Year 1 - The Unmentioned Co-Workers

I was going to title this The South Africans but I know South Africans aren't all as bad as the two douche bags I worked with in my first year.

I haven't mentioned two of my co-workers from my first year. They were memorable but not for good reasons.

They were an aunt (Maria) and her nephew (Paul). They started before I did and the others actually thought thery were a couple at first. She got him the job, and a fake degree in order for him to qualify to teach in Korea.

I prefer to have peace in my workplace. So I try to get along with everyone. Sometimes you run into people that you just can't get along with. That would be these two.

Together or alone they were assholes.

We had a foreign staff meeting every Tuesday. The school had 6 foreign teachers. One teacher had to present how they would teach a chapter of one of our text books each time. They would work as a tag team to build each other up, at the expense of others. Or if they weren't presenting to tear others down in such a way as to make them look good.

Once at a teachers meeting Paul went off about how some of his stuff was missing from the staff room. (The staff room was ALSO a classroom. We never left anything important laying around because the kids WOULD go through the shelves. Before I got there someone left money and it vanished.) He said that he knew it wasn't the Korean teachers or children who took. Mind you he never actually checked into that he was trying to suck up some brownie points by implying Koreans don't steal and could be trusted. The one who did should confess. Basically, it must have been one of the foreigners. His stuff was just some glue and coloured pencils. Odds are one of the kids took it because he was stupid enough to leave it there.

In another staff meeting they were perturbed and upset because the "other" teachers don't always say "Good Morning" to them.

After I finsihed chuckling I smiled and said that I ALWAYS reply when someone says good morning to me. But if they expected good morning back they would have to wait a long time. It is morning. There is nothing good about it. I ALWAYS acknowledged their good mornings with either a "morning" or "Hi". If that wasn't enough too bad. (NONE of us were morning people, and I don't give fake sappy "Good Mornings" to anyone.)

One of our co-workers was from Mauritius. His skin tone was Indian. Dusky. I don't usually bring up peoples skin colour but it is relevant to this. These stupid fuckers actually tried to explain, with the use of a white board, how he was not black but coloured. And how you could break down the skin colour group. They felt he should know this because a student had told them he was black. God only knows what they told the student about him.I guess they were missing the apartheid system where they were number 1.

Maria was a piece of work. One of the most two-faced conniving people I have ever worked with. Toss in her feelings of racial superiority and it could get disgusting at times. Oh, and add some religious zeal too. Pretentious would be a good word to describe her.

She would always try to make herself look better at the expense of the other teachers. She even lied about what country she was from to students, saying she was from England.

We went to the Cheongju National Museum once. She spent some time prattling about the potential Koreans have but will never attain because they are heathens and the way they think. Constantly refering to them as "these people".

One of our receptionists and I became friends. This bitch started a rumour at work that I was in love with her and chasing her. She had a boyfriend and I wasn't chasing her. This sort of juvenile crap is what the bitch would pull all the time. Unfortunately, some of my co-workers fell for her lies at times. They should have known better. They worked with her longer than I did.

She was always talking down to Koreans and putting on fake airs with the students. The students didn't like her (or her nephew) as a teacher. You would hear her everyday giving a loud "Hello, How are you?" that just dripped of fakeness. I can't duplicate it in writing, but when I mimicked it to him, Stig actually cringed.

Paul, he dripped sleaziness more than anything. Just like his aunt he was good at always trying to get ahead at other peoples expense.

He would also tell people he was from England. Mind you he also lied so many times about what his degree was in and where it was from that even the Korean kids were starting to catch on. When he finally settled on a degree he actually made it up. He claimed to have a Master's Degree in Business Leadership from Oxford University. No Bachelor degree, but a Master's in a degree that Oxford's website said they didn't offer.

Sometimes he would talk about his job in South Africa before coming to Korea. If it was really his job. He would talk about working in a prison with glee. Especially when talking taking prisoners to be executed. He would get RIGHT into that role. Trying to show you how they spoke, walked/marched to the chamber, strapping prisoners in for their execution. Watching them die. He seemed to love talking about that in particular. Odds are it was just another one of his lies ubt it seemed like a fantasy he enjoyed.

Then there were women ... or rather girls. His comments would range from creepy to extremely sleazy. He would oogle the young girls. You could almost see him drooling as he leered at them. (Years later a taxi driver would remind me of Paul.)

And I mean girls. Once he saw a 1st year middle school girl in a short skirt and scoop neck t-shirt. His jaw dropped to the floor. The drool was running. She was like 13? 14? Looked like she should be in Elementary School.

The kicker for me was when he told me "his plan". He wanted to work in Korea for a few years so he could save up enough money to go to Vietnam. He wanted to go there because he heard you can buy women cheap. The first thing I thought of was that he meant hookers. He didn't. He went on about owning a couple of women. He may have just been bs'ing but with the way he acted and his sense of racial superiority ... ugh. I had enough of him.

Even the adjumma's could sense his sleaze factor. They would always try and switch classes if he was their teacher. The rest of us would have a lot more classes than him and his aunt.

Somehow, our boss found out he had a fake degree. He was gone the next day.

I have met many people during my sojourn in Korea. Most aren't that memorable. Some are. These ones are but for bad reasons. They are the kind that give all foreigners a bad name with Koreans and each other.