RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Also, is anyone else getting crazy large google ads in the middle of peoples posts? :O

yes and it is far from my favorite new "feature"

I don't see those ads but i do have an ad blocker so maybe that is why. Absolutely essential if you are showing YouTube in class to your students too - no annoying ads. 

Also, is anyone else getting crazy large google ads in the middle of peoples posts? :O

yes and it is far from my favorite new "feature"

Yeah. Insanely annoying, I agree

I don't see those ads but i do have an ad blocker so maybe that is why. Absolutely essential if you are showing YouTube in class to your students too - no annoying ads. 

Unpopular opinion, but if you don't pay a fee for a service, then watch the ad.

Youtube is free. That's the cost. The ad.

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.

Everyone...everywhe re...maybe in another life in another time and space, but sure as heck not my childhood going to school. I never saw behaviour like that in any school I attended, ever.

It's all fun and games until dad is standing in front of a court martial hearing cuz little Johnny misbehaved.

Getting old is shit.  I turned my right knee a few weeks ago but it wasn't painful at the time, but since then my knee kind of clicks (not audibly) when I walk.  So I went to the doctor in Daejeon yesterday and he said I have 'early osteoarthritis' in my right knee.  I love being active, doing exercising, hiking, football etc.  Now, I suppose I've got to rethink what to do to keep active without making this crap worse.  I might get a second opinion in Seoul in the next couple of weeks...     Like I said, getting old is crap. 

Getting old is shit.  I turned my right knee a few weeks ago but it wasn't painful at the time, but since then my knee kind of clicks (not audibly) when I walk.  So I went to the doctor in Daejeon yesterday and he said I have 'early osteoarthritis' in my right knee.  I love being active, doing exercising, hiking, football etc.  Now, I suppose I've got to rethink what to do to keep active without making this crap worse.  I might get a second opinion in Seoul in the next couple of weeks...     Like I said, getting old is crap. 

Yes it is. Cold damp weather is murder on the body. That's why I left the Maritimes and could handle only as many years as I did in Korea. Hot and dry is the way to be.

Unpopular opinion, but if you don't pay a fee for a service, then watch the ad.

Youtube is free. That's the cost. The ad.
 

I'd have agreed with you back when banners and sidebar ads were all we had to deal with. I have/had zero problems with stuff like that, and I never used blockers in those days. Once they started putting video ads at the start of every video and/or interrupting particularly long videos, I started using blockers. I understand needing to pay for a service, but not if your method of paying for it actively makes the service worse.

Also, is anyone else getting crazy large google ads in the middle of peoples posts? :O

yes and it is far from my favorite new "feature"

I don't see those ads but i do have an ad blocker so maybe that is why. Absolutely essential if you are showing YouTube in class to your students too - no annoying ads. 

Oh on my cell phone running Android i can see the ads. Only windiws has the ad blocker.

I don't see those ads but i do have an ad blocker so maybe that is why. Absolutely essential if you are showing YouTube in class to your students too - no annoying ads. 

Unpopular opinion, but if you don't pay a fee for a service, then watch the ad.

Youtube is free. That's the cost. The ad.

while i agree in theory, the ads are so insanely annoying, that it just makes me stop using youtube altogether. does youtube even make a profit? can't imagine how much it would cost to host/stream so many videos

Getting old is shit.  I turned my right knee a few weeks ago but it wasn't painful at the time, but since then my knee kind of clicks (not audibly) when I walk.  So I went to the doctor in Daejeon yesterday and he said I have 'early osteoarthritis' in my right knee.  I love being active, doing exercising, hiking, football etc.  Now, I suppose I've got to rethink what to do to keep active without making this crap worse.  I might get a second opinion in Seoul in the next couple of weeks...     Like I said, getting old is crap. 

Get KT-Tape, not the crappy Chinese or Korean ripoffs, the real tape. I train for sprinting 6 days a week and the tape really does minimize the risk of my knees and ankles getting injured.
Other than the tape, RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

After hiking my calves, quads and other leg muscles used to hurt.

Nowadays, my knees, ankles and a hip ache.

After hiking my calves, quads and other leg muscles used to hurt.

Nowadays, my knees, ankles and a hip ache.

how's your form? feel free to post a form check

Getting old is shit.  I turned my right knee a few weeks ago but it wasn't painful at the time, but since then my knee kind of clicks (not audibly) when I walk.  So I went to the doctor in Daejeon yesterday and he said I have 'early osteoarthritis' in my right knee.  I love being active, doing exercising, hiking, football etc.  Now, I suppose I've got to rethink what to do to keep active without making this crap worse.  I might get a second opinion in Seoul in the next couple of weeks...     Like I said, getting old is crap. 

Get KT-Tape, not the crappy Chinese or Korean ripoffs, the real tape. I train for sprinting 6 days a week and the tape really does minimize the risk of my knees and ankles getting injured.
Other than the tape, RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

Or you could just rub some cheese on your knee

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/felix-magath-cheese-cure-former-fulham-manager-admits-telling-brede-hangeland-to-use-bizarre-9750312.html

Waygookin: 1 large cheese pizza please. 
Demartino: Our state of the art pen and notepad aren't able to decipher 'cheese pizza' therefore your request has been denied.

Most places don't use notepad and pen for sales tracking these days. They usually have an electronic POS that links to credit cards and keeps track of inventory and everything. One of the major reason is loss prevention, particularly when you're in an industry frequently staffed by 19 year olds making minimum wage.

There is a KT shop in the slightly bigger small town from me, where the 1 lady that works there will absolutely refuse to let me into the shop without a Korean person with me.
When my contract finished, and I got told I could go renew it for a large discount, I went a couple times by myself, and tried to show her the message from KT (which was is in Korean), she literally just tried pushing me out the door while saying "opso" repeatedly. Finally managed to get my co-T on a non-busy day to come with me, and it took like 5 minutes, and while she was doing it, she'd keep looking at me, and giving me an angry facial expression haha.

I can sort of understand for something as big as a phone contract. The person is probably freaked out about getting something wrong and some dispute arising, which might well have happened before in their past. You did the right thing. If something bad happened with another foreign customer and she's applying it to you, that isn't fair to you, but her wanting to have a Korean speaker there to ensure no miscommunication is understandable.

She could still not be such an ass about it.

There is a KT shop in the slightly bigger small town from me, where the 1 lady that works there will absolutely refuse to let me into the shop without a Korean person with me.
When my contract finished, and I got told I could go renew it for a large discount, I went a couple times by myself, and tried to show her the message from KT (which was is in Korean), she literally just tried pushing me out the door while saying "opso" repeatedly. Finally managed to get my co-T on a non-busy day to come with me, and it took like 5 minutes, and while she was doing it, she'd keep looking at me, and giving me an angry facial expression haha.

I can sort of understand for something as big as a phone contract. The person is probably freaked out about getting something wrong and some dispute arising, which might well have happened before in their past. You did the right thing. If something bad happened with another foreign customer and she's applying it to you, that isn't fair to you, but her wanting to have a Korean speaker there to ensure no miscommunication is understandable.

She could still not be such an ass about it.

I mean, that wasn't the first time she had done that to me. Late last year, a button on the phone I got from that store fell off, and I needed to get it replaced/fix. My co-t and VP (who both speak English) didn't know what to do, so they wrote me a small note in Korean explaining what had happened, and to call their phone so they could find out what needed to be done, as they were both busy around that time and couldn't come to the store with me in person. She done the same thing, just physically tried pushing me out the door as soon as I walked in by myself. I ended up going down to the olleh down the street while on the phone to my VP, I showed the young lady the note, then handed her my phone, the boss spoke to her and got the info. Me and the olleh worker felt a bit awkward at this, but it got done in like a minute.

The 2nd time I went by myself for the contract. I called the English support KT line before going into the shop, and they even said they'd talk to her in Korean about what I needed. (shop was empty, so I could have walked in, handed her my phone to talk to the KT support member (it would've been a little weird, but wouldn't have taken long). Hell, when my co-teacher came, the only thing she needed to relay was, that I wanted to change to a 1 year contract. And to tell me to give her my ARC for all the info for the contract. Most of our 5 minutes there was just watching the lady fill out the contract with my ARC info haha.

Getting old is shit.  I turned my right knee a few weeks ago but it wasn't painful at the time, but since then my knee kind of clicks (not audibly) when I walk.  So I went to the doctor in Daejeon yesterday and he said I have 'early osteoarthritis' in my right knee.  I love being active, doing exercising, hiking, football etc.  Now, I suppose I've got to rethink what to do to keep active without making this crap worse.  I might get a second opinion in Seoul in the next couple of weeks...     Like I said, getting old is crap. 

Get KT-Tape, not the crappy Chinese or Korean ripoffs, the real tape. I train for sprinting 6 days a week and the tape really does minimize the risk of my knees and ankles getting injured.
Other than the tape, RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

I was thinking about that tape, or getting hold of a decent knee support sock.  Does the tape take hairs off when you pull it off?  The couple of times that someone has stuck a 'Passeuh' on me, have been incredibly painful to remove.  Other than the RICE stuff, it's just kind of disappointing to have this in my early-forties.  It'll degenerate, which upsets me most. 

Feel free to skip this teaching-rant.  

Just had a particularly frustrating 4th grade class. Several students delay the start of the class by making requests to go and drink water and/or use the bathroom. My policy is a hard 'no' because this is the first lesson after lunch and the students are just stalling. Co-teacher doesn't seem to have any policy beyond saying 'yes' to every single request shouted at her and not even acknowledging when children come and go unannounced. 4 students turn up with water balloons (some filled, some just balloons). They obviously prove a huge distraction which the co-teacher doesn't acknowledge; instead just singing along by herself to the song she's put on the TV (modeling good behavior? It didn't work). I tell the students they can't have these in the classroom and confiscate them until the end of class. Much protest ensues. Later find a boy has also bought the water-pump (syringe?) with him which is filled with water that he is spraying about. I confiscate this as well.

The student who I'm reasonably sure has fetal alcohol syndrome (and the corresponding behavioral and learning issues which, surprise surprise, remain unacknowledged) is being particularly disruptive and eventually just leaves the room. I follow him (obviously) and ask him why and where he's going. Turns out in their homeroom there's a bunch of students who are just hanging out. None of them look upset but apparently some friendship-drama has occurred and they can't possibly come to class. Homeroom teacher is MIA. I tell them it's class-time and they better come to class before getting another student who followed me out of the room to go back. Much protest ensues.

I get the names of the no-show students from the other students in order to message the homeroom teacher and essentially ask him to do his goddamn job. Absent students arrive with 5 minutes to spare and 2 burst into tears about the whole situation (at this point I hold back and listen on the off-chance that someone's relative has died or something equally serious has happened). Co-teacher takes the list and disappears. Half the students are in the classroom, half aren't. I guess class is over.

Well, I just got a message from the co-teacher. Apparently one of the students (not a clue; it's romanized and has typos) bought water balloons to share and some students took more than their fair share "so many students are upset and did not come to English class". There's no plan of action, no talk of consequences, absolutely nothing about what is and isn't appropriate to bring into the classroom and how we can enforce this, and nothing about how students can and should resolve personal issues. Always, there's this undercurrent that if someone gives you a reason for bad behavior, you must accept it.

On the plus side, I taught 6th grade alone today and they finished their work to a high-standard and early enough that we could watch a Halloween-themed cartoon.

Am I the only person who thinks that students should be scared of their teachers?

I don't mean learning in constant fear, but the idea that if you fukk about, and in ways that are very CLEAR and OBVIOUS, that there will be hell to pay?

Is that just me? Man, I remember Mme. Mullholland. The last thing I'd want to do is piss her off, Jesus.

Getting old is shit.  I turned my right knee a few weeks ago but it wasn't painful at the time, but since then my knee kind of clicks (not audibly) when I walk.  So I went to the doctor in Daejeon yesterday and he said I have 'early osteoarthritis' in my right knee.  I love being active, doing exercising, hiking, football etc.  Now, I suppose I've got to rethink what to do to keep active without making this crap worse.  I might get a second opinion in Seoul in the next couple of weeks...     Like I said, getting old is crap. 

Get KT-Tape, not the crappy Chinese or Korean ripoffs, the real tape. I train for sprinting 6 days a week and the tape really does minimize the risk of my knees and ankles getting injured.
Other than the tape, RICE; Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

I was thinking about that tape, or getting hold of a decent knee support sock.  Does the tape take hairs off when you pull it off?  The couple of times that someone has stuck a 'Passeuh' on me, have been incredibly painful to remove.  Other than the RICE stuff, it's just kind of disappointing to have this in my early-forties.  It'll degenerate, which upsets me most. 

Lol, yep, the tape does sting a bit when pulling off, but proper KT-tape stays on for a while (I re-apply mine every 4 days or so). Trick is to remove it while showering. Some hairs will come off, but it's not like waxing... well I've never waxed so, I don't know.

It won't necessarily degenerate. Injuries like these are oftentimes the result of imbalances. In my case, focusing too much on maxing out my deadlifts created an imbalance with my glute meds (quads got super strong, while glute meds stayed the same). Once I hit the track and started sprinting, the imbalance caused unnecessary stress on one side of my knee, which lead to an injury.  After icing and taking a few weeks off, the tape helps me train without pain so that I can re-strengthen the weaker muscles and correct the imbalance. The light injury was probably a good thing as it was my bodies way of telling me "Dude, something's wrong, fix it before carrying on."

Active guys, like us, simply notice the imbalances sooner, because we put ourselves in situations where our body has to go through it's movement patterns. A couch potato will simply become desensitized to things like back or knee pain, simply right it off as age and/or not put themselves in situations (like sports or training) to notice.
 The older you are, the more years you've possibly been doing things like sitting at a desk for hours to create those imbalances; A smartphone addicted teenager can get away with these bad habits (for now) because, they've simply been doing them for fewer years than we have. So, it's not that your body is necessarily putting up a white flag as a result of age, it's simply that you've had more time to create imbalances.

The absolute best thing you could do is a gait analysis. I've been to different doctors in Korea with no luck, they seem pretty crap at diagnosing sports related injuries. A gait analysis would have you walking and running on a treadmill, with sensors hooked up to your joints, and a professional analysing your walking and running form. This was how I discovered my issue. Sadly, I haven't had luck finding anywhere in Korea that does a gait analysis, I did mine in California.

When it comes to the knee, and since you're active, it's almost certain that you've got a bio-mechanical imbalance. The usual suspects are relatively weak/tight: core, glute meds, hamstrings, hip flexors or calves. Try strengthening the above and getting them more flexible. The tape isn't a cure, but it does help you get through the rehab process.