RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

wheresmycoffee: the arbiter of what is and isn't ok to rant about in the ranting thread

To clarify the kind of person she is, she counted the trip we took to the bank to set up my bank account, in my first week in the country, as unpaid leave for me... I needed that account to receive my wages, banks don't open on weekends, and I am away from home, in the sticks 8:00-5:30 every day. Apparently no other coteacher in my province has ever logged it as such.
If I am paying that money it's almost worth it to not have to bother with dealing with it... :/

She probably logged it as (외출) 'going out' rather than '무급 휴가' unpaid leave.  I had to take my laptop to the repairers last year and my vice-principal told me to do it as 'going out'.  Only took thirty minutes.  Bit stupid really.  Thing is, you aren't actually deducted money if over the whole year, your 'going out' or 'unpaid leave' adds up to a total day.  So at the end of last year I only had 6.5 hours, but nothing was deducted as it didn't make the full day.

Ooh that's good to know! I'm sure mine won't end up equalling that either

That's cool.  As you're paid by the day they can't seriously deduct salary for hours away.  So just keep it under the 7 hour mark (1 hour lunch not included on NEIS).  (외출) 'going out' is if you intend on coming back to school.  They also include (조퇴) 'early leave' if you have no intention on coming back to school.  As my dad came to Korea last year, we had two afternoons (2x3 hours) together, that was done as 'early leave'.  They have all this stuff in the admin, for all the teachers.  They can print off your list and you can check what's been done.  They had put one hospital visit down as 'going out' whereas it should have been a hospital half day.  He changed it, so no harm done.

oh right... thanks for reminding me... haha

I've used up like two vacation days on early leave already

I guess I wasn't thinking about it like that because I never even considered giving up pay as opposed to vacation days

wheresmycoffee: the arbiter of what is and isn't ok to rant about in the ranting thread

Not telling people what they can and can not post. Just stating it's absolutely ridiculous that a lot of the complaints are for reason directly because the NET was to lazy/passive to get things sorted.

Just because my target in those post were NET's and not directed towards Koreans, doesn't make my "rant" any less valid, or that I am trying to dictate what people can rant about.

"My school is refusing to let me see my pay stub, and won't allow me to stop paying for dinners that I never get invited to," is not the same as, "woe is me, I am losing $50 a month because I am too lazy to figure it out..."

Meanwhile, the school thinks they can just treat every NET like this.

 

that being said, not to sound like Pecan, but if you had hoped to go, you should've nagged whoever was appropriate about whether or not you were going for at least a month. There's no way they'd just randomly invite the foreign teacher on an expensive trip like that unless you were really in their faces about it (and maybe not even then, but at least you would've known you weren't going sooner)

Oh I don't blame the school in any way. Not for this one at least. I would have nagged for a month if I had known the date of the trip before the monthly calender was updated to December. I have a calender of school events but only the ones that pertain to me, which ski camp clearly doesn't.

This rant was more just general annoyance at myself for hoping when I should know that I am never going to be invited to events ever by now and my coteacher's attitude about it. Her English isn't perfect but it's good enough to realise that that is not a cool way to respond to that situation. She just doesn't care.

And WheresMyCoffee I know I need to do that but I have tried before and just got a print out of what I was paid, nothing about deductions or what wage was for what. Just you got paid x amount in 6 months. Unfortunately I have to go through my coteacher as none of the admin staff speak a word of English and she isn't the most willing to help.
To clarify the kind of person she is, she counted the trip we took to the bank to set up my bank account, in my first week in the country, as unpaid leave for me... I needed that account to receive my wages, banks don't open on weekends, and I am away from home, in the sticks 8:00-5:30 every day. Apparently no other coteacher in my province has ever logged it as such.
If I am paying that money it's almost worth it to not have to bother with dealing with it... :/

seriousy, ffs.... STAND UP FOR YOUR ****** SELF! Listen to those around you. They are stealing from you, also THEY HAVE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A MONTHLY STATEMENT if you ask for it, not some bullshit paper. I don't know whats worse, people that are willing to be walked over, or actual problems at work due to Korean staff.

No wonder I have only been asked to resign at 1 of my previous schools, because they want a pushover NET that they can take advantage off. Your bank is a business trip, not unpaid leave.

You want to complain about stuff fine. Rant about stuff fine, WHEN YOU ACTUALLY TRY AND DO SOMETHING about it, and it still is a struggle. For the most part, Koreans are the shadiest people ever, they will stab family in the back for money, you NEED to put your foot down.

If you don't know something, don't just roll over, ask people that have experienced it, call the coordinator.

I took this advice and stood up for myself and the last 4 months have been sheer hell while I have been ostracized, told I am useless, and continuously screamed at in Korean..... Oh! and then NOT RENEWED. Because I am the "difficult" foreigner. (They had no problem with the right out of college 20 year old they had before me, who had never had a job before, let alone taught before. So of course me being an older, experienced teacher just does not work for them.)

I wish I had never stood up for myself. So it is a bit of a between a rock and a hard place situation. Remember that not every NET has coordinators and POEs to go to in times such as these. (also any Saffas reading this... POEs as in Provincial Office of Education (plural "s") there is no pun intended there at all.

Sometimes standing up for yourself even if it is just a small thing, can completely destroy your life at a school, so I think every individual situation needs to be weighed up accordingly.

@Chingetti thanks for the help-- turns out English language options were just totally absent though, otherwise it would have worked.

Secretary made some calls and now the computer is in English but now there's no Korean keyboard option... Lol. On my previous computer it was only somewhat in English but enough for me to do whatever I wanted to do, now it's entirely in English and I'm gonna have to find Korean again before the next time I need to use NEIS. Ha. Ha. Ha.

And I'm not hooked up to the color printer anymore. But that's not a pressing concern so that can wait. All this reminds me of the old lady who ate a fly and the subsequent solutions that caused more problems haha

*Edit: Can't even find NEIS now. And the microsoft word & ppt programs are still all in Korean. And here I dared hope that if everything else was in English...

*Edit: Actually, maybe this is just fine. Since my old computer got moved to the English lab I can just do my NEIS business in there when I have to and leave this computer alone for now.

lol

I'm sorry my instructions didn't help at all and that you ended up snowballed.

Similar thing kind of happened to me, my school laptop got destroyed, so the school gave me another used laptop to replace it with, and nothing worked on it at first. When they got one thing working, 2 to 3 other things would stop working. I'm now at a point that mostly everything works with some workarounds, but I have to live with directly connecting my computer to the printer if I need to print anything because the wireless functions are racist and don't want the foreigner to have that kind of convenience. I have to walk it over like the heathen that I am.

I hope you can get everything working the way you need them to. xD

seriousy, ffs.... STAND UP FOR YOUR ****** SELF! Listen to those around you. They are stealing from you, also THEY HAVE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A MONTHLY STATEMENT if you ask for it, not some bullshit paper. I don't know whats worse, people that are willing to be walked over, or actual problems at work due to Korean staff.

No wonder I have only been asked to resign at 1 of my previous schools, because they want a pushover NET that they can take advantage off. Your bank is a business trip, not unpaid leave.

You want to complain about stuff fine. Rant about stuff fine, WHEN YOU ACTUALLY TRY AND DO SOMETHING about it, and it still is a struggle. For the most part, Koreans are the shadiest people ever, they will stab family in the back for money, you NEED to put your foot down.

If you don't know something, don't just roll over, ask people that have experienced it, call the coordinator.

Believe me, I did stand up for myself with the early leave shit. What she did is perfectly legal. Bank trips are not covered in the contracts as business trips so she did nothing wrong.
Me and my coordinator have been working for months to get this sorted and it isn't possible to change that one. However, he mentioned something about future contracts being changed so that that initial bank trip is considered a business trip for future EPIK hires.
I have also resulted in her every early leave being strictly monitered because if she is going to be so strict with me, then she also deserves the same scrutiny.
Just because I didn't say I was dealing with it, doesn't mean I'm 'letting them walk all over me'.

However, because of all this, my relationship with my coteacher is struggling a little and I do actually want to renew for next year. Pushing other issues at this point is not worth risking my future job prospects.

This is a ranting thread, I was ranting. I'm not going to detail every little thing that I have done to stand up for myself and prove that I am actually a human being, not some push-over English robot. That isn't the point of this thread.
I was merely expressing my disappointment that my students and coworkers get to do something fun and I do not.

wheresmycoffee is like a meaner Pecan who doesn't bring the quality banter

0/10

EDIT: I know Pecan is thick-skinned but I don't want him to think I'm ragging on him. Pecan, I was saying he's like you except minus your good points.

-6C, windows wide open, heaters on full.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. Heating off.

Same here ;)

Koreans have a very interesting view on this...I think they must believe that the electric heaters put out carbon monoxide, like their oil heaters from old or it's simply an old habit that they just can't seem to break.

Anyone know if it's myth or erroneous information that is causing this behavior to continue?

I was in a great mood this morning. It's almost the weekend. I've got all my planning done. Got a good night's sleep.

Then the first thing I get told at school this morning is that I have to "change" my vacation lesson plan. Too similar to last year. It's different effing students! It went over well last time!! I already made a lot of changes to things that didn't work so well, but kept the overall layout. I imagine those were lost in translation.

I swear, every single time I hand in a vacation lesson plan, they come back to me a week later and demand I change it. Last year it was formatting (mine was actually better than the crap hwp spreadsheet they wanted) this year it's content. I'm pretty sure it's expected of them to poo-poo my first attempt just to keep me busy. Well, from now on I'll just hand in crap early drafts first and hold back on the real content until they demand more.

that being said, not to sound like Pecan, but if you had hoped to go, you should've nagged whoever was appropriate about whether or not you were going for at least a month. There's no way they'd just randomly invite the foreign teacher on an expensive trip like that unless you were really in their faces about it (and maybe not even then, but at least you would've known you weren't going sooner)

Oh I don't blame the school in any way. Not for this one at least. I would have nagged for a month if I had known the date of the trip before the monthly calender was updated to December. I have a calender of school events but only the ones that pertain to me, which ski camp clearly doesn't.

This rant was more just general annoyance at myself for hoping when I should know that I am never going to be invited to events ever by now and my coteacher's attitude about it. Her English isn't perfect but it's good enough to realise that that is not a cool way to respond to that situation. She just doesn't care.

And WheresMyCoffee I know I need to do that but I have tried before and just got a print out of what I was paid, nothing about deductions or what wage was for what. Just you got paid x amount in 6 months. Unfortunately I have to go through my coteacher as none of the admin staff speak a word of English and she isn't the most willing to help.
To clarify the kind of person she is, she counted the trip we took to the bank to set up my bank account, in my first week in the country, as unpaid leave for me... I needed that account to receive my wages, banks don't open on weekends, and I am away from home, in the sticks 8:00-5:30 every day. Apparently no other coteacher in my province has ever logged it as such.
If I am paying that money it's almost worth it to not have to bother with dealing with it... :/

seriousy, ffs.... STAND UP FOR YOUR ****** SELF! Listen to those around you. They are stealing from you, also THEY HAVE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A MONTHLY STATEMENT if you ask for it, not some bullshit paper. I don't know whats worse, people that are willing to be walked over, or actual problems at work due to Korean staff.

No wonder I have only been asked to resign at 1 of my previous schools, because they want a pushover NET that they can take advantage off. Your bank is a business trip, not unpaid leave.

You want to complain about stuff fine. Rant about stuff fine, WHEN YOU ACTUALLY TRY AND DO SOMETHING about it, and it still is a struggle. For the most part, Koreans are the shadiest people ever, they will stab family in the back for money, you NEED to put your foot down.

If you don't know something, don't just roll over, ask people that have experienced it, call the coordinator.

I took this advice and stood up for myself and the last 4 months have been sheer hell while I have been ostracized, told I am useless, and continuously screamed at in Korean..... Oh! and then NOT RENEWED. Because I am the "difficult" foreigner. (They had no problem with the right out of college 20 year old they had before me, who had never had a job before, let alone taught before. So of course me being an older, experienced teacher just does not work for them.)

I wish I had never stood up for myself. So it is a bit of a between a rock and a hard place situation. Remember that not every NET has coordinators and POEs to go to in times such as these. (also any Saffas reading this... POEs as in Provincial Office of Education (plural "s") there is no pun intended there at all.

Sometimes standing up for yourself even if it is just a small thing, can completely destroy your life at a school, so I think every individual situation needs to be weighed up accordingly.

I agree fully. However, having money taken from you for events, and then told you can't go to events.... stuff like that (contract stuff etc).

It also just shows what Korean staff think of you, they are just giving you face.

I digress...

seriousy, ffs.... STAND UP FOR YOUR ****** SELF! Listen to those around you. They are stealing from you, also THEY HAVE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A MONTHLY STATEMENT if you ask for it, not some bullshit paper. I don't know whats worse, people that are willing to be walked over, or actual problems at work due to Korean staff.

No wonder I have only been asked to resign at 1 of my previous schools, because they want a pushover NET that they can take advantage off. Your bank is a business trip, not unpaid leave.

You want to complain about stuff fine. Rant about stuff fine, WHEN YOU ACTUALLY TRY AND DO SOMETHING about it, and it still is a struggle. For the most part, Koreans are the shadiest people ever, they will stab family in the back for money, you NEED to put your foot down.

If you don't know something, don't just roll over, ask people that have experienced it, call the coordinator.

Believe me, I did stand up for myself with the early leave shit. What she did is perfectly legal. Bank trips are not covered in the contracts as business trips so she did nothing wrong.
Me and my coordinator have been working for months to get this sorted and it isn't possible to change that one. However, he mentioned something about future contracts being changed so that that initial bank trip is considered a business trip for future EPIK hires.
I have also resulted in her every early leave being strictly monitered because if she is going to be so strict with me, then she also deserves the same scrutiny.
Just because I didn't say I was dealing with it, doesn't mean I'm 'letting them walk all over me'.

However, because of all this, my relationship with my coteacher is struggling a little and I do actually want to renew for next year. Pushing other issues at this point is not worth risking my future job prospects.

This is a ranting thread, I was ranting. I'm not going to detail every little thing that I have done to stand up for myself and prove that I am actually a human being, not some push-over English robot. That isn't the point of this thread.
I was merely expressing my disappointment that my students and coworkers get to do something fun and I do not.

Well, with out some details, then don't get upset if someone responds based on no context. Anyway... enough on that.

wheresmycoffee is like a meaner Pecan who doesn't bring the quality banter

0/10

EDIT: I know Pecan is thick-skinned but I don't want him to think I'm ragging on him. Pecan, I was saying he's like you except minus your good points.

Quality post right here. Sorry I am not preaching the 24/7 narrative of, woe is me, and directing some of the rant towards NET's.

Glad I could make Pecan a better person in your eyes. I will take my place at the top of the totem pole!

I was in a great mood this morning. It's almost the weekend. I've got all my planning done. Got a good night's sleep.

Then the first thing I get told at school this morning is that I have to "change" my vacation lesson plan. Too similar to last year. It's different effing students! It went over well last time!! I already made a lot of changes to things that didn't work so well, but kept the overall layout. I imagine those were lost in translation.

I swear, every single time I hand in a vacation lesson plan, they come back to me a week later and demand I change it. Last year it was formatting (mine was actually better than the crap hwp spreadsheet they wanted) this year it's content. I'm pretty sure it's expected of them to poo-poo my first attempt just to keep me busy. Well, from now on I'll just hand in crap early drafts first and hold back on the real content until they demand more.

You're learning. haha.

Yeah, at this point, just change the name of some things, or something like that, but just do the same plan anyway. No one will come and check to see what you are actually doing for camp anyway...

Camp is 2 weeks out, and I haven't done a god damn thing, and I won't till the week before... Just keep saying your working on it, and you are busy, and stuff...

The NET before me warned me about the CT I do camp with, and after one year of doing it with her already, I just sit back and do whatever... its pointless to fight it.

@Chingetti thanks for the help-- turns out English language options were just totally absent though, otherwise it would have worked.

Secretary made some calls and now the computer is in English but now there's no Korean keyboard option... Lol. On my previous computer it was only somewhat in English but enough for me to do whatever I wanted to do, now it's entirely in English and I'm gonna have to find Korean again before the next time I need to use NEIS. Ha. Ha. Ha.

And I'm not hooked up to the color printer anymore. But that's not a pressing concern so that can wait. All this reminds me of the old lady who ate a fly and the subsequent solutions that caused more problems haha

*Edit: Can't even find NEIS now. And the microsoft word & ppt programs are still all in Korean. And here I dared hope that if everything else was in English...

*Edit: Actually, maybe this is just fine. Since my old computer got moved to the English lab I can just do my NEIS business in there when I have to and leave this computer alone for now.

Not sure if you solved the keyboard biz (I didn't want to sift through the two pages of people having a melty). But if you got upgraded to Win10 this'll help you. http://10wontips.blogspot.kr/2015/09/typing-in-korean-on-windows-10.html

Also, on Win10 changing the language of office is a pain / you'll need your computer person to do it. But it is totally possible. Just bring your computer maintenance person some snacks and ask real nicely. I'm pretty sure all [read: most] have a license to use MS programs and the English version will be included in that. Just need to be persistent but not pushy.

Hey thanks, turns out it's Windows 7 Enterprise (formerly with a "K" presumably for Korean?) though. When I searched for a language pack to download, I could only find one from an unofficial site which warned that installation might cause the computer to go black and show only the mouse    I'm not desperate enough to risk that quite yet.

Last year when I first started working here, I asked about changing the MS programs to English and was told it was "impossible." Something about futzing with NEIS, I think. Though I imagine this computer otherwise being all in English might futz with that? Idk

@Chingetti thanks for the help-- turns out English language options were just totally absent though, otherwise it would have worked.

Secretary made some calls and now the computer is in English but now there's no Korean keyboard option... Lol. On my previous computer it was only somewhat in English but enough for me to do whatever I wanted to do, now it's entirely in English and I'm gonna have to find Korean again before the next time I need to use NEIS. Ha. Ha. Ha.

And I'm not hooked up to the color printer anymore. But that's not a pressing concern so that can wait. All this reminds me of the old lady who ate a fly and the subsequent solutions that caused more problems haha

*Edit: Can't even find NEIS now. And the microsoft word & ppt programs are still all in Korean. And here I dared hope that if everything else was in English...

*Edit: Actually, maybe this is just fine. Since my old computer got moved to the English lab I can just do my NEIS business in there when I have to and leave this computer alone for now.

Not sure if you solved the keyboard biz (I didn't want to sift through the two pages of people having a melty). But if you got upgraded to Win10 this'll help you. http://10wontips.blogspot.kr/2015/09/typing-in-korean-on-windows-10.html

Also, on Win10 changing the language of office is a pain / you'll need your computer person to do it. But it is totally possible. Just bring your computer maintenance person some snacks and ask real nicely. I'm pretty sure all [read: most] have a license to use MS programs and the English version will be included in that. Just need to be persistent but not pushy.

Hey thanks, turns out it's Windows 7 Enterprise (formerly with a "K" presumably for Korean?) though. When I searched for a language pack to download, I could only find one from an unofficial site which warned that installation might cause the computer to go black and show only the mouse    I'm not desperate enough to risk that quite yet.

Last year when I first started working here, I asked about changing the MS programs to English and was told it was "impossible." Something about futzing with NEIS, I think. Though I imagine this computer otherwise being all in English might futz with that? Idk

K means Korean Edition. Korean edition does not come with all the same features as a Normal edition of windows. Most of the school computers are running a pirated copy anyway, thus when you click update, it fucks the whole computer because it tries to verify it.. etc.. I gave up on school computers and bring in my own laptop which I lock to my desk during the day. If I have to use a comp in another classroom, I run an OS off a USB(32 gig so you can install office etc...).

I was in a great mood this morning. It's almost the weekend. I've got all my planning done. Got a good night's sleep.

Then the first thing I get told at school this morning is that I have to "change" my vacation lesson plan. Too similar to last year. It's different effing students! It went over well last time!! I already made a lot of changes to things that didn't work so well, but kept the overall layout. I imagine those were lost in translation.

I swear, every single time I hand in a vacation lesson plan, they come back to me a week later and demand I change it. Last year it was formatting (mine was actually better than the crap hwp spreadsheet they wanted) this year it's content. I'm pretty sure it's expected of them to poo-poo my first attempt just to keep me busy. Well, from now on I'll just hand in crap early drafts first and hold back on the real content until they demand more.

If it's for camp, I envy that you are already prepared for it. I've been asking about it for the last month, only got told what he wanted for it on Monday, and has shot down every suggestion that I've made based on what he wants.
I'm at the point where I just want to say it's impossible for me to plan winter camp. >.<

Old computer was MS 2010, now it's 2013. Feels weirdly newfangled.

Old computer was MS 2010, now it's 2013. Feels weirdly newfangled.

Okay, yeah. There's - to my knowledge - nothing you can do yourself, really. I've always been able to wrangle my computer and programs into English with the older versions, but I spent hours with 2013 and had to get professional help.

Sorry :(

Bugger. Welp, I'll just keep on as I have been. Thank goodness for icons.

I don't have much to complain about today, but I am in a mood. So bitchmoanbitchmoanbitchmoanwhiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

Vacation really can't come soon enough.

I don't have much to complain about today, but I am in a mood. So bitchmoanbitchmoanbitchmoanwhiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

Vacation really can't come soon enough.

Yeah I am draaaaaaagging.