Korean Job Discussion Forums

Panda · Joined: 25 Oct 2008

I believe most English teachers here were not teachers before they came to Korea, you might blame on dirty air in Korea for making you sick all the time, but which might be wrong.

toonchoon · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Location: Gangnam

knock on wood - i may just be a lucky guy who doesn't get sick too often.

i think washing hands regularly, not letting kids touch YOU reduces the risk of getting sick. and stop touching your face, picking your teeth, or your nose when you're at work.

harlowethrombey · Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Location: Seoul

I drink a lot of water/tea so I go visit the little waeguk's room a lot, so I wash my hands almost every break.

Alot of it also probably has to do with how much sleep and partying the foreign teachers are doing. New climate. New allergies. Soju. People spitting on the floor of the elevator. Recipe for getting sick.

tzechuk · Joined: 20 Dec 2004

I don't think being a teacher is necessarily the germiest of jobs out there... I do think you gotta keep a high level of personal hygiene when you are a teacher, though... wash your hands often...

marlow · Joined: 06 Feb 2005

Interesting.

I'm a fan of reasonable hand washing and not touching my eyes, mouth or nose unless I have done so very recently.

Yesterday · Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 4:37 am Post subject:

Kids' desktops are probably the dirtiest object in a classroom

So true - in a public school classroom..

(no toilet paper in the bathrooms, kids never washing hands after doing their business etc, kids always sitting at the desks with the fingers either down their pants or in their nose)...

my Korean coteacher always complains about the smell from the bleach (with sodium hypochlorite) that I often spray onto the desks, doors, and mop the floor with...

but its just something to try to kill some of the germs... (besides I only use the bleach when the school closes - so usually the smell disappears over night)

jkelly80 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Location: you boys like mexico?

Germs are everywhere, counting the number of them that exist in one place doesn't mean much. Some are much more harmful than others.

Cerriowen · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Location: Pocheon

I was sick all the time when I taught kindergarten, and so where the kids... then I started using alcohol solution to wipe down the desks, door-knobs, and other highly touched areas... and suddenly everyone got well and stayed well.

kimuchiii · Joined: 02 Dec 2007

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I knew a doctor once who recommended that everyone eat a spoonful of dirt everyday, just to keep the old immune system up to snuff. In addition to that, there is the psychosomatic element: if you think about getting sick all the time, your chances of getting sick all the time sky rocket. Then there's the problem of the pay-off for getting sick: You're in a stressful new environment with little to no training. It can be a psychological out to get sick as a way of escaping the stress--no one can really blame you for doing a crappy job if you're sick, can they?