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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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 Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:42 pm Post subject: Things I just "don't get" about foreign teachers |
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Inspired from another thread.
1. Constantly complain about Koreans lack of English ability, yet most cannot say more than a few broken, grammatically incorrect sentences in Korean. "Me want kalbi. You give me now!"
2. Will work illegally, gouging families for 40-50k an hour as justification for their poor treatment at the hands of their hagwon owners. Completely logical progression.
3. Will become experts on Korean culture after 3 months of living here, then will endeavor to "enlighten" the Korean population at large of their egregious transgressions against Western sensibilities.
4. Will constantly complain about lack of respect at work whilst turning up for work unprepared, hungover, unshaven, unclean or wearing stained clothes.
5. Will embark on "the Asian adventure of a lifetime", ready to naively immerse themselves in culture and history, and then three weeks later are deperately seeking directions to the nearest "foreigner" watering hole.
6. View the "ESL industry" as a stopgap measure between the last year of university and "figuring out what they REALLY want to do", then criticize the "ESL industry" as having no future.
7. Will constantly criticize Koreans for their narrow-mindedness whilst viewing things with an "us-versus-them" mentality.
8. Will consistently adhere to the philosophy that: blanket generalizations against Koreans = intellectual discourse, blanket generalizations against foreigners = trolling.
Cheers, everyone. Flame on.
Last edited by indytrucks on Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:59 am; edited 2 times in total |
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trigger123
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Location: TALKING TO STRANGERS, IN A BETTER PLACE
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| Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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yes, indy, i completely agree. and i was preparing a question regarding this for the board earlier so thanks for saving me the trouble!
my personal favourites from this list are
indytrucks wrote
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7. Will constantly citicize Koreans for their narrow-mindedness whilst viewing things with an "us-versus-them" mentality.
8. Will consistently adhere to the philosophy that: blanket generalizations against Koreans = intellectual discourse, blanket generalizations against foreigners = trolling. |
i remember a discussion last week about which country was 'most looked down upon' by your students which to me revealed a lot about the psyche of posters here. how can you make a generalisation about the korean population based on what your hagwon kids tell you? why is it that posters cannot see that negative generalisations based on their tiny life experiences are nothing more than the racism they seek to shed light on through their ill-thought out musings?
maybe many people adopt a siege mentality when they get here and think they have the right to criticise without ever really understanding whats going on here. korean people can be as friendly, stupid, generous, kind, infruriating, funny or loud as any of the westerners it invites into its country. its about time people stopped being so negative and began to see things through less racist eyes. |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:03 am Post subject: |
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| 9. Why so many are such insufferable patronizing pseudo-intellectuals. |
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Butterfly
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:07 am Post subject: Re: Things I just "don't get" about foreign teache |
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| indytrucks wrote: |
Inspired from another thread.
1. Constantly complain about Korean's lack of English ability, yet most cannot say more than a few broken, grammatically incorrect sentences in Korean. "Me want kalbi. You give me now!" |
My Korean sucks. I don't knock anyone for poor language ability. Because mine sucks.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 2. Will work illegally, gouging families for 40-50k an hour as justification for their poor treatment at the hands of their hagwon owners. Completely logical progression. |
I do privates and my only justification is that I want to make lots of money, I always do my best.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 3. Will become experts on Korean culture after 3 months of living here, then will endeavor to "enlighten" the Korean population at large of their egregious transgressions against Western sensibilities. |
I am by no means an expert on Korean culture. By no means. And I've been here years.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 4. Will constatly complain about lack of respect at work whilst turning up for work unprepared, hungover, unshaven, unclean or wearing stained clothes. |
I always wear a suit and don't drink on weeknights, mostly. Always wear a suit.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 5. Will embark on "the Asian adventure of a lifetime", ready to naively immerse themselves in culture and history, and then three weeks later are deperately seeking directions to the nearest "foreigner" watering hole. |
I always knew my limitations in immersing myself in this culture. There is only so far you can go in a homogenous country, this being one of many. I've dipped more than my toe in though and I'm pretty happy with what I found. I came to Korea for the tarts mostly.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 6. View the "ESL industry" as a stopgap measure between the last year of university and "figuring out what they REALLY want to do", then criticize the "ESL industry" as having no future. |
Yeah, I mistakenly fell into that trap. The lure of beautiful international women and travel was irresistable (and fun for a while).
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 7. Will constantly citicize Koreans for their narrow-mindedness whilst viewing things with an "us-versus-them" mentality. |
I kvetch on a daily basis about this and that, but things certain narrow minded Korean people do never really upset me that much, there are too many nice people here for that. I don't think Koreans are that narrow minded, really.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| 8. Will consistently adhere to the philosophy that: blanket generalizations against Koreans = intellectual discourse, blanket generalizations against foreigners = trolling. |
Blanket generalizations don't much work I have found, whether they are about either Korean people, or foreign teachers in Korea.
| indytrucks wrote: |
| Cheers, everyone. Flame on. |
Nah, I guess you're just having a bad day. |
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:13 am Post subject: Re: Things I just "don't get" about foreign teache |
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| Butterfly wrote: |
| Nah, I guess you're just having a bad day. |
Nope. Just sick and tired.
| Butterfly wrote: |
| I came to Korea for the tarts mostly. |
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Swiss James
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:22 am Post subject: |
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| great post! |
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fondasoape
Joined: 02 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:24 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like it's time to move on. You may discover (as many do), that the self-serving hypocrites have beaten you to wherever it is you finally end up.
Personally, when I encounter this kind of problem, I usually find that it is (AS ALWAYS) one of my own invention, and is a barometer of (a) my lack of compassion and (b) my unerring ability to see my own faults superimposed on others.
After living in half a dozen countries, I still haven't learned to just let people be themselves. I'm getting there though -- finally, my forehead is becoming permanently bruised from hitting my head against the wall.
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Butterfly
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:27 am Post subject: |
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| fondasoape wrote: |
Sounds like it's time to move on. You may discover (as many do), that the self-serving hypocrites have beaten you to wherever it is you finally end up.
Personally, when I encounter this kind of problem, I usually find that it is (AS ALWAYS) one of my own invention, and is a barometer of (a) my lack of compassion and (b) my unerring ability to see my own faults superimposed on others.
After living in half a dozen countries, I still haven't learned to just let people be themselves. I'm getting there though -- finally, my forehead is becoming permanently bruised from hitting my head against the wall.
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Now that's a great post. |
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Sliver
Joined: 04 May 2003
Location: The third dimension
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:55 am Post subject: |
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Butterfly wrote
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| Quote: |
fondasoape wrote:
Sounds like it's time to move on. You may discover (as many do), that the self-serving hypocrites have beaten you to wherever it is you finally end up.
Personally, when I encounter this kind of problem, I usually find that it is (AS ALWAYS) one of my own invention, and is a barometer of (a) my lack of compassion and (b) my unerring ability to see my own faults superimposed on others.
After living in half a dozen countries, I still haven't learned to just let people be themselves. I'm getting there though -- finally, my forehead is becoming permanently bruised from hitting my head against the wall. |
Now that's a great post |
Agreed with the last two paragraphs.
Last edited by Sliver on Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:20 am; edited 1 time in total |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:57 am Post subject: |
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and korea is the only country in the world with foreigners like these???
past, present, future will always have these types of foreigners!
they are back home in our countries and they are here too..
someone should also tell the koreans, or Italians, or English or french the same thing! they too and most other country people think the same shite
it all comes down to individual tollerance.. I have days where I bash korea I have days where I bash my country I have MANY days where I bash the WORLD.. many great scholars said.. HUMAN BEINGS!! are STUPID!!! thats that.. I for one am not racist, never think I am better than anyone else or do I ever try and rip people off..
I walk this journey of life and try to make no enemies and be fair to all... thats how I can sleep at night.. thats how I am designed!
cant speak for others.. |
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| fondasoape wrote: |
Sounds like it's time to move on. You may discover (as many do), that the self-serving hypocrites have beaten you to wherever it is you finally end up.
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No, it's not time to move on. Far from it. I am quite happy with my life here. The self-serving hypocrites may indeed have you beaten to wherever it is you're going, but that doesn't mean you should simply throw your hands in the air, descend into a slough of despair and give up. That would be admitting the self-serving hypocrites have you beaten.
On the other hand, I am seriously contemplating having my computer disconnected. |
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Butterfly
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:03 am Post subject: |
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| indytrucks wrote: |
| On the other hand, I am seriously contemplating having my computer disconnected. |
But...you wouldn't be able to look at that racing girls website on the mini skirt thread. That would be silly. Don't do that. |
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:06 am Post subject: |
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| Butterfly wrote: |
| indytrucks wrote: |
| On the other hand, I am seriously contemplating having my computer disconnected. |
But...you wouldn't be able to look at that racing girls website on the mini skirt thread. That would be silly. Don't do that. |
Point taken. |
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Daechidong Waygookin
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Location: No Longer on Dave's. Ive quit.
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:07 am Post subject: Re: Things I just "don't get" about foreign teache |
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| Quote: |
| 1. Constantly complain about Korean's lack of English ability, yet most cannot say more than a few broken, grammatically incorrect sentences in Korean. "Me want kalbi. You give me now!" |
I can say a bit moire than that.
| Quote: |
| 2. Will work illegally, gouging families for 40-50k an hour as justification for their poor treatment at the hands of their hagwon owners. Completely logical progression. |
Never worked illegally.
| Quote: |
| 4. Will constantly complain about lack of respect at work whilst turning up for work unprepared, hungover, unshaven, unclean or wearing stained clothes. |
I always wear a suit to work. Whats more, I usually dress well when going out. I only wear jeans on rare occassions.
| Quote: |
| 5. Will embark on "the Asian adventure of a lifetime", ready to naively immerse themselves in culture and history, and then three weeks later are deperately seeking directions to the nearest "foreigner" watering hole. |
I did make it apoint to hang out with foreigners the first year I was here. Made a lot of good friends. But I dont hang out with anyone anymore. Got a wife for that.
| Quote: |
| 6. View the "ESL industry" as a stopgap measure between the last year of university and "figuring out what they REALLY want to do", then criticize the "ESL industry" as having no future. |
The ESL industry does have some crap jobs so I cant blame people for that. Who wants to make a career out of working 4-9 at Super Duper English Fun School anyway? There are those who have advanced up the lader to better paying jobs at respected institutions and who can afford to think of this as something long term. |
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thorin
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 1:24 am Post subject: |
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| indytrucks wrote: |
| fondasoape wrote: |
Sounds like it's time to move on. You may discover (as many do), that the self-serving hypocrites have beaten you to wherever it is you finally end up.
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No, it's not time to move on. Far from it. I am quite happy with my life here. The self-serving hypocrites may indeed have you beaten to wherever it is you're going, but that doesn't mean you should simply throw your hands in the air, descend into a slough of despair and give up. That would be admitting the self-serving hypocrites have you beaten.
On the other hand, I am seriously contemplating having my computer disconnected. |
Is there some way to block oneself from Dave's ESL Cafe? |
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