Drawing the Line

So I've gotten sick of Dr. Lee's remarks in meetings about my appearance. At first it didn't seem like a big deal. "We're so glad to have a beautiful woman on our staff now" was easy to brush off and just attribute it to ignorance, but the remarks have continued. He makes a lot of inappropriate remarks to the trainees and many may think it's funny.

However, this is a country where sexual harassment is rampant and I think part of that is because women brush off the casual remark, which could be complimentary. But that's how they get painted into a corner. I thought it was particularly weird, when our director at KNUE urged some younger trainees to try to be more attractive for one of the trainers. This trainer caused a scandal some time ago when he started a romance with one of his students and then dumped her. She was devastated and there was a big brouhaha when her brother came to school to call the trainer out.

With that in mind, I wrote and sent the following:

Dear Dr. L,

Although you may think you're just being grandfatherly when you comment on my appearance or that of the trainees, in most professional organizations, remarks on women's appearance or any jokes like "This is my love letter to you," are considered extremely unprofessional.

This may just be your humor and style. I do want you to know that remarks of this nature should stop as far as I'm concerned. They're just unprofessional.

I hope that's all I need to say.

Regards,

SK

Next I have to see if he's going to sit in on class today. That's got to stop too. He can come back when he's seen 5 hours of all the other teacher's classes.

From the archive, October 2010.

N.B. He stopped for about 2 days and started up again.

Found this Email I wrote

Dear Dr. Lee,

I feel I should be honest about the apartment. I find it so hard to live in such a dark, dirty room. I was so surprised, shocked in fact, when I first saw it because the condition of the old, uncomfortable fixtures and furnishes, is so far below what I've had in Japan, Sogang, China or even Indonesia, which is a Third World country. I just was to shocked to speak up, but now as I see that living in it is making me so sad, I feel I need to say something.

Can I move to the student dorms? Is there another place on campus that's any better?

I have attached photos of my teacher housing in China. I can get a colleague to send a picture of the bedroom if you'd like. I can also collect photos of other Korean teachers' on campus housing to see where we stand.

I just think that by offering, simple, yet clean rooms, it makes us feel respected and helps us contribute to the further success of the KNUE program.

I'd like to speak with you on Friday briefly about a solution.

Sincerely,

Susan

Where to Work?

For my money, as an English language teacher, I'd avoid working in Korea since all the governments of English speaking countries receive so many complaints about workplaces that take advantage of their teachers. Maybe there are a few good schools, but you can do the same work and save as much, probably more, money by working in another Asian country.

Here are some of my reasons:

1. Obtaining a visa is now a big hassle. The teacher will have to spend lots of time and money getting documents apostilled, and if you're unlucky like me your future workplace will give you the wrong information so you waste time and money going to the wrong agency in the wrong city in your state.
   
   
2. The won's value is a joke. It's very weak now. Japan's yen is strong as are other currencies.
   
   
3. The cost of living is high. Going out for a simple meal of Korean food costs nearly $15, whereas my meals in Jinan, China cost $1.50.
   
   
4. The art of management is in its infancy in Korea. They just don't know how to lead. Yelling is a favored management style. Some may have read a management book, but they don't understand the concepts or apply them.
   
   
5. The apartments are usually crap. My Korean apartments, in Seoul and the countryside, were tiny. The one at Korea National University of Education in Gangnae was dirty and the furnishings would be rejected by a second hand store. You'd think they'd realize they should clean an apartment for a new teacher or that a college educated person, or any person would want a comfortable chair to sit in. These squalid apartments just show that the management thinks the teachers are sub-human. If you do get a crappy apartment, leave the job immediately. This is a sign. Every aspect of the job will be crappy.
   
   On the other hand, in China, Japan and Indonesia my apartments were furnished humanely with new furnishings and appliances on par with what the typical middle class worker had. Now I grant you we had problems, lots of them with the Indonesian house, but it was as nice or nicer than what our Indonesian colleagues lived in.
   
   
6. Right now there's a lot of xenophobia in the Hermit Kingdom. A friend who's married to a Korean and has biracial children told me that, "It's becoming more and more clear that foreigners are regarded as a necessary evil." An insightful professor from America was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education as saying that Korea's push for globalization is actually driven by nationalism. That sounds ironic, but what it means is that Korea wants to appear international so it can continue to tell itself that Korea is the best.
   
   
7. Unlike in the other countries I've worked in, when I arrived in Korea this last time the orientation for teachers was dreadful. Usually, there's a cordial walking tour of the whole campus, followed by a trip to the bank, grocery store, and post office. Of course, is normally picked up upon arrival. In Gangnae, I had to beg 5 times and offer to pay the secretary myself to get picked up after traveling 12 hours by plane and 2 by bus.
   
   
8. There are few good travel opportunities in Korea and traveling internationally can be expensive. In Japan and China, I never ran out of festivals to see or temples to visit. The cultures were vibrant. Korean culture just didn't do much for me. You can test this out by reading some books on the country. I now have promised myself to only work in countries that have one a Nobel Prize in literature. That's my sign that the country has enough sophistication to interest me. I need more than a steady flow of beer. I like to see and explore. There isn't much worth seeing in Korea.
   

So my advice is to teach elsewhere as it'll be more profitable and interesting. You'll probably be treated better.

On My First Days at a Bad Job

Sadly, I don't think I've ever felt this much culture shock or disrespect in my life. Other than meeting one other new teacher, who's very friendly, this has been a bad experience.

I did get my visa on Monday. That morning I had more or less decided not to come, because the school said they wouldn't pay for a change fee from the airlines. Also, I've heard too many lectures on the virtues of not quitting. Please.

The school did say they would pick me up at the bus station. That took 5 requests from me.

When I got to the bus station after 26 hours of travel, no one was there. After about 30 minutes two people showed up: the Coordinator, and new teacher from Australia. The new teacher took my heavier bags and whispered he knew what I was going through and warned against saying what I felt. Good advice and what I normally do as I'm not as assertive as I think I should be. During that 30 minute wait, I toyed with the idea of just going back to the airport.

Anyway, when I got to my apartment I was shocked. It looked like a hovel, furnished with cast off chairs and dilapidated cupboards. It's 80 degrees here and there's no air conditioning. We didn't have any pots, pans, dishes, glasses -- nothing to cook with. Not even a cup. Unlike Jinan, where we always had some food and a clean, spacious apartment, we got the less than the minimum, which considering that I was to work the next day made settling in tough.

The other teacher's place was worse. It was filthy with dust and syrup spilled through the shelving long ago and no one wiped it up. He had to spend 7 hours when he first got here making his place inhabitable. That's after 12+ hours of travel.

There's no phone service even for on campus calls.

I know that educated fully employed Koreans don't live like this, but it's okay for us to. How demeaning.

The rest of the staff consists of 5 people who've been here for years and seem, if their own words are any indication, like a bunch of [deleted] who don't care much about teaching. If you're a sloth you'd love this job.

A lot of them smoke and do that in X's office. On his first day, he went to his desk and it was covered with ash. All the desks in that area were. In fact, under the loose ash, there was gray, ground in cigarette ash. That took a long time to clean. He's probably on the outs with his new peers since he's requested everyone stop smoking in the room where smoking is prohibited anyway.

I'd like to get a different apartment, but I heard the other teachers' apartments are worse, which is hard to believe. There's really nothing off campus that I can see nearby. Besides the school does not provide a housing allowance in lieu of their run down ones.

Tomorrow I'm going to Seoul just to avoid my squalid apartment.

I did teach today and like my students. I have three groups for writing each was split with my two colleagues each absorbing half of mine. They don't seem comfortable collaborating so I inherited two groups who learned different things. So the first few days will be spent clearing up lots of confusion.

Originally written in Sept. 2010