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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| The pronunciation thing is the worst. I probably dislike the way the way they pronounce the long "o" sound for words like "dog" and "Harry Potter" more than any other. I know in Hangul it's written that way, like "Hong Kong" with the long "o" sound. But I like to point out that English speakers do not say it that way, and that it can be hard to understand their way of saying it. |
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Ody
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Location: over here
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| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
My first teaching contract was in Pusan, and one of my students was an English vampire. She was married, had no job, no kids, and spent about 8 hours every day on her hobby, studying English. Gave everybody serious attitude. She would come to class and test me with Latin phrases like, "what does in loco parentis mean?" Her spoken English was excellent, she didn't need to be at a language school at all. However, she hated foreigners. Hated American soldiers stationed in Korea, felt Korea was best at everything, and had been kicked out of at least three hogwans for arguing with the native English teachers before she came to my school. Apparently that was her real hobby, arguing with foreigners. Managed to put up with me for three months, and was a money-loser for the school because no other student could stand her attitude and would flee the classes she was in.
Bizarre experience, to say the least. |
i think this is a special case. not sure what i would do with such a student. maybe schedule an appointment to to discuss how she could truly further her studies rather than wasting time and energy in a class designed for less advanced learners.
i generally don't mind if my students think they're smarter. in fact, such an attitude is a welcome change from the 50 - 60% in my classes with low self esteem.
after my first semester teaching college students (at a technical school), i realize that instilling confidence in them is half the battle.
Last edited by Ody on Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| FUBAR wrote: |
The student corrected me and then said "How do you not know this? You are English. Are you stupid?"
I was pretty angry but I retorted "Well. Actually, I am Canadian not English. Can you tell me who was the 1st NHL player in Korea to win the Stanley Cup?" When the guy failed to answer, I asked "How can you not know this. He is Korean. You should know this. Are you really Korean?" From that day on no more attempts were made to show me up. |
This is why I am glad I work in a highschool. If some kid asked me "are you stupid" he/she would seriously get an ass kicking. I am not sure if the kid would getting a beating or just have to do some other type of punishment.
| Zed wrote: |
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| they would take a hit on that mark for being so disrespectful. |
Must be nice. |
It is nice. Years ago the students would get hit, now I think most teachers make the kids memorize proverbs or clean the school grounds. Most students have told me these are WAY worse punishments as if they get hit, it is over with in 5mins and they can go about their business, with memorizing, it takes them days to memorize it properly. Also the cleaning is hard and well, they are teenagers, so a bit lazy. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Ody wrote: |
| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
My first teaching contract was in Pusan, and one of my students was an English vampire. She was married, had no job, no kids, and spent about 8 hours every day on her hobby, studying English. Gave everybody serious attitude. She would come to class and test me with Latin phrases like, "what does in loco parentis mean?" Her spoken English was excellent, she didn't need to be at a language school at all. However, she hated foreigners. Hated American soldiers stationed in Korea, felt Korea was best at everything, and had been kicked out of at least three hogwans for arguing with the native English teachers before she came to my school. Apparently that was her real hobby, arguing with foreigners. Managed to put up with me for three months, and was a money-loser for the school because no other student could stand her attitude and would flee the classes she was in.
Bizarre experience, to say the least. |
i think this is a special case. not sure what i would do with such a student. maybe schedule an appointment to to discuss how she could truly further her studies rather than wasting time and energy in a class designed for less advanced learners.
i generally don't mind if my students think they're smarter. in fact, such an attitude is a welcome change from the 50 - 60% in my classes with low self esteem.
after my first semester teaching college students (at a technical school), i realize that instilling confidence in them is half the battle. |
Ody,
I have one student now, she is so into learning English the other students in the class call her 'the second teacher'. Occasionally she shows me up with her better knowledge of grammar. I don't mind her at all, in fact I'm proud of her for being so diligent and enthusiastic.
But this first case, from Pusan, I had frequent discussions with her about how she could further her studies. I encouraged her constantly to write, and/or think about doing advanced studies overseas. She blew them all off, she just wanted to show off and give all the other students an inferiority complex. She used frequent body language (rolling her eyes, "tisk"ing, etc.) whenever other students made mistakes, and went out of her way to make them feel bad about their speaking abilities.
Quite frankly, the only thing she deserved was a kick in the a**.
You're right, boosting students' self esteem is a big part of teaching adults...she underminded my efforts in that respect, and I was happy to see her go. |
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Len8
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Location: Kyungju
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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| M.O.S. your description of your "English vampire" and her dillegence in learning English has inspired me to try a little harder with my Korean. I want to be a Korean vampire and rubbish Koreans in their own language. Wouldn't hurt to be able to do so when you pick up the occasional snide remarks they make behind your back. Better still it would help to be able to answer in such a way as to embarass them when they all have an open discussion about you when your right in front of them. |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Len8 wrote: |
| M.O.S. your description of your "English vampire" and her dillegence in learning English has inspired me to try a little harder with my Korean. I want to be a Korean vampire and rubbish Koreans in their own language. Wouldn't hurt to be able to do so when you pick up the occasional snide remarks they make behind your back. Better still it would help to be able to answer in such a way as to embarass them when they all have an open discussion about you when your right in front of them. |
Most Koreans I know are not like that, but I do run across the occasional nasty who lays on the snide remark, assuming I don't know what it means. A lot of people here are very hierarchical, constantly looking for an excuse to put somebody else down. Part of the pecking order sort of thing. It actually can be quite fun to participate in, if you get into it with a vengeance.
Len, until you master Korean, a great technique I use is to just turn around and stare openly in their face, with a slightly outraged look. If you really want to make it obvious, say, "what?" ("yeh?"), and just keep on staring. As though maybe you just honestly misunderstood what they were saying. That really brings the house down.
Then walk away and whisper under your breath, loud enough for everyone to hear, "saga-ji!" ("no manners!") |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 2:07 am Post subject: |
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| Len8 wrote: |
| M.O.S. your description of your "English vampire" and her dillegence in learning English has inspired me to try a little harder with my Korean. I want to be a Korean vampire and rubbish Koreans in their own language. Wouldn't hurt to be able to do so when you pick up the occasional snide remarks they make behind your back. Better still it would help to be able to answer in such a way as to embarass them when they all have an open discussion about you when your right in front of them. |
Learn some North Korean words. Koreans cringe when I ask them questions on North Korean. |
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posco's trumpet
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: Beneath the Underdog
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 2:51 am Post subject: |
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| Manner of Speaking wrote: |
A lot of people here are very hierarchical, constantly looking for an excuse to put somebody else down. Part of the pecking order sort of thing. It actually can be quite fun to participate in...
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It's unfortunate if you're so insecure that you need to put other people down, and it's downright pathetic if you need to do it with the approval and encouragment of others.
I'm not sure whether it's more repulsive to do it behind someone's back or to their face, though. |
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Hank Scorpio
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| wylde wrote: |
when i was in school, a lesson was a lesson... i didnt get chocolate for working hard.. i just had to. my teacher did not have to entertain, he just taught.. |
Very true. My Spanish is pathetic. I only took it for two years in high school, and pulled a B- average if I remember correctly. I'm just not one of those people that are able to absorb languages quickly, but after being out of high school for 13 years I'm still able to remember most of what was taught to me. I can't hold fluent discussions, but I was able to get by in Mexico City with simple enough phrases and asking people to speak more slowly.
Now compare my admittedly pathetic Spanish skills to a Korean that's taken English for two years and the differences will be astounding. It's not quite a fair comparison, as I didn't have to learn a new alphabet, but still, the level of English skill demonstrated is just feeble. You can't blame the people and you can't blame the kids, they're just as capable as everyone else. Nope, I blame the desire to speed through material without comprehension as the main problem. |
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kiwiboy_nz_99
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:58 am Post subject: |
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I was editing articles for the uni magazine. I took them by email, and would corrent the many many errors, often having to completely re-write sentences because the writer was just trying to use a very awkward structure. What happened. I got one article returned to me with a note saying he though some of my corrections were wrong, and he'd changed them back! I changed them back and resent it. It came back to me two more times with challenges and queries and my corrections changed back to something that was different from what he originally wrote, but also wrong. I was doing this for free too!
Last edited by kiwiboy_nz_99 on Fri Dec 05, 2003 5:11 am; edited 1 time in total |
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posco's trumpet
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: Beneath the Underdog
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:20 am Post subject: |
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Last edited by posco's trumpet on Sat Dec 06, 2003 5:36 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Hank Scorpio
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:34 am Post subject: |
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| posco's trumpet wrote: |
| kiwiboy_nz_99 wrote: |
| I got one article returned to me with a note saying he though some of my corrections were wrog, and he'd changed them back! I changed them back and resent it. It came back to me two more times with challenges and queries and my corrections changed back to something that was different from what he originally wrote, but also wrong. I was doing this for free too! |
Wrong move, Mr. God. As long as your name's not on the masthead, let him publish his dreck -- it's him who'll look stupid.  |
Yeah, I'd have let it run, but throw a bunch of editing marks up there; [sic]'s, etc. |
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kiwiboy_nz_99
Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...
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| Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 5:12 am Post subject: |
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It's not good when you're writing in a thread about editing and you write the word "wrog" is it.  Oh well, I can recognise mistakes when I read them! |
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