Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PootyTang]

The answer is easy if you take it logically

Just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don't need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free

[william beckerson]

Man, if you give your notice, everyone wins. You get to go home, they get time to get a new teacher, and you dont get blacklisted should you ever decide to come back.

[lighthouse1971]

I agree with William Beckerson. By law they have to accept your notice. Besides, what can they really do to you that would make you any less happy, especially once you've seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Keep your self respect and take the high road.

[The Donkey]

Don't just bail man, thats weak. If they have been treating you well and living up to their part of the contract you owe it to them to let them know you want to bail out. Put yourself in your hagwon owner's shoes. If you had a business like that, and you treated someone well and followed the contract on your side you would expect them to do the same.
This place isnt for everyone. If you dont dig it move on, but do it the right way.

[dulouz]

Why don't you try some anti depression drugs? I don't know if its available over the counter and I certainly don't know the price but its worth looking into.

[stalinsdad]

I gave my notice in a month ago! I was told yesterday that I will have to stay another week or he will destroy my job prospects. If I were you I would put my notice in, and risk it. We really shouldn't go down to their level. I have been screwed, but I refuse to let it get me down. I will do next week and grin and bare it(as I have done for last month) If he chooses to break his word again, well I believe he'll pay somewhere, sometime for it, as we all will for our discreations!!

[Homer]

By your own admission your employer is treating you fairly. That being the case, isn't it the minimum to give your eomplyer notice instead of shafting him and your co-workers by running?
I think your opening statement anwsers your question.

[Boogie]

take a vacation - leave the country for 2 weeks- and when you come back then you can decide

[jajdude]

Thanks all for your replies... but please avoid assumptions when you don't know me and my experience so well. I had been in Korea several years before returning last September. Perhaps it was being away that made returning seem strange. Plus I may have been happier in Seoul with other foreign teachers at my hagwon. As it is now I guess I spend too much time alone, and have that "social phobia or anxiety" thing I guess. And I have been taking an antidepressant for years. Generally it has kept me afloat, but lately even that hasn't kept the blues completely at bay. I did not reveal all about me or my situation, so let's avoid guesses about one another, but I thank you all for the replies. You all know this place can be hard, like anywhere foreign, with culture shock or whatever. To me it seems the shock never dies.

[mysteriousdeltarays]

For the rest you.
NEVER JUDGE THIS GUY. He is a very good person.
Get ahold of me via old yahoo. You saved my life, for all it is worth. I'm back, in the boonies but not that far from you.
Your usual philosophical qustions. Hey! Answer your email. Like you I'm on a new one, but then again we have so many!
We haven't changed. Get ahold of me I have things that belong to you.
To the central star of a certain galaxy email me. The old one.
The boonies! What fun, Notice certain angles on this theme from me here!

[captain kirk]

i'd give notice. or stick it out, while trying new strategies to increase your pleasure in being here. you might get home and find you were having a good time underneath it all. at least vastly different/unaccustomed to where/who you were before, back home. my first contract at a hagwon i was an awful teacher, but i had no teaching experience! for the first five months i was a miser/hermit living on 300,000 a month and sending the rest home. then i went to the gym and perked up a bit, found the saunas and soaked in hot and cold, spent all my paycheck travelling korea on weekends which was why i came to korea. but the work situation and culture shock influenced me to freeze, until i snapped out of it. the friendliness of koreans hits me the longer i stay. i've been here six years. just tonite i was on the street at night looking for something that fell out of my pocket. this older korean gent at an outdoor coffee machine is getting himself a cup, sees me, and asks me if i want a coffee? the just-folks friendliness startles and snaps me out of a funk. then i feel more 'here'. good luck
d

[The Bobster]

I usually tell people to give notice within the terms of the contract, not because it's fair or ethical (such things are relative anywhere in the world, especially depending on how you've been treated) but mainly because it's smarter, better for you, and eliminates the feeling of being taken advantage of, which is probably why most people want to leave anyway.

I'm into my 5th contract right now, and out of the 5 I left 3 of them before the end, but I always got a better deal than if I'd have just split. MNRs get you nothing, but if you do it right, negotiating a release always gets you something, no matter how small. Two out of the three early releases I mentioned, I was able to get both my airfare and severance prorated according to how long I had stayed, plus a recommendation letter written to my own specs - in no sense was it required that my bosses do this, so why did they?

Well, I asked, basically. I had done good work for them in the past, so they had no hard feelings for me, and I offered things to them - the ability to make a smooth transition to the next teacher in one instance, and actually surfing Dave's Jobs Wanted Board and doing the work to recruit my replacement in another, saving them more in recruiting fees than they'd end up paying me.

Also, implied some small threats (never directly stated, of course) that would make their jobs harder if they didn't make me happy. Mentioned one or two irregular things about the way business was being done. Let them know that because of a class internet project, I had the email addresses of a lot of my middle school students. Subtly indicated that I might come on this board and let people know they are not nice people to work for, and that I would say bad things about them to other people every chance I got - this was a school that had already been slammed on Dave's a few months earlier, and I knew they were paying inexperienced new hires more than the rest of us because they weren't getting enough responses to their ads.

Oh, yeah, and that school had gone through about half a dozen MNRs since I'd signed on, so they were well acquainted with the hassles involved. People who do MNRs have no idea how well they are paving the way for people like me who have an inkling or two about how to negotiate in this culture.

All that's about leaving early in general, but jaj, if you're feeling sad and freaked out, there's no better therapy than getting the best deal for yourself.

Think about it.

[gajackson1]

OK, so the job end is OK, but you are there just a handful of hours a day. From your post, you said it is all the other stuff driving you crazy.

First, think about your off time. Is it good to spend time with the other foreigners? Some times, the right 'WRONG' group can make things even worse, if it is all just a big whine/pity party.

PC bang??? Computers new are cheap, as is internet. Used comps are ridiculously cheap.

There must be transpo where you are. Get thee onto a train or bus for the weekend and just get away. Plan a vacation for your off time.

5 months IS the 'crack-up' period - most people who come here hit the stage before the 6 month mark. But after that, most find that they can make it. And during winter to feel like this is no cakewalk, either.

I've been there & done that. Try your best, keep in touch, and if you feel you can't hack it, at least give them notice before you bail.

I'm pullin for ya . . .

G.

[gray]

Do whatever is going to make you happy. No one else is going to do it for you. Seven months is a long time to be miserable...life is short. Who knows, maybe you will start to feel better, maybe not. Don't feel like you have to say because you signed a one year contract - you had no way of knowing that you would feel so badly when you got here. Give notice, don't give notice.....whatever. If you know you can be happier somewhere else, then go. So your owner will have to find someone quickly to replace you.....happens all the time. People will cover your classes for a couple of weeks, make some overtime, and hopefully you'll been on beach somewhere, getting loaded and feeling great.

[mysteriousdeltarays]

I sent you an e-mail guy. I'd say stick it out but then again look at what a fool I have been. Nice to see you are still on line and that some of us care.
I think guided tours of my local in order!
I think in terms of Lock, and Load, I failed to mention that in my e-mail, but there is nothing like that sound of of the K2's being locked and loaded.
They have some sort of flood lights that don't conventionaly illuminate anything.

This guy is my friend of many years, take what he is saying seriously. He is very good guy, and I know what he is talking about.

To many of you it easy to be careless, to give reckless advice. I don't know. As you pointed out in your mail. I don't know. Look what fool they have made of me.
I think other people should think about their own positions. I'd say stay, but we know each other so well.

Hell if I could actually extract any money I'd go visit your family with you!

But a lot of what these guys are saying might be true. Life is short.
I know you have never been to Europe.

I have to laugh, you can probably kiss goodbye to ever going home after that. Maybe Eastern Europe. The Chzech Republic? No money but as you pointed out I'm old.

You can do whatever you want. What fun that would be. Meet some nice girl. That would be fun! No shit.

Meet you at Free Crocodiles tomorrow if you can make it, I'll probably get a cell phone here in a moment the same way I got the computer.