Korean Job Discussion Forums

[peppermint]

Both Katydid and I teach at public school, and I think that helps a lot with the respect issues.

[CanadaCommando]

I let my kids call me by my first name...did it back home too. I dont think that a title has to defer respect...or lack of one lack of respect. Some of my students call me by my first name, some like to try my last name (which is quite difficult) and others just call me "sir". I dont think they have any intent of lack of respect in using just the first name...I dont need the title of teacher tacked on.

Course, my classes all begin by having the head student call the class to attention, then they all bow and say good morning/afternoon...so I guess formality can run different with different people.

[ghostshadow]

The students used to call me all great master when they were in trouble, but other times they just called me teacher.

[weatherman]

What you guys dont walk around with the colonial cap on saying you must submit to the moral authority that comes with the location of my birth? boy Koreans just love it.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[JacktheCat]

My highschoolers have, of late, taken to calling me "ajoshi."

Yeah, I know it is a title of respect .... but see my signature.

[mindmetoo]

[dodgybarnet]

On a quick side note: TheUrbanMyth - your avatar rocks! It's too big, but the hilarity makes up for it. I really need Happy Tree Friends to make a character with dubious hair.

[crazylemongirl]

my boys will generally call me miss lemongirl... but on occasions I have heard my name being belted out from hogwon buses, hogwons and kids riding on bikes sans the miss. Most of the time it's through excitment from seeing me rather than anything else... walking down the first grade corrider I feel like I'm in a rock concert and even my 2nd graders joke about me being famous!

[schwa]

I'm just schwa to all & sundry. Young kids, thousands of middleschool students, teachers I teach, bosses, my bank, utility companies. I think only a handful of people here have ever even heard my family name. Flies in the face of Korean name conventions but I like it.

[ThePoet]

I have an interesting story about titles and respect here:

One of my professors in University taught some junior high Drama classes as well. He told his students to call him Joe. One day, he was walking down the hall with the principal of his jr. high and as a student passed, he said "hi Joe". The principal did a double take and then after the student passed he asked Joe about this. When Joe said that he told his students to call him Joe, his principal got very angry about it. He went into a tirade about the lack of respect this was and how it was demeaning to all the teachers to allow this to happen.

Joe explained that he never incited the kids to call any other teacher by their names and he was ok with it. At that point, the principal took Joe by the collar, put him up against the lockers and with a red face literally screamed "From now on you will have your students address you as Mr. ______, end of discussion!"

Joe straightened his shirt, and then said to the principal "Very well, I will insist that the students from now on call me Mister, but from now on, YOU will address me as Doctor."

Respect is not in the title, nor in the name, but in the way it is spoken and the way it is received. While taking courses in my Master's degrees, all of my professors have insisted I call them by their first names and not Dr. So and So....I still respect them and they know it.

[ladyandthetramp]

I agree with Poet. Respect isn't inherent in a title. I let my students call me by my first name, but to be honest they probably think I only have one name. I don't let them tack on "teacher" for the simple fact that we don't do this in English, and as their English teacher I won't passively promote this mistake.

[osangrl]

Im "Sela" (Sara)