the work of working abroad

Posted on May 27, 2012 by

excuse me in advance, but i’m about to preach.

anyone who thinks working abroad for a year is going to be vacation doesn’t know how to read. it’s called working abroad for a reason- you will be working.

and i don’t mean just teaching. you will be a full-time facilitator of globalization and culture crashing. you will be an ambassador. a notorious celebrity. a zoo animal housed in a bubble. your shifts start when you wake up and end when you close your eyes and the hours in between are spent processing the mental paperwork from the previous day’s activities and experiences.

this is not a vacation. this is a job.

and it’s an awesome and important job and your work ethic alone is global relations.

your mind will collapse. let it go. your expectations will collapse. let them go too. your health will be taxed. try the best you can not to cough too much and drink lots of water. don’t feel guilty sleeping too much. but when your curiosity and sense of wander start to fade, fight the good fight. those things you should protect at all costs.

get outside, regardless of the pollution or the yellow dust or the urge to hole up in your apartment and pretend you are someplace else. go face the day. everyday. even in some small way, like buying a melon at the market down the road. so what if you say “thank you” one too many times because it’s the one phrase that you know. use it as much as you can and mean it.

read about where you are. find out about the people. talk to as many as you can, language permitting.

go on vacation.

makes plans to get excited about.

these aren’t suggestions, really, but inevitabilities. when you work abroad, you experience these things. the only and best advice i’ve ever run across struck me because it was maddeningly accurate: “you have to be deliriously and tirelessly optimistic.” i read it in the bible… err, i mean, lonely planet.

even though it’s annoying to hear when i’m really, really frustrated, this piece of advice is absolutely crucial. here’s why:

you don’t know what you don’t know.

working abroad/traveling is overwhelming and hectic. sometimes you put your blinders on and get done what you need to get done to get through the day. but then sometimes you accidentally leave those blinders on, and you forget that there is an entire country of people around you. you have no idea what their lives are like and how their stories have developed. it doesn’t matter how much you have studied or what a great anthropologist you are and what you know about theory. you have no idea what these peoples’ lives are like. that is not a theory- that is a human truth.

do not assume that someone is more ignorant than you because they come from the country and are gawking at you. do not assume someone is more sophisticated than you or has their shit together more because they dress nice.

i’ve had a few embarrassing reminders of this.

one of them came to me last night, after we’d watched a documentary film about cruise ship workers on china’s developing three forges river. my buddies over at daegu green living put together the film night. you can find out more about the very affecting, award winning film, up the yangtze, by clicking on the link.

anywho, this film showed the lives of a few different people whose lives were affected by the making of this river project that was designed to boost china’s economy. many farmers lost their homes and their lands because of planned flooding and few were compensated as they had been promised by the government. but they accepted this reality because it is “the sacrifice of the small family for the big family,” as one narrator puts it.

one story really stood out to me and that was the story of this very young girl who’s parents were farmers. she was an only child and she had been raised by the river. she was recruited to work on this cruise ship that lugs around tourists. when she came to the cruise ship, she had no exposure to westerners or to contemporary society. and here she was, cleaning dishes on a massive cruise ship bobbing over the very waters that were flooding out her family’s farm grounds. at first, she cries. she struggles. but she makes friends. she has her makeup done.

she struggles to ride the divide between this new world and the roots of her family. it’s not an unfamiliar story line, but the characters are piercingly “common,” as one narrator points out. he says, “china is hard on the common man.” “life for a human is difficult but life for a common human in china is very difficult.” (this is paraphrased, though quoted). he says that when the government came to relocate the common people living by the river, they were dragged. because they had no money to bribe the officials, they were beaten.

just on a geeky side note, this is some great reporting. i don’t know how the makers of this film found a story with such great parallels between then and now, between the chaotic push for modernity and the resistance of history. it’s got all the insane culture clashes and misunderstandings and it’s got it all in a very fair and human frame.

it’s not that these people should be cloaked in pity, but in understanding. it’s easy to come to a country like korea and feel like everyone is just gawking at you because they are rude and ignorant, but this very assumption is rude and ignorant.

look further. forget about your ego- this isn’t about you. swallow that pride and let them stare. be only a witness, not a judge. this isn’t a plea bargain or a charity. this is just the gift of understanding and whether or not any individual “deserves it” is irrelevant. give them the benefit of the doubt, because the gap of doubt is massive. just like you are coping with culture shock or whathaveyou, they are fighting their own battles.

this lesson is a cliche from back home. it is essentially the golden rule. but it’s different when you travel. i would argue it is at least 3 times more crucial to apply and live by when you’re abroad, because it’s your job.

so i would change my token lonely planet advice to include one thing: kindness. everyday be deliriously and tirelessly kind. dish out kindness like it was ice cream at a playground. just shell that shit out everywhere you possibly can. i’m not talking about pity or sugar sweet sappy friendliness, but respect and understanding. the benefit of the doubt. and it doesn’t mean you have to do everything right and be 100% culturally sensitive all the time. but try. acknowledgment of that fact that you know nothing is a good starting point. reminding yourself of this daily is the next, and continuous, step.

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on second chances

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

so i played categories with my students (yes, the drinking game) and it was a total hit. aside from a few kids who got a little woozy in their gin and tonics, everything went off without a hitch.

bahaha…

so anyways, my old boss from back in the day of reporting sent me an email asking if i’d like to do some reporting for them again. funny thing is, it got me all excited. i agreed with enthusiasm to give him a heads up when i’m back in town.

so the jokes on me i guess.

last year i blew off reporting to come to korea in hopes of finding a career that was easier to wrap my head around. i was dizzy from spending months running around like a chicken with my head cut off, having absolutely no idea what i was doing but pretending that i did. i wasted countless hours chasing down information in inefficient ways simply because i wasn’t an insider or i didn’t know who to call or what to ask. i didn’t even know what i didn’t know about my beat! it felt like a disaster. i felt like a failure. and this killed my motivation to do the work i knew i should and could be doing to cover a story. i’ve spent this entire year in korea revisiting that time of my life, evaluating what i would have done differently, beating myself up about past mistakes and shortcomings.

but alas, a beam of hope has presented itself in the way of a second chance!

if you had asked me months ago, or even just a few weeks, if i would ever have considered being a reporter again, i would’ve said “no way!”

and yet secretly i still browsed the writing job sections for gigs at publications and when i got that message from my old boss, something in me leapt with excitement.

of course, there was that usual follow-up chorus of self doubt, the same self doubt that brought me down when i had the chance to be a real star journalist.

it’s like my kryptonite.

but here’s the thing: that’s ridiculous.

i mean seriously, how many self help books and bumper stickers does a girl have to read to get it through her skull? i am capable of doing shit. i should not let my own self doubt stop me from doing shit i am totally capable of.

so the good thing is that i have time to gear up. i have time to prepare by brushing up on all those political shenanigans and i have willpower and brains and two legs and good sense and a macbook so step aside.

i got this.

so, dear secret reader, here’s your lucky chance to engage in the blogosphere:

would you ever take an unexpected second chance? what would you do differently?

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a bulletin

Posted on May 23, 2012 by

there’s a right way and wrong way to write a blog. there are certain types of formats to be avoided, topics to stray from, topics to flock to, lists to rely on, etc, etc. there is a whole host of websites and books out there to show you how to write a successful blog.

but this blog is not about success. this blog is about little more than my own narcissistic assumption that my diary is good fodder for the public realm. the up side to this blog approach is that i can do whatever the hell i want to do.

for instance, i can start off a blog post by talking about the weather.

we’ve been having a few random heat waves interrupted by unexpectedly cold and cloudy weather, but i have a feeling that this week’s heatwave might be here to stay.

i’ve been warned about the summers here several times, but i tend to snub my nose at such warnings. please, i’m from california. don’t insult me with your assumption that i can’t handle the heat.

that being said, we’ll see how i’m holding up come july. or august, when humidity usually reaches around 80-95%.

but in any event, it’s buddha’s birthday next week, which is awesome. the temples around town are surrounded with adorable, colorful paper lanterns that are strung along the street signs and lamp posts. i have a few buddhas close by my house and rumor has it, these temples serve free food on buddha’s birthday. there’s also a host of festivals and neat celebratory things that go on. can’t wait to see it all.

shortly after that, it’ll be sports day at my school. all the students are gonna run around and be quizzed by the two token foreigners in front of everyone. dear god, i hope my students don’t flunk. one of my sweet little innocent students asked me if i would run the race with him. poor little guy doesn’t even know who i am. he’d have a better running partner in a rock.

to all korean dwellers out there: i highly recommend taking a trip out to herb hillz here in good ol’ daegu. i went there this past weekend to see a friend do some belly dancing and the place was charming and filled with some very lovely naturey things. unfortunately, they don’t have any of the herbs you may be hoping to find hidden in the baked goods they sell there, but they do have a decent variety of adventure trials to choose from that include cool harnesses, rubber gloves, rope, and zip lines. it’s 8,000 KRW to get into the place and 15,000 KRW more if you wanna do the adventure course. although, if you think ahead like i don’t, then you can just pay 15,000 KRW at the front ticket office and save 8,000 KRW altogether. in any event, i highly recommend the adventure course if you’re into climbing and swinging on things. also, the belly dancing will be going on for the next two or three sundays, i believe.

if you wanna go, you can take the 449 straight there. just get off on herb hillz south gate and walk your way up the hill straight in front of you.

maybe take a picnic.

another adorable attraction i saw this past weekend was suseong land. suseong-gu lake is a rectangular man-made fishing pond, essentially, and surrounding it is this vintage-esque amusement park with rickety little rides and traditional carnival games with cap guns and stuffed animals. it’s most charming at night, when the blinking neon signs, the ho-deok ladies, and the hand-holding couples come out to catch the night time breeze. also, there’s no entrance fee and the place is surrounded by great restaurants and cafes. excellent date spot, this one.

speaking of dates, i’ll take this opportunity to casually mention that chris will be here in 2 weeks and four days. i can’t wait to have an adventure partner to do things with. i admit that i’ve sort of just been hoarding all my want-to-do’s for chris’ arrival. my only defense is this: it’s tough to do things alone in korea. people look at you funny…

now, for our feature presentation:

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the day i listened to ane brun for the first time

Posted on May 17, 2012 by

the past few days have been a completely unreasonable clustershitball of hormones and inner chaos.

luckily, i’ve learned to wait. and as a reward for my patience, i’ve just slept for 11 hours and can feel my shewolf woman cry yet again crawling back.

it sounds like this:

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on a bad day

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

i love my students, but yesterday was by far my worst teaching day in korea so far and now i’m going to bitch about it.

after returning home deflated, discouraged, and infected by adolescent anger, i have resorted to a full bottle of wine, a box of oreos, and my blog page for proper out-letting.

i have only this to say of it:

the male adolescent is a force to be avoided.

they are fumbling buffoons drunk off their perceived and displaced power struggles and gone mad with sexual suppression and around-the-clock academic pressures (yet it has only just begun for them).

when you take all of them and mash them into a class barely big enough to house the very size of their sloppy, wobbling bodies, it becomes a stinky, loud, and tense 40-minute speaking class known as fml 503 or howtomakeanyone’slifealivinghell 101.

every week, twice a week. god forbid i ever survive another tuesday or friday.

the thing is, these kids are right at the worst age. from 12-16 (and arguable much later) they are right at the crossroads between social and familial pressures and their own bubbling desires. torn several different ways at once and deathly afraid of any potentially unflattering light that may be cast upon them by their judgmental peers, they perceive any teacher as an automatic threat to the one-legged step stool that is their developing independence. no teacher, good or bad, is immune to their wrath.

maybe they desire girls, maybe they desire boys, but regardless of what their true inclination is, they are still coddled by notions that boys and girls belong to different species entirely and should therefore be segregated.

so how do they cope with rising curiosities? it’s called suppression.

sure, they laugh and play freely with their other male friends but don’t be fooled: they hate you.

it will take them years of experience and self-acceptance to realize that their innocent little foreign english teacher was not actually planning their demise or trying to bait them into wwIII. they will realize she was actually a very fair and knowledgeable individual. they will deeply regret not working on their dialogue presentations that one fateful night at the hagwon. they will regret not having spoken a single word of english their entire lives, despite the myriad opportunities granted to them by that one teacher who could have changed their lives for the better, shown them the world, had they only filled out the answers to their asking questions worksheets.

“if only i could meet her again! if only i could practice my r’s and th’s and become a fluent english speaker and travel the world and see amazing things and learn about the sporadic boycott of capital letters and meet more adventurous women just like her!” they will cry in the dark of night.

but by then it will be too late. the teacher will be far away on an island someplace south of the border, sipping alcohol-filled coconuts and strumming a ukulele. she will be brooding from beneath her straw hat, scribbling existential meanderings on her notepad in preparation for her big talk at the local university on somethingimportant. as she drifts away into a drunken day dream, she will think of those students from the past and flinch. she will calculate their ages, several years having passed. she will remember the day she hated them most and smile, having forgiven them for their helplessness long ago.

‘now, onto more pleasant thoughts,’ she will say to herself. and poof! like a cloud of incense, they will be gone. a distant memory.

later, in her bungalow, their distance cries will waft onto the patio where she is dining with friends.

“do you hear that tiny sound? so strange!” a dinner guest will exclaim.

“no, i only hear the dolphins playing in the surf,” she will say with a sigh before swallowing a ripe slice of chili-rubbed mango.

 

 

 

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news

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

i’m mortified to admit that i haven’t even thought to use my news feed tool bar until recently.

needless to say, i’ve been making up for lost time. and reminiscing on my days as a lil rookie reporter.

me and bbc, sittin’ in a tree, r-e-a-d-i-n-g.

first comes news.

then comes thought.

then comes second guessing life plans again!

but what else is new?

in other events, here’s the world in a nutshell:

people are being killed. greece is on the fritz and the leftist radicals aren’t going to the birthday party. jpmorgan loses big, big cheeses call it quits. that dick who massacred people in norway is on trial. the dalai lama continues to be a total baller. 2mb goes to burma. nato’s lookin shady. more douche points for facebook. plane crash, gah!!

it reminds me of amelie:

 

 

 

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Teaching in South Korea: What Your Real Salary Is

Posted on May 11, 2012 by

teaching english in south korea has been a rewarding experience in many ways and i would easily recommend it to any number of people. this isn’t regardless of the cultural struggles i’ve encountered but actually because of them. i’ve learned a ton about this little country and it’s struggle to stay autonomous and self-identified. my recent efforts to learn about its history have helped me understand why korean culture is what it is today. this has shed an enormously sobering light on my worldview, my life plans, and my overall outlook on life. i can easily say i will never be the same again.

that being said, there is one constant disappointment that i face every month: my paycheck.

i’m not alone on this. thousands of foreign english teachers come here every year under the promise of generous paychecks and rent-free accommodations overseas. in an economy where less than 50% of recent college graduates are currently employed full time in the u.s., this is a tantalizing offer, but only a handful of the recruits see their finances actually pan out as expected.

those of us who work at private academies are especially susceptible to a rude awakening when it comes to pay day. for the gazillions of recent college grads who are hoping to travel and still be able to pay their student loans (averaging more than $30,000 for most students in the U.S.) or just left over credit card debt from college, this rude awakening can be just the shit the fan was hungry for.

a word of caution: while there are countless reasons to teach english abroad, money should not be at the forefront. and if it is, make sure you have a full understanding of what your income will be every month throughout the year and take into consideration your total cost of living (including your bills back home) to budget accordingly.

after the bills and the paycheck deductions that are taken out each month, i find that my fancy little bottom line salary is actually less than what i was making back home and yet somehow, even with free rent, my monthly bills are higher. i find i’m actually struggling to pay my bills on time because i’ve overshot the amount i’d be making here every month.

here’s a few pit-falls that can diminish your actual pay while abroad. some of them are avoidable during your contract negotiation period. some of them are inevitable.

1. utilities

i knew i would be paying my own apartment utilities in korea but i didn’t think anything of it because the most i’d ever paid for a heating bill in california was a whopping $50. and that amount was then split between four people in a split level town house. in total, my monthly utility bills never even reached $100.

so you can imagine how surprised i was when i got my first 300,000 KRW heating bill during my first korean winter. a one-room apartment in daegu, korea is cheaper than that, so even though i’m not paying rent on my apartment, i paid a rent’s worth in utilities all winter long. you can imagine my suspicion when i got the next month’s bill- even more than the last- after turning off the heat altogether and dressing in layers inside the apartment 24/7. you can imagine my outrage when the bills continued to increase all winter long- regardless of my extreme attempts to reduce the bill (cold showers in the dead of winter, anyone?).

if you plan on living in an actual apartment, and not a one-room, be wary of this choice. apartments are convenient because they have door men that sit in little guard boxes by the downstairs steps and look cute and because they have a place to put all your garbage and stuff. but you pay for all of that, plus the landscaping and the parking facilities that you won’t use because you likely won’t have a car and the ajumma who very sweetly sweeps the steps once a week with her hand broom. apartments come with ambiguous averaged monthly bills ranging from 50,000-80,000 KRW per month. they cover the costs of these little perks you would think would come included in rent.

it’s easy to get sucked into the smart phone culture anywhere you are in the world. before coming here, i was already completely iphone-dependent and my coteacher told me this would be the best phone to get because it was known for being more foreigner-user friendly.

well, the iphone is also one of the most expensive cellphones you can get in korea. so, the myths i heard about it being sold here for a fraction of the price just aren’t true. a minimalist plan will run you about 80,000 KRW per month, if you sign a two-year contract under your employer’s name. it’s roughly the same in the u.s. if you agree to a shorter contract period, the bill will be higher. but of course, if you agree to a longer contract period, it will be smaller.

cutting out of the contract early will run you about 500,000 KRW, according to my carrier.

not including the cellphone or yoga classes (175,000 KRW per month for both), my monthly utility bills from december through april were more than 400,000 KRW (luckily i have a roommate so we split the cost) each and every month.

if you’re making the standard 2 million KRW per month, this is more than 20% of your monthly income (more than 10% if you’re splitting the bills with a roommate). i say it’s more than 10% because:

2. paycheck deductions

if you’re signed on for a 2 million KRW/month salary, as many teachers are, expect to pay 230,00 KRW per month towards deductions. they include:

just like in the states, taxes and other deductions will be taken out of your paycheck each month. your employer is required by korean law to offer you the option of health care (about 70,000 KRW/month) and pension (about 100,000 KRW/month). it is definitely to your advantage to take the health care, because you will be susceptible to new stressors, environmental toxins, bacteria, and viruses while abroad. in korea, your insurance covers things like acupuncture so the price per treatment is significantly reduced if you opt into the insurance plan.

pension is also good because you get all the money back at the end of the year. the more you put away towards your pension each month, the bigger pay off you’ll have at the end of your contract.

even still, it’s important to understand how these things will affect your paycheck every month so that you are prepared.

3. contract loopholes

overall, deductions are not your paycheck’s worst enemy, but contract loopholes can be. i’ve heard horror stories of employers who purposefully plant loopholes into contracts to get the most from their teachers for less money, sometimes leaving their foreign teachers unable to pay their bills back home.

this isn’t necessarily because the employers themselves are evil or selfish. keep in mind that this is a country with astonishingly low minimum wage where even full time korean teachers are expected to work an average of 12 hours a day or more on modest salaries without any over time pay. foreign teachers are treated like royalty compared to the locals, and since foreign cultural immersion is still relatively new to korea, there are still a handful of employers who will hold their foreign teachers to the same or similar standards as their korean teachers.

a word of caution: if you have friends in korea, have them go and check out the school that is recruiting you. facebook groups such as InDaegu and Daegu Info Group are both good resources for people currently living in korea and planning to come to korea. add yourself to a group and ask around if anyone has heard of the school. does the school have other foreign teachers that you can get in touch with?

another word of caution: read your contract carefully. make someone you trust read your contract carefully. make sure you trust that person’s ability to find any possible loopholes. make sure you understand every detail of your contract. do not rely on anyone else to explain it for you. it must be put into writing just as you understand it.

make sure your contract includes:

1. a detailed description of how your overtime pay will be calculated and dispersed.

2. a detailed description of your schedule requirements and pay per month, for the entire contract year.

here’s why:

especially if you’re working at a hagwon, or private academy, you can expect to have lulls in your work. there will be periods when the students have month-long exam prep time. for hagwon workers, this could mean you will go from teaching five or six classes a day to teaching one or zero classes a day for a month or longer at a time.

if you’re an epic teacher, there’s a good chance that your monthly salary is hammered into stone and schedule changes won’t affect you. but if you’re working at a private academy, your employer may not pay you for the time you haven’t worked. instead, your employer will either deduct a set amount of money from your salary or pay you by the hour like a part-time employee.

there are employers out there, however, who will agree to pay you the same amount each month for every single month within the contract year. if you’re coming to korea hoping to crunch some dollars, look for those employers.

since testing can last four weeks or more, this could cut your salary down to 1/8 of what it usually is. and it happens several times throughout the year.

what you can do about it:

make sure your contract includes a minimum amount of hours to be worked every day. make sure your contract clearly states what your hourly rate is. make sure this amount is calculated after deductions have been taken into consideration.

or, if you’re open to take the time off, make sure your contract clearly states when your hours will be cut and how this will affect your pay. make sure it is put in a way that you understand. this way you will be able to refer to your contract and plan for these months ahead of time.

4. the initial investment

coming to korea doesn’t cost a lot of money, especially since your employer will reimburse you for your flight over here. but make sure to bring enough cash to get you through the initial first two months, when you may be experiencing culture shock and waiting for your employer’s reimbursements to come in. also make sure to leave enough money in your bank back home to pay your at-home bills for the first few months. having to worry about wiring money home right away will only add stress to your adjustment.

while your employer will reimburse your flight, the reimbursement might not come right away. make sure it clearly states in your contract when your employer is required to reimburse you (example: within 30 days of arrival is pretty standard).

also make sure that it clearly states in your contract when your employer will pay you each month. this may or may not prevent your employer from paying you late, but you should at least make sure to have it in the contract regardless.

another popular option: some foreign teachers have been able to earn extra money by doing side jobs like private tutoring, but they risk the scorn of the korean government and exportation. furthermore, teachers working for hagwons could have a difficult time finding extra work in the mornings, when most students are in school. but this all depends on where they are located. teachers situated close to a university campus, for instance, may have an easier time finding pupils with flexible schedules.

koreans will be the first ones to complain about the fact that money is such a large motivator for english teachers here, with “cultural immersion” trailing far behind on the list of motivators. i can’t blame them for complaining. i would also feel a little butt hurt if outside countries were repetitively invading my borders and screwing my shit up left and right. then, finally, when i reopen my borders to join the rest of the world in globalization, i am suddenly flooded with loud, drunken, inexperienced college kids fresh out of senior year toting around big salaries and job perks that i don’t even have and snubbing their noses at my bondaegee.

but in all fairness, it’s not that most foreigners come here with the sole intention of completely blowing off korean culture and running off with a massive wad of cash. we’re just totally flat broke! and just like korea itself, we too are trying to lift ourselves up by our own boot straps by gaining some job experience, travel life experience, and a pay check all at once. besides, it’s nearly impossible for a foreigner to keep his/her blinders on for a whole year and, in time, many of them become more understanding, curious, and accepting of their surroundings and coworkers (in theory).

it’s true that no matter how bad your finances are, and no matter how rough your initial adjust to korea may be, at the end of the year you are still a visitor and an ambassador for your country. the impressions you make with the people you meet, namely your employer, have a major impact on koreans’ overall perspective of and relationship with all foreigners.

this is something even the most culturally sensitive and experienced people can forget, especially after experiencing an especially aggressive staring contest in the subway. i am an amateur, so i forget it all the time.

but it helps to remind myself to keep my chin up and stay as delusionally optimistic as possible. even the smallest efforts to learn the language and history have dramatically improved my experience and earned me a few invaluable korean side kicks.

so i say this: if things don’t go as you’d expected in the beginning, just wait. patience and understanding are the backdoor to korea’s most meaningful gifts and opportunities.

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