RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

@what?what? --Politely insist that it's "impossible."  You are "so busy." 

My lower back is hurting and I have no idea why.  I don't recall doing anything out of the ordinary (much less anything strenuous).  Hoping it'll subside after a few days and that mild stretching and exercise will help.  Ugh

@what?what?

you only need to teach mandatory overtime up to a total of 26 classes a week.

since you are already at 26 classes, you can refuse any extra classes.

Ohhhhhh I did not know this! Thank you so very much

@what?what?

you only need to teach mandatory overtime up to a total of 26 classes a week.

since you are already at 26 classes, you can refuse any extra classes.

Ohhhhhh I did not know this! Thank you so very much

My attempt at explaining that 28 lessons a week may be a little much for me, has fallen on deaf ears. Also, they unaware that they have to pay me. Me thinks I may have to involve my POE.

Also, most frustrating is a conversation that somewhat went like this:(keep in mind that they want me to do a short play)  =me    = English head teacher

 : How many students will be attending these extra extra classes?
 : We don't know.
 : Okay, well my lesson plans are due tomorrow and I  have to choose a play, so if I could have a rough idea that would be great. I don't want to do lesson plans for a play with 6 characters and I end up with 20 students, or with only 2.
 : Yes, I see.
    
  Thank you for lesson plans tomorrow morning.

"I see," is the most frustrating sentence in Korean English.

@what?what?

you only need to teach mandatory overtime up to a total of 26 classes a week.

since you are already at 26 classes, you can refuse any extra classes.

Ohhhhhh I did not know this! Thank you so very much

My attempt at explaining that 28 lessons a week may be a little much for me, has fallen on deaf ears. Also, they unaware that they have to pay me. Me thinks I may have to involve my POE.

Also, most frustrating is a conversation that somewhat went like this:(keep in mind that they want me to do a short play)  =me    = English head teacher

 : How many students will be attending these extra extra classes?
 : We don't know.
 : Okay, well my lesson plans are due tomorrow and I  have to choose a play, so if I could have a rough idea that would be great. I don't want to do lesson plans for a play with 6 characters and I end up with 20 students, or with only 2.
 : Yes, I see.
    
  Thank you for lesson plans tomorrow morning.

I think you should involve the POE. Your school is being unrealistic and expecting too much.

Also, most frustrating is a conversation that somewhat went like this:(keep in mind that they want me to do a short play)  =me    = English head teacher

 : How many students will be attending these extra extra classes?
 : We don't know.
 : Okay, well my lesson plans are due tomorrow and I  have to choose a play, so if I could have a rough idea that would be great. I don't want to do lesson plans for a play with 6 characters and I end up with 20 students, or with only 2.
 : Yes, I see.
    
  Thank you for lesson plans tomorrow morning.

Yeah, that would be super frustrating. My sympathies.

Maybe try: "I will give you a lesson plan when you give me approximate student numbers.".

Someone used the bowl I use for my lunch to microwave some sort of green sea trash. The worst/best part: they left it in the microwave to beep until the end of time, where it still currently sits. 

They've installed a bunch of shit on my work computer and it's almost unusuable. I want to go in and get rid of the problem programs, but they've already scheduled a tech to come in and take a look at it, so I'm leaving it alone for now to avoid a possible, "Well, THAT'S why the computer is working like shite, it's missing all these programs ~!"

I'll take care of it later.

My co-teacher wants to do presentations, so I planned a lesson for that.

My co-teacher arrives late at school because of a small car accident and announces 10 minutes before class: "let's wait on the presentations, just do a fun lesson". We're talking a 50 min high school lesson where they can't free talk.

Luckily, I know how they role here so I always have a lesson up my sleeve. It could have all gone a bit pear-shaped, though.

I'm tired of people pretending like they understand what I'm saying.

I try very hard to speak simply around Korean friends/coworkers but I know sometimes things get lost on them. I can tell easily when they don't understand my most recent sentence but they just continue to nod and make noises as if they understand. Then I go back and ask them if they understood a certain word or phase and they admit that they didn't. Just TELL me so I can explain it in the moment.

I feel like a lot of foreigners here don't realize that their Korean friends don't understand them fully. I've watched people go on and on in English as if the Korean person they're talking to is following them 100% and the Korean person looks totally lost, but doesn't want to say so. The foreigner doesn't seem to care or realize.

I guess it's not that big of a deal in passing, but when I'm explaining something to my CT it's usually for a reason. And it just kind of sucks when you're trying to be friends with someone and you realize a lot of what you say isn't even registering with them.

I have a good friend from another Asian country and when she doesn't understand me, she lets me know (at least some of the time) and we figure out the problem. No this isn't necessary for every interaction but like... in some situations it's really important that you understand each other.

When a Korean is speaking to me and I say 네 it's usually my own personal shorthand for, "I don't understand, nor do I think it's possible for me to understand," or if I understood, "No, but I'm not able to explain why." If I truly understand/agree I'll give an 알겠습니다 or the like. Saves a lot of time

aaarghhhhhhhh I had been having such a good year and everything has been awesome and now shit is just rolling down hill.

I have no coteachers at my schools. The home room teachers sometimes stay sometimes don't. (I know they are supposed to stay, but whatever). This particular school. Initially, the VP got mad because the homeroom teachers would just leave when I came to teach, then he told them to stay in the classroom. So they stay when he is at the school and when he isn't then they do what they want.

Today, however, he has called me in and yelled at me because it is my job to make sure that I coteach properly with each home room teacher. He insists that this must be planned with each teacher before classes. I have 8 home room teachers (at this school), I don't even know what pages I am teaching until I am in the classroom, the only teacher that remembers to send me a message about what to teach is the grade 4-2 teacher, who lets me know the night before.

3 schools, 28 classes a week, 20 home room teachers, 3 different curriculums, 2 hours travel a day and now I should please meet and plan with each teacher how we will co-teach.... I was planning on staying another year, but I think I am going to change my mind here...

I feel like a lot of foreigners here don't realize that their Korean friends don't understand them fully. I've watched people go on and on in English as if the Korean person they're talking to is following them 100% and the Korean person looks totally lost, but doesn't want to say so. The foreigner doesn't seem to care or realize.

yeah some people are really completely oblivious to it. a good friend of mine had a korean friend. and the 3 of us used to hang out. the korean dude's english was decent - i'd say high intermediate, he could understand like 80% of what we were talking about - but my friend just used to ramble on to him as if he was a native speaker, using all sorts of slang and americanisms that the poor guy had no hope of knowing.

the korean dude would sometimes give me this look of bewilderment and then i'd have to 'translate' what the other guy was saying but putting things into simple english and slowing down my speech.

but on the other side of the coin i've had koreans do the same thing to me. they'll just ramble on at machine-gun speed as if i'm a native speaker of korean. i mean come one, slow down a bit and use some simpler vocab please.

aaarghhhhhhhh I had been having such a good year and everything has been awesome and now shit is just rolling down hill.

I have no coteachers at my schools. The home room teachers sometimes stay sometimes don't. (I know they are supposed to stay, but whatever). This particular school. Initially, the VP got mad because the homeroom teachers would just leave when I came to teach, then he told them to stay in the classroom. So they stay when he is at the school and when he isn't then they do what they want.

Today, however, he has called me in and yelled at me because it is my job to make sure that I coteach properly with each home room teacher. He insists that this must be planned with each teacher before classes. I have 8 home room teachers (at this school), I don't even know what pages I am teaching until I am in the classroom, the only teacher that remembers to send me a message about what to teach is the grade 4-2 teacher, who lets me know the night before.

3 schools, 28 classes a week, 20 home room teachers, 3 different curriculums, 2 hours travel a day and now I should please meet and plan with each teacher how we will co-teach.... I was planning on staying another year, but I think I am going to change my mind here...

I hear you on that. I have 6 schools with 15 coteachers. The ones I rarely see, I just stop them for like 5 seconds before I leave the class, ask what page is next, then let them know what kind of game I'll do (e.g. listening page next, listening game) try doing that and see if that helps calm him down. It's not a perfect system tho cuz if they dont bother to stick around, then you can't exactly talk to them. There's one CT I've legit not seen once this semester cuz he doesn't show up to my class and he leaves BEFORE i even get there then doesn't come back til way after I'm done teaching. I end up having to ask the kids what page they're on but then I can assume he'll teach the next page.

That dude made a bit of a fuss last week because my main contact at this school told me the class times would change this semester and he forgot. So he wasn't in class to teach and his students ended up going to look for him cuz I was teaching a diff class (the one I was supposed to be teaching) and there was no teacher for his class cuz he assumed I'd be there.

aaarghhhhhhhh I had been having such a good year and everything has been awesome and now shit is just rolling down hill.

I have no coteachers at my schools. The home room teachers sometimes stay sometimes don't. (I know they are supposed to stay, but whatever). This particular school. Initially, the VP got mad because the homeroom teachers would just leave when I came to teach, then he told them to stay in the classroom. So they stay when he is at the school and when he isn't then they do what they want.

Today, however, he has called me in and yelled at me because it is my job to make sure that I coteach properly with each home room teacher. He insists that this must be planned with each teacher before classes. I have 8 home room teachers (at this school), I don't even know what pages I am teaching until I am in the classroom, the only teacher that remembers to send me a message about what to teach is the grade 4-2 teacher, who lets me know the night before.

3 schools, 28 classes a week, 20 home room teachers, 3 different curriculums, 2 hours travel a day and now I should please meet and plan with each teacher how we will co-teach.... I was planning on staying another year, but I think I am going to change my mind here...

Wow, you're being super taken advantage of.

I feel like a lot of foreigners here don't realize that their Korean friends don't understand them fully. I've watched people go on and on in English as if the Korean person they're talking to is following them 100% and the Korean person looks totally lost, but doesn't want to say so. The foreigner doesn't seem to care or realize.

yeah some people are really completely oblivious to it. a good friend of mine had a korean friend. and the 3 of us used to hang out. the korean dude's english was decent - i'd say high intermediate, he could understand like 80% of what we were talking about - but my friend just used to ramble on to him as if he was a native speaker, using all sorts of slang and americanisms that the poor guy had no hope of knowing.

the korean dude would sometimes give me this look of bewilderment and then i'd have to 'translate' what the other guy was saying but putting things into simple english and slowing down my speech.

but on the other side of the coin i've had koreans do the same thing to me. they'll just ramble on at machine-gun speed as if i'm a native speaker of korean. i mean come one, slow down a bit and use some simpler vocab please.

Yep, seen both sides of the coin.  When someone just goes on and on, I kinda feel like that person just likes hearing themselves talk... real conversation would be more of a back and forth.  Though sometimes it can just be someone honestly overestimating someone's ability.

When a Korean is speaking to me and I say 네 it's usually my own personal shorthand for, "I don't understand, nor do I think it's possible for me to understand," or if I understood, "No, but I'm not able to explain why." If I truly understand/agree I'll give an 알겠습니다 or the like. Saves a lot of time

I hope you don't do that during serious conversations to your closest friends/gf/wife/coworker who relies on you to get shit done.

No. More often in situations like the one described by kobayashi:

I've had Koreans do the same thing to me. they'll just ramble on at machine-gun speed as if i'm a native speaker of Korean. i mean come one, slow down a bit and use some simpler vocab please.

I do catch my wife doing the just-nod-along thing every once in a while, but most often she wants to understand and is good about asking questions. She'll also get upset/frustrated when she tries to explain something in English and it turns out later I didn't fully grasp what she said. "Why did you pretend to understand?!" But in those cases I honestly thought I *did* understand, or I was waiting for her to finish so I could piece the story together.

I do catch my wife doing the just-nod-along thing every once in a while, but most often she wants to understand and is good about asking questions. She'll also get upset/frustrated when she tries to explain something in English and it turns out later I didn't fully grasp what she said. "Why did you pretend to understand?!" But in those cases I honestly thought I *did* understand, or I was waiting for her to finish so I could piece the story together.

When my wife meets my family, she understands my mum pretty well, as she is careful about how she speaks.  She understands my younger brother the least because he doesn't grade his language and mumbles a bit.  But my older brother and his wife are her favourites, as they live in Berlin with their two sons, so they are aware of how to articulate themselves properly, so that people understand, because they are in the same situation.  But I can understand my wife's problem sometimes as I have two brothers and two sisters with extended family, so a family get together is kind of noisy with lots going on.  If I am in the same situation with my wife's family, I can't do it for any massive length of time. 

On the whole from my experience, younger Korean teachers here who have travelled (not package tours) seem to understand that when they are talking to the native English teacher, they should speak slower and grade their language.  But then the native teacher has to reciprocate that by using simple language back.

Koreans not slowing down or grading their language are significant contributors to my lack of desire to put any real effort into learning Korean anymore. I was pretty serious about it in the past, but it just got so frustrating not being able to communicate despite putting in the effort to learn. Having beginner-level or low-intermediate-level Korean is scarcely better than having no Korean at all.

(Before anyone chimes in: No, I don't think all Koreans are like that. Some have been lovely and super helpful. Nor do I think people in other countries are never guilty of the same thing. I shouldn't have to point that out, but sometimes it feels necessary to cover all my bases on this forum  )

The verification question answers for this site are wrong.

Koreans not slowing down or grading their language are significant contributors to my lack of desire to put any real effort into learning Korean anymore. I was pretty serious about it in the past, but it just got so frustrating not being able to communicate despite putting in the effort to learn. Having beginner-level or low-intermediate-level Korean is scarcely better than having no Korean at all.

I feel you. You're going to go over the top with ninja Korean on me? Please understand my understated 네~

I do catch my wife doing the just-nod-along thing every once in a while, but most often she wants to understand and is good about asking questions. She'll also get upset/frustrated when she tries to explain something in English and it turns out later I didn't fully grasp what she said. "Why did you pretend to understand?!" But in those cases I honestly thought I *did* understand, or I was waiting for her to finish so I could piece the story together.

When my wife meets my family, she understands my mum pretty well, as she is careful about how she speaks.  She understands my younger brother the least because he doesn't grade his language and mumbles a bit.  But my older brother and his wife are her favourites, as they live in Berlin with their two sons, so they are aware of how to articulate themselves properly, so that people understand, because they are in the same situation.  But I can understand my wife's problem sometimes as I have two brothers and two sisters with extended family, so a family get together is kind of noisy with lots going on.  If I am in the same situation with my wife's family, I can't do it for any massive length of time. 

On the whole from my experience, younger Korean teachers here who have travelled (not package tours) seem to understand that when they are talking to the native English teacher, they should speak slower and grade their language.  But then the native teacher has to reciprocate that by using simple language back.

I don't know what's worse, English speakers not slowing down for their Korean friends, or not slowing down for poor employees. I've witnessed some friends spew off an insanely specific order to someone at a restaurant while asking questions and not slowing down one bit. It irks me so much. Why do you have to speed through "Yeah, okay I'll get some chicken fries and oh hey like do you still have that like sauce that was like a special like limited thing like a few months back?"
I start screaming on the inside then calmly repeat their order simplified in Korean after.

Also irksome: People who put "like" as every other word while speaking to Koreans. It completely throws them off and it's a garbage filler word o.o