Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Igen_Weir]

What is the best (or worse) totally true Koran ESL Legend you have ever heard. You know, BS stories or claims that maybe true but you doubt it.

Lets hear the great whoppers, the most outrageous fictionializations, you know the "Oh come ons"of Korean ESL ...

This should be fun.

[posco's trumpet]

[The King of Kwangju]

Igen - I guess this is a spin-off of our other thread?

Unless things have changed since I've been in Korea, you don't need to make this stuff up...

Hairstyling diploma? That's nothing.

I met 2 teenagers who came to KJ illegally to teach - they hadn't even finished high school. They met a desperate hakwan director who needed teachers fast so he wrangled 2 "honorary" Degrees of Oriental Medicine from an old school chum of his. He sent the kids to Japan and they came back as legal as Kim Dae Jung.

The strange part? They were identical twins.

[PootyTang]

Best true story?

Guy is an officer in the Army, gets out and moves in w/girlfriend starts teaching English and in the process, because of a drunk roomate and some blood from a flesh wound - he winds up being shot and half paralyzed without insurance in Korea. Sad story. Don't know the outcome....

[Rand Al Thor]

People die from fan death every summer...

[mack the knife]

hogwon boss installs hidden video camera in teacher's apartment. teacher has a reputation for showing up for work late, drunk and/or under the influence of questionable substances.

camera catches aforementioned teacher smoking questionable substance. teacher is fired. can't complain to immigration because, well, look what he was doing...

some of you may remember this from the old board...

[Squaffy]

Gets the paranoia heart rate pumping though eh? Search that appt.

[Harvard Material]

Hey Mack...do you remember the school name? Was it posted? I do recall a similar story on the old forum, but I can't remember the name of the school.

When was it, and who was it? That's interesting!! WOW!

[Dan]

this guy comes into work punch drunk every day for a week. late, doesn't show up at all, whatever. repeated warnings are ignored. his girlfriend is living with him in his apartment and they are even caught making out in the school.

after all this he says he has to go back home for a month for family reasons.

so what does the school do? they transfer him to a different school

christ the things you can get away with in korea if you're white...

[mack the knife]

i'll go ahead and name the school in question, since i worked there once upon a time and it was such a piece of sh*t....

drum roll please...




dadadadadaddadadadadadadadadadadadaddadadadadadadadadadadadda





the name of the hogwon is...




S...L...P>>>in>>>N...O...W...O...N

[Igen_Weir]

Igen's Theory:

The amount in hundreds of thousands of won that a person exaggerates they are making is equal to the increased chance they will get screwed by their hakwon times 10, as a precentage.

So if someone makes 2 000 000 won / month but claims to make 2 200 000, they will have a 20% greater chance of getting screwed.

This theory is based on the number of people I have met who claim to make far more then average, yet, they seem to always have to leave in a hurry because they were screwed by their Hakwon.

(This is a theory in progress and jest.)

Igen's Law:

The number of people that know about your private classes does not increase you change of getting caught but does increase the difficultly of figuring out who turned you in.

ESL Totally True Urban Legend: I new this guy, see, who was raking in the dough, teaching privates, and was fired by his evil boss.

See his evil boss took expection to the fact that the guy in question was working for his competitor, across the street, and was missing his classes to teach the classes at the second hakwon.

The original director found out when he saw the missing teacher smoking on the roof across the street during his breaktimes.

The guy was caught, but, got off because he told immigration that the original hakwon told him to go across the street and teach.

The final nail in the coffin for the poor teacher was when the second hakwon owner, to cover the teacher's lie, gave his salary to the first hakwon owner, who paid the teacher only one months pay, and then fired him.

The teacher then proceeded to go on a bender tell everyone who would listen about how he was cheated, blacklisted both schools, and finally went to Tailand.

[IconsFanatic]

Soju and/or Hite beer contains formaldehyde.

[The King of Kwangju]

If you want to talk of true urban legends, I always found the "fear of immigration" type fascinating.

Privates being illegal yet so prevalent, it ends up creating a culture of fear amongst wayguks. If I were to believe all the stories I'd heard, you'd think immigration was craftier than the CIA and twice as diabolical.

One I always wondered about was how immigration was paying apt ajosshi's 1,000,000 won for turning in foreigners. Supposedly, if you went to an apt at the same time on the same day for a few weeks, you were suspect. And then what? The cops burst into the apt and seized your Side By Side?

I never knew of anyone being caught this way, but I heard the story plenty of times.

Any (firsthand) truth to it?

[Pyongshin Sangja]

I knew a guy that was marrying Thai women in exchange for Korean permanent residency visas. I think he got $10,000 a head or something. I don't know how many he got away with. Rock on.

[vlcupper]