RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Following up on my rant yesterday...

Last week my main co-teacher said "You look so tired lately, and you've lost weight. Are you healthy?" I told her that I was fine, hadn't lost weight, and just get tired sometimes.

Yesterday, she asked me to go have a "talk". Apparently, telling me that I looked tired was supposed to be secret code for "I'm angry with you and you should do better at school." She went off on me for a laundry list of different complaints, from "yawning in class", to "using materials from waygook" (I used one excellent review ppt, and usually make the vast majority of my own materials), to "making boring activities".

She actually told me at one point "If you want to end your contract, I will help you do that."

This all came after I told her on Friday that I won't re-sign my contract. Before then, our working relationship was mostly excellent. Just two weeks ago, when she was drunk at a 희식 she told me I was the best foreign teacher that she had ever had.

I'm worried that she is going to make my life miserable for the next 4 months, looking for every minor mistake in order to make her feel better about me leaving.

Has this happened to anyone else when they don't re-sign?!

this woman sounds like a complete bitch. unfortunately stuff like this is very common when koreans think they have been slighted in some way. they are an extremely petty and vindictive nation of people.

it sounds like at this stage you have no choice but to elevate things to the higher ups. speak to the VP or even the principal, or your Office of Education.

you've only got 4 months left, so have nothing to lose.

I would actually suggest sending an email to your coordinator at the MOE/POE so they at least have an official written record of your side of the story, in case your coteacher tries to get you fired.

She sounds awful!  Hope it gets better before it gets worse.

Could it be that she realises if you leave, she'll have to do a lot more work?  I wonder if at some schools they get told by the office of education "Ok, you won't be getting another native teacher after this, so when they decide to leave, they won't be replaced".

I sometimes get the feeling my colleagues only want me to stay because I do all the planning and teaching for our extra English Program and if I leave, one of them will have to do it.

sisususi,

It sounds like you might have missed something.

It's not always easy to read certain situations, especially when things aren't spelled out for you, but there is definitely more going on here.

I hope you are able to figure it out and soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGardUiWjR4

That guy needs a Middle Eastern Holiday, but no..............

PRESSURE

PRESSURE

PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE

Following up on my rant yesterday...

Last week my main co-teacher said "You look so tired lately, and you've lost weight. Are you healthy?" I told her that I was fine, hadn't lost weight, and just get tired sometimes.

Yesterday, she asked me to go have a "talk". Apparently, telling me that I looked tired was supposed to be secret code for "I'm angry with you and you should do better at school." She went off on me for a laundry list of different complaints, from "yawning in class", to "using materials from waygook" (I used one excellent review ppt, and usually make the vast majority of my own materials), to "making boring activities".

She actually told me at one point "If you want to end your contract, I will help you do that."

This all came after I told her on Friday that I won't re-sign my contract. Before then, our working relationship was mostly excellent. Just two weeks ago, when she was drunk at a 희식 she told me I was the best foreign teacher that she had ever had.

I'm worried that she is going to make my life miserable for the next 4 months, looking for every minor mistake in order to make her feel better about me leaving.

Has this happened to anyone else when they don't re-sign?!

this woman sounds like a complete bitch. unfortunately stuff like this is very common when koreans think they have been slighted in some way. they are an extremely petty and vindictive nation of people.

it sounds like at this stage you have no choice but to elevate things to the higher ups. speak to the VP or even the principal, or your Office of Education.

you've only got 4 months left, so have nothing to lose.

I would actually suggest sending an email to your coordinator at the MOE/POE so they at least have an official written record of your side of the story, in case your coteacher tries to get you fired.

She sounds awful!  Hope it gets better before it gets worse.

Could it be that she realises if you leave, she'll have to do a lot more work?  I wonder if at some schools they get told by the office of education "Ok, you won't be getting another native teacher after this, so when they decide to leave, they won't be replaced".

I sometimes get the feeling my colleagues only want me to stay because I do all the planning and teaching for our extra English Program and if I leave, one of them will have to do it.

She's actually told me this many times. That she's worried the next native teacher won't be good and that she'll have to do a lot more work. She used that to try to guilt me into staying here for another year.

they do have a fresh, new,  liquid soap container that is full too.

Interesting -- I've never seen liquid soap containers (let alone liquid soap) in any of the restrooms in the public schools in Korea where I used to work.

TBH it's not like one mounted to the walls or anything. It's one of those little bottles you can buy at the supermarket. But it looks like it was recently bought, as it is really clean (no mould on it) and it's still pretty full. :p

My school just did a health day where nonprofit groups came in to tell the students about hand washing, not smoking, eating healthy etc. They gave out liquid soap. Maybe that's what happened in your case. The only other liquid soap I've seen in my school is from last year's presentation when they gave us a bottle as well.

I'm not sure TBH, if it was that, it happened on one of the 3 days I'm not there. It's also the same brand that I buy for my place. :O

The "school playing field" is right outside my classroom window and I frequently find myself daydreaming about being a PE teacher. Responsibilities include: wearing sweatpants, holding a stopwatch, standing.

Ugh, you and me both. The PE teacher at our school (I call him Shaq Teacher) literally just wears wears sweat pants and tshirts all day every day. He gets sunshine and plays basketball all the time.

the PE teachers are in the same office that i'm in. they seem to have no additional responsibilities either. when they're not teaching PE they just either sleep, watch baseball on  the internet, or play pokemon go.

Dang.  PE teacher at my main school is the head teacher so he's usually pretty busy and often stays late. 

Annoyed at one of the new teachers.  She giggles whenever I toss out some butchered Korean at my desk neighbor.  I don't laugh at her imperfect English    I'm well aware of my minimal level of Korean and I'm sure I've studied it far less than she's studied English.  At least nobody else in the office cares.

Then there's another new teacher who severely overestimates my Korean just because I can pronounce "hello" properly.     Much better to be underestimated 

This is supposed to be the easiest day on my schedule and I was looking forward to it, but I forgot that a few classes had been rescheduled for today as a makeup for canceled classes last week.

It's over now, but I'm pretty sure I've suffered some brain damage.

This is supposed to be the easiest day on my schedule and I was looking forward to it, but I forgot that a few classes had been rescheduled for today as a makeup for canceled classes last week.

It's over now, but I'm pretty sure I've suffered some brain damage.

Did those re-scheduled classes put you over your weekly 22 hours? They tried to pull that crap with me, and I told them "I don't think I can teach those classes without being paid overtime." Not defensive, just casually. They insisted I teach them without overtime pay. I insisted I'd have to contact the school board to see if it was OK for me to teach over my hours without being paid overtime. Classes canceled.

This is supposed to be the easiest day on my schedule and I was looking forward to it, but I forgot that a few classes had been rescheduled for today as a makeup for canceled classes last week.

It's over now, but I'm pretty sure I've suffered some brain damage.

Did those re-scheduled classes put you over your weekly 22 hours? They tried to pull that crap with me, and I told them "I don't think I can teach those classes without being paid overtime." Not defensive, just casually. They insisted I teach them without overtime pay. I insisted I'd have to contact the school board to see if it was OK for me to teach over my hours without being paid overtime. Classes canceled.

Yeah, I look out for that, too, and luckily I've never had to make that argument with my schools. They've always known that I must be paid overtime for any classes that puts me over my 22 hours... so they always reschedule them to take place during weeks when other classes have been canceled. xD

It's an endless cycle of makeup.

This explains a lot:

http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170412000835#cb

1 in 4 Koreans have mental illness

PE teacher at my main school is the head teacher so he's usually pretty busy and often stays late.

I was told head teachers, vice prinicpals, and principals are paid much more than regular teachers...but I'm not sure by how much. I heard 6 or 7 million a month, but that was just from one source so I'm not sure if that's correct. Anyone know the median salary for each?

I saw this...but so old it's probably more than a bit higher now:



And saw for an elementary school teacher the median is 47.23 million a year, which would be 3.94 million a month...but that infomation might be outdated, too.

It takes a while for teachers to get to that though. They've got to be a few years in. They start out low.

Teachers end up making a lot of money in Toronto. They also start off relatively low.

Ordered something off qoo10 last week. It's been hung up in customs asking me to pay a clearance fee. I've paid it twice to my knowledge.

I can't reach anyone in English to help me out and its pissing me off, grr.

This explains a lot:
http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170412000835#cb
1 in 4 Koreans have mental illness

How does one have schizophrenia just once in their lifetime?? I didn't think that's how the illness worked.

Yeah, that threw me as well. I also sincerely doubt that the average incidence of schizophrenia in Korea is nearly 3x the global average...

That, along with the source, makes me wonder if the article is worth the time it took to read it. 

This explains a lot:
http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170412000835#cb
1 in 4 Koreans have mental illness

How does one have schizophrenia just once in their lifetime?? I didn't think that's how the illness worked.

Yeah, that threw me as well. I also sincerely doubt that the average incidence of schizophrenia in Korea is nearly 3x the global average...

That, along with the source, makes me wonder if the article is worth the time it took to read it. 

The include episodes of depression in that number.

Everyone has low points in their lives... hard to tabulate undiagnosed clinical depression.

Ordered something off qoo10 last week. It's been hung up in customs asking me to pay a clearance fee. I've paid it twice to my knowledge.

I can't reach anyone in English to help me out and its pissing me off, grr.

my god i hate customs. i've also had a package help up recently, got my korean GF to try and call them. she's phoned about 5 separate times and tried 3 different numbers listed online and can never get through. they never answer the damn phone, and the one time she managed to get through they told her to call another department, and gave her a number - which they never answer! urgh!

and i always have the same problem as you - no-one there speaks english. i mean, it's a department that deals with INTERNATIIONAL packages, and there's not a single person there to help people in the international language of english? how do they even read the addresses on the packages?

My whole school smells like pig shit. I've thrown up, I can barely breath, and the kids and teachers that live here smell nothing!

It's like bloody Didymus from the Labyrinth that works in the bog of eternal stench. No one else can smell it, while I'm here nearly dead.

Ordered something off qoo10 last week. It's been hung up in customs asking me to pay a clearance fee. I've paid it twice to my knowledge.

I can't reach anyone in English to help me out and its pissing me off, grr.

my god i hate customs. i've also had a package help up recently, got my korean GF to try and call them. she's phoned about 5 separate times and tried 3 different numbers listed online and can never get through. they never answer the damn phone, and the one time she managed to get through they told her to call another department, and gave her a number - which they never answer! urgh!

and i always have the same problem as you - no-one there speaks english. i mean, it's a department that deals with INTERNATIIONAL packages, and there's not a single person there to help people in the international language of english? how do they even read the addresses on the packages?

I try to use DHL whenever I can.

It sometimes costs a bit more (but sometimes less); they do the customs brokerage for you.