My crazy job

Sometimes my job makes me shake my head in utter disbelief.

Here's a few points:

1. I have a cheap boss. So cheap, that he hides the paper for the printer and photocopier in his office. The paper in the photocopier was replaced with scrap paper. Today, I printed out a few tests, only to find that on the back of them was a childs work from another class! I actually had to dig around to find some "acceptable" paper to print the tests on. In an amazing coincidence, we had two "craft weeks" right before they claimed that we were using too much paper. Go figure...

As well, I recieved shit from the boss' wife for going though too many markers on Wednesday. When a marker is dead, it's dead. It's dry and you can't write on the whiteboard with it. When I grabbed a new one from the closet yesterday, I was scolded.



2. The "manager" (Susan), aka. the "translator" between the English staff and the boss and his wife, has poor at best English skills. She cannot adequetly convey her, or the boss', opinion to us foreign English teachers. All too often, she gets things mixed up or seems to alter the truth to benefit herself (knowingly or unknowingly).

Example #1: One of the students, Dion, switched into a slightly more advanced class. The rest of the class is using a reading book in addition to their regular textbook. The new student did not have the reading book. I asked Susan if he would be getting a reading book. Due to the high cost (I roll my eyes here) of ordering only one textbook, he won't be getting one. One of the other students, named Matthew, that was formerly in that class does have that reading book though. She suggested that maybe Dion could use Matthew's book, since it only had a few pages marked up in it. She then left our office to talk to the boss' wife about this idea. She came back and informed me that since it was used, Dion might not like it. Okay I thought, I'll just photocopy my copy of the reading book for him. So, like a good little teacher, I photocopied that pages that I would be teaching today for Dion. Later in the day, Susan looked at my desk and noticed the photocopied papers and asked what they are for. Happily I told her what they were for. She got mad and in a huff of frustration, asked me why I was doing that when she told me that Dion would be using Matthew's book. I told her that she never did tell me that, and in fact implied that he would not be using Matthew's book. She got mad and left the room. Luckly David, the other foreign teacher here, was around for every incident and can back up my story. Not that it matters when Susan has the trust of the boss, since she's the manager who knows excellent English and all...

Example #2:

My "advanced" class, consisting of five middle-school girls (middle-school girls often have huge egos and are very rude), finished their "textbook" today. Actually, they finished it a month ago. The actual textbook goes from unit 1 to unit 8. It's sold in a set of two, with the second book including units 9 through 16. The person responsible for buying the books, the same manager that I talked about in the previous example, only bought the first book. Accompanied by these books is a workbook, which has all 16 units in it. Naturally, I stopped using the workbook at the end of unit 8, since that's where the textbook ends.

At this point, I began asking Susan repeatedly when we would be getting a new book for this class (as opposed to my asking her occasionally before). She kept telling me that she hadn't found a good book yet. *sigh* So, I began to make my own lessons; arranged from other books which we have in the school. Photocopying, much I did. It wasn't long before Susan and the boss' wife began to question me on why I was using so much photocopied material for this class (photocopying is very expensive of course!). I told them that the class was finished the textbook. Susan told me that they weren't. I told her that they were. Susan told me that they weren't. Etc. Eventually, I was able to explain that this was a miscommunication. I didn't realize that they wanted me to finish up to chaper 16 in the workbook. Why they thought I should teach the entire workbook when the actual lessons are in the textbook is beyond me. Apparently the boss' wife (I have no idea what her name is. I call her the Korean name for "boss' wife. It's acceptable here) later agreed that it was silly using the workbook when there was no textbook to go with it when she questioned why I was teaching out of it! Susan agreed with her that what I was doing was silly. *sigh*

So, last week the girls requested that we have some sort of party when we finished the workbook. I told them that I liked that idea and would talk to Susan about it (she's the Korean teacher for that class). She liked the idea too, and had actually suggested it to the girls a few weeks earlier. So, after some thinking, she gave me the go. Unfortunately, our schedules didn't allow for much of a party, so I thought that maybe we could just play a game instead when the workbook was finished. Today was that day. The class is a one hour class, and the book was finished just after the half hour mark. I broke out the Scrabble. Halfway into the game, Susan and the boss' wife were peering into my classroom door's window. I open the door and ask them what's up. They look very upset and Susan asks me why I am playing a game. I told her that it was her idea anyway and that we talked about this a week ago. She completely ignores that and scolds me, as does the boss' wife, for playing games when I should be teaching.

At least David was there for the whole thing and can back me up...



3. Next week, we begin the special summer schedule. The student's summer break started today (Thurs.) and goes until the end of August. Unfortunately for those poor kids (and for poor me!), their private schools go on as usual. That includes not only their extra-curricular English institutions, which includes what I work in, but also their science institutions, math institutions, etc. These kids are forced into wayyy too much school. Not only do the kids still have to attend, but the private schools add on even more hours and charge the parents accordingly. This school system really is about making money for the owners, not about teaching. So, for August, I'll have to begin teaching at around 10:30am. I should finish at around 6:30pm. That's not what's bad. The school offering extra classes for a price isn't neccessarily bad either. What is bad, while annoying anyway, is that I was told to make these extra classes "special".

The students taking these special summer classes are generally the same students that I see later in the day. They will just come twice a day now and use a different textbook for these classes. I was told that I was not to teach like I normally do, but to teach in a "special way" so that the kids would have a memorable time. How do I do that? I have no idea. When I asked Susan how I am supposed to do that, she told me to teach differently and really stressed that I make the classes "special".

I think that I'm going to me take "special" as meaning that I should had out lollipops to the students.

I'm dead serious.

We'll see how well that one goes over...