Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Smithington]

How useless is your "foreign teacher supervisor" at your public school?

I’ve been working at my current public school for six months. From beginning to end the “foreign teacher supervisor” has been utterly useless. When I first went to see my apartment it was filthy. I have never moved into a dirty apartment in life life, not in the States and not in Korea. My first thought was, “Why did the foreign teacher manager not arrange to have this place cleaned before I got there?” It had been sitting vacant for a week since the previous tenant left. I simply say to her that I cannot move in until the apartment is thoroughly cleaned. There also weren’t any bed sheets, so I take the ninety minute bus ride back into Seoul and stay at a friend’s for the night. The next day they send the school ajumma over to clean my place. Fair enough, but my initial impression of the ‘supervisor’ was that she was useless. She had stood there in the apartment with me and didn’t bat an eye at its filthy condition. It was her job to have it ready for me.

On another occasion a few weeks later, I arrive at school on a Monday to find the place locked up. No kids, no teachers, nobody. I text the ‘supervisor’ and ask what’s going on. “She texts back, “Oh sorry, I forgot telling you. Today no school.” Again with the incompetence. I had travelled all the way from my friend’s house in Seoul when I could have had an extended weekend. This kind of nonsense happens off and on over the months. On other occasions she had me going to the wrong immigration office to transfer my visa, giving me unbelievably inaccurate directions, etc. One thing after another.

Meanwhile, although my apartment was now clean. The building itself remained filthy. I’ve been there six months and the hallways and stairs have had a cursory cleaning once. Once in half a year! My building is basically a slum, with piles of refuse stacked ten feet from the front entrance, and stains all over the stairs and landing. Spider webs have actually established themselves in the hall since it was last cleaned. Although I like my school, adore my students, and the countryside is very pleasant, I will not renew my contract unless I get a new apartment. In the meantime I have withheld my maintenance fee for the past three months until the building is cleaned. (I had no other means of putting pressure on him.) I’ve told the FT “supervisor” several times about the state of my building. She claims that she texted the building manager to tell him to clean it. My Korean friend also texted him saying that he needs to do his job before I can transfer his fee to his bank account. I’m not being delinquent in withholding payment, I just want my building cleaned. After all, that’s partly what I’m paying him for. The “supervisor” says she doesn’t know why he’s not cleaning the building. “Maybe, he’s sick”, she says. For six months?

Anyway, last Thursday the supervisor lady sends me an email saying that the building manager wants me to pay the money “by Friday”. I said fine, that as a conscientious individual I’m actually anxious to pay it, but that he needs to clean the building first. She says, “The building fee doesn’t include cleaning. It’s only for hydro and electricity, not cleaning.” So I’m thinking, what kind of building manager isn’t responsible for maintaining the building? And if this is indeed the case, why the hell didn’t the “supervisor” lady provide me with this information several months ago? This was vital information that I kind of needed. I was directing my protest, by means of withholding the maintenance fee, at the wrong person. I should have been paying the bill and complaining directly to my school. She waited six months to inform me of this. (And furthermore, if it's not the building manager's responsibility to clean the building, whose responsibility is it, and why have they not been doing it?)

Anyway, now being in possession of this information, I resolve to pay the fee the next day. Thursday evening I look up the guy’s bank information and resolve to transfer the money as soon as I finish work on Friday. At 4:20 pm a teacher comes into my classroom and tells me that I need to pay my fee “by today” or the building manager will cut off my electricity. I say that I’m going to do that anyway as soon as I get downtown. I jump on the 5 o’clock bus, and transfer the money as soon as I get downtown at 5:20pm. I think, “Well’ that’s done” and head home – only to find the electricity turned off. No lighting, no hot water. I text the FT supervisor to tell her that I’ve paid my bill and to tell the building manager to turn my electricity back on. I head off to Seoul, as I do every Friday evening, assuming my electricity will be turned back on in an hour or so.

I return home last night (Sunday) to a dark room, no hot water, and all the food in my fridge ruined. I text the idiot FT supervisor, but like my Friday text to her it goes unreturned. I then remember that she recently lost her cell phone and that perhaps she likely didn’t receive my texts. So I get to school and send her an email telling her that I need my electricity turned back on. As I await a courtesy response, I sit at my computer unshowered, smelly and feeling like crap because she failed to give me important information. Will my electricity be turned back on today? Who the hell knows.

Honestly, the FT “supervisors” in Korean public schools are pathetic. If they give you information at all it’s at the last moment, and far too often vital information is not given at all. And you can’t complain about it or show any sense of annoyance, because that get’s you labeled immediately as a “trouble-maker foreigner”. And what’s with the dick building manager, phoning the school at 4:20 to say that I must pay “by today” then immediately turning the electricity off before I can get near a bank. The way Koreans do things sometimes drives me up the frigging wall.

Any other “useless FT supervisor” stories out there? I can’t be the only one.

[YTMND]

[Lucas]

Instead of building a 'relationship' you are destroying one (with your CT).

You will not win. You will get more angry and upset.

You need to look at things in a positive light. The outside of your apt, is a mini ecosystem. It is developing. The spiders will help to reduce the flies (and mosquitos in summer).

Plus its Halloween soon, you won’t even need to decorate outside!

[Fox]

First of all, there's not necessarily a lot the foreign teacher coordinator can do in any given situation. They have literally no power, all they can do is pass along information and bring things to the notice of higher administrators. You need to keep something in mind: the foreign coordinator is your liason to EPIK, and ultimately not much more. "Why isn't my building being cleaned?!" is really beyond their purview, and it speaks well of them that they got involved in the first place. What do you expect her to do, come down to your apartment building and rough the fellow up?

That said, the coordinator in my town has been great. I've needed his assistance very few times, but the times I needed it, he responded promptly, did everything in his power to assist, and in each case the problem was resolved. Then again, in each case the problem was something that actually lied within the purview of EPIK, so passing along information to the right people had the potential to be efficacious.

[CentralCali]

The school's days off are already set at the beginning of the school year. Yep, they're set for both semesters. Tell the bint of a "foreigner wrangler" you need both calendar pages from the school handbook for the year. Grayed out days are days off, days in white are work days. It doesn't matter if you don't speak or read Korean. That's all you need to know.

Another nifty tip for the daily schedule change is to check the big board in the main teachers' office. If there is nothing written on the board, then the day's schedule is unchanged. The one think you have to worry about is if the English session for any of the classes has been changed. Simply look for 영 or 英 written on the board. If it's in Class 3-1's 3rd hour, that means that whatever class 3-1 has today on that hour is replaced with English. You then check your schedule to see if you're supposed to be teaching 3-1. If so, then you're teaching them during 3rd hour. If the 영 or 英 is in any other color chalk besides white, that means that the English class has been moved from another day to today. You'll have to check with Ms. Useless to discover if it's one of your sessions or one of the co-teacher's lessons for that class that's been moved.

[Scorpion]

Presenting a new teacher with a dirty apartment should be a red flag. It is a sign of disrespect. I have never moved into a dirty residence in Korea. It is not the norm, and as it's the FT coordinator's job to ensure that the FT transfers to the new school smoothly, it's her job to make sure someone cleans the building. I would say that it emphatically is her job. Not to clean it herself, but to ensure that the FT is not presented with a filthy apartment. I think the OP is correct about that. As for the tenants cleaning the building, I've never heard of that one. I've lived in several apartments in Korea and they have always been cleaned by management on a regular basis. Saying the OP made a "rookie mistake" is nonsense if his experience is similar to mine, and the building is always cleaned for him.

Now about the FT co-ordinator not providing the necessary information, I get that. They can be utterly useless. And if you try to talk to them about it, they get all defensive and hurt. Nothing in Korea is the Koreans' fault when there's a foreigner in the mix.

Anyway, hope you get your electricity turned back on soon.

[Scorpion]

[Weigookin74]

It's nice that they gave you the extra days off. City schools always make you come in. I sympathize as I got stuck with a dingy studio when I was out in the countryside. The local ed office rarely lifted a finger to help me. They were however more desperate than they are nowadays in post recession Korea. So, I beat an air conditioner out of them which I would not have gotten otherwise. I mean these guys were total clowns. Apt was still crap, but I took the rest because of all the extra days off and go home earlies the rural areas use to give out, I suppose. Anyways, suck it up, save up your money and get a Korean you trust to go to the Bu Dong San and help find you a new apartment. Take the subsidy from the school and pay your own deposit. If you like the school, you can get an apartment which you like. These older buildings are owned by slum lords who don't care too much about you and want lots of cash. You'll find all these stupid fees, heating in winter, water bills are all more expensive than they would be in a newer apartment or villa (which should be better built).

[Lucas]

[Smithington]

[Fox]

[Unposter]

It sounds like you are having some real communication problems with your "head teacher," some of which are because you are not familiar with the ways things work in Korea.

In an ideal world, the "head teacher" would know exactly what you know about Korea but that is rarely the case.

First of all, except in a few high priced buildings, the hallways and stairways are cleaned by the tenants. There is no cleaning staff.

Second of all, you were extremely late for your utility bills and when they tried to elude that that you had passed the cut off dates, you very leisurely tried to take care of it and it kind of bit you on the backside.

Third of all, as stated earlier, school holidays are usually announced. Of course, you do not know where they are announced or probably the language in which they were announced. It is easy for "head teachers" to not realize that you are not in the loop and you need to be told about these changes. You might want to be more direct with your "head teacher" about this situation.

Fourth of all, you really cannot expect your "head teacher" to know or even care that your room is dirty. Most people would just clean it up. But, I am impressed you could get the school to clean it for you. Maybe I have been in Korean too long, but I see that as a positive not a negative.

Now, I've been there. I know how hard this can be. And, I don't mean this in a bad way but basically you need to either tell your "head teacher" that you are a total baby who cannot take care of himself or you need to start learning how to take care of yourself in Korea or some combination of the two.

I've heard some horror stories about "head teachers" but to me this is not one.

My suggestion is do not expect your "head teacher" to know your situation. Try to explain that you need to learn how to do certain things and maybe schedule some time where you can talk about how things are done in Korea.

It is not easy to be responsible for oneself, especially in a foreign country, but once you learn how to, you will be a lot happier.

[Smithington]

^
You are a condescending dick. Not everything works that way in Korea. If it had I would have heard of it. In none of my eight apartments in Korea (yes, eight) have the tenants cleaned the building. In each and every case management has cleaned the building. Is that not part of "how things are done in Korea"? Your experience is not the experience of everybody else, and it's the height of dickish arrogance for you to assume it is.

Next, there is no communication problem with the FT "supervisor". (I never mentioned the 'head teacher' which shows how well you read my post.) Nor do I expect her to 'read my mind'. I have made it perfectly clear to her over the months that the building was dirty and needed cleaning. She even claimed to have texted the building manager about it. If it was the tenants' responsibility to clean the building, she could have told me that several months ago. Don't ya think there bud? She obviously wasn't aware of that either. And she's Korean! So it's obviously not as universal as you think. My gripe is that she told me that it "was" the managers's job to clean the building, and that he said it "was" cleaned once a month. I insisted that it hadn't been cleaned in five months, hence my effort to put pressure on him. If she had taken five minutes to look into it my current problem wouldn't have materialized. It's being presented with flawed information, on which I must base my decisions in Korea, that gets up my nose. A simple, clear question should be met with a simple, clear answer. Why is that so bloody difficult for them to grasp?

Finally, maybe you think it's unreasonable to complain about being moved into a filthy apartment. I don't. I guess that says something about our standards. None of my previous apartments in Korea were dirty when I moved in, only this one. So presenting someone with a dirty apartment is not "how things are done in Korea."

Dick.

[edwardcatflap]

Gotta agree with Smithington here. Especially about the apartment. If the foreign teacher supervisor/head teacher etc... do nothing else, they should make sure the foreign teacher has a decent place to stay when they first arrive. This will set the tone for the rest of their year in Korea.

[YTMND]