I am a notoriously unlucky person. I am famous klutz. When you look up Murphy's Law in the dictionary there is a picture of me. I've been given various nicknames over the years, Grace Kelly, KellyOhNo!, and Spill Girl to name a few. Hence the title of my blog.
As everyone knows the economy is in the crapper and good jobs are hard to come by. i had one of these "good jobs" working for a small bank in Greensboro, NC. I use quotation marks because this job was hell on earth. A daily reminder of how stupid people are and a constant drain on what little patience I possess. It was the same thing day in and day out. Even a promotion didn't brighten my outlook at work. It was almost a 10% raise, but when you make $11 an hour, $12 doesn't make that big of a difference. i had health insurance so i really shouldn't have complained, but none-the-less I did.
A job like this is enough to pay the bills, but not enough to pay down debt or make life interesting. Forget about saving for retirement. Nope, I was in a dead end job. It was a struggle to get up in the morning and drag my ass in there. As my discontent grew, a plan started to form in my head as to how I could break out of rut and on to an adventure.
I have traveled abroad before, I even lived in Germany from 89-91 and saw the Berlin Wall come down. But that was when I was 11. Now I am 31 and I realize that I'll be settling down soon and I haven't realized a single one of my dreams. I am still waiting to grow up and figure out what I want to do with my life. I needed something to make that transition, and frankly get my shit straight.
A friend of mine went to China to teach English for a year and inspired by him I started clacking away at the old Google. Honestly, before my friend Dan, I didn't even know that this was something that you could do. Luckily my boring job allowed me ample time to do plenty of research on teaching English abroad.
I have a lot of debt from college as well as student loans. So I had to figure out a way to get to another country and make enough money to pay down the debt, save, live and travel. A tall order, I know. I quickly learned that China is quite an inexpensive place to live, but the pay is also quite low. Then, I found a recruiting agency that sent people to Korea. I signed up with the recruiter, Footprints Recruiting and started the long process of gathering the documents required to get a work visa in Korea.
So I got all of my paperwork together and had my phone interview with a school in Icheon. They decided to hire me and sent me a contract. Once you get the contract and all of your documents you have to scan copies to the recruiter and then also FEDEX them to the school. I put in my two weeks notice at work so I would have time to travel around and see all of my family before I shipped off.
The day before my last day of work I was eating lunch when my phone rang. It was my recruiter, and before she said a word I knew that she had bad news. Thus begins my misadventure, but not a time to laugh. She told me that the school had needed two teachers when they "hired" me. After they offered me the job they found a couple who wanted to come to his school. Couples are great for Hagwons because the school only has to pay for one apartment. I was shocked, angry and really scared. All I could think was that in 24 hours I would be unemployed. Then I wondered what happened to that famous Asian honor and pride that was supposed to be a cultural norm where there simply weren't exceptions? (More on that later, but to get a taste read this.)
Luckily the agency felt terrible about the situation and all of the recruiters were sending me links to other jobs. Then I found one that was perfect. I woudl be teaching Kindergarten, working Monday thru Thursday with a field trip every Friday, and I would only have to work 6 hours per day. Also the pay wsa significantly higher than any other job I had seen. The job was in Cheonan. The school's director told me it was 30 minutes from Seoul, but he failed to mention that was by high speed train, the town was really an hour and a half from Seoul.
I moved home with my parents where I would be storing my things while I was living in Korea. I was assured that my documents were already in Korea i would be leaving in about two weeks. So I breathed a sigh of relief and started packing.
Well, two weeks turned into a month. I emailed the recruiter once a week asking for updates. Every week he told me 10 more days. Then the truth came out, this awesome school in Cheonan wasn't open yet and the director was waiting on a license from the government before he could process my visa application. But I was assured he would have the license in 10 days. After 8 weeks of this I finally lost it and the recruiter acted quite indignant when I suggested that I was being strung along. He assured me that he was only telling me what the school was telling him. The time difference wasn't making things easier. The east coast is 12 or 13 hours behind depending on the time of year.
He found me another job and this time I didn't have to interview and the school quickly processed my paperwork. I had my visa about 10 days later. And then came some more waiting. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the director had to fire two teachers which was why he had hired me. I also had to wait on the other teacher who couldn't seem to get her paperwork in order. At this point I had been unemployed for three months.
I finally got my e-ticket and I thought I was ready to go. Then I got a call on Monday night asking me if I could fly out on Tuesday morning. I refused and ended up leaving on Thursday. When you fly to Asia there is a 12 hour time difference plus one day. So I arrived in Daegu on Friday night, at long last.
The lesson I learned here was a cultural one. Koreans believe in keeping face, its called kibun. Basically it means that Koreans will tell you a white lie in order to keep face. They will tell you what you want to hear so they don't reveal any shortcomings on their part. This has popped up time and time again while I have been living here. It may sound PC, but I don't ever believe what I have been told until the deal is sealed. I was aware of this aspect of their culture, but I didn't realize how strong a cultural norm it was.
So my advice to those thinking about coming to Korea to teach English. Don't quit your job at home until you have the ticket in your hand. That may mean that the school will have to wait and extra week or two before you arrive, but I found out that the debacle I went through is all to common. Once they have gotten your visa for you they are kind of locked in, though they can revoke it if they choose, so be nice about it when you tell your director that you can't come for another two weeks.
You may say, "Oh I have savings, I'll be fine." I had savings too, but I didn't get paid for six weeks. This is done to prevent what is called a "midnight run." Sometimes people come to Korea and the culture shock is too much for them and they leave the day after they get paid. If the school paid you on the first then there is no incentive for the homesick to stay. So most schools don't pay you until the 10th or 15th. The later into the next month it is the more likely it is that the school had been burned by a runner in the past. Be careful of these schools, email another teacher there and if possible try to get the email of an ex-teacher who has nothing to lose or gain by telling you the truth about the school. You can also search blacklists. But read what they write carefully, a crappy teacher may have gotten fired for being crappy not because its a bad school. Also there are a lot of franchise schools, one location may be on the list, but that doesn't mean that all of them are bad. Use common sense is my best advice.
