Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Grab the Chickens Levi]

My last public school let me not go to the summer teacher's away trip, as I pretended to have other plans....

Sure enough at my new school they have a two day trip planned in July.

I have nothing against any of my co-workers but two days of being in a group I can't converse with or understand (not to mention I find even English speaking Koreans dull to socialise with) will be brutally boring and stressful for me. We also have to share sleeping quarters, the notion of which is abhorrant to me....

My manager is really trying to press me to go, but I will not even if it means being fired. My time is my time. I told her that I don't see the benefit for anyone in making one person spend two days doing something that they really will find uncomfortable... Tried to get her to understand how boring and awkward it is when you don't speak Korean and have to socialise for a day let alone TWO!!!!

I'm waiting to find out how the principal is going to react.....

Anyone in the same boat....?

[mrsquirrel]

Yes.

I went last year though and enjoyed it.

I fell off the wagon and stayed out until just before sunrise on the beach with my missus, co-teacher and a couple of other teachers getting hammered.

[dean_burrito]

do you want some fries with that wah-burger?
don't go to foreign countries if you don't want to step outside of your comfort zone.
you'll probably have fun. i always do.

[passport220]

I went on mine last year. As you I was not too excited about it. However, I did not want to put myself out as a �special case�; most of your Korean co-workers are required to go and they may not be too excited about it.

If you go you will likely not have any real responsibilities and can look to enjoy it. I recommend you just bite the bullet, go and make the best of it. It really is not fair to ask that you be allowed to just stay at home and do nothing while your Korean co-workers have to �work� and go on the trip.

Look at it as an investment of time. If you go, it will make you more as part of the team at your school and you will reap benefits from it in the long run.

[blackjack]

for god sake it is two days. If you were a teacher back home there are school camps and field trips, in non teaching jobs there are conferences and out of city meetings, training sessions.

go for two days, make nice, smile and fake it. Then when you need something bring up how you had to cancel plans to go.

If you want to get treated as a professional act like one. I know you are not asking for advice or judgement but you sound like a child

[Dome Vans]

[nicholas_chiasson]

Why can't you guys learn to NOT get invited to Korean meetings?
For example, after getting drunk and begged to say something in KOrean, I responded by praising the beauty of the new, single, Home Ecc teacher. After this dinner meeting, the staff at the public school has been afraid to put us in the same place at the same time. Or if your principal places his hand on your thigh, place yours on his inner thigh. Go on , kiss, grope, and feel up the entire staff reguardless of gender or age all while toasting korea with soju. Make sure to drink the older teacher under the table. You will NOT be invited out again!

[KYC]

I was just asked to pick which dates that I'd be available for the the teacher's trip. It's also a 2 day weekend event. I said no thank you.

IF I was staying longer, then I would have bitten the bullet and suffer the weekend. HOWEVER, I am leaving in August and there's no point.

[spliff]

We're going to a cave this year...ohhh.

[crusher_of_heads]

[Grab the Chickens Levi]

I have to dissagree with all of you bar one for several reasons.

1. I have lived here for four years now and know Korea and it's culture well enough to know from experience that I do not and will not enjoy these kind of things. No ammount of 'ooh cultural enlightening' (I'm already there and I don't judge there culture as being bad but it really aint for me) is going to change things lol...

2. Yes you have training trips away back home. This has no training or useful element to it, it's a social. Back home if you don't want to go on a social - you don't go.

3. I'm leaving the job end of Aug anyway so no ammount of kissing arse or being a special case will make a difference one way or the other. I know I'm being culturally insensitive, but I can throw that back by saying if they realise I will really be uncomfortable and really not enjoy it then their culture is insensitive to me. Boo hoo.

Sorry if that breaks some of your cultural enlightenment bubbles, but there you go...

Anyway, I don't need advice hence didn't ask for it, just wanted to hear from people in the same boat lol....

[poet13]

Hell no, no way, no how, not ever. I'm convinced that going would be the most culturally relevant experience of my very well travelled life, and that the work rewards I would reap would leave my family's future secure for generations to come. However, I am not going to swap spit, germs, herpes, and whatever other myriad of germs and bugs other people carry by way of shared glasses, food, cutlery, or whatever. I am also way past the need to demonstrate my ability to be a social animal by sleeping amongst 30 sweaty, soju-stinking, farting, burping men. I also have absolutely zero interest in showing off my ink, scars, extra hair, and oversized ding-dong in a communal shower, sauna, mutual scrub down with people I have to work with every day.

Like I said. Hell no, no way, no how, not ever.

[spliff]

[poet13]

"It's not meant to be "culturally enlightening" it's meant to be fun."

That's always been used as an excuse with me.

[Grab the Chickens Levi]