RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I made spaghetti last night for the PILs, and despite FIL complaining it was greasy, they ate it right up. MIL did require kimchi as a side though, saying they went well together. Progress!

I got hot sauce in my bag

what kind of spaghetti was it?

i've heard this from a lot of koreans: western food is too greasy and salty

when korean food is some of the greasiest, saltiest cuisine i have ever eaten (i love korean food though, don't get me wrong, but come on)

e.g. we went out for 곱창 the other day. wife always complains she doesn't like chinese food as it's too 'greasy', but the worker was literally ladeling out the grease and oil from the bowl of 곱창!

i don't know what the rules are!

Whoa what? I've never seen any Chinese 곱창 places anywhere in Korea. Where was this? If it's anything like the Chinese intestine I used to eat back home, I've been trying to find something like that for years.

No no. The wife complains about Chinese food because it's greasy, but doesn't complain about (Korean) GOPE-CHAHNG despite it being served with a bowl of oil. He's just pointing out the inconsistency.

haha. wasn't chinese, just that it was WAY greasier than chinese food, which she won't eat because it's apparently 'too greasy'

now i do want to try some chinese-style gopchang though....

My theory:

I think some Koreans say "too greasy/salty" the same way some westerners say "too spicy".

All three are just saying "I don't like this", but grease, salt, and capsaicin are three things that are socially acceptable attributes of a dish to object to.

So I've been rocking a bitchin' suntan lately after a good amount of time spent outdoors this summer....

Kids keep saying I look sick! 

Dammit this is the healthiest I'll look all year!

My theory:

I think some Koreans say "too greasy/salty" the same way some westerners say "too spicy".

All three are just saying "I don't like this", but grease, salt, and capsaicin are three things that are socially acceptable attributes of a dish to object to.

I don't see how saying, "It's too greasy [therefore I don't like it]," is any better than just saying, "I don't like it," although by calling it greasy, one's distaste could be attributed to the dish itself (It's meant to be greasy, but I don't like grease) rather than the way it was prepared (I don't like it, so you must not have prepared it well.)

Is this your way of telling me my pasta sucks?

My theory:

I think some Koreans say "too greasy/salty" the same way some westerners say "too spicy".

All three are just saying "I don't like this", but grease, salt, and capsaicin are three things that are socially acceptable attributes of a dish to object to.

I don't see how saying, "It's too greasy [therefore I don't like it]," is any better than just saying, "I don't like it," although by calling it greasy, one's distaste could be attributed to the dish itself (It's meant to be greasy, but I don't like grease) rather than the way it was prepared (I don't like it, so you must not have prepared it well.)

Is this your way of telling me my pasta sucks?

You made it "Italian greasy", which is inferior and different to "Korean greasy". Next time, as a test sneak in some 고추장 and see if they can tell the difference.

Not enough liquid in pizza to blend it. Nor does cheese blend very well. You'd end up with a greasy, doughy paste if you tried hard enough I imagine.

Well that's why you add yogurt and/or juice to it, or else it just isn't a smoothie.

"Italian greasy"

I don't appreciate the cultural stereotypes

"Korean greasy"

I like how you challenge cultural stereotypes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pasta *did* have some octopus in it, which seems pretty Korean to me, but I guess they have a taste for that in Italy as well, don't they....

GO-CHOO would have made a nice addition, actually. Wonder why I didn't think of it.

"Foreign food is too greasy and salty!"

Greasy and salty things are unhealthy, so of course Korean food, being the spiciest and healthiest food EVAR ON EARF is the exact opposite. That's my theory. Just another superiority-inferiority complex.


But there really isn't any good Korean here in Barcelona, so...

I'm in the single digits of weeks left here, but I feel like they're going much slowly than other people before me.

Korean food, being the spiciest and healthiest food EVAR ON EARF is the exact opposite. That's my theory. Just another superiority-inferiority complex.

Yes, Foreigners can't eat Korean food because it's too uniquely spicy. Foreigners should like and eat Korean food all the time because it's the best.

Make your mind up.

This is urgent, friends.

Sometimes I hate myself and therefore have a craving for hot dogs. But I have no idea which ones to buy as I fear that any Korean version is either: Five inches in circumference or disgusting or both. Has anyone found a brand here that might mimic the specific repulsiveness of an American hot dog?

And, to make this more rant-y, first grade middle schoolers are the worst people on the planet.

Fixed that for you.

At one school, my third years are okay but the first give less collective fucks than I do, and I'm all out of fucks to give. I just teach theough them and let them fail. Not my fault my coteacher neutered my classroom discipline plan on day one 

At one school, my third years are okay but the first give less collective fucks than I do, and I'm all out of fucks to give. I just teach theough them and let them fail. Not my fault my coteacher neutered my classroom discipline plan on day one 

Yeah I truly am baffled by how they manage to be a mix of everything terrible: roughhousing/screaming before class, slamming their books on the desks, and then during class they're either disruptive or unresponsive or both. Even games that my other grades go nuts for are treated as if it's some huge inconvenience.

My third graders are hilarious. My second graders think I'm hilarious. It's usually a good time. But the first graders just...ugh.

At one school, my third years are okay but the first give less collective fucks than I do, and I'm all out of fucks to give. I just teach theough them and let them fail. Not my fault my coteacher neutered my classroom discipline plan on day one 

Yeah I truly am baffled by how they manage to be a mix of everything terrible: roughhousing/screaming before class, slamming their books on the desks, and then during class they're either disruptive or unresponsive or both. Even games that my other grades go nuts for are treated as if it's some huge inconvenience.

My third graders are hilarious. My second graders think I'm hilarious. It's usually a good time. But the first graders just...ugh.

I have 4 schools: 2 middle and 2 elementary. At the elementary schools, the kids love me and the teachers love me and I love then and I get to play games and songs constantly because they all put in the effort to learn the lesson material each week.

At my midde schools, I try to do games and the like and get blank stares and blank papers. The English levels are SO varied there (and one is an all-girls school), that the lowest levels are lost, the highest levels are bored, and the middle levels don't care. It's a shit situation because I just don't have the time to plan so many disparate lessons and account for all the skill differences at my beginner level of teaching and I don't know many of my MS kids by name yet. This leads to boredom and acting out, compiled with no disciplinary ability on my end, a lack of experience and time and communication, and the fact that first years don't have midterms or finals. It's a perfect storm of shit.

Three weeks in and I'm being asked to change textbooks with one class!

Argh!

My knee hurts, but I can't think of a reason to blame it on Korea. Any suggestions?

My knee hurts, but I can't think of a reason to blame it on Korea. Any suggestions?

Rough terrain?
Uneven sidewalks?
Quickly swerved to avoid an entitled adjuma who wouldn't yield?

My knee hurts, but I can't think of a reason to blame it on Korea. Any suggestions?

"Because Korea" works in a pinch~

My knee hurts, but I can't think of a reason to blame it on Korea. Any suggestions?

"Because Korea" works in a pinch~

The food was so spicy you hit your knee on the table in surprise.

Context: During my mid-year evaluation, when it came time to offer my thoughts about what would be helpful in the coming semester, I said I'd like some sort of feedback about lessons. I wasn't looking to have some involved daily discussion -- just a quick minute after class here and there like, "Hey that lesson went well because A B C" or "I think this activity would be better if A B C."

Well, that was shot down because "so busy please understand our unique situation."

Instead, last week I got a paragraph of passive aggressive feedback detailing how I shouldn't repeat activities ever because the students get bored (Uh, I could shoot fireworks out of my ass and they will still find a way to be bored). Now, I've done this twice -- once by request of the students and another because it forces the kids to actually, you know, use the language and do the work (running dictation). The rest of the time usually involves card games, board games, pictionary, and the like. It's not like I'm doing bomb games the whole time.

I'm trying to SNIP but this is just kind of a thorn in my paw. I did an ~investigatory~ stroll through the halls and, as expected saw one of three things: teachers droning into microphones with half the kids sleeping, some sort of video with half the kids sleeping, and teachers at their desks while their students did **** all.

I'm not the best English Clown to ever live but there's something that feels highly uncomfortable about being held to different standards that typically result in having just enough rope to hang yourself.

SNIP, I know. SNIP. But still  .