Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Koreabound2004]

I have many....but maybe they are just my guys....a few I was reminded of recently!

1. Older male teachers who before saying something or going somewhere hike up their pants by the belt, shifting them, and pulling them up a la Steve Urkel...I call this the "I'm the man..." pose.....

2. Cutting me off before I am finished speaking by saying "okokokokokokokokokokok." Now, I am starting to say this to other people dammit.

3. Cutting their fingernails at their desks. I love nails flying at me.

4. Sucking their teeth and shaking their head before replying with a negative answer.

5. Saying things that start with "I think you should....." or "You had better....." Well I think they should just pi** off.....and leave me the f*** alone!!

[hellofaniceguy]

As many posters and readers of this site know....I come across as negative and anti-korean judging from my postings. But...I am not anti-korean or anti anything. It's just that some of the things that koreans do....just defy logic and common sense. And I can't keep my mouth shut when I see or hear so BS. So....While I certainly do understand your post and can see your point......I could also add to your list. But...what good would it suffice? Hey...it's "their" country and no one forces anyone to come to korea. If we don't like it....we can leave anytime. I suppose if the shoe were on the other foot....those in North America would not take to kindly to koreans bashing them! We'd run them out of town or shoot them! Your co-workers have been doing the same things long before you came along and it's imbedded in their behavior. Good, bad or indifferent....it's korean. I am sure some of what you or I do irks koreans as well. I know I irk them to no end! But it's my hobby! Nothing is going to change on their part in our life time. We just live with it or leave.

[Koreabound2004]

That's nice, you are a nice guy I suppose. I am not.....

[turtlepi1]

[Swiss James]

Hehe- I'm imagining a Korean messageboard for teachers writing the same list:

1. Why do english people always have leather patches on the elbows of their suit jackets?

2. Why can't any english people work a VCR?

3. Why are english people so obsessed with tucking your shirt in and whether or not someone's chewing gum?

Anyway- for what it's worth the guys in my office only do number 2.

[baldrick]

All the women acting out a fashion show at the start of every day. I feel like there should be an announcer at the door as they time their entrances........ "And now, from Sin Dong Apartments, its Mrs Kim....."
The crowd rise to their feet as every pair of shoes, every skirt, every jacket and jumper are met with cries of waaa! eppeuda saengnim!
I swear some of the women have NEVER worn the same thing twice.
I have to leave during this process, as there are only so many pirouettes (a full turn of the body on the point of the toe or the ball of the foot in ballet) in front of the mirror I can bear to witness.
PS: Ratio of men to women at my school, 2:8

[Koreabound2004]

Man, I've got the opposite, all men, hardly no women. So all I can smell is smoke....they smoke and spit in school man(nice example). No fashion shows here....I would welcome the entertainment.

[edgellskiuk]

In my office the things that annoy me:

1) Answering their telephones constantly when I am briefing them on their work for the week.

2) Holding a discussion amongst themselves in Korean when they disagree with a point I have made, but never telling me why they disagree.

3) Coming into work stinking of whiskey and cheap perfume and telling they were working late so they need to rest for a while.

4) Shouting into telephones as if they havn't upgraded from two tin cans attached by string yet.

[noelinkorea]

What gets to me:
The way the secretaries call themselves the "staff", telling us that teachers are NOT staff - they say we're just teachers, and somehow below the secretaries (who call themselves "desk managers" by the way...much like I am the "Noel's room" manager at my hagwon, or the "manager" of my bedroom at home...). Koreans love their titles.

Or does this happen in your hagwons too - the female staff (usually the "desk managers") always run up and down the corridors, reducing the time they cover five metres by about one second, in addition to distracting the students and teachers with their high-heeled sprints.

[thorin]

[baldrick]

[thorin]

[Ilsanman]

[captain kirk]

The 'deskpeople'/staff are the salesmen. They pump the place up to the parents in ladida voices over the phone. And look poncy, dressy, for when the parents come in. They distribute the phantasy of what the school is.
Meanwhile there are the teachers who 'live in the fantasy' of nothing, or reality. Who play hardball in little rooms with voices off the walls, and instead of the screech of rubber sneakers on court, the whisk of little pencils at their workbooks.
What I like about co-workers and haggie life is that it is FLOW. Maybe like everything. What I dislike about it is there is nowhere to sit down. And by sit down I mean 'exist unconditionally'. But of course it's a job and everybody's selling their services. And it's a fantasy of likes and dislikes, preferences and being disinclined.
It's presentation, surface, a game. The politics do wheelies in the wind. The nuances of mood shift and dart like whimsy. It's a soup of vanities. But somewhere in there is reality. It's just no-one wants to be there because there's no profit in it. The cake is the puffed up, souped up, tarted up, ponced up palaaver the parents expect and the desk people feed them.
So you always know where the money is equals where the reality is. Which isn't really reality. Reality is adapting to phoney expectations and meeting them. It's a constant merry go round of that kind of thing.
But kids, when you aren't enjoying surfing the politics some days, are diplomatically immune to pretension somedays, maybe most days. And adults when they, when I, forget about the lines, borders, demarcations. When it's flow. Flowing along and enjoying highlighting the magic. That's why people work in haggies.

[casey's moon]

I had a co-worker who sucked candies extremely loudly, and constantly. Sometimes I felt like she was doing it as a joke, but she didn't have a sense of humour so I guess not. I also hated the fact that she was always complaining that her "condition" was bad while she punched her arms and legs.

But she is just one Korean co-worker out of about 20 I've had while in Korea who drove me batty, which is pretty darn good.