My first semester (5 months) in Korea has been … well… I think my friend Mr. B describes it best, and I quote: “F*cked up”.

Whether it be staff room brawls, crazy irate subway men, or watching students get their asses handed to them on the regular (and more!), my perception of Korea so far has been, let’s say, less than positive overall.

But now, frankly, I’m just getting angry. It appears as though my best friend at work is getting fired.

Let’s take a look at the situation to see why I have such a problem with this. Number 1: my English teaching colleagues that I spend a lot of my life with are all over 40 years old.  Most are closer to 50. Except my recently-fired friend, who is a 28 year old female. You can see where this is going. Further, she speaks the best English of the lot of them, and is the best co-teacher that I work with in terms of actually “getting it”. She also appears to be the most competent, dedicated, and hardworking English teacher in the department.

And so during these 5 months it has been a natural occurence for her and I to build a closer relationship than with the other members of my staff, based on age and communication ability. That notwithstanding, I have gone out of my way to build relationships with the other teachers, by eating lunch with them, and visiting their homes, and have been careful to not spend all of my time with my female ally.

Last week, however, she got a call from the vice-principal saying that she was being let go, on the recommendation of the head English teacher (of tennis melee fame). He was unable to provide a reason as to why she was being fired (!).

The reasons why were made a bit more clear the next day. One of my co-teachers approached her with an album of photos we had taken at an English retreat with students the week prior. He took some time to say that he had removed several photos of her and I on the trip, because the other teachers had become jealous. I’d like to point out here that her and I were making time on this trip to spend most of the time with the students, and as a result together. The older teachers were in their own room getting drunk.

I have to assume, based on the absence of other evidence, that my friend is being fired from our school because the other teachers are jealous of our friendship. And that is, in the immortal words of my friend Mr. B:

“F*cked up”.

We’ll see what happens with this in the next few weeks. She has been removed from teaching the English winter camp with me, based on the fact that “the principal wanted other teachers to work at the camp”. She was the only one replaced. Smells like a lie to me (we’ll be visiting the principal this week to confirm).

Any suggestions on how to handle this complicated situation?