Korean Job Discussion Forums

[venus]

This is a bit late actually. It only occured to me just now to post a warning.

Okay. I got a p-t job from englishspectrum.com. It was working at the Seoul Public Prosecutors Office in Seucho-Gu, near Gangnam. The recruiter knew I was working without permission from my School Pincipal.

The guy you should NEVER work for calls himself J.C.

He is a recruiter who got me the job, I replied to his ad on e.spectrum.

He gets people work at the Seoul Public Prosecutors Office, the Korean Herald and other reputable companies like those.

He is a dogy b*astard though and rips you off.

I first started feeling wary when I met him. He's a very bombastic, fast talking guy who tries so hard to impress you and tell you how great the jobs are and how great and supportive he is, that he sounds like a conman. I used to work in Sales for a few years, so it takes one to know one...

Anyway, three weeks into the job at the pros office, I heard from one of my students - 'be careful about J.C. Please don't say I said anything.'

I then started enquiring about who the previous teacher was and how long they had been there and it turned out that they had had a few teachers before me each one only staying there for two or three months.

Well, pay day came along and after a bit of badgering by me, I was paid by J.C in cash in full.

Next month however after I had emailed him with my bank details as requested I had no reply. This was a week before payday, so no sweat. I emailed the details again and very explicity spelled out why I was sending them and for him to email me back confirming reciept of my bank details and the ammount I was owed. Two days later and many calls and text messages - still no reply.

So on pay day, he is supposed to meet me after my lesson and never turns up. I mention this to the students and they all look kind of sheepish. One of them tells me that the last teacher had the same problem.

So, I call JC all weekend asking for my money and he says it will be paid into my bank account on monday. Sure enough, it isn't and by thursday I'm really p'd off. I refuse to go into the office and work until I get paid. I hear no more from JC. So I call up the woman who works at the pros office and arranges the English Teacher's schedules and complain to her that my salary is a week or so late and I don't hear from J.C anymore and I want my money. She makes up some excuse about having been transfered to another building, so it's nothing to do with her anymore.

Next day I get a call, asking me to go and teach the class from one of the students. I get there and I tell them my situation and explain why I will not teach them until I get paid as I am now five weeks in arrears.

They actually have the arrogance and disrespect (and this says a lot about how Koreans can pay you lip-service here as long as you're useful to them and then turn the other cheek when you're not)

"Well, it doesn't effect us if you don't get your money. We need to go through J.C as we get cheaper classes because he helps us write the money off as a tax expense. So as long as we have a teacher it is good for us, it doesn't matter who the teacher is and what happens with the teacher. We are sorry, but there is nothing we can do'

These are people who for 9 weeks acted like my friends and constantly wanted me to eat with them at the staff canteen etc and go out for drinks. They were using me for 'extra Englishee' no doubt.

Anyway. No way I was going to take this lying down so the next day I called 'Julie' the woman who manages the teacher's schedules and told her I knew she was lying and that I can see that they get a new teacher every few months, have them work for two or three months, only pay them for one or two months and then split the profits. I said to her

"Look you better tell JC that if I don't get paid TODAY, I'm coming to your building with my Korean friend and we are going to ask to speak to the Director in charge of the Prosecutors Office and explain my situation."

An hour later I get a text from J.C, whose cell phone now seems to be working again saying to check my bank account.

Sure enough the payment is there in full, to the last won. I'm then called later on by another student (the punk J.C. couldn't even tell me himself)
that they will be getting another teacher. This is despite them saying (and I'm no idiot, I've been here three years and know if my classes are good or not) they like me and they like my teaching methods.

Morals of the story.

1. Do NOT wokr for this J.C. guy. He's about 5 foot 10, quite well built and wears flashy black suits. He drives a white Hyundai and as I said, he advertises on engspectrum.

2. If you get conned - always show that you are willing to cause a lot of sh*t if you don't get paid what you are owed. Otherwise, you'll be ignored as they know you have no balls.

3. Don't take relationships with students too seriously, no matter how nice they act. They are just putting on their Western person mask, acting like a Westerner for when they use English. This is just a role-play to them, not a meaningful relationship to most of them. I'm sure there are exeptions to this rule and I know of expetions myself, but the point is - be WARY. Luckilly I have plenty of other friends, so it didn't matter too much to me, but I did feel insulted and kind of 'anti-Korea' for a week or so.

Apologies if there is a thread for these blacklisting post elswhere and I haven't noticed.

[rawiri]

That's insane, working illegally you may expect to get ripped off a bit but not if you are working for the prosecutors office!
My friend was in the same position as you. I randomly bumped into a korean guy in a bar i had met in a backpackers hostel in australia. He hooked my buddy up with a 1 000 000 a month private, payment to commence at the end of the first month. The real story was that it was 1.3 a month and the payment was suppose to be in advance. Shifty bastards.

[mehamrick]

All I have to say is you have LARGE ca hones...(sp.) To one work illegally and two work illegally with the people that could fine you and put you in jail/kick you out of the country for doing it...

props to you man...

[goodgood]

Yeah, sounds like you like living dangerously....

I don't know if I would post bad things about a guy who helped you do something illegal. Can't you see this coming back to you somehow?

[BigBuds]

We can't actually tell if the OP was working illegally. If he/she is on an F-2 visa, then, it's not illegal. If he/she is on an E-2 visa, then, yes it's illegal.

What visa do you have OP?

[goodgood]

[Young FRANKenstein]

Recruiters are not supposed to pay you in the first place. If one ever had that arrangement with me, I would know something was up. Working the corporate classes, it's money up front or I walk, for reasons outlined in the OP's post.

[DCJames]

[venus]

[wylies99]

Thanks for the warning.