Blah, so yeah I am behind on my blog. It's not intentional, but I have figured out a way to reduced the problems and I will update with travel stuff soon. In the meantime, I have unfun news to report.
It seems that Korea's a land of both opportunities and bad hagwons. I'd say my feelings about hagwons have soured a lot lately. I mostly don't like them because they force too much homework down kids' throats and make them work so late that they sleep less than 6 hours a night, there is constant vocabulary testing, and very little (if any) opportunity to teach. But they are also overpriced and low quality education almost ubiquitously.
I definitely saw this, even in my school. "Quality" of education is measured in pure volume of homework and test scores. It was impossible to cover all the material in class and do all of the required work with any amount of thoroughness.
I'm digressing. Another problem with hagwons is that they are buisness first and institutions of learning second. The treatment of teachers is also a bit wacky. There are a ton of culture differences, and I'm all for accomodating for those, but there are some people who just abuse Westerners. Take my boss for instance. He's the owner of Jackie's Clinic, a hagwon that has in the past had high profile clients, charges exorborant prices. He has for many years (for as long as anyone knows) been cheating teachers out of the required medical insurance coverage and pension. Otherwise he seemed to know how to act appropriately. There were definitely worse stories out there. No one on staff really minded the lack of legalities so much because he tended to offer a higher salary and was good about flights and accomodations. And he's definitely not the only one who does it.
I'd say about March we started seeing a slow decline of enrolement. With each passing month, the boss seemed more and more upset. He's been changing, micro-managing, and nit-picking the teaching and Korean staff to death. That's not REALLY a problem though, it's just annoying. I decided that the pay and housing was good enough that I wanted to stay another year. I re-signed my contract to start in September. To remain competitive, in this contract he offered government medical insurance. I liked the idea and was happy.
The first sign of problems that I wasn't whatever about was that he didn't pay me my severance pay (Korean jobs receive an extra month's salary after each full year) at the end of my contract, and instead waited an extra month. Now, technically, he'd shortened my contract from ending in September to ending in August, so I did receive the severance after a year of work. It was a little strange because he was the one who had change the date an not me. I thought that it was annoying, but I just took it.
The next sign of problems was that, although my contract said I was to receive medical insurance, I hadn't yet gotten anything and it was already mid-September. I went to talk to the people in charge of that and got the ball rolling to get my contractually-obligated insurance coverage. At that point, things started being put in motion and the paperwork was being put together for me to get insurance.
So, on 9/24 I went with another teacher and a Korean staff member (to be our translator) to the health insurance office to get the teacher's the health insurance. The other teacher had also renewed his contract and also hadn't yet received his insurance. At the health insurance office, we discovered that health insurance must be paid for starting from the date of entry on the Alien Registration Card and it is not based on the visa issuance date. That meant, since I hadn't received insurance the year before, that the whole year of 2008 had to be paid (approximately 800,000 won) before I could receive insurance for this year.
My boss felt that I should have to pay the backpay, since it was not in my contract for him to pay health insurance last year. I was getting annoyed at this point, because I felt it was his obligation to provide me with insurance, and it was not my responsibility to pay for last year's debt. Neither of us were happy about having to pay last year's insurance. Finally, he mentioned that we could use private health insurance instead. I thought that was a good idea, and we even shook on it.
HOWEVER.....things did not go as first planned.
The following Monday, 9/29, I was asked to the director's office. I was expecting to have to sign documents for getting private health insurance. Instead, he passed me an envelope and told me that it was my one month's notice and that my final day of work would be 10/31. I was shocked and confused. I asked him why. He refused to explain himself and did not provide a reason for why he was firing me. His decision was sudden, and to my knowledge, no one even in the Korean staff is aware of his reasoning.
Previously, the director had arranged to have a one-on-one meeting with each member of the teaching staff. So, on 9/30, the director and I had our scheduled meeting. First, I asked if there was anything I could do to get my job back. He said there was not. I asked him again to explain why he was firing me. Again, he refused. I asked if it was a matter of the insurance money, and he told me that wasn't the only reason. I also asked if I didn't want insurance anymore if there would be a problem. He said that I could not get my job back. I tried again to find out why I was being fired, telling him that I wanted a reason.
Many teaching staff did many things poorly, and some staff with problems had even been asked to return. Some of the teachers have even had their own yelling matches with the boss. Others were angry enough to throw things at people. He insisted again firmly that he did not have to explain his actions to me, as he was the head of the company and his decision was final. I asked about receiving a letter of reference and the conditions of my flight home. He said he could provide a letter of reference, and, depending on my behavior in October, he would decide if I could receive my flight to Vancouver.
I am shocked and upset by his treatment, especially since I have put so much effort into my job. I often receive compliments from parents and students for my teaching. The staff are happy to work with me because I am patient, complete my work well and on time, and often keep to myself. I have never asked Mr. H for special favors, and I even didn't take any time off between contracts, so he didn't have to look for an additional teacher.
I believe that the director is in a tight financial position and that he was trying to find a way to reduce costs. I believe because of the problem with the health insurance, I fit his description of someone he could remove. I have been unjustly fired.
Right now, I'm just trying to see what I can do about this and move on.
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