RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Why are you regretting it? :o
If you didn't renew, would you transfer, reapply to try get a different province, or head to another country for a change of pace?

The bullshit levels have risen every year since I've gotten here, with this past year being a leap rather than a step thanks largely to the new VP (he's an incompetent manchild, and his influence has been rubbing off on the rest of the assholes in the school).

Had a couple of interactions this morning that kind of reminded me of that. 

But it's fine. I'll be fine. 

I haven't really decided if I'll be staying in Korea or leaving for a different country altogether, yet, but if I stay I'll request a rural assignment and hope for the best.

Ahh, sorry to hear that.
Actually, in January, I have an interview for a public school position in Osaka, that would start in September.
I kind of want to stay where I am in Korea a bit longer, it's a nice rural school position but, the boredom is starting to get to me a bit too much, and at 1 of my travel schools the students are difficult at best (even if there are some great kids there).

Update to the TV drama.

I've been told that the TV was installed by someone (company) in Seoul and only that person (company) can come and fix it.     Since no one else in the area can fix said TV, there it will sit until Winter break, because that's the ONLY time this special person can come and fix said TV.  **sigh**

Icing on the cake:  Now I have Winter camp.  I was exempt this year but apparently one of the teachers flaked so the PoE asked me to take their place.  I could have said no, but like the @ss I am, I agreed to do it. 

Cheery on top:  The teacher I'm taking over for is the a-hole that blasts their music till 11PM almost every night. 

Seriously!  I must have don't something to piss the Karma gods off!   

Wow that really sucks and sounds like a garbagefire that was just made up so they didn't have to get it done now. "One special person" sounds like a load of garbage to me. What are they, apple TVs?

On a different note, why do you let someone blast music till 11PM in your apartment complex? After 10pm I knock on doors and get it to stop. No reason for anyone to have music on that loud.

It's BS and I know it, but so long as the small TV works in my room, then so be it. 

As for the music prick, you can bang on the door, ceiling etc, and they wont turn it down.  ANd if they do, it goes from 11 to 10/ 1/2.    There are some weekends that it starts at 10AM and goes until 11PM  I shite you not!

Last night, my wife’s CT sent a message that there’d be no classes today. It’s a rural school, 40min drive away and this morning it started raining. We sent a message saying she’d be deskwarming at her main school, 10min walk from our apartment as we didn’t want to make the long drive for nothing. In typical “I can’t wipe my arse without asking the principal fashion” CT says he has to ask the principal. Eventually, we get the green light. My wife’s CT, at the rural school, is married to one of the tecachers at my wife’s main school. At 4:25pm today, she (CT’s wife), came to “visit” my wife to say goodbye... first time she’s “visited”. My wife didn’t leave early, she was planning camp.

How sad and pathetic must your life be that you call your wife to check that one of your co-workers hasn’t left early?

Update to the TV drama.

I've been told that the TV was installed by someone (company) in Seoul and only that person (company) can come and fix it.     Since no one else in the area can fix said TV, there it will sit until Winter break, because that's the ONLY time this special person can come and fix said TV.  **sigh**

Icing on the cake:  Now I have Winter camp.  I was exempt this year but apparently one of the teachers flaked so the PoE asked me to take their place.  I could have said no, but like the @ss I am, I agreed to do it. 

Cheery on top:  The teacher I'm taking over for is the a-hole that blasts their music till 11PM almost every night. 

Seriously!  I must have don't something to piss the Karma gods off!   

Wow that really sucks and sounds like a garbagefire that was just made up so they didn't have to get it done now. "One special person" sounds like a load of garbage to me. What are they, apple TVs?

On a different note, why do you let someone blast music till 11PM in your apartment complex? After 10pm I knock on doors and get it to stop. No reason for anyone to have music on that loud.

It's BS and I know it, but so long as the small TV works in my room, then so be it. 

As for the music prick, you can bang on the door, ceiling etc, and they wont turn it down.  ANd if they do, it goes from 11 to 10/ 1/2.    There are some weekends that it starts at 10AM and goes until 11PM  I shite you not!

Call the police

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

they are just children....please understand them

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

they are just children....please understand them

I got angry just reading that sentence

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

Sucks, bro. My CT was spot on when she said "I'm worried about the future of this country."

Today, I played movies since I was pretty damn sick. Before dismissing the students (I always make them stand up straight, face the front and greet), I caught a boy frantically trying to erase what he scribbled on the desk.
I walked over and found he'd filled the desk with scribbles and had drawn a penis across the desk. I made him clean every desk during the intermission between classes, I also made him come back during lunch to clean the whole class, alone and I gave him 200 lines to write out by Friday.

In my experience, the key to having the authority to discipline is to take it, not to ask for it. At first, my CT would try to persuade me not to discipline the students, but I insisted. I told her that this MY way of teaching an if anyone has any complaints, I'll take responsibility. It worked, and to all those people saying "Yeah, that's how you get fired", well, my contracts been renewed 3x for this school and I received a reward from the MOE this year of 2 extra vacation days... yah , for getting perfect scores on my renewal for 3 years straight.

I haven't been able to create a perfect teaching environment, some students are just thicker than bricks and never learn from punishment, but outside these anomalies, the majority are well-behaved.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

Is the university situation still like the old days, where some universities will pass students no matter how poorly they perform?

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

Sucks, bro. My CT was spot on when she said "I'm worried about the future of this country."

Today, I played movies since I was pretty damn sick. Before dismissing the students (I always make them stand up straight, face the front and greet), I caught a boy frantically trying to erase what he scribbled on the desk.
I walked over and found he'd filled the desk with scribbles and had drawn a penis across the desk. I made him clean every desk during the intermission between classes, I also made him come back during lunch to clean the whole class, alone and I gave him 200 lines to write out by Friday.

In my experience, the key to having the authority to discipline is to take it, not to ask for it. At first, my CT would try to persuade me not to discipline the students, but I insisted. I told her that this MY way of teaching an if anyone has any complaints, I'll take responsibility. It worked, and to all those people saying "Yeah, that's how you get fired", well, my contracts been renewed 3x for this school and I received a reward from the MOE this year of 2 extra vacation days... yah , for getting perfect scores on my renewal for 3 years straight.

I haven't been able to create a perfect teaching environment, some students are just thicker than bricks and never learn from punishment, but outside these anomalies, the majority are well-behaved.

One of my students (I am not in Korea) made a penis fight Obama in Puppet Pals. This was supposed to be his Parents' Day project!

He changed it to a picture of George W. Bush, called him "Trump"- dear god, he might actually be a genius- and then it ended with Obama running a tank over TrumBush while yelling I LOVE TO EAT CHOCOLATE DONUTSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Honestly, Hollywood could not improve on this.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

Is the university situation still like the old days, where some universities will pass students no matter how poorly they perform?

I have (NET) co-workers who think kind of like that.  Everyone who makes it to the end, no matter what they have or haven't done will get a passing grade, even if their score is single figures.  Some will say: "A C grade feels like a fail to them", they don't even give D grades.  Most of them are afraid of the students (fairly meaningless) evaluations.  What they don't consider is the Students who work hard, get pissed off by the slackers, and as such may give lower evaluations when they see that you are weak when it comes to the slackers.   

I designed my class so that the exams make up less than half the total score, so no-one can simply "do well in exams".  Homework and participation are equal to the exams, and there are other parts that make up the 100%.  I have no qualms failing a student, and below a certain score, i do, but due to the way my grading is setup, it is possible to have achieved that score before midterm exam, yet some students will do sweet FA and fail.

A few semesters ago, due to a lack of effort, and penalty points (late, absent etc) a student finished on minus points.  He sent an email begging for a pass, he couldn't fathom how he had failed.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

Sucks, bro. My CT was spot on when she said "I'm worried about the future of this country."

Today, I played movies since I was pretty damn sick. Before dismissing the students (I always make them stand up straight, face the front and greet), I caught a boy frantically trying to erase what he scribbled on the desk.
I walked over and found he'd filled the desk with scribbles and had drawn a penis across the desk. I made him clean every desk during the intermission between classes, I also made him come back during lunch to clean the whole class, alone and I gave him 200 lines to write out by Friday.

In my experience, the key to having the authority to discipline is to take it, not to ask for it. At first, my CT would try to persuade me not to discipline the students, but I insisted. I told her that this MY way of teaching an if anyone has any complaints, I'll take responsibility. It worked, and to all those people saying "Yeah, that's how you get fired", well, my contracts been renewed 3x for this school and I received a reward from the MOE this year of 2 extra vacation days... yah , for getting perfect scores on my renewal for 3 years straight.

I haven't been able to create a perfect teaching environment, some students are just thicker than bricks and never learn from punishment, but outside these anomalies, the majority are well-behaved.

One of my students (I am not in Korea) made a penis fight Obama in Puppet Pals. This was supposed to be his Parents' Day project!

He changed it to a picture of George W. Bush, called him "Trump"- dear god, he might actually be a genius- and then it ended with Obama running a tank over TrumBush while yelling I LOVE TO EAT CHOCOLATE DONUTSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Honestly, Hollywood could not improve on this.

Yup.. politics, nothing but a penis touching fight contest.  Smart kid! 

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

Is the university situation still like the old days, where some universities will pass students no matter how poorly they perform?

A friend of mine emailed her professor (a British guy teaching an English Lit course as part of her master's degree) asking if he would change her grade because "Korean professors always do that and just give you 100%".  She also asked him if they could "skip the final exam" because "Koreans usually don't have to do that at uni".

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

Is the university situation still like the old days, where some universities will pass students no matter how poorly they perform?

A friend of mine emailed her professor (a British guy teaching an English Lit course as part of her master's degree) asking if he would change her grade because "Korean professors always do that and just give you 100%".  She also asked him if they could "skip the final exam" because "Koreans usually don't have to do that at uni".

It is all part of English American Korean Exceptionalism.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

they are just children....please understand them

In my case, the response is more like "We wish we could do something about it, too, but we can't."

I teach teenagers, so the "oh, they're just cute little kids!" is rarely used to excuse bad behavior (not never, but rarely). I've talked to KETs about it, and they say they're just as frustrated about it as I am. They talk about how in the past, a misbehaving student would just get a few sharp whacks, and that'd be the end of it.

I'm not advocating for a return to corporal punishment or anything (I'll leave that to Cynea/Aurata), but it's definitely a problem that when they got rid of corporal punishment, they didn't institute anything in its place. No detention, no suspension, no extra homework, nothing. A student can come to school and act up and/or do sweet f*ck-all from the first day of elementary to the last day of high school, and still graduate on time with all his friends, having learned nothing except that there are no consequences for his actions.

I'm honestly not convinced it does frustrate them as much as it frustrates me, though  . They seem content to just let students sleep through class or have conversations amongst themselves, whereas seeing students constantly and knowingly break rules that have been clearly outlined multiple times throughout the year really eats at me. I concede that I could afford to lighten up a little sometimes (you can take the man out of the military, etc etc), but I'm not sure I'm quite ready to lighten up as much as the KETs do.

Sigh.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

Is the university situation still like the old days, where some universities will pass students no matter how poorly they perform?

A friend of mine emailed her professor (a British guy teaching an English Lit course as part of her master's degree) asking if he would change her grade because "Korean professors always do that and just give you 100%".  She also asked him if they could "skip the final exam" because "Koreans usually don't have to do that at uni".

A lot of that is just students trying to hoodwink apparently clueless foreign teachers. I've noticed that students asking for grade increases had dropped way off in the last 3 or 4 years. The first year I was here, after grades were released my email would be flooded with sob stories about how they "need an A" for a scholarship, their dying family member, a job to support said dying family member etc.

I think former President, Ms. Park's friend's daughter, who was found out to have received A grades even though she never set foot in a lecture and was riding horses in Europe, had a big impact. The place I work is much stricter on attendance now. And if I do want to change someone's grade now, evidence must be provided. It's quite a lengthy process that teachers/Korean professors can't do themselves. It has to go through the admin office which is more trouble than it's worth.

I don't know why I bother having class rules when I'm not allowed to enforce any real consequences for breaking them. It'd be nice if my school had my back on it, but they absolutely do not. I'm seriously tempted to remove "No sleeping" and "Always bring your book and a writing utensil" from my classroom rules, because trying to enforce them is totally pointless. If the KETs and school administrators deal with disobedient students by just throwing their hands up and saying "Oh well, what're you gonna do, am I right?" then maybe I should, too.

they are just children....please understand them

In my case, the response is more like "We wish we could do something about it, too, but we can't."

I'm not advocating for a return to corporal punishment or anything (I'll leave that to Cynea/Aurata), but it's definitely a problem that when they got rid of corporal punishment, they didn't institute anything in its place. No detention, no suspension, no extra homework, nothing. A student can come to school and act up and/or do sweet f*ck-all from the first day of elementary to the last day of high school, and still graduate on time with all his friends, having learned nothing except that there are no consequences for his actions.

I'm honestly not convinced it does frustrate them as much as it frustrates me, though  .

The worst thing is when teachers are like "I don't understand why they are like this." We can tell them straight up what the reason is and they'll still be confused.

What can you do?

I have university students who turn up to their final exams without pens or pencils, and not just freshmen.  Every semester at least 3 students sit like lemons, and WAIT until i ask is they have a pan or pencil before they say "no".  i even remind them in the class before the exam that they must bring a pen or pencil.  This semester, if they sit silently, i am just going to leave them, if they don't have the gumption to ask, let them fail!  I am surprised these "adults" know how to wipe their arses sometimes.

I love these students. Sometimes when grading to a curve, there is a definite dearth of voluntary Cs (or Ds, Es, and Fs). If a student wants to waste their entire class waiting for the prof to hand them a pencil, then they deserve whatever they (don't) get. 

A lot of that is just students trying to hoodwink apparently clueless foreign teachers. I've noticed that students asking for grade increases had dropped way off in the last 3 or 4 years. The first year I was here, after grades were released my email would be flooded with sob stories about how they "need an A" for a scholarship, their dying family member, a job to support said dying family member etc.

  Didn't they recently pass a law making it illegal for uni students to ask for grade increases from their profs?

  Didn't they recently pass a law making it illegal for uni students to ask for grade increases from their profs?

Isn't there a law making it illegal to run a red light?