RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I think everyone here needs to remember a few things-
1) Kids everywhere love to wind up their teachers. You may say this was never done during your time as a kid, but I suspect that in at least one class, you and your friends did something to get the teacher going. Especially when a good chunk of people on this forum are people who have tales of drunken misadventure for much of their 20s. If you did that when you were 28, odds are you did that when you were 8.
2) Kids everywhere love to invent ways to try and get out of schoolwork. It's all part of the game. Also, kids are messy everywhere. I know you think you were a model of hygiene and trash disposal, but one feel on the inside of a 3rd grade desk back home and you'll quickly realize how universal this is. Enjoy the various things things that your hand will feel/become attached to
3) If you want to discipline, increase in severity the response, not your tone. Explode with giving them extra assignments or cleanup duty. Not exploding with screaming and yelling.

     All true.
     But the tables have turned (and/or have been flipped), and now part of our job is to discourage the behaviours that are detrimental to the establishment of safe and productive learning environments. It can be difficult, and it can be frustrating. I agree that yelling rarely accomplishes much, but on the other hand, not all of us have the luxury of schools that have our backs (or even schools that don't actively sabotage our disciplinary measures).
  I can do what I like with my kiddos (within reason: my tightrope and sharktank idea was vetoed), and it's a lot easier to manage our own irritation when we can enforce our classroom rules and know that we're not going to be blamed for our students' misbehaviours. If I had to put up with some of the crap that certain hagwon teachers do, I'd probably be a lot less even tempered too. :(

so many kids don't even arrive with a pencil. this would never be acceptable in england (at least, when i was at school). like, what are you doing, kid?

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H, do I need a pencil in a 40 minute class that covers WRITING? My mom didn't tell me this morning if I needed a pencil for school and she didn't tape it to my hand."

*flips table*

well, i have one friend who majored in young learners (kindy age) and he worked in the US teaching kindy. he says he was quite culture shocked coming to korea teaching kindy, as they seemed wayyyy behind (behaviour, doing things for themselves) than the US kids.

same goes for elementary too. teachers treat kids like babies and let them get away with a lot. kids themselves act like babies. my little cousin of elementary age seems x100000 times more mature than any korean kid of that age i ever taught. pretty crazy the difference

I also "love" it when these nancy boys, never having to clean up after themselves, walk in class like conquering hero with ice cream or some other food that will drip and cause a nasty mess.  What follows?...a mess, with the dinglerrie's just looking at it, then look at me as if I'm going to clean it up.

That's one thing I'll always tell my students. I'm not your mom. Your mess is yours. I'm not gonna follow you around with a kleenex and wipe your nose for you.

The worst is when you tell them to throw something away or recycle something and then they shove it in their desk. I have to, have to wonder........... What the hell is wrong in their brain? This isn't a language issue, it doesn't matter how good or how poor their English is.

What are the sheer odds that my Charlie Brown teacher ass voice meant throw all this crap into your desk? If the kids genuinely think that I want all the garbage to just be packed into all the desks, then they're beyond help.

the articles on bbc, etc saying how korean/japanese kids have a lot of respect for the schools, as it's their duty to clean it. i mean, i can't comment on japan, but korea? ha ha ha bbc, that's a good one

All I wanted was a phucking fresh CHEESE pizza (made at E-Mart) and they could not do it.  But they can make combination pizza.............. this pucking place, these phucking people.

It's probably done by POS software, so if no button for cheese pizza, they can't do it. Or get this, it's a miscommunication. Why? They're probably assuming you'll want a lower price, which they can't do.  Or, considering that most Korean pizza places DO offer Cheese Pizza, they might be thinking you're asking for a cheese pizza as though it's a menu item, and they're telling you "No, it's not a menu item."

Instead just order a combination pizza and say "Pepperoni baego;, etc. etc." That might make them understand that you're willing to pay full price, you just want things off. HOWEVER, they still might be unwilling because they're either A) Concerned their boss will pitch a fit B) Concerned some customers might suddenly demand cheese pizzas and then demand substantially lower prices

Here's the flip side to consider with Asian "lack of expression" and "just accepting things": Give me 50 Asian customers and they'll order 50 standard pizzas off of our standard menu and there will be virtually no fuss (not sure about here, where I imagine someone will get in a huff about their points card or some crap). They'll get their stuff 8 minutes after they order it, freshly baked, no mistakes. With one employee on the register and one on the makeline, I could probably get those 50 pizzas made and those people served in about 30-40 minutes total (the pizzas bake on a conveyor so total time is less than individual make time for each pizza- 1 pizza takes 8 minutes, but 2 pizzas take 9 minutes)

Give me 50 waygook customers and it would take significantly longer.
"No we don't have gluten-free crust"
"No our chicken isn't free-range"
"No we don't have vegetarian pepperoni"
"No, we don't have kosher bacon"

"Can I have you combination pizza, but with white sauce instead of tomato sauce. And no black olives. And can I substitute roasted red pepper for green pepper. And instead of sausage, can I have seasoned herbed chicken breast?"
"Seasoned herbed chicken breast will be $1 extra"
"What? Why?"

Of course with 50 different things being changed and customized, inevitably you get mistakes. During non-peak times, special requests are pretty easy. When the store is slammed and you have pizzas almost falling out of the oven because you're overworked and understaffed, all that individuality and customization adds another layer of issues and more chances for something to go wrong. And once one thing goes wrong it tends to back everything else up. The system is designed for efficiency and repetition and to be done by relatively unskilled labor. Yet the average customer treats a franchised quick service place as their personal chef.

Everything is a trade off. Back home I can get a pizza made just the way I want it. I'm also getting that factored into costs and order time and the odds that my food will arrive messed up.

Anyways, the average quick service food customer is an idiot. They believe they should be able to get a large pizza with up to 5 toppings, with wings and breadsticks and a soda for $20, delivered in 30 minutes. The store should also go through intense inspection and follow a list of regulations the size of James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. The employees should all be paid $15/hour with health insurance and who knows what else. The delivery vehicles should all be eco-friendly. And there should be a ton of people staffing the place at all times to ensure efficient service.

All I wanted was a phucking fresh CHEESE pizza (made at E-Mart) and they could not do it.  But they can make combination pizza.............. this pucking place, these phucking people.

It's probably done by POS software, so if no button for cheese pizza, they can't do it. Or get this, it's a miscommunication. Why? They're probably assuming you'll want a lower price, which they can't do.  Or, considering that most Korean pizza places DO offer Cheese Pizza, they might be thinking you're asking for a cheese pizza as though it's a menu item, and they're telling you "No, it's not a menu item."

Instead just order a combination pizza and say "Pepperoni baego;, etc. etc." That might make them understand that you're willing to pay full price, you just want things off. HOWEVER, they still might be unwilling because they're either A) Concerned their boss will pitch a fit B) Concerned some customers might suddenly demand cheese pizzas and then demand substantially lower prices

Here's the flip side to consider with Asian "lack of expression" and "just accepting things": Give me 50 Asian customers and they'll order 50 standard pizzas off of our standard menu and there will be virtually no fuss (not sure about here, where I imagine someone will get in a huff about their points card or some crap). They'll get their stuff 8 minutes after they order it, freshly baked, no mistakes. With one employee on the register and one on the makeline, I could probably get those 50 pizzas made and those people served in about 30-40 minutes total (the pizzas bake on a conveyor so total time is less than individual make time for each pizza- 1 pizza takes 8 minutes, but 2 pizzas take 9 minutes)

Give me 50 waygook customers and it would take significantly longer.
"No we don't have gluten-free crust"
"No our chicken isn't free-range"
"No we don't have vegetarian pepperoni"
"No, we don't have kosher bacon"

"Can I have you combination pizza, but with white sauce instead of tomato sauce. And no black olives. And can I substitute roasted red pepper for green pepper. And instead of sausage, can I have seasoned herbed chicken breast?"
"Seasoned herbed chicken breast will be $1 extra"
"What? Why?"

Of course with 50 different things being changed and customized, inevitably you get mistakes. During non-peak times, special requests are pretty easy. When the store is slammed and you have pizzas almost falling out of the oven because you're overworked and understaffed, all that individuality and customization adds another layer of issues and more chances for something to go wrong. And once one thing goes wrong it tends to back everything else up. The system is designed for efficiency and repetition and to be done by relatively unskilled labor. Yet the average customer treats a franchised quick service place as their personal chef.

Everything is a trade off. Back home I can get a pizza made just the way I want it. I'm also getting that factored into costs and order time and the odds that my food will arrive messed up.

Anyways, the average quick service food customer is an idiot. They believe they should be able to get a large pizza with up to 5 toppings, with wings and breadsticks and a soda for $20, delivered in 30 minutes. The store should also go through intense inspection and follow a list of regulations the size of James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. The employees should all be paid $15/hour with health insurance and who knows what else. The delivery vehicles should all be eco-friendly. And there should be a ton of people staffing the place at all times to ensure efficient service.

Wrong...they must won't make it.  Why?  Because their head office won't allow them....but they can make a combination, and a 1/2 and 1/2....but no simple cheese pizza. 

At other places, like Pizza School, one cannot get what they want either...and, it can be done on their POS.

Everything is a trade off. Back home I can get a pizza made just the way I want it. I'm also getting that factored into costs and order time and the odds that my food will arrive messed up.

Then why is pizza so expensive here? hahahaha

so many kids don't even arrive with a pencil. this would never be acceptable in england (at least, when i was at school). like, what are you doing, kid?

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H, do I need a pencil in a 40 minute class that covers WRITING? My mom didn't tell me this morning if I needed a pencil for school and she didn't tape it to my hand."

*flips table*

well, i have one friend who majored in young learners (kindy age) and he worked in the US teaching kindy. he says he was quite culture shocked coming to korea teaching kindy, as they seemed wayyyy behind (behaviour, doing things for themselves) than the US kids.

same goes for elementary too. teachers treat kids like babies and let them get away with a lot. kids themselves act like babies. my little cousin of elementary age seems x100000 times more mature than any korean kid of that age i ever taught. pretty crazy the difference

I have a grade 1 middle school student, who still acts like a 5 - 6 year old. He's a good kid, but very unmotivated, and whenever ANYTHING doesn't go his way, he will almost go into a full 5 year old like tantrum.
Last week, I got some chocolates from back home, and planned to share them with everyone. For the students, I told them, they had to be good during class for me to share with them.
He was not good, but still begged for chocolate. I said no, and queue the waterworks. Head teacher came and asked what happened, I explained, and he basically said tough luck to the student in Korean haha.

Wrong...they must won't make it.  Why?  Because their head office won't allow them....but they can make a combination, and a 1/2 and 1/2....but no simple cheese pizza. 

At other places, like Pizza School, one cannot get what they want either...and, it can be done on their POS.

You are intimately familiar with the head office policy of EMart pizza as well as the POS system that is used at Pizza School?

As I said, there's probably a miscommunication involved. I'm assuming in your conversation with whatever ajumma or disinterested 19 year old was running the EMart Pizza stand, did not involve an in-depth discussion of head office policies in fluent Korean. Did you actually try ordering a combination MINUS all the toppings? Or did you just keep on saying "Cheese Pizza!" and then getting angry and frustrated?

Then why is pizza so expensive here? hahahaha

You also have to factor in food cost and other stuff. Plus South Korea being essentially an island trade-wise. Pizza school is cheap here. Like Little Queaser's. There's some middle priced places like Pizza Maru and Pizza Heaven. Then you got the rip-off that is Papa John's.

Also a lot of the rip-off places aren't as expensive if you follow their promotions and such. If you aren't averaging 6-8000 won off of your order, you're doing it wrong.

At other places, like Pizza School, one cannot get what they want either...and, it can be done on their POS.

You are intimately familiar with the head office policy of EMart pizza as well as the POS system that is used at Pizza School?

I've never worked at a fast food restaurant, however, I'm starting to pick up contextual clues that are telling me that POS does not actually stand for "piece of sh!t" in this particular discussion... 

At other places, like Pizza School, one cannot get what they want either...and, it can be done on their POS.

You are intimately familiar with the head office policy of EMart pizza as well as the POS system that is used at Pizza School?

I've never worked at a fast food restaurant, however, I'm starting to pick up contextual clues that are telling me that POS does not actually stand for "piece of sh!t" in this particular discussion... 

its the thing waiters put orders into. i dont know what it stands for. you see, i was just a food runner, so i didn't interact with the POS. the chef was definitely a different kind of POS though

Wanton Cash Handouts Are Making Everyone Poorer

The central and provincial governments have doled out W42 trillion in cash to senior citizens, young mothers and young jobseekers, more than doubling in just two years.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/10/28/2019102801312.html

Welfare spending will increase 35.4 percent in next year's fiscal budget.

___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ______________

A good point of Korea was low welfare / low taxes.

Now, welfare - and the requisite taxes to fund that - are going up.

its the thing waiters put orders into. i dont know what it stands for. you see, i was just a food runner, so i didn't interact with the POS. the chef was definitely a different kind of POS though

Point of Sale, FYI.

Also, is anyone having an issue clicking on links when they load the page?

Then why is pizza so expensive here? hahahaha

You also have to factor in food cost and other stuff. Plus South Korea being essentially an island trade-wise. Pizza school is cheap here. Like Little Queaser's. There's some middle priced places like Pizza Maru and Pizza Heaven. Then you got the rip-off that is Papa John's.

Also a lot of the rip-off places aren't as expensive if you follow their promotions and such. If you aren't averaging 6-8000 won off of your order, you're doing it wrong.

Flour, salt, tomato sauce, cheese. Various meats and frozen veges. Hardly ingredients from the Amazon that require importation. I'd say almost all of it is sourced locally or some even cheaper Chinese stuff.

koreans just love getting mugged off

koreans just love getting mugged off

Best I saw was in Yongsan E-Mart in the organic section a few years back.  A normal-sized pack of organic butter for 48 000 won. 

Wrong...they must won't make it.  Why?  Because their head office won't allow them....but they can make a combination, and a 1/2 and 1/2....but no simple cheese pizza. 

At other places, like Pizza School, one cannot get what they want either...and, it can be done on their POS.

You are intimately familiar with the head office policy of EMart pizza as well as the POS system that is used at Pizza School?

As I said, there's probably a miscommunication involved. I'm assuming in your conversation with whatever ajumma or disinterested 19 year old was running the EMart Pizza stand, did not involve an in-depth discussion of head office policies in fluent Korean. Did you actually try ordering a combination MINUS all the toppings? Or did you just keep on saying "Cheese Pizza!" and then getting angry and frustrated?

Nope..no miscommunication involved. 

Someone who spoke English came over and told me that despite it takes less work to make a cheese pizza and being able to ring it, up, head office said they can't and won't. 

Care to continue?

Wrong...they must won't make it.  Why?  Because their head office won't allow them....but they can make a combination, and a 1/2 and 1/2....but no simple cheese pizza. 

At other places, like Pizza School, one cannot get what they want either...and, it can be done on their POS.

You are intimately familiar with the head office policy of EMart pizza as well as the POS system that is used at Pizza School?

As I said, there's probably a miscommunication involved. I'm assuming in your conversation with whatever ajumma or disinterested 19 year old was running the EMart Pizza stand, did not involve an in-depth discussion of head office policies in fluent Korean. Did you actually try ordering a combination MINUS all the toppings? Or did you just keep on saying "Cheese Pizza!" and then getting angry and frustrated?

Nope..no miscommunication involved. 

Someone who spoke English came over and told me that despite it takes less work to make a cheese pizza and being able to ring it, up, head office said they can't and won't. 

Care to continue?

Maybe they did it to spite you? They didn't like the cut of your jib. Maybe they did it for laughs.

Nope..no miscommunication involved. 

Someone who spoke English came over and told me that despite it takes less work to make a cheese pizza and being able to ring it, up, head office said they can't and won't. 

Let me get this straight, despite you not getting your cheese pizza and leaving to get something else and just ordering pizza from home OR GIVING UP, ORDERING A COMBINATION, AND CONTINUING YOUR SHOPPING you stay around there long enough for some Korean person to come over, ask the person about the whole cheese pizza thing and then report this to you?

All while you ADDITIONALLY have knowledge of Pizza School's POS system?

Also "despite it takes less work to make a cheese pizza and being able to ring it, up, head office said they can't and won't." doesn't sound like how a Korean person would talk and say this. In the spirit of Dave Chappelle, "that sounds like something that YOU would say"

Anyways, likely grossly exaggerated story aside, I will concede that it IS possible that the EMart store might have that policy. And that is this- The EMart pizza places are not standard pizza places. They typically offer what, 3 kinds of pizzas? And they churn them out constantly. They might just have a blanket policy of ZERO customization in any form for anyone. Likely because you let one person do it, then everyone can do it and that isn't a good system for what their model is, which is basically a 3-choice "Model T in any color, as long as it's black" assembly line. If you can't your own toppings, wings, soda, cheese crust, garlic butter sides, and so on and so on, go to Mr. Pizza and pay more.

Maybe they did it to spite you? They didn't like the cut of your jib. Maybe they did it for laughs.

This is always possible. They picked up on the hater vibe and decided to not put up with him.

Flour, salt, tomato sauce, cheese. Various meats and frozen veges. Hardly ingredients from the Amazon that require importation. I'd say almost all of it is sourced locally or some even cheaper Chinese stuff.

In terms of population relative to arable land, Korea is one of the worst large-sized countries in the world.  That is going to increase costs, especially for something like cheese, which isn't at the same level of demand and requires livestock. Cheese is almost always the #1 foodcost part of a pizza. The price fluctuates significantly and at times can really get out of hand. After that comes the meats and the spice pack that goes into the sauce. Pizza place vegetables are seldom frozen unless you're talking some scuzzy pub's pizza. Plus, you get one outbreak of foot and mouth or something running through the country and if you only used domestic meat,the price would spike.

By it's very nature, Korea is always going to be somewhat expensive for food, especially food that isn't traditionally Korean. You need to get at a truly massive scale like McDonald's (and even then it's a little more expensive here) to get that low.

The other big costs would be energy, specifically refrigeration, which is more expensive than North America. However, for these smaller places, many of which don't seem to have walk-in refrigerator's, that might not be the case. And thanks to Moon Jae-In, now labor is a factor, although not THAT significantly for many pizza places because most smaller ones or Pizza Schools appear to be family-owned and operated (aside from a Domino's or Mr. Pizza) with maybe one local kid they hire.

Now you can still get a pretty cheap pizza here- Pizza School being comparable to Little Caesar's. But then again, they did have that "plastic cheese" fiasco a few year's back and they don't exactly lather on the pepperoni.