gripes

My school was sold earlier this month. This isn't a strange occurrence. Three of the four schools I've ever worked for have been sold while I was an employee. I only mention it to provide context for the rest of this post.


A couple of weeks ago, on a Wednesday at around noon, I received a call from the new owner of my academy. He can hardly speak English, but I managed to understand his main point, which was that I had to move. Not only did I have to move, but I had to move that day, before work. Given the fact that I have to be at work at 2pm everyday, this gave me less than 2 hours to pack up all of my belongings. I kinda started to yell at him. Why do I have to move? Why do I have to move today? What the hell, man?

Later he had a friend of his, who can speak English much better, call me up and explain the situation. It turns out that the former owner hadn't paid the rent for the past 3 months. (It should be noted that on top of receiving a salary, my employer also pays my rent.) As a result, the landlords wanted the past 3 months rent and the next 3 months rent posthaste. My new owner was understandably unwilling to pay that much money, so I had to move out. Now I'm back in a tiny one-room apartment, which doesn't even have a bathroom sink, just at toilet and a shower. At least it will be a lot cheaper to heat.

The whole thing was a pain, made worse by the fact that I had no time to prepare for the move. I really wouldn't have minded having to move if I was given some heads up about it. But since nobody in this country is capable of planning ahead, I had to take one on the chin.

Korea people's lack of foresight really is astonishing. Just last week my school started a new semester, so students were to receive new books. The first class wasn't until 6:20, every is at work by 2, giving us four hours and twenty minutes to prepare for classes. At about 6:15 the secretary rushes in and tells me that she has to make photocopies of the books for all the students because the new books haven't arrived yet. Why this couldn't have been taken care of during the previous four hours and fifteen minutes, I don't know. So for the first 25 minutes of class we had to sit there are do nothing because nobody had the books.

Someday I'll write a story about an alien race who can't plan more than 5 minutes into the future. I'm not really sure what would happen in it, but a running theme in the story would be people getting stuck in a rainstorm without an umbrella.

This new school I'm at hasn't been my favorite, by any stretch. While in the past, my gripes with my schools have been with the students or the curriculum, in this school the problem is quite different. In fact, the only reason I'm sticking with this school is because I like the books and most of the kids, and the hours are amazing (I only teach 4 50-minute classes a day). Rather, at this school my problem is with the administration.

In my contract I am promised pension and health insurance. The pension plan is something into which I pay 50% and my employer pays 50%, then when I finish my contract I am able to apply for that money and get it back after a few months. The health insurance is also 50/50. The problem is that I am not presently receiving either of the things which were promised to me, and are mandatory according to Korean law. I've been hassling people about this, and been told that it will all get sorted out and not to worry. Last week I hassled them some more and really pressed the issue. I was told that now I had to wait until March, because...I don't know. I calmly explained that no, according to my contract and Korean law I get it now. In response to my protestations, they said that this was just a difference in cultures. To this, I guffawed. What is the difference in culture? Obeying the law and honoring a contract? Yes, they replied.

The next day I called the pension office here in Korea and reported my employers, saying that they were breaking Korean law by not paying my pension. The woman I talked to, who spoke English just fine, confirmed that I in fact had not received any pension payments for the past two months. She also said that there was nothing she could do about it. Wha, huh? Why not? Because there are too many English academies in Korea, it's impossible to monitor them all and make sure they are obeying the law. But I'm telling you right now, this one is breaking the law. Here's the name, number, and address. Make them obey the law! Yeah, really there's just too many. You should talk to your boss about it.

These are just more things to add to the ever-expanding list of things I hate about this country. Foreigners here have no protection. Our contracts don't have to be honored. The laws meant to protect us aren't enforced. We're second class citizens. So this is it, this is the last year here for sure.  And if my schedule changes and my hours get worse, and I'm still not receiving pension or insurance, I'll have no problem flying the coup one night and leaving them shorthanded.

This post has been a bit of a downer. To end it I'm attaching a video of a K-Pop song that I genuinely, embarrassingly enjoy. Two of these girls are Korean, and two are Chinese, and the fact that I can tell which is which on sight alone makes me more culturally aware than you.

Every once in a while, amongst the mounds and mounds of shitty music that is manufactured here, there's one I like. I give you "I Don't Need a Man" by Miss A.

Alright, the rapping part is pretty cringe-inducing.