Korean Job Discussion Forums

bundangbabo · Joined: 01 Jun 2008

[quote="amilin90"]

peppermint · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:09 am Post subject:

I think it might be a great opportunity for the child- assuming she's already outgoing and adventurous anyway, but public school is probably a really bad idea. Language aside, the extreme competitiveness, and very different approach to teaching by K-teachers could be rough on her

I used to teach two kids whose parents were missionaries. They were ethnically Korean, and spoke the language fairly well, but I noticed the K teachers treated them a little differently. The older boy seemed to fit in well, and was pretty popular at school. The younger one had a terrible time of it though, possibly because his Korean wasn't as good as his brother's.

KimchiExplosion · Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Location: Nowhere near Seoul

Kikomom · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 5:43 am Post subject:

Let me tell you all a little story. I just realized something, the KikoGrandmama (grammy, for short) had English as her second language.

Now I realize this is ancient history to most people here... Her parents arrived on US shores around the turn of the last century. Her father arriving maybe a few years earlier. Neither spoke English whatsoever. GreatGrammy was only 16 when she put herself on a boat to come to NJ to sew doilies, lace collars and such. Poppa was a few years older and was already (an army deserter*) established as a coal miner in a town not far from where I live now. He'd already had one wife who perished in a terrible fire, and had been back and forth to Europe already to take money to his family and bring another brother back to America with him.

We used to romanticize that this couple met on the boat, but that's not how it went. After #1 wife died, he knew that there was a section of NJ (Hoboken?) where the Ukranian immigrants settled for factory jobs and he made the trip back there to find wife #2, someone who spoke his same language--Russian. This practice, I am told, was common in those days.

So he found the little girl who knew how to tat and grow cabbage, picked her, and brought her the 300 mile journey to her new home. But after being in NJ sweat factories for even a short length of time, she had started learning English. Father never did.

Flash forward

ten children later, Kikogrammy being one of the last born and Father was STILL only speaking Russian, never having the need to learn English as his settlement had a Russian community that encompassed everything he needed. Being a strict authoritarian (in the way of eastern europe families), he did not allow his children to speak any language other than his mother tongue in their home, his castle.

Thus my mother grew up speaking only Russian until she started grade school. Now being one of the youngest siblings, she had probably heard enough from the elder ones to make it easier, but they hadn't. They learned English in school. They were solely Russian speakers in their earliest years in the home, only learning English once they started school.

Only yesterday she told me a story of one of my cousins yelling at the cattle in Russian when he was four years old. Repeating what he was hearing his Grandfather do every evening when it was time to bring the cows home.

So that's my little story. Take whatever lesson you wish from it, but know that it's been played many many times in all areas of the globe. And feel proud that you, Teachers, are a part of it in the age we live in now. I salute you.

OP, you started a nice debate and I hope you find the solution you are looking for. Best wishes to you and your family.

*Father had been taken into the Russian army at age 16, did a stint, said adios to that horseshit (living on sunflower seeds), and hightailed it to Italy where he picked grapes for seven years earning boatfare to America. Just like the guys you saw below decks in Titanic.

blackjack · Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Location: anyang

I can't really add anything here other than to say there is a part korean kid (european/korean) at my school (in anyang), not in any of my classes but he seems to have lots of friends, I have seen him in the play ground and seems to be accepted. I have talked to him once or twice and both his english and korean seems fine (as far as I can tell). I would have no idea how a new student with no korean would fit in tho

good luck

idiotinkorea · Joined: 25 Jun 2008

it's a challenge, but doable. there is a little problem with developing the faculty of "creative thinking", so highly valued in the west. help is readily available, though.