Korean Job Discussion Forums

[J Rock]

So I get a total newbie foreign neighbor last week, the apartment right next to ours. She's from Iowa or Idaho (I wasn’t really listening when she was explaining cause I was thinking about what I wanted for dinner), she's blonde, decent looking, not fat but not skinny, right out of college. Met her when she moved in last Sunday, she seemed real excited and nervous about starting her new life as a teacher. I was being as nice as possible not trying to act like i've been here for 9 years and am getting burned out. Gave her my phone number and my wife's number and to call if she needed help with anything. That was it for about a week, didn’t hear from her or even see her.

I then get a call about 7:30am Monday morning from her and she's a wreck, crying hysterically, I could barely understand her but I hear her say I have to go back home, something bad happened. She then asked me if she could come over and talk about it. I said yes of course come over. Now I'm thinking something real bad happened, her mom died, their house burned down, brother/sister dies of a drug overdose, etc.

She comes over still crying, my wife and I are like OMG what happened??? She calms down and says she has to leave something bad happened at work. I asked if someone touched you or worse assaulted you? She looked at me like I was stupid and said no of course not. It turns what happened was the school told her she was not going to be paid for here first 2 days of teaching because they considered it part of her training. She said this isn’t what she expected and they are trying to take advantage of her.

I'm in shock at this point, thinking she got raped or something and it turns out she's not getting paid for 2 days of training!!! Now I've known at least 5 teachers through the years from the school she works at and none of them had ever had a problem with It. They don’t pay late, never yell at you, hell I think they even let my buddy play his guitar to his class for fun. Now this bitch is complaining about this her first week in? I ask her if she's broke or something and needed money for food, she said no that’s not it my parents still pay for my credit card bill.

I try and reassure her that this is a very small deal and she needed to calm down and she will probably experience things worse than this living abroad. What I didn’t say is crying like a child was not the appropriate reaction to this situation. It's time to grow up and be an adult. What is with kids these days fresh out of college? The world does not owe you anything, you're not better than anyone else, and crying doesn’t get you anywhere.

She finally left when she calmed down and said she was gonna try her best and stick it out. All my wife said to me when she left was "what's wrong with that girl???"

Sorry but that’s my rant for the day......

[Paddycakes]

You probably forgot how stressful Korea can be in the very beginning, especially for someone who is very young and who probably considers New York City to be a foreign country (Iowa!)

Some people are more sensitive to stress than others, and act accordingly.

[tardisrider]

I agree with Paddycakes. Definitely an overreaction on the neighbour's part, but probably one coming from a week of jetlag, new job, no sleep, culture shock, loneliness, doesn't know how to do stuff, etc etc etc.

The real question now: Was it a one time thing or is it going to be happen every week that has a Thursday in it? If it's just a one time freak out, then it ain't that bad.

[jcd]

She overreacted but it does suck to come so far to work and then to get ripped off right away. Then you have to work for one year with someone who you think stole from you.

[talentedcrayon]

It can be scary for a person. They come half way around the world... they are expecting it to be a positive experience... then the school is nickling and diming them right out of the gate.

We have NO REASON to trust the schools we find online. In fact, the scary horror stories that abound online and the fact half the people I know have had a bad experience at some point (myself included), lead me to believe that at least 1/4 schools are actively trying to rip off teachers.

This girl was probably thinking: "Ah crap... I'm screwed... I got one of those terrible schools... they are going to ruin my life..."

I think listening to her was good of you.

With working in Korea, I always recommend people set extremely low expectations.

Expect: up to 10 unpaid days the contract says nothing about (I mean not getting paid for days because of things like the training mentioned above)
Expect: to work at least 10 days of unpaid overtime (note: I mean extra unpaid work on a Saturday, even if you contract is M-F)
Expect: your vacation days to be changed at the last minute losing you $2000 on the vacation you purchased
Expect: multiple pay discrepancies throughout the year, including illegal deductions
Expect: to take work home, even if they explicitely said you wouldn't have to in the contract or interview
Expect: to be treated poorly
Do not Expect: your full pension
Do not expect: severance pay without a fight
Do not expect: them to actually enrol you in national health
Do not expect: them to employ you for the entire year
Do not expect: your flights to be paid for
Do not expect: to get the vacation days your contract specifies

Expect: Them to hold you to every detail in the contract

I could probably add hundreds of things to this list. Most teachers should expect at least one of these things to happen to them.

[Coltronator]

In 5 years and 5 contracts, 3 locations, 5 bosses I have only had 1 bad experience and even that was good for a while before it turned sour. With that said though, Talentedcrayon's advice is not un-warranted if a bit pessimistic. If you do follow it and come here you will probably be pleasantly surprised on 5 out the 6 "Do not expect" items. (Which ones I cannot guess as each is certainly possible) I just wouldn't expect all of those issues at the same job.

[Weigookin74]

[J Rock]

[Plain Meaning]

[J Rock]

[cj1976]

Next week on Dave's...Stranded in Korea! And My New Neighbour is an Insensitive Asshole!
Sounds like the kind of trashy story I read on the shitter at my mother's house.

[J Rock]

[yodanole]

" I'm pretty sure he was undressing me with his eyes...."

Well ... Were ya?

And ... Was it worth it?

[sligo]

[cdninkorea]