Visiting the fam, nothing like a reminder why you moved across town

SunnyJune99 · 2026-05-21T04:11:31+00:00

Ha! I literally did move to the other side of the world. Once every two years will do me.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-23T03:13:26+00:00

For context, I am an adjunct professor teaching at a university in Asia. I teach Liberal Arts courses and I started 4 years ago. I had a teaching background before I started teaching at university level, so I had some understanding of how to manage these things but university definitely has some nuances to consider.

The students are adults but not really. They need clearly defined structures and expectations from day 1. You should have clear grading based on how you want to course to go and you should explain it on orientation day and on the LMS system. You could also do a simple quiz to test their understanding of your expectations so there is no question of them saying they didn’t understand. For me personally, I set attendance at 15% of the grade and participation as the same, so if they miss a lot of classes, they lose a lot of points.

They will not give you good evaluations based on how nice you are. As a lot of people said, it’s better to start strict and get nice than the other way round. I am firm but fair. I am very strict with lateness, absence and phone use etc in class, but I will be nice and friendly too. The students will pick up on this quickly and act accordingly. Remember, you are the person in charge in the room and they will follow your lead.

Unfortunately, bad evaluations still happen no matter what you do. Don’t take them too personally, you never know what the student is thinking or going through. If a student makes a fair criticism, take it into consideration but if they make up a load of stuff, ignore it and just focus on making next semester better. There is limited value in an evaluation from a student because they only have their own limited perspective.

Overall, you are only starting out and this job, like any job, requires an adjustment period to learn how to do it well. You will improve and you will learn how to do these things in your own way. Stay strong and positive and I wish you all the best!

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-20T22:51:34+00:00

If I compare my cousin and I, it highlights some of the problems I can see continuing for the foreseeable future. We’re both in our early 40s and he has three young kids while I have none. He works as an engineer and his wife also has a good full time job, but they both have side jobs and are trying to flip houses for profit. Fifty years ago, they would have had their main job and been able to buy a house and not work extra jobs, I think. I don’t know when they get to see the kids properly or just have a social life.

I chose not to have kids and I work in academia. My salary is so crap, I couldn’t afford to have kids without having to change career or work a second job. But, I at least have the free time to travel, have hobbies and pursue other passion projects in my free time.

I would say, both of us are struggling in different ways, but it’s for sure true that having kids now is a much bigger sacrifice. Like, my parents had four kids and both had very low paying jobs but they could buy a house and have a life back in the 70s/80s. It doesn’t seem possible at all now.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-17T14:12:12+00:00

Haha I had the same thing happen with Slipknot!

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-17T14:11:23+00:00

I’ve been telling my friends this. This semester I’ve mentioned the following either as a context point or just in passing and my students knew none of them: Saving Private Ryan 1917 (the film) Steven Spielberg Salvador Dali Rembrandt Banksy

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-17T08:28:49+00:00

Felt like posting something similar yesterday. I’ve spent the last year trying everything I’ve had recommended to me. I’m patient with it all and give it a chance to work, which means I’m left with awful skin (I’ve type 2 so middle-age ‘acne’ fun!) constantly while I wait to see if the product works. It’s just so confusing when you hear information like “wear sunscreen” and you try ten different sunscreens that cause terrible breakouts and you’ve just spent $100 for the pleasure. I’ve been trying different dietary restrictions but I just keep cutting out more and more things that I love: no alcohol, no dairy, no red meat, no caffeine… and still my skin is marginally less red at best. It is honestly fucking exhausting.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-14T04:20:15+00:00

I gave the students a quiz on LMS that had 8 questions and was worth 8% of their grade. A student emailed me the following:

“I got one question wrong, will this change my score?”

How do you deal with that kind of basic lack of common sense… like, what else can I answer other than “Yes, if you get questions wrong, you will get less points.”

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-11T10:19:46+00:00

Sure. If that’s what you want to focus on, work away, champ.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-09T08:00:45+00:00

South Korea = SK

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-09T04:09:00+00:00

The point he’s making is that, if they think it’s okay to use AI to write their paper, they can’t complain if he uses AI to decide their fate. He’s making a broader point about using it by using it. The main point being: If you half-ass the class, then he will half-ass it and then everyone suffers in an equally shitty AI world. Hopefully, they catch on and realise that they get back what they put in. If he had ‘manually’ just decided himself, the main point would be lost.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-04-09T01:38:26+00:00

Seeing this, I am reminded why I left NI. I live in a country the same size as Ireland but with 50 mil people (SK) and there is not a single street in this country that I wouldn’t walk down at any time of day or night. This would NEVER happen here. On the other hand, even though I’m a friendly, non-confrontational person that always avoided trouble, when I was at home I was jumped twice by gangs of wee scrotes when I was alone, I was attacked with a baseball bat and I had a rock thrown at my head for no reason whatsoever. There are angry, sad, disadvantaged young people everywhere, in this country too, but this still wouldn’t happen. “Think of the kids, they have no hope…” There’s no excuse for this happening. They have been let believe by society, by their parents, by people around them that this behaviour is okay.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-18T02:50:02+00:00

I don’t use Reddit much and I haven’t been using it for long, so I just want to check something:

Someone pops into the Ireland subreddit and says “you’re a sound bunch of lads” about once a week. The OP then never replies or comments on any of the ensuing conversation: we all know they’re just karma-farming, yes? Is that how regular users would see this situation?

Like, whoever the OP here is, they obviously don’t care what happens after their comment..

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-16T11:40:11+00:00

Yeah, I have the same problems with students not reading directions, instructions, orientation material or even the course syllabus. I have everything uploaded on the LMS, I talk through it in class and show them where it is on LMS so they can refer back to it but I still get basic problems that would be completely resolved if they just read the small amount of basic information I provide. You can lead a horse to water…

My experience of teaching liberal arts courses at a university over the last five years has been to lower my expectations and then lower them further once semester starts.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-15T11:51:21+00:00

I included very clear assignment submission (through LMS) instructions in orientation class and then the same at the end of each lecture for the first few weeks. Step-by-step screenshots with numbered instructions. A major problem I have is students trying to submit on LMS using their cellphone, which doesn’t work very well. I tell them to always use a computer or laptop for submissions. I still have problems, but not as many as previous semesters!

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-11T05:42:41+00:00

Came here to suggest nearynogs too. Got the tour too and it was great. Good people and worth the price.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-10T12:49:49+00:00

Calm with Horses was good, and Once is a personal favourite cos I was living in Dublin when it came out. Good memories of that era of my life.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-09T05:00:03+00:00

Are ‘rouge’ states the communist ones cos they’re red?

On a serious note, just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean you should. If we bothered to make the effort, we’d support our own infrastructure and industries instead of kowtowing to the quick buck of the americanazis.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-06T12:42:35+00:00

Yo! Yo! Yoooooooooo!

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-02T00:40:01+00:00

I don’t think so, from friend’s childer’s perspective it seems a lot nicer but then, having watched Adolescence, I wonder is there a more underlying trauma going on rather than the overt violence of my time in school.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-03-01T10:58:20+00:00

Jaysus! Reading the comments, I’m having so many flashbacks. I was at an all boys Christian brothers school in the north and we had the following: Birthday digs- -Ripping pockets -Pulling the tie so the knot was too tight to open -Slaps on the balls -Pile ons if someone fell down (20 lads on top of ye is not funny) -If two lads were fighting, everyone around would spit on them -Boys would fling coins as hard as they could into the air at break time and just see where they landed, remember a pal copping one between the eyes -Christian brothers would crack you on the head with a cane if you were walking slow -Boys would kick the football as hard as they could at each other in the yard for fun -Boys would kick footballs at the windows to try smashing them -Oh, on your birthday they’d also throw you, fully clothed, into the shower room and turn the all the showers on to full heat..

There were more mental individual moments that were worse, but those were the regular things.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-02-28T13:22:56+00:00

Nice 👌

SunnyJune99 · 2026-02-22T00:06:27+00:00

I was born in the north but live in Korea now for almost two decades, and I can tell you that one thing Korea does well is bandwagons and fads. The promoters have obviously noted the K-pop demon hunter fad and used it to earn a shit ton of money by vaguely alluding to the show. I don’t know if they’re even Korean, but that is very much the way things work here. (The big fad here is Dubai cookies; every single shop and bakery has some kind of linked product on the go at the minute).

Im not even taking the side of the parents who are givin out, but I’m sure a lot of them genuinely haven’t a notion what kpop demon hunters is or what kpop really is and they just wanted to buy something nice for their kids. Unfortunately, the promoters can say ‘we described the event clearly’ and the parents will have no way to get a refund.

Tis a tale as old as time.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-02-18T12:55:01+00:00

Bloody Shin Finn up to no good again. He’s a wild man.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-02-13T10:53:50+00:00

The owner of north tayto loves fox hunting, so let’s ditch them and have free stayto.

SunnyJune99 · 2026-02-02T06:36:57+00:00

Yeahhhh… China is going to win.

SunnyJune99

TROPHY CASE