Korean Job Discussion Forums

[taipei101]

I'm not the vindictive type, and so it goes a bit against the grain for me to make a post like this. It would be remiss of me, though, not to warn others against making a very big mistake.

You may think that you've won the golden ticket out of "hakwon hell" if offered a desk job writing test preparation books for IKE BOOKS, a subsidiary of Lee Ik Hoon hakwon, in Gangnam.

Unfortunately, the section head of Ike Books will physically grope you in a way bordering on sexual assault (or maybe not, if you're female), insult you, intimidate and threaten you, and so on, until the day he finally fires you for no reason whatsoever, without forewarning.

This is a very bad company run entirely by morally degenerate, soulless, evil people.

On a team of just four "writers," one is a young Korean who literally cannot speak two consecutive words of English. Her job is secure. Yours won't be. You'll get fired because as a foreigner--the only one there--you aren't welcome.

Yes, they'll hire you when they get a book assignment and the panic hits: We don't have anyone here who really knows English! Then when the book is done, ha ha ha, it's chopping block time.

But if you've stayed there beyond the first day, you've already debased yourself far too much. Just say no to these evil people and stay away.

You've been warned.

Yours anonymously FROM TAIPEI

[thegadfly]

While I am sorry that you had a bad time at this place, your rant immediately has me siding with IKE Books -- I found your prose overblown, your tone hyperbolic, and your pronunciations suspect (with the exception of the sexual assault -- no one should be expected to endure such treatment).

You don't write as well or as clearly as you imagine you do. Maybe you got fired because you were hired as a writer, and they noticed that....