postal scrotum: RUN AWAY!

I received the following admonition from Jason W:

From: Jason Wxxxxx
To: bighominid@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:36:01
Subject: Padoga is to foreign teachers what anal rape is to __________?

Kevin,

RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!!!!!

That 15 p'yeong might seem pretty nice now but mark my words you'll never see it with those split shifts.

Which branch are you interviewing at? The Kangnam one is pretty new, but again I do know from my wife that the foreign teachers there were just as burnt out as the ones I was with in Apkujeong. The July "College Freshman Twit" season rolls around just as it starts to get unbearably hot (then again it was probably like that at EC, too) and Pagoda will have no qualms about throwing you to the wolves by scheduling you to teach back-to-back 2 hour intensive classes to meek shoe-staring Teeny Weeny-wearing agasshis.

Given the housing prices in Kangnam and the space they "promised" you you might be commuting pretty far in the morning (That 15 pyeong might also be shared by another foreign teacher, too). I lived in Chang-chung Dong up on the orange line while working at Padoga and often went back home over lunch, took a 30 minute nap, got up again and schlepped all the way back until about 9. Wash, rinse, repeat. Your day will never end.

Saturdays? Oh yes, I remember those...pretty much your schedule is up to them. Kiss the manager's ass enough, you might get them off. Most likely you won't.

Did I mention the crappy textbooks? How about getting roped into teaching a 7 AM business English class against your will? How about having to smile and shake hands with the tax-evadin', employee-maltreatin' boss of the company? Did I mention how he forces the Korean teachers to "voluntarily contribute" a part of their monthly salary to his lame-assed Christian "Guide Post" magazine to keep it running, lest they find themselves with less working hours the following month?

Or hell, they may just let you be the cover-boy of their magazine, posing Burt Reynolds-style on a bearskin rug, complete with an easy-English feature story about your interests in pastel-colored over-the-shoulder sweaters, the music of Celine Dion, and high-altitude extreme teabagging.

Good God man, you have a brain! You have a soul! Save them! Sorry to piss in your mouth so much about Pagoda here, but really, its not worth it.

Best of luck,

Jason in DC

I think I'll take Jason's advice and treat Pagoda with what we in the religious studies business call "a hermeneutic of suspicion." Some of my co-workers from EC are reading this blog, so they should probably take Jason's warning under advisement as well.


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