Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Shutterfly]

I am teaching youner elementary students, however theycommunicate very well and understanding most of what i say.. except for one student. When i ask her a question she just looks at me, eveb if it is as simple as "how are you today"?... she just stares until another student tells her what to say. I dont think she even knows her alphabet, when i ask her to write a word, and spell it out for her (ex. g-r-e-e-n) she again stares blankly, when i write the letters on the board, she still doesnt know what to do. I have to (literally) hold her hand while writing the letters.
Now, i have approached the other teachers and the director about this and asked if she is having problems in the korean teachers class, or if she is a bit behind the other students, andtehy adamently say "no, she is ok"...hmmm. It is frustrating. My other students in the class i can have simple conversations with and their writing skills are very good. But this student is holding back my classes.. My school obviously doesnt want to adress the situation or dont care. What should i do? any input would be helpful! -shutterfly

[peppermint]

She could be just extremely shy. I had a students who's english was excellent, but she would never speak in class- ever. It was only when she pulled me aside after class to ask something that I realized.

[I_Am_Wrong]

some students are just really shy. I have some students that will just sit there and giggle when I ask them something and they will cover their mouth but are excellent at english. I also have some students that don't know the alphabet and require extra help (which isn't always possible for many of the not-rich students at a public school).

[Shutterfly]

i have considered that as a possibility, hyowever she doesnt seem shy, she blabbers on in korean, i cant get her to be quiet half the tim, and she is active withtheother stuentsand in the other classes. she hugs me all the time and things, but when it come time to Do something, she islike a deer caught in headlights!.... the calss is far too advacned for her, how do i approach my director, with surefire results of change?

[mindmetoo]

Koreans, particularly Korean kids and particularly Korean females, live by the motto "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down."

This one starbucks I go to, the woman there speaks flawless english. She claims never to have lived abroad. Sometimes I like to close my eyes when she speaks english because she has no accent and you'd swear she was born in Canada. Anyway, I noticed when other Koreans appear, she suddenly switches to Korean...

Women in particular don't want to appear too know it all. They'll never find a good husband etc.

[manlyboy]

[JAMZ]

i got a kid in one of my classes who is really shy like that... she literally hasnt said one word to me since i've started teaching her... she hardly ever responds to the other kids as well. Even when she does speak to them it's very quietly. They actually nicknamed her "silent" cause she hardly talks.... i think in cases with extremely shy female kids there's probably some very traditional, strict korean parents behind it... its like what mindmetoo said "the nail that sticks out.... etc."

[captain kirk]

That'd be Roy at our haggie. He's all inward. He communicates by looking. Like a mute.

[Apple Scruff]

I've got several girls of varying ages (8-15) that are so shy and so apprehensive to make any effort to do anything that I have lost all pity and curiosity towards them and now have a bit of anger about the whole issue. They're utterly useless and are even a distraction because their crippling shyness/retardation/I-don't-know-what is a target for ridicule from the class. I've stopped calling on them because their refusal/inability to respond to anything just attracts whispering and giggling from others. So now it's just the equivalent of having a corpse in the class.

No joke, but there's probably some kind of physical/sexual abuse happening in these cases.

Guess I'm no help to the OP, either.

[Shutterfly]

Yes, i really thinkt hat she has a learnign disability. I am just having a difficult time witht he schools inability/refusal to acknowledge this. No matter how i try to go about it , she slows the rest of hte kids down, (kindergarteners, you know how they are, if one student doesnt participate, NONE of them do)......thanks for your input though

[agraham]

I had one girl in one of my classes that was so silent it made me crazy. Then, the classes got rearranged and suddenly she was great.
As it turns out, so was being bullied by the clique of obnoxious popular girls in the first class. Once she got away from them she wasn't afraid to speak.

[Shutterfly]

wow

[ajuma]

Have you tried changing the seating arrangement? Watch to see who she hangs out with before or after class and seat her next to her "best friend." If she's sitting amongst perceived enemies, she may not want to talk.

[Alyallen]

I have one student who has never spoken English in class. It turns out that even at her school she is basically silent. I usually have her write her answers down. It sucks that she chooses to not speak but I think that if her written work is good, then she is paying attention and is taking time out to study even if she may never say a word of English.

As for the op, if she can't even write the words down and she talks in Korean, I would have to say that she doesn't study and probably has no interest in being there. I would ignore her to some degree and perhaps focus on her written work. She sounds like she is in a class that is way too advanced for her and perhaps she acts that way to avoid looking foolish?