Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shantaram]

Ha ha. My colleague agreed with me that a good way to fill in some time in the elementary 4th grade schedule was to teach the kids some different ways of saying hello. I made up a list, keeping it nice and simple. Hello. Hey. Hi. Yo. How's it going? How are you? What's up? then included some words for goodbye- Goodbye. Ciao. Later. See you. Catch you. I left the list in the teacher's room. He came to me with a pale face, reading through the terms, totally confused. I pronounced the words for him. He looked like he wanted to cry and kept asking me, "Is this from New Zealand?" like we could remove a greeting from the list on the grounds it is too obscure.

Besides being funny (for me), this illustrates something I've come to realise over time here. The Korean teachers often think something is staggeringly difficult and don't understand that it can very easily be explained to students. I dropped some of my ideas from lessons earlier in my time here because I got the impression from the teacher it would be too complicated. Then quite often the Korean teacher would conduct a banal activity that would quietly sh*t me to tears, and bore half the class, and use incorrect or useless language.

[ilovebdt]

I hope you will teach them the very common British English expression "toodle pip"

ilovebdt

[Rapacious Mr. Batstove]

My third grade middle school students greet me with 'Kia Ora' - much to my/their co-teacher's disgust/confusion. Keeps me smiling

[Bibbitybop]

I throw in some Spanish for fun sometimes, making sure they understand it isn't English, but very useful in the southern and western USA.

I also taught them "sup, beotches!" (jk)

[yingwenlaoshi]

Smell ya later.

[Lao Wai]

[shantaram]

I just took the class and it was really successful. The kids loved it. The teacher wasn't too phased after all. Hopefully some kids start saying something other than 'hi' (singsong) and 'hello' to me. I wish I'd done this earlier!

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

Stray Korean students occasionally address me on the street with "hip hop" language. "Hey yo, yo, 'sup?" and the like. I don't think it's a respectful greeting. Coming from our changing cultures at home, some teachers here think that it's cute or funny to get the kids to speak this way, and it may be, in a sort of, "Wow they'll mimic anything that I tell them to say" sort of way. In my opinion they also have to learn that it is just not functional language in most contexts, so why teach it?

When "unteaching" this behavior to Somali students in the U.S. it became an important issue as they faced larger realities of acceptance and survival in American urban society. To commence with this vernacular and expect to receive respect or a positive response may well leave one "dis"-appointed.

Plenty of fun can be had with phrasing that projects a more mature appreciation of the language and is not the by-product of some "white-bread post-collegiate pseudo-rapper wannabe poser mentality".

I realize that fun is the intention but I'm a little weary of this language actually being "taught" as a "lesson". Why not push the envelope with idioms that are commonly used but a little strange for a foreign speaker? "It's a piece of cake." "You're pulling my leg." "I'm as busy as a cat burying $hit." or "It's as cold as a well-digger's ass." O.K. not that last two.

[shantaram]

Hmm. I take your point but teaching idioms to Grade 4 elementary students is not really appropriate. 'Yo' is perfectly acceptable in my Korean classroom and if the student is serious about learning more English then they will have a lot to learn about the appropriateness of many different words in different situations, not just yo. However this is not really important in Grade 4. They also have to learn that "I'm fine thank you and you" is not common usage, but that will come with time. Are Koreans who migrate to America 'in the same boat' as Somalis? Do they face the same language problems?

So funny, I just taught the lesson again, one kid was so embarrassed he could barely speak. I said "You're embarrassed" and one of the kids in the classroom splurted out "Very embarrassing!" with a funny wise old grin. I love it when young kids speak way beyond their peers ability, it's amusingly incongruous.

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

My reaction to the "yo" greeting was probably just a personal one. I think yours is a good lesson. I teach alternatives to the robotic "fine thank you and you" as well. Things like "pretty good"(pretty?) "not bad", "I'm doing great" (doing?)etc.

I've experienced teachers who solicit less than appropriate phrases from students. It was not my intention assume you into that category, .

I think that idioms are useful to all levels of English learners. "I used to take piano lessons" etc... very strange stuff. Also visual language such as idioms, similes, metaphors, euphemisms, make memorable, colorful and interesting lessons, even for kids at a basic level.

Immigrant/refugee populations when compared to Asian students in foreign lands will perhaps have a different experience, but with a similar desired outcome in my opinion, to be respected, understood and appreciated and ultimately to succeed.

While I realize that it does not reflect your target lesson, I've grown weary of kids that have been taught, instead of politely saying "hello", to start acting like baby gangsters upon approaching me.

Teach on.

[ajuma]

I too teach a variety of alternatives to "hello", "how are you" and "goodbye". I explain that those 3 are polite forms and used when talking to a boss, teacher, the parent of a friend or those random strangers you see on the elevator or at the bus stop every day. "Hey, hi, yo, how ya doin, what's up, catch ya later" and the like are used between friends.

[hellofaniceguy]

Hey dog, how's it going is catching on.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Slangs and/or variations are kind of worth mentioning, but we have more important things to do than concentrate a whole lesson on them.

Hence:



Clowny, clowny, clowny get your adverbs here.

[shantaram]

Groan.

My lesson incorporated four parts: different ways of saying hello, different ways of asking how are you, a conversational question, and different ways of saying goodbye. Every child in the class had a chance to use the language. Every child enjoyed it. Some children had the chance to use all 4 parts of language sequentially in a role-play in front of the class. This was the first time I'd heard them speak naturally. It was a highly motivational exercise and now kids can use and understand different greetings and ways of saying goodbye.

I am happy with, so are the teachers, so are the kids. Outcome=successful.