Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bundangbabo]

Valentines day - and mine was pretty damn good! (for once) so I'm not going to vent about that - but the big occasion of the school this weekend was the soppy, four eyed, prat of a geography teacher got married and of course everyone in the bastard school got invited except muggins here. What wound me up though was my co-teacher wittering on about it - and she wittered on about the collection that was made by the rest of the teachers - and they forgot to ask me to make a donation - I could have spared the prat 20,000 won which was the going rate.

Can these imbeciles not keep their racism and their bigotry in check - just for once - what did they think I was going to do if I got invited to the shitey wedding - do a rain dance chanting 'abooga wooga, monga wonga' waving my spear around. If there is anyway they can make a person feel excluded its these clowns - I try to think what I have done to these people and I have done nothing but be nice and respectful to them!
And they are so open about it - I know for a fact if they went to work in a staffroom in a British secondary school - this racist crap would never happen to them. (though the kids would eat them alive)

Apparently - it was a christian wedding - it is a pity a lot of these Korean christians are a bit iffy about the 10 commandments - with one being - love thy neighbour!

[Tobias]

You've been there a while, and they've gotten tired of you. That's my take. Koreans are shallow that way. After your newness, your novelty, if you will, wears off, you become a hole in the air.

Korean cars don't come as model years. They come as 1/2 model years. A Korean doesn't buy a 2008 Kia. He buys a 2008 1/2 Kia, as by July of 2008, Koreans want to replace the 2008 model they bought in January 2008. This is the mindset they have when it comes to people, too.

If you would have arrived here two weeks ago, I imagine you would have gotten several invites. You would have still had that new car smell and that new car attraction.

Perceptions. It's all about perceptions.

[Xuanzang]

There was a wedding at my school too but I paid diddly squat. I'd only pay if I went there/was invited. You gotta keep the Korean work sphere from interfering with your life sphere. Pretend you're listening to Madame Butterfly or something when she is blabbing about work gossip, etc. Tune them out.

[oskinny1]

Understand about being left out, but you didn't miss anything.

Take a look around your office now. See all the people on phones and chatting away with each other? That is the same thing you would have seen on Saturday, but they probably wouldn't have been dressed as nicely.

Search "adjumma wedding" on youtube.

[sobriquet]

Don't give money for staff stuff.

Why would I?


They don't give me money for anything other than working.

[SHANE02]

You were lucky OP.

[Horangi Munshin]

You saved 20000won and a boring afternoon. Count yourself lucky.

[T-J]

Maybe they read Dave's and saw that the pervasive attitude here is to not attend weddings and funerals of co-workers.

[VanIslander]

when every single other person is invited except you the waygook... don't let that hurt you

koreans are insular and will never see you as one of them

i'm amazed how many people come to this country and expect to be treated any different than as a guest (treated well btw, but as such)

shrug it off as another example why you're here for a relatively small part of your whole life

[Big Mac]

There was also a wedding at my school this weekend. All the teachers rented a bus and went to the wedding...but like you I was not invited. Unlike you, however, I really didn't care. I didn't want to spend my afternoon being ignored by all the other teachers who can't speak English and at a wedding that I can't understand.

I agree with what another poster said about your novelty wearing off. Mine lasted about three weeks. I was invited to every function. Drank soju with everyone in the school. Had a good time. Then it all stopped. I can say hello to most of the teachers now and not even get a response now.

It's shallow, but it's Korea.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Punch in, punch out. Too bad you couldn't just totally ignore everyone and just go in when you have classes and leave when they're over. But you're at a public school.

[fromtheuk]

OP - The good thing with my school is they know I could care less about them and actually enjoy not taking part in anything with them.

I can't think of anything more painful than sitting in a room with my colleagues all day.

You're right, they are not subtle about their desire to see us go. After a while, our novelty value wears off. Because of that, I may stay at the same school, forever.

I ignore them and they ignore me, unless we're face to face.

You can buy some toilet paper with the 20,000 won you've saved.

[Pwillig]

They probably didn't because they were afraid you'd feel uncomfortable being in such a situation.

Why in God's name would you want to see something as terrible as a wedding take place? I think I could bear watching people jump in front of trains here more than a wedding. Hm...quite similar now that I think of it.

[bundangbabo]

An update -

There was another whip round and a meal which include two of my co-teachers who are moving on and everyone was giving in their 20,000 won and I said 'Hey - I have actually taught with two of these teachers - which is more than can be said for anyone in this room, so how about asking me for my contribution' so my co-teacher translated it for the teacher doing the collecting and she sort of said 'err you are allright for a donation from you thanks' and I got a bit angry - 'racism! that's what it is
- why don't you imagine if it was you being excluded from everything' and my co-teacher calmed me down and said it was all a cultural misunderstanding - which translated from Korean means 'we're being racist because you aren't one of us' twats!

[bundangbabo]