Quan: money, family, friends, community. The whole package.
I am sitting at home now. It's 14:34. I thought I'd be at the pool today between 14:00 and 15:00. Our school meeting ran late.
Hagwon Hell is a syndrome. It passes. It's a rollercoaster here, and sometimes you want to get off. If you stick around, if you stay on long enough to get through some of the loop de loops, the ride gets better. Rough patches are part of the process, and they just need to be identified and endured if they cannot be changed.
I went from school to the doctor to fetch the labwork but ended up just sitting there and wasting time. I finally asked them to fax the school and then left. Too bad I didn't email the instructions instead of going there myself today. I've basically blown the chance to train, and I really need to clear the depressing debris from my body and mind today. Breathe.
Today I heard that teachers next term who teach the Winter Vacation Class, which is just an hour extra a day, stand to receive W250 000 (R1 350)extra each month. I've worked for the school for just short of three years, taught countless of these classes and now that I'm leaving they're offering all these incentives? In my first or second year I asked them about incentives and they seemed amused. So we worked more or less for the same pay. How things change.
Halfway through this year I asked for a raise (because in fact despite being at the school for 3 consecutive years my salary has basically remained the same) and their argument was: we don't want to upset the other teachers by giving you more, and we can't change your contract. Thanks, buddy.
It would take an epic journey through Hagwon World to find another school capable of providing more incentives than mine to be disloyal. Actually, that's probably not true. If you go across the road you'll find schools who don't pay their teachers on time, or don't pay them at all, or fire them when they run out of money...
Why on earth do some people not see the win/win in rewarding loyalty?
On the upside it makes the process of leaving a more definite step forward, onward, and upward - to something better. If I find myself back in Korea, I'm going to make a serious attempt to get into the Public School system, or land a university job. It's a very old cliche, but 99% of Hagwon's are run by rogues only able to use half of one side of their malfunctioning brains. The mentality goes something like this: push people around, treat them unfairly as long as you get bang for your buck, get rich as quick as you can because soon it may be over, and do it because everyone else is and you can get away with it. Oh, and try not to forget that the whole business has got something to do with...what was it again...Education...I think math...oh, sorry, English. Yes, we're teaching your children English, that's what we're doing.
Hey, if it was that bad, none of us would be here, would we?
I'm running a bit low, it seems to me, on the Quan. But I have resolved not to be miserable, ha ha. Today is payday and the second half of my air ticket (money originally agreed to be paid in January) is due today. That's something that may turn the growls into sunny smiles.
Show! Me! The! Money!
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