Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cynical Optimist]

Anyone have experience doing interviews for prospective foreign language high school students? Or ever help one prep for the interview?

I can guess that the basics are covered: tell me about your family, hobbies, etc., but do they throw in some random stuff?

And how long do they expect student responses to be?

Any tips for helping a student prep for this?
List of questions?

Thanks

[Harpeau]

I've coached students and have also been the interviewer. Here are a few:

Describe a problem that you yourself encountered and how you went about solving it?

Have you ever lived abroad? What were some of the challenges that you faced? Whhat did you enjoy about the experience? How did you deal with being in a foreign country?

When you returned to Korea, was it hard for you in the beginning? If so, how did you adjust?

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

Why should we admit you into our high school?

What contribution do you hope to make while you are here? (Clubs, groups, circles, school spirit, sports, etc.)


A few of the better high schools will hand a newspaper article and ask the student to read it in a couple min. Then take it out of their hands and ask them to summerize the article, ask questions about it, ask for their opinions, etc. (Things like FTA, North Korea (reunification), Iraq, Israel, etc. are often asked.)

Sorry, this was rushed. Hoping that it is helpful.

[robot]

which FLHS? every one is different.

the interview and writing often consists of a question related to school life and korea.

here are some i posted before:

- - - - -

What is your opinion of students� school freedom of hair style and freedom of dress? Explain

Who is a historical figure whom you admire? Explain.

What is a good way to use the students� rest area? Explain.

Do you agree with the following statement? �Playing a game is fun only when you win.� Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Students now days are busy learning many things in school and outside of school in academies. In your opinion, what is the most important character needed to succeed in the future in Korea?

The popularity to study overseas is becoming greater and greater in Korea. The college education system in Korea is losing some of the brightest students to overseas universities. What one thing can Korean education do to bring the students back to the Korean education system?

Teachers are very important in school and to students. What is the most important characteristic of a good teacher?

Many students speak English, at least a little, and language is emphasized in many schools in Korea. What is an advantage, however, of learning a foreign language?

Class sizes in Korean classrooms have gotten smaller from almost 70 students per class to now about 35 per class. What is an advantage of a small class size?

The APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) met in Busan recently. The leaders of the Pacific Rim countries, including the United States, Japan, China, Canada and Australia, among many others, want to encourage cooperation between the individual countries. What is the one characteristic needed by the leaders of the countries to be able to work together peacefully? Explain.

- - - - - -

these questions are a little tougher since they're from a tougher FLHS. they'll give you the general idea though.

ROBT.

[Harpeau]

[Cynical Optimist]

Thank you very much! That really helps a lot -- I didn't realize they would ask those kinds of questions.

I don't know the name of the school that she's trying to get into -- just that it's in Gumi. I think some of those questions would be quite difficult for her, but maybe she's just still shy with me -- only one lesson so far.

[Harpeau]

I think most of the questions that I put up are for the top two~ Min Jung and the fameous one in town. Don't know about other schools.

[Cynical Optimist]

Still working with this student and starting to feel like we've covered most things. Any other good possible questions?

Also, should the students try to launch into long answers for most questions or just cover the question and keep it brief?

I'm sure many students try to memorize responses to common questions. What's the view on this from the interviewer's perspective. If they suspect that the student has been prepped and is simply reciting memorized answers, it that really bad? Or is that basically the norm?

How can I help my student shine in this interview???

Thanks for any more insight anyone might be able to provide!

[Mr. Pink]

Most likely their answer time will be timed. It was when I used to do interviews of prospective students for a certain FLHS.

[Cynical Optimist]

so if it's timed, what are the times? 2 minutes? 5 minutes? 1 minute? different for different questions?

any more example questions? how many questions might there be?

how important are the standards like "tell me about your family, hobbies, dreams, etc.."?

is it heavy on the basic questions like that, or heavier on the difficult questions like "tell me about a problem you had and how you solved it" or "why should we accept you" or maybe questions about current events???

I'm trying to figure out what I should be focusing on. i could work one qroup of questions over and over for memory's sake, or do a lot of different questions for on-the-spot response training -- tho the students then might not remember all their answers. ideally, they'd just naturally respond, but i can see that sometimes, nothing comes out.

[faster]

[Cynical Optimist]

Also, can anyone tell me if the questions are usually all pretty serious ones, or do students get asked some lighter questions -- like conversation questions, "what if" questions? -- for example:

if you won the lottery what would you do?
if you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
if you could be a fruit/color/another person, what/who would you be?
what's your favorite tv show/movie/book, and why?

thanks

[ddeubel]

I don't think you can really prepare "specifically" for this. You can only ask your students to be prepared in a "broad" way.....

Mostly, it is what would be effective in a job interview. Not just language but attitude, effort, social ability/level/maturity, social intelligence, openess and reactive ability, conversational tone and level.

I'm in the midst of preparing a rubrik and questions for the same ...........

I won't be doing anything that isn't open ended. Meaning, let them speak and show what they are made of. They won't be able to fall back on any scripted answer and a whiff of that will get them scaled down on my rubrik...

I love that biggee of all interviews (and which is the "gold" from which interviewers determine so much from), "So, tell me about yourself...."

DD

[Cynical Optimist]

Thanks for that, ddeubel. That helps.

I was kinda figuring that what you said was the case, but really wasn't sure.

I'm telling my students not to try to memorize stuff so much, but just remember the MAIN POINTS that they want to talk about if they get asked certain questions.

I'm having them focus a lot on that "Tell me about yourself" question, as well as, "Why should we accept you?" and "Why do you want to come here?"

Unfortunately one of these students has a difficult time improvising answers and using her English ability spontaneously and freely. She's very smart and really does know a lot of English, but she's just too hesitant to let it flow.

I hope you won't penalize students TOO much if you think they're giving you an answer that they've rehearsed. After all, it is good and responsible of them to have spent time trying to prepare for their interview. People that do that for job interviews are generally praised for it. Of course, in your own language, you can present it better and hide the fact that you practiced the answer. So these middle school kids have to deal with tough questions in a different language and in a high pressure situation -- that's rough enough! And they're only in middle school! Sometimes I forget that fact when I'm talking to them and asking them interview questions that I know many adults back home would stumble on!

[ddeubel]

Cynical Optimist,

There are a couple things that beg to be "let out of the bag" regarding preparation for the admissions interview. You probably intuitively know this but I'll mention it and get it out of the bag.

1). Know who you are applying to. Different institutions have different admission/interview needs and wishes. Students and teachers offering advice should find out as much as possible about the people and school. This will effect the "presentation", which an interview essentially is.

2) the best thing you can do for your student(s) regarding the interview, is to teach the fine art of "smoozing" and making a good impression. Every interviewer will boohoo this and say they only look at the objective facts etc.....but it ain't true at all. This is just one step in most school's selection process. I know we will have a mini camp after the initial interview and select from that....So teach students how to smile, interact, hold themselves, body language, presentation skills (eye contact, gestures, voice...). This will help immensely.

DD