Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Lucas]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[Lucas]

[Kwai_Chang_Kain]

My first teaching job in Korea was at a hagwon in 2005. In September of that year a female from Chicago arrived and pulled the runner on Christmas eve. Looking back at it I'm surprised she lasted that long.

From the get go she had a great deal of difficulty adjusting to life overseas and on her own (she went to some collage in Chicago so she still lived with her family while studying). She hated Korean food and was always homesick, she spent most of her nights in her room talking to her friends and family back home (we still used land lines back then LOL) so she didn't hang out much with the other foreign teachers & I after work.

I tried to be her friend and help her out as much as I could, our schedules were pretty similar so we often went out for lunch together during the week. This one time we were eating lunch at a McDonald's in silence when suddenly out of the blue she felt the need to tell me that she brought a dildo from back home to Korea with her and uses it almost every night. Unfortunately she mistook my kindness for something else & started coming on to me but I didn't reciprocate her feelings. The few times that she did come out of her apartment during the weekends she would get completely trashed, constantly throw herself at me and even go so far as to cock block me every chance she could. So not only was it messy it was totally uncool. Her nickname amongst the other foreign teachers was "C-Murder" and she hated it LOL

Christmas that year fell on a Sunday (as well as New Years) so we got no time off work for the holidays, that turned out to be the deal breaker for her. Despite having no holidays, the other waygook teachers & I still got together at someones apartment that weekend to celebrate anyways but when we tried knocking on her door or calling her there was no answer so we had a sneaking suspicion that she may have pulled a runner. Lo and behold Monday rolls around & she doesn't show up for work so we have to cover her classes. The owners try calling her but no answer, they go to her apartment and find it empty with a good-bye note left on the table. I had always heard of runner stories & knew all about them but this was the first time I had actually seen one up close and personal. We got paid at the beginning of the month so she gave up almost a full months salary but left a phone bill of over 2,000,000원 which was higher than what her salary would cover so the owners lost money on that.

I've since moved on to another area of Korea but I still keep in touch with the friends I made there, every now and then when we meet up they like to bring up C-Murder for a good laugh. There's even a pic on Facebook of us, she's drunk and draped all over me and I have a disgusted look on my face, thankfully I'm not tagged in said photo LOL

[son of coco]

[schwa]

[Mr. Pink]

This was quite a while ago...I think in 2000 or 2001. We hired a guy who had spent 3 years or so in Japan as a JET. School was pretty decent. We were always paid on time, schedule was pretty decent etc. He just hated Korea because everything was compared to Japan. Day after pay day I came in and he was sometimes late because he drove to work, so we figured he was stuck in traffic. He wouldn't answer his phone...okay. After first period, I decided to check his desk, it was cleaned out. That's when I knew he had done a runner. He phoned my cell about 10mins before he was going to board. He was afraid we would call immigration and get him held up. he couldn't take Korea anymore and was heading back to Japan.

The thing that really sucked is this job was at a private school where we had credit classes and were responsible for doing grading that would be reflected on report cards. He left half-way into the term...and left no grade book or anything to reflect the students grades.


In 1999 I worked at a hawgwon and I was hired to replace 2 teachers who had done runners. From what I heard it was 2 girls from Canada. they charged up 1000s of dollars in long distance phone calls, were homesick and just decided after pay day to do a runner. Made for some crappy policies like big housing deposits to be paid by teachers.

I did a "runner" if you could call it that. I worked for what I thought was a government after school program, but in reality it was "contracted" out to a third party. They were ALWAYS late paying me. I knew I was going to return to Canada to go back to school in July or August. The fact they were always late and I mean sometimes up to 2 weeks late paying my salary I knew if I told them in advance I was leaving they would find some way to not pay me, like just wait till I left. So I told them I had to attend a family affair in Canada and needed a week off, which my contract stated I was entitled to....took the holiday a little before pay day so that by the end of it I could be sure the late pay would be paid. As soon as I saw it was in my account, I sent them an email saying I was frustrated that they never paid me on time and feel they violated the contract so I wasn't coming back. It wasn't what I would call a real runner. I didn't leave with money that I had not worked for...we were paid on the 10th of the month for the previous month's work (should have been the 1st of the month, but as I said, it was always late...) But it did put them in a bad position. I can say it was absolutely the worst job I ever did...only did it because the money was great at the time.

I have to add the weirdness I encountered when working there too:
- Other native teacher was from South Africa (was also an F visa holder) and with our 15min break, he would go to the washroom and take off all his clothes and sit in the stall having a dump completely naked...
- One of the Korean teachers had a medical leave. I asked her what was wrong when she got back. She was unmarried and about 25-27 and in good health. Her doctor had convinced her that she needed to have a complete internal check-up which meant they sent tubes with cameras down/up/in every orifice she had Yes EVERY single one...the innocence of this person was pretty amazing to let something like that happen
- Can't remember the kid's name, but we had a crazy one. Like probably would be on meds or in some program back home. He went off on every teacher, but one day went beyond nuts on the K-teacher I just mentioned. The mom was called and told he was not allowed in the building again or the police would be called. That was quite the scene...


Currently working with overall much more professional people...I say overall as we have had zero runners but in the 5 years I've been at my current school 4 teachers have been fired for violating their contract in some way or another. Surprisingly, alcohol wasn't an issue in any of the firings, they all revolved around either student safety or harming the reputation of the school.

[young_clinton]

[Stain]

Mr. Pink, you mentioned working at a hagwon in 1999. Would you say that there has been little or no difference in hagwon business practices since then? I realize individuals are different but I mean in general.

[Mr. Pink]