Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Just a question.

I was reading some of the posts about all the Christmas activities people are doing. Some interesting ideas.

But it occured to me: A lot of the students are Buddhist and probably even more are not anything.

How many, and what kind of lessons, are appropriate?

[crazylemongirl]

I keep my lessons very secular... any song we learn will be more about the celebration of christmas rather than why it's celebrated.

Given that my family is strongly atheist/agnostic it's been pretty easy to do.

[thursdays child]

I am not religious in any way.... but my school is VERY Christian and the Principal requested that if I do a Christmas class it should be about the meaning and no Santas or snowmen. So we're making wee Jesus mobiles to hand on the tree!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Buddhists are pretty ecumenical, I think. I've don't Joy to the World and Oh Come all Ye Faithful and all the students know the toons. God Bless You is in there with my suggestions of what to put on cards. 'Jesus' Birthday' is a perfectly fine answer for the question 'what is Christmas?'. One of the things I love about Korea the most is screwing political correctness. It is pretty fun to hear of teachers back home trying to secularise Chrsitmas - it just looks ridiculous.

[mourningclam]

Korea is inundated with Christianity. Look at all of the illuminated crosses stretching the evening landscape. While there are a lot of Buddhists, they don't make their presence as well known. I don't think that the Buddhist parents are going to raise a big fuss.

As far as Christmas activities are concerned, I think you could stress the holiday as a means to explore Western culture. Culture and language go hand in hand. Think of the times when we learn foriegn languages back home in the West. The culture was always infused with the language presentation. When you're studying German, you always learn about Oktoberfest. That doesn't mean that the whole class is going to swill down beer all period long, but things like the chicken dance are taught. Why should English classes in Korea be any different? Christmas is like Chuseok and Lunar New Year's rolled into one. If you want to convey to the students what our culture is like, tell them things about Santa, make them stockings to be filled with candy, teach them Christmas carols. They'd probably learn a lot more from a class like that rather than the mundane daily lesson. Just don't go off on any Jesus lectures.

[mindmetoo]

[pet lover]

I've dumped Christmas on my co-worker as far as the elementary school kids go. As for the kindergarteners, he doesn't teach them, so I feel like I HAVE to do something. We'll be learning some songs (mainly focused on snow, snowmen, and Santa Claus) next week and we'll write a letter to Santa Claus the week after. That's as far as I'm taking it. There is a "Christmas" party for all the kids on the last day of school. I'm referring to it as the end of the year party. Since all classes will be combined, I won't HAVE TO do Xmas related stuff. I'll leave that up to my co-workers and make sure that there are other things for kids to do if they don't want to do Xmas stuff. I've been an atheist basically all my life, so I can't really get excited about it and to me, it's like teaching kids that they must eat meat in order to live. (I'm also a vegan.) Those are topics that I just prefer to avoid entirely. Oh, and politics, though, none of the kids tend to ever bring that up.

[dreamscape]

Speaking from my Ouija board, Buddha would be cool with celebrating Christmas.

[Rteacher]

I think we may have solved the mysterious disappearance of notarious atheist, Madelyn Murray O'Hair: She's working at a hogwan in South Korea!

[Dawn]

I teach basic Christmas vocabulary (tree, star, candy cane, bell, ornaments, wreath, Santa, reindeer, nativity, etc.) to the younger students and put Christmas stories in our book corner for those who want to read or listen to them.

Beyond that, I generally allow the students to take the lead in holiday activities, and I always have alternatives on hand for students who may not celebrate the holiday. Instead of asking how they celebrate Christmas, I ask whether they celebrate Christmas and why. When it comes to carols, I let them choose the songs they want to learn. If we're doing an art activity, I always give them a choice between a traditional Christmas scene or a more generic wintery image.

I avoid the whole letters-to-Santa routine for several reasons. First, I've had Jehovah's Witness students in the past who cannot participate in this activity, and there's not really a non-holiday-related equivalent. Second, I don't want to trigger the whole "Is Santa Claus for real?" debate in the classroom. Third, the whole "Gimme, gimme" routine flies in the face of the spirit of giving that is *supposed* to dominate the holiday season.

As for the whole religious vs. secular debate, I tell my older students that Christmas is a season of giving and that different people give for different reasons. I also point out that history of Christmas dates back almost 4,000 years. Whenever some bright student notes that this means holiday traditions preceeded the birth of Christ by nearly 2,000 years, I tell them that they're right, that while even secular history confirms the existence of Christ, there is no record of His actual date of birth. I point out that the "Feast of the Christ Child" was celebrated on different dates from the end of the first century on to the middle of the fourth century, when Roman Bishop Julius I decided Dec. 25 would be a Holy Day.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm always a little bit surprised that people use the excuse of a holiday to push their religious beliefs off on Koreans. The language excuse only really works (in my opinion) when we show that 'you' works for anyone, regardless of age or social rank. Using a holiday as an excuse to teach religious ideas to people who have their own beliefs is kind of tacky in my opinion. But that's just me.

[Rteacher]

Cultural topics are often used in language teaching. A recent poll showed that 95% of Americans celebrate Christmas (obviously regardless of religion). Jesus is respected by all real religions. Only embittered Scrooge-like atheists (and extremely sectarian zealots) have a problem celebrating it. Kids are naturally attracted to a joyful message of hope and giving (though not necessarily to an image of Jesus being crucified on the cross which many so-called Christians are morbidly obsessed with...)

[casey's moon]

As long as no one's saying that Jesus's birthday is more important than Buddha's birthday or any other religious holiday in Korea (although I think those are the only 2 celebrated here) and that you're teaching about the holiday itself and not what your own beliefs are, I don't think there is anything wrong with it. The kids in my kindergarten have been going on and on about Santa halaboji for weeks now, and that had nothing to do with me. My Christmas curriculum doesn't start until Monday.

In Korea it isn't necessary to avoid any songs with slightly religious lyrics either. Koreans aren't very touchy about those things, and nor should they be. I'm not religious at all, but I sure do love Christmas carols and lots of Buddhists do too.

Actually Buddhism is a rather lovely religion. They never seem to get up in arms about anything. The only religion I've found to be somewhat intolerant in Korea is the protestant Christians -- and they won't be offended by Christmas carols, nor the Catholics (much milder than the protestants in Korea for some reason). So it's all good.