Korean Job Discussion Forums

[some waygug-in]

Sorry if I caused some confusion with my comments. or if the following causes even more.

For young learners "English ONly" - yes. of course.

Songs, chants, games, creative tasks that get them to use English in a fun way.




For older learners who have "supposedly studied" English for years, but still can't answer the question, "How old are you?"

What I was talking about was students in their late teens and up who really don't have enough of a grasp of English to understand what is going on in the classroom. (English only classroom) Usually, they are beginners but are placed in upper level classes because "that's where their friends are" or "that's the level their parents think they should be".

And not 50/50 English to Korean class. What I mean is just giving them enough key words and phrases to at least get the drift of the class. And not dwelling on translation either. I hope this makes my above posts a bit more clear.

Or not.
Cheers

[Len8]

Would also help if the parents took a more active part in their kid's Hogwan education. Many are good at criticising, but very few actually try to help their kids with their English lessons. Most parents infact actively look for the mistakes the teachers make.

Was teaching a kid past tense at a hogwan some time ago, and the mother who happened to be an English Professor at Seoul's Hangook University of foreign studies come's marching into the hogwan and asks how a young student could posibly learn tenses. My Korean co-teacher who incidently was oustanding rallied to my defense. I secretly had a hunch that this episode would happen, and I was relieved that I did everything else right. ( spelling, grammar and so on). The thing that really irked me though was that the mother was actually dumbing her child down. Couldn't she have been a bit more constructive, and used the trip to the hogwon for something a bit more beneficial for her child.

[some waygug-in]

Who knows what was going through her head? My first guess would be related to what you said about Koreans always wanting to criticize rather than do anything constructive. Perhaps she felt threatened by you and her criticism was her way of trying to show that she knew what she was talking about. Then again, some Koreans favorite pastime is trying to nitpick foreign teachers.

That's probably being to generous, it's amazing to me that someone who is a professor of English would send their child to a hagwan to learn. She obviously must have some doubts about her own abilities.

cheers