Curse of an ESL Teacher

I've just read an interesting blog article by an ESL teacher (i suppose?) teaching in Jeju island.

http://lostonjeju.blogspot.com/2008/12/vampires-on-jeju-island.html

It seems he has cheekily vented his dissatisfaction with hagwon (학원, 學院) directors through a review of “Curse of Jeju Island”, based on the excerpt and introduction published on this blog. For those of you who do not know what a hagwon is, it's actually a cram school that offers lessons in almost any subject such as computer, math, taekwondo, English and much more. Korean parents are many times more “kiasu” than Singaporeans, so these hagwons are actually quite prevalent across the country.

The ESL teachers have creatively twisted the term from “hagwon” into “hogwan”, i guess, as a dig from the word “hog”. Why do they associate hagwon operators with pigs? Well, I guess the main issue is on $ $ $ $, as you can see in his review:

But, if you think you signed a crappy contract when you came to Jeju Island to teach English you can feel fortunate you are not Jackie Chang!!

"I take aim and mow it down, then slowly walk towards it to see if it’s dying. If this vampire is fully subdued, the Governor will pay me a quarter million Korean Won for this feat."

Yep, Jackie gets 250,000 Won per vampire. That's about $200 US in today's money. $200 for killing a vampire(!?). Can you say "ripoff?" Jeez, and I thought some of the youngsters that show up on the island to teach English were stupid. Jackie makes George Bush's foreign policy advisors look intelligent! I think Jackie Chang would be a hogwan owner's dream.

Hahaha~! I think he's got a point. While Jackie can make use of US$200 for a decent Samgyupsal bbq and dozens of soju with Master Inada, it really isn't enough to cover rent and other living expenses, let alone the expensive hunting equipment, especially the silver bullets~! Haha... It's time for Jackie et al to raise fees.

LOJ also commented on the "Mirae Paradox":

Mirae just doesn’t enjoy that feeling of stabbing a sword across, or gunning a bullet into a vampire’s chest. She feels really bad about having to kill a fellow Korean. It just doesn’t seem right to her about killing a fellow countryman.

I guess that means if it was a Canadian created vampire English teacher, she'd have no problem cutting out its living guts and using them to grease the lugnuts on her Hyundai Sonata.

I almost LMAO over this, but i think he has nailed himself a good idea for a new storyline.

“Curse of Jeju Island” is currently distributed only within Singapore, as I doubt that Koreans would welcome the historical/political settings of this plot. On a second thought, however, this book might become a hit with the ESL teachers in Korea. I can imagine each of them buying a copy and using it as a dartboard or voodoo against the penny-pinching “hogwan” operators.

My thanks to LOJ for his humorous review. ;)