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NightSky
Joined: 19 Apr 2005
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 Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 1:08 am Post subject: the staggering ignorance of children here |
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my fourth-graders didn't know that Tokyo was the capital of Japan.
they also have no clue about any kind of geography. one of my second graders tried to find Korea on a world map and was pointing somewhere in the middle east.
routinely, they display a complete lack of awareness of their position in the world and anything outside of their own country, but also, startlingly, they seem to know very little about places in korea as well. they do the same confused searching thing when shown a huge wall map of Korea. can't find Seoul.
is it just me or is that kind of inexcusable? and yes, when I was that age I had memorized many different capitals of countries and could draw a reasonable map of my home country, so don't try to tell me that we were the same when we were that young.
I mean what do they teach them in school? |
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agoodmouse
Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Location: Anyang
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 1:15 am Post subject: |
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| Give them a year or two and they'll be goose-stepping to Arirang and the South Korean flag. |
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polonius
Joined: 05 Jun 2004
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 1:52 am Post subject: |
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| I'm sure there are Europeans teaching in America who would say the same thing. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:14 am Post subject: Re: the staggering ignorance of children here |
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the staggering ignorance of some (newbie) teachers here: what do you expect them to know?
| NightSky wrote: |
| my fourth-graders didn't know that Tokyo was the capital of Japan. |
capital???? as in political center of government????
that's above any fourth graders head
Knowing that Tokyo is a CITY and is IN Japan would be impressive enough for grade 4 elementary school
i am impressed by how much they learn about flags of the world by grade six, much more than your average high school grad back home
you really gotta examine your expectations |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:18 am Post subject: Re: the staggering ignorance of children here |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
the staggering ignorance of some (newbie) teachers here: what do you expect them to know?
| NightSky wrote: |
| my fourth-graders didn't know that Tokyo was the capital of Japan. |
capital???? as in political center of government????
that's above any fourth graders head
Knowing that Tokyo is a CITY and is IN Japan would be impressive enough for grade 4 elementary school
i am impressed by how much they learn about flags of the world by grade six, much more than your average high school grad back home
you really gotta examine your expectations |
The OP is not a newbie. He registered in 2005. At any rate, my students know that Tokyo is the capital of Japan. I am sure most know that many know that Beijing is China's capital/capitol. Generally,
Koreans, Americans, and people from England are not so knowledgeable when it comes to world geography. Canada, Sweden, and Norway, from what I understand, do a lot better.
Supposedly, close to 20% of Americans can't find the US on the map. Also, some Canadian historians lament the lack of knowledge amongst Canadians when it comes to history, though I think that the average Canadian may do better than the average Korean or American when it comes to that, but Koreans score quite high when it comes to math. Let's keep that in mind.
In some states in the U.S., students are not exposed to world geography in major way until grade 9. They are changing that in Texas and trying to teach them some of that stuff early on.
Did you know many people in England had no clue that Winston Churchill was a real person? In Quebec, people often believe that they pay more to the Canadian Government then they receive, though that is patently false.
It is true that Korea is not a country that has been known to be global in terms of exposing itself to knowledge of countries outside its borders. They've been focused on things like math, science, and reading.
Last edited by Adventurer on Tue May 19, 2009 2:26 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Draz
Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Location: Land of Morning Clam
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:23 am Post subject: |
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I didn't know anything about geography when I was in 4th grade either, and I didn't want to. I'd memorize stuff if I had to, but it was exceptionally boring.
When you think about it, it's completely useless to learn geography when you can't go anywhere alone anyway. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:33 am Post subject: |
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You also need to keep in mind that if the map you are using when asking them questions is on a different scale than the one they are used to using, many will not be able to locate their own head. I'm not joking. The ability to manipulate spatial relationships does not develop at the same speed or with the same quality in everyone, especially with 4th graders.
If you are going to judge Korean 4th graders' abilities, at least take the time to find out what they were taught in 3rd grade, not what YOU were taught at a given time in school. |
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sigmundsmith
Joined: 22 Nov 2007
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:52 am Post subject: |
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I am not going to defend either position and simply say that the Korean teachers don't seem to care as much about geography as math and science.
Teaching geography is probably not expected in 99% of our contracts, so I would stick with English as the main subject and let the Korean teachers worry about having students memorize capitals.
http://englishlessons.wikispaces.com/locations |
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jurassic82
Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Location: Somewhere!!!!
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