Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

Why oh why do Koreans always wait until the last minute to do things? Case in point my apartment building.

In the summer of 2004 one of my neighbor's noticed that the ceiling of their apartment had some damage from water. They called the people that own the building, they sucked their teeth and did nothing.

Cut to winter 2006 my neighbor's apartment now has had parts of the ceiling fall down in two places in addition to water running down the walls in another two places. My apartment also had part of the ceiling fall in and the leak there now fills a bucket every 3 hours, plus a leak in my bathroom which has rendered it unusable (the leak is right above my toilet. And the apartment above us has water LEAKING UP from the floor.

It still took the powers that be TWO FREAKIN WEEKS to start working on the problem, after spending time looking at water coming through walls. So instead of fixing the problem back in summer 2004, they inflicted all this extra damage on the building plus extra stress on the tennants by waiting until things basically got completly out of hand before they did anything about it.

[Yo!Chingo]

You didn't have any property damage did you?

[kangnam mafioso]

it's called "saving face."

hurry up and wait, my little wae-gook female oddity.

[crazylemongirl]

[peppermint]

the leak over your fridge should have been fixed yesterday. The ones under my bathroom and air conditioner ( the guys haven't even seen that one yet!) are going to be the really fun ones.

[BigBlackEquus]

Oh, tell me about it. I signed on with my new school under the condition that I help search for the apartment. My new school wasn't looking, wasn't looking, wasn't looking, then suddenly I showed up for another reason and happened to ask about it. Guess what, "WE HAVE IT ALREADY!"

They showed it to me that day, and I thought it was OK at first (but small) and decided it was fine, as long as there was parking. Later that day, when I tried to fit my tiny car in the garage (matiz) it WOULD BARELY ENTER THE GARAGE! Who builds a garage on a 6% grade hill with a telephone pole partially blocking the entrance to the garage so that a MATIZ can barely enter?? One little slip on that steep hill, and I will slam into the pole. I will take a photo of it sometime and post it. It really is a stitch! Forget about taking the car out when it snows.

It was obvious that the girl searching gave the realtor the my specifications and picked the absolutely cheapest apartment closest to the school. I should have just said, "NO" from the onset, but had no idea about the parking situation. The whole apartment is barely 10 pyong anyway.

She is now taking an entire week to get me the phone number of the landlord. I want to make some adjustments to the place before I move in, and need to call. They refuse to do it on their dime, so I was considering doing it myself. The girl at the school has taken a full week to get me the phone number of the landlord. A FULL WEEK, despite being politely called or e-mailed 3 times since then. IT'S JUST A PHONE NUMBER! I want to get this taken care of soon, as I am very busy up until the point that I move in in a few weeks.

She has even e-mailed me back since then, telling me how she wants to make me as comfortable as possible, etc..... JUST GIVE ME THE NUMBER, PLEASE!

[Return Jones]

[BigBlackEquus]

[Incognito]

CLG,

I have learned in my short time here that...in order to get Koreans to act on anything, you have to put them in a crisis situation. Please let me give you a simplified dialogue of one such example:

March

Incognito: You told me that I would have access to a TV for my PowerPoint Presentations.

Director: We will purchase it ASAP!

April

Incognito: You told me that I would have access to a TV for my PowerPoint Presentations.

Director: We will purchase ASAP!

May

Incognito: You told me that I would have access to a TV for my PowerPoint Presentations.

Director: We will purchase ASAP!

June

Incognito: You told me that I would have access to a TV for my PowerPoint Presentations.

Director: We will purchase ASAP!

July

Incognito: You told me that I would have access to a TV for my PowerPoint Presentations. I resign. (Handing them my resignation letter.)

The next day a Big Screen TV magically appeared in my room.

From that point on, If I needed/wanted something done, I just cut to the chase. Example:

September

Incognito: You are letting the kids get WAY out of hand!!! It is your responsibility as the Korean teacher to take care of bad behavior.

Korean Teacher: It is not in my nature to disipline kids.

Incognito: Okay. If you don't take control, I will stop teaching your classes.

The next day, the Korean teacher (who in this case was my director) brought a love stick to class and commenced smacking the kids with it!

[crazylemongirl]