Korean Job Discussion Forums

ThingsComeAround · Joined: 07 Nov 2008

I'm guessing from the OP's lack of response that they will ignore our suggestions and quit anyway. Good on the other poster trying to get decent teachers into the position that this goofball obviously doesn't care about.

bentobento · Joined: 21 Jan 2011 Location: US of A (for now)

I'm a girl and even I think you're being kind of a baby.

Location: A week is not enough time to explore your surroundings, nor is it enough time to make meaningful relationships (which will usually lead to you feeling better about your situation).

Roaches: I lived by myself for my senior year due to previous roomie drama. My apartment got roaches from time to time. I remember them being there a couple weeks after moving in. What'd I do? I went to the store bought some RAID, bought some traps, sprayed that shiz all over the outside of my door, my window sealings, etc. On the inside I cleaned and put down roach traps. I never bothered to talk to my complex about it and the roaches were gone for the most part after a week or so. I still had the occasional bug or lizard but I could deal with that.

At minimum I think you should stay a month. You should be open minded for that time and be proactive about getting rid of the roaches yourself (I hope you haven't unpacked too much yet). If after that month things are still miserable, then do what you must.

koreatimes · Joined: 07 Jun 2011

bentobento · Joined: 21 Jan 2011 Location: US of A (for now)

Yep, lizard. I'm from the south, they are everywhere. >__<
At least a skink never got in. I hate those things.

PatrickBateman · Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:53 pm Post subject:

bentobento · Joined: 21 Jan 2011 Location: US of A (for now)

plchron · Joined: 26 Feb 2011 Location: Korea

you know OP, it sucks that your first impression of your school and sorroundings was negative. You can only go up from here.

The problem for you is that absolutley no one is responsible for this. Maybe your CT can get you landlord to exterminate them for a fee, or maybe you can handle it on your own. Remember that it is not their problem or their job responsibility to come into an apartment after one foriegner moves out and clean it. You inherited this mess from the last person at your job and they are long gone. This is not a society where you snap your fingers and people fix things instantly.

Rutherford · Joined: 31 Jul 2007

I think you need to address these problems right away, but pulling a runner in the first two weeks for roaches is extreme.

I was unhappy with the location provided by my school at the beginning of my EPIK contract. I talked to my school about it, and told them I felt like I should have been able to choose to find my own housing had I known the location.

In the end I was able to move to a new building. At first I had to put the key money down while we waited for someone to take my previous apartment. After that my school took over the contract for me.

The school might say they can't do these sorts of things but that usually means they just don't want to, or the principal isn't convinced and hasn't told the administrators to. In this case you should be very persistent but also apologetic and polite. I also had to organize the move myself and that would have been difficult had I not already been in Korea for a year.

nero · Joined: 11 Mar 2009

nero · Joined: 11 Mar 2009

OP are you the girl who was bringing her mum over to Korea with her?
If not, maybe that's what you should have done. Laughing

Modernist · Joined: 23 Mar 2011 Location: The 90s

Hah, so much advice about the roach 'problem.'

That's not at the root of this.

Airborne9 · Joined: 01 Jun 2010

Well summarized. Its quite annoying to see this. As I said before so many people I know are looking for GEPIK positions not to mention others in the native countries who would have made a decent go at this. Does the OP not understand that it takes more than a week to adjust to a new country not to mention a new job (particularly if the OP has no teaching experience)

ThingsComeAround · Joined: 07 Nov 2008

Things like this make me SMH and leave me dumbfounded. Personal friends have difficulty finding good public positions, sadguy had an unfortunate incident and on the other side there are people like the OP that P!$$ all over the efforts of hardworking people that care.

Hey OP- you probably arent but if you are still reading this, just know that trying to self gain in this manner brings about your destruction. I've seen it.

GrasshopperKR · Joined: 14 Oct 2011

When the OP said that "She's not a princess" that's code for I am an entitled so and so.

Draz · Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Location: Land of Morning Clam

Ha. I also took a countryside position for my first job, lured in by all the people online talking about how it wasn't so bad and you could save more money and it wasn't so bad. It WAS bad. The isolation was incredible. No stores around my apartment and I was a long walk from the village bus stop. It wasn't just that it was inconvenient, it felt just... empty and lost. And I LIKE being alone. I wanted to leave after about an hour though I stuck it out for six months. (Still had to get a new visa, but didn't have to pay back airfare. And I was able to hammer down the debt that brought me to Korea in the first place.)

I don't consider it to have been a character-building experience, incidentally. It was pure misery, borderline traumatizing. I still feel a pang of dread when I go into a Korean public school building.

You can call it princess syndrome or entitlement, but it's more likely just a kind of culture shock and not something to beat someone up over. It takes time to get over it even under favorable conditions.