RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Completely 100% unrelated: I genuinely wish I could quit smoking, but I just don't have the will to do it because I enjoy it so much. I generally spend the last 50% of my day looking forward to the cigarette I'll have when I get home. Sucks that it's so bad for you and such a gross smell on your clothes / breath / hair / everything.

OMG me too!!!! I look forward to that 5pm cigarette like a kid at Christmas!!!

Feel your pain. I smoked a packet a day at my peak, 5 years clean.

1 - Gym, with Death Metal/Gangster Rap in your ears.
2 - You've learned to associate stress with smoking, retrain your brain.
3 - Stay away from people and situations where you smoke the most
4 - Gym some more
5 - Did I mention gym?

This is really good advice that I have heard a number of times, but I am an addict and therefore my brain in this regard malfunctions, and I will rationalise and justify my ways through a completely broken cognitive process, I will then try and correct this cognitive malfunction with my own broken cognitive processes. Vicious circle. I actually did stop for a while and changed to an e-cig, was doing really well, but then my CT happened and well things have been down hill from there.

I have been promising myself that I need to join the gym for winter..... procrastinating like a mother f*%ker on that one. *screaming at myself* JUST DO IT ALREADY

I decided to force myself to take walks out in the cold to prevent my recent problem drinking :) Since I've proven to myself that I lack the confidence to join a gym

JUST DO IT

Completely 100% unrelated: I genuinely wish I could quit smoking, but I just don't have the will to do it because I enjoy it so much. I generally spend the last 50% of my day looking forward to the cigarette I'll have when I get home. Sucks that it's so bad for you and such a gross smell on your clothes / breath / hair / everything.

OMG me too!!!! I look forward to that 5pm cigarette like a kid at Christmas!!!

Feel your pain. I smoked a packet a day at my peak, 5 years clean.

1 - Gym, with Death Metal/Gangster Rap in your ears.
2 - You've learned to associate stress with smoking, retrain your brain.
3 - Stay away from people and situations where you smoke the most
4 - Gym some more
5 - Did I mention gym?

This is really good advice that I have heard a number of times, but I am an addict and therefore my brain in this regard malfunctions, and I will rationalise and justify my ways through a completely broken cognitive process, I will then try and correct this cognitive malfunction with my own broken cognitive processes. Vicious circle. I actually did stop for a while and changed to an e-cig, was doing really well, but then my CT happened and well things have been down hill from there.

I have been promising myself that I need to join the gym for winter..... procrastinating like a mother f*%ker on that one. *screaming at myself* JUST DO IT ALREADY

I decided to force myself to take walks out in the cold to prevent my recent problem drinking :) Since I've proven to myself that I lack the confidence to join a gym

JUST DO IT

A wise man once said

I hate when the students let out these long drawn out groans when I tell them to open their notebooks. I mean come on, it's school. Of course you are going to have to do some work for crying out loud.

I hate when the students let out these long drawn out groans when I tell them to open their notebooks. I mean come on, it's school. Of course you are going to have to do some work for crying out loud.

Kids are shit.

I hate when the students let out these long drawn out groans when I tell them to open their notebooks. I mean come on, it's school. Of course you are going to have to do some work for crying out loud.

Kids are shit.

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but when I first got to Korea and learned about all the ways they recycle I thought this sort of awareness would extend to other parts of the society too. People told me how much Koreans care about recycling/the environment/not wasting energy etc etc so I had some weird expectations. Like, I thought Korean-made products would have less extra pointless packaging. Somehow, there seems to be MORE??

That's logical. It's so that you have more things to recycle. The more things you recycle, the better and fuzzier you feel inside.

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I often get asked, "Are you [European ethnicity]?"  and have no hurt feelings whatsoever.

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I often get asked, "Are you [European ethnicity]?"  and have no hurt feelings whatsoever.

There's a bit of a difference tho if people don't accept your answer of being american cuz they're trying to place what kind of asian you are. I get that. I'm mixed so people try to guess where I'm from. Good luck to them guessing cuz I'm also adopted and have no clue what my background is. I usually say "I uno, something white and something black" and people back off XD

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I often get asked, "Are you [European ethnicity]?"  and have no hurt feelings whatsoever.

Are you then told

"Oh, but you look [insert other ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?"

?

"Are you Russian?" 

"Are you really from Africa? Why are you white? Do you speak African?"

"You look Irish though, are you sure you are from Africa?" 

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I often get asked, "Are you [European ethnicity]?"  and have no hurt feelings whatsoever.

There's a bit of a difference tho if people don't accept your answer of being american cuz they're trying to place what kind of asian you are. I get that. I'm mixed so people try to guess where I'm from. Good luck to them guessing cuz I'm also adopted and have no clue what my background is. I usually say "I uno, something white and something black" and people back off XD

I showed my swing friends a picture of my girlfriend (Chinese-Filipino-American) and they ask "oh, is she Chinese??" "No, American" "But she is Asian!" "There are many Asian people who live in America." "But she looks Chinese" "Yes. Her mom is ethnically Chinese. But they were both born in America"

Then they proceed to give me a loooooong inquisitive look

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I often get asked, "Are you [European ethnicity]?"  and have no hurt feelings whatsoever.

Are you then told

"Oh, but you look [insert other ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?"

?

Thank you Donovan! All the jam for you!!

@JNM. There are generally two types of people when it comes to this. Here are some examples:

"Where are you from?"
"America."
"Oh cool. What's your ethnicity, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Oh my parents are from [blah blah blah]."
"Cool. I'm from [blah blah blah]."
*pleasant conversation ensues*

Then there's THIS type:

"What are you?"
"Sorry?"
"I mean, where are you from?"
"Oh, I'm from America."
"No, where are you really from?"
"...I'm from America. [insert state]"
"No, I mean where were you born?"
"...I was born and raised in America."
"No, I mean where are your parents from?"
"..."

Jesus. The latter kind of person is extremely annoying and always looks smugly satisfied after confirming that my ancestors are not from America. Well putz, unless your ancestry is native American, your ancestors weren't originally from 'murica either.

I hate when the students let out these long drawn out groans when I tell them to open their notebooks. I mean come on, it's school. Of course you are going to have to do some work for crying out loud.

Kids are shit.

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I hate that. I know it's just because they are super ignorant, so most of the time I let it slide, but the worst is when people narrow their eyes after you respond like you're lying after and press you further, as if they think they have a better idea of where you're from than you do. I've had people ask me "then where are your parents from?" "America" "then your grandparents?" "America and Canada..."

I don't get annoyed anymore when people don't think I'm from the USA at first glance, but how they respond after I tell them is the problem.

Only once have I had someone actually apologize for making an inference based on my skin color/stereotypes, a nice old Japanese man actually said sorry when he realized he had picked me out of a group of Americans as the only non-American, and his wife continued to chastise him after for not knowing any better.

If I don't sense ill intent or malice behind the questions, I don't mind if it's an honest mistake or even badly phrased. I can tell when a person is genuinely just interested versus trying to label me as "other"

I hate when the students let out these long drawn out groans when I tell them to open their notebooks. I mean come on, it's school. Of course you are going to have to do some work for crying out loud.

Kids are shit.

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I hate that. I know it's just because they are super ignorant, so most of the time I let it slide, but the worst is when people narrow their eyes after you respond like you're lying after and press you further, as if they think they have a better idea of where you're from than you do. I've had people ask me "then where are your parents from?" "America" "then your grandparents?" "America and Canada..."

I don't get annoyed anymore when people don't think I'm from the USA at first glance, but how they respond after I tell them is the problem.

Only once have I had someone actually apologize for making an inference based on my skin color/stereotypes, a nice old Japanese man actually said sorry when he realized he had picked me out of a group of Americans as the only non-American, and his wife continued to chastise him after for not knowing any better.

If I don't sense ill intent or malice behind the questions, I don't mind if it's an honest mistake or even badly phrased. I can tell when a person is genuinely just interested versus trying to label me as "other"

I understand you.

My point was just that sometimes people are looking for a fight, and see malice where there is none.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJkN5HbQ

There was this guy on my floor freshman year of college who had a Jamaican accent

  : Where are you from?
  : Michigan
  : huh? really?
  : Yep, Kalamazoo
  : Uhh, where's your accent from?
  : Michigan

You could tell he got a real kick out of it, because most people couldn't immediately tell it was a Jamaican accent, just that it was definitely NOT from Michigan

Tried showing a movie to my third graders, as that seems to be the trend around school and I knew I had no chance at trying to learn 'em anything if they're watching fail videos in all their other classes.

So of course I get the "no you must teach" spiel. Okay, fair enough. I whip up a set of riddles. They dig those. Then I'm told, "Oh I think these are too hard for them."

 

People are shite. Grown ass adults are shite. Foreigners pestering me "where are you from?" after I've already spoken enough to show an American midwestern accent and said I'M FROM THE USA. "Oh, but you look [insert Asian ethnicity here]." "Oh but where are you really from?" Cause apparently the default American is just a white person.

Things like this make me more than content to remain on my island. Honestly, the last two weekends I have dealt with this rubbish. 

I often get asked, "Are you [European ethnicity]?"  and have no hurt feelings whatsoever.

This. People looking for fights take normal social interactions and turn them into some race relations microcosm. Instead of you know, just answering the question in the same way everyone else does.

There was this white guy on my football team back in high school. Going around we asked it and everyone answered normally. He responded Canadian and refused to state his ancestry because he identified as Canadian.

He was as much of a jackass as anyone of any other race that does the same thing.

Just normal social interaction for North Americans. Not answering this question is akin to telling someone how horrible your day is when they ask how you're doing. No one actually cares.

Tried showing a movie to my third graders, as that seems to be the trend around school and I knew I had no chance at trying to learn 'em anything if they're watching fail videos in all their other classes.

So of course I get the "no you must teach" spiel. Okay, fair enough. I whip up a set of riddles. They dig those. Then I'm told, "Oh I think these are too hard for them."

 

Of course.

I have zero problem (actually I like it) when a competent and motivated co-teacher makes suggestions, or even flat-out vetoes something I want to do, as long as they're a good teacher themselves and it's actually a good idea.

But when someone assumes they know the students' abilities more than any foreigner ever possibly good and is super nitpicky even with a competent NSET, that's just terrible.

Yeah, same. In my experience it's the near-fluent co-ts who help me out and give suggestions). The ones who pull the "Oh this is too hard but I have no real input of my own" are basically saying, "Well this confounds me and makes me feel insecure about my own abilities as I am not capable of understanding this shit." Ugh.