RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I think I'm going to just say I'm not the biggest fan of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) because it's  too much work to build a curriculum from scratch- for two fifty minute lessons a week- and I have pretty much no support with it. I'm below the 22 hour class limit, but honestly if they add anything else to my schedule I might cry.

can't you just focus on functional language? e.g. giving advice, agreeing/disagreeing language, telephone english, polite requests, etc? there is loads of stuff online for that, and it's actually useful to the students

It's a Foreign Language High School, and CLIL is one of it's selling points to parents. The students just aren't as fluent as parents/administration would like to think, because the majority of what I teach goes right over their heads.

I do wish I could focus on functional language, but quite a bit of it isn't challenging enough. These kids need CLIL-style classes, but it's not been implemented properly. It's nice to teach the subject I have a Master's in, but I wish they would supply a curriculum. For example, take-home textbooks would help both me and the students (having either one of these things happen would probably require selling one's soul to the devil or sacrificing a virgin or something).

Why does the end of the semester have to be so stressful?

My to-do list:
- Write 158 individual student comments for their report cards (five sentences each)
- Proctor final exams all morning for the rest of the week (no books, phones, or notes allowed- it's boring)
- Grade 108 final projects
- Plan my summer camp
- Attempt to teach a total of 28 after-finals classes without using movies (ha ha hahahahahaha)
- Try to decide WTF to do with CLIL (see below) next semester since my plans are due but I have no curriculum....
- Write lesson plans for advanced conversation next semester
- Have a general anxiety attack

Hopefully I can save that for last.

I think I'm going to just say I'm not the biggest fan of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) because it's  too much work to build a curriculum from scratch- for two fifty minute lessons a week- and I have pretty much no support with it. I'm below the 22 hour class limit, but honestly if they add anything else to my schedule I might cry.

I'm flying home three weeks from Friday..... but I'll only be there for five days because that's all the vacation time my school would give me, and it's difficult to get excited because of the jet-lag. Luckily I had enough points to escape economy class, but still. It's a long way home. Apparently camp is more important than vacation and I can use the over Winter Break. They aren't violating the EPIK contract because yeah, eight days would have "interfered with the smooth running of the school."

I'm just waaaay too tired. Until now, I've been loving the job, despite all the work. Is this what burnout feels like?

TL;DR tired. overworked. vacation days suck. CLIL is no fun.

Well there's half your problem right there.  I don't know your situation but over the years the amount of people who come to Korea to travel and experience other countries for a year or two, only to then go home during one of the two typical vacation times given during the year is astounding. 

Look, I'm not much a "ranting" gal.  In fact, I'm the type of person that just lets the world hate and I do my own thing.  but......... in this case, I'm a little miffed. 

I just came from a meeting where I was (and probably the other teachers also) labeled as a racist.  I would LOVE to go into detail on how but I don't know if this other NET is a member of this forum.  I honestly had no idea what to say.  Wait, yes I did, but being the mature adult that I am, I chose to keep it to myself.  This little rat just sat and scowled through the entire meeting.  Never contributed.  Not a syllable came out off said persons mouth except to label my idea as "white dominated".  Look here f*ckt*rd!  If you didn't like my idea, then you should have come up with one yourself! Outside of Korea, these kids know NOTHING of what's going on outside of their borders, or are you teaching them to be crappy and hateful like yourself? 

Not only that, when I entered the room and was introduced to said NET, the way they shook my hand!  As if I had cooties!  Or my "white" would rub off on said NET. 

Honest to God, it was one of the most awkward meetings I have EVER been to.  Even the KT seemed to feel said NET negativity.  If this is how said NET is, holly crap should they NOT be around kids!  Or God forbid they breed and create more SJW that teach their offspring that anything outside a "minority race" is garbage and racist. 

TL;DR - I'm a racist, C'est La Vie!   

If the NET is active on this site your cover is probably already blown. May as well give all the deets

If the NET is active on this site your cover is probably already blown. May as well give all the deets

Most likely, but I won't give said NET the satisfaction. 
Never mind......I guess I already did by coming in here and b*tching about it.     

Why does the end of the semester have to be so stressful?

My to-do list:
- Write 158 individual student comments for their report cards (five sentences each)
- Proctor final exams all morning for the rest of the week (no books, phones, or notes allowed- it's boring)
- Grade 108 final projects
- Plan my summer camp
- Attempt to teach a total of 28 after-finals classes without using movies (ha ha hahahahahaha)
- Try to decide WTF to do with CLIL (see below) next semester since my plans are due but I have no curriculum....
- Write lesson plans for advanced conversation next semester
- Have a general anxiety attack

Hopefully I can save that for last.

I think I'm going to just say I'm not the biggest fan of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) because it's  too much work to build a curriculum from scratch- for two fifty minute lessons a week- and I have pretty much no support with it. I'm below the 22 hour class limit, but honestly if they add anything else to my schedule I might cry.

I'm flying home three weeks from Friday..... but I'll only be there for five days because that's all the vacation time my school would give me, and it's difficult to get excited because of the jet-lag. Luckily I had enough points to escape economy class, but still. It's a long way home. Apparently camp is more important than vacation and I can use the over Winter Break. They aren't violating the EPIK contract because yeah, eight days would have "interfered with the smooth running of the school."

I'm just waaaay too tired. Until now, I've been loving the job, despite all the work. Is this what burnout feels like?

TL;DR tired. overworked. vacation days suck. CLIL is no fun.

Well there's half your problem right there.  I don't know your situation but over the years the amount of people who come to Korea to travel and experience other countries for a year or two, only to then go home during one of the two typical vacation times given during the year is astounding.

You’re right in that you don’t know my situation. This is my third contract, and I’ve visited home exactly once in that time. I normally use vacation to get lost in a Southeast Asian country. I’m far more likely to be motorcycling around Laos on vacation instead of stay-cations (I travel internationally even on four day weekends...).

In THIS SITUATION, I’m going home BRIEFLY to meet my niece, as my younger sister is due the week before my trip. Under normal circumstances, I’d always choose to travel within the region, but this is a major milestone for my sister, and she’s been my best friend since childhood.

It was pretty difficult to get even those five days off to see my family, as my school mainly allows teachers to travel in winter instead. So no, that’s not half my problem, and I found your comment to be a tad insensitive. What people do with their vacation time is their business, and some people have complicated lives and sometimes something just happens and they need to be with their families.

Just finished watching Ant-Man and the Wasp (I put it at #11 out of the 20 MCU films).

During the start of the mid-credits scene, a group of kids sitting at the started shouting things like "F**K YOU!" and "SEX!" out loud. Not at someone, just at the air. No parents, just some kids. It baffles me how much freedom these kids get. I can't be the only one bothered by it. I've seen kids barely above toddlers just roaming the streets.

Even if you tell the parents that their kid is being a bad influence (or being exposed to one), I'm sure they'll deny it 

In her infinite wisdom, our MOE supervisor has planned a trip for the NETs and CTs for tomorrow.
We have to be at the education office at 12:40 sharp. The supervisor has also sent a message to my CT instructing that NETs are not allowed to leave before the end of 4th period... So, I've got to teach till 12:20, skip lunch or going to the loo, to rush to the education office by 12:40, endure a 90min bus ride, enjoy a wonderful cultural trip of being told how great Korea is for the next couple of hours... in the rain and no lunch, eat mystery dinner and arrive back at 930pm.

Wake up for school the next day.

Don't forget to claim overtime for the trip. I'd just turn up late, on purpose.

They might give you something? So are they making every teacher in the city skip lunch? 

Honestly I'd be super petty and whinge constantly about this, and also turn up late. Say you couldn't get  a taxi or whatever.

Just notice you are going with CTs, there's no way they'll allow you to be late then. 

Honestly, I'm man enough to be able to skip lunch, but it's the principal of the matter that gets to me.
I save the whining for my online presence, doing that in real life just isn't my style, no matter how sh*tty the situation.

I'm just going to leave at the end of the 3rd period and have lunch at home. My CT is equally pissed and we'll probably get the HR teacher to just play them a movie.

Just tell your Co-T's that you desperately need to use the bathroom, at 12:20, then sit on the toilet, and browse Facebook, or something, for 15 - 20mins on your phone. Then just mention, you were a bit constipated, or something. If the education office lady gets angry. "Oh, I had to teach until 12:20. Then I needed to use the bathoom; And I still haven't eaten lunch!"

In her infinite wisdom, our MOE supervisor has planned a trip for the NETs and CTs for tomorrow.
We have to be at the education office at 12:40 sharp. The supervisor has also sent a message to my CT instructing that NETs are not allowed to leave before the end of 4th period... So, I've got to teach till 12:20, skip lunch or going to the loo, to rush to the education office by 12:40, endure a 90min bus ride, enjoy a wonderful cultural trip of being told how great Korea is for the next couple of hours... in the rain and no lunch, eat mystery dinner and arrive back at 930pm.

Wake up for school the next day.

Don't forget to claim overtime for the trip. I'd just turn up late, on purpose.

How likely is it that this would work? Aristocrat, you gunna try?

In her infinite wisdom, our MOE supervisor has planned a trip for the NETs and CTs for tomorrow.
We have to be at the education office at 12:40 sharp. The supervisor has also sent a message to my CT instructing that NETs are not allowed to leave before the end of 4th period... So, I've got to teach till 12:20, skip lunch or going to the loo, to rush to the education office by 12:40, endure a 90min bus ride, enjoy a wonderful cultural trip of being told how great Korea is for the next couple of hours... in the rain and no lunch, eat mystery dinner and arrive back at 930pm.

Wake up for school the next day.

Don't forget to claim overtime for the trip. I'd just turn up late, on purpose.

How likely is it that this would work? Aristocrat, you gunna try?

100%. It's written in the contract. Anything after normal working hours is overtime. Although this won't be classed as instructional overtime so likely only w10k per hour or so.

is it in the contract that you have to attend? just make an excuse, say you can't go

Finally time for the big hospital visit that 1.5 months of clinic visits (all of which only prescribed medicine like it was a guessing game) has led to.

- Go to the suggested hospital last weekend, only to be told the kind of doctor I need isn't in that day. Gotta go to the other hospital on the other side of town.
- Get there and get put on intensive care. Get several shots and other procedures done over the course of three hours. I'm told to come back in a week.
- Go today, and the doctor tells me he'll prescribe medicine ( ) and to come back in a week.
- The nurse tells me to go to the pharmacy. I go to the one across the hall. The pharmacist says I have to pay for the meds at the office. I go back to the office. She says I have to pay at the pharmacy. I go back. The pharmacist tells me to use the random machine the nurse never mentioned to pay for the medication. He also tells me that I have to go to a different pharmacy to get the meds (Crazy that a major hospital doesn't carry everything  ).
- I go back to my neighborhood (in the pouring rain) and go to my usual pharmacy. They don't carry the medicine and tell me to go to the pharmacy on the 1st floor of the building. I go down there, and they don't have it either. They tell me to go to another clinic a few blocks away. I go there and finally get the medicine (is there like a specific place for specific types of medicines????  ).
- After all that is said and done, I still had to walk to school today in the rain.

TLDR - Korea has given me the worst medical experience of my entire life. Some of it can be attributed to miscommunication sure, but this is absurd. It's a good thing it's so much cheaper than back home.

Finally time for the big hospital visit that 1.5 months of clinic visits (all of which only prescribed medicine like it was a guessing game) has led to.

- Go to the suggested hospital last weekend, only to be told the kind of doctor I need isn't in that day. Gotta go to the other hospital on the other side of town.
- Get there and get put on intensive care. Get several shots and other procedures done over the course of three hours. I'm told to come back in a week.
- Go today, and the doctor tells me he'll prescribe medicine ( ) and to come back in a week.
- The nurse tells me to go to the pharmacy. I go to the one across the hall. The pharmacist says I have to pay for the meds at the office. I go back to the office. She says I have to pay at the pharmacy. I go back. The pharmacist tells me to use the random machine the nurse never mentioned to pay for the medication. He also tells me that I have to go to a different pharmacy to get the meds (Crazy that a major hospital doesn't carry everything  ).
- I go back to my neighborhood (in the pouring rain) and go to my usual pharmacy. They don't carry the medicine and tell me to go to the pharmacy on the 1st floor of the building. I go down there, and they don't have it either. They tell me to go to another clinic a few blocks away. I go there and finally get the medicine (is there like a specific place for specific types of medicines????  ).
- After all that is said and done, I still had to walk to school today in the rain.

TLDR - Korea has given me the worst medical experience of my entire life. Some of it can be attributed to miscommunication sure, but this is absurd. It's a good thing it's so much cheaper than back home.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JtEkUmYecnk

^ That's more accurate than you might think

I can't really wrap my mind around people who try to tell you that your definition of an English word is wrong because it doesn't fit the way their culture has adopted and incorrectly (based on a misunderstanding of the word) uses it.

Don't try to ****** lecture me that the word "panties" is most appropriately used to refer to all underwear. If that's how you want to use it in Korea, fine, I'm not going to argue with you, but don't try to tell the rest of the English-speaking world how they should use their own gawddamn word. INCLUDING HOW IT SHOULD BE PRONOUNCED WTFUCKITYFUCKFUCK

Maybe I should just tell them that they should refer to all vegetable side-dishes as kimchi because it's just too confusing otherwise, and if they try to argue with that tell them this is how all foreigners view Korean side-dishes so it must be the most correct way. ****** hell, the egocentrism and ethnocentrism in some folks is extreme.

I just don't get it. My CT is aware of my ongoing medical issue. I had to come into school even after my visit to the hospital on Monday. She asks me if I can change the time of my next appointment, even though the time slots weren't flexible at all. And now she wants me to change it from 9:30 next Monday to 11:30, that way I can teach one class 1st period (only showing a movie, mind you) and then be off to the hospital across town.

Just let me rest dammit 

Don't try to ****** lecture me that the word "panties" is most appropriately used to refer to all underwear. If that's how you want to use it in Korea, fine, I'm not going to argue with you, but don't try to tell the rest of the English-speaking world how they should use their own gawddamn word. INCLUDING HOW IT SHOULD BE PRONOUNCED WTFUCKITYFUCKFUCK

Me: This is a hot dog. *Shows the American style hot dog*
Student: No teacher. THIS is hot dog. *Shows the Korean hot dog which is a glorified corn dog*

I feel ya Chinguetti...

a glorified corn dog*

and this is a glorious corn dog

a glorified corn dog*

and this is a glorious corn dog

Heart disease on a stick.

a glorified corn dog*

and this is a glorious corn dog

Heart disease on a stick.

Not complete without the sugar.

a glorified corn dog*

and this is a glorious corn dog

Heart disease on a stick.

Adding corn to something never helps.