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.
I can understand that. Some people in North America can be like that, but not so much. In North America, your bosses are responsible, supposedly, for ensuring that you are adequately trained and to see what you know or don’t know. Some bosses are horrible at it, but it’s expected somewhat. It may be the reverse down there in the land of the morning calm after the crazy traffic jams:)