Korean Job Discussion Forums

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

I've been saying it since I first started this job and 5 years, almost six later...

I just had Class with the worst Engllish teacher at my Elementary school.

All she does is play the CD rom and doesn't even make the students listen and repeat. Most of the class is them merely listening to and watching (between daydreaming and writing on the desks or talking in Korean) the CD rom and her talking to them in Korean.

She treats them like idiot babies and thus they act like idiot babies. If they can;t say something she just skips them, so they don't bother as they're not even remotely pushed or encouraged to try.

So once again I hijacked the class from her, but in a nice way, saying 'oh I have taught this module before (true) and have some really good activities for it if you'd like to see them...'


So I doo some listen and repeat exercises with actions until they can say all the szentences just by me prompting them by miming the correct action

(Let's play ______. Yes, okay let;s go / Sorry I can;t I'm sick / tired / I can't play_______)

Then we played the hot seat game and lo and behold even the class idiot is able to say the sentences once I've nudged him a little instead of pandering to his every emotional whim.

And then I recapped by showing them the f/cards for the unit and they were mostly allable to say the sentences without any help at all from me.

So I get results - she doesn't.

Too much emphasis seems to be placed here on making the kids feel good. And thats all. But it's stupid. Treat kids like idiot babies they act like idiot babies. Treat them like competant,confident, capable students and they mostly will start acting and feeling like that's what they are. Kibbun is not the be all and end all of life. And I don't think a mandoo salesman is going to have as good kibbun as the student that ends up with a good career....

An of course throughout my very good, productive and interactive class where the studetns are actually fairly confidently speaking English and enjoying themselves instead of sitting around lazilly and chatting in Korean, what does she do -

She stands there arms folded with a distainful expression on her face that seems to say 'what the hell is this? How is this effective...?' Instead of joining in or encouraging the studetns with me... Sadly that look is one she needs to apply to herself if she ever gets to observe one of her own classes on dvd...

[Junior]

[asmith]

Your job isn't safe.

We are just at the start of an economic depression.

Nothing is safe.

[mmstyle]

What's the hot seat game?

[Draz]

Your job is less safe now because she will do everything in her power to make you quit or get fired.

[chris_J2]

http://www.teflgames.com/hotseat.html

[winterfall]

[Kaypea]

A lot of Korean co-teachers are somewhat like that, but it doesn't mean that they couldn't be trained to be more communicative, or to encourage more talking activity. I think Korea would do well to make Korean English teachers more like good foreign teachers (like you)... maybe we could jump on the bandwagon of training them

That being said, I should remember to TRY to be more communicative.

I hear the same things:

Our students' English levels are low.

Our students don't like to talk.

Our students don't like to play games.

I'm finding it's easiest, and that the students probably learn the most, when I literally have them copy out of the textbook, and then to read out to their partner what they've just copied. Should I continue like that, or should I suck it up... maybe endure a little bit of student confusion and discomfort... and do stuff like this "hot seat" that we are all interested in?

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[Triban]

[SW]

[maingman]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/safe

[nathanrutledge]

[some waygug-in]

My co-teach is very similar, and eventhough she does try to speak English to them, she always immediately translates everything.

I 've tried to talk to her about it, but the way she sees things I doubt she'll ever change.

I asked her what most Koreans thought about having so many foreign teachers in Korean schools and she replied that most think it's a useless waste of money. I had to agree, but for entirely different reasons:

it's useless to have the FT stand around while the KT rattles on and on in Korean for most of the class.

She just seems to think there is no better way.

So why not let the foreign teacher teach?

What a novel concept! It's so crazy, it just might work.

Well, if you're gonna dream...