The Future Leaders of Korea? America?

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Politics. It's so true and unfortunate that you can never escape the politics and bureaucracy in any faucet of life. They are inherently associated with any occupation. I left the States in part because I needed a break from the corporate world. However, even a week into teaching, the political and business sides of things are showing through crystal clear. The owners are essentially running a business, not a school. Since it's a private institution created solely for teaching English and there are thousands of other hakwons that the kids can attend (competition in this industry is high), part of our jobs as teachers is really focused on ensuring the parents are happy - as they are the paying customer.

With this in mind, every day at 3:00 pm, myself, two teachers who are part of my teaching team, and our supervisor must meet with the school directors and discuss strategies for improving the school and the teachers. We are the only teachers who participate in these meeting for the elementary campus, because we are in charge of the top students (W level). The meetings usually, start the same way, the head director talking to us about the 3 most important parts of the school. What's great is that these meetings are done in Korean, not English, as I am the only non-speaker and the director supposedly does not know English very well. So, after a couple minutes of him repeating what he had told us the day before, and every day before that, he starts asking us questions. At every one of these meetings, I am the first person that he asks questions to and he always prefaces his questions with statements that I should know, as I came from marketing and business experience. Yesterday he was looking for me to tell him the 4 P's of marketing, which I did (product, placement, price, promotion), and today he asked something about recruiting new students. The funny thing is, he is never asking any of us questions because he wants our opinions, or to create any kind of action plans. He asks the questions solely to keep us constantly aware of the way he is thinking and to tell us the already established way of the school and the business. If a question does happen to arise where a thoughtful response is needed, it is because it is something that he does not have the answer to. But, it still doesn't mean that we are going to do anything about it.

**Oh, and as part of the business strategy, today I was shown the colorful new advertisements for Avalon that were placed in the Korean papers and online. They feature only us foreign teachers from the United States (6 of us) and list the universities that we attended. This is how they promote the legitimacy and caliber of hakwons here, and Avalon is specifically a big advertiser (as one of the bigger, better hakwons in the country). They also took individual pictures of me and two other teachers for new ads, but I have no idea if they are using these. Although I find this amusing and relatively misleading - promoting how amazing the school is by saying that I am from the US, so therefore a great, qualified teacher - it is also flattering to feel so much pressure to be the example for the other teachers. I kept the newspaper with the ad in it for my scrapbook.**

Something that is becoming more apparent to me each day as I observe all of the other teachers in the classroom (twice per day - total of 2 hours 40 minutes), is just how westernized Korean culture has become. As Martin said to some of the WI level students tonight, "You guys are more American than some Americans! It's important to stay in touch with traditional Korean culture." To which the kids responded, "Ugh, no we don't like all those things." The comment was spurred by the fact that the kids just quickly waved at me, barely taking the time to look at me when Martin introduced me and told them to welcome me. He asked why they did not bow to me as they said hi and show the respect that they should. They responded with blank stares and went back to socializing. This small incident was very disheartening to me. Although I wasn't expecting to come to Korea and be immersed in a centuries old cultural setting, I was expecting to come to a country rich with heritage and pride in such traditions. This simply is not the case anymore. These things are still part of Korean life, but they are by no means mandatory or regularly practiced. I worry that in another 20 years, they will be distant memories, maybe a paragraph in the new Korean history books.

On the one hand, I want to blame western society, specifically the US for truly playing a huge role in homogenizing the world. Our influence has touched even the most remote of areas. Yet, at the same time, my pride in being American has been strengthened because I can really see how fortunate I am to have been raised in a country that strongly encourages (even forces to some degree) diversity in education, in the workplace and just as part of everyday life. Korea, and from what I have seen and heard - most other countries, do not do this. Korean culture forces its youth to become bi-lingual or multi-lingual and culturally adept from the get go, but this is not because they want to create a society full of different people and backgrounds. They teach English and American culture solely as a tactical maneuver. They need to make sure that they kids know how to fit into English-speaking society and specifically the US, so they know what to say and how to act when the time comes. What kind of topics and pop culture is interesting to people as conversation starters. But this is to ensure the kids have a chance at success. Koreans aren't trying to bring any diversity or foreigners into their homeland, they don't even seem remotely interested in the idea or the kind of unique culture of people that exists in the US. They are preparing their own to fit in in America, but not to embrace it, and this is still evident in the strong opinions/prejudices of other countries and people that the parents instill in their children.

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