Korean Job Discussion Forums

[I'm no Picasso]

Just started at a public middle school a month and a half ago, and things are going pretty well -- learning my way around keeping the boys from being bored to tears with the lame textbook and whatnot, slowly but surely.

My coteachers keep asking if I can start teaching the boys about American culture. That's all well and good and I would certainly love to introduce something a little more invigorating to the lessons, but the problem is.....

75% of my students still freeze up when I ask them, "How are you?" and the other 25% answer, "I'm fine, thanks. And you?" every time without fail. When I ask what they did this weekend, I get horrified confused faces, and even when I'm explaining that now they need to turn the page, they get confused. Their English is extremely, extremely basic.

Beyond that, when I try to explain simple differences I've noticed between American and Korean culture to my coteachers, they look completely bewildered, and often the response is, but why do you do it that way?

I'm all for working hard to meet what ever expectations are set before me, but I think the coteachers are over-shooting a bit with this one....

[The evil penguin]

Not sure how to solve the students ability problem ( i teach university... although i do wonder how even some of my students scraped through elementary school) but would a dumbed down generic "Western Cultures" or even "world cultures" class be more useful than one specifically "american". Afterall, there's a whole world out there!!!

Even low level students might get a kick out of the world map and different flags etc. Even comparing things like differences between christmas traditions around the world (including comparing white christmases (is there a plurel of christmas???) complete with turkey and chestnuts in the UK and US to the frying beach prawns and beer summer christamases in Aust and NZ) could be interesting for the kids.

[IAMAROBOT]

What's worked for my elementary school students is slideshows. Whenever a holiday rolls around, I compile pictures and describe very basically some of the things in the pictures. Usually, they already have a general idea of American holidays, and all you have to do is flesh it out a little more for them. Example: with Thanksgiving I just described the foods that go into a Thanksgiving dinner and the kids obviously understood that "turkey" obviously referred to the big bird in the middle, "cranberries" go into that reddish sauce, etc.

[Tiger Beer]

[rationality]

[I'm no Picasso]

[I'm no Picasso]

[NoExplode]

If you talk about your culture, you'll notice the silence and seat squirming. Particularly if you've been here a while and can raise and compare aspects of their culture they really would prefer foreigners did not know.

It's a lose-lose. They'll egg you on to do it, but resent you when you do.

If you can't get around it, qualify each difference at the end of each sentence with a pause, then state: "...but Koreans do it better" or "... but I prefer the Korean way."

[I'm no Picasso]

[I'm no Picasso]

[little mixed girl]

i think what you should do is make a simple powerpoint or slide show.

for example, talk about middle/high school in the US. the types of things you studied, what was allowed and what wasn't allowed in class, etc.

use simple english and talk slowly and clearly.

as to them answering questions, yeah they know "i'm fine, thank you", but why not try do something a little different when they ask "..and you?"

ie- "i'm cold" and do a little shiver or something to show that you're cold, then ask them "are you cold?"

[nebraska1]

I did this in my former school. Since I am an American I taught mostly American culture. But I also had a good time with showing Christmas in New Zedland and Nebraska...frozen tundra versus spending the day at the beach. (have a great friend who is a Kiwi and she helped me with her family's traditions at Christmas.) Talked about crackers, boxing day (something of mystery to me) It was great.

The secret with boys if they are over the age of 1 is .......FOOD!

We made Easter eggs. Had an Egg Hunt. I focused on the egg and rabbit part not the religious part. Had Mom send some cheapish chocolate eggs and we made a class Easter Basket.

We had a full on weenie roast for 4th of July and played baseball and shot off firecrackers. (summer camp)

Halloween was amazing! And Thanksgiving was easy as it was easy to compare to Chusok. Brought cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. (Yeah Costco!)

All of this was proceeded by a full on lesson, cloze exercises, learning key phrases and a lot of fun.

Boys in particular need things they can "do". We made instant pudding, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Which they had to make recipe cards. This devolved into insanity but hey if they want to eat chocolate pudding on their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, who am I to complain.

We made pinata's at Christmas...holy hell mess but fun. Surprisingly I had a good many artistic students so we made holiday decorations and the school invested in the glitter glue and I had my Mom send me some she bought in bulk and I had the best decorated class room ever. Parents received Christmas cards in English that are probably still shedding glitter.

I loved it.

Nebraska1

[I'm no Picasso]

[moosehead]

Ks will in general say anything in order to give you orders just to make sure you know who is who

just ignore what they ask - or say yeah ok and then teach the best you can -

mostly I manage to teach E despite the K teachers best attempts at trying to see me fail - which sometimes I swear is their goal.

I mean why else would they choose such miserable books to use?

ahem, but I digress - OP - try Google, Images and then search for whatever it is you might think would interest your class - you can find all kinds of American holiday pictures there - the class will love them and you can encourage their conversation skills, point out certain vocabulary, etc.

good luck !

[Big Mac]

I've always found that Korean students are not interested in any other culture than their own. I don't really bother mentioning my own culture anymore. All I get are glazed eyes and looks of "who cares?"

Koreans are kind of like most Americans in this regard. They're too into themselves to care what happens in the rest of the world.