Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Njord]

One of my younger classes was talking about pets today. Their English is fairly strong, so it is possible to just pick a topic and talk about it for a large portion of a class. Anyhow, one of girls said that she has five hamsters but she used to have six. Then she went on to explain how the hamster died with blood pouring out of its rear end.

I imagine this is fairly tame for some of you who have been teaching for a long time. So what I should brace myself for?

[BigBlackEquus]

And I was about to take a bite of that strawberry Dunkin Donut my student's mom just gave me.

Thanks.

[pet lover]

one kid acted out a scene from a porno he'd seen recently..as you might expect, there wasn't much dialogue.

one kid told me how she had seen her father kill her other. actual true story..she told me in private

one kid told me quite seriously that boogers "aren't very yucky".

don't bother to brace yourself...you would be more likely to snap in half. instead develop a good poker face, serious nod, and an uncommitted "uh huh". that'll get you through a lot, though, not situations like the first two i mentioned

[keithinkorea]

Well I was talking to a class of oldish kids yesterday, and it seems most people in Korea still believe in that fandeath crap!

When I did a little poll 7 out of 8 kids believed it was real and the other kid looked at them as if they were idiots.

One kid called me dirty for blowing my nose when I had a cold, then when he got ill he sat there the whole class with boogers running down his face

Not been told anything that has completely freaked me out, there just is a generally high level of weirdness that takes a few years to get used too. I'm pretty immune to most things these days.

The hamster story is pretty gross.

[SNoh84]

Not sure, but I think it's pretty bad etiquette to blow your nose in public in Korea. Maybe that's why he said that?

[ulsanchris]

i had a middle school girl say she was a lesbian in one of my classes.

[xeno439]

[vox]

Once in an afternoon class an 8-year old who used to blow kisses and make valentines with her hands once put her fist on her mouth and made a bobbing action with her head and hand and pointed at me smiling. That warranted an instant visit to Korean teacher and a call to mommy to find out exactly where she saw or learned that.

Thank God the class was videotaped is all I have to say. After mommy was shown the video she demonstred a lot more restraint in class but after a couple of weeks of sourface she eventually returned to a positive (if less amorous) demeanour.

[UncleAlex]

Once when I had turned my back while writing on the front board at a girls'
middle school and had my rear end in profile, a student just behind me said,
"Teacher, I like your ...." I suppose it would have been even more shocking
if I had been teaching at a boys' middle school.

[Big Mac]

I had a kid who had a very serious black eye. When I asked her what happened she told me that her mother had hit her. She said it so seriously I had no reason not to believe her.

In fact, this kid would come in quite a lot with marks on her face, but I never asked her again what had happened. I never reported it either, because I assumed this sort of thing was more acceptable than it is in Canada. Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that, but I didn't want to commit a cultural taboo.

She was a great kid and a wonderful student though, and I felt very badly for her.

[Lemonade]

[Gorgias]

[captain kirk]

He's 15 and he said that three Korean students had jumped to their deaths from his apartment building. That made me wonder if every Korean apartment building has a history of jumpers like his building.

[nev]

[Big Mac]