Kimchi vs Apple Pie

I'm not sure if I've explained what the place I work at is like? I don't mention the name of my work because I don't want the Korean government to lock me up and force me to eat Kimchi for the rest of my life. Kimchi is fermented cabbage basically and it's actually pretty good if made correctly. Anyways I live where I work. The place is pretty big and houses around 60 foreign teachers I believe. We are in apartments all over the complex. Except for the Korean teachers we all live about 1 minute...that's right, 1 minute away from our class rooms. That's one minute walking by the way. It's important to know this when I tell you the following story.

We recently got a new president at the school and with him came some new administration staff. With all new administrations comes change. Some good some bad, whatever, change is inevitable. However, there were teachers who were actually complaining about this policy that if you start work at 9am then you have to clock in before 9 am. Read that sentence again, I'll wait. Done? Ok, now, who the fuck would argue that point. In any job you have you are expected to clock in on time right. I have always made it a policy (for most of my jobs...my last six months working Portland Non-Profit was a joke) to show up to work early. I show up to my current job about half an hour early because there is so much shit I have to get ready for. Anyways, if you clock in after 9am more than 3 times in one month the dock your pay. This has really seemed to get under peoples skin and I'm having some trouble understanding the reason. Some people are saying that it is not fair that if you clock in at 9:00:15 seconds then you are still considered late.

OK. We live on the same fucking grounds that we teach. This place is not that big. What the hell are these people doing that they are clocking in right at the buzzard? And....if you know you are going to get docked pay then make sure your ass clocks in early. I actually had to sit in a room and listen to grown ass people argue this policy. These are smart people too. I think something happens when you move overseas. You get this negative vibe about yourself and it can last for a long time if you're not careful. All this said I realized that there was more going on with the staff, in particular the foreign staff. People feel disrespected and under appreciated. This became obvious because some staff members whom I like and do a great job were brought to tears. It's always important to understand that a persons feelings are always valid because they are their feelings. I may not agree with what people were saying but their feelings on the matter are real for them and therefore valid.

My work place is a diverse place in terms of where these teachers are coming from, their education, and their work experiences. Some of these people are right out of college and have no teaching experience. Some of these folks are life long teachers or have been working with kids for decades. Some people have their Ph d's or are lawyers. It's an amazing mix of people but here's where the complex nature of Korea and hiring practices come into play. They don't pay you according to your skills. They pay you according to some very strange factor, a factor that no one really understands. First it is important to know that if you discuss your salary with other teachers you will lose your job. Teachers still talk about what they make but on the down low. So you hear things about what people make and basically you have some people who have no work experience, have just graduated from college with a degree that has nothing to do with kids, English, or anything relevant to the job, making more money than people with teaching degrees in English. It makes no sense but that is the way they do things here sometimes. It is one of the most random places I've every been too. Some time this randomness will benefit you and sometimes it will drive you mad. Why is a bottle of hydrogen peroxide $200.00 dollars while prescription pills are $2.00 without insurance? I don't have answers to these questions, that is the magic of Korea.

I am starting to come to peace with the whole randomness though. I think you have to if you expect to be happy in this country and I do want to be happy where I live. I know I'm not going to make this place my home so that helps too. I'm here for a limited amount of time and I want to make the best of it. I think if you come to that conclusion your time here will be more exciting and less stressful. So when you find out that blowing your nose in public is rude, especially at the dinner table, but spitting, coughing without covering your mouth, hacking up a loogy and or smoking during dinner are all acceptable, you raise one eyebrow and move on.

We all have our oddities about us. The United States is an odd place too. We elect fools to run our country and then re-elect them after they have shown us exactly how foolish they are. The United States is so odd that we might just elect another fool who agrees with the first fools most foolish policies and fool hardy exploits. Yeah, these Koreans might not know how to make a can opener that opens cans without breaking. They might not know how to wait in line. They might not know what "customer service" is. Koreans might not even know that black people live all over the world, not just in Africa, BUT the American's elected Bush....twice. I'll take broken can openers and rude, old, little Korean women over that any day of the week!