Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bcjinseoul]

My question is why everyone is so obsessed with bashing and name dropping a certain someone who works in the head office; whose initials "may or may not be JP" (as I've read and heard someone refer to him in some other post recently). I have problems with the school I'm at, but that's with a coteacher, and not with SMOE or any coordinator who I've seen in perosn maybe twice in my life. Maybe someone can shed some light. Guess it's easy to be hated if you have power...politicians have the same problem, right? Is it an envy thing or some kind of bandwagon thing? Just curious...

[pkang0202]

In my particular case, I was promised something by he who shall not be named, only to be shafted later. I taught elementary school, wanted to move up to middle or high school. JP told me to sign the renewal contract and I'll be placed later.

When later came, i'm told that in the entire metropolitan Seoul area, there wasn't a single opening for Middle or High school.

[hapigokelli]

It's a no-matter-how-polite-you-are-to-someone-they-still-treat-you-like-crap thing.

Or maybe it's a you-were-openly-lied-to-thing,

Or it could be a I-refuse-to-help-you-with-your-problem-because-i'm-so-god-awful-important-thing.

Personally, I asked for help with a problem. Multiple times. Before the problem arose, during the problem, after the problem. I was lied to, put off, yelled at, and told to "stop making trouble for everyone."

On the other hand, when my school found out about it, they were great and tried to help me.

[crisdean]

Can't say I've had any issues with SMOE or JP. JP (if it's who I think it is) was a nice enough guy the one time I meet him and couple of times I've talked to him on the phone, he seemed a bit stressed though. At the same time, I haven't really had any problems at my school, and it would have to be a serious problem for me to go to SMOE over it. There are times I wonder if people just make too big a deal out of the "problems" they have.

[sulperman]

A mistake was made by a certain man that cost me a great deal of money and caused me a great deal of inconvenience over the course of the year.

No effort was made to resolve the situation, despite my constant attempts to come to a reasonable compromise. I finally gave up.

I must be clear that this was something that was in no way my fault, and was completely a result of negligence on his part. It was handled in a way that I would not expect from a professional in an education office. I felt like I was being swindled and I ended up paying for someone else's incompetence.

[balzor]

Wait, so you mean that someone in an authority position in Korea told you something and it didn't work out that way? The first lesson you need to learn in Korea is to be flexible and be willing to accept change or else you're going to have a miserable time and you are gonna end up quitting or hating your life here. Second lesson, GET IT IN WRITING. while it is not the norm here, on something that is really important like a new job, you have to ask for something in writing or be prepared for something to get bungled up. Quit hating on people and learn that this is how things work here. Learn to play the game or go home. Personally, i can't remember all the times something has happened last minute, but I don't come here to complain or place blame.

[egrog1717]

To the OP...

The reason I personally refer to that certain person by their initials is because the last person I knew to openly name the person who shall not be named was called to SMOE HQ one day and reamed out by this person...

My friend posted something on their Facebook (which JP shouldn't have had access to, but was shown the comment from someone else) about how JP had openly lied to them... JP called my friend's school, and he was forced to go down one day after his classes were over to listen to JP rant and piss and moan about how he shouldn't be posting things like that...

As other posters have already shown, there's enough bad stories coming up about this person that I assure you we're not simply "hating the powers that be"...

[egrog1717]

[Fishead soup]

It's easy to bash these government run English programs. While most of the programs suffer from organisational dyselectia. On the other hand they do offer some of the most stable working conditions on the penisula.

[egrog1717]

[The Gipkik]

I've got nothing but good things to say about SMOE. Why? Because I've never had to deal with them. The first week orientation was a collegial and adolescent affair. I felt like I was back in high school again. This JP character treated the new batch of teachers with condescension and endless warnings about leaving the compound and drinking on the premises. Your job will be terminated and you will be sent home! A lot of this was probably justified by the previous year's teachers, but it just showed a horrible lack of social skills on JP's part. However, this is extremely minor and trivial. A lot of teachers found JP's arrogance and delusions of grandeur offputting, but again, I didn't care because I've never had to deal with JP or SMOE. JP does brag a lot. During his speeches he always managed to slip in something about how he was traveling first class this and most expensive that. Talk about a captive audience. Not a good impression of a cliquey Korean-American in Korea for first timers like myself, but it's all water under the bridge. As long as I don't have to deal with SMOE, I'm a happy camper.

[bcjinseoul]

I've got nothing negative to say either...seemed like a great guy when he interviewed me and hired me ages ago. SMOE has nothing to do with after school programs in Seoul, right? Those would be "independent" private-public schools, right?

[Seoul'n'Corea]

[Seoulio]

[Manuel_the_Bandito]

They promised 100 teachers jobs and then turned them down at the last minute after they had already made arrangements to come to Korea. That alone is enough to avoid ever applying to them.