RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit. 

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Savage 

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Just make your own videos.

Doing a 5th year was a mistake. I should've left after I finished my 4th year. I don't know anymore if the kids are just especially poorly behaved and disengaged in this school or if my year long depression and lack of motivation is making my classes awful or if I'm just a bad teacher and I've been an awful teacher the whole time. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle: the kids are low level and thus difficult to engage, I'm depressed and unmotivated so producing bad lessons and so this whole year has been a colossal failure. Especially with 6th grade. The other grades are okay but 6th grade...

They hate role play. They hate writing games. They hate quiz based games. They don't talk. They hate charades. They hate pictionary. The hate broken telephone. The text book is bad. I've given up. I teach without a coteacher and the homeroom teachers are a waste of space in my classes...I don't know what to do with them anymore. I can barely bring myself to care.

My plan is to retrain to teach art when I get home but I'm starting to question if I should even be teaching at all. Maybe art, a subject I care about, will be better for me. Maybe teaching with a curriculum that isn't totally chained to a rubbish textbook will be better for me. Maybe teaching in an environment where I don't feel totally useless and invisible will be better for me. Maybe the 6 months of a 'break' and a year retraining will be good for me. I really don't know. Maybe I should seek some kind of medication for my depression. Maybe that would help. I don't know.

I have 6th grade tomorrow and I just don't want to teach them at all. I'm giving up on a game because they hate all of them and giving them a worksheet. I don't know what else to do with them.

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Just make your own videos.

SHOTS FIRED

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Just make your own videos.

SHOTS FIRED

I really hate the "well, do it yourself" argument. We're not subsistence farmers anymore.

We specialise. And that means that we rely on other people for goods and services. The VAST majority of them.

I've heard people say "Man, that flight/cell phone plan is way too much," to which they are told

  Well, make your own airline/cell company then.

Like, are you insane? It's just the dumbest argument imaginable.

  This food is terrible.

  WELL THEN WHY DON'T YOU OPEN A FARM AND ONLY GROW FOOD FOR YOURSELF AND THEN COOK 100% OF YOUR MEALS, HUH? STOP COMPLAINING.

Doing a 5th year was a mistake. I should've left after I finished my 4th year. I don't know anymore if the kids are just especially poorly behaved and disengaged in this school or if my year long depression and lack of motivation is making my classes awful or if I'm just a bad teacher and I've been an awful teacher the whole time. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle: the kids are low level and thus difficult to engage, I'm depressed and unmotivated so producing bad lessons and so this whole year has been a colossal failure. Especially with 6th grade. The other grades are okay but 6th grade...

They hate role play. They hate writing games. They hate quiz based games. They don't talk. They hate charades. They hate pictionary. The hate broken telephone. The text book is bad. I've given up. I teach without a coteacher and the homeroom teachers are a waste of space in my classes...I don't know what to do with them anymore. I can barely bring myself to care.

My plan is to retrain to teach art when I get home but I'm starting to question if I should even be teaching at all. Maybe art, a subject I care about, will be better for me. Maybe teaching with a curriculum that isn't totally chained to a rubbish textbook will be better for me. Maybe teaching in an environment where I don't feel totally useless and invisible will be better for me. Maybe the 6 months of a 'break' and a year retraining will be good for me. I really don't know. Maybe I should seek some kind of medication for my depression. Maybe that would help. I don't know.

I have 6th grade tomorrow and I just don't want to teach them at all. I'm giving up on a game because they hate all of them and giving them a worksheet. I don't know what else to do with them.

Sounds like you're having a rough time.  From the sound of things, it seems like you need to take a break from teaching altogether.  I doubt the kids ability to care has anything to do with your teaching methods.  Some kids just don't care.  Don't let that deter you from teaching.  Also, just from reading your 'rant' it does sound like you're depressed. [I'm no professional]  Whether it's from teaching or life in general, the best thing [in my opinion] is you need to take care of you.  If you feel like you need to see a professional, then please, do so.  I honestly think that [again, my opinion] you need to take some time off and just work on yourself before you do anything.  If art is what you love, then more power to you!  Go teach!  But again, make sure you're taking care of you before you attempt to take care of others. 

Doing a 5th year was a mistake. I should've left after I finished my 4th year. I don't know anymore if the kids are just especially poorly behaved and disengaged in this school or if my year long depression and lack of motivation is making my classes awful or if I'm just a bad teacher and I've been an awful teacher the whole time. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle: the kids are low level and thus difficult to engage, I'm depressed and unmotivated so producing bad lessons and so this whole year has been a colossal failure. Especially with 6th grade. The other grades are okay but 6th grade...

They hate role play. They hate writing games. They hate quiz based games. They don't talk. They hate charades. They hate pictionary. The hate broken telephone. The text book is bad. I've given up. I teach without a coteacher and the homeroom teachers are a waste of space in my classes...I don't know what to do with them anymore. I can barely bring myself to care.

My plan is to retrain to teach art when I get home but I'm starting to question if I should even be teaching at all. Maybe art, a subject I care about, will be better for me. Maybe teaching with a curriculum that isn't totally chained to a rubbish textbook will be better for me. Maybe teaching in an environment where I don't feel totally useless and invisible will be better for me. Maybe the 6 months of a 'break' and a year retraining will be good for me. I really don't know. Maybe I should seek some kind of medication for my depression. Maybe that would help. I don't know.

I have 6th grade tomorrow and I just don't want to teach them at all. I'm giving up on a game because they hate all of them and giving them a worksheet. I don't know what else to do with them.

Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. I know it can be really difficult to bring your A-game when dealing with depression. I dealt with it for a year teaching in Korea--mostly because the hagwon I was at was so toxic--and I'm dealing with it again as a teacher in the States. I wouldn't just jump to the conclusion you're a bad teacher, because depression just takes all the joy out of you and the kids can sense it and return those feelings back to you. Depression amplifies the smallest little things; something you'd laugh or brush off becomes a major issue. That sense of uselessness can be terrible. I don't know if you're looking for specific advice, but for me, my depression always becomes worse when I don't feel like I'm working towards a larger goal. As teachers, we're constantly being told we're in it for the "joy of teaching" or to "positively impact the lives of kids;" the other things like our personal happiness or decent pay aren't important. It leads us to thinking that if we don't love teaching for the sake of it, we must be selfish jerks. That's nonsense of course. For me, when I feel like I'm working towards something that will better my own life or improve me as a person, the depression starts to go away.

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.