Korean Job Discussion Forums

[schwa]

I overspoke my knowledge, sorry.

What I do know is that Gangwondo (& at least some other provinces) do hold an obligatory annual 'orientation' that all hagwonites are meant to attend. A saturday afternoon -- the usual hot-air welcoming speeches & a couple seminar-type presentations about teaching. As I've heard it, directors can be fined if their workers dont register, but some seem to wiggle out of it. (They have smaller local meetings here now to minimize travel.)

If this is that same deal, then yes, it gets batted around annually on this board with a number of posters getting quite hysterical about having a saturday infringed upon. This baffles Koreans -- this type of mandatory 'conference' is quite normal in a variety of professions & Koreans moan about it too but just go along. The main purpose it seems is for some govt ministry to show off that its hosting some kind of important 'event.'

JongnoGuru has posted a masterful leg-pull (he forgot to mention the required urine sample). I bet that got a few folks stressing! Or if its for real & theyre rounding up all the undesirables this weekend, lord help us all!

[Thunndarr]

Well, I've got to hit some sort of mandatory meeting this Saturday. Not sure if it's from my chain or the govt. though, Koreans being more than a little tight lipped about such inconsequential details like that. I understand it's going to be about 4 hours long, from 9 in the morning to one in the afternoon.

[JongnoGuru]

But Schwa -- damn! The urine tests weren't supposed to be announced! Now you've gone and given everyone the heads-up! They'll all be smuggling vials of drug-free wee-wee (donated by students) into the concentration centres! You spoiled everything....

And the Grand Prize goes to Schwa for spotting the leg-pull (but mainly for calling it "masterful") and for this insightful line: "The main purpose it seems is for some govt ministry to show off that its hosting some kind of important 'event.'" Truer words have rarely been spoken, and Schwa clearly knows his way around this place. (even if he doesn't always know a 19-pyong officetel from a 10-pyong shoebox )

Grotto gets Honourable Mention for having smelt that pile a mile away.

Just having a bit of late-nite fun with this rumoured mandatory meeting for all English hagwon teachers. Sure, the logistics themselves are laughable, but to me it's the gall and peremptoriness -- combined with the typical lack of preparation and failure to inform the participants -- behind such an idea that just screams to be satirised. Problem is, we've all seen just too many examples of such ham-fisted nonsense, so no-one's prepared to entirely rule out something like mandatory one-day boot camp for all foreign teachers. It's funny and sad.

[T-dot]

havent heard of anything either.

could just be an excuse for all the foreigners to gather and piss in a bottle.

[JongnoGuru]

[trevorcollins]

Can you imagine what 10,000 waegook English teachers in Korea in the same place would look like....?
It'd be worse than "The Dawn of the Dead"

[Zyzyfer]

[just because]

I'll be in Seoul this wekend.

it w2on't be for some hagwon thing however.......unless they want me there pretty tanked.

[kylehawkins2000]

So, most hogwan teachers I've talked to have told me that they do have to attend some kind of meeting. I'm curious to know what it's all about.

[shawner88]

There was a guy who didn't show up to one of these meetings last year...

a few days later, he disappeared and nobody has heard from him since.

[Buff]

I had to go to this today along with all of the other foreign teachers at my school because according to my director, the school will get fined if the teachers don't attend. It was basically cultural and immigration stuff. Lasted from about 9:45 to 12:30 at some auditorium in Yeouido. There were 360 people there and they had pieces of paper you had to turn in at the beginning and at the end to prevent you from skipping out. I brought my iPod and hid it under my hoodie. It was a decent nap time. Don't know why so few academies knew about it if it was such a big deal.

[matthews_world]

Was this just for Seoulites?

[Buff]

The one I went to was. I dunno if they're going to have a meeting for other cities.

[TheUrbanMyth]

Been here four years, never heard of such a meeting and never attended one. In all likehood it's a rumour that got blown out of proportion. Anyway why don't the people here just check with their director Monday morning and see what is going on?

[Buff]

Dude, I just went to it this morning. I'm gonna be real pissed if I had to drag my sorry butt out of bed at 8 o'clock this morning for a mandatory meeting if it was just a rumor... I'll definitely have to ask my supervisor on Monday...