Coteacher Christmas Present Suggestions

[jammyb]

Hi All

I am looking for ideas of a gift I can give to my coteacher for Christmas. She is 50-something, has 2 children (one in the UK, the other in America) and has been a teacher at this school for 2 years. This is the first Christmas I have spent in Korea, so am looking for something that is
a) interesting
b) useful
c) representative of my country or culture in some way (I come from the UK)
d) not so cheap that it might be considered tacky in some way but not so expensive that it would cause her embarrassment to receive it

We have a good working relationship, but besides the information provided above, I don't have much else to go by.

All suggestions welcome.

Thank you
:)

[Jozigirl]

Calendar/diary from the UK?

[Squire]

I'll be getting my coteacher exactly what she deserves unless I suspect she plans to get me anything (which I doubt)

Calendar/diary from the UK?

I'm sure she'll be delighted with a foreign calendar. The ones I see at school here usually have pictures of board of education workers or principles for each month. I don't think that's too far removed from having pictures of Kim Jong Il in every room

[popeye2u]

My suggestion is not to get them anything.  They dont expect it and might make them feel awkward since its highly likely they dont expect to give you anything.  Sharing food is usually the best gift I have found.

[qudtjsdl]

diary will be good for her. Teachers need note to write or something.

[Kev20]

I'm giving each of my co-teacher's a 'Terry's Chocolate Orange'. I ordered them on ebay. It's not expensive and since it's just food it's nothing to get embarrassed by. I may not even mention it's for Christmas or I might leave it until the last day of the school year.

[SBracken]

My suggestion is not to get them anything.  They dont expect it and might make them feel awkward since its highly likely they dont expect to give you anything.  Sharing food is usually the best gift I have found.

oops. I already bought a gift for my two female CTs (a little gift- some decorative soap), but maybe now I won't shop around for my other CT. Perhaps I'll give it to them after we come back from holidays and claim it's 'traditional [insert country here] soap' :p

[flukeriffic]

Bought a set of Christmas themed hot chocolate tins at Costco. Gonna give one to each of my co-teachers. Who doesn't like hot chocolate right? All female, btw.

[cracker]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/BLACK-HUNKS-Male-Models-CALENDAR/dp/1848389868/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323145074&sr=8-2-spell

^ This  ;)

[popeye2u]

   haha!!

[flasyb]

I'd go with the food. My school just recently bought me a full size cooker with an oven and 4 ring gas range. My girlfriend is coming to stay for 3 weeks and hasn't used an oven since she's been in Korea. She's excited about the oven. I predict chocolate brownies. You've got to give something back, haven't you?

[deeqtess]

I have given my co-teachers cute Christmas tote bags (ordered online). Each one is a different color and has a different Christmas graphic on it.  Inside each tote, I placed a coffee mug, pack of plum tea, 2 small cans of ginseng drink, a ginseng chocolate and a small plastic bag of hard candies (handmade with ribbon).  Tried to make each as decorative as possible with curly ribbon and also included a small handmade card with a personalized note on each one.  Sounds like a lot but was really simple, quick and easy to do.   Just have to think outside of the box a little.

[NinaM]

A nice USB (she could always use one) with funny/ interesting/ good shows and movies on it? 

[Harpoinseoul]

I''m giving my boss and go-teachers each a box of Dorset Cereal.

[#basedcowboyshirt]

I was totally #based last year and got my female coteachers (and myself, 'cause I'm all about that pretty boy swag) a small tin of Burt's Bees lemon cuticle cream. The dry air here is hella raw on your cuticles in the winter, and Burt's Bees is effective, smells lovely, and it's a fairly responsible and ecological company, all things considered. Plus it's only like 13,000 per tin, so it's not going to break your bank. Rub it on your fingers in between classes and your nails and cuticles are going to thank you and they'll feel so pretty.

I got my male coteacher a tallboy of beer and some squid jerky and he squealed with joy.

Then I swagged it out and bought two big crates of mandarin oranges and gave one to every faculty member at the school. That was totally #rare love, and it was only 20,000 to give an orange to every staff member at my high school. People still talk about that. If you want to earn some major brownie points, bulk oranges are a good, cost effective way to do it.

#cook some holiday spirit!

[popeye2u]

I think what Ch1Can is saying is that the "need" to buy something for someone who really doesnt celebrate a western holdiay, is basically a selfish endeavor to make themselves feel good.  Christmas is more about sharing than giving.  Hence, sharing a cake or fruit would be better.  Or something along those lines. :D

[fortysixyou]

If you're thinking of giving her something from the UK, have your mom send something nice. What is the UK especially good at making? Chocolates? Perfumes? One of those would probably tickle your co-teacher pink.

[vashthestampyd]

eah yo cowboy shirt man, you da man son. yo u def flashed ya peeps the nice views na mean? yo man if i had  swag/flash/knucks/hugs like u man, i'd sure flex dat. flex big or go home son.

eah yo, the rest ya'll r cheapskates man. cheap= inexpensive skates=shoes wit wheels glued on em. put that together and you get cheapskates man. ya'll riding dirty.

get a incent man. do what it do. burn it. get some matches b.

[giselle]

I'll give my response with a little (?) story...

I renewed my contract (EPIK) back in October.  Over the course of the last year, I've really appreciated all the help & kindness of my (3) coteachers, so I decided to get them all a gift.  I spent a few hours and about 50,000won shopping for individual gifts that each of them might enjoy.  I got one a nice scarf, one a cheap-ish bracelet, and the other some facial treatment from Skin Food (all about 15,000 won).  My supervisor is really rich, and has hundreds of Luis Vuitton & Chanel, etc bags, scarfs, fur coats, on & on... So, I thought I better give her the skin stuff, just as a token, really, since she gets botox every 6 months (she told me, ok. I'm not making assumptions).  No sense giving her a cheap piece of jewellery to toss in the bottom of her box. 

Well, the others really loved their gifts, but she thought hers was less expensive & that I must have gotten confused giving her the 'cheaper' gift.  I must have mixed up the boxes.  She began openly talking about & degrading me all over the teachers' room & commenting about how she could make my life really miserable at the school, if she so chose.  I was told by another friendly teacher, and she concocted a situation where she 'accidentally' found out from me how much everything cost & how I spent my valuable weekend time & money shopping considerately for each of them.  She then related the intel back to the supervisor, who, as I was told, felt like a spoiled princess & ate her hat.  But who knows the real truth, anyway?  I was really worried about my next year at the school.  Really stressful, although it seems to have all gone away by now. 

This happened to me, & I'm not exaggerating one bit. 
Anyway, I had to make an emergency trip home to NY last month.  Results = lots of the presents/souvenirs for the students ... NADA for my coworkers.  I'll never put myself in that position again.  Big lesson learned there.

Remember folks, no good deed goes unpunished...


Thanks for listening to that rant.  I needed it...!

[spivey378]

I have two schools.  For one of them I have one teacher and the other I have 4.  I am only going to get the one where I have one teacher to avoid discrepancies.  I think I am going to get her some coffee that would be hard for her to find in Korea.  Maybe a baseball t-shirt but I am unsure of sizes.  She'd probably need a kid size she's so small!