Korean Job Discussion Forums

Suwon4AGT · Joined: 26 Apr 2009

Does this ever happen to you?

When something stupid happens at work (i.e. kids get into an argument or some other form of melodrama) and you ask for assistance with a situation. What ends up happening is that the director or co-teacher talks to the kids in question (all in Korean, of course), resolves the dispute, and then leaves the room without even talking to the English teacher.

I know it would be silly on my part to even take this personal (assuming this has something to do with the Korean Hierarchical Code, for which no direct English translation or explanation exists). But, this just drives me up the wall. All I ever want in those situations is information so I can do a better job in dealing with those problems in the future.

I would even settle for a "It's none of your business, peon" type of explanation, but I don't even get that.

Please share your frustration, advice, anecdote about this. I'm dying to read what others have to say about this topic.

mongolian spot · Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Location: Seoul

JDC

just don't care.....it works a charm

Suwon4AGT · Joined: 26 Apr 2009

seonsengnimble · Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 6:17 am Post subject:

I'd just ask your co-teacher(not the ps version but the korean teacher who teaches the same class either before or after you) what happened. In my experience, the kids love to tell their Korean teacher exactly what happened in my classes even if it's something as mundane as "Billy spelled elephant wrong."

If your co-teacher doesn't know, just ask whoever resolved the situation after class. They could just be trying to save you face by not explaining the situation in front of the kids because it will look like you don't know what's happening in your class.

mongolian spot · Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Location: Seoul

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

I actually get the explanations in English, but it's as if the problem never ever happened before. I do afterschool classes at a public school, so there are a lot of times when students have to leave early for hagwon classes or taekwondo practice. I like to know this before class starts, I communicate this, they acknowledge this, and then the next day comes and 20 minutes into class students get into a debate when class should end for the students who have to leave early.

If it gets resolved, it is usually after 10 minutes or I have to take one of them to the co-teacher and she resolves it. She acts as if this couldn't have been mentioned before class. Then, on Tuesday after one of these episodes, a student comes in late 35 minutes in a 50 minute class. He has a cat with him making all sorts of noises (probably hadn't been fed), and all the students are obviously not interested in learning English with the feline around.

I kick him out (with the cat), hoping that's the end of him for the day so I can finally get 10-15 minutes of teaching. Then he comes back without the cat, and tells me he has no book, pencil, or paper. I kick him out again, he gets my co-teacher's book cause he actually doesn't have any of the books.

It's one thing to have to leave early for hagwon or taekwondo, but these kids make such drama out of it and the school doesn't seem to care about communicating with the parents.

withnail · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul, South Korea.

Sorry guys - you know I love you but...

Could we by any chance keep this forum free from boring crappola? CRCs, transcripts, immigration issues, my boss is a bst..d, etc.

There are threads for this stuff!

Come on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

withnail · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul, South Korea.

Yeah I know - you're all gonna tell me to fork myself arentcha?

Suwon4AGT · Joined: 26 Apr 2009

mongolian spot · Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Location: Seoul

Suwon4AGT · Joined: 26 Apr 2009

withnail · Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul, South Korea.

Sorry guys - I'm so sorry - Please forgive me for interrupting, go on as before. I'm not here, ok? Apologies....

classydame · Joined: 03 Aug 2009 Location: Korea

A boring thread? No way! The story about the kid with the cat was hilarious!

pangaea · Joined: 20 Dec 2007

Did you get any explanation as to why he showed up to class with a cat? Or what happened to the cat since he came back to class without it? I'm intrigued. Smile

ThingsComeAround · Joined: 07 Nov 2008

you could do the polar opposite of JDC and get ballistic on them when they "challenge" you. A kid would never dare bring a pet into class because, I'd just take it. Its become my cat, children! I'd put it into my desk (given the drawer was large enough) and forget about it until class was over

For those of you saying "Oh that's too cruel" well- it would serve a point. Kids wouldn't screw around again. They'd remember that TCA teacher is a little crazy.

I also have a class which has kids leave halfway into it for other programs. They told me early on about that and since then I had no problems. Just try to get things done as quickly as possible in the first half, and the second half play games/have fun.

For real trouble makers, call their mother during class and tell her to pick up her spawn. It makes for quite the change in attitude if the child cares about the embarrassment from mom or if they care about what mom thinks, you will get results