Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ajstew]

Just thought I'd post this since I found it amusing as I marked an exam question recently. If anyone else has found anything else interesting during marking, please feel free to give them up.

The idea was to get students to use modals or adverbs to explain the meanings of things they see. Naturally I like to choose situations we experience in Korea everyday. An example would be as follows (example question) What do you think someone holding one finger over their mouth means? (example answer) It may mean he wants you to be quiet.

Anyway, for my question I wrote the following: Paul says, "I just saw something really strange. A man was yelling at another man. What does it mean?" Ofcourse, there were the answers you'd hope to see, such as:

1."Probably it means a man is angry with another man".
2."The men must be fighting",
3."It probably means speak more loudly."

But what I found the most amusing were the following rather common responses that perhaps can offer some insight into the Korean state of mind:

1."Maybe it means he was a boss."
2."Maybe it means he didn't agree with another man."
3."Maybe it means he is older than another man"
4."It probably means a man doesn't understand another man."
5."It probably means too men is friends."

And my personal favorites:

6."Maybe it means he needs a man."
7."Maybe it means the man loves another guy."

And last but not least, there were these types of responses:

1.Maybe Paul saw something really strange. A man was yelling at another man.
2.Perhaps really stranger is you.

Well just thought I'd reveal some responses. Have a nice day.

[pollyplummer]

I was giving an oral examination to my Conversation class students. We spent a lot of time talking about personality traits during class. When asked what her personality is like, one girl replied, "I am like rabbit." I laughed. The cutest thing, though, is when they say, "Bye-bye-��!" to say goodbye after the interview. HAHA!

[Draven]

I've had some pretty interesting responses over the years; here are a couple that stick out. In last year's written exam, in response to the question "What are you wearing?" the student answered "I'm not wearing any clothes." Full points for that.

In my exams that just concluded, in response to a reading comprehension question "Who does he usually visit?" the response was "He does my sister."

[periwinkle]

When I worked at a university, somtimes we would write quotes from students on the white board in our office. The only one I can recall was, "I am from Pohang. Pohang is famous for big crap." (crabs)

Oh- I just remembered another incident. The uni had us do oral exams from 9am-10pm for finals. We would have an hour break for dinner, and an hour for lunch. If you were lucky, maybe you'd have a period or 2 off. Obviously, it was tedious. It was also 2 teachers conducting the interview for each student (in order to ensure a fair grade). I was with a teacher who was very, very professional- he wore a suit every day, designed tons of supplemental material (even has a website- www.bogglesworld.com. I haven't visited the site for ages, so I don't know if it's still up and running), etc. Anyway, we asked a student what he did on the weekends, and he said, "I play with my girlfriend." Due to the stress of the day, my co-worker went into fits of laughter, then I started. We almost had tears running down our faces we laughed so long. The poor student was mortified, and we apologized profusely and explained why it was so funny ( we were tactful in our explanation). So, it was a bit unfortunate for the student, but that's the kind of thing that happens after you've been sitting in interviews all day. -Shrug-

[nolin nae]

Me: What does your mother do?
Student: My mother does dog style.
Me: Hmm. I see. Does she enjoy dog style?
Student: Yes. She very much enjoy dog style. She every day is dog style.
Me: Wow! Every day?
Student: Yes. She is very busy.

[Demonicat]

I was on a field trip to the war museum in Yongsan. Jack, 7 years old, is walking with me when he gets really excited:
Jack: Look Lambs!
Me: What? Jack, there are no lambs- its an ocean fight. Look, there's the turtle ship.
Jack: No, Lambs! Look there!
Me: Where?
Jack: There! (points at a model boat)
Me: Thats a boat jack
Jack: No, Its a small sheep (ship), its a lamb!

[animalbirdfish]

In response to "What does your mother do?" one of my students replied "My mother is a ho."

I hope it's just that he didn't know how to spell 'homemaker' and gave up early.

[tzechuk]

[taegu girl]

Well, this one comes from one of my American high school students. We had gotten into an interesting discussion on Edgar Allen Poe's life and how it was filled with tragedy. Most of the root cause being caused by T.B. They also wanted to know why he didn't die of it especially since it was a contagious disease and he was obviously around it (I made it extra credit to find out the reason why, and they actually did the research).. BTW, my students LOVED Edgar Allen Poe's stories.
That said, one of the questions on their English Lit. test was
Question:
What disease did most of Edgar Allen Poe's family, girlfriend, and wife die of?
Correct answer :T. B.
one student's answer: television crisis

SIGH!

[pollyplummer]

My friend teaches various subjects in the states- logic, history, some philosophy. Anyways, he said that he came across this in an essay test:

"I have four scars on my thumb where I have abused it; three of them I do not remember how or where I got them but for the one scar I do know how it got there that is an interesting story. Once while cutting open a yellow popsicle with my pocketknife like I have been doing all that summer, my knife slipped and cut into my thumb at an angle and not stopping until it was reviling the bone and turning the yellow popsicle into an orange one. Even though it seems like I hate my thumb because of the way I treat it but you are wrong."
-11th grader (whose first language is English)