RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I don't think I, or my country, are any better than anyone else.   

I think my country is better than say, Somali. Does that make me a stupid nationalist?

Well, since you misspelled Somalia...

I think my country is better than Yemen. Does that make me a stupid nationalist?

I think my country is better than Yemen. Does that make me a stupid nationalist?

Did you use the ethnicity and nationality of an American of Yemeni descent to invalidate their opinion? If not, the probably not, at least not the stupid part. If you did, then quite probably, at least the stupid part.

I don't think I, or my country, are any better than anyone else.   

I think my country is better than say, Somali. Does that make me a stupid nationalist?

Bit of a shot at Ronnie here but I still wuv you................ ................... .....

Reminds me of people who say banal tripe like

"You shouldn't judge people."

"Everyone is entitled to their opinion."

Useless, useless sentences.

  What a horrid sweater on that person.

  YoU ShOuLD"Nt JuDgE PeePlE

  My uncle is a convicted pedophile. Still wanna go by that rule?

The people who use this sentence are usually the most vapid, empty-headed people I've ever met. And, yes, there's obviously taking things too far, a la

  Judging by that man's smile, he is a closeted homosexual and he is X, Y and Z.

That's just silly. And the entitled to opinion gem? UGH

Correct way of conversing.

  I don't like Burger King.

  Why not?

  Hmmm, just don't like it. Not great food.

  Alright.

Incorrect way of conversing.


  Apocalypse Now is the worst movie ever made.

  What? Why?

  It's just a total piece of shit.

  Yeah, but why? You have to list a few reasons why it's the worst.

3rd Party Eavesdropper  ACKSHUALLY, EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION.

  Get bent.

Like, what's the point of this sentence? "People have thoughts! And then they same them!"

If someone says they didn't like it, fine, ask them why and see what happens. But when people start claiming things as factual (yeah, yeah, art is subjective, I know BUT) then you'd better buckle up and have a few points to make.

So when people say "There is no best country............ .........." Yeah, no. If I asked you to colour in every country on a world map with green for "would live there" and red for "No way" there would be at least a dozen red ones.

I think my country is better than Yemen. Does that make me a stupid nationalist?

Did you use the ethnicity and nationality of an American of Yemeni descent to invalidate their opinion? If not, the probably not, at least not the stupid part. If you did, then quite probably, at least the stupid part.

Glad that's cleared up.

If the dictatorship was foreign, they'd have a case, as it stands, the dictator was one of Korea's own. So, tough luck, like any other country, Korea is responsible for its own past and mess.

Like I said, you're adding the collaborationist part on top of that. Plus there's also the mild influence of an external force in the United States as you could say that Korea was under de facto US military occupation at the time (and to some extent, Japan was as well). As I said, we certainly wouldn't regard any treaty made by Mussolini as legitimate. It seems that rather whether said treaty is successfully deemed legitimate or not comes down to influence and strength, rather than any objective principle. However, as I said, that's just one way of looking at things and there are legitimate reasons to still honor treaties, even those signed by dictators.

Furthermore, I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that I find it a bit of a stretch to believe that one of the most experienced nations in warfare makes it logistically possible to kidnap, house, feed and guard 200 000 non-combatants, while fighting a losing war.

They weren't losing from 1931-1941.  Also, that very experience in systemically organizing and caring for large numbers of people (which is a good 80% of what an army is anyways) would make it rather easy for them to round up (conscript), house (barracks), feed (quartermastering) , and guard (military police) 200,000 people (roughly the equivalent of a single "area army sized unit" of which Japan had 27 during WWII (and given the lack of necessary equipment, this would have been far easier to organize). Furthermore these would have been dispersed across Korea, China, the Philippines, and SE Asia, and thus easier to maintain. The Japanese already held tens of thousands of people as POWs (at least 50,000 from US and Commonwealth forces, who knows how many Chinese). This wouldn't have been some monumental task, especially from the invasion of Manchukuo up until Pearl Harbor.

but so far, logic dictates that those 'comfort women' were in fact, just prostitutes.

Given the Japanese record in WW2, logic dictates that a significant number were coerced, either directly by the military or through their go-betweens. Of course there were undoubtedly a decent number of women who were just prostitutes.

Alternatively, it must have been Koreans themselves who kidnapped their own women and sold them off as comfort women. Why not? Many Africans did this during the slave trade.

Undoubtedly there were. However, the impetus for that is the military occupation. The military occupation created the demand. The military occupation had the enforcement mechanism to make it happen.

- The Japanese made us kill all the Korean tigers to kill our national identity
- The Japanese made us chop down all our trees
- The Japanese made our women wear the 'breast exposed Hanbok'
- The Japanese made us commit war crimes

notice a pattern?

You ever read up on the history of the Japanese military during WWII and their general regard for prisoners? We're not talking nice people. When the situation is "Do this or get bayoneted", yes people were made to do this thanks to the Japanese military occupation.

Reports and testimonials listed bellow state that Koreans themselves were largely responsible for rounding up comfort women, gangs of Koreans targeted women from poor peasant families and even managed the comfort women stations.

Yes, every occupied country will have collaborators who work with the powers that be. The Jewish Ghetto Police under the Judenrat would round up Jews and administer Nazi policy. That doesn't mean the Jews (or the Poles or the Dutch) are without cause to blame the Nazis and seek redress.

- Korean men make up the largest percentage of 'sex tourists' in SE Asia for underage prostitution.
- More than half of Korean men have cheated on their spouse and 40% believe paying for sex isn't cheating
  http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160801000806
- Korea is one of the most patriarchial societies on Earth

Korea is NOT one of the most patriarchal societies on Earth. In the developed world? Sure. On Earth? No.  Adultery rates are high in many other countries, France for example, that doesn't mean that the anything relating to the Nazi occupation of France is unfounded and perhaps we can look to modern French character to verify.

Regardless, while undoubtedly there were collaborators (and more likely, just common gangsters) who worked with the Japanese, the fact is that the military occupation was the source of the demand and the vehicle through which at least some women (probably a significant number) were coerced into sexual servitude. As the ruling authority of Korea at the time, the Japanese were responsible for law enforcement and justice in the occupied territory of Korea. They are the ones who drafted the policy, condoned it, gave it legal framework, enforced it, and gave whoever was involved the umbrella of protection to likely act with impunity.

So when people say "There is no best country............ .........." Yeah, no. If I asked you to colour in every country on a world map with green for "would live there" and red for "No way" there would be at least a dozen red ones

Just one of the many things everyone knows but you're not supposed to say any more.

best country?

Watch this trailer, I watched the show yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it, although it came across as a bit demeaning sometimes (water-carrying bit vs. mopping the floor) and left me wondering what would happen with the house after the filming has ended. Will the tribe get it? Will they use it for the chief or for the goats?

https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/22/british-tribe-next-door-review-scarlett-moffatts-documentary-every-bit-painful-problematic-10955756/

_{My Korean friend has returned to Korea after 4 years in Prague!}

Cuz his dad has cancer.

_{My Korean friend has returned to Korea after 4 years in Prague!}

Cuz his dad has cancer.

So in the Off-topic Friday Thread, will you bold all of this post, or none of it?

Also, I'm sorry to hear it. Cancer sucks. 

For the first time since living here, I experienced the "please understand their unique situation..." and God has it wound me up.

Generally I'm very lenient with the students and gentle.  Very rarely lose my temper.  Last week a group of four students sitting at the back of the class weren't listening and had their wallets out on the desk with cards and money etc chatting quietly.  I walked over and gently told them to put it all away.  They did.  Walked back to the front to continue the class and within ten seconds they had their wallets out again and continued their chat.  Walked back again and told them much more firmly to put them away which they did.  Walked back to the front and again saw that they had pulled their wallets, cards and money out.  I saw red, marched over and shouted at them.  CT took them out to talk to them.

Fast forward to today and apparently both the student and my CT didn't understand why I was so angry.  CT tells me she was shocked about what I did and I should try to understand that students have different personalities.  Am I missing something here?  Like I said I'm very lenient with the students in general but they were taking the p*ss.

For the first time since living here, I experienced the "please understand their unique situation..." and God has it wound me up.

Generally I'm very lenient with the students and gentle.  Very rarely lose my temper.  Last week a group of four students sitting at the back of the class weren't listening and had their wallets out on the desk with cards and money etc chatting quietly.  I walked over and gently told them to put it all away.  They did.  Walked back to the front to continue the class and within ten seconds they had their wallets out again and continued their chat.  Walked back again and told them much more firmly to put them away which they did.  Walked back to the front and again saw that they had pulled their wallets, cards and money out.  I saw red, marched over and shouted at them.  CT took them out to talk to them.

Fast forward to today and apparently both the student and my CT didn't understand why I was so angry.  CT tells me she was shocked about what I did and I should try to understand that students have different personalities.  Am I missing something here?  Like I said I'm very lenient with the students in general but they were taking the p*ss.

I'm pretty lenient too. Usually, I tell them to put it away, second time I take it until the end of class. (if there is a big gap between 1st and 2nd, I'll just ask them to put it away again).
Yesterday, I had a student bring 2 glow in the dark nanta sticks to class, and was hitting the desk with them (because I wouldn't just play games). Yesterday, he flat out refused to listen to me when I asked him to put them away, so I told him to give them to me. He refused, and wouldn't let me take them from him. I eventually told him to go to the teachers office if he won't give them to me.
I had to get another student to go get my co-t or the head teacher. co-t walks in, I told her what happened, she gets it settled in like 5 seconds, what was taking close to 10 mins for me and getting nowhere. Once the co-t handled it, he decided to sleep. Usually, I don't let students sleep in class, but everyone else was doing well, and I decided it wasn't worth waking him, just for him to distract and disrupt the others.

The student is a good kid, his English is a bit higher than most of the class, but he won't help the other students and gets bored.
He is pretty disruptive because of it, and the co-t / school wants students doing the same thing. :\
It's the second time I became close to losing my guff in a little over 3 years here.

For the first time since living here, I experienced the "please understand their unique situation..." and God has it wound me up.

Generally I'm very lenient with the students and gentle.  Very rarely lose my temper.  Last week a group of four students sitting at the back of the class weren't listening and had their wallets out on the desk with cards and money etc chatting quietly.  I walked over and gently told them to put it all away.  They did.  Walked back to the front to continue the class and within ten seconds they had their wallets out again and continued their chat.  Walked back again and told them much more firmly to put them away which they did.  Walked back to the front and again saw that they had pulled their wallets, cards and money out.  I saw red, marched over and shouted at them.  CT took them out to talk to them.

Fast forward to today and apparently both the student and my CT didn't understand why I was so angry.  CT tells me she was shocked about what I did and I should try to understand that students have different personalities.  Am I missing something here?  Like I said I'm very lenient with the students in general but they were taking the p*ss.

This exact thing happened to me once, but with a comic book. I told him in increasing tone 3 times to keep the book in his bag as we are not doing that. We are doing my class. The last time he did it I lost my sh!t. Other students were shocked as I'm as chilled as they come but asking the same thing 4 times (including hand signals and acting in case he didn't understand) was too much.

For the first time since living here, I experienced the "please understand their unique situation..." and God has it wound me up.

Generally I'm very lenient with the students and gentle.  Very rarely lose my temper.  Last week a group of four students sitting at the back of the class weren't listening and had their wallets out on the desk with cards and money etc chatting quietly.  I walked over and gently told them to put it all away.  They did.  Walked back to the front to continue the class and within ten seconds they had their wallets out again and continued their chat.  Walked back again and told them much more firmly to put them away which they did.  Walked back to the front and again saw that they had pulled their wallets, cards and money out.  I saw red, marched over and shouted at them.  CT took them out to talk to them.

Fast forward to today and apparently both the student and my CT didn't understand why I was so angry.  CT tells me she was shocked about what I did and I should try to understand that students have different personalities.  Am I missing something here?  Like I said I'm very lenient with the students in general but they were taking the p*ss.

classic

"they are just kids... please understand them.... they don't know how to behave"

well, how about the teachers TEACH them how to behave, then? isn't that, umm, your actual job?

For the first time since living here, I experienced the "please understand their unique situation..." and God has it wound me up.

Generally I'm very lenient with the students and gentle.  Very rarely lose my temper.  Last week a group of four students sitting at the back of the class weren't listening and had their wallets out on the desk with cards and money etc chatting quietly.  I walked over and gently told them to put it all away.  They did.  Walked back to the front to continue the class and within ten seconds they had their wallets out again and continued their chat.  Walked back again and told them much more firmly to put them away which they did.  Walked back to the front and again saw that they had pulled their wallets, cards and money out.  I saw red, marched over and shouted at them.  CT took them out to talk to them.

Fast forward to today and apparently both the student and my CT didn't understand why I was so angry.  CT tells me she was shocked about what I did and I should try to understand that students have different personalities.  Am I missing something here?  Like I said I'm very lenient with the students in general but they were taking the p*ss.

classic

"they are just kids... please understand them.... they don't know how to behave"

well, how about the teachers TEACH them how to behave, then? isn't that, umm, your actual job?

I fukking hate when kids look at you, like "What? What's the big deal?"

Like, no. NO. You know you're not in comic class. One of my students forgets his book all the time and I tell him to go get it and he gives me this look like "What? What's the big problem?"

Like, f off. You KNOW it's English class, every other bloody student has their book, don't give me this crap.

If they got sore about having to go get it, I understand that. They don't want to walk. It's stupid, but I get it.

It's the "Jesus, what's the big deal?" look that drives me right up the wall. Don't act stupid, kid. You know that classes require books, ya little shit.

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?

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*

For the first time since living here, I experienced the "please understand their unique situation..." and God has it wound me up.

Generally I'm very lenient with the students and gentle.  Very rarely lose my temper.  Last week a group of four students sitting at the back of the class weren't listening and had their wallets out on the desk with cards and money etc chatting quietly.  I walked over and gently told them to put it all away.  They did.  Walked back to the front to continue the class and within ten seconds they had their wallets out again and continued their chat.  Walked back again and told them much more firmly to put them away which they did.  Walked back to the front and again saw that they had pulled their wallets, cards and money out.  I saw red, marched over and shouted at them.  CT took them out to talk to them.

Fast forward to today and apparently both the student and my CT didn't understand why I was so angry.  CT tells me she was shocked about what I did and I should try to understand that students have different personalities.  Am I missing something here?  Like I said I'm very lenient with the students in general but they were taking the p*ss.

classic

"they are just kids... please understand them.... they don't know how to behave"

well, how about the teachers TEACH them how to behave, then? isn't that, umm, your actual job?

No, it's the parents jobs.

What you're seeing here is the classic "I'm scared shitless of these little brats complaining to their parents and since my spine has become rubberized from years spent bowing/grovelling, I can't stand up for myself or justify any discipline strategy".

Last month, I gave one truly despicable kid punishment (writing out) and made him sit alone (he's a constant distraction when he's around his friend). Later, the spineless HR teacher, too chicken to talk to me about the situation (she can speak English rather well), relays the concerns to my supposed CT (has never been in class once this year).
He tries to pussyfoot by saying that he knows the student gives problems in every class, but everyone is afraid that he'll complain to his mom if he thinks we're "picking on him" and if I can't "be fair"... as if to insult and imply that I was being unfair.

I pretty much said IDGAF. I've been here long enough to know that him telling his mom will amount to absolutely nothing. I've ignored their threats/warning kept up with my discipline and guess what happened? The student in question still tries his luck now and then, but quickly settles down once I give him a single warning.

Kids are lazy. A lot of my students have taken to "forgetting" their books at home. I suspect that they leave them in their homeroom in order to avoid having to do the bookwork that I'm forced to force them do. Some of the more intrepid students also "forget" their pens and pencils.
   
   A month ago I made a "lines" template, and now bring a dozen or so to class. If a student "forgets" their book, they write the answers on the blank side, then stay after class to write "I will bring my textbook / pencil / notebook to English class!" a dozen or so times. 
   Not surprisingly, they seem a lot less forgetful recently!

Attachment included for your tormenting pleasure!

Yep...all of that (the past three/four posts). 

These brain-dead  shanks are so unable to imagine as to why they would need to bring a pencil/ notebook and an eraser to their English academy.  If they do, they spend about 25 minutes of the time dropping their pencils on the floor and picking them up...constantly. 

I don't fool around when it comes to simple things like that and I don't let any K-teacher, school or parent, try to deflect the issue and blame me for that nonsense.

Bring phucking pencil.....(yes, flips table).

You know....these spineless people amaze me because Korea is now a service society.  And yet,..I still cannot get a pizza made the way I want.  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.