Chronicling the events of September 13-14, 2009
4.25 AM – Sitting in my dark and empty apartment. Turn off laptop. Shove it and the charger into my carry-on. My pockets contain my passport, iPod, wallet and 3,000,000 won in cash.
4.26 AM – Load my huge backpack onto my back, and sit on the bed listening quietly. The building is silent. Adrenaline starting to flow.
4.29 AM – Take a deep breath.
4.30 AM – Open door, lock behind me, leave key on ground.
4.31 AM – Walk right past boss/neighbour’s front door. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. If she steps outside right now it will be the most painfully awkward freeze in human history.
4.32 AM – Emerge from stairwell at bottom of building, and quickly head down sidestreet. I have now left the Red Zone: my apartment, the corridors, the stairwells and the immediate exterior of the building, all places where I could conceivably bump into the six or seven people who could blow the lid right off this thing.
4.33 AM – Heading down the sidestreet to the canal, it occurs to me that I severely understimated the Red Zone. I am walking down a street full of bars and restaurants, all of them still full of people and open to the street. What if my boss is in one of them? Or her family, or friends? Jesus fucking Christ I can’t believe I’m doing this.
4.35 AM – Reach canal.
4.40 AM – Still walking down canal, but much further from my building now. Okay. Passed the first hurdle.
4.55 AM – Arrive at Jeungsan subway station, which is still closed up for the night. Plop bags on floor and sit down for a while. Hope I don’t get mugged.
5.10 AM – The roller doors are pulled up, and I am granted entry into the subway station along with several early morning aj-folk.
5.11 AM – An insistent ajumma tries to help me recharge my T-money card. I guess with the bacpack I look like a tourist. Despite reassuring her that I’m fine, she calls for the subway attendents. I KNOW HOW TO DO IT OLD WOMAN STOP DRAWING ATTENTION TO ME.
5.13 AM – Take a seat at the far end of the subway platform. Sit there quelling panic.
5.21 AM – An ajossi wearing a shiny silver suit and holding a briefcase is slowly shuffling up and down the platform. Where is he going? Work? At 5.00 AM on a Sunday? This is the country I am escaping.
5.45 AM – First train of the day arrives, and I scamper onboard.
5.50 AM – Subway stations I will never see again slide past: Susaek, World Cup Stadium, Mapo-gu Office.
6.15 AM – Several transfers having come and gone, I am now sitting down on the purple line and nodding off. Nearly everyone in the car is. Slap myself to stay alert.
6.25 AM – Gimpo Airport station. Drink shitty vending machine coffee before boarding the AREX Express.
6.34 AM – The Arex emerges from her tunnel into daylight. When I entered the metro system it was still completely dark – now the sun is rising over the green hilltops to the east. Concrete apartment blocks and rice paddies shrouded in mist slide past as the train powers on towards the islands of the West Sea.
7.01 AM – The AREX Express arrives at Incheon International Airport, a vast complex that is fresh and clean and new… everything Korea is not. Koreans believe in the power of first impressions. Or just impressions, actually.
7.05 AM – Push my bulky, backpacked form through a convenience store to refund the 5000 won left on my T-money card. This may seem petty when done by a man with the equivalent of $3000 AUD stuffed in his pockets. Duly noted.
7.09 AM – Take the travelator across to the main terminal.
7.10 AM – Begin lugging my tired, nervous ass up and down the three kilometre width of the terminal looking for the Cathay Pacific desk, carrying 22 kilos on my back.
7.22 AM – Success! A Chinese desk clerk informs me that check-in is not until 12.15, a five hour wait. Hoo boy.
7.45 AM – I have now been without sleep for nearly 24 hours. Caffeine is a neccesity.
7.51 AM – Cafe Pascucci located.
7.55 AM – Jesus Christ, why is all the coffee in this country so fucking awful?
7.58 AM – Incheon’s wifi is also awful.
8.10 AM – For some time now I’ve been having severe stomach cramps; it has become clear that this is not merely stress, but an urgent message from my nether regions. Shouldn’t have had Lotteria for dinner.
8.11 AM – Urgently begin looking for somewhere to keep my backpack, which will be quite cosy in a toilet cubicle.
8.21 AM – Locate a locker room and shell out 7000 for storage.
8.25 AM – Locate bathroom.
8.26 AM – Ahhhhhhhh, yeah.
9.00 AM – Have breakfast at Paris Baguette’s. A woman who resembles a Midwestern stripper is eating lunch with her blonde, mullet-haired son. If that kid’s name isn’t Tyler I will eat my hat.
9.08 AM – Why can’t I find a bar? What kind of fucking airport doesn’t have a bar?
9.17 AM – Fuck it, Bennigan’s will do.
9.18 AM – Order a draft beer and sit down. Just as the bartender starts walking towards my table with it, my iPod shuffles onto “Shining Star” by Earth Wind & Fire. Maurice White wails out “Yeaaah!” just as I take my first grateful gulp.
9.34 AM – Too goddamn fidgety and nervous to sit still. Drain the last of the beer and start wandering the airport again.
9.49 AM – Settle down in the viewing lounge next to Bennigan’s, watching sky blue Korean Air planes taxi and take off.
10.03 AM – Fucking awful hip-hop blaring out of the speakers drives me a’wandering again.
10.35 AM – Shuffle from couch to couch and chair to chair all over the airport. Sitting still for too long makes me nervous. Well, more nervous. I passed the first hurdle, which was getting out of the neighbourhood. Now I face the second: clearing customs. Time drags, its natural passage held back by the claws of worry and fear. Oddly enough it reminds me of scuba diving, of the low-key anxiety, the barely suppressed terror I always felt whenever I was breathing underwater. So I wander, and sit for a while, and wander again. It’s so fucking hot. Or is that my imagination?
11.23 AM – I must have passed the same pair of patrolling security officers five times by now. And these are the intimidating ones, the paramilitary dudes with black uniforms and Ray-Bans. I’m a sweating, nervous wreck with bags under my eyes and a bloodstream full of alchol, caffeine and several litres of adrenaline. Not for the first time, I realise that I probably look like an uncommonly well-dressed drug mule.
12.07 PM – GODDAMNIT DEPARTURE BOARD DISPLAY MY FLIGHT ALREADY I CAN’T STAND THIS ANYMORE
12.15 PM – Ok, check-in open for business.
12.17 PM – Pick up backpack from storage.
12.25 PM – Display passport at counter and receive two Cathay Pacific boarding passes: Seoul – Hong Kong, Hong Kong – Perth.
12.26 PM – Stare at the customs gate with swelling panic. I have been warned that, passing through customs, I may be detained and interrogated by officials who are well aware of what I am doing. It is not a crime and they have no legal right to arrest me or make me miss my flight. I still don’t relish the idea.
11.28 PM – Come to think of it, while the soundtrack to Waltz With Bashir fits my mood right now, it isn’t really calming my nerves. Turn off iPod.
12.30 PM – Okay. Time to run the gauntlet.
12.32 PM – Push bags and laptop through X-ray machine. Pray that the tightly rolled wad of cash in my jeans pocket isn’t too obvious.
12.33 PM – Wanded, and given the all-clear.
12.34 PM – Permit myself fifteen seconds to briefly scan the immigration lines and find the friendliest-looking customs officer. Settle on the single female.
12.36 PM – Have conversation with customs officer:
“You have alien card?”
“Yes, here.”
“You come back?”
“No, leaving.”
“You leave… but visa not finished?”
“Yes. Quit.”
“Okay. I keep card then.”
“Yes, okay.”
“Thank you, have a nice day.”
12.37 PM – Holy shit. Did that actually just happen? Am I really free?
12.38 PM – I have never been this relieved in my life. The knot in my stomach untwists, and the pressing weight on my shoulders is lifted. Am I really free? I can’t afford to get careless. Not until I am off Korean soil will I let myself smile.
1.00 PM – Locate boarding gate. The plane is being prepped outside, a spectacular machine gleaming in the sunlight. The Cathay Pacific flight attendents seem like the most beautiful women in the world to me.
1.01 PM – Flight doesn’t leave for some time yet, so I set off to find lunch.
1.06 PM – A convenient food court with a number of different restaurants. As one final act of contempt, I order Japanese.
1.12 PM – My udon noodles and fish arrive… with a side of kimchi. Oh, Korea. One last ditch effort to win me back using the same failed ploys? I do not hate you, Korea – I pity you.
1.40 PM – After finishing lunch, I duck into a toilet stall to check that my three bundles of cash are still secure, tucked away in various pockets in my jacket and jeans.
2.05 PM – Sitting around at the boarding gate, I am approached by a friendly young man doing a tourism survey. He’s quite nice, so I’m more generous than I really should be in my answers. When I come to “Would you recommend Korea to others?” my pen trembles and I just barely manage to settle on “Not sure.”
2.55 PM – Begin boarding Cathay Pacific Flight 411, bound for Hong Kong.
3.30 PM – Takeoff. Yes. Yesssssss.
3.35 PM – Naturally I have a window seat, since I was five hours early for check-in, so I’m treated to my last glimpses of Korea from high above. It seems strangely satisfying to be leaving by plane, to look down on this place from above. I am untouchable now. I am invincible. I am in the sky.
3.38 PM – The last of the islands disappear as we climb above the cloud layer. After a few minutes, I permit myself a Michael Clayton smile.
3.40 PM – Insert iPod. Listen to “Exogenesis Part 3: Redemption” by Muse while the plane gently rolls left and right through the cloudscape, sailing towards freedom.
5.16 PM – After three hellish hours of constant nodding-off and re-awakening, the half-sleep that torments the body and soul (with a timezone change thrown in for good measure) we land at Hong Kong International Airport in heavy fog.
5.30 PM – This airport has the longest corridor I’ve ever seen. I can’t actually make out the finer details of the far end, and I’ve already been walking down it for five minutes. Fuck my legs hurt.
5.45 PM – A frustrating search for a meal in a very inefficiently designed airport. WHY IS EVERY RESTAURANT CHINESE WHY WHY WHY oh yeah
6.12 PM – Burger King for dinner. I’m burned-out on Asia.
6.55 PM – Locate boarding gate, settle down in chairs with laptop.
6.59 PM – Email Internet acquaintance who gave me advice on pulling a midnight run, having done one himself the previous month (customs detainment and all). Never heard from him after the first email, in which he wouldn’t tell me where he fled because his school was sending him death threats, but I wanted to let him know I’d made it. Somewhere between the use of codenames, the phrase “off the grid” and listening to “Extreme Ways” by Moby I feel like I’m living in a thriller movie.
7.34 PM – Watch a dry thunderstorm roll over the city. Lightning flashes down and stabs at the dark outlines of the mountains above Kowloon.
7.57 PM – Why the fuck is it so hard to find a single place selling water? No I don’t want your touristy knick-knacky airport shit, I want water. I NEED IT TO LIVE.
8.01 PM – In a chemist, of all places.
8.15 PM – Back to the gate to kill some more time.
8.35 PM – Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation, but the CNN anchors look like aliens. Their skin is stretched too tightly across their faces. Are they some kind of advance scouts for a coming invasion?
9.12 PM – My legs hurt bad. Whether I leave them on the ground or cross them or stick them on the chairs, they hurt bad.
10.55 PM – Boarding begins for Qantas Flight 68, bound for Perth.
11.25 PM – Plane begins trundling out to the furthest runway.
11.55 PM – Delayed, waiting at the end of the runway because of a tropical storm in the South China Sea. A Cathay Pacific plane crawls past, an enormous dark monster in the shadows.
12.04 AM – Finally take off, the plane rumbling down the tarmac and powering into the night sky. Hong Kong drops below us. Pulses of cloud-damped lightning flicker over the city, and in the harbour fishing boats are lit up like golden scarabs.
12.07 AM – After arguing with his wife and calling her a cow, the cunt in front of me reclines his seat all the way back into my face. I think you can judge a lot of a person’s character by how far they choose to push their seat back on a plane.
12.17 AM – I want to sleep. But I also want food and drink. Oh, God, how I want a drink.
12.44 AM – Oh come on, this is minor turbulence. Take the seatbelt sign off and serve us dinner already.
1.10 AM – Flight attendent asks me if I would like the beef or the chicken. “Whatever’s the least Asian, please.” They forget to give me a coke with my bourbon, but my psyche is so ravaged by the last 24 hours that I barely notice.
2.00 AM – Try to get some sleep, face up against the windowpane, shoes off, curled up underneath my jacket and an airline blanket. Feel half-drunk and empty.
5.00 AM – Emerge through a very thick layer of noise, dream fragments and blindness into full consciousness. Pull sleeping mask off and rub eyes. Another three hours of awful half-sleep. Not sure if they even turned the cabin lights off.
5.30 AM – Because, this being Qantas, they have to serve us both dinner and breakfast! Who cares if we only get three hours of sleep in between! What if the passengers began to starve to death, and resorted to cannibalism, the flight crew holing up in the cockpit while the rest of the plane became a bloodbath of violence and anarchy? That would make QF72 look like a joyride.
5.31 AM – I guess I am hungry though.
5.40 AM – Eat some kind of potato cake and fruit salad. Insert iPod to drown out the domestic dispute in the two seats in front of me. Bloc Party, “So Here We Are.”
6.00 AM – Daybreak over the desert. Out the window below is the rocky landscape of the Pilbara, blue in the pre-dawn light. Endless plains of rock, trees clinging to the creases of the creeks and streams. Ancient and weathered by time. As the sun rises it shifts from blue to violet to pink to red. No buildings, no sign that humans can even inhabit this place. Borne across it by the white wings and red tail of the flying kangaroo. Australia. Home.
167 comments
Comments feed for this article
September 15, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Smileyfax
Bravo! Congratulations! Various other terms of acclaim!
If you do get death threats, you definitely should post them.
September 15, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Alex
You wasted time by locking your door.
I second the posting of death threats. Have they tried to contact you?
September 15, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Petite Mystere
what the bet they were just like “meh. there goes another mofo.” and didnt even chase u to the airport or anything
u always seem to manage to make everything so dramatic haha :P
September 15, 2009 at 11:42 pm
grubstreethack
I got an email from my recruiter about an hour after their office hours started, so I guess they were on the horn to him straight away. He just wanted to know why I left and whether they were mistreating me. I’ve also been talking to one of the other teachers on Facebook, who found the event kinda funny and understood why I left (he’s not happy there either).
By the way, Alex, on the off-chance that any prospective employers demand a phone number reference as well as an email address (which I’ve already fabricated) how would you like to be complicit in fraud and pose as a head teacher?
September 16, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Petite Mystere
hahaha god help u if any government officials or employers ever found this site hahahaha
September 16, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Alex
Haha. I’d love to be a conspirator in fraud!
September 17, 2009 at 1:55 am
iamronin11
very nice work. i am doing a midnight run too at some point , but i live far far away from seoul. have you heard of immigration ever detaining anyone for leaving south korea without finishing their visa?
September 17, 2009 at 4:39 am
grubstreethack
I knew a guy who was detained and questioned for about an hour, but he simply told them his school was abusing him (and hoo boy, they sure were) and he wanted to leave. Remember that immigration has NO LEGAL RIGHT to detain you indefinitely and they cannot make you miss your flight.
Oh, and it’s only an issue if you have a single-entry visa. If you have a multiple entry visa you can just tell them you’re going on holiday.
September 21, 2009 at 9:31 am
exalen
“As one final act of contempt, I order Japanese.” I love it!
Good work on your break out. I loved reading this. Not only is it dramatic, but is fucking brilliant as well!
December 4, 2009 at 1:14 am
Gentlemen of the Road « Grub Street
[…] gainful employment at Mornington Wilderness Camp at the same time that I was cutting my losses and escaping a South Korean hagwon in the dead of night. He also has stuff like a guitar and piano and motorcycle and 4WD he can hock […]
December 12, 2009 at 2:56 pm
tango
Yeah I did a run a couple of years ago, as I handed over my alien card the customs dude told me that I may not be allowed on the country for two years if I was breaking a contract. I told him the only way I’d ever set foot in Korea was if a plane broke down on the way to somewhere else. The Cannuck behind me cracked up and the customs dude went really stony faced and told me to “have a nice day”, then l walked off. My hogwon boss was really into golf, but couldn’t afford to play often. I sent him a photo from NZ with me on a golf course holding a sign saying F##K you eric. lol.
Korea blows. It’s just a country of stupid freakin clones.
February 14, 2010 at 4:05 pm
laura
love this story, actually made me laugh out loud…I’m the same, would never set foot back here again after I leave…how long were you in Korea? At what point do you hand your alien card over? I have a multiple entry visa so I could just say I’m going on holiday but then I’d not be able to leave card…what’ sthe best thing to do knowing I’ll never be coming back?
February 15, 2010 at 10:30 pm
grubstreethack
Oh, shit, if you have a multiple entry visa it’ll be a breeze. Just tell them you’re going on holiday. They won’t ask for your alien card.
January 12, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Susan
I’m doing a midnight run this weekend and I’m really scared. What’s the worst customs can do to me for not having a return ticket?
February 14, 2010 at 4:07 pm
laura
Hey susan, did you do it? what happened…I’m still considering it….like to hear your comments and hope your okay!
March 5, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Kristian Scott
Did you run? did they detain you? Pleease respond!
February 2, 2010 at 12:24 pm
laura
Hey! Can leaving Korea out of contract aka ‘midnight run’ have any effect on getting a working holiday visa for Australia? This is a big concern of mine.
Thanks!
February 2, 2010 at 12:59 pm
grubstreethack
No. I’m no expert on them, but as I understand it, working holiday visas will only be denied if you have a criminal record. Australian authorities will be checking your home nation for that, not Korea. Even then, a midnight run is not a crime. You’re really just quitting a job without notice. Strictly speaking you may be fleeing a debtor, depending on whether they paid for your airfare or not and how far through the contract you are, but it’s unlikely this will ever come back to bite you in the ass.
I’ve even heard of people who’ve done midnight runs returning to Korea to teach again, so, there’s virtually no chance it would affect a visa application for another country.
February 14, 2010 at 3:58 pm
laura
thanks, I apreciate your response.
It’s a really difficult desicion but I am working for someone I don’t trust, don’t believe is paying my taxes/pensions/healthcare. I have been unhappy for a while and just think that life is too short to stay somewhere you are unhappy especially when I have options back home, job etc.
I just hate the thought of leaving in this way, but it seems the ‘giving notice’ could be a much worse option, as I know that i would get charged for all sorts of things and possibly held in the country…
so, looks like it could be the only option.
Did you go to live in another country after other than your home country?
February 15, 2010 at 10:22 pm
grubstreethack
I went back to Australia, though I’m now planning a RTW trip.
Giving notice won’t get you “charged” with anything and is not dangerous – unless your hagwon is run by unscrupulous individuals who threaten you harm, as someone I know went through. If you’ve ever felt unsafe in your working environment, definitely don’t give notice. Just go.
If you DO feel safe – i.e. if they are financially unscrupulous but otherwise harmless – then yes, a midnight run is somewhat unethical. I went through a lot of guilt before doing mine. But ultimately it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. My co-workers did some bitching and moved on, and my succesor is currently suffering in my stead.
If you’re unhappy and your employers aren’t treating you right, just leave. Are you past the 6-month mark? If so, definitely go, you don’t owe them shit if they’re not treating you right. If not, then yes, you technically should pay them back your airfare… but again, they’re not treating you right. You reap what you sow.
Ultimately you have to look out for yourself. Nobody else in Korea is going to.
February 17, 2010 at 1:02 pm
laura
hey thanks for that, I will be just past the 6 month mark on my planned exit date! So, does that mean the airfare legally doesn’t have to be paid back, it is a roundtrip ticket?
They have a security deposit of mine that we were made to pay from our first few pay cheques, so I guess that’ll cover my rent etc until they find someone else.
Yeah, I’ve felt threatened a few times and actually not that comfortable with the situation. Especially as everytime I try to talk about my taxes etc so that I don’t get screwed over they turn nasty. So, maybe I wouldn’t even get my severance at the end…
Yeah, gotta look out for myself and I agree, you reap what you sow. I like that!
Cheers!
March 4, 2010 at 12:41 am
gilles
I’ve heard the average life-span of an esl teacher in Korea is four months. Is this true? Does anyone have stories of people leaving before the 6 month period … like say two and half?
March 4, 2010 at 12:43 am
gilles
Sorry left before six months with no good justification other than just hating their job and Korea …
March 4, 2010 at 12:45 am
gilles
oh btw your post was great … if only because I can live vicariously through it to ease the pain of being here …
December 7, 2011 at 2:00 am
Karla
This is old, but I thought I’d mention a coworker of mine since so many people are reading this blog. He was there almost two months and left only a week before payday because they were treating him so badly. The head teacher appeared to genuinely despise him. He screamed at him everyday. (I mean this literally – my kids and I could hear the yelling from our classroom.) After one day that had a forty five minute screaming session that took place in a classroom with his students still in, the guy quite disappeared in the night. He emailed me to tell me he was okay and he got a job in China. I felt for him.
I left that place after six months. They actually sort of liked me, but I couldn’t tolerate being yelled at in front of my students. I was never treated as badly as him, but it was pretty bad.
December 7, 2011 at 2:30 am
Roman
The current cold front hitting Texas has reminded me of those golden days of freezing cold and being yelled at by a pyschopathic loser in cheap loafers in Korea. I did not know people could be so evil. *Surely* he was abandoned at a 7-11 or K-Mart or something and was acting out, trying to impress kids with daily yarns about how he was God’s gift to higher learning. It was worth the gamble to try Korea, despite the warnings…. win some/lose some. Anyone sincerely facing abuse, whether from a husband, co-worker or boss, especially overseas, should leave asap and have no qualms about it. Most painful is to see others being abused and being next to powerless to stop it. Karla was and is an excellent teacher, so I ultimately see it as incredibly stupid to abuse someone like that to the point of wanting to leave. Life is too short to take crap from anyone on a neurotic power trip.
March 4, 2010 at 10:07 am
grubstreethack
I left after two and a half months.
March 5, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Girlie
Has anyone recently done a midnight run? As of 2010. What happened. BTW loved loved loved this detailed retelling of events.
March 5, 2010 at 11:22 pm
grubstreethack
You’ll be fine. Just do it. Later on you’ll laugh at how nervous you were.
March 7, 2010 at 11:34 pm
laura
Yea I agree, gotta be done. Life’s too short to be unhappy, esp when there are so many awesome countries to visit…No looking back! Am nervous though, but they can’t keep me here, so fuck it!
…I loved your post by the way, hows life treating you now? Gotta be amazing compared to Korea, right?
March 12, 2010 at 11:03 am
Sarah
Does anyone know if you MUST return your alien card? I have a multiple entry on my Visa, but I’m worried about the alien card?
March 12, 2010 at 2:04 pm
grubstreethack
If you have a multiple entry visa, they will assume you are just going on holiday and coming back, and won’t take the alien card off you.
March 12, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Sarah
Is it illegal to not return the alien card?
March 17, 2010 at 12:19 am
grubstreethack
What? No. I don’t think so. Who cares?
I know you’re freaking out right now. I was too. But once you’re gone, your school will be pissed off and then forget about you within a few weeks. You’re not going to have Korean agents kicking your door down back home, and once your visa has expired you’ll probably be able to go back to Korea again (not that you’ll want to) without anyone batting an eye.
April 18, 2010 at 8:18 am
maisond1
Does anyone know if you can collect your pension if you do a “Midnight Run”? I was thinking about filing the paperwork the day before I leave and then just leaving. I know that you just need to show some documents to them and your ticket out of Korea, as I have collected pension before without doing a “Midnight Run”, But has anyone successfully collected their pension after doing one? Also I believe that your Alien Card is the property of Korea, so if you do a run then you should turn it into Immigration regardless if its single or multiple entry.
August 18, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Alex G
Have you made your “run” yet? I’m wondering about the pension as well. Did you try to collect it? What happened? Please respond!
May 30, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Scott
I’m sitting on level two of Incheon airport right now, at the computers where you get 10 minutes for 500Won.
My plane is in 12 hours time but I wanted to make dam sure I got out of my city while I had the chance.
Worked 4 months here and am just done. Exhausted. Finished.
Didn’t claim my last pay check so not feeling too bad for my boss at at least he’s compensated and then some for me leaving.
Whats up with these fucking midnight runs and being so nervous! I’m usually a pretty calm guy but am shitting myself right now for some reason.
If customs stops me, i’ll just say I quit like you did in your post.
It’s been funny reading it because I too was/am looking for a fucking beer right now but the only place I could find one was Bennigans.
Had Loterria for breakfast and mcdonalds for lunch. Feel like total shit.
God knows why this airport is rated the number one in the world. You can’t even look out at the planes taking off which Is usually the only cool thing to do at airports.
On my way back to N.Z where normality still exists.
The robotic driness of this country is literally so draining that I can’t see how anyone can do more than 6 months without resorting to total alchoholism on weekends.
Fuck this dump! Time to get home in time to see the All Blacks first warmup game.
June 4, 2010 at 10:55 pm
jefferson
loved this post because i’m planning on pulling a runner in a week and i’m in absolute misery over it. i feel like a shitty, lazy, selfish person for not sticking it out or at least notifying my employer beforehand. nice to hear some reinforcement that it’ll at least feel fantastically nice to be out of korea.
i’ve got all kinds of horror stories running through my head- my boss will track me down and slander me to my friends and family, i’ll be considered a fugitive by the korean gov (my unpaid wages + apt deposit which i don’t intend to collect should cover what i owe for airfare, but still…), etc etc. fuck me. i’ll be shocked if i don’t have a heart attack on the way to the airport.
June 21, 2010 at 7:57 am
Ryan
I did a midnight run in May 2010 after reading this post, and others on the web, and it was the best thing I could have done! While, like most of you, I was terrified of getting stopped at customs or somehow my employer finding out – take a breath and just book the ticket!
I had packed my stuff before hand and then stayed the night at a friends place in Gangnam. If you take Line 9, at least I believe it’s that one, you can transfer to a Incheon Airport train that gets you to the airport in about 45 mins. Everyone kept looking at us like they knew what we were doing so early in the morning with all of my luggage haha
At the airport I just went through customs – they asked me to remove my hat – and then gave me everything back (I had a multi-entry visa). I kept smiling during the whole thing and she cracked a little smile and sent me on my way. I boarded my flight back to Atlanta, USA.
The recruiter kept calling my parents line (the emergency contact I gave them, sent me tons of emails asking for money, and emailed me a lot on my Facebook but I just never responded.
Do the run!!!
June 24, 2010 at 3:55 pm
baron8006
I guess the run is doable. However, if one doesn’t have that multi reentry visa (or if he does but does not have a return ticket) what should one expect? Also, can one ever return to KOrea as a tourist or to teach? And is not repaying the airfare considered a debt that can follow you? Thanks.
June 27, 2010 at 3:43 pm
jessie
Any new info for the midnight run? What reprecussions will happen with getting a visa in the future? Are you allowed back in the country? Can immigration detain you?
June 29, 2010 at 1:09 am
DAY 62: Anniversaries « Gentlemen of the Road
[…] teaching English at a private school in South Korea – and therefore it’s the day that, had I stuck to the contract, I would have been returning […]
June 30, 2010 at 12:38 am
Mitch
Look, all I really know is what happened to me, which has been meticulously reconstructed here. The run goes differently for everyone, particularly those who harbour an illogical desire to return to Korea (if you ever want to secure a job there again you are much better off giving notice).
As I understand it, immigration may detain you, but that’s very rare, and they probably won’t make you miss your flight. As I understand it, you should be able to return to Korea once your initial visa expires. As I understand it, your school may hassle you online and with phone calls but can’t really do anything once you’re outside the country.
That’s as I understand it, judging from what happened to me and what I’ve heard has happened to others. Your mileage may vary.
August 10, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Trevor
If I pull a runner, will that effect my re-entry to Korea once my current work visa has expired? I’m American so I have a multi-entry visa, but I really just want to get out of my current Hagwon and come back and work for a public school. Is there really a immigration “blacklist” that will prevent me from ever getting another job? Any advice, info, or experiences would help. I’m trying to run in the next month, wich me luck!!
August 11, 2010 at 8:22 am
Alex G
i really want to do a midnight run. i dont have a good reason except korea has sucked the joy out of my life and trying to teach korean adults is less interesting than watching a turkey bake. my employers took 5 months to give me insurance (only because i hassled them), and the only reason i may recieve pension is because i called the pension office and reported them. i would give notice becuase i always thought of myself as a very nice ethical person, but i just dont trust them to pay me my last paycheck, or be accomodating in any way. does the guilt go away? is it worth it?
August 13, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Mitch
Trevor – if you want to come back, I wouldn’t risk it.
Alex – Do it. The guilt was tearing me apart while I was there, but in retrospect it was absolutely the right decision. It’s probably not the worst thing you’ll ever do.
August 16, 2010 at 6:41 am
Alex G
Does anybody know if you MUST close your bank account in Korea before doing a midnight run? Or can I simply withdraw everything from the atm and leave?
December 7, 2011 at 3:23 am
Karla
That’s what I did! I went to the atm and withdrew all but around 760 won and left.
August 28, 2010 at 2:33 am
jefferson
update from jefferson 6ish posts above:
fuck guys, just do it. i was terrified before going, but it turned out to be the best decision i’ve ever made. i’m so much happier now i can’t even express it. bonus: not so much as a call or email from my employer or recruiter.
DO. IT.
September 10, 2010 at 8:18 am
Ben
Hey what if you have a one way ticket? I have a multiple entry visa but it seems like it would be suspect if you had a one way ticket. Would they buy the holiday or other line?
September 10, 2010 at 8:19 am
Ben
or what about a trek to japan first?
October 17, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Michael
Ben, I am also wondering about the trek to Japan first. I am going to pull a runner soon and would like to know if taking a ferry to Japan first would pose the least amount of suspicion. Have you left yet?
October 20, 2010 at 1:21 am
Erik
Ok so I thought I might enlighten you all with my experience. I just pulled a run about three months ago and there were no problems at all. You can leave anytime you want to, you are not an indentured servant in Korea. I had a multiple entry visa and when I went to the airport I just gave it to the immigration officer and told her that I was not coming back she looked at me and said ok. That was it. There is nothing to worry about no one is going to try to stop you at the airport. If you want to leave then just go. Remember though that you can still claim your pension as I did before you go and collect it about a month later. I hope this helps some of you.
November 2, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Anon.
Hi,
I’ve been here for exactly three months and two days. Obviously, I’m miserable. I am trying to wait it out at least until the halfway point but sweet God, I can’t stand this place. The school isn’t that bad, but their policies and administration still suck. Korea drives me insane, and I’ve started drinking just to cope.
The one thing that keeps me from absolutely committing to leaving is, what on earth will I put on a resume? I can’t spend six months at a job and then get a shitty reputation. Any advice?
November 2, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Mitch
Never ever ever ever live your life around your resume. This is one of the worst possible things you can do.
In any case you don’t really need to worry about it. Most employers don’t know anything about TEFL and have no idea what a standard contract length is, so “june – september” will look perfectly legit. (If not, just say the school went bankrupt or something.) And it’s unlikely they’ll follow up on a reference either. What I did was create a fictional email address for my korean reference, which I periodically check while jobhunting. Nobody ever emails it.
November 11, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Alex
Hey I work at a public school and they seem nice and all but I need to leave the country December 15th(Already booked a ticket) because I have a job offer in the USA. My contract says i need to pay back airfare and a settlement fee since I am leaving before 6 months but now after reading this I am considering doing a midnight run. I was planning on giving my 1 months notice but I don’t want to have to worry about them not paying me for my last months salary…any thoughts?
November 11, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Alex
oh and I want to make sure that I get my apt deposit back if I am going to pay them back for airfare
November 21, 2010 at 5:15 pm
midnightrunningshoes
Last Sunday night, the only other native teacher at my hagwon and myself came close to booking a departure for the following Tuesday. Since it was already the middle of the month by doing so, we would have forfeited two weeks worth of pay. Before impulse control issues got the better of us, we decided maybe we should sleep on it. Next, came the text messages informing us that we needed to come to work an hour and a half early (unpaid, of course) to perform some custodial duties. An hour later, our plane tickets were booked. Later on in the week, we were informed that our winter break is to consist of 2 days attached to the weekend of Christmas. What’s to become of the other six days that exist in the contract? What about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, plane ticket home and contract completion bonus? Rubbish! It will be interesting to see how the rest this plays out. There’s a strong chance that if I’m not fired at the end of the month that I will be by the first of the year. How satisfying it will be that I didn’t pay full fare for my last minute ticket! And if I’m fired sooner with pay withheld, it just gives me time to go to immigration and report my employer for not paying on our pensions, our illegal off-site kindergarden jobs, and the strong likelihood that they aren’t paying the taxes deducted from our paychecks.
Korea’s been an experience I don’t regret, but I’ve had enough of it and have nothing to look forward to by suffering through the rest of this contract.
This is kind of exciting, like planning an escape from North Korea.
November 25, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Avid Reader!
To the OP, this thing is hilarious! I love the detail. Hope all is well in Oz.
Midnightrunningshoes,
If you report to immigration that you’ve been working an illegal kindy job offsite, you’ll be the one who takes the rap. As for pension, if you want it, they’ll also make you cough up your contributions too. You can of course report this stuff once you’ve left the country however. You can claim the pension from outside Korea too.
November 29, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Lauren
I am planning on running tomorrow, a Tuesday… anyone have any trouble doing a middle of the week run? I am using a non-rev ticket hence the reason why it has to be middle of the week. They will know for sure when I am missing before I even arrive at the airport (I live two hours away.)
I am leaving my whole November paycheck plus the apartment will be in perfect condition. Do you think I will have issues when they scan my passport??
November 29, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Mitch
If you’re leaving your November paycheck then strictly speaking you aren’t doing anything wrong. Worst case scenario they chase you to the airport and make a scene, but I highly doubt you’d be in any kind of legal trouble. Good luck, and report back on how it goes.
November 29, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Lauren
Thanks, Mitch! I certainly will! I am sure they will be pissed because they canceled one of my classes for no reason in order to blackmail me into working overtime without pay this next month by doing a “summer camp” for high school kids. Not the main reason why I am leaving, but definitely one of the many. Actually, I have a family emergency and when I told them, they said they need a month. HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now they will either have to cancel the winter class or -gasp- pay some one to do it.
From the main blog entry, (I re-read because I am nervous and the thought of staying here any longer is maddening)
“I think you can judge a lot of a person’s character by how far they choose to push their seat back on a plane.”
OMG! I completely agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, I know lots of people who have taught in other countries and all, but maybe one has said that Korea is the worst they have ever taught at or lived in. I never understood and being the stubborn person that I am, I didn’t believe it.
I BELIEVE!!!!
December 8, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Morgan
I did a midnight run in 2007 when I worked at a hagwon. I had been there for 2 months. I couldn’t stand Korea and strangely, couldn’t get along with the foreigners I met here, because they loved Korea soooooooooo much. Sadly, I’ve just arrived in Korea again working for a public school and am so depressed about being here that I almost want to do the run again. Problem is the school staff and principal are extremely helpful and have even bought a laptop and mobile phone for me to use while I’m here. There helpfulness just makes it worse for me. Also, I miss home and the other thing is I need this job. Not many prospects for me in South Africa. Anybody out there that hates life in Korea want to contact me? I’m tired of hanging out with foreigners that love Korea. I want to talk about the negative shit. Yes, I’m negative and proud of it:)
December 10, 2010 at 9:04 am
Alex G
Where were you when I was in Korea?? I hated it, and everyone I met loved it…and I have no idea why. They’re either hyper-religious or just so weird there was no way they fit in anywhere in their home country. I don’t know. I finally met one guy who hated it, and it was great talking with him, but of course, he did a run about a month after we met. I would’ve loved to find someone who hated it like I did. So, you did a midnight run and went back? Wow. If your employers are helpful and the jobs not bad, you might want to stick it out if you can find some fellow negative foreigners for a support system. I had a horrible experience and am pretty sure I was clinically depressed, but I did save money. Either way, good luck!
January 6, 2011 at 1:19 am
Michael
I ran in early November. I understand you completely. Although, your work situation sounds much better than mine. My public school was terrible. Everyone there hated me and gave me the silent treatment from day one (although that could have been because nobody spoke any english). I can say that there are pros and cons to running, at least from my point of view. I did have a few people I knew who hated it like I did, I actually ran with one of them, but everyone else we knew loved it. I think there is a false sense of reality for the people who claim they love it (get enough drinks in them and bring up any number of grievences and they’ll be right there with you). In some ways however, I wish I had stayed. Since I’ve been back in the US, I have applied to over 100 jobs and am still looking. I’m even resorting to low level service jobs. I am not including my educational history because it makes me way over qualified for the jobs I’m having to apply to. The jobs in my educational field require experience which I don’t have enough of so I’ve hit a wall of depression. I’ll probably have to end up working at walmart the way things are going. I know I was depressed in Korea, and I’m thankful to be home, but I did have a teaching job there which paid decent. I would say really consider your options to the fullest. It may not be what you want it to be, but unless you know you have other options you might want to stay. I know if somebody told me that while I was considering the run it wouldn’t have made a difference. I’m just saying think about it to the fullest.
September 5, 2012 at 11:32 am
jasongangwan
Morgan… Did you have a single entry visa? I’ve been in Korea for about 4 months now. Have been completely ripped of by my Hagwon. I’m a bit stressed about leaving with a single entry visa… What did you say at immigration when you left??
December 12, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Anon.
Morgan! I am planning on doing a midnight run in about a month, but I think we should meet up! I feel like I am the only person here who utterly abhors it. Email me if you want to meet up.
dernhelm2995@yahoo.com
December 30, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Bee
Reading all these comments is making me feel a little better–I’m going to be pulling a run soon. The only thing is, I’m not going back home. I got a job in Japan so I’m going there but I still have to go to the J embassy to get the visa. Since my work hours are 9-7:30 (seriously) they’re going to know I’m gone before I’m out of Korea. In fact, I’ll probably have to stick around a day or 2 while I wait for my visa stamp. Will this be a problem? I don’t even have an ARC yet.
January 2, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Roman
Hey,
I am set to jet my nightmare hogwan very soon…. I will leave owing (under a contract they have urinated on from day one), and may need to stay ata hideout for a few days, so they will definitely know I have parachuted from their little broken cessna of a school….. can I be detained for owing someone money?
I do not care about coming back here for any reason. I have a M entry in my passport, and a 1-way ticket. Please advise. Thanks.
January 2, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Roman
owing flight money to get over here.
January 3, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Mitch
I’ve never heard of it happening, but I strongly suggest leaving your hagwon as close to the flight as possible. The longer you’re gone, the longer they have to realise it and alert customs (again, this is conjecture; I have no idea if they can actually legally detain you and if they will ring customs to do so. But better safe than sorry.)
January 10, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Anon.
So I’ve finally got a ticket booked to leave this weekend, and I am freaking out. How long were you nervous/anxious before you left? I keep getting terrified that someone will spill the beans on my FB account from back home.
I’m really nervous about the whole ‘leaving my building thing.’ There’s other teachers that live in the same building as me, and I’m so nervous that I’ll run into them.
March 16, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Jackson
hi everyone,
I have been in korea one month…. i have fallen into a heavy depression.. I need to leave… I don’t have an Alien registration card, so that means I only have a single entry visa. I want to do a midnight run…. will immigration detain me? because they know I will be leaving my school with no money for airfare and breach of contract ?
March 17, 2011 at 8:58 am
Mitch
Breaching your contract is not illegal. Leaving without paying your airfare back may be, but I’ve only ever heard of one person who was detained by customs (and I’ve heard of a LOT of midnight runs), and he just explained to them that he was being abused and they were breaching his contract etc, and they let him go. I don’t believe they have the power to actually arrest you or make you miss your flight.
April 3, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Midnightrunner
Jackson–GET OUT. Follow your heart. I have never been this depressed in my life. In fact, just prior to moving here, my life was amazing. One DAY after my arrival, the depression set in. People are cold here. It’s not you. It’s the culture. They repress their emotions here. They are stoned faced. I don’t mean to sound judgemental or to generalize, but every culture has its unique characteristics and the one’s I have mentioned are those of Korea. Consider its past: Ruled and raped by China and Japan, having no dignity of its own, having been ‘protected’ by American troups for decades (they love to hate THEM) Korea is a dark, dark pit with little to no cultural identity left. Let me reiterate: GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT.
April 3, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Midnightrunner
Alright. I am doing a midnight run. I am leaving behind 3 weeks of pay though. Does anyone know if I can get them to send that to my bank account in my country of origin? I will be leaving 3 days after my 6 month marker. I just want to know if I will ever get my deposit $ and pay ? The co-ordinator at GEPIK says it is normal procedure for them to deposit in your home country’s bank account roughly a month after you leave (assuming you finish your contract, that is). I haven’t told her I am leaving. No one knows. God, I feel like a convict! And the funny thing is, I have done NOTHING wrong! It’s my school that has treated me like a chained up dog for 6 months and made my work life miserable! So, why do I feel so bloody guilty and nervous!
Anyway, thing is, I have to leave work (the day after the 6 month mark) to apply for a visa to get to the next country. My ticket will be booked 2 days after that. I must say, I am a bit nervous about those 2 days. I will not be in my town, but I don’t want them calling immigration on me. My principal is a sick fuck. Sorry, I am not normally the type to swear. I am a happy, cheerful, giving and passionate human being. Simply stated, there is no better way to describe him.
April 3, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Mitch
If you are doing a midnight run you shouldn’t expect to get your 3 weeks of pay, deposit, or anything. You’re essentially abandoning them, so they will do the same to you. This is why a midnight run is generally not a good idea if you have passed the 6 month mark and have a good relationship with your school… however, it sounds like you don’t. You’ll have to either wait for payday or abandon your pay. It sucks, but a small price to pay for freedom.
April 4, 2011 at 5:52 am
Midnightrunner
Mitch you are absolutly correct. After packing all my stuff up, giving away the rest, cleaning my apartment from top to bottom, I spent the night with intense dry mouth, racing heart and thoughts racing like wild horses in my mind. I woke up this morning realizing exactly what you just said: that I will never get the 3000$ they will owe me if I leave now. And then, THEY WILL WIN. Not that I am playing a game with them, but, why should I give them money that I worked hard for? I decided against the midnight run.
Just to be clear: I don’t have a great relationship with them perse. They do everything in their power to make my life miserable. BUT now that I “know enemy” and am just 2 days away from my 6 month marker, I feel I can take control of the reigns. What is most difficult is that I am experiencing feelings and sensations that I have never experienced before, so naturally, it is extremely difficult to cope. In fact, these feelings have no words. I am not able to identify them as such. Hence, the psychological stress. I haven’t been able to eat anything but corn ships all week. I am unable to do anything after work but sit on my couch and watch bizarre Korean game shows.
I want to say thank you to all those who have posted here and elsewhere. I thought I was alone. But, having this network of people who truly get what I am experiencing has made me feel somewhat sane again. We will conquer! I am not saying that midnight running is a bad idea. I am just saying: consider your options from ALL ANGLES before you make your move. It’s like a chess game. Right now, my employer and I are stale mate. If he fires me, he has to give me warning, so I will get my pay anyway. If I leave, he wins my money, but I get out. Stalemate. I will keep you all up to date.
April 4, 2011 at 6:14 am
Midnightrunner
I know that when I get into work today, my employer will try to hassle me again with the “second warning letter” he tried to have me sign last week. I had to leave the office in a hurry to rush to an embassy to figure out visas etc. I told them I was sick. They warned me not to leave without the principal’s permission. But I had had enough. I left and returned the next day. I even actually went to the hospital and got chest, lung x-rays and a cardiograph to prove I had been there. They haven’t asked to see the receipts, but I got them just in case. When they asked me to sign that ‘warning’ paper, I refused. They said “you aren’t honoring the contract as it is stated that no teacher may take leave without permission from the principal” and I rebuttled them with “you also have not honored the contract. It is stated that you must pay me bus transit fare for my travel to and from school. I asked you 4 weeks ago to give me that. Where is it? I will not sign anything until that is dealt with first”. They could not hassle me further. I still have not signed that warning. By the way, the first ‘warning’ was because I left the school 10 minutes before my leaving time. I did not know when I signed that one that it could constitute such a ‘warning’ but now that I know how manipulative they are at my school, I see that they were trying to gather the 3 that they need to fire me, just days before my 6 month marker. Twisted little devils they are! Good thing I refused to sign the second one! They could have ealily created a 3rd and had me out, and I would have had to pay back the airfare. Let’s see how the next 2 days before my 6 month marker go.
April 7, 2011 at 9:43 am
Lindsay
I am now officially 2 days past my official 6 month marker. I am no longer indebted to my employer. This fact empowers me. I get payed in exactly 10 days. My question is: Should I take the money and leave? They continue to try to make my life a living hell. I still continue to sign any warnings. They claim the transit money I demanded is in my account. However, I have lost all trust in them. I know something is brewing. I suppose the final question is this: how much is my sanity worth? I could stay another month, being ignored every morning by my colleagues, manipulated by the principal, hit on by the janitor, gossiped about by my co-teacher. Has it affected my personal life? Hell ya. I’m a human being with feelings. Have I become depressed? That hit me on day one. Have I lost my passion for teaching? No one can take that away. I will move on from here. I will live my life after this experience. Do I pity my colleagues? Yes. This is their life. They have been brought up in this system and are better equipped mentally to handle it. They may not even know that a better life exists. No, they know. They know because I don’t have to work until 10pm and they do. They know because I don’t have to work weekends and they do. They know because I can leave and they can’t. This is their life, their reality. As pathetic as it seems to me, I have to respect that this is their culture. As sick and demented as it appears to me, I have to try to understand why it is like this here. They have been the underdogs for centuries. They are spineless because their own dignity was taken. It’s instinct to do onto others what has been done to you. But it takes a civilized human mind not to. It takes intelligence to say “you have treated me like shit, but I am not going to treat you or others that way”. They cannot take my dignity. They cannot take my soul. They have tried and tried, because of their own lack. I look around my office now. Everything appears normal on the outside. But I have had more then a glimpse at what’s occurring on the inside. I have never seen anything like it. I hope to never encounter it again. All I can say is that I have survived it. Whatever happens, I will have survived it.
April 9, 2011 at 12:01 pm
midnightrunner
Alright. I am still here, waiting for my next pay in exactly 8 days. It will be on a sunday, so, I have to wait until monday to see if it’s actually in there and take it out. If it’s there, the plan is to leave immediately. Thing is, my school has become aggressive. They sent me a registered envelop (which I refused to sign for). They ended up signing for it and put it on my desk. I took it before I left and opened it outside of work. It was warning #2 and #3. They can now fire me at any moment. I am not sure if I should purchase my plane ticket now. What if they don’t pay me? Also, I will have to wait 2 days before leaving after I get a visa to the country I am going to. I am now past the 6 month mark. But my school is becoming more aggressive. When I got back to my desk after class on Friday, I found my schedule crumbled up on my desk. This was after they sent 4 teachers in to deliver the registered mail sent by the school with the warning letters in it. I refused to sign, which pissed them off royally. Any advice???
April 22, 2011 at 1:34 am
Oh dear....
So glad I’ve found this page…
Been in Korea for a week and loathing it already. I thought I could cope- I’ve lived and taught in China.. and thought this would be similar.. but I feel like I’m getting into a deep depresson in this place..
I’m working at a hogwan which has already changed my contract since I’ve been here (in negative ways obvioiusly). They only pay me for hours of teaching and not office/marking/planning hours, and the other foreign teachers here just seem brainwashed into thinking Korea is absolutely fantastic.. I honestly can’t understand it.
I’m way out in the middle of nowhere pretty much, the food sucks..the school has made it very clear that business comes way before the kids actually learning anything…things aren’t all that cheap… I think to get through this I’d need lots of drugs or/and lots of alcohol…
My situation is- i only have a single entry visa, and dont even have an ARC yet. I plan to run next week or perhaps the week after…. but ive got real worries about all of it.. and all my fellow teachers live in the same building… the thought of bumping into them on the stairs as I’m leaving with my suitcase.. makes me shudder….
any advice/tips/ things to watch out for? should i try to drag it out to a few months here (really, genuinely dont think I could hack it without going genuinely crazy.. apparently the guy I replaced went psychotic.. doesnt surprise me now)….
thanks for reading, info would be much appreciated,
x
April 26, 2011 at 2:54 am
midnightrunner
by the way, I completely understand how one could actually go insane here. Days after my arrival here, I began to feel slightly schitzophrenic. I felt a deep depression that seemed to stem from no where and a strong feeling of disconnection to my surroundings. I tried to make friends, but realized that the other foreigners were just into drinking and partying. I cried every night for the first month. I cringe when I remember the countless times my co-teacher told me to uncross my legs and sit with my knees together during meetings with our principal. I feel sick everytime I recall the ceremonies I stood through and was forced to listen to the deafening national anthem blast into my eardrums. I have never once been thanked for the sacrifices I have made for the school I work at. I am only treated like a child or dog at best. They don’t know I am running and it feels good to leave them in the dark. They have tried to break my spirit and take my dignity. And that, my friend, is the one concrete thing that is mine. No one gets that. And those who try are my enemies. I believe we must face our adversaries until we feel that the challenge no longer makes us strong. I stood steady despite the arrows they shot at my heart. I know I am a good teacher and a good human being. I know that I have sacrificed many things to develop a sense of dignity. These people have been stripped of theirs, therefore, they try to take others’. Be ware and take care.
April 22, 2011 at 10:08 am
Jay Robinson
This may sound strange, but as a former runner I have to recommend giving notice so you keep open the option of returning to Korea (hopefully under better circumstances), save more money, and avoid the worry and hassle of planning a midnight run. It is the honorable and right thing to do.
Obviously, if you are miserable and can’t stand it a day more….. do not worry one iota about leaving. You will not be detained. Let them see you leave… it’s called being free. 4,000 people a year do the same thing.
So sorry you had a bad experience there. Probably had your hopes up that the people there would be reasonable. My boss was a sadistic lune, an absolute egomaniacal leprechaun, sick in too many ways to describe here and he was making everyone around him sick and unhappy as well.
All the teachers wanted him dead, no joke. (International English School in Wonju.)
Good luck in making the right decision.
July 25, 2011 at 5:40 am
Hey!
Hey, I worked at International English School in Wonju too! Maybe this is a newer thing there, but that hellhole of a school requires two months notice. I don’t blame anyone for not being able to stick that out. Ugh, that was the unhappiest place I’d ever been. I’d never been around so many miserable, desperately unhappy people at one time, and I taught middle school math so that’s saying something. It’s amazing how one person can make so many people so terribly unhappy.
And, great post, OP. You really captured the feel of the midnight run.
April 26, 2011 at 2:38 am
midnightrunner
I definitely think you should run. I am running in 2 days. Mind you, I am past the 6 month mark. I waited for my last pay, was going to wait for another check, but I can’t stand one more instance of manipulation from my co-teachers and principal. I can’t stand being told to shut-up by the students (who are never punished when I complain to my co-teacher and head teacher (who fear the principal). I can’t stand coming into the office another day and have all 14 co-workers ignore me when I say “good morning” with a smile on my face despite the intense depression I have developped. Do I think you should run? YES. I decided to leave because my co-teachers (who are ruled by their principal) have tried to slither their way into my mind and disrupt it in such a way as to make me feel isolated and shameful (“why are you creating ‘bad relations’ with us? with the principal?”) They have lied, cheated, manipulated and abused me through xenophobic tendencies. Am I able to do my job properly? NO. Is life short? YES. I support your leaving 100%. Regarding the single entry, I also have a single entry, however, the immigration rules have changed and purchasing a double entry is no longer required. If immigration questions you, you can always just say you are going on vacation and will get your return ticket from the country your visiting–GOOD LUCK and post to let us know what happens.
May 3, 2011 at 12:33 pm
midnightrunner
I ran I ran I ran!!!! I did it and it feels SO good. I didn’t tell my employers I was leaving (they still send me hilarious emails asking where I am and when I am returning, begging me to come back). I spent my last 2 days in a jimjibong (spa) before catching my flight out. Now, life couldn’t be better!
May 11, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Bee
Just thought I would add an update: so I ran. I was worried about my co worker catching me as we lived in the same building so I left at 3am, staying in a super cheap (but nice) love motel for a day, and then took the airport bus to Incheon airport. I totally recommend the airport bus! You can hop in a cab to Seoul Station, and catch the bus from there. Totally convenient. I had to stay in the airport for 2 days but I just stayed in the jimjilbang there; it’s really nice and not too pricey. The pillows are rock hard, though.
Anyway, the important part: my employer knew I ran and canceled my visa before I could leave. When I was connecting to my flight, I was stopped at immigration, and told to wait in a little room. My heart almost exploded!! But the immigration officers were super nice. They even said “you’re not in trouble!” I guess I looked really worried. They just wanted to stamp my visa with a VOID stamp since I had a multiple entry permit. It took less than 5 minutes, and then I was on my way!! Now I’m in wonderful Japan….and it’s amazing!!
May 15, 2011 at 9:20 pm
10 Signs That You Might Be Working for a Sociopath « Avy Around the World
[…] …I would never never never suggest midnight running because it’s just not a nice thing to do. Don’t do it because you don’t like Korea, or your co-teacher smells bad, or your kids make you cry, or you miss your boyfriend back home. Don’t even do it if your boss is kind of mean — give your 30 days’ notice and leave with your head held high. But. That being said. If you are working for a criminal and your personal safety is at stake, then do what you need to do to just get out. There is a pretty hilarious account of one teacher’s midnight run here . […]
May 27, 2011 at 3:32 am
leavingsoon
anyone know about making a run from kazakhstan? I been teaching here for 4 months and cannot take it anymore. Will stick it out another month till i get my paycheck and then make a run for it. But’worried that i may run into problems at immigration. Are the rules the same for all countries? I mean can they detain me fir breaking contract? I already booked my flight but the only one i could get is at 5 in the afternoon on a weekday! Please advise!!
June 2, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Chris Walker-bush
I read this and couldn’t help but think of my own recent midnight run (three weeks of freedom and counting). I really like the way in which you tell the story too. I went for a far more narrative style.
June 8, 2011 at 5:16 am
Hmmm...
I am considering going to Korea soon. Have been there before (not teaching, just 3 weeks) and can actually understand how it could drive you crazy if you’re not open to it. TBH though some (not all) of the posters here sound more like they have their own problems. Slipping into depression after 1 day??! I don’t think you can blame Korea for that – maybe you just shouldn’t have left home?? Also, pulling a runner after 2 weeks – c’mon, how can you judge “life” in a place after 2 weeks?! Also, the fact that everyone else you knew seemed to love it except you says something?? Not trying to be sarcastic, I’m just trying to understand. Admittedly, when I was there I met some teachers and one of them in particular (a Canadian of Korean decent) told me that a lot of the people he meets that are teaching there seem to be weirdo’s that wouldn’t fit in at home :)
Anyway, it was an interesting read and it’s definitely putting second thoughts into my mind.
My question is, if I go, and I hate it too, and I run, can I go back even just for a vacation or a business trip? I would want to go back for vacation either way, but even if I didn’t – it would limit my potential jobs if I had to tell my employer that I can’t travel to Korea! Anything is possible since the industry I’m in requires working for multinational companies.
Thanks,
August 27, 2011 at 12:22 am
Karla
Yes, you can go back! Lots of people pull midnight runs and go back. Some even manage to teach at Korean schools again!
Working in Korea is like playing a lottery. There are good schools out there, but there are also MANY bad ones. Foreign workers are easy to take advantage of wherever in the world you are. However, hagwons are notorious for treating all employees badly, even Korean employees. When I did my run (I had been in Korea for six months and actually like the country. It was a hard decision to run b/c of that), I stayed overnight at a hostel. When the Korean hostel workers asked me why I was returning to America, I told them I worked at a hagwon. I didn’t have to say another word. They immediately launched into stories about various friends and family members being treated badly by different hagwons.
Everyone at the school I worked at hated it too! They had to hire a fresh batch of teachers every year because none would stay. Do your research before you go! Ask to speak to a former teacher! Learn from our mistakes!
I think one of the hardest things is adjusting to life in Korea for a lot of people. But it’s so much harder when your employer is treating you like dirt. Imagine getting off a plane, exhausted and jet lagged and overwhelmed by a completely new culture. Then imagine discovering what kind of insane employer you have. I could see spiraling into a depression pretty fast. In fact, I did see it at my own school with a guy who ran within the two months. They treated him so badly that I did not blame him for it one bit. I stuck it out six, and now I don’t know why. It wasn’t worth it!
But just be careful and do your research. Working in Korea *can* be a great experience! (No, seriously. Lots of people like it. It can be awesome.)
June 9, 2011 at 9:10 am
Ne0ica
Hi guys. I am in the same boat as you guys. I wish I had the courage to do a midnight run. I was unemployed for a year before I came here and cannot face returning home to see my family after just 3 months. I have broached the subject with my family and I am always given the same anser its just a year it will fly. I was thinking of going to a different country. Any recommendations. Thanks
June 28, 2011 at 11:14 am
midnightrunner
YES, follow your intuition and go! but try to wait until the 6 month mark. If it’s unbearable, just leave. In terms of my story, I waited till just after 6 months and left. I had 2 days in Seoul. I spent those miraculous days in a Jimjibong (heavenly! The one just outside Seoul city bus terminal) and then headed for the airport. The man who worked for the airport bus was super nice to me. He helped me find the jimjibong and was the one and only compassionate human being I met in Korea in all of my 6.5 month stay. I gifted him a traditional tea set worth 150,000 Won, which my sociopath co-teacher had gifted me on my first week.
To the person who hints that maybe there’s something wrong with us, those who cannot survive in such a place…well, I say one thing: If you are at all sensitive and compassionate, you will find something horrific in a country full of stone faced alcoholics. Korea is full of unhappy ancestral spirits. For those foreigners who could not fit in in their own countries, they join the Korean mob of senseless self obsessive partying day in and day out. Myself, I am a studious, serious teacher who has a passion for teaching and loves life. Korea was a pit hole. Thank God I am out. Thank God. I still have nightmares, but atleast I know, they are only nightmares, and no more my reality.
June 23, 2011 at 2:54 pm
M.Runner
Great post. I just pulled a runner a month ago. I’m not proud of what I did, but figured I’d post my story here since my situation and more recent info could be helpful to anyone. I was an EPIK teacher in a southern city, and due to staff changes at the semester mark, I was having a fucking miserable time at work. Anyways, I thought I could stick it out ’til the end of the semester, but about 10 weeks in, there was an incident in class and I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. That night, I booked a one way flight for the next week.
I had a lot of loose ends to tie up, and only 5 days to do it. Number one on the list was pension. I had 4 grand comin to me, and while I would’ve been okay without it, it would’ve made the transition to my new life a lot easier. Pension office hours generally run 9-6, Mon-Fri. I was paranoid that they would call the office of education and then the jig would be up. So, I strolled in around 5:30 in hopes there would be no one at the office of ed to take their call. Somehow, I was nervous and let it slip that my contract was up in Feb,and they were confused as to why I wanted a refund so early. They would call the office on Monday. FUCK. I said never mind, gathered my things, and go the hell out of there.
Luckily, my city had another pension office in a different district. Monday afternoon ~20 hours to departure t.me, I walked in there. I showed them my ARC, passport, plane ticket, and a bank statement. When they asked when work was finished, I said, today. In and out in 20 minutes.
The rest of my time was spent getting rid of all my stuff and cleaning my apartment. Cut to airport time. I’d heard stories of people getting held up at immigration, so I was pretty nervous. It was a breeze. Handed them my passport/ARC. When she tried to hand back my ARC, I said I wasn’t coming back. Worked finished. She said ok, took my ARC, and drew a line through my visa. Stepped onto my plane smiling ear to ear. Pension received ~a month later.
TL;DR:
1. Make sure you bring your ARC/passport/plane ticket, and an official bank statement with your account info on it. Try not to show them your contract, and when they ask when your contract is up, don’t tell them your actual stop date!
2. Don’t worry at the airport! Hand in your ARC, tell em you’re not coming back, and enjoy those duty free stores!
October 23, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Paul
Hey! I am also doing a midnight run before the six month mark so I must pay back 700000 won. I will work a week after my last payday, so that should take care of that, right? I have one question for you. Did you pay all of your utilities, electric, gas, etc?
July 16, 2011 at 7:43 am
Marilyn
I am about to do a midnight run, the first day of summer vacation (a week and 2 days), bis ut I am worried about leaving while owing them money…
To explain, so my work is ok, they are nice, but not friendly…and my apartment is horrible! I hate korea and they lied about my living situation..so i need to get out! But as I have only been here less than a month I owe them the plane ticket here. But, they will have half of my first paycheck and then I think I am going to also leave $175 cash at my apartment, my plane ticket was 900 won..so I think thata enough to cover that. Do you think that is enough? Should I owe them anything else? Can they sue/arrest/bring me back to Korea to face criminal charges?
Thanks!!
July 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Marilyn
Can schools take any legal action against you if you leave without paying your airplane ticket there, even if its in contract? My situation is I have been here a little over a week and I am running in 2 weeks during vacation. My co-workers are super unfriendly, only caring about work and my apartment is disgusting and very sketchy…they will have the three weeks I worked (a little over 950 USD) and I am also thinking about leaving $170 at my apartment in cash. My plane ticket was only 900 won, so I feel this is more than enough. But, can they sue me? Arrest me? Or have me sent back to Korea? Those are my only concerns.
July 16, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Marilyn
Oops didn’t think the first comment worked…sorry for posting twice!! :)
October 7, 2011 at 11:24 am
valkyrie1
Can anyone please tell me what happens if I don’t have an ARC? I am 40 days into my contract and sick as a dog and not getting help with this. the ARC was applied for a week ago and will take another 2 weeks to get here, but I cannot afford to wait. My boss and head teacher screamed at me when I asked for a sick day off. I had to run to the hospital on my lunch, no one spoke english and the pills i was given were terrible and did not work. I want to leave I am so sick and depressed. I have a ticket booked to leave but don’t want immigration bothering me about a lack of an ARC. I have no intention of coming back ever.
October 14, 2011 at 3:12 am
Jeremy
V1,
You do not need an ARC to exit the country. You are free. Simply explain the situation if asked to.
October 22, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Jennifer Byers
Hi Jeremy,
Well that is just the case exactly as I am back home. At customs when asked for the ARC I explained that it was only just applied for and not yet received. The customs agent frowned, then aid “Quit?”. I said “quit” and “sick” and proceeded to hack out my lungs on the spot since talking was a strain for me I was so ill. So she let me pass and that was that.
The sad part about this is that here we are, to weeks later, and I am better now after receiving proper medical care in Canada. I say sad because had my employer been a bit smarter and a lot less selfish I could have taken the time in Korea to heal up and gone back to work. No doubt this cost her money to have me leave like I did. Not that I care as I have no patience or sympathy for selfish people.
October 18, 2011 at 6:55 am
Paul
I am also pulling a midnight run. I will be leaving in a little over two weeks. I will have have worked seven days after my last payday when I leave, so I think that will take care of the 700000 won I must pay back for leaving early. My question is how long will my bank account in Korea remain open after I leave? I am concerned because my pension money needs to be deposited into that account because I dont have a bank account in my home country. Thoughts?
October 24, 2011 at 8:20 am
Jeremy
I do not know that one, but I suggest asking at a branch other than the one you use. Names and account numbers are not necessary to get this info. Just present a hypothetical or false scenario and ask a bank agent “what would happen if?”.
November 17, 2011 at 8:30 am
Paul
I just thought I would update my situation. I ran three weeks ago, early in the morning, giving no notice and not having paid my airfare money back. I just left without telling a soul. Before I went to the airport to get on the plane, I visited the pension office with all the necessary documents. It took all of ten minutes to apply for my pension, really easy to do,don’t sweat it. I went to the airport, nobody cared I was leaving on a one way ticket. I just turned in my arc card without any hassles at all. Two weeks later my pension money was in my bank account even though I still owe epik for airfare. People, dont sweat it, if you have to leave just do it. Please stop torturing yourselves like I was doing. Seriously people, it is really easy.
January 2, 2012 at 9:13 pm
FreedomPath
Hey guys! I’m doing a midnight run in about two weeks time. I will then have been here for 3 months. I tried, I really tried to get used to the culture. I tried to get used to being treated like dirt and being victimized at my hagwon. I tried to be friendly to those who only would only show me contempt.
There are so many things about South Korea that I truly detest and despise. The putrid stench of urine stained corridors. All the nights I couldn’t get a moment’s peace with demented children running around on the bottom floor 4 o’clock in the morning. All the times I got an ill-favored look from my co-workers and local residents of Changwon. I’ve honest to God had enough of this. I don’t even feel like a human being anymore. I feel a foreigner to my own skin. As if reality it self is not really making much sense.
Like many of you posted here already, a lot of the other foreigners in South Korea seem to be totally oblivious to the reality in which they find themselves. One senseless night of binge drinking after the next. Having conversations with little to no significance.
I’m just wondering about the legal consequences I might face if I am to leave the country? I’m intending on reimbursing my hagwon for the airfare ticket paid on my behalf. Is there anything else I should be worried about? Something I need to know about customs? Any information on this would be immensely appreciated!
January 4, 2012 at 7:32 am
Marilyn
@FreedomPath don’t reimburse them! If there is one regret I have, its paying them their money! Even after I did that they treated me like shit and were horrible to me. There is nothing legally they can do! They can sue you or blacklist your passport, but as your story sounds A LOT like mine, I doubt you will be back to Korea in the next five years anyways. Take my advice, as someone who was in your exact position. Keep your money, pack your stuff, and get the hell out of dodge. My hagwon contacted me threatening me, I told them I knew my rights as of the union board in Korea, they never contacted me again. Trust me, you’ll be fine. But, DON’T PAY them! Seriously!
January 5, 2012 at 4:48 am
roman.j.robinson@gmail.com
FreedomPath,
Marilyn is 100% correct. I was in your shoes one year ago with the same questions, same situation. If there is not a warrant for your arrest (criminal) you have nothing to worry about. You are free to leave. I did my homework legally both there and here in California. Jet plane. Relax. Don’t pay them a dime. They will be moving on to their next victim. Airport. out. done.
January 4, 2012 at 7:33 am
Marilyn
And by sue, I mean in Korea, they cannot sue you in the States, so as long as you don’t return you’ll be fine.
January 7, 2012 at 3:52 pm
FreedomPath
Okey cool! I was just wondering, they still have my University degree? Can they cause any damage with it to me?
January 8, 2012 at 5:15 am
Marilyn
I don’t know how your university works, but I can order a new one from mine. But, then again I refused to give my Korean school my original, because of stuff I had read online. So, when I left they only had copies. But, I am pretty sure your university should be able to give you another anyways.
January 7, 2012 at 3:55 pm
FreedomPath
I’m planning on leaving next week Friday. Got my bus and airline ticket. Everything is taken care of. Now I just have to wait for Tuesday to get paid, then work three more days without raising suspicion and I’m home free.
I’m just very worried that for some reason they will ask me for my ARC card somewhere this week. They did this about 3 weeks ago, just before Christmas and New years. I really hope they don’t ask me for it, otherwise I’m going to have to create a very believable story as to why I can’t give them the card…any advice?
January 8, 2012 at 5:17 pm
FreedomPath
Oh sorry, I didn’t phrase my sentence correctly. I still have the original degree, I only gave them a copy. Okay, so that’s not a problem.
January 8, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Mitch
Don’t worry about the ARC. There’s over 100 comments on this post now, which is two and a half years old, and the thing that regularly amazes me is that people worry about the ARC. It’s a piece of laminated card. Customs doesn’t give a shit if you have one or not, and it doesn’t give a shit it you hand it in or not. My school never got around to giving me one and it wasn’t an issue at all at the airport, they just waved me through.
The important thing to remember is that not all Koreans are involved in the hagwon industry, and airport employees don’t really care. In all the comments on this blog and all the people I talked to who fled Korea, I have heard of merely ONE who was detained and interrogated by customs, and in the end the let him go.
January 8, 2012 at 8:59 pm
FreedomPath
Thanks for your reply Mitch. That makes me feel a lot better! Still stressing as hell at the moment…Just need to get through the week without looking suspicious, but what can they really do to me if they somehow found out. I’m just stressed because I’ve heard so many ‘horror’ stories on the internet on how bad it can get in a hagwon…As long as I can board my flight, I’m happy!
January 9, 2012 at 10:34 pm
iamquinapalus
Though I will not be making a midnight run myself, I will share with you all my sordid tale of woe. I am teaching in a Hagwon in Yongin-si and have been for about two years now. Well, almost. See, I’ve been fired as of today, one month short of the end of my contract. This means my boss doesn’t have to pay for my airfare. “What? How horrid!” you cry? Well, maybe, if he hadn’t already told me in October that the contract I had with the previous owner of the hagwon (said contract shifts control to the new owner as do all responsibilities, btw) was stupid and that I was stupid, selfish and ungrateful for asking for a plane ticket on top of my apartment (one room) being paid for as well as other things, all of which are guaranteed on my contract and not something I should be made to feel guilty for.
My contract (which was under the previous Owner [who was extremely nice even if she couldn’t manage the place and sunk it into the ground]) states my period of Employment is from March 5th 2011 to 2012 (the previous contract stating the same but for 2010 to 2011). This is fine.
Here’s where it gets icky.
Pay: 2’3 million won a month. After taxes I usually get about 2 mil, which is fine, save the boss-man has never given a receipt to show what is going where and (here’s the kicker) when asked by a co-worker why she couldn’t have a physical copy of her pay-stub (he shows them to us for half a second on his computer before shooing us off) he shouted at her and called her ungrateful, overly-questioning, and then told her “women should be quiet when men speak!” in Korean.
Having been here for about three years (one year at a public school that I left after fundamentalist christians weirded me away from it and two years at this hagwon) I can understand a lot of Korean. This makes my boss nervous around me and, while he’s uncharacteristically polite and friendly (with almost perfectly English due to living in Aussie-land for ten years as he frequently tells me) he also has the shortest temper and the most childish behavioural fits.
When he talks about me he whispers and calls me things like “weh-gu-gin” or “yoh-ja” which essentially, to my trained ear, are about as effective as saying “It’s time to take the D-O-G for a W-A-L-K.” You say something around someone long enough and they’re going to realize they’re related. The W-A-L-K trick ever worked on my dogs back home in Canada and my boss’s attempts to talk about me using Korean he figured I wouldn’t know doesn’t work here in Korea.
Moving along. Taxes are 3.3 to 4% of my income. I can’t be sure but I’ll let it slide as, to me, it’s not the big issue. I’m not going to ever see the pay-stubs anyway,
Medical Insurance. 3.3 to 4% of income, school paying for half, the other being deducted from income. Boss-man likes to include how generous he is in graciously paying this on my behalf as if I should feel guilty for making him spend so much money. No. I do not feel it’s fair to guilt-trip your employees for something you are required to do by legal-binding contract and law.
Paid Vacation: 12 to 14 days. NOPE. AND DON’T BOTHER EVER TRYING TO BRING IT UP. NOT TO THIS GUY.
Sick days: You get three of them. Only three. Stay healthy. I told my boss I was going to save up my sick days to use them all at once so I could fly home to Canada during Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving.) I don’t often get sick so boss told me if I could do it then fine. A week before Chuseok I got sick. Really sick. I took one sick day and came to work in tears because I knew I wouldn’t be able to go home. Boss-man states I don’t need to worry about it and that he’ll give me the two days and won’t force me to pay him for missing work. As a gift. Because he knows how lonely it can be and feels for me. At this point, I’m pretty much thinking this is the best boss ever regardless as to a few snits. I go home and have the best week with my family I’ve had in a long time. It was just great.
I come back to work and decide to tell my boss that since I’ve gone home I’ve decided I would like to continue my studies in Teacher’s College. I figure there’s no harm in telling him once I complete my contract I won’t be renewing. It’s not like I’m quitting. I’m just finishing up. It’s fine, right?
Wrong. Boss-man seems to take it fine though I notice a look in his eye that I have seen before when he gets frustrated. Even so, things go smoothly…
And then I ask him about my plane ticket home and when he’s going to buy it for me. My contract states:
Transportation. Here’s the fun one. Employer agrees to provide airfare to and from Korea to the employee ONLY ON THE BASIS THE EMPLOYEE FINISHES HIS OR HER CONTRACT. Now, my boss made it clear to me LONG before firing me that he would never pay it. When I told him he was under contract to do it he told me to shut up, told me I was stupid, told me the contract was stupid, and made up a story about having seen an “agent in Seoul who told him so long as he paid for my housing that he didn’t have to pay for my plane home.” In his own words, “Why should I pay for someone who’s going home? You’re not going to work for me anymore so why should I spend more money on you? That’s stupid. If you believe you deserve that, you’re greedy, selfish, and stupid. That’s stupid.” I asked him if he wanted to see the contract and he shakes his head like some bratty man-child and states, while I’m talking, “No, no, no, no! No! No! I won’t see it. I won’t even look. I don’t need to look–why should I look at it? It’s not my contract .It’s the contract with the old owner—I’m not the old owner; it’s not MY contract!” I tell him it shifts ownership and he raises his hand and says, “DON’T SPEAK WHEN I SPEAK. THIS CONTRACT ISN’T MY CONTRACT. THAT’S IT.” I shut up.
I have been shouted at by abusive folks in the past and thus when I am shouted at my natural reaction, frustratingly enough, is to completely shut down and agree, which is what he was counting on. Eventually I found myself stating, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I guess it is stupid to ask you to pay for something when the person isn’t even going to be working for you anymore…” To this, he jovially responds, “Well, if you were coming back then maybe–MAYBE I would allow the payment but it would have to be a small visit home, maybe two weeks? Then MAYBE. MAAAAYBE I would pay it! I’m a reasonable man, okay? But this is a business.”
I would come to hate the phrase, “This is a business.” October passed awkwardly. November came around and boss-man and I began to warm up again. Then, I took ill with a serious fever, so bad I couldn’t breathe. I was rushed to the hospital and taken care of… only to then have boss-man and his wife (the owner and the principal of the hagwon) show up at my side about two hours later. Boss-man is upset I didn’t call sooner. Principal-woman states with slightly-masked irritation that they came all the way from Seoul. They were decked out in expensive clothing and looked like they’d been out partying, not “visiting family” as they stated they were. Even so, I ended up apologizing for collapsing, unable to breathe. Doctor explained I should stay overnight. Boss-man vehemently disapproved of that, stating I had a job to do and couldn’t lie around in the hospital if I was feeling better.
So I was discharged from the hospital and boss-man took me out for noodles as a pick me up, asking me how I felt on and off and repeatedly asking me if I would be going to come in to work, but in the way that meant, “You’re going to come in.”
November ended without much else. December came along. December honestly seemed to be great. Boss-man and I began to get along. Principal-woman and I did better… and then the difficulty and expectation level shot skyward.
Now, I will admit, I have been late often. By late, I mean not showing up an hour before work as I was told to (verbally, not in my contract) but at around 9:45, 9:50am. This is unprofessional. I know it is. That is all on me. However, being actually late for CLASS? It has not happened often. Even so, my boss began to get angrier and angrier with me. I accept this anger as I would be angry too if I had an employee who simply couldn’t be bothered to show up when asked (but I will say this: I prepared for my classes before going home so all I really had to do in the morning was arrange chairs and grab books. Even so…)
Mid-December I decide to buy a cockatiel that has seen much better days. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find the selling of animals in Korea to be horrendous. From what I’ve seen, pet animals are essentially mistreated and sold essentially as nothing more than fad-tos. I dunno. Anyway, this cockatiel was not only in the wrong kind of cage, he was in an E-Mart that had round-the-clock irritating music and horrible children whining at him. I cannot emphasize how much I despise the level of how utterly spoiled Korean children are. They are SO spoiled. I know the working world is horrible in Korea and they’re going to have horribly hard lives growing up but GOODNESS. The “AaaaAAAAAaaaa AAAAaaaAAAA” of their entitled whining and begging for anything (and getting it, too!) will forever haunt my nightmares. This cockatiel (named Ari) was hand-raised by one of the staff in E-Mart (one of the few genuinely kind people who worked there who wasn’t just paid to smile… and I genuinely pity those people because they look so tired…) and she was not keen on letting me buy him because I wouldn’t buy the giant glass box as well.
It took some doing before I was finally able to buy him and a smaller cage with bares rather than glass and now he’s mine and he’s wonderful. He’s regrowing all of his feathers and has stopped plucking, meaning the entire time they were telling me it was because he was sick, it was actually due to the never-ending stress of living in E-Mart. Anyway, this becomes important later.
Finally, Christmas rolls around after days and days of awkward quietness (sometimes including a scolding for not bringing my own mug to use with the coffee machine [yes, despite me being such a drain on his money, he installed a coffee machine in the school]) and I’m told after Christmas that for the New Years Vacation (which is five days [technically three plus the weekend]) I would have two days where I had to come in to teach after-school kids. I was okay with that until I was told it would be unpaid but I didn’t say anything. I never complained when they made me do unpaid work. It just didn’t do anything. I would always end up doing it or be guilt-tripped when some other teacher was made to do “my work that I didn’t do because I was lazy and irresponsible.”
I was overjoyed when the holidays came around leading into 2012. I went to Everland and had a blast there. I’m a kid at heart despite being 26 years old. I get home and decide (since the depression I’ve been getting over is finally subsiding) that MAN I should clean my room. I get to it and make quite a dent in the clutter before going to bed…
And wake up to an iliolumbar ligament sprain. It is agony. I end up going to the hospital where the doctor informs me it’s because I’m fat.
I will say this right now: I am fat, however, I weighed 20 kilos more and had no back problems at all. Losing those twenty kilos in an ongoing attempt to get fit has given me a lot of happiness. Being told my cleaning-related sprain was just because I’m fat? Hurt. A lot.
It hurt more when the doctor called my boss and told him, “Your foreign teacher is here in the hospital with acute lower back pain. In my professional opinion it’s because she’s so fat.”
So my boss has been told I’m being admitted, I think. I am wrong. He was only told I was there. The doctor tells me in broken English, “I think your ee-sah-jang-neem (Owner of Hagwon) is very angry.” I was filled with dread. Things had been going so well (or so I thought). I figured since boss-man had been told that I didn’t need to call him.
I ended up in that hospital for five. days. Unable to move save for occasional hobbling. Repeatedly, the nurses got my IVs wrong and again, my being fat was the cause. (That one I’ll give them.) Third day in the hospital coincided with first day back to classes. Boss-man calls me up screaming bloody murder in the afternoon. Over and over he screams at me to the point where his voice gets high like a soprano. He is livid that I didn’t call him, that I’ve essentially sabotaged the first semester back at school, that I’ve ruined things by being uncaring, irresponsible, that everyone else will have to do my work, and that if I’d just called him in advance “I would have given you one, maybe two days in hospital and then you come back to work!!”
I couldn’t even walk at this point and he’s screaming at me so loudly the other five women in the room with me (mostly older women) are stunned. “Is that your boss?” one asks me in Korean. At this point I burst into frustrated tears because my boss is essentially treating my back injury like it’s only there to make his life harder. Again and again he screams, “THIS IS A BUSINESS. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL EVERYONE WHEN YOU CAN’T EVEN CALL ME TO LET ME KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!? THIS IS A BUSINESS!”
Told you I would come to dread that phrase. He even tells me to stop crying because other people will see and it will make him look bad. Ya think, sir? Ya really think? Finally he calms down and hangs up and I’m left to explain myself to my roommates.
I call him once a day from that day on and he tells me each time, sweet as sugar, “You don’t have to call. I appreciate it but it’s okay. I know where you are.”
Today I get back to work and can barely walk. My doctor told me I should have stayed longer but I told him I couldn’t afford to miss work. Walking is agony. I’m only at ease when I sit down. Standing hurts. Everything. Hurts.
Boss-man isn’t pleased. “Why do you have to look like you’re in pain? Another teacher here had massive surgery and she is back today like you and she isn’t showing any pain like you.”
I tell him I literally cannot stand up straight. My back muscles are too stiff and in too much pain dealing with my sprained pelvic ligament to be able to humor him. He then tells me he wants to talk to me at five o’clock.
Five o’clock rolls around and I head down to the teacher’s area to work on materials while I wait. He is right there at his computer, looking to me now and then while working. I don’t know if he’s busy or not but I keep doing what I’m doing. Finally, he tells me to wait upstairs. The Principal-woman tells me to put my coat on as it’s cold on the fourth floor.
I wait. I also decide this is probably bad news and thus will be laced with lies. I decide to set my iPod to video, turn it on, stick it in my pocket, then sit as still as possible. I record the entire conversation. My boss tells me I’m being fired and explains why.
Now, I say my fair-share of things essentially agreeing with everything he says but I only do so to defuse his anger so it doesn’t descend into a screaming fit like it usually does. I end up slamming myself, telling my boss I’ve let him down, that I don’t deserve any of his kindness, all while he calls me selfish and even goes as far to say, “You only ever think about yourself.”
He jabs me with guilt by telling me he’s done so much for me when he’s barely maintained my contract at all. By firing me, he doesn’t have to give me the plane ticket he was breaking contract by denying. By firing me, he also tells me he’ll give me one final month of pay as a final gift, even though it’s essentially my February pay and not my final month of severance. He’s cheaping out and getting to hold back.
Oh, and pension? I don’t know. At this point, I don’t really care.
I’ve been used and lied to for two years in Korea, now. I’m done. Even if all I get back home in Canada is a job at Tim Hortons, at least it won’t be for that horrible, horrible man.
Oh, and the icing on the cake, he told me not to be angry or sad and that when I get back to Canada I should lose weight so I won’t hurt my back and get sick so much.
Sick so much. I used one sick day. I was hospitalized for five due to agonizing back pain, three of which were school time. That means I used one day more than my contract allows in regards to sick time, meaning I could just pay the boss the 100,000 won I owe for the one day that isn’t paid sick leave.
Boss-man says he’s taking five days out of my pay despite one of the five being holiday. Ah, well. Can’t win’em all.
– iamQuinapalus
January 13, 2012 at 9:19 pm
doweonandrew
If you recorded the conversation, then honestly, I would be taking it to the korean labor board. At the very least it’ll make his life a little harder after you leave when he gets investigated!!
January 13, 2012 at 9:28 pm
iamquinapalus
Sadly, my boss has already told me that were I to tell people about what happened in our private workplace it could “negatively affect my co-workers.”
I guess I’ll settle for hiding the key to his personal coffee machine.
Oh, and he installed an extremely expensive wall-mounted aquarium today. I asked his wife where she got the money for it and she chirped, “We had some extra recently.”
:|
March 29, 2012 at 8:55 am
Please
At least let us know the name of hagwon so other foreigners know to steer clear. This post comes up when googling various schools. For instance, two teachers have already discussed International English School in Wonju above so we are warned about that. Please let us know the name of the school!
It aggravates me when I see stories like this repeated at the same school. We need to stick together and warn each other. No one else in Korea is going to help us.
March 29, 2012 at 10:17 pm
iamquinapalus
The reason I held back at the time was because I was still there. To some degree, I still feel iffy about listing it.
Boss man fired me, tried to steal my pension, even got his wife in on it.
I secretly video’d their talks. I BS every word I say to them so if I come across as fake, it’s on purpose. Always suck up to your boss.
You want to know what school I taught in? I give it to you in confidence that you will not contact them. (Also have found out they replaced me with a 20 year old American boy. 20 years old. And they’re telling people he’s 24/25.)
Look this up on Google Maps. It will tell you the name of my school in Korean (and if you cannot read Korean, there is a lexilogos on google you can use to find out.)
South Korea, Gyeonggi-do, Yongin-si, Giheung-gu, Jung-dong, 815-2
February 16, 2012 at 1:30 pm
midnightrunner
Wow. What a nightmare! Personally, I worked at a school called Yeogang Middle School. My boss was just like yours, only he wouldn’t yell. He would calmly, passively calculate his plan for revenge. He was the sickest person I have ever met. When we met the President of the school, his wife came along for the ride and she looked like a porcelain doll (only she was like 70 years old and the makeup had crusted over and her hair all falling out). The other English co-teacher, Kim Ju Won, would tell me to hold my knees together because sitting with one leg crossed over the other is considered very impolite. It didn’t take me long to realize that they were all one big sick demented family. They wanted my dignity. They wanted my soul. I was dignified enough to complete my 7 months so that I would not owe them anything at all and then took the midnight run. I was traumatized for months afterwords. It is still difficult even to recall the events, the abuse was so horrific. The worst thing was that only the previous ESL teachers could understand and empathize with me. My family and friends just didn’t get how anyone could be so cruel. For us Canadians, this type of behavior is seriously punishable by law. I am so happy I am no longer living in that sick, disgusting, soul-less country where they tie up dogs from a young age on a 2 inch leach, intelligent, beautiful hunting dogs, all so that they can eat them. Sickos. I hope to never return there ever again. It is a sick, sick place.
February 23, 2012 at 7:18 pm
jee87
If possible I would like to ask you guys a question related to midnight runs. First things first, let me tell you my story / situation…
– I ran away from Korea and broke my contract. I wasn’t getting paid and my employer was just plain hideous to say the least. This was around 7 months ago now.
– For my own reasons (I have many), I want to return to Korea on another E2 VISA. So, of course the first advice you will give is to call immigration. I have done that and here is what they told me…
(My VISA and ARC have been cancelled and I have been reported as a midnight runner. They said that I can apply again for another E2 VISA, however they could not tell me YES or NO as to whether it would be granted. They said that will be up to the officer in charge of my case.)
– OK, so then I called the Korean Embassy in London. They told me to contact Korean immigration, however the women said that she could not foresee any problems arising unless I committed any criminal acts. I didn’t.
– I didn’t hand in my ARC at the airport so I feared that I may have to wait the year until it expires. This is obviously not the case because immigration have told me directly that my VISA and ARC are cancelled.
– So, I applied for a new job and I have been offered the job, this time for a much more reputable company. I did not tell them about my history in Korea and they didn’t ask. I’m really happy about the situation but I fear that I will be rejected right at the last.
– So…I applied for a new passport and received it. This passport has a different passport number allocated to it. I was thinking this might help my cause and enable me to go undetected. I needed the passport anyway because my current one was due to expire.
I have all the information that I need, but I just wanted to get a better insight from you guys. Do you think I would be able to get back in without any problems? Have you heard of or experienced anything similar personally?
Cheers for the help!
March 29, 2012 at 8:56 am
Please
I don’t know, but please let us know how it goes.
June 12, 2013 at 10:26 am
jermandjerm
Do you have any updates? I am in a similar situation.
July 16, 2013 at 12:38 am
alec
I’d also like to know how it went for you. Did anything happen with immigration or when you got another ARC card.
I’m curious because the visa form that you fill out in your own country asks whether you have had a work visa before. Surely this could lead to complications if you lied.
March 2, 2012 at 1:31 pm
simobel
Hey I have a slightly unrelated question, I’m leaving Korea early because I got a good job back home and I gave my school notice etc so all is fine. But just wondering if anyone who did a midnight run, had cell phones that they took with and never cancelled or settled? I owe a lot on my Samsung Galaxy S2 as I am only 6 months into my 24 month contract…the one lady who works at SK actually said just go back home and don’t pay the fees, she said a lot of foreigners have done it but I of course am worried about the consequences…anyone done this? Thanks!
March 12, 2012 at 8:30 pm
HELP - New Zealander
Hi,
I am from New Zealand and so is my boss (who is Korean but also comes from New Zealand). I have only been here just over a week and hate it already. I did not sign up to teach 2-3year olds (NZ age) as Im a primary school teacher. I do not want to give my 2 months notice as I have just found out that my school is on the TEFL Blacklist for places to work in Korea and he is high powered so dont want him to stop me from leaving or steal my passport (as they know my pin to get into my apartment and come in whenever they feel the need). I will wait two weeks for my first pay check and then leave but what will he do to me in NZ as he will contact me and is also from NZ? What authority does he have in NZ? I have never seen a original copy of my contract with his signature and mine and it says no where in the contract about me ‘doing a runner’ only about him firing me. HELP ME!
March 22, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Roman
Just leave. Theres nothing he can do to you in SK except ban you from coming back for 5 years for getting out. If he harasses you in NZ, just inform him you have a swiss rifle that is super accurate. Give him fair warning, and shoot the extremities first.
Confront him with the contract first, though. Give him a fair chance. Make it clear what’s happening is unacceptable.
March 23, 2012 at 12:38 am
WannaBeInBusan
I did a midnight run about 5 years ago now on my second school after successfully completing a year at a different school. The run resulted in phone calls and emails from the recruiter and threats that they (the school) would come to my home country and take my belongings to get back what I owed them. They were pretty pissed but I was in one of those “give us your passport, we will pay you on time next month” situations that was escalating. I’m embarrassed by it now but I used the return portion of the ticket they bought me to get out of there. I did collect my last pay check. So technically, though it pains me to say it, I stole from them.
Here’s the rub. I want to go back. I have a new passport, new surname and will use a different degree. Will immigration still have information on me that would be released to potential employers on application? My director was a nasty piece of work and I have no doubt he reported me. Should I tell recruiters that I worked there before (for the experience requirement?)? Or say it’s my first time? Any advice would be most gratefully received.
March 25, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Roman
When you say you have a new passport, did you get a new passport number? I believe that’s the key, and a name change will be tied to the old identity/name as an alias or aka. Don’t tell the recruiter squat. They get their check from the school and have it refunded if you run out. I believe immigration does not talk to businesses as standard operating procedure, but someone could always pick up the phone. You know all too well how f=ed up Koreans are. Good luck with everything. I would call immi and find out the facts on reporting on you, at least what the policy is. I believe you’ve done your time.
March 27, 2012 at 4:22 pm
WannaBeInBusan
Thanks Roman. Yes I have a new passport number. Ringing immigration was something I hadn’t thought of. That’s a really good idea-thanks again.
My husband is coming with me this time and the worry that I may have screwed this up for both of us is weighing heavy on my mind.
We plan a year or 2 in Korea and then some formal qualifications-CELTA etc. to make a career of it all. Do some traveling, start a family. Fingers crossed phase one will work out!
March 27, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Roman
Having two in the boat certainly drives up the stakes here, but you may as well be together through the thick as well as the thin. New number, new person, fresh start x2… but the same odds of having a horrendous experience (or a good one). Just be prepared to get on an airplane and jet out. I sincerely wish you the best of luck. Just do not go to Internat’l English School in Wonju, and consult all black lists.
January 21, 2013 at 11:37 am
AJ
I love this! Thank you for being so honest and even passionate about your decision. I also did a midnight run from a school in February 2010, and while I’m not uber-proud of *how* I went out, I’m still glad I did. I fled to Hawaii for an internship; how could i ever regret that? Cheers!
January 31, 2013 at 7:05 pm
midnightrunner
Fantastic! I fled to India to do a Master’s! The midnight run was one of the most frightening yet rewarding experiences of my life! I wish all the midnight-runners the same intensity I had, although with less fear! And for anyone wondering about leaving unpaid bills…My school owed me money from the last 2 weeks I worked but didn’t wait around to get on the final pay check because I had to keep the run a secret. So, to equalize that, I left some big bills. In the end, they emailed me saying they owed me nothing and I owed them. Final word on it: Korea is a self-gratifying, MORBID country who seeks to take advantage of beautiful souls because they themselves have been raped of their dignity, hisorically. The country is FULL of what I call ‘hungry ghosts’ and ‘ill-dignified’ people who are as choked up as the dogs they set on 2 inch leaches for 10 years before they eat them. Fuck Korea. Leave them with as many bills possible and get the hell out. My ex-co-workers who literally councelled me through the trauma that my principal imposed day in and day out, told me that the korean teachers tried to destroy their reputation within Korea after they left that school (Yeogang Middle School in Yeoju, South Korea). Imagine that! and they had even completed the contract! That ESL teacher is the KINDEST person I have personally ever met! Kim Ju Won of Yeogang, actually tracked him down and called his new school. This is just a little glimps at how fucked up these maggots are. Bacteria of the worst kind. My advice: AVOID KOREA AT ALL COSTS.
February 3, 2013 at 6:37 pm
me
I am wondering about a midnight run from Malaysia. Can they do anything to chase down money I owe them? I have no intention of returning to the country.
The school is a private school masquerading as an international school.
I want to leave for a few reasons:
– I was lied to about the school being accredited (they are not.)
– I was mislead about taxes.
– I was lied to about the professional development opportunities.
– I was mislead about free accommodation (they are taxing it.)
– I was not informed I would not be paid over the summer during a 2 year contract.
– I don’t want to work for a school that is possibly screwing over kids futures (I do not think parents are aware that this school is not recognised by an international board.)
I took the job knowing the pay was low but with all these surprise expenses I can’t save and I am not getting anything in lieu
February 8, 2013 at 9:14 pm
Bezza
Please help! I also need to do a midnight run but I have been stupid enough to inform my employer that I intend to leave next week. I almost walked out today because I was shouted at and my boss threatened to call immigration to stop me from leaving the country.
After three and a half months in South Korea my boss told me as there weren’t enough students he would be closing the school at the end of January. I began looking for other jobs in Korea and was offered another position with the same recruiter that hired me originally.
My boss then started talks with another branch of the school to buy the business. I had to turn down the other position as it was clear I was not going to get a release letter. The recruiter was very angry with me. This other branch kept missing appointments and giving the current owners the runaround. I kept asking the owners what was going on and was told that the new owners would honor my old contract….maybe.
This was the position as of yesterday. It is now the day before Korean New Year, 5 days before the new owners are supposed to take over and contracts have still not been signed. I was getting nervous about being left in the lurch and also I’m sick and tired of being treated like dirt by a sociopathic co-teacher and boss. So I contacted my old school in another Asian country who want me to come next week.
I agreed because although I won’t make as much money there at least I know they will take care of me and appreciate a hard-working, professional teacher. When I told my employers this today, it seems that I am being treated like chattel and they are buying the school providing I am part of the deal. I wanted a nice calm talk and to do the honorable thing by telling them.
I want to leave next week but as I have said previously, he is threatening me with detention by immigration. Although I understand he cannot stop me from leaving, I had to buy a round trip ticket so it looks like I’ll be coming back here even though I have no intention of doing so, but it satisfies immigration in my next destination before transfer over to a work visa. The return is for three months time and I will have been here a few days under five months. Is there a chance that I will be questioned by immigration because of the return ticket? Can my employer tell immigration on the same day as my flight to ban me from returning for 5 years? Payday is 25th, I began work on 19th and I will leave on 15th so I will lose almost a month’s money. I figure this will more than cover the cost of the flight here as I’ll be leaving after almost five months.
I’m just really worried that I will be stopped because he will say I owe them money and that the return flight will be cancelled which will mean I won’t get into the next destination. I intend to work for a three days next week and my flight leaves early evening which means they will in theory have six and a hlaf hours in which to try to cause as many problems as possible.
February 19, 2013 at 3:59 am
Jay
Late to the situation here, but you can only be detained if there is a criminal case pending against you, not a civil complaint. You are free. I recommend calling the US Consulate nearby to put your mind at ease. Very sorry you had such a terrible/horrendous experience. I had to jet a school in Wonju about two years ago and was super paranoid about what would happen at the airport. Your “contract” is and always was toilet paper. you are free to move about the cabin. :)
February 28, 2013 at 6:32 am
stratl
I did a midnight run in 2010 and I never regretted it. That country is miserable with no soul and I was going crazy. The kids I missed but that is all and the other teacher I did a run with who went to Hong Kong. I believe Korea is a dangerous place and I did not feel safe there. Crime is hidden and hagwon are corrupt. Life is too short to be unhappy. Get out and never look back. You will have no problems with customs. It happens every day… Good luck and be happy! X
March 31, 2013 at 12:26 am
midnightrunner
I agree with stratl. Korea is an extremely dangerous place. In fact, when I was being assaulted by my employers, I called the Canadian Embassy to ask for help. When they told me that it was out of their hands and that my employers and the Korean government could do with me as they pleased because I was under contract, I was truly frightened. The bad treatment got worse. Koreans are soul-less clones. This is not a discriminatory statement. ITS THE TRUTH. This is the culture there. If you go to Korea to teach, 95% chance you will end up being treated worse then a DOG. STAY OUT OF THAT COUNTRY. We North Americans should boycott such countries which employ this type of abuse to animals and humans. Fuck Korea. Fuck them. I’m SHOCKED that my country has not issued warnings against teaching there. Shame on the Canadian Embassy and all other embassies who support the advancement of South Korean government. Bloody bacteria!
May 31, 2013 at 2:07 am
alec
I did a midnight run a few months ago with my girlfriend. We actually ran out on a school, last year, and then decided to give it another try because we thought we were just unlucky. Our new jobs were worse than the old ones and we tried really hard and put up with their crap for so long. I then got fired a few months before the end of my contract, screwing me out of my bonus, after putting up with all that crap too.
That’s the one thing I really would like people to know. If you stick with a horrible job, not only will you be unhappy for a long time, but you’ll more than likely end up going home broke.
South Korea really was a horrible experience for me and my girlfriend. Our friends ostracised us as well because it was like we were facing up to something that they couldn’t deal with. They hated us for the fact that we weren’t putting up with all the bull that they were.
I can’t help but feel at least a bit happier knowing I wasn’t the only one having that experience, by looking on here and finding all these comments.
If anyone wants any advice on midnight runs and leaving Korea, or even re-entering Korea and getting another job (if they really think this is the best course of action), then I’ll be happy to help.
April 29, 2013 at 10:12 pm
Ryan
I stumbled upon this blog through google. Fucking. Hilarious.
May 31, 2013 at 2:10 am
alec
Oh yea, totally agree about the clones having no soul thing.
I found Gangnam style to be particularly misleading in this area. What a load of tourist PR bull. Koreans having ‘fun’. They don’t know the meaning of the word.
May 31, 2013 at 2:14 am
alec
What would be the implications of getting one of these horrible schools back, by making them pay for your flight into Asia, then bunking as soon as you were there to Japan or somewhere more fun?
How would this ever get stopped?
I’m not talking about arsey bosses here, I’m talking about criminals that owe people money.
August 7, 2013 at 9:42 am
Angel
I am so glad you left Korea too. I pulled a midnight run a few months ago and entered into a Masters program here in the States. Anyone who is contemplating leaving..just leave. If the submissive culture is not for you then its simply not for you. The korean boss (hagwon) would pay me on time in fear that I speak up and question them about it, while they wouldnt pay the rest of the korean teachers on time? Why? Because they I guess..dont have to. I am so American that this idea makes me want to screech! There were many cultural bullshiz that I couldnt deal with. I was there are about half a year, then CUT! I never cut so fast in my life. South Korea night life is chill. The food is chill but whatever you do dont work for a hagwon without REALLY REALLY looking into it. I remember landing on the plane in SF and being in total joy. OMG, I thanked the Lord that I was a frik’n American. All different shapes, skin colors were present at the airport. The English language was heard from every corner of the room. I felt safe, entitled to freedom, and most of all I had a voice again. They would enslave those kids, working them (teaching) for ten hours a day. As their loving teacher I’d try and give them breaks, candy, and teach them more or less how to critical think. Im not much of a blogger at all but I swore to myself that’s I pull something together is I ever made it back to the States free! So here I am! Also the cctv cameras everywhere are so obnoxious! Its like entrapment! Advice to those thinking about teaching in a hagwon in korea :no no no no. A Korean lady on the bus told me: Hagwons are not obligated to pay you at all since they are buisnessman. There is no affiliation with the government. Thus when you go to the labor union, they look at you blankly like ” your not one of us..so we can’t help you.” So teach at a public school or university. There they are mandated to pay you, less bullshiz, more free time to plan for lessons. Yes, they pay a little less but who cares! Atleast there isnt any mind games and superiority complexes like ” Hmm.. I think I could pay you Hmm…yah, I could” I remeber being in total shock as I listened to my boss. I was like ” Umm..yah..I’m leaving like in a few days.” I am brave, bold, and fearless when it comes to things that I know simple are not right. I know those three words practically mean the same thing but in a way they don’t. In order to leave I seriously had to dig deep, fugde their non-abiding contract, and tell no one expect my best friend. HOWEVER, I miss my little pumpkin pie students who I simply adore. I believe they will remember me for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, I was able to instill in them that learning if fun and that there are multiple ways to learn, its totally okay for them to explore. I pray that they are able to escape that 1900’s culture and TRAVEL the world. Perhaps America is not their cup of tea but I know there are plenty of cultures that are more freeing in terms of educational institutions than that one. I love my Korean students, my korean friends, and I miss my foreign partners in crime. On the other hand, I am so glad I left just as I did. Sorry for the sporadic ideas, misspelling of words, and incomplete thoughts that this passage may contain. I would rather the reader take in the content more than anything else. FUCK KOREA..there I cursed.
March 5, 2014 at 6:55 am
Al
Wondering if this post ever gets check but thought I would post and check to see.
I’m considering leaving leave but not doing a midnight runner it’s still early and I haven’t been here that long, thusly, I don’t know how the school will treat me, as of now they have been pretty good and and have asked me out to dinner and the director and her family helped me take my bags to my place and gave me a small care package to help get started, all good things so far.
I am not enjoying it and I miss home and right now I am thinking that a year is a damn long time and I’m not doing that, I will try for my goal of 6 months and then give then notice but I have some questions.
I have a recruiter agency and they are an organization that is on call for me if I need them, what will I need to tell them? Nothing in my contract states that I have to pay back a recruiter fee to the school if I leave, just that I have to pay my airfare if I do leave before 6 months which is fair. Nothing in my contract states that I or the employer has to give notice but I would give notice if I am to leave early because the school so far has been good to me.
This job is longer hours then I thought and tiring me out big time, I wanted to travel more and clearly this is more than a job that will allow me to travel around? I should have done more research as too how much work I would have to put in, that’s clearly my fault.
I just want to know of others have had a similar situation in which they have notice and paid whatever they needed to pay to the employer and then bought a flight home and left and that’s the end of the story. My biggest concern is not the loss of money but any black lashing or legal issues that come with leaving a contract early, I want a clean slate and don’t intend on coming back to South Korea ever,
March 17, 2014 at 4:01 pm
Alec Chalmers
You can leave anytime you want. You don’t have to pay them anything. You can even work there again after doing this, so leaving and just going home isn’t a problem. They won’t pursue you, even if they threaten to, it would cost them too much money. All you have to do is hand in your Alien card if you have one when you leave, if you don’t have one then just leave, it’s as simple as that. You aren’t breaking the law. Especially as you never intend to visit again, I’d say you absolutely have nothing to worry about.
March 18, 2014 at 1:27 pm
Al
Thanks for the reply! This blog helped for sure. I’m not running but instead quitting.
April 25, 2014 at 4:01 pm
simo222222
Hi there.
I’m finished up with my 1 year contract and am waiting on my girlfriend to be done. We’ve booked our flight tickets for the 8th of May, however, I haven’t paid my KT phone and internet bill. My ex coteacher has emailed me and told me that she knows that I haven’t. My question is, with having 2 mre weeks here in Korea (FML) is it possible for her to phone immigration and cause a scene for me? Thanks for the help!
April 26, 2014 at 2:42 am
Mitch
This is getting very abstract. Pay your bills.
May 31, 2014 at 7:32 pm
Hettie Panther-Bruwer
I taught in Korea for more than two years from the end of 2002 to 2004.and had an amazing time. I always wanted to return. A month ago I flew over with my youngest daughter and found that the recruiter lied to me. Because I have been in Korea before I specifically requested that I be placed in an area where there are lots of hiking trails and parks as I enjoy being out in nature and walking. When I looked up the city on Google I wasn’t too pleased but the recruiter convinced me that I was wrong and that the place is amazing. We arrived there late at night and it was kind of difficult to judge. However, the apartment looked kinda crummy. We went out to buy some food as we are vegan (something the recruiter know as I specifically told her that it’s important seeing that we make our own food from scratch). The town looked little and extremely crummy. Back at the apartment we discovered that the stove isn’t working and in addition the whole base of the toilet is cracked and the water is running all over the floor. Next day I had to be at school and witnessed the co-teacher teaching a visual curriculum, which only allows for endless repetition and competition. He demanded I teach immediately without any preparation from the books and using these lessons. All the instructions were in Korean, which I could not understand; when I asked for explanations he told me to improvise. How the hell do you improvise from nothing! My daughter and I walked through the little suburb and found no parks, no walking trails, and the town was extremely small, crummy and dingy; it is on the border with North Korea with soldiers walking everywhere. And that after I told the recruiter that I wanted to be close-by Seoul city. The school made no effort to repair the stove or the toilet. The classes were hell as not one day went by without some of the students being in tears and upset because the co-teacher gave away points unfairly during game playing. I realized that this contract was going to be hell and I am not in the mood to be treated like an imbecile or repetition machine. I paid for my own fare there, I got them to postpone going through to get my alien card, and I also did not sign the new contract copy with the new dates as I got there a little late due to getting my documents ready. I also knew that they will make a big fuss and not allow me to leave. Luckily it was a long weekend just after we arrived–Monday and Tuesday. So my daughter and I made a run for it. When the immigration officer asked me whether my school knows, I told her that my mother is sick and I needed to get there as soon as possible, and I told her that the school knows. She replied then that my visa won’t hold for a return and that I will have to get another one outside the country for re-entry. I thanked her for the information and went through!! What a relief. I am still angry and disappointed for being lied to and being treated this way by the recruiter and the school. I really wanted to stay in Korea for a while and to catch up with my friends. My sister-in-law has been teaching in Korea for many years too. Her first name is the same as my middle name and we share last names too. When she applied for a visa a red flag came up with her application because I guess they thought she was me. Luckily they realized their mistake and she got her visa. I feel sorry for causing her problems but then she started blaming me for doing something wrong regarding the job placement and hinted that she would probably have to change her name and last name!! I always liked and still like Korea and its people but this incident makes it really difficult for me to keep an open mind towards this business of abusing and using educated people to teach English and luring them into horrible situations, which is demeaning.
July 27, 2014 at 6:20 pm
aa bb
I have been working here in Korea for many years and it is all luck what you get. I think the kindest co-teachers are in Gangwondo and the works in Jecheon are the worst. Also, working for a public school would be better than working for a boss (hogwon) who is all out for money.
Many of my friends have worked for hogwons and some were good and some were bad. It is the same with me, I worked at two hogwons and “fillins” for a month or two. One hogwon was great and my current hogwon has an owner that believes the contract is only suppose to be followed at his convenience.
We got into an argument about my “termination letter” and he behaved like he wanted to fight me. Never work for EDI Park Jeong Academy in Incheon. He is a fast talking car salesman.
March 24, 2015 at 4:27 pm
garrettrathke
FUCK KOREA!!! I hate this fucking place! I can’t wait to get the hell outta here!!! I would do a midnight run in a heartbeat if I were single like you, mate… Alas, my wife is korean
April 4, 2015 at 3:40 pm
Matt
EVERYONE,
I myself did a midnight run years ago. I know the conditions can be terrible (trying to teach 5 year old kids to speak English when all they want to do is jump around the room like crazy madmen), But you have it pretty good there. Your apartment is paid for and you make enough money that you can do whatever you want. You don’t have a car payment and have the cheapest public transportation in the entire world. When you arrive home all the people that saw on your facebook (“Im going to Korea”) are going to ask you why it fell short…Hope you have a good answer. 8 years after my departure I still think about my midnight run and I can only say that ive been taken thru a course of life that has shown me that I could have dealt with crazy kids over the pressure of having to find another job, school loans, car payment, mortgage or apartment rent, family pressure, etc. ITS NO BETTER HERE IN AMERICA PEOPLE! That intense anxiety you feel before midnight run is a definite check in which you should listen. I want to go back to Korea and finish a year with integrity so badly. I know the feeling and I had people counsel me not to leave and I should have taken warning. Foreign teachers have all that extra pressure because midnight running has been an issue since the beginning of time. The schools know they can press you because the chances of you bailing are very high.
June 4, 2015 at 7:04 am
On the Box - TV Guide Korea
[…] 18:00 – Travelogue – Billy-Bob and Peggy-Sue embark on an epic train journey all the way across the peninsula from Pohang to Incheon. Viewers are reminded that you should not tell their boss, as they’re pulling a midnight run. […]
July 7, 2015 at 6:12 am
midnightrunner
Hi Matt–Saying that we have it good there is not really cool. I did a lot of research while I was contemplating my run from Korea and I found thousands of esl teachers in my boat. Just because a country throws money at you like a whore, doesn’t mean you need to kneel down and take whips from ’em! My school treated me like SHIT. If you are in an abusive situation, the solution does not come by comparing it to other people who have it worse. Abuse is abuse, end of story! To run is to be courageous, not weak. I advise all those who feel the need to run to listen to their intuition. I know of far too many cases where hagwons fucked over teachers and didn’t pay them salaries. The list goes on. PS: it’s not always about the kids. In my case, it was the administration and the other teachers who were the problem. They flat out outcasted me and treated me like garbage and cost me hundreds of dollars (thousands if I include the airfare). So, before you tell people to stay and work it out, consider other reasons why one might run.
July 12, 2015 at 4:52 am
Planning Escape
Hi everyone,
This main post is great! Thanks for sharing your feelings. I’ve enjoyed reading through many of the comments as well.
My boyfriend and I will have worked 6 months at the end of August. We would like to leave shortly thereafter. We feel 6 months is a good amount of time to have experienced the country and culture, but we are choosing to no longer work for our lying, shady director. He has successfully stolen money from us every month we have been here whether it’s from our pension not being registered at our correct salary figure, monthly recruitment fees being taken out and not reimbursed once we talked to him about it and he said he’d stop, and a continual discrepancy in what should be taken out per the contract and the actual deductions.
Anyway, we would love to take the high road and give notice but think we will be even more screwed over if we do that. We’ll have worked over 6 months so he shouldn’t require the airfare back, but we are 99.9% sure he would deduct it without telling us, not to mention simply not pay us anything. He is also encouraging one of our coworkers to work illegally, paying him under the table, but still taking taxes out with a sad excuse. He thinks we are all stupid and we cannot put up with it.
Thus, we are considering the midnight run. Ideally, though, we wouldn’t want to miss out on travel around SE Asia. Would it be possible to leave our suitcases with friends in Korea, leave Korea and hand back our ARC, travel for a couple weeks, then come back to pick up our luggage and go home? Or can we not come back after we hand in our ARC until our visa would have expired?
Thank you!
August 21, 2015 at 1:02 am
aa bb
I heard immigration will ban you from entering Korea for several years. It would be best to just ship everything home and take what you need to visit South East Asia.
August 19, 2015 at 9:48 pm
sara
I work for the Epik program and have been at my current public school for 2 plus years. I have recently signed on for another year, but I’m done. I should not have signed another contract but whats done is done. School accommodation, city etc etc all good. No probs. Just had enough of this place…Anyway ill wait for the months pay and then leave over the weekend with possibly a letter typed out letting the school know that im leaving so they don’t think im dead etc. My question is do I have to leave my ARC card at immigration, and if I don’t what happens? I’ve heard that they just cancel it after a while. Also is there anything the school or epik can do once I leave the country? Ill be taking my ‘re-contract’ plus 2 months wages. Please advise.
August 21, 2015 at 5:10 am
aa bb cc
They won’t ban you, the previous poster doesn’t know what they are talking about. I can tell you from personal experience they won’t care as long as you hand in your arc card. Also no one has the time or money to chase you abroad. Just leave and don’t come back.
I also totally disagree about the money. In normal workplaces, the money you receive is money that you earned. You are not stealing this money from anyone, you earned it.
The only thing that will eat me up is the amount of time I spent in Korea when I should have been elsewhere. Go and enjoy your life and forget about how depressing it is here.
August 21, 2015 at 1:11 am
aa bb
Quitting is one thing. You have every right to quit your job. Taking money for the work you have not done is another.
It sounds like your story is incomplete.
I hope you take the high road and not be a thief. Your action may eat you up as your progress through life.
To your question, I don’t think South Korea will be sending special forces after you for 7 million won (about). That said, I don’t know at what amount (stolen) they place you on the wanted list (INTERPOL). I only know they will ban you from entering South Korea for several years.
September 22, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Sindy
Hahaha I love your story, I ran away on January and went back again on April and had no problem I am working elsewhere now^^ Just that I had to start the visa run process from scratch.
September 29, 2015 at 5:44 am
aa bb
I want to quit my job as well, but I also want to complete my contract. My co-teachers are some of the most difficult people to work with. One is a pouting baby, the other is a picky butt, and the third is obsessed with with sex with first co-teacher and steps on me to uplift himself. It is wonderful you got away with quitting. Were you working for a public or private school?
September 30, 2015 at 1:50 pm
Sindy
It was a hagwon I ran away from, and another hagwon hired me
September 29, 2015 at 5:50 am
aa bb
*** The third teacher is mentally a (married man) horny teenager who only wants to have sex with the other co-teacher (is having sex with the other co-teacher). He steps on me to uplift himself in front of the “pouty” teacher.
November 13, 2015 at 8:56 am
White Girl in Asia
I read every single comment on this and I am astounded and happy(ish) to hear I’m not the only one. I’m booking my ticket now. Last year the kids rocked but management was horrible. This year management is probably skimming from my paycheck but generally reasonable, but the kids are a horrible nightmare. I’m not a rookie either, I’ve been teaching abroad in different countries for 6 years. I’ve had kids go to prison for assault that I liked more than these little hell spawn.
I am booking my ticket and taking off next month after pay day.
December 8, 2015 at 11:57 am
porkdiary8
did you leave already?? How did it go?! I hate my job…kinda wanna quit though and find a new one..lol