Job Discussion Forums

[kimo]

Selmo, I am not sure what your native country is and I won't even hazard a guess other than to say that maybe it is not the same as mine. The real reason I left my country is to get away from all the whiners and complainers. "Yo, you looked at me wrong and ruffled my ego. I'm suing." Do you know the type? But lo and behold, they, or we, follow each other around. They, or we, are just behaving like they, or we, do at home. Just because they, or we, leave our native lands does not mean that they, or we, don't leave all their, or our, baggage (personal history) behind. Relax! Pay those people no mind and make your own experience wherever you are.

[richard ame]

Hi John and selmo
Sorry john I'm not the greatest lover of quiche ıt remids me too much of a week old british rail sandwich ,yes I'm one of those nast agressive posters gordon bennet someone has to liven up this morgue sometimes basically I like taking the piss and not having much else to do at the moment it helps to pass the time at least unlike kimo I 'm not posting just to waste peoples time about some non existant work place ideal . BTW I'm married to an English lady and we both work and teach over here together in the same uni so why do I post such angry posts sometimes am I really that angry or maybe the lack of response I get from my students I may get here instead its just a theory .

[kimo]

Mr. Ame, you and I, both, are good examples of people with too much time on their hands right now. My excuse is a SARS induced stupor suffered by some schools here the Northern Capital. What is yours?

Sorry, Selmo, for hijacking your thread. Now where were we on FT's in Asia?

[johnslat]

Dear zakiah25,
" Should I make it with a shortcrust pastry base or with it be ok using a plain bread dough or perhaps a basic plain scone mixture? And for a garnish, should I use black Greek pitted olives or Chinese mushrooms and a few chopped chives? "
Criminy, woman - I said I rather liked quiche; I didn't say I knew how to MAKE it. We really macho men may guiltily admit to savoring a bit of the old quiche every so often, but by the lord harry, we don't actually have a clue as to how it's put together. I mean, that's woman's work, right? ( NOTA BENE: all you readers out there who are irony-challenged, that WAS irony ). As for the " nasty posts ", well, maybe some like to use Dave's as a kind of " safety valve outlet " - a forum in which they can let off steam, which may be inconvenient or unwise to do where they are.
Besides, as richard ame so rightly put it, we DO need to be shaken up every now and then; a little controversy does make the boards more interesting - to me, anyway, but then I'm an aggressive guy ( hmm, that may be redundant ). Just imagine how bland and, well, boring it would be if we were all nicey-nice to each other all the time. So, thanks richard et al
for putting a little ( or a lot of ) spice in the quiche.
Regards,
John

[selmo]

God I really need to get this off my chest !
OLD FARTS WHO DONT KNOW THEIR @RSE FROM THEIR ELBOW
thats better now wheres the *beep* house!

[selmo]

Any thing but shortcrust is sacrilige!

[guest of Japan]

The only continuity to this thread seems to be that of quiche, so I'll start there. I can take it or leave it.

Agressive posters. Sometimes people get carried away. Some people are just mean spirited. Some people are just looking for a fight to brighten their day. Some people are having a bad day. I don't think it's a men only thing. About a month ago I received my only negative pm. It was an extremely spiteful attack at a posting I made which was only mildly negative. I simply disagreed with the person and I was called an idiot and a liar and a few other unkind things. This pm was from a woman.

Racism of the culture you live in: I have to disagree with this one. I have a Japanese girlfriend. I'll probably marry her. I didn't come to Japan looking for a wife. Sometimes I am very frustrated with Japan, just as I was very frustrated with America. The romanticism of a country wearing off is a natural phenomenon just as becoming romantically involved with a national of the country is a natural phenomenon.

I believe that people who set out just to make money may harbor feelings of racism, but I don't think the regulars on this board fall into that catagory.

I agree that sometimes the comments made on this board are a little over the top. Usually those comments are unleashed when a poster makes a question which is actually insulting to the people who take their job seriously. If I go to a computer engineer forum and ask, "I hear I can make a lot of money with this computer thing. I've been using computers since I was ten years old so I think I'd make a great computer engineer. Which companies pay the best salaries and have a relaxed working atmosphere?", I will be destroyed. (Incidently, I'd appreciate some punctuation help on that if I've made a mistake.) The computer engineers aren't going to flame me because they are mean spirited. They're going to flame me because I'm making an assumtion that anyone can do their job and thusly deserve to be treated in a manner similar to what they've struggled or are still struggling to achieve.

I personally find most of the regulars on this board to be wonderful people. When someone is faced with a legitimate problem advice almost always comes. The advice is usually quite good and it even come from the people who paint portraits of themselves as being mean spirited flamers.

I hope that was coherent. I tried to utilize a new writing technique I heard about called paragraphing, but I'm not sure I've mastered it yet. Have a nice day. Mark

[Wolf]

Racism? Yes, often we dwell on the unpleasant things of life here. We let trouble harrass us. I personally try not to, but I've been having a rough year. I don't equate the actions of a few with a nation/ethinc group. Ex. I go shopping for a day. I have "Hello" screamed at me 5 times. I pass thousands of people on the streets. The people who scream "hello" amount to a very low percentage, no? Also, some areas of the PRC don't have the "cultural sisitivity training," if you will, many of use have had. Some areas of the PRC simply don't have much of a history of immigrants. I understand that. Many of my students do not understand why this would make me unhappy. It's just something people don't think of. But it does make me feel down at times, all the same.

Sexism? I often hear the attitude that as a young single "foreinger" I ought to have reams of Asian girlfriends. Do you know who I hear theis from (at times)? Asian women - my female students in particular. When they say this, I tell them that I'd prefer people to be interested in me because I am me not because I am a waygook/weiguoren/gaikokujin/un person qui a ne dans un autre paige/ civis Canadae.

[leeroy]

OK selmo, I get your point - I myself have been less than complementary about Asian cultures in the past - and I'm not the only one! (You should see the Korea forum). Quite possibly Asian people go on their own discussion forums and compain about westerners - it wouldn't surprise me, nor upset me.

But usually on this board it is not blind, ignorant racism. The arguments made "against" teachers' host cultures are generally based on solid evidence. I find it interesting to see how cultural perceptions differ.

"Koreans are stupid" is a racist comment, but "Koreans' relative lack of individualsim inhibits their ability to innovate creatively" is a cultural observation, albeit a negative one.

Most teachers go to Asia to find a wife? Seriously?

[Sid]

On racism, a colleague recently shared this thought:

"I think everything in Korea is run by an Ajoise with a cellphone sitting in a Dongdaemun soju tent"


Reward them with strength, punish them with weakness.

Yours squidly.

[Bindair Dundat]

[PanamaTeacher]

I agree with Bindair!

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

No man can be as truly vicious as a woman--they'll scratch your car, burn your clothes, clean you out in a divorce and smile as they do it. Women are the best, but they have cold blood.

[khmerhit]

One reason why most of the aggressive posters on this forum are men could be that MOST OF THE ESL TEACHERS IN ASIA ARE MEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
While we are about it again, has anyone lived with an Australian woman?
You think the CHINESE are dragons?!

sELMO-- You are right to point up the rather conspicuous hypocrisy in some of the above comments. If only life were so simple that we could live without being hypocrites!

[thelmadatter]

Number 1 - I absolutely hate quiche and I am a woman -- do I need a sex change??

Number 2 - While many of my friends joke about me finding a Mexican husband while Im here, I have to agree that my reservation comes from the fear of being treating "traditionally". I would need to find an open-minded man who can deal with my strange, very independent foreign ways.... Might be too tall an order, who knows?

[PanamaTeacher]

Thelma--I think it is hard to find a man from latin america who can let a woman be independent, to most of them it would be degrading not to be able to have control at home. Still being a Gringa you can have a lot of fun looking for Senor Right.

Not liking quiche is difficult since it is so bland there is nothing to dislike. What I don't like are the worms in the tequila.