Elephant
- 2005-06-13
There are a LOT of things that'll take you down in Asia besides cigarette smoke, believe me. Take the bathroom habits of the average Thai:
No toilet paper, no sink, no running water (besides the squirter), no towels/dryer, and no soap. Yummy.
At my workplace, smokers are the least of my worries.
I can't wait to get out of here!
E
Elephant
- 2005-06-13
Nice post. Trying to keep smokers out of a classroom is 'imperialist' in my mind. It's just another example of westerners trying to force their beliefs down the throats of other cultures.
Here's another great example of western 'imperalism':
I was on Koh Sarn Road not long ago buying some CDs when a fellow white-face berated the vendor for 'stealing'. I had to butt-in and give her my lecture about IP being something invented far away from Bangkok's poverty in places called Wall Street and Washington, D.C.
If Thailand cared about IP, we wouldn't see all the stalls selling 'pirated' CDs in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The same stalls that are regularly inspected and patrolled by the Thai police. Thailand doesn't stop this because it doesn't accept the idea of IP. Only we, the westerner, has bought into the 'evil' of piracy. No one in Thailand has.
E
Steve Heckman
- 2005-06-09
No offense, but if I were a student, I'd take a smoker any day over you guys who don't even know how to spell words like "school".
Stinky breath over education: I choose education.
Point 2: Some bozo said teachers who smoke shouldn't teach overseas (paraphrase). That's an importation of their own Western cultural values. Back home we think smoking paints a negative, rebellious attitude.
Now here's something for you to think about. Have you ever stopped to think that MOST Korean teachers smoke here? And they will smoke directly in front of the kids, just like the kids' parents and their grandparents.
This is because in Asia, smoking is not a reflection of one's morals.
Try to be a little more culturally aware.
Disclaimer: I have been known to occasionally light one up.
Mike B.
- 2005-06-05
They can't smoke in public back home, so they go where they can smoke.
In the 70's I went to an expensive private schol in NZ and a couple of the teachers smoked in class sometimes. I bet they don't allow that now.
Howard Zinn, Historian
- 2005-06-01
Smoking teachers are the tip of the iceberg at my workplace. Not many do to begin with, but the smoke-belching tuk-tuks and songtaews more than make up the difference. When one of these contraptions goes by my classroom, I can smell the smoke for several minutes. It takes that long for the odor of the
two-stroke or diesel exhaust to dissipate.
Our lungs can't win in Asia.
nat
- 2005-06-01
smelly, stinking, disgusting, nasty,
brown teeth, bad breath, cancer causing,
asthma contributing, inconsiderate,
filthy, disrespectful, self-centered,
thoughtless smokers and their smoke.
why this people are teaching overseas??
nat
Mike
- 2005-06-01
As an English teacher I'd a bad experience with a fellow teacher and room-mate (No longer with us) smoking all the time anywhere.
Best, Mike
I don't know how people who smoke in front of children can travel overseas and teach anything.