It's a gamble confronting anyone, especially your superior, but anyone who basically has some power over you is an especially tricky proposition. I'll explain in more detail why I wrote this letter a little later. He wasn't at school today so I haven't had a response just yet.
My colleagues, some of them more than others, already have a track record of being treated less than fairly. Sey for example was very unhappy, and Jane who has just started working says that he does not talk in the respectful language that most Koreans use when adults talk to other adults. She said, for example that he says "hesoh", which is how you would speak to a child, asking: "Did you do that?" The correct and proper way is to say: "Hesoyoh" or "hesomnika".
She said that his education was in a military type setting, I'm not sure what the nature of the education actually was, but it does seem to explain the sort of brash top down approach. I know when he gave me my air ticket, he virtually tossed it at me with an 'off you go'. When I tried to explain the times were wrong, he kind've brushed me aside as though I was an annoying fly. I hope this doesn't sound like whining. I'm trying to describe the situation here, and color it in for those who may wonder what happens here. I've pretty much accepted the situation, but that doesn't mean I don't try to resist being taken advantage of, or pushed around. I accept that I will be pushed around, and I try to develop the persona of a young sturdy tree. Not very easy to push around or uproot, but if you push hard enough I'll bend and yield a little. Of course, something that bends, when you release your grip, it tends to come back to where it was.
Some of what I have described may seem unusual, and maybe the impolite manner of treating staff is a bit of an abberation, but in general it's fair to suggest that most hagwon directors (wangjangnims - I apparently pronounce it wrong, giving the meaning of 'king' or 'prince', but if that's true then I'm glad of that irony)...I was saying most hagwon directors lack a certain business finesse, and ettiquette, to put it mildly.
The director of the other GnB school I work with (who seems very decent, and works alongside his wife in a school that seems very happy, smily, clean and neat, just seems decent, bright and cheerful) invited me to join them for lunch today. I declined, citing that I needed to change my clothes and fetch money from home before getting on to the next job. As it turned out, it was actually that I had to hand out lunch to the kids (a very messy operation), and I could have some lunch while I was at it. As you can imagine, an invitation to have lunch with other adults and being a sort of mess chef is quite a difference. Some teachers have to do this as a matter of course. I know Corneli does, and any teacher involved in kindergarten. I'm fortunate that I've never had to muck in to this level.
An interesting aside to this, was that I had to teach the kids (5-7 years old) how to make savoury snacks, and pack stuff onto crackers. I basically prepared 3 crackers by smearing them with jam (very sticky messy work), added a slice of processed cheese, then a small tomato sliced in half. I also had little pieces of bread which I spread some jam over (as I applied the jam I made unseemly farting noises, which brought the house down, and the directors wife glanced through the window at one point - I don't blame her, terrible behaviour from me), then added ham and a slice of cucumber. Delicious? Dunno, I didn't have any, but the kids had to gobble all this up, and then have lunch. Not sure why I wasn't required to just make a single cracker thingy, as a sort of appetiser for lunch. Still, it was messy fun and made me enormously happy when I realised I didn't have to prepare lunch today, nor from this day forth. I stepped outside into the sunshine and took a deep breath of the free polluted air.
One new chore I've been given this year is cleaning my classroom. It's a 5 minute job and I actually like it, because it is a sort of humbling opener to a day's teaching, and it gets me thinking to when I was a kid, looking under my chair for a pencil, a scribbled note.
A Korean software engineer/programmer I met on the airport bus last night, en route back from my trip to Japan - we had a conversation on this topic and I suggested we need more intelligent guys like him running private schools. The guys currently doing it are doing a huge disservice to the Korean community.
He said he moved to Australia in large part to get his kids out of the shabby education system here, and himself out of the ultra-competitive lifestyle. He said Australia is a lot more relaxed.
Director’s Ticket Fee: W50 000
Nick’s Expenses Japan:
2xbus trips to Incheon: W28 000 (4xW7000)
1x Japanese Visa: W32 000
Korean Visa in Japan W 60 000 (Y6000)
1xReturn Rapid ticket: W12000 (Y1200)
ID Photo W5000
Total: W137 000
W137 000 - W50 000 = W87 000
Director owes Nick: W87 000
In the future, for the next teacher the director must buy an air ticket through Asiana Airways, to return after 7pm.
Consulate hours are: 9am – 11:30am (Closed For Lunch)
13:30 – 17:00
My air ticket arrived: 11:30 Depart: 17:25!!!
Applications made after lunch can only be received after 4pm.
In Nick’s case, they made a special exception, I received visa at 15:45 and very nearly missed flight back because return was too early. The ticket times were wrong.
Nick asks that the director please communicate with him before buying tickets or making other arrangements.
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