who then put an A.P.B. on the runner.

As much as we all wish, Korea is not "Logan's Run".

It is a stupid plot point ...

Write what you know ... not what you hear that happened to some guys buddy ...

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

It's not very autobiographical if it never happened to you, is it?
But if it's fiction, why the hell not?
Whatever drives the plot along is good.

Maybe the hagwon director could be an alien like in "V" (except he eats dogs instead of mice; I hear "V" was very popular in Korea so you might increase the chances of it being translated into Korean after you get it published) or the Korean ex-girlfriend could be a vampire or something like that.

You might think I'm making fun of you but I'm not, honestly- you need to determine what you want the style of your novel to be and that will determine what sort of material to include and what to reject. If it's going to be more or less factual but the names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty) then stick to what you know to be true. If it's going to be balls to the wall outrageous fiction then go for it and add a lot more stuff as well (and this board is a goldmine- remember Jean Brisbois?).

In-between just won't cut it, IMO.

Gladiator · Joined: 23 May 2003 Location: Seoul

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thanks for all your replies. I now know unequivocally the paid stooges do not (and cannot) exist! I had my doubts anyhow but I plan to plant the idea into the story to put extra dramatic tension into parts that describe the running process (not that there isn't plenty of tension there already). I think you have to keep an open mind about Korea and to entertain the possibility of certain things, bearing in mind the police state/big brother set up that has run the country for so long.

Just a thought-provoking anecdote here worth sharing to remind you how far the tentacles of the national state machine can reach. I met a Nepalese guy two years ago at Mokpo Immigration. He was a very polite, courteous man and we struck up conversation as we awaited foreigner ID processing. He'd been in Korea 14 years working as an engineer for Hyundai (he'd actually done his technical training here) and was advanced in Korean language. I tend to pay extra attention to people who've been in SK that long.

He told me how he'd been part of a voluntary organisation in Seoul in the early nineties that defended, protected and generally stood up for the downtrodden foreign workers (the DDD guys basically). He said he'd submitted a plight highlighting article to the national newspapers (alas unclear whether in English or Korean and which title) that wasn't exactly glowing in its depiction of Korean industy's treatment of these very vulnerable people. The article was published and he thought it might change perceptions and attitudes.

A short while later while he was back in Nepal vacationing and to his amazement he found himself suddenly summoned to the Korean consulate in Nepal. He was called before some consular officials who had a photocopy of the article on a table in front of him. He was warned that if he ever submitted any articles to the media again he would have his visa immediately revoked and be thrown out of the country. He was so afraid of losing his livelihood (a Nepalese engineer remember) he had no choice but to agree.

He struck me as a totally credible source and I can think of no reason for him to have falsified that story.

Pyongshin Sangja · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: I love baby!

Chicken, is that a true story? That is screwed up. Was Imm. looking for you for something else?

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

I know when I was in Ulsan 2 of my hagwon directors paid 500,000 to immigration for my visas because I quit previous jobs. I only saw one transaction take place and I was asked to turn my head. One of those two directos also had to pay 500,000 under the table for violating an immigration law by not reporting a change when they sent me to their new franchise.

Anyway, Gladiator, I have all but finished my Hagwon/Korea exp. book and am finishing with a similar situation. I guess I'd better hurry.

Gollum · Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Location: Japan

I would love to see an article about the corruption and "under the table" bribe money that immigrations bleed from hagwons and other orgainzations. It's definately a multi-million won thing going on.

It's a well-known truth among the foreign community that hagwons are often bribed by officials when the school is raided. My former school was one of them.

I know of a particular industry ... not a hagwon... that pays 1 million per week in bribe money to the immigration officials to keep foreigners working there from being busted.

It's time for the media to crack some heads in that office.

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

FUBAR · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: The Y.C.

I think it is 100% fiction. When I have left on vacation during my contract, they just ask "Are you returning? Really" and that is it. The guys that read your departure card don't card at all what you are doing. They are more concerned about the Alien Registration Card than a teacher doing a runner. Even then, I doubt that they care all the much.

The only thing that can prevent you from leaving would be a warrant out for your arrest or criminal charges pending on you. The hagwon director and his power is so small in the grand scheme of things.

Though, I guess it is possible to be stopped at one of the smaller airports. At Incheon I would deem it near impossible.