RAVING/HAPPY SH!T MEGATHREAD

So my main co-teacher has decided she hates me now, for some reason, and I cannot figure out why.  As far as I know, Monday last week everything was fine;  then I got sick that night with food poisoning so I ended up taking Tuesday off and when I came back Wednesday, everything had changed. ....

I think you meant to post this in the Ranting thread?

Anyway, I'd say it looks pretty clear that you committed the cardinal sin of taking a sick day. Some Koreans take this as a personal slight and will try to punish you for it. Korean females have also got a setting called "extra petty" that they can turn on for such innocuous situations.

I took a day off few years ago as my wife was having emergency surgery and her family didn't live in our city. My "boss" was fine, as he always is. Very understanding and accommodating. The Office Manager, however believed me taking that personal day was a personal affront. Even though they have basically nothing to do with my job, whatsoever. She snapped at me a few times and I realized what was going on. The next time she talked to me rudely I just laughed and asked what was wrong with her. She was like "I don't know what you are talking about". I told her to not talk to me again if she cant behave like an adult and that i thought she was highly unprofessional. That word "unprofessional" seems to be a real buzzword for Koreans.

You have to understand, this woman sits in our department's office all day doing nothing. It's a jobsworth job that has no purpose at all. She is supposed to liaise with foreign staff or help us if we have a problem. No one uses her services as she has always been uniformly useless. We either take care of issues ourselves 95% of the time or go directly to our dept. head. Me missing a day of work has precisely zero impact on her life. She doesn't teach, she doesn't talk to students, she doesn't do any of my admin work. She sits there studying TOEIC, browsing the internet and looking at her phone. How dare she think she has the right to talk down to me or anyone else for that matter.

Your situation is more difficult as you have to work closely with your CT. I would either confront it directly or ignore it completely. Don't let her see that it is effecting you. What she is doing is unacceptable and again highly unprofessional. You are legally entitled to sick days, she has no right to act like a petulant child, abusing her position to make herself feel like she has some power. TBH, by the sounds of it, she is slightly loopy.

I think you meant to post this in the Ranting thread?

Yeah, I'm sorry. I realized just now that I clicked on the wrong link when I wrote this. But thanks for your reply either way, I really appreciate it.

There's been more drama since then and the VP is now involved, which is unfortunate; and  you would be correct about the loopy part - she has a huge reputation in all of her schools about her insanity and overall behavior. Unfortunately confronting her has proven, with others, to make things even worse - our former principal even told my other co-teacher once to just give into her because he worked with her two years ago at another school and knows how she is prone escalate things. She's very unprofessional and does not care that people think that of her, so long as she doesn't have to really work but still make money.

Anyway, I only have six weeks left to deal with her and the head teacher (who does not like her) and VP have been talking to my other co-teachers to hear my side of things, and they know that this is what she does so they're taking her complaints about me with a grain of salt. The only concern I really have at the moment is the fact that renewals have just come out and she is my main co-teacher that handles that stuff and she's spiteful enough to hold that information back from me - or possibly worse - so I'm trying to take care of that on my own as much as possible.

Again, apologies for posting this in the wrong group!!

Man, feels good to rant on this site.

I have a lot of anger built up over time. Fukk me, haha.

This is why UBI works, a lot of these useless positions can disappear and even increase productivity.

Watching the light fade from students' eyes, after almost an entire year of ****** around in my classes, once they finally realize that "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" is a very real fact of life, is what makes teaching worth it.

And this is where the real learning comes from. c:

In case a few fans don't know it, Bojack Horseman's season 6 (Part A) is on Netflix right now. Released las month.

Also, first episode of Rick and Morty's season 4 is releasing... tonight? Anyway, should be able to watch it by tomorrow, or the day after next at the latest.

I'm saving my Nutty Bars and Snoballs for it. :)

Have they been released in Korea yet? (Bojack) My Netflix says new episodes available but as of last night, there weren't any yet.

Also, yeah, it shows up normally on my Netflix. Maybe you need to clear out your computer's temporary files?

Watching the light fade from students' eyes, after almost an entire year of ****** around in my classes, once they finally realize that "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" is a very real fact of life, is what makes teaching worth it.

And this is where the real learning comes from. c:

How so? Are you one of the lucky few that actually has real input on student final grades? If so, colour me jealous!

Watching the light fade from students' eyes, after almost an entire year of ****** around in my classes, once they finally realize that "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" is a very real fact of life, is what makes teaching worth it.

And this is where the real learning comes from. c:

How so? Are you one of the lucky few that actually has real input on student final grades? If so, colour me jealous!

Yes and no, haha. Obviously, there are the speaking test scores, and those count for something for some of them (unlike most schools, my school won't let anyone change my scores, so they are what I say they are), and my coTs do lie to the students about how much influence I have over their grades in general because they've learned over the years that this makes students easier to handle in my classes earlier in the year.

What I was talking about this time, though, was following through on my threats to exclude them from any fun activities and games planned for this semester if they chose to **** around and not contribute towards their group projects. They didn't think I was serious, and even when they were told that they were being excluded, they didn't actually believe they were excluded until they showed up to class and I handed them the worksheet they were going to work on while being watched by the KT instead.

It doesn't sound like much, but it's super effective. These kids hate being left out of the fun.

Watching the light fade from students' eyes, after almost an entire year of ****** around in my classes, once they finally realize that "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" is a very real fact of life, is what makes teaching worth it.

And this is where the real learning comes from. c:

Your Taylor Swift reference made my day.

Also, first episode of Rick and Morty's season 4 is releasing... tonight? Anyway, should be able to watch it by tomorrow, or the day after next at the latest.

My older bro who lives in Germany (they have strict laws about these kinds of things there) asked me to download this episode, but as of yet I'd never seen any episodes and curious about his recommendation, downloaded and started to watch from the beginning and finding it very funny.  I gather there's a load of geeky sciency stuff in it. 

Also, first episode of Rick and Morty's season 4 is releasing... tonight? Anyway, should be able to watch it by tomorrow, or the day after next at the latest.

My older bro who lives in Germany (they have strict laws about these kinds of things there) asked me to download this episode, but as of yet I'd never seen any episodes and curious about his recommendation, downloaded and started to watch from the beginning and finding it very funny.  I gather there's a load of geeky sciency stuff in it. 

Yeah, it's definitely one of my favorite shows right now. It's supposed to be a dark parody of "Back to the Future," so loads of geeky and sciency stuff in it, and no shortage of pop culture references, too.

I especially loved the first episode of season 3. This show knows how to poke fun at itself.

Also, episode 2 of season 4 is now available.

Woot!  From tomorrow, off with my students for their national tournament for two nights and three days.  There is a game each day and then we do sightseeing in the area.    Getting paid overtime for it too.  If we win it (unlikely), it'll probably mean legend status.   

Woot!  From tomorrow, off with my students for their national tournament for two nights and three days.  There is a game each day and then we do sightseeing in the area.    Getting paid overtime for it too.  If we win it (unlikely), it'll probably mean legend status.   

Good stuff, but tiring.  16 students, plus me and two other teachers went down to Boseong.  The student's normal (as in paid) coach was there for two days and then the final day (he had to come back home) I was the coach and made a couple of tactical tweaks and got a hard-earned 0-0 draw.  At the end, one win, one draw and one lose is brilliant and we came second in our league.  Stayed in a lovely Hanok house just over the hill from the famous green tea fields, and next to a reservoir.  Play a game and then do some sightseeing with the students.  Seriously fun, but I was knackered when I got home on Saturday evening. 

My school finally turned on the hot water in the bathrooms. Heaven.

My school finally turned on the hot water in the bathrooms. Heaven.

My school has it in the bathrooms, but not at the sinks in the cafeteria. Where you would, ideally, want students to wash their hands before eating.

It's a dead horse, but the lack of hand washing here is hell of gross.

My school finally turned on the hot water in the bathrooms. Heaven.

My school has it in the bathrooms, but not at the sinks in the cafeteria. Where you would, ideally, want students to wash their hands before eating.

It's a dead horse, but the lack of hand washing here is hell of gross.

We even had have heating in the restrooms, but the old cleaning lady always goes in and opens all of the windows, so it is pointless.

My school finally turned on the hot water in the bathrooms. Heaven.

My school has it in the bathrooms, but not at the sinks in the cafeteria. Where you would, ideally, want students to wash their hands before eating.

It's a dead horse, but the lack of hand washing here is hell of gross.

We even had have heating in the restrooms, but the old cleaning lady always goes in and opens all of the windows, so it is pointless.

I'd rather have heating than no heating. You have to open the windows either way, so at least with heating it'll warm up faster than without.

K star made a song in all English.

The crowd sang along, knowing every word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmigKSTW6w

English language levels are improving!

K star made a song in all English.

The crowd sang along, knowing every word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUmigKSTW6w

English language levels are improving!

Before we make fun of lines such as 'your cosy voice' and 'makes us into fair galaxy', we should remember that native speakers do not own English any more. it is truly an international language evolving in ways the majority of speakers (non native) desire. 

Loving this weather. I was made for it. <3