Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Prince Frog]

Tell me, for those of you who teach elemteray school kids, how quickly you have seen progress? More specifically, I am wondering how soon you were able to get children to start feeling more comfortable with speaking English, and how quickly they started using words besides the requisite "by" or "hi"; I am interested in communicating with my students, but I am the first foreign teacher at my school, and most of the students have very limited abilities with regard to conversational English.

What are some realistic expectations?

[jacl]

[jazblanc77]

Oh, a couple of days at most.

[jacl]

Maybe two minutes. Two seconds. Two milliseconds. Two years. Two months. Two decades. Two centuries.

Around that.

[Kimchieluver]

Learn Korean for your life here..IMO.. rarely use it in the classroom. The Korean teachers will teach them 90% in Korean and 10% in English. You don't want them asking you questions in Korean. You don't want to give answers in Korean. You should try to get them to use as much English as possible. As for noticing progress, that depends on so many factors...

[ddeubel]

[SPINOZA]

I agree it's not beneficial to speak too much Korean in class, but it's very useful to use it a bit. I do try hard to learn a bit of useful Korean from the kids and sometimes I'll devote 2 or 3 mins at the end to learn something new and I'll regularly ask what a relevant English word is in Korean (today I learnt 'businessman' and 'housewife') - this impresses them wildly when you write what you hear in Korean on the board (raises attention and motivation, which is half the battle) and also confirms understanding. I'll ask K-teacher "is that right?" So translation can be good for everyone! Also, some kids forget basic stuff like "Where do you live?" and even "what's your name?" (especially when they're not expecting you to ask them - an excellent tactic! I always deviate from the material and ask random, irrelevant questions) so I'll sometimes become impatient and ask them their name, where they live in Korean.

[kat2]

I don't think using Korean in the classroom is beneficial in any way. After a while you will know some of the basics when kids say it. But pretend that you don't know and make them use teh english. If they realize you know korean, you will have a lot of trouble getting them to an instinctual english level.
As for progress, you should notice a bit, at least with the very basic commands and phrases, in the first week. But depending on the student, level, and what the Korean teachers are doing, it may take a while before your socks are knocked off. However, when they are and you see the lightbulb go off in the kids' heads, its a great feeling. Just stay positive and work hard.

[jlb]

The biggest area of progress I saw in the elementary kids was when I taught them how to read. Some kids went from barely knowing what sound each letter makes to reading simple words in a couple months. It opened up a whole new world of learning English for them, which I discovered pretty quickly.

Another area where I could actually see progress was in pronunciation. I felt so happy when they stopped saying orangey and fishey and the like.

A lot of them couldn't actually communicate with me but I felt like at least they were taking steps in the right direction.

[Demonicat]

As far as how long until the kids relax, thats a question of how long until YOU relax. They're kids, if you let them be kids for a while they'll open right up. Korean kids have no free time or relaxation, as soon as you show them that its ok to joke around and play a bit they'll relax and start talking rapidly. If you joke around (in english) they'll start to pay attention- just to get the joke and not get left behind the others. An important questions: What level/age are these students of yours?