RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I've been at my main school for three years now, and they've only pulled me aside for picture day once. I think they've just been reusing the same picture since then. 

Same! I had a photo (which of course I had no foreknowledge of) taken my first year, and then never had it taken again. Which is too bad, because the first one was bad. It was maybe 2 weeks after my shoulder surgery, so I still couldn't be bothered to do makeup and was wearing loose sweaters. To make up for my lack of fashion and beauty, they completely photoshopped me, adding makeup, clearing my skin, elongating my neck, and some other things. I came out of it looking like an alien. 

Nearly every time I've seen the results of Korean attempts to photoshop non-koreans, it's hilariously bad. I consider myself lucky that the one time I went to a studio to get pictures to use for stuff like medical exams or immigration documents, they didn't even bother trying to photoshop me. My main coteacher went to have some taken at the same time, and they spent a good thirty minutes touching up her pics before printing them out, but for mine they just took them, were like "K, done" and printed them. 

The dude at Lotte Mart tried to touch up my passport photo of all things. I had to reassure him that it was a passport photo and you can't edit them. He was like are you sure? I was like of course. 

The dude at Lotte Mart tried to touch up my passport photo of all things. I had to reassure him that it was a passport photo and you can't edit them. He was like are you sure? I was like of course. 

Korean rules are different, they're SO MUCH more lenient than the Canadian regulations concerning passport photos.

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

Unacceptable rudeness. I'd get up and go sit at another table by myself.

I'm sorry you have to experience that.  No excuses for that level of rudeness.

I've been at my main school for three years now, and they've only pulled me aside for picture day once. I think they've just been reusing the same picture since then. 

Same! I had a photo (which of course I had no foreknowledge of) taken my first year, and then never had it taken again. Which is too bad, because the first one was bad. It was maybe 2 weeks after my shoulder surgery, so I still couldn't be bothered to do makeup and was wearing loose sweaters. To make up for my lack of fashion and beauty, they completely photoshopped me, adding makeup, clearing my skin, elongating my neck, and some other things. I came out of it looking like an alien. 

Nearly every time I've seen the results of Korean attempts to photoshop non-koreans, it's hilariously bad. I consider myself lucky that the one time I went to a studio to get pictures to use for stuff like medical exams or immigration documents, they didn't even bother trying to photoshop me. My main coteacher went to have some taken at the same time, and they spent a good thirty minutes touching up her pics before printing them out, but for mine they just took them, were like "K, done" and printed them. 

The dude at Lotte Mart tried to touch up my passport photo of all things. I had to reassure him that it was a passport photo and you can't edit them. He was like are you sure? I was like of course. 

I’ve said this before, but the licenses displayed in every cab I have taken in Korea appears to have the driver’s grand-son’s photo on it.

Why is the teacher that has never taught English before in charge of the English materials budget. She also didn't tell anyone what she bought.

So we need prizes and stuff for students - she didn't get any.

We don't have an English classroom, so she bought a huge spinning wheel number picker thing that we have to carry from class to class.

The other teacher wanted a timer (electronic) so she got a big manual one.

We have hundreds of students - it's huge! She bought 25 traditional clothes of the world paper doll craft things.

 

I've been at my main school for three years now, and they've only pulled me aside for picture day once. I think they've just been reusing the same picture since then. 

Same! I had a photo (which of course I had no foreknowledge of) taken my first year, and then never had it taken again. Which is too bad, because the first one was bad. It was maybe 2 weeks after my shoulder surgery, so I still couldn't be bothered to do makeup and was wearing loose sweaters. To make up for my lack of fashion and beauty, they completely photoshopped me, adding makeup, clearing my skin, elongating my neck, and some other things. I came out of it looking like an alien. 

Nearly every time I've seen the results of Korean attempts to photoshop non-koreans, it's hilariously bad. I consider myself lucky that the one time I went to a studio to get pictures to use for stuff like medical exams or immigration documents, they didn't even bother trying to photoshop me. My main coteacher went to have some taken at the same time, and they spent a good thirty minutes touching up her pics before printing them out, but for mine they just took them, were like "K, done" and printed them. 

The dude at Lotte Mart tried to touch up my passport photo of all things. I had to reassure him that it was a passport photo and you can't edit them. He was like are you sure? I was like of course. 

I’ve said this before, but the licenses displayed in every cab I have taken in Korea appears to have the driver’s grand-son’s photo on it.

Haha classic. I took a taxi yday and the driver looked about 120 years old and he was driving a manual so the taxi musn't have been much younger.

                                                               1/3

They say that writing things down helps with thinking about it and dealing with things, so here I am.....

We all have reasons that we came here, and often we get asked this by Koreans. It's a legitimate query. To know my reason we need to go back to 2012. I work at a movie theatre in Toronto. I've never lived there before and it's exciting. There's a special screening of Apocalypse Now at TIFF and Walter Murch, the editor and inventor of 5.1 sound will be there.

  Who wants to go with me?

  I will go.

It's my Korean co-worker. Shit, I've never really spent time with anyone whose English is their second language. What if it's awkward? What if I can't understand her?

We go. She's nice. We get some drinks afterwards and all is fine! She's really nice and curious and while her English ain't great, it's good. I start to like this woman. I tell her I like her a few weeks later. I get shot down. I don't give up that easy though.

It takes two more attempts, over the course of 4 months,  and I bluntly just tell her to get a coffee with me. She's leaving in 4 months,

  why Kevin?

  Do you want to spend the rest of your life without knowing what it would be like to properly date me? We've practically been dating for the last 6 months anyway, we hang out all the time, and I know you like me, too.

  Okay, let's do it. *kis kiss kiss*

This is the happiest I have ever been. The 4 months prior to her moving back here are the best 4 months of my life. We have a picnic.

  Do you think we have a future?
 
Yes, I will come teach English in Korea. I'l come find you and we can be together and we can move back to Canada one day.

  I love you.

 :police:I love you, too.

She leaves. I see her off at the airport. I cry on a bench in the terminal. The work begins. I go get my TESOL In-Class course. I also go to the beach.

This beach part seems like a weird aside but it'll come around and I'll distill it down. I go with friends. I go piss, there's an iPhone 4S on the toilet paper dispenser (keep in mind, this was a 6 month old phone at this point). Snap, sell this shit. 4 hours later. "Ahhhh, if I lost my phone, I know I'd want to have someone try and give it back to me. (Thanks Dr. Dre)"
I figure out who. "Kevin, red or white?" "Ahh, thanks. Red." I bike to my friends house. I have the wine. I proceed to get completely off my head, and it wasn't just wine (I won't incriminate myself here, but you get it). Bike home, no helmet.

Wake up. The ****? Where am I? Oh shit. I'm in critical care. A vein had burst on the inside of my skull and started filling up my cranial cavity with blood. Puts pressure on the brain.

  Kevin, if you'd been another 5 mins late to the hospital, you'd be functionally retarded, 10 mins? You'd be dead. I just want you to understand the severity.

 

Lucky me I was 3 blocks away from St. Mike's when I crashed, best neurosurgeons in Canada. This was the tail end of June. I could have had my TESOL 4 days after the accident.

Anyway, this delays my TESOL, which delays my life. I'm going to Korea, it'll just take a little longer. I feel like I can get away with a lot of stuff. "I had brain surgery, cut me some slack."

End of November.

  I don't know if I love you anymore. Where are you? Why aren't you coming?

  I'm sorry, baby. I'm coming.

Get a job before the new year, or I can't do this anymore.

Shit. I pick up my life. I work hard. I get a job on the 26thof December. Flying in on Valentine's day. Hell yeah.
 
To be continued......

Bolded.  That should have been your first hint.  She's a biatch and not into you.  So, get the hell away.  I come across those types on rare occasion.  Well, actually, maybe not, but they remind me of the crabby types with no sense of humor who are focused on one thing (a guy with the most gold) or manipulative or crazy or whatever.  Get away as fast as you can, make excuses, avoid them.  Some time alone pursuing a hobby ain't a bad thing.  As for this chick, it seemed like she was one of those rare ones that hangs around with foreign guys and has too many foreign guy friends and always hangs out at the same two or three foreign bars.  Avoid those types like the plague. 

If it's a group of friends and you're running into the same situations, then get a new group of friends, find a new place to teach, move to another town or another part of Seoul, etc.  There's plenty of women in Korea and especially Seoul.  It always amazes me how many women there are in Seoul.  I walk into a coffee shop, subway restaurant, subway the underground train, etc and there's often a pretty girl making eyes at me or giving me a stare.  The point is there's plenty of fish in the sea.  One crazy manipulative idiot is to be avoided.  We are all young once, I guess.  But, you watch the warning signs and can tell if she's into you or just reluctantly going along with it until someone better to her comes along.  Not saying another is better than you.  But some women have different priorities and different ways of thinking.  Others are biatches and nuts.  Others are nice and really interested in you and looking at you a certain way when they see you or when you speak to them. 

Do yourself a favor and get out of those foreigner bars where it's 5 Korean girls and 50 foreign guys.  Sausage parties ain't my thing.  Many of those have a foreign boyfriend until he goes home and then a new foreign boyfriend, and then maybe another after that.  There's no sincerity there.

You'd almost be better off walking around or traveling alone and strike up a talk with the first pretty girl who looks at you the right way or if you're a regular at the coffee shop or where ever and the girl working there seems extra friendly to you, then after a few times, go for it. 

Also, as for regular Korean girls, look at the Korean guys who are considered handsome in their eyes and in the eyes of their society.  Usually they are clean cut and dressed decently.  (Just jeans and a shirt, but not old baggy sweatpants and a long beard.)  It's far better to meet regular Korean girls not necessarily obsessed with western guys but will like you if they meet you or a Korean guy they like.  In other words, they like you more for you. 

Most younger or youngish women (and men too) here understand western culture and the gap is not what it would have been even 10 years ago for getting along.  (I met some 20 somethings a decade ago from the very rural areas and the thinking was very old ajumma like.  It drove me nutty.)  Also many can speak decent English now if not fluent entirely. 

A lot of foreign dudes in my town I like, but I don't frequently hang out at the jaded foreign drinking hole with them.  Eyeing the same 5 Korean girls with them ain't my thing.  I prefer going out into society at large.  If I get the right stares, I take it as my cue and don't have drunk guys acting like idiots around me (well some of them).  So, no more crying in booths by yourself and go get some new friends if need be.  Find some hobbies, go out and explore, be a bit independent and good luck.   


Sorry for the long run on sentences and rambling.  Just replying to a reply of a reply. 

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

I have a few of those, too. Don't let her get to you. She's playing high school games with you. It doesn't really matter what her problem is with you because it's all really down to a problem with herself, and that has nothing to do with you. She's just trying to take it out on you.

If you're a snarky person, you can have some fun with this, but otherwise, just ignore her and live your own life without acknowledging her outside of what the job requires you to. What she thinks of you doesn't matter. If you can get yourself to trust and believe that, then you'll be way better off.

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

  That really sucks.
Personally, I would make a point of sitting right next to her everyday with a big, bright smile and a loud "Hello/Enjoy your lunch!" But that's because I'm super petty and passive aggressive.   If she continues to blank you then that will just make her look rude.

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

 :shocked:That really sucks.
Personally, I would make a point of sitting right next to her everyday with a big, bright smile and a loud "Hello/Enjoy your lunch!" But that's because I'm super petty and passive aggressive.   If she continues to blank you then that will just make her look rude.

Or just follow recent news and start twerking in front of her with your empty lunch tray.

there seems to be a lot of pettiness/bullying in korean schools. does this happen in other countries to this degree too?

I think Koreans are victim to that age group thing. It's all really clique-y when it doesn't have to be.
And the issue may be because I'm younger than most of the people here, except maybe 5 or so, but I treat them all the same. I even treat the kids the same. Maybe she sees it as a disrespect but that's just speculation.

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

At least you don't have to make conversation.

When there is a VOLUNTARY activity outside of school hours on the weekend, and you are asked to participate and unfortunately you cannot because you have a medical appointment in another city that day, and suddenly you are treated like you killed a kid. 

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

At least you don't have to make conversation.

I'm actually amazed DeKoreano hasn't stepped in to tell you that they weren't making fun of you and it's your own fault for not understanding the language. He must be busy on another thread.

Am I missing something, or do students not seem to every be prepared for class outside of having pencils. Few have notebooks, and even fewer have any scrap paper to write on.

I know this school system has its issues, but it says a lot when the ones who are supposed to be learning don't have much in way of supplies. Unless I'm missing something here?

It depends on their homeroom teacher and their grade.

Third and fourth graders rarely have notebooks, because writing is not a large part of their curriculum.

And other grades, if their homeroom teacher isn't a notebook person, then perhaps nobody has told them to go buy notebooks. And if their English teachers haven't required them to have notebooks, they won't bring notebooks.

But also, some kids are just unprepared and don't remember their stuff, so even if they are required, a lot will forget them.

It sometimes could be a financial reason for them to not have some of the basic stuff like notebooks and pens.
I have 1 student, that my co-teacher told me about, that is in this situation. I tried to give him a pen, when he asked me to borrow one, but he just returned it to me after class.

Do you know what day it is today? PICTURE DAY!!!

Do you know who was the only person not dressed because their co-teacher failed to tell them about it? ME!!!

So refuse to have your picture taken.  You are an adult.  Until you show that there are repercussions to their notification system, nothing will change.

Me rebelling against my school isn't gonna change a thing. This is a Korean thing, not a school thing. You can't tell me you haven't been hit with the "Korean Surprise" at one point or another.

Question: Were there any other teachers who didn't know it was picture day? Oh, wait. I think you answered that already.... Hmmmm.... 

Sat down at the teachers table with my tray and heard the teacher diagonal from me say my name clearly, look away from me annoyed and then mumble some Korean to the other two teachers next to her. And then they giggled.

I always get the vibe she doesn't like me, she often looks away like she's annoyed or disgusted when I walk by. I don't know what I did to offend her but it sucks to get that reaction from someone I've never spoken to. Shouldn't let it get to me but every lunch she has that face when I come over.

She could just be a terrible racist. And it would be much easier to go about your day if you just tell yourself every time she gives you a dirty looks that she's just a terrible racist.    But seriously though.... At my first school, there was a teacher there who clearly didn't like me. I never spoke enough Korean at that school to understand her to know for sure.... but I remember the first time we took an overnight teacher's trip that one of my co-teachers (who had been drinking, if memory serves) told me while we were drinking that she had just said (like literally, two seconds before, and right in front of everyone) that she doesn't like me. I turned to him and blankly said, "Oh, well that's fine. I don't really like her much either." At least we were on the same page.

Am I missing something, or do students not seem to every be prepared for class outside of having pencils. Few have notebooks, and even fewer have any scrap paper to write on.

I know this school system has its issues, but it says a lot when the ones who are supposed to be learning don't have much in way of supplies. Unless I'm missing something here?

It depends on their homeroom teacher and their grade.

Third and fourth graders rarely have notebooks, because writing is not a large part of their curriculum.

And other grades, if their homeroom teacher isn't a notebook person, then perhaps nobody has told them to go buy notebooks. And if their English teachers haven't required them to have notebooks, they won't bring notebooks.

But also, some kids are just unprepared and don't remember their stuff, so even if they are required, a lot will forget them.

It sometimes could be a financial reason for them to not have some of the basic stuff like notebooks and pens.
I have 1 student, that my co-teacher told me about, that is in this situation. I tried to give him a pen, when he asked me to borrow one, but he just returned it to me after class.

I just keep a bunch of pencils and erasers in my class for students who forget or just don't have, they can return them or keep them. I also have a pile of cheap notebooks that they can use if they want to. Some kids like a notebook others not. I am not a note taker, never have been, if I actually focus on what is being said I have a better chance of remembering, so I understand that not everyone learns that way.