Korean Job Discussion Forums

[knee-highs]

I wanted to do something pleasant for my students and also encourage a healthier relationship between the USA and Korea so I decided to give out American dollar bills to celebrate July 4. At my bank they merely had large bills so a friend suggested I go to Itaewon and change money there. I tried to locate someone who had one hundred American dollar bills but this one woman kept saying come back tomorrow, so I decided to have faith in her because she looked like she tacitly understood that I just wanted to be generous and grant my students a little American money so they could see that Americans are not so bad and we don�t want to force them to eat beef and all that other crap you hear about these days.

Anyhow I got the bills and handed them out to my students and fellow teachers on the fourth of July and we had a small party at the school and everyone was thanking me and saying how bighearted Americans are. And then yesterday the police came to my little school and said that one of my students had tried to deposit the dollar at a bank and that the dollar was counterfeit and now I am going to have ot go to the police station today and make a statement and probably will be charged with passing bogus currency even though I didn�t try to spend the money and just gave it away. The police inspected our school�s photocopier and made some copies and took them with them. Now, this morning, th eninth of July, I am at home trying to contact a lawyer who speaks enough English to go with me to the police station and help explain that I am not printing bogus money on my school�s photocopier. Happy fourth of july. What a mess.

[Ramen]

Sorry OP, but they're going to hang you high and dry.

Korea is anti-American and this is their chance to get back at you.

[spliff]

Troll? No one could but that thick...

[knee-highs]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Yikes - you were way the hell too generous. How many students do you have? Stingy Mr Yu's students all got Canadian pennies last year. They won't this year becuase last year they were all fighting over the shiney ones. Instead Mr Yu will see how many little Canada pins he can beg off the secretary at the MP's office.

At any rate, good luck with this. Have you contacted the US embassy? They may also be interested if someone's handing out fake currency in Itaewon.

[branchsnapper]

Let us all chant once again:

Do not go beyond the call of duty in the ROK.

Someone set up a lovely English club in their own time at my last job. They ended up in an institution (not because of the club, perhaps, but anyway, the cynical old ogres who worked there are all still going strong outside of mental care clinics).

(I tried to give a student Chinese money worth less than 1 cent as a prize a while back, but the co-teacher was having none of it.)

[ernie]

you have a COLOR copier at your school? man, that kicks ass!

[knee-highs]

[knee-highs]

now a potentially bigger mess...

i got to the police station and my lawyer was late, so when the police asked me if i wished to contact the US Embassy i said yes.

as it turns out, my lawyer did show upabout 40 minutes later and after a brief conversation with the police, he said that forgery of US bank notes is not a crime in Korea.

the kicker is, the Embassy called me and are sending out a US treasury agent to discuss the matter.... apparently it is a crime, even if it occurs outside the good ol' US of A...

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Jandar]

You should be fine seeing as you called them.

You need to find this ajumma you bought the note from get a picture and then maybe go back with the agent.

Were you able to collect all the dollars back from your students?

Oh, and by the way one of the biggest counterfeiters of US currency is the DPRK.

So depending on the quality you may think you are talking to a treasury agent, but it could be the company.

[Enrico Palazzo]

[mehamrick]

[quote="knee-highs"]now a potentially bigger mess...

i got to the police station and my lawyer was late, so when the police asked me if i wished to contact the US Embassy i said yes.

as it turns out, my lawyer did show upabout 40 minutes later and after a brief conversation with the police, he said that forgery of US bank notes is not a crime in Korea.

the kicker is, the Embassy called me and are sending out a US treasury agent to discuss the matter.... apparently it is a crime, even if it occurs outside the good ol' US of A...[/quote]

Did you miss the whole North Korean super note thing?

I wouldn't worry too much just tell them what you did and retrace your steps with them and it will be all good. I would probably if they haven't already done this collect the bills back from the rest of the students, and hand them over..

Note to others this is why you always get money exchanged at the bank.. I hope it works out for you..

[aarontendo]

First time I've heard of counterfeit one dollar bills heh.

[Jandar]

Yeah, now that you mention it.

I think maybe they won't send a company man.

I bet that ajumma is printin' up a bunch of centuries as we speak now.