Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sweetrevenge]

I teach the first 45 minutes of my class and a co teacher teaches the remaining 90 minutes for one of my classes, but today 2 of my students intentionally stayed right outside my door until class was finished. This job is a means to an end but I can't help but feel hurt that they intentionally just skipped my class without communicating or attempting to communicate with me directly. I don't care if you think my class is bad but this kind of behavior makes me look horrible to my director and coteachers. The worst part is that the other guy is just playing clips from a workbook. Today I tried to do a debate which failed horribly but if they want to do boring excercises by all means at least try to tell me before just skipping class right in my face. Hell why not even bring in english homework and let me do it for you, I just don't understand why they would do this intentionally it makes no sense.

[andrewchon]

Do you have any history with the duo? Like done anything to make them mad at you?

[sweetrevenge]

No, Im a new teacher and just started at the beginning of March. I noticed that sometimes that they would just put their head down in class but they never communicated with me directly or anything like that about this. I thought the whole point of me being there is to interact with an english speaking person and to use me as a resource. If you don't like the lessons, say it to my face and I'll try something else. This whole behind the back thing is really what is pissing me off.

[le-paul]

You must be pretty new at this?

If you are, one thing you need to learn is that about three percent of the children you will ever teach, would rather be in your classroom studying English than doing something else - its probably nothing personal.

If not, Id want to ask the other teachers/director why no-one thought to send that kid into your room or question why they were sitting in the hallway, when their parents have paid for an hour of teaching with a foreign teacher.

[sweetrevenge]

Like I said, I don't care if they hate my class or think that my class is boring, but I think that they complained to their parents and then there parents complained to my director or whatever. Admittedly, the class is slightly weak in english so me being there isn't as helpful as a native speaker with limited english knowledge. The irony was that I realized this earlier and decided that worksheets is the best way for them to learn but then I think they complained that class was too boring or whatever. The worst part about my situation is that my coteacher also prints out worksheets and does busywork but he gets a pass because he is a native speaker.

[sweetrevenge]

Your idealogy is wrong they are not paying guests they are customers. If the customer wants something then I have to adapt no questions asked. If the customer refuses to communicate with me about a problem then that reflects bad on my director, the school, and ultimately could get me fired. I have to bring this up to my director as soon as I can because this is pretty serious. Its not that my feelings are hurt, Really, I don't give a shit about this job. But unless I want to get sent home early I have to meet expectations.
The worst part about this whole thing is that I use google translate and pictures from google translate, I also try to speak broken Korean too which gets a few laughs. The reason I do this was so that they can communicate with me and tell when I'm doing something wrong. This actually happened on Monday when a student complained that I was taking too long on a particular question and I listened to the student. This whole situation is just making me look very bad for no good reason.

[sweetrevenge]

False alarm. Apparently, one of the students had a math class and the other had a doctor appointment.

[le-paul]

[young_clinton]

[Hokie21]

[sweetrevenge]

Of course the parents pay, but the parents ask the kids 'how is class' and the kid says my teacher was horrible and then the parents complain. Also, I'm talking about a class who can barely speak english at all. What good is knowing english if I can't communicate with them at all? Thats why I have to use google image/google translate just to get a point across. Your entire message comes across as condescending by the way, and I've never said anything about the kids being condescending. In fact, I wish they'd be condescending cuz at least they'd be attempting a communicate with me, as it stands right now, I feel like I'm talking to a wall.

[Hokie21]