Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

My English speaking Korean co-teachers don't last very long. Rarely a year. I know they get a raw deal and many can't handle the 6 day work weeks. (They know I'll only sign contracts that specify 5 day weeks for me.) Who works 6 days a week in Korea these days huh? Anyway, once in a while I'm called to interview a candidate for the open job. I've noticed three things:

1) the person I interview doesn't have very good English. (I always say "well, his/her spoken English is a little weak but if he/she is just going to teach grammar I don't think it's a problem." I don't seem to give them a ringing endorsement but I give them an out.)

2) they never hire the person.

3) I never interview the teacher they actually hire, who always has pretty good spoken English.

I've come to believe I'm an assassin. They're already not sure of the candidate but they want someone to deal the coup de grace. So they call me in. I never seem to fail them with the "well, his/her spoken English is a little weak..." comment.

[JAWINSEOUL]

Maybe they have read some of your posts on this forum.

" Is English your first language?"


I'd say you were recruited for you easygoing natue.

[Hollywoodaction]

"The name "assassin" is commonly believed to be a mutation of the Arabic "ha��ā�īn" (حشّاشين, "hashish-eaters"). However, there are those who dispute this etymology, arguing that it originates from Marco Polo's account of his visit to Alamut in 1273, in which he describes a drug whose effects are more like those of alcohol than of hashish. It is suggested by some writers that assassin simply means 'followers of Al-Hassan' (or Hasan-i Sabbah, the Sheikh of Alamut (see below). Others suggest that since hashish-eaters were generally ostracized in the middle ages the word "Hashshashin" had become a common synonym for "outlaws". So the attribution of Hassan's Ismaili sect with this term is not necessarily a clue for drug usage. Some common accounts of their connection with hashish are that these "assassins" would take hashish before missions in order to calm themselves; others say that it helped to boost their strength, and turned them into madmen in battle. Yet other accounts state it was used in their initiation rites in order to show the neophyte the sensual pleasures awaiting him in the afterlife. The connection between their mysticism and that drug is not something subject to reliable or consistent historical accounts; this is not surprising given their secrecy and infamy.

In South Asia and Turkey, the word Hashhash (of probable Arabic origin) refers to the opium poppy and in modern times is applied to its derivative heroin. Opium is known to induce semi-conscious hallucinogenic states, and is both pleasantly deadening and highly addictive. Might this, then, be the true drug of the Assassins as described by Marco Polo? It should also be noted that opium has a history of such use in warfare; the Chinese soldiers in the Korean War were given opium to facilitate their mad rushes into battle, oblivious to physical pain. Alcohol is not likely to have been the drug described, totally prohibited by the Muslim faith as it is."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin

[tomato]

If you kill the teaching assistant that I have had to work with, you deserve a slap on the wrist.

[mindmetoo]