Korean Job Discussion Forums

sojourner1

Do you see some kids who go into uncontrollable fits of crying and screaming as if they were being brutally beaten? I have one particular young one who goes into uncontrollable crying and screaming fits when he asks me something in Korean and I don't respond or he doesn't understand something in a lesson the first time around. He curls up in a fetal position and cries and screams uncontrollably at times. He is very emotionally insecure for whatever reasons I don't know, but the screaming gets worse if you try to talk to him and even worse if you touch his hand or head gently. He acts like he is terrified with no apparent reason though he is not like this all the time. It's like he snaps in and out of it. There seems to be 2 personalities or some horrible state of mind is surfacing at times.

My vice-director comes into the room and is very concerned and asks me what happened in a manner that I did something bad who is starting to piss me off. Class will be going just fine and all of a sudden this occurs while nothing happened to warrant such behavior. Now if I were yelling at, beating, and torturing a kid, they might act this way, but this one acts this way when there is no situation to warrant such a dramatic response.

Heck, you can sit most kids outside who do act bad and they don't scream like you're killing them. This kid screams and cries like you're killing him, but yet it happens just out the blue for no obvious reason. I know something is definitely wrong with this kid upstairs, though I am not a psychologist and you know Koreans won't accept that something is wrong with their own, but that it must be something wrong with the waegook teacher.

What do you make of this? How might I handle this situation in a class of 14 very low level 5 year old students in their first English class? This young preschool level class has been particularly difficult on account of this one acting strange and then the rest just uncontrollably talking in Korean.

Fresh Prince · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: The glorious nation of Korea

Tjames426 · Joined: 06 Aug 2006

If the kid is acting up, the other youngsters in class know about it. Have them talk to the director about the outtbursts. It freaks them out too. They are worried about their safety.

Obviously, the kid has a medical condition the director needs to speak to the parent.

I had a kid with a serious ADD problem. One day he brought a nice big Stag beetle to class in a big glass jar. He would not let go of it. The mom came in and "dragged" the boy out of the class. The other kids talked about him. He felt lower than dung. Eventually, he would get into fights with them.

etc...etc...etc...

He got removed from class after he grabbed the sandals off of one boy and was waving out the window, like he was going to drop them.

alphakennyone · Joined: 01 Aug 2005 Location: city heights

Just a bit curious, I'm no medical professional or anyything, but why is it that the vast majority of behavioral problems seem to be attributed to ADD by teachers here?

It's like the middle ages when the cure to everything was bloodletting. Surely there are more problems than one catch-all disorder.

shaunew · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Location: Calgary

garykasparov · Joined: 27 May 2007

happeningthang · Joined: 26 Apr 2003

I have one 6 year old who is a handful and prone to over the top wailing and flailing about on the floor when he faces the slightest punishment for his actions.

Take away his pog thingys for the duration of the class (those carboard discs the kids play with)? Cry hysterically.

Tell him to go outside after talking throughout the class, being a general bully and not doing a lick of work? Flop to the floor, cry like you're beheading his puppy, roll about and be unresponsive.

When you pick him up and drop him outside the door? Beat the door like you've locked him in a dark closet filled with snakes, and wail loud enough to have people on the floor below come running.

In each instance I'll put him on his feet, gently but insistently take him by the hand to the nearest Korean teacher and dump him on them.

I can't talk to him, he's disrupting the class - get him out of the way to someone who can do something for him.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

We're here to teach English - not put up with disruptive behavior - or teach social skills. Your other students (and their parents) expect you to teach English. So just get on with it.

If the kid nuts off - remove him from the class. Write a letter to the parents (through the school) stating why this boy can not behave this way in YOUR English class. He is to be removed permanently.

You can expect the school to react by bullying you into accepting the kid back into class. Simply refuse and cite the other kids' education needs as your reason.

Other posters are right. Koreans notion of 'face' will simply not allow them to acknowledge that a kids a nutter - or a spoilt brat (Little Emporer Syndrome).

I've been through this with a dyslexic kid nutting around and disturbing the class. I finally got him out of the class permanently by suggesting he would be better off
with 'private' lessons. And, I told the director that if his parents stopped hitting him around the head, he'd probably not be so brain damaged. I don't know which excuse worked - but he was out of the class and into private lessons. Be very firm - and good luck.