It's the new year and I thought I'd better start off the year with a good 3 or 4 posts in Jan. I slacked off a bit toward the end of last year. I guess when the biggest problems in the world boil down to only a few things, it's harder to come up with new topics. Not that my only blog topics are the problems of the world, but they ARE the juiciest posts in my opinion.
Started the year off right with my third jab even though I was stopped (not to say accosted) on the street the day before by a fellow foreigner in Gongju and told in these exact words, "You're fucked!" that having already gotten the first two shots was a YOOOOOGE mistake.
The guy's name was Scott. I think I might have made a mistake shaking his hand out of habit when we introduced each other. I'd seen him coming out of the grocery store I was going into, then after finishing my shopping, saw him right across the road from that grocery store. I was preparing to do the polite nod... maybe. I always feel weird doing that. The only thing we have in common that we know of is our non-Korean heritage. Is that enough to warrant a greeting or am I being a bit elitist? In most cases, when you get to know a foreigner in Korea, if you speak a common language, you generally find a LOT of common experiences. The experiences of being a foreigner in Korea, though largely negative, have been at the heart of many a fine conversation, and even long term friendship for me over my many years here. Korea is nothing if not consistent in its treatment of foreigners.
There are probably a couple million foreigners in Korea. Most of them work in the manufacturing industry and I'd bet at least half are Chinese. They don't get treated or paid very well, but it sure beats staying home! This most likely has a lot to do with Korea declining to participate in the political boycott of Beijing 2022. The next largest group of foreigners in Korea are migrant workers from the economically less advantaged countries in Southeast Asia like Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, etc. Same story. They do the jobs Koreans don't want to. There are some Russians and Uzbeks in there but Korea employs about 300,000 ESL teachers and to this date, if I'm not mistaken, the largest employer of white, male foreigners in Korea is the ESL industry. The guy walking toward me was a white dude. When that is the case, in my experience, it's pretty safe to assume the person can speak English and you will be able to HAVE a conversation, and the person has had dozens of the same adventures Korea provides to visitors. So in that way, I suppose it's not very racist to say hello to certain fellow foreigners over here, but I still feel a bit dickish about it.
To be clear, I don't just say hello to foreigners. I said hello to a couple of Koreans yesterday. But it's chancy. If they are young and in a group, you expose yourself to the mooing cow reaction and the whole group just laughs at you. I don't just say hello to white, male foreigners either. Why, just the other day I saw two black ladies who looked confused, so I said hello and offered my help in English. It turned out they were from Nigeria and were looking for the bus station, which is directly across from the grocery store I first saw Scott exiting. As luck would have it, I was going to that very store on that day and offered to walk the two ladies there.
Nevertheless, the choice of to greet or not to greet this white guy was not left to me. Scott said something like, "Hey, you are a foreigner too!" so I did what Larry David might call a "stop-and-chat." When we introduced each other we shook hands, exchanged first names and workplaces and I sort of hesitated when going in for the handshake. We shook hands, but I said, "Whoops, sorry. Not a very Covid friendly thing to do." Well I guess this set him off. He launched into this long and emotional anti-vaccine diatribe... with me, a total stranger. I don't know if I give off an antivax vibe or whether that mattered one iota to old Scott at all. He just told me how "we know, we FUCKING KNOW" that these fucking vaccines are killing hundreds of thousands of people. One was his neighbour. He got a bit emotional about her. Called her beautiful and I think he had a tear in his eye when he said she died shortly after receiving a Covid shot. He told me there are websites all over the internet with facts about this, but we're all being brainwashed. So I brought up Covid deaths and asked if he thought there wouldn't be more deaths from Covid than from the vaccines. Out came the co-morbidity argument. He didn't say that, I was the one who used that term because I'd heard it before. Then I dangerously played the Devil's advocate and asked if there were co-morbidities that caused a lot of deaths credited to Covid, couldn't there have been co-morbidities that might have contributed to the deaths that he and these websites are crediting to the shots? I saw him give it a short think, (likely prepping a defense more than considering the argument) then tried to mitigate my standoffishness a bit by saying that I thought even the experts are still learning an awful lot as they go. This is a new thing and they are often asked to speak in certainties by media, when really they shouldn't be doing that if they are. In a lot of cases, the best answer is we just don't know yet. But media, and a lot of people, don't like that answer.
But he then told me he had HAD Covid and it was nothing worse than the flu. He had not received any of the shots, but FUCKING Korea was mandating it and if he didn't get them, he'd lose his job. I brought up the early vaccine passports in Israel that were for people who had received the vax OR had contracted Covid and recovered. The fact that they are not like that any more is a good example of the fluid nature of this pandemic. Since then, studies have shown that you are more than twice as likely to get Covid if you had it and recovered than if you had the vaccine. I then told him I had 2 vaccines and was going for my third the next day. That's when he told me I was fucked. He said that within about 20 years my heart would give out. So I said, "Meh. By then if I'm still alive, I probably won't want to be. So no biggie."
Oh yeah, it was about this time that an old Korean cardboard collector pushing a cart down our sidewalk was coming from behind Scott so I motioned that he should move to the side of the sidewalk and the cardboard guy said hello to me as he passed, and I said hello back. See? I'm an equal opportunity helloer.
We eventually ended the convo. It was 4:00 PM and I had to get my groceries home and go back to work for a class from 6 to 7PM. I didn't ask, but since Scott works for a university, I assume he's on semester break now and was just bumming around town. He went back toward the grocery store and I went the other way and as he said good bye he added that he hoped he wasn't in such a bad mood if we should run into each other again. About half way home I was walking down the street and saw Scott cross my street about a half block in front of me. I guess he had done a U-turn and was now going in the same direction as me. I reached the street he was on and he was ahead of me. I crossed the street, then immediately he looked back and also crossed the street. He continued on the street and I took a right hand turn off the street and didn't see him again. When I told him where I work, he asked about a guy I know and if he's still working there. I should ask that guy about him because when I told him I knew him, Scott said that he is, "no longer a member of that social circle."
Aside from that intrigue, the reason I bring him up is that he has a better job than I do. He probably makes more money, he probably gets the semester break off, or gets paid extra to do extra work during semester breaks, and he probably isn't forced to do bogus "counseling," which is Gongju U. code for desk-warming. He doesn't have to work till 7 either I bet. That's against my contract. I established that at a meeting with all of the deans and heads of all of the English departments. But they couldn't give a hunk of shit. I'm doing it again for a month.
To be fair, I DID bring it up as a breach of contract they had committed when they tried to use the contract as a reason to have me sit in my office even when I didn't have class. I said that even though it's against the contract, I'd still do it, so even though going home between classes might be against the contract, could I do it anyway? They've been good about that, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I'm working till 7 two nights a week this month.
I have ANOTHER new supervisor too! That's 3 in less than a year! Her name is Anne and she has only been doing it since the end of the semester about half way through December. Her English is better than my 2nd semester supervisor, Hyo Jung, but not as good as my first supervisor, Pyeong Hwa. I already miss Hyo Jung. I liked her and her English was not THAT bad. She was the only one who made me a decent schedule. I actually LIKED the schedule she made. Here's the sched I have now:
This may not look so bad to the untrained eye. "Why, you don't teach until 10 AM!" one might exclaim. "Golly, it's only 16 hours a week!" one might interject. "It's a swell schedule! Why, you finish at 3 on Thursday and Friday!" one might ejaculate. And those points are all fine and dandy - until you find out that I'm doing this all pretty much for free. You see, university teachers in Korea are paid with funding from the government to teach during the semester. The semester break is sometimes filled up by the universities, but (and this is the best part about teaching at universities here) you get paid over and above your regular wages. Extra pay for extra work. I did teacher training at Hankuk Uni of Foreign Studies for extra pay. I did teacher training at Mokpo National U for extra pay. I did kids classes and adult classes at Chonnam National U for extra pay. I did lots of extra teaching at universities that I didn't even work for with permission from my employer during semester breaks FOR EXTRA PAY. Usually really GOOD extra pay. Average was almost a million a week. Dongshin U, Konkuk U, GIST, Wooseok U, Myeongji U, Dongguk U, and maybe some I've forgotten. I have browsed employment offers from probably 100 universities in Korea and they all offer extra pay for extra work during semester break. If not, you get the break as paid holidays.
I was even offered extra pay for extra hours judging English speaking contests during the semester break AT GONGJU UNIVERSITY! That was last year at Gongju Dae in Cheonan. But Gongju University in Gongju gives me no extra pay. What's more, because I have been teaching so well here, and students have been requesting my classes and giving them high evaluations, I am doing MORE free teaching! Let me splain...
First, if you will notice the schedule above there are three categories of classes. One is faculty, which means my fellow professors. They are very good at English and most just want to practice by talking about news stories and current events. Administrators are usually lower level, but I can get away with using the same lessons. However, during July, which was summer semester break, but I had to teach, I only had faculty and admin. I just had to do one curriculum. Easy peasy Japanesey. Now that I have been teaching almost a year, the students are requesting classes during the break. Most of the students are very low level. I like teaching low levels, but I have to create lessons that are different for them. Which doubles my prep time and, you guessed it, I get paid zero extra.
This is not to mention the time between the end of semester and the beginning of the full month of free teaching I do. For instance, the last half of December. They gave me classes AND counseling. And even though everybody everywhere in Korea is doing online teaching, one of my classes at that time, though Anne didn't tell me, was face-to-face and so was the "counseling!" I had opened the Zoom room and was awaiting my student when, to my shock, she knocked on my door. I taught that one class, and didn't catch Covid, but changed the classes to online immediately afterwards. As for the stupid, bogus counseling, I was going in all day Monday and sitting in my office watching hockey or just pulling my pud. Nobody was even at the uni let alone coming in for "counseling." But I hacked it all just so I could get renewed and maintain employment through this pandemic.
The worst of it? I had Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 off. Well, except for the "counseling" Monday. I asked my new supe, Anne if the school could see its way to giving me just ONE (extra?) day off. It's a completely useless day anyway. We all know that. Or even, instead of irresponsibly encouraging students to come to my office and expose themselves to possible Covid 19 contraction, (DUUUUUHHH) how about put my email, phone number and Zoom room link on my office door and anyone who needs some bogus "counseling" from me can set up an appointment and I could have a Zoom session with them. I was in Pyeongtaek with friends through that whole time, but I had my computer, this could have been done. Well she hemmed and hawed and said she's just new...
I think my best Christmas present of this year was when Heather, Kelly and I jumped in the truck and Mike drove us ALL to Gongju for my day of "counseling." Heather and Kelly spent their time in the office with me. I had a lesson to make for January classes, Heather had some studying to do for her umpteenth masters, and possibly a test, and the Kellster played games. Some Ipad and we even played a game I have in my office. Mike went to a museum, but it was closed on Mondays. They could have done some outdoor exploring but the temp was pretty low. So mostly, we drank coffee, ate pizza and played a few games in my office. Of course nobody came in for fucking counseling. Nobody ever has. My goal for next contract is to have that stupidity removed or at least offered in Zoom form.
But what an awesome Christmas miracle that day was for me! Here's a pic:
Sniff, sniff. My eyes are sweating. I made out like a bandit otherwise at Christmas with these guys again this year. Got the socks and gotch on my wish list. AND lots of other great stuff. But I'd say this was my best gift of any Christmas in recent memory.
At any rate, I've already signed, and I'm told the school has too, an intent to work for another year here at Gongju Dae. I'm hoping that like last year when I talked to them about not making me stay in the office while I wasn't teaching, maybe they can give me some extra money for extra teaching I do during semester breaks. SOMEBODY'S getting money for it. I'm sure the classes aren't being offered for free. And since I make the curriculum and teach the classes, there really oughta be something in it for me, no?
But, baby steps. I may have to settle for just having the "counseling" removed. Counseling. HAH! I have no training and no experience. As I told Hyo Jung, I'm sure half these students could counsel ME! I have a far more intricate and diabolical pathology than they.
So those are my biggest problems this year so far. All in all not a bad deal. I'm hoping for a good 2022. And I wish the same to all my readers.
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