Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sojourner1]

Not to flame Korea. It's just a fact. This post has Troll repellent sprayed on it.
The one single question about Korea that itches in my mind to be answered is...

What is the big hurry all about? Why?

The kindergarten and elementary kids are always in such a huge hurry that many of thier answers are wrong with things they know or are capable of producing. They make stupid mistakes all the time. I always tell them there is no hurry and that it's important to do your best, not your fastest. They don't listen one iota or care. They just keep hurrying at an increasing pace and sometimes I do lose my patience with them being in such a hurry. I have tried disciplining them by making them erase things when they rush too far ahead in books. I even have raised my voice and stood them in the corner for brash rudeness of poking my butt while yelling,"Finished!". They just continue thier relentless hurry to nowhere the next day. When they are presented with material they don't yet know, they don't listen to what I am saying due to being too impatient to let me explain what it is and how to do it. Little chance to make effective communication due to such ill mannered rude impatience. Keep in mind, there is no co-KT in these classes of spoiled rich brats to help translate and control them through speaking Korean as that works wonders when a KT stops a class by on occasion. To my understanding, these kids are not parented (they even call me father), but taken care of by nannies as thier parents are career ladder climbers into the upper echelons of the business world so that may have something to do with why I am experiencing very demanding hungry kids. I have met kids and foreign English teachers in small towns and it was nothing like this. They were more relaxed. This post may relate to the post inquiring about why Koreans are having a hard time learning English.

I know I am dealing with a slew of psychological problems caused by kids being born into wealth and not properly parented for which I am not qualified to help with nor have the means to manage so that too is a huge factor in my particular teaching situation. I find that my co-FT's just accept these issues and simply let them ride. They think there are no solutions for training these kids to act better so they can do better in school.

I am hard pressed after many months to find a way to teach the kids some patience so they can actually use thier heads to learn and not constantly badger me with, "Pinishee! Pinished!", while poking at me constantly, especially when individually checking and correcting thier work. I believe this is what creates the unique challenges of teaching in Korea, besides the language barrier. It appears the fastest performer is percieved here as being the best, while my viewpoint is those who are most accurate are the best at achieving things and I reward based on that ideology which still does not fix the problem. I know all this bali bali must have something to do with competition, but doesn't taking the time to use your head before talking and acting mean anything? I think so, at least that is what allowed me to be successful in all of my successful endeavors.

If anyone has any facts or ideas on teaching Korean children patience and manners, my eyes and ears are open.

Now to change the subject to adults. The adults are in a big hurry which causes workplace disorganization, mistakes, and misunderstandings everyday. They are very hurried when driving around to the point of rediculously compromising everyones' personal safety. I know there is no changing adults, but only stay out of there way as much as possible as to avoid getting hurt by the stupid mistakes they make while in a hurry.

[cbeck13]

kids are kids...they always want to be first one done in the class...same as back home...starts to wear off in middle school and high school, at least with my experiences

[whatever]

Maybe make an example of some of the bigger perpetrators. Correct their work in a very animated manner in front of the rest of the class, making sure that everybody knows that the quality of work is crap...and that you're not amused.

The others will a) rag on them for being foolish b) tell them in Korean what you'd like to say yourself but can't or shouldn't and c) get the message that this sort of attention is undesirable and avoid it.

[RACETRAITOR]

I find Koreans move slower than me. When we're going up stairs in subway stations I'm going a lot quicker than they are. Of course I have somewhere to go. I'm either late for work, hurrying to meet my friends, or rushing home to my wife.

[xtchr]

[sojourner1]

Nope, not in a hurry. That is a rediculous reply.



Yea, in subways and stores people tend to move slowly on foot. Your looking at alot of women in high heels and older people that are slowing things down to a crawl there for everyone.

[jaganath69]

rediculous? ridiculous. Spell checker.

[Ilsanman]

The Op complains that people rush in vain, but rushed to type up his post. It's full of spelling mistakes.

[Corporal]

[Mary-Jane]

I've noticed a similar thing in elementary level kids. On one hand, at least it's nice to see some enthusiasm- the kids really want to finish the work, at least. On the other, they're so competitive and will treat everything like a race.

I don't know about your kids, but for mine, that kind of mindless energy also means they're willing to correct the errors IF they can be made to see them. Though god knows that's a headache. Today, seeing my kids scrawl answers over their verb tenses sheets without stopping to read the question, I tried doing a related, easy game on the board (circle the correct tenses). From that I drew off a couple of correct examples and then read the instructions off the sheet for the fifth time. Most clicked that they had answered incorrectly and went mowing back through them again.

Yelling doesn't work, though, that's for sure.

[sojourner1]

I could care less if my posts have a few spelling mistakes. This is not a newspaper, term paper, or a book I am writing, it is an informal internet forumn just to communicate ideas with other foreign teachers.

I am derailing this thread, becuase it was already ruined by idiotic replies.

I have been thinking, it may be best to stop posting on this site, but just use it for the important knowledge such as doing a visa run as it does have a few highly intellegent individuals posting good info on sticky topics and advice on others like travel and teaching stratigies.

Last week, me and a group of foreign teachers in a foriegner bar were talking that this is a waste of time to stay on here after you have been in Korea for a while and already read the intellegent helpful posts which are a highly valued asset this site carries. I added that it was a way for us all to have conversations that are not possible to have in person. They replied, but you just got a bunch of trolls who peg you on minor Englishee mistakes who are for the most part; unhappy in Korea and are out to flame you, except the newbies who come for help. One teacher said at the table, it tends to be, the happy people stop posting, do not flame on things not important, and quit spending alot of time after a few months of teaching in Korea and the unhappy ones stay which is why you get a bunch of stupid offending replies.

I am going to look for more intellegent information as to why there is a big hurry element in Korean culture, becuase I really want to understand this so I can better understand how to live and work with Koreans. I am not criticising it nor am I looking for stupid criticism.

Be professional and mature adults people for you are educated. (at least your suposed to be educated and smart)

[faster]

[captain kirk]

[jinks]

A poster on another thread said that when your spelling / grammar mistakes are pointed out (and we're not just talking typos), the best response is to take the corrections on board, fix up the errors and move on. It is very tedious when posters defend their errors as integral parts of their communicative being.

That said, when I taught a class of kindy kids I noticed a tendency for the students to want to finish FIRST, regardless of the quality of their work. To try and fix this, I allocated "Finished!" as a black mark word. You know the deal, list the kids' names on the board, everytime the kid does a good thing put a circle next to his or her name and when a kid does a bad thing (like rush through a task in order to be the first one to call out "Finished!") then you put an X by his or her name. It cured that particular class because they were very competitive about 0s and Xs.

[Kyrei]