Korea Life Blog - Weekend Update


Thanks for all the supportive comments and e-mails. I'm hoping the situation is temporary. For now, I'll just keep writing.

I'm still in the job market. I turned down the public school jobs for a variety of reasons. Basically the pay was high but they offered no benefits or holiday/vacation pay. Also, I would have to travel pretty far and from one school to the other. I'd only teach 2 hours at each school but I'd have 2-3 hours in between to wait around bored. By the time I'd get home it would be 10PM at night, which would leave no time for extra work which I'd need to make up for days off/vacation times.

I've decided to just get something in a block schedule nearby where I'll be living. Something with all the benefits including rent. I don't know if I can handle a classes of 30-40 Korean kids either, after being used to 2-10 per class. Anyway, I've got my foot in the door at somewhere specific. I happened to run into this guy Jack who's working there and he told me about how easy the job is and the location is perfect:

"I teach sometimes just 3 classes a day. Sometimes it's 6 but not usually. I go in right before I have to teach and I leave whenever I want if I don't have a class. No planning, just play games and use the books."

I asked him if they needed an extra teacher, but he said didn't think so, seeing as both teachers had so few classes.

I shrugged it off at the time but when this public school job didn't pan out as planned, I decided to look into it more. It sounds easy like the job I had before, except this would be in Songnae, a great location. A couple of days later, as I was walking past the school, I saw the number and decided to call.

Usually schools don't have foreign teachers calling them directly for jobs out of the blue. If they need a teacher, they have to use an expensive recruiter of post job ads themselves. So when I called the director, he was totally confused.

"My name is Shawn," I said. "I'm wondering if your school needs a teacher."

"What? Who are you? Shawn? I don't know Shawn, sorry."

"I know you don't know me. Does your school need a teacher right now?"

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you mean. I don't know any Shawn."

"I'm outside your school now. Should I come there?"

"How will you get here, by buss?"

"No, I'm in Songnae."

"What, Suwon? You have to take a bus."

Finally I told him to wait and handed the phone to Julie. Moments thereafter, we were in Mr. Kim's office. He's a short, extremely thin man, about 45 and has a kind face and demeanor. Julie told him in Korean all about my experiences and education, etc. He said that was nice, but all he cared about is if I was a good teacher like Jack. This is when things got funny. He went on first in English then in Korean about how wonderful Jack is. "Usually American not have passion for teaching in Korea. Jack has the passion. He can teach every age, from young kid to high school student. It doesn't matter to Jack. He is very kind and nice. He always smiles. The children love Jack. If he want sign new contract, I can pay him more money." Now, as he said this, I was sitting there remembering Jack and what he had told me about the job and I was trying hard not to laugh. The situation reminded me of Jerry, the drunken teacher who worked before me at Wonder School on Geoje island who, though quit and ran away, was remembered with such reverie by the the school owners. It just goes to show you, it doesn't really matter how well you teach in Korea, as long as you are friendly and the boss likes you.

Anyway, he admitted he was taken off guard by me and wasn't sure what to do. He didn't really need a teacher, but at the same time he was impressed with me and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, knowing the costs and risks of using a recruiter and hiring from overseas. For now I sent him my resume and he should call us on Monday. He's going to figure it all out in the meantime. Apparently if he does hire me, everyone will have even less classes unless someone leaves. That will make me a welcome new teacher, I'm sure. I hope it pans out.

I'm supposed to go meet James now for more of that Yogurt I posted about last week. I'm not sure though. It's the rainy season and on schedule it's been cloudy and/or rainy for over a week now, including right now. Also, and I'm not calling James a bad influence, but if I meet him, I'm sure to wind up drunk and stumbling home at 6AM again. I may just rent some movies and relax in the cave. I'm not sure if Julie will come or not. She's mad again that I had girlfriends before her...sigh.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Help!


This update will be short. Four thugs just sat down next to me, in the no smoking section and now they are chain smoking and singing cheesy Korean pop songs together and screaming at Warcraft.

I'm getting pretty down about my blog being blocked in Korea. Only people who live outside of Korea can leave comments. My hit count has dropped by 50 percent, though I'm not sure how many figured out to view this through a proxy site like unipeak. Still, there must be a lot of people that think I gave up my blog and/or that it's gone for good.

The worst part about all this is I did nothing wrong. I didn't post anything offensive, but because someone who did using Blogger, my site and every Blogger site is blocked now.

Though Korea is a democracy, it feels like I'm living in communist China suddenly. Does anybody know how or what I can do about this? I would also appreciate any of my Korean readers taking a moment to send e-mail or real mail to:


Director Jun Sung Mu


Cooperation Planning Division
Telecommunication Center Building.
Ministry of Information and Communication 11F~14F, 100 Sejongno,
Jongnogu, Seoul, South Korea Zip Code: 100-777


ipd@mic.go.kr

Thanks.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Construction Blues


I've been re-realizing the downside of living in the city. For the past two days, starting at the crack of dawn, there's been horrific construction going on right outside my motel. Take a look:








Bang! bang! crunch! blast! whack! whack! whack!....I've had next to no sleep and I'm cranky. Wait a minute, I have no job, what am I complaining about? Speaking of jobs, things haven't been going so well in that department. As far as I can tell, I was turned down for the hagwon job I mentioned before, if you can believe it. That was a shock. I'm not sure to laugh or cry. They gave me an excuse, but I'm pretty sure it was because I asked for more money than the bare minimum, come on! - and more than the bare minimum for rent, and at least standard vacation time...after all, he wasn't going to have to pay a recruiter or my airfare.

The boss there would rather take someone unqualified and cheaper, I assume. He may be lucky or he may be in for a shock later when he can't find anyone. Oh well, it's not a big deal and I wasn't totally sure I wanted to take it anyway as it's on the other side of the city in a rundown, lame area. I'm also not sure if I want to work in a Hagwon for a penny pinching boss again either - no matter how nice he is or how good the schedule was...my last job was like that and look how it turned out, though admittedly I had an easy year. The problem I've been having with hagwons is that they start off good, then usually go sour near the end and then I'm left with no reference again. It's not that you really need one here though. Hell, as you know if you've been following my blog for some time, I was hired at a University before based on my English Education Degree (and stunning charm) only. Still, maybe I should be more selective and try to work somewhere more reliable, somewhere where it's not all about making money for the boss.

The very next job I looked at seemed decent. I would teach at the new after school programs in public schools, around 40,000 won/hour ($35), choose how many hours I'd want to work, and full visa sponsered by the government (though how incredibly stupid that I'd still have to leave the country to the Korean embassy in Japan to pick up the visa again). Apparently the government has created these programs as an alternative to expensive hagwons. The woman in charge said since I have a degree in English Education that I am a perfect candidate. She wasn't exactly sure of all the details though and she'd get back to me. It's Wednesday now and she hasn't called or e-mailed back. I'm getting the feeling the program isn't very well organized yet. Anyway, it sounded good and I hope it pans out. If not, I guess I'll actually have to start trying a little, damn. This is my third week off. I really needed this break after a year of teaching little runts but it's time to get on the ball again before I get too comfortable.

[Update]The woman called and I'll be going to meet the principal of the school tomorrow. 9-15 hours a week at my discretion and she has private students for me in my area. Before that I was sitting here sending out my resume again. I sent it to 3 people, all about public schools, and within minutes was receiving phone calls and e-mail replies. I guess I have nothing to worry about...

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Weekend Update


We ended up having a great time at the clubs on Club Day, Friday. We spent most of the night at Ohoo (Matmata and Hodge Podge). I didn't bring my camera, but James did. I'm not sure if he'll do yet another update with shots of us dancing and acting stupid or not. I don't even want to see my pictures. People kept putting drinks in my hand all night.

Julie and I left around 6AM. James and his friends stayed. I kind of wish I brought my camera to photograph the crowds of people outside in the early morning still going in and out of clubs and 24-hour restaurants, the drunk people stumbling to the subway stations, the vomit all over the streets, etc. It's quite a site. The first subway on a Saturday is very funny. You see all these sickly looking young people in club clothes mixed with unfortunate business-persons going to work and old people off to go hiking/fishing and enjoy the day. As for Julie and I, we slept until 4PM...

When we woke up, we went looking at a few apartments in the area but they were too small and far from the subway. We did however find an amazing little video shop. I'll get a shot of it next time I go. Though you'd never expect it from the outside, inside they have the largest collection of videos we've been able to find. That's because the shop has been there ten years and there's no big rental franchises in Korea to knock out them out, thankfully. In the states, places like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster would come in like Walmart (by the way Walmart, the evil empire, has quite a few shopping centers in Korea but they don't compete nearly as well here) in a town, charge a little lower than the competition, knock all the little guys out, then after practically monopolizing the area, raise all the prices and late fees, etc...

Here in Korea, a new video release, American or Korean (Korean films on DVD have English subtitles) will set you back 1,000 - 1,500 won (aprox. 80 cents - $1.20). An older release is half price. We were lazy and in the mood to watch older movies. Within a minute we picked out four and ended up watching three: Big Momma's House, Kindergarten Cop and Junior...classics. All four movies anyway were only 2,000 won (about $1.60) and due back in 3 days.

Last night we looked at a brand new office-tel apartment for only 375,000/ month around $325) in a brand new section of the city right next to a huge new Hyundai Department store - and a Walmart, great. It's a beautiful apartment, not even finished yet, 12th floor, with gigantic windows overlooking the city. Since the building is so new and they need people to move in, they were pretty flexible about the rent, hence the cheap price. I think the deal is if we pay the rent for a year up front, they'll wave the deposit too. The only problem for me was the building is a little far from the subway. They're planning to route a subway station there, but that does little good for me now. I'd have to take a bus and then the subway to work, unless I can get a job in the area...a possibility as there's a new English school on ever corner it seemed.

Later we ordered BBQ Fried Chicken and watched back to back episodes of Cheaters. We both agreed the show is getting pretty repepitive. But that's what happens when you can watch it 7 days a week without commercials. That's about it...hope you enjoyed this update. Have a nice day.

written by shawn matthews    -|link