Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Today at lunch I saw a student who had 'Fucking Your Head' written on the back of her school track jacket in big felt-pen letters. I have no idea how long she's been walking around with that on it, but it would seem nobody's taken major exception to it. I intercepted her as she was walking past the teachers' table and a number of teachers seemed a bit perplexed at what I was making so much fuss and telling her off about.

She promised to change it and if I see it again I'm taking it to her homeroom teacher to have a little talk about why our students shouldn't walk around with 'shebal neo-oi meoli' on their clothes. I mean, in a nation where everyone had studied Korean for six-plus years don't you think teachers at a school would have some inkling that a student with '시발' on her clothes was sporting something inappropriate?

[Mix1]

Yes they are. I doubt swear words in another language really carries the same weight with them as they would in Korean. They hear them in movies and just repeat them, thinking they are cool or funny or something. Not that that excuses them.

Just look at the funny, nonsensical, and often perverse English messages on T-shirts, adverts, signs, etc. Oblivious.

[Easter Clark]

One of my coteachers often shouts "Fuck!" when he gets angry. Sometimes my students will say "asshole" "shit" or "puck you!" to each other in class. I just let it slide.

If they were business people getting ready to travel abroad, I'd make sure they knew how offensive and inapproproate those words are, but as it is, they're kids who will probably never even get into college here in Korea, let alone go abroad.

They're having fun and don't realize how strong those words are to a native speaker. But to be fair, "shippal" and "keiseki" are just words to me.

[Smee]

Must be. One of the helper monkeys at my hagwon a few years ago had one of those "F*cking Freezing" shirts and was walking around school with it. When I pointed this out to my director she thought it was funny. A few students also had vulgar clothing.

Some of my colleagues find it weird that I get upset when my students swear in English in English class. How the hell can you not know what "f_ck" or "sh_t" means. Then again, the students swear all the time in Korean and nobody seems to care.

[IncognitoHFX]

We had a nasty bug at our hagwon. One of the older students learned: boobs, sex, fu<k, sh.it, @sshole, et cetera... and taught it to the entire school. Now my seven year olds are saying it habitually. I'm still undoing what has been done, but part of me doesn't really care because they don't understand the words anyway.

I find responding to them by saying this: "eat sh.it? What does that mean? I don't know that... do you mean, eat sh.irts? Why would you say that?" really helps. If you convince them that it's not even English then they seem to stop saying it.

I did hear one student say "c.unt" which completely blew me out of the water. It's a little esoteric to have been translated and widely adopted in Korea, so I asked him where I learned it and he said at his other hagwon. I don't know if it was a teacher or a student, but if it was a teacher I really wouldn't be surprised.

[Smee]

Yet they consider "shut up" the nastiest phrase around.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ernie]

IMO, you're not doing your job as a native english speaker if you ignore blatant swearing (especially swearing directed at YOU)... if you say 'f___ you' to someone in MY country, you'd better be ready to run or fight (as unfortunate as this is, it's true)... saying 'sorry' won't cut it... the excuse 'they don't understand what it means' is NO excuse - if you don't know what it means, then you DEFINITELY shouldn't be saying it!

i would feel responsible if a student of mine got the crap kicked out of him (or her) for saying 'f___ you' to an english speaker...

[Scotticus]

[Underwaterbob]

[ED209]

Had a student with the unfinished 'Kick Me I'm G...' drawn on the back of his PE kit. I would have gladly kicked him but not for being G...

[Typhoon]

About 7 years ago I was in a department store (it had to be Lotte or Galleria as that is all we had at the time). Anyways, Closer by Nine Inch Nails came on. I couldn't decide what shocked me more. The fact that they were playing Nine Inch Nails or that they had a song playing that said "I want to fcuk you like an animal". That is not the only time I have heard questionable English lyrics in songs being played in public places, but certainly it was the most shocking.

[ernie]

i treat them exactly the same as they would be treated if they swore in korean to a korean speaker or in english to an english speaker!

i pretend to get really mad (the key is never to feel mad, of course), and tell them (yelling and close proximity to the offender works well here) exactly what would happen to them if they said that to an english speaker... i don't like to play the fear card very often, but sometimes it's appropriate...

i hate to admit it, but people in my country are not the most civil when it comes to being insulted to their face... also, they will not recognize that you aren't a native speaker and will not grant you the 'ignorant foreigner' excuse...

p.s. i have had NO repeat offenders...

[cdninkorea]

Yes, they are oblivious to it. My gym used to play hip hop with lots of swear words in it. When I translated the words for the Korean staff they were quite shocked. What was interesting though is that they weren't shocked at what the song lyrics were; only at the fact I was swearing in Korean.

A friend of mine had a Korean girlfriend who frequently swore in English, but the one time he swore in Korean she scolded him for it (why he put up with it I don't know, but that different matter).