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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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 Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:16 pm Post subject: Been homeless for almost a week; should I worry? |
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My old contract ended (prematurely) last Tuesday. I was told by my recruiter that I have a new job lined up in an Anseong public school. Before I quit, my recruiter told me that I would "hopefully" start my new job on Wednesday. However, on Wednesday morning, he told me to pack my things and store them in his office--- there'd been a delay on immi sending some needed letter of approval to my school, and that the letter would come on Friday or Monday. I call him Friday and he says to rendevous with him "some time during Monday". I ask him when, he says he's not sure, but that the letter should arrive sometime during the day on Monday. I call him today. He says "Letter will arrive today. So show up first thing tomorrow morning, I drive you down to school."
I think it would be irresponsible of me NOT to worry, but how much SHOULD I worry? My recruiter has an otherwise good reputation and fought on my behalf when my last school attempted to withhold the LOR and my last paycheck. I don't see any ulterior motive for him knowingly screwing me on this. And for the time being, I'm not losing too much cash staying in jjimjilbangs. But what IS going on? Is this the "Korean way", or is something more ominous at platy here? What should I do if he stalls again tomorrow morning? Should I also worry that I haven't spoken directly to any rep of the actual school yet? |
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seoulsucker
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: The Land of the Hesitant Cutoff
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:24 pm Post subject: Re: Been homeless for almost a week; should I worry? |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
| Is this the "Korean way", or is somethign more ominous at platy here? What shoudl I do if he stlals agian tomorrow morning? Should I also worry that i haven't spoken directly to any rep of the actual school yet? |
Uh...I would add a dash of worry to whatever is running through your head right now.
A few questions, though. Did you visit the school before you signed? Did you check out your new housing? Your office? Your coworkers?
Is this the same guy who placed you at your first job? |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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| There was a homeless Canadian who used to drink at the Three Alley pub in Iteawon. He used to always ask Gunter if he could crash in the pub. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:38 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd be concerned too. Unless I'm reading this wrong it appears that you haven't met anyone from your school or even visited the school itself. Why would a school enter into a contract with somebody they've never met before? In this situation why would you for that matter? I know this is Korea but it seems odd. Are they entrusting the recruiter with the entire recruitment process? If you applied from your home country this would make more sense but you've evidently applied in Korea. I'm not being facetious but you haven't really thought this out. It doesn't necessarily mean that the recruiter is a crook or that things won't go well for you though. I hope things go well but you've left yourself vulnerable to a crash. As the E2 visa hasn't been officially processed yet I think I'm right in saying that you can back out at the last minute if you don't like your accomodation or the school. (not cool but you might have little choice if things don't go well) Hope things go well anyway. |
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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:40 pm Post subject: Re: Been homeless for almost a week; should I worry? |
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| seoulsucker wrote: |
Did you visit the school before you signed? Did you check out your new housing? Your office? Your coworkers?
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No, no, and no. I'm told I don't have new housing yet, and that I will look at a selection of apartments tomorrow and the school and I will pick one together. I know I should have, but my options were limited. THe job market's tighter in the summer, I have a blisteringly bad reference from my last hagwon, and I wanted to switch to public. Anytime I could have gone down to Anseong, I was working. Jumping ship 9 months early is a dicey game. I have a standing offer to return to my old job in the states if this gig falls through, which is my main comfort right now.
| seoulsucker wrote: |
Is this the same guy who placed you at your first job? |
Alas, yes. If he delivers tommorrow, and the job turns out to be good, I'll reccomend him to anyone. If this falls through, he's getting badmouthed wherever I can post. Two strikes may as well be three. This has sucked so far. |
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seoulsucker
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: The Land of the Hesitant Cutoff
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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Ouch, ouch, ouch, and ouch. You left yourself wide open on this one, from more angles than I can count. Best of luck dude, but I don't like the looks of where this is going.
Out of curiosity, what happened at the old gig that made being homeless the better option? I've heard some horror stories here, but this one sounds like it has "take the cake" potential. |
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Dan The Chainsawman
Joined: 05 May 2005
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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Indeed do tell.. this could be interesting.
.. gets popcorn... |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| In my experience, the more I used the same recruiter, the better each subsequent job got ... |
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PeterDragon
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Dan The Chainsawman wrote: |
Indeed do tell.. this could be interesting.
.. gets popcorn... |
I could fill a novella on what was wrong with the last place.
THE ACCOMADATIONS:
1) The Main Room:
My apartment had holes in the walls, most were finger sized, one almost large enough to put my fist through. As a result, my apartment was constatly filled with smog, even with the air purifier I purchased running 24/7. Once mosquito season hit, I was so bug bitten I couldn't even get an uninterrupted night's sleep. As an aside, it was also tiny, about the size of a bathroom in a $50 Korean hotel. Yet somehow, even with all these holes, the room was a moistre trap. Any attempts to dry my clothes ont he clothing rack resulted in the clothes remaining damp and becoming sour within a few days. I started to dry my clothes outside (on a clothesline I purchased and set up myself), but this became problematic once monsoon season hit. Oh yeah, and the room came with no fan and a broken air conditioner. I repaired the aircon at my own expense.
2) The Kitchen
The fridge in the kitchen was tiny and perishable food spoiled in it within about 3 days, even stuff you'd think wouldn't, like bananas and eggs. The gas range went from working sometines to never working. No microwave, no rice cooker. (My boss told me that Koreans don't use microwaves as an explanationf or whynone of the Western teachers were given one.) At that point, I effectively didn't have a kitchen and was virtually unable to store food in the house. I bought a mirror and hung it from a cupboard knob converting the kitchen into a half-bathroom. Everytime I turned on the sink, insects would frantically run/fly out of the drain.
3) The Bathroom
No matter how much I scrubbed and cleaned, every surface in the bathroom remained slimy to the touch. The bathroom contained no mirror and no sink. I went from having hot water on three to four random days a week, to the hot water not working at all.
Whenever I asked my boss nicely about possible solutions to these problems, she told me to "talk to the landlady", a woman who didn't speak English and was never home. (My boss didn't even know which apartment she was in, told me to "ask around".)
THE SCHOOL:
1) The Physical Conditions:
The school was on the 3rd floor of a large building, and had no cross ventilation. My boss refused to purchase fans, and refused to run the central air on anything but "low". As a result, I had to teach seven year olds who were visibly sweating and reddened. My boss informed me curtly that it was "unprofessional" to let them leave class to get water, OR to let them have water in class. Bottled water in class was not allowed for me either. I would estimate that the average classroom temp was about 85 degrees Farenheit. Every floor and wall on the school was smeared with dirt/food/unidentified smudges and stains.
2) The Job Itself (with subsections)
a) "my wacky confucian boss"
My boss went trhough a regular cycle, sometimes twice in a day, of telling me to do one thing, and then accusing me of being incompetent for following her orders. Example: I was told to correct homework in class. Later that day, I was told to "only check homework", and told that the time I spent actually marking the answers was "waste of parent money". The schedule itself was ALWAYS wrong the first few times it was handed out, but if I showed up to the wrong class or had the worng textbook, the blame was placed on me. Any time that a student withdrew (which only happened 3 times, and only in my largest youngest sections), I was blamed and accused of costing the school money.
b) "adventures in xeroxing"
On the first day of each month, each Western teacher was ordered to print roughly 600 pages of worksheets. The information on which worksheets we had to print was NEVER disclosed ahead of time. We were told that if we did not print the worksheets by the end of the first day, it was "breach of contract" on our part. There was only one copy machine. Western teachers were regularly reprimaned for "prevenitng Korean teachers from using copier".
c) "the hours--- how part time can feel like time and a half"
We all worked in 6-7 hour blocks with no breaks, including no food breaks.
c) "the 'benefits'"
No Western teacher had health insurance. Any Western teacher who requested it was told that "It takes a month". Repeat process next month. We could pay the low copay IF the hagwon owner showed up to appointment with us to cosign something. THe owner would insist on taking us to a doctor that spoke no English and insist on being present throughout the appointment to act as a translator. In this way, we could never get a note for a sick day. I had dysentary for two weeks, and was not allowed a school sanctioned sick day. I finally went to Yonsei Hospital on my own and got them to issue me a doctor's note so I could rest and take immodium. Wound up losing abotu 30 pounds, and I wasn't that fat to begin with. THe cotnract also said we were supposed to get vacation days, but any vacation day that was requested, no matter how far in advance, was denied.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Boxed in by 3 factories. From Google Earth, my neighborhood is enveloped in a brown smog thicker than is seen elsewhere in greater Seoul. Exceptionally thick with conservative Christians; got ambushed by prostelytizers almost every day on the way to or from school; every one of my co-workers bothered me to go to their church, even the Hagwon owner. I was being stalked by four separate sets of Jehovah's witnesses. The neighborheed still had four borthels within a block of my house of course. This is Korea. Also, no night life even on the weekends, no other foreigners, and alcohol was twice the price of the surrounding districts. I realize that if all of the other conditions had been better the neighborhood would have been no big deal, but in this case it served as the maggot-ridden cherry on top of my dogpoop sundae. |
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moosehead
Joined: 05 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:17 am Post subject: |
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did you happen to take any pictures of any of this?
wow - dude you got guts i gotta say - i haven't read/heard of anything this bad since the horrors of wonderland a few years ago -
i hope it all turns out for you - keep us posted - and there are reasonable hotels for 25-30,000 won you know - might not hurt for a nite or 2 just to get some peace and quiet and rest.
you know you got to expect better for yourself if you want better - there are a lot of good schools out there, is too bad you didn't land at one but hey - it happens - hang in there.
moosehead |
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Wondering
Joined: 23 May 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:19 am Post subject: |
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| PeterDragon~ You win. Seriously, whatever kind of contest this is, you win. Or is that lose? Are you medicated? Is that why you still sound human? I think I'd have been curled in the fetal position and moaning for quite some time now. |
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:49 am Post subject: |
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| PeterDragon wrote: |
| I realize that if all of the other conditions had been better the neighborhood would have been no big deal, but in this case it served as the maggot-ridden cherry on top of my dogpoop sundae. |
I've just snorted coffee out my nose.
Man, what a nightmare. I find it hard to believe that even in this day and age, such crapwon sweatshops still exisit, and people send their kids to them. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:23 am Post subject: |
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| I gotta see some pictures- this is just too ridiculous to believe otherwise. |
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shifdog
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:28 am Post subject: |
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| indytrucks wrote: |
Man, what a nightmare. I find it hard to believe that even in this day and age, such crapwon sweatshops still exisit, and people send their kids to them. |
And even harder to believe why some people put up with this treatment... |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:04 am Post subject: |
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| If you are still using the same recruiter who got you that horrible place then it's probably a mistake - at best, he's incompetent ... |
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