Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tmax500]

I'm in a work situation I'd like to hear some opinions on. Our school is very small and the students numbers are dwindling, putting pressure on the long term viability of the hagwon. The manager runs a very busy 2nd business at the same location (in the next office).

I'm fairly new to the hagwon and work with 2 Korean girls, and until recently with a foreign bilingual co-teacher /supervisor. One of the Korean girls is a single older girl whose English is sometimes not easily understood. The younger one has better English and used to be friendly to me. One Friday this younger girl had a big argument with the foreigner supervisor (about the choice of a new textbook) and the supervisor (who had an enormous workload) quit the following Monday .. citing personal reasons for leaving the country (after many years in Korea). This same Korean girl has become distant to me and the only communication with her now is "hi" and "bye" even though she sits 1 meter from me. Same with the other Korean teacher (although this is nothing new with her). They chat to each other regularly in Korean. A receptionist also quit prior to that and the replacement is friendly at least.

I did have an argument with the younger girl (she accused me of not caring about the girl who quit as I didn't comment - I got on well with her; also she gave me the wrong information about an upcoming vacation period and then denied it). I'm a reasonable person and only argue (minimally) in defense. The computers are old and despite their frequent requests for upgrades, it was rebutted. My computer was the worst and the boss bought a new one - perhaps this antagonized them. The students like me and enjoyed my summer classes - they said they couldn't wait for my class to the younger co-teacher.

So I work in a small office with 2 girls who only say hi and bye - it's weird and disconcerting. I mentioned this to the boss but now their hi's and bye's are just a little more pronounced. I am an open-minded, friendly and talkative person, and am at a loss regarding how to deal with this.

PS. I read some of this: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=228619&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
but it didn't give me any insight really

[nora]

talk to her about it.

duh.

seriously, get one on one and tell her what you're feeling - that she's acting distant, not talking with you. ask if you've done anything that has upset her. if you have, apologize for it and work it out.

it's the same as if you were an adult and talking to another adult.

yes, that sounds rude, but there is no trick to talking to a korean human like any other human, other than don't call her out in front of other people and be more deferential/beating around the bush.

if it doesn't work, then it's probably on her - she's got some problem that you can't do anything about and there's not much you can do.

[Speck7]

lol at this stupid high school drama. Seriously, who cares. Go to work and get paid. Forget about your co-workers or trying to make them like you again.

[IPayInCash]

[Ibsen]

From your post, it almost sounds like you were in a budding relationship or had a thing for one of these girls. They don't talk to you anymore or are being mean to you. Who cares, it's their problem and their loss in the end... You told on them to your boss that they were being mean to you and your boss had to talk to them about it. I'm sure that didn't score any points with them either...

Honestly though, don't get too worked up about this... They are your co-workers, not your friends. Sure it sucks that you don't get along well with people you have to spend 8+ hours with every day, but you got work to do too. I'm sure you have friends and other things to worry about outside of your workplace. My last job was just like that. Had 2 older female coworkers who never talked to me, not even a hi or bye, but were super friendly with each other, speaking in Korean, sometimes even talking about me in Korean assuming I didn't understand. Whenever I asked a question or tried to spark up a conversation, they gave me attitude... so I stopped talking. And that was that, I did my work and got paid. When they DID talk to me I smiled and responded accordingly, but never went above and beyond to do anything for them either. When they needed a favor, I was always "too busy". When they were sick and needed someone to cover a class I was again "too busy". Once I left that job, I never spoke to or saw those two women again.

[tmax500]

[ontheway]

[dairyairy]

In a Korean workplace there may be drinking buddies and shopping friends but usually things seldom go beyond being co-workers. There's almost always a distance. Find friends outside of work.

[tmax500]

[Weigookin74]

Some Koreans have this weird jealousy aspect to them. Guess that's all I can say. Screw em'. Go to work and do your thing. Ignore them if they want to be pissy.