Class 1-3 was beastly again this week.

19 heads on desks.  No co-teacher in sight.

I FINALLY got word about my application for flight reimbursement.  It got disapproved by my Vice Principal.  He’s probably too chicken shit to send on up the ladder.

So here’s my reply:

May 14, 2009

To Whom It May Concern:

For the record, I have resubmitted my Application for Airfare under duress because my original application is being blocked and it means I will get zero reimbursement if I do not.  I feel it is my legal duty to submit my denied Application for Airfare as a document and record that I did attempt to collect on a debt I felt was contractually owed me.

According to Item 5.1.:  The actual purchasing price of the airfare for Employee’s flight to Korea shall be reimbursed by Employer within a month (30 days) upon working at the school based on the economy class of the most direct flight available from Employee’s residence to the Incheon International Airport in Korea.

1. The actual purchasing price of my airfare was the total of the two tickets submitted.
2. Employee’s residence was Seattle, Washington.
3. Chiang Mai, Thailand was NOT this employee’s residence.
4. At minimum, I expected to receive the lowest fare available for a direct flight from my residence to Incheon International Airport available on the day of my arrival.

The “Information Package for New GEPIK Teachers,” which was received AFTER signing our contracts is the first mention that teachers can not be reimbursed for any “unnecessary” stops.

1. Adding information such as this AFTER signing a contract is a practice known as bait and switch, and it is illegal in most developed countries
2. It is discriminatory in that it acts on the prejudice that any stop is for pleasure and should not be contributed towards.  It would be fair if we were compensated for what would have been the market rate price of a single destination ticket from our residence to our new place of employment, which is what “based on,” appeared to mean.

I didn’t ask for extra money.  I only asked for what it stated in the contract, the economy class of the most direct flight available from my residence to Incheon International Airport in Korea.  Remember:  we had to shoulder all these costs up front, out of our own pockets, and at great hardship.  Instead, I will receive less than 40% of what I spent and 48% of what a direct flight from my home would have cost.  Of $1,274.00 I spent on airfare, I will only be reimbursed $481.34?  That’s a lot of money: hardly fair and certainly not equitable.  And, I might add, would discourage other teachers in the future from bothering to get additional training prior to signing a contract with GePIK.

The verbiage in your contract (“based on”) is vague, and based upon your reaction to my asking for comparable airfare from my residence to Incheon, contradictory and misleading. Basing on something nebulous is not a good model for contract language.  If your intent was to penalize those teachers who would ask you to partially fund a joy ride on their behalf, the outcome was that you penalized teachers who were trying to be better prepared for their assignments, and who paid dearly for it.  As well as my friends and family – the good people who sacrificed and lent me the airfare to come to Korea, knowing that I would be reimbursed.

Disappointed with your business ethics,

Leanne Leith

Now published on the internet.  Goddamnit.  Why is the world such a vile place sometimes?

ADDED: I know 1-3 is half my problem, especially today after coming in from writing the letter above, I was in a particularly bad mood. But 40 students with no skills and bad attitude you only see once a week with no assistance is too much. It’s just this one class. The class started with one forth of their heads down, and I just barreled on. And then I ceased to care whether they heard or not. And then I took my handouts back, since they’ll never need to refer to them while they are delivering chinese food. And I taught half my lesson to the six or so still listening. Demoralizing day.

MORE: The thing I don’t understand about 1-3 is all the other classes did pretty damn good with the lesson this week. All of them. Even the first class of the week, which has to be guinea pigs at dress rehearsal. The other thing I don’t understand about 1-3 is I have one or two allies in there. Cute popular boys who get the class in line for me. But the total indifference from everyone else makes me want to just walk out and never go back.

Jane Jeong Trenka said,

“Korea is a country that bans exports of Jindo dogs. Is a child of an unwed mother less worthy than a dog?”

View the Adoption Day Coverage on TRACK’s website

(click on the image to link to site)

Scroll down through the photos and Korean text to read some of the articles in English

so my fever broke about two hours ago, and the heavens opened and choirs of angels began to sing…

It’s taken two hours to re-read my blog and answer comments and think about the week.  And now, even though it’s 1 am, time to study some Korean.  Gack, how did I become such a bad student?

Anyway, I wanted to share with the English teachers here some things I am discovering.  Koreans say English-ee because when they Koreanized the word English they spelled it phonetically so that it, literally, looks like it should be said, English-ee.  This is because sh doesn’t exist as an ending consonant sound.  The sh sound only exists as a beginning consonant sound, and only with a vowel added, the i vowel (pronounced “ee”)

Yet another example of Koreans sounding backwards, when really they’re not.  They just did the best they could with what they had.  Also, compound consonant endings in Korean favor one consonant over the other, so they do not sound like compounds at all, but single consonants.  Therefore, sounds like sh, or ch, don’t really exist at the ends of any Korean words.

Also, the consonant endings of Korean words favor just seven sounds.  So many of the consonants that end English words are NEVER used in Korean words.  Those consonant sounds are more likely to be heard at the beginning of words, and always followed by a vowel.

Learning Korean is a great way to be a more empathetic English teacher.

I really want to just soak in a tub.  My kingdom for a tub.  Last time I was a little sick, (this is the THIRD TIME since coming to Korea, and I’ve only been here a little over three months) Y told me to go to the jim jil bang.  I guess that’s what sick people do.  Great.  What a perfect place to pass germs around, a public bath…Anyway, I can’t afford a jim jil bang right now.

I’ve been just sweating buckets, and I must wash my sheets and clothing.  Not looking forward to that, (and grossly, I haven’t washed my sheets yet) because the washing machine wrings the hell out of everything, and that means ironing the sheets.  I would just buy some new ones if I had the 40,000 won it costs.  Maybe I can send them to the cleaners instead.

The medication the nurse gave me doesn’t do shit, and I just took the last ones.  Fortunately, I still have the mysterious “water pills” Mi Young gave me my third day in Korea.  Those seemed to reduce the fever a little.

So last night I set my alarm as usual, only I slept through the alarm.  A half hour after classes already had started, I call Y and she asks if I can make it in and I tell her I don’t think so.  Then I email her wondering if I am in trouble, calling so late, and she says no, everyone is just concerned.

A few minutes later I get a text message, “hope to see you soon.”  And then another, and another, and another, and then, “hope to see you soon and that you recover from your illness.”  Got about a dozen of these from the students.  Y says the students asked for my number, but I’ve got a sneaky suspicion she gave it to them as an English texting assignment.  That’s just the kind of thoughtful thing she would do.

A couple hours ago I got a text from my co-teacher.  It diplomatically said she was sorry I was sick, and could I let her know next time.  I didn’t have her phone number;  misplaced it since she gave it to me on a little slip of paper long before I had a phone.  Well, we’ll see if I get counseled on this when I return to school tomorrow.

Monday there was quite the buzz in the office, since the Hankyoreh21 had an advertisement in the daily newspaper with the cover on it, and some blurb about my story.  So everyone is duly impressed and sorry for me at the same time.  Now that the issue is out, and they will all be reading it, I wonder what they’ll think after they read the details.  I wonder what the details are, since I can’t read Korean. I’m not sure if it’s about me, or if it’s my own words that were published.  It’s a 12 page spread about international adoption, and my portion is 3 1/2 pages.  I will go check if it’s on-line, and then maybe I can get a machine translation.

Though I should be studying Korean, as I have class tomorrow.  But actually, I think more sleep is in order…

ADDED:

It IS available on-line if you’re a paying member, but since I’m a foreigner I can’t access anything Korean on-line.  Maybe I’ll pay my tutor to translate it for me.

OK.  I’m totally sick and shivering and feverish, so all those things I wanted to post will just have to wait, as well as replies to your comments, but I thought you should see this, before I sleep 40 hours straight.

On sale at newsstands today.

Damnit.  I wish they would stop sharing food…I wonder if all the adoptees at my table got this bug?

it’s 4:15 am,

and another monday morning where I’ve had insomnia all night.

and another time I’ve just given up attempting to sleep and decided to cook.  rice.  pre-marinated bulkogi.  getting-past-their-prime side dishes.  maybe if i’m ambitious, i’ll make a salad before those vegetables, too, are past their prime.

i think maybe it might be that i’m dreading school in the morning, and also that i’ve not locked down my lesson plan for the week.  i’m running out of creative things to do with these sometimes lovable, often times monster kids.

i’ve decided to mention adoption, since i can.  like all the other rules i’ve not found out about until they are broken, nobody has told me i can’t talk about anything political, so might as well.

so we’ll start with the music video of the day being Sol Flower’s Kiss the Kids.

here is a photo of me, handing out flyers to Seoul pedestrians Sunday.

there were about six different news media there, t.v. and print.  Jane gave lots of interviews, and a few of the rest of us also got photographed, video’d, and interviewed.   it was a tough crowd – residents of Seoul are used to lots of protesters – and they are wary of getting literature pressed into their hands.

adoption week has kind of worn me out, but i feel good about it too.  been interviewed twice this week, and beginning to think i should have some of my responses codified by now, but of course, i don’t.

more later, ate too much and now i’m comatose.  maybe i can squeeze in a nap before school starts.  still don’t know what the heck to do with them.  oh, it makes me just want to stay in bed…