Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Whitegirlinasia]

Since I moved to Korea I've been living a horror story and I'm looking forward to waking up from the nightmare at the end of my contract.

I'm curious about other people's bad experiences here. Let's hear them and commiserate together.

Here's one of mine.
To save money, my last boss housed me in a seedy area of town surrounded by chatting bars and norebangs staffed by women in short skirts. A prostitution ring was being run out of my building.

Coming home from my birthday with my then Korean boyfriend, someone who happens to live on my floor saw us and reported to the police that a man had brought a Russian to his apartment. So they came to my building to arrest me for prostitution at 3AM.

I sued the guy for defamation (which took months) only because I wanted to know how he knew where I lived. He refused to respond to the police so they called his mother, who compelled him to show up and apologize to me. (sweet revenge).

When I told my boss I didn't feel safe living there he told me to "cry out" if there was danger, because Koreans are good and will help a "pretty girl" like me. I was later assaulted and no one came to my rescue. I got away unscathed but a pretty rattled.

[Underwaterbob]

I've mostly been spared the horror, but I've seen plenty of it second hand.

I knew Mike White and his mom pretty well...

[SeoulNate]

few racist encounters, that's about it.

[wonkavite62]

Yes, your boss is being insensitive about this issue, but perhaps it's also the case that he arranged the housing contract before the area became so seedy, and it's hard to find a better place.

I am a man, and living in that area would bother me less, but still it would bother me, because all sorts of problems are possible.
Here are some horror stories I've heard. A Canadian man had taught in a kindergarten in his own country. He went to teach in a kindergarten in Bucheon, between Seoul and Incheon. I thought WOW! what a great location! He also told me it was a 9 a.m.-7 p.m. kindie-elementary hagwon. There were no breaks. Lunch was NOT a break! He had to spend it entertaining the kids. He got EXTREMELY bitter and stressed out, because on top of doing 30 hours of teaching he had no chance to relax. He did a midnight run and left Korea for good. All the nasty stuff was there in black and white, in his contract.
A while ago, the first time I was ever in Korea, I one of the adult students invited me to go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve with her family. I was interested. But my friends suddenly appeared in a taxi. "Hey where are you going? Why don't you come with us?" I ended up going with them in a taxi to a pub. At first it was wonderful. But then one of the teachers got into a fight with some Korean guys. The story was that they were gay and he wasn't. They were hitting on him quite intensely. So he fought. So the police hauled him away. All of us western teachers went to the police station en masse, to make sure that justice prevailed. The story ended happily, but a planned Christmas Dinner was cancelled.
Yes there are Korean nightmares. It does seem that yours is not strictly work-related. Count this as a blessing. You should be able to complete your contract and then move on.

[/b]

[drcrazy]

Korea




PS:

[PRagic]

I've been here pretty much straight through since 93 and have two 'horrow stories'.

1. After a year at a hagwon working for what was then a standard wage, I moved with a kyopo buddy to a publishing company that also offered classes. It was a 70% raise including the bonus. In hind sight, yeah, if it seems to good to be true...

After a few weeks in a hovel of a yogwon, I finally pushed them to seal the deal on my promised apartment, a one-room in Kangnam. That ran them 10 million down an a million a month, and that was 20 years ago. Needless to say, they weren't too happy.

After about 6 months, they started paying late. Then they one day just told everyone that the place was going under. No bonus.

So I got accepted to grad school here and switched to a student visa. They 'gifted me' all the apartment furnishings, so that was one less thing to have to cover when I moved. Live and learn.

2. The second one was weird even by Korean standards, and I've asked a lot of my Korea buddies. I was working at a university while I was ABD and wrapping up my dissertation, and after my first year, I signed on early for a second. Then I got a job offer from a MUCH better place. As there were still 3-4 months before my new contract were to even kick in, I gave notice. Then they threw a hissy fit and a half, and told me that I couldn't leave and that if I did, I'd have to pay something like 10 million won in fines and the like.

Long story short is that they didn't have a leg to stand on. Heck, I even told them I'd find my replacement. Nope. So we went to the labour board and they wound up paying me all salary due and got squat from me on the way out. I finished up my PhD and it has been smooth sailing since. The upside is that we met some of our best friends there. Silver lining and all that.

Neither story is as bad as some of the ones that crop up from time to time here, but they sucked none-the-less.

I've definitely found that working outside of ESL as an academic is a totally different universe. It's not for everyone, sure, but for us it has made all the difference.

The ESL market, teaching and otherwise, paid the bills and then some while I was studying, but I soon realized that compared to the real professionals, those with related degrees, experience, and all the certs, I had hit my level of incompetence. It was getting more and more difficult to get motivated to teach English. Not my bag.