Korean Job Discussion Forums

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

I now have a TEFL course trainer from a university, which will go unnamed, very upset over my signature.

It says, "Sleeping with a Korean woman, and I'm not even TEFL Certified!"

I thought it was sort of funny. I was poking fun at the irony of how many Koreans tend to blame everything on foreigners, as well as the severe angst many Korean males have towards foreign males stealing their women.

The current problems in their educational system seem to be due to non-TEFL certified teachers teaching in the hagwons -- say nothing of Korean illegal degree holders who are really making the news.

I feel this TEFL course trainer's motivations are political.

What are your thoughts?

cbclark4 · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Location: Masan

Is your motivation political?

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Man, you caught me in an edit above.

Are my motivations political? Not in the same way. I'm not selling TEFL courses or anything. I suppose you could say my motivations, if any, are to encourage the Korean gov't to offer a free, or next-to-free TEFL training course for incoming teachers.

IncognitoHFX · Joined: 06 May 2007 Location: Yeongtong, Suwon

I think he/she gets offended to easily.

I hate that. There are always people out there like that. I know someone who, upon hearing a comment I made a few months ago, thought me nothing more than a sexist pig. I still think there was nothing I've done that would make me out to be that kind of weasel, but in her eyes, I've sealed my tomb.

Even though no one prior to this person has ever thought of me as being sexist, and 99% of people would never extract the idea of me being sexist from that one slight of tongue--she did/does and will never let me live it down.

This other time I offended a friend of a friend halfway to death for saying the "f-word" once. She was a strong Xtian and gave me that "Jeebus would never say that" BS. So I promptly sang a song comprised of nothing but the "f-word". She almost started crying, I couldn't believe it. What is wrong with some people?

That being said, some people are just touchy. Ignore this person. I think your signature is fine.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Maybe she does get offended easily. At first I thought, "Maybe her school has been trying to convince people that you need a TEFL certification to sleep with a Korean woman."

Then I realized that was crazy.

She's just an individual proud of her position as a TEFL instructor, and it pains her to see someone make light of that.

ED209 · Joined: 17 Oct 2006

Maybe she wants to sleep with you. Hurry up and get that TEFL boy!

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

No, I'm sure she's a fine individual.

Besides, my wife would never allow it.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Actually, she has convinced me to turn over a new leaf.

I'm changing my signature!

IncognitoHFX · Joined: 06 May 2007 Location: Yeongtong, Suwon

igotthisguitar · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:32 pm Post subject: Re: Is it really that offensive?

RACETRAITOR · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

It reminds me of what a lot of homophobes say about gays. "I don't really care what they do in their bedrooms but I hate it when they flaunt it in my face."

Public. Private.

Although I'm not sure what your Korean coworker was doing on this board. It seems like a safe enough place to have something like that. It's not like you said it to her face or waved it in front of her...is it?

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

Well, I thought it was funny.

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:44 pm Post subject:

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

Pink Freud · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Location: Daegu

I thought the signature was clever, and quite humorous.

Strange days. A few years ago I was having lunch with a group of colleagues. One didn't want to tip, reasoning that rest of us had left enough of a tip for our meals, so she didn't have to tip for hers.

"Don't be so niggardly!" I told her.

Shocked silence.

"What a thing to say!" she answered back. "How can you use that word?"

"What word?"

"The 'N' word."....

Even after I explained that I hadn't said what she thought I had said, she insisted that I should never use the word "niggard", because it SOUNDS LIKE "that other word", and most people "have never heard of it."

Despite the fact that the two terms aren't etymologically related, and that "niggard" predates, "that other word" by centuries, she stuck to to her linguistically challenged position.

I'm supposed to modify my speech so as not to offend someone's ignorance? WOW. People choose to get offended at the weirdest things.

Just in case, from the Mirriam-Webster online dictionary:

Main Entry: 1 nig�gard
Pronunciation: 'ni-g&rd
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse hn�ggr niggardly; akin to Old English hnEaw niggardly
: a meanly covetous and stingy person : MISER
- niggard adjective