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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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soomin
Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Location: Daegu
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 Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:11 pm Post subject: Re: Do You Ever Feel Bad For Korean Parents? |
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| comm wrote: |
| Dodge7 wrote: |
| It hurts because these parents are paying all this money and the kids just don't care. The money is flat out wasted when it can go to more important things in their family. |
Sure I feel bad for the parents in these situations... but this really is something that comes down to parenting. |
I agree... my coworkers often tell me "their parents raise them like little babies, so they are spoiled and selfish and act like babies in class." I can't teach a group of students who bring ice cream to class and just say "뭐라고?" or ignore me and refuse to do classwork/homework... it's not going to happen. Even teaching primarily in Korean only benefits the ones who want to learn something, and with no punishment for the bad students, the good ones just give up and realize they're not going to learn anything, either. I had some kindies run out of my class and play in the principal's office and lobby... their punishment was candy~! Yay! >.<
| northway wrote: |
| One of the biggest problems with English hagwons is that Korean parents have low English ability themselves, and as a result lack any way to determine progress. As such, whether you're the best teacher in the world or the worst, most parents won't be able to tell. |
I have to call my students at home for phone-teaching... and the parents often say "Pft~ English? Hey! Son! Get over here" in Korean, or just hang up on me... |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:02 pm Post subject: Re: Do You Ever Feel Bad For Korean Parents? |
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| Dodge7 wrote: |
| I'm feeling pretty bad for the parents that shell out all this money for English knowing that most of them are relatively poor. |
I feel worse for the kids. Some of those parents have no problem showing support at anti-foreigner rallies. |
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Seoulman69
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:07 am Post subject: |
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I don't feel sorry for them. I do my job as well as I possibly can. Some kids do well, some kids don't. That's the way of the world.
My family isn't very well off but I paid myself through uni and an MA. I didn't expect sympathy. |
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Whitey Otez
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: The suburbs of Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:12 am Post subject: |
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Sounds like yo've got some kids that are due to write "The regretful letter." Have a strict Korean Teacher help you with the translation so that it is perfect. It should go something like this:
"Dear mom and dad, I am terribly sorry for my poor representation of our family. I have not been doing my best in English classes, and as a result I am wasting your money, and the time and money of my fellow students and their families. I promise I will come to classes in the future with a more sincere effort to be the best student I can be. I will be a good example of our family and all of Korea!"
Make the offending students write it out in English and Korean, and they cannot attend your class unless it comes back signed by a parent. You may not have the proper support to do this, though. In which case you will have to put the bad kids on the back burner and focus mainly on the ones that don't kill your spirit every day. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:56 am Post subject: |
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| Seoulman69 wrote: |
I don't feel sorry for them. I do my job as well as I possibly can. Some kids do well, some kids don't. That's the way of the world.
My family isn't very well off but I paid myself through uni and an MA. I didn't expect sympathy. |
This. You go in and do what you have to do, to the best of your ability. You aren't a magician and not everyone will take to it.
I don't feel sorry for Korean parents. What's there to feel sorry for? Sacrificing for your kids' education is a responsibility and a duty. No one should feel sorry for someone doing their duty. I might wish them luck or give them a man grunt, but I don't think either party would want "feeling sorry" to be the emotion that passes between them.
How did the comedian Earthquake put it? "No reason for people to be racist. We all got retarded kids."
That doesn't mean you can't have other feelings for their ungrateful brat. |
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ssuprnova
Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Location: Saigon
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| Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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Op, you must be new here.
No, I don't feel bad for the parents. Actually, I feel bad for the kids, who are shuffled off to multiple hagwons so that their mothers don't have to bother raising them. |
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thunderbird
Joined: 18 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:43 am Post subject: |
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| hey when it comes 2 crapwons if there stupid enough 2 to give there money i have no guilt takin it |
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JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
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| Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| ssuprnova wrote: |
Op, you must be new here.
No, I don't feel bad for the parents. Actually, I feel bad for the kids, who are shuffled off to multiple hagwons so that their mothers don't have to bother raising them. |
But what else are they supposed to do with their kids when they're working 10 hours a day (that number is pulled from my ass, by the way, as I have no idea how long Korean moms work)?
Shouldn't we feel bad for the parents and kids who attend bad hagwons or, in fact, feel bad for their bad parenting skills in sending their offspring to bad hagwons? In turn should we feel bad that western parents feed their kids take outs every day because they can't cook? Or can we start to idealize the communist ideal of having kids in school/college until they're model 'citizens'?
Open Qs here, BTW. I certainly don't know the answers. I know what I'd like; all teachers - native and English speaking - to attend, sponsored, online courses to improve their qualifications and teaching abilities. You get an allowance and get to choose, from certified colleges and universities, the teaching courses and linguistics courses you want to do. Get the hagwons to sponsor that and see which ones still stay afloat (the PSs can afford it). If they cooperate to share resources then so much the better, but if new entrants are just in it for the money then that'll make them think twice. |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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| JustinC wrote: |
But what else are they supposed to do with their kids when they're working 10 hours a day (that number is pulled from my ass, by the way, as I have no idea how long Korean moms work)?
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A lot mothers here don't work, unless you count cooking and cleaning at home, working. How much they work has little to do with why they send their kids to a dozen hagwons and tutors. |
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happiness
Joined: 04 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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| creeper1 wrote: |
Because of the massive amounts of money spent on education in korea there has been a slight improvement in English ability.
However the market and earning potential remains essentially limitless.
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yes, and the parents know this well. Couple that with the still strong nationalism, coupled with the responsibilities male still have here, and that spoiledness makes them less eager to learn, BUT they still have the Uni test, and tests to get into companies, and Korea will still be using English teachers for a loooooooong time. Also, put that all with the fact they still watch and check each other so if one or two kids speak english, all the neighborhood mothers will want to send them to hagwons, AND no way will they want them to learn from a K-English teacher until time for the IPSHI hagwon time.
Ive been here 12 years or so, I was here when Koreans didnt care at all about English, and now its the complete opposite. As long as they can be shamed for having low scores in English or low competency, theres will be business here, for locals and foreigners.
China, is too big, but Koreas a small country, easier to get them to follow ideas. No? We will see.. |
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rambler
Joined: 18 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:44 am Post subject: |
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| JustinC wrote: |
| I know what I'd like; all teachers - native and English speaking - to attend, sponsored, online courses to improve their qualifications and teaching abilities. You get an allowance and get to choose, from certified colleges and universities, the teaching courses and linguistics courses you want to do. Get the hagwons to sponsor that and see which ones still stay afloat (the PSs can afford it). If they cooperate to share resources then so much the better, but if new entrants are just in it for the money then that'll make them think twice. |
That sounds great to me, but it will never happen. Also, even the best teachers have to deal with students who don't want to learn. Additional training won't necessarily motivate a stubborn or unwilling student. |
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sml7285
Joined: 26 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 5:52 am Post subject: |
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| rambler wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| I know what I'd like; all teachers - native and English speaking - to attend, sponsored, online courses to improve their qualifications and teaching abilities. You get an allowance and get to choose, from certified colleges and universities, the teaching courses and linguistics courses you want to do. Get the hagwons to sponsor that and see which ones still stay afloat (the PSs can afford it). If they cooperate to share resources then so much the better, but if new entrants are just in it for the money then that'll make them think twice. |
That sounds great to me, but it will never happen. Also, even the best teachers have to deal with students who don't want to learn. Additional training won't necessarily motivate a stubborn or unwilling student. |
Right but that's a deflection of the initial argument. Motivated or not, students pay to be at hagwons. They're the customers and they can do as they please with their investment/purchase. Teachers on the other hand, get paid and should be expected to perform above a certain level. |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:31 am Post subject: |
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| sml7285 wrote: |
| rambler wrote: |
| JustinC wrote: |
| I know what I'd like; all teachers - native and English speaking - to attend, sponsored, online courses to improve their qualifications and teaching abilities. You get an allowance and get to choose, from certified colleges and universities, the teaching courses and linguistics courses you want to do. Get the hagwons to sponsor that and see which ones still stay afloat (the PSs can afford it). If they cooperate to share resources then so much the better, but if new entrants are just in it for the money then that'll make them think twice. |
That sounds great to me, but it will never happen. Also, even the best teachers have to deal with students who don't want to learn. Additional training won't necessarily motivate a stubborn or unwilling student. |
Right but that's a deflection of the initial argument. Motivated or not, students pay to be at hagwons. They're the customers and they can do as they please with their investment/purchase. Teachers on the other hand, get paid and should be expected to perform above a certain level. |
Maybe, but they should also be expected to perform at a level commensurate with their pay. Hagwon workers are provided a decent starting salary that never really goes up much, generally speaking. For most people, hagwon employment isn't really a viable career, even if they wanted it to be. If Korean parents want to pay the low prices they do for supplemental after school academies, they're not going to be getting highly qualified teachers that constantly want to improve, as those academies will never offer their teachers the kind of benefits that encourage improving. Yes, I realize there are hagwons that don't fit within this mold, but the vast majority do. |
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mike in brasil
Joined: 09 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 6:59 am Post subject: |
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OP, feel guilty for what?
vai tomar no cu! |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 7:42 am Post subject: |
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| thunderbird wrote: |
| hey when it comes 2 crapwons if there stupid enough 2 to give there money i have no guilt takin it |
Lazy and gullible parents at a hagwon are like Binge Drinkers and the Mentally Deficient at a bar- exactly the client�le you hope to attract. |
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