Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yangban]

A few weeks ago, I posted a fear I had about my employers not paying me. Everyone said not to worry about it. I show up to work everyday, the parents are paying for me, etc. While I believe that the advice was valid, they did not know my bosses. Here is what happened up to me on payday.

Now, I have a strange situation. The hogwon is going under. They continue to lose students. So my original boss sold it to someone else, but continued to lie and say he owned it. We (my husband and I) helped by handing out flyers, being nice to parents, even buying our own paint and painting classrooms on our day off! We made videos of the kids with OUR OWN video camera and spent ALL of Christmas Day MAKING COPIES to give to students (one hour each). We weren't paid for that. We thought we had a good relationship; they moved us out of a rat trap and into a nice apartment. But that was after we complained for FIVE MONTHS about not having a decent shower. The water just barely trickled out of the faucet. Pipes from the sewer fed into our one room and caused us to wretch everytime we went home. I lived 20 minutes away by car, and the ower picked me up everyday, but then one day he disappeared for three weeks and no one know where he was.

It took me an hour to get to work everyday by bus and another hour to get home. I had to pay for it and put up with the constant harrassment and crowds of high schoolers on the bus.

Nevertheless, I took extra classes for them even though I didn't have to and even got more students to enroll. Then one day, some kids said "f+++ you" flipped me off and spit at me. My husband got a hold of one and got him to apologize, in front of his principle. He later denied saying it and got his mom, his principle and everyone else to come after my husband. threatening to involve the cops. The bosses thought it was funny and cute that we were upset, but they didn't think the parents being upset was funny. So they implored HIM to apologize to THEM. No way. So my husband left the school. They refused to pay him his last two days. He had written a flyer for them that had gotten more students. They didn't care. The painting, the promotions everything we had done was like "whatever." The new boss said, I don't have a contract with you, I don't have to pay you. She was right, because she had arrived much later after we started. They lied to the parents about him being gone and won't tell the students what happened. They even turn the light on in his classroom to make it look like he is still there!

Fearful for my own neck, I chased down my old boss. He said, yes, I will pay your bonus. Then he said said he would pay half the bonus, and the other person would pay the other half. But he wouldn't hang around and talk to me. He would run away, duck through buildings, with me chasing after him. The writing is on the wall, and even though I am almost 10 months into my contract, I buy my plane tickets after talking to recruiters and not getting anywhere on a new job.

The day before payday, I got a bill for my utilities. I found out that the new owner had not paid the almost 200,000 won bill that I had given her the money for. I tried to pay it at the bank, but they would not accept the money, saying that it was automatically deducted out of an account, and that I would have to pay that person. So I gave the money to the boss. She DIDN'T pay it. I was livid, I had just been ROBBED and LIED TO. I contact the old boss, and he actually reams her for not paying the bill. I bring up pay day, which is the next day. They said that I will be paid at 4 pm.

Pay day finally arrives. The two bosses are talking then the new boss begins screaming! It goes on for 20 minutes. Then 4 pm comes. She says she has paid me. I check. IT IS NOT THERE! By some weird coincidence, one of our students gets hit by a car. He can walk, but he is not doing well. She tries to use this incident to get out of talking about the money she says she has paid me My husband goes with her to the hospital with the boy and the guy who hit him. I check one more time. I stop teaching for the day and go back to the hospital. I confront her. She is not one bit concerned about the boy.


She tries to sneak out of the back of the hospital, but we catch her. We don't let her out of our site. Finally my husband threatens to put her in the hospital if my pay is not in the bank. 10 minutes later, it arrives, but 200,000 won short. We walk back to the school together and he goes to check to make sure that the rest of it is there. It arrives. My last class of the evening, I let them screw off.

The next day, I am on a plane heading back to the US. But not before I drop some letters in the mail to some of the students telling them why we left and to leave the school immediately. By lunch time, I am between Korea and Japan. I now live in the USA starting a new life. I still have nightmares about getting paid!

Don't ever deal with Mr. Huang or Mrs. Kim or Little Campus of Jangyu. Jangyu is a section of Kimhae. Kimhae is near Busan, inside of Gyeongnam (Gyeongsangnam) province. They may or may not be trying to recruit. They cannot afford to pay you. They will eventually stiff the Korean teachers that work there. They will not treat you right, they have no respect for foreigners and think our concerns are jokes. If you see them trying to recruit, DON'T GO THERE! Avoid Little Campus at any and all costs.

[Draven]

Congratulations on getting out and getting what you earned. Also you're doing a public service by posting that information here. Nicely done and good luck!

[Demophobe]

Wow....really sorry to hear about the travesty. I don't know what to say...thanks for the heads up on these people.
I hope you can put this behind you...
Take care.

[sadsac]

A lousy way to end it, but you are safe now and away from it all. Good on you and your hubby for standing up to them. All the best for the future.

[just because]

I knew a girl who worked there about 2 years ago, me living in Changwon and seeing quite a few Jangyu people, she got stiffed about 10 months into he contract and lost her bonus and then the couple that came after didn't last 6 months.

I actually even know who recruits for that place and I told her I don't ever won't to deal with her if you are trying to get people to work there.

Wish you the best of luck.

[paperbag princess]

very well handled!!!

[waterbaby]

All the best for settling back into the US.

[ghostshadow]

Sorry to hear such a bad experience. It's usually a gamble with those privately owned schools. I'm glad that you both are safe and still got your money. I just hope that you had other experiences in Korea that you can take back with you as a good memory.

[yangban]

Thanks for the support! The US isn't all it's cracked up to be, but I am home after 2 1/2 years abroad. I do have good memories of Korea, but I prefer to keep them memories. Take care!