Korean Job Discussion Forums

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

So I was visiting a friend in Seoul last weekend and he gave me a Maxim magazine. Now, I've never read Maxim and would never select it from a newsrack, but given that it was free and I have a hard time finding English magazines, I happily received it.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Maxim, it's a "men's magazine", meaning it caters to heterosexual men with stereotypical interests in movies, popular music, women, cars, gadgets, etc. The covers usually feature a good looking woman and the inside will have a spread or two of scantily-clad women. However, there is no nudity shown. But, the front cover is typically risque and does give a false impression.

To the point: the mag was in my backpack today. I was sitting at my desk before the first class and didn't notice one of my first grade students opening my backpack. He saw the magazine and went crazy laughing and yelling things in Korean. I grabbed it from him and quickly explained to the two KTs that sit in the room with me that it's not porn etc. and flipped through it quickly to show them what it was about.

Well, apparently word got out pretty fast, because soon I had the middle school boys in the office looking for my magazine. I tried to shoo them off, but they were relentless, so I finally gave it to them. They flipped through for a few seconds and, after realizing there's almost no pictures, they walked away disinterested.

At the end of the day I got a call from the assistant director, who wanted to know why I'd brought porn to work. One of the KTs explained for me. I was informed that all the upstairs teachers heard about it, as well, but they were never corrected.

By upstairs teachers, I mean the people at the other, much much larger hagwon above the one I work in. They're both owned by the same guy and I often mingle with those teachers. It's been pretty uncomfortable because they don't speak much English and almost always are rude to me. And now they think I brought porn to school and was showing it to the kids!

arg.

Btw.. when the puwonjong was told it wasn't porn, he said that if I do bring porn, please bring it upstairs so he can look at it, too. Shocked

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Maxim is not porn.

mithridates · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 11:12 am Post subject:

They've got it in Korea too, so just show them this web site:

http://www.maximkorea.com/

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

Ha ha thats pretty funny. Maxim makes that coffee, sugar, cream mix too. Tell him its porn coffee and buy him a cup.

Dan · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Sunny Glendale, CA

I completely sympathize with your situation, but you should have not let those kids see that magazine like your life depended on it.

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

peppermint · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:37 pm Post subject:

Don't stress it. I bought in a picture book about jobs to help teach one of my classes. The pic of a doctor showed her using a stethoscope on a boy and the boy had his shirt off. My students yelled "Pervert! Pervert!" at the top of their lungs upon seeing it.

As a side note- did the kids get punished for digging through your bag in the first place?

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

And this from the same issue...

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

[deleted]

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

At the end of every semester at University, we could take our old books in for exchange and get about 10% of what we paid back (highway robbery). Students would line up and sell armloads of books back. They always flipped through the pages quickly to make sure they weren't written-on too much.

One semester, the jokester of our fraternity cut several photo pages out of Playboy magazine and slid them in between the pages of the books I brought back. So there I was, standing in line in front of about 100 other students as this old lady begins paging through my books -- pulling several nude photos out from between the pages. Embarrassing, but darned funny. Laughing

Dan · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Sunny Glendale, CA

I wonder how many Korean women on the cover of Maxim have push up bras on.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away my high school junior boys taped a Playboy centerfold to the roll-up map in my history class, knowing I'd have to pull it down when one of them asked a geography lesson (you have to admire the planning that went into this).

I followed their script to a 't'. I pulled it down, let out an 'ack!' and untaped the pic, carefully folded it back up, said, "I'll check this out later" and put it in my desk drawer. Hilarity all around except for some huffy girls.

The point is, you are the teacher. Don't be taking anything suggestive to school. And when you are at school, keep BOTH hands on top of your desk.

peony · Joined: 30 Mar 2005