Nazis? Never heard of them!

Started by Silent Disapproval Robot, June 16, 2018, 06:00:40 PM

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airboy

My U.S. students are largely ignorant of communism and the U.S. Constitution even when basic contract and property rights issues come up in advanced business classes.  They learn quickly, but lack basic knowledge of the Constitution.

Enjoyed reading about your Japan experience.

Romanian tour guide was very knowledgeable.  Serbs were in denial even about the butchery in the 1990s.

SirAndrewD

Thanks SDR.  Really interesting.

Most interested in some of what you say about not liking South Korea.  That had some overlap with my very enthusiastic South Korean exchange student.   He brought me a government approved textbook that had some cartoon depictions of history that depicted the Japanese as buck tooth madmen and Roosevelt being told what to do against the Germans by horrible Jewish stereotypes complete with braids and big enhanced noses.

As to what you say Airboy, yeah, U.S. students have their problems.  My kids don't know one whit about the Constitution.  They don't even have the most basic of understanding about Communism or Fascism.

I've made my Government class a Constitution Class.  We just go over it line by line.  I keep to the approved texts where I can but use the Constitution as my basic document.

Not a lot I can outside that.  They get to me with no basic understanding.  I had to spend an entire class one time, in '05 with nothing written on my Smart Board but "Europe is not a Country, it is a Continent.  Austria is not Australia.  The U.S. was originally a colony of the United Kingdom, which was Great Britain and has England in it. "

I just made them stare at that for an hour. It didn't take.
"These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry."  - Sgt. Pinback

Silent Disapproval Robot

I didn't enjoy my experience in Korea for a variety of reasons.  I found my job through a head-hunting agency based in Virginia.  I paid them $75 or so to find a placement for me (it was before the internet was really a thing).  They initially offered me a job in the city of Ulsan but then suggested I turn it down based on some things they'd been hearing.  I'd already been waiting about 6 weeks by that point and was getting antsy (and broke) so I stupidly said I'd take the job regardless.

Ulsan is an industrial city where they mainly made tanker ships and chemicals.  It was a polluted hellhole.  The inhabitants were mainly young guys fresh out of the military or college and they'd just landed their first job.  Korea was like Japan at that time and once you got hired on with a corporation, you were an employee for life.  Also, like Japan, seniority rules and young employees were expected to "pay their dues" when starting out so they'd get stuck with shit jobs and be expected to work 14 hour days.  End result was that there were a lot of young, angry, resentful drunk guys wandering the streets each night just looking for an excuse to start a fight.  Also, they guy:girl ratio was about 4:1 so they had even more reason to be pissed off.

The place I taught was basically a privately-owned ESL school and we mainly taught schoolkids before and after their regular classes, bored housewives during the day, and a few company classes during the evenings and weekends.   The places were springing up all over Korea and most were pretty dodgy and run as cheaply as possible.  Our school was no exception.  Basically the guys who opened these places would have been used car salesmen if they lived here.

When I arrived, I'd already signed a contract laying out hours, salary, dress code, holidays, health benefits and all the usual stuff.  One of the biggest complaints I heard from foreign teachers all over Korea was the fact that Koreans don't see contracts the same way we do.  At least not when it comes to foreign workers.  It was the norm for the school managers to try to get as many concessions out of the teachers as possible.  I was immediately asked to work weekends (contract said Mon-Fri), extra hours, wear a suit and tie (contract said business casual), tell my students I was American (I'm a Canuck but since we were teaching American English...), and before work they wanted me to hang out in front of the train station and pester people with fliers for the school.  They also demanded that I turn over my passport to them....for safety.

The school was a pretty bad work environment.

They took more off my paycheque than was agreed to each month for medical insurance.  I got very sick during the winter (pneumonia, I think but never did find out) and they were very reluctant to take me to a doctor.  They'd just tell me to go lie on the couch for an hour between classes.  I had to pin the school manager to the wall and threaten him before he finally relented and took me to a quack.  I then found out that they hadn't actually been paying for my insurance but had just been pocketing the money instead. 

We were given 2 weeks off in December for holidays so three of us decided we'd go to Guam and Saipan for a vacation.  We then had a huge row with the school owner because he'd told all of our students that we'd be taking them on a study/vacation trip to a ski resort.  Never once asked any of us, of course and he was livid when we said no.  One of the girls had been naive enough to hand over her passport when she first arrived and they refused to give it back to her and she went through hell trying to get it.  (ended up getting the US embassy involved but I don't know the specifics.). 

There were many other incidents such as these with the school and it was definitely not limited to my employer.  Nearly every other teacher I'd met in Korea had similar or worse stories about their employer.  There is still several websites dedicated to warning teachers about ESL employers in various countries.  S. Korea and China still make up the vast majority of entries.

Life outside the school wasn't a lot better either.  I shared an apartment with a greasy teacher from Pittsburgh and the landlord would regularly shut off the water saying we used too much.   The girls shared an apartment a few blocks from us which was much nicer than ours but was kitty-corner to a dogmeat abattoir and they'd get quite upset at the constant sound of dogs getting offed.

The foreign teacher community was pretty vibrant and we managed to have a good time amongst ourselves but befriending Koreans was quite difficult compared to other countries so we tended to be a pretty insular group.  A few of the teachers got deported after it was discovered that they had taken side gigs doing one-on-one tutoring.  The employers acted like they were stealing students from the school (in some cases they were) and immediately fired them and had them deported within a day.  A fair number from our social group up and quit, did midnight runners to Seoul or Pusan, and just worked illegally as freelancers.  If you were young and attractive, you could do quite well for yourself.  The various school owners would lose their shit whenever someone did a runner and those of us who remained in town would all be read the riot act.

After about 9 months, I decided I'd had enough and, rather than doing a runner, I decided to be aboveboard and told my boss that I didn't think it was working out and gave him 6 weeks notice.  Big mistake!  Wow did he get petulant and vindictive.  My schedule suddenly changed so that I started teaching and 5:30 am and didn't finish until 11 am with a tonne of 1 or 2 hour breaks during the day.  Just enough so that I couldn't get away or go do anything useful.  They kept the entirety of my last paycheque, saying I owed them for telephone bills and oil.  They also arranged to take me out for a farewell dinner, then changed the location without telling me (I stood out front of the originally scheduled restaurant for 90 minutes before leaving) and then presented me with the bill for everyone's food and drinks the next day.  I told them to get stuffed and pay it out of the money they'd stolen already and flew to Saipan the next day for a job there.