"Don't worry, I am rich!"

My boss is a nice and decent guy, which by hagwon standards makes him a frikkin saint. I have absolutely no (serious) complaints so far which is pretty amazing. Appraising a hagwon as such is similar to saying the same about an airport - to have no complaints is about the highest praise which can be given.

His English is also pretty good, and if we were again to apply typical hagwon standards that would make him a savant amongst his peers. He has a meeting with S (the other waegukin teacher) and I every week in which he lays out the upcoming schedule and we go over any problems or issues. This meeting always happens on Monday, which was today.

Today's meeting was like a good, new song: familiar but also different. He again reiterated that we were both doing a good job and that there have been no real complaints from mothers of late (which astonishes me every time I hear it, knowing as I do how prickly Korean mothers can be and how susceptible they are to the exaggerations of their delinquent offspring). He also reemphasized that the Korean economy continues to suffer and because of that many parents are pulling their kids out of hagwons to help make ends meet. He even provided a worrisome factoid to drive home that point - our school currently has an "enrollment" of about 150 students, the lowest level since its founding 6 years ago.

This detail provided, he segued into a lengthy digression during which he tried to reassure the quiescient S, and the similarly demeanored I, that our jobs and the position of the school were secure. Naturally this automatically caused me to wonder if the school is indeed solvent or if I am soon to have something else in common with those throngs of recently-laid off Wall Street bankers other than the fact that women find us irresistible. Visions of the 100,000 word Newsweek article I read this weekend about Bernie Madoff insisting up until the very end that all was well flashed through my head. But Mr. Kim was persistent, and quite long winded, and there's something to be said for numbing the minds of your inferiors with near-endless blather, after all it worked for Hitler. And he even at one point blurted out a hearty "don't worry, I'm rich!" which was both reassuring and amusing, kinda like a holiday Far Side cartoon.

Not that I'm worried, I'd land another job easily here. But to quote Marge Simpson: "I've dug myself into a nice little rut here." And I like it.