Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rhian]

what do you do when the kids are driving you up the wall? with the mimicking, the babbling on in korean, the "songsegnim babo ya" etc? now i would love to be able to give them a telling off that they can understand but my powers of Korean simply aren't up to it (something they know and take full advantage of)! any interesting and drastic disceplinary techniques out there to share?

[Gwangjuboy]

Learn Korean, or really work on your classroom Korean. My classroom Korean is good enough to tell them nearly everything I would in the UK. Or, when that is exhausted shout in English. It scares them. It is more effective when you do it to one student in particular. I've had classes paralyzed by fear.

[aussie col]

Yeah it��s really hard when you get sh*ts like this. The best thing to do is try and get the school behind you. Most directors will gladly come into the class and scream at them until they melt into the floor. Unless money is hard and then they will just pat the kids on the head and tell them how crazy their waygook teacher is.

You could talk to the meanest male Korean teacher at the school�� usually the one who always carries the wooden stick around. I had a great Korean English teacher at my school who would make the students almost cry if he just said their name.

But if that fails here are some things to do:

Start making weekly reports that get sent to the parents. Just have a Korean teacher translate a master copy with things like ��xxx talked in Korean the whole class�� or ��xxx is constantly talking, rude to the teacher and not participating in the class��. Then you can just check the appropriate box and the parents will see what little xxx is really doing in class. These kids are sh*t scared that their mothers will find out that they are wasting their money by not working hard.

Now the fun stuff��

Carry a permanent marker. Every time a student misbehaves give them a mark across the back of the hand. Korean kids hate having ink on themselves and spend all night trying to rub it off so their parents don��t see it and start asking why.

After a number of warnings put a chalk circle on the board and make the student put his/her nose on it for the rest of the class. Once again they hate getting dirty but also are sh*t scared that a Korean teacher will walk past and see them with their nose to the board. It also helps that all the rest of the students are laughing at them.

This won��t work all the time but once with a class of boys who would say things to me in Korean I just started writing the words down that I didn��t understand phonetically. I knew by the laughs that they were swearing at me in Korean. After class I took the list back to the staffroom making sure that the boys were close enough to hear me. I then proceeded to read the list to all the Korean teachers and ask them what the words meant. I never had problems with this class again. The Korean teachers were shocked and I laughed about it for the next 2 weeks.

[crazylemongirl]

Most of mine will shut up on threat of a yellow card, which means they get homework of lines. If they start getting too many I will cancel the lesson and they will do lines. Specific offenders are asked to leave and will write lines after school and if behaviour does not improve the homeroom teacher is contacted.

I also carry a stick for pointing and making noise with. There is no wake up call like my stick getting wacked across your desk.

[aussie col]

I like your style crazylemongirl.

I say bring back the stick to Australian schools. Not just the desk however, a good whack accross the bum never harmed anyone.

[Kristsoy]

i agree with crazy, but that doesnt always work. I take a large stick into class, and if im really pissed off the kid gets kicked out of the room and have to hold a chair over their head until i come to get them

[rapier]

[Kristsoy]

well actually im not "allowed" to carry sticks becasue they "told" me not to do it, but I havent listened to them lately so why this time. I said the korean teachers do it so..........

and they had no good response so i kept doing it

[inexhile]

WARNING

Before taking any action make sure all students hand in their cellphones.

[aussie col]

Camera phones, what a great idea.

Tell the bad students that you are going to take photos of misbehaving students and send them direct to their mum��s phone. After mum gets 10 picture messages of little xxxx running around the class she will be down there to kick some arse. You'd have to wait and see whether it would be the kids, yours or the directors butt however.

Or buy a video camera and tell all the students that you are going to film all the classes so you can show the parents what the little sh*ts are like on parents day.

[rapier]

It amazes me how little parents know of what actually goes on in hagwons.
And how they expect kiddy classes to run smoothly and efficiently without the slightest hint of discipline.

[ryleeys]

I got reamed out last night by a parent because her little princess isn't fluent in English... beginning level? Started with the alphabet... length of study so far? 2 months...

Yeah, that's enough time to be fluent.

By the way, I'm absolutely loving getting as creative as possible with my punishments these days.

[phaedrus]

[Grotto]

The best way (I think) to control your classroom is to be very strict when you first start working at the school.

Show your students that you will not stand for any unruly behaviour.

It is always easy to ease up after a few weeks than to try to crack down later on.

If you have students saying things in Korean to you that you think might be swears do what I did.

I had my Korean co-teacher come in and translate for me, 'anyone who hears someone say bad words to teacher come and tell the principal and you will get a sticker( I also throw in some candy as well)'

Works like a charm especially in a mixed class there is nothing the girls like better than to get some boy in trouble(interestingly enough in a few short years many of the boys will want to get the girls in trouble )

My favorite punishment is to send them out to our bus driver(he thwaps them on the forhead with the antenna of his cel phone....must sting like crazy as just the threat of sending them to Mr. Song makes them behave better)