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Why all of the personal attacks and gratuitous nastiness?
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nicam



Joined: 14 Jun 2008

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:30 am    Post subject: Why all of the personal attacks and gratuitous nastiness? Reply with quote

I'm really starting to get the sense that ESL "teachers" on internet forums everywhere derive great pleasure from putting each other down and attacking one another. It's like they go out of their way to find a reason to get all indignant and roast fellow posters. Most of the time these attacks are completely unwarranted and based on nothing but distorted perception and misguided rage or apparent insecurity.

There are many people here who don't need to boost their own egos by making snide and insulting comments to other forum users, but it's not just this forum in question. The Taiwan forum and forumosa are both filled with the angriest, most condescending people I've ever witnessed, and let's face it, this forum leans that way some of the time too.

Is it that self-loathing people need to stomp on others to build themselves up. Are most ESL teachers really horrible human beings like the Korean media would have us believe? Internet balls? WTF?
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laoshihao



Joined: 05 Feb 2007
Location: I'll take the ROK, Alex, because that's where my stuff is.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:16 am    Post subject: Here with it Reply with quote

I feel you, nicam. When I lived in China I was attacked for everything I said for six months by a guy I knew and thought was a friend. It was just our city's forum so it just had local activity for the most part, but, damn, if his nastiness towards me and other posters didn't just about kill the site. You might ask, "What was your crime, laoshihao?". I dared to stand up for my school when he and his friend were talking smack about it in the forums. Neither of them had worked there, yet my four years of teaching at the school was not as legitimate as their so-called "sources" within our school. They went so far as to call me a sl#t and say I was sleeping with the other male posters who dared to defend me. Even now if I go on there and say anything they still come after me, just as they continue to spew their negativity on new posters. It's a shame that some people cannot just disagree with what is said, but have to attack the person saying it. Most of us never understood why those two stayed in China since they rarely had anything good to say about it.
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okayden223



Joined: 05 Jun 2009
Location: Incheon

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nicam your post is one of the stupidest, foul-smelling, degenerate questions ever asked on this forum. What dank hole did you crawl out of before you became a miserable excuse for an English teacher? Your personal hygiene is likely suspect and I am willing to wager that you have been known to ignore the 20 minute restrictions on the treadmills at your local health club. What's more is that I have sources who have informed me that you were once caught daydreaming in class and it resulted in you being unaware of what was being discussed. You, my good sir, sicken me!


Sorry I couldn't resist! Wink
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madoka



Joined: 27 Mar 2008

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 10:04 am    Post subject: Re: Why all of the personal attacks and gratuitous nastiness Reply with quote

nicam wrote:
Are most ESL teachers really horrible human beings like the Korean media would have us believe?


No, just a lot of those that post on Daves. I've found that the most bitter, angry, and racist posters are those that are otherwise stuck in Korea. They can't get jobs in their home country because of their abrasive personalities, mental disorders, or lack of intelligence/ambition. They're sometimes running from debts or crimes. They've been reduced to working a dead end job in a third world country with no foreseeable way back home. So they take out their impotent rage on the internet.

Those that have options and don't feel trapped in Korea seem to enjoy their situation much more. They realize that Korea isn't the end-all, be-all of their lives and they should take advantage of their time here.
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okayden223



Joined: 05 Jun 2009
Location: Incheon

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Third world country? Guys let's address this. I know of no third world country with a reliable metro and train system. I have never visited a third world country the size of New York with an trillion dollar economy. I don't know of any third world countries that are among the world leaders in automotive, electronic, steel, and shipping manufacturing. Show me one third world country with an astronaut. How about affordable advanced healthcare? It's hilarious when I tell people I've lived in Korea and they ask me what it's like living in "those conditions." Korea is an economic powerhouse whether you think so or not.
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bobpeterson1973



Joined: 05 Aug 2009

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Why all of the personal attacks and gratuitous nastiness?


Short answer > It's fun.
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The evil penguin



Joined: 24 May 2003
Location: Doing something naughty near you.....

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

okayden223 wrote:
Third world country? Guys let's address this. I know of no third world country with a reliable metro and train system. I have never visited a third world country the size of New York with an trillion dollar economy. I don't know of any third world countries that are among the world leaders in automotive, electronic, steel, and shipping manufacturing. Show me one third world country with an astronaut. How about affordable advanced healthcare? It's hilarious when I tell people I've lived in Korea and they ask me what it's like living in "those conditions." Korea is an economic powerhouse whether you think so or not.


China
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bobpeterson1973



Joined: 05 Aug 2009

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Show me one third world country with an astronaut.


Iran
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Kimchi Cha Cha



Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: was Suncheon, now Brisbane

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:28 pm    Post subject: Re: Why all of the personal attacks and gratuitous nastiness Reply with quote

madoka wrote:
nicam wrote:
Are most ESL teachers really horrible human beings like the Korean media would have us believe?


No, just a lot of those that post on Daves. I've found that the most bitter, angry, and racist posters are those that are otherwise stuck in Korea. They can't get jobs in their home country because of their abrasive personalities, mental disorders, or lack of intelligence/ambition. They're sometimes running from debts or crimes. They've been reduced to working a dead end job in a third world country with no foreseeable way back home. So they take out their impotent rage on the internet.

Those that have options and don't feel trapped in Korea seem to enjoy their situation much more. They realize that Korea isn't the end-all, be-all of their lives and they should take advantage of their time here.


Tell me, madoka, are you the type of guy who's all buddy-buddy with a 'friend' at a bar but once he goes to the bathroom, then spits in his beer because you seem like that kind of guy judging by your posts on these forums.

Why are you still kicking around in a 'third-country' country making angry, judgmental posts, is it because you are abrasive, running from your debts, unintelligent, or mentally ill?


Last edited by Kimchi Cha Cha on Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:29 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Dodgy Al



Joined: 15 May 2004
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you ever read the youtube comments? posters here are veritable saints compared to some of those guys.
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Forward Observer



Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Location: FOB Gloria

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:41 pm    Post subject: Re: Why all of the personal attacks and gratuitous nastiness Reply with quote

madoka wrote:


Those that have options and don't feel trapped in Korea seem to enjoy their situation much more. They realize that Korea isn't the end-all, be-all of their lives and they should take advantage of their time here.



We call it "riding the gravy train" Wink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9ejaTQBkq8
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Otus



Joined: 09 Feb 2006

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's just the way things are with the nature of this kind of forum. Kind of a strange brew of people trying to employ critical writing skills without much inspiration ... Very occasionally something overtly witty does slip through the cracks, but it is generally frowned upon.

When visiting Japan I've picked up some entertaining expat publications that are also quite penetrating on the foreigner's perspective - but that is still difficult to find in Korea ... on or off the Net.

Hasn't always been the case - In late 96 I remember a small magazine being in circulation with expats in Korea that had some quite hilarious but harmless articles on the expat experience. It didn't print anything too silly or offensive as we witnessed a few years later - just some good, light-hearted fun along with a bit of insight ....

Well - the reaction got so severe (by god knows who) that some thought it was instrumental in triggering the mass deportations in mid '97. In some ways the downright offensive material or the cynically nasty Internet discussions were more acceptable than this ....
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Moldy Rutabaga



Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've often wondered what the solution is to raising the level of politeness on these forums. It may just be my impression as I'm getting older, but I don't remember such rudeness and cruelty when I first started surfing here six years ago -- although there used to be more bikini girl picture links on Dave's!

It is particularly dangerous to be so unprofessional when more and more locals are reading these forums -- including our employers and students. As the previous post suggested, it does not take much of a spark to get the Korean media involved, and it will 100.00% for sure be a negative report.

I do not know what the answer is. It would kill some of the fun, but I wonder if the forums need to require posters to be better identified, or if simply stricter modding would help. It's fun to post here, and I always worry that someone will begin an inflammatory thread on Korean women or drugs that will show up on KBS news the next evening.

Ken:>
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nicam



Joined: 14 Jun 2008

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've had lots of laughs courtesy of this forum. There's some funny stuff here, but you know how sometimes you'll be reading a perfectly funny or interesting thread, and then it just turns into an all out pissing contest (and not in a funny, harmless, rank-out sort of way, but in a nasty, very not-funny, mega-douche sort of way), and whatever topic was being discussed just gets thrown to the wind?

Then I swear there are people who go through threads just looking for something to pick on, looking to cut someone down, finding the smallest (often totally made up in their minds) thing (whether it be a typo, careless statement that really isn't offensive or out of the ordinary, but they twist it in order to make it seem offensive or preposterous in order to unleash their latent rage) to get all indignant about. So completely unnecessary.

Anyway, this forum is full of absolute saints compared to the Dave's Taiwan forum and forumosa. It's actually creepy how the folks over there twist things to serve their rage and spend so much time unleashing it on each other. And when you try and identify, and see what they're so pissed about, it's almost always that they've taken something completely out of context, or missed a point altogether in an attempt to blow off some steam.
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OnTheOtherSide



Joined: 29 Feb 2008

PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've been posting on lots and lots of internet forums since like 1996, since the beginning. And for some reason, they almost always regress into immaturity and insults. Just look at the youtube comments under the videos, or check out some other major internet forums, they are al full of the most petty arguements and insults imaginable. I think it's just some aspect of human nature that people will act like that.

The only forums I see where people dont fight are ones where people are there for a mutual interest, like a sport, art, exercise or whatever, and the conversation stays really focused on that subject.
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