When I first came to South Korea I had no idea what I was getting myself into, which is usually how I like to go about things. This time the job I thought I would be working turned into the job I would be living. I work for a corporation for an average of 11 hours a day. The most accurate description I can offer is corporate slave, I won’t say corporate whore because I have yet to seriously compromise myself for The Man. I thought I would be working for a school; a fair assumption considering the company I work for is called Korea Poly School. But no, no the sparkly ties and shinny suits that run this institution are not truly interested in the education of children. They are a well-oiled money making machine, educating children just so happens to be their fuel. Making as much profit as possible is their only real business. The private English education system here is pretty much all the same. They capitalize on over privileged Korean children trying to learn English or better yet their mother’s desire for them to learn English. The name of this Korean phenomenon is a Hogwon. I am beginning to learn as I get older (note: this is the wisdom of a 23 year old) the unapologetic pursuit of capital is not unique to my company or any company really. It’s the same in any corporation anywhere in the world. It’s no different in Seoul than in London or even Sao Palo. Like the smoke filled cigar rooms of the past cigarette breaks in the stairwells of South Korea are where the “magic” happens. Climbing the corporate stairwell. The good old boys networks never disappear they just change faces as societies evolve and crumble. East Asia is making economic power moves. South Korea is getting a piece of that pie if it kills them and with the suicide rate what it is, it just might. I wanted a cultural experience and I got one. It’s just no the one I expected. This is not the Thailand of summers past. This is raw but at least it’s real.
