Up for some more insanely early morning blogging. It's usually 4 AM, but today I got an extra hour of sleep and it was after 5 before I realized I wouldn't be getting any more sleep, I hauled my arse outta bed and put the coffee on the boil.
It's my last week of work here at Gongju Gongju University. I say that with the assumption that I won't be renewing my contract for another year - an assumption that is becoming safer and safer. Yes, sit back, caffeinate, and strap in for another of Uncle Davey's tales of woe from the Korean education racket.
This point in a contract, the point at which I've pretty much decided it's not worth the effort of even trying any more, usually comes with a night of heavy drinking and option contemplation, sometimes with a good friend, and a blogpost. A blogpost in which details that have been heretofore withheld with an eye toward preserving my employment, are no longer withheld.
The diabolical villains in this story, the powers that be at Gongju Dae, probably believe I am like my predecessor and don't know I'm being taken advantage of here. The weakness in the teaching profession that is so oft taken advantage of in the Korean education scheme is niceness. Who wants their kids learning from a teacher who isn't nice? Right? But "nice" is no different from "stupid" to the cream of the business world who have trod on the "nice" educators and cheated their ways to the top of this racket they euphemistically call education over here. It is with little dysphemism (if any at all) that I refer to it as a "racket" all the time. It might more accurately be called a "scam" if you really investigate the summer-weekend-kimchi-garbage putrid, smelly workings of its underbelly. Which I have.
Take Gongju Dae... PLEASE! Badum - BUM!
I knew it was going to be a slog when I signed on. Being at the school from 9-6 (or in breach of contract 9-7) every day, sitting in the office doing jack shit when there is no teaching to be done; having to BE at the school for teaching even though it was almost entirely online and would more easily have been done at home (which is what the teachers in the regular English program were doing); working virtually 3 months of the semester break instead of visiting friends and taking it easy (which is what the teachers in the regular English program were doing); hoping I wouldn't get any students coming in for the bogus "counseling" part of my job and being forced to playact my way toward the legitimization of THAT scam someone else had put on my plate and offered me exactly zero extra money for doing; living in a shitty but expensive apartment that I only chose due to its proximity to the school knowing I'd be back and forth several times a day once I got the mandatory office hours dropped (which I did); and knowing that I had, without a doubt, the worst paying uni/college job in Korea. I can't even find a hagwon job that pays worse to be honest.
But I originally got the job as a stop-gap source of Covid era employment. I was hoping by the end of the year, or rather the 11 months, we'd be through the pandemic and if I could accentuate the positive and try to eliminate the negative for 11 months, I'd come out the other end in better shape. There WERE positives! No grades, no posting on the LMS or even worse the school portal, no students crying the blues about grades, really GREAT international students, I even made some friends who liked to BBQ and play card games and board games. The walks in the park were great. Gongju wasn't all bad. Here's a post from the very beginning, just before I got the ridiculous mandatory office hours removed.
How 'bout THAT for positive accentuating, eh? Just look at that schedule! What a waste of time! Now, some of you might think I sound like a guy with a Virginia ham under each arm complaining that I don't have any sandwich bread. But if you calculate what I was making for all the hours I was at work, it works out to a little less than minimum wage. Here's the post from when I got thoroughly fed up with the desk warming and decided to do something about it. It has some stuff in there about a problem I was having with my credit card too, but it'll give you the gist. However, since then I have discovered what it was that made this desk warming so important to the person who I'm pretty sure was the main beneficiary of it, a Mr. Park. Boy that narrows it down doesn't it? You see, at the meeting we had to talk about the bullshit "office hours," Mr. Park slammed his fist on the table, stood up and yelled, "They are necessary! They are necessary!" I have since learned why they were so important (and I will superfluously add) and profitable to him.
Much like the SEC, the regulating body for American banks and financial institutes, was down to a single employee at the height of the dysphemistic derivative scam that is euphemistically called the "financial crisis" of 2008, if there is a governing body of checks and balances within the Korean education system, it's gotta be hugely understaffed. For the past couple of generations, nothing has been more important than education to Korean parents. It's a weakness akin to the niceness of teachers that the dysphemistic asshole con artists and/or the euphemistic "savvy businessmen" all see as a veritable BO NAN ZA of cash.
I remain a little optimistic, or perhaps more accurately stupidly positive about the government of Korea. They may actually be trying to encourage a legitimate education system here by routing a lot of tax money into it. But once it's in the hands of the institutions, which, if you remember, are largely peopled with the cream of the business world who've trod on the nice educators and cheated their ways to the top, the funding ends up LOOKING like it's going into beneficial programs like the international department at Gongju Dae, when, in all likelihood, here is what's happening:
Students from countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Cambodia, and other places far behind Korea economically, and their parents, see things like part time employment and English counseling being made available to their kids by Korean schools if they go there. The government of Korea provides a lot of funding to support such programs. The universities that provide these things receive a higher ranking, and therefore MORE government funding, when they provide such things. The funding is assumed to go to the counselors and international students when in fact what you get is a situation like I had this past 10 months. The English counselor was just a teacher with no training, education or experience in counseling whatsoever. But that's okay because he received none of the government money. Even though he was the one expected to fill out forms and make them look like something a legitimate counselor had filled out. Not to mention sit in an empty office for hours and hours every day just waiting for a student who needed counseling to pop in.
As for the students, they actually WERE given jobs. Being from economically disadvantaged countries, it is shocking what they will accept for the part time job as receptionist for the counselor in the International Department. I'm sure it varies greatly from what the Korean government would provide for all the international students who had these part time jobs. Leaving, you guessed it, enough extra to be pocketed by the scamsters in charge of the whole deal that when that whole deal was eliminated, it made at least one of said scamsters angry enough to bang his fist on a table and shout, "It is necessary! It is necessary!"
It also made said scamster angry enough to do whatever he could to make the offending educator regret crossing him. What, you might ask, has been done to make my life difficult as punishment for costing the scamster his nice cottage industry at this supposedly educational institution? Well, the list is what makes me pretty sure I won't be returning for another year here.
To begin with, Hyo Jung, who was a good supervisor and made me a good schedule, was replaced by "Anne," which is only her nickname. She is a young, Korean girl who is anxious to prove that she is tough, competent and smart enough to compete in the savage business world. Only she isn't. The first thing Anne did was give me extra classes at the end of December. Hyo Jung's schedule, and the actual semester, ended in early to mid December. Anne promptly filled that up with extra student classes (made up of students who had actually requested my class) and, you guessed it, "counseling." Not online counseling, mind you! No, I was being irresponsibly forced to go into the office for entire days every Monday waiting for international students who wanted face-to-face counseling at the height of a global pandemic. Of course none ever showed and they knew none would show. It was petty revenge.
I DID get a 10-day break between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2. Unfortunately, Dec. 27th was a Monday. I had to go in to "counsel." Then in January I had to teach some more. I showed Anne the schedule I had during July and asked if she could make a schedule that wasn't so obviously designed to waste my time. Not in so many words, but I asked for something better. I also asked if I could please have the 27th off. She feigned a nervous helplessness and told me that she didn't have the power or importance to ask the higher ups for a day off for me. And she gave me a schedule almost as crappy. Here's the blog post in which I describe Dec. 27th and I include the "improved" schedule Anne made me. It was a tiny bit better, but still included two days a week during which I teach until 7 PM, which is a breach of my contract. Also, I am not just teaching my fellow professors and administrative staff like I was in July. Again, due to demand, I also have several students' classes. The students' levels are far below the faculty and admin making it necessary to create special lessons for them. I mean there are a couple who could use phonic practice. So this pretty much doubled my prep time. And let me remind you, this is all extra work during the semester break. I am neither breaking, nor getting paid extra. SOMEbody's getting money for all of this, just not the person who designs and teaches all the classes. Not a great deal.
Was that all Anne did to make things difficult at the end of this contract? Not at all! One of the last things Hyo Jung did before leaving me at the mercy of Anne was ask me to sign a form indicating my intention to sign on for another year. She told me the school needed it. I told her that I wasn't going to say yes or no until I saw a contract. I wanted to make some adjustments, as you can imagine. She said that was fine.
Well just yesterday, Anne tried to use that against me saying I had PROMISED to work another year. "Everything was settled, you need to honour your promise." You know, the kind of thing the employee, but not the employer, is expected to do. Even if it is complete horseshit. This was after my drinking and contemplation session. It was also after Anne told me that in my new contract I would be expected to provide "counseling" to all students, not just international students. I said to her that day, "It seems like it's always more and more work for me, but no more money. Will I get paid for the extra counseling?" Her answers were so simplistic I felt like I was talking to a child. "This is not extra work," she said. I pointed out that I had reservations about these "counseling" sessions and had asked for them to be removed before. Instead they are being increased. She still pretended to not understand how counseling more students equated to more work. I pedantically explained that to her (eye roll) then she downshifted into "Oh, no, it's not really counseling. It's more just spending time with students. Socializing. Maybe helping correct grammar." So I then asked why I needed the official counseling forms they had given me and why somebody seemed to think it was so necessary to include it in my schedule. Any good teacher does that, it doesn't have to be in the schedule. And why, I asked, was it necessary to block hours of time in my office waiting for the students to come to me? Why can't we give them a phone number and email and arrange online counseling in these times of social distancing? More simplistic responses that didn't even qualify as arguments. It is exhausting talking with this person!
So she ends up asking why I had changed my mind about the contract. Why did I agree to Hyo Jung and not to her? She actually said, "It's the same contract," minutes after offering me an alteration to the contract. It shows you how much actual respect there is for the contract here. Almost everywhere in this industry really. So I went down the list.
"How about this door that has been broken the whole time I've been here and I have asked for it to be fixed and nothing has been done. Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to struggle with that door so I can get into my office. And what about the OTHER door. The main door to the building. It's been broken almost as long. I've actually been locked inside the building because of that one." I didn't allow any stupid reply. I continued, "How about the extra student classes that require me to make extra lessons? How about the 150 pages of website editing that didn't require editing you gave me to do for no pay? The translation of the same pages into Chinese was paid for, wasn't it? Don't even lie to me, I know it was. How about your scheduling of several meetings, always at times when I was not in the office, requiring an extra trip only to find out you wanted to talk about corrections that you thought needed to be made to those 150 pages, that were complete nonsense? How about questioning whether I did the editing, THEN questioning the quality of it? How about the fact that I've had 3 supervisors in 10 months? Nothing has changed... How about being promised severance pay and then being told I had to work another year if I wanted any? There have been a LOT of changes and if I sign on for another year, I'm sure there will be many more. NONE of them good!"
I wrote her a letter explaining what I expected and why, if I were to work another year here. She said she would give it to the appropriate people a week ago. I asked her why she was trying to negotiate. I said she still hasn't given it to the people who will understand it and who will be able to negotiate. She replied that it was too long. They don't want to read that. I said that YES, they do. Please give it to them. I was saying a lot of this while walking out of my office and being followed by her. It ended with her at the top of the hill going to her office and me at the bottom going to my apartment. She was yelling stupid things and I was yelling, without turning around to look at her, "Give them the letter. Give them the letter." That night when I went back to teach my contract breaking 6-7 class, the door to my building was closed and locked for the first time since the summer. Coincidence? I think not. Luckily, my student cancelled because she was sick.
So you can see why I say the assumption that I won't be working another year at Gongju University is pretty safe. I could probably put the letter into the hands of the appropriate parties, but with the doubt I have of the honesty here, and the certainty I have that another year here would only be even MORE hellish, I don't think I'll even bother. Here is the letter for what it's worth:
Contract Renewal Requests
It’s that time of year again: contract renewal time. I first have to thank everybody in the department for a pretty good year. It is my hope that we have almost survived the pandemic, and that was my immediate goal when signing on here at Gonju Dae. My long-term goal is to continue teaching here, but that will require some changes in my contract.
I agreed to the stipulations of my original contract with the full understanding that it had major issues that made it worse than any contract I’d signed to that point. I was thankful that we could adjust the contract slightly in July to make it more bearable. We did it once, I think we can do it again.
I am not requesting any more salary for the year. The 2 million/month and 300,000 won housing allowance have been enough for me to pay my bills thought it is the bare minimum for a university position in Korea. However, during every other university/college contract I’ve completed, including Gongju Dae in Cheonan, I have either had the semester break off, or I have been paid, over and above my regular salary, to do extra work during that time. I don’t know of any university/college in the country where that is not the case. The extra money during semester breaks, or vacation time, have always been my favourite parts of teaching in Korea. I would like to have one or the other written into my new contract here. Either vacation during semester breaks, or extra pay for the extra work. My first contract here included about 3 months of semester break teaching for which I received no extra pay. I agreed to that last year, but would like to change that arrangement for my new contract. (If we negotiate and decide on vacation for the full semester break, I would also request a letter of permission to work at other schools for extra money.)
My second request is very simple: I would really like it if we could maintain a relationship of honesty and reasonableness. In almost every relationship that lacks these two things, money is the cause. I don’t feel like I have been openly dealt with in regards to the “counseling” that has been part of the contract. Now you are requesting an expanded “counseling” role. I have no problem meeting with students who want to socialize or ask for help writing a paper in English or even just have a coffee. That has been an understood and unspoken part of all of my teaching positions and I have done it everywhere I’ve taught, including here in Gongju. It seems suspicious to me that it is so important to somebody here at Gongju Dae to have this written into my contract. 30 hours a month of it with no extra pay goes beyond suspicious to unreasonable. We really need to clarify the “counseling” issue in my new contract.
And staying with reasonable and unreasonable, I also have no problem helping out with editing jobs here and there, attending meetings, participating in school events and things such as these within reason. This is another thing I have done everywhere I have taught. Coaching the swim team for two hours after class every day; daily meetings; teaching the head of the department’s kids for free; editing long theses (or websites) for free; these, I think we should be able to agree, are not reasonable things to request or demand from an employee.
I would very much like to avoid including a “reasonableness clause” in the new contract. Please tell me this will not be necessary.
I am hoping we can come up with a way for me to work a third year at Gongju University. If you have a counter offer, we still have time to negotiate. If you choose to offer me the same contract as last year, I will understand. Either way, it would be best to come to an understanding soon, so that we can either begin the visa process for another year of work here, or so that I can accept other offers of employment. My preference would be the former, of course.
I hope we can come to an agreement in a timely manner.
Sincerely, David MacCannell.
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