Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

I'm teaching some stories and texts now that have many words and expressions that are totally foreign to the students. The Korean teacher does give them translation for some of this. I mainly try to see if they understand the general idea of the stuff. But sometimes they really seem to need the Korean words to understand. For example, it is pretty hard to explain, draw, or otherwise demonstrate words like the following:

stingy -- generous
even-tempered --- moody
sympathetic = "kind or caring"
sociable = "likes people, likes meeting people and making friends"
argumentative = "likes to argue" .... "What does argue mean?" --- "Uh, fighting when talking"

Well, when their level is really beneath the material they are using, it is hard for them to understand an explanation intended to simplify something.

I get annoyed when they give the students American texts/stories from their same age. One class read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I think they might get the story idea, but the language was way over their heads.

[Badmojo]

My two cents, or 15 won Cdn.

I never let my 10-12 year olds speak Korean in class, and I enforced it.

Why? First, I was taught not to. "The idea is to make them think in English." That's all good in theory, but I'm not sure 5 forty-five minute classes with me a week is going to accomplish that goal anyway. It's not like they're living in Canada.

Two, I can't speak nor do I understand Korean. So I wouldn't know what they're saying to each other. As a result, you do it in English or you don't do it all around me. My classroom was about the only place in Korea where I understood everything that was going on....

So, how helpful is it? It depends. If they're speaking more Korean than English, then something is wrong. But every once in a while in terms of explanation it certainly wouldn't hurt and I would certainly be a better teacher if I could use Korean to them during those occasions.

So I tend to think every once in a while it's not so bad. But then again, a teacher who occasionally uses Korean has a hard time justifying to his/her students that they should try to use English all the time.

And maybe therein lies a bit of the problem?

[babtangee]

[desultude]

I teach in an "English-only" program, and it works pretty well. You have to use your resources to get things across sometimes, but we are smart enough to do that, right?

I don't speak Korean well enough to help that way, anyway. The students having to speak in English really forces them to dig deep and produce language. It can be slow going at first, but most students soon figure out how to be funny and smart in English, and their humor is all the better for the errors.

I can see the use of some native language in some programs, but ours doesn't allow it, and this seems to work just fine.