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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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 Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 1:45 am Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
| I would've gotten someone to clean the apartment on day 1, no later than day 2. The fact you sat on your behind and did nothing shows you are lazy. |
I did nothing?
I carried two mattresses, the bed frame, and the headboard all the way down the apartment stairway and out of the building. It was a king size bed and I did this alone.
I carried a loveseat (not a small one) out of the apartment, down the apartment stairway, and out of the building.
I moved the refrigerator out of my apartment and out of the building.
I moved multiple chairs, several tables, and a cabinet out of my apartment, carried them down the stairway, and out of the apartment building.
I bagged up several large bags of bottles and cans and moved them out of the building. To give you some idea of how long they had been piling up, one was a can of some sort of KGB vodka drink that had Santa hats and candy canes on it. So the bottles and cans had been piling up at least since the end of 2010 and probably built up throughout his contract.
I bagged up all of his clothing, books, condom boxes and an enormous sum of other miscellaneous items and carried them down the stairway and out of the apartment.
I've bought 30,000 won worth of cleaning supplies and have used it all.
Maybe I didn't do things right, but to say I was lazy is disingenuous.
| pkang0202 wrote: |
| You are just thinking about yourself and expect else (your boss, gf, coworkers) to bend over backwards for your sake. |
I've asked nothing of my coworkers.
I asked nothing of my gf. She's the one who asked me to come here and I quit a higher paying job for this one. She's offered me her place to stay so I won't go back to America, but I'll admittedly be very happy to be moving out of here and into her place and to spend more time with her.
As for my boss, you're out of your mind if you think the way the condition of the apartment was in is any way acceptable. Her name is Kang too. I guess it runs in the family.
| pkang0202 wrote: |
| If your place was so filthy and uninhabitable, then why don't you get professional cleaners to clean it? A brand new super-single bed with frame can be bought on GMarket, DELIVERED, for like $80. |
A new bed isn't necessary. I just wanted the urine scented one gone and it's gone. I lazily carried the king size bed all the way down the stairway and it's out of here.
| pkang0202 wrote: |
| That amount, your hagwon boss would pay. |
Look at this whole situation objectively and ask yourself if you really think Mrs. Kang is going to start paying at this point. |
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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 2:07 am Post subject: |
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| koreatimes wrote: |
"Hey, this is Duncan. Why you messing around with my stuff and my roommates in the fridge? I told the school I would be back in 2 weeks, I don't want to come back home to some pigsty. Put everything back or else I am demanding 2.3 million in damages and 1.0 million in pain and suffering."
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| koreatimes wrote: |
Yea, that sounds good, but since you probably won't get it, demand another apartment or release to find another school. I had something similar in Fushun, China (minus the urine). I left after 3 weeks. The other teachers were devout cultists willing to do whatever the school owner told them. They had no idea where they were living or the options available to them. They were upset with me because I "might make the owner feel bad if I didn't leave on a good note".  |
That sounds good. I'll have to get a new criminal background check, right? I'll work here while that's happening.
Good job not allowing yourself to continue getting exploited. It's too bad for the others. They need to understand that we don't have civil rights activists over here in Asia. Whereas civil rights activists would protest if a murderer's prison cell was even half this bad back home, we have to stand up for ourselves over here individually. |
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DaHu
Joined: 09 Feb 2011
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 3:18 am Post subject: |
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I wouldn't have even walked in the place. When they opened the door, I would have just turned around and left.
They insulted you with that apartment, and probably had a big laugh about it back at the school. |
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liveinkorea316
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 5:06 am Post subject: |
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It is one thing knowing what your rights are and what your contract says. A completely other thing to know your physical position. I know a few things about your situation based on the way you are dealing with this situation:
1. You don't have much cash in the bank. If you did you would have quit sooner or threatened to.
2. You only have a BA. Since someone with quals and experience would never have found themselves at that job in the first place.
3. You are from a middle class pampered background. Since you called what you did "alot of work" and you said "30,000won" was alot of $$ to spend to clean your apartment. Someone who has experienced harsh situations would have realised they lucked out. If you cannot afford to change jobs - you are stuck. |
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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| liveinkorea316 wrote: |
1. You don't have much cash in the bank. If you did you would have quit sooner or threatened to. |
I have 0 won in the bank here since I forgot my KB bank books at home. But I have about $5,000 in US currency on my person, minus what I've converted into Korean won. Plus, I can book a flight out of here with a Master Card. It's not a big deal.
| liveinkorea316 wrote: |
| 2. You only have a BA. Since someone with quals and experience would never have found themselves at that job in the first place. |
You're 100% correct.
| liveinkorea316 wrote: |
| 3. You are from a middle class pampered background. Since you called what you did "alot of work" and you said "30,000won" was alot of $$ to spend to clean your apartment. Someone who has experienced harsh situations would have realised they lucked out. If you cannot afford to change jobs - you are stuck. |
I grew up poor, but now I'm upper middle class now by USA standards. By itself, what I did with the apartment wasn't a lot of work. But in context it was. Hagwon work isn't tiring at all, but I had been at the hagwon on Wednesday for 10 hours and then I had to spend all night moving furniture and trash. Then I had to go to work on Thursday. I was probably the one of the few people in all of South Korea on an E-2 visa who worked from Wednesday morning until Thursday evening nonstop without sleep.
30,000 won by itself isn't a lot of money, but it's a lot of money considering the apartment should've already been clean and the employer is deducting 500,000 won as a "deposit", ironically, in case I leave the apartment in a wreck.
It's not the cost of changing jobs that's the problem. It's the paperwork and the time involved with that. I think I'll probably have to get a new CBC and the other documents. I might work here until it gets completed or I might go to the USA with my girlfriend. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'll have a better idea after work tomorrow and after tomorrow night. |
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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| DaHu wrote: |
I wouldn't have even walked in the place. When they opened the door, I would have just turned around and left.
They insulted you with that apartment, and probably had a big laugh about it back at the school. |
Yeah, you're right. If I didn't have personal business here that I'm in the middle of, I would've spent the night either in the apartment or a motel...probably this apartment since it's free, but then flew back to the USA to next day.
I should've kept my mouth shut about my girlfriend during the job interview. Even though I just referred to her as "a friend" I think they know when you have something important here, they feel like they can screw you over without you making the quick decision to leave.
About the laughing, at the hagwon conventions, they must think it's hilarious that so many foreigners come here and happily live in squalor and consider a larvae/insect filled fridge as an example of an employer fulfilling its end of the contract. |
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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:23 am Post subject: |
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| liveinkorea316 wrote: |
| Someone who has experienced harsh situations would have realised they lucked out. |
I posted this thread to serve as a case study for other teachers and potential teachers, but I think what you said may really be a distortion of reality.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that an apartment with a bed that smells of urine, a malodorous refrigerator housing living and dead insects and larvae, and a boss that won't do anything about either would easily be in the 5% of worst apartments an ESL teacher could receive in South Korea. Is such an apartment really an example of a teacher from an E-2 nation "lucking out"? Are the other apartments in South Korea really so horrible that receiving this one would be considered lucky for a person from any E-2 nation? I ask because this is only my third apartment in Korea, so maybe I'm the one with unreasonable expectations. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:36 am Post subject: |
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| JaquanQuentinJackson wrote: |
| liveinkorea316 wrote: |
| Someone who has experienced harsh situations would have realised they lucked out. |
I posted this thread to serve as a case study for other teachers and potential teachers, but I think what you said may really be a distortion of reality.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that an apartment with a bed that smells of urine, a malodorous refrigerator housing living and dead insects and larvae, and a boss that won't do anything about either would easily be in the 5% of worst apartments an ESL teacher could receive in South Korea. Is such an apartment really an example of a teacher from an E-2 nation "lucking out"? Are the other apartments in South Korea really so horrible that receiving this one would be considered lucky for a person from any E-2 nation? I ask because this is only my third apartment in Korea, so maybe I'm the one with unreasonable expectations. |
No one is disagreeing with you that you were given an unacceptable apartment.
People disagree with the way you are trying to resolve the problem. To me, you're coming off as a prima donna.
Being asked to move into a filthy apartment is common enough that your reaction to after living here for 2 years (or at least in two other apartments) puzzles me. Surely you've heard of this happening before.
The first thing you should have done before the director left was politely tell her it was unacceptable and not stayed there.
But it's too late for that. So now you're going to throw out stuff she specifically told you not to. You are going to cut up the floor she specifically asked you not to. You are going to demand an outrageous sum you pulled out of your bum. And you are going to stand in the school with your suitcase packed ready to leave.
While I think you might get your apartment cleaned with this strategy but not a dime more, do you think it is really the best way to go about it? Let's say they do clean the apartment, will you still stay? If not, why bother going through this whole charade? It's kind of ridiculous.
And you owe her a working fridge. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:03 am Post subject: |
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It could be that it's rare to move into a nice, large, clean, furnished apartment in Korea. I've always thought that should be a standard item provided by every school. But, is it? At my current school every teacher gets a pre-cleaned, large, completely furnished apartment - but how many schools actually do that?
In a previous job, which I found in person, I had the option of choosing my own place and the school would pay. I looked at dozens of apartments that a real estate broker had available - they were all filthy. Finally, I chose one, met the owner, met the family moving out, saw the place. I thought it was nice.
The family moved out and I went to move in ... It was a filthy, disgusting, pigsty that took three weeks of hard work and more than your $30 in cleaning supplies to clean - a large two bedroom unit, but it was like the Korean family had never cleaned it. I chose and purchased my own furnishings, so that was no problem. I should have hired a team of cleaning ajummas, but at the time I didn't realize how cheap that option was.
Perhaps some of us, have standards of cleanliness that are higher than others. Perhaps we have to take responsibility for our own housing - clean it or get it cleaned, show others how clean it is, and leave it clean for the next occupant.
More likely the new occupants of my old place thought it was dirty and complained that they had to clean it. Some people will wallow in their own filth but are repulsed by the filth of others. Maybe we all notice the dirt left by others more than our own dirt.
Many people enjoy getting sympathy for their miseries - real or imagined. If a bit of cash and a bit of hard work can make your mess a home, then maybe it would be better just to clean it up, ask for some money for a new bed and refrigerator, and enjoy having made yourself a nice home for a year.
I wouldn't let a dirty apartment get in the way of a good job.
Does your job have other bigger problems maybe - Pension? Health Insurance? |
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shifty
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:25 am Post subject: |
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OP, you should have turned on your heel when you arrived and said that you're not staying in there and made the boss find you lodging.
That said, it's not easy thinking on your feet in that situation and I sympathise.
The boss should have ensured a clean place of abode.
However, I wouldn't be too angry with her. Imagine you running a Korean language center in your home country. The departing Korean teacher leaves a mess. Maybe you'd think, the new teacher can clean up his bloody countryman's mess. Especially if you're already not that enamored with the idea of having to provide a free apartment.
Your boss probably has an 'us and them' complex. I'm kinda sure I would have as well. Maybe you too.
If I were you, I'd clean the place and bear the cost. It's just not worth throwing everything up for this temporary outrage.
Maybe as some redress you could insist to the boss that no ways are you paying a deposit. |
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koreatimes
Joined: 07 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:26 am Post subject: |
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So, let's figure out who this Duncan character is. Original poster, do you happen to work for Anyang Wonderland school? We got a Duncan here from British Columbia:
http://kr.linkedin.com/in/duncanlanoville
I have been playing Clue a lot on the computer, so I feel like a real detective now  |
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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:34 am Post subject: |
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| ontheway wrote: |
It could be that it's rare to move into a nice, large, clean, furnished apartment in Korea. I've always thought that should be a standard item provided by every school. But, is it? At my current school every teacher gets a pre-cleaned, large, completely furnished apartment - but how many schools actually do that?
In a previous job, which I found in person, I had the option of choosing my own place and the school would pay. I looked at dozens of apartments that a real estate broker had available - they were all filthy. Finally, I chose one, met the owner, met the family moving out, saw the place. I thought it was nice.
The family moved out and I went to move in ... It was a filthy, disgusting, pigsty that took three weeks of hard work and more than your $30 in cleaning supplies to clean - a large two bedroom unit, but it was like the Korean family had never cleaned it. I chose and purchased my own furnishings, so that was no problem. I should have hired a team of cleaning ajummas, but at the time I didn't realize how cheap that option was.
Perhaps some of us, have standards of cleanliness that are higher than others. Perhaps we have to take responsibility for our own housing - clean it or get it cleaned, show others how clean it is, and leave it clean for the next occupant.
More likely the new occupants of my old place thought it was dirty and complained that they had to clean it. Some people will wallow in their own filth but are repulsed by the filth of others. Maybe we all notice the dirt left by others more than our own dirt.
Many people enjoy getting sympathy for their miseries - real or imagined. If a bit of cash and a bit of hard work can make your mess a home, then maybe it would be better just to clean it up, ask for some money for a new bed and refrigerator, and enjoy having made yourself a nice home for a year.
I wouldn't let a dirty apartment get in the way of a good job.
Does your job have other bigger problems maybe - Pension? Health Insurance? |
I don't have pension or health insurance, and I don't need a new fridge or a bed. I don't need A/C, a sofa, etc. Honestly, if the linoleum was just totally pulled up, the apartment would be pretty clean at that point and I would be happy. It comes up in a lot of places and I've noticed it's very clean concrete underneath.
Really, the best solution is going to be to sleep here on Monday and Wednesday nights (my long work days) and commute on the others until I can get work in her area or just go ahead and marry her and move back home. |
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JaquanQuentinJackson
Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Location: Scrubbing the floor
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| shifty wrote: |
OP, you should have turned on your heel when you arrived and said that you're not staying in there and made the boss find you lodging.
That said, it's not easy thinking on your feet in that situation and I sympathise.
The boss should have ensured a clean place of abode.
However, I wouldn't be too angry with her. Imagine you running a Korean language center in your home country. The departing Korean teacher leaves a mess. Maybe you'd think, the new teacher can clean up his bloody countryman's mess. Especially if you're already not that enamored with the idea of having to provide a free apartment.
Your boss probably has an 'us and them' complex. I'm kinda sure I would have as well. Maybe you too.
If I were you, I'd clean the place and bear the cost. It's just not worth throwing everything up for this temporary outrage.
Maybe as some redress you could insist to the boss that no ways are you paying a deposit. |
I've had similar responsibilities to my boss when I worked in Corporate America, but I didn't own the companies and it was a different industry. Workers were only in units from two weeks to a month, not a year like Korea, but it was very important to ensure the units were properly cleaned and detailed.
I think you're post is very sound. Since I have a home away from home, it's not as bad as if I had to be here every night. And you're right. It has been a long week.
I'll go to bed and talk with her tomorrow about this and the deposit. Have a good night. |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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| koreatimes wrote: |
So, let's figure out who this Duncan character is. Original poster, do you happen to work for Anyang Wonderland school? We got a Duncan here from British Columbia:
http://kr.linkedin.com/in/duncanlanoville
I have been playing Clue a lot on the computer, so I feel like a real detective now |
An event planner....  |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 4:14 pm Post subject: |
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| DaHu wrote: |
I wouldn't have even walked in the place. When they opened the door, I would have just turned around and left.
They insulted you with that apartment, and probably had a big laugh about it back at the school. |
This. At my last hakwon job my director tried to pull something like this as well. Not only was it absolutely filthy, but the washing machine was outside, (no room for it inside) which meant any water in the exposed pipe would freeze in the winter making it unusable. Plus I would have had to live with two other guys there.
I turned and flatly told him that I wouldn't have a dog live here. I got a nice new 1 bed-room apartment (small but clean)...although not without an argument.
| JaquanQuentinJackson wrote: |
| "...they must think it's hilarious that so many foreigners come here and happily live in squalor..." |
They probably think it's almost as funny that so many foreigners come here and allow themselves to be cheated out of pension and health insurance.
| JaquanQuentinJackson wrote: |
| "Good job not allowing yourself to continue getting exploited...we have to stand up for ourselves over here individually" |
| JaquanQuentinJackson wrote: |
| "I don't have pension or health insurance..." |
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