Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Teddycakes21]

Hello,

A K-teacher at my school asked me to prepare something in writing that would go into next month's edition of the school newspaper. I told her that I would write about my experiences here. I was thinking that this would be the perfect opportunity to write about my feelings (good & bad). I definitely don't want to completely blast them, but I also don't want to kiss ass.

Side note: Today they bought pizza for all of the teachers, so I'm sure that they think they are so good to us. It's not exactly true. Tomorrow will be my 4th consecutive day without internet, heat, hot water, or electricity in my apartment. They are slow as hell whenever I ask for help with anything. As a matter of fact, I get the feeling that they think it's funny when I have a situation that is a burden to me. They also tried to delete my bonus from my contract.

I want to write about how stressful things have been here in my 18 months, but I don't want it to be the focus. I want to say that at times, life as a foreign-Englishee teacher in Korea can be quite frustrating and difficult, but that the good definitely outweighs the bad - that the feeling I get from teaching my language and culture makes this whole experience worthwhile.

That's the kind of route I want to take with this.

Is there anyone out there that would be willing to offer some advice or direction? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
=D

[Sincinnatislink]

You're nuts.
Good luck. I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

[shcforward]

Yeah, I wouldn't suggest mentioning anything bad in a school newspaper about your job unless you were planning on leaving it within the next day or two.

Even if they've done some ridiculous things, that is probably not the correct medium to speak about it.

If you are hellbent on doing it though, you should phrase the negative things as challenges, and make them vague enough that no specific people or the school itself are blamed. If you cause them to lose face in a newspaper article that the whole school will read...well...they'll hate you.

[dorian_gray]

[Tycho Brahe]

who is going to read this?

its just students, other teachers and management right?
you should probably write a puff peice. the last place you want to talk about your issues with management or other teachers is in front of the class. it will just make things worse.

that said maybe you could write about the more general problems concerning fitting in with korean society.

i would love to have the oppertunity to talk about the difference between koreans and europeans in regards privacy and individualism. It would be a huge writing challenge to try and simplify such ideas so they can be understood, but if its at all successful would help the kids learn something new ...

[Teddycakes21]

[vaticanhotline]

Why do you want to stir up trouble for yourself in that case? Listen to what the other posters are saying, don't start settling scores in the most public forum possible. That might play well in the West (and most often it doesn't, in my experience), but here, you'll get your ass kicked. No offence meant, but if you have any common sense, you'd know this by now.

If you do decide to go through with it, more power to you. But I wouldn't be rushing back anywhere (especially here, where you'll get flamed just as quickly as you can type boo) to complain that "my hagwon are jerks, they cancelled my bonus, airfare, blahblahblah, just because I etc. etc."

[Bog Roll]

They just won't print it mate, I know how you feel though - they need to be told but they will come out with some crappy face saving excuse on why your article was binned - thus wasting your time.

Refuse to write an article - I used to do that all the time. Sod them!

[Gillian57]

[Missihippi]

Not only do i have to write an "article" for the school's newspaper, i have to write the whole damn thing! It's a 10 page english newspaper with a dozen articles, kids games, pictures, words of the day, etc published 4 times a year. Yeah, i tried to get out of that one, but the teacher before me started it and they love it. Kill me. What a nightmare.

[Big Mac]

Teddy Cakes continues to amaze me. Go ahead and write the piece Teddy. It'll be great. It'll make the horrible job that you RE-SIGNED on to even more pleasant. Maybe they'll even offer you another contract with even worse conditions and make you go to church everyday.

[antoniothegreat]

OP, when you were in high school and college, did you EVER see a teacher publish something negative about the school?

Think about it.