Life is filled with first's.
First crush.
First kiss.
First baby...
This was a first I could do without.
I made my first call to the Japanese Police this past Monday! (The 13th, incidentally.)
There were obvious signs that someone had been in my apartment while I was away at work. In other words, my very first actual case of breaking and entering. Not a very competent job fortunately as nothing was missing, only messed and.. increased? (They didn't take things, but they left things. ) However, I called the police anyway since if they entered once, they could do it again. And it was too freaky to think what they might be handling while I am not there. And what might happen to Ranmaru?!?
They took their time getting here, or at least it felt like it, but when they got here...
It was like a bizzare bridal procession for Jack Sprat and his wife. Officer "J", we will call him, was not tall like in the story but just as skinny and uninspiring. I am quite sure he was wiry-strong, but I am just as sure the gear he was wearing weighed more than him.
And his pledged partner Officer "W" was a retired sumo wrestler?
There are no really overweight people in Japan beyond the sumo wrestlers and comedians.
However, he seemed to have found the situation inappropriately amusing so maybe he fancied himself a comedian on the side. (All I could think as we approached my door was how is he going to get through the foyer to the back of the apartment??)
I filed an official police report.
They advised that since nothing was missing this time, that would be best course of action. If it happened again (and it does.), then they would call the detective in and it would be officially investigated whether or not anything was taken . They asked me about calling a detective this time too, but that was kind of unsettling so I went with their suggestion of just filing a report for now.
Oh, and like I mentioned above, the a$$h01e$ invaded again.
This time we were waiting for them though.
They triggered my door "alarm" and Ranmaru's very own ferret "alarm" - jerk stepped in a ferret landmine waiting by the front door.
That was the situation when I returned from work on Friday.
Once is more than enough.
But MORE THAN TWO TIMES!?! And in the same week?!
Camera came out for evidence pictures and I went to talk to the landlord who was actually in for once.
They immediately called in a locksmith...
Who then, as an apology of sorts for not being able to come immediately on Friday, arrived Saturday 30 minutes EARLIER than planned and before I had even gotten dried off from my shower.
... ...
At least it got done.
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Showing posts with label problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label problems. Show all posts
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
B1tch H1tler, again
Another conversation
Unwanted but overheard by the misfortune of being in the same room.
And did I mention she basically runs the Buddhist preschool/kindergarten (or in this case, military academy for short people)?
This was message delivered on behalf of nonpresent employee "A" by another of the staff, employee "B". Employee A had previously had a miscarriage. Traditionally there are specific times at which you go to pray for/to the soul of the miscarried child. Employee A apparently wished to take a day to go to that place and give offering, have rites said, etc.... Employee A was wondering why she was not being given permission to properly pray for her dead child.
B1tch H1tler didn't waste a second before delivering her proclamation to Employee B much the way she would sign a paper or write a check, "Time doesn't matter. It's the thought. She can go and pray and come back."
・・・
Not someone I would want influencing my offspring, but it is appropriately a Buddhist school and for the parents of those school children, 知らぬが仏 - The Buddha is unknowning, or in other words "Ignorance is Bliss".
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Unwanted but overheard by the misfortune of being in the same room.
And did I mention she basically runs the Buddhist preschool/kindergarten (or in this case, military academy for short people)?
This was message delivered on behalf of nonpresent employee "A" by another of the staff, employee "B". Employee A had previously had a miscarriage. Traditionally there are specific times at which you go to pray for/to the soul of the miscarried child. Employee A apparently wished to take a day to go to that place and give offering, have rites said, etc.... Employee A was wondering why she was not being given permission to properly pray for her dead child.
B1tch H1tler didn't waste a second before delivering her proclamation to Employee B much the way she would sign a paper or write a check, "Time doesn't matter. It's the thought. She can go and pray and come back."
・・・
Not someone I would want influencing my offspring, but it is appropriately a Buddhist school and for the parents of those school children, 知らぬが仏 - The Buddha is unknowning, or in other words "Ignorance is Bliss".
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
DELTA strikes again
I'm getting pretty damn disgusted with the rampant airline abuses.
If DELTA had a human face, they'd be listed as a repeat offender and thrown behind bars where they belong!
Have you guessed already?
Yep, just to show they're not friends of cat-people either, DELTA KILLS another pet.
As a refresher, you can find more travel nightmares in our previous posting, Planes, Trains, PETS!!
But that one at least has a happy ending.
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
If DELTA had a human face, they'd be listed as a repeat offender and thrown behind bars where they belong!
Have you guessed already?
Yep, just to show they're not friends of cat-people either, DELTA KILLS another pet.
As a refresher, you can find more travel nightmares in our previous posting, Planes, Trains, PETS!!
But that one at least has a happy ending.
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Planes, Trains, PETS!!
It seems, looking back, that I have not shared with you my Korean pet transport nightmare.
And I was using a pet transport company in going from Korea to America!!!!
But it is the whole reason that regardless of cost I completely advocate employing a professional transport company. I can not imagine what would have happened if they were not there to oversee, redirect, and basically just pick up after everyone else along the way who was dropping the ball.
Problems occurred on both sides - Korea and America. They started the day of pickup and just kept going.
Much like a rock rolling down the hill.
Or like a snowball - one that keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
On the Korea side, the native contact was supposed to hire another company to pick up Ranmaru and deliver him to the domestic airport so he could then hop to Seoul (Incheon) and board the international flight from that airport.
The pick-up company arrived promptly.
On a MOPED.
Keep in mind, I speak more Korean now having left that country than I did while there. So in my state of shock and horror (I could just see them weaving and swerving in and out of traffic, Ranmaru being thrown around in back, whacked against the walls, drenched in his water and likely scared piddle.) all I could do was mime talking on the phone and repeat, "NO. NO. CALL "SUN"!! "
He called the native contact, "Sun" and she called me, terribly apologetic. She had requested they send a van for pickup, but the just-out-of-High-School kid that showed up probably didn't bother to read that part of the order.
So naturally, as we were waiting for the proper vehicle to show up, Ranmaru missed his flight to Seoul meaning "Sun" had to try and find him another domestic flight somewhere that day soon so he could still board his international flight on time.
About 2 hours later the van finally showed up with a new destination - an airport one hour south of us. (Incidentally, in the completely opposite direction from Seoul.) Then and there I decided I was traveling with him to make sure Ranmaru got on the plane whether the driver liked it or not.
I myself was leaving the country in less than 12 hours.
I wasn't taking any chances with this company.
The ride down was fine and Ranmaru managed to board his plane. "Sun" and I spoke again about current plans through the driver's cell phone in the airport. Now I was stuck on getting back to my hotel and luggage.
But not really. One great thing (only?) about Korea is the bus transportation system. So I was all set to hop a bus back when the pick-up company driver waved me back (with a drink in hand) and motioned me to get back in the van.
The verbal exchange was something like
"Pohang?" *drink extended*
"Nee, Pohang." (Yes, Pohang.) *drink accepted*
That sounds all cozy until he contacted "Sun" or his boss again and then "Sun" spoke to me saying it would cost me $45 for the trip back.
HELL NO. Stop the van. I'll take a bus, thank you!!
(As I explained vehemently to "Sun", He was going back anyway so why am I paying? And frankly, I wouldn't even be here if his company did their job right in the first place.)
There was even a bus stop right around the airport. Apparently, however, it was invisible as he was completely unable to find it and kept driving around and around and around all over this freaking unknown city. And the whole time all that kept going around my mind was *I* don't have *time!* for this!
He was back and forth with his boss on the cell for awhile and then "Sun" asked to speak with me again. Turns out he would take me halfway and drop me off 'near' another bus station.
Fine, whatever! timetimetime.
We arrived in the area and from my drop-off, I could just make out the bus station over and across the bridge, x-number of blocks away. But whatever, fine, at least I could get on a bus that was definitely going in the right direction with no spontaneous side-trips. (And considerably cheaper.)
BUT! Yes, but, as I was exiting the van his boss came walking up, jumped in, and motioned me back in. (ahhh, the magic of sign language.)
Yeah.... OK.
But I didn't close the door until he assured me in reasonable English there was "no pay".
Between having hardly any sleep the night before, the current pickup disaster, and the whole nightmare plane trip looming in front of me in less than 8 hours, of course I got in.
The rest of Ranmaru's trip from the Korea side went smoothly with "Sun"sending me pictures of his arrival at her office and then another one before he boarded his Delta flight to the US.
Yes, Delta.
Remember Delta?
The same company that lost a family's dog to certain starvation at some international changeover?
Well, they certainly didn't let us down with any show of competence this time either.
After I arrived safely in America, I checked my email the following morning to see about picking up Ranmaru per our pre-takeoff plans. At once, I found several emails (never a good sign) from my US-side contact. Turns out Delta put Ranmaru on the wrong flight.
In other words, much like Paco the dog, Ranmaru was supposed to arrive with me but did not because he was not put on his pre-scheduled flight for some unknown reason. However the pet transport company had been following this the whole time and when I finally got the emails in the morning after my late night arrival, I was told one of their agents had been taking care of Ranmaru in the meantime since his early, unexpected arrival.
Again, I can't stress this enough, if the transport company had not been there to clean up after all these people, Ranmaru would have been sitting on some cargo bay with no care or anything for 12 hours or more.
Or worse.
It's just as perfectly likely that Delta might have shipped him not just on the wrong flight, but to the wrong place. And in that case, as a lone, unimportant consumer, could I or anyone naively expected Delta to have gone all out to locate him?
Or would they merely have tried to throw a $200 compensation at me like in Paco's case?
No.
Hire a Professional Pet Transport company, please.
You will pay in blood, but it is soooo worth it as no amount of monetary compensation is ever enough to cover the life of a loved one.
Cheers and see you again! (^_-)-♪
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
And I was using a pet transport company in going from Korea to America!!!!
But it is the whole reason that regardless of cost I completely advocate employing a professional transport company. I can not imagine what would have happened if they were not there to oversee, redirect, and basically just pick up after everyone else along the way who was dropping the ball.
Problems occurred on both sides - Korea and America. They started the day of pickup and just kept going.
Much like a rock rolling down the hill.
Or like a snowball - one that keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
On the Korea side, the native contact was supposed to hire another company to pick up Ranmaru and deliver him to the domestic airport so he could then hop to Seoul (Incheon) and board the international flight from that airport.
The pick-up company arrived promptly.
On a MOPED.
Keep in mind, I speak more Korean now having left that country than I did while there. So in my state of shock and horror (I could just see them weaving and swerving in and out of traffic, Ranmaru being thrown around in back, whacked against the walls, drenched in his water and likely scared piddle.) all I could do was mime talking on the phone and repeat, "NO. NO. CALL "SUN"!! "
He called the native contact, "Sun" and she called me, terribly apologetic. She had requested they send a van for pickup, but the just-out-of-High-School kid that showed up probably didn't bother to read that part of the order.
So naturally, as we were waiting for the proper vehicle to show up, Ranmaru missed his flight to Seoul meaning "Sun" had to try and find him another domestic flight somewhere that day soon so he could still board his international flight on time.
About 2 hours later the van finally showed up with a new destination - an airport one hour south of us. (Incidentally, in the completely opposite direction from Seoul.) Then and there I decided I was traveling with him to make sure Ranmaru got on the plane whether the driver liked it or not.
I myself was leaving the country in less than 12 hours.
I wasn't taking any chances with this company.
The ride down was fine and Ranmaru managed to board his plane. "Sun" and I spoke again about current plans through the driver's cell phone in the airport. Now I was stuck on getting back to my hotel and luggage.
But not really. One great thing (only?) about Korea is the bus transportation system. So I was all set to hop a bus back when the pick-up company driver waved me back (with a drink in hand) and motioned me to get back in the van.
The verbal exchange was something like
"Pohang?" *drink extended*
"Nee, Pohang." (Yes, Pohang.) *drink accepted*
That sounds all cozy until he contacted "Sun" or his boss again and then "Sun" spoke to me saying it would cost me $45 for the trip back.
HELL NO. Stop the van. I'll take a bus, thank you!!
(As I explained vehemently to "Sun", He was going back anyway so why am I paying? And frankly, I wouldn't even be here if his company did their job right in the first place.)
There was even a bus stop right around the airport. Apparently, however, it was invisible as he was completely unable to find it and kept driving around and around and around all over this freaking unknown city. And the whole time all that kept going around my mind was *I* don't have *time!* for this!
He was back and forth with his boss on the cell for awhile and then "Sun" asked to speak with me again. Turns out he would take me halfway and drop me off 'near' another bus station.
Fine, whatever! timetimetime.
We arrived in the area and from my drop-off, I could just make out the bus station over and across the bridge, x-number of blocks away. But whatever, fine, at least I could get on a bus that was definitely going in the right direction with no spontaneous side-trips. (And considerably cheaper.)
BUT! Yes, but, as I was exiting the van his boss came walking up, jumped in, and motioned me back in. (ahhh, the magic of sign language.)
Yeah.... OK.
But I didn't close the door until he assured me in reasonable English there was "no pay".
Between having hardly any sleep the night before, the current pickup disaster, and the whole nightmare plane trip looming in front of me in less than 8 hours, of course I got in.
The rest of Ranmaru's trip from the Korea side went smoothly with "Sun"sending me pictures of his arrival at her office and then another one before he boarded his Delta flight to the US.
Yes, Delta.
Remember Delta?
The same company that lost a family's dog to certain starvation at some international changeover?
Well, they certainly didn't let us down with any show of competence this time either.
After I arrived safely in America, I checked my email the following morning to see about picking up Ranmaru per our pre-takeoff plans. At once, I found several emails (never a good sign) from my US-side contact. Turns out Delta put Ranmaru on the wrong flight.
In other words, much like Paco the dog, Ranmaru was supposed to arrive with me but did not because he was not put on his pre-scheduled flight for some unknown reason. However the pet transport company had been following this the whole time and when I finally got the emails in the morning after my late night arrival, I was told one of their agents had been taking care of Ranmaru in the meantime since his early, unexpected arrival.
Again, I can't stress this enough, if the transport company had not been there to clean up after all these people, Ranmaru would have been sitting on some cargo bay with no care or anything for 12 hours or more.
Or worse.
It's just as perfectly likely that Delta might have shipped him not just on the wrong flight, but to the wrong place. And in that case, as a lone, unimportant consumer, could I or anyone naively expected Delta to have gone all out to locate him?
Or would they merely have tried to throw a $200 compensation at me like in Paco's case?
No.
Hire a Professional Pet Transport company, please.
You will pay in blood, but it is soooo worth it as no amount of monetary compensation is ever enough to cover the life of a loved one.
Cheers and see you again! (^_-)-♪
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
more windows crap
Windows is a piece of sh1t.
Yes, it is.
As someone who has worked with computers both professionally and personally since the late 1980s, I can say with confidence - Windoze u r a piece of overpriced sh1t.
My latest beef with windoze is the fact that it on occasion, randomly and without warning, forgets the keyboard. As in can not recognize the keyboard that it even came with.
Fert, I miss my linux machine.
Some fixes I found later to be edited copied here to make sure I have them for my own reference.
* Method One, Summary:
Not only must you add the Japanese layout to IME, but you must also install a Japanese keyboard driver. Here's the set of instructions, updated to Windows XP SP2. Of course, use at your own risk.
1. Navigate to Start->Control Panel->Keyboard
2. On the Hardware tab, click Properties (note that the current driver is probably "Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard")
3. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver...
4. The Hardware Update Wizard launches. When it asks if Windows can connect to Windows Update to search for software, select "No, not this time" and click Next
5. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and click Next
6. Select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install" and click Next
7. Uncheck "Show compatible hardware"
8. Select "Japanese PS/2 Keyboard (106/109 Key)" from the manufacturer "(Standard keyboards)" and click Next
9. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about installing incompatible device drivers appears
10. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about replacing PS/2 mouse port drivers appears
11. Click Finish and reboot
I really recommend reading the FULL ARTICLE.
However, what worked for me this time is contained in the following site. This site offers several suggestions for fixing the windoze botch, but what worked for me was the dreaded registry edit. o.o
* Method Two, option#5, registry edit:
ドライバでキチンと日本語キーボードになっているのに英語配列になっちゃう場合は、
この方法をとる。こちらも自己責任で。
regeditを起動して、以下のキーに移動する。
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\KeyboardLayouts\00000411
（この操作もXP/Vista/7、32Bit/64Bit共通です）
まずはバックアップ
▲まずは該当キーの上で右クリックしてエキスポートしておく。
PCが更に不調になった場合は、このエキスポートファイルを「結合」する事で元の状態に戻せるようになります。
次にデータの変更。
「Layout File」をダブルクリックして「KBDJPN.DLL」 と入力
「Layout text」をダブルクリックして「Japanese」または「日本語」 と入力
変更が終わったらregeditを閉じてPC再起動
注意：
似たキーがありますがコッチじゃありません。
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
▲末尾にsが無い
Again, I really can' stress how much I recommend reading the
FULL ARTICLE. And if you can't (since it is in Japanese), let me know which method you are interested in. There is over five methods offered. I will post the translation in the comments.
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Yes, it is.
As someone who has worked with computers both professionally and personally since the late 1980s, I can say with confidence - Windoze u r a piece of overpriced sh1t.
My latest beef with windoze is the fact that it on occasion, randomly and without warning, forgets the keyboard. As in can not recognize the keyboard that it even came with.
Fert, I miss my linux machine.
Some fixes I found later to be edited copied here to make sure I have them for my own reference.
* Method One, Summary:
Not only must you add the Japanese layout to IME, but you must also install a Japanese keyboard driver. Here's the set of instructions, updated to Windows XP SP2. Of course, use at your own risk.
1. Navigate to Start->Control Panel->Keyboard
2. On the Hardware tab, click Properties (note that the current driver is probably "Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard")
3. On the Driver tab, click Update Driver...
4. The Hardware Update Wizard launches. When it asks if Windows can connect to Windows Update to search for software, select "No, not this time" and click Next
5. Select "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)" and click Next
6. Select "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install" and click Next
7. Uncheck "Show compatible hardware"
8. Select "Japanese PS/2 Keyboard (106/109 Key)" from the manufacturer "(Standard keyboards)" and click Next
9. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about installing incompatible device drivers appears
10. Click Yes to continue with the installation when the warning about replacing PS/2 mouse port drivers appears
11. Click Finish and reboot
I really recommend reading the FULL ARTICLE.
However, what worked for me this time is contained in the following site. This site offers several suggestions for fixing the windoze botch, but what worked for me was the dreaded registry edit. o.o
* Method Two, option#5, registry edit:
ドライバでキチンと日本語キーボードになっているのに英語配列になっちゃう場合は、
この方法をとる。こちらも自己責任で。
regeditを起動して、以下のキーに移動する。
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\KeyboardLayouts\00000411
（この操作もXP/Vista/7、32Bit/64Bit共通です）
まずはバックアップ
▲まずは該当キーの上で右クリックしてエキスポートしておく。
PCが更に不調になった場合は、このエキスポートファイルを「結合」する事で元の状態に戻せるようになります。
次にデータの変更。
「Layout File」をダブルクリックして「KBDJPN.DLL」 と入力
「Layout text」をダブルクリックして「Japanese」または「日本語」 と入力
変更が終わったらregeditを閉じてPC再起動
注意：
似たキーがありますがコッチじゃありません。
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
▲末尾にsが無い
Again, I really can' stress how much I recommend reading the
FULL ARTICLE. And if you can't (since it is in Japanese), let me know which method you are interested in. There is over five methods offered. I will post the translation in the comments.
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
All translations copyrighted and owned by myself. All copyrights of their respective owners. No part of this web site may be produced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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.
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
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.
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
Friday, May 21, 2010
POSEF rule #32 - we don't care.
POSEF rule #32:
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."
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! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
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! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
Friday, December 18, 2009
You teach from 9:25 today!!
was the title of today's 'mail'.
Sent to me at 9:26.
No really. Look.
===========================================================
[제목] : this is todays schedule. you start at 09:25!
===========================================================
[발신인] : 담임 이은영
[수신인] : 어학실
[수신인원] : 1명
[수신일자] : 2009-12-18 09:26
Sent to me at 9:26.
No really. Look.
===========================================================
[제목] : this is todays schedule. you start at 09:25!
===========================================================
[발신인] : 담임 이은영
[수신인] : 어학실
[수신인원] : 1명
[수신일자] : 2009-12-18 09:26
I compared what my clock was saying against the oddly empty classroom, and hurriedly replied back.
I learned from before to NOT expect any help so I quickly translated some of what looked relevant Korean emails ONLY to find out today was another test day.
Thanks for the one minute warning people.
Actually, one minute AFTER THE FACT.
This will make the third time they didn't bother to inform me of something dreadfully relevant or a major schedule change. (This is a test-centered school culture.)
Foreigners already have a HUGE disadvantage here far, far beyond the constraints of a language barrier.
But that's another gripe/warning for another time.
The point is that this oversight makes me look BAD. AGAIN.
You do NOT make mistakes here.
Last week was finals.
Normally I proctor tests so I was prepared to do the same for this one. Even made up a little "test bag" of supplies. When I spoke to my lead teacher, she said that just like the mid-term I would not be on the schedule. Instead I would be "off".
I no longer trust anything here so I decided to come in that morning anyway to do some other work. As I received no "quick! come proctor!" message via the internal messaging system I felt rather confident in her statement. Even so, I went through the dozen or so Korean mails, looking for the ones about the final test and quickly translating what I could.
So I was feeling pretty good and for some reason I can no longer remember went down to see the lead teacher.
After she walked in from her test period, some other male teacher grabbed her and started irritatingly blathering at her. Unfortunately I caught a slurred version of my name.
...
It was the FINAL, for %^$%# sake.
And for a foreigner to make a mistake (much less a woman) it is automatically assigned to the pigeon hole thought process of "foreigners = unreliable. lax. sloppy. not serious about their work. have it so f*(&*%g easy yet they can't even be counted on to do something as simple as THIS."
Admittedly, there's more than a few like that (like apparently my next door neighbor), but for those of us who came expecting to actually teach...
Like I told the lead teacher once after another 'incident' - "They (the teachers) have stress so they take it out on you. The kids have stress which they ALSO take out on you. It really seems to me that they're just looking for someone to kick around."
Cheers! (^_-)-☆
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
Friday, April 11, 2008
p2p networks blocked for users in Japan!
With the recent move of the Japanese ISP's to ban P2P networks, many sites are not available for streaming in Japan!! It is not yet definite whether this IP ban will be permanent or temporary.
But as always, the internet is on the move, like a kaliediscope--twisting and writhing its way into different shapes and disguises...
Previously in dealing with country restricted services we introduced how to use Anonymous Proxy.
ANON Proxy does not necessarily work in this circumstance for those in Japan as it depends on your direct ISP and/or the location of the ANON proxy. For instance, I was not able to even connect to one site - CR - itself via anon proxies located in the USA or China, but I could through a lonesome little proxy server in Ghana. So if you are up to it, keep trying different servers and direct your efforts towards those in lesser moderated countries like Turkey and Ghana. That would be my suggestion. Just also be aware the tend to be really slow.
The proxy servers on the previously published site are still good and the instructions are still valid. Note the WARNING about using ANON proxy services. THAT HAS NOT CHANGED! One change that should be noted is that with the new NETSCAPE (version 2.0.0.x), you make the internet connection alterations via the path Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Network. For older versions use Tools > Options > Advanced > Network.
Frankly, right now at the time I write this I am buffering Suicide Song at a snail's pace, but at least it's loading!!
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
But as always, the internet is on the move, like a kaliediscope--twisting and writhing its way into different shapes and disguises...
Previously in dealing with country restricted services we introduced how to use Anonymous Proxy.
ANON Proxy does not necessarily work in this circumstance for those in Japan as it depends on your direct ISP and/or the location of the ANON proxy. For instance, I was not able to even connect to one site - CR - itself via anon proxies located in the USA or China, but I could through a lonesome little proxy server in Ghana. So if you are up to it, keep trying different servers and direct your efforts towards those in lesser moderated countries like Turkey and Ghana. That would be my suggestion. Just also be aware the tend to be really slow.
The proxy servers on the previously published site are still good and the instructions are still valid. Note the WARNING about using ANON proxy services. THAT HAS NOT CHANGED! One change that should be noted is that with the new NETSCAPE (version 2.0.0.x), you make the internet connection alterations via the path Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Network. For older versions use Tools > Options > Advanced > Network.
Frankly, right now at the time I write this I am buffering Suicide Song at a snail's pace, but at least it's loading!!
Thanks again for stopping into my little corner of the 'net, and Happy Browsing!!
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