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It’s no secret there’s a lot of self-loathing among the foreigners here, particularly the older ones. As a general rule of thumb, the shittier the school, the more self-loathing, the more miserable the older foreigners will be.
Some are self-deprecating, which is okay. Self-deprecation shows you know how to laugh at yourself, and if you can’t laugh at yourself, then you can’t handle anyone laughing at you. And if you can’t handle that…
Then you might end up in this exchange:
Foreign teacher: Go to America? Why the fuck would anybody want to do that?
Me: Oh. Have you been before?
Foreign teacher: Hell no!
Oh…well that’s a relief. You see, for a second there, I thought maybe you were basing your comment on some sort of insecure, asinine reason…
There is a very simple way to tell which one somebody is using:
With self-deprecation, you smile.
With self-loathing, you frown.
So if I were you, I’d try to turn that frown upside down.
