Korean Job Discussion Forums

[annababy]

Today the problem is that I don't smile enough. Yesterday it was the way I made my check marks. Am I the only one?


Seems I can't do anything right here. Just want to know if I am the only one who feels this way. Thanks.

[TheUrbanMyth]

You work at a hakwon (hogwon) right? Just ignore them. Typicial Korean hakwon management. They like to keep the foreigner on his or her toes with stupid little complaints like that. Just smile and say "OK" and keep right on doing what you are doing.

[VanIslander]

I could do nothing wrong for over three years at my last hagwon, I mean nothing, even when I yelled at students or sent one into the hall (not often, rare, but still happens), it was like I was surrounded with a goodness halo, and the feeling was wonderful. (until I got a nagging illness and suddenly couldn't come to work, then suddenly their concern over me missing a day here, two days there, another day here, over the course of three months, became a "we need to deal with this or else" kind of talk, despite my doctor-documented illness and three years of never missing a shift or ever being late!)

Now I'm at a new hagwon in another town and it's like I can do nothing quite right, according to the director's wife, the other English teacher who's negative about most things in general anyways and will have a permanent scowl on her face by midforties I think. She makes little comments, not outward bold criticisms, but that's just semantics.

I know how you feel, and believe it isn't universal. I'm not re-signing here and I recommend you do likewise. Stop trying or caring what the director or other teachers think. I've taken that route and while not ideal, it works!

[Grotto]

When confronted with hogwan management stupidity its always fun to ask a few questions like:

Could you be more specific?

Can you give me an example?

Could you show me?

Someone complained lets get em in here so I can find out how to make it better!(never happened ....the complaint seemed to vanish)

I found laughing in their face seemed to work...I mean CHECKMARKS .......get stuffed!

If you feel their comments have substance then take them seriously...if you feel they are just yanking your chain....ignore them!

[PaperTiger]

Seriously, are you really going to go there? God if you're going to scoff at Alabamaman for going to an oscure backwoods tarpaper shack uni then you'll have to have a go at all these Canadians who went to equally obscure insititutions in their neighbor's fruit cellar.

That's not typical, that woman is just exceptionally evil...she will probably be a throbbing dry-socket for the duration of your employment, gradually getting worse and worse as time goes by. However, this might be her way of letting you know she doesn't like you and plans on firing you...things could be looking up for you.

[DCJames]

The critisizm might just be a way of controlling you. Koreans try to make it seem like you owe them for your incompetence. This is just a way of getting leverage over you.

The way to get even or control them is to make them feel incompetent. Use their sense of shame against them.

[annababy]

Thanks for your support everyone. Good to know I am not alone in this. The person who tells me all this stuff is actually not Korean but American. He is crazy anal about everything and doesn't seem to hear anything I say (the other teacher feels the same way). He tells me to make lesson plan sheets and I do, then he changes them and hands them to me five minutes before class. Why not just do them yourself? I love my life here in Korea now except for the school I work at. I have been here two months and have really settled in. I guess I will just try to ignore it... worst case they fire me right? Oh well such is life right. Did I forget to mention the split shift overtime which is not in my contract. =( Thanks!

[Ya-ta Boy]

annababy,

The guy is trying to help, but is screwing it up. Tell him if he has CONSTRUCTIVE changes to make in your lesson plans, then he needs to give you that feedback in time for you to make use of it. The way he is doing it now, he is only adding to your stress. As for the smiling etc....who knows?

You need to understand that a fair proportion of the waygook sarams here are social deviates who don't have a clue. He may be one of them.

If you feel he genuinely has something positive to offer, ask to meet him outside work for a long discussion. Glean the useful input he has and then try to incorporate it. If he's just a flake who is jerking you around, be upfront about telling him to STFU and leave you to your job.

[Buff]

You should ask for checkmark making lessons....

But seriously, unless you feel that it's a legitimate complaint, smile and nod. A former director of mine would find a whipping boy and make his/her life miserable until they left and then pull the "poor me" routine. She went through three teachers in the year that I worked there (each filled the previous one's position as the whipping boy).

[ontheway]

The "smiling" problem is serious here in Korea. Sorry for your problem, but it's a fact. If you sit in class with a grumpy face, the kids feel unhappy, threatened, unappreciated, scared. Smiling is a basic element of politeness in Korea. Many teachers in Korea have been fired and sent back home after only a few months for not smiling. It's because the students and parents first complain, then the kids stop studying, then stop coming, then quit. The school gets a bad reputation. You will drive out the students and the school will fail.

If you like kids you should be able to manage a smile.

[Sody]

[JeonjuMichael]

[jacl]

Ah. It's annoying. Perfect opportunity for you to say, "When you start paying my pension and taxes, I'll start smiling."

When a boss tells you to smile, does it really make you want to smile? Yuck.

And, I'm sorry for your misfortune of having a foreign idiot-boss. Lesson plans? Barf.

[Cerriowen]

I got that too. Everything I did was wrong. When I'd ask them for more information, how I could do it better, what they'd rather me do instead etc... the complaints suddenly fizzled in to nothing.

When I broke the contract, made a point of going on and on for a long time about what a horrible worker I was and how my efforts were sub-standard etc.

I was really confused at the time. I just nodded and said "OK". So she repeated it again. I finally said "So? What's your point?" She said she just thought I should know.

I figured out later that she was trying to shame me.