Korean Job Discussion Forums

[djunamod]

Hi all,
I'm very new to teaching ESL, though I've been teaching English courses at American universities both on-ground and online for quite a few years. So I'm not new to teaching.

I will be starting to co-teach some classes for Korean students online in the fall and I was hoping to get some insights on what it's like to teach Korean students. I will be teaching elementary school level (not sure what ages yet) and also some high school students one-on-one.

I've never worked with kids or high school students before (the youngest I've worked with have been college freshmen at US universities) and never worked with Koreans before. So what can I expect?

How are Korean kids in terms of discipline? What else should I know when teaching them?

Thanks!

Djuna

[Dodge7]

I hope you like little kids ramming their fingers up your butt and laugh like it's some kind of joke. They're called ddong jjims and they are highly unpleasant. I went off on a kid before for doing it to me and that put a stop to it.
Also if you are a male you will have random (bad) boys cold cocking you right in your balls and think it's a joke. Just expect it.
In terms of discipline, there is NONE. They don't get it at home and they come to your class and it's goof around with the native teacher for an hour time. They don't take you seriously, you aren't a real teacher to them, and you aren't taken seriously and you are not respected. You will have kids banmal you which is highly disrespectful language and you will just have a generally unruly class.

Welcome to teaching in Korea. You excited?

[nautilus]

[busanliving]

Clearly the ability to read isn't a requirement to teach English here. He said he would be teaching the classes online.

Discipline varies greatly, I assume though they will have a Korean teacher with them to take care of that side though?

Remember kids here study really hard, they are at school all day and academies at night, aside from looking exhausted all the time they also get bored easily so factor that in when planning lessons, make them as fun as you can.

Also don't expect much in the way of imagination or creativity, projects can be like pulling teeth at time, even with things such as imagine the world in 50 years

[PatrickGHBusan]

[Dodge7]

[JustinC]

[Steelrails]

[Landros]

one thing you should know is most high school kids are only preparing for university entrance exams. They are multiple choice and so they often only care about raising their English score. Meaning if what you are teaching them isn't really interesting or going to affect their score they and their parents will feel they are wasting their time.

For the younger kids they are competing for grades and prestige to be ranked in their class. so if you are teaching Koreans it is good to know that often they will never use English except on some poorly designed translation test to get ahead of some other Korean.

Therefore many directions you go won't make sense to your students since you might be thinking about helping them fit into America or to communicate but often they only care about the "Right" answer.

Oh another funny situation I have noticed is the indirect questioning. A student will hear from someone that something can't be done in English and instead of explaining what they heard they will often ask you the opposite to check it. For instance a student hears "In English you can't say We has". Then a student will ask you something weird like is it okay to have a plural subject with a plural verb? and as you try to answer and figure out what they are talking about they will just give you hints. Like " No I mean what about using "We". and then finally they will say can I use "We has" and after racking your brain and trying to find some possible case after spending 15 minutes they will say oh I knew that and just wanted to make sure...

[transmogrifier]

[Keeper]

Why are you worried about discipline when you are teaching them online? Are you talking about will they do their homework and be prepared? That's a mixed bag from what I've seen. Some do it and others don't. Kids are kids.

[J Rock]