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Fleta Mcgurn posted:- One boy picking his nose and eating it with such intensity that he's sucking on his fingers and gnawing the goop out from underneath his nails. For 90 straight minutes. This is better than his popping zits and eating the contents, which is what he was doing in class on Wednesday. Hahaha oh god, I literally did the  face with a mixture of chuckling and revulsion.
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Apr 25, 2017 01:10
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Not strictly TESOL related, but are those knife attacks on schools in China relatively isolated? What causes people to go mental like that in China? Do ESL schools have emergency plans in place in case of an attack besides barbed wiring/shattered glass on the walls? Are the foreign teachers made aware and prepared for these contingencies?
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Apr 26, 2017 15:23
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My guess is that there aren't significant contingencies in place for that sort of thing. Outside the United States, people are somewhat more capable of rationally evaluating the likelihood of that sort of thing happening, and aren't quite so caught up in wringing their hands and making elaborate just-in-case preparations so they can be seen to Do Something About It.
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Apr 27, 2017 00:09
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The knife attacks caused massive nationwide freakouts. At our school there are fences and gates and dozens of guards manning the perimeter (napping) at all times. The guards are dressed like fake military and wear armor, with a few literally dressed up like SEALs or something and full armor. The guards have riot shields and these big fork things that I guess you're supposed to be able to contain someone with, not sure how they work. China does freakout security theater nonsense way worse than the US. The school has gone on lockdown a couple of times but not for knives. The last one was after two middle schoolers had a fight. One kid beat the other one, and the dad of the kid who lost the fight got local mafia goons to show up and wait in vans with sledgehammers outside every gate to beat the unholy gently caress out of the fight winner kid if he showed his face.
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Apr 27, 2017 03:11
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eschaton posted:My guess is that there aren't significant contingencies in place for that sort of thing. Yeah, you're probably ri... Grand Fromage posted:The knife attacks caused massive nationwide freakouts. At our school there are fences and gates and dozens of guards manning the perimeter (napping) at all times. The guards are dressed like fake military and wear armor, with a few literally dressed up like SEALs or something and full armor. The guards have riot shields and these big fork things that I guess you're supposed to be able to contain someone with, not sure how they work. China does freakout security theater nonsense way worse than the US. LOL
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Apr 27, 2017 03:19
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Chinese security stuff is so bad that the last time I was through the US I actually thought about how nice, professional, and efficient the TSA is in comparison. That's a wider thing but seeing the guards in body armor and their little plastic helmets and riot shields on Fridays when the kids are leaving school always makes me laugh.
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Apr 27, 2017 03:26
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Grand Fromage posted:Chinese security stuff is so bad that the last time I was through the US I actually thought about how nice, professional, and efficient the TSA is in comparison. That's a wider thing but seeing the guards in body armor and their little plastic helmets and riot shields on Fridays when the kids are leaving school always makes me laugh. This, but the opposite.
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Apr 27, 2017 05:44
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I'd rather deal with a million lazy security guards who aren't being paid enough to care than deal with the TSA, which is lucky because that's exactly what I get by living in China.
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Apr 27, 2017 05:45
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The city that I live in seems to have slightly more security than most Chinese cities. For example each subway stop has an x-ray machine and metal detectors. I used to always stop when I set off the metal detector and wait for the guard to wand me (being a good boy from the states) but after a while I noticed that always seemed to look confused. Eventually I realized that they all knew me (I was probably the only foreigner to ever get off at that station) and that I could just smile at them and walk through. The only people I ever see get stopped are either minorities (not white ones but non Han Chinese ones) or people who look like their from the countryside (i.e. poor), whenever I go through security I just smile at the guards and they don't seem to care. When I used to work in a kindergarten in a nice suburb in China the security guards were generally pretty nice. One of them used to try to talk to me in his very limited English (which was cool since I spoke no Chinese). The thing about him was that he was about as tall as me (I'm about 6'4") and built like a brick shithouse. Again, he was a really nice guy, but the kind of nice where if there was genuinely a problem I would like to be on his side of the issue. They seemed to be there mostly for show, but the did lock the gates after all the students were in, at which point their jobs seemed to be doing, what I like to call "tall people jobs" like changing light bulbs and getting things down from the top shelves. The guards there had all the accouterments, including the helmets and stab proof vests, but all I ever saw them do for security was tell the grandmothers dropping off their kids to leave their tai chi swords at the gate, which on the one had I thought was a bit silly because they're not actually sharp, but on the other hand, they're swords. Ooh, the one of the guards at the less posh school I taught at had a cool electric cattle prod/the stun baton from Half Life 2 type thing. But he was mostly there for crowd control during pick up and drop off, which quite frankly, made perfect sense once you saw how the parents behaved when the gates were opened. Overall most of the guards here are very poorly paid and don't give a poo poo, except for the guys outside the embassy, those guys are adamant.
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Apr 27, 2017 11:27
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Being a security guard in China is usually a retirement or consolation package given to someone who used to live where the apartment is now or was employed by the owner of the property in some other capacity. You sit around, do nothing 99% of the time, and then smoke 99% of the time while occasionally drinking baijiu. It's more rigorous at schools but it's not like they're approaching even the level of over the top mall cop. At the college I was at they ran drills after one of the mass stabbings and they used those Y shaped polearms on a guy. It was like those Japanese animal suit zoo drills but with a surly, alcoholic old man trying to feign a savage attack. Dangeresque posted:Overall most of the guards here are very poorly paid and don't give a poo poo, except for the guys outside the embassy, those guys are adamant. Those are Armed Police officers, they're not security guards. They're the equivalent of gendarme. A guy I know in Shanghai got drunk one night and kicked a barricade that got in his way while walking around the French Concession. That barrier happened to be in front of the Iranian embassy and he got detained by them. They had him go to the nearest ATM, withdraw about 5,000 yuan for a payoff and let him go on his way. Although they're real cops, I would argue more so than the boys in blue, they still know how to play ball. I would argue that public hysteria and overreaction are much more common in China due to the nature of news in China and the propaganda apparatus. Rumors spread like wildfire and people usually think things are worse than they are because they know the news lies all the time. When the Diaoyu Islands thing took off, my college students in Henan were all afraid the Japanese were going to invade any second and thought the jets from the nearby PLAAF training school could be the start of the invasion. It's like worrying about Red Dawn breaking out in Kansas. There was also the disconnect during that period of students wearing One Piece and Hello Kitty shirts talking about how the Japanese are dogs and have given nothing of value to the world. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Apr 27, 2017 |
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Apr 27, 2017 14:03
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eschaton posted:My guess is that there aren't significant contingencies in place for that sort of thing. In Japan and Korea you'll find long sticks with U shaped padded ends that kinda look like a toilet seat in every classroom. The idea is that if an intruder shows up, you can pin him to the wall and still be a safe distance from any melee weapon he carries.
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Apr 28, 2017 03:08
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we've sort of neglected to answer the initial part of the question about why there would be an upsurge in angry old people stabbing young children in a school Answer Because it's easy but still gets a lot of attention Thats it. Everyone in a fight here is afraid of getting hurt, and if you attacked an adult with a knife he might land some lucky punches before you got your message out. With kids, you can knife a good half-dozen without resistance before any adults notice, and then a few more before the adults work up the courage/numbers to grab you.
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Apr 28, 2017 05:02
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The boss of the "elite" school got fired. I heard it was because of his abusive behavior towards Confused Indian Man, but today I was told it was because he is too ugly and doesn't inspire confidence.  *sigh*
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Apr 28, 2017 09:42
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Well he does sound like the sort whose outside ugliness matches his personality.
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Apr 28, 2017 16:10
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I suppose its kind of morbidly refreshing that its basically so blunt, as opposed to couched in american right to work legally cleared bullshit
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Apr 28, 2017 20:29
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sneakyfrog posted:I suppose its kind of morbidly refreshing that its basically so blunt, as opposed to couched in american right to work legally cleared bullshit haaaahahaha, I didn't think of it that way, but that's one positive aspect! Also, he does deserve to be fired anyways; they might be letting him save face by coming up with a cosmetic reason. But I'm so cynical that I immediately called it into question because I simply don't believe what people here tell me about big decisions. Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Well he does sound like the sort whose outside ugliness matches his personality. They specifically said it was because his hair was messy. I would have guessed it was because of his piano key-sized veneers. It's like talking to a racist horse. This morning, came in after a much-needed long weekend to see that my detention assignment was, once, again, undone and very likely detention had not been carried out. This was literally the only thing we had to discipline the students with; now we've been completely defanged. Also. My boss- who, may I remind you, is the freaking principal- actually took my Friday classes so that she had an excuse not to attend the parents' meeting. Everyone was asking me why; I just said "I dunno" even though it's either a face-saving move (after being exposed for mismanagement so spectacularly) or pure avoidance because she no longer gives a poo poo. She also assigned our office manager as translator for Florp and myself, which she doesn't like. Thankfully the parents didn't want to talk to us, so we just gossiped. Fun fact! Apparently, our illustrious leader doctors the graduating seniors' grades. So, even though only three kids passed my class, she straight-up added thirty points to everyone's score. Office Manager refused to do it. She also got screamed at and shamed in front of the head of recruitment because I asked my boss if our weekend recruitment plans were going to proceed as originally planned, since literally everything else has been canceled this year and I'm weirdly interested in, you know, seeing friends and doing stuff, and like to plan for it. Why she was angry at me for asking, I don't know. Why she went after OM, I really don't know. I figured she was fudging the scores a bit so that more kids would fall into the passing range, but I didn't expect her to be this blatant. She told me a long, elaborate story last eyar about how she TOTALLY fails kids and is sooooo merciless about it and totally understands why it's important to let these kids fail.  We were all complaining about her inability to keep her stories straight. To paraphrase Florp, no one in the history of earth has ever "sent" so many emails that went missing.Two more months.... Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 02:38 on May 2, 2017 |
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May 2, 2017 02:32
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How many of these "passing" kids are going off to foreign colleges/universities?
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May 3, 2017 06:11
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Warbird posted:How many of these "passing" kids are going off to foreign colleges/universities? All of them, and they're all screwed when they do. I wish I could see my best students succeed in university, but I also kinda want to see the gently caress ups wash out after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of their parent's money.
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May 3, 2017 06:24
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Let us English posted:All of them, and they're all screwed when they do. I wish I could see my best students succeed in university, but I also kinda want to see the gently caress ups wash out after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of their parent's money. they aren't screwed. the universities are just passing them through and giving them the diploma because they like the pure hard cash, and the kids are going back to china to flaunt the degree and it doesn't really matter if you suck or not in china, if you have the degree and the money you won't get fired
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May 3, 2017 07:38
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Chinese students get expelled/fail out a ton in the US. The universities are happy to take you(r money) but it's way better for them to string you along in English bridging programs and stuff for six years then give you the boot than give degrees to undeserving students. I guarantee at least half the graduating class this year isn't getting a degree in the US from anything other than a diploma mill.
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May 3, 2017 07:43
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Grand Fromage posted:Chinese students get expelled/fail out a ton in the US. The universities are happy to take you(r money) but it's way better for them to string you along in English bridging programs and stuff for six years then give you the boot than give degrees to undeserving students. a diploma mill is still a degree from the united states. i guarantee half the graduating class this year isn't learning poo poo in the US or preparing themselves to excel in a global economy, but i'd guess almost all of them get diplomas from somewhere or another.
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May 3, 2017 07:52
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Well, a good third of them weren't able to get accepted to any programs whatsoever in the US and a good bunch of those are going to Singapore. A small number didn't even graduate Chinese high school and aren't getting a diploma at all. And a bunch are going to the fake University of Toronto English program that is basically college purgatory, you can't get a degree from it and you can't get into actual U of T without passing the program. It was an easy bet for me because way less than half of them are going to the US at all. I'm not sure how many students there were in total because a third never attended the entire year of school (lol) but I think there were about 70, and of those I'm only aware of 10 who got into US schools. It's just such a bizarre contrast. Last year's class was great other than a couple zeroes. The good students all got into good schools and are doing well. But this year they were all garbage. Grand Fromage fucked around with this message at 07:57 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 07:55
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Grand Fromage posted:Well, a good third of them weren't able to get accepted to any programs whatsoever in the US and a good bunch of those are going to Singapore. A small number didn't even graduate Chinese high school and aren't getting a diploma at all. And a bunch are going to the fake University of Toronto English program that is basically college purgatory, you can't get a degree from it and you can't get into actual U of T without passing the program. they should have applied to Indiana
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May 3, 2017 07:57
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Grand Fromage posted:Well, a good third of them weren't able to get accepted to any programs whatsoever in the US and a good bunch of those are going to Singapore.
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May 3, 2017 13:00
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John Smith posted:Why? Cheapest alternative? Lower standards to enter tertiary ESL programs, I think. Basically a community college course on IELTS prep. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 14:49 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 14:47
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Fleta Mcgurn posted:Lower standards to enter tertiary ESL programs, I think. I still think you should tell rhianna to study antropology or at least take a class in it...ex students still email me or kakao me about being in my class like 10 years ago, you'd be surprised what they remember as important....
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May 3, 2017 15:24
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John Smith posted:Why? Cheapest alternative? It's the place with the lowest standards that a PRC student can get into that still counts as "foreign". In Singapore they don't need to speak a word of English, it's just Mandarin. Vancouver is the North American equivalent--Chinese student going to school in Vancouver means a bad student who couldn't manage anything else.
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May 3, 2017 15:27
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You're not passing an engineering program in Singapore without a decent command of English, I don't know where you're getting your impression of Singapore.
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May 3, 2017 15:46
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Who said anything about an engineering program? 
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May 3, 2017 15:50
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Or any program a Chinese student would take. Unless they're literally studying Chinese, there's no escaping English in a Singapore university.
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May 3, 2017 16:36
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Vegetable posted:Or any program a Chinese student would take. Unless they're literally studying Chinese, there's no escaping English in a Singapore university. They're almost certainly not actually studying a subject, not for several years until their English gets up to speed. But they'll keep throwing money until someone picks it up and lets them do what they want. Probably they'll spend one to three years in Singapore "studying" English until they either get a decent TOEFL grade or buy a fake score/transcripts/etc. I could be completely wrong, but I don't think I am. Not to be mean, but I do hope the forthcoming real estate collapse knocks some of these kids and their families for a big enough loop that the kids have to start trying. Also interesting to note that we're about two months away from the end of the school year and one of the students has transferred to another school that teaches IELTS. In other words, she'll hang out at home until the next school year starts. One thing I really don't understand about China is how all these kids are totally unsupervised- they live in their own apartments, or their parents are just never actually home. We had one student whose dad only came around every few months; mom was a hardcore mahjong addict who basically only came home to sleep. The kid was an rear end in a top hat. Wonder why?
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May 4, 2017 01:15
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Vegetable posted:Or any program a Chinese student would take. Unless they're literally studying Chinese, there's no escaping English in a Singapore university. They take remedial IELTS programs they will never actually graduate. I don't know what to tell you, every loser student who doesn't speak a word of English but still has the money to study abroad goes to Singapore, like clockwork. We had a bunch of them this time around. The students who go to Singapore or Vancouver and come back to visit have never learned poo poo, and if anything their English is even worse than when they left.
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May 4, 2017 02:34
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Here's an example of the riot shields and forks we were talking about. These are from some random rent-a-cops but the school guards use the same things.
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May 4, 2017 03:43
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I used to teach for a joint program with a UK university here, they would have to pass IELTS with a 6.5 by the end of their second year. Only about 5 out of 100 or so students actually did. It was a new thing so I'm not sure what actually happened when none of them could continue, I got away from that shitshow as quick as I could. They were supposed to have passed an English test to get onto the course but I had students who didn't even understand hello. They were all rich kids so would spend class arguing over who had more credit cards and stuff like that.
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May 4, 2017 04:44
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The Daily Mail reminds us that some English teachers in China would rather kill themselves than go back to teaching after some time outside of the country: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4469708/Teacher-22-hanged-Valentine-s-Day.html quote:A teacher destined for a promising career as a linguist hanged himself after feeling cut off from society and suffering from depression while teaching English in China. So to anyone thinking about coming to China to teach....don't.
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May 4, 2017 04:54
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Jimmy Little Balls posted:I used to teach for a joint program with a UK university here, they would have to pass IELTS with a 6.5 by the end of their second year. Only about 5 out of 100 or so students actually did. It was a new thing so I'm not sure what actually happened when none of them could continue, I got away from that shitshow as quick as I could. They were supposed to have passed an English test to get onto the course but I had students who didn't even understand hello. They were all rich kids so would spend class arguing over who had more credit cards and stuff like that. Sounds about right! Today we come in to find that the sophomores have decided they don't like their classroom, and have taken over the multipurpose room as their new digs. Good thing nobody here teaches science and we never need the extra room-- oh, wait, all of us teach science and we all need that room for experiments and stuff. They've already taken over the meeting room; why not give them another? This pisses me off because I suggested converting the multipurpose room into a student lounge at the beginning of the year so that they would stop coming into the meeting room to eat and sleep (they broke the lock on the door- no one considered fixing it). I suggested this because my boss was always screaming at us for "letting" them do so. My boss apparently told Bob and he was "so shocked" at my suggestion and just offended at how much I was allegedly trying to "spoil" the kids, but OH LOOK WHAT HAPPENED ANYWAYS. now they have two loving break rooms instead of one, there is garbage and old food all over the meeting room, and now if I want to do a lab experiment I'd sure as gently caress better only do stuff outside 'cause there's nowhere else to go. I really just don't want to be here anymore. LentThem posted:The Daily Mail reminds us that some English teachers in China would rather kill themselves than go back to teaching after some time outside of the country: That's dumb. You could just, you know, not go back. *shrug* e: Oh, wait, Daily Mail? So this didn't happen...
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May 4, 2017 04:59
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Fleta Mcgurn posted:I really just don't want to be here anymore. you guys are almost done. just enjoy working with the kids as much as possible and enjoy the craziness around you.
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May 4, 2017 05:18
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The Great Autismo! posted:you guys are almost done. just enjoy working with the kids as much as possible and enjoy the craziness around you. I know. You're right. I shouldn't whine. But I'm just so angry because last year this was a fantastic place to work and this semester has been hell on wheels.
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May 4, 2017 06:22
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Fleta Mcgurn posted:I know. You're right. I shouldn't whine. But I'm just so angry because last year this was a fantastic place to work and this semester has been hell on wheels. ya my company in tianjin took a pretty impressive nosedive in the 6 weeks that my co-director and i were not in china (he was back stateside after his grandmother passed, my son was being born in japan). came back after that 6 weeks to a shell of what it used to be, it was when i started looking for a way out lol i really wanna come hang with you dudes in chengdu before everyone peaces out, don't know if it will happen tho 
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May 4, 2017 06:44
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The Great Autismo! posted:ya my company in tianjin took a pretty impressive nosedive in the 6 weeks that my co-director and i were not in china (he was back stateside after his grandmother passed, my son was being born in japan). came back after that 6 weeks to a shell of what it used to be, it was when i started looking for a way out lol Jesus Christ! Things crumble so fast here! btw your posts about moving your office were my favorite thing on the forums this year, excepting the sexy Indian facebook thread. Let Us English and I will be around until June 29th. I don't know about Magna. GF is not moving on as yet. Plus there are two other goons whose usernames I can't remember. Don't worry, it'll be pretty goony hereabouts for a while. btw my boss was in a good mood today and actually did 13% of her job, so I feel a little better now.
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May 4, 2017 07:22
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