Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Atavistic]

[lvasia]

moutainous, would like to hear your opinion. you could email or PM it or just post here.

dearest a.v., thanks for sharing, i want more than a few stories if i'm to make anything out of them, good luck with what you're doing.

ianinilsan, hope you get something better and good for you for fighting back.

makemischief, thanks for telling me about that book, looks like a great book, and similar in some big ways to what i wanted to do. however at this time i'm planning to give out my results for free in korea and/or share on the net.

haven't posted here for a long time, not used to the rudeness, but i can take it. and i'm happy with what i've gotten so far.

cheers

K

[lvasia]

i said earlier i don't want to hear about little things like being paid late or forced to come in early unpaid. i realized if you weren't told before starting that you would come in early each day or if you were paid chronically late without explanation or apology, went through an ordeal at payday or such things, they are worthwhile complaints.

i also want to write about experiences with korean students. i want to let koreans know about difficult experiences such as poor behavior and management doing nothing, low kids put with high-level kids, etc.

also hagwon teaching materials/programs/methods - using books the kids dislike, can't understand, forced to teach with materials or a method that no one likes or doesn't work, etc.

i wouldn't make a generalization about all koreans. it's possible that some koreans wouldn't be interested in this. some would say 'go home' i'm sure, but i know/have met many who i believe would be interested. one group: college students.

i really appreciate all sincere replies

and glad i found there are a few books about foreigner life and teaching in korea at amazon.

enjoy the rest of your weekend, ~~**

K

[Fredbob]

just my two cents lv, not many people here are going to put stuff in writing because of the liable laws, evil hagwon owners and your lack of credibility : you honestly might be better off doing some legwork by going to a KOTESOL conference and doing some networking.

"haven't posted here for a long time, not used to the rudeness, but i can take it. and i'm happy with what i've gotten so far." BUT YOU JOINED IN NOVEMBER LAST YEAR

My opinion, sure, many of my students and even coworkers have exhibited empathy for our situation, but the (usually unspoken) response usually indicates that, in terms of severity, on the social injustice scale, our maltreatment is relatively mild.

[IwalkAlone]

What's the point of having a forum if we can't warn of bad schools. Mr. Song of Oh Sung Sik in Buk-gu Daegu, South Korea is a lying snake who needs 15 minutes alone with me and my friends.

The guy stole over $1,000 in tax money from me and deducted me for NOT USING vacation days.....

The story goes something like this:
My first payday, I am in his office and he hands me an envelope with cash. It was 1,755,000 Won from a 1.9M salary. I asked to see proof of taxes being deducted (5%) from that first payday. He tells me at the end of the contract I would get all the forms of proof. Well the 6th month rolls around and there are new teachers at this place, ready to get my back in a tax fight. We take on management, having weekly meetings about this tax problem and the snake director shoots off this piece of BS..."the high tax rate (5%) and the high maintenance fee (50,000 won-koreans in same villa paid 25,000) were to help pay for the cost of your return plane ticket." WTF! I showed him the contract: Return ticket will be provided. So he then says that by overtaxing me, he will be providing me with the flight.

So the other teacher and I threaten to contact the tax office, and the director then hires an accountant to come in and "threaten" us with having to pay monthly unemployment (200,000 won). I called BS on this too and had to teach the accountant the tax laws. The director finally lowered taxes to 3.3% which I still refused. I came 9000 damn miles to be ripped off by a snake....?? NO! It's TAX for heavensake..it supports your corrupt economy and goverment. In the end, we decided on the 3.3% and he backpayed the difference from the previous months.

ALSO, I cannot use him as a reference because he tells prospective employers that I beat the students and was a horrific teacher. By the way, I had students giving me presents, cards, and emails to keep in touch.

My last week, I had 6 unused vacation days. I worked the entire contract and only took one personal day to visit the dentist about a tooth problem. Wel,l we realized that my plane ticket was to depart a few days before the contract expired. So the snake director deducts me for these days( 400,000 won). I had planned to just use my vacation days, but the snake director tells me that he wouldn't negotiate (and in the contract....."vacation day usage will be negotiated").



For all of you again...OSS in buk-gu daegu. He didn't pay pension either...
He wanted me and a co-worker to chare health insurance plans.
He filed my income as 1.3M to the health insurance office to have lower premiums.

And my apartment...I had to rearrange the pencils sticking out of a cup on my desk just to move around...(desk bought by me of course)

[jangsalgida]

[ryouga013]

[periwinkle]

[lvasia]

periwinkle, would love to hear what you have to say, please pm or e-mail.

fredbob, i also thought of going to a conference, and i re-joined here in nov. some stories are so bad that i think koreans would be interested.

thanks for comments up til now. feel free to PM or e-mail.

K

[lvasia]

iwalkalone,

i would be interested in hearing your whole story.

K

[lvasia]

i'm not finished yet and i'd love to get PMs or responses from the people who have posted on this thread.

[lvasia]

i'd love to PM people myself but there is a rule here that you must have posted 25 times before you can PM anyone!

[lvasia]

if anyone's seeing this for the first time, i'd love to know what you think. keep the unkind stuff to a minimum, please ~~

[whatever]

Troll...

PM yourself.

[Young FRANKenstein]