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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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 Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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| LOL. I like the hagwon owner just for sheer guts. I wouldn't work for him though. |
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K-in-C
Joined: 27 Mar 2003
Location: Heading somewhere
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| Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:12 pm Post subject: I believe I have met the teacher in question |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| LOL. I like the hagwon owner just for sheer guts. I wouldn't work for him though. |
I believe the hagwon owner is a female. If it's the school that I am thinking it is I had an interview there before I decided to pack the ROK in for awhile. There was a Joseph teaching there and he was from Montreal. He just taught kinder.
Edited once.
Last edited by K-in-C on Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:15 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 9:13 pm Post subject: |
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| K-in-C wrote: |
| He just taught kinder. |
That's reassuring to hear. |
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JacktheCat
Joined: 08 May 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Am I paranoid or... |
There is no such thing as being too paranoid if you're looking to teach at a Korean hackwon.
Watch your back, and don't drop the soap. |
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muggie2dammit
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Location: Ilsan, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 12:46 am Post subject: Re: I believe I have met the teacher in question |
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| K-in-C wrote: |
| joe_doufu wrote: |
| LOL. I like the hagwon owner just for sheer guts. I wouldn't work for him though. |
I believe the hagwon owner is a female. If it's the school that I am thinking it is I had an interview there before I decided to pack the ROK in for awhile. There was a Joseph teaching there and he was from Montreal. He just taught kinder.
Edited once. |
But do you think the person who wrote that letter was actually Joseph? The phrases used don't seem like any French-Canadian I've ever met, especially that "know the Korean mind" line - that's like a big red waving flag saying "I'm Korean, I'm Korean!" Perhaps a Korean-Canadian who grew up learning Korean, then French, and then English as a distant third.
I have my doubts.
Muggie2 |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 1:12 am Post subject: Re: Am I paranoid or... |
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| Gorgias wrote: |
Am I paranoid, or is this a total joke? Even if Joseph is a true French Canadienne, would he have such odd English and use so many Konglish expressions? By the way, the institute is called "Song and Story English Institute" or something like that. |
Joseph would be a strange name for a girl from Quebec, but stranger things happen.
Yeh, its an odd hodgepodge of poor english & konglish but the guy might have been here long enough to pick up some korean turns of phrase. He is candid about the housing, which suggests it isnt a total snowjob. He's also going to be your coworker for a year -- if this was fabricated in his name, wouldnt the perpetrator expect that to come out?
Personally, I'd have contacted him directly before reposting a private message on a widely-viewed public forum. |
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Gorgias
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 1:29 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for everyone's input. I know this forum is well read by a lot of people with a lot of experience, so that's why I posted this here. It sounds like it might be an interesting job at a mom-and-pop style hagwon, but that "Korean people's mind" line just made me really suspect who wrote the message. I'm gonna pass, but if anyone is interested in it, it is in Suwon (which I think is a really cool city with some grit to it) so someone else might have a great time there. Thanks again for so much rapid input. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 4:56 am Post subject: Re: I believe I have met the teacher in question |
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| muggie2dammit wrote: |
| especially that "know the Korean mind" line - that's like a big red waving flag saying "I'm Korean, I'm Korean!" Perhaps a Korean-Canadian who grew up learning Korean, then French, and then English as a distant third. |
You might be on to something here. I could believe a Korean guy who lived in Canada for a few years and speaks passable English, trying to pass himself off as a foreign born gyopo, to non-english speaking hagwon owners who can't tell the difference. By golly, that may be what Joseph is. |
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jacl
Joined: 31 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:22 am Post subject: |
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| Jaygee wrote: |
This email is obviously from someone who's a native french as translation patterns are easily spotted in the above text. I lived in Montreal most of my life. I used french at work and I can definitely see the french way in this. Or, an immigrant from another country (Quebec is really open on this matter) who's been in Montreal for X number of years. But certainly not native.
As for some of you natives, writting "definately" doesn't help the craft ... |
Or "writting". Hee. |
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Hobophobic
Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Location: Sinjeong negorie mokdong oh ga ri samgyup sal fighting
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 4:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
I've lived and taught in Montreal and Joseph's first (and second and thrid) language could be anything. Definitely talk to him. He could be a Portuguese immigrant who went to French primary school, English CEGEP, and showed up at university (like some of my students) functionally illiterate in three languages.
Isn't it scary to think that the teachers with the worst English skills probably don't even post messages here? |
Yep...a former boss in Edmonton who was Portuguese, grew up in Montreal and QC, and when he was angry I could get the French and English...but throw Portuguese in and I was lost...Portufranglais?
I was just going by the name JOSEPH...in all likelihood the author is a tricksy Konglishinator... |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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Perhaps this was written by a native speaker. 
Hold on, what I mean is what if this guy is trying to give you a not so subtle message, but he is still working for the place so he can't come out and say what he thinks. So he writes a letter that's good enough to get past the eyes of the wanjang, but bad enough to alert any would be victims. 
Just a thought. |
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mishlert
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Location: On the 3rd rock from the sun
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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If that e-mail is really from him, reply to it stating that you are interested in the job but that you would like to meet for some beers and ask some questions about the job.
If it is from him, he will probablly say yes and you can then ask him, in person, all the questions you want.
If it is not from him, you will probablly get another long-winded e-mail confirming your concerns. |
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riley
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: where creditors can find me
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| please keep us posted with more if anything happens. This is really interesting. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Paddycakes wrote: |
I think it's pretty obvious that that's a Korean trying to pass him or herself of as a native speaker.
The "gonna" phrase is a little too telling, as is the use of the word "mind."
A lot of French Canadians can speak perfect English, especially if they are from Montreal.
If the writer is a francophone whose English skills are that lacking, I doubt he or she would have survived very long in Korea.
Probably would have been fired the second he got of the airport bus and said: "Okay, were can I get da poutine 'ere?" |
Well, there's some poutine to be had in Korea.
I would say that's true for those of us who are from Newfoundland, New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia,Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC, Nunavut, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories...and sometimes Montreal.
In any case, the email may have been from a Montrealer. Just have a second look at the letter and imagine Pepe Le Pew's voice as you read it.
PS. The poutine as you know it is from New Brunswick, despite what Quebecers and Wikipedia say. I read it was invented by some guy who had a take-out restaurant on the wharf a Parlee Beach in the 1940s (I wish I had saved the newspaper article). He simply made a fastfood version of the traditional acadian dish. As the beach was as popular then as it is now with Quebec tourists, it was only a matter of time before someone ripped him off and claimed poutine as their own. |
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margaret
Joined: 14 Oct 2003
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| Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 2:02 am Post subject: |
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| some waygug-in wrote: |
Perhaps this was written by a native speaker.
Hold on, what I mean is what if this guy is trying to give you a not so subtle message, but he is still working for the place so he can't come out and say what he thinks. So he writes a letter that's good enough to get past the eyes of the wanjang, but bad enough to alert any would be victims.
Just a thought. |
Yes, I hadn't thought of that, but it does make sense, that if the boss is reading the email and the teacher wants to keep the boss hapy, that he could write in some sort of alert code to wave a red flag.
Margaret |
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