Concluding Thoughts

It's been a while since I've had time to make an entry here, but I had meant to finish with some final thoughts and so forth back in September.

I've mentioned living in Korea to quite a few people by now, both here and back in the States. When they ask about what it was like, I always tell them it's a really nice place to live, which I still believe. The first thing that always comes to mind is that they have a really good public transportation system, possibly because I was so dependent on it, and it seems to be a good partial measure of how livable a place is. I didn't like living in Maine and LA, both of which one must usually depend on cars to get around, but loved Boulder, CO, where the bus system was very convenient, and am really enjoying Brighton, where I take the bus about five days a week, and have taken the train several times.

I also mention that Korea has a lot of great nature--amazing city, provincial, and national parks; pretty, sandy beaches; lots of mountains, rivers, and lakes. In retrospect, I probably should have taken more advantage of that, though I did go to several parks and beaches and did some hiking while there. The thing that I'm missing possibly most about Korea is the bathhouses. It was good to have a place to go for cheap to relax and get really clean and engage in a cultural event that I would never get at home. They have bathhouses here in Europe, but all I've seen advertised have prices that are several times what I'd pay in Korea, and with time limits that make the value in Korea 100 times greater than in Europe. It's ridiculous.

I also sometimes mention how nice and helpful Koreans are, and how safe it is there. I've never felt particularly unsafe anywhere I've lived or visited, but there have been places like Kenya and other third world countries, and even LA, where I needed to take precautions for my safety. In Korea you can still accept rides from strangers--which I did a couple times--and there may not even be any need to ask or stick your thumb out in the road. The two strangers who gave me rides both offered out of the blue, took me right to where I wanted to go, and in once case, helped me put in and take out my bags from his trunk. And people are just generally helpful and kind anyway, even if it's just giving directions, translating, or replacing the nose bits on your glasses for free.

When people ask about the food, I say I like the barbecue and the meats in general, as well as the soups and the veggie and rice dishes, like bibimbap. I hate kimchi, and I often don't like the red pepper they use in everything. I also find that dried squid that they tend to love eating in enclosed spaces with no ventilation to be absolutely disgusting. I'm not big on sashimi. I never tried whale or dog or shark.

When they ask about that job, I say that teaching in Korea is probably one of the best deals out there in terms of teaching English as a foreign language. Japan's package is comparable: they pay higher salaries generally (at least for the JET program), but most people's rent is at most only partially subsidized, so I think in terms of saving, it ends up being about the same amount of money going home. The Middle East seems like an excellent place to go to make tons of cash, but there seem to be more drawbacks--culture that might be stifling to some, longer contracts, and most of the time you have to either be certified to teach in your home country, or you need a TESOL certificate of some kind. Which is why I chose Korea to begin with. Although there were a few drawbacks to my job, like longer hours and more homework to correct (many teachers have none), my pay was quite a bit higher than average, and my bosses took really good care of the teachers for the most part. Some people go there and get easy jobs, but have constant problems with their bosses being sketchy, schedules changing constantly, miscommunications, and the like, and may even have to handle not being able to sit down during class and being under video surveillance in the classroom. I could never deal.

When people ask about the things I didn't like about Korea, the first thing I think of is the lack of personal space. I could never really get used to standing in the middle of a giant open space, and still getting brushed or jostled by people who didn't even consider going around me. Or having to spend  lots of time in big crowds of people who don't even notice the crowd, or being followed by customer service vultures in the stores. Other than that, it's really just minor things like hardly any trashcans in public areas and things that you can't avoid anywhere.

My major bit of advice to people teaching in Korea or thinking of going there to teach is to be extremely cautious about teaching in any other situation beyond what your visa says. Private tutoring and teaching part time at other English schools is quite prevalent in most parts of Korea, and is really lucrative. But it's not without risk. I'm dealing with this personally right now. During my second contract in Korea, I worked a couple days a week for a few months at a preschool/kindergarten. On my last day of work there, an official showed up from the education office to do a random check of the school, to ensure accordance with the law. In Korea, preschools are not allowed to hire foreign English teachers, and of course any teacher at a kindergarten must be only employed by that one school. The manager of the kindergarten convinced the official that it was my last day there, and they would not be replacing me (though the other foreign teacher who worked the rest of the week wasn't mentioned, and perhaps was never discovered). My visa details were taken, but I did not get in trouble, and I'm sure there was some bribery involved to avoid any major trouble for me or the school. I was quite lucky, as this was a deportable offense. In any case, I never heard about the situation again, and was even able to leave Korea to go to Taipei, come back for two days, and leave again without any trouble. I thought I was okay.

However, in September, I got an email from my boss saying that two of the other teachers at my school had been accused of illegally doing private tutoring, which resulted in an investigation in the school, which turned my name up as having taught illegally, as well. This looks to the education office like my boss had allowed most of her teachers do work on the side and does not bode well for her business. I had of course never told her about this work, both because it violated my contract and because I wanted her to be able to deny knowledge of my extra work and save herself from trouble if I were caught. When she was told about this, she was extremely surprised and pissed off, since she trusted me and I was her favorite teacher and so on.

The investigation is ongoing, as far as I know. Six weeks after I first heard of it, almost three months ago, I emailed Heather to check in, because I thought something would have happened by then. I also hadn't gotten paid for my last month of work and my severance pay, so I was curious about that, because she had seemed to imply might have to pay a fine through her with my remaining salary, and I wanted to get a receipt or some sort of evidence of the fine and the payment if that were true. This pissed her off even more, and since she emailed me back to tell me off and say that nothing had happened, I haven't heard from her.

A violation like this would normally result in deportation of the teacher, as I said, if caught while in Korea. I've heard that it also might result in up to three years prison or a fine of up to around $20,000. But of course they're not going to put teachers in jail or fine them that much; they'd never get any more teachers coming to the country. There's also no way they'll come after me for money, although there still exists the possibility that my former employer will be responsible for paying some sort of fine on my behalf, as well as her own fine for "allowing" her teachers to work illegally. I can deal with losing about three thousand dollars to either the Korean government for breaking the law, or to Heather for breaching our contract, but what I'm more concerned about is how this will affect my teaching in other countries. Heather has mentioned that I might be put on a "blacklist" of teachers who have violated their visas and are no longer allowed to teach in Korea. This might not be so bad, since I may never wish to teach there again in favor of new places and/or a change in career later, but if I am applying to teach in other countries, particularly Asian countries, it's possible they will want to check into my activity in Korea, or at the least want a professional reference. I'm not sure how such a situation would turn out, as Heather may not be inclined to give me a positive reference anymore, and a background check might turn up my illegal activity.

Anyway, to reiterate, my advice to others going to Korea is to be very careful about such things. The Korean government is stepping up their enforcement of illegal teaching, and are doing checks of schools and I think I've even heard of sting operations in Seoul, at least. So teaching on the side at a proper school is the riskiest activity, since you can be caught any time. Private tutoring is less risky, since it would be done at the student's home usually, and the only way to be caught is if the family themselves rat you out. This is uncommon, I'm sure, but if you wrong someone, they may retaliate by informing the police. The student/family is not culpable in the case of private tutoring, as far as I know, so they have nothing to lose. I've also heard of holding this over the tutor's head to get the tutor to lower the rate or agree to unreasonable conditions, but I'm sure this is quite rare, too, considering the general culture. However, if doing private tutoring, taking clients from your regular school is probably unwise, since it may be hard for a student to keep quiet about it, and if the employer found out it would be big trouble for everyone involved. If a student at your school wants private tutoring, just go through the school. They'll take half the fee, but you still get paid extra money and it becomes legal that way. If you tutor others, try to only deal with people who you already know or who are connected to you by people you know. Koreans wanting a tutor will sometimes just stop random foreigners on the street, asking if they want to tutor or know anyone who does. This happened to me at least twice. Although it's unlikely to be a cop, you never know, and it seems like that might be more likely in coming years.

I'll update the blog if I ever find out what happens with the investigation, and if I get penalized officially, but it's possible I'll never hear about it again. If the situation gets resolved without any government penalties, Heather may just not want to deal with me anymore and consider the three and a halfish million won she owes me to cover her personal penalty for my violation of contract and be done with it. We'll see what happens.



Teach in Korea!

National Palace Museum, etc.

For my last full day in Taipei, I tried to bite off quite a lot more than I could chew. Had I not woken up and left the hostel in my usual leisurely way, and had I not been hesitant to take a foreign bus, I might have gotten more done than I managed, but oh well. My plan was to go to the National Palace Museum, then to the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines, which is on the same block, then to the science museum. Right. It took me about forever to walk to the first museum, and I think it was around lunchtime before I got there, at least. On the way, I saw this park. All these pictures are from the way back, but Blogger put my uploads on here backwards, so I'll start with that.

This isn't actually part of the park; I just thought it was a cute little building outside the park.

Entrance:

There was a river/pond (rivond, piver, pover, pondiver, etc.) all throughout the park. It was cool.

Hobbit door:

I love this kind of bridge.

This was totally suite. You go up these rock stairs and it's all cavey inside. I took a video, but ended up having to delete it for lack of card space. BOOOO-urns.

This thing reminds me of the kiddie pool mushroom waterfall at Aquaboggan.

I think this sign either means that you can't pray in the water, or that Excalibur cannot be found here.

Entrance at the other end:

Then I got to the National Palace Museum. There wasn't a lot of literature about the actual palace available, so I didn't learn anything about the history, just looked at a bunch of exhibits.

 Here are the steps up to it:

And some other exterior shots. There were a couple buildings, once of which had some sort of archival library, as well as some other exhibits, but it was all kind of expensive to get into, and I couldn't afford to do both buildings, money- or time-wise.

The environs. How'd you like to live up there? I'd be especially interested in that little red-topped castle-like place.

I exchanged taking-photo services with a young Asian couple, so I got these of myself:

Some old guys:

Photography wasn't allowed in the museum, so I didn't take any pictures, but it was pretty standard museum stuff. I saw a furniture exhibit, a bunch of paintings and pottery, and this really awesome room with curio cabinets and boxes and stuff. They had all these secret buttons and catches and stuff to get compartments to open, and you had to put it all together just right, or it wouldn't close. I wanted to play with them. There was also this amazing animated video that showed an apartment that was set up in the same style to save space. It showed furniture like the bed being folded up into the wall, display shelves opening up in multiple layers from wall panels, counters and tables unfolding, drawers under raised floor levels, etc. It was the kind of stuff they probably do a lot in highly populated areas like Taipei and Tokyo. It was cool. I watched it two or three times.

By the end of my couple hours at the museum, I was getting starving, so I went up to the teahouse on the top floor for a snack. I got some cumquat "tea" that was really delicious, and some dumplings, which were kind of meh. They looked cool, though. I like really smooth, cartoony food.

I think it was after four when I left the National Palace Museum, but I walked over to the aboriginal museum just in case. It was closed, or about to close. I took a couple pictures of the outside:

This building that looks like a castle is a kindergarten. I would have killed to go to a kindergarten that looked like a castle, man. Wow.

Next I walked back to the Taipei Science Museum, but it wasn't open for much longer by the time I got there. I got to see this really cool IMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope, but other than that, only this balloon in the lobby, which was on a timer. I think it released into the air every twenty minutes or something, then was pulled back by its strings to get ready for the next time. I didn't see it release, so this is only conjecture. 

I do recall having to wait like a half hour for my movie, and spending much of that time trying to wash myself in the public restroom with handsoap and paper towels... actually, there might not even have been paper towels. I think I was just using my hands to wash myself, and the hand dryer to dry myself. I figured it'd be wicked rude to walk for hours in that heat and sweat up a storm, then put myself in a confined space with dozens of other people, many sitting very close to me.

By The Way

I'm not sure if people who subscribe to this get notified if I edit posts, but anyway, I finally got the pictures for my canyoning trip in the Philippines, and I added them to the post, and changed the content a bit in light of that. Czech it out if you're interested.

http://aliainkorea.blogspot.com/2010/09/canyoning.html

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I really only have time to do three or four a month now, and I'm trying  to even it out between this one and Pughnited Kingdom. I have maybe two or three more posts here before I'm out of material, so I'm thinking I'll try to get it done sometime in December, and then focus solely on the new blog.

Taipei Night Tour

After rushing home earlier than I wanted from the Taipei Zoo, I went on my scheduled Taipei Night Tour. I was the only tourist, so I had the driver and his regular car instead of a van. First we went to a Mongolian barbecue. Here, there was a big food and salad bar with lots of stuff that I don't remember, but which was good. The barbecue part is where you go to a different food bar, which has a bunch of thinly sliced raw meats, vegetables, and sauces. You take a bowl, put a bunch of stuff in it that seems like it would taste good together, and give it to one of the cooks. Then he barbecues it for you, like so, and you eat it with relish (the feeling, not the sauce).

A giant group of Koreans came to the restaurant, as they tend to do, and it was kind of like being at home again for a little while. 

I think our first stop was a famous night market, but it was pretty small; seemed to just be one long block on one street:

The guide couldn't park right there, so he told me (after a few tries) to just go through, not taking too long, and meet him at the other side. On the way through, I saw what he had specifically told me about, which was a displaymonstration of a giant python, and some other big snakes, which was at a restaurant where you can eat them. No pictures were allowed. Having owned a snake previously, I think I might feel bad about eating one. I'm sure it was also very expensive.

I bought one souvenir, a wall scroll of a tiger, to add to my collection of wall scrolls across Asia.

Next was the major stop to the Taipei 101. It was extra to go up to the observation tower, and I was on a time budget because of the parking time limit. Normally for tours they let you stay as long as you want, but normally tours are quite a bit bigger than one person, so there would be no leniency for me. BOOOOO-urns.

This is the line I had to wait in for like 15-20 minutes.

On the way, they took your picture and you could take your ticket to get it superimposed onto a Taipei 101 background, either at night or in the day. They showed a bunch of examples on screens, but I don't think you could ever see yourself or anyone currently in line up there. Would that be unethical, or at least rude, in case someone wasn't down with it?

The DLI63 building in Seoul took about 30 seconds to get to the top, but in the Taipei 101, the elevator ride was longer. You actually only got to go up to the 89th floor, which disappointed me greatly.

Here are some views from the 89th floor:

 I don't remember what the hell this is doing there.

On the 88th floor, you can see the tuned mass damper, which helps keep the building from becoming damaged from strong winds. It's suspended from a high floor, and is a huge pendulum that sways in reaction to the movement of the building. This one is the biggest damper sphere in the world, according to Wikipedia.

Finally, we saw the Lungshan Temple, which was very beautiful, but as always, temples are not my cup of tea. I have nothing further to say about this place, so here are some pictures:

The End.