Korean Job Discussion Forums

[htrain]

I've been reading the nightmare thread on adult classes. I love my adult classes, some of the students are on-point. I do have one rule though, NO JAPAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Has anyone else had to implement this rule?

I seriously got to a point where I was going to pull my hair out. I'm talking, every... single... day....

Typical advanced class:

Me: So what do you think about today's weather?
Student: It is dark and cold, much like the hearts of the Japanese people... who stole our land and raped our women.

Me: Ok, so back to today's topic, how do you feel about gender roles in Asia, would you want to be a househusband, Mr. Kim?

Mr. Kim: In Korea we respect women, unlike the Japanese who killed our people and occupied our land for so many years while raping our women and terrorizing children.

..........

[Rteacher]

I don't understand why that topic should be taboo in an adult EFL class in Korea. If that's a topic that they're interested and want to discuss, then I suggest incorporating it into a conversation class, but explain that in certain social and international business contexts it would not be appropriate to make such controversial political assertions.

In any case, you'd have to be careful about getting drawn into controversy yourself by making any statement understood to be sympathetic to Japan's side of the story.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I quickly learned to avoid bringing up any mention of Japan, but I've never had a student do what the OP is mentioning. I don't know what I'd do in that situation.

[reactionary]

i agree with the OP. it's not my job to listen to whatever hateful speech a student has to say, while biting my tongue to say anything negative of korea or positive of japan. the problem is they can dish it, but they can't take it. so it's best if they don't dish it.

[htrain]

[Ilsanman]

I made this mistake too.

The kids wanted to have a discussion about Dokdo, so I allowed it. Since they were all on the same side, I played the devil's advocate, albeit somewhat respectfully. More or less, asking them to back up what they said.

They tried to argue with me, but after about 3 minutes, it degraded to 'it's ours!!!', and dumbass comments like 'They can have Dokdo, and Japan is ours'. I cut off the discussion at this point, and went back to regular studying.

A few days later, I had a complaint from a mother.

[mrsquirrel]

Dokdo was good fun for summer camp.

I gave them an easy general knowledge quiz - which they couldn't do.

I then suggested they write 5 of their own questions.

They managed 1 - Who is the master owner of Dokdo.

I then made them sit through me searching on the internet for the history.

Then I dragged up all the land based conflicts in the rest of the world taht I could think of - Northern Ireland, Israel- Palestine, Afghanistan, Cyprus etc etc. Started pulling out facts and figures about deaths, killings.

Asking them why they haven't got the Navy and Army over there fighting for Dokdo. Taking it back.

Pretty much all they could say was it was theirs. Eventually they got bored and sat in silence. That was the last I heard of Dokdo.

[htrain]

One thing I do recommend for new teachers is this: DON'T make ANY allowances about your home country, at any time, for any reason.

I was trying to be diplomatic and said I know America is hated by many and I don't agree with a lot of government politics, foolishly thinking this would create some kind of give-and-take relationship.

The result as you might guess was instead them switching to America and trashing my country for 10 minutes before class was over.

[pkang0202]

In my opinion, Korean comments about Japan are very much akin to Canadian comments about America.

[Ilsanman]

I disagree. I think any level of Anti-Americanism in Canada is quite mild. It is mostly based on jealousy or envy. Or just rivalry and not liking their role as #2 economic power on the continent.

Korean hatred of Japan is based upon much deeper roots of hatred, inferiority, and it is considered to be acceptable. The media and school systems reinforce it.

Then again, a lot of Canadians (like me) have no problem with USA. I just wouldn't want to live there.

[endo]

[htrain]

[Ilsanman]

[SuperHero]

[htrain]