A Few Things to Add

* I loved living in Namyang-Ju and had many friends and a church there. I could have stayed at this academy for a long time had things been better.

* The boss wasn't a criminal running a hagwon for the sole purpose of making money. He had a Ph.D from Korea University one of the top three universities in the country called "sky schools."

The Aftermath

I'm trying to write this blog clearly so every reader can understand what happened. 

Not long after we settled that I wasn't teaching the weekend class, the boss came up with a new idea. He asked me into his office one day and told me because he was having a hard time (not making enough money) he had decided to cut my classes and salary both by almost 20%.  

He took over some late classes which were middle school. The middle school kids there at the time were always tired, in a bad mood and didn't study much at all! I didn't mind losing these classes.

My salary of 2 million went down to 1.64 million. Most English teachers would hate this but I was happy to have shorter hours. I didn't really mind the smaller salary.

At some point after I had worked there for two or three months I told the boss politely one or more times that I was ready to finish. As I recall I asked or told him I'd like to settle on a time for me to leave. 

All I remember is that he said please wait for me to find another teacher. Then he went about his business. 

I don't think he took me seriously. I think he wanted me to stay because it was hard to find a foreign teacher and he had a lot of trouble with a few he had before me. 

I knew that he was in touch with agencies and other workplaces that helped each other find teachers. I couldn't be sure though that he was making any effort to find someone. 

Fast forward. I started at the beginning of January and finished in mid-June. I remember that I had periods when I couldn't sleep well my whole time there but in early May I couldn't sleep at all and went to work feeling exhausted. 

One week I couldn't sleep from Monday to Thursday. It was so bad that I just went to work 1:30 - 8:00 and then tried to sleep the rest of the time. I was so tired at work on Thursday afternoon that I knew I would either faint, collapse or something like that.

I told the boss I had to go and he asked me to teach two more hours before going. I said yes but then felt so bad that I left. Of course he was upset and yelled at me and said I'm not working there anymore. As we stood in the doorway I tried to defend myself. I said I can't sleep and I'm going to faint if I stay here. I left. 

Then we had a three day weekend. I tried to sleep the whole time and couldn't. Maybe I slept just a bit. Friends took me to the hospital Sunday and I got strong sleeping pills. 

I missed work Monday and Tuesday. That weekend I called the boss and he said again over the phone that I didn't work there anymore. I started to think about making preparations to leave. I was fine with leaving at that time.

Though I didn't work those days I went in to talk to him Monday or Tuesday. I was talking about my leaving when he claimed he never said I was no longer working there!

This was a huge ordeal as anyone can tell. 

One good thing that came from it though is we worked out a time for me to finish - mid-June. As soon as we did that my sleep became normal. I couldn't believe how quickly it went back to normal.

I mentioned before that I got sleeping pills at the hospital. There were just three of them for three nights. After that I took some over the counter sleeping pills but not for long. 

I also told him he could deduct some of my pay because I didn't work Monday or Tuesday. I knew that would make him happy. I'm not sure if we talked more about that but he ended up taking out 100,000. I was fine with that.

I finished and found out he was considering two teachers to take my place. At the end I stayed in my apartment and prepared to leave. 

I sold my computer to a friend for a low price. I gave some household items to members of my church. 

I think it was two days after finishing it was a Friday and my boss called. He wanted to pick me up to take me to immigration to cancel my visa. 

I put my things in his car and we went there and then to lunch. He was being very polite which I think surprised me. He acted the way he did before we started working together. Then he dropped me at a friend's place where I was going to spend the night. 

I'll add one more thing. Through his contacts he found out about an academy in Gangwon-do that wanted a teacher. He thought I may be able to go there. 

Last time I saw him I had to visit him to give him back the modem that went with my computer. As I left he said if I took the job in Gangwon-Do to let him know. I said okay. 

He had told me previously that one could get a finder's fee of one million won for finding a teacher for an academy. 

I thought it was pretty obvious why he wanted me to take the job in Gangwon-Do!

Second Problem - Sending Me to Work Outside the Hagwon

When I first started working, actually at the immigration office making my visa, the boss told me he was thinking I could teach private classes for 50,000 won, 30,000 for me and 20,000 for him. 

I told him it was fine. I assumed the classes would be at the hagwon. 

Later on after I started working he told me his relatives wanted me to teach their kids on Saturday mornings. It would require that I get up early, get on the bus before 9:00, take the bus for an hour and then walk ten minutes to their apartment.

Then I'd teach them for an hour before getting the bus home. So more than three hours of time and my entire Saturday morning for 30,000 won. It wasn't worth it - not at all. How do I know? I did it before! 

Before going to work for this boss I found other teachers were making a lot doing private lessons or "privates" and I thought 30,000 an hour, wow. Later I found out it was often more than an hour with a commute back and forth and some time spent with the students' families after. It wasn't an hour. It was more like an entire morning, afternoon or evening for 30,000 - 50,000. After teaching privates for a while I realized they usually weren't worth it. 

I remember we discussed teaching his relatives' kids a few times. His wife told me at work one day their relatives were expecting me Saturday morning at 10:00 am, okay? 

I answered yes even though I didn't want to. I thought I'll just try it out. I also felt some pressure to do it since they already planned it. 

That Saturday morning I wasn't feeling well and called the boss asking him to cancel the class. Over the phone he sounded fine and said he would cancel. 

When I saw him Monday he was upset. 
They had decided to just cancel the class entirely. He said to me rather strongly that I broke a promise. (It was really his promise not mine). I think it was the boss who made the decision to totally cancel it, it sounded that way. 

I made it clear to him that I really, really didn't want to do it. I can't remember all we said, but I recall telling him I'd be happy to teach them closer to home.

Just a few days before the Saturday class that we cancelled, I had to spend one day at a winter camp that I didn't want to go to. One teacher at the camp had to leave suddenly and they contacted my boss asking him to send a teacher. 

I really didn't want to go even though the camp offered a lot of money for just one day. I made it clear I didn't want to go. The boss forced me to go and it turned out okay.

Before I went I said: "I don't trust you." 

And

"Do you want me to work here or do you want to send me to work other places?" 

When I asked him why he was sending me he said he wanted to help them. It's so obvious he was doing it to make extra money. They paid him about 300,000 won for that day and paid me a lot more because they needed a teacher so badly. 

He said the 300,000 was to pay for a substitute teacher. He said someone else would teach my classes. Later on my co-teacher told me no one came that day. The boss covered my classes. So he kept the 300,000. ($300)

** I wish he had just been honest with me and told me that he sent me to the camp and arranged the Saturday morning class to make more money for himself and to open up future money making opportunities. 

It wasn't, as he said, to help them though that was part of it.

After these things took place the boss asked me into his office one day and told me because he was having a hard time (i.e. not making enough money) he had decided to cut my classes and salary both by almost 20%. 

He was going to take over my later classes which were middle school. I was okay with this arrangement.

The middle school kids there at the time were always tired, in a bad mood and didn't study much at all! 

My salary of 2,000,000 went down to 1,640,000. 

Most English teachers would hate this but I was happy to have shorter hours. I had no choice anyway. It was his decision. 

At some point after 2-3 months I told him (nicely) I didn't want to keep going and I wanted to work out a time that I could finish working there. 

All I remember is that he said please wait for me to find another teacher and then walked away.

First Problem - Mystery Deductions Taken Out of Salary

First problem: at the end of my first month I asked the boss about my salary and he replied he would send it today / tomorrow. One of the two.

I had to walk about ten minutes to my bank to check the balance. I could see the salary hadn't been sent. Later that day I talked to the boss again and he replied the same way, that he'd send it today / tomorrow.

Maybe I checked a second time to see the salary still hadn't been sent but I can't be sure.

Then it came. I checked and then forget about it and went about my day as normal. About two days later I realized the boss hadn't sent the full amount.

So at work I asked if I could talk to him about it and we went in his office. He told me he 'hesitated' about doing this and eventually decided to take two deductions out of my pay, one for 80,000 and one for 100,000 won. (About $80 and $100 US dollars)

One deduction was meant to be a contribution towards utilities for my two week stay in his home. *From the time I met him until the time he took that deduction out he never once hinted that I would pay anything towards my stay there.*

I cannot recall what the second deduction was meant for but I'm positive that, like the first deduction, I had no warning at all that he was going to take it out.

I recall that later that day he gave me back about half of the 180,000 and when I asked why he didn't give back more he thought that was enough.

The last memory I have related to this is that the two of us were eating in a restaurant one Saturday talking about things. We were alone there except for the ladies working there. I wish I could remember all, but I do remember that we talked about the deductions and he said he didn't have time to tell me that he had taken the deductions out of my salary.

I got pretty upset and I remember I said to him a little loudly: "Just tell the truth." and that everything would be fine if he did.

The ladies working there laughed a little. He probably noticed this and then he said: "You make me crazy." I replied that he made me crazy.

In the end, I pretended to agree with his statement that he didn't have time to tell me he had taken extra deductions out of my pay. I can't believe I did that! I guess I thought it was the best thing to do to help us have a peaceful relationship.
I want to add that the day after I saw the money was deposited the boss acted a little strange. Each day he went by the teacher's room and said hi to us at the start of the day. The day after sending money he walked by the room fast without saying hi.

It's just really, really sad. He knew what he did. He was afraid I had noticed and would talk to him about it. If I hadn't realized two days after he sent the salary to my bank account that the amount he sent was less than I expected, he very likely never would have told me about the two deductions he took out. 

By the way, taking out deductions for tax, pension or health insurance is fine. He took out only tax and utilities and a monthly fee for my apartment. I asked him not to take out the pension or health insurance and he complied. 

Two Main Issues That Destroyed Any Chance of a Good Work Experience

It's hard to tell the whole story. I'll tell as much as I can. 

In 2007 I worked for close to six months in a small English academy in Namyang Ju City about 40 minutes by bus to Seoul.

I took the job mainly because I liked that area and had lots of friends living there. I liked that there were mountains and country nearby and that it wasn't far from Seoul. 

I was also friends with several migrant workers that lived there who came mostly from The Phillipines and Peru. 

When I found the job and met the owner I thought at first I had found a good place. At that time there was no background or health check so my visa was processed pretty easily and I stayed in a reasonable one-room apartment near the school. 

While waiting for another teacher to leave that apartment I stayed in one section of the owner's home for about two weeks which was fine with me. 

Soon after I started working though there were problems. I'll start with the biggest problems I can remember. Two main things really affected the relationship between my boss and I. We couldn't really get back to normal afterwards because I no longer could trust him. 

Please read all the posts to get the story.

I want to add the owner had a doctorate and some years of experience teaching and working in academies. He was also a certified teacher. It seems much better to work for someone like that than someone who doesn't have much education experience.