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My principal's white envelope
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Cerberus



Joined: 29 Oct 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:16 am    Post subject: My principal's white envelope Reply with quote

so I got a white envelope today.

from my recently retired ex-principal. Apparently every teacher in the school received one.

In the envelope was a printed out letter.

If I made out the convoluted explanation and paraphrasing from my handler, it basically thanked each teacher for their service under his leadership. The ex P then proceeded to say that he's looking forward to entering this new phase of his life and that all are welcome to keep in touch. There are phone numbers, (assumedly personal cell, etc on bottom of letter)

That kind of struck a nerve with me. To me, the guy is essentially saying: you had to walk on your tippytoes around me for many years and constantly kiss my ass, but now you no longer have to do that, so if you are interested in a more reality based friendship/association, then I'd welcome that.

If my intepretation is correct, that struck me as an incredibly COOL thing to write and distribute. I'm not sure how "Korean culture" interferes with all this, as he's assumedly around 60 plus and now probably older than everyone else, because he had to retire and we all know how "Korean culture" doesn't leave much room for friendship between people of differing ages, because you then get defined as "jr" or "sr" in their little stupid age based hierarchy.

If I get a chance to, I may pay the old guy a social call, (if my interpretation is correct) because as I say above - it just strike me as a very cool thing to write/say.

Oh. Guess what?
there was also some "spending money" in the envelope. Not much, only 10K but assumedly every teacher got it, and perhaps they even got more than the waygoogin.

A cool guy, my retired Principal.

Don't you think?




10K won. (not much, but keep in mind every teacher got same envelope, perhaps tney even got more than the waygoogin)


Last edited by Cerberus on Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:56 am; edited 1 time in total
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ChilgokBlackHole



Joined: 21 Nov 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do you understand that you just complained about someone giving you money? Buy yourself a sleep.
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Cerberus



Joined: 29 Oct 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ChilgokBlackHole wrote:
Do you understand that you just complained about someone giving you money? Buy yourself a sleep.


I complained????

where????

(by saying "not much"??? please!)

the money was MEANINGLESS to me, I thought the letter (if interpreted, translated correctly was far cooler). The money was a nice little touch, the amount completely immaterial, the gesture far more material, don't you think?

the racy subject wording of the thread was meant precisely to show there MAY be a different side to all the "principals envelope" jokes around here.
Obviously this guy was giving money away!
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ChilgokBlackHole



Joined: 21 Nov 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dude.

Seriously.

The guy is leaving. You'll never see or hear from him again. You'll forget him forever in the next year. And he gives you a mannon.

I'm sorry, I thought the title of this website was Dave's ESL Cafe, not Twitter.

If you don't want the money, I'll take it.
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Kryten



Joined: 10 Nov 2008

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:52 am    Post subject: Re: My principal's white envelope Reply with quote

Cerberus wrote:
That kind of struck a nerve with me.
Here
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BreakfastInBed



Joined: 16 Oct 2007
Location: Gyeonggi do

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think it's pretty cool. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's an invitation to be his buddy, but I'd bet he'd be touched if you paid him a visit. Regardless of what anyone else got, I agree it was a nice gesture on his part.
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miljeong



Joined: 07 Mar 2010
Location: Bundang

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

</non-issue>

Drat. HTML doesn't seem to be working.

Is it cool he did this? Yes.
Is it strange? Not at all, considering it pretty much IS Korean style to do exactly that and more so.
Does it tell me that something else was going on that you're ignorant to? Maybe. How many females work there and how many complaints are filed against him? Why is he leaving? Think.
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Cerberus



Joined: 29 Oct 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

miljeong wrote:
</non-issue>

Drat. HTML doesn't seem to be working.

Is it cool he did this? Yes.
Is it strange? Not at all, considering it pretty much IS Korean style to do exactly that and more so.
Does it tell me that something else was going on that you're ignorant to? Maybe. How many females work there and how many complaints are filed against him? Why is he leaving? Think.


No NO no no no.

see. that's exactly the perception I was trying to strike at.

if English teachers aren't all alcoholic, aids infected, drug abusers, then Korean principals aren't all corrupt, money-grubbing pedophiles.

I'm 99.9% certain the guy was of mandatory retirement age and I got the impression that he was vastly more interested in gardening than people of the opposite sex.

I meant "struck a nerve" in a positive sense. Perhaps it was a poor choice of words, since most of the time it is meant to denote a negative reaction.
How about "touched me"? (without the sentimental goop?)

I asked my handler this morning whether this kind of letter/spending money was typical and she shook her had and said.. no.. NOT typical.

so I'll try to do something for the old guy.
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reactionary



Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Location: korreia

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

haha yeah, "struck a nerve" is definitely negative sounding. the closest would be "struck a chord" i think.
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AsiaESLbound



Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think maybe he has a good heart and trying to say thanks to everyone that supported his good priveledged ride while it lasted. He knows his end is nearing.
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Chet Wautlands



Joined: 11 Oct 2008

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your principal was required by Korean law to do this. Just as you were required to misuse an idiom.

Fascinating topic!
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PigeonFart



Joined: 27 Apr 2006

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not aware of any law that requires people to misuse an idiom.
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Cerberus



Joined: 29 Oct 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Chet Wautlands wrote:
Your principal was required by Korean law to do this.


I doubt it, since my handler called it very atypical.
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ChilgokBlackHole wrote:
Dude.

Seriously.

The guy is leaving. You'll never see or hear from him again. You'll forget him forever in the next year. And he gives you a mannon.

I'm sorry, I thought the title of this website was Dave's ESL Cafe, not Twitter.

If you don't want the money, I'll take it.


This is a really douchey response. If you don't care about it, don't respond. But don't belittle the original poster. Spend your time posting on topics that you can contribute to.

(Apologies for ranting but I've seen too many posts like this [yes I'm a bit of a newbie]).
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ChilgokBlackHole



Joined: 21 Nov 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jonpurdy wrote:
This is a really *beep* response. If you don't care about it, don't respond. But don't belittle the original poster. Spend your time posting on topics that you can contribute to.

(Apologies for ranting but I've seen too many posts like this [yes I'm a bit of a newbie]).

Yeah, newbie, and I hope you see more like this. The OP said he was given an envelope with money in it and he was complaining about this.

Take your own advice and shuffle off, be a good lad.
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