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      Dear Jon:

           No problem go ahead and post my brief novel on Korea! If you are
going to use the title could you please correct my grammar, and change the
your to you're! I'm rather ashamed of myself for making a mistake such as
this!  My brain works faster than my fingers when typing! 

                                  Yours sincerely,

                                   Robert Cairns

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Experience South Korea!

                
                   I will relate to you some of my experiences working in
Kwachon, a lovely city just south of Seoul. Most of the positive sides of my
experience come from the people of Korea and the country itself; working in
Korea is also an experience, but of a different kind. I have read other
letters in this section and their experiences don't come as a shock to me. 
Infact, my conditions were far better than most of the letters I read and I
still left the school. But being ever so optimistic, if one gets into the
right school (they do exist!) Korea would be a blast! The people are the
nicest most honest people on the face of the earth. (that's the people you
meet in the street and socialize with) You are treated with the utmost
respect, as if you were a God descended from the Heavens. People are willing
to go out of their way to help you and show you around and of course buy you
a few "mek ju"(beer)to keep you happy. The kindness and politeness of the
general public cannot be expressed enough. 

                  The honesty is unbelievable, you can count your monthly
pay in cash on the sub-way in rush hour with no fear of being robbed. This
in a city that is larger than New York (Seoul has a population of around 12
million). Korea in general is a very English user friendly place to get
around. (You use your few words of Korean to be polite like "mek ju ju say
yo" Give me a beer please, of course being Canadian this is the most
important phrase in Korean) Most buildings and signs are also written in
English. Even the subway(which is dirt cheap by the way and excellent) is
announced in English. You stand out like a "black" at a KKK meeting, being
a Westerner in Korea, so people will come up to you speaking English.(Then
they will most likely invite you out for a beer or dinner, don't be stupid
go have fun!)  Plenty of Koreans speak English exceptionally well (although
they wouldn't think so)and most know enough "key" words to get your thoughts
across. (Just remember to speak slowly!)

                   The longer you are in Korea the slower your speach
becomes.  As a side note, if it is the night life you are after Itaewan, a
section of Seoul is the spot. This area has bars every few feet and of
course, it's share of brothels (this street we affectionately named "Hooker
Hill") On Friday and Saturday nights a lot of bars here will stay open until
8:00 a.m. It is here where you will meet other English teachers and compare
notes on teaching conditions, that's how I know there are some nice places
out there. I did take the position of teaching in Korea seriously, but I do
like to have a good time too! The school did take advantage of us being
foreigners. This is to say, they worked us like immigrant-workers (because
that's what you are now) I will say in their defence, they did pay us and my
shared apartment was ready and in a very nice neighbourhood, with phone and
two colour cable TVs and a working washing machine. Why did "we" leave you
ask? They had me teaching 48 classes a week. The contract was for 36 (that's
too much, little did I know!) I did get a bit of over-time for the extra
hours. But if you have ever taught you know 48 hours of teaching, turns into
a 70-80 hour week. Then they had us doing all sorts of extra work on top of
it. Bi-weekly evaluations, monthly report cards, re-writing syllabuses. I
had 100 students, that's 8 hours of doing evaluations just to do it once. 
(So an extra 3 8 hour days per month on top of your 70-80 work week, now you
are starting to get the picture!)

                   Needless to say the conditions were getting worse as the
days went on. The Korean staff was beginning to complain! I taught adults at
night, and when a Korean High School teacher (one of my students) found out
that they were my 12th class of the day, they thought I was working too
much. When the Koreans tell you that you are working too long and hard, you
know something is wrong! Our supervisor (a Korean) thought it was insane
what the school was making us do. So my roomate and I left, and so did some
others, including the supervisor, a few months after I did. And as others
have stated the way to get out is not to tell a person about it, other
fellow Westerner escapies teachers excluded. Get a exit/re-entry visa from
immigration in Korea a few weeks before you go, this makes your departure a
lot easier at the airport (no questions get asked) If the immigration
suspects you are leaving the country and breaking a contract they "can" take
your passport away and keep you there until your day in court. Work until a
Friday or Saturday what ever is your normal end of the week and fly out on a
Sunday!(the school's closed and there is no-one there to phone) Anyway our
"escape" went smoothly, I went directly from Korea to Europe where I toured
for a bit and came home via Japan. My friend also went on a months vacation
from Korea on his way home. As I said, they did pay us! We taught for three
months. I did enjoy the teaching, but I didn't enjoy being worked to death!

                   I would advise anyone interested in teaching abroad to
try it, I gained a lot of valuable teaching experience from it. Get a
contract with reasonable hours and apartment and flights medical included
(mine did include all that with the exception of reasonable hours, make sure
over-time is OPTIONAL!!!) only sign the English version, that's what I did.
Then go and experience it, there are schools out there that do follow their
contracts and treat their teachers very well. (Maybe even Wonderland
(Kwachon) does now, maybe we taught them a lesson, somehow I doubt
that!)(There are other Wonderlands it's a franchise, some pay better too!) 

                   If they are totally using and screwing you about, you
don't have to stay! If you are lucky and get a good school, I can guarantee
you would have the time of your life in Korea. I have lots of good friends
in Korea, but I'll have to wait a while before I return (5 years) as the
school black listed me with the immigration department. That's the price you
pay to keep your sanity! 

                   If anyone has any questions about Korea (Seoul area) or
teaching English there feel free to contact me: rwcairns@hotmail.com