Korean Job Discussion Forums

[njp6]

I know this has been posted before but this never ceases to amaze me. My Korean co-teacher walked into the classroom today, turned on the air conditioner and opened all the windows. Once we got the kids working, I asked her why she did that.
"The atmosphere is bad." Her English is less than perfect.
"What?"
"The air conditioning, it makes for a bad atmosphere."
I then explained that it can't be that bad. I'm still alive and I run the air conditioning with windows closed all the time. I then explained what a waste of energy this is. She looked at me like I had just explained quantum theory.

What gets me is I tend to suffer through heat because I feel like we all need to lessen our energy consumption; then I watch all of Korea turn on the air conditioning and allow the cool air to escape outside. I want to get the whole country together and show a brief instructional video on how to manage heating and cooling.

Maybe I have it wrong. Maybe there are death particles escaping from the air conditioner. I've never done the research, but I somehow doubt the air conditioner is such a menace. That's it. I just wanted to vent.

[orosee]

Whoops, when I read this I turned off my aircon (but left the windows open).

Had it installed today in my office and gave it a test run...

[maddog]

I hear ya. I get the feeling many of them were raised in barns; they just don't understand the concept of closing doors behind them. It's fukking infuriating, especially as I sit next to office door and the reception area can be quite noisy at times.

[R-Seoul]

Ha, just as I was reading this one of my colleagues got up opened the window and turned the air-con on. I asked her why she had just opened the window & she looked at me with a 'does not compute' look on her face. So I just told her to close the window again, i love being the most senior person on my floor

[maddog]

R-Seoul. Brilliant screen name and hilarious avatar.

[moosehead]

what gets me is then in winter time, they also open the [Mod Edit] windows and turn the heat up

but get on a city bus and all the [Mod Edit] windows are closed.

don't even get me started back on the thread I wrote regarding closing bus windows going through tunnels.

someone said Koreans don't have a concept of what temperate is and I definitely believe it - there just doesn't seem to be an idea of "ambient room temperature."

and forget going into a govt office on a hot day!! oh my god!!!!

Korea Sweltering!!!

[crazy_arcade]

My school tends to be pretty logical in regard to this.
The only person in the English classroom who turns on the airconditioner and opens the windows is our after school teacher from the U.S.
He looks at me with very strange eyes when I bemoan him for wasting energy.

By the way op: you might want to avoid going to China if you think Korea has a problem in this regard. I can vividly remember walking though the middle of very wide outdoor shopping boulevards in the summer and feeling the cool air blowing out from the stores with wide open doors.

[ACT III]

Ooo, maybe it's the updated version of Fan death.

[ryouga013]

Worst roommate I ever had. Korean exchange student. It wasn't because the kimchi stunk up the fridge. We took care of that by throwing it out the window after he left the container open. It wasn't that he was messier than hell. We started throwing all the crap he left out on his bed. The 30minute long showers we stopped wasn't even the most stupid thing this guy did. It was his constant playing with the damend thermostat. No matter what temperature it was in the fall and winter, he would crank it up to 85F and then strip down to nothing but a pair of boxers and an A-shirt. Then, after the house was at full heat, he'd go to the balcony every 30minutes or so because it was too hot... This is in a place that had a free sauna at the community building, not 2minutes away. He would close all the windows and keep the heat like this as much as he could. He couldn't understand that if he was cold, wear something! If he was hot, remove something! There were three other people in the place that all thought it was too hot, including the Saudi exchange student.

The score in Korea: Stupidity 439,389,655 : logic 3

[travelingfool]

I stayed at two hotels in Korea in the dead of winter. One of them was near the airport and had a heated floor. That place was like a furnace! Even though it was way below freezing outside I had to leave the window open. Another time I stayed at the Hamilton hotel in Itaewon. My room was carpeted, but the thermostat was not adjustable and was set on the "hell" setting. In both places due to the dust, the hot, dry, non circulating air and my allergies, I couldn't breath. I wouldn't want to imagine being trapped in a small overheated stuffy classroom.

[rusty1983]

This used to annoy me, and I hated it when everyone wore their coats and asked to open the window in the middle of the winter...


...However, I was teaching in my new job (not in Korea) the other day and this came up...the book I was teaching from asked a question about 'stale air' and whether it was bad for the educational environment. The students agreed and it does actually make some sense, if you are sitting in a room in which the air is recycled, it cant be as good for your mind as if you got some fresh air coming in.

Although having said that, it is Korea

[matthews_world]

Another "When in Rome..." thread.

Koreans invite you over here and you want to conform 50,000,000 of them to your superior ways? Ain't gonna happen.

Booorrrriiiing. Been there, done that. Big deal. Get over it. Learn to adapt to Korean culture or you'll certainly cause a headache for yourself in the future.

[Zenas]

[Roving_gypsy_gurl]

A student once insisted I would get sick if I spent all day in a room with the windows closed and the a/c going.

I laughed and insisted otherwise.

The next day, I had a miserable sore throat and blocked sinuses.

I know it was a coincidence -- I run the a/c all the time to no ill effect -- but try convincing her of that!

[Chicoloco]