I'm about to have to change schools. Again.After my first year here, I wanted to renew. However, the school I was at was changing from EPIK to TALK, so I had to reapply to EPIK and change schools. I taught at two schools over the next two years, and I developed a great relationship with the students at both of them. I wanted to renew for a third year at those schools, but because of all the budget cuts, all the English teachers who were staying in my province were reshuffled and I had to change schools. I'm currently working at four different schools, but again because of budget cuts and many of the August hires not renewing, some teachers are being shuffled again, but mid-year this time, so I have to leave the schools I'm at to start at new schools after summer break. I'm told there will be at least two. That means that in four years here, I'll have taught at at least eight different elementary schools, each and every transfer being something I didn't request.This has officially gone past frustrating and into soulcrushing territory. I just feel so... defeated. I know the forced budget cuts have put many POEs in tough situations, but that doesn't really make things any easier on me or any of the other teachers affected by them. It makes me feel so powerless. Well, more powerless than foreign English teachers in Korea already feel, that is.Gonna be really hard not to fall off the wagon this weekend. I can't deal with this sh!t.
It was the last day for after school classes so I prepared a fun lesson for them. Honestly this class is just terrible and I hope to god I get a different selection of students for next semester. I spent hours coming up with a fun lesson for our last day. I put them in groups of five to make it easy. Like five people came in very late, one girl came in four minutes before class ended. They have no respect for me. They don't even TRY to speak English they just play dumb. I had everything on the worksheet translated into Korean by my co teacher and they still didn't know what the f*ck they were doing. I was showing them dance videos and they got to judge them from 1-5 on costumes, music, and dancing. They had one person do the writing and the rest of them goofed off. They made fun of all the dances. They're so egocentric that they can't appreciate ANYTHING that isn't Korean. They wouldn't listen if I told them to be quiet. CoT didn't help at all just sat at her desk looking busy. I'm so done. At one point I had finally had it and I just sat down at my desk and got on my phone until the class period time was done.They've all come in late the entire semester, sometimes a few of them stumble in with 10 minutes left of class. The answer I get from my co teacher is always something like "oh they had to practice running" or "oh they were cooking" etc etc bullsh*t. If they have prior responsibilities then WHY ARE THE ENROLLED IN MY ENGLISH CLASS. It's so disrespectful.I'm telling my co teacher that next semester they can't come in to class if they're more than 5 minutes late.
I'm sick of Korean men not understanding that women- all women- have feelings and generally want to be left alone after dark. Also, I'm tired of blonde = prostitute, when "if (blonde = prostitute) = maybe you think too damn much about prostitutes you degenerate!"I got followed to my apartment building again last weekend, and I rounded on the guy before I could tell if he was going to whip it out (like the last guy).
Sorry to hear Mr.Tim are you in a rural setting or in a city? I hope things stabilize, do you have to change accommodations as well? That would really be annoying.
Quote from: NayNay on July 13, 2015, 02:35:32 pmI'm sick of Korean men not understanding that women- all women- have feelings and generally want to be left alone after dark. Also, I'm tired of blonde = prostitute, when "if (blonde = prostitute) = maybe you think too damn much about prostitutes you degenerate!"I got followed to my apartment building again last weekend, and I rounded on the guy before I could tell if he was going to whip it out (like the last guy). Ugh. Being followed is such an issue here. I don't know if it's because in South Africa I drive everywhere rather than walk or if stalking is just endemic to Korea but I have had several instances of men blatantly following me around.
Those bloody videos on the textbook CD's. The voices are overdubbed and end up out of sync with the actors mouth movements. Also, the fact that I need to check if the black girl is in any video because if I have a certain boys class I avoid playing the video because the laughing/complaining/comments distract the class for too long. Neither mind that half of them are strange looking brats. I mean I get that Korea is a really racist place but having to spend so much time commenting on someone who is not white or Korean seems utterly childish. Its mostly a thing with boys rather than the girls I find.
Quote from: Nivea on July 14, 2015, 12:24:53 amThose bloody videos on the textbook CD's. The voices are overdubbed and end up out of sync with the actors mouth movements. Also, the fact that I need to check if the black girl is in any video because if I have a certain boys class I avoid playing the video because the laughing/complaining/comments distract the class for too long. Neither mind that half of them are strange looking brats. I mean I get that Korea is a really racist place but having to spend so much time commenting on someone who is not white or Korean seems utterly childish. Its mostly a thing with boys rather than the girls I find.One day in class, my CoT made a couple students stand up and then she totally tore into them. Gave them a real verbal smackdown. I thought they were going to cry. It was all in Korean, so I didn't catch most of it and had to ask her after class what it was all about. She said that during one of the abovementioned videos, they used the Korean equivalent of the N-word several times, and had even been warned about using it in the past. I would've high-fived her, were she not a little old lady with children my age.
Quote from: sojuadventurer on July 10, 2015, 01:09:37 pmQuote from: donuts81 on July 10, 2015, 12:37:42 pmQuote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:41:17 amQuote from: krissyboo75 on July 10, 2015, 11:36:23 amQuote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:26:55 amNaengmyeon is the devilI agree. The texture is weird. All noodles should be hot to me.Ugh yeah. Like.. its cold. I feel like I'm drinking vinegar from the bottle.[/b]in the view that one day I might. Kind of like how kids get over things like their dislike of tomatoes (unless they're juvenile and petty like my brother). Hahahaha only a sourpuss with suboptimal taste buds and brain cells would dislike tomatoes.As for nangmyeon, the first handful of times I ate it I rejected it upon pure noodle logic. But it grows on you and is now one of my favorite Korean dishes (with a little mustard of course).
Quote from: donuts81 on July 10, 2015, 12:37:42 pmQuote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:41:17 amQuote from: krissyboo75 on July 10, 2015, 11:36:23 amQuote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:26:55 amNaengmyeon is the devilI agree. The texture is weird. All noodles should be hot to me.Ugh yeah. Like.. its cold. I feel like I'm drinking vinegar from the bottle.[/b]in the view that one day I might. Kind of like how kids get over things like their dislike of tomatoes (unless they're juvenile and petty like my brother).
Quote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:41:17 amQuote from: krissyboo75 on July 10, 2015, 11:36:23 amQuote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:26:55 amNaengmyeon is the devilI agree. The texture is weird. All noodles should be hot to me.Ugh yeah. Like.. its cold. I feel like I'm drinking vinegar from the bottle.[/b]in the view that one day I might. Kind of like how kids get over things like their dislike of tomatoes (unless they're juvenile and petty like my brother).
Quote from: krissyboo75 on July 10, 2015, 11:36:23 amQuote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:26:55 amNaengmyeon is the devilI agree. The texture is weird. All noodles should be hot to me.Ugh yeah. Like.. its cold. I feel like I'm drinking vinegar from the bottle.
Quote from: bagel on July 10, 2015, 11:26:55 amNaengmyeon is the devilI agree. The texture is weird. All noodles should be hot to me.
Naengmyeon is the devil
I swear to god, people. I swear to f-ing god.I came in this morning to a long, angry screed about how I am wasteful and "hurt earth" because I apparently leave the lights on when I'm not in my classroom (I don't, except if I'm just running to the bathroom) and I use the air conditioning too much (I have used it ONCE, for TWO HOURS). I'm guessing this will be yet another attempt by my school to not pay me in full because I am "using too much electricity" and have to pay for it. So now I get to wait for that shoe to drop.I HATE IT HERE AND I DON'T CARE IF SAYING THAT MAKES ANYONE MAD.
Trying to do the right thing an upload my complete camp for all y'all f***ers and waygook keeps throwing me out. About to say **** it.