Crisis!

Last Friday at our weekly staff meeting, one of the upper level administrators came in to talk to us. The guy could speak English, kind of, but wasn't comfortable using the language, so asked for the help of one of the other Koreans.


He told us the English Village was in CRISIS. 


Apparently we're running out of money. The local province (think state) of Gyeonggi hasn't been taking in as much revenues from property tax, so the province government hasn't been able to provide as much funding as they have. And the Village doesn't really make money on its own. I think they try, but aren't really successful. 


During the meeting the admin, I can't remember his name, basically asked us to be patient as they make changes. He stressed that the teachers would not be losing their jobs. I'm not sure how much I believe him, however. To make it through the end of the year, the Village has asked the government for 1.4 billion won. That's roughly 1 million dollars. There is no guarantee that the money will be available for us.


It's worrying. I'm a little unsure of what to do. For now, I'm just going to keep doing my job and hope for the best. We have students scheduled to arrive for programs starting on the twentieth of Oct through the end of the year. Plus, the big, month-long Vacation Intensive Program will start up in December. So I think I have a job through the middle of January. 


I hope so anyway. I'm not ready to move back to the States just yet.