Job Discussion Forums

[WorkingVaca]

Is it just Asia, or does the novelty of getting drunk in a foreign country never wear off for ESL teachers around the globe? I can see if you're under 25 and not experienced enough to know that there is more to life experience than how many times you can get drunk in a week. But I'm meeting people age 30 plus that talk like high school kids about drinking as some kind of faux achievement or worldy experience.

I drink occassionally and yes sometimes I go overboard, but I find that "drinking" as a conversation topic is totally boring, and if I have to listen to another one of my co-workers brag about how hungover he is....I'm gonna puke.

[scot47]

Certainly this "profession"has a number of boozers. When I tell my colleagues that I abstain from alcohol responses vary from incredulity to horror.

Not all of us drink. Some do not drink because we have chosen not to.

One day at a time !

[Cobra]

I find that the only thing better than drinking until you start acting like a jerk is to simply watch others drink until they start acting like jerks.

[dyak]

I think it�s that distinction between �drinking to get drunk�, where drinking is the point of the evening and �drinking sociably� where it�s merely incidental� depends on who you hang with I guess.

I have the dubious pleasure of teaching in London, where drinking to get drunk and its subsequent �achievements�, are actually what passes for culture/conversation for the masses. Though never among my colleagues, most of which aren�t English, so thankfully I never have to endure any conversations that begin:

�Ohhh� my head�� (Expecting sympathy) and,

�We were so bladdered/sloshed/drunk/mullered/wasted/smashed/pished last night that��

[rogan]

In the last 4 weeks we've had a few visitors.

1 French ex-colleague stayed for 3 days
The in-laws from the UK for a week
3 German friends for 3 days
A Russian ex-colleague just arrived carrying vodka.

last week I had to go to the bottle bank with:-
72 empty beer bottles
44 empty champagne bottles
47 empty wine bottles.

Is this too much when on holiday ?

[khmerhit]

Good one, Rogan dudester. This temperance thread is getting out of hand! Granted, I concede that alcoholic conversations are frequently boring, unimaginative, repetitive, noisy, da de da de da, but does this mean that teetotal talk is any less boring? In the words of group Captain Ramsay in the Great Escape: "Depends on your point of view, doesnt it?" (lines delivered most soberly by the great Scottish actor, James Donald.)

Anyway, please, ESL teachers are not the only drinkers in the world, tho it appears that way at times! I could tell you a few good bar-trashing stories from Cambodia, usually concerning nice middle-class people with university degrees....... in the meantime, Let us pray for their souls-------

THE BEER PRAYER

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink,
Thy will be drunk,
(I will be drunk),
At home as I am in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us,
and lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
For thine is the beer,
The bitter and the lager,
Forever and ever,
Barmen.

[Capergirl]

As one gets older, such things seem less and less like a good idea. I partied a little too hard on a few occasions in Korea (#%$@ soju), but in Taiwan I was much more serious about my job (no more dancing monkey) and felt very much responsible to my students, so I didn't imbibe too often and when I did it was when I did not have to get up for work the following day. These days, between my job and my preschooler, the last thing in the world I want is a d*mned hangover (pardon my French ). I will have a social drink or two when the occasion presents itself, but it would just be plain selfish and irresponsible for me to try to look after a child or teach a class in a foggy, nauseated state due to excessive drinking the night before. No offense to anyone on here - the truth is, I do not care what you do on your own time (so don't PM me telling me to get off my high horse, k? ). However, I do think that as teachers we have a certain image to uphold. We also owe it to our students to provide them with the best lessons that we possibly can so that they will get the most out of them. That means showing up on time, in good condition (not hungover), prepared for the lesson, and "ready to roll".

[Cobra]

Excuse me Capergirl but our Chinese friends expect us to be able to drink with them or even out drink them. That is the image they want us to uphold.

Our FAO drinks his lunch every day and then teaches an afternoon class. He expects us to do the same. When we protest that we do not want to drink because we have a class to teach he says, "Don't worry or never mind - Bottoms up."

[Wolf]

[Roger]

I don't succeed much in boozing, honestly! And this from a guy who used to work in viticulture in France! I made my own wine there, and enjoyed my plonk (well, plonk is supposed to derive from 'vin blanc', or white wine, and mine was dry red).
BUt I learnt to enjoy it in good measure, not in quantity. Once I have had a glass too much, I can't find a big difference between a bordeaux and coca cola!
That's why I never overdo!

And, the biggest problem for me are my Chinese superiors who feel I must down baijiu with them. You know when they say "gan bei!", you are expected to down a glassful of maotai or worse, with an alcool content of 20%.
I normally say I cannot drink alcool for religious reasons, and they buy this from a dumb, superistitious westerner.

The one thing I like better than drinking with Chinese is - going online, especially to visit ESLCAFE!

[denise]

I confess that I do drink more abroad than in the States, but given how little I drink in the States, that's not really saying very much. And only girlie drinks--things with umbrellas and pieces of fruit wedged onto the glasses. And I would NEVER go to class hung over (with one exception in Prague--oooops!)--I save my girlie drinks for weekends and holidays.

I've been very lucky--it has always been easy for me, even in my brief stint in China, to avoid drinking binges/challenges to outdrink students/etc. Is it a gross overgeneralization to say that women have it easier than men in terms of having to uphold images/outdrink people? Or is it just me? (My students/colleagues generally learn early on about my wacky diet/health issues--maybe they just know not to pressure me?)

d

[Will.]

A new week dawns, an old topic continues... The hottest day since records began here was yesterday. A lot of drink was drunk yesterday.
Don't get me wrong. I have done my share of it, and more. Roger, you'll get this, 13 vendanges in Beaujolais, 10 hour day nourri loge... Eglou, eglou, eglou....
We all go through the ' acclimatisation process of alcohol to prove something.............by the time we get 'there' it is unimportant, so why bother?
Alcohol is a problem for many Eflers, forget the ' get drunk, fall down' brigade. It is, as previous posters have mentioned, often a social thing while abroad. Availability, price, a nice location to socialise, a diminitive flat or shared accommodation or just herd mentality that draws us into the maelstrom.
Many of our colleagues sincerely seek the comfort of other people from their culture while in a new, interesting, strange or even scary environment. It is a shame that all we seem to be able to offer them is obliviation through alcohol.
To my mind there is nothing wrong with social drinking or using alcohol, it is the abuse of alcohol that gives us such a bad, or good!, reputation as ELT teachers abroad. It is the dependance on this to stimulate our existence because we are too weak to face life without it, or too scared or lazy to attempt it.
Let's face it any...... (Please feel free to insert the pejorative noun of your choice) can get drunk. Getting drunk is not the objective. Enjoying yourself is the objective and anyone who seriously believes that hangovers, dogbreath, interior decoration for toilets or not respecting yourself in the morning can be construed as enjoyment is definitely deluding themselves. Those who get drunk do not know how to drink.
Those who have achieved a state of perfection approaching sensory shutdown have lost the plot. These people give alcohol, and teachers, a bad name. Ourselves as significant individuals have our own obligation to each other to enable our colleagues to enjoy themselves and alcohol but not suffer the negative side of it. Been there, done that, know how you feel. Experience is a hard teacher. I don't claim to be teetotal, this is not my objective, but I am close. I would like to be an ex-drinker but still able to enjoy alcohol and not slip back into my old habits, which in all sincerity had nothing to do with "Me" but other people's perception of what I wanted "Me" to appear to be to them.
That was the accepted social behaviour of my youth. What did I gain from drinking that I still have now? Can I sell this? Donations gratefully accepted.
The only winners from this are the people who make and sell alcohol. Ourselves, we are consumers and we buy into the dream that the advertisers sell us. It is a little like 'The emperor's new clothes'. In the cold light of dawn everything is laid bare. Why would you want to do this to yourself? Best of all, why inflict yourself on other people?
"Know your limits, I do, I always pass them".
Enjoy yourself, try 'not having' a drink with friends. Set yourself a 'real' objective.
As I said earlier any fool can get drunk, where is the skill in that?

[scot47]

There is more to life than getting drunk or stoned. It took me 30 years to learn that.

[Will.]

Agreed, But was it a good learning experience? I know I had my fun.

[scot47]

It was certainly an expensive apprenticeship for the life of an abstainer.
No regrets. No point. Even God can't change the Past !