RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Would you eat a s'mores cake, as long as it didn't have icing on it?

A graham cracker bottom, predominantly chocolate cake (not too sweet), with sparing use of marshmallow would be tolerable.

Really, I'd like something no sweeter than a Misura plumcake or something along those lines. Even that is sort of pushing it sometimes.

Tangerine cake actually sounds lovely. If it was just cake with tangerines in it and a negligible amount of icing.

Do you put anything on your pancakes, or do you just eat them plain? What about compote?

I like them plain. No butter even. If people throw fruit in them they're okay I guess. Same with waffles and donuts.

I don't always abhor sweets. I can't get over Dr. Pepper, Root Beer, and Ginger Ale, but I also have trouble drinking even a 12 oz. can these days. I don't mind fruit either. It's also sweets, not sugars, as I can inhale pasta with the best of them. I think its something I picked up from my parents. They never added sugar to their tea or coffee and seldom drank sodas. As a child I always liked sweet iced tea, now I can't stomach the stuff except once in a great while.

One annoying thing about it is that I'll order bottled water at fast food places, and if they don't have that, Coke Zero, and people look at me like I'm ridiculous for getting that at a fast food place. I'm not trying to be healthy, I just don't like the sugar. 

I also knew a person who liked to put ketchup on his twinkies.

I hope you called the police.

That... That's no potato!

It was soap, you guys. Not soup. Thanks for being there during this trying time.

It was soap, you guys. Not soup. Thanks for being there during this trying time.

I am so relieved.

It was soap, you guys. Not soup. Thanks for being there during this trying time.

Kinda sad now... but I will use that "soup" on my gf and see how it goes just for fun. 

It was soap, you guys. Not soup. Thanks for being there during this trying time.

i think I just saved your relationship~

It was soap, you guys. Not soup. Thanks for being there during this trying time.

i think I just saved your relationship~

Probably. But I for sure feel better knowing I don't smell like soup.

^ 

I also knew a person who liked to put ketchup on his twinkies.

I hope you called the police.

I shit you not, he was the police. xD Officer of 7 years, at the time.

Apparently, he'd done it on a dare back in his grade school days and never stopped doing it because I guess he liked it.

When I was a kid, I met a girl who didn't like chocolate.  To each their own, but...

Flummoxed, I tell you.

Yeah, I've known a few people who don't like chocolate (I actually dislike white chocolate, personally -- but milk chocolate and dark chocolate are great). I've also known someone who didn't like ice cream (she said she didn't like the taste and that it made her sick if she ate it), and another person who didn't like sugar/sweet foods. I've also known someone who didn't like almost every food there is. Oh, and I've also known a few Koreans who don't like kimchi, haha. 

got served a brocolli, tomato, orange, banana, chicken and green leaf salad, with a sesame dressing at a restaurant yesterday 

I had a ham and cheese sandwich from the joriwon the other day, which would have been fine had they not stuck some canned strawberries between the lettuce and bread. Jam and spam street toast I can dig; there was just something off about this taste. Didn't stop me from downing it all, tho!

And on my birthday I went to a new Italian restaurant that opened up near my home recently. We ordered a blueberry salad off the menu thinking it looked novel enough to try. It came out and they had obviously used frozen blueberries; They were still frozen upon serving.

When I was a kid, I met a girl who didn't like chocolate.  To each their own, but...

Flummoxed, I tell you.

Yeah, I've known a few people who don't like chocolate (I actually dislike white chocolate, personally -- but milk chocolate and dark chocolate are great). I've also known someone who didn't like ice cream (she said she didn't like the taste and that it made her sick if she ate it), and another person who didn't like sugar/sweet foods. I've also known someone who didn't like almost every food there is. Oh, and I've also known a few Koreans who don't like kimchi, haha.

I don't like white chocolate either.  Probably because it arguably isn't real chocolate.  Rich dark chocolate is the way to go~

Quite a few of my students tell me they don't like kimchi!  I notice its absence on their lunch trays, hahah.  I've met scarce adult Koreans who don't like kimchi but they do exist!

Couple of things to rant about.
1. Why am I here? Like seriously why? Why does the government pay all this money to bring me here and spend all this money on english learning, when no-one takes it seriously enough to make these kids learn? Like these kids have been taking English lessons since the third grade at least 3 times a week, PLUS imerison classes at least once a week. In addition, many of them go to hagwons for hours on end to learn but yet they CANNOT form a sentence to save their damn lives! Like a fully formed senence is beneath them. By the sixth grade level I expect that you should be able to express your self in at least 2 coherent sentences by now. I dont understand. It is so frustrating. I wish my home country started us on a second language that early, that many times a week. So many of us wouod be flunt or ar least be able to hold a decent conversation in that language by the time we are 12. I dont understand this place.

2. For the love of God, Why do kids who hvae next to no interest in English sign up for English camp?? Like why are you here? You're making my job harder because you refuse to do or say shit. Stay home or go to another camp. I wish my school actually vetted the kids who sign up to make sure they actually want to learn so they can get the full benefits of attending. Sigh, this place.

  *napping*
  "Eh, whatever. None of my business.
--------------------------------------------------------
  *napping*
  "What are you doing??"

Couple of things to rant about.
1. Why am I here? Like seriously why? Why does the government pay all this money to bring me here and spend all this money on english learning, when no-one takes it seriously enough to make these kids learn? Like these kids have been taking English lessons since the third grade at least 3 times a week, PLUS imerison classes at least once a week. In addition, many of them go to hagwons for hours on end to learn but yet they CANNOT form a sentence to save their damn lives! Like a fully formed senence is beneath them. By the sixth grade level I expect that you should be able to express your self in at least 2 coherent sentences by now. I dont understand. It is so frustrating. I wish my home country started us on a second language that early, that many times a week. So many of us wouod be flunt or ar least be able to hold a decent conversation in that language by the time we are 12. I dont understand this place.

2. For the love of God, Why do kids who hvae next to no interest in English sign up for English camp?? Like why are you here? You're making my job harder because you refuse to do or say shit. Stay home or go to another camp. I wish my school actually vetted the kids who sign up to make sure they actually want to learn so they can get the full benefits of attending. Sigh, this place.

I know you're ranting and I don't judge you on that. It can be totally frustrating.

But the kids aren't talking to you because they aren't motivated by ANYONE to actually speak. As soon as i stopped thinking of myself as an English teacher and more like an....English motivator then my stress levels reduced so much and I started loving my job. You can't change the students, sadly, but you can change your  reaction to them.

Good luck!

*napping*
  "Eh, whatever. None of my business.
--------------------------------------------------------
  *napping*
  "What are you doing??"

Next time:

*napping*
"What are you doing??"

My co will not stop micromanaging my lessons. It didn't bother me when I first started because I was brand new and had no clue what I was doing. But that's not the case anymore. I've already done this camp once already and it went really well. I get that she speaks fluent English and she doesn't want to give up control in the classroom. I would be upset too if a NET came in and tried to do a job that she can do on her own. But still... LET ME DO MY JOB. I put a lot of work into these lessons and I really don't need her changing everything just to have it fit what she thinks it should look like.
Ugh. Rant over.

"I want go home with me?" okay have fun going home with yourself.

스스로 고추를 놀이해요!

Couple of things to rant about.
1. Why am I here? Like seriously why? Why does the government pay all this money to bring me here and spend all this money on english learning, when no-one takes it seriously enough to make these kids learn? Like these kids have been taking English lessons since the third grade at least 3 times a week, PLUS imerison classes at least once a week. In addition, many of them go to hagwons for hours on end to learn but yet they CANNOT form a sentence to save their damn lives! Like a fully formed senence is beneath them. By the sixth grade level I expect that you should be able to express your self in at least 2 coherent sentences by now. I dont understand. It is so frustrating. I wish my home country started us on a second language that early, that many times a week. So many of us wouod be flunt or ar least be able to hold a decent conversation in that language by the time we are 12. I dont understand this place.

2. For the love of God, Why do kids who hvae next to no interest in English sign up for English camp?? Like why are you here? You're making my job harder because you refuse to do or say shit. Stay home or go to another camp. I wish my school actually vetted the kids who sign up to make sure they actually want to learn so they can get the full benefits of attending. Sigh, this place.

I feel you on the first one. And it's not just because they are kids either. I've had way too many university age guys try to hit on me unable to form a sentence and who didn't know  that you should not call me "sister" in English. I even went off on one before, because I was so annoyed. I asked him didn't he study English at school? And he said "yes but everyone hates English class" (filling in the blanks here, cos it was more like "yes....all student... english hate" and I said so what? I hated math but I still had to study it or else I didn't get a good grade. University students who don't know the difference between "you" and "I" and here I spent probably half the time & money studying a second language and I still know the basics. Doctors who don't know the days of the week or how to ask "what time?"  Who here doesn't know how to ask "what time?" in whatever language they studied in grade school???


I'm SO happy to hop in this ranting train, because I've been meaning to call out the 20 somethings who don't know that saying "I like my sister" to a foreign girl you're trying to pick up at a club is wrong. Maybe they didn't pay attention, or maybe they really were never taught that Korean honorific rules don't apply to English. And by the way, I never ask that people speak English to me unless they advertise English services. I either get help or come prepared with Korean translations of what I need. But when people do try and speak English to me I see how much of a failure English education here really is. Sure there are a lot of people who took it upon themselves to learn English to communicate if their lifestyle calls for it... but with all the time money and effort this country puts into English it's pretty sad how many people go through the system and come out knowing absolutely nothing.


 "I want go home with me?" okay have fun going home with yourself.

In all fairness, many of us have taken various lessons throughout our lives and many of us are at less than stellar levels of competence. I took piano all through elementary school and into middle school because...I just did...its what kids do. I think I can play the Star Wars theme with one hand and many mistakes. If you think we'd all be fluent in a second language, you're mistaken. And at least our language is similar to the German/French/Spanish we'd be taking.

How about math classes? Would we all be fine at quadratic equations? I remember of the existence of sine, cosine, and tangent. I don't remember what they deal with. I like, remember basic math, a handful of geometry formulas, PEMDAS, and the pythagorean theorem. My chemistry? Shaky at best, more likely insipid. What comes first, order or family? My Spanish? Occasionally its 'stereotypical American bad' other times its worst. I bet there's some person who knows math out there, possibly Korean, who would scream at me for being braindead and blame my education system.

The point is that although we think English is special and that after all these years everyone should be just fine, we need to remember that it is essentially the equivalent of all the stuff we've learned and forgotten- math, obsessive rules of grammar, history, science, tennis, piano, how to get stuff to run in DOS, etc and has been squeezed out in favor of music by our favorite bands, Mortal Kombat codes, baseball stats, The Complete History of Westeros, the entire lineup of Sienar Fleet Systems spacecraft, Simpsons quotes, alcohol, Seinfeld references, etc.

It's called teaching children and them growing up. Deal with it the same way all the other subject teachers do- Understand that for a big chunk most will forget 95%. Some will retain some more than that, and a handful will go on to specialize in whatever you teach and become just as good as you at it.

Welcome to growing old. Welcome to teaching.

In all fairness, many of us have taken various lessons throughout our lives and many of us are at less than stellar levels of competence. I took piano all through elementary school and into middle school because...I just did...its what kids do. I think I can play the Star Wars theme with one hand and many mistakes. If you think we'd all be fluent in a second language, you're mistaken. And at least our language is similar to the German/French/Spanish we'd be taking.

You make a point, I think the difference is that you wouldn't try to pull a girl by playing her that. hahahahahaha

In all fairness, many of us have taken various lessons throughout our lives and many of us are at less than stellar levels of competence. I took piano all through elementary school and into middle school because...I just did...its what kids do. I think I can play the Star Wars theme with one hand and many mistakes. If you think we'd all be fluent in a second language, you're mistaken. And at least our language is similar to the German/French/Spanish we'd be taking.

You make a point, I think the difference is that you wouldn't try to pull a girl by playing her that. hahahahahaha

Now now, there's always E3/ComicCon. Of course, to get her attention I'd probably have to do it with a midi synthesizer and be dressed as one of Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes