RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Just wrapped up my first day of summer camp. I still feel lost...

Me too.

 It was pretty pointless it seems. The turn out isn't so great. Oh well. The kids that did show up seemed to enjoy their time. Good thing I had a ton of games and stuff to keep them occupied.

I just dont know if I should actually be attempting to teach English at this thing.

this is the unspoken rule of camp: don't try to teach.

nobody wants to be there, so the resentment is already apparent. that being said, there are definitely exceptions. i had a handful of amazing camp days that usually involved a big activity: making pancakes, a paper airplane contest, soccer, etc, but that can take time and effort which is in short supply when the heat is so excruciating.

Fortunately my coT believes that camp should be a time for the students to have fun and take a break from studying. While she does say that the focus should be on students practicing English, it's easy enough to implement an English component to games and activities even if it's just simple phrases. At any rate, I'm giving instructions and directions in English (granted, with lots of gesticulations and demos) which could be considered "language immersion."

I do camps with my main middle school kids so personally I just want to facilitate fun (while giving them exposure to English and other cultures) as I know they'll soon be off to high school where they'll be stuck studying all the time.

My co-teacher implied that I could go home after summer camp and then I get a call at the bus stop asking where I am from the vice-principal. So incredibly pissed off right now. All she could say was 'the contract say you must be here 4 hour 30.' 

This is why I never got a phone.

My co-teacher suggested tie-dye shirts for camp.  I told her I'd never done it before.  She said that was ok, because she'd done it with a previous foreign teacher.

Today she has to leave early because her mother is very ill.  I can understand that.  I just wish it wasn't the day we decided to tie dye. 

I hope all goes well.  I'll do my best.

Can't you switch things around?

We had to call an audible, due to weather, which wasn't a big deal.

Best of luck.

Lots of cheating in camp class today. Sometimes it was funny, but it was more of a hassle than anything else.

Teaching first graders for 90 minutes every day without a co teacher is...a challenge

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

My co-teacher suggested tie-dye shirts for camp.  I told her I'd never done it before.  She said that was ok, because she'd done it with a previous foreign teacher.

Today she has to leave early because her mother is very ill.  I can understand that.  I just wish it wasn't the day we decided to tie dye. 

I hope all goes well.  I'll do my best.

Updates? My camp just ended and I have nothing to do for hour hours so I am waiting for your response.

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

I've been playing country music before the start of every class for the past three years. Some of them still complain.

It makes me happy.

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

I've been playing country music before the start of every class for the past three years. Some of them still complain.

It makes me happy.

Nice-uh

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

I've been playing country music before the start of every class for the past three years. Some of them still complain.

It makes me happy.

Nice-uh

We're not happy until you're not happy.

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

Care to share any of their slogans? Odds are they're better than what we've currently got.

Care to share any of their slogans? Odds are they're better than what we've currently got.

There were 8 posters, all of which had Namsan Tower on them with the caption "Creative Korea."

Fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkk (are we allowed to curse on here)?

Day 3 Summer camp. "MataHari teacher, we can't do any of the activities you planned for camp on Friday (morning and afternoon camps). Change it. Construction in whole school. No treasure hunt, no food make, new plan.

Movie day. That's it.

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

Lol every single time. Even the "nice" ones barely even bother. I started viewing my cos as people to put up with rather than people I should have friendly working relationships with a long time ago.

My co-teacher suggested tie-dye shirts for camp.  I told her I'd never done it before.  She said that was ok, because she'd done it with a previous foreign teacher.

Today she has to leave early because her mother is very ill.  I can understand that.  I just wish it wasn't the day we decided to tie dye. 

I hope all goes well.  I'll do my best.

Updates? My camp just ended and I have nothing to do for hour hours so I am waiting for your response.

It went better than I thought.  We tie dyed, but a few students didn't want to use rubber bands, they just wanted to dye their shirts.  I let them.  We left the shirts in bags on the windowsill.  The heat from the sun is supposed to help the color set.  We'll see how they turn out tomorrow.
Some students were a little nervous that my co-T wasn't there, but some of them speak English well enough that it wasn't a problem.

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

This happened my entire first year. I shared an office with 4 other English teachers and they didn't speak English unless it was directly to me. I took it so personally at first but don't, you'll see it happens to most people. If you are a direct kind of person then ask what they are talking about and they might get the hint.

This year i share a classroom with one young teacher and we talk all the time in English and an other teacher joins us sometimes too....so don't give up hope. 

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

Happens all the time. I never take it personally but I kind of prefer for them to exclude me. I also figure that it's more taxing for them to speak English since it's not their native language and they're probably concerned about making mistakes (the horror!) so they just play it safe. No biggie.

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

Happens all the time. I never take it personally but I kind of prefer for them to exclude me. I also figure that it's more taxing for them to speak English since it's not their native language and they're probably concerned about making mistakes (the horror!) so they just play it safe. No biggie.

Yeah, it's best not to take it personally. If you think about it, it would be kind of strange for any foreigner in another country to demand people speak their native language when in their presence.

Not to be mean, but the onus is on you (or us) in this case to adjust to them and not the other way around.

Also, wrt to your example. As someone who is quite decent at Korean. I typically go out of my way to avoid speaking Korean when in a mixed company of foreigners and Koreans. My one buddy has a bad habit of bringing along one random Korean friend who then hinders the natural flow of an English conversation. It's an absolute PITA to feel responsible to keep some random included.