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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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 Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:43 pm Post subject: Problems with co-workers |
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I have a co-worker that likes to try and control me and play boss. It is getting out of hand this year.
One thing I notice is that trying to get it resolved with a third party is it just comes back to you are a foreigner so you are wrong.
Freaking fustrating that every issue gets made into a racial issue and we get the short end of the stick.
I hope it's just Friday and that's why I am venting but I can't take much more of the control dramas.
Must be fun for them to mess with the white guy and get to tell anything they want to their colleagues who can't understand enough English to know how rude the Korean teacher is being. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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| The same question again: Is he / she older or younger than you and how long have you each been at the school? |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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Same age. 17 months at same school. Has to win every little discussion and pouts for weeks if you don't agree and then starts with the put downs. Also brings everything back to Korean foreigner differences.
My co-workers have this theory that they should do nothing to assist me now I have been here more than a year. So they pass the buck on all western teacher activities like demo classes and going to meetings.
If I try to get any help or speak up then I am considered rude and disrespectful.
It's not a race issue but a issue of lazy people trying to do as little work as possible.
If they keep it as a race issue then they can divert attention from their lazy work ethic. |
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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:28 am Post subject: |
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It's nice to know you have the courage to honestly say what is going on. Some posters on this forum will now accuse you of being weird, anti-social, somehow to blame, or just downright paranoid.
Welcome to nightmare co-teacher. My previous co-teacher was insulting and rude. Near the end of our time together, I used to insult her and put her down.
It was rather nice to see her cry.  |
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Tobias
Joined: 02 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:44 am Post subject: they're tired of you now |
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| D.D. wrote: |
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My co-workers have this theory that they should do nothing to assist me now I have been here more than a year. So they pass the buck on all western teacher activities like demo classes and going to meetings...
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They're tired of you. When your novelty has worn off, and it won't take long for it to wear off in SK, expect to be treated like a hole in the air or worse. How long it takes for your novelty to wear off depends on how much mileage they can still milk your pretty white face and how much face you've cost your colleagues and bosses.
The co-teacher sounds like an insecure freak with serious self-confidence issues. Play this angle and watch it quiet down. |
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Robot_Teacher
Joined: 18 Feb 2009
Location: Robotting Around the World
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:26 am Post subject: |
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| I'm ignoring those staff that seem unfriendly and set me up for awkward unnecessary situations. |
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shapeshifter
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 9:53 am Post subject: |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
It's nice to know you have the courage to honestly say what is going on. Some posters on this forum will now accuse you of being weird, anti-social, somehow to blame, or just downright paranoid.
Welcome to nightmare co-teacher. My previous co-teacher was insulting and rude. Near the end of our time together, I used to insult her and put her down.
It was rather nice to see her cry. |
Regardless of whether or not the OP is entirely in the right, I fail to see how it takes courage to say something is all someone else's fault. |
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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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So, why is it not possible for it to be all his co-teacher's fault? Ahhh......I get it......it's because she is Korean isn't it?!! They have no faults, only native teachers are to blame.  |
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shapeshifter
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 1:46 am Post subject: |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
| So, why is it not possible for it to be all his co-teacher's fault? Ahhh......I get it......it's because she is Korean isn't it?!! They have no faults, only native teachers are to blame. |
Well, it's hardly worth arguing about, but I never suggested any such thing.
What I wrote was that even if he's completely in the right, which I concede he may be, it doesn't take courage to say something is someone else's fault and not yours.
If you can't/won't grasp that distinction, you're either stupid or intellectually dishonest. |
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Rory_Calhoun27
Joined: 14 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:13 am Post subject: |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
It's nice to know you have the courage to honestly say what is going on. Some posters on this forum will now accuse you of being weird, anti-social, somehow to blame, or just downright paranoid.
Welcome to nightmare co-teacher. My previous co-teacher was insulting and rude. Near the end of our time together, I used to insult her and put her down.
It was rather nice to see her cry. |
congrats! my coteacher from Hell (henceforth known as CTFH or "Tootie") went off the deepend, telling a class to tell me "Youre a bad teacher" over a minor incident with the books, and then, after an argument the day before, walks in on a Friday and SLAPS me in front of her friend. I got up and asked her if she wanted to do it again..... cuz Im a man!
she broke my glasses and I made sure to make a big issue of it.... and felt good, oddly enough. My goal became to make sure she lost as much "Face" as possible. whatever that is.....
finally left in the teacher shuffle here, and have a really nice one, who actually wants to be a team player! somewhere vince lombardi is crying tears of joy! |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 5:24 am Post subject: Re: Problems with co-workers |
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| D.D. wrote: |
| Must be fun for them to mess with the white guy and get to tell anything they want to their colleagues who can't understand enough English to know how rude the Korean teacher is being. |
Learn Korean, then.
That's one reason why I study Korean.
I'm new on my job, and some of my co-teachers throught they could get by with anything, too.
Believe me, it works wonders. |
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:04 am Post subject: |
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| shapeshifter wrote: |
| fromtheuk wrote: |
| So, why is it not possible for it to be all his co-teacher's fault? Ahhh......I get it......it's because she is Korean isn't it?!! They have no faults, only native teachers are to blame. |
Well, it's hardly worth arguing about, but I never suggested any such thing.
What I wrote was that even if he's completely in the right, which I concede he may be, it doesn't take courage to say something is someone else's fault and not yours.
If you can't/won't grasp that distinction, you're either stupid or intellectually dishonest. |
I have the courage to admit when I am wrong. I also know when I am being projected on by small minded xenophobic people.
Most people fear change and it shows up as attacks on anything different. So they try to change the perceived threat into being like themselves.
I have been travelling for 15 years and have met some really closed minded people but nothing compares to rural Koreans.
Once in a while I get sick of it and need to vent. I know it is a stage that cultures go through.
At the same time it is painful to witness how angry and stuck they really are. I have never witnessed a culture that blindly identifies with itself and can't see past theri programming.
I won't be back after this contract as life is too short to play the kicking horse for a large number of people stuck in racist thinking.
I was told by them " when in Rome do as the Romans do" I cant think of an uglier saying against individuality than that.
I guess start showing up to work stinking of Soju like 25% of our male teachers do. Would that make me a good little Roman?
Believe me I don't bitch until situations get really petty. I always think the racism is over and them 3 months later the next wave comes.
When they are being racists nothing you can do will please them.
I spent 70000 on Pizza and cake for some students the other day which should be taken as a nice gesture and they find reasons to complain about that because they didn't get any.
They give themselves the best computers at their desks and the kids the slow ones for their classrooms.
Anyways was a bad week , and I hope the polarities stop this week.
To think you always have to find fault in yourself is quite a basic mistake.
You do need to see when you might be contributing to a problem.
Sometimes you just need to learn to stand up for yourself.
People fear being out of control in a changing world and one thing they try to do is control others.
We are easy targets for the rural Korean who suffer from "onewayitis "
It is just fear that manifests into hate and control dramas. Their feeble attempts at keeping the world from changing. I remember when we were like that in the 1970's and feel sorry for the asians that had to put up with our fears.
The grade 3's don't even like the grade 2's because they are in a different grade. Imagine how far we are from celebrating our differences. |
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Tobias
Joined: 02 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:08 am Post subject: Re: Problems with co-workers |
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| tomato wrote: |
Learn Korean, then.
That's one reason why I study Korean....
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Not to be a smartass, just the usual TESOL cynic that I am.
I think I'll take up learning Korean myself, and I'll even learn it at the same pace as my former students. Here's a partial schedule that will mirror their effort and progress:
1. 2009-2014: Learn the Korean vowels.
2. 2014-2015: Take a break from the enormous workload.
3. 2015-2018: Learn the Korean vowel sounds.
4. 2018-2022: Learn the consonants.
5. 2022-2023: Take a break. It's too tough.
6. 2023-2028: Learn the consonant sounds.
7. 2028-2038: Learn about 100 Korean vocabulary words.
8. 2038-2042: Take English courses in a middle school.
9. 2042-2048: Take English courses in a high school.
10. 2048-Death: Blame somebody else for my laziness and for wasting my opportunities to learn, learn, learn. Whine about 'what could have been' incessantly. |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:25 am Post subject: |
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| It' time to go home D.D. Burned out. Whenyou reach the stage you describe it doesnt get better. You just get bitter. Go home recharge, you'll be ready to hit the road agin, just not to Korea. I went through this, forced myself to stay, was miserable and started hating, and that is soul rotting. go Home!!!It is not quitting it is healing. You dont owe your soul to these people. |
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tomato
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: I get so little foreign language experience, I must be in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 6:31 am Post subject: |
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Tobias, I'm afraid my experience has been different from yours.
I have never known a Korean elementary school child who wasn't a good reader.
I have known Korean children who were proficient in reading Korean before they even started school.
My first and second grade students like for me to read Korean books to them during break time, but that's only because they like for adults to read to them.
They can read the books faster than I can. |
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