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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:34 am Post subject: Let's fit in...Yay! |
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It's probably true the most important thing as a teacher in Korea is to be respected by your fellow teachers, not your actual teaching. This attitude may explain why some Koreans will fail to improve their English.
In Korean education, it's true, the respect of ones peers is important.
However, we are not Korean or qualified teachers, which may explain why some Korean colleagues will never like us or respect us.
What I find irritating is the idea we as native teachers have to bend over backwards to attempt to gain the pleasure of people, who may or may not ever like us.
Not just that, but as an adult with some self-esteem, I find it silly to think in these terms.
My view, which I appreciate is not shared by many, is I am employed to teach English. If I know I am doing well as a teacher, the feelings of my colleagues is of secondary importance.
My 'avoid everybody as much as possible, but be civil when I meet people' approach at school has not made me popular. But I can honestly say my colleagues have some respect for me now.
I feel it is because I have been consistent in my approach to work e.g. to do my job and not get involved in kissing a�$, for the sake of being accepted by Tom, Dick and Mina, who I, to be frank, have no interest in at all.
If we are civil and polite, I don't see why being accepted by our colleagues is even an issue. They don't view us as their colleagues, so why try to be accepted by them?
I am proud to say I have never eaten lunch with my Korean colleagues, I have never attended any social function with the school and I have never made any effort to 'fit in'.
In addition, I have never stuck two fingers up at anybody, wiped their flag with my backside or talked about how great it was when Japan used to humiliate Koreans in their own backyard.
All I do, is politely say 'hello' if I meet my Korean colleagues and try to get away from them as fast as I can.
The fact that I show up for work every morning, earlier than most other teachers, seems to hammer home the point that I am there only to work.
Lastly, I also dislike the idea that because we are foreigners we cannot think highly of ourselves as teachers. I could never compromise my self-respect for the sake of fitting in with anybody, I feel like I want to puke when I hear that. No offence. |
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Mi Yum mi
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:05 am Post subject: |
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| You won't last long at your school or this country. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:06 am Post subject: |
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You really should, nay must, make an effort to fit in. I do not like you and I haven't even met you. Why? You don't seem to like people. Maybe go to some sort of holistic seminar to get in touch with your inner angst, or something stronger, like Prozac. Then you could be 'nice' and sociable. Or since you like writing maybe a book about your angst and its manifestations.
It could be that all the people, and they are real people, you are avoiding are averse to being treated like facile nobodys. Ever think of that? No. Because your personal aversion to them all is a much stronger and more important expression to you right now.
I'm going to hypnotize you now, is that ok?^^ |
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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:20 am Post subject: |
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Mi Yum mi - And that's why my school agreed to renew my contract. 
It's not anger but frustration at the zombie-like attitude of some fellow native teachers.
I'm not treating my colleagues in any way, I'm avoiding them as much as possible.
Why 'must' I try to fit in? I think you need help more than I do!
Wake up....we don't fit in...that's the point I'm trying to make. Oh dear  |
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American_Maverick
Joined: 20 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:33 am Post subject: |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
Mi Yum mi - And that's why my school agreed to renew my contract.
It's not anger but frustration at the zombie-like attitude of some fellow native teachers.
I'm not treating my colleagues in any way, I'm avoiding them as much as possible.
Why 'must' I try to fit in? I think you need help more than I do!
Wake up....we don't fit in...that's the point I'm trying to make. Oh dear |
Good for you. Be yourself+make money=being happy |
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Kwangjuchicken
Joined: 01 Sep 2003
Location: I was abducted by aliens on my way to Korea and forced to be an EFL teacher on this crazy planet.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:35 am Post subject: Re: Let's fit in...Yay! |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
It's probably true the most important thing as a teacher in Korea is to be respected by your fellow teachers, not your actual teaching. This attitude may explain why some Koreans will fail to improve their English.
In Korean education, it's true, the respect of ones peers is important.
However, we are not Korean or qualified teachers, which may explain why some Korean colleagues will never like us or respect us.
What I find irritating is the idea we as native teachers have to bend over backwards to attempt to gain the pleasure of people, who may or may not ever like us.
Not just that, but as an adult with some self-esteem, I find it silly to think in these terms.
My view, which I appreciate is not shared by many, is I am employed to teach English. If I know I am doing well as a teacher, the feelings of my colleagues is of secondary importance.
My 'avoid everybody as much as possible, but be civil when I meet people' approach at school has not made me popular. But I can honestly say my colleagues have some respect for me now.
I feel it is because I have been consistent in my approach to work e.g. to do my job and not get involved in kissing a�$, for the sake of being accepted by Tom, Dick and Mina, who I, to be frank, have no interest in at all.
If we are civil and polite, I don't see why being accepted by our colleagues is even an issue. They don't view us as their colleagues, so why try to be accepted by them?
I am proud to say I have never eaten lunch with my Korean colleagues, I have never attended any social function with the school and I have never made any effort to 'fit in'.
In addition, I have never stuck two fingers up at anybody, wiped their flag with my backside or talked about how great it was when Japan used to humiliate Koreans in their own backyard.
All I do, is politely say 'hello' if I meet my Korean colleagues and try to get away from them as fast as I can.
The fact that I show up for work every morning, earlier than most other teachers, seems to hammer home the point that I am there only to work.
Lastly, I also dislike the idea that because we are foreigners we cannot think highly of ourselves as teachers. I could never compromise my self-respect for the sake of fitting in with anybody, I feel like I want to puke when I hear that. No offence. |
Why should you think highly of yourself as a teacher when you also admit that you are not qualified.
Actually you said "us" and "we"
Many of us are not like you. We are qualified, we know we are, and our students Korean coworkers also know it.
If you are taking drugs, you better stop. If not, then maybe you should.
There is more than a splinter in the windmill of your mind.
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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:41 am Post subject: |
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Writing your comments in bold doesn't make them any more meaningless than they already are. Looking for minor details from my posts which will gain an insight into my 'warped' mind is indicative of what I've said all along.
Some native teachers take themselves so seriously as teachers, but when they get a dose of reality, they can only respond by making wild accusations about my sanity or lifestyle.
I don't take drugs and I am perfectly healthy. Little girl....all I am saying is I don't view myself as a bona fide teacher. Nevertheless, I am still good at teaching English. Do you kapiche?!!!
Why is my attitude so threatening?!! |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:44 am Post subject: |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
Why 'must' I try to fit in? I think you need help more than I do!
...we don't fit in...that's the point I'm trying to make. |
It's comical. I was just messing with you. The rugged individualist of the West meets the communal culture of the East. It's comical to attempt to assert one's own cultural values of rugged individualism by avoiding people who are all one whole, or attempt to be, as much as possible because it's their cultural way. It's like a bee in a hive avoiding all the other bees. How's that lone bee going to fare? Pretty poorly. In Korea it would be a 'wangta', outcast. And, you're right, that would be just us, a Westerner, being Western. The Lone Wolf bee in the beehive.
You gotta admit we take advantage of and ride that smoothly operating communalism when it serves us. To refute it by avoiding people like they're Bodysnatchers is rather extreme and comical. It's really taking the LONG way around.
Koreans; 'Why's he not talking to us?'. 'He's Western and Westerners, proud of their individuality, take offence to the submission of personal identity for the sake of the group and 'group harmony'. They think it's facile, banal, and loathsome.'. 'Gaahhhhh. Really? Well, I had a feeling he as JUST ONE MAN does represent a better way of viewing the world and functioning in society'. 'Yes, I think so too. He's noble, a noble savage, a Marlboro man just like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood. Those are real rugged individualists not like what we're used to, we're slop'.
I can't see Koreans buying it^^ |
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rsmm0224
Joined: 06 Feb 2008
Location: Changwon
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:45 am Post subject: |
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It is completely your right to disassociate yourself with your Korean co-workers but don't confuse that with refusing to fit in. My Korean co-workers are great people and we have a lot of fun. And they know I hate sitting on the floor or eating gimchi and I suck or noraebang. So when we do go out, we eat western foods or sit in the chairs at the samgeopsol places. You don't have to "fit in" but don't exclude what may just be a great group of people from your life.
BTW, I'm white, brown hair, blue eyed and weigh close to 300lbs. There is no way in HELL I am fitting in here! hahaha |
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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:50 am Post subject: |
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I agree it is comical, but that's just me.
I'm not trying to 'sell' anything to them. I'm from the west, but I'm ethnically of the east, so there's a contradiction there somewhere.
I don't really focus too deeply on how they perceive me. 'Out of sight out of mind' is the general idea.
I honestly think most Korean teachers are too busy to spend time over discussing me.
Maybe when I first started the job, but now I am old news. |
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fromtheuk
Joined: 31 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:52 am Post subject: |
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If people like to fit in, fair enough, but I don't want to, and could never obliged to either.
For me any job is simply that, a job. A place where I work, keep myself to myself, and get out at the end of the day as quickly as I can. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:04 am Post subject: |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
For me any job is simply that, a job. A place where I work, keep myself to myself, and get out at the end of the day as quickly as I can. |
Yeah but it's a LONG day at public school; 9 to 5. And those are one's best hours of the day in terms of having energy. I'm lucky this job around to have some good co-workers who are young, female, pretty, have common sense and are a lot of laughs. We joke alot and joke around while teaching together in class. My point is there is an option to fit in and mess around in high spirits. It could generate a higher quality of life. Call it being alive and getting kicks. If one thinks Koreans are fugged up, poker faced, and so on (negative) that's creating more of an impasse. That clogs the works. Social constipation. Inhibited life. Whatever you want to call it. I've had jobs where the cast of characters got in the way that's for sure!
I think Korean culture takes the group thing too far, even for Koreans. The meetings they endure, the afterschool events for membership training. The sense of duty and obligation is perhaps taken advantage of by higher ups to gain an audience and a fiefdom. As foreigners we are lucky to be exempt! |
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Roch
Joined: 24 Apr 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:03 am Post subject: Re: Let's fit in...Yay! |
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| fromtheuk wrote: |
It's probably true the most important thing as a teacher in Korea is to be respected by your fellow teachers, not your actual teaching. This attitude may explain why some Koreans will fail to improve their English.
In Korean education, it's true, the respect of ones peers is important.
However, we are not Korean or qualified teachers, which may explain why some Korean colleagues will never like us or respect us.
What I find irritating is the idea we as native teachers have to bend over backwards to attempt to gain the pleasure of people, who may or may not ever like us.
Not just that, but as an adult with some self-esteem, I find it silly to think in these terms.
My view, which I appreciate is not shared by many, is I am employed to teach English. If I know I am doing well as a teacher, the feelings of my colleagues is of secondary importance.
My 'avoid everybody as much as possible, but be civil when I meet people' approach at school has not made me popular. But I can honestly say my colleagues have some respect for me now.
I feel it is because I have been consistent in my approach to work e.g. to do my job and not get involved in kissing a�$, for the sake of being accepted by Tom, Dick and Mina, who I, to be frank, have no interest in at all.
If we are civil and polite, I don't see why being accepted by our colleagues is even an issue. They don't view us as their colleagues, so why try to be accepted by them?
I am proud to say I have never eaten lunch with my Korean colleagues, I have never attended any social function with the school and I have never made any effort to 'fit in'.
In addition, I have never stuck two fingers up at anybody, wiped their flag with my backside or talked about how great it was when Japan used to humiliate Koreans in their own backyard.
All I do, is politely say 'hello' if I meet my Korean colleagues and try to get away from them as fast as I can.
The fact that I show up for work every morning, earlier than most other teachers, seems to hammer home the point that I am there only to work.
Lastly, I also dislike the idea that because we are foreigners we cannot think highly of ourselves as teachers. I could never compromise my self-respect for the sake of fitting in with anybody, I feel like I want to puke when I hear that. No offence. |
Thank you for sharing yourself with us.
Respectfully,
R |
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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:24 am Post subject: |
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So many things.
One, being qualified does not make you a good or bad teacher.
Two, I would never want to work with the OP in any situation (I am going by all his threads and not just this one). |
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poet13
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
Location: Just over there....throwing lemons.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| I will never fit in because I absolutely refuse to dye whats left of my graying hair. One of the male teachers approached me in the privacy of the restroom one day last semester, and with a quick glance around, pulled a hair dye product out of his pocket. Comical. |
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