I figure I should update you on my recent adventures into the dank, sweaty wilds of Korea. Some things are the same, some different. I could show you some pictures of the native women I took but they weren't developed. It's okay, I'll take some more in a couple years. An old Groucho Marx joke. Sure wouldn't get away with that nowadays! Not even in Korea! Which is one of the things that has changed the most. The Me Too movement has caught on. The recent gay pride parade had fewer protestors than ever. Koreans are getting more worldly and woke all the time. As for the ESL industry, in some ways, like ESL teachers' salaries, it's a virtual time capsule of the way things were as far back as 1997 when I first arrived. In other ways, like the price for an hour of ESL teaching, things have greatly advanced! The one word explanation for that - middlemen. Recruiters and ESL businesses, like Carrot, who find teachers and people who want teachers then hook them up have insinuated themselves into an ESL environment where they weren't needed and have created few if any advantages for the student, lots of disadvantages for the teachers and soaked up 100% of the rise in ESL rates.
A little ditty about what it's like to work for one of these uber-hagwons: I may not have shared this because I was worried about my job, but I think now I'm in the clear. Nobody from work reads my blog. And the 5 people who do won't tell them. If you look at their webpage, you can see some pretty impressive clients where Carrot Global has loads of teachers teaching executives one-on-one like I'm presently doing at SKhynix. Press the "more" icon and the list gets even MORE impressive. These are all ESL jobs that in 1997 companies like Mcdonald's, 3M, Lotte, Doosan, Hyundai, Samsung, GM, Starbucks, Nike, LG, Korean Air, and so on and so forth, could have easily advertised and a guy like me could have easily found, applied for and landed. No extra expense required for the company, no extra hassles for the teacher, and cheaper for the customer. But since the government has required Master's degrees or F visas for people to teach at these businesses (or more accurately, they have started cracking down on foreigners without Masters' or F visas who are teaching for them) a Korean entrepreneur was needed to see the viable niche of a Korean company, run by Korean people, making extra money from Korean clients, to hire foreigners without Masters', and sometimes without F visas, to work for THEM and then illegally put them to work for clients like Mcdonald's, 3M, Doosan, Hyundai, Samsung.....
The contract I signed had a false address, false workplace, false hours, false dates and left out some pretty important details. Standard for a Korean ESL contract. All I did was make sure it included in it that I would receive reimbursement for my Japanese visa run (which, if you'll remember, was a month and a half late) and severance pay. It only took Carrot 8 months to pay me the visa run pay that I was promised before I started work June first of 2018, and I still haven't received my severance pay even though my first contract finished three weeks ago. But I trust they will pay me. THIS is one area Carrot is good. Not prompt or timely, but they pay.
At any rate, the contract mentioned that there would be some "content" expected from the teachers. We all contributed some of our own lessons between June and December and I didn't mind that. I didn't like the texts enough to use them much so I used a lot of my own material. Also, I contributed a couple lessons for the textbook for the final quarter of the year. I was not informed until the last minute that I would be partially responsible for providing the texts for the next year. That's 4 texts with 25 lessons each. 100 lessons. I was to go into Seoul, to the offices of Carrot Global, sit at a computer that they would provide (the ones Carrot provided in our office are all SHYTE) and bang away for 8 hours a day producing lessons. It takes at least an hour and a half to get to the office from where I lived at the time so that's 3 hours of wasted commute time every day plus 8 hours at a desk. There's no wonder I wasn't informed of this at contract time or at any time after until it was time to do it!
But I was not game. I had my own internet, my own computer and I could see no reason why I couldn't just stay at home and do it. I talked to my supervisor and he said I had to do it or I could just not work for the whole month. We had a long telephone conversation at the beginning of which he said he'd ask his superior if I could work from home and at the end of which he said that he had told me 100 times that he'd already asked his superior and he said that I couldn't work from home. I told him many reasons why it would be better for everybody if I did but I was called a trouble maker and a complainer for doing so. I even told my supervisor I had a medical reason why I couldn't do it. That was ignored or not believed. See at the time I was unable to go more than an hour without rushing to the toilet. I've since found that that was caused by diabetes, but at the time, you can see how two 90 minute commutes a day that were entirely unnecessary were just not gonna happen for me. I also told him that I could whip up a lesson in half an hour on my own computer with which I was very comfortable. No way could I do that with one of the Carrot computers! And after our phone call was finished, I did exactly that. The lesson was entitled "Why Working From Home is More Than Just a Trend." Trends was one of three topics we had to use. Hilariously, the lesson appears in the Q2 textbook, the one we're using now and I tell my students this story before I teach it.
In the lesson it talks about how people who work from home are more productive, less stressed, better rested, they call in sick less, quit less, don't commute so save fuel and reduce traffic, save the company real estate costs (like offices and computers), it's the wave of the future with automation coming, technology is making it easier and easier, most people would be willing to sacrifice something like wages to work from home, and a few other things, most of which I had brought up in the conversation with the supervisor and were taken as "trouble-making" or "complaining." I didn't even include that I could do the work in my underwear, listening to music and drinking beer! Which I fucking DID!
I thought about it for a few days, applied for a few kids' camps, found one that wanted me, then told my supervisor I'll just not work for the whole month. But requested a letter of release so I could teach at a kids English camp during that time. I had already booked 7 days off during this time because a) I suspected some double-cross like this was up and b) I wanted more than one day off for Christmas/New Year's. So I actually had two weekends in there and ended up with 11 days off. I only had to work 3 days from Dec. 15-17, then had my 11 days off including Christmas, then had to work the last week of the year. But I said, "Nah, just give me the whole month off."
The next day I got a call from HR. A girl named Heather I think. She said they needed me to do the book. I couldn't have the whole month off. But I told her that my supervisor had told me I could. She said he shouldn't have told me that. So I said he's telling me things that are against company policy? That was downplayed. I said to her that I already had a camp that wanted me. So she launches into how it is illegal for them to give me a full month off on an E-2 visa or some crap like that. I calmly said that we both know my whole job is illegal so let's not pretend that's the reason why you want me to go into the office. She agreed. I said it's because the supervisor doesn't want me to. But I don't want to cancel on the camp. Let's see if we can both do something we don't want to do and make this work. So she immediately suggested I work from home. They never had a problem with that nor were they asked by my supervisor if I could. So we agreed. Also I told them I had made a doctor's appointment so I could only work 2 1/2 days of the first three. All was agreed.
I was expected to do 3 or 4 lessons a day. In my 2.5 days I did something like 16 or 17 and everybody was super impressed! So much so that the other teachers were told that THEY could stay at home and make THEIR lessons too! They did and were very productive. In the second week I did some online travel curriculum. 20 lessons in the week. Every day I finished by noon.
I was told by one of my students here that Carrot charged him 85,000 won per lesson. That's pretty close to 100 bucks Canadian. I don't know how much SKhynix pays but it's probably up there. I have 13 students. If ONLY my students used my lessons that'd be 22,000 bucks I earned for Carrot. But there are several teachers here using my lessons. They may also be included in the textbooks for other locations. To say nothing of my travel curriculum! And don't forget the other lessons I've used and Carrot claimed as my "content." I might have made the company enough to pay my yearly salary many times over for all I know. Plus I dragged my supervisor kicking and screaming into the advent of making these texts from home that will save the company untold amounts of money and hassle! He's probably going to take credit for that at the next supervisor's meeting too. Add to that a year of never being late or absent and getting superior evaluations from students. Not only that but other than my supervisor, I am the only person in the office or teaching staff that has been here over a year. Second in seniority in under a year! So when it came time to negotiate a new contract I felt I should get some recognition.
"Same salary," I was told. I replied, "Will I get severance?" They had to wait a couple weeks to give me that answer. Nope. So I would actually be making considerably less than last contract since severance is 1/12 of your salary extra. I was able to negotiate a little higher salary but no severance. And now that I have to pay rent on the apartment, yeah, I'll be making less. An E-2 contract requires the employer to provide acceptable accommodation. I'm not so sure the dorms I was in qualified. Three guys to a room, no stove or washing machine. No I'm certain I did Carrot a favour putting up with those accommodations for the full year. Did they offer to pay for even part of my rent? No. And I've since discovered that they DO pay rent for at least one of the other teachers! WITHOUT an E-2 visa!
But I made the mistake of getting the apartment before signing the new contract. And since I still haven't yet totally solidified my next 6 months at immigration, they are still trying to get more out of me. Offering me new classes ON THE WEEKEND. I got news of a new class today, THAT STARTED TODAY. In the absolute worst slot in my schedule. But I taught the class and changed the time. I certainly won't tell anyone I did that!
This is all because, despite making the company a ton of money, making the supervisor look good, providing lots of lessons the students like and making things generally better around here, the supervisor hates me because I'm a "complainer" and a "trouble-maker."
THAT'S what it's like working for one of these places.
Having said that, it's been pretty good. I've socked away more than ever before, the workload is pretty low and I like my students. No marking or assignments. Yet. If Carrot gets the next contract, I'm ready to sign on for another year too! I'll work here till they boot me out. If that's scotch in that proverbial glass, it's a double, right? How's that for lowered expectations? Remember that old Mad TV staple?
You know, there are probably lots of good things you could say about this lady! She likes sucking on things. Not an expensive dinner date. Easy to buy gifts for. She's a peach!
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