Truly heart-wrenching stuff at Money Today — newsroom chief Park Hyeong-gi tells the tale of poor Jason, an English teacher from Texas who is enduring the unendurable with the exchange rate skyrocketing to 1,400 won to the dollar.
Prior to coming to Korea two months ago, Jason — in his mid 20s — was a sales manager at Walmart. Due to declining sales in the wake of the financial crisis, he was fired, and with companies restructuring, he couldn’t find work. Then he saw the advertisement saying he could make US$2,500 a month in Korea.
By coming to Korea, he thought he could live on US$500 a month and send the rest home. The oldest of five brothers, he wanted to help pay for his brothers’ education. Having never been outside of Texas, he made the bold decision to come to the Land of the Morning Calm. Yet just two months in, the crash of the won has screwed up his plans.
What’s got him even more miffed is that his coworkers Canucki Brian and Aussie Barry are on easy street. Brian and Barry have been in Korea for a long time and adapted to Korean culture, and the Canadian and Australian dollars have been sliding against the greenback.
In particular, Aussie Barry’s enjoying life in Korea so much it gets Jason pissed. Barry’s completely charmed by Korea’s “jeong culture” and the spirit of sacrifice of Korean mothers. He dreams of marrying a Korean woman and running their own hagwon. Barry says Korean women are “the world’s greatest superwomen” and that the spirit of sacrifice of Korean mothers is the engine that created the Korea of today. He says he must marry a Korean women.
After Jason came to Korea, he found that the number of American English teachers in Korea has suddenly grown recently due to unemployment in their God-forsaken homeland, and that hagwon teachers like American teachers. Because Korean parents prefer US pronunciations (especially Texas!) over Australian and Canadian pronunciations (particular the latter, who keep calling z “zed”), American teachers can earn a premium.
Jason got up the courage to ask his boss if he could pay him on a dollar base. The boss, however, flatly refused. The hagwon boss said to employ a single foreign teacher, he had to spend 3.5 million won a month. If you include medical insurance and housing, it’s an addition 1 million won on top of the 2.5 million won salary.
Jason was sad. He had to leave his homeland due to the financial crisis, and now due to the weakening won, his salary in Korea has fallen dramatically. For the first time in his life, he regretted being born an American.
How did the writer come to know all this? The cold, heartless hagwon owner that refused Jason’s request is his wife.
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
theres a sucker born every minute …
Hilarious!
[deleted by Robert Koehler]
I wonder if they are real names.
anybody want to verify
sinopark@moneytoday.co.kr
Cute punchline!
Sorry Robert. I must have stepped out of line.
I forgot what I wrote, why was it deleted?
I’ll try not to do it again.
Jason actually made his first mistake back in Texas, by neglecting to ask his boss at Walmart for a won-based salary, back when the won was high.
Oh, now I remember Robert, that was funny, wasn’t it?
I’m not questioning your right to edit/delete comments, but could you please explain why that part was deleted so I can at least know in the future which kind of comments are permitted here? And I am not being facetious, just want to know where I stand.
I didn’t happen to be right on the money , was I?
wives, dude. stay away from the wives.
Why won’t somebody write about the hardships that long-term American teachers like me are facing? Namely, that we have to put up with twats like Jason.
Seriously, though, my less-than-perfect Korean is not so good at picking up facetiousness. Just what is the writer of this piece trying to say?
I think what the writer of this piece is trying to convey is a deep sense of glee at watching American kids, employed by his wife, struggle with financial problems.
Deep sense of glee? I thought the writer is feeling sorry for “Jason” and is trying to show a human side to this economic bad news. Why would he feel “deep sense of glee” if his wife’s employee was in trouble?
I don’t know why you think Canadians are on easy street. The CAD/KRW exchange rate is TERRIBLE. The won is in the TOILET for everyone sending money home.
kerplunk — as Linkd says, stay away from the wives… especially with real-name individuals such as Mr. Park.
user-81 — Exactly. The writer was trying to show the human side of the US financial crisis and honestly did feel bad for the guy, even if the story is still kinda funny.
chiamatt — I just paraphrase what I read. Thanks for the info, though — had no idea how the Canuck dollar was doing.
Sounds fake enough to win a Pulitzer. Oh wait, no heroin involved, or was it crack?
user-81 — Exactly. The writer was trying to show the human side of the US financial crisis and honestly did feel bad for the guy, even if the story is still kinda funny.
I wonder if mateomiguel was projecting the schadenfreude he would have felt if the tables were turned.
Lame.
Understood.
I will try to keep away from the wives from now on.
If only Barry was as wise.
I thought marmot was kidding around and having fun with the translation. But then when I read the original article, my god, that’s exactly what is written.
The story is probably made up or the author probably joking.
Well, it’s not exactly what was written… but it’s disturbingly close.
Wow.. gosh.. I guess KOREA really IS a great country, and Americans SHOULD learn from this wizened, ancient race of elvenlike superior beings… wow…
Gosh.
I hope Jason dies in a fire.
Was that really necessary?
If Jason does not turn his luck around soon, he could end up in Saudi.
At least Jason has a job.
So he can’t put relatives through college? Boo waa. It’s unfortunate that he can’t be superman… but that’s not ‘news’, it’s ‘life’.
It is, however, a great case for Koreans to know that the only folks coming to edumacate their kiddies are folks from the breadline in the USA. At least *someone* will feel good about the story.
Hang in there, Jason! I know it seems like you’re in a pit so deep that you feel like you’ll never get out. But you know what, buddy? No matter how tough it gets, you’re not alone.
Korean journalists really are the bottom of the barrel.
“Korean journalists really are the bottom of the barrel.”
Agreed. That was a low blow.
Let me see…30 000 won or so for the hagwon owner’s share of ‘Jason’s’ medical insurance. I really doubt the hagwon pays 970 000 won a month for his housing.
In any case, there’s not need for ‘Jason’ to despair, if the story isn’t a complete fabrication.
The Won has gained a bit against the US dollar today and stock markets around the world have begun to recover.
#24:
It is, however, a great case for Koreans to know that the only folks coming to edumacate their kiddies are folks from the breadline in the USA.
Except for yours truly, who already knew some shit about English grammar and SLA, wanted to study the Korean language and get into the academic linguistic world (as I now have), and at first had to deal with a boss who expected a Jason.
Supposedly my children were not to know that I understood any Korean. Not because I used it for teaching, which I obviously didn’t, but because I could tell them how I sympathized with some of their learning difficulties, or else punish them for swearing at their classmates, etc. Maybe I should have been a retard like Jason. Is he at least smily and goofy? I’ll bet his native retard English gets him laid a lot more than my quickly developing Korean…
“The Won has gained a bit against the US dollar today and stock markets around the world have begun to recover.”
I’ll say it again, as I’ve already said in another post.
Massive intervention by the K-government today and the exchange rate is better by 15 won. Damn. They are just making things worse in the long run. It’s a complete policy repeat of the 1997 era. They have not learned a thing.
How long does anyone think this game by the K-government can be played before they run out of ammo?
Like any foreigner would be in awe of “the spirit of sacrifice of Korean mothers.” Now there is a categorically Korean perception if ever I’ve seen one. In reality it is the kids who are sacrificed, to the gods of academic pressure and upward mobility. Study, study, STUDY, for fifteen hours a day while mom takes in the dramas at home and shops online.
Later kiddie will be a doctor or a lawyer, *oink, oink* and the investment will payoff tenfold in the retirement years. Or that’s that hope anyway. Sacrifice, pff.
Sorry…bad day I guess. All true though, to a large extent.
Well… Every cloud has a silver lining.
If I were an expat… I’d ask family at home to buy lots of won or even come to Korea when on vacation… Korea is cheap now (for those of us getting paid in dollars)! Room sal… uh, I mean plane tickets are probably really affordable right now.
I’ll put up a post soon about why I think the won is getting hammered the way it is and when (the party for us gyopos getting ready to make a trip to the motherland will be over) you expats can expect to see relief!
As for myself? I’m sending my parents to Korea (and buying up some won)!
“Later kiddie will be a doctor or a lawyer, *oink, oink* and the investment will payoff tenfold in the retirement years. Or that’s that hope anyway. Sacrifice, pff.”
Excellent observation Pohang.
A BIG reason why Korean (as well as other Asian) parents drive their kids so hard is because… there is no government sponsored retirement safety net (or at least a long history of one).
I guarantee if you get rid of Social Security today, the next day you’ll see more parents suddenly become more interested in their kid’s education and future income potential.
The social safety net here exists, but it doesn’t provide a viable amount for daily life, as evidenced by the grandmother’s collecting cardboard nightly.
That said, what I wrote above was a generalization, and not all mothers are possessed of a frenetic lemming in blinders on crack mentality.
Here’s an example of a mother with a very different take on 사교육, and I applaud her for it. There are many others like her by the way, even among those with money. Not everyone is trying to impress the neighbors.
[왕비엄마의 자녀교육법] 아이들을 해방시키자
http://www.busanilbo.com/news2.....84533.html
“I’ll put up a post soon about why I think the won is getting hammered the way it is and when (the party for us gyopos getting ready to make a trip to the motherland will be over) you expats can expect to see relief!”
At this point I don’t think anybody can truly predict where all this is heading in the near future. But I’m looking forward to what you have to say on why you think the Won will bounce back (although I’ll be very skeptical).
He dreams of marrying a Korean woman and running their own hagwon. Barry says Korean women are “the world’s greatest superwomen” and that the spirit of sacrifice of Korean mothers is the engine that created the Korea of today. He says he must marry a Korean women.
Barry is a retard. I can imagine his one-liner
“Hey baby. You remind me of all the self-sacrificing workhorse ajummas that built this great country. That’s so sexy.”
Well, its a step up from “I like kimchi”.
# 35,
Well, I was pretty much right here:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/wp-ad.....p;c=152837
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....ent-152931
But on the other side, making projections here on the MH is so easy to do because I’m not really accountable for it and my professional peers don’t lurk around to point and laugh at me if I’m wrong!
Your first link doesn’t work, wangkon.
Forget the blah blah post, cm. This is his money shot.
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....ent-152837
This is completely OT but it looks like someone beat byuntees to the punch;
http://www.baboshirts.com/
#37 and #39
I hope you guys are right. But something tells me this isn’t going to turn around that easily. My educated guess: United States is facing a depression in the same magnitude as that of 1929. South Korea will follow.
Dow sinks below 8600.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10.....ref=slogin
Is it a good time to buy Ford and GM, which plunged 22% and 31%?
Robert, this is the best piece of writing I’ve read, written by you, by far.
The content aside, it was a great read.
Actually, the content was awesome, too.
Even considering that this is a translation.
It deserve to be in a newspaper column, in a reputable national newspaper.
Back of Times magazine, maybe?
I’d pretty much bet you though, he’d never swap ROK citizenship for American citizenship.
Koreans never had social security prior to maybe Noh Moohyun, who started it?
i hear it’s a meager amount, and it’s already running on pure debt.
in all of Korean history, plebeians never had social security. Yet, people of classes sangnom and yangban pushed their kids.
I call it culture. With a clear degree of self centeredness.
Social Security started with FDRoosevelt.
prior and after that, were American any more or any less likely to live with mom and pop?
i believed the answer was no.
KrZ, establishing an Internet T-shirt vending operation is little harder than setting up a blog, email account, or Marmot’s Hole ID. Any English teacher in Korea with a broadband connection can do it (and does, it seems). All you need to do is register with the franchising operation (this is the party that actually makes the t-shirt and more importantly, the money) and come up with a witty phrase.
For example, select the phrase “Dipstick English Teacher that learned Konglish witicsms from my six-year old students” and put it into the software, and like magic images of virtual products printed with that phrase appear.
On T-shirts, coffee cups, hats, sweaters, ball pens, etc.
Say its a T-shirt, the product only materializes when some dipstick actually orders one. Then like amazon.com, some warehouse in the mid-west prints out the phrase on a V E R Y thin, poor quality shirt that can only be worn 2-3 times before falling apart.
Weird thing is, there are any given number of these english teacher Internet t-shirt entrepreneurs getting around, however the chosen phrases are only ever ‘나의 고추 맵다’, ‘SEXY 아가씨’, ‘<– 바보랑 같이 있다’
‘미국인 아니다’ ‘콩리시 강사’ , ‘Zen 김치’ complete with typos, weird phrasing, and other strange Japanizations of the spiritual inclinations of Korea’s most famoous traditional food..
I wonder how much this dick (no offence intended, I’m merely stating the obvious) paid Robert for the advertisement.
<a href=”http://www.zazzle.com/”KrZ, Why wait to be rich?
Come back to us with a link when you have developed a range of designs.
“Make 미 Krz”
‘엑스터시 팝니다’
‘아이 라이크 리틀 보이스’
Oh Lord, if only the magic comment spirit in the sky would spare the time to reach down to fix that link.
I didn’t actually click that I link. I just posted it to troll you.
Then you, good sir, are an Internet troll.
Thats ok, I needed to get that all that off my chest anyway.
Much better.
Win-win situation.
WHY, WHY, am i talking shit?
Is it Theodore Roosevelt on the balcony of the West WING?
!!!!
East Wing?
Mom and pop investors .
I know and I impart all beyond His hands of the Lord’s love.
.
DO YOU?
Catsnap quantom.
xmnkldv;\/vjk;fvm,/ko;uczv
kerplunk is always right.
I am kerplunk.
Stop it, Kerplunk. You’re… scaring… me.
You are wrong. Multigenerational households were common before the post-war period. All of my great-grandparents who survived into old age lived with adult children. The house where my brother lives has been in our family more than 100 years. My great-grandparents lived there, and after retiring from teaching, my grandfather’s eldest sister moved in with her widowed mother and cared for her until her death. My spinster great-aunt was not unusual. In rural America, farms were usually passed from father to son, but in cities, the elderly often lived with an unmarried daugther working as a teacher or nurse, hence the saying, “A son’s a son till he marries a wife, but a daughter’s a daughter all of her life.”
My maternal grandparents lived into their mid-90s, and my grandfather’s eldest sister was nearly a centenarian. In the last two years of their lives, my mother’s youngest sister retired early so that she and her husband could move into my grandparents’ home and care for them full-time. Their burden was eased by frequent visits from my mom and her sibs. After her parents died, his diabetic mom came to live with them. My spinster great-aunt was taken in by one of my mom’s sisters, a retired nurse, and her husband. She was bed-ridden, had to be fed, turned, and relieved of bodily waste several times a day.
So much for American self-centeredness. The Korean stereotype of American old people rotting away in nursing homes has little basis in reality. About 7% live in assisted care facilities while a majority live near at least one adult child.
American elderly in nursing homes is still a high number (1.8 million over 65) and percent compared to Korea but it’s going down. It used to be more than 1 out of 5 people over 85 in nursing homes when the idea of doing that to grandparents in Korea was unthinkable. It’s an old idea about U.S. that Koreans are holding onto but the stereotype is not completely foundation-less.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/n.....omes_N.htm
Sonagi is right. Anyone whose family has been her for more than a generation (i.e., not wjk and 99% of kyopos) is personally aware of the tremendous social changes that had taken place in U.S. society during the 20th century, including the shift from the norm of multi-generational co-habitation to the so-called “nuclear family” among mainstream Americans.
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