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butter808fly
Joined: 09 May 2004
Location: Northern California, USA
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 Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 2:48 pm Post subject: |
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After 8 months here I still get 'hi, hello' and sometimes a 'nice to meet you' when I am walking around campus. Its just friendly and nothing celebrity really. I am glad they still say hi cuz if they didnt Id think the Korea interlinked mind was not satisfied with my work.  Sometimes it gets old but I always respond back... its a friendly thing and you probably made that kids hour... |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Qinella wrote: |
You gotta be careful about giving candy. I brought a bunch of American candy with me when I came back to Korea two weeks ago, but I've still got most of it. I ration it out veeerrry slowly, and only for students with perfect behavior. A few of them tried the "teacher me candy" routine, and I made it clear that anyone who requests candy will most certainly not receive it. So, I hear very little begging.
Now, at my last job, I was mobbed by the kids for candy all the time because at first I didn't yet know how to manipulate children's behavior. Now, I'm quite good at producing whichever response or attitude I need. Gotta pull them strings like a puppet master. |
I keep a cookie jar on my desk. I fill it with 1,000 won cookies/snacks I find at the grocery store. Eventually I had a friend translate something in Korean and put it on the cookie jar:
"Rule of the cookie jar: Something is better than nothing. Be glad you're getting something."
I found if I gave a student two cookies, they wanted 4 and they'd try to come back for more. Now I just point to the little sign. They've figured that out.
I would never consider the hellos and attention I get from my students "celebrity status". Perhaps the OP's attitude he's a super star is part 'n' parcel with the greater "my farts smell better than yours" attitude he exudes with his coworkers. Try some Confucian style humility. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Celebrity status, yeah kinda. The kids are generally polite to most teachers, but foreigners get added attention most of the time. I noticed the older kids ( the ones I actually taught) would laugh at the little ones freaking out at the idea of a foreigner in their school. There might be hope for Korea yet |
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Qinella
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Location: the crib
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
I keep a cookie jar on my desk. I fill it with 1,000 won cookies/snacks I find at the grocery store. Eventually I had a friend translate something in Korean and put it on the cookie jar:
"Rule of the cookie jar: Something is better than nothing. Be glad you're getting something."
I found if I gave a student two cookies, they wanted 4 and they'd try to come back for more. Now I just point to the little sign. They've figured that out. |
Yeah, don't you love the ungratefulness? It was the exact same way at my last hagwon and now this one, the way the kids react. If I give them a random flavor from the bag, there's about an 85% chance they'll shout out "Chainjy, Chainjy!" If I refuse to change and tell them to trade with a friend, they just sulk. Then there are the students who constantly want more, and sulk when they don't get it.
I get very few thank yous, but lots of complaints. I'm certain the Catholic church has a saint position waiting for me because of my persistence in the struggle to keep Korean children sugared up.
Q. |
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rickhorton44
Joined: 10 Mar 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:44 pm Post subject: celebrity status |
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| The kids are trained to give a greeting to all teachers. |
I think this has a lot to do with it.
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| Every foreign teacher at a public school has this. The 1st graders run around me screaming my name, the second graders are "in love" with me and all the third graders wish they could speak English better so we could talk more seriously about their futures |
I really agree with this as well. I don't teach the first graders, but they all know my name and love saying it. I teach all the second graders, and many of them are in love. I only get to teach two 3rd grade classes, but they are much more respectable.
Plus I've only been there a month now, and I'm the only foreigner in the school. 1200 students, 50 teachers, and the one white guy. |
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SPINOZA
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Location: $eoul
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| Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:02 am Post subject: |
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[quote=Coolteach]I was wondering if any teachers at public school have celebrity status. What good/bad experiences have people had? [/quote]
Yeah, celebrity status exists big time. At first it was crazy - never seen anything like it - but it soon wears thin.
The good: well at least they're nice and friendly. Korean kids are cute, very benevolent and enthusiastic about their foreign teachers. At first it seems very difficult to reconcile this phenomena with the supposed xenophobia of the Korean people.
The bad: it gets a little tiresome.
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| Any resentment from other teachers? |
Not that I'm aware of.
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| Is this what the public school expects/wants? |
Probably.
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| How can I best utilize this to my advantage? |
Er, I dunno. |
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Alyallen
Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Location: The 4th Greatest Place on Earth = Jeonju!!!
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:11 am Post subject: |
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Celebrity status?
Hmmm...Does being called a monkey by first graders count??
Honestly, I just started teaching at my new school two months ago and the constant attention wears thin at times. But I think it's because I have the pendulum swing. First, I see students I acually teach who say hello to me and ask about my day and then just as suddenly I'm surrounded by little ankle biter first graders screaming "Africa Tika Tika" or Monkey or some other stupidness.
Don't get me wrong, I don't sit (or stand) there and take it. But jeez those are the moments when being invisible or "normal" like other Korean teachers would be nice. I don't think anyone at my school is jealous of my position. The other teachers are quite kind and are quick to yell at students for disrespecting me in any way.
So in conclusion...Enjoy all the celebrity while you can. You can have mine too while you're at it. |
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poof
Joined: 23 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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If you're seeking celebrity status, and not quite getting the reaction you wanted, you may be afflicted by one of the following categories
a) You never got enough attention back home
b) You don't have Daniel Henney's/Won Bin's/Bi's etc... number listed on your cellphone (One day I was just joking around to say that I had met one of the above at a party and had obtained their number - the students went WILD and tried to mob me for my phone each time I passed them)
c) You are in the wrong job |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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I have over 550 students, and I am indeed quite the (minor) celebrity to them: everytime I walk into/ out of school, to/from the bathroom, into a classroom or into the hallway, I get what I call the Gauntlet of Hellos (includes high fives, pats on the arm/shoulder/back, handshakes, etcetera).
Once a class burst into applause when I walked in and on two occassions I've had most of a class line up for my autograph, which took almost 10 minutes each time. Whenever I wear sunglasses (walking into or out of school on a sunny day) I get mobbed too- lots of "oh, teacher! Good!" with a thumbs up.
When I tell people about this they sometimes say they would find it annoying, but not me- it means they listen to my lectures and make an effort to learn the material. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to control classes of 30+ students if they disliked me! |
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