RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

HA! The worst is when you can't throw them out or pawn them off right away and then they go moldy in the bottom of your desk drawers 

Students do seem to enjoy them though so I usually try and "re-gift", too. 

Wait. Just how long did you have them? I didn't even know they could go moldy.

I usually clean out my drawers at the end of each semester and once I found a couple that had been there a few (3?) months.

I am not a tidy man. 

I try not to complain about much, but I have to say, I get disproportionately irritated when people say 'rice cakes' when referring to ddeok / 떡.

You can't just make up a name for something (I realize it was the locals who made it in an effort to expand and promote local foods to make it for appealing and accessible for foreigners) when that name already exists and is a commonly known foodstuff. If you search 'rice cakes' on Google image search, all of the images that come up first are what are known in western countries as rice cakes. Further down and in a separate section are Korean 'rice cakes' which a) are often not made with rice, and b) are not cakes in any sense of the word.

Rice cakes are already a thing. That name is taken. How about using the real name of a food if they want to promote it and make it appealing? Imagine if you're eating a burger, and someone asks what it is, and you're like, "Oh, it's meat bread." Oh, well, what's that? "Oh, it's tomato noodle." Wait... then what's that? "Oh, it's raw fish rice."

Ugh. UGH. Translations do not make good food names.

lol agreed. same with 오뎅 being called 'fish cake'. Stupid name for it

lol agreed. same with 오댕 being called 'fish cake'. Stupid name for it

So that's what they're called in Korean.

lol agreed. same with 오댕 being called 'fish cake'. Stupid name for it

So that's what they're called in Korean.

Yeh. Although I found out recently that's actually kinda wrong. it's a bastardization of the Japanese name 'oden'. In Korean its '어묵'

Al my Korean friends call it 'odaeng' though lol

I usually clean out my drawers at the end of each semester and once I found a couple that had been there a few (3?) months.

I am not a tidy man. 

Ew. That's disgusting. Like... vile. I'd hate to see your apartment. Or your fridge.

You're welcome to come clean if you'd like! 

I try not to complain about much, but I have to say, I get disproportionately irritated when people say 'rice cakes' when referring to ddeok / 떡.

You can't just make up a name for something (I realize it was the locals who made it in an effort to expand and promote local foods to make it for appealing and accessible for foreigners) when that name already exists and is a commonly known foodstuff. If you search 'rice cakes' on Google image search, all of the images that come up first are what are known in western countries as rice cakes. Further down and in a separate section are Korean 'rice cakes' which a) are often not made with rice, and b) are not cakes in any sense of the word.

Rice cakes are already a thing. That name is taken. How about using the real name of a food if they want to promote it and make it appealing? Imagine if you're eating a burger, and someone asks what it is, and you're like, "Oh, it's meat bread." Oh, well, what's that? "Oh, it's tomato noodle." Wait... then what's that? "Oh, it's raw fish rice."

Ugh. UGH. Translations do not make good food names.

lol agreed. same with 오댕 being called 'fish cake'. Stupid name for it

*오뎅

Cowboy proving how much fun he once again with some classic spelling-nazism. What a fun, fun man you are.

I try not to complain about much, but I have to say, I get disproportionately irritated when people say 'rice cakes' when referring to ddeok / 떡.

You can't just make up a name for something (I realize it was the locals who made it in an effort to expand and promote local foods to make it for appealing and accessible for foreigners) when that name already exists and is a commonly known foodstuff. If you search 'rice cakes' on Google image search, all of the images that come up first are what are known in western countries as rice cakes. Further down and in a separate section are Korean 'rice cakes' which a) are often not made with rice, and b) are not cakes in any sense of the word.

Rice cakes are already a thing. That name is taken. How about using the real name of a food if they want to promote it and make it appealing? Imagine if you're eating a burger, and someone asks what it is, and you're like, "Oh, it's meat bread." Oh, well, what's that? "Oh, it's tomato noodle." Wait... then what's that? "Oh, it's raw fish rice."

Ugh. UGH. Translations do not make good food names.

lol agreed. same with 오댕 being called 'fish cake'. Stupid name for it

*오뎅

Cowboy proving how much fun he once again with some classic spelling-nazism. What a fun, fun man you are.

Improper terminology is POISON

I thought 오뎅 is the word for it that was imported when the Japanese brought the production and consumption of it over during colonization. Then after being liberated some Koreans promoted 오묵 as the natural Korean spelling to eliminate the influence of Japanese colonials on Korean language. Kind of like how Americans spell some words differently (center/centre, color/colour) because Webster was a nationalist that didn't want the U.S. and Britain spelling things the same way and also got to make the dictionary.

I try not to complain about much, but I have to say, I get disproportionately irritated when people say 'rice cakes' when referring to ddeok / 떡.

You can't just make up a name for something (I realize it was the locals who made it in an effort to expand and promote local foods to make it for appealing and accessible for foreigners) when that name already exists and is a commonly known foodstuff. If you search 'rice cakes' on Google image search, all of the images that come up first are what are known in western countries as rice cakes. Further down and in a separate section are Korean 'rice cakes' which a) are often not made with rice, and b) are not cakes in any sense of the word.

Rice cakes are already a thing. That name is taken. How about using the real name of a food if they want to promote it and make it appealing? Imagine if you're eating a burger, and someone asks what it is, and you're like, "Oh, it's meat bread." Oh, well, what's that? "Oh, it's tomato noodle." Wait... then what's that? "Oh, it's raw fish rice."

Ugh. UGH. Translations do not make good food names.

lol agreed. same with 오댕 being called 'fish cake'. Stupid name for it

*오뎅

Cowboy proving how much fun he once again with some classic spelling-nazism. What a fun, fun man you are.

Improper terminology is POISON

I agree and I generally tell my students to stick with the Korean words...but, if you were to explain what  떡 is to someone back home, what would you say?

I've been in Korean for too long the only thing I can think of is rice cake 


Same with 오뎅 now I think about it.

This bitch literally claps her hands for 5 minutes when putting on lotion.

Most people know I don't really complain all that much, but oh my goodness, school cafeterias are literally the worst.

I'm experiencing this for the first time ever after years of self-serve teacher lunches.

ZERO portion control at all with regards to how much of what the lunch staff serve you. Despite being more than capable of telling them how much I want, they're all super old, and the cafeteria is super noisy, and they're super tired and busy, so they don't care about special requests. So, I get a literal mountain of rice (which is awful because too much rice is bad), extremely limited amounts of anything red, because I'm sure they think it's spicy, and only half a bowl of soup because that's what the kids get and it's already prepped and waiting.

Again, it's not that I'm unable to communicate how much I want, it's just that they literally don't care (and I can't really blame them). Cafeterias are awful and I hate it. And as a male, I honestly need larger portions than an elementary school student does. And I'm not getting them. Except for the comically large pile of rice that I don't want to eat.

It sucks, because rice is a staple of my dinner, and if I eat that much rice, then I can't have rice with dinner, so that throws off my dinner plan. But if I don't eat the rice, I have to throw it in the garbage, and people who waste food are awful, so then I feel awful.

I miss serving myself.

There should be no problem getting less rice, just say you are on a diet, but you wont get anything else to compensate    There might be a random table somewhere with extra side dishes on that you can help yourself to? Most of my schools did that, one even had a salad bar for teachers 

The only thing we ever have extra is that really nasty sugary rice soup dessert crap.

... if you were to explain what  떡 is to someone back home, what would you say?

I've been in Korean for too long the only thing I can think of is rice cake 


Same with 오뎅 now I think about it.

I describe them as processed rice and fish. Like hot dogs are processed pork and tofu is processed soy. Koreans love to mash things into a paste before eating them. See gochu jang, doenjang, cheongguk jang, dotori muk, cheongpo muk, etc.

So I went to the eye doctor (an eye clinic, not the optical store) yesterday with my coteacher and it was a disaster. (To recap: been feeling sick in the way that I usually do when I need new glasses, but got new glasses and am still feeling sick.)

They checked my eyes, and they examination indicated that the prescription on my new glasses is correct and doesn't need to be adjusted. Then they took a picture of my eyeballs to see if there was an issue with the nerves and that was fine too. Basically, they couldn't find any problems.

That would be fine if they said like "we couldn't find any problems with your glasses or your eyes; perhaps you should go to [other kind of doctor] because if it's not en eye problem it might be [other kind of problem]"

But no. Oh, no. Instead, the eye doctor went on this long rant to my coteacher about how there's absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes or with my glasses and he doesn't even think I need glasses and asks why I even wear them in the first place. For a good 5-10 minutes he goes on and on and I hear him repeatedly say "doesn't need glasses" and "no eye problems."

I had tried to explain to my coteacher before that I know my prescription is very weak, but without glasses I feel sick to my stomach whenever reading/looking at anything in close-mid range. Relatedly, my eyes are very sensitive so if my prescription is off by even a little bit I get that sick to my stomach feeling. I explained this to her several times very patiently and using as simple language as I could when she was having trouble understanding, but she still didn't seem to understand because after the doctor's rant she asked me "Why do you wear glasses if they make you feel sick?" #$%$##$%

Because she couldn't understand me, and could easily understand the eye doctor's nonsensical rant about how I don't need glasses, she was convinced that I don't need them and wear them for.... fun??

The only silver lining of this is that if it had been the US I would've paid 100+ dollars to get a total non-answer but here it was only 12. My problem is still unsolved, I haven't gotten any helpful information ("Maybe it's because of stress? Are you getting enough sleep?"), and I'm not sure what the next step is. I'm unproductive because I feel like I'm going to vomit out of my eye sockets for at least an hour a day.

I even tried not wearing my glasses today but I could only go 2 hours before the eye strain got uncomfortable, on the off chance that my 5 years of wearing glasses and the many eye doctors I've seen in the US were somehow wrong.

ugh

*오뎅

#basedcoyboyshirt proving once again how much fun he is once again with some classic spelling-Nazism. What a fun, fun man you are.

Death to Spelling/Grammar Anarchists!

This bitch literally claps her hands for 5 minutes when putting on lotion.

  can't stop laughing at this!

Yeah, sure school. Move my absolute worst class full of monsters to sixth period, Friday afternoon. That will go well.

It did not.

I was asked to help my coteachers decide on the winners of the book report poster competition.  They gave me several to compare, and I would choose the one I thought was best. Two of the ones they had me compare were so off-putting in terms of content I couldn't vote for either, but in the end they made me choose one.

The first was a letter to the Ugly Duckling saying that she felt bad for him and reading the ugly duckling made her reconsider how she had purposefully avoided her sister, who is "fat, ugly, and even stupid." Gah! Wtf!

The second said she thought Obama was like the ugly duckling, and included the blatant historical error that blacks were still enslaved when Obama was a child, and even implied that Obama himself had been a slave. Seriously???

When pressed, I went for the first, because even though it was really harsh, it was better written and didn't have a ridiculous error. My coteachers seemed to be leaning towards the Obama one, and tried to make it like it wasn't really a big deal to make a mistake like that, and I was only offended because it's my country and my president. Well... duh. Of course. I asked them to consider if a student had written that Park Geun-Hye had grown up in North Korea and a light seemed to go off in their heads.

So I went to the eye doctor (an eye clinic, not the optical store) yesterday with my coteacher and it was a disaster. (To recap: been feeling sick in the way that I usually do when I need new glasses, but got new glasses and am still feeling sick.)

They checked my eyes, and they examination indicated that the prescription on my new glasses is correct and doesn't need to be adjusted. Then they took a picture of my eyeballs to see if there was an issue with the nerves and that was fine too. Basically, they couldn't find any problems.

That would be fine if they said like "we couldn't find any problems with your glasses or your eyes; perhaps you should go to [other kind of doctor] because if it's not en eye problem it might be [other kind of problem]"

But no. Oh, no. Instead, the eye doctor went on this long rant to my coteacher about how there's absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes or with my glasses and he doesn't even think I need glasses and asks why I even wear them in the first place. For a good 5-10 minutes he goes on and on and I hear him repeatedly say "doesn't need glasses" and "no eye problems."

I had tried to explain to my coteacher before that I know my prescription is very weak, but without glasses I feel sick to my stomach whenever reading/looking at anything in close-mid range. Relatedly, my eyes are very sensitive so if my prescription is off by even a little bit I get that sick to my stomach feeling. I explained this to her several times very patiently and using as simple language as I could when she was having trouble understanding, but she still didn't seem to understand because after the doctor's rant she asked me "Why do you wear glasses if they make you feel sick?" #$%$##$%

Because she couldn't understand me, and could easily understand the eye doctor's nonsensical rant about how I don't need glasses, she was convinced that I don't need them and wear them for.... fun??

The only silver lining of this is that if it had been the US I would've paid 100+ dollars to get a total non-answer but here it was only 12. My problem is still unsolved, I haven't gotten any helpful information ("Maybe it's because of stress? Are you getting enough sleep?"), and I'm not sure what the next step is. I'm unproductive because I feel like I'm going to vomit out of my eye sockets for at least an hour a day.

I even tried not wearing my glasses today but I could only go 2 hours before the eye strain got uncomfortable, on the off chance that my 5 years of wearing glasses and the many eye doctors I've seen in the US were somehow wrong.

ugh

Your poor coteacher... you couldn't ask a friend to go? Maybe you should go to the hospital?

[eye doctor nightmare]

ugh

Your poor coteacher... you couldn't ask a friend to go? Maybe you should go to the hospital?

I might try to go this weekend when I see my friend. It's just been a few weeks and when I wasn't feeling better after having new glasses for a week I just wanted to go in as soon as I could, and my friend lives too far to come over on weekdays.

The first was a letter to the Ugly Duckling saying that she felt bad for him and reading the ugly duckling made her reconsider how she had purposefully avoided her sister, who is "fat, ugly, and even stupid." Gah! Wtf!

When pressed, I went for the first, because even though it was really harsh, it was better written and didn't have a ridiculous error. My coteachers seemed to be leaning towards the Obama one, and tried to make it like it wasn't really a big deal to make a mistake like that, and I was only offended because it's my country and my president. Well... duh. Of course. I asked them to consider if a student had written that Park Geun-Hye had grown up in North Korea and a light seemed to go off in their heads.

But the story made her reconsider avoiding her sister. So the story worked? It's not great what she did, but she's opening her eyes to the lesson inherent in that story. What's the problem?