An Untimely Exit

As I mentioned previously, Harry, a foreigner teacher in DYB's Junggyedong branch elementary school was recently fired. This is of note a) because it's something that happened and b) because Nate and I are now the second most experienced teachers at our branch. . .interesting. . . .allow me to explain.

Friday afternoon Cleo came hurriedly into the Native room with a surprised look on her face. She asked Nate and I if we could keep a secret and then proceed to tell us that she had just heard Bryne and Harry were fired from the elementary school! We asked how she knew and she informed us that she had just been over there (as it is only a few buildings down), saw Mr. Lee and talked to David about what had happened. Cleo seemed not so much upset about this as surprised as she promised us not to tell anyone that we already knew and ran out of our room. Great, now we have to pretend to be surprised when we find out a coworkers been fired, however it is that we are supposed to find out!

A few minutes later, Mr. Lee himself paid us a visit to share the news. We of course protected Cleo's gossiping and did the best to act surprised, which, as far as we know, worked. Mr. Lee informed us that Harry was fired while he had just met with Bryne about some concerns, more on that in a minute.

At first I was nervous that Mr. Lee was sort of threatening us by telling us about Harry but the more he spoke, the more he appeared to be justifying the firing. We were told that Harry had managed to rack up a good number of complaints, the most recent one seemingly providing the catalyst for his betting let go. Mr. Lee thoroughly explained the three primary reasons why Harry was fired, which, in all honesty, is rather comforting so at least we know what type of behavior to avoid.

First and foremost, Harry had apparently had an incident (that I believe took place earlier in the week) where he took a student's homework that was not completed to his liking, ripped it up and demanded that the student glue it back together. Apparently the student took great offense to this action, as one would imagine. In turn, the parents were outraged and rained fury down upon Mr. Lee and the DYB teachers. So, as Mr. Lee put it, he could either "fire the student, or fire Harry." Here the choice is obvious as we must remember that DYB is a business, plain and simple, it is not a public school nor a realm to express or admire 'maverick' behavior. The primary purpose of foreign teachers, so I understand it, is to ensure that the children are happy enough to keep the mothers happy who in turn fork over tuition. . . pretty simple!

Secondly, I guess Harry had been noted for not only threatening students but actually dragging one out into the hallway by his ear at one point. This falls on the 'shockingly predictable' end of the Would-You-Have-Guessed scale. A few weeks ago when we were sent to observe the elementary school, and I had to sit in on Harry's class due to his absence, Nate had the wonderful opportunity of observing Harry's unique teaching style. As it was explained to me later, little more was accomplished other than chasing kids around the room and threatening to give wedgies. . .quite the contrast to our mundane lives at the middle school!

Anyways, to top it all off, Harry had apparently responded to previous complaints by asserting that he doesn't need DYB, he could easily find another job. Now, I haven't been in the workforce long, but I'm pretty sure that the employer/employee relationship is one where the later needs the former, not the other way around. . .that's why He's the boss, and You work for him! Just a thought!

So apparently the continued complaints, physical punishment (which is apparently okay for Korean, but not Native teachers) and aura of arrogance is a mixture not highly regarded by DYB's personnel management! Which, again, is good to know! Not that I planned on getting mixed up in either of the three, but all the same. . . although, Nate and I both have been told to take a more 'firm' approach to dealing with problem children.

In talking about this event with one of his Korean teachers, Hannah, Nate mentioned that it seemed as though communication between Korean and Foreign teachers was often non-existent or confounded. Hannah agreed, and subsequently asserted that the remedy would be for Nate to learn Korean so that there would be no miscommunication. . . .yeah, we should learn Korean, even though you've been studying English since a young girl, went to college for it and now hold a position as an English Teacher. . .obviously any miscommunication is the fault of Native teachers not knowing Korean!

The scariest thing to us was that at first we were under the impression that Harry simply showed up for work one day and was fired. This is only kind of the case. We only learned later that he had actually been given at least one, if not more warnings beforehand. This means that Mr. Lee is apparently either really really bad at communicating complaints (which might possibly be true) or that Harry is really really thick headed (probably more likely).

Before leaving, it was nice to actually here Mr. Lee sing songs of praise about us both! He said that he had heard excellent things from the teachers we work with and that we would certainly be in contention for a "raise" (his quotes, not mine) in a few months. This sounds promising, but then again he told us we'd likely get a bonus after our first month. . .which I certainly don't recall receiving! As for the compliments!? Sure, I'll take it! They don't doll 'em out like candy here, that's for certain! I can't recall the last time Anna said anything more positive than unconstructive criticism. . .perhaps because she hasn't ever!

As for Bryne, we learned that night, from talking to him over a Korean BBQ, that his end of the conversation with Mr. Lee was self initiated. Apparently Bryne isn't all that pleased with his working situation (though I'm not exactly sure what aspects to be honest) and would like to consider being let go. Interesting enough however, Mr. Lee made a plea attempt for him to stick around; a feeling that was later affirmed by Razer on our way back from the wedding. This is interesting only in that many of the teachers seem to not really take all that kindly to Bryne, and, from observation, he doesn't appear terribly interesting in a classroom setting (not that I am one to talk). He has agreed to stick around however and I'll update you on his status. . .which, might in fact play out in a more relevant manner than you might initially have imagined as he came to the middleschool today to observe one of Nate's classes. . . .though we have no idea what that really means, it'll be interesting to watch DYB make the next move in their game of Capture the Bryne.

Well, with Harry leaving, as I mentioned earlier, Nate and I are now the second most experienced Foreign teachers in Junggye, behind only Bryne who preceded us by about a month, I believe. While this might sound like a good thing, what it really illustrates is DYB's incredible rate of employee turnover, which is not only limited to foreign teachers apparently. A few weeks before we arrived at DYB, an FT named Blake was fired by Mr. Lee due his supposed lackadaisical teaching methods (meaning sitting in front of the class reading from the book as he went).

Then, as you are clearly all well aware, a day or so after we arrived, Chris made his final appearance at DYB. While he cited his father's illness as means of his resignation, there seemed to be more to the puzzle than what people were let on to believe. Chris was gone no more than a week or so before Martin, my fellow Spitfire, was released from DYB for reasons that are much more concrete. Not only was he apparently a sub-par professional but had actively tried to get himself fired. Apparently only his connection to Chris had kept him around for as long as he had remained! Now with Harry's removal we've 'seen' four FT's go in just over the time that we've been here.

Furthermore, Claire, a teacher in the middle school, started on the same day that Nate and I did, apparently replacing whoever came before here. We then are all well aware of Ji-Youngs removal from Junggye to another branch, where she was made an assistant and apparently quit on her own, not soon following the move. Then, early last week we were invited to a staff lunch that only afterwards did I realize was welcoming a new teacher to the elementary school, as one had apparently left or is leaving. And, now don't say it too loudly, we've also heard whisperings of someone at the middleschool not sticking around for too much longer. . .but I don't know anything more than that. . . .so, we'll see!

Either way, DYB apparently runs through teachers like a basketball coach through gym socks. So have a Happy Monday and when just when you start to get down about your job, be happy that you don't work at DYB, cause even if you did, you might not tomorrow!