Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ryleeys]

I've been thinking of a way to try and make English fun for my kids, since they spend 90% of their lives studying (and the other 10% playing computer games)...

I've been thinking it might be nice to, one day a month, have an American movie day. Kick back, order a pizza, and put on something like "Lion King" or some other kiddie movie.

I honestly feel so bad for these kids with the schedules so many of them lead. Maybe if I could convince them that English can lead to some fun things, that'll be an extra hour a day that they can psychology not feel under the pressure that causes them to cry until they vomit when they miss a single question on a test. (How's that for a run on sentence?)


Has anyone else had a movie day or equivalent?

(It's gotta be better than reading the horribly written story books (atrocious English and worse plots) that my director tells me to read every week...)

[osangrl]

we have a big screen tv in our break room, and movies are on all the time. So when students are waiting or in between classes they watch. My boss is soooo amazing, she keeps cases of Ramen in the break room, and plenty of fruit, free for the kids.

[oneiros]

I used to have movie day once every three months or so for my Saturday classes. You can find the Disney videos, Shrek and other kiddie videos with English subtitles, rather than the Korean ones. Unfortunately, the subtitling isn't always that accurate.

On a more educational line, I like the "Between the Lions" videos. They teach phonics and reading, and my students found them entertaining.

[crazylemongirl]

I used to use video afternoons only as a reward for good behaviour in class. I do try to build fun activities outside of the texts so that the students are learning without realising it. For instance I would use games like go fish to dirl vocab that we learnt for the day. I adapted what's the time mr wolf for practicing questions and responses.

Check out the ideas cook book.

[Zyzyfer]

once a month? maybe once every two months, or as a reward. kids don't learn anything unless you make some tasks around the movie, and, even then, it's not the best learning tool...just loosens them up. parents might get miffed.

[tomato]

Hello, Ryleeys!

On my last job, I had a different kind of activity for every day of the week. I arranged those activities in increasing order of fun.

On Monday, there was the usual drill and practice.
On Tuesday, the students spelled words, first with alphabet tiles, then in Braille using a small flannelboard with 6 circles.
On Wednesday, the students drew pictures.
On Thursday, I brought out musical instruments.
Using only do, mi, so, and la, you can have the students simulate spoken intonation. Here is "Hello":

here is an example of sarcasm:

and here is teasing American-style:

For other examples, go to:
http://www.pentatonika.com/spoken.html

For classes which behaved, Friday was game day. The go fish game, old maid game, and bingo game can be adapted for phonics, parts of speech, or any other purpose.

What's this about "horribly written story books" with "atrocious English and worse plots"? Either you work for Brainy English or there is more than one chain with such an affliction.

[intergalactic]

I agree the kids will learn nothing much from a video. BUT, as ryleeys said, he wants to give them a break from their study. Why not watch a video once a month? The parents won't know the difference. If you are worried, make a question sheet with one-word answers on it.
What is the dog's name? Who is Simba's girlfriend? What colour is the.. whatever.
The kids will love you for it.

[just because]