Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

This stretches over 2 years and a bit, and just wondering if this is a common thing, or something I had to deal with just cuz my supervisor was messed up.

Upon first arriving in Korea I found it odd that my Korean co-workers were so quiet and seemed to pretty much ignore me for the first 3 months. I figured it was just them being shy but eventually learned from other Western teachers that the Korean teachers were discouraged from socializing with us.

I eventually called out my supervisor on this (oddly, she loved to socialize and flirt with us). She shrugged it off and said that the Koreans were free to socialize with us.

As time went on the Koreans became more friendly, and definitely more flirtatious with me. They would come out on the weekends, but under the strict understanding that I would not tell Janet(supervisor). Fun, but annoying.

My second year under this system (don't ask me why I went back to the same hagwon) I started dating one of the Korean teachers. In fact, over my two years there, we were 1 of 4 different couples that Janet didn't know about. Things got really annoying/funny at this point.

First, I learned so much about the b.s. going on. Every meeting Janet had with the Korean teachers were, according to my girlfriend, a foreigner-bashing event. "They're so lazy ... we can't get them to do this ... they don't know how to teach..." Funy stuff considering every time the Western teachers had a meeting with Janet she told us how lazy the Koreans were and how bad they're English was and that it was up to us to save the school.

The second thing, that actually pissed me off for a bit, was when suspicions were growing about some of the couples, two of the Korean teachers were called in to a meeting and told that they shouldn't waste their time with us, that the Gyopo at our school was the only one worth dating, and that if they kept going out with us they would be fired.

So, after that long story, I'm wondering ... is this office-politics b.s. common? Any of you have stories like this, or did it just happen to us because of our supervisor?

[Cthulhu]

Sounds like a crappy supervisor--it happens sometimes. It could be due to a power trip some supervisors get on when they think their job is to be the moral guardians of the teachers regardless of the age of said teachers. They're not all like that, but it definitely happens. Depending on how much you like your job, you and the other foreigners might want to have a private chat with Janet to air things out; she's been caught in a lie so you should be able to lay into her over it. Otherwise you will have to put up with a poisonous work environment.

[squat toilet]

I have no comment on the office politics you mentioned, but even in North America, office dating/romances are often forbidden and rightfully so.

If/when i become my own boss i'll only be hiring eunuchs and herpes ridden geriatrics with hysterectomies.

[dogbert]

[squat toilet]

[eamo]

[manlyboy]

Having switched from a hagwon to a public school, I've found the social politics to be much more important here. In hagwons, as long as I did my job and kept my mouth shut, socializing with Korean co-workers was no big deal either way. But here, the social politics can make or break you. Socializing with the Korean co-workers is practically insisted upon, and if you don't do it enough, you're literally jeopardizing your job regardless of how good you may be at it.

[thorin]

My first contract here actually forbade such relationships. Things loosened up a bit after the director married the secretary.

[Gwangjuboy]