Someone wrote this on the discussion page of a webb site, and I found the reasons given for such a conclusion very interesting. It seems that Korea and Japan are classified as shame based cultures in the sense that the shame from being seen breaking a law far outweighs any guilt that someone from say a western individualised culture might feel from a similar law breaking infraction. Mrs Holley, as the administrator of the Gwangju Foreign School, at times seems to be quite beyond this as she is quite capable of verbalising the most obvious of barefaced lies, but then of course maybe she is so thick in the head as to actually believe that the rest of the teachers and staff cannot see through her asinine B.S.
A lot of administrators have to resort to cunning and lieing to get things done, but most of them have a conscience of sorts and something inside of them wears and tears because of it. It's said that hypochrisy is the "tribute that vice pays to virtue", and a bit of it certainly greases the wheels of social exchange. It also corrodes the well being of those people who are continually forced to make use of it. In the case of Mrs Holley and her husband I'd say there is nothing inside to corrode.
Many Korean institute owners use tactics like "I will turn you into immigration if you don't do this" or " I will put you on a blacklist, because of your decision" or "we can fire you whenever we want" as intimidation tactics to keep their new and very green staff in line. Mrs Holley is quite capable of these and more. At times she has been known to describe so many differing and conflicting scenarios of why she was able to bring to pass certain events that it's beyond a joke. Her husband of course is a Western trained Lawyer, but the union didn't take her out of the weirdness of her culture. It either sucked him in or he was by inclination a part of it anyway. If he was drawn into it, it could be because of the maxim: "you can take a person out of her cultural background, but you cant take the cultural background out of the person". If he wasn't drawn in then maybe destiny played apart in their meeting.
Now I don't for one minute think that all Korean buisness people conduct their affairs by stretching the law i.e. by using subterfuge, lying, and cunning. There are some good honest law abiding people here otherwise the country would have gone to the dogs long ago. Unfortunately I don't thing any of them work in the vicinity of the Gwangju Foreign school in Yangsan Dong.
It's interesting that when Greenspan was in Korea to hand to the Koreans their baleout package of millions of dollars for the IMF fiasco in 1997 (or therabouts) he literally threw it at them in disgust. He had been duly informed by the many U.S. companies whom had been shortchanged in their buisness arrangements with Korean companies. Korea did pay off the IMF loan they borrowed, but I am wondering where they dipped their hands to get the needed funds.
The tactic of "we can fire you whenever we want" can be thrown in the garbage dump completely. Korean law says that a person cannot be kicked out of his position until the end of his or her contract. Should a company try to do this then the Labor Board will step in and guarantee the rights of that person. The performance of the individual concerned is irrelevant. I worked for the public school system with a co-worker who was so bad that the school told him to stay home, and still recieve his pay.
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11 comments:
Interesting use of "you can take a person out of her culture by marriage, but you can't take the culture out of the person"
That description came from what the newspapers said about O.J Simpson and his life in the San Francisco tough neighbourhood. The newspapers said "You can take O.J. Simpson out of his old San Francisco haunts, but you can't take th old San Francisco haunts out of O.J. Simpson. I guess they were trying to find a reason for Simpson's behaviour.
The WASQ thing is a real joke. Most schools bust their gut to get this accreditation, but once they have it they throw caution to the wind. The Gangju Foreign school, actually had science teachers teaching history. That's a no,no. WASQ wouldn't have accepted the institution if was doing that.
The school doesn't have a soccer field, even though the school homepage advertises otherwise. The supposed school soccer field is a cinder covered play area for elementry students a tenth the size of a regular soccer field.
Oh well, some people will do anything to make an extra buck.
How come the Holleys have their stonehead numbskull kids on the school homepage. Sheesh there are a lot more students with class than those dickheads. Would have been better if others were on the homepage.
The fact that Mrs holley would advertise rot such as the school having a soccer field and a gymnasium further highlights her capacity as a pathalogical lier.
The gymnasioum as somebody pointed out is one flimsy piece of equipment. Why the hell doesn't she just leave all that crap off the homepage, and be honest for a change.
The administrative staff aren't doing their job with their eyes closed. I'm sure they can see the cut throat underhand tactics employed by the Holly's to line their pockets. You can't tell me that they don't know about the illegality of accepting students who haven't attended schools abroad for the mandatory 5 years, or the recent debacle with the belated pension plan or the Hollys shenannigans with the severance, and the camp.
A contract will usually say that the teacher is required to do extra duites as required by the school. If it does say this, and a teacher can voluntarily choose not to do a camp then that clause, if it's there would no longer be binding as a means to with hold severance etc etc. Not saying that all this crap is what's on Gwangju schools contract, but its an example of just what's out there.
Now the adminstration who are are staff just like the teachers, are responsible for seeing that their fellow teachers don't get jerked around. Some one in their position who closes his or her eyes to the crap they see, and to any misstreatment the staff recieves like for example with the pension plan are sherking their rights as decent human beings. They are no better than human trash in fact, just like the owners.
I wasn't there when Mr Schuster was principlal, but the staff who knew him said he stuck his neck out for what was right. Holley's tried to fire him of course, and I'm not sure but i have heard he had to go to the labor board to get his paycheck.
Subsequent adminstrative staff compromised themselves completely, and will never be thought much of. They shook hands with the devil so to speak, and he never let go.
The comment on wikipedia about the school's ESL programe being illegal has to be correct. I checked on the Newsletters on the school homepage, and there are numerous references to ESLERS. Indicating a very active ESL programe. International schools only accept students who have spent 5 years in an English speaking country, and of course anyone in this category isn't going to need ESL classes at Gwangju Foreign School. One can rightfully assume therefore that all of the schools ESL students shouldn't be there, and that the Holleys have blatantly broken the law by accepting them.
Geeze another indication of the "pathological lieing syndrome of MR an MRS Holley.
I'm sure the falling value of the won is affecting the Gwangju Foreign School. In just the same way as it's affecting the other foreign or international institiutes in Korea.
OK the restriction for living abroad has been reduced to 3 years, but that is still long enough for a detrmined parent and child to get to grips with English well enough to attend an english speaking class without an ESL program. can't believe the Holleys are pushing their ESL programe. They are also trying to hide it from public view now that I have pointed out to readers that information can be obtained from the schools newsletters. Their Newsletters were available to everyone to read, and they make a big point about their ESLers. Now the Holleys have made the issuance of a password to read the schools letters on their home page.
Geeze. What peices of CRAP they are. Covering up in whatever way they can their duplicity. He prides himself as graduating with a J.D. degree, and passing the Bar exam for West Virginia. He also shouts to the world how he is a member of the Chamber of commerce here in Korea. He aint nothing but a bug fake and a hipocrite.
There is nothing illegal about having an ESL program at an international school. The real issue is that some students need help in improving their English reading skills and in increasing their academic vocabulary. Such ESL programs are quite common in international schools.
By the way, an ESLR has nothing to do with ESL. ESLR stands for "Expected Schoolwide Learning Results". Many schools have their own set of ESLR's.
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