Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kim Jong Jordan]

At my hagwan I have 2 "free taliking" periods a week where I spend a half hour talking about anything with two different classes. One of these classes has only been learning English for a year and are very basic, they can't speak much at all. Yet I am supposed to go to our freetalking class once a week and engage them in conversation. They just fall sleep because they don't know what i am saying and despite my efforts, I can't seem too engage them. What type of activities could I do (beside hangman and pictionary) to spark interest? I know that the problem lies in our inability to communicate with one another, I just feel bad. What to do????

[Ya-ta Boy]

Get a basic conversation book (like Interchange) and do the speaking activities with them. After they learn the first lesson well enough to ask the basic questions when meeting someone, assign them different names, hometowns and jobs and have them do it again. You can even use names from different countries so you can practice "I'm a Canadian from Canada" to practice adjective forms and stress changes. By giving them different jobs you can expand that vocabulary.

I've always found the students love shopping activities. 'Open' a different kind of shop once a month and teach them the appropriate vocab for each one. Let them open shops and sell stuff to classmates. Then teach them bargaining vocabulary. (I let them buy and sell in Korean won so they practice numbers in English. Later we switch to dollars and cents. After shopping I ask what they bought, who from and how much they spent.)

Basically, raid a text book for ideas, repeat activities as often as necessary for mastery, expand the vocabulary each time you repeat so they are challenged to grow, vary the topics and activities so they don't get bored. Start with 3 or 4 topics and do one a week, then repeat the cycle with a variation until they've mastered that vocabulary, then substitute a new topic.

[Grotto]

Try scrabble.....you can help them out with words...explain what they mean...I usually keep an English Korean dictionary nearby to help them out.(and me with difficult translations)

[the eye]

there's an article in circulation about a Florida wacko parent job where they went on strike because their kids are lazy asses.

it makes a good topic for discussion, but too difficult for the basic class, so screw that. you can find a 'kids' version on the net. just googls kids news and you will find all sorts of stuff written with easy vocab.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/12/10/parents-strike041210
do some extra work and traslate the more difficult vocab into korean.
then you can ask the kids about household chores.

other than that, try simon says...or 'santa' says (this month)
play a jeopardy quiz style game (use easy subjects like colors, vegetables, countries...)- and in this case, they must answer the question with a complet sentence

[captain kirk]

Just because the boss says do free talking with them for thirty minutes doesn't mean, as you've noticed, it's good for them. I noticed Yataboy just said get a book, like Interchange.
Plus it's only 30 minutes. You can do the book for fifteen minutes then do some freetalking the last bit if everyone's in the mood and not noticing the time with something to say. Or play scrabble. That's a fantastic time killer. And it's fun. Some serious students say 'teacher no scrabble. too difficult'. Maybe. I make words for them a lot of the time. But they watch and get the tricks down. Like putting an 's' on a word then making a word from there that starts with s or ends with s. Thereby scoring on two words.
Scrabble for ten minutes, with the Side by Side by the book blues, is pretty good fun for them.
One day the boss said, 'just do freetalking' when I asked did they have a book. Which, by her tone of voice, translated (to my mind) to 'just take care of it, whatever'. I notice that some days there can be free talking in a spontaneous, got something to say 'happening'. But other days you can't even wait for it. And the more you wait the more it doesn't happen.
So do the book then. Tow the barge-line as usual. The old familiar pain. The good old, day to day, no brainer shuffle.

[peppermint]

Sounds like that class needs more structure. Get a good textbook that's around their level, and build in a little freetalking as you go. Something like a question of the day to ask everyone and build upward from there

For the more advanced freetalkers, bring in a short article to discuss, and be prepared to explain vocab. www.Fark.com can be a great source, and USA today, which is written in fairly simple language. You might try giving them the article a day before so if they want to prepare they can.

[peemil]

You know what a good start is...

Teach them Roman Numerals...

PM me for details... I'll send you work and worksheets.