RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

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

haha yes. my principal is also complaining about the heating bill. well, reduce the length of the semesters, then you won't need to spend so much on heating and aircon. korea already has some of the longest semesters in the world.

and cut out all the summer and winter camps, which will reduce the time that needs to be spent on heating and cooling by an extra 2-3 weeks per year.

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.

Of course today is the first day they don't have the tea for me to sniff out!

...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!

Actually, it's a quote from a guest verse on Lil B's song "I Look Like Hannah Montana," and it's actually 'My ring is a mansion,' which means it's really big / he is rich.

I'm glad you realized it. Lil B always promotes #positive feelings and he is extremely zen. Lil B loves you. If you do decide to youtube the song, though, please be aware that some of the content probably isn't appropriate for work.

Ah, sorry for the misquote (it'll never happen again, promise!). And +1 for the warning!

Anyone else find the JLP co-ordinator to be about as useful as a one legged man in an arse kicking competition?

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 ;)

I wish they would at least tone back winter camp for the same reason. I've been informed, that I have to do 6-7 weeks of camp during the 8-9 week long winter break. >.< I get to choose when I want my vacation, and everything around my vacation is winter camp.

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 ;)

I wish they would at least tone back winter camp for the same reason. I've been informed, that I have to do 6-7 weeks of camp during the 8-9 week long winter break. >.< I get to choose when I want my vacation, and everything around my vacation is winter camp.

Geezus, 6-7 weeks of camp? Thankfully my school schedules never align so I generally only do camp with one school.

So I requested my payslip from admin. Apparently this caused the admin. creep to enter the teacher's office and speak at length at my coT during which he said "payslip" and "pension" and my name multiple times in the otherwise Korean conversation. Wonder if my paycheck being noticeably less than usual has a legitimate reason as to why. But honestly, how hard is it to print off that one piece of paper and hand it over? 

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 ;)

I wish they would at least tone back winter camp for the same reason. I've been informed, that I have to do 6-7 weeks of camp during the 8-9 week long winter break. >.< I get to choose when I want my vacation, and everything around my vacation is winter camp.

In one school?? Elementary??

Horrible 

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 ;)

I wish they would at least tone back winter camp for the same reason. I've been informed, that I have to do 6-7 weeks of camp during the 8-9 week long winter break. >.< I get to choose when I want my vacation, and everything around my vacation is winter camp.

That is what I wanted to tell my co-teacher, however I questioned why that much camp - I highly doubt the students want to spend their entire vacation doing camp. I got told, its so I can leave early instead of having to waste time deskwarming haha.

Geezus, 6-7 weeks of camp? Thankfully my school schedules never align so I generally only do camp with one school.

So I requested my payslip from admin. Apparently this caused the admin. creep to enter the teacher's office and speak at length at my coT during which he said "payslip" and "pension" and my name multiple times in the otherwise Korean conversation. Wonder if my paycheck being noticeably less than usual has a legitimate reason as to why. But honestly, how hard is it to print off that one piece of paper and hand it over? 

Luckily, out of my 3 schools, only 2 will be doing camp. My main and ele travel school. The ele travel school is only going to be 4 days of camp. My main school is everything else when I'm not on vacation / elementary camp. >.<
Hopefully the students won't want to do it. I'm struggling to come up with a week worth of winter camp stuff already >.<

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 ;)

I wish they would at least tone back winter camp for the same reason. I've been informed, that I have to do 6-7 weeks of camp during the 8-9 week long winter break. >.< I get to choose when I want my vacation, and everything around my vacation is winter camp.

In one school?? Elementary??

Horrible 

2 schools
1 week of elementary winter camp, 5 - 6 weeks of middle school winter camp. >.<

I set up a tripod to record my Drama Club's performance in the School Festival since I'm conducting the students.  Oblivious to everything around her, one of the mothers rushes in front of the camera, knocks over my tripod and camera, barely gives it a glance and continues to take a video on her phone!  I have 30 seconds of our performance and a 5 minute horizontal shot of her fat ass!   Luckily there were gym mats on the floor so the camera is okay but man, the disregard for others is just ridiculous!   

Very bizarre situation, as public school positions usually require no more than 5 weeks of camp per year (2 during one break and 3 weeks during the other).

I take it you don't do camps during the summer?

Geezus, 6-7 weeks of camp? Thankfully my school schedules never align so I generally only do camp with one school.

So I requested my payslip from admin. Apparently this caused the admin. creep to enter the teacher's office and speak at length at my coT during which he said "payslip" and "pension" and my name multiple times in the otherwise Korean conversation. Wonder if my paycheck being noticeably less than usual has a legitimate reason as to why. But honestly, how hard is it to print off that one piece of paper and hand it over? 

Maybe they're trying to cover something up? 

I set up a tripod to record my Drama Club's performance in the School Festival since I'm conducting the students.  Oblivious to everything around her, one of the mothers rushes in front of the camera, knocks over my tripod and camera, barely gives it a glance and continues to take a video on her phone!  I have 30 seconds of our performance and a 5 minute horizontal shot of her fat ass!   Luckily there were gym mats on the floor so the camera is okay but man, the disregard for others is just ridiculous!   

One thing that gave me unexpected culture shock was my first school festival. The amount of loud talking from the audience is so bizarre (especially after having worked in theatre for a long time, this was a particularly jarring experience). I was even trying to record things on my camera and people would come up to me and talk loudly! I don't want your stupid voice on my recording! Go away!

People at least had the decency to try and duck beneath my camera view when they realized I had one, though.

Geezus, 6-7 weeks of camp? Thankfully my school schedules never align so I generally only do camp with one school.

So I requested my payslip from admin. Apparently this caused the admin. creep to enter the teacher's office and speak at length at my coT during which he said "payslip" and "pension" and my name multiple times in the otherwise Korean conversation. Wonder if my paycheck being noticeably less than usual has a legitimate reason as to why. But honestly, how hard is it to print off that one piece of paper and hand it over? 

My school also didn't give me payslips despite asking for them. They finally did in my last two months, but like you said it seemed to be a massive deal to them for some reason.

I think part of the reason they don't give them to you is so they can screw you over when you leave and keep your housing deposit, claiming you owe them money or tax or whatever, knowing that you've no documents to challenge it.

Very bizarre situation, as public school positions usually require no more than 5 weeks of camp per year (2 during one break and 3 weeks during the other).

I take it you don't do camps during the summer?

We have a short but very big summer camp - 3 days, but all schools in the city have to give so many students. ALL the NETs, a handful of Korean teachers, and a few of the big wigs from the education office here have to attend it.

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.

Maybe they understood, but thought that they would prefer to eat it, versus the students doing so.

So I requested my payslip from admin. Apparently this caused the admin. creep to enter the teacher's office and speak at length at my coT during which he said "payslip" and "pension" and my name multiple times in the otherwise Korean conversation. Wonder if my paycheck being noticeably less than usual has a legitimate reason as to why. But honestly, how hard is it to print off that one piece of paper and hand it over? 

Maybe they're trying to cover something up? 

My school also didn't give me payslips despite asking for them. They finally did in my last two months, but like you said it seemed to be a massive deal to them for some reason.

I think part of the reason they don't give them to you is so they can screw you over when you leave and keep your housing deposit, claiming you owe them money or tax or whatever, knowing that you've no documents to challenge it.

GUESS WHAT

I received my payslip, and it had a higher amount than what was deposited into my bank account. Naturally I had to check up on the discrepancy annnnd..

220,000W was deposited today. Interesting! Wonder what would have happened to that money if I wasn't constantly checking up on my payslips!

Very bizarre situation, as public school positions usually require no more than 5 weeks of camp per year (2 during one break and 3 weeks during the other).

I take it you don't do camps during the summer?

We have a short but very big summer camp - 3 days, but all schools in the city have to give so many students. ALL the NETs, a handful of Korean teachers, and a few of the big wigs from the education office here have to attend it.

Well, that explains it.

I don't feel sorry for you anymore :/

If I only had 3 days of camp in summer for longer camps in the winter, I would be a happy "camper".

I'm so irritated.
 
Our school gave us a budget of 400,000 for the year. We spent about 200,000 for summer camp. We have a Golden Bell competition in a few weeks, and we were picking out prizes for that and it came to a total of 80,000, leaving us with 120,000 for winter camp. That's fine with me, because we have a new school rule that we can't do anything with food anymore, which is where most of our summer camp money went.

120,000 will be more than enough for winter, but no "they" (administration? VP? I have no idea.) said that we cannot buy prizes for Golden Bell, because they're worried we won't have enough money for winter camp. Why do they get to decide?? It's our budget money; shouldn't we get a say in where we use it? I don't need 200,000 for winter camp and no prizes for Golden Bell is ridiculous. So we just what, clap for the winners? BORING. I want to give them a prize. But no. "They" say we have to save that money for  camp. But I don't need it for camp arrrgghhh.

And my co (who is afraid of everyone and everything) refuses to stand up to them on this, even though she agrees with me.

Very bizarre situation, as public school positions usually require no more than 5 weeks of camp per year (2 during one break and 3 weeks during the other).

I take it you don't do camps during the summer?

We have a short but very big summer camp - 3 days, but all schools in the city have to give so many students. ALL the NETs, a handful of Korean teachers, and a few of the big wigs from the education office here have to attend it.

Well, that explains it.

I don't feel sorry for you anymore :/

If I only had 3 days of camp in summer for longer camps in the winter, I would be a happy "camper".

Our summer camp was 3 days of 9am - 10pm though >.< Though, the students got to finish at 9pm; and the teachers had to assemble at 7 - 8am. I'm not a morning person too. >.< We also had to travel to a different city together by bus.