In Which The Bimbo Explains Last Week's Absense
Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 7:29 PM Success in blogging requires constant posting, feeding one's audience and getting them coming back for more.
I've said elsewhere that despite initial appearances this isn't one of those blogs, and if I ain't got anything worth saying I won't say anything at all.
No. Not even pictures of cats.
Thus I know I am now writing to a fair fewer number of readers than I would have this time last week.
But I've been busy. And as I alluded to early last week the wheels are turning on a bit of a bigg'un.
I am leaving Korea.
Sometimes it feels like my own fortunes at work are somehow tied to the nation's perception of foreigners at any given moment. The last couple of weeks, while the Chosun has been going nuts, and people have been arrested on trumped up charges and there has been a general restlessness amongst the natives towards their (white) guests, I have had the most infuriating and logic defying time at work.
Whilst separately each little thing has been overcome with the diligence and respect you have come to expect from this writer, cumulatively they have had an effect. Between having to sign in and out of work like some itinerant, the lack of communication in things like class changes and the expectation of dropping anything to go gallivanting across the countryside on some sort of teacher's trip with an hours notice, I have had enough.
But there is something deeper, something over arching, something which until last week I have been unable to put my finger on that has been dragging me down for some time.
Hypocrisy.
I am sick of having to appear to be doing the right thing when I am in fact doing the right thing. I am angered when, in an effort to "save face" I am told I have received a complaint about one of my classes but no one can tell me the nature of the complaint, what class it pertains to, what the complaint was or from whom the complaint is from.
With apologies to Mr Salinger I feel like a phoney everytime I sit down to lunch with 15 other Korean staff and I have to grin like a monkey and endure the same comments about the spiciness of Kimchi from a person I have sat next to for lunch every day for the last 2 years.
I don't understand a country that will erupt in outrage at the thought of prostitution even occurring within it's boarders but where there is a flier on my door almost every afternoon advertising a "Kissing Room" in Gangnam where I can pay attractive 19 year old university students to make out with me.
It does my fucking head in when a kid comes into my class covered with chicken pox. Or who is convulsing in his chair coughing - who knows what he's got - and yet the perception concerning H1N1 flu is that it is brought into the country by foreigners.
And fuck me if I'm not sick of being treated like a child in a profession where I have 6 years experience, qualifications, knowledge and am in pursuit of more credentials. I don't expect a crotchety old lady near the end of her working life, who hasn't stepped foot in a classroom for probably 3 or 4 years, let alone one in which English instruction is taking place - a language totally foreign to her - to tell me how to do my job!
So I am leaving Korea at the end of October when my contract has finished.
I have decided to return to New Zealand where I will be a full time university student for 4 months - try and knock this MA off aye!?
And then I'll be back in Korea in March having already secured a contract.
With my present employer.
Seriously - it was just one of those weeks!
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Reader Comments (5)
We all have weeks like that, and I can relate to every single thing you've written. Do you see yourself in Korea extra long-term? I think the professional dissatisfaction must be the worst . . . but the spicy food comments get to me, too. Every. Fucking. Time. The running commentary on what's on my plate, what's not on my plate, speculation on why I'm eating what I'm eating, the knowledge that I just can't handle kimchi. I wish my Korean were good enough to say "Don't you ever get sick of eating soup, rice, and kimchi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for your entire lives?" *sigh* But, this is coming from a guy who finished his last day at work yesterday . . . trying to think happy thoughts and to remember the good things . . . trying to forget he watched a video witih zookeepers tormenting a baby bear . . .
Brian:
Yeah one of those weeks. I need a little time to step back and appreciate Korea. Being a filthy broke student for three months should give me some perspective.
Indeed were it not for the understanding of my erstwhile employer in allowing me a 3 or so month sabbatical between contracts, I'd be back in the trenches the next day.
As for the bear - appalling, but at least it hasn't had a spigot surgically added to it's spleen for the harvesting of Bear Bile, as they do in parts of China.
Glad to hear you are not completely bummed out and gone.
Get that MA and come back to teach at a Uni.. it makes a lot of difference!
Touche fine sir. I must apologize for all the ruckus. Your blog is definitely one of my favourite and hope that you are not done in the blogosphere.Good luck in your studies, and I look forward to more of your posts!
When I left, there were a couple stories about whitey teachers being charged with sexually molesting students and then all the talk about new visa regs/criminal background checks etc (all still just talk back in early 2008). Geez. While I can't say that drove me out of Korea, it helped make me more firm in my choice to leave. So, yeah, I know where you're coming from. You'd probably do it anyway, but these things come along at the right time to ensure you're not looking back and going "oh hmmmm was this the right choice?"