Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tfunk]

What type of topics do Korean adults enjoy debating about in class?

What type of topics do they(or you) feel is appropriate for their educational goals?

What happens when the topics they enjoy talking about do not seem to fit in with their educational agenda? (e.g. a class of adult business undergraduates enjoy talking about movies, but don't feel that it is appropriate for their particular educational needs. On the other hand, the same class 'dries up' when talking about business related topics).

[Uncle Kevin]

What type of topics do Korean adults enjoy debating about in class?

Dokdo

[busanliving]

I have actually found my class of Korean, male, adult business men to be interested in Africa. They are clueless about the region and are fascinated with things like apartheid, the impact it has had on the country today and it's history. A;so things like the affect of AID's and global warming there.

[winterfall]

Politics.

Generally older people pay more attention to it than younger people.

Be warned. It can get dicey fast. Make it clear that every opinion counts.

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

Always have a focus (grammar, target language) to be able to steer back to especially when the conversation gets a bit pointless eg Dodko our land, bad US and Japan, etc etc or when it seems a waste of time to give your opinion. Also don't play ping pong with students. Deflect things to other students, call for a students opinion etc.

[smoggy]

I would pick a few topics and put them in a hat and let someone pick one. Then you can pass out a paper with certain words and their meanings to facilitate the discussion. Also, write sample sentences with the words. Talk about the subject, try and have them use as many of the words related to that topic as you can. At the end of the discussion, go over the words again, allowing for the students to ask questions about their usage etc. The homework would be to write sentences on the new words.

Topics: economic strife, how they would solve the economic woes
politics
educational system
famous figures (politics, movie etc)
Africa - saving the animals, feeding the poor, travel to, geography,
politics of etc.

[summer33ny]

There's a book I use for my English teacher workshop. It's called "Small Group Discussion Topics for Korean Students". The topics vary about all sorts of controversial issues that can be very interesting for Korean adults. This will give them an opportunity to practice their reading and comprehension and learn some new words, while also having lively discussions.

[saw6436]

I use the book series "Lets Talk" and "Lets Argue" in my adult classes. They both contain a WIDE range of topics. With adults I found that no matter what you do, someone will be dissatisfied with your choice. I use these books because, at least, there will be topics to keep students interested MOST of the time.

[Easter Clark]

[iggyb]

Handout index cards shortly before the end of a class. Ask the students to fill out 1 or more items they think they'd like to discuss as a class. Collect the cards. Do this every once in awhile.

Using index cards the last five minutes of class from time to time to get different kinds of feedback can be helpful.

Next, what type of institute is this?

In an adult hakwon, I stumbled across this one that worked for me from there on out: I had a Korean history book on a small table in my classroom I'd read when I had breaks.
http://www.amazon.com/History-Korea-Harvard-Yenching-Institute-Publications/dp/067461576X

It was a rather dry, academic book that is a translation of a college Korean history survey course. Any good, general history book of Korea will do.

One night when a class got bogged down and I was trying to think of something to change the pace and finish the time, I took the book out and began asking about an interesting item in Korean history I had recently read about.

--- This developed into a good way to prod adult students into coming up with their own topics.

They liked talking about Korean history, but the more I learned about Korean history - past the basics - and the more I saw I could come up with names and events that they only vaguely remembered having studied in school ---- the more I was able to motivate them to come up with topics they were all interested in discussing --- because if they didn't come up with one, I'd take out the history book and flip to a section and write the name of a person or event on the board and tell them to teach me about it...

...This worked because they felt a good type of pressure to show off Korean history for the foreigner but were embarrassed if the foreigner "had more knowledge" about Korea's history than they did...

Of course I didn't have more knowledge than them. I was simply working from something I had just read in the book.

Sometimes, we'd hit on a topic in Korean history the class could get into and a good discussion would take place. Much of the time, just pointing at the history book was sitting within arms reach was enough to motivate them to decide as a class what they wanted to talk about in that class' free talk segment.

Lastly, in general, getting adult students to teach me something about Korea - history, culture, daily life, anything --- gave me the best results in a conversation class. Instead of them spending 75% of the time listening to me talk on a topic, I could get them to do most of the talking, as I played ignorant about Korean society, while I would concentrate on highlighting useful vocabulary and grammar points and idioms that were being used or could be used.

[cdninkorea]