Friday, December 08, 2006

Ramblings

I'm not sure what I will end up writing about so the title I've chosen could be inappropriate. I have something specific in mind but who knows where it will go.

I'm still in Korea putting up a fight. I have everything arranged basically. I've been running around to all kinds of government offices lately. The labour office, legal aid, and immigration mostly. Usually all on the same day. I know all the busses and how to get to all the offices. The tax office and pension office I've been to but not recently. Anyways, I have 3 friends at all 3 places. I call them my friends just because it makes it more humourous, less bureaucratic, and really they have been helpful.

One day, Young Mi and I got a call from a lawyer who wanted to discuss our case. Okay, I guess I started talking about this last time. Anyways, we had thought the lawyer was there to help us but he was actually representing Win School, kind of misrepresented himself or at least we were being too optimistic. Anyways, he gave me a most generous offer from Mr. Lee. 200,000 won when he owed me 3,000,000 won. It was pretty easy to turn that down. The lawyer seemed nice and Young Mi and I were a bit rude to him just because of who had been paying him. He explained that Mr. Lee would appeal every decision a court made and I wouldn't get any money for 2 or 3 years so I should just take $200 and be happy. This is money that he doesn't even dispute is mine. The money he owes minus all his baseless deductions. The offer was pretty easy to turn down and the lawyer seemed sympathetic and understood why I would be suing Mr. Lee.

So after that I went to the legal aid office. Met my new friend Mr. Noh. He calls himself Mr. Roh as most Noh's do since it doesn't have the best connotations inn English to be known as Mr. No. That's my theory, anyways. So Mr. Noh told me that it would probably take 5-6 months to get to court. Which was a relief after the years the other lawyer had tried to intimidate me with. It turns out that I had made a mistake before at the labour board not seeking punishment. That's why I'd heard nothing from my friend, Ms. Shim. So I had to go to the labour board and get a document to state that I had unpaid wages and would then have to go to immigration to change my visa status.

The next day, I went to immigration. Met my friend, Mr. Song. He said I wasn't the illegally yet but only had until the next Wednesday to sort everything out. He needed me to fill out 2 forms and come back. I went back to see Mr. Roh. He agreed to be my sponsor (my new visa required a Korean citizen to be held accountable for any criminal acts). Mr. Noh found got me a Korean stamp. Koreans don't use signatures for official forms, they use a little stamp (I'd had to use my thumbprint before this). I thought that was exciting. I then went back to see Mr. Song. Everything seemed okay but then it turned out I only had a preliminary certificate of unpaid wages. I then went to see Ms. Shim who told me she couldn't issue the final certificate until Friday. By that point in the day it was 5 so I gave up for the day. Actually this was all on a Friday so I saved it for the next week.

On Tuesday, I continued again. Monday I went and applied at a few schools and then felt thoroughly depressed by the time I got to Sangin to ask for jobs. I found one place that was hiring but they wanted me to work Saturdays and the hours and pay weren't that great. That's the point where I realized that I'd only be able to find work at desperate hagwons and didn't want to do that again.

Back to Tuesday. I got up and went to immigration to see Mr. Song and explain that I couldn't get the certificate until Friday. I saw a different guy, Mr. Kang. He was nice enough and gave me a 30 day grace period to get the certificate and change my visa. He told me to go see Mr. Noh or Ms. Shin. He called me Mr. Noh. Mr. Noh and Ms. Shin have also called each other so it's like a circle of my bureaucratic friends. Mr. Kang was kind of discouraging and told me foreigners never get the money so I should basically give up. After, Mr. Kang (Mr. Song was out for lunch by the time my number came up), I went to see Ms. Shim. Actually, I was going to see Mr. Noh but I went past the bus stop where I got off before since it seemed like I got off early (I had to change busses). The bus then went much closer to Ms. Shim's so I went there instead. Low and behold, she was having her meeting with Mr. Lee so I had the unexpected pleasure of running into him there. I guess they just had one problem to sort out. My Saturday work. Mr. Lee had promised to pay me and I didn't get anything in writing. So I understood that given my lack of evidence that she couldn't force him to pay since he'd now changed his mind. I explained that it was my mistake to have taken Mr. Lee at his word. Ms. Shim's English is probably the poorest of all my friends so Mr. Lee explained to her what I had said, probably saying that I was mistaken about the whole issue. I talked to Mr. Seok on the phone there. He knew what Mr. Lee had said since he was the one who'd relayed it to me. Seok took Mr. Lee's side saying that there never was such an agreement and that I worked less than the overtime hours so I shouldn't be paid. I can understand why Seok said what he said but I've lost the last shreds of respect I had for him.

Mr. Lee agreed to pay the pension (since it was his legal responsibility to all along) but I owed the same amount so that was deducted from my last month's wages. Luckily though, Mr. Lee has to match it and I get it all back so I get an extra 500,000 won out of that deal. The labour inspector, Ms. Shim, ultimately decided that he owed me 2.2M won. Mr. Lee says he does but that I owe him 2.0M won for airfare, recruiting fees, and housing for 4 days that I stayed there after my last working day. So basically that's the issue. Ms. Shim was unimpressed by his argument for the deductions but he wants a judge to decide. So hopefully, I can revisit the overtime issue there too.

After this I went to see Mr. Noh with the certificate that Ms. Shim had now issued. Then I went back to see Mr. Song. So I'm now on a G-1 visa which is a miscellaneous visa, or a special case visa. So that's all taken care of and I just need to wait for Mr. Noh to tell me when I will be going to court.

So lately, I've just been involved with finding a new job and place to live. There hasn't been much promising. My two failed contracts make schools very leery of me. It's something that English teachers would understand if I explained but potential employers are sympathetic and then decide I'm too risky or not worth changing the contract for. The Saturday place was interested but I was interested. Another place interviewed me and things looked like they would go ahead. I was a bit apprehensive because of all this extra work I would have to do. Of course, during the interview I had just said that wouldn't be a problem. Then I get the contract and it says I'd be required to teach 180 - 40 minute classes before getting overtime. I don't want to work overtime but I'm not going to be in the classroom for 30 hours a week.

The other place I've been looking at (I had a real interview there yesterday as opposed to the phone interview) teaching adults. There are a few downsides to that job. Mostly the hours and the fact that housing isn't covered. Apparently, rent is only about 300,000 a month for a studio, even right downtown. I figure teaching adults would be much easier than trying to control children who don't want to be there and might be worth that bit of money. Plus, I'm getting a bit desperate and teaching adults would be a nice change of pace for me. The other thing is that I'd be able to choose my own apartment and the school is right downtown where both subway lines meet. They will let me know on Monday. The guy who interviewed me was British and had heard all the stories of bad kiddie hagwons so understood where I was coming from. As opposed to other kiddie hagwons that just think I must be a whiner and a quitter and would rather hire someone fresh off a plane with no idea what other hagwons are like. I'd always figured at Wonderland that all the other esl teachers were going through the same thing.

My dad has accepted the job in Mumbai and will be moving there for 2-3 years starting the middle of next month. He'll be stopping in Seoul on his way back to Canada. He's going to get a return ticket from Mumbai so when he flies from Seoul to Edmonton he'll get to go from Seoul to Mumbai to Frankfurt to Toronto to Edmonton. Anyways, seems a bit silly to me unless you really love airports and being on planes.

I guess, I'm about where I was before except that my visa situation is taken care of. I don't know when I'll get to see Ms. Shim or Mr. Song again since their jobs are pretty much done. Mr. Noh is really nice though and has been very helpful. I think he's my favourite of my bureaucrat buddies. He's even invited me to his house at some unspecified point in the future.

If the adult place with the bad hours doesn't give me the job on Monday I may have to consider relocating to a different city. I hope it doesn't come to that though. That seems to be enough for now.