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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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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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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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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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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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Lima posted:So my father and his siblings have a saying regarding the long-closed family company - "Granddad was great at earning money - dad was great at spending them!". In regards to your first question, the real elites are having their kids honed to perfection. Our students are "elite" only because of how much money their parents have. The overall level of education in each family is usually fairly low. Their parents don't really care what the kids do because they know that enough money will buy them anything they want. I have no personal experience with what you've described, but I guarantee your cousin and his wife and are wasting their money- unless the kids are learning Chinese really easily, in which case go for it. But, no, I don't believe most Chinese educational programs teach anything in terms of life or study skills. Choco1980 posted:So, all these stories about kids that just come in and trash the place and don't pay attention to the teachers or anything, and how they have pretty much zero parental presence or supervision at home...I have to wonder, why do they even show up to school in the first place? Are there like, serious truancy laws there? Are the kids just too dumb to realize they could get away with not coming to school? I mean, I realize that in a good number of cases it's a boarding school and they're kinda locked in mostly, but I'm hearing stories from ones where the kids don't live on campus too... They frequently don't show up to school at all. We lost four kids from the sophomore class last year by the end of first semester. One girl quit school so she could follow their idol around Hong Kong. When we've occasionally had the chance to express concern at this, the parents come up with idiotic excuses- oh, he's too shy. Oh, he's studying for TOEFL (wtf). A lot fo them are taken out of school to "study" under the condition that they complete their coursework; of course this always leads to a situation where we're yelling at kids for not doing any work and they're yelling at us because they ARE doing work, it's just not YOUR WORK. I had one girl try to convince me that she couldn't turn in any papers for my class because her mom wouldn't let her use a computer, so couldn't I just excuse her from the assignments? Kids in China seem completely in charge of their parents. That's just my impression, and I have no doubt that there are crazy tiger moms and/or awesome, involved parents here. But when you see a little kid screaming for a toy so loudly that he's turning red WHILE hitting his grandfather, and everyone around them-even strangers- just smiling with dopey, beatific love for this precious little angel, you start to understand why no one respects authority. To be fair, if I was an elderly Chinese person, I might think a healthy baby is somewhat of a miracle, too. Additionally, just the fact that we're foreigners means we're stupider than Chinese people, and that we don't know how anything works. I'm being blunt because it's true. My boss has told me this more than once. Example: We had a problem kid last year who never did any work. He wasn't stupid, just lazy. His father came to a parents' meeting once and told me his son's bad performance was fine because he could just apply to a Canadian university, because apparently Canada=easier requirements. I told them that I myself had attended a Canadian university as an international student, and that actually things were a bit more difficult because there wasn't an essay or any consideration of my extracurriculars (this may have changed, I do not know) and that grades and test scores accounted for pretty much everything. The dad didn't believe me and just rolled his eyes. Smash cut to this year when the poor kid can't even apply to tech schools in Canada because...guess what, his grades and test scores are loving terrible and his IELTS was, like, a 3. Gee. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 03:17 on May 5, 2017 |
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May 5, 2017 02:53
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a lot!). Do you have any experience with kids of expats coming back for summer schools/reeducation camps?
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I never skipped school in high school, but that's probably mostly because I was a huge dork and also there was literally nowhere to go unless you wanted to gently caress in a cornfield. Which is a terrible idea, because rabies. Also you can just gently caress in the art room storage room and steal paint because your art teacher is a BITCH. I mean, so I heard.
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May 5, 2017 06:20
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:Do schools typically have a/c?? One of our schools does, the other doesn't. As TGA says, it's all moot because if you sit in a room with no windows open, you automatically die! Right now nobody has any due to mouse poop. Yes, that's still a problem. Acres of Quakers posted:Could you get away with hiding a cell phone jammer in the room somewhere? In the US the fcc will push your poo poo in for using one . Is there a similar agency there? School typically have them here as an anti-cheating measure. The "smart" school, which is a public school, uses them, so I doubt there's any law against it. I've thought about buying one just for the office so that Tangy will have to go elsewhere for her loud-rear end phone calls!
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May 8, 2017 01:11
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By the way, I just wanna say how happy I am that we're getting so many different Chinar experiences in here. Thanks to everyone asking and answering questions. I'm actually learning a lot!
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May 8, 2017 01:13
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Atopian posted:I was informed that the obsession with open windows was based on (viral stories about) formaldehyde outgassing from newly furnished building interiors and doing horrible things to occupants. Ahhh, I heard it was because places used to be heated with coal and people just got used to having the windows open. Both explanations make sense to me. What I hate is when my coworkers complain about the bugs in the office while refusing to close the windows.
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May 8, 2017 03:28
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yaffle posted:I'm at a big fancy international school in a tier one city and I'm pretty sure we do SATs. if true, that may be why. Do you do them at the school, or at another location in your city? I'm not calling you a liar, but my students (at both schools) always leave the country to take their SATs.
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May 9, 2017 08:08
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yaffle posted:I'm basing this on them trying to get me to proctor the SATs last fall, has it changed since then? Whoa. Game-changer.  Maybe it's province-by-province?fake edit: Are you in HK? real edit: Was it I or II?
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May 9, 2017 08:43
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yaffle posted:Not HK, however there are "no" chinese nationals at the school... Oooooooooooh. ... ...wow. So, it seems like TGA was right. I just asked three of my coworkers; they all said the SAT can't be taken in China. This is so freaking weird!
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May 9, 2017 09:02
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The Great Autismo! posted:How are Chinese discriminated against in China? By not being Han  I was once accosted by a gaggle of drunk annoying international school kids in Tokyo. We threw pinecones at them until they ran away. It should be noted we were also drunk and it was Halloween and I was dressed like Courtney Love, so...went method, I guess.
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May 9, 2017 10:41
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The Great Autismo! posted:yo chengdu goons i got my ticket to chengdu i will be there from the evening of june 1st to the afternoon of june 4th. hope you guys are free that friday night or saturday to do something, if not, at least tell me cool stuff to do. i'm p excited to go to chengdu, another one off ye olde bucket list bweeeee! We also have a Chengoon wechat group; have someone in main Chinagoon chat invite you.
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May 10, 2017 10:38
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I'm not reading that book because I'm already terrified of flying and don't need more encouragement, and also because that quote is loving disgusting. That said, last time I went to a hospital here, it was in a dirty, unlit room with no windows and about ten elderly women who were just watching patients get examined. The person with me to translate tried to get them to leave, but it was just too interesting. That sucked pretty hard. Then again, this wasn't a hospital in the city, so I wasn't that surprised.
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May 11, 2017 02:24
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Devils Affricate posted this in the GBS thread: Top China schools test parents for IQ, ancestors' grades, and 'obesity' on enrollment My boss likes to go to other schools in Chengdu and pretend she's thinking about enrolling an imaginary grandchild there so that she can scope out what they're doing and what books and stuff they have (this usually leads to her throwing some insane half-Chinese half-English vocabulary book at us and telling us to use it in our classes as a guide, which we all ignore) and saw some of this. In addition to academic requirements, students had to be a certain height, and if they weren't deemed attractive enough, they couldn't enter the program. Sort of harsh when you realize the school is K-12 and a lot of otherwise smart, awesome kids probably get shafted out during their awkward phase.
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May 11, 2017 02:42
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Well, it doesn't help that they're literally fed slop at school and spend the rest of the day eating either potato chips or instant noodles. Those are seriously the only foods I see kids eating during they day. Instant ramen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most of the foods I see offered to the kids- whether it's at a store, or the campus bakery, or the actual cafeteria- are sugary and/or starches. If the kids are lucky enough to get food delivered, it's always a totally meat-filled hotpot kind of deal, or more noodles/dumplings. I have suggested having a fruit bowl for kids to pick from because that's at least better than instant noodles, but the idea was rejected as "too expensive." Meanwhile, my boss put an eight-foot mounted canvas of the Statue of Liberty in the hallway. Good use of resources, there. e: This article is about South Korea, but I'd be surprised if a similar thing isn't happening or doesn't happen here.
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May 11, 2017 05:05
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EVERYONE LOVE EACH OTHER RIGHT NOW. I gotta say, having a blue sky day is a nice change.
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May 11, 2017 08:09
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LentThem posted:to pretend like im on-topic, it's currently 35 degrees in shanghai and im imagining a dirty concrete classroom full of jacket-wearing people with no AC Yeah, you're not far off. Our coworkers have given up on the parkas, but I see plenty of people walking the streets in winter jackets, hats, and gloves. It's easily above 30 today.
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May 11, 2017 08:20
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feedmegin posted:Can't beat a good Lancashire hotpot IMHO Johnny Five-Jaces posted:what does everyone in this thread think about hot pot I don't like Sichuan style, but I like every other kind.
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May 12, 2017 01:14
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PT6A posted:I'm doing my training at a flight school that has a decent number of Chinese students. I've seen/heard some interesting things. But then again, I've seen lots of non-Chinese people do a lot of stupid poo poo too, so if you're going to bag on Chinese pilots there's probably a good bit of confirmation bias going on. Two of our instructors are at least of Chinese descent (I haven't asked for their life histories, so I don't know where they've lived or where they were born, but their last names are Chinese) and they're both fantastic pilots and good instructors too. One of them has to sign off for me to do my flight test, and he's BIG on critical thinking and getting me to explain why I chose to do things, so I can't see any student without those skills getting a recommendation for a flight test, and I can't see anyone without those skills actually passing a flight test either. For what it's worth. Thank you for making me feel less bad! to be totally fair, I haven't seen anything awful on a Chinese flight (except random aisle making GBS threads), but they absolutely refuse to let you use your cellphone for anything or have it on at all. You can't even listen to a podcast or use a reading app. I had a flight attendant on China Eastern scream at me, like literally scream, because she caught me reading the Kindle app on my phone. I put it inside another book and kept going, unimpeded, and somehow we all survived.
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May 12, 2017 04:11
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EKDS5k posted:Both, although the English teaching is more of a general Asian thing. Ask me about getting a teaching job in a Japanese public school despite being 23 with literally zero actual credentials and less than a year of experience working in the country. Let me guess: you finished the application and you have the ability to speak English without drooling too much? Congratulations and yokoso!
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May 12, 2017 08:37
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Viola the Mad posted:If so many Chinese consider Western schooling to be inferior to Chinese schooling, why are Western universities considered prestigious? It's like buying a designer handbag- it's not actually better than anything else you can buy, it's just more impressive. also lol I HAVE an EU passport and can't find a teaching job there, so
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May 15, 2017 04:36
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PROBLEM: Students are tearing up the meeting room and using it for sleeping, eating, and all sorts of illicit activities. SOLUTION: 1. Put a webcam in a cardboard box. 2. Cut a hole in the box. 3. Attach webcam to phone charger, plug into wall. Instant Nannycam...do webcams have internal storage? e: I hope they enjoyed watching me adjust my bra this morning. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 06:03 on May 15, 2017 |
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May 15, 2017 06:00
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Viola the Mad posted:Fleta, do you plan on staying in touch with any of your students after you leave? Are you still in touch with any of the graduates now? I hope so, and yes! I occasionally hear from last year's graduates over facebook or WeChat, and they physically came in to say hello when they were all back during their Christmas vacations, so hopefully a few will turn up again soon, too. I don't message students or former students unless there's something I know will interest/help them, but will happily chat with them if they make the first move. e: I'm still in touch with kids I taught in Korea and Japan, so hopefully these guys will be the same.
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May 16, 2017 04:10
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:Do you like basketball? Nope, I don't like watching or playing any sports. Just doesn't appeal to me. Plus, I'm like 5'4 so basketball is a stupid sport for jerk giants.
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May 16, 2017 04:33
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^ TGA, thank you so much- I didn't know almost any of that. You've really clarified the whole test score panic I've seen here. I also have no clue about university entrances, but AFAIK being able to choose whether or not to attend high school is the same in Korea and Japan, but relatively few students do it. Speaking of tests, some students got their TOEFL scores today! For those who don't know, TOEFL is a Test of English as a Foreign Language, in which students are testing in their speaking, writing, and reading abilities. Any score below 80 is pretty much worthless, at least for North American schools. Students get so obsessed with TOEFL, their parents get obsessed with it...I'd say 80% of their education currently is a TOEFL class or practice session of some kind. It's a wonderful racket. 1700 RMB per sitting, and most students at our school take it between three and five times. Anyways, the worst student in the whole school doubled his TOEFL score from last time, so now he's rocking a 34. This is actually a pretty big achievement for him, and he seems pretty happy about it!
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May 17, 2017 02:28
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Yeah; I've told the kids that schools are more interested in their grades, essays, etc. than their TOEFL scores, and that the difference between an 80 and an 82 won't really matter, but they don't believe me. The whole system is kids asking us questions and not believing the answers, actually. One of the only students who genuinely graduated this year asked me if she had to write her last name on her application. When I said yes, she rolled her eyes at me and didn't do it. Okay? I also had a girl last year who refused to apply to a school she loved because her TOEFL was 80 and the minimum required score was an 82, like I mentioned above. She didn't believe me when I said it wouldn't make a huge difference and didn't want to try.
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May 17, 2017 03:20
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And now, the second freakiest expat story I've ever heard. As I said before, I used to have to teach junior high classes and I hated them. They were a huge waste of time, sucked my energy so hard that I would have to go home and sleep after teaching them, and were generally a huge pain in the tits for various other reasons. Twice this year, my boss has tried to force me back into teaching them, and twice it's ended in my flat refusal and a lot of grumping on either side. I finally won the argument with "I came to this school and took a huge pay cut because I wanted to teach subjects other than English and I wanted to teach high school. If you're telling me I have to do the same bullshit I did in Korea for less money, I might as well just leave now and go back there." Sorry; I'm blonde and American with an actual teaching license; I can make hella more money elsewhere, and they know it. So, last Friday, my boss sits me down and asks again. They're in a real emergency, those three middle school teachers have been fired. Why? Not one, but two different teachers were smelling students' hands. Think about that for a second. Think about what the average middle school student smells like. Probably not great, right? Now add to that the fact that there is no soap in the bathrooms for the kids to wash with, that they're frequently picking their noses or scratching their heads, that kids that age tend to be dandruffy and pimply and maybe not super-careful about hygiene because they're not yet aware of how their body odor has changed or strengthened, and....yuck. Oh, and it's SUPER PERVY AND TOTALLY loving WEIRD. The other teacher got fired for a different reason- he came up with a fun class called "How to Kill Your Teacher." It included instructional videos on how to kill/torture people. The school only found out because he was literally whipping the kids into a murderous frenzy. Erm, also, you know the Cultural Revolution? Yeah. It's not like there's no historical precedent in China of students murdering their teachers. So, I said yes to the loving classes. Jesus Christ. At least I'll know the kids are safe with me, as much as I hate teaching these crappy fake lessons. Oh, and they canceled two periods of my biology class- the one I was actually hired to teach- because the most important thing is their financial bottom line. Never the well-being of the students.
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May 22, 2017 04:50
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:So what was the hand sniffing thing about? I really have no idea. I couldn't stop thinking about it all weekend. I cannot imagine any situation in which that would be appropriate for a teacher. Literally the only thing I can think of is if you were toilet training a kid and you wanted to be sure they had washed their hands afterwards? but I've worked at that school before, and I know there is no soap. The school officials are a lot angrier about the "kill your teacher" thing; according to my boss, it was her choice to remove the hand-sniffers. (Although I think she meant to say there had been two different incidents of hand-sniffing, not two different people- her English is perfect but when she's upset she makes the odd mistake, and she was pretty upset about this.) I would say the sniffing was worse because I can't think of a reason to do that other than fetish poo poo. RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Most of the Red Guards from the Cultural Revolution loved torturing their teachers and he just wanted to make the kids happy, which is the most important part of any English teacher's job. I just want you to know this made me laugh.
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May 23, 2017 04:50
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I would blow Dane Cook posted:Were the hand sniffers expats or locals? Expats. Staffing agency hires, in fact. My boss's company was offering the princely sum of $900 US per month, plus housing, which isn't overwhelmingly bad for a do-nothing job but certainly doesn't pull in top candidates. That's all I really know.
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May 23, 2017 06:07
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Trammel posted:
This would never be considered acceptable at my school, and I'm surprised that anyone would defend or it or consider it normal. According to Wikipedia, the age of consent in China for both genders is 14, so perhaps there are fewer legal concerns, but I would absolutely not think of that as normal in any way. You hear about this kind of thing happening, but I've never been any closer than third-hand to one of these incidents.
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May 23, 2017 07:31
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So people have asked once or twice what I wish I'd known before coming to China, and I did kind of a lovely job of answering the question because most of what I wished I'd known is job- or location-specific. But I don't feel like doing any work right now, and I am leaving this place in a few weeks, so I thought I'd make a general list of things I wish I'd known (or that other people I've met had known) before teaching overseas in general: - Don't talk about your personal life to your coworkers, no matter how much you might think you're friends. Don't give anyone any ammunition to use against you in the future, should they choose to do so. You may think you have a solid relationship, even a friendship, with a coworker, but if it's useful for them to throw you under the bus, they will. I have a chronic illness and my company has been very kind about accommodating me, but I recently discovered one of my coworkers is using my illness as leverage for something, even though it doesn't affect them at all. - You are not going to change anything. If you're lucky, some students will remember you fondly and keep in touch, but you are not there to change the system. The one thing I see experienced expat teachers tell each other all the time is "You're not here to reinvent the wheel." Your coworkers and students and even your boss may hate the status quo, but they are usually loathe to swim against the tide and your making waves is only going to cause problems. I hope that's enough mixed metaphors. - The kids don't wash their hands. If they give you unwrapped food, tell them you'll eat it later, and throw it away. But always take something you are given, because why not encourage them? - Kids are kids everywhere. Don't mistake novelty for respect or reverence. - Your novelty will wear off. Yes, it will. - Only use your own money to purchase things for lessons/classes if you really, REALLY like those students. - If they tell you they can't pay you for any reason, and they haven't made any good-faith gestures other than placating words, go. - Leaving a bad overseas teaching job and breaking your contract will only have repercussions if you immediately start looking for work in the same city. Leaving a crap position early in Korea will not prevent you from getting a good job in Vietnam. The only place I've ever broken a contract and actually had it affect me at all was in Japan, and all that happened is that my new boss politely told my old boss to shove it. - Have color copies of your passport, including any current visas, a set of passport pictures, and a list of emergency contacts at your house or your place of employment, if you have a secure place. - Either pack a bug-out bag or know exactly how you would pack one, should you need to escape in a hurry. - Polite, smiling recalcitrance will always be more effective than yelling- but a sudden burst of tears can be very useful. - Always have hand sanitizer, pocket tissues/baby wipes, and an Advil in your bag. - Create a separate social media presence for students and coworkers to contact you on, should they wish to. - Have an alternate route to and from home and work. I was followed by an angry trike driver for forty minutes last week because I didn't want to get in his vehicle. - If you don't want to or can't learn the local language, at least know the following words: hello, goodbye, thank you, excuse me, I don't speak [language], bathroom, bus, subway, taxi, foreigner (both the polite and rude terms), and the word for your home country. At least you can twig on to whether people are talking about you or not. - You are 100% replaceable. - Everyone's a little bit racist. And sexist. - Don't ever argue with someone who tells you their country does XYZ, even if you know it's not true. Just smile politely and say, "That's great!" If you really want to rub their noses in their own bullshit, figure out a subtle way to do it later. - Learn basic Powerpoint and design skills. If one of the lower-ranking teachers sends me another PPT copied from Wikipedia in 15 pt font with a million animated pictures per slide, I'm gonna lose it. - You are not obligated to be friends with your coworkers. - You are not obligated to accept any and all invitations. Is it a good idea? Usually. I would go to at least the first and final work events of the year. - It's not always personal when you hear coworkers say your name in the midst of a long string of {whatever language}. - Always read every single line of your contract, get clarifications, and have the clarifications written down by whoever's clarifying. "Let's discuss this later" will never happen. - Check all potential employers against all available ESL blacklists. Talk to the teacher who's leaving, if possible. - Don't be offended by personal questions. If I got mad every time someone asked me why I don't have a baby, I'd be dead by now. - You are an easy target and will be made a target at some point for something. - Know when and where people in your country typically travel. If you want to avoid large crowds of Chinese tourists, for example, don't go to Thailand in February. - Don't just ignore things like emails or texts that you can't read. Use translation software or a friendly person who speaks your language to help you. Sure, it's usually spam, but there are times when it's important information. - Yes, everyone probably learns English at least until high school, but that doesn't mean they remember any of it. - More people know what "gently caress you" means than you think. - Figure out public transportation ASAP. - The silent treatment is always a bad sign. - Don't get a pet unless you know FOR SURE that you are staying a long time and/or can get it out of the country and/or have someone else who can take it. There are more dogs and cats abandoned by English teachers than you would believe, even if they were originally rescues. - Cheating and lying have different values and uses in other cultures. - Personal space is not something you are entitled to. - Never EVER give your bank book/card, passport, birth certificate, or anything else like that to your boss unless they tell you exactly when it will be returned to you. If it's not returned on time, keep asking until you get it. - Don't get in a physical fight with a local unless you have hella backup, regardless of the other person's size or apparent strength. You don't know if twenty of their closest friends are on their way. And if someone tries to egg you on and get you to hit them, don't. Never, ever make the first move unless you are seriously threatened. - You don't have to give your phone number or email to everyone that asks. - Secure all recommendation letters, etc. before leaving the country. - If someone approaches you, speaking impeccable English, and really wants to chat, they're probably a JW or a Mormon. - If someone asks, "Will you be my friend?" they want free English lessons. - No one has the right to take your picture without your permission. - Always have an emergency lesson on deck. - Drunk Asian girls love big-titted white women.
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Jun 7, 2017 04:25
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Oh, and don't say "I'm so grateful to be here!" It's a job and you were hired to do it because you were deemed capable; it's not a badge of honor. Don't grovel. Ditto for "amazing opportunity." If I ever hear another 21-year old tell me that being a teacher at some lovely fly-by-night chain school in Korea is an "amazing opportunity," I'll pee on their loving shoes.
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Jun 7, 2017 04:32
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Viola the Mad posted:
It depends on your definition of "bizarre," really. There are a lot of things I barely notice that friends and visitors have been taken aback by. - People taking pictures of you, with or without your permission. If you go to a tourist site, there's a non-zero chance that local visitors will want a picture with or of you, and have no shyness about just running up and asking. This is something I personally hate and won't do unless a child asks, but other people find it novel and funny. I just think it's dumb. Maybe a little racist, or maybe not, depending on how grumpy I am when I consider the situation. People taking pictures of me without my permission...I've knocked phones out of peoples' hands more than once. I don't belong to you, motherfucker, and I'm not a goddamn photo op. - People just randomly screaming poo poo at you. Every time I take a walk, someone yells "HAAALLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" at me as they zip past. I don't even acknowledge this anymore. - People following you. - People staring at you. - Having your hair touched, body parts grabbed, tattoos poked, etc. Men almost always have one experience where someone, usually a kid, grabs their arm hair and yanks. - Being babbled at in the local language at top speed, often regardless of whether you're even acknowledging the person or whether you have said anything to them. - People being absolutely fascinated by the food you're eating at a restaurant. - Hysterical laughter when you do anything, or say anything, or sometimes even if they just look at you. "It's a response to being embarrassed" is usually the reason given; no one has ever acknowledged that this is rude or upsetting when I've brought it up. But for me, this is one of the worst things, mainly because it wastes time. Like, I just want to buy this bottle of water and I've given you more than enough money to pay for it; you don't need to shriek-laugh to your coworker for five minutes while you try to figure oout how to say "5 [local money]." Relax. I don't WANT to talk to you. - When you're talking to another English speaker and someone starts imitating the sounds you're making. This is one of my pet peeves from adults. - Being asked questions about whether you can do basic things ("Can you eat rice?" is literally my least favorite thing Japanese people ever said to me. NO, I CAN'T, MY LIPS WERE SEWN SHUT. It's just rice!) or being over-praised ("You are so good at using chopsticks!" "Yeah, I've been in Asia for seven years." "Wow! So...you can use chopsticks? Really?"  )- "Really?" is a response to ANYTHING, by the way.
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Jun 8, 2017 04:38
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simplefish posted:Also at the supermarket, "What has it got in its basketses?" is what you do when you see a Foreigner. Because I have obviously got access to the Secret Foreigner Repository, where I'm not gonna be buying same poo poo as everyone else in the same supermarket. The supermarket basket obsession also drives me nuts, but I just make a huffing noise and put my shopping bag on top, and they get the idea. I probably would have put that bitch's phone straight into her soup. I am not a zoo animal. I am not for public consumption. If she had asked, then it would be okay. I don't usually take pictures of people unless they're performing or I get their permission first, and I feel like it's horribly rude to do that. But that's just how I feel, and if it doesn't bother you, then I'm honestly envious! quote:I get this. I use it myself. If I can't think of anything to reply with to keep the conversation going, I pull a "Really?". The alternative is "Tell me a bit more about that" which just sounds job interviewy to me. It doesn't mean I don't believe you, it means gimme nore detail Yeah, but:  "Do you like Chinese food?" "Yes, I do." "REALLY!??!?!?" "...yes." "You eat Chinese food?" "...yes." "REALLY?!??!?!?!?!?!??!" "........................yes." 'WOW! FANTASTIC!" "Okay." "What is your job." "I teach science." "REALLY?!??!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" "..................................................................yes."This is not a enjoyable sort of conversation and it takes a lot of inner strength not to reply, "No, I'm actually Imelda Marcos in disguise and I'm here to steal all your shoes and shove them up my rear end and dance around like a loving monkey and then I'm gonna steal all your rockets and go to SPACE." Kopijeger posted:How far do they typically follow and how long? Is it simply done to stare at you longer, or do they actually do anything to you? Usually just looking. Occasionally they might shout hello. As far as I can tell, it's just to look longer. There are not many foreigners in my neighborhood and a lot of the residents are older people whose newly-monied children have bought them a new place out in the suburbs, so I guess it's to be expected. Very few people are aggressive or deliberately unpleasant to me, and usually if I just stare blankly ahead and don't meet their eyes, they stop looking. I have caused a few motorbike accidents, and I once entranced an elderly woman so completely that she lost her toddler- kid was down the street and almost across the road by the time Grandma remembered her. I don't mind a look, even a sustained one, but so many people are literally slack-jawed with astonishment that it becomes very uncomfortable very quickly for me. Or when they get these huuuuuge smiles like they've just had an orgasm made of ice cream. Or the pointing- it's not polite to point at people here, according to my Chinese coworkers, so it is a bit irksome. Ziv Zulander posted:Let me guess, bad day? Not really (today is, but yesterday was pretty okay) but I had been thinking about the question over the past week, and I've had a legend of a bad week, so that probably influenced my mental list. But I do wish I had known those things before I started teaching overseas. Fleta Mcgurn fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Jun 8, 2017 |
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Jun 8, 2017 09:48
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By the way, I apologize if I'm coming off as too negative. Things are very difficult for me right now, health- and work-wise, and I'm generally pretty sensitive so I always sweat the small stuff. And just sweat. oh god so sweaty
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Jun 8, 2017 10:08
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occamsnailfile posted:One local custom I appreciated in southern Japan in summer was it being totally okay to basically towel off with a little washcloth or something, everybody sweatin' so humid guh whereas in Texas (which is actually even hotter) you shouldn't be showing any glow, didn't you just totter directly from your car to the office what do you mean you walked to the post office that's half a mile away how uncivilized Also the unironic use of fans. I resisted until two weeks into my first Tokyo summer, then I was fannin' away. I prefer fans to A/C, anyways. Brightman posted:I just remembered my cousin taught English in Japan like 10~15 years ago. He's like 6'7" or something so people over there kept thinking he was an NBA player and kept asking for autographs. One time he got on the wrong train and it was a bullet train so he ended up out in the sticks somewhere far south of Tokyo. Someone saw him walking around, again assumed he was an NBA player, and invited him to dinner at their home. Afterwards they helped him find a cop and he got directions back. I don't remember any other stories but he did end up marrying a Japanese woman he met there. This made me so happy!
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Jun 9, 2017 01:59
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simplefish posted:No they aren't talking to us in English, they're talking to their (non-English) friends in English. I'm not 100% sure why but it's a thing I've noticed. I've seen people do this in Korea. I thought initially that they were trying to hint to me that they'd like to join the conversation, but if was embarrassingly not the case!  Hahaha, still feel awkward about that one.
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Jun 9, 2017 02:01
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