1. AS EASY AS FALLING OFF A LOG
In tagalog, "PETIKS"! How could not be? All you have to do is sit in front of the computer and talk, talk, talk. Well, it's up to you if you want to exert effort in class. That's why this job is too easy especially for native speakers because they are comfortable speaking the language their teaching. No need to worry if their grammar is wrong or if they don't sound correctly. Koreans will believe them no matter what because of their race. So there, I just said it's "petiks" cos let's say you're going to teach English to an elementary class for 30 minutes. So you'll just log in and the stage is yours. After that, 30 minutes you'll say goodbye and log out. Now if you don't have next class, you can do whatever you want. Just don't let those rude Koreans caught you cos if they did, you will suffer for the entire cut off.
See how easy my job is? Well, at first I have to admit that I was rattled every time they give me 7-10 classes a day. However, when I got used with the systems and how the Koreans act inside the classroom, life is a piece of cake!
It's getting easier and easier. I don't exert effort now. It's now a routine! Greeting the class Good Morning, Good Afternoon or whatever! Then, asking them what's the whether like in their country and asking how do they feel at that moment. See? I'm fed up asking same questions every day the moment I log in to their classes.
Sometimes everything plays dead when it's too easy.
2. THE AMAZING HEARTLESS PEOPLE
Sorry for calling them heartless but that's the first word crossed my mind. So let's talk about those Koreans. I actually like them because the fact that only five of them runs our company is truly amazing. Imagine managing a business with almost 100 employees. Sure, we can actually beat them brutally if we want to but we are not like that. They are very business minded. For them, business is business, work is work. It's like they were raise to give jobs to people. They are very strict to everything especially when it comes to time. For them TIME is really gold. Which is for me works with Filipinos. Well, you know how lazy and late Filipinos are. So they need to whip like hell by their employers in order to use time wisely.
Oh don't you think it's positive, now why do I say they're heartless? Okay, let's put it this way. Once you run the company especially if you're not in your own territory, you should follow the laws we have here in the Philippines. You should also at least be familiarized with the culture of your employees. And also you should be considerate with their situations even if you don't want to so that they will be motivated to work hard. Now if they're already working hard, then to work harder. And unfortunately, they're doing the opposite. Those racists are very inconsiderate! You cannot be sick, because you cannot be absent. It's like the whole world will stop if you get sick. If you get absent it's like 50% of your working time in the entire cut off will come to nothing. And even if you're really sick, they will call you up to come to the office to work. Now, if you want to go on vacation to relax, they will disapprove your request. And the funny part is that, if semester break comes they will force you to have vacation even if you don't want to and WITHOUT PAY! They don't care about their employees. Money is all that matter to them. You are not well-compensated nor even recognized. So what's the point of trying to be the best teacher, right?
3. COMMUNICATION TRANSITION
You can hear three languages inside the office. Sure, there's a lot of ENGLISH ONLY POLICY posted but who cares anyway? Just don't let the Koreans hear you speaking Tagalog. So there, since its here in the Philippines, there's Tagalog, English for British, Pure American and ambivalent American teachers and Korean for the Goddess. I am not a native speaker, so it gets a little hard for me to communicate well with those people. SO it's like this. Americans say I sound like them when I'm speaking English but Filipinos say Ijus sound "MAARTE". LOL which is which?
Alright, just to wrap up this communication transition thing, I just want to say that MY ENGLISH BECOMES WEAKER OVER TIME. Look, since I'm not a native speaker, I am not comfortable speaking the language. I don't speak English at home or even with some of my friends because for sure I will sound awkward to them. And at the office, most of my officemates are Filipinos, so why would we fry ourselves to speak English when we can actually communicate with each other using our OWN language? SO if you estimate it, I only spend 30% of my speaking time in English and 70% in Tagalog a day. SO how the hell could I possibly comfortable in speaking English, right?
When at the office, I speak Tagalog first, especially when I'm greeting my close friends and then will speak English to my Korean students. When speaking to them you need to use simple vocabulary words because they could freak out when they hear English words they never heard. You also need to speak SLOWLY, so that they could understand you better. So it took a lot of effort when you're teaching. Now, during breaks I talk to my foreign officemates. And I know that always look stupid when talking to them because they speak so fast and you'll always hear me say "I'm sorry?" and sometimes they look annoy every time they repeat what they said. It's embarrassing so sometimes I just don't talk to them. LOL
And you cannot blame me or us (Filipinos employee there) because our communication realm is in chaos every time we're at the office. It's like communication switching in a lightning speed. I say, it's communication switching because we don't speak to people at the office in one pattern, it has multiple variations.
In tagalog, "NAKAKABOBO"!
4. SPEECH DEFICIENCY and GRAMMAR LAPSES
I'm having a hard time producing /th/ sound because of the tongue pierce I had when I was in college. So I need to exert a lot of efforts when saying words with /th/ sound just to sound correctly. Most of the time, I produce it correctly but guilt strikes every time I encounter that sound. It seems that I don't deserve to teach that language. How can the teacher possibly teach her student if she has a problem with what she's teaching?
And about the grammar thing, this blog is the star witness! LOL I haven't master the entire grammar rules or whatsoever! So my apology if my grammar sucks! So there , I don't even remember the sentence structures or the right terms to call it. I can't even explain how to use the different tenses of the verbs. Good thing, I've never encountered a class with those kinds of lesson.
5. UGLINESS TO THE NTH POWER
Thanks to my job for making me ugly! LOL I know I am not really beautiful in the first place but I am not exceptionally ugly! I have tons of dark spots on my face now and zits keep on coming. Those disgusting bacterias live on my face maybe because I use make-up every day and face the computer. It is not required to use make up but who the hell doesn't want to look beautiful in videos? And of course, I need to at least look pleasing when I'm teaching.
Next, I'm getting fat or should I say my belly is getting bigger? YES, so true! My belly appears to get bigger when I started working. How could not be? After eating heavy breakfast or lunch, I'll sit in front of the computer and teach.
SO there, I hate that my job makes me uglier and so I QUIT THE OFFICE!
Of course, that's shallow. The real reason is that I want to follow my dreams and my job is distracting me to follow it.
When I got started working there, I thought I can do two things at a time but I was wrong. I can't even think of something to write when I'm at the office. I got fed up hearing other teacher's complain. It's way sad that I have to leave my friends at the office and my students in Koreabut what will I do? I need to do what I want. As a human being, we should FREE OURSELVES and DO WHAT WE LOVE!
PS.
To the company I'd worked for 6 months:
Thanks for accepting me and for being the first one to hire me.
Nice working with you guys, and I MEAN IT! :)
GOODBYE! :)
