Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blunder1983]

I've asked people at school for someone to teach me Korean and my coteacher offered to help. To pay her back, I've offered to teach her 7 year old son for one hour a week.

I'm a bit clueless as what to do with him. As its quite informal I am not looking for structured classes, just some games and book reccomendations.

Any hints/tips?

[Dan The Chainsawman]

Find out his favorite activities then start teaching him the words pertaining to those.

Gives you both a common ground to build from.

[Wrench]

Start with the alphabet, create games around it. A is for apple etc. Maybe work out simple greetings and small talk (Hello). Emotions, colors, LOTS AND LOTS of pictures. Flash Cards of simple verbs like walk, talk, sing etc. Teach him or her to use "I am".

I teach 7 Year olds in Kindie and this is what I do all morning long.

[schwa]

Youre not going to teach him a lot of english in an hour a week.

But youre in an invaluable position to demystify association with foreigners in his young eyes. Keep it fun & light, repetitive, & speak simply & naturally. Kids at that age are pronunciation & intonation sponges.

His mom's an english teacher I presume so he probably has a fair few basics. Have him produce his favorite books & toys & internet activites & use those as materials. Go for walks -- to the supermarket, the playground, aound the block, etc -- naming things. Try to recall your own childhood curiosities. Dont talk down to him. Dont be teacherly.

If you can grow to genuinely like the kid, he'll respond in kind. If it works out & you end up meeting him for some time, it could provide him with a lifelong memory.

[blunder1983]

Yeah he's got a bit of basic stuff down according to his mom.

I'm thinking of taking him on the odd outing and perhaps teaching through Starcraft. Making him only use the units he can describe in English. Tonight is just me chatting to him and seeing his level.

Thanks for the responses. I was a bit paranoid that this constitutes privates but i aint getting any money for it.

[Karabeara]

At that age, and with the little time you have, the most precious gift you can give to him is to teach him proper pronounciation. If you catch them before age seven or eight, especially, you can have a dramatic effect on the quality of their accent in later life. You should be teaching phonics, and starting with a book like Lets Go Starter, or Lets Go 1, depending on the level of the child at this moment.

Buy the tape that goes with the book, too. The kids just love the songs, and it really helps with thier speaking ability.

Trust me. For just one hour per week, phonics, some basic vocabulary followed by basic sentence structure, and songs are the way to go.

Have the mother suppliment with some very simple/basic books on tape. That the child listens to and reads along to during the week at least once per day. Review these books in class.

Continue with the book until the child has it down. Then find a new book.

[schwa]

You're not doing anything illegal. No worries.

[n3ptne]

Do not listen to ANY of these people man... 7 year olds are *VERY* intelligent, and MUCH easier to teach than older students because they haven't been taught wrong. Do *NOT* be afraid to do things you would otherwise think is too complicated.

First, do the alphabet, get him to pronounce each letter (hard and soft sounds) perfectly. When he's done that... teach him to read. The one thing I hate about the education in this country is that students for the most part are taught to memorize how a word sounds and then associate it with how a word looks. But, give them a word they haven't practiced a dozen times and they fall apart. Why? Because the educators here assume they will eventually "learn to read" on their own, and some do... but some don't.

Take the word IGNORANT for example. You show this word to most kids, they'll have no idea how to say it... but you show them IG, NOR, ANT, they'll say it every time.

Teach him about syllables, and how combinations of letters sound together, but not words. After he's done that (might take 3months at a rate of an hour per week) then show him how to break words up. Don't give him easy words, give him hard words, show him how to break up hard words into syllables based on vowel position and sound (IG, NOR, ANT for example leads one to say IGNORAUNT (like the insect), but is changed to the subtler A because, well, it sounds better and is more efficient.)

Teaching him to play with sounds and to choose what sounds "best", this sort of teaching, may eat up the entire year. He won't be able to say "sentences" or communicate "as well" as other 7 year olds who spend a year with a foreign teacher doing normal lessons.... but I gaurantee, in the long run, as he gets old enough to get a better conceptual and abstract understanding of the language (and a weighty enough lexicon to read) that he'll far outperform the other children in his age group, plus his pronounciation will be outstanding.

Essentially... teach him to "think" now, it's easier because he's so young, and if he starts thinking now, he'll become very good with the language after years of practice.

[casey's moon]

I don't think the OP is doing anything wrong whatsoever, but I'm curious -- if this isn't illegal, why is volunteering at an orphanage supposedly illegal???

[TheUrbanMyth]

[joe_doufu]

I have a student a bit older than that (11 ish), who apparently has a Korean-American tutor on the weekends at his home. The guy has taught him all the words he needs to know about pro wrestling (WWE) and online gambling (including how to get the free money from sites that offer it).
The student loves his tutor.

[n3ptne]