RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

I have 6 damn classes today and recovering from a nasty flu. It's critical that I have my break between lessons to recover and prepare. Between the 2nd and 3rd periods sit a 20min break, which I desperately need.

Just as 2nd period ends, I'm cleaning the board and preparing for some quiet time, in barges 25 4th grade students, their HR teacher saw it fit to send them to wait in the damn English class as if it's a bloody playground.

In the typical spineless fashion I've come to expect here, my CT is trying to placate and downplay the whole thing, but I'm seriously going to give this selfish **** of a HR teacher a piece of my mind during lunch.

All so true...

The new textbooks were published in 2018 and they have 11 authors, including an American who apparently edited the English. And yet there are still clunky, awkward, and just f*ing incorrect sentences littered throughout. Also, the 'Listen and Repeat' function for songs and chants does not sync up with the rhythm. It's hard to overstate how jarring that is.

I'm editing this into a rant list.

- Was offered 2 side-gigs for my city. Accepted both on the condition they run sequentially. Signed up officially. They run concurrently.
- Was misquoted time and pay for both programs.
- Had to do a lot of extra work for both programs due to general disorganization and mismanagement.
- New colleague is incompetent. Cannot-use-a-computer level. Cannot speak English. Cannot manage a class.
- Found out new colleague took the position from another colleague who is competent. Incompetent colleague is apparently unfireable because she's a teacher and uncriticizable because she's old. Wants to be a homeroom teacher but was denied for fear of parental complaints and inability to do the corresponding paperwork. Now she's my problem.
- Lost several afternoons worth of planning time due to meetings with and about new incompetent co-teacher.
- Had to break my 'don't take work home' rule.
- Korean progress is slow. Regretting not taking a year as a student to buckle down and earn the points F-visa.
- Can't marry into F-visa because "Ew, 2 guys. Sick."

On the plus side my main colleague is cool but that's not really in the spirit of this thread.

On the plus side my main colleague is cool but that's not really in the spirit of this thread.

Get that shit out of here, you raving, happy Robin!

Seriously though, that all sounds maddening. Keep yo head up, bro.

The new textbooks were published in 2018 and they have 11 authors, including an American who apparently edited the English. And yet there are still clunky, awkward, and just f*ing incorrect sentences littered throughout. Also, the 'Listen and Repeat' function for songs and chants does not sync up with the rhythm. It's hard to overstate how jarring that is.

I just started a job at a fancy private elementary school in Seoul. We use Oxford Discover books and it's such a relief to actually teach real English with real materials for once

On the plus side my main colleague is cool but that's not really in the spirit of this thread.

Get that shit out of here, you raving, happy Robin!

Seriously though, that all sounds maddening. Keep yo head up, bro.

Cheers!

I imagine he'd just say I was fortunate in the past that I had schools/principals who were nice enough to not make me take a vacation day for it. It isn't that the rules have changed, it's that they've been applied inconsistently.

I worry that if I press the issue, I'll just end up causing trouble for other NETs. If I make a fuss, sure, I might end up not having to take a vacation day. OR, I might end up prompting the POE to crack down and force all schools in the province to require their NETs to take a vacation day for it.

Remember, it used to be up to the school's discretion whether or not NETs had to come in to deskwarm during winter and summer breaks. The teachers who had to deskwarm complained about it to their POEs, and rather then allowing those teachers to stay home, they told all the schools that NETs have to deskwarm. It'd be cool to not have to waste a vacation day on this, but it would be a fair bit less cool to screw every other NET in my province out of a vacation day. 

holy hell man, you seriously need to learn how to stand up for yourself. i can't believe you're just going to roll over on this.

"but i don't wanna cause problems for other NETs!"

what problems are you going to cause? everyone will be forced to use a vacation day to renew their ARC/visa? they won't. why? because it's a BUSINESS RELATED MATTER.

as someone else said, they can't let you work illegally. the reason why it's probably now written into the Gangwon contract that those trips must be registered on NEIS as business trips is because the POE was probably getting so many emails every year from NETs complaining that they were being forced to use vacation days for work-related matters.

holy hell man, you seriously need to learn how to stand up for yourself. i can't believe you're just going to roll over on this.

Lol. Okay, dude.

"but i don't wanna cause problems for other NETs!"

what problems are you going to cause? everyone will be forced to use a vacation day to renew their ARC/visa? they won't. why? because it's a BUSINESS RELATED MATTER.

As I've said repeatedly now, there is no language in my province's contract explicitly stating that it's a business related matter warranting a business trip. That isn't just my school's stance, that's my POE's stance. Unless you or anyone else here who keeps giving me shit about this can link me to a national-level law stating that it has to be a business trip, you're just dispensing useless "advice."

I've already contacted my POE to ask about it, and when they told me how it is, I expressed my disappointment. They know I'm not happy about it, and my school knows I'm not happy about it. That's all I can do about it. I wasn't going to let my visa expire and stay here illegally when I have no legal leg to stand on. Honestly, I don't believe you would, either.

as someone else said, they can't let you work illegally. the reason why it's probably now written into the Gangwon contract that those trips must be registered on NEIS as business trips is because the POE was probably getting so many emails every year from NETs complaining that they were being forced to use vacation days for work-related matters.

So the reason it's in the Gangwon contract is so many people did the one thing I've already done? It isn't because so many teachers refused to go get their ARCs renewed until they were told they'd get a business day for it? Huh. Weird.

People in crowded subway trains who insist on moving all the way down the train while it's in motion pushing/squeezing past everyone, just so presumably they can get off at the right point of the platform at their stop. If the train's crowded, get on the train and stay where you are, just wait to walk the 100 or so extra metres at your stop.

The new textbooks were published in 2018 and they have 11 authors, including an American who apparently edited the English. And yet there are still clunky, awkward, and just f*ing incorrect sentences littered throughout. Also, the 'Listen and Repeat' function for songs and chants does not sync up with the rhythm. It's hard to overstate how jarring that is.

I'm editing this into a rant list.

- Was offered 2 side-gigs for my city. Accepted both on the condition they run sequentially. Signed up officially. They run concurrently.
- Was misquoted time and pay for both programs.
- Had to do a lot of extra work for both programs due to general disorganization and mismanagement.
- New colleague is incompetent. Cannot-use-a-computer level. Cannot speak English. Cannot manage a class.
- Found out new colleague took the position from another colleague who is competent. Incompetent colleague is apparently unfireable because she's a teacher and uncriticizable because she's old. Wants to be a homeroom teacher but was denied for fear of parental complaints and inability to do the corresponding paperwork. Now she's my problem.
- Lost several afternoons worth of planning time due to meetings with and about new incompetent co-teacher.
- Had to break my 'don't take work home' rule.
- Korean progress is slow. Regretting not taking a year as a student to buckle down and earn the points F-visa.
- Can't marry into F-visa because "Ew, 2 guys. Sick."

On the plus side my main colleague is cool but that's not really in the spirit of this thread.

Look into an F2-99 visa if you're struggling to make the points and don't want to (or can't) marry.

My middle school 2nd graders are a-holes! I really can't stand these kids. They really don't listen! 1 more year of this! 

Students come in to my room 30 minutes before class starts. I'd rather they didn't, but fine. I don't own the room. They then proceed to have shout talking conversations across the room. 2 or 3 guys at one table and another guy at a table across the other side of the room, booming voices, shout talking. Shut up. Please.
Imagine entering a quiet room, with your teacher doing paperwork and then just sit there and start screaming at each other. And these aren't children. 20 year olds.

I got diagnosed with tinnitus in my right ear, 5khz to 8khz is basically  lowered by 40% and all I hear is ringing.

If my kids don't STFU, I'm gonna let em know what's up.

Students come in to my room 30 minutes before class starts. I'd rather they didn't, but fine. I don't own the room. They then proceed to have shout talking conversations across the room. 2 or 3 guys at one table and another guy at a table across the other side of the room, booming voices, shout talking. Shut up. Please.
Imagine entering a quiet room, with your teacher doing paperwork and then just sit there and start screaming at each other. And these aren't children. 20 year olds.

if only someone had created a thread about this kind of thing.  like something about Koreans possibly being immune to noise or something like that.  if only....

Students come in to my room 30 minutes before class starts. I'd rather they didn't, but fine. I don't own the room. They then proceed to have shout talking conversations across the room. 2 or 3 guys at one table and another guy at a table across the other side of the room, booming voices, shout talking. Shut up. Please.
Imagine entering a quiet room, with your teacher doing paperwork and then just sit there and start screaming at each other. And these aren't children. 20 year olds.

if only someone had created a thread about this kind of thing.  like something about Koreans possibly being immune to noise or something like that.  if only....

This is very much still a viable thread for that post.

I got diagnosed with tinnitus in my right ear, 5khz to 8khz is basically  lowered by 40% and all I hear is ringing.

If my kids don't STFU, I'm gonna let em know what's up.

Similar thing happened to me last year, it was a combination of a sinus infection after a flu, stress and noisy students, not just in the class but in the hallway. I enforced extremely strict noise rules in class and took ZERO sh*t from students who tried to protest. I strongly advise you do the same, since the ringing can be a sign of permanent hearing loss.   

Keep hydrated, keep your stress levels down, stop drinking for now and keep your ears warm and it should heal.

Best of luck.

I got diagnosed with tinnitus in my right ear, 5khz to 8khz is basically  lowered by 40% and all I hear is ringing.

If my kids don't STFU, I'm gonna let em know what's up.

Similar thing happened to me last year, it was a combination of a sinus infection after a flu, stress and noisy students, not just in the class but in the hallway. I enforced extremely strict noise rules in class and took ZERO sh*t from students who tried to protest. I strongly advise you do the same, since the ringing can be a sign of permanent hearing loss.   

Keep hydrated, keep your stress levels down, stop drinking for now and keep your ears warm and it should heal.

Best of luck.

It's not healing, man. I have permanent tinnitus. It's a ringing forever.

****** old people ambling diagonally, across the middle of busy roads. I know they grew up in a time before cars, but they can't be that dumb. Just stepping out onto an 8 lane road and shuffling across, at an angle of course. And there's always a crossing for them to use just up the road.

Yes i know:
-being old and infirm sucks
-maybe they dont have the energy to walk 50 m up the road to the controlled crossing
-they are old please understand their situation

but none of that matters to the fully loaded 50 tonne car mover trucks, or taxi drivers who brake for no one, or the guy who bought the new bmw with no deposit down and 32% p.a interest.

i don't buy the whole "they grew up in a different time" argument. i mean, yeah, they did, but is isn't hard to figure out modern ways of doing things. let people off of the subway first, don't walk into the middle of traffic, wait in line instead of pushing to the front. just an excuse for letting them get away with their shitty behaviour

It's not healing, man. I have permanent tinnitus. It's a ringing forever.

I'm sorry. What led up to it?

You could try having a short lesson about tinnitus with your students and emphasizing that they need to keep their noise levels down while in your classroom with you. You could even have a little sign or diagram where you can place velcroed faces indicating how much the noise level might be bothering you atm.

My KEB/Hana check card is about to expire, so I'm waiting on a new one. Annoyingly, they will only deliver it if I'm there to receive and sign for it myself. That means I obviously can't have it sent to my apartment, since I'm at work most of the day. I gave them my school address, but twice now the delivery guy has come when I was teaching a class, and rather than coming to let me know he's here or sending him to my classroom, the front office has just sent him away each time. He'll try one more time tomorrow, and if I'm not available to sign it when it comes, I'll have to find time to go to the post office later in the week to pick it up myself. Nothing can ever be simple.

Related question for non-Americans: How do banks do it in your countries? Back home, whenever my card was set to expire, they'd just send me a new one in the mail. I didn't have to sign for it, it was just in a discreet envelope, and once I received it I had to go online to activate it. Is the US the odd man out in that regard? Is it common for banks to require signature on delivery for new cards elsewhere?