| GAVA do not come to Korea unless you are... absolutely desperate. The horror stories are real, don't waste the last year of your life in a dump hole like Korea, also known as the Sewer Pit in Asia. In addition most of the foreigners here are alchoholic gits, some are worse (severely disturbed or worse). The only reason o come to Korea is if you are desperate and broke and you seem neither. I was, you are not. An example of my work situation:
As far as work goes it is basically what people had told me it would be, looking after kids, essentially glorifed babysitting. In the industry here it is alternatively called 'edutainment'. The kids range from 7 to 14 in age so there is some variation in entertaining them. All in all the work is bullshit and I can already feel my mental faculties withering away. The children can be really annoying and draining but part of the package I guess, still they know how to test one's patience.
I work with 5 other anglophones, 2 Canadians, 2 Kiwis and an American girl. The rest of the teachers are almost all Korean women with the exception of 2 men. I can't say all too much that's positive about my boss. He is a cheat and a liar. For starters the tax on the base salary is 3% and he says its 5% but he is actually pocketing the remaining 2% for himself. The contract clearly states that he is supposed to cover half of insurance costs but in reality he doesn't pay for anything thus none of my co-workers has health insurance. The first 3 months about 300 euros are deducted from my salary as an insurance policy to keep me from bolting (with what money could I bolt?). Supposedly I'll get it paid back. I checked in with some people who are legally in the know and he is violating a whole bunch of laws but I have been adviced not to butt heads with him lest he make my life miserable. The best part of it all is that I am actually receiving 200 euros less than is explicitly stated in the contract. According to most longtimers here and my fellow anglophone teachers I should be happy that he pays us at all. Different standards here, Korea is the land of thieves and cheats. Gotta adapt, that's all, when in Rome and all.
Don't waste your time in Korea go someplace nice like Europe or Japan.. ok?
__________________ Without death the influence of faith-based religions would be unthinkable. Clearly, the fact of death is intolerable to us, and faith is little more than then the shadow cast by our hope for a better life beyond the grave. This is wonderously strange. If one didn't know better, one would think that man, in his fear of losing all that he loves, had created heaven, along with its gatekeeper God, in his own image.
-Sam Harris
Last edited by gfell; Tue 01-Aug-06 at 07:42 PM.
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