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richardlang
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Location: Gangnam
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 Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:24 am Post subject: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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At my high school there's a big nap/resting room. One for women, one for men. Different floors. They're dimly lit and half the size of a regular classroom, with a separate room inside for sleeping. The bedroom room has a regular mattress bed with a frame, but everyone uses the floor to catch zzz's. There's a closet that has a whole collection of pillows (some are half-wooden with springs and fit nicely on the back of your neck).
Normally I'll walk into the room, looking to take a quick nap, and there will be two men sleeping side by side on the floor using the same blanket like how young brothers might take a nap together. Just guys taking a quick nap after lunch, setting their handphone alarms to wake them for their next class. I don't smoke, but those who do always smoke in the special outer room, which itself was apparently designed just for smoking. There's a special fan that's installed to draw the cigarette smoke into the vents. It's not loud -- actually quite soothing. Two nice leather couches, a massage chair, and a coffee table are there when you first come inside the room. When I sleep in the bedroom I never smell cigarette smoke. I think everyone smokes at my school. I probably would, too, if I had to stay at school until 10:30pm every night.
Most of the time after lunch I get so tired that even if I do take a nap, it seems I'm more tired after doing so. That said, I can see the need for these rooms in a society where people are overworked and the nation's work week was recently amended to 5 days beginning in 2004. Teachers seems to be left out of this amendment's reach.
I spoke with a colleague today and she said it was promised about three years ago that next year would change school hours to exclude Saturday work; as it is now, teachers come and teach at school for a half day on the first and third Saturdays of each month. However, she said it got changed back and it'll be the same, it seems, forever.
I take a nap maybe once every week. I've got a hectic schedule. Two days a week I've got six classes back-to-back. The day between that I've got five. On one of those days, I take a good nap.
Would anyone like to comment on his/her school's nap/resting room? |
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Easter Clark
Joined: 18 Nov 2007
Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:30 am Post subject: |
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| It sounds like you work at a very nice school! Our school doesn't have such a room, except the janitor's living quarters (complete with bed and copy machine). However, each teacher has his or her pillow that they brought from home, and after lunch you are guaranteed to see the teachers either in class teaching or asleep at their desk. I'm sure all of that rice has a lot to do with it. I love how taking a siesta is completely acceptable here! |
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renzobenzo1
Joined: 08 Sep 2007
Location: Suji, Yongin
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:34 am Post subject: |
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We have one too. It's pretty dingy.
I've probably used it once for a nap and had a few ciggies in there.
I feel a bit uncomfortable in there with other teachers wanting a smoke if I am taking a nap as it's shared.
Come next week I'll probably nap away a few times. Even for a power nap of 10 mins. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:38 am Post subject: |
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Both of my schools this year have two: one for men, one for women. I haven't used either, but they do have beds.
Last year there was a separate building. It was a holdover from the days before electronic security systems, when a teacher would have to stay overnight to guard the school. It was currently used as a rec. room, and had a bed, cable TV, computer with internet, bathroom, etc. When there were isses with my apartment I slept there. It was okay. Other teachers used it throughout the day to sleep and/or drink. A lot of the older rural schools have these separate buildings. |
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xtchr
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:54 am Post subject: Re: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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| richardlang wrote: |
Normally I'll walk into the room, looking to take a quick nap, and there will be two men sleeping side by side on the floor using the same blanket like how young brothers might take a nap together. Just guys taking a quick nap after lunch, setting their handphone alarms to wake them for their next class. I don't smoke, but those who do always smoke in the special outer room, which itself was apparently designed just for smoking. There's a special fan that's installed to draw the cigarette smoke into the vents. It's not loud -- actually quite soothing. Two nice leather couches, a massage chair, and a coffee table are there when you first come inside the room. When I sleep in the bedroom I never smell cigarette smoke. I think everyone smokes at my school. I probably would, too, if I had to stay at school until 10:30pm every night.
Most of the time after lunch I get so tired that even if I do take a nap, it seems I'm more tired after doing so. That said, I can see the need for these rooms in a society where people are overworked and the nation's work week was recently amended to 5 days beginning in 2004. Teachers seems to be left out of this amendment's reach.
I spoke with a colleague today and she said it was promised about three years ago that next year would change school hours to exclude Saturday work; as it is now, teachers come and teach at school for a half day on the first and third Saturdays of each month. However, she said it got changed back and it'll be the same, it seems, forever.
I take a nap maybe once every week. I've got a hectic schedule. Two days a week I've got six classes back-to-back. The day between that I've got five. On one of those days, I take a good nap.
Would anyone like to comment on his/her school's nap/resting room? |
That is why they 'have to' stay at school, because they're asleep half the time!!!
If they put in a decent day's work during normal business hours then they'd get to go home at a normal time. I manage to stay awake for a full 8 hours - it can be done. |
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PGF
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:57 am Post subject: |
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I always thought public school jobs were a waste of time (4 hours spent sitting, doing nothing), but these nap rooms have changed my mind. I would totally cut out 3 hours sleep at home and do other work if I could make it up on the job.
how liberally are you permitted to use these things? Can you just camp out when your not teaching or would someone come find oyu or complain that XYZ is always in the nappy time room?
wow.... |
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butlerian
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:59 am Post subject: |
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| PGF wrote: |
I always thought public school jobs were a waste of time (4 hours spent sitting, doing nothing), but these nap rooms have changed my mind. I would totally cut out 3 hours sleep at home and do other work if I could make it up on the job.
how liberally are you permitted to use these things? Can you just camp out when your not teaching or would someone come find oyu or complain that XYZ is always in the nappy time room?
wow.... |
Haha...in Korea, image is most important. If you just cut your nighttime sleeping and slept in the school room most of the time, it wouldn't look good. |
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aaabank
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:34 am Post subject: Re: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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| xtchr wrote: |
| richardlang wrote: |
Normally I'll walk into the room, looking to take a quick nap, and there will be two men sleeping side by side on the floor using the same blanket like how young brothers might take a nap together. Just guys taking a quick nap after lunch, setting their handphone alarms to wake them for their next class. I don't smoke, but those who do always smoke in the special outer room, which itself was apparently designed just for smoking. There's a special fan that's installed to draw the cigarette smoke into the vents. It's not loud -- actually quite soothing. Two nice leather couches, a massage chair, and a coffee table are there when you first come inside the room. When I sleep in the bedroom I never smell cigarette smoke. I think everyone smokes at my school. I probably would, too, if I had to stay at school until 10:30pm every night.
Most of the time after lunch I get so tired that even if I do take a nap, it seems I'm more tired after doing so. That said, I can see the need for these rooms in a society where people are overworked and the nation's work week was recently amended to 5 days beginning in 2004. Teachers seems to be left out of this amendment's reach.
I spoke with a colleague today and she said it was promised about three years ago that next year would change school hours to exclude Saturday work; as it is now, teachers come and teach at school for a half day on the first and third Saturdays of each month. However, she said it got changed back and it'll be the same, it seems, forever.
I take a nap maybe once every week. I've got a hectic schedule. Two days a week I've got six classes back-to-back. The day between that I've got five. On one of those days, I take a good nap.
Would anyone like to comment on his/her school's nap/resting room? |
That is why they 'have to' stay at school, because they're asleep half the time!!!
If they put in a decent day's work during normal business hours then they'd get to go home at a normal time. I manage to stay awake for a full 8 hours - it can be done. |
Well, there are these napping rooms at public schools but they are the result, not the cause of the long work-day for the teachers. The schools are open the long hours so that the students will appear to be studying those long hours "necessary" for getting good scores on the college entrance exams. In response to these long hours required by the teachers, the nap rooms came into existence. Cut the public school teachers some slack. I've spent just two years in the Korean public school system, but from what I've seen, it is one of the most time-demanding jobs I've ever heard of (3rd-grade highschool home-room teachers often put in 65-hour work weeks). For all that time spent at school, I believe they deserve a nap or two every day or so. |
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mikekim
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:38 am Post subject: Re: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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| aaabank wrote: |
Well, there are these napping rooms at public schools but they are the result, not the cause of the long work-day for the teachers. The schools are open the long hours so that the students will appear to be studying those long hours "necessary" for getting good scores on the college entrance exams. In response to these long hours required by the teachers, the nap rooms came into existence. Cut the public school teachers some slack. I've spent just two years in the Korean public school system, but from what I've seen, it is one of the most time-demanding jobs I've ever heard of (3rd-grade highschool home-room teachers often put in 65-hour work weeks). For all that time spent at school, I believe they deserve a nap or two every day or so. |
You are joking right. Any good NA teacher puts in 60 hours of actual work time and doesn't get free trips/lunches/days off for no reason and an internet porn downloading station with adjoining nap room. And yeah they load the 3rd year teachers at the start, but post-CSAT they do nothing. Lecture-style teaching with all Scantron exams and no formal homework checking is pretty darn easy, also they are pretty much un-fireable. Even with total incompetance, sexual harassment, drunkness, lateness. Its all good. Its also pretty freaking easy to beat students up with a stick.
There are stains on our nap room bed, so I'm not even going to fathom why there are there or if its BG BB GG or BBBG or whatever the hell Koreans do at nite when nobody's looking. Hell the fridge is loaded with soju. |
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aaabank
Joined: 27 Feb 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:20 pm Post subject: Re: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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| mikekim wrote: |
You are joking right. Any good NA teacher puts in 60 hours of actual work time and doesn't get free trips/lunches/days off for no reason and an internet porn downloading station with adjoining nap room. And yeah they load the 3rd year teachers at the start, but post-CSAT they do nothing. Lecture-style teaching with all Scantron exams and no formal homework checking is pretty darn easy, also they are pretty much un-fireable. Even with total incompetance, sexual harassment, drunkness, lateness. Its all good. Its also pretty freaking easy to beat students up with a stick.
There are stains on our nap room bed, so I'm not even going to fathom why there are there or if its BG BB GG or BBBG or whatever the hell Koreans do at nite when nobody's looking. Hell the fridge is loaded with soju. |
I wouldn't want to know where those stains are coming from either. (And I think I'd avoid taking naps there too. You have some nasty co-teachers if they can't put a towel down first if they want to play at school.)
I agree that the 3rd-grade teachers have it fairly easy post-CSAT, but the fact still remains that they must be at school for those ~65 hours per week and so a nap room, in my opinion, is necessary.
In comparison with North American teachers, who vary greatly in regards to quality, sure some may put in 60 hours per week, but the overwhelming majority are only on campus for ~35-40 hours per week and so a nap room is really not necessary.
Last edited by aaabank on Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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richardlang
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:06 pm Post subject: Re: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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| aaabank wrote: |
| the overwhelming majority are only on campus for ~35-40 hours per week and so a nap room is really not necessary. |
A work week of 35 to 40 applies to elementary and middle school teachers. That's because those teachers leave work early, as those schools typically end before 4pm -- sometimes, well before.
Almost all Korean high school teachers stay at school until 10:30pm. Only about 4 teachers at my high school work 40 hours. So nap/resting rooms are necessary for high school teachers. Whether they are a necessity for elementary and middle school teachers depends on whether you agree people ought to be able to take a small rest at school in order to provide a bit of happiness every now and then. Students can be a drain on energy. You want teachers to be energetic, not drones.
That said, a forty-hour work week as a teacher cannot be compared to a forty hour work week as a graphic designer or mobile phone store employee. Look, just for the record: my school's nap room doesn't have a refrigerator full of soju. In fact, there's no refrigerator. |
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richardlang
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:18 pm Post subject: Re: Nap/cigarette room at your school? |
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| xtchr wrote: |
That is why they 'have to' stay at school, because they're asleep half the time!!!
If they put in a decent day's work during normal business hours then they'd get to go home at a normal time. |
What you're saying is completely illogical. It's as though you didn't read what was written by me. "Normal business hours" are not the 8 full hours here. You responded to my message. My message is about high school teachers. You should know, if you've been here for over a month, that they work more than 8 hours a day. Just because you have something to say doesn't mean it makes sense. That's the nicest way I can put it, considering you are completely wrong on the two points I made, which are 1) My message is about HS teachers and 2) they don't work 8 hours.
Ah, I feel like a real Dave's message board poster for correcting Xtchr so strongly. But it needed to be done! Sorry guy! Don't be down!
| xtchr wrote: |
I manage to stay awake for a full 8 hours - it can be done. |
Good for you. You aren't a Korean high school teacher. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| I sometimes like to take a short nap at my desk, especially after lunch. No-one cares. In fact, there are some older teachers who have a regular nap-time. Everyday from 2 to 3pm, out comes the eyemask and the foot-rest and they're out like lights. Sometimes they snore or talk in their sleep and no-one bats an eyelid! |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Are the women allowed to smoke in their room? |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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Ha. We had one at my previous high school job, but the principal put an end to it. As I understand it, the room sort of started on its own from a bare room. One teacher used to go there to nap, then others found out, and used it for years. Suddenly one day, the principal figured the situation had gone too far, and that was that.
The building I currently teach in at my uni has a professors lounge. I sometimes take a nap there when I'm working my 9 hour shift on Thursdays. |
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