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thisisausername
Joined: 28 May 2011
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 Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Lucas wrote: |
OP, I dont think you'll need to worry about that! |
They hire people with this level of maturity as teachers in this country. This is one of the biggest problems. Lucas, I'm not worried about sexual advances. I don't want to share a room with someone like you because of your horrible personality. I don't want to take a shower with you and catch athlete's foot. I don't want to listen to you snore. I don't want to listen to you talk. I'm possibly going to lose my job because that's how important staying away from people like you is to me. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| They hire people with this level of maturity as teachers in this country. This is one of the biggest problems. Lucas, I'm not worried about sexual advances. I don't want to share a room with someone like you because of your horrible personality. I don't want to take a shower with you and catch athlete's foot. I don't want to listen to you snore. I don't want to listen to you talk. I'm possibly going to lose my job because that's how important staying away from people like you is to me. |
I sympathise with you totally but you have to put up with this kind of thing to a certain extent when you start an entry level job at a mature age. Remember the story of Colonel Kurtz deciding to do paratroop training in his late thirties in Apocalypse Now. I imagine he went though the same kind of thing. |
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mayorhaggar
Joined: 01 Jan 2013
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:54 pm Post subject: Re: EPIK orientation rules |
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| thisisausername wrote: |
I've been teaching for many years but this is my first year at a public school in Korea. It's my understanding that at EPIK orientations you have to share a dorm room with a stranger, do humiliating things like wear hanbok and that a curfew and alcohol ban are in place. Because of this, I'm not ever going to go. I am not a slave and I have self respect.
Contractually I agreed to participate in orientation without ever questioning what this would entail. Had it spelled out in the contract that I had to attend a prison style indoctrination week with a cellmate where I could learn how to use the squatting toilet while eating kimchi, I wouldn't have signed that contract.
It is unreasonable to make the teachers share a dorm.
It is unacceptable to give them a curfew.
My life in this country has been constant compromise but I'm drawing the line here. And perhaps I'll lose my job because everyone else is just going along with it. It disgusts me that people allow themselves to be subject to such disrespect. If NETs were to refuse these rules, the rules would change. |
Do you know about kimchi?
Well do ya, punk? |
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Lucas
Joined: 11 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| They hire people with this level of maturity as teachers in this country. This is one of the biggest problems. Lucas, I'm not worried about sexual advances. I don't want to share a room with someone like you because of your horrible personality. I don't want to take a shower with you and catch athlete's foot. I don't want to listen to you snore. I don't want to listen to you talk. I'm possibly going to lose my job because that's how important staying away from people like you is to me. |
Hey, I'm sorry.
It's not my fault you're (probably) a middle aged, angry single guy who hates the world because his hair is starting to grey and your mother is constantly asking you when you're going to settle down and find the right girl.
Judging by your pompous tone and rigid stiff upper lip, it seems as though you will be a great loss to the EPIK program.
My free advice is - demand nothing.
If being in EPIK, but not sharing a room is such a biggie - couldn't you just ask/volunteer to pay for a single room for the 5-7 day orientation?
Sure it will cost you money - but you won't have to listen to me snore (or run the risk of me fisting you).
You could also bring all the ladies back to your place, which I'm sure your magnetic personality will attract. X
Or cause a fuss, be rejected and come back here to complain about people like me - by this time you'll have lost even more hair.
The clock is ticking! |
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tate
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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Could you please just get out of this thread? |
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Ranman
Joined: 18 Aug 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:09 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, Orientation is stupid. You learn absolutely nothing. On top of this, you want to punch the lecturers that come into the class (the NETs who used to teach in EPIK) because you know they're suck-ups.
I wouldn't care much if the days were a bit shorter and you actually learned something, but it was an absolute waste of time. Who is the god damn moron who thought these things are a good idea? |
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maximmm
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Ranman wrote: |
Yeah, Orientation is stupid. You learn absolutely nothing. On top of this, you want to punch the lecturers that come into the class (the NETs who used to teach in EPIK) because you know they're suck-ups.
I wouldn't care much if the days were a bit shorter and you actually learned something, but it was an absolute waste of time. Who is the god damn moron who thought these things are a good idea? |
A clause from the EPIK application for the next year:
⑩ I am aware that if I break orientation rules such as bringing/drinking alcohol inside the dorms, unauthorized absences from lectures, or conduct unbecoming of EPIK teachers, my contract will be terminated and the cost to fly out of Korea will be borne by myself.
I think this orientation session is merely a test designed to measure how submissive you are to the powers that be (or if you are at all submissive - if not, you get fired during this early stage). The more subservient the person is, the more he will excel in this country, considering that it's unlikely that he/she will ever amount to being anything other than GET (this explains the need for GETs to be more subservient than the usual Joe). |
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michaelfehon
Joined: 13 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:47 pm Post subject: Employment |
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| An organization paying money for your future services has the right to demand what the terms and conditions of this employment is. You are entitled to say no and refuse those conditions. Call it a mismatch of values if you want. |
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yfb
Joined: 29 Jan 2009
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joeydonuts
Joined: 19 Nov 2012
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:02 pm Post subject: Re: EPIK orientation rules |
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| thisisausername wrote: |
I've been teaching for many years but this is my first year at a public school in Korea. It's my understanding that at EPIK orientations you have to share a dorm room with a stranger, do humiliating things like wear hanbok and that a curfew and alcohol ban are in place. Because of this, I'm not ever going to go. I am not a slave and I have self respect.
Contractually I agreed to participate in orientation without ever questioning what this would entail. Had it spelled out in the contract that I had to attend a prison style indoctrination week with a cellmate where I could learn how to use the squatting toilet while eating kimchi, I wouldn't have signed that contract.
It is unreasonable to make the teachers share a dorm.
It is unacceptable to give them a curfew.
My life in this country has been constant compromise but I'm drawing the line here. And perhaps I'll lose my job because everyone else is just going along with it. It disgusts me that people allow themselves to be subject to such disrespect. If NETs were to refuse these rules, the rules would change. |
I did my session back in August 2007. It was not that bad and the hours aren't as bad as they advertize. I work at a university now and know people who have management positions in EPIK. They tell me that the most important role the orientation serves is to allow them to flag people who might be problematic once they get to their schools. So I would caution the OP (not strongly since I'm not involved with EPIK) that a failure to attend or a standoffish attitude might see your contract imperiled. Personally, I wouldn't mind bunking with someone and having a curfew for a few days as I did it often while playing American football. That said, everyone's different. Good luck! |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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| According to multiple claims by native speaking teachers, those participating in the Gyeonggi Office of Education's GEPIK orientation listened to lectures that had nothing special about them, and at the final party soju and makkeolli were drunk until dawn. A native speaking teacher who worked at D middle school in Yangju complained that "It was distressing that alcohol was drunk until 4 am." |
I am not convinced this is something that came out of a native English speaker's mouth. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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| thisisausername wrote: |
| Lucas wrote: |
| Quote: |
It is unreasonable to make the teachers share a dorm.
It is unacceptable to give them a curfew.
Professional footballers on 250 grand a week have to share hotel rooms and have a curfew. |
They also have to shower together naked. |
As do the teachers who go to these things. |
Oh, get off it. You share a room; you're not hopping in the shower together unless you want to.
| Quote: |
| Professional footballers on 250 grand a week have to share hotel rooms and have a curfew. |
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And spineless little groveling esl peasants are willing to do it for a mere 2.x mil KRW a month. Pathetic.
I think it must be bad upbringing. Parents never taught you how to respect yourselves. You've left people push you around your whole life. No understanding of the power of your own self determination. No actual self esteem. And clearly, with these sarcastic and unhelpful responses in this thread thus far, no respect for other people. |
Now you're just trolling. You may call it a mere two million a month, but that's two million a month more than people get for not having a job. Agreeing to a paid orientation isn't selling yourself into slavery.
Last edited by CentralCali on Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:40 am; edited 1 time in total |
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maximmm
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:23 pm Post subject: Re: EPIK orientation rules |
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| joeydonuts wrote: |
I did my session back in August 2007. It was not that bad and the hours aren't as bad as they advertize. I work at a university now and know people who have management positions in EPIK. They tell me that the most important role the orientation serves is to allow them to flag people who might be problematic once they get to their schools. So I would caution the OP (not strongly since I'm not involved with EPIK) that a failure to attend or a standoffish attitude might see your contract imperiled. Personally, I wouldn't mind bunking with someone and having a curfew for a few days as I did it often while playing American football. That said, everyone's different. Good luck! |
Funny that - you do realize things have gotten substantially worse, no? The hours now are as bad as they advertise them to be.
I switches provinces 3 times and here is how it went each time.
First time - 3 day orientation session - decent hours, great atmosphere, curfew was in place but not strictly enforced. The orientation session was run very efficiently and in a manner that promoted learning. Elementary/middle/high school orientation sessions were all divided and run during different weeks (almost forgot, but experienced teachers were also separated from inexperienced teachers and taught different, more advanced content), the groups were smaller and even then divided into subgroups. Because there were more groups, there were also more instructors and the material taught was on rather useful - and we all got to do demo classes (in pairs).
2nd time - 5 day orientation session - 12 hour a day schedule - curfew was in place, but not strictly enforced, the supervisor was a horrid person who fired one person during the orientation session because he broke some rule (I think he left premises for a bit).
Elementary/middle/high school teachers were all taught the same content - as such, info presented was often vague and useful to only a segment of teachers. There were only a few demo classes presented that time. All in all, it was long, useless, but at least the curfew was not strictly enforced, so people could socialize during the evenings.
3rd time - 7 day orientation session - 12 hour a day schedule - curfew was in place and very strictly enforced, etc, etc, etc.
In conclusion: the situation is getting progressively worse in the education land of the morning calm.
Last edited by maximmm on Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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maximmm
Joined: 01 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
Now you're just trolling. You may call it a mere two million a month, but that's two million a month more than people get for not having a job. Agreeing to a paid orientation isn't selling yourself into slavery. |
Ah - but often enough it's not paid at all, with teachers' contracts starting immediately after the orientation is finished. |
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thisisausername
Joined: 28 May 2011
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| Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:03 pm Post subject: Re: Employment |
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| michaelfehon wrote: |
| An organization paying money for your future services has the right to demand what the terms and conditions of this employment is. You are entitled to say no and refuse those conditions. Call it a mismatch of values if you want. |
Absolutely. However my contract just says that I must attend orientation. I'm willing to do that. That clause of the contract doesn't give them free reign to demand anything they want of me while at orientation and claim a breach of contract if I don't follow it. I was unaware that they treated the participants like children when I signed the contract. The current rules are not something I'm willing to subject myself to. I'm compelled not to follow them out of self respect.
I'm not even saying that I necessarily want to go out after 10 or have a drink. That isn't the point at all. If these rules weren't in place I'd probably just have sucked it up and attended. And I would have been following the same procedure as these rules just on my own. I wouldn't have been going out getting drunk every night anyways. But I can't allow myself to be subjected to this level of servitude. I didn't sign up to teach at a North Korean school. I'm not gonna sit at the back of the bus just to make it easier this time.
I'm anxious to find out what the consequences will be. I'm going to very respectfully tell them that I am not going to attend. I really like my job and hope I don't get fired. It's gonna be an interesting week. |
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