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3/4/2005
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KLB - Shame on Shawn
I got several e-mails today criticizing me for my recent posts about piracy (as well as several more wondering what sites/software I'm using) including one from a guy who highly detailed how my downloading The Simpsons hurts the little guys that make the show. The little guys include the company that animates the show here in South Korea, he noted.
I guess he didn't take into account the possibility that, despite being fond of the cartoon, I'd never buy a whole season on DVD. I'm just not that big of a fan. If I was, I really would buy them because I'd want the real thing. For me, especially living in Korea it's nice that I am able to see some episodes for free though - since I don't get them on TV through Skylife. Anyway, I think some people have me confused with the people creating the problem and the pirates that profit from their evil-doing.
Some other people e-mailed me wondering what happened with the coffee-set I got. One Korean guy even strongly urged me against doing it!
I decided not to give the gift set, actually. I realized I would be doing it for the wrong reason. If I really did feel badly and wanted make it up to them, it would be fine. But I'd just be doing it to make them feel guilty and that's no better than the petty way they've treated me/Cathy.
Speaking of Cathy, she had to go to her weekly meeting at the agency again yesterday and was there until 12 a.m. again. Then she had to go to the school today early in the morning for a meeting with the principal. She puts in 40 hours a week for a job that pays her three hours/day. She also has to go in next week for the level-testing and won't be paid, she told me. "I have to work two days for free," she said. I'm not sure whether I pity her because she has to work so hard for nothing, or because she is to weak to protest against it. After all, doesn't her acceptance just perpetuate the problem and make it easier for her to be taken advantage of even more?
I know Julie wouldn't put up with that. She didn't at her last job - when her boss started shady practices, she simply quit. Now she's at a school that is so much better, by the way. This school pays her for extra work and pays her on time. She's really happy now. Had she put up with the way her previous boss was treating her, she'd still be stuck there with the others miserable teachers.
Again, I don't know how to respond to her when she tells me things like this. All I could say was, "You work so hard. I don't know how you do it."
It's really annoying, but not hard to believe. Bonnie, without guilt or shame, exploits Cathy's blind, uncomplaining, Confusianistic devotion to authority, and she does so at every opportunity. It's no wonder many Koreans resent foreigners here. If I were Cathy, I'd probably hate me. We're guests in the country yet are often given better opportunities than they are. Bosses resent us too, because unlike someone like Cathy, we don't put up with being shafted on things like being overworked and underpaid. Julie is a rarity, I guess, because she has had a lot of western influence (too much Oprah!). Too bad every place can't be as fair to both sides as is the case at Julie's school, though. Everyone is treated fairly there, she says. The pay is high and on time, and she always gets paid for extra duties. That makes her happy and she really works hard and enjoys her job now. That's the way it should be.
In other news, I bought a digital camera - nope, not for me, for my sister. Her birthday is next week. As I said, I can't believe how cheap they are getting in America. I got her this model here: Kodak digital Camera as well as a 128 MB storage card, extra batteries and a charger. I wish I could be there to see the look on her face when she checks the mail. I also can't wait to finally see new pictures of my niece and my new nephew! That's a pretty sweet little camera for the money. I wish I could get deals like that here. I guess I could just order something and have it shipped here, but then with shipping and the import tax, what would be the point? I'm still not sure exactrly what I want anyway - no surprise. It took me a year to decide to buy an Xbox. Someone offered to help me get a camera for a good price from one of the army bases. I'll have to follow up with him sometime soon.
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written by shawn matthews
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3/3/2005
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KLB - More Piracy to You
In other news, I realize what the problem was with the Ninja Gaiden disk. It turns out the bootleggers cut out some of the Japanese movie scenes so the data could be fit on a standard DVD-R disk. I had switched the langauge to Japanese, and therefore when the movie clip was about to play after I beat the level, the gamed failed. I guess that's what you get when you don't pay for what you play - but so far that's the only problem I've had, and it's not much of a problem at that since I just downloaded the game again (I have no will power). The problem would have been avoided had I bothered to read the info file that clearly tells you this.
Speaking of that, really - how much longer will piracy last online? Either that or how much longer before some change happens in the media world as a result of this?
For example, before I went to work today, I started to download The Simpsons Season 3 from a torrent off Torrentreactor.net. Less than 6 hours later when I came home, it had finished. In other words, in that short time I downloaded 24Simpsons episodes that look and sound perfect. A quick transfer to the Xbox, and I can watch them through the TV as if they were on DVD. Not only that, but every season in avaialable. Actually, it seems like every movie, show, video game and software that you could ever want, new or old, is readily available on P2P. I tell you, once more and more people finally convert to DSL in America, the industry is going to have to change...hopefully by making their products cheaper.
There's already a multitude of arguments going around for and against piracy. Yes, it's bad, sure. To start with, though, I guess I share the general poor guy's opinion that all record/movie companies are plain evil and greedy and I am happy I can download things for free. Of course there's more to it than that. To be honest, it's kind of like a cheap thrill. Like most others, I try to justify it by saying I'd never buy what I download anyway. Usually that's true, though assuredly there are a few things I might have bought - such as Ninja Gaiden. But I honestly do purchase my favorites. As a matter of fact, I got the best things I ever ordered: The Smurfs Volume 1 and 2 on DVD from Australia a few weeks back. (In case you're wondering, Volume 3 is being released next week.)
I do want to say that I think pirated goods are beneficial to poor people in developing countries. Think about these poor guys who bust their asses at tortuous jobs for peanuts. It makes me glad to know that if they want they can pick up a movie/music CD for less than a dollar on the street. God bless them. It's just plain wrong that they would have to spend $25 to own a movie. For them, there really is not a chance in hell they would/could pay such a price.
Well, that about does it for this topic again. It's time for me to watch The Simpsons...doh!
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written by shawn matthews
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KLB - The Joys of Teaching
The joys of teaching continued today. In a great stroke of planning, our program's semester doesn't change until the week after next but the school's semester changed today. Therefore the students' schedules have changed and in turn all my classes are mixed up. I didn't find this out until the beginning of class today either.
So I have level A students in my B class and B level kids in my C class and general chaos and confusion. My first class has just 5 kids now (down from 12) and the next two have nearly 20 in each. Of course, and this is no surprise, the kids who changed up a level have no new books and they won't be getting any. Several of these students are quitting at the end of our program's semester for various reasons - so they have no incentive to do anything except stare vacantly into space. On the other hand, a bunch of new students will be replacing them and and I guess I'll have a new class too, as I said before.
Basically I'm stuck in limbo between the school's change and ours and I have to wing it until our semester changes and we do level tests next week. It's not going to be easy, though. I didn't know what the hell to do today about the poor kids thrown into advanced levels with no books or comprehension of what's going on in the class. Argh! As a teacher, winging it is not easy in such circumstances.
Today actually stirred up some bad memories. Most of these problems occur on a regular basis in poorly run hagwons. I certainly don't miss that experience and can deal with this for a week until things get back on track. It just never fails to amaze me how stupid some of these education programs can be here and, among a mountain of other things, how much focus is put on trivial things like meticulously detailed paperwork and not enough on effective education of the kids.
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written by shawn matthews
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3/2/2005
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KLB - No Coffee for You!
Yesterday (Korean Independence from Japan Day) was the first time in ages I didn't touch the computer or Xbox (except to watch a movie off the harddrive). All I did was hang out with Julie. It turns out she had been getting fed up with my new obsession. Apparently my sitting hours unend transfixed in front of the TV smashing a controller and muttering incoherently wasn't as much fun for her as for me - go figure. It's OK though because I had already flung Ninja Gaiden out the window a few days back. I'm not kidding. That is one of the hardest games I've ever played. I was on the second to last chapter and just after an impossible battle (in which I died 100 times) I finally beat the level boss. As I was cheering, the screen went blank and an error message popped up that the disk was dirty. Well, that dirty disk is probably still soaring somewhere over the Korean landscape as I write.
That's the thing I don't understand about games. They make you incredibly frustrated yet you keep playing them. I guess it's just like any other addiction. I'm not downloading Ninja Gaiden again right now, I swear. I'm not going outside to look for the disk either.
Today I went off to work in a good mood that lasted through the first class. Then as I was about to get my usual paper-cup of coffee from the school's office, I was told by Cathy we are no longer allowed to drink the school's coffee.
"What? Why not?"
"The principal told me today."
"Yeah, but what's the reason?"
"Because we don't pay for that."
"Well, that's no problem. I'll be happy to pay."
"No, we can't pay either."
"Why not?"
"She said it's not our right to use the coffee machine."
"Are you kidding? That's ridiculous."
[To understand this reaction, you have to know that the "coffee machine" is an old, usually broken, portable paper-cup/coffee dispensing machine like the ones that charge 100-300 won (10 - 30 cents) per cup in restaurants.]
Though Cathy thought nothing of this, it made me feel very awkward and embarrassed. For the past month I've been going down to the office once/day. For one, I enjoyed the coffee - but that wasn't the main point. I thought of it as a chance to be sociable, a good excuse to pop my face in and say hello to the principal and other teachers every day. I thought they appreciated that. I had no idea that behind their smiles they were secretly annoyed that the foreign guy was drinking their coffee.
To top it off, this situation got worse. Cathy saw my face turn red and thought I was angry because I couldn't drink coffee. In a frustrating display of madness, she zipped about and dug up a package of instant coffee mix and a paper cup. At that point I didn't even want coffee anymore. And so the whole thing put me in a bad mood. Yes, sometimes I'm sensitive - but this (and other things) makes me realize once again that we're outsiders and not a real part of the school. As I said, it's not just the coffee. Many things like this have come up in the past. For example, we can't use the copy machine anymore. Can you imagine being a teacher with no access to a copy machine. Well, if I want anything copied I'm supposed to tell Cathy. Of course I never do because she would have to (on her own time) trek to the agency's office in Gangnam (about an hour away) to make them. I also never said anything about this and tried to understand the school might be on a tight budget.
But then it gets petty.
Last week our pencil sharpener broke. Once the extra pencils couldn't be used anymore, I asked Cathy where I could sharpen them. In fact, I wondered why she hadn't sharpened them herself already. "We can't use the school's pencil sharpener," she said meekly. That time I must have turned red too because the next day I was embarrassed to find she went out and bought a pencil sharpener with her own money (which led to another awkward moment where I wasn't sure if I should offer to pay for it). She said that Bonnie doesn't want to pay for things like that either. I already knew that though. Basically if we don't buy it, we don't get it. I buy the pencils and erasers because if I don't, half of my A class students would be unable to write.
I really don't get this pettiness of the principal/school. They just renewed the contract with Bonnie and obviously they and the parents want us there, so what's with the cold shoulder treatment these days?
So this is my plan. I bought a nice coffee gift set from Walmart and a card. I'm going to write this in English and Korean: "I'm very sorry for drinking the school coffee. Please accept this gift and my apology." I'll sign it: "The Foreign Teacher" and put it in the office. That's going to be funny.
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written by shawn matthews
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