RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Taxi drivers who know how to use GPS but refuse to so that they can feign ignorance when they try to take the long way around.

Taxi drivers who know how to use GPS but refuse to so that they can feign ignorance when they try to take the long way around.

I HATE THAT!

  XX초등학교 가주세요

  Where is that?

  It's next to XX Catholic church. on XX Road (yes, XX are all the same hangeul symbols, it's a 5 min drive away, it's not obscure)

  I don't know.

  You havce navi, yes?

  Yes.

  Use that, my pronunciation is not the issue, just type it in.

  Aiiishhhhhhhhhhhhhh h

WHY THE FCCK IS TYPING 8 HANGEUL SYMBOLS A HUGE DEAL??? FFS

Taxi drivers who know how to use GPS but refuse to so that they can feign ignorance when they try to take the long way around.

I HATE THAT!
  XX초등학교 가주세요
  Where is that?
  It's next to XX Catholic church. on XX Road (yes, XX are all the same hangeul symbols, it's a 5 min drive away, it's not obscure)
  I don't know.
  You havce navi, yes?
  Yes.
  Use that, my pronunciation is not the issue, just type it in.
  Aiiishhhhhhhhhhhhhh h
WHY THE FCCK IS TYPING 8 HANGEUL SYMBOLS A HUGE DEAL??? FFS

+1.
Too right.
If I can type, search, and find an address all in Korean on my navi, so can a taxi driver who's done it a gazillion times.
I live in a small town, and I've had taxi drivers not know about the school I work at.
   "You know, the only middle school in town? The one with over a thousand students? The one that gives the entire surrounding neighbourhood its name? Yes, that one." 
   I get that taxis rove, and the driver may not be from the area, but c'mon!

Taxi drivers who know how to use GPS but refuse to so that they can feign ignorance when they try to take the long way around.

I HATE THAT!

  XX초등학교 가주세요

  Where is that?

  It's next to XX Catholic church. on XX Road (yes, XX are all the same hangeul symbols, it's a 5 min drive away, it's not obscure)

  I don't know.

  You havce navi, yes?

  Yes.

  Use that, my pronunciation is not the issue, just type it in.

  Aiiishhhhhhhhhhhhhh h

WHY THE FCCK IS TYPING 8 HANGEUL SYMBOLS A HUGE DEAL??? FFS

Can't be bothered with a few more seconds worth of effort

Taxi drivers who know how to use GPS but refuse to so that they can feign ignorance when they try to take the long way around.

I HATE THAT!

  XX초등학교 가주세요

  Where is that?

  It's next to XX Catholic church. on XX Road (yes, XX are all the same hangeul symbols, it's a 5 min drive away, it's not obscure)

  I don't know.

  You havce navi, yes?

  Yes.

  Use that, my pronunciation is not the issue, just type it in.

  Aiiishhhhhhhhhhhhhh h

WHY THE FCCK IS TYPING 8 HANGEUL SYMBOLS A HUGE DEAL??? FFS

Can't be bothered with a few more seconds worth of effort

I whip out naver maps, and type it if he takes me than 10 seconds to do so.

My mum  bought my wife a birthday present via amazon and had it sent to us here.
Amazon uses Apex shipping agents for delivery and Apex seem to change who they use on the final delivery every month. Recently it has been Hanjin Express Delivery. Hanjin are the most useless delivery company I have ever seen. I'm not in the least bit surprised they went bankrupt last year.

Tracked the package. Took three days from Wisconsin in the USA to Incheon airport. Three days across the US and then the Pacific, pretty good. It then sat at Incheon for 12 days, then just disappeared from the tracking system for another 5 days. 17 days in Korea, doing lord knows what.

Apex shipping refuses to admit it's their fault. Accuse us of not writing the address correctly. Swear up and down that we didn't write our city or province, which is just a direct lie. Refuses to even consider it may be their problem. The manager eventually does admit something has gone awry on their end.

They give US a number to call for the Hanjin delivery woman. The delivery woman says her father died so she couldn't make any deliveries. Fair enough, I'm not going to get angry with someone who has lost a family member. But what kind of company doesn't have some kind of system to cover these situations. "Kim is deathly ill. He has a van load of packages, some of which may be perishable. Should we assign someone else to do their deliveries? Nah. Wait till he gets out of hospital next month. People can wait."

Package turns up 20 days after landing at Incheon. I've had problems with Hanjin before. They seem to have massive problems. But what pissed me off most of all was the woman at Apex shipping refusing to believe us, accusing us of ****** up somehow and doing everything possible to deflect the blame away from her. I wasn't aggressive in the least, I just wanted to know where my missing package was. Serious problem with a lack of accountability.

Called them back and took photos of the address label to show it had our full address, city, province, zip code, phone number etc in English AND Korean. The guy this time was apologetic and said they get complaints about Hanjin everyday and they wont be using them anymore. And that he would give more training to the woman who called us liars. Bullshit.

My mum  bought my wife a birthday present via amazon and had it sent to us here.
Amazon uses Apex shipping agents for delivery and Apex seem to change who they use on the final delivery every month. Recently it has been Hanjin Express Delivery. Hanjin are the most useless delivery company I have ever seen. I'm not in the least bit surprised they went bankrupt last year.

Tracked the package. Took three days from Wisconsin in the USA to Incheon airport. Three days across the US and then the Pacific, pretty good. It then sat at Incheon for 12 days, then just disappeared from the tracking system for another 5 days. 17 days in Korea, doing lord knows what.

Apex shipping refuses to admit it's their fault. Accuse us of not writing the address correctly. Swear up and down that we didn't write our city or province, which is just a direct lie. Refuses to even consider it may be their problem. The manager eventually does admit something has gone awry on their end.

They give US a number to call for the Hanjin delivery woman. The delivery woman says her father died so she couldn't make any deliveries. Fair enough, I'm not going to get angry with someone who has lost a family member. But what kind of company doesn't have some kind of system to cover these situations. "Kim is deathly ill. He has a van load of packages, some of which may be perishable. Should we assign someone else to do their deliveries? Nah. Wait till he gets out of hospital next month. People can wait."

Package turns up 20 days after landing at Incheon. I've had problems with Hanjin before. They seem to have massive problems. But what pissed me off most of all was the woman at Apex shipping refusing to believe us, accusing us of ****** up somehow and doing everything possible to deflect the blame away from her. I wasn't aggressive in the least, I just wanted to know where my missing package was. Serious problem with a lack of accountability.

Called them back and took photos of the address label to show it had our full address, city, province, zip code, phone number etc in English AND Korean. The guy this time was apologetic and said they get complaints about Hanjin everyday and they wont be using them anymore. And that he would give more training to the woman who called us liars. Bullshit.

1 - F*ckup task
2 - Refuses to take responsibility/lies
3 - shifts blame to you or someone else
4  - if the situation doesn't go away, either continues to lie
5  - Finally, get the youngest junior to apologise for the f*ckup of his dumbass, ajushi boss.

Face saving culture, you can't beat it.

My mum  bought my wife a birthday present via amazon and had it sent to us here.
Amazon uses Apex shipping agents for delivery and Apex seem to change who they use on the final delivery every month. Recently it has been Hanjin Express Delivery. Hanjin are the most useless delivery company I have ever seen. I'm not in the least bit surprised they went bankrupt last year.

Tracked the package. Took three days from Wisconsin in the USA to Incheon airport. Three days across the US and then the Pacific, pretty good. It then sat at Incheon for 12 days, then just disappeared from the tracking system for another 5 days. 17 days in Korea, doing lord knows what.

Apex shipping refuses to admit it's their fault. Accuse us of not writing the address correctly. Swear up and down that we didn't write our city or province, which is just a direct lie. Refuses to even consider it may be their problem. The manager eventually does admit something has gone awry on their end.

They give US a number to call for the Hanjin delivery woman. The delivery woman says her father died so she couldn't make any deliveries. Fair enough, I'm not going to get angry with someone who has lost a family member. But what kind of company doesn't have some kind of system to cover these situations. "Kim is deathly ill. He has a van load of packages, some of which may be perishable. Should we assign someone else to do their deliveries? Nah. Wait till he gets out of hospital next month. People can wait."

Package turns up 20 days after landing at Incheon. I've had problems with Hanjin before. They seem to have massive problems. But what pissed me off most of all was the woman at Apex shipping refusing to believe us, accusing us of ****** up somehow and doing everything possible to deflect the blame away from her. I wasn't aggressive in the least, I just wanted to know where my missing package was. Serious problem with a lack of accountability.

Called them back and took photos of the address label to show it had our full address, city, province, zip code, phone number etc in English AND Korean. The guy this time was apologetic and said they get complaints about Hanjin everyday and they wont be using them anymore. And that he would give more training to the woman who called us liars. Bullshit.

1 - F*ckup task
2 - Refuses to take responsibility/lies
3 - shifts blame to you or someone else
4  - if the situation doesn't go away, either continues to lie
5  - Finally, get the youngest junior to apologise for the f*ckup of his dumbass, ajushi boss.

Face saving culture, you can't beat it.

Read his post again. The company that BS'ed him is based in the US.

My mum  bought my wife a birthday present via amazon and had it sent to us here.
Amazon uses Apex shipping agents for delivery and Apex seem to change who they use on the final delivery every month. Recently it has been Hanjin Express Delivery. Hanjin are the most useless delivery company I have ever seen. I'm not in the least bit surprised they went bankrupt last year.

Tracked the package. Took three days from Wisconsin in the USA to Incheon airport. Three days across the US and then the Pacific, pretty good. It then sat at Incheon for 12 days, then just disappeared from the tracking system for another 5 days. 17 days in Korea, doing lord knows what.

Apex shipping refuses to admit it's their fault. Accuse us of not writing the address correctly. Swear up and down that we didn't write our city or province, which is just a direct lie. Refuses to even consider it may be their problem. The manager eventually does admit something has gone awry on their end.

They give US a number to call for the Hanjin delivery woman. The delivery woman says her father died so she couldn't make any deliveries. Fair enough, I'm not going to get angry with someone who has lost a family member. But what kind of company doesn't have some kind of system to cover these situations. "Kim is deathly ill. He has a van load of packages, some of which may be perishable. Should we assign someone else to do their deliveries? Nah. Wait till he gets out of hospital next month. People can wait."

Package turns up 20 days after landing at Incheon. I've had problems with Hanjin before. They seem to have massive problems. But what pissed me off most of all was the woman at Apex shipping refusing to believe us, accusing us of ****** up somehow and doing everything possible to deflect the blame away from her. I wasn't aggressive in the least, I just wanted to know where my missing package was. Serious problem with a lack of accountability.

Called them back and took photos of the address label to show it had our full address, city, province, zip code, phone number etc in English AND Korean. The guy this time was apologetic and said they get complaints about Hanjin everyday and they wont be using them anymore. And that he would give more training to the woman who called us liars. Bullshit.

1 - F*ckup task
2 - Refuses to take responsibility/lies
3 - shifts blame to you or someone else
4  - if the situation doesn't go away, either continues to lie
5  - Finally, get the youngest junior to apologise for the f*ckup of his dumbass, ajushi boss.

Face saving culture, you can't beat it.

Read his post again. The company in question is based in the US.

They were probably relaying the unverified info from thier local partners.

Amazon - US, did their part no problem
Apex - Korea, didn't know what was going on and lied about it
Hanjin - Korea, a complete shitshow that couldn't deliver a turd into a toilet bowl.

Amazon - US, did their part no problem
Apex - Korea, didn't know what was going on and lied about it
Hanjin - Korea, a complete shitshow that couldn't deliver a turd into a toilet bowl.

Fair enough.

I've experienced a couple of issues with delivery here, but it's been much better than my home country, where you're expected to be in for the entire day in order to take a delivery.

My KTs agree that a lot of students are lazy and have terrible study habits.

But they still seem to think that many students are dumber than they actually are, too, and they seem very satisfied to accept this as the reason why those students perform so poorly. It's not because those students don't try to apply themselves. It's because the subject is just too hard, and the students are just too dumb to get it. So why push them to do more than their abilities?

And what's more than their abilities? Writing three sentences in response to "How are you?" Or just being able to understand the question when heard and to give a single response to it. Even though this is middle school, with students who've been studying English on a daily basis for ****** years, and this is basic ****** intro bullshit.

Learning any new language is hard. But "How are you?" is not ****** rocket science that takes years to master.

I'm honestly surprised by their point-of-view. It's no big secret that most Koreans consider English an especially difficult language to learn. I don't fault or blame them for that. Any language can be a challenge. But ****** "How are you?" Is difficult? After years of study? It's NOT because the students are just ****** lazy and unmotivated to learn because they don't understand the incentive?

With this kind of perspective, I think I'm better understanding why so many Koreans are so surprised and impressed when they hear foreigners speaking any kind of Korean, no matter how basic and simple it is.

My mum  bought my wife a birthday present via amazon and had it sent to us here.
Amazon uses Apex shipping agents for delivery and Apex seem to change who they use on the final delivery every month. Recently it has been Hanjin Express Delivery. Hanjin are the most useless delivery company I have ever seen. I'm not in the least bit surprised they went bankrupt last year.

Tracked the package. Took three days from Wisconsin in the USA to Incheon airport. Three days across the US and then the Pacific, pretty good. It then sat at Incheon for 12 days, then just disappeared from the tracking system for another 5 days. 17 days in Korea, doing lord knows what.

Apex shipping refuses to admit it's their fault. Accuse us of not writing the address correctly. Swear up and down that we didn't write our city or province, which is just a direct lie. Refuses to even consider it may be their problem. The manager eventually does admit something has gone awry on their end.

They give US a number to call for the Hanjin delivery woman. The delivery woman says her father died so she couldn't make any deliveries. Fair enough, I'm not going to get angry with someone who has lost a family member. But what kind of company doesn't have some kind of system to cover these situations. "Kim is deathly ill. He has a van load of packages, some of which may be perishable. Should we assign someone else to do their deliveries? Nah. Wait till he gets out of hospital next month. People can wait."

Package turns up 20 days after landing at Incheon. I've had problems with Hanjin before. They seem to have massive problems. But what pissed me off most of all was the woman at Apex shipping refusing to believe us, accusing us of ****** up somehow and doing everything possible to deflect the blame away from her. I wasn't aggressive in the least, I just wanted to know where my missing package was. Serious problem with a lack of accountability.

Called them back and took photos of the address label to show it had our full address, city, province, zip code, phone number etc in English AND Korean. The guy this time was apologetic and said they get complaints about Hanjin everyday and they wont be using them anymore. And that he would give more training to the woman who called us liars. Bullshit.

This is also all packages coming into Korea now. My boyfriend called the Incheon post office and apparently there are too many packages for Incheon to handle (even though this has been going on for about a year now) so everything usually sits there for 3 weeks or a month before they even get it out to the shipping companies.

Learning any new language is hard. But "How are you?" is not ****** rocket science that takes years to master.

Selemat pagi=good morning

Selemat sore=Good day

Selemat malam=good evening

It took me 4 mins to learn this.

If you can't respond to "How are you" in middle school, you're an absolute moron.

This is also all packages coming into Korea now. My boyfriend called the Incheon post office and apparently there are too many packages for Incheon to handle (even though this has been going on for about a year now) so everything usually sits there for 3 weeks or a month before they even get it out to the shipping companies.

I've placed overseas orders all year, and it's never taken more than two to three weeks for me to receive a package. Once the package arrives in Incheon, I normally receive my package in a couple of days, less than that if customs doesn't decide it needs extra info from me.

But I don't doubt what you're saying. I'm just kind of wondering what Incheon's setup is and if it has different departments catering to different types of packages or whatever.

zola's problem isn't with Incheon, though, it's with the shipping companies themselves.

Learning any new language is hard. But "How are you?" is not ****** rocket science that takes years to master.

Selemat pagi=good morning

Selemat sore=Good day

Selemat malam=good evening

It took me 4 mins to learn this.

If you can't respond to "How are you" in middle school, you're an absolute moron.

After 30 minutes of practice (On a ppt and in the book) my 3rd grade middle school kids couldn't learn "You're kidding!" I got fed up and made them copy it out of the book for a while. Really 30 minutes and you can't learn 2 words......(technically 3 but contraction) My KT is like you are too hard on them. No I am not. It is 2 words after 6 years of English education.

Learning any new language is hard. But "How are you?" is not ****** rocket science that takes years to master.

Selemat pagi=good morning

Selemat sore=Good day

Selemat malam=good evening

It took me 4 mins to learn this.

If you can't respond to "How are you" in middle school, you're an absolute moron.

Them: But this is Korea. In Korea, they don't use English, so they can't learn it.

Me: But what about the students who do learn it?

Them: They study it.

Me: Exactly.

Them: No, no, English is too difficult.

Learning any new language is hard. But "How are you?" is not ****** rocket science that takes years to master.

Selemat pagi=good morning

Selemat sore=Good day

Selemat malam=good evening

It took me 4 mins to learn this.

If you can't respond to "How are you" in middle school, you're an absolute moron.

After 30 minutes of practice (On a ppt and in the book) my 3rd grade middle school kids couldn't learn "You're kidding!" I got fed up and made them copy it out of the book for a while. Really 30 minutes and you can't learn 2 words......(technically 3 but contraction) My KT is like you are too hard on them. No I am not. It is 2 words after 6 years of English education.

"please... they are just children... please understand them" 

Learning any new language is hard. But "How are you?" is not ****** rocket science that takes years to master.

Selemat pagi=good morning

Selemat sore=Good day

Selemat malam=good evening

It took me 4 mins to learn this.

If you can't respond to "How are you" in middle school, you're an absolute moron.

Them: But this is Korea. In Korea, they don't use English, so they can't learn it.

Me: But what about the students who do learn it?

Them: They study it.

Me: Exactly.

Them: No, no, English is too difficult.

I literally can't believe how willfully dumb some kids are.

When you're in grade 6 and you can't respond to something like "Good morning" after having studied English for four years, you're either a) suffering from a (very bad) learning or developmental disability, in which case you have my sympathies and I will try to empathize with you as much as possible, or b) you've actively tried not to learn anything.

Fun fact: I've been in Korea for over eight years, and I'm still far from fluent in Korean. Like. I struggle to have conversations with my significant other's parents. I'm literally bad at learning languages. But I can still say hello, thank you, please, and a few basic phrases in at least five different languages.

Also, English proficiency at such a basic level has nothing to do with going to hagwon, studying hard, or anything. Flawed as it is, the public school English curriculum provides everything necessary to learn things like, "Hello, how are you?" or "Good morning," even if you have the world's most useless instructor ever. There is literally no excuse for not being able to grasp these basic things, unless, like I said, there's some complicating factor that's preventing it.



Also, tangentially, some people just suck at learning second languages. I'm one of them. Like, I get it. Some people's brains are wired for some things, some are wired for others. But just because something isn't your strong suit doesn't mean it's impossible.

Yikes.

It's something that every person in a teaching position has to accept, that there will always be those students who are so invested in not learning that it requires actual active effort to be so ignorant.

What frustrates me is when people try to excuse and enable it, as if this is not something they can help. Hold them accountable, ffs. You may not be able to change their attitudes, but you can sure as **** make sure they know it's their own goddamn choice. Don't ****** pat them on the backs when they didn't even try.