Just lose it

I wrote this when very angry...but the underlying message of my abhorrence of foul language is such that I feel this needs to be posted.


Ever since I was in middle school I knew what curse words were and how to use them. Occasionally they would slip into conversation, at times if I wanted attention or thought I was being cool they'd get more and more time in my speech. at the time I didn't think much of it.

However, upon joining my sorority (You were not do swear in letters...unladylike) and getting to college in general the idea of swearing was vulgar and only for those on the lowest rungs of society. Yes, I had and still do have friends that swear. Most of them aren't bad and usually they're in context of the conversation.

Being in Korea however at least once a day in class a student will say the f-word, the s-word or some version of (the bird) which I tend to ignore. I read up on what others do in this situation

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=1873450

copy and paste the above to get to the web page...apparently you can't create a link to this sorry everyone.

I feel I need to be blunt about the subject. For the most part I do ignore it or give the kid a look and get an immediate "sorry techa." However I suppose this week and the past week I've just had it with this whole situation.

Its disgusting that middle school ages children would say such words around a teacher or any adult. They won't say Korean swears at the Korean teachers, so why should I have to be on the set of "The Wire" everyday dealing with words I don't say because I know the meanings.

On the one had yes I probably am giving them the power. Making them find out what makes me angry. On the other say for instance they do visit an English speaking country after university. Because they've been able to let fly the f-bomb, they wont think twice about using it, thinking it'll get a good laugh out of someone. Yet, come to find out people don't like bad language too much and the perpetrator gets in a whole bunch of trouble at a bar and gets the crap beaten out of them because they can't explain in English that they weren't talking about the guy he annoyed.

I'm trying to teach culture here because though learning English is a part of schooling from 3rd grade on, culture isn't. Knowing what is culturally acceptable is very important. Koreans get annoyed and even angry if we foreigners don't do something right. However, the faux pas of swearing out loud in polite company is tolerated??? It makes no sense and infuriates me.

As stated in the title, I did almost lose it today in class. I gave out an assignment to read and expected the students to start reading...no reading at all. Oh there was talking and a game of who can flip the bird the most at each other. I think this was definitely the final straw. Imagine two little girls giving each other the middle finger. Yeah, if it wasn't my class it'd be a bit funny. But, on the other hand it's absolutely disgusting. It's rude and derogatory and for a country so concerned about being polite entirely hypocritical.

So the result was I just saw red and started screaming at them why they would do this in my class (because I'm American and know what this stuff means) and if they would do this to their parents or their other teachers...note while I was yelling at them I had my middle fingers up as an example of what it really feels like (not very good) and at that point had to leave the class for fear I'd smack the living daylights out of all of their ornery little faces.

Evan taught my classes the rest of the day...since then I've been taking the passive aggressive approach to bratty behavior and all around bad manners, which seems to work okay since I lead them to the teachers room and let the Korean teachers deal with it. I have a week and four days left and I refuse to let this be the overriding memory of that.