RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I hate it here so much, I feel like such a ****** jackass for picking a 12 month contract. I'm 4 months in and I'm having such a shit time and there's so much time left until I can go.

I refuse to do a runner but **** I hate this

So far I've been:
Headbutted in the spine
Purposely shoved walking down the hall and laughed at when I stumbled
Had students try to pull me off the floor while rearranging books by my ponytail because I wouldn't get up and unlock my computer
Had a kid post up to me because I tried to take his phone
Been body bumped off my own computer multiple times
Had the bathroom sign thrown into my room with nose bleed tissues

I'm so mentally exhausted and reporting things just made it worse for me

First, I'm sorry that things are still so hard for you right now, and I feel like I need to state that you should do what's best for your own health and interest. You were dealt a bad hand, so there's no shame in moving on to better pastures.

With that being said, I read your blog, and what you're currently dealing with is classic office bullying. They're trying to get you to quit. BUT... they were probably already trying to get you to do that in the first place. They've just stepped it up a level. Also more than likely there's been false info and rumors flying around about you from day 1. The place is toxic. I'm betting things were and are being said to the kids, too, which would explain some of their incredibly hostile attitudes towards you (especially the bit about the kid calling you a bitter worker and that you should just go back home -- that's something an adult would say, she's probably just regurgitating it). Most of the KTs probably know nothing about you outside of what others are saying, and you can bet that most of that is probably negative. No one at that school was ever your friend. Some were polite towards you, but there was animosity and hostility always there. None of that is your fault.

If you still want to fight the good fight, you'll need to give yourself some important *me* time first so that you'll have the energy to build up your second wind. It always gets worse before it gets better, especially in places like that.

I know I keep harping about it, but log everything. Record everything. Invest in hidden cams for your classroom, and audio record ANYTIME you go into a room with Koreans or interact with a Korean at your school. And remember that the school literally, literally set you up for failure. That isn't your fault. How they're choosing to treat you isn't your fault. You were walking into a shitstorm that's been going on long before you got there.

Whether you ultimately decide to leave or stay, you're not wrong either way. You don't need to put up and deal with this bullshit, especially if it's become super detrimental to you. If you don't feel like you have it in you to punch back as hard as you're going to need to, that's okay. You shouldn't have to, and there's no shame in leaving. I'd just advice, should you decide to leave, to gather as much evidence about the school's mistreatment of you as possible to submit to the POE on your way out, just as a final middle finger farewell.

Keep us posted, Bingsu, I wish you the best.

This is great advice, seriously. Sometimes, when you get stuck in that toxic workplace, people may seem like they're being civil (or even nice) to you, so long as you continue to let them take advantage of you. The second you stick up for yourself, they try and freeze you out. Don't let them. I had a similar situation with my first school in Korea. They'd try and have me working twelve hour days, I was making an hour+ commute each way to school, even when there were other teachers who lived in the same city as me who could have easily carpooled with me. They tried to give me a nurse office cot as a bed, so they wouldn't have to buy one and they could pocket the money. They had me planning over twenty different lessons a week, and then they'd change the schedule with a moment's notice and expect me to adjust. Same with hweishiks and whatnot. The good part about being frozen out is that you can stop putting up with their crap, too. When they aren't being nice or even civil to you anymore, why go to hweishiks? Why do the "teacher activities" like volleyball and other such nonsense? They freeze you out.... you can do the same right back. It's kind of liberating.

I also wonder.... do they allow you to discipline students in any way? Personally, I'd do as Chinguetti suggests and record all the things.... including any sort of student discipline; which I would definitely do, as well. I'd be having no part of those kids acting that way toward me. No ******* way. Put them in check. If the Korean teachers or administrators tell you that you can't do that, you'll have a recording of such, which you can take to the PoE. Nothing crazy, mind you.... but like, make them write lines. Or make them sit in the back of the room and face the wall. Or send them out of the room, if you have to. Honestly, the second I sustained a spinal injury from a kid, I'd be telling the admin and my co-teacher to do something about it, or I'd take it to the police and let them police deal with the kid's parents. I bet they'd have gotten on it real quick then.

And don't let people scare you with the threat of, "...if you burn bridges with this school, you'll never work in public school again!" It may be true that they can spread lies to EPIK and make things difficult.... but there are always direct hires. And honestly, if you get one direct hire and kept it for a year or two and then re-apply to EPIK, you'd more than likely still be able to get into EPIK again. I had a similar situation there too.... where I'm pretty sure a former co-teacher said negative things about me to EPIK when I reapplied. So I went the direct hire route and I'm about to start my second year with them. I'm much happier this time around than I was the first go around.

I hope things can turn around for you, because you seem like such a lovely person. It sucks when these things happen to good people.

Short post because on phone but:

Aside from the kid who headbutted me, none of them are my kids. I have no power at all over them and they know it. When I reported it, I just got pathetic answers like "oh kids being kids lol" "they're only curious!"

And on the freezing part, I've never been invited anywhere by the teachers, they froze me out at the start. The only thing I do here is teach, be ignored, be harassed and leave.

I stopped trying to stick to rigid plans because the standard here is to give a movie when you're ahead of schedule or don't know what to do, so I just wing it with games and the kids seem okay with that and don't fight me as hard anymore. It was more for my sanity than anything else tbh. They see me as the game clown now because of curriculum classes and it's okay I guess. They're happy to see me in curriculum and In the hall but not my class, for them after school is free time lol.

When the kids are being naughty the easiest thing to do is get some kids from a grade older than them to pay them a visit. They soon buck up their ideas.

I hate it here so much, I feel like such a ****** jackass for picking a 12 month contract. I'm 4 months in and I'm having such a shit time and there's so much time left until I can go.

I refuse to do a runner but **** I hate this

So far I've been:
Headbutted in the spine
Purposely shoved walking down the hall and laughed at when I stumbled
Had students try to pull me off the floor while rearranging books by my ponytail because I wouldn't get up and unlock my computer
Had a kid post up to me because I tried to take his phone
Been body bumped off my own computer multiple times
Had the bathroom sign thrown into my room with nose bleed tissues

I'm so mentally exhausted and reporting things just made it worse for me

First, I'm sorry that things are still so hard for you right now, and I feel like I need to state that you should do what's best for your own health and interest. You were dealt a bad hand, so there's no shame in moving on to better pastures.

With that being said, I read your blog, and what you're currently dealing with is classic office bullying. They're trying to get you to quit. BUT... they were probably already trying to get you to do that in the first place. They've just stepped it up a level. Also more than likely there's been false info and rumors flying around about you from day 1. The place is toxic. I'm betting things were and are being said to the kids, too, which would explain some of their incredibly hostile attitudes towards you (especially the bit about the kid calling you a bitter worker and that you should just go back home -- that's something an adult would say, she's probably just regurgitating it). Most of the KTs probably know nothing about you outside of what others are saying, and you can bet that most of that is probably negative. No one at that school was ever your friend. Some were polite towards you, but there was animosity and hostility always there. None of that is your fault.

If you still want to fight the good fight, you'll need to give yourself some important *me* time first so that you'll have the energy to build up your second wind. It always gets worse before it gets better, especially in places like that.

I know I keep harping about it, but log everything. Record everything. Invest in hidden cams for your classroom, and audio record ANYTIME you go into a room with Koreans or interact with a Korean at your school. And remember that the school literally, literally set you up for failure. That isn't your fault. How they're choosing to treat you isn't your fault. You were walking into a shitstorm that's been going on long before you got there.

Whether you ultimately decide to leave or stay, you're not wrong either way. You don't need to put up and deal with this bullshit, especially if it's become super detrimental to you. If you don't feel like you have it in you to punch back as hard as you're going to need to, that's okay. You shouldn't have to, and there's no shame in leaving. I'd just advice, should you decide to leave, to gather as much evidence about the school's mistreatment of you as possible to submit to the POE on your way out, just as a final middle finger farewell.

Keep us posted, Bingsu, I wish you the best.

Thank you. This really really means a lot to me, I can't express it enough. I'm trying to push through all of this and I'm hoping my summer vacation gives me a big enough reset to kick the doors down when the new semester starts.

Though this thread is the 'Ranting Thread', I'd kindly suggest that you get off it. Thing is, while the words of encouragement are helping you tolerate your situation that is EXACTLY what you shouldn't be doing, tolerating.
You CAN transfer to a new school for the next semester. Go to your MOE and INSIST on a transfer. The only thing that's stopping them is laziness, they'll likely give you some excuses or tell you it's impossible simply to save themselves the paperwork. If that's the case inform them that you understand how difficult it is for them so you'll be asking the POE to do it instead. Usually, people will get their ass into gear under threat that their overseas are going to have to do their job for them.
Your POE overseas all the school in a damn province, there's NO WAY there wouldn't be a vacancy at at least one school. Don't take no for an answer, put pressure on them, the sooner you do it the better.

I don't want to rub it in, but, at the moment you're a very weak person, that's why they're picking on you. The students don't hate you, they've just discovered they can get away with treating you this way. That mob mentality is the nasty side of Korean society, people pounce on the opportunity to gang up on a weaker person if they can get away with it, it's a copping mechanism for their own unhappiness. As said, someone had it in for you, or the previous NET, and has gone to great lengths to make your life miserable.

Notice I said 'at the moment', you're weak. Those students head-butted you and you did nothing... I'm sure that if they tried to hurt your cats, you'd probably go completely ape-sh*t on them. Necessity is going to force you to, pardon my French, grow a pair! As soon as you get off this thread and are presented with no alternative to deal with the problem, you will.
So, get your transfer sorted and in the meantime, you'll have to stone yourself:

- set up a camera and record everything in class
- Keep your phone on, in your pocket, and use it as an audio recorder
- go through your lessons, forget the games, just textbook it.
- LEARN TO SAY NO!
- Bring a lunchbox and find somewhere quiet to eat
- Again, learn to say NO!

Sort yourself out, nothing anyone, including me, says here is going to help you do that.

... either that, or I have a slight suspicion you might've been trolling this site this whole time. Just a suspicion.

Bingsu I have been in exactly your position, my second year here was hell on earth. I had a co-teacher who quite literally was the laziest person I have ever met, and I brought it up politely by merely asking if she would help me with class preparation etc. It was an afterschool/normal school situation the school part was okay I used the textbook but for after school, each level had their own textbook, not found on waygook, so I had to prepare everything from scratch.

The minute I asked for help, she started sabotaging me instead. She made my life hell at school and outside of school, spreading the most god awful rumours about me and sabotaging me in such a way that I honestly thought I was a terrible teacher (I was gaslighted), and every person in my foreigner community had questions about my sanity, my personal life, she destroyed me. I very luckily had great students, a tiny saving grace.

I got through the first semester. I had vacation (I did nothing but sleep, eat, cry and watch series). Then the second semester, I made up my mind to speak to nobody, I went to my job, I did my work, I left. I would only answer yes or no to things. I went numb. 

The second semester is nice and short. I knew I wouldn't renew with the school, and because EPIK had placed me in a school hire position, I had to re-apply with them. I got hold of the co-ordinator for the area and told her I wanted to stay in the district just not be at that school, I also told my EPIK co-ordinator. I explained to both of them what had happened (I had kept the POE coordinator updated through the year as to what was transpiring, even though she could do nothing about it because I was a school hire). It worked. Also Karma is a bitch, that CT was relieved of her position 5 months after I left.

It is tough and I can't tell you how to deal with it, I can tell you that if it weren't for my pets and SO I would have done a midnight run. No question. I understand completely. I just don't have the answers for you. Take care of yourself, and only you know the decisions you have to make to do that.

Pretty much on agreement that documenting in both written and recorded forms need to take place, and that the POE needs to be kept regularly updated on what's going on (that's what the documentation is meant for -- reference AND evidence). Definitely push for a transfer because that's part of your defense strategy. Just keep documenting to help make your case.

No you're not wrong, at the moment I am very weak. I am extremely mentally unwell from this and I honestly don't know where to turn anymore. I was always told that I had to go up the chain of command and I shouldn't break it, I did what I was supposed to do. I went to the highest person I could and nothing came of it and it just got worse for me. I'm scared to ask for help again because if they fall through again I honestly don't know what's going to happen to me here. If I asked to leave and the school doesn't want to let me or they don't want to help me, I know my life is going to get ten times worse until I break and run. And I don't want to be put in a position where everything I worked so hard for is taken away from me because other people are assholes.
And I didn't do nothing when the kid hit me, I immediately reported it like I was supposed to do. I kept pushing the issue and when I realized they weren't going to take me seriously, I went to the highest of command.

 at the start whenever kids were harassing me I would report it and again nothing ever came of it. It was essentially one of those quit Making Waves situations. I started realizing the more I complain the worse it got, so why would I continue to complain to them if they didn't care

You can think I'm trolling if you want but I'm really really not, I wouldn't have thought of this in my wildest dreams. I wouldn't have thought that I did all of this to get...here.

 I just sent an email to my coordinator asking if I could transfer and move.

No you're not wrong, at the moment I am very weak. I am extremely mentally unwell from this and I honestly don't know where to turn anymore. I was always told that I had to go up the chain of command and I shouldn't break it, I did what I was supposed to do. I went to the highest person I could and nothing came of it and it just got worse for me. I'm scared to ask for help again because if they fall through again I honestly don't know what's going to happen to me here. If I asked to leave and the school doesn't want to let me or they don't want to help me, I know my life is going to get ten times worse until I break and run. And I don't want to be put in a position where everything I worked so hard for is taken away from me because other people are assholes.
And I didn't do nothing when the kid hit me, I immediately reported it like I was supposed to do. I kept pushing the issue and when I realized they weren't going to take me seriously, I went to the highest of command.

 at the start whenever kids were harassing me I would report it and again nothing ever came of it. It was essentially one of those quit Making Waves situations. I started realizing the more I complain the worse it got, so why would I continue to complain to them if they didn't care

You can think I'm trolling if you want but I'm really really not, I wouldn't have thought of this in my wildest dreams. I wouldn't have thought that I did all of this to get...here.

 I just sent an email to my coordinator asking if I could transfer and move.

Okay, just don't accept "no" for an answer, and don't get discouraged if they try to push back. Stand your ground, and send vids/audio if they try to dig their heels in.

Short post because on phone but:

Aside from the kid who headbutted me, none of them are my kids. I have no power at all over them and they know it. When I reported it, I just got pathetic answers like "oh kids being kids lol" "they're only curious!"

And on the freezing part, I've never been invited anywhere by the teachers, they froze me out at the start. The only thing I do here is teach, be ignored, be harassed and leave.

I stopped trying to stick to rigid plans because the standard here is to give a movie when you're ahead of schedule or don't know what to do, so I just wing it with games and the kids seem okay with that and don't fight me as hard anymore. It was more for my sanity than anything else tbh. They see me as the game clown now because of curriculum classes and it's okay I guess. They're happy to see me in curriculum and In the hall but not my class, for them after school is free time lol.

Ugh.... it sucks even more if they aren't your kids. At least then, you'd have some recourse, in theory.

This is definitely sounding more and more like it is an issue that may very well have nothing to do with you personally. Maybe they disliked the previous NET for some reason and they're taking it out on you. Maybe it could have something to do with the attitude of your co-teacher, principal, or VP when it comes to foreign teachers.... who knows?

In general, I never stick to rigid planning ever these days. When I first came to Korea, I tried it.... my type-A personality just couldn't get by without rigid planning. I've actually been conditioned into a type-B personality at this point, because I didn't want to lose my damn mind.

I know they'll tell you to follow the chain of command.... and they may not like the results when you go over there head.... but sometimes you have to. Don't feel bad about it.

This day hasn't fully gotten out of bed yet and I'm already done. The kids are so ****** moody today what with exams around the corner and the bad, humid weather.

Coffee isn't going to salvage this bad start.

I was delighted with Korea's victory over Germany but now my morning commute has made me hate all the annoying Koreans again.

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

I was delighted with Korea's victory over Germany but...

You were? I was awoken to the sound of cheering, shouting, singing, and soju bottles being smashed in the street. "Oh, God, I hope Korea doesn't advance; I want peaceful sleep going forward," I thought to myself.

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

Don't you want to save the Dodo?

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

Amen.

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

Amen.

Half the A/C units in my apartment are not working.

This morning the tech came back for the second time, and got the one in my son's room back in service... Kitchen, MBR and office still without A/C.

Waiting for parts.
 

I was delighted with Korea's victory over Germany but...

You were? I was awoken to the sound of cheering, shouting, singing, and soju bottles being smashed in the street. "Oh, God, I hope Korea doesn't advance; I want peaceful sleep going forward," I thought to myself.

I woke up to a powercut at 3:30. Because, when the power came back on, my sensor light turned on and woke me up. I'm super tired right now because of a short amount of sleep that was also interrupted. :'(

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

Amen.

I taught at one school for a few months, years ago. The principal was incredibly cheap, he lorded the aircon on 24/7 in has office but refused to let anyone use it in for more than a few minutes in the classrooms. He had the "brilliant" idea of pouring water on the floor, in the classroom, so it would evaporate and "cool" the room.

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

I literally just bought a brand new 2,000,000 stand and wall aircon set for my apartment. They installed it. It worked for a few days. Then all the coolant must have leaked out or something, because now it just blows air. And now it's going to take like ten days for them to send someone to fix it. Miserable.

a giant F you to any individual in the world that thinks a fan will do in this weather.

It.will.not.do.

 

I literally just bought a brand new 2,000,000 stand and wall aircon set for my apartment. They installed it. It worked for a few days. Then all the coolant must have leaked out or something, because now it just blows air. And now it's going to take like ten days for them to send someone to fix it. Miserable.

10 days!!!
My sympathies, brother.