Korean Job Discussion Forums

bogey666 · Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Location: Korea, the ass free zone

the kids in my highschool do a lot of clowning around. Non stop actually.

and a lot of it is physical.. they will push each other.. punch each other... throw shit at each other. etc etc etc etc

but I've never seen it done with the real intent to HURT someone. Rather it's clowning around, or at worst, intimidation.

these are highschoolers mind you.

Highschoolers in the US of A regularly get into all kinds of serious brawls, where the intent is to really hurt someone, and seriously so.

am I missing something? or this is a cultural thing? or fear of what would happen to them at school thing?

or what?

(probably explains why one so rarely if ever sees wannabe hard guy/tough guy adult Koreans walking around looking for trouble)

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Some of my high schoolers play-fight constantly but I've never seen a real fight in three years.

bogey666 · Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Location: Korea, the ass free zone

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

inthezone · Joined: 19 Nov 2007 Location: seoul

Came up on a fight of two of my middle schoolers. It had just ended s i got there. One kid was pretty bruised and bleeding on the lip and eye.

It seems the secret fighting place for the kids in my school is at the back of the local police station and i mean ourtside the very back door! Rolling Eyes

xingyiman · Joined: 12 Jan 2006

Koreans, both young and old, like to scuffle. I've never seen what I would call a real fight here.

poet13 · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 11:21 pm Post subject:

The big news from the high school next door a couple of weeks ago was a fight. A real fight. That was big news at the middle school I work in. Last year in middle school some kid crushed some other kid. Big kid picking on the little kid, and little kid kicked his face in....literally. The big kid had several surgeries and he still looks funny.
The beginning of the school year is the usual time here for first year boys to fight. Theyr'e new to each other, and just flexing. Not a big deal.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

We had a fight at our uni, which was a pretty big thing when it happened. Not many people around and this tiny little 5'2" security guard went in and broke it up. That was funny... respect for the elders. The guys were on the ground beating on each other.

Apparently, it was over a girl. One guy went to the hospital, but I'm sure he was released the same day.

merkurix · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Location: Not far from the deep end.

Three years ago I used to work at a vocational-track high school (which meant no uni for those boys; only a career or technical college at best) and while there was a lot of serious and sometimes painful-looking roughhousing, there was only one time where two boys were seriously trading blows to each other's faces. In fact one kid shattered the other kids glasses against his face. And it was during my lesson nonetheless. Luckily my co-teacher swiftly sent them on their merry way and the lesson proceeded without further incident. But other than that, it was relatively calm for the rest of the year.

Lekker · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Location: Seoul

Probably because they know when they get into the military, they will be trained to fight to kill. So afterwards they are really serious, although I have seen some Korean adjussis kicking the fick out of each other on Subway platforms and in front of Buy The Ways.

Easter Clark · Joined: 18 Nov 2007 Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong

Never seen a fight at my tech HS, but the boys and girls play this slap-hands game that gets on my nerves....guess they'll use any excuse they can to touch the opposite sex!

Another "favorite" is rock-paper-scissors and the loser gets slapped on the forehead!

teachergirltoo · Joined: 28 Oct 2006

They definitely fight. Serious too. I work at an all boys high school. Last year during a fight one of the boys ended up with two broken legs and this year one ended up with a broken arm.

esetters21 · Joined: 30 Apr 2006 Location: Seoul

This is off topic, but I think that I have seen that sign in the OP's avatar. It is generally geared towards the mid western people that flood our beaches in Florida during spring break. Razz

bogey666 · Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Location: Korea, the ass free zone

yeremy

I was standing in a classroom at the high school I work at when one student hurt a girl while play fighting. Her boyfriend, I assume, started to launch himself towards the aggressor but a friend of his stepped in between and blocked him. I put my arm around his shoulders and steered him away in the other direction.

I have seen elementary school six graders fight in one or two of my classes in the past, but I jumped in between and shoved them apart from each other. Luckily, they were sixth graders rather than high school students, who are much bigger physically. Those kids were in the first year group of sixth graders I co-taught. Each subsequent year, the elementary school students at that school were better and better behaved.

In one of my current high school classes, I have a male student who said that he has a fourth degree black belt in Hapkido and we also have a wrestling team at that school, too. I am also surprised like another poster that I haven't seen hardly any fights nor physical contact which would lead to a physical altercation.