FINAL comments, nightmare POSEF

Remedies have been 'suggested' for the POSEF problem.
My response?.

In short--been there, DONE that, sadly DOES NOT WORK.

Suggestions and my answers(?).

*Use physical punishment like the Korean teachers:
Yep. And pretty much from day 1, those students were so awful.
There was my special stay-after room cleaning for the really bad table or group. Plus group or individual humiliation punishment of kneeling out in the halls or in front of the rest of the class.

* Be loud and be heard.
HENCE I used a mike.
Not only did I use a mike, but any instructions were also typed out and projected on the screen. With most the class talking non-stop over the mike even, you had to have 'visual' explanations of the instructions.
note: My instructions were never more than 5 minutes, if that even. So there was no excuse for "English is too hard/too long..." whatever.
I taught at ELEMENTARY level previous to the high school and they had no problem understanding my very basic instructions.

I had other things I tried out that I will not bother going into here because really, at the heart of the matter, lies a more insidious two fold problem. At the macroscopic level, fundamentally Korean society still views women as lesser. So you can swear and whack and punish all you want, but if you're not doing it in a pair of pants, you'll find yourself just doing it all over again the next week. At the more microscopic level, if your fellow teachers don't have the decency to show professional respect for you (and they don't), the kids won't either. They aren't stupid. Ignorant, yes, but not stupid. They can see how the Korean teachers, teachers THEY respect, treat the foreign teachers. If their native teachers show they don't care, the students follow suit and also do not care.

And that's it.
If you have any suggestions then leave a comment for the other victims of that place. It's highly likely I have already tried and done them, in which case I will note that and how it doesn't work when they are published.

But if you are smart, you won't even bother.
Take my advice--bypass Korea and head straight for a different country like I am.


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POSEF rule #32 - we don't care.

POSEF rule #32:

Stealing and defacing the foreign teacher's property is OK.

We don't care and will do nothing about it.
So if you are feeling frustrated and destructive, knock yourself out!
Just get those scores up and we will turn a blind eye to it!


Really, they don't care.
What else should one think when one returns from the weekend to find their two sweater jackets missing? (weekend of 5/15-5/16)
I reported it immediately to receive yet again another bland, "Oh, that's too bad. I don't know what could have happened."

～＊～FIN～＊～

And that's not the first thing to go missing or be defaced to the point of complete uselessness.

Numerous personal magazines (usually missing, several obscenely defaced), comics (horribly defaced like the boys spit in them or blew their nose in them), and other "extra" materials to make the classroom environment more well-rounded and inviting. Because as anyone with even a few months experience much less a few years will tell you, the English conversation class is even more worthless than the music class.
As such, the clever teacher must find other ways to get them to do things.

If they still care by that point that is. -_-

The ironic(?) thing is they gave me NOTHING but a filthy, empty classroom to start with.
Not even a textbook.
And I revamped it from floor to ceiling with posters, a book corner, a separate work/lab table, a special free-chat corner to the point that one upperclassmen English teachers came in to take pictures of it because "the daughter of this teacher is just starting an English club and he wants to show her what a good classroom looks like. You are the best English conversation teacher we have ever had."

*click*snapsnap*

At least they could reimburse me for my loss incurred by one of their precious students. After all, until the items were recovered, the ENTIRETY of sophomore-world came to a screeching halt when a bunch of the students' items were stolen from their classroom. The only people with keys to the room are other teachers and the porno-movie club. Not even the janitor goes in to clean that place, so it was one of your little darlings..

You know what I have to say to that all-mighty POSEF?

You make it very obvious that you don't give a sh1t about what happens to the foreign teachers, so why do you expect them to care about anything in return??


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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plush, cottony POSEF tissue

Well, I was going to post something different about why you want to avoid taking any ESL teaching post with POSEF in South Korea, but something better came up.
(And, yes, I am being sarcastic.)

My contract ends on May 31.
However because I am traveling with a pet I can not leave until June 7.

They are aware of this.

Last week Ellen (Unyeong Lee, 2-fa[ed b1t[h-a13rt) assured me that "POSEF doesn't pay for it, but you can stay longer in that apartment until you are able to leave."

TODAY it's "You have to be out when the contract ends."

Excuse me?!

And I am supposed to do what for an entire week?
Sleep outside??

With all my luggage and a pet?

That would be GREAT advertisement for how POSEF treats its employees.

Actually, sadly, that would be a very accurate advertisement -

WELCOME TO POSEF WHERE WE USE AND LOSE YOU AFTER HINTING THAT WE WANT YOU TO STAY ON.

Our lessons, my friends?

We, the ESL teachers on the front lines, are the only ones protecting ourselves.
And we can only protect ourselves by sharing information.

Because to organizations like POSEF and Hagwons like Avalon, we are just toilet tissue to be used for wiping their a$e$ and then be flushed down the drain. After all there are a dozen rolls more out there waiting to be used so just wipe, flush, and move on.

Look forward to more fun POSEF information in the future!


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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Disinterested, Detached, and IN DENIAL

Three words to describe the administration's and (to a certain degree) native teachers' level of awareness in Pohang Jecheol High School.

I was informed today that like the other teachers, I would have to do some paperwork for my absence since "this process is what all teachers do when they are absent officially."

That's reasonable.

THIS is NOT:
"what you need to do is write 2 pages(A4) about what you were going to teach today for 1st graders."

I practically choked on laughter.
They are all still under the disillusion that there is any teaching going on??
Talk about naivety. Well, given their age, more like severe DENIAL.

I wrote back stating in no uncertain terms that although all my lesson plans are done a week in advance, I could barely fill one page much less two.

Newsflash!
Just because everyone sits up straight, listens attentively, and answers in unison while you are in the room, it is the height of ignorance to assume it would continue afterwards.
In a normal foreigner's classroom it is NON-STOP TALK.
It doesn't matter if I use the timer bomb or crank up the mike to ear-drum piercing range. No effect not counting their whining about how loud it is.
I wouldn't have to turn it up that loud if you would all SHUT THE F()%#) UP for 2 MINUTES for a few instructions!!
The logic of which is naturally, completely lost on them.

As a language class there should be talking. It is one of the four parts of language teaching/learning.
But the incessant talking in Korean classrooms is non-excusable and completely unworkable which is why any lesson 'plan' fills up at most 3 lines.

It is an attitude problem.
One at critical levels because I have been doing this for over 5 years now and I have NEVER had such mean, racist (mostly a boy-problem), rude students as the ones in this high school.

When I first came they tried to pass it off as "they aren't used to your style yet". First off, I have been doing this long enough to smell that was NOT the case. Secondly, even if they didn't want to believe me, a year later, NO CHANGE. And it is not just No Change, the new students coming in are the exact same way!

Then there is the other common 'excuse' for this behavior - the foreigner's class doesn't effect our grade so wth cares?
BUT the flaw to this argument here is that in Japan and Korea - NO GRADE MATTERS. All students advance to the next grade regardless of their previous work.

It's not style, not grades... That leaves us with the life-determining "college entrance exams."
English isn't on them so...

Oh, wait. Yes, it is.
Including a listening test.

But conversation isn't so again WTF cares?
...Except elite schools also include interviews in English.

And even if you weren't going to one of the highly-tauted elitest schools.we can still take out even this argument.
All you have to do is walk the halls during other classes.

English is useless?
NOT exactly...
You know what IS a useless class from a student's perspective?
Chinese. Japanese, Gym, S.E.W.I.N.G. class.

And yet if you walk past these classrooms, whether it be girls or boys, there is attentive silence while the teacher is talking. There is no one reading magazines, watching movies on their PMP, surreptitiously writing email on their cell phones.

The teacher does not have to spend 5+ minutes constantly asking for and not receiving attention.

Of course not.
That teacher is KOREAN and that is all that matters..
And that is what is boils down too - a severe attitude problem towards non-Korean teachers.

And specifically Korean.
I never had this crap in Japan which is why I can never answer their "which country do you like better?"

Gee, I don't know.
WTH do you think??


Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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Seriously. I want a DOG.

What ever happened to "third times the charm"?
Or "three strikes and you're OUT"?
As of today, for Korea I'm up to FIVE times having encountered some form of sexual harassment. >.>

Oh, how to count the ways in which you piss me off, Korea.

Admittedly, in America, there was one time - an old guy (who happened to be a family friend) grabbed my face and tried to kiss me. Fortunately, he wasn't too forceful and I was able to avert in time. All thanks to the presence of his wife.
Not that she was watching, but after I nonchalantly averted he whispered very clearly, "Come back later when my wife isn't here."

Needlesstosay, I never took him up on that.
Creepy bastard.

I can't recall precisely how old I was at that time. I know it was around High School because later when Pepper Puppy was with us, when she was with me in the car she reacted to him very non-favorably.

But in America's defense, that was only one time in 25 years.

Then there was an incident in Japan.
Actually, it wasn't as blatant as the nasty old man in America, but when an older man - again, older - suddenly feels up my arm and then giggles madly like an elementary girl in between "Oh, I shouldn't have done that."
That just creeps me out.
Oh, and that was at this place in Japan, MSE. I later heard that apparently the righteous bitch that runs it didn't believe me. Which is probably why I was still forced to teach him the last month. (For the record, another girl later on ran into similar harassment by the SAME MAN and she was ALSO forced to continue to teach him.)

But in Japan's defense, that was only one time in 4 years.

But Korea...
Korea's a keeper.
Five times in only Seven MONTHS.

This last time a mere 60 minutes ago when I was cornered in my apartment building by a Korean man wanting sex.
Well, at least he was young. >.>

But sexual harassment knows no age discrimination in Korea!
Young or Old, they all stick out their hand for no reason as you walk past to try to grab your breast.
I can't fathom that one. Because I'll be the first to unabashedly admit there's not much to grab. So seriously, W.T.H. is your deal!?!?!

This last one though...
So much for the new electronic door locks. >.>

As he didn't speak much English and wasn't letting me out, I did the only thing possible - went along with it while trying to find a calm way to diffuse the situation and escape.

See, I had already judged there was not a SINGLE soul in the building.
Everyone there works someplace. And since most are English teachers like me as it was early yet they're were definitely not there. (I had returned briefly to fetch I book Incheon customs kept me waiting over a month for. But that's another gripe.)

Screaming was not going to get anyone coming to rescue me and worse might agitate him. We were on fairly "friendly terms" as much as I was trying to sidle out of there.
I also knew there was no chance of over-powering him - he had already repeatedly shown he was strong enough to keep me from leaving.

I kept protesting that I had work, was late, "shikan" (time) pointing to my wrist repeatedly, but that didn't phase him from repeatedly pulling me close to wrap his arms around me.
That was just tolerable enough, but just like the creepy American, it eventually graduated to grabbing the back of my head and forcing his lips on mine.

Three times. :P

The last time with tongue, too. *gag*
When I pulled away from that one was when he leaned in conspiritorily and asked me if I knew "sex".

Give me a break, already.

I continued protesting innocently about the time and the bus (finally remembered the word for that) then had the idea to started heavily emphasizing "email" as in "1st email THEN sex."

That seemed to do the trick.

Either that or he was getting worried about the delivery he was supposed to be making but instead took time out to make a little detour to assault a foreign girl.

...
I'm thinking a Siberian Husky or two.*

Cheers! (^_-)-☆

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---

*for the record, this is the PG-version of the Korea story. I really didn't feel like remembering the whole thing in detail over and over again.