olympics

Here's an update on my last post. I told my bosses that I wasn't okay with their plan to rip me off. I said that I thought it'd be best if they released me from my contract and replaced me with a Korean at a cheaper wage. I said that on a Friday. On Monday they came to me and said that they would honor the contract as it was. I guess you just have to play hardball with these folks. That being said, my pay for this month is two days late and counting.

It's the Olympics now, as I'm sure you know. Watching the Olympics in a different country is, well, different. For one, they don't give a damn about how the USA is doing here, so I don't get to see many American events. What I do get to see is what Koreans are good at. So, it's been a lot of judo, table tennis, and fencing. 

Koreans are already extremely nationalistic and insecure. They are insecure because they are surrounded by China and Japan, who get much more attention than they do. So anytime they do something good on a big stage, it's a big deal. My students are always quick to alert me of a Korean who won a gold medal.

Only gold seems to matter here. If a Korean wins a gold medal, they are rewarded by their country. They receive 1 million KRW, about $900, every month for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, that reward does not increase exponentially with each gold medal. So if Michael Phelps was a Korean, he wouldn't get 18 million a month, he'd still just get the 1.

Silver and bronze medalists, on the other hand, get jack shit.