Take Care in Korea



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Jon's Notes:

When I first arrived in South Korea in 1996, I recall the won about 750 to
the dollar.  When I left in 1997, the won reached almost 900 to the dollar. 
After I left the Korean economy exploded and it reached as high as 2100 to
the dollar.  Things have settles down and now it appears stable at 1200 or
so. 

Should the employer decide not to sign the proper legal documents to release
the foreign employee from his or her contract, the employee will not be able
to work in Korea any longer.  Should the employer for whatever reason decide
to blacklist the foreign employee, that person will not be able to enter
Korea for as I recall for a period of five years.  The foreign employee has
no legal recourse.


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Hi Jon,

I have no problems with you posting my Korean tales on your webpage.  Thanks
for considering my feelings before including it. 

Steve

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Take care in Korea: things can so easily go wrong.
After spending 4 years undergrad, and 2 years postgrad - I was so looking forward to escaping to foreign parts and experiencing another culture. I had previously been to Japan, Malaysia and Singapore... but only worked there on a short term contract - based on work experience allowance at University. I placed my adverts on every possible esl website, and had lots of interesting offers. I read every word written on the black, grey and white lists, and spoke to teachers in Korea who had, had both good and bad experiences. I settled on signing for an agency in Pusan and travelled to the city at the end of May 1997. Things did not get off to a good footing, as the position that I was promised never materialised and I had to spend my first two weeks living in a yogwan and watching my precious won slowly disappearing. Eventually a hogwan from the E2 group showed an interest in me, and I started working there after my E2 visa had been arranged and a brief trip to Japan. The school was really good, the director spoke very little English, but did not interfere at all in the teaching (as he explained that was the job that I had studied to do) and was actually very strict on classroom behaviour - which meant that there were lots of well behaved children who wanted to study English, and who where aware of the severe punishments for not following classroom rules. The flat where I was living was old but fully equipped and comfortable, the Korean teachers where friendly and wanted to interact with the foreign teachers, he paid on time and only charged 3% tax (other teachers that I met where paying 7-10%). It was like a dream, but all too quickly it turned into a nightmare. The economy crashed and at the end of 1997 Mr Park, the director at E2 went bankrupt. He sold on the school and business as a going concern and Mr Lee (a member of the JEL franchise) took over. He promised the earth and delivered hell. The first thing that he did was moved all his students from his old school into our school. These students where, to use a term suitable for printing, monsters - they neither cared about studying English or for the property around the classrooms - and pretty soon the building was wrecked, with grafitti everywhere, and posters and pictures torn off the walls. Mr Lee had no interest in taming these children, and pretty soon all of the excellent E2 students signed off their books and went to more serious hogwans. The pay reduced from 1.5m won to 1.2m won and tax increased to 7%.... and pretty soon there was an ongoing flow of teachers (both Korean and foreign) arriving and departing the employment of the school. Pay dates became eratic and I heard that each teacher who left never recieved their last months pay, housing deposits (500,000 won) and contracted bonuses (1 months salary plus flight to any location). Moral was low and hours long (I was working 6 days a weeks and an average of 45 hours) as teachers became scarce. Eventually it all became too much and after 9 months I had to move on. This was easier said than done, as although I found a job in a local elementary school - Mr Lee would not sign my letter to consent that I could be released from my contract - and I had no option but to leave Korea. Like others I put down the experience to bad luck on my part, but although I have the excellent memories from E2, have the fears inside of JEL - which means that I will probably never return to Korea. Yes there are some excellent schools out there, but those bad hogwans are more widely available - and will continue to be so. If you plan on working in Korea... take care as things can so easily go wrong.