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April 23, 1998
"Here's my two bits on teaching in Seoul. Maybe it will be informative for people making the choice. Sorry, it's not proofread very well.
"I went to Seoul and taught English in an institute too a few years ago. I lasted about half a year. I'd previously taught ESL for several years and thought I had the contacts and cultural background necessary to
avoid the usual pitfalls. I didn't.
"I love Korea. I've worked with many Koreans over the years, I speak, read, and write Korean. My wife was born and raised in Inch'on and I've vistited my in-laws in and around Seoul many times. I spent a summer
with my wife traveling from Seoul to Cheju Island and back and I hope to do it again in the near future. Korea is wonderful. Sure it's busy and dirty and polluted, but that's just part of it. There's also
incredible scenery, a fascinating mix of old and new ways of doing things, and some really wonderful people. Seriously.
"But it's hard to see the good things when your supervisor, who has had you apartment hunting non-stop in your free time for two months decides to go back on the promise (written clearly in the contract) of providing a certain amount for a deposit on the apartment of your choice. But
don't worry! You get to live in a tiny roach-infested rat-hole of the institute's choice next to a bar where people puke their dinners all over your front steps and a sewer stench so bad it makes your eyes water
rolls in at about 4 am every morning. When you complain, your boss says, "You getting bad attitude just like other 'mericans." He of course has new luxury car with a driver on call day and night, and lives in a
palace.
"You see fellow teachers fired for tiny infractions shortly before their contracts expire so the institute won't have to pay for the (again, 'promised') return trip ticket. And of course the other teachers have to
scramble to make up for these fired employees.
"So you're working very mixed-up and long hours in dingy rooms under buzzing fluorescent lights, with the smell of rush hour exhaust wafting up from the intersection outside the window. And you're so angry you
can't even think about the lesson you're teaching. You hate Korea so bad you wish your greedy snake of a boss would live long enough to see the won deflate down so far his bank account won't by a Snickers bar, and then that the North Koreans would nuke him. I distinctly remember feeling a surge of anticipation when the alarm sirens started screaming one day. I was thinking, "I don't mind dying as long as that bastard
gets it too." But it was just another drill.
"I have heard of good institutes and teaching situations, but anyone who has taught in Korean institutes, even someone who had a good experience and made a lot of money (not to be expected now, I think, with the won's fall), will recognise what I'm saying as a common experience.
"Student's needs are not met. All the office thinks about is head counts and tuition payments. And if the director takes an interest in classroom activities you can expect to be forced to be a human tape-recorder,
repeating phrases over and over while your Nazi supervisor watches for slight deviations through a window in back of the classroom. Seriously. And then the Korean Immigration office claims you did your paperwork for your resident card wrong (even though you followed the instructions),
and fines you.
"I wasted a day going to complain about my fines and ended up speaking to a supervisor at Immigration. He told me not to worry, that fines were just a matter of day-to-day business. "We have a monthly dollar quota to raise from foreign residents," he said, "We can't take bribes any more, so we have to fine people like you. Just pay it, you make enough."
"The worst of it is that you are tied to that job. NO MATTER WHAT YOUR CONTRACT SAYS you will not be allowed to change jobs. Unless you're really lucky. I got tired of the rotten institute I was at and got a
better job. My contract said I could give notice and quit with no retaliation. But even though I returned to the U.S. and applied for a new visa with my new sponsor, my previous employer was able to block the
visa.
"There are many crooked and greedy employers in North America but as citizens we can get away from them and find better jobs. In Korea, as a foreigner, your sponsor owns you. The contract you sign means nothing. In the Korean business world only power is respected. If you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with those terms your life will be hell. If you are handsome, male, sneaky, greedy, and unethical you will probably
have a good time in Korea as an instructor. You will already be familiar with the emotional environment and there are plenty of pretty girls in mini-skirts to seduce. Frankly, if that really is you, I hope you get
run over by a bus.
"Yes, some of the toilets are different, but I'd bet Mr. Waters would have had an easier time adjusting to cultural differences and dealing with the mixed-bag that living in Korea, or anywhere else, is, if he
hadn't been on the receiving end of the big brass shaft at the same time."
Sincerely,
-DUANE JENSON
"PS...A note for the ex-military fellow who wants to teach: You can do better than teaching in a hakwon. Try for a university first. And Korean food is great but it's also salty enough to pickle your liver. And check
out the stats on Korean stomach cancer (drinkers and non-drinkers), maybe something diet or bacteria-related there too? Ever had food poisoning so bad you spent a month shitting blood? Be careful what and
where you eat, but I bet you get it bad at least once. By the way, those curly hairs in your soup are just stewed pig bristles, not pubic hairs like some people think. Have fun."
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September 5, 1997
"I just read David Waters's letter reporting on the appalling conditions that a North American would encounter while pursuing a position at a Korean English teaching factory. I have recently been looking for such a position for mid-1998. Am I to assume by Mr. Waters's letter that there are no decent positions there? Come on, there must be some. I personally have quite a few Korean friends, and a Korean ex-wife (hrrmmff). They seem decent, excluding the wife bit. Please give me a response. I'm still interested. I'm not intimidated, having spent 8 years in the U.S. Army.
"If you are from Korea, please feel free to view my résumé."
-CHRIS MILLER
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April 7, 1997
"Your statement that the surname 'Kim' is unique to Korea is incorrect. The Chinese character for the 'Kim' surname is pronounced 'Jin' in Mandarin [and is written this way in pinyin] ('Kam' in Cantonese) and in all cases means 'gold', 'money' or 'metal' in addition to being a common surname (though not so common as in Korea)."
-DAVID KELLY
Australia
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January 6, 1997
"Dear David, [see letter below]
"Great letter! You can't just go to Korea and expect to live like you do here in North America. In Korea you must become Korean, accept their culture, food, and lifestyle. I must say I'm Canadian and I've never been to Korea, but look forward to going soon. I have a few Canadian friends who are over there and they love everything about the place so they are extending their visas for another year. I have many Korean friends here in Canada and many who are back in Seoul. An important thing to have when you are overseas is friends, whether you have them already or you have to meet them once you are there. You have to say that Korean women are gorgeous unless you are racist. My fiancée is Korean, and I'm currently learning the Korean language. It too bad you can't accept cultures other than your own, but it's your loss because I think Korea is a very interesting country. I love Korean food, not to mention that Korean food is a hell of a lot healthier than our shit we call food."
-RYAN SALEY
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November 11, 1996
A Warning About These Teaching Jobs in South Korea
"Every week in major papers such as the Globe and Mail, and the Vancouver Sun, and who knows what else there are all these glorified ads needed English teachers for South Korea. Naïve Canadians assume that these are legitimate jobs in educational institutions with qualified professionals running things, with protocol, decorum, professional ethics and civilized work conditions. They most certainly are not.
"Korean Learning Centres, as they call themselves, hire recruiters to attract Canadian University graduates (especially recent grads who have no jobs) and the like. They lead them to think that the working situation in Korea will be civilized. Usually it is not. You should warn every Anglophone [sic] on campus and everyone else with any possible bent for overseas work that the reality of teaching English in S. Korea is absolute hell most of the time.
"In Korea any loutish Philistine with floor space in some hellhole can have a Language Learning Centre and use highly paid recruiters to bring over Anglophones [sic] to work as teachers. These Korean Philistines, as I saw first hand, just want to make a fast buck-in their case a won-and admit anything pretending to be a student. Often the Learning Centres have no space to hang a coat, place your books, or even sit quietly when you are not engaged in your grueling teaching schedule.
"South Korea itself is a perfect Philistine center, calling itself one of the big economic tigers because its people have put making fast bucks ahead of all other considerations. The Korean land is all scarred, polluted, disgustingly dirty, ugly, contaminated. The water has been poisoned so that you have to purchase bottled water for everything. The air is full of disgustingly poisonous filth which anti-smokers would abhor. Of course, like all Asia, Korea is congested. But the squalor everywhere is what really disgusts one.
"Living conditions on one of these teach-in-Korea jobs are often hell. The owners of these Learning Centres, give teachers the old, dirty, un-repaired, crowded accommodation which costs him or her the least won. You may have only a trickle of hot water for bathing; our bathtub would take 30 minutes to fill with a mere four inches of water. Korean standard bathtubs are about three feet long (though Learning Centres try to get Westerners the larger size). Western-style toilets are a luxury many places in Korea. In most Learning Centres, you will find Korean squat-and-squirt bowls if you find any kind of washroom facilities at all!
"Working conditions in Korea (as in the rest of Asia, I believe) are hell. You have to get up at dawn because they'll start you off at 6a.m. or 7a.m. for your first class; they may give you three hours off until your next class. Most English Teachers get afternoons off, though that is not what recruiters such as Ben Kwak of Taegue will lead you to believe when you are still here in North America. All English teachers work evenings six days a week. You may start again at 4p.m. and go until 10p.m.; or you may start at 6p.m. and go until 11p.m., but English teachers from Canada will be sure to get some variation on this theme. You work class after class without our North American coffee breaks, and even if you had ten minutes off there is usually no place to sit and rest. And while the Koreans rave about their excellent standards, these Learning Centres run by Philistines will have "fighters and farters and foul mouths" in abundance; just like North American urchins who do not want to be there in a classroom (because their parents have bullied them into going).
"You are promised training, but most owners of Learning Centres don't have education or professional qualifications which would enable them to train anyone. You are promised benefits which are either a sham or non-existent (the Americans I knew found the promised health insurance was an utter sham).
"The South Koreans talk such North Americans into paying their own air fare over. It is often between $1,000.00 and $1,500.00. Koreans figure that when you put up this much money because they promise you to reimburse you after the years is over, you will put up with anything they demand, all their abuse, all the insolent, rude, aggressive kids, because you will want desperately to get you air fare investment back. There are no professional standards and professional ethics in these Korean Language Learning Centres. I saw two of them in Pohang, S. Korean first hand, and talked with everyone who was there, Americans, Canadians, and even an Australian lady. All were exhausted, depressed, demoralized, exasperated, disgusted, but trying to hang on to get their air fare back. There was not one American student who said anything positive about his or her teaching experience in South Korea, and the two Language Centres I knew and saw were reported to be good compared with other hellholes. I met three other people from British Columbia, Canada who were having a hell of a time. I met Americans from several major universities who were all disgusted and didn't know how they could last a year. But what is really pathetic is that one of the fellows at the South Korean Consulate in Vancouver told me that most of them don't last three months. Still they drag over thousands of North Americans, waste their money and their energy and let them endure the hell, squalor, pollution, congestion (and dangerous drivers) in South Korea.
"The travel Industry of South Korea advertises it as an exciting place. North Americans have no idea what squalor, hell, pollution, and Philistines are until they attempt to take on a teaching job at a private Learning Centre in South Korea. And I offer these comments solely to save other North Americans the anguish, the pain, the despair myself and others experienced there. If any of the Americans and Canadians whom I met and knew in English Language Centres in South Korea could talk to the student associations and student presses in North America they would abundantly confirm everything I have shared here. With best wishes to the young intelligent North Americans.
-DAVID WATERS
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(CULTURAL BRIDGE PRODUCTIONS: Sorry we didn't have a photo of a Korean toilet, so we improvised but it's the same concept. We would like to note that these East Asian type of toilets, where you squat rather than sit, are actually much more natural and hygienic if not the most comfortable ways of doing it for the uninitiated Westerner.)
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