Now I'm left to wonder how that would be taken...
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South Korea
- Thread starter mangalavara
- Start date
Hey @mangalavara I'm glad things are working out so well for you there.
A friend of mine moved to China to teach English a few years ago and he loves it too.
I have to say I am in awe of anybody who can make a move like you guys did.
The prospect of a 14-hour flight alone probably would have been enough to give me second thoughts.
Really happy to hear that things are going well for you.
I don't think I was aware of this thread until today when you bumped it, but it's on my watch list now.
A friend of mine moved to China to teach English a few years ago and he loves it too.
I have to say I am in awe of anybody who can make a move like you guys did.
The prospect of a 14-hour flight alone probably would have been enough to give me second thoughts.
Really happy to hear that things are going well for you.
I don't think I was aware of this thread until today when you bumped it, but it's on my watch list now.
Sand Dancer
Crazy Cat Lady
I just saw this. Good luck to you!!
I've been reading your posts and of course, I wish you well....During Covid's earlier times, American baseball was discontinued. On cable I watched Korean baseball. Unfortunately, there wasn't much coverage of anything in Korea except the games. I'm learning a great deal from your accounts of local Korean habits....Why not ask your co-working teachers why the Korean girls are laughing at you. It might be they think you are cute...
.. I wish you the best of times...
.. I wish you the best of times...
I've been reading your posts and of course, I wish you well....During Covid's earlier times, American baseball was discontinued. On cable I watched Korean baseball. Unfortunately, there wasn't much coverage of anything in Korea except the games. I'm learning a great deal from your accounts of local Korean habits....Why not ask your co-working teachers why the Korean girls are laughing at you. It might be they think you are cute...
@mangalavara
Just found this: Nervous laughter and why it isn't funny outside of Korea - KoreanClass101.com Blog
Don't know if that'll clear anything up, but it does open the idea that laughter can mean something different in Korean culture.
Minutes ago, I opened my Papago app and said ‘Maheśvara’ into it. In Korean, it sounds like ‘마헤 쉬 와라,’ which can mean ‘Maheś, come here.’
If he loves it, it probably includes vacation time.
That’s nice of you. I had never been to Korea before making the move. Not many people would want to do it that way.
The prospect of a 14-hour flight alone probably would have been enough to give me second thoughts.
It was my first flight. Considering that I chose economy class, it wasn’t my favorite 14-hour flight.
I’m glad you have added it.
Thanks.
Some of it you won’t find elsewhere online, from what I’ve seen.
If it’s for a bad reason, the Korean co-workers either wouldn’t tell me in plain English or they would say it in a rather indirect way. Koreans don’t like being direct (additionally, they are nonconfrontational).
Thanks for the link and idea.
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It was foggy here the past evening. I took this photo on the fifth floor of my workplace. A beautifully eerie day.
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
It will be fun following the places using Google Earth. It will be like a group tour with you as the guide. ;0]
I’m not sure if this is an accurate or inaccurate translation.
The jangma (장마) or ‘long rain’ began the past evening. I went out with my clear umbrella for a nice, long walk about half an hour before sunset. I walked around the local river for a good while while there was light rain. As I walked, I was deep in contemplation. Then, I walked to Lotte Department Store and sat outside on a bench under a tree. Holding my umbrella, I continued my contemplation. Finally, I walked home and then did some shopping at a nearby grocery store.
As I was walking home from the aforementioned department store, I accidentally slipped on the wet concrete and fell on my hands and knees. Fortunately, there were no scratches or pain. I got up quickly. It happened on a corner near a café called Road View. Now I wish I had stayed on the ground. Somebody there could have come outside, put a large bath towel over my shoulders, and given me a cup of hot choco. Lol. Anyway, I walked 14,101 steps.
As I was walking home from the aforementioned department store, I accidentally slipped on the wet concrete and fell on my hands and knees. Fortunately, there were no scratches or pain. I got up quickly. It happened on a corner near a café called Road View. Now I wish I had stayed on the ground. Somebody there could have come outside, put a large bath towel over my shoulders, and given me a cup of hot choco. Lol. Anyway, I walked 14,101 steps.
That's a lot of steps! Good work!
A week later, I walked more than 17,000 steps on Sunday night. I don’t recommend walking that many steps, at least not without the proper clothing. My left thigh was so badly chafed that it was bloody. Initially, I did not plan to walk that far. Long story short, I should should have crossed the river on the wooden bridge the first time rather than pass the wooden bridge, check for a path of stones that wasn’t covered with water due to the rain, and then head back to the wooden bridge.
While I was walking along the river, I saw a young guy slowly crossing it on a path of stones. He was carrying a bicycle at the same time. He dropped the bike in the water more than once. He also accidentally stepped into the water. In the end, when he finally made it across, he parked the bike on the path along the river, and he walked up some steps to wherever he lived. The bike was the kind that you rent using an app. He could have simply parked it on the other side of the river and crossed it easier.
May you find your path of stones next time!
Tis the season of leg chaffing... how are the summers there?
Thanks. It’s nice to walk on a path of stones across the river. At the moment, the river is flooded due to torrential rain.
The summers here are easier than summers in Texas. Although it is quite humid here, the highs are in the 80s and low 90s Fahrenheit. Where I’m from, it is humid with highs often in the upper 90s and 100s.
I did some shopping tonight at Emart. As you can see, I bought what Tagalog speakers call a tabò. I've noticed that Koreans use these for washing bathroom floors. The water goes down the drain located in the middle of the floor. I wonder if many Koreans have considered using them for toilet hygiene. Here in Korea, paper rather than water is the custom. Anyway, I bought the tabò to replace my big plastic bottle that stands next to the toilet for cleaning/hygienic purposes.
From what I've read, people in India use a bathroom mug or toilet mug for cleaning. I assume that the mug is one of these lovely things, not something like this thing. Perhaps @Aupmanyav can enlighten me?
Anyway, I'm going to make some milk tea and then go to bed.
Goodnight
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
That is more than the minimum which is supposed to be 10,000. How much time did it take? Bumped into your blog. Nice. My son has been to Korea when he was with Samsung. Banging doors will certainly disturb me. I want total 100% concentration in whatever I am doing.
Yeah, poor people will use anything that can hold water, mugs, bottles. Jets in our place, except for my son, who uses paper (which I consider disgusting).
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I don’t remember. It was probably somewhere between two and three hours.
Thank you. I’m glad that your son took that opportunity. I’ve seen some Indian and what I assume are Bangladeshi people in my city. Most of them look like students; others look like they work here.
I’ve managed to get my students to stop slamming the classroom doors. Also, my employer mentioned the neighbor to the landlady, and the neighbor stopped letting his door slam shut at night. After a few weeks, he moved out; the new tenants are quite considerate with their doors. Lastly, when I took a new teacher to a local bank a couple of weeks ago, each person who departed the bank through the back door allowed it to slam shut. Things rattled each time. I have another story involving a restaurant with wooden bathroom doors and wooden door frames that were treated mercilessly by almost every diner, but I’ll hold my peace.
Whenever I own my own apartment or house, I will have a jet installed if there isn’t one already. Until then, I’m going from poor Indian to iconic Filipino.
Regarding paper-only, I too consider that disgusting. Śaucha is part of sāmānya dharma. Physical cleanliness requires water.
Tomorrow is Friday. The two academies where I work will be closed from July 31 to August 4 for summer break. Teachers and students will return on August 7. We have this summer break not because it is the custom but because one of our fellow foreign teachers fought hard for it. Thanks to her, and to our executive director for agreeing to it, all of us, students and teachers, will have some time off to relax and enjoy ourselves.
Now for the interesting part. Our executive director said that ‘parents have been complaining’ about the upcoming summer break. They want their children to be at the academies studying, not staying home when they already have their summer break from school. I heard another foreign teacher ask our Korean head teacher how many parents have complained about it to our first academy. It turns out that only two of them have complained. Tonight, while I was grading tests at our second academy, our Korean manager was talking about this situation. He said that only one parent complained to the second academy about the summer break. He then went on about how students are not robots—they need a week to rest rather than study. Moreover, he said that that one parent is a nut. All in all, our executive director made it sound as if a lot of parents have complained and that our upcoming summer break was a bad idea. It’s not as if other academies don’t have summer breaks. Some don’t, of course.
It was announced earlier that we’ll have a winter break, but now we fear that our executive director might cancel it. I hope she doesn’t because everybody needs time off to rest. Also, she is legally required to give employees 10 or 11 days of vacation every year. All we get off are weekends and national holidays. People like her who own English academies in Korea are probably the main reason that less foreigners move abroad to teach in Korea these days. Other Asian countries such as Thailand provide more vacation time to foreign teachers and are thereby appealing. As we all know, happy employees are loyal and productive employees. Many foreign teachers here quit after one year due to the lack of vacation time and the low salary. Unfortunately, some people don’t try to make their business worthy of one’s loyalty.
Now for the interesting part. Our executive director said that ‘parents have been complaining’ about the upcoming summer break. They want their children to be at the academies studying, not staying home when they already have their summer break from school. I heard another foreign teacher ask our Korean head teacher how many parents have complained about it to our first academy. It turns out that only two of them have complained. Tonight, while I was grading tests at our second academy, our Korean manager was talking about this situation. He said that only one parent complained to the second academy about the summer break. He then went on about how students are not robots—they need a week to rest rather than study. Moreover, he said that that one parent is a nut. All in all, our executive director made it sound as if a lot of parents have complained and that our upcoming summer break was a bad idea. It’s not as if other academies don’t have summer breaks. Some don’t, of course.
It was announced earlier that we’ll have a winter break, but now we fear that our executive director might cancel it. I hope she doesn’t because everybody needs time off to rest. Also, she is legally required to give employees 10 or 11 days of vacation every year. All we get off are weekends and national holidays. People like her who own English academies in Korea are probably the main reason that less foreigners move abroad to teach in Korea these days. Other Asian countries such as Thailand provide more vacation time to foreign teachers and are thereby appealing. As we all know, happy employees are loyal and productive employees. Many foreign teachers here quit after one year due to the lack of vacation time and the low salary. Unfortunately, some people don’t try to make their business worthy of one’s loyalty.
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Tonight, I have just noticed that I have been living in Korea for a year and a half so far. Soon, the executive director of the two academies where I work will have a meeting with me in which she will very likely ask me if I would like to renew my contract a second time. My answer will very likely be a yes.
Working my job has helped me save a lot of money almost effortlessly. As soon as I get online banking set up (which requires actually going to the bank), I intend to make a large payment on my student debt this month (payments begin in October this year). Then, by making payments for the next six months, I would reduce the debt quite a bit. Finally, if my contract is renewed for another year, my intended monthly payments that year would make my student debt a small amount, at least from my perspective. It would take less than a year afterward to finish paying it off. All in all, renewing my contract would be good for my financial health.
Other than being able to pay off my student loans quicker, my presence at the academies is really valuable. Thanks to passels of bad reviews and horror stories, there are far less native English speakers willing to come to Korea to teach. Finding a replacement for me would be too hard and would require more patience than ever.
Here is what native English speakers who want to teach abroad have been warned about. So many people here who run English academies are brutal and only care about profit. To top it off, lots of them don’t even know English. Some have never even taught a class. Accommodation for foreign teachers is often disagreeable. There is no vacation given even though employers are legally required to give it. In my case, my academies’ director and executive director are fluent English speakers, and the accommodation is really not bad. The walk from my accommodation to my worksite doesn’t even take 10 minutes. Compared to so many other foreign teachers in this country, I have it good. Of course, I don’t get any sick days (unless I’m in the hospital) and I have to juggle classes in two academies. Originally, we had no weeklong vacation, but lately we had one for summer, and our winter one is confirmed. We have them now because a co-worker fought for them. When she leaves, I will have to step up when necessary and advocate for my co-workers. The head foreign teacher simply won’t do it. By nature, I am agreeable and compliant, so this will be a challenge for me. I suspect though that the executive director would be inclined to listen to me anyway considering that I’m a man (the cherished kind of human in this culture) and often command respect.
Teaching English abroad in Korea, especially at an academy rather than a school, is not for the weak. One has to be a soldier, so to speak. In my case, I do it as an offering to the Mahādevī. The pay is the prasād that I partake of.
Working my job has helped me save a lot of money almost effortlessly. As soon as I get online banking set up (which requires actually going to the bank), I intend to make a large payment on my student debt this month (payments begin in October this year). Then, by making payments for the next six months, I would reduce the debt quite a bit. Finally, if my contract is renewed for another year, my intended monthly payments that year would make my student debt a small amount, at least from my perspective. It would take less than a year afterward to finish paying it off. All in all, renewing my contract would be good for my financial health.
Other than being able to pay off my student loans quicker, my presence at the academies is really valuable. Thanks to passels of bad reviews and horror stories, there are far less native English speakers willing to come to Korea to teach. Finding a replacement for me would be too hard and would require more patience than ever.
Here is what native English speakers who want to teach abroad have been warned about. So many people here who run English academies are brutal and only care about profit. To top it off, lots of them don’t even know English. Some have never even taught a class. Accommodation for foreign teachers is often disagreeable. There is no vacation given even though employers are legally required to give it. In my case, my academies’ director and executive director are fluent English speakers, and the accommodation is really not bad. The walk from my accommodation to my worksite doesn’t even take 10 minutes. Compared to so many other foreign teachers in this country, I have it good. Of course, I don’t get any sick days (unless I’m in the hospital) and I have to juggle classes in two academies. Originally, we had no weeklong vacation, but lately we had one for summer, and our winter one is confirmed. We have them now because a co-worker fought for them. When she leaves, I will have to step up when necessary and advocate for my co-workers. The head foreign teacher simply won’t do it. By nature, I am agreeable and compliant, so this will be a challenge for me. I suspect though that the executive director would be inclined to listen to me anyway considering that I’m a man (the cherished kind of human in this culture) and often command respect.
Teaching English abroad in Korea, especially at an academy rather than a school, is not for the weak. One has to be a soldier, so to speak. In my case, I do it as an offering to the Mahādevī. The pay is the prasād that I partake of.