RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD

ME: I want to do (this craft: http://www.waygook.org/index.php/topic,89233.msg563090/topicseen.html#new), but I need to check Daiso first and make sure I can find the little plastic squeeze bottles.

CT: They can just bring them from home.

ME: Oh, okay. Are they common in Korea?

CT: After drinking Coke or cider, of course.

ME: Oh, no, I meant the small bottles, the "fish."

CT: THEY CAN BRING FROM HOME.


Holy jeez, fine. Control your fingers, please. Ten to one says that she forgets to mention it to the parents, anyways.

Lol what an idiot

I'm not making fun of her English (I swear), I just wish she didn't talk to me like that.

ME: I want to do (this craft: http://www.waygook.org/index.php/topic,89233.msg563090/topicseen.html#new), but I need to check Daiso first and make sure I can find the little plastic squeeze bottles.

CT: They can just bring them from home.

ME: Oh, okay. Are they common in Korea?

CT: After drinking Coke or cider, of course.

ME: Oh, no, I meant the small bottles, the "fish."

CT: THEY CAN BRING FROM HOME.


Holy jeez, fine. Control your fingers, please. Ten to one says that she forgets to mention it to the parents, anyways.

Lol what an idiot

I'm not making fun of her English (I swear), I just wish she didn't talk to me like that.

Oh no I know, it's just really annoying when they completely assume they already know what you said, or were going to say, instead of actually listening to you. It's not always a language thing, it's just that they don't listen. My co teacher does this all the time

Yeah, I know what you mean. I can never tell if it's arrogance, distraction, or they just genuinely do not give a shirt about communicating, but it drives me CRAZY.

So it's happened again. Months ago the Korean teachers actually asked me about and gave me three options for our annual "2 day, 1 night" trip. tbh I couldn't care less where we go and what we do. Show up smile and pretend you're having the time of your life. In the end, you hit the piss with the teachers and have lots of good food all on the school's tab. What's to complain about right?

Well after asking me about my preferences months ago, we have this conversation today:

KT: Are you looking forward to the trip this Friday.

Me: What trip?

KT: The 2 day, 1 night trip with all of the teachers.

Me: I didn't know it was this week/weekend, no one ever confirmed the dates with me.

KT: ................... . So are you ready to go on Friday?

Me:

But for some reason, things like these don't surprise me / anger me so much after having dealt with the same situation, regularly, during the past 6 years.

So not only will I be switching from elementary schools to middle schools after summer break, I'll actually have to come back to the schools I currently teach at for six working days after vacation, then transfer to the new schools on a Tuesday.

And no, those six working days won't be deskwarming. I'll have to teach, which means planning a week's worth of materials for chapters I'm not even going to stick around long enough to finish. Not just chapters I won't finish though. Books I won't finish. GRADE LEVELS I won't finish. I'll be starting a completely new set of grades/student levels, on a f*cking TUESDAY, after one last week of elementary.

I asked why.

"Teachers transfer on September 1st."

"But what if the semester starts before that?"

"Teachers transfer on September 1st."

"But my contract period is March-February, not September-August."

"Teachers transfer on September 1st."

"But the teacher I'm replacing is leaving August 24th. The school won't have an English teacher for a week."

"Teachers transfer on September 1st."

"Why can't they just make an exception when the situation calls for it?"

"Teachers transfer on September 1st."


Never before have I so regretted my decision to stop drinking.

Yeah I love the "I;m just going to ignore anything you say, and repeat myself util." Answers.

I have a CT that doesn't communicate with me at all, take any of my advice, shoots down any Idea I have ever had, etc etc etc etc etc...

She is terrible at teaching, is so scatter brained she can't even tell whats going in her own class, or maybe even her own life.

Constantly complaining about how busy, uses the "they are children" bs.... acts like the kinds are in kindercare.

also, the CT that constantly tries to read what I am typing on my computer when she walks by, and is nosey about everything....


She is trying to read this right now...

usually I just minimize, swivel in the chair, and stare at her, establish dominance...

we'll see how this goes... hahahahahha....

sounds like a good time to have 'English movie appreciation week' ;)

anyway my rant for today .... why the hell are the bathrooms so damn wet all the time? whenever they're cleaned there's just water sloshed everywhere. and even when they're not cleaned, there's always HUGE puddles of water near the sinks. how do these kids manage to get more water outside the sink than in it?

For Monday, my co-teacher has asked me to go to E-Mart (E-Mart and only E-Mart) in my free time and take pictures and costs of the materials and ingredients I need for my summer camp by Monday. So that she can buy what I need by herself.

Why don't I write a list of what I need with approximate costs? We can then go one afternoon during desk-warming next week. She is lucky that I need to go food shopping and E-Mart is the closest store to me.

i found out today i have 0 budget for 2 camps. absolutley 0
looks like  that will be coming out of my own pocket then 

i found out today i have 0 budget for 2 camps. absolutley 0
looks like  that will be coming out of my own pocket then 

Ditto.

But at least the "no money" lie works in my favor for once- I only work 22 hours during camp this time instead of the usual 35!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i found out today i have 0 budget for 2 camps. absolutley 0
looks like  that will be coming out of my own pocket then 

Don't pay! This is a ranting/venting thread, so I can say that it irks me when teachers buy their own materials, particularly for complicated projects. It's not like we're made of money! Have the kids do lame coloring exercises or watch movies. It's not OUR responsibility to pay for materials to make up for the school's inappropriate budgeting.

Simple: the kids will give bad reviews that the projects were lame and they won't sign up again for winter camp. The school will need the income, and will have to allocate budget to camps.

One of my coworkers says that she has spent thousands over the years on supplies, candy, etc. That just demonstrates a) a lack of creativity to think of crafts using materials available, and b) being a doormat, plain and simple.

Fight for that budget! Review your lame, lackluster lesson plans with your coteacher and maker her go up the chain to request extra funding. There must be some MT weekend they can cancel to give you guys some extra cash.

So I go to the gym early this afternoon to get my swole on...I walk in, feeling good and ready to go..I open the door to the locker room, start undressing...and as I'm undressing, I notice the coat rack in the corner and some drops of water at its base.  This coat rack has about 3 pairs of moist, dirty drawers, and like 2 pairs of socks hanging off the little hook nob thingies. 
WTF, man? 
I've hung my coat on this coat rack in the past when it was cooler. And you go and taint it with ball and ass sweat??

After my work out, I come back into the locker room, and the first vision Im greeted with is a butt-naked guy with his foot up on the counter, drying his toes with a blowdryer--(which he then later used on his balls)
Im no prude about nudity, but jc, man..save something for home.

And then there's nothing like listening to guys hock loogies IN the public shower as Im changing. 
A few of the guys that I'm somewhat friendly with there always ask me why I don't shower at the gym after my workouts...and that is why, it is public enemy #1. I do not want to bathe in your snot rockets.

I've known since December that my position has been cut.  Not a positive morale booster in and of itself.
Then in March I get a control freak coteacher, lazy as ass but rejects all ideas I have as stupid..to the point she calls the office of education to get verification that my ideas are stupid .  meanwhile the VP at my other school, promoted from english teacher, loves my ideas.

She doesn't communicate, doesn't put in any effort in her classes. She didn't even show up to the speech contest she was responsible for.  She rarely speaks english in her classes and after saying i couldn't teach the class the way i used to..for months insisted on that...all of a sudden she expects it. 

Our class has a sound proof door. we are very near the VP's office and so the door is to shut out sound.  There are many windows in the classroom as well as four fans and two air conditioners that can be used to cool the classroom. But when i went to shut the door, as i always do to symbolize class is starting, she tried to cause a fight in front of the students.
And when i went to use the computer, she had all the powerpoints and videos she's never made but uses up and was hoggingthe computer memory so i had to shut them down to use the english program.  She got angry at that.  And next class was standing behind me to make sure i didn't close them again.

Since I'm out of a job and probably finished with Korea seeing as i am too expensive for public schools now and i refuse to work at hagwons at a low level of pay, i am ranting without emotion. I am done here.  When I came to Korea everyone was excited about me coming.  Now because the city is done with me, I'm worthless.   

And if you think i was cut because I am not a good teacher.  I got perfect on my open class and consistently high scores.  I am able to control 6th grade classes and even get the low level 3rd graders participating.

i love my school. I love the students and its breaking my heart to leave them. But i have no desire to continue working with my coteacher, who is responsible for at least 3 other native teachers not renewing their contracts.  Noone can work wth her. Unlike most Korean teachers who socialize during the day, most of the time she sits alone in her office with her head on her desk. At one point I felt sorry for her and tried to be her friend, but it was obvious she didn't want any.
Theree's my rant.

^^^ Hugs, man. Sorry you're going through that.

GOOD WASTE!

There are some wonderful teachers that throw half of their food out every lunch! Why not just ask for smaller portions?!?

GOOD WASTE!

There are some wonderful teachers that throw half of their food out every lunch! Why not just ask for smaller portions?!?

i used to ask for smaller portions and go back for seconds if i was still hungry. but then i would have all the other teachers and the lunch ladies 'tut tutting' me that i was eating too much, and getting double the amount of food as the other teachers. even though i would ask for half the portion sizes to begin with. welcome to Korean logic. the school even wanted to start charging me double.

so now i ask for a huge amount of food, and just throw it out if i'm not hungry enough to eat it all. makes no sense to me and it's a huge waste, but that's what i gotta do to stop being judged on my eating habits.

So I go to the gym early this afternoon to get my swole on...I walk in, feeling good and ready to go..I open the door to the locker room, start undressing...and as I'm undressing, I notice the coat rack in the corner and some drops of water at its base.  This coat rack has about 3 pairs of moist, dirty drawers, and like 2 pairs of socks hanging off the little hook nob thingies. 
WTF, man? 
I've hung my coat on this coat rack in the past when it was cooler. And you go and taint it with ball and ass sweat??

After my work out, I come back into the locker room, and the first vision Im greeted with is a butt-naked guy with his foot up on the counter, drying his toes with a blowdryer--(which he then later used on his balls)
Im no prude about nudity, but jc, man..save something for home.

And then there's nothing like listening to guys hock loogies IN the public shower as Im changing. 
A few of the guys that I'm somewhat friendly with there always ask me why I don't shower at the gym after my workouts...and that is why, it is public enemy #1. I do not want to bathe in your snot rockets.

Korean gym etiquette is abhorrable.
Everyday I have to crawl around all the barbells left under the chin-up and lats machine since it is in front of the mirror. Nobody once thinks, 'I guess I could use one of the bars ALREADY on the ground...' Rather, they grab a whole new bar, put their weights on, then leave it there. My record was counting 12 bars left under the chin up bar.
Once when I was doing bar squats, I left the machine to do a quick walk around the gym to stretch my legs. Within less than 10 seconds, some army fellow walked right over, like ****** Flash Gordon, and did 5 reps (this is a small gym, only one of each set up). On another occasion, two dudes were using the bench press station to do rotations of leg lifts, despite their being matts and much more suitable equipment for leg lifts.
What took the cake, hopefully for all eternity, was boogerella. At my gym they have those shitty little paper cups you have to breath in to open up. One young lass decided the bottom of the dispenser wasn't worthy of her grace, so she dipped her hand in the top, and essentially pulled out the remainder of the cups accidentally. As if this wasn't enough, she then gave a massive sneeze RIGHT INTO ALL THE CUPS. Not noticing that I was directly behind her in line. She gave a quick one-two look and put them all back in the dispenser. When she finished she noticeably gasped that I had probably seen everything, and turned tomato red in the face when I reached into the dispenser and tossed all the cups into the trash and asked the staff for more.
Why do Koreans treat the gym like their own bathroom?

Apparently my terrible and selfish coteacher is allowed one full fan only on her legs and also wants part of the fan that is supposed to be for me! WTH! I am hot too! Unfortunately this isn't my only problem with this coteacher 

I work at 3 schools. One of them is inexplicably 45km away despite there being at least 150 schools closer than this one and other people much better placed to go there. Fortunately I own a car so it's not been too much hassle and I've just got on with it. The school is lovely for the record, but I also don't get any money for fuel, toll roads I am almost forced to take or any subsidies (I also got screwed on pay in other ways, but that's a tale for another day).

I have however tried to do a service to my replacement and constantly emailed everyone I have any sway with: POE, co-ordinator, POE dude I met at orientation, Principle, VP, co-teacher, etc. 'Please give this school to someone else: If the next person doesn't have a car, it'll be 3 buses and 2 hours each way. That's absurd.'

Today I got the good news: Next teacher will no longer work there.

So why am I posting this in the rant? Well instead of working at the school 45km away, they've selected one 53km away. I've looked at the boundaries of the province I'm technically in and there is literally no two schools further apart. Furthermore, I met the native teacher of a school 1.5km from my house last week: She travels 30km to get there,  using two buses.

I said it makes no sense, it's crazy and met the usual wall of "Office of Education says it's like this and so it must be" rhetoric.

TLDR; Tried to do my successor a good turn, ended up screwing them inadvertently.

I think I am losing it. I have had to come in to deskwarm and that always put me in a godod mood. I am now faced with the Devil's choice of staying in the air conditioned teachers room and have to tolerate colleagues trying to talk to me or going to my classroom and sweating like a Korean taking a creative writing test.

This weather is just plain nasty. When will the rains arrive. I feel like I've been bukkakeed each time I walk out the door. I'm so tetchy I'm picking fights with Canadians on waygook.

All must die!