Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

I am wondering if anyone else sees what I see.

I don't remember my own childhood so well, and all kids are natually a little clumsy, but I see Korean kids as much clumsier than normal. Does anyone else see this?

Examples, in a 35 minute class with 6-7 kids, at least 10 pencils or pencil cases get dropped, sometimes as many as 35. I started to count.

My last class on Friday, I taught them the word 'clumsy' in the last 10 minutes, and I shit you not, in the last 10 minutes, at least 5-6 pencils were dropped, and it was not a joke by the kids to make fun of me. The kids were just seriously being clumsy.

My girlfriend is clumsy too. Last week, she walked right into a little girl who was crouching in the middle of a sidewalk for no apparent reason.

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

I suspect there are a lot more obstacles in terms of urban geography, which probably helps explain your theory. But you're right: Koreans tend to be a lot less "heads up" than the majority of westerners I've had the pleasure or disdain of meeting. Blame Confucious (that b*stard; he seems to be the inherent cause for everything wrong in Korea), or high population, or...

On the other hand, they also tend to be a lot less embarrassed when they do something clumsy. Maybe that stems from peeing outdoors, in the street, as children, I don't know. I do know that, while writing this post, I mistakenly poked myself in the eye while going for a rather large booger.

I'm such a klutz.

Sparkles*_*

[Esenada]

I can certainly relate to this. The kids are forever dropping pencils and erasers on the floor, and I don't think I've had a class where a student hasn't fallen off his or her chair. I tend to find Koreans have very little awareness about what is around them. My wife, who is a Korean, says it stems from the belief that you don't (and shouldn't) really care about anything other than yourself and your immediate family: if you bump into someone or let a door shut in their faces, then that's the other person's bad luck. Who cares?

This idea of "Uri Nara" and Koreans thinking they are one big family is nice in theory until they have to put it into practice: just watch an ambulance try to get through a busy intersection and watch how many people stop.

[OiGirl]

Maybe gravity is stronger in Korea?

[The evil penguin]

I agree with the OP. Growing up on Bruce Lee movies and so on i guess i subconsiously developed a kind of asian steroeotype , where i pictured ALL asian kids to be able to snatch mozzies out of the sky with chopsticks and all that...

Came here to find that the kids can't even catch a ball for crissake. Had a teaching technique i was forced to stop.... ie. I had a soft inflatable bal l and tossed it at random to students in the class. Whoever i threw it to had to asnswer a question and then pass the ball onto another kid and so. Ended up having more balls on the floor than in a cat de-sexing clinic.

So much for computer games improving co-ordination....

What gets me is the cry of amazement from the students when teacher briefly juggles 3 marker pens....

Its like I've for a short time become some kind of super ninja master or something....

[Qinella]

Now that you mention, I've noticed the exact same thing. Tons of pencils dropped, kids falling out of their chairs, smacking into desks, knocking over the radio.

Last week I received a package from the US and it contained some sour candy. Now, there really wasn't much, so I had to ration it out like 2-3 pieces per kid. I swear two kids dropped theirs on the ground and begged for more, so I relented, and what did they do? DROPPED IT AGAIN. I couldn't believe it. Out of about fifty students that I gave the candy to, at least eight of them dropped it once. How hard is it to hold a piece of candy?

[eamo]

In some cases adults too.

My hagwon two years ago had an extension cord across the middle of the teachers room floor. Myself and an American co-worker noticed over the best part of a year that the Korean teachers would trip over this cord every day, whereas the foreigners would very rarely.

I've never noticed any other clutziness except for this though. Korean driving sure is clumsy though.

[Maugrim]

With respect to the ambulance thing, I took a road trip a couple of weekends ago, and neither myself nor anyone else in the car could believe the number of morons driving in the emergency lane. Sure enough, after having discussed at length exactly how stupid driving in the emergency lane is, an ambulance pulled up in full klaxon. Nobody even made an effort to move. It was disgusting. I made a couple of choice racist comments and then seriously considered leaving the car to kick the offenders' doors in.

(I say this knowing full well that car culture, quite like democracy, takes a while to learn.)

[Paji eh Wong]

[d503]

The ball games....sigh.

Now I am no super thrower and catcher, but I will inform you that my nephew of less then 1 has better catching skills then my students.

I have a theory on this. my kids never really played catch, they play that pegging game, so catching isn't a skill they really ever payed attention to. So I am the designated thrower as I can lob a super easy ball to the kids and improve catching to about 50% of the time

As for the dropping things, my kids do it, but as it is a small classroom i am way faster at grabbing things off the floor, then them (who have to get up walk around etc.) After the first week or so they become much better at keeping stuff on the desk.

[Qinella]

[Homer]

Any of you have actual teachign experience in an Elementary school back home?

If so then that could be the basis of a comparison with actual potential for validity.

Otherwise these are simply unbased observations.

[The evil penguin]

[Homer]

Hey look the race profiling penguin has arrived.

Comparison: your immediate family vs all Korean kids...well done professor!

[weatherman]