Korean Job Discussion Forums

[charlieDD]

. . .

[tomato]

I can explain why your Korean students complain about writing assignments:
Excuse the pun, but creative writing is totally foreign to Korean students.
I doubt if you would have this problem if the homework consisted of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank.

Here in Korea, we get blank stares every time the student book calls for any creative writing.
I've tried saying, "Write it in Korean, then, and we will worry about having it translated later."
I still got blank stares, because they never even did any creative work in Korean.

Sometimes I marvel that there are books and magazines written in Korean.
I frankly wonder who writes those books and magazines.

[mateomiguel]

[Justin Hale]

[ajgeddes]

[spliff]

seems their teachers are lacking.

[ardis]

[tomato]

Ardis, instead of going



at me for not doing a job as well as you did,
how about doing something constructive--like describing how you did it.
That could help me, that could help the OP, that could help my students, and that could help the OP's students.
That could even create a ripple, so there is no telling who else it could help.

[VanIslander]

Korean students in Korea can't find Korea on a world map.

Seriously.

I put a world map on the wall and for months a student at one time or another, when they eventually locate it (with plenty of hints), would bemoan how small Korea is.

Look at the map books they learn from in school: they're FULL of maps of every place in the world, but not a single map of the whole world, amazing as that seems, no context reference for the students, as they first look at a huge full page map of Korea (NOT South Korea either) and then next page a map of China with no connection inbetween and they get a sense they are about the same size.

Back home one can laugh at the inflated ego of some people but here it is a full blown nationalistic imperative.

[shantaram]

I wonder about kids at my school being taught the Koguryeo map at age 7. I think it must have confused them.

[inukshuk]

you've managed to prove that they are foreigners. You've also proven that Korea is a very small sized country.

[happeningthang]

Every Korean kid I've asked has been able to find Korea without any problems.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[mindmetoo]

My kids weren't aware Korea was in Asia. One kid pointed to Kamchatka thinking it was Korea. But they could all find Japan and knew Dokdo was an island (they were hard pressed to name more than two islands). When asked what ocean Korea was on, they said "the east sea".

This leads me to believe Korean geography is basically taught from the perspective of "who screwed us over and what we've been screwed over on".

And nothing funnier then going to the "World Food Court" and finding it's all Korean food plus Burger King. BK makes it "world".

[crash bang]

finding korea on a world map should be easy. it's the country thats the most Sparkling (TM)