RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I might get crucified for saying this but...I really don't like ramen.

I'm mystified at how revered it is in the foreign community here.  Facebook groups full of people looking for it, talking about it, eating it, planning to eat it, craving it, travelling to Japan just for it alone.  It's never ending.

When someone asks me "Hey The Arm, do you want to get ramen for dinner?", all I hear is "Hey The Arm, do you want to eat a bowl of hot water for dinner?"

Am I an uncultured swine? 

No I'm with you. I don't hate it but I have a very "ugh why" attitude toward it. It's a pain to eat, I've never seen anyone actually finish a bowl of it, and yeah, it's mostly noodles and salt water. I also know folks who are mad for it so I'll go along to get along but I consider it a wasted dinner opportunity.

Lunch today was:

Mystery meat slop mixed with tentacles
Soup that tasted like a scoop of the ocean
Noodles (for the mystery meat slop)
Rice of course

I know I shouldn't complain about a pre-prepared hot meal but I am starting to wonder why I am paying almost $80 a month for this. Today I just ate a big ball of rice but would be loads happier with a yogurt and hard boiled egg whites or something. Going to start drafting my excuses now.

I'll never understand days where we get both. Pick a carb and use it. It's white rice and refined wheat noodles, this shit is simple carb central. Even picking one would be bad enough for sugar levels and health, now you're giving us two? The 보건실 nurse should have a 50/50 say about what we eat, along with the lunchlady.

rates of Type II Diabetes are completely exploding amongst koreans. the Type II diabetes rate here is actually higher than it is in the US now, despite the fact that the obesity rate here is lower.

and koreans are completely mystified as to why. because of course eating 60% of your macros from carbs 3 times a day and then snacking on nothing but carbs like ramyeon in between meals has nothing to do with it 

Ramen is essentially the equivalent of murica's easy mac. Though one might be arguably "healthier."

I will say this though. Getting authentic Japanese ramen is a far cry from the packaged junk.

Also, whenever I had it growing up, my mom would always toss an egg in along with some veggies and minced garlic. She also never used the entire packet of salty powder. Far better than eating it as is.

I also love the fact tht the kids at school dont have to pay for any of it. Which was quite different for me growing up in America. You would pay for low quality garbage at the public schools that I went to.

You have no idea how many English teachers we lost to pay for the kids school lunches!

The excuse at the time was it was embarrassing for the poor students to not pay, and the normal students to pay.

It was part of our dear leaders war on English, or rather a war on providing quality education to the lower classes.

I'm not sure why the obsession with ramen, either.

It is served in the Business Class Lounge at the airport, so people obviously don't view it as complete crap food.

More surprising, Korean passengers will actually steal the packages and smuggle them inside their carry-on luggage.

Oftentimes when I try to divide the class in a certain way, my coT tries to change it. As usual, I reiterated that smaller groups means that individual students get more speaking practice (and they may be less rowdy). This seems to be a big ordeal for her because *gasp* one or two students might need to move a little!! Oh no!! So much work!! 

Oftentimes when I try to divide the class in a certain way, my coT tries to change it. As usual, I reiterated that smaller groups means that individual students get more speaking practice (and they may be less rowdy). This seems to be a big ordeal for her because *gasp* one or two students might need to move a little!! Oh no!! So much work!! 

Then she'll explain the rules for 7 mins, even though the kids get it.

^ALL THE FRIGGIN TIME

She'll also persist in saying numbers in Korean even though the chilluns can obviously count upwards of 5 

She'll also persist in saying numbers in Korean even though the chilluns can obviously count upwards of 5 

  Okay, number 1?

  일번

  Next, number 2?

  이번

  *shudders inside* Now, number 3.

  삼번

WHY? THEY ARE IN GRADE 5. If they haven't learned 1, 2 and 3 by now, that's on them. CHRIST

Are our coTs twins?? I feel like they must be related.

I just had a 2nd grade MS class, which is the worst one in the whole school. A couple of them were literally running around screaming in class, chasing another student. In the end, I took one of their phones and took it back to the office with me after class. She came to ask for it and brought a translator friend, who apologized and asked for the phone back. Meanwhile, the screaming girl just stood there the whole time. When I asked why she was the one asking, not the girls whose phone I took, the girl started crying and sighing like she was being persecuted. For 25 minutes this went on. Why not just talk and get it over with! Eventually, another teacher in the office just told her to talk already, but she carried on for another 5ish minutes before saying sorry teacher.

Why are the kids practicing Rudolphe the Red Nosed Freaking Reindeer on those stupid recorder like things. It's still September! And it sounds terrible! STOP IT!   

Why are the kids practicing Rudolphe the Red Nosed Freaking Reindeer on those stupid recorder like things. It's still September! And it sounds terrible! STOP IT!   

I guess the idea is for them to sound not terrible by December.

We went to another teacher's open class the other day and I felt really bad for the foreign teacher. Her CT translated every little thing she said and then pretty much dominated the class, speaking Korean. I pointed out to my CT that doing this did not give the students time to process what they have heard in English and understand it, they only look to the CT to translate so they don't bother listening to the foreign teacher. I also pointed out that two teachers giving instructions and talking caused teacher talk time to increase and student talk time decreases.

She clearly doesn't care about that and  since then has begun translating everything I say. I have put up with it for 2 days now and I can no longer continue to allow it to happen.

My elem. coT: "What is the most important? For students to practice speaking English."

This same coT then proceeds to unnecessarily translate everything down to numbers lower than 5. Even the kids who can't read can count upwards of 5  She also likes to blather on and often likes to have the "last pronunciation" on things.

Thankfully my middle school coTs are great or I'd have lost my mind long ago. They hop in when actually necessary for a translation issue and otherwise just let me do what I want, offering constructive criticism.

Worried about next year... might be nice if my elem. coT transferred (though the replacement could definitely be worse) and one middle coT is leaving due to pregnancy and the other is uncertain if she's staying another year. The year of change approaches 

Also, apparently the county decided they want to build a new apt building for all the teachers (which is kind of a big deal since this is an island and we don't really have those already) but this involves obliterating like 4 existing houses... I asked my coworkers where they'd live during construction. They laughed and said they didn't know... I honestly don't know how this is going to work. We don't even have a hotel or jimjjilbang here and there's no extra housing. It's hella rural. They were joking that those of us whose houses are unaffected are gonna have new roommates... 

Just found out that I'm a judge for some speech contest thing happening today. yay.

URG going back to talking about how rice and noodles are stupid and even stupider together, today my school served me noodles ON TOP of rice  .  Those stupid slimy clear noodles.

It's so annoying when a coteacher insists on making me explain the rules of an activity or game in English to third and fourth grade students, when the language in the instructions isn't part of the target language, and it's a game they haven't played before. Like, instead of forcing the students to listen to a minute or two of unrelated vocabulary that they can't understand, why not just explain the game to them in Korean? Or let me say a bit in English, then some Korean, then some English, then some Korean?

Being told instructions for a game in English is not improving the language skills of beginner students. It just wastes time and intimidates them.

Agreed!

But I've never understood the general Waygook consensus of NO KOREAN TO BE SPOKEN IN MY CLASSROOM BY ANYONE AT ANY TIME!!!!!!!

Seems like madness to me 

It's so annoying when a coteacher insists on making me explain the rules of an activity or game in English to third and fourth grade students, when the language in the instructions isn't part of the target language, and it's a game they haven't played before. Like, instead of forcing the students to listen to a minute or two of unrelated vocabulary that they can't understand, why not just explain the game to them in Korean? Or let me say a bit in English, then some Korean, then some English, then some Korean?

Being told instructions for a game in English is not improving the language skills of beginner students. It just wastes time and intimidates them.

Agreed!

But I've never understood the general Waygook consensus of NO KOREAN TO BE SPOKEN IN MY CLASSROOM BY ANYONE AT ANY TIME!!!!!!!

Seems like madness to me 

TEE doesn't work for beginners. Also, Korean is incredibly useful in the classroom, and without it you get ridiculous foreign teachers gesticulating wildly to a bunch of bemused students who can't quite figure out what he or she is trying to communicate. Then the game doesn't run smoothly, the students don't get the full effect of the activity, and it's generally just a waste of time.

Unless you're teaching students who already have a reasonably strong grasp of English, or unless you're teaching the same students for extended periods regularly in an immersion-like setting, using only English is a great way to waste time and make students frustrated in a classroom.

Absolutely agree.