Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[Doutdes]

[canuckistan]

I wouldn't list this as the most shocking but I was always surprised at how often I heard this when I taught adults, in particular women:
"I hate my husband."

[Lemonade]

God, I'm so glad I don't teach kids! I knew there was a reason why I refused offers teaching them. I like the kids and they like me BUT......

[KumaraKitty]

My student was sad one day in class, and explained that her dog had died while being dyed.
I was confused, and she explained that the dye they used on the dog's ears and tail was toxic until it dried, but the dog licked it while it was still wet and died shortly afterwards. The worst part was that she said it was ok because Mom was buying a new one and she never really liked the old one.(Mom not the child)

[UncleAlex]

The Gyonngi-do Education Office fires a Korean teacher because his action
constituted an "act of violence", not "punishment". If this teacher had been
wise, keeping his cool, he would've engaged in the tolerated practice of
violent punishment that prevails in Korean public schools: have the girl put
in a push-up position and whacked in the back of the thighs with a ruler.

[bluelake]

When I first taught in Korea twenty-two years ago (in a Korean high school), three boys were brought into the teachers' room. First, they were yelled at by a half-dozen male teachers, and then one teacher (who was always very quiet) did a roundhouse kick to each of them, in the chest. It was hard to watch, but I had little choice.

It turns out that while they were studying in their classrooms late at night, someone brought in beer and soju. After tying one on, they broke windows and such.

Another time, a student who had hair that touched his collar was forcibly held over a waste basket by two male teachers, while a third took scissors and made a mess out of the kid's hair.

I've seen many other things in the years since, but those two incidents immediately came to mind.

[Njord]

Interesting as all this talk about teachers abusing students is, it is also off topic.

I guess I find pet lover's first two stories the most shocking so far, although I can't really understand the second one. (Perhaps I don't want to.) The third story seems a bit out of place in comparison.

[pet lover]

oh...an, an important "M" is mising....sorry...typing with left hand only...broke my right wrist on the 1st.

She saw her father kill her mother. Tehy were arguing...he shoved her and she died of brain trauma within days. Father couldn't handle it an djumped to his death. She was being raised by her mother's sister. I told the boss as it explained a lot of the behavior issues we were having with her and he called her aunt who admittedn she was just the aunt (an dnot the mother she had claimed to be when enrolling this child) and cinfirmed the story.

the tird....I was told while said boy had boogers in his mouth...i had questioned him about his nose digging habit. yeah...doesn't match the first too...wanted to end on a lighter note

[Faron]

"I see dead People!" :O

[keithinkorea]

[Hans Blix]

[bluelake]

Sorry for getting OT.

Hmmm... I taught for a year at that high school, back in '84, and married my wife (a biology teacher at the same school). I later taught college back in my home state of Michigan. My wife and I returned to Korea with our two year old son back in '89, when I was offered a college teaching position in her hometown, and have been back in the Land of the Peeled Apple ever since (I spent two years at that school, and then fourteen years at a local university, and then the past year at my present university).

Now, to bring it somewhat back on topic (it isn't so much what was said, as was done that was shocking):

After I returned in '89, there was a young lady in one of my classes who evidently had a crush on me. I just pretty much ignored her schoolgirl fascination with the teacher. However, what happened one day had me rethink the situation.

For the first two years after I returned to Korea, I didn't drive; I just used taxis to get to and from work. One day, I was getting in a taxi to head back home after classes. I noticed a group of giggling girls near me; I thought they were waiting for a taxi or bus. The next thing I knew, they opened up the door to my taxi, pushed the girl with the crush on me into the backseat with me, shut the door, and ordered the taxi to take off. I was mortified.

The girl was supposedly heading into town, to the bank. I directed the taxi driver to take her there first, which he did. I then went home. Knowing the propensity for the incident to be spread around the school (and city) faster than wildfire (remember, the three fastest forms of communication then were telegraph, telephone, and tell-a-Korean), I immediately told my wife what happened; she just laughed, but said I should talk with the president of the class and have him talk with the girl, which I did. I asked him privately to talk with her kindly outside of class. The next day, she was distant, so it must have worked.

Later, after I left that school and went to teach at the university, I found that she had also changed to the same university, and was in one of my classes. However, she was then a very quiet and respectful student, and did very well in class. The incident was never mentioned.



T

[tryptych600]

Personally, I think you did the right thing Big Mac. While punishments are a lot less physical in the west imo it's important to keep some emotional distance in instances like these (it depends on how the student reported it.. if the student had asked for advice or help, or implied as much, then I would definitely have been more pro-active about it had it been me, but, in this case, I think you acted correctly).

We often assume that our culture's general lack of tolerance for stuff like this is somehow intrinsically right while not acknowledging differences. This strikes me as rather arrogant. I don't believe in the idea of a 'progress' in attitudes, cross culturally, i.e- that certain countries are 'further' along the road to enlightenment than others, on contentious issues like these. There is no progress, essentially. Things just come down to differences and are much more random than they seem.

After living in Korea for two years it DID seem like beatings were MUCH more common than from where I'm from in the U.K for example. Things do happen in differing degrees however, and every situation has to be approached individually.

It's certainly not nice from a western perspective though. I had to endure my female boss administering a fairly prolonged beating to her 8 year old son in the teachers room once. It was awful. What can you do? He is HER son. She was MY boss. When I reported this back to my Korean girlfriend she didn't seem to find anything astonishing about it. She's told me before that she was hit on numerous occasions, as a child.

Sorry to go off topic a bit but thought it worth putting in my two cents.

[Faron]

Npthing wrong with a little beating, somthing firm but not something that is permanent. My mom would use the wooden spoon but when that didn't work my dad came and boy did I run to my room for the rest of the night.