Korean Job Discussion Forums

[earthbound14]

A funny little story.

I was invited to an English competition to be a judge. It sounded easy enough. I sat down in my little judge's chair with the other judges only to find there was one chair missing.

The man in charge comes over and lets us know one of us must MC the event. Having been in Korea long enough I knew enough to keep my head down and not to make eye contact (never make eye contact when the boss is asking for extra work....never). The brave man who was new to the country and who lost out in the game of musical chairs smiles bravely and says "I geuss that's me."

The judges left behind feel relief, but a little bit of guilt about the poor soul sent off to his uncertain fate.

Amazingly every thing goes well and the lad does a great job.....until it's time to tabulate all the scores.

Again the man in charge walks up to the mic and asks the poor MC to stand in the middle of the stage to hand out prizes......he waits....he fidgets, a voice from the crowd says they won't be finised for another ten minutes.

The man in charge makes a swift and brilliant decision. He announces we will now see our foreign MC dance.

The poor guy looks like a deer caught in headlights.."What?"

"Dance" says the man.
"Without music?" our pale friend implies.
"No, dance." replies the man.

He looks at us for help, but we are giggling our arses off.

The poor guy half wanting to do a good job and half wanting to take the piss does his best half arsed dance. Arms flailing to a rythm only he could hear. We judges are trying hard not to burst out in full blown laughter. We can't tell if he's being serious or taking the piss.....


The children love it and the man in charge sees a great opportunity.

"Children and parents, please run onto the stage and dance with our foreign teacher."

The stage is alive with wriggling children all dancing to the same spastic beat and parents who aren't sure what on earth they should be doing, but trying their best to save face.

I can only hope that I too am as well prepared and able to think quickly on my feet as the man in charge.


A true story from the ESL front lines.

[Pwillig]

Sounds like something straight out of a bad dream.

[Joe666]

I think that story is extremely funny unless your the whitey dancing to nothing. I probably wouldn't have been able to hold back if I was one of the judges.

[teacherinseoul]

Interesting. I once got bamboozled into singing a song in front of a small audience of strangers, at my school. It didn't significantly embarrass me, but the underhandedness made me angry.

You have to be prepared for these group events. In addition to the eye contact tip, I would like to add...

Tip #1: Don't go to group events.
Tip #2: Don't get in front of the crowd.
Tip #3: Avoid the microphone.

[Weetbix Kid]

that was hilarious! I live in fear of something similar happening to me!

[yingwenlaoshi]

Me: "Yeah, I'll dance... Dance right on out of here." Then they see me walking off the stage and out the door for a smoke.

[Jeweltone]

At Suwon University, those of us lucky enough to be working the ESL camps (yep, that's most of us!) had to do a dance in front of the children on the last day of camp. If you can imagine 15 or so thirty something (plus) whiteys doing the Macarena, YMCA, and the Funky Chicken...Sort of fun, but a bit embarassing for some...

Any current people at Suwondae...do they still make you dance?

[Hyeon Een]

Ha. That's pretty funny.

If I worked at Suwon-dae and they 'made' us do that I'd probably do a 10 second half-hearted effort then slink off the stage. If anyone tried to stop me I'd punch them.

The worst that's happened to me was having a microphone shoved in front of my face and told to give a 10 minute speech to a bunch of middle and elementary school kids. I probably managed about 2 minutes before I ran out of stuff to stay that they could understand. I guess I could have jabbered on using language they didn't understand but I didn't really see the point..

I detest this surprise "Hey, go do XXXXXX" stuff. But I find it hilarious when someone else has to do it. The OPs story is hilarious.

[Boog]

I would of started to dance with the other guy on the stage ... like ball room or some salsa type of pair dancing.

Getting the audience on the stage dancing also was a good idea.

[asylum seeker]

Lol, did they give him a banana when he finished?

[TheUrbanMyth]