10.14.2010
Just putting this out there, but if someone came to me tomorrow and said that I would be expected to attend one of these seminars, while the Korean teachers got a pass, I would quit my job, pack my shit and be leaving the country that same night, never to return. But not before making it my personal business to torment and tell off literally every single person on the entire chain of command. I'm deadly serious. That would be it for me and Korea, forever.
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9 comments:
ok so I guess all foreign teachers are well trained educators who totally understand the intricacies and expectations of Korean people and Korean culture...riiiight.
If foreign teachers were that smart, they would actually have a job back home and not be in korea in the first place.
Give me a break...you've never taught children in any systematic way before you got to korea, you've never met a korean person, talked with them about their expectations for their children's education, you've never had to be responsible for anyone besides yourself and your quickie mart job back home...
so why dont you have an open-mind, as all foreigners say they do, and learn something.
If you don't like it, then by all means, pack up your shit and go home...
Anonymous -- Hahahahahaha.
Anonymous is a dick. As Anonymouses generally are, because they can't stand behind their bull.
And trust me...the day a Korean person tells me what their exact expectations of me are, I will praise the heavens. Because it has yet to happen. Despite countless seminars about the wonders of kimchi, 4 seasons, and the Joseon dynasty.
Or were you talking about this kind of seminar??
http://populargusts.blogspot.com/2010/10/sex-crime-prevention-training-for.html
That's what I linked to. :(
Maybe that's why Anon went so far off the fucking deep end and made so many charming assumptions about me. It would do some people well to have a goddamn look around (it's not as if my entire life story isn't all here, somewhere) before they spout a lot of nonsense and embarrass themselves.
Yeah. That's what I meant. Obviously, I'm not a fan of regular training seminars, because... well because I'm not. But being lectured about how being a sex offender is not acceptable in *Korean* culture would be a bit more than I could handle.
My head teacher seemed a little evasive about the training seminar I was to be sent to (yesterday), so I brought along my video camera, just in case it was something like the Asan seminar. No such luck; instead, as I started to guess when I noticed I was the only foreigner there, it was a seminar for Korean teachers, entirely in Korean. I decided to endure the first - 90 minute - presentation before ducking out, but had to nudge my co-teacher awake before I left. Good times...
Btw, I know someone in Asan and am trying to get more info on what actually went on in that seminar...
Matt -- It would be great if you would share whatever you find out.
I don't like seminars and training sessions, but I will endure them. Even in Korean. But the ten minutes I spent last year having our district supervisor condescendingly explain to me that, although she knows doing drugs is "okay" in my "culture", it's not okay in Korean culture, so we should all not do drugs while we are FUCKING TEACHERS in Korea nearly drove me over the edge. I think being required to sit through any length of someone explaining to me that molesting children might be okay in my culture, but in Korean culture, it's wrong might really just end things for me.
No tact. And no fucking clue.
"Remember, clothes stay on the children. I just can't emphasize that enough, people."
I was sent copies of a brochure about keeping foreign teachers off drugs that was from a presentation in Incheon. One pamphlet had a big pot leaf with "We hope to make the drug free generation," and it explained the health effects of pot (which North Americans know nothing about, of course). Did you have to go to something like that?
As for having no clue when addressing foreign teachers on this topic, it shouldn't be surprising, considering the level of discourse on the topic can be summed up in the cartoon here (first result).
That seminar. >.<
At the last workshop for foreign teachers in my area, we had to listen to our district supervisor give a speech that began with 'As you know, physical punishment is not allowed in schools from now. So, I'd like you all to stop hitting the students please. Also, you cannot sexually touch the students.'
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