Is their some kind of twisted interpersonal dynamic between Shelton and the rest of the peanut gallery here that I have missed?

I, for one, am simply tired of the whole “bemused nebbish in Korea” shtick.

It’s been done to death, jumped the shark, played out.

instead of making a dick of yourself in public, why don’t you drop the writing bit, become a private dick and find out who’s paying all this money for hines wards’ travel expenses and accomodations. i’ll expect a full report within 24 hours.

But yeah, I have been violating my own standard of only one comment per thread, but I have decided to make exceptions to this well-intentioned rule when I am personally involved. It’s the Korean in me.

hehe. It’s actually nice to see you write more than one post

Shelton Teacha wrote:
kushibo, I’m afraid I’m going to have to call you on this one.

Thank goodness for caller-ID.

In that strange land known as hagwons, Korean kids almost 99 percent of the time use the traditional Korean idea* of puting your honorific after your first name instead of before your last name. Thus, I’m Shelton Teacher not Mr. Bumgarner.

And it’s your job to cure them of this habit. You are there to teach them English, not reinforce Konglish. You’ve heard the term “Monkey see, monkey do,” right? Well, the little monkeys are going to follow the big monkey, if not immediately then eventually, on matters such as this. If 셸턴선생님 let’s us call him Shelton Teacha without saying anything, then it must be okay.

Jeff in Korea wrote:
Where to start…. First, disabuse yourself of the notion that “teacher” is an honorific. It is nothing of the sort. In an educational setting, it is a job description. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I have to agree with Curious Sewing here and say that “teacher/teacha” is a substitute for 선생님, thus whatever respect the students impart with 선생님 is imparted with “teacher/teacha.” Shelton gets enough jeers from this audience without us making him think his students have no more respect for him than they would a shaved ape.

Iceberg wrote:
Are you sure the students are not saying “Shelton 미쳐”?

Iceberg, that’s cold. Funny, but cold.

Nothing personal, but the odds are very low that you will ever get a job as a full-time writer, so I’d suggest that you start taking your current job a little more seriously. You are the one receiving a salary, not the children. You are there for them. They are not there for you.

Amen. Shelton, you are in some sort of situation where doing a half-assed hack job seems acceptable. If you want to become a valuable member of society in the future, run from your situation now. Run! Run! And also listen to the constructive criticism of others. Keep running!

Shelton wrote:
I am not a trained EFL professional. I fear 99 percent of the people teaching EFL in Korea, aren’t either. That’s kinda the whole point/problem. I’m just a dude who has a BA and was born in the United States. Shrug.

Your defense has never been ignorance, but laziness. Now it’s laziness and being seriously disqualified. That, sir, is no defense.

I think any “trained EFL professional” who was a human being and not a trained robot would eventually find themselves saying something like, “Yes, Shelton Teacha tired.”

My ex is a trained EFL professional, and she would slap you upside the head for saying that, Shelton. Then she would steal your exercise equipment, because that’s what she does.

[For] people who don’t [mean well]:
It’s “B-U-M-G-A-R-N-E-R,” suckahs

You had to read that off your palm, didn’t you?

Haisan wrote:
Eh. This is one issue on which I am sympathetic to Shelton. Most hagwons are so much snake oil… If one’s boss is a thief and one’s clients are loonies, I don’t see why a random, much-abused, bottom-of-the-totem-pole employee ought to be the one person in the whole dysfunctional food chain who takes the job seriously.

And we established that Shelton’s hagwon and boss were like this…when? I am not sympathetic to anyone who thinks they have a right to do a half-assed job because OTHER people were treated badly at some other place.

If Shelton’s place of employment were really that bad, then get thee to some other nursery right away. It would be better for all involved.

Andy Jackson wrote:
Is their some kind of twisted interpersonal dynamic between Shelton and the rest of the peanut gallery here that I have missed?

The dynamic is a confluence of self-aggrandizement, arrogance, ignorance, and stubbornness. The rest of us are just throwing tomatoes at the stage.

tlqtoRl wrote:
kushibo, way to many comments.

Yeah, I felt the same about your one.

But yeah, I have been violating my own standard of only one comment per thread, but I have decided to make exceptions to this well-intentioned rule when I am personally involved. It’s the Korean in me.

For kids, calling him Mr. Bum would be, as I stated in the beginning, would be acceptable while still retaining an air of authentic English communication. Same with calling him Mr. B.

I had a Mrs. Kahoutek whom the elementary school kids — native English speakers, most of them — called Mrs. K. As a child I had a dentist with a long and unwieldy last name whom everyone called Dr. Ernie, after his first name.

If “미스터 범가너” is too hard for his students to muster, I fear for these child when it is time to learn their own home address.

In a nutshell, Shelton attracts vitriol because he can’t write anything without ultimately turning the focus of the piece onto himself. The lack of sincerity in his writing is mind-blowing.

Yep — exactly. And as an illustration, here we are, talking about him instead of the topic at hand.

So to simplify things, more efficient terms of address that are also idiomatic English might simply be “Shelton” (as some university profs in the English-speaking world prefer to be addressed) or “Teacher” (as some students address some teachers).

“Shelton Teacher” doesn’t seem disrespectful to me (for reasons given above and elaborated by Random Guy), but to a native English speaker who wasn’t familiar with Korean at all, it would just sound highly unnatural, so I really don’t think it should be encouraged.