Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mrsquirrel]

At my school in Thailand the students range from nice to ruminants.

Where my laboratory is on the 5th floor it's pretty much no mans land at lunch time for anything other than the most unruly students.

Last week I watched the classroom next to me having a metal bar jammed through the whiteboard and holes punched in the pin boards the size of footballs.

Yesterday the boys spent a good 20 minutes smashing heavy wooden chairs off the lockers and throwing stuff out the window.

I don't get involved simply because it's not worth the hassles or the heartache as the Thai teachers do nothing.

The toilets that the students get within pissing distance of are disgusting and unusuable by anything other than themselves.

Are Korean public school kids allowed to get away with things like this or are they disciplined properly?

Do you have your own clean toilet that you get to use or do you have to wade through the students piss?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The students can get a bit wild at break time (though nothing like what you described) but during class time they're usually pretty good and teachable. My students would be in supremem shit if they did what you described.

[kimchi story]

Omg mrssquirrel - if your name is Ralph you are in luck, when they burn the island let them chase you to the beach and the navy will rescue you at the last moment. That description of your school is straight out of Lord of the Flies.

The younger students at my school play soccer in the hallways with their slippers sometimes and occasionally wrestle inside, but it's common to see three or four lined up in the hallway with their hands over their head or kneeling next to a teachers desk in the staffroom (with their forehead on the floor) and I can't even imagine them breaking whiteboards or chairs.

My school is not a great school, I'm told we have the lowest exam marks in the province and our student body has a high percentage of immigrants and orphans, but compared to the Canadian high school students I'm used to, my Korean students are angels in class.

Thank you for the insight - I was in Phuket over the holidays and started thinking I would love to teach in Thailand. I'm thinking twice now.

[Lao Wai]

Hi,

I don't want to hijack this thread but....I just have a question for those public school teachers who have taught back in Canadian public schools. Just where exactly are you from? I keep hearing these stories about how horrible and awful these kids are that you've taught. That wasn't my experience at all. I taught grades 3 and 7. The grade 3 kids were fantastic. Very well behaved. The entire school was well behaved. The grade 7 students weren't angels by any means, but they too were fine. The French immersion students were great, the English students, not so much (streamlining). Also, my friends who are teaching back home seem to be enjoying their jobs.

I'm currently teaching in Hong Kong. My students here are not nearly as well behaved or as motivated as the students I taught in Canada. If it makes any difference, I'm from New Brunswick. Maybe you've all taught in Northern Quebec? I've heard horror stories about teaching up there.

[cmr]

Lao Wai, funny you mentioned northern Quebec because that's where I taught when I went back home to teach for a year. I don't know what "horror stories" you heard about teaching there, but from my experience, I guess they were true! God! How I missed my Korean students when I was up there. Back to Korea and I really enjoy it. I mean, teaching in a public school because I don't want to teach in a hagwon ever again. Still, teaching in a Korean hagwon was better than teaching the Inuits.

Since you're in Hong Kong, you may not know, but when foreigners refer to a "hagwon" is a private language school. It could be a different subject, though, such as math or music, but as foreigners we don't teach those.

[mrsquirrel]

Thai schools have a serious discipline problem.

Teachers like to look at their feet rather than do anything about it.

I was talking with my assistant director about the problems in this classroom and he just smiled the smile

He knows that there isn't anything that really can be done.

Obviously having kids destroy things is great for keeping costs down.


Out of interest do directors in Korea like their foreign teachers to sit down and chat with them when they are free or are they very closed.

My current director loves people popping in for a chat.

[kimchi story]

Lao Wai - The last school I was at was just north of Victoria, BC, in a pretty well off school in a rural neighbourhood.

Outside of the classroom, I am reminded of the students back home daily herre in Korea, the behavior is much the same.

But in the classroom such things as tantrums, calling out (in a derogitory way to either teachers or other students), truancy and tardiness and a general holier than thou attitude - these are the things I don't deal with in Korean public school classrooms but do in Canadian classrooms.

mrs.squirrel - I've worked for a director and a principal in two different jobs here and both loved to feel in touch with things, but the language barrier is always a problem.

[cruisemonkey]

[tiger fancini]

[Letiz7]

Well, in my Thai high school there are teachers who care and don't stand for the kind of destruction you're talking about Q.

But my previous schools were a lot more like yours by the sound of things.

Sounds like we're gonna have it easier over there though, eh?

Good.