Gettin' busy with the fizzy!
Well, there's not been a post in a while because I've been ridiculously busy. Work has been crazy and eating up most of my time. Last Sunday was some sort of festival, although I have no idea for what or why. When I asked, people seemed to be confused that I didn't know and gave answers I could only equate with 'Just because'. So, we had to work on that Sunday, manning the stall our school had set up in an effort to spread the word and get more students.
I figured it'd be, like, wear a suit, talk some English and impress the parents with my mad Engrish skillz. Turns out I couldn't've been wronger, as I spent the day dressed as a pirate (pictures hopefully to follow), handing out sweets, leaflets and balloons. And I had my photo taken with just about every kid under the age of 8 in South Korea. Or at least it felt like it anyway. I'm still trying to figure out if it was me or the balloons that was the teenage Asian girl magnet. Either way, I'm sitting on a gold mine if I can sell the secret.
Speaking of which, some of my classes had been canceled for a while, but just started again (now exams are over), adding to the chaos. I like less than 50% of them (students and classes), but have a good rapport with some of the girls. I like them more because, as a rule, they're more interested in the lesson and in learning. Anyway, after one of the classes I was talking to the girls who wanted to share something with me that they felt was really important.
Apparently they like me more than their English teacher at state school, because he's a pervert.
This really struck me because the girls sharing this story are, like, 11 - 13. That's way too young to know what a pervert is, meaning this guy must be a real nasty piece of work. If the younger girls can pick up on it, it's no wonder us 'foreigner teachers' (as we're known) have such a bad reputation. She's fucking 13 max. Not good. Still, at least I'm not considered one of them. To be honest, I think being married in that regard helps. That and fancying WOMEN as opposed to GIRLS, plus being of sound mind too. I wanted to say, if he tries anything, go for the throat and groin, and scream like hell. I didn't as I wasn't sure how appropriate it'd be.
Just another example of me not being the rude, culturally insensitive pervert, I guess.
While we're on the subject of perversion at school, take a look at this:
This comes from one of Becky's classes. She told the kids that they could draw their dreams. I think that's a she-male with scales and claws shitting everywhere. With a huge misshapen member. She confiscated it so as to not get into trouble and so the student didn't get in trouble. The 'artistic' 6 year old drew another similar, ah, "creature" in another lesson when told he could draw anything he wanted.
We weren't really sure what to do about it. I mean, should we tell the Korean teachers? Is it okay? What if it's not okay and he develops problems and finds himself persecuted because of them? It'd be our fault. Yeah, we weren't sure what to do, so I figured there was only one thing to do.
Put it on the internet.
A future in Japanese animation awaits, my talented young friend....
In other school related news, we've been told that things such as spelling and handwriting fall outside of our area. As in, it's not my concern if the kids can't write for shit. It's like some big cultural taboo or something, like foreign teachers are not allowed to test the students spelling. It's not just our school, others we've spoken to online have told similar tales. If I had to guess why, I'd say it has something to do with image. I can't remember if I mentioned this previously, but I'm not supposed to write anything bad on the student report cards. So I figure they're scared of me testing them and the scores "getting out". I would be too, the class average was about 3/20 for words they had already covered and over half of the class didn't even know there was a dictionary/glossary in the back of their textbooks.
I can't help but wonder what they *are* learning in the Korean teachers' classes, since it is supposed to be spelling and grammar. Crazy.
Or as they say, unable to pronounce z's; craysche.
Onto the interesting stuff. I bought Phantasy Star Portable. Although it's all in Korean, I'm really enjoying it. I was pleased that I got it at such a low price (pre-owned at an equivalent £15.00) and am doing okay, being familiar with the series. I did have a little trouble between the 'equip' and 'buy' option, putting me several thousand meseta/credits/gil/gold/magic beans down, but several pairs of pink dungarees up. The graphics are great, the sound is great, the customization is great and the story is.... Well, at the moment all I can say is present. It seems to revolve around my two girlfriends, always fighting. It's a bit one sided however, as robo-meek piece of ass always backs down to fiery-elf piece of ass. My character is getting shit-hot with the sword/pistol combo. One of the best features of the game was actually inspired by the PSP's limitations. There is no longer a lobby, as such. The lobbies have been replaced with an overhead map, leaving you to click on the NPCs and shops (and tailors!). It works really well and prevents the inevitable boredom you suffer when playing something like FF, and you have to walk all the way to the shop (again), then all the way to the magic shop (again), then all the way to the save point (again), and.... Well, you get the picture. Actually the little bit of FFIIing I've been doing, doesn't suffer too badly from this, once you know where the shops are. I know that a lot of fans don't like FFII, but hey, I've always had a thing for red-heads. So, yeah, PSP on the PSP, awesome! I doubt that there'll be a European localization anytime soon as you can import your character from the PC/PS2 game, and it's not big in Europe, so I was happy to pick it up.
My RPG work continues, averaging about 2 hours day, as does my reading of the most excellent Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover. What an awesome book - I'm going to have to poll my players on what nations they want to visit in our game. I've not been hanging out much on the Paizo boards still. Great game, great company, great products at great prices, but their message boards haven't been all that friendly lately. I'm on RPGLife a bit more, since they gave me free stuff and I can get more free stuff by posting. Awesome!
Well that's about it for now. I'm off to try to find Toys R Us tomorrow. I did a google search and we found 3 in Korea, apparently within feet of where we were stood previously. Hopefully it'll be awesome, as I've just been paid (late! again!), but I'm not too hopeful. These fools just don't love toys as much as they should!
I figured it'd be, like, wear a suit, talk some English and impress the parents with my mad Engrish skillz. Turns out I couldn't've been wronger, as I spent the day dressed as a pirate (pictures hopefully to follow), handing out sweets, leaflets and balloons. And I had my photo taken with just about every kid under the age of 8 in South Korea. Or at least it felt like it anyway. I'm still trying to figure out if it was me or the balloons that was the teenage Asian girl magnet. Either way, I'm sitting on a gold mine if I can sell the secret.
Speaking of which, some of my classes had been canceled for a while, but just started again (now exams are over), adding to the chaos. I like less than 50% of them (students and classes), but have a good rapport with some of the girls. I like them more because, as a rule, they're more interested in the lesson and in learning. Anyway, after one of the classes I was talking to the girls who wanted to share something with me that they felt was really important.
Apparently they like me more than their English teacher at state school, because he's a pervert.
This really struck me because the girls sharing this story are, like, 11 - 13. That's way too young to know what a pervert is, meaning this guy must be a real nasty piece of work. If the younger girls can pick up on it, it's no wonder us 'foreigner teachers' (as we're known) have such a bad reputation. She's fucking 13 max. Not good. Still, at least I'm not considered one of them. To be honest, I think being married in that regard helps. That and fancying WOMEN as opposed to GIRLS, plus being of sound mind too. I wanted to say, if he tries anything, go for the throat and groin, and scream like hell. I didn't as I wasn't sure how appropriate it'd be.
Just another example of me not being the rude, culturally insensitive pervert, I guess.
While we're on the subject of perversion at school, take a look at this:
This comes from one of Becky's classes. She told the kids that they could draw their dreams. I think that's a she-male with scales and claws shitting everywhere. With a huge misshapen member. She confiscated it so as to not get into trouble and so the student didn't get in trouble. The 'artistic' 6 year old drew another similar, ah, "creature" in another lesson when told he could draw anything he wanted.
We weren't really sure what to do about it. I mean, should we tell the Korean teachers? Is it okay? What if it's not okay and he develops problems and finds himself persecuted because of them? It'd be our fault. Yeah, we weren't sure what to do, so I figured there was only one thing to do.
Put it on the internet.
A future in Japanese animation awaits, my talented young friend....
In other school related news, we've been told that things such as spelling and handwriting fall outside of our area. As in, it's not my concern if the kids can't write for shit. It's like some big cultural taboo or something, like foreign teachers are not allowed to test the students spelling. It's not just our school, others we've spoken to online have told similar tales. If I had to guess why, I'd say it has something to do with image. I can't remember if I mentioned this previously, but I'm not supposed to write anything bad on the student report cards. So I figure they're scared of me testing them and the scores "getting out". I would be too, the class average was about 3/20 for words they had already covered and over half of the class didn't even know there was a dictionary/glossary in the back of their textbooks.
I can't help but wonder what they *are* learning in the Korean teachers' classes, since it is supposed to be spelling and grammar. Crazy.
Or as they say, unable to pronounce z's; craysche.
Onto the interesting stuff. I bought Phantasy Star Portable. Although it's all in Korean, I'm really enjoying it. I was pleased that I got it at such a low price (pre-owned at an equivalent £15.00) and am doing okay, being familiar with the series. I did have a little trouble between the 'equip' and 'buy' option, putting me several thousand meseta/credits/gil/gold/magic beans down, but several pairs of pink dungarees up. The graphics are great, the sound is great, the customization is great and the story is.... Well, at the moment all I can say is present. It seems to revolve around my two girlfriends, always fighting. It's a bit one sided however, as robo-meek piece of ass always backs down to fiery-elf piece of ass. My character is getting shit-hot with the sword/pistol combo. One of the best features of the game was actually inspired by the PSP's limitations. There is no longer a lobby, as such. The lobbies have been replaced with an overhead map, leaving you to click on the NPCs and shops (and tailors!). It works really well and prevents the inevitable boredom you suffer when playing something like FF, and you have to walk all the way to the shop (again), then all the way to the magic shop (again), then all the way to the save point (again), and.... Well, you get the picture. Actually the little bit of FFIIing I've been doing, doesn't suffer too badly from this, once you know where the shops are. I know that a lot of fans don't like FFII, but hey, I've always had a thing for red-heads. So, yeah, PSP on the PSP, awesome! I doubt that there'll be a European localization anytime soon as you can import your character from the PC/PS2 game, and it's not big in Europe, so I was happy to pick it up.
My RPG work continues, averaging about 2 hours day, as does my reading of the most excellent Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover. What an awesome book - I'm going to have to poll my players on what nations they want to visit in our game. I've not been hanging out much on the Paizo boards still. Great game, great company, great products at great prices, but their message boards haven't been all that friendly lately. I'm on RPGLife a bit more, since they gave me free stuff and I can get more free stuff by posting. Awesome!
Well that's about it for now. I'm off to try to find Toys R Us tomorrow. I did a google search and we found 3 in Korea, apparently within feet of where we were stood previously. Hopefully it'll be awesome, as I've just been paid (late! again!), but I'm not too hopeful. These fools just don't love toys as much as they should!