Recruiting Frenzy and Endless Hours

I do complain frequently about the amount of work here. Mostly because I didn't have as much at home. Well, it wasn't so much that. It was more that when I got it done, I was done. There was very little of the extra junk that work typically involves.

But here, they abuse the Korean teachers. The bosses made them sit in for the PELT exams two Saturdays ago, even though they did nothing. Then, they had a two-day workshop this most recent Saturday and Sunday. It was, by all accounts, a total waste of time.

On Friday night, I went to Guworldong with Vicky and Cindy. I assumed we'd turn in early because they had to get up at 8 a.m. Saturday. Well, I was wrong, as I usually am in Korea.

We got Burger King (which I've been craving for months), went to a hof and then went to a singing room. The singing room was sweet because it had these full-body cat and dog costumes. I, of course, put them on. Why wouldn't I?

On Saturday, I played some football with the Westerners. As everyone knows, I don't like football too much, but it's worth it to spend time with those guys. I wouldn't say I'm sick of Koreans, but frustrations from work and social life make me want to take a break with my own guys. There's so much less stress involved with them.

On Saturday night, Vicky came to hang out. We had to do a little shopping. Then, we ordered some food and just rested. She was dead from the night before.

On Sunday, I decided to be totally lazy and do absolutely nothing. I had planned to write e-mails to a large number of people. I'm sorry I'm being such a sloth about it. There's no excuse for me putting it off. I just get tired and resist putting any effort out. I apologize and will return numerous e-mails soon.

I got a text Sunday afternoon saying we had to be at the school at 10 a.m. Monday (today). I, obviously, wanted to know why. So I asked for more information. I was told that the public schools were back in session today, so we would be recruiting outside of them.

Typical academy behavior to not give you any information until the day before. So because I was bothered by this, I asked for extra pay to do it. My head teacher agreed. I decided that I will now ALWAYS ask for extra pay. I'm tired of being pushed around.

Of course, that leads to another non-information issue. I got a text Friday from a student at our Songdo campus saying he came to meet me, and he would be back Monday. Well, I had to ask him why, because no one else said anything.

He said he would be in an essay contest, and Sunny (our vice president) said I would help him with it. Well, no one told me that I would help him with it.

The thing is, I have nothing against helping the students. I want to see them succeed. But I am tired of people volunteering me without my knowledge.

Well, Harry (the student) came today to try to find time in my schedule that we could work on his writing. I, of course, had no openings. My schedule is booked. But I found a creative way to meet him three times a week. I will bring him in when I am teaching other essay classes. That way, I can help him at the same time as my other essay students.

Back to the whole recruiting thing. We went out today in teams to various elementary schools in the area. Vicky, Cindy and I went as a team, and handed out little canvas bags with info about the school in them. The blue ones were for girls and the pink ones were for boys.

First, I thought this was a weird way of advertising. Just standing out in front of an elementary school to approach kids would be highly illegal in America. But when we got there, there were representatives from a bunch of other academies. So this seems to be the common practice.

I think we had a pretty big upper hand because we had the white guy. I'm sure Elias' team experienced the same thing. Parents love the idea that a native speaker will be teaching their kids.

We even had a wave of parents come in today for more information about the school. So I guess it worked for them. And hopefully it'll work for me too when I see a little extra cash.

Sorry to sound so cynical. This culture is sucking a little of the life out of me.

One last thing. Courtney Anderson, a reporter at The Herald in Sharon, PA, wrote a feature on my trip. It was in Sunday's edition. As many of you know, The Herald was my first reporting job out of college and I spent 14 months working there. The story turned out really nicely. Unfortunately, you can only see it in the pay section of their website. So I can't post a link. But you did a great job, Courtney. I certainly enjoyed reading about me!