Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nrvs]

and I think my hogwan's gonna blame me! They haven't come out and accused me already, but I'm pretty sure they're going to.

Tonight my manager was like "Oh, student's mother call me all night, and she blame you!" And I said something like, "Well, what do you think?" She paused for a moment and said, "I don't know."

Here's what happened. My hogwan is in a fairly affluent part of Seoul, and many of my students take costly gadgets to school with them. MP3 players, camera phones, Gameboys, and electronic dictionaries. You know, the really expensive ones that cost upwards of W300,000. Anyway, 95% of the time the students don't need a dictionary in my class. I have a paper version on my desk that works if the situation requires it, anyway. So, instead of actually using the dictionaries, they just play with them. Some of them even have word games built-in.

So, in every case of a gadget making an appearance, I immediately take it away and put it on my desk. I've employed this strategy for six months with no problems until now. The students know that they can retrieve it at the end of class. The owner of the dictionary (a 12 year-old boy) had loaned it to a friend. I took it away from his friend and put it on my desk without missing a beat in my lesson. I do it so often that I'm pretty slick with the acquistion. Anyway, after the bell rang, I ran upstairs to have a cigarette on the roof. Predictably, the students ran out right after me, pushing each other to get a prime seat on the bus home. Five minutes later, I was back in my room ready for my next class. I don't remember seeing the dictionary on my desk.

I confiscate these gadgets so often that I didn't even remember that I had taken the boy's dictionary when he asked me about it two days later. He asked me before class, and then after class he insisted on poking around through my desk. No problem there -- sorry about your dictionary, kid, but I don't have it. A weekend passed, and then I get a phone call about it from my manager on Monday afternoon before I go to work. I had forgotten about the whole situation again.

On Monday evening I retold the story several times to my manager, my boss, and to my Korean co-teacher. Apparently, the boy's father was coming in, and he wanted to talk to me. Unfortunately for him, I was already teaching by the time he rolled in, and so I never met him face-to-face. Later that evening my manager came around and taped up "LOST: ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY" signs in Korean in every classroom. I thought that the case was closed. I didn't hear about it again until tonight.

I'm really upset that they're quite possibly blaming me for this. It's not my fault this 12 year-old can't keep track of his possessions. Nor is it my fault that his stupid-ass parents let him loan it out at the hogwan when it's completely unnecessary to have it there in the first place.

I don't know what management is going to do about it. Tomorrow is our staff meeting, and I know they're going to make a big deal out of it. I'm trying really hard to keep my cool about this. I'm trying to assemble calculated reactions based on what they say to me, so I don't end up blowing my top. The worst case scenario I can imagine is that they take the cost of the dictionary out of my next paycheck so they can buy the kid another. The thought of this incenses me, and I don't want to say something that I'll regret afterwards.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice anyone has. I'm sure someone's been in a similar situation before.

[chronicpride]

That sucks. I know what it feels like to be in a 'if the shoe fits' situation at a school, as I used to love playing pranks at my first one, and people would come to me before checking the lost and found.

Never been in a situation like yours, though. Keep your cool and ride it out. Worst case scenario, the father pulls the kid out of the school, you look like the bad guy for awhile, then life resumes to go on, other stuff happens to preoccupy people with, memory of that moment fades with every passing hour.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Offer to let them give you a polygraph test if they don't believe you. Just have your cheap paper dictionary along to translate.

[Ya-ta Boy]

In the present situation I think you have to say something like, "The kids know I confiscate any and all electronic devices every time I see one during class. The kid who loaned out his dictionary was breaking the rules of the class. It's too bad he lost the dictionary, but it is his fault for loaning it during class and then forgetting to pick it up at the end."

In the future, it would be a good idea to consciously return any items before you dismiss class. Rather than race the kids out the door, you should make the returning of any items a habit before you open the door.

[guangho]

One of the kids lost his mp3 player today. We haven't yet discussed WHY he should take his mp3 to class.

[Derrek]

His dictionary was stolen.

Girls at my high school steal stuff all the time!

.mp3s, electronic dictionaries, lunch tickets... you name it. If it's left out in the open unattended for any length of time -- it's gone.

[mindmetoo]

How stupid can some kids be? This one girl in class saw me confiscate 3 cell phones in a row. You would think she'd keep her cell phone stowed in her backpack. But no. She must think I'm dumb. "Wow student with both hands under her desk, she's looking under her desk, and her upper arms are making muscle movements consistent with tapping crap out on your phone pad."

As I'm making the rounds I even warn her "And Sonia better not have a cell phone in her hands." Does she ditch the phone? No. Grrr. So I take it from her hands.

Now I'm mad. The other three phones I just kept at the front of the class. Now I tell the class the phones are going on wang ja min's desk and they'll have to ask her for them back.

Horrors.

Still, it's better than having to ask their mothers to call to get their phones back.

Sonia eventually pulled up her socks by the end of class and I decided I wouldn't force them to ask the director for their phones back and endure a lot of Korean on Korean castigation. I went back to my office and took the cell phones back to class, returning them at the end of class.

But next time, I warned them. Next time.

[Captain Corea]

Dare I take the other side and say this is your fault?

I don't totally think so BUT as the adult and the one in the possition of authority I beleive it is your responsibilty to manage such things. Just as you manae the "taking away" part, it then becomes your responsibility to manage the "taking care of" bit.

If you keep valuables in your desk, it should be locked while you are gone. I grew up in a neighborhood where every teacher knew this necessity.

Now, do I think you should pay for it? NO

But I do think when ANYONE takes "away" a possesion of another they do become responsible for it, especially in the case of an adult teacher.

[ulsanchris]

I second what Captain Korea said

[Manner of Speaking]

I understand your perspective on gadgets being disruptive to student's attention spans, especially with cell phones, but IMHO I would draw a distinction between cell phones and electronic dictionaries.

In your situation, cell phones I would confiscate during class time (or at least just the batteries) and return at the end of class. But I wouldn't be concerned about electronic dictionaries, with either adults or kids. If the kid brings it to class, it's his responsibility, and it he loses it, it's also his responsibility. I wouldn't even view it as an issue for teachers to 'control.'

It sounds to me like the kid lost the dictionary and is trying to escape punishment by blaming you for it.

If the parent or your supervisor confronts you about it, I think it's worth pointing out that as a foreigner teacher, you have no need for an electronic Korean-English dictionary. So why on earth would you steal one? Maybe from a Korean's perspective it's possible to view it as "stealable", but from a foreigner's perspective one doesn't really have much need for one. Especially if you already have a paper dictionary on your desk.

[tzechuk]

I also agree with captain....

[Derrek]

The korean teachers here take everyone's phone before class, if their homeroom teacher hasn't taken it for the entire day, anyway. That has become the trend with teachers here now. Not everyone does it, but it makes my life easier too.

In a hagwon, however, that might be difficult to fly by the boss.... he doen't want to lose any $$$ by losing kids who are angry about it.

And whomever created the combination .mp3/dictionary should be shot.

[mindmetoo]

[JacktheCat]

[peppermint]

Well, I know there have been troubles at some boys middle schools with students useing them to take pics up female teacher's skirts too.