Korean Job Discussion Forums

[byunhosa]

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By the way, I'm not convinced that the bullying of this kid in the OP's story is racially motivated. If you're bullying somebody, you pick out the things that you think will bother them and use them against them. Call them fat, make fun of their crappy clothes, or their race. It doesn't mean you hate fat people or cheap clothes or that race, just that you're torturing this one individual using all tools available.[/quote]


That's a good point. I agree, I am not at all sure the bullying here is racially motivated either. As I said, my nephew is a little awkward and he has an ill-chosen English name which is easy to lampoon. But when you are in the minority, you automatically view things through that prism, as many here can attest. This is the perception problem that I have to deal with regarding my wife and her family.

Certainly some kids can be carelessly cruel, without meaning anything in particular by it. I was not a bully in school by any stretch, but I do remember saying stupid things that, in retrospect, I regret and may have been very hurtful to the listener.

[byunhosa]

[cbclark4]

After complaining three times about the harassment my son was
receiving, I wrote letter to the principle at my son�s school when he was in
the first grade, I explained that his school was turning into a Nazi enclave
and that he should call the offending students (I was able to name
several) into a conference with their parents and that they should receive
a good talking to. I explained that if the meeting did not take place and if
action necessary to prevent the harassment were not taken that I would
forward the letter to the superintendent as well as the state board of
education and the press.

There were no more harassment incidents at this school. The parents
were advised to seek counseling for themselves and their children and
that the counseling would become mandatory if the children were
involved in another incident of harassment.

[poet13]

Bullying at my school is a very serious offense. Last year, the police picked up a couple of our boys for trying to extort money from some smaller kid. I can't speak for city schools, but in the rual schools that I know about (maybe ten), it's a problem that is dealt with quite quickly and severely.

cbcclark.....was that in korea or somewhere else?

[bellum99]

Sometimes the kid being bullied actually caused it to to happen. If the kid is weird or strange and they do or say things that other people think are odd, then they get bullied. It happens.
A few times when I was growing up I saw kids get bullied. Many times, the kids getting bullied, needed to stop doing what they were doing.


1: One kid would play with himself in class( grade 6).

2: One kid would run around touching other guys johnsons. (grade 5)

3: One kid would constantly say stupid idiotic things to the other boys until they hit him.

---If the kid is weird then he needs to maybe change what he is doing. Sometimes people need other people to tell them to stop.

[cbclark4]

[Zaria32]

I do apologize for trying to help with my "bleepin' obvious" suggestions ...bad, bad me...

[Countrygirl]

I was also concerned about bullying in Korean schools when our family moved here.

I do think that there is more bullying here than in Canada, but it really does happen everywhere. I had a rough family life, so I had no social skills and I was picked on in school. My kids have a good family life and are popular in school (here and Canada). This is despite being mixed and not knowing perfect Korean.

The most important thing is that the parents should be involved. It might be difficult for your sister-in-law to deal with this issue in English in the U.S. If your nephew moved here, your sister-in-law might find it easier to communicate with the homeroom teacher.

There are a lot of returnees in my public school, and none of them are picked on. The kids can go to a returnee school for 6 months to catch up on Korean. I didn't realize this and just sent my kids in full immersion. I don't think that your niece and nephew will have more problems here than they would in the U.S. I do find that in Korea, though, there is no system for dealing with bullying at school. It's all up to the homeroom teacher.

Good luck. I hope your nephew escapes that environment soon.

Also, just curious...does your wife believe in fan death? I think I've finally convinced my husband it's not true but I'm not sure he really believes me.

[byunhosa]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[kingplaya4]

He needs Brazilian Ju-Jitsu lessons, not a new country. Look it up, one of the few martial arts that can effectively back up its claims. They need to make sure he gets a real instructor obviously, and it will probably be a year of training before he should use it, but in the meantime it gives him a goal to work toward.

Might sound a little high schoolish, but that's the world he's in. He can learn to try to act cool all he wants, but if he can't verbally defend himself he's toast. Some kids coast on that, but a kid who's on the outside is going to have to show that he can back up what he says.

As someone who's taught here two years, I doubt he'll fare any better here, the only thing it would give him would be a fresh start.

[Mix1]