Thank You

It was the easiest job interview ever.

“Do you want to be a public high school teacher in Anyang?”

“Yes,” I said.

“You’ve got the job”.

3 years later I got to thank the person responsible by taking them to a Jet’s game.

Last week while working on my resume, I was told to remove some of the information about my time as an English teacher in the Republic of Korea.

Apparently, being able to deal with a dishonest employer who tries to blackmail you in a foreign country isn’t a marketable skill.

That’s where I was 3 years ago.  Only a few months removed from having hernia surgery, trying to get out of the worst job I’ve ever had.

They didn’t want to pay me.  I was the only teacher at the school and they had less than 30 students.  The previous one I worked at had 200 students, and 3 Korean teachers.  Even that was considered small.

Every morning I would get phone calls from recruiters or potential employers.  They were not impressed with my work record and the fact I was looking for another job so soon after returning.

It was looking more and more like I wasn’t going to be able to find a job and I was going to have to return to Canada.

A friend then directed me to another company.  The recruiter there wanted to help me out because we were both from the same city, Winnipeg.  A few days later I got the public high school job.

To get out of my contract I agreed to pay for my flight.  This set me back over a thousand dollars.  After three months in country, I had come out about even.

My public school job was so incredibly easy.  In a busy week I used to work about 15 hours. (a lot of my classes got cancelled and I had a lot of day’s off)  I taught the same grade and saw my students once a week, which meant I only had to come up with one lesson plan.

I spent a lot of the time watching hockey on my gigantic television, or sleeping.  My desk was so large that I used to pile up text books as a pillow and use it as a bed.

One time I was woken up by the sound of someone knocking at my locked door.  It was my boss, the principal.  He apologized.

It wasn’t just the job.  It was the entire experience and it would never have happened if I hadn’t received some help from a fellow Winnipegger.

I’ll always be thankful for the two years I lived in Anyang. 

Yesterday, I finally got to say it in person.

Dan Henrickson and company, thank you very much.

sincerely,

rymr.