CAVEAT DVMPTRVCK

I gave blood today. Despite the fact that, at the moment, I’m not renewing my visa, because ElBeuRitJi is taking over my contract it has to be “revised” with the Korean authorities.  As a consequence of this, I’m forced to now comply several regulations that were changed or created by the Korean immigration service since the date that my original visa and residence permit were approved 10-11 months ago – even though, technically speaking, I have only approximately 6 weeks left on the current visa.
One of those requirements is that I have to provide a “criminal background check” (also being called a “proof of lack of criminal record”).  This is a hassle, because as far as the U.S. consul is concerned, there’s nothing they can do to assist U.S. citizens who need this kind of paperwork.  I have to somehow work with my “local authorities” in the U.S. to get this resolved.  I’m still researching, but given the dearth of clear information online on how a U.S. citizen resident abroad can most easily accomplish this, I will try to post whatever I figure out – maybe others can find it in this blog and it will help them.  But no answers yet.
Another requirement is that I have to get a medical checkup – really, it’s only a blood test for a few communicable diseases and a urine test for drugs, I think.  So today I went to a hospital with a member of the ElBeuRitJi staff and two other foreign teachers in similar predicaments to get poked and proded.  Here’s where they took my blood.

Some observations regarding the conquest of LinguaForum by LBridge, and my own prospects.

I first met the new ubermanager at LBridge (president?), Andy, on Monday.  I had an initial interview with him and then a second interview yesterday (Wednesday), in which he confirmed an offer to renew my contract and have me work as a teacher at the Hugok campus (elementary students), probably mostly teaching advanced-level speaking/writing; a higher degree of specialization is possible because of the larger size of the academy, and this is actually rather appealing to me, as I seem to do my very best with those high-level elementary students.

I told Andy I could not offer a firm yes or no at the moment of the interview, explaining that, as a result of the chaos of the merger of Tomorrow into RingGuAPoReom in January, as well as the general rumors circulating about the current situation, I was feeling a little bit "gun shy" about making a commitment.  I said I wanted to understand better the curriculum I would be asked to teach, and maybe meet with my prospective managers, etc., before making a decision.  

And last night we all went out to dinner (Andy plus most of the staff of our current academy).  Andy somewhat offended me with a few repeated observations in the vein of "Jared doesn't like me, I don't think," and "can't we just be friends."  He was interpreting my standoffishness with respect to the job offer as coolness to him personally.  And I admitted that I am a shy person, in general, and slow to open and be trusting.  I tried very hard to understand it all as a matter of cultural differences, combined with a bit too much soju (Korean firewater) circulating.

So Andy told me, last night, to go over to the Hugok campus today at 2 pm and talk to someone there (a manager?  a VP of some kind? – his title wasn't clear to me at the time, though I know now that he's the VP there).  Frankly, the ensuing situation was almost comedic.

The man at Hugok campus today told me that he had no idea I would be coming.  Further, he in fact had not been informed that he would be receiving any new teaching staff of any kind from the two RingGuAPoReom academies being absorbed.  And that, in fact, he had no open positions for teacher until at least September.  I was puzzled.  What's worse, he then launched into a complaint about the fact that although he had been led to expect, by Andy, at least 50 new elementary students as a result of the merger(s), in fact, based on a parental informational meeting held yesterday, at this point he was realistically expecting at most 10 or 15.  Therefore he was even more puzzled by the idea that he would be taking on more staff at the end of July, when the two RingGuAPoReom campuses close.

And so I left, wondering what the heck was going on.  Shortly thereafter, I spoke to Andy on the telephone, who apologized for what had happened (which he'd had conveyed to him by Curt, to whom I'd reported), and he said there was a misunderstanding.  But it kind of makes me wonder about the reliability of the this whole enterprise, and the experience ties in with rumors that I've heard in a few places (not to name any names) that ElBeuRitJi is bureaucratic and impersonal when it comes to dealing with its staff.

Anyway, Andy asked if it would be possible for me to return right away to LBridge, as he had just had a telephone conversation with the manager there, presumably remediating the information deficit that clearly existed.  I went back over to the academy – it's only a block away, down "Academy Road" as us foreigners call it (a street with an inordinate number of hagwon all up and down it for several kilometers continuously).  And again, I spoke with the man who would be my putative new supervisor, and then I had a long and very interesting conversation with the man whom I would be replacing – an American named Doug.  

Doug was at a whole different level of professionalism from any other foreign English teacher I've met, to date, in Korea.  He is only wrapping up a one year contract with LBridge, but his reasons for putting in only one year were plausible, and were not linked to a negative experience with the hagwon, which he spent some time praising.  The teachers are in teams of four, and each team is allocated to one level of student ability.  So in moving from my current job to LBridge, I would be moving from generalist (grades 3-9, all ability levels) to specialist (grades 4-6, one ability level).  Doug's team teaches the most most advanced level, which bears the saccharine-sounding (and patently un-English!) name of "ElDorado."

But I liked the curriculum, and it was easy for me to see my place in it.  Which is what I was hoping to find, of course.  Doug had been working previously as a history teacher in the States, and he'd integrated his interest and competence in that subject area to a partly self-designed curriculum not completely unlike the debate program I've enjoyed working with at my current job.  He expressed positive feelings about the academy, and the chance to look at the materials and the teachers' prep space and the atmosphere there was, overall, encouraging.  Then again, what departing employees tell their incoming potential replacements is never the whole story (as I know from sitting on the other side of the fence, more than once), and so I tried hard to read between the lines, too.

I went back to LinguaForum and graded some essay books, and chatted with Curt and Grace about the situation.  Feeling stuck in the need to make this decision – should I renew or not?  

When I got into my ER2 class today, I was moody and indecisive about the whole thing.  And the kids had just completed taking the placement test for the new academy, so they were wound up and uninterested in the materials at hand, either.   Further, because of the upcoming changes, I already knew that we weren't going to complete this month's unit, in any event – we only had basically two weeks left before the kids transfer into whatever new school they go to (whether that's ElBeuRitJi or something else is up them and their parents, obviously).  With these thoughts in my mind, I made a snap judgment and decided to hold an impromptu debate on a topic that immediately had them all riveted in attention:  Should Jared go to ElBeuRitJi?  Pro or con?

Including them in my decision-making process, so-to-speak.  Based on the above-mentioned offer, these students would be among those most likely, by far, to "stick with me."  And after I had explained some things to them, they realized this.  So we had a pretty brilliant in-class conversation about "Jared's dilemma," as I wrote it on the whiteboard.  And perhaps unsurprisingly, they all ended up taking the "Pro" side in the informal debate, leaving me to debate the cons.  But that was exactly the sort of experience I'd been looking for, actually.  A chance to get outside of myself a little bit and openly discuss the merits and disadvantages of this one-year contract renewal on offer. 

I even went so far as to outline a clear sub-part of the debate, which is my own questioning as to whether I want to stay in Korea or "move on."  This was not something they could relate to as easily.  "Of course" Jared wanted to stay in Korea.  So that's a part of the issue that I will have to resolve on my own.  But if we take as "given" that I want to stay in Korea, the outcome of our discussion is that moving to ElBeuRitJi is a good idea:  it seems to offer a chance to work with the age group and ability level where I've felt my greatest successes;  the institution is big and highly professionalized, which is an environment where I've excelled in the past; it provides geographical and social stability, since I'd probably stay in my same apartment and have many of the same colleagues, with other previous colleagues still nearby for social purposes; and it would give me a chance to remain "loyal" to at least some of my charges – those who opt to go to ElBeuRitJi themselves (or, rather, those whose parents so opt), and who get placed into the same ability level that I do.

So there you have it.  To quote The Clash: "should I stay or should I go?"