I'm certain they told me that I was teaching a special gifted student English class at the county education office on Thursdays, starting the first week in August. Of course, that was back at the beginning of July. I said "OK," marked it on my calendar, and nothing more was said about it. Nothing. Nobody told me what time, where, what students, what materials were expected. I figured, well, that's just the Korean communication taboo, kicking in.
Being the somewhat responsible person that I try to be, I researched the when and where by asking a coworker who had been doing these classes before, and showed up at the education office building in Yeonggwang yesterday at 4:45, expecting to teach some kids at 5 pm. But they didn't know who I was. Finally, with my broken Korean, I managed to understand that "oh, that gifted program is on vacation at the moment." They told me to come back the last week in August.
Maybe I misunderstood the original request to do this – but I really don't think so. It's just another example of how information most definitely does not work its way down hierarchies, here.
I don't really feel that upset about it. But it's interesting, to me. So I thought I'd document the experience.
As I was walking back to my apartment afterward, I had a sort of insight: information doesn't move down hierarchies reliably because it's always the responsibility of those farther down to find stuff out – the higher-ups are never wrong, by definition, so, in my case for example, I now owe an apology to my higher-ups for having misunderstood (or for having failed to confirm) the original request. I remember my first hagwon boss's line: "but you never asked." As an employee in Korea, it is always one's responsibility to ask.