Gossip, Story, Gossip

So the question on my mind was answered pretty quickly as I got to work. The Korean teacher had finally worked up the nerve to tell the director that she wanted to quit last night. However, the director insisted that she wait until April or something because the simultaneous change of all three teachers might lose a lot of students. So, the Korean teacher isn’t happy and is now hesitant about leaving. This, of course, is much to Amber’s and my disappointment and confusion. Our advice was identical: “Uh, just say no.” I guess those anti-drug commercials were good for something. Bad jokes aside, this is what I’m talking about when I mention Korea’s skewed employer/employee relationship. It has to do with the lingering Confucianism in society here. Hopefully she gains the courage to storm back into the director’s office and say “I quit!” Or as Koreans learning English might say: “I keet!”

Ah! But there was some bonus juice to today’s news. Last night the final employee of us four, the secretary, issued an ulimatum: “More pay like you promised or I keet!” OK the secretary can’t say that in English, I just love the word “keet” as you can tell. Apparently the director promised more money to the secretary, but when the time came the director pushed the date up a few months. While I’ve said before I think the secretary is a tad lazy at times, she works the longest hours by far out of anybody at the school and has basically been running the show for the last couple of months. So, she probably well deserves it. However, I have to take this story with a grain of salt as the secretary is a bit of a liar I think. Not just my own suspicions, but some pretty incriminating stories by the others as well (the funny thing is she has access to the petty cash and holds the keys to the school to lock up). I’ll give you an example of her shadiness with a story:

On one Friday before a long-weekend payday, Amber mentioned that we should get paid today, as that’s the rule in the contract if the 25th comes on a Sunday. I wasn’t too concerned, I was behind on marking my level tests and was scrambling to enter in the grades. I was behind because I just hadn’t had time to do them, and at this point I had stopped caring enough to take my work home and do it on my unpaid time (which I had started resenting as I had done this excessively in my first couple of months, with no reward). At this point I had stopped caring a whit about this place. Anyways, the secretary came in and Amber made an inquiry. Here’s how communication works around here. Amber speaks, then the Korean teacher translates for the secretary. Then the inquiry passes to the director. A while later, the secretary came back announcing something in Korean. The Korean teacher translated the message as “Nobody gets paid until Jim finishes the level tests.” I snorted with derision. Not only did I not care if payday was a day late, but on this particular day I was steaming mad about how the school was run, had stopped caring, and knew I wouldn’t last long at this place. I shrugged and kept plugging away. Amber was pissed and announced that this is bullshit. A little while later, an emergency meeting was called, taking me away from the work I needed to finish. We sat at the odd round table with incorrect schedules pinned underneath the glass in the director’s office. Offensively mangled rhetoric aside, the basic message was “I always pay on time. You will get paid. What’s the damn problem?!” “There’s no problem.” Actually it took 5 minutes of dialogue for this information to be passed, with me just sitting there saying nothing. I was going to pipe up because I knew the source of the problem: the secretary. The idea of us not getting paid was either fabricated or not, it could not have been a translation error on the part of the Korean teacher (too easy), so the problem was either that the secretary had added some juice to the message or the director was flat out lying to our faces about “You will be paid.” The director is ruled out because when Amber called bullshit she wasn’t actually passing a message, she was just reacting to the news. So, the secretary was just stirring up some shit, for kicks I guess. I was going to suggest that we call the secretary in here and resolve this on the spot. But then, a huge wave of indifference hit me, so I let the meeting end without a word.

Boy I do tell great stories huh?

Let me add some more fuel to the raging bonfire that is the school integrity. In these trying times for the school, the director was late to teach her 6:40 p.m. PELT class (Primary English Level Test, whatever in the hell that is). So, the secretary was spotted by Amber teaching the class, which is pretty damned funny if you know her. With no exaggeration, she can basically say “Hi” (in Korea pronounced “Ha ee”) and that’s it. The parents have to pay extra for this PELT class, which could stand for “Possible Engish Learning Today” as it’s a roll of the dice on whether there will be actual teaching or not.

Racism In Korea + Supply and Demand

The point of this post is how these two clichés relate to each other.

Here is my limited experience with racism in South Korea. Perhaps someone reading this will get offended. I am not sorry.

Signs on clubs saying “No American GI’s” These are posted in many clubs in the precise area where GI’s like to hang out. Now I suppose they cause more trouble, being soldiers and all that are defending the very capitalism that allows to the club to be open in the first place, but a general ban on all American GI’s means any American male with short hair. Not only is this outright bigotry, or terrible for sales to reject the upper spending customers, but it’s extremely ungrateful. America wanted to pull their troops from here. Despite what most people think, South Korea is a powerhouse in the world today and should be able to handle themselves. Still, South Korea begged them to stay. America stayed to help them out. With this and the help in the Korean war, the South Korean public and businesses thank them with sneers and outright bigotry. Brutal. Perhaps someone important will remember this ingratitude the next time help is needed here.

My old boss wouldn’t hire a Canadian friend because of his Chinese features. This one hurt, because the boss from my old school was great (except for this one thing). Linz and I threw the idea at him once and he rejected it immediately. His explanation? The parents would disapprove, and business would be lost. Our disgusted reaction and arguments were duly noted, but his position wouldn’t change. Taking the racism and passing it on is no excuse. Also, this shows how stupid many Korean parents are.

My new and soon to be ex boss talking about the secretary position: “Filipinos will work for half the wage, and their English is better, but actually I just don’t like Filipinos” Note that this isn’t really a direct quote because the English had to be cleaned up A LITTLE. This was unwisely announced to all of us three teachers, including the other foreign teacher who is an African American (yes you clowns, I need to overdo the political correctness in an article like this) who grew up in an all white town in the intolerant state of Tennessee. Wowzers.

The kids have been taught to hate Japanese. Now I can understand my dear old Grandpa referring to them as “Japs” and disliking Germany, considering he fought in WWII and lost brothers and friends. But come on, there comes a time when you have to start forgiving. Japan has done very little since then but be nuked, atone, grow, work hard, and do it’s part in the world community. I mean resentment half a generation later, fine, but two? That’s like hating Sweden because of the Viking raids. These aren’t spiteful kids either. These are the kind hearted smart kids, saying “I hate Japan.” When asked why, they talk about some random island the size of a bathroom that there is a territorial dispute over. This is bullshit of course, because I heard this three years ago before this was an issue. It all boils down to Korean parents or media passing on hate.

I’ll stop listing stuff, that should be enough (also because I’m lazy). There’s plenty I’m forgetting I’m sure, and plenty I just haven’t thought of or looked up. The other foreign teacher has had a lot of things said and done to her due to her dark skin as well, but like I said you’ve got the message.

In my massive email to my boss of reasons why I’m quitting, I included this paragraph (much to the chagrin of two of my friends who proofed it):

“I am tired of Korean racism and xenophobia. Most Koreans don’t realize how unacceptable this is to many North Americans. I know there are many cultural differences a foreigner has adapt to, but this is not one which I will accept. If Koreans don’t like foreigners, then I will leave.”

Now you might call bullshit because I tolerated this nonsense the whole year I was here before, and I even came back for seconds. The thing is there are also many things about South Korea that I love. However, working at a poor school has taken many of these things away, so all that is left is the bad shit like this. This issue is one of the reasons why I’m leaving.

I’ll bet an assload that several other good teachers (yeah clowns I think I’m a decent teacher) have left because of this as well. Not to mention the fact oodles of highly qualified non-honkey people who want to work here are removed from the talent pool.

So this is where the two clichés in the title relate to each other. The teaching industry in South Korea, and other industries as well, have artificially lowered supply and thus increased the demand for qualified people. This money comes out of their own pockets, so they are already paying for their intolerance. They also miss out on many interesting and diverse people. This is just the business aspect of it; intolerance is obviously just plain immoral as well.

South Korea is a resourceful country, but it loses a lot of competitiveness from this xenophobia. If it wants to be more successful, it’s people had better get their shit together on this issue.

 

 

I Yearn

At this point, I think wrapping things up peacefully is the smart thing to do.  However, I feel this forceful tug, literally in my chest, towards hopping a cab and trekking home.  Like right now.  I am just waiting for something to set me off.

Hopefully the Korean teacher works up the resolve to quit tonight.  I’ll be interested to find out tomorrow afternoon.

The school is in deep shit now.  With all of us leaving and 3 greenies coming in, who is going to do the training?  The director has never explained much to me in my time here.  All my information comes from the other foreign teacher.  We were surmising today how that’s going to work.  If the Korean teacher announces tonight, she could be gone in as soon as two weeks, so the replacement will come in.  Amber will leave in four weeks and her replacement will need to be filled in.  Then I will leave in less than 8 weeks, so the two newbies will have to train the third.  The cycle of tasks here is more than 4 months, meaning that as of now I am still being filled in on things because I’m doing them for the first time.  I doubt it will go very well.

With the school just starting to fall apart, the boss has started showing up to work nearly on time.  She wasn’t her smiley self today, I think I’m seeing some signs of stress.  I do pity her a little, but business is business.

A Tidbit and A Couple Notes

Tidbit:

By the way, the Korean teacher, who started a week after I did, has announced to Amber and I that she is also going to quit.  She was going to talk to the director tonight, but she chickened out!  “I was too scared,” she said.  This is understandable, as it takes some resolve to march into the director’s office and say “Contract be damned, I quit.”  This probably takes much more resolve for her, being a little younger, non-male (just to clarify to feminists who’s rage-O-meter is rising, I didn’t mean that men have more balls, which I suppose technically they do, but that women in Korea are still regarded as a bit lower than a man), and having to deal with the Korean culture’s skewed employee/boss loyalty.  I certainly had to take a deep breath before making my announcement last week, and hells the last Korean teacher not only quit without warning, she changed her phone number and moved too!

So of us three teachers, all of us will be gone in less than two months.  Amber actually made the full year.  I guess after a while the financial implications are too huge to quit.  I’m going to take a pretty big hit myself leaving after 6 months.  But if you last the whole year you also get all your airfare paid for plus a full month’s salary.

A Couple Notes

Incidentally, I have added some more specific tags to my posts, in the hopes that Google picks it up and teachers looking for work can avoid this place.  This dude from New Zealand coming to replace Amber certainly didn’t talk to any former teachers here, to his risk I guess.  I guess it won’t be a disaster if he likes it here.

Also, you might have noticed that I have started slandering without the password protection.  This is because I doubt anyone who is harmed by this can understand my writing anyways, but also because I just don’t give a shit anymore.

P.S.  Oh my god, no spelling mistakes except for “New Zealand” and “Google” which the dictionary doesn’t recognize.  I am a literary genius!

Choked

The director said that she would come into my apartment and check out my malfunctioning fridge on Monday. Monday came and went with no mention of it. I was relieved anyways, eating out is cheaper and easier than getting groceries anyways. This forgetfulness occurs a lot here, especially with our Tuesday “weekly” meetings, of which I’ve had perhaps nine of in my entire four months here.

So today I was teaching my bad class. This class has about 10 kids and it’s the second lowest level. Half the kids are angels. However, three out of four of my worst students are in this class. There’s Defiant-Smart-Spoiled-Kid, who breezes through exercises but is lazy, and when I ask him to raise his arms for punishment he sometimes just says “No” while sneering and glaring. He’s also a whiny spoiled little bitch who throws random tantrums. Then there’s Donkey-Idiot-Boy. Luckily, this kid’s genes will probably be erased from humanity before puberty, perhaps while jumping out the school window to get to the ice cream truck. OK, perhaps a little harsh of me, but this kid is a drooling fool and really hard to deal with. Number three I’ll call Half-A-Rainman. You see he has Rainman outbursts (he once rolled a 2 on a die during a game and started bawling). Unlike Rainman, however, this kid is not smart. There’s another kid in the class who is always dying of thirst (today I made him wait 2 minutes for water and he clenched his throat while making hoarse gasps, no shit!) and has irritable bowel syndrome or something because he needs to go to the bathroom every single class. I don’t mind this kid much however, he has cheerful days.

Oh yeah, the story. So I check the kids’ homework, leave the noisy class to put the entries into the logbook at the front desk, and start walking back. As I approach the door I notice that the class is nice and quiet! How nice. And odd…

As I enter the door I see Defiant-Smart-Spoiled-Kid locked in mortal combat with Donkey-Idiot-Boy. The class is completely silent except for the panting of the combatants. Eyes were red and puffy, hair was unruly. The bearlike Defiant-Smart-Spoiled-Kid has Donkeyboy’s neatly folded spectacles in one hand and a fistful of shirt in the other as the wrestle. So I split them up and haul them out to the front desk. I summon the director and inform her they were fighting and I don’t know why.

I head back to class and try to get the kids to tell me what happened (hey it’s a good exercise in English for them) but to no avail. Something to do with one of them cheating on the punishment I guess. A few minutes later I’m interrupted by the two sobbing kids grabbing their book-bags and leaving. I get the class back on track and we begin the lessons. 15 minutes later, the director and two kids enter the class. She explains to me that she has told both of them that one wrong move and they’re outta here. She has said this at least once before to Defiant-Smart-Spoiled-Kid. Now you have another example of why I doubt her word, when I can even understand what she’s saying (oooh zing!). So she then starts talking to the class in Korean. It goes a little something like this:

“Blah blah boobity blah Jim teacher blabbity blah blah blah Chad, Mark blah Dean bleety bloo blah blah blah blah Jim teacher blah blah Canada blah blah,” to which several of the students gasp and look at me, followed by more “Blah.”

From the body language of the kids, what I understood of the conversation, and the fact that I had listed students like Mark and Dean as one of my 30 complaints to the director only last week (even her short term memory should remember that, oooh jab, point for the Jimsta!) I had what I thought a pretty close idea of what she said: “Jim is going back to Canada because of some of you students.”

A few things entered my mind when she said that. One, a little odd to say that when I am supposed to be “reconsidering my decision” at the moment (I’m supposed to give my final answer later this week). Two, I would have preferred to tell the students myself and a little later down the road. Three, it’s not right to lay the guilt on these little kids, even if it were true. It’s not really true because there are more important reasons for my leaving, and if most of the other things were fine I could deal with them.

Then another surprising thing happened. After the director left I resumed the lesson and I got choked up. Don’t get your hopes up, there were no tears from this old crocodile, but my face had that sagginess that you get when hitting a sad point in a movie. I didn’t even know why. I guess it was probably everything. The kids reaction to my leaving was touching and saddening at the same time. It’s nice to be respected or loved I guess, and I’m just leaving them in the dust. Or perhaps it was most of the class really were angels, they were getting right back into study with those wide eyes even after this little bullshit incident, and I felt dispirited at the fact that they were being blamed for this. Perhaps it was just the wistfulness of good-bye.

Hiring

A couple weeks ago my class was interrupted by the director.  I was to go to her office and talk on the phone to talk to a potential new teacher replacing the other foreign teacher.  Let’s just say that after our discussion, he won’t be coming here.

Apparently, she has managed to hire some dude from New Zealand.  The new employee has not spoken to any of the teachers who have worked here, I can tell you that much.  Good luck to him.

Day 3 After The Bomb

After work finished at 9:40 pm I was summoned to an impromptu but not totally unexpected meeting with the director. We spoke until 11 pm.

I could see my email of complaints had been printed out and was sitting on her desk with pen marks on it. No I didn’t get much satisfaction from knowing she had probably had to look in a dictionary about 30 times and spent hours reading it. How petty do you think I am? OK you’re right, I am indeed a petty man and was satisfied just a little.

My predictions from yesterday held true. She was trying to get me to stay and perhaps even dicking me around a little bit as well. She went over some of the points I had made, but didn’t address most of them, and tried to refute them. One of the issues discussed was the poor student placement into the classes and last semester’s lack of leveling up. Her explanation for this was that several Korean students had died in a building fire somewhere recently and she had many meetings to attend to discuss new fire codes or something. My jaw dropped at the utter bullshit uttered from this uddered creature. Basically what it comes down to is that she can’t do her job, but I kept that thought to myself for the time being.

In the end she nearly begged asking me to stay, and requested that I think about it over the weekend. I didn’t feel it could hurt so I said sure.

Here’s some dialogues from our discussion:

Director: “Actually, I’ve had many problems with Canadians before.”

Me: “Interesting. Yes, we are quite proud I guess. Maybe it’s because we have a home that we love.”

———————————–

Director muses: “I think our school’s reputation is good.”

Me: *silence* O RLY?

Day 2 After the Bomb

The director and I gave each other uncomfortable smiles as we passed by each other all day. She said that she’d like to speak to me after classes finished. So, classes finished and I approached.

“Actually, I didn’t have time to read it all so…”

This was not surprising. The length of my “List of Reasons” email was pretty damned long, and let me tell you I did not spare the whip on the vocabulary like I usually have to in order to get a message through to the Korean speaking side of the office.

Ironically I suppose, as I was writing it I surmised that the actual length of my email made my email shorter, because I didn’t have to add the reason “The Korean teachers don’t study English yet their English needs improvement and they teach it.” Have I made an Alanis Morissette like blunder with the use of ironic here?

Anyways this point has always largely contributed to my belief that the school is of a low calibre. Teaching is learning too, at least I have certainly learned a hell of a lot from it. This is not just me; at my old school every single Korean teacher would frequently ask the foreigners questions. Most of the time we knew, sometimes we didn’t. Here I’ve been asked a question about English a total of about twice. At my old school the atmosphere was one of quality, inquisitiveness, and progress. Here it is disinterest, drudgery, and gloom. Whatever it is, I am not in. There are better things I can do.

It has crossed my mind that she is in fact trying to dick me around by stalling and delaying. I hope so, because I have a strong hankerin’ to hit the road now. I’m not sure if I can even wait the two months that I’m supposed to give. At this point I’m pretty sure she’s going to give me a talk trying to convince me to stay. I have extremely high doubts she can budge far enough to keep me interested in this place, but I’ll hear her out I guess.

The Bomb

So finally something big has happened. I have dropped the “I quit” bomb on the director. From her reaction, it felt like I was firing her!

I attempted to give the excuse “Because I am not happy here” as was suggested to me but she wouldn’t buy it. She wanted to know specifically why and how she could make the school better. I told her it would be better if I emailed her the reasons why. So I’ve sent her long list while trying to omit as many reasons that I could that would make her feel attacked. Dave feels the list is still too long and that I’ve included things that I shouldn’t. Oh well, I feel they need to be said.

So now I guess we’ll see if this seperation goes nicely or nastily…

Old and New

Apologies for the blog lapse.   I’ve been keeping pretty busy and unsure of what to do next and haven’t thought of too many funny things to report.  I have been playing a little more poker in the last couple of months so I created a poker blog for those of you interested.  The link is on this page.