Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kermo]

I pride myself on being a mellow, resourceful and relatively unflappable person in the face of adversity. I've consciously tried to develop this "que sera sera" attitude wherever I am, no matter who I am dealing with.

I seem to have lost the knack, however, and I worry that I'm becoming more and more likely to freak out. The culprit is Korean bureaucracy. I just never know what to expect-- what rule someone will invent, what roadblock will suddenly spring up. The language barrier is also really really tough. I've taught myself to cope well in restaurants, most businesses, taxies, classrooms, etc., but I just don't know the bank lingo, and I can't express myself too fluently in the first place. It doesn't help that nobody even tries to understand (my Korean or my English.) They just say "ok, ok" and jump to conclusions despite my frantic explanations.

Today at the bank, I wanted to make a wire transfer, so I was handed number 3008. I sat in a near-empty bank for 45 minutes while tellers sat idly at their desks, apparently waiting for the next 1000- or 2000-something customer. I finally gave up and picked up a number in the thousands. I was in line behind three people, and everyone I arrived with was long gone. My number finally came up.... and a woman jumped in line in front of me, apparently with the blessing of the teller. After she finished her business, I waved my number and tried to explain that even though she was ringing for number 1025, I was 1024, but my particular transaction wasn't one that the teller wanted to do, so she pointed me toward another desk, where I had to wait again. I literally bit my tongue in frustration, and struggled to keep my exasperated body language under control.

The teller responsible for wire transfers drives me crazy. He natters at me in Korean at TOP SPEED, never slowing down despite my protests (in both Korean and English.) Sometimes he'll repeat a word, like "ande, ande, ande," which is less than helpful.

Today, the only way I could deal with him is to calmly say in English "I don't know what that means" or "I have no idea what you're talking about," so at least I didn't feel like a tool using my halting Korean. When he tried to tell me that I couldn't transfer money to my own account in Canada (which I've been doing regularly, of course, for the last two years) I just had to laugh. I decided to find it hilarious instead of maddening, and it felt good just to say in English "That's ridiculous. I've always done that," even though I knew he couldn't understand.

I've always hoped that as I grew older, I would become more intelligent, more knowledgeable, kinder, more patient, sweeter, etc. I'm dismayed to see the way the language barrier and bureaucracy can chase my poise and long-suffering right out the door.

I still firmly believe that you catch more flies with honey, and I'd be ashamed of myself if I lost my temper in front of anyone over something like paperwork. I'm not under any undue stress-- just had a terrific vacation in fact, and my work schedule is far from punishing. So what's the deal?

Will I get crabbier as I get older? Do you have any recommendations for fighting the rage?

[Demophobe]

I'm not sure it's age. Sounds like you just need a little break. Have any holiday time coming up? Go somewhere nice and pamper yourself for a while.

화이팅!

[skinhead]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Julius]

[Grimalkin]

kermo wrote

[Qinella]

Yeah I feel ya sister. I was thinking the other day myself about how the bureaucracy here drives me bananas. I went to sign up at the local public swimming pool so that I could swim in the mornings before work. By morning, I mean like 11 or noon. So I ask for an application form and am told that it's all full for the month. They can't handle a single other swimmer. I found that bizarre, but once they told me the rest, I understood.

The swimming pool is segregated and divided up based on sex and desired activity. For a man who wants "free swimming", the only time he may come is between 8 and 9 am, or 9 and 10 pm. For a woman who wants free swimming, there are other available blocks. The rest of the blocks are divided into "fitness swimming" and other nonsense, all separated by sex, of course. So I can't even use the gd swimming pool unless I want to wake up at 7 am.

The best part was when I asked why. "Man this time, Woman this time." That's the only explanation. Pretty much sums it up.

Chops me off, it does.

[RACETRAITOR]

My favourite bank encounter (reconstructed from memory and not faithful to the original):

Me (before): How do I pay my Internet bill?
My woman: Just give it to the teller and give them your money.

Me: Hi, I'd like to pay my Internet bill.
(I hand the bill to the tellers)
(they look at it a bit)
(I hand them my bank card)
(they look at it a bit)
(I hand them my waeg card)
(they look at it a bit)
(I hand them my passport)
(they look at it a bit)
Security guard, the only one who could speak English: You can't pay this bill.
Me (hands full of IDs): Why not?
Security guard: We don't think it's your bill.
(I try to point out my name on the bill, and on the various IDs I have.)

So I give the bill to my woman so she can do it. She goes to the bank, hands them the bill in my name. They take her money and process the payment, no questions asked.

[LateBloomer]

There must be something in the air this week. I thought I was just ahead of schedule for culture shock and the end of the "honeymoon" period.

After a couple of days of frustrating situations because of the language barrier, I had a meeting with my new co-teacher and a couple of teachers from my school yesterday. It soon became clear that they want me to teach "by the book" Korean style .....but with better pronunciation. I tried to explain that since the teachers' book is written in Korean and less than great English, it is difficult for me follow the book exactly. I also tryed to explain that the students would not get the full benefit of my being there if I teach that way.

After hearing ridiculous reasons about why "it must be so" I told them not to send me on any more training sessions or to view demo lessons on co-teaching if they weren't open to trying the suggested models. I also asked them whether they wanted me to throw away the teaching guidelines suggested by the Office of Education....since they obviously don't agree with them and don't want me to follow them. I asked the question very nicely and seriously. They didn't know how to respond.

[Imbroglio]

Hello English teacher girl. You take Korean friend with you next time, everything ok. You understand? No go alone, this way is no good if you no Korean, you mustu have helpu. Have a good time!

[mindmetoo]

You really do get more cranky as you get older.

[SPINOZA]

I've had remarkably few bad experiences in banks. Generally bank staff at KB (and I've been to numerous branches, in and out of Seoul) are extremely good. One generalization - possibly applicable to the whole of Korea - is that you're likely to have better experiences with women. I've got 6 co-teachers, 5 women and 1 male, and guess who the biggest, the only, pain in the arse is!

One experience sticks out like a sore thumb however. First time I ever wired money home, the guy was brilliantly helpful and friendly, spoke a bit of English, and concluded by saying he'd be happy to perform all my future transactions - basically, go to him every time, no matter what.

So, I go again to wire money a few months later and go to the same chap. This time, he was an absolutely rude, impatient tw*t - I mean disgraceful. Very Jeckyl and Hyde figure. Never went back and in the branch I always use now the (women) staff are superb - a bit nervous about making a mistake, almost too, embarrassingly nice. Funny little country this, isn't it?

[Woland]

You have my complete sympathies, Kermo. I find banking practices here just beyond bizarrre. I have had the same experience with the numbers, with people cutting the line. I get along well enough with my bit of Korean to do what I want to do there and have generally found the guys working aat my bank try to be helpful.

But what really frustrates me are the eternities spent waiting in line there. Dear *Beep*ing god, can any system be so inefficient? How can it take 15 to 20 minutes per customer to resolve everything?

I would like to see one bank here do what Garanti Bankasi does in Turkey in its efforts to serve the expat community. It is policy of Garanti that in every branch office everywhere in Turkey, there will be at least one manager who speaks English on duty at all times. My experience was that this promise was met (though I generally didn't need it and could do most of my banking in Turkish). On top of that, I could use internet banking in English to transfer money to my account in the US, so I didn't even have to go to the bank for that. I would love to be able to do that here.

The laws put in place to control bank activity after the crisis, it seems to me, are not working if this situation is the result.

[Dan The Chainsawman]

[Lizara]

I've always had good experiences with customer service at the banks here... I mean, at my second bank the clerks mostly didn't know how to wire money, which was a bit disconcerting and led to a lot of frustration while I waited for them to do it over and over and over again, but generally I haven't dreaded going to the bank and I've always been treated well and given lots of free gifts and -mnidas.

Pharmacies, though. Once upon a time... and i feel like Grandma because I've told this story, or shorter versions, a few times on here already... I tried to get some insulin because, you know, I kinda need it or bad things happen. It took longer to find a doctor than I'd thought, so I was pretty close to running out of insulin by the time I got the prescription... and then I took it home to discover that very few pharmacies carry it. I went into pharmacy after pharmacy, handed over my piece of paper, and got puzzled frowns and stares and things said grumpily in Korean. Okay, you don't carry it, fine, but it was annoying that literally *every* pharmacy was so rude about it. Yeah, going into a place that sells medicine looking for medicine, whatever was I thinking? grrr. I tried to call the clinic to ask about pharmacy locations and they were just as rude, and I was getting quite low on supplies and increasingly distressed.... and when I finally found a pharmacy that had what I wanted, I found out the prescription had been written such that I only got enough insulin for about two weeks.

(A little less than two weeks later...)

I went back for a second prescription, took it to the pharmacy which I now knew sold insulin, and was told that it was completely wrong and couldn't even be filled. I ended up going without insulin for a night and then to the emergency room in the morning because it was the only way I could find to get any insulin at all... and then nobody there spoke much English and I had to try very hard to talk them out of making me stay at the hospital for a few days to get my blood sugar down because it was so high. I finally communicated my wish and got a prescription for enough insulin to last until my parents could send over some more supplies. I've been getting it from Canada ever since, even though it's much more expensive, because it's just not worth the hassle of trying to get it here.