Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mister_joseph]

hi,
first, glad to finally have an account here with all y'other foreign teachers in korea.
the topic may say it all.
my classes will be in the classroom for the first half of the day. with k-teachers, real school teachers. THey have prepared a lesson, and shown it to me, which is only "hello, nice to meet you'
'i am fine. how are you?'
it is the fourth grade class the first day.
I don't know if i should act out a lot, and be very excited, or pretend to be very stable and professional.
the school is very involved with the foreign teachers, they will have my back.
also, is a suit/tie too much.... i only know that jeans are no good, but i wonder about a suit-pants and tie..
the first impression really counts, if anybody can tell me what they may expect from me performance-wise..... i will be well-prepared.
that's the plan.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Ya-ta Boy]

You said 4th Grade, so I'm guessing you mean elementary school.

I don't know a thing about elementary school, but in general, Koreans do NOT like the used car salesman hard-sell approach when meeting a stranger.

Speak slowly, clearly, no idioms or slang. Smile a lot. Speak 'gently' to anyone one-on-one. Wear nice clothes, but a suit is not necessary. Physical contact (pat on the shoulder kind of stuff) is appreciated. Koreans have different rules about touching than we do. It wouldn't hurt at all to say, "Pahn-kahp-sum-nee-da" (nice to meet you) when you are introduced to the classes. Write your name clearly on the board.

Maybe most important, relax and try to have a good time. 'They' will be more nervous than you are, especially if you are their first way-gook-saram teacher.

Hint: Use your face a lot. I mean, exaggerate your facial expressions. Koreans find it 'cute' because they tend to not be as expressive with their faces as much as we are. (Within MY memory, Koreans did not smile in public--now they do.)

Again, relax and SMILE, SMILE, SMILE.

[paperbag princess]

please don't teach your students to say "i am fine, thanks." anything thing but "fine"!!

[mister_joseph]

thank you for your answers, i am considering them carefully to plan for my first day.

"paperbag princess",
why would i not want to teach them to say "fine'?
what is an appropriate substitute?

[Qinella]

[Rteacher]

"Fine" is fine, but it may help to show that other words can also be used...
I'm more disturbed by students' tendency to get stuck on "Nice to meet you..." every time they see you. I stress that they should say that only the first time they meet someone ...

[inspector gadget]

Actually the response " I am fine thank you and you" is an answer that I refuse to accept.

Why??

It seems from my experience that thats what they are taught to say from a young age.

Its a pet peeve of mine, no way a group of 25 students can all be "fine", the first class I always go through the different responses that they should give.

I ask each of them how are you today, after three of four of them you get the dame bloody response, stop that sh*t.

Teach them how to truely express how they are, tired, good, sad, upset angry, hungry, excellent, furious, upset, alright, okay, sleepy, thirsty................


Its my experience that they are trained to say "fine thank you and you".

I start all of my middle school classes with How are You to every student and if they answer with the norm fine....thats simply not acceptable.

Be sure to use intonation when teaching them the how are you lessons, its easy for you and proves to be very effective for the students learning.

I have an award system set up for my students and when a student responds with the "fine" answer they get points taken away.

[ajuma]

I totally agree about "I'm fine thank you..." and "Nice to meet you". I do these the first and second lessons. The problem with "I'm fine" is that it's SOOOOO over-used!! You all know that taxi joke, right? I tell it in each and every class (after asking a few students "How are you?" and getting "Fine....") and EVERYONE understands it.

I also teach "How ya doin'" and "What's up?" as most native speakers only say "How are you?" to people they don't know very well. They use "How ya doin'" and "What's up?" with their friends.

Another one that I don't teach, but I'm thinking about incorporating it this semester is "How've you been?" It seems as if even the more advanced students don't "get" this one.

Yeah, "Nice to meet you" should be used THE FIRST TIME AND THE FIRST TIME ONLY when you meet someone. I teach "Nice to SEE you" or "Good to see you" or "Nice/Good to see you again", along with "Long time no see!"

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'm the opposite of inspector gadget. I teach them that 'How are you?' is not really a question, it's a form of greeting. I insist that people use it as a general generic greeting and do not want a real answer...They want to hear 'fine', 'good', 'not bad' etc. Anything positive.

Definition of a geek: You are walking down the hall and casually say 'How are you' and the guy stops and gives you an honest answer.

I think we distinguish between 'How are you' as a greeting and a real question with our tone of voice and body language.

I can guarantee you that if I see you, any of you, in Kyobo and nod and said 'How are you' in passing, and you start giving me a rundown of your week, I'll shout, "Geek alert!" and warn everyone else in the store.

[Pak Yu Man]

Tell your kids this joke...they will understand. If they don't get the co-teacher to help.

A korean man is walking around (big city from your country). He is excited because he has never been away from Korean before. So he's taking pictures and walks out on the street by mistake. He is hit by a taxi (or bus or whatever you want). The man is under the front tire and the driver gets out (this is where you make a shocked face and pretend to be the driver) "Oh my God, are you ok? How are you? "

This is when I lie down on the desk, pretending to be the Korean guy....moan and groan. Then smile and say in your cheeriest voice

"I'm fine thank you and you?"


I also hate that. From pre-school to university they've had that crap programmed into them. If you teach them other expressions the K-teachers usually undermine you.

I'm Okay.
I'm so-so.
I'm alright.
I'm great.
I'm good.
Not bad.

These are all better than that robot shiat they always say.

[TJ]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Dress very smart. Be a hard-ass even though it's difficult when you're being treated like a celebrity.

[mack the knife]

I wear slacks and sweaters in winter; slacks and polos in summer. The other male teachers wear suits one day and pullovers the next. Totally random. The only ones who wear suits regularly are the principal, vice principal, etc. Regardless, you need to make an effort to look like you've made an effort.

As for intros: For 4th-6th grade kids I usually play a guessing game on the first day to introduce myself. I put a bunch of facts on the board (where I'm from, my favorite food, favorite color, etc.) and also some wrong answers. Then I ask them to raise their hands and guess the correct answer. Good fun and it breaks down the tension, stat.

There is simply no reason to be hard-boiled. If you have a decent system of discipline (read: your co-teacher is doing her job) you should be able to have fun without having to go overboard (and fall into the "edutainment" strata).

[Rteacher]

In my TEFL training course, the instructor advised that almost from the beginning we should establish acceptable rules of in-class conduct for grade-schoolers and initially be strict about enforcing them (lightening up later on...) Presumably, this is to discourage potentially rowdy students from disrupting classes early on to reach the dreaded "out of control" stage...