RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Did she tell you directly that you'd get overtime pay for this?

Yes, each of the teachers taking the class with me will pay me 20,000 in cash per class. It sounds kind of shady...

Also, I've only been teaching for 2 months. This sounds like a ridiculous increase in my workload. 

I would politely but very firmly put my foot down right here. Don't do it.

It's illegal to "work" outside of your contract. You're not comfortable working illegally in a foreign country. Bingo. Excuse ready-made. 

Check your contract and politely point this out. Good luck.

Don't get suckered into doing it for free either, outside of school hours you're always vaguely "busy" from here on out 

Did she tell you directly that you'd get overtime pay for this?

Yes, each of the teachers taking the class with me will pay me 20,000 in cash per class. It sounds kind of shady...

Also, I've only been teaching for 2 months. This sounds like a ridiculous increase in my workload. 

If they are paying you in cash, then this is no longer an afterschool program and instead is private tutoring, which, assuming you are on an E2, is illegal. Just tell them you are uncomfortable with it and that you will not do it.



Edit: DMZabductee was much faster at responding.

Did she tell you directly that you'd get overtime pay for this?

Yes, each of the teachers taking the class with me will pay me 20,000 in cash per class. It sounds kind of shady...

Also, I've only been teaching for 2 months. This sounds like a ridiculous increase in my workload. 

Wait.

To go from 22 hours a week to 32 hours a week is 10 hours, which I assume is 5 classes of 2 hour sessions. If each teacher is paying 20k per session, and there are 10 teachers, then you are making (10*5*20k) 1,000,000 won per week extra? 

Geez! Let me know what school you are working at, and I will help relieve you of this terrible burden!

Edit: DMZabductee was much faster at responding.

Thanks for backing me up 

Did she tell you directly that you'd get overtime pay for this?

Yes, each of the teachers taking the class with me will pay me 20,000 in cash per class. It sounds kind of shady...

Also, I've only been teaching for 2 months. This sounds like a ridiculous increase in my workload. 

Wait.

To go from 22 hours a week to 32 hours a week is 10 hours, which I assume is 5 classes of 2 hour sessions. If each teacher is paying 20k per session, and there are 10 teachers, then you are making (10*5*20k) 1,000,000 won per week extra? 

Geez! Let me know what school you are working at, and I will help relieve you of this terrible burden!

I read it as 10 teachers (10 hours)per week x 20k per hour = 200,000k a week or ~800,000k per month.

Still not bad money but when I first started that bump in the hours would've freaked me out significantly. I was already planning lessons at home, another 10 hours would've sent me over the edge.

Did she tell you directly that you'd get overtime pay for this?

Yes, each of the teachers taking the class with me will pay me 20,000 in cash per class. It sounds kind of shady...

Also, I've only been teaching for 2 months. This sounds like a ridiculous increase in my workload. 

If they are paying you in cash, then this is no longer an afterschool program and instead is private tutoring, which, assuming you are on an E2, is illegal. Just tell them you are uncomfortable with it and that you will not do it.



Edit: DMZabductee was much faster at responding.

Yeah - I've had this happen a lot of times. Declined it every time. I used to do 6 hours of night classes at the old high school I worked at every week, but those were all above board and paid out by the school directly.

I never get asked by teachers for lessons, but I do get asked by random employees of shops and such that I go to. When my sister visited last year, we went to this small cafe and, being Korean-Americans who are fluent in Korean, we ordered our stuff in Korean. As we were ordering though, my sister was undecided and was just saying to me "I don't know if I want a coffee or a latte," but we speak to each other in English, and the girl behind the counter asked us for lessons. In exchange, she would teach us Chinese or something. No thanks. We took our drinks to go.

Did she tell you directly that you'd get overtime pay for this?

Yes, each of the teachers taking the class with me will pay me 20,000 in cash per class. It sounds kind of shady...

Also, I've only been teaching for 2 months. This sounds like a ridiculous increase in my workload. 

what they are doing here is getting a personal 1-on-1 tutoring session for 20k per hour. which usually costs 40-50k per hour.

THAT is why they are paying you cash, and why they don't mind paying 20k cash for it. because it's an absolute bargain for them. also sounds like your school/the teachers want all of this completely off the books (i.e., unofficial). so yeah, it is shady as hell, especially considering private tutoring is forbidden according to public school contracts.

the money is good so you can do it, although i would definitely try to negotiate up. or else tell them you only want official overtime. in terms of that, you can only teach a maximum of 28 hours per week before you can refuse.

What will happen...

You have a school holiday or no teaching one of the days, so you are under your 22 hours.

Then, they will say, "You have to teach the special class for free."

After all, you need to reach 22 hours before you get any extra pay ;)

Jujube tea is baller as heck and it smells amazing. Mix that life with some fresh ginger, and you've got a premium tea life going.

I'm okay with it but I'll admit that it's never going to be my first choice of teas.

Fresh ginger tea, though. I can't get enough of it.

No, its... I can't describe it. It's like a bastardization of a tea smell I'm familiar with. But its not jujube, though I have seen some of the teachers drying out some of those, so I'm guessing that tea will be coming soon too.

Trying to remember if arrowroot tea is strong smelling but I don't think it is. Let us know if you ever figure it out because now I need to try this stuff, whatever it is.

Jujube tea is baller as heck and it smells amazing. Mix that life with some fresh ginger, and you've got a premium tea life going.

I'm okay with it but I'll admit that it's never going to be my first choice of teas.

Fresh ginger tea, though. I can't get enough of it.

No, its... I can't describe it. It's like a bastardization of a tea smell I'm familiar with. But its not jujube, though I have seen some of the teachers drying out some of those, so I'm guessing that tea will be coming soon too.

Trying to remember if arrowroot tea is strong smelling but I don't think it is. Let us know if you ever figure it out because now I need to try this stuff, whatever it is.

I love ginger. My grandma used to cook with it all the time back home, using big chunks, but I had never had it as a tea before coming to Korea. At my first school, my CoT was out sick for a couple of weeks and they brought in this super sweet old lady substitute co who made me fresh ginger tea every day. It was strong, but so good! I have been a fan since.

As for the mystery tea, if I do figure it out, you can have a mug while baking your mayo-choco cake.

I just wish the other teachers in the office would use headphones when listening to the loud things they listen to.

Oh...oh my god.

So, I'm sure every teacher who uses a book has experienced their book using Konglish terms or just flat out the wrong words for some things. It happens a lot in my book, and I always tell the students (and teachers) the correct term for their information, but don't insist that they use it all the time.

Anyways, in the third-graders book, chapter 8 is about helping people with disabilities and includes a lot of vocab related to disability. It had a fair amount of popularly believed misinformation which really irked me (ex: that you should expect Deaf people to lip read, instead of communicating through writing if you don't speak sign language). We had some time at the end of a class, so my coteacher was quizzing them on some terms.

  : a person who can't see
  : blind!
  : a person who can't hear
  : deaf!
  : a person who can't speak
  : dumb!

...............................................

As soon as she was done I pulled her aside and explained that while "dumb" can technically mean "unable to speak," it's EXTREMELY outdated and now an offensive term that you should never use unless you are a mean-spirited person. I showed her that looking up the definition of dumb on the internet even shows, under the first definition, "offensive", and explained that, depending on the situation we'd either use "mute" or "nonverbal"

This is the kind of thing that native teachers are useful for, I guess x_x

I love ginger. My grandma used to cook with it all the time back home, using big chunks, but I had never had it as a tea before coming to Korea. At my first school, my CoT was out sick for a couple of weeks and they brought in this super sweet old lady substitute co who made me fresh ginger tea every day. It was strong, but so good! I have been a fan since.

As for the mystery tea, if I do figure it out, you can have a mug while baking your mayo-choco cake.

I'm basically addicted to ginger. Tea is an easy way for me to get my fix.

Yes, I might even add it to my mayo-choco cake. Yum.

Teachers eating the Halloween candy I gave them to GIVE TO THE STUDENTS when they come to trick or treat.

I even game them instructions in PERFECT KOREAN (thanks to a friend who is fluent in English and Korean).

I didn't buy crap loads of candy for you AMOEBAS to eat it!!!


Thank heavens I'm teaching at a better school in China next year. Most of these teachers are either useless or are morons with no common sense.

This is the kind of thing that native teachers are useful for, I guess x_x

I taught my elem. coT the "F" word the other day. One of the 5th grade boys was being obnoxious and somehow picked up the phrase "What the f***." He has the highest English level in that class and the other boys don't have much English ability but follow his lead. I told him to stop, he wouldn't listen, so I went over to the coT who was blissfully oblivious (even while the kid is loudly saying, "teacher!! No!" at me like I was supposed to protect an inside joke or something  ). She had no idea anything untoward was occurring right in front of her nose (she tends to mentally check out a lot and do work/busy work on the computer). Her English is good enough that we generally don't have translation issues but she had no idea what the word meant and I sure didn't want to say something equivalent in Korean so I just typed it into a translator. She was shocked and immediately went over to sternly lecture the entire class.

So kudos to my coT for stepping up to discipline. And on the bright side, though the kid was properly chagrined, he quickly recovered and we got along well for the rest of class.

My schools office is so bloody hot right now.

I moved in to the classroom to get away from the heat at about 9. I've just remembered my chocolate was in my bag in the office. It's melted. Chocolate melts at 34-35C.

On average how many times a day do you say "Hello'

I honestly have started to dislike the word!

My schools office is so bloody hot right now.

I moved in to the classroom to get away from the heat at about 9. I've just remembered my chocolate was in my bag in the office. It's melted. Chocolate melts at 34-35C.

Yes, well, some of us don't have heat and must manage with a mug of hot water. 

Teachers' meeting yesterday, we were informed "no more heater", as the electricity bill was off the charts.

Now, if they would only cancel the winter English camp and deskwarming duties to save on electricity ;)

...there's no more self-serve lunch for teachers, so I'm literally eating ... children.

I'm just curious, what does your profile quote "My ring is my mansion." mean / refer to?
Sounds very zen!