Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Homer]

The French article explains the event more clearly than the OP.

As jay said, the teacher took the kid to task that day because he was being a little pain during that particular lunch. He then complained to his mother and (being a kid) warped the story to get out of trouble. His mother then told the Filipino paper and since racism makes a better headline than little boy misbehaves at lunch voila...

As for the formula of: the more you get out of the cities in QC the more people are not used to strangers or foreigners...agreed. However, this applies with full force for rural Ontario, rural Alberta and so on...

[Hobophobic]

...all kids should be just issued disposable gloves and have at it...lunch is so freakin' boring...

[patchy]

That was a good thread. lol

I believe Dave's has reached a new threshold. It has reached the point where people are bashing Korea about imaginary events relating to another country. It's no longer only about bashing Korea for actual things that have happened elsewhere -- despite the tenuous connection they have to Korea, at least these events in prior bashing episodes were real ... these days, it's open season on bashing Korea for things that have not even happened. Anywhere.

Imagine that.

This forum never ceases to amaze me.

[polarbearbrad]

Does anyone here remember a time when teachers were trusted?

Does anyone here remember when schools and parents sided with teachers?

Does anyone here remember when teachers told students what to do and they did it?

The question at hand is NOT one of culture. If a kid wants to eat with chopsticks, a knife and fork, his hands only (not recommended for soup), or a combination therein then fine. If a kid (race be damned) is playing with their food and making a mess then the teacher MUST take it to task and call it for what it is.

When I first read this story, I thought "Wow, now Canada has REALLY gone too far in respecting immigrants when a teacher can't stop a student from eating like a pig and not be branded a racist." Then I thought again "Something is really wrong here" because having friends from the Philippines I have seen them eat and they do very little differently from me.

Now we see the truth. A kid does what he is not supposed to do, gets in trouble, and then compounds it by lying to his mother to try to get out of it. Mom turns around and of course defends her son as any mom would and screams racism.

And this is where the trouble starts. Whatever happened to just calling the school and asking "what happened" and then believing the trained professionals? Now, we are giving so many rights to children that THEY are governing classrooms and making decisions for themselves when clearly they are inable to do so.

The only link to Korea that I can make on this issue is that children are the same all over the world. They all lie to get themselves out of trouble and parents always believe their kids now over the teachers. That isn't just Korea (hogwon), or Canada (Quebec public schools) but a wide-spread problem.

What is really needed is for some parents to start telling their child "NO" when they ask for things. They need to start talking WITH teachers and not screaming AT them. They need to start thinking about their own childhoods and ask the all important question..."Did I ever do something I wasn't supposed to do?" Then when the inevitable answer of YES comes back do they then have to further ask "Could my child be doing it right now?" Children are capable of anything and as a parent one needs to give a fellow adult the benefit of the doubt at least at first.

This is ridiculous because if it was a disrespect of ethnicity, then this woul have come up before, like say on the Friday or the Thursday or the Wednesday or the well you get the idea.

Time to stop babying kids at every turn and start supporting the teachers who in this day in age may actually know the kids BETTER than the parents.

Just my 20 won worth, I could be wrong.
Polar

[Voyeur]

Even if it were true, disciplined TEN times for using fork and spoon.

OMG is this kid retarded? Even at 7 how hard is it to just not use the darn fork and spoon at school like they have asked? Do so at home.

[seoulkitchen]

Ya know, I grew up up in good ole North America and was raised to eat my rice correctly: with a fork and soysauce. I get over here (I was forced to come here, tempted with a fake degree and promises of untold riches by some lying bastards. I shoulda read Dave's before coming here!) and now the Koreans won't let me do that! They force me to use a spoon and put that red pen1s sauce all over it. How barbaric can they be??? Don't tell me Koreans aren't racist utensil nazis! Not letting me eat they way I was brought up in my civilized country and then shoving smelly disgusting food at me. How can anyone possibly live in this third world country? Making me use a pair of unruly twigs to eat with to boot!


I'd leave but someone is holding a gun to my head and forcing me to stay....

[polarbearbrad]

Turns out this kid was just being a kid and then when he realized his ass was in a sling he lied to try to get out of it and shift the blame elsewhere.

Now the truth has come out.

No further developments on this story????

Go figure.


My point is we now live in a society that screams injustice first and asks questions later. We as teachers both abroad and at home need to educate the next generation that it is more productive to get the whole story first by asking calm, rational questions to all involved over hearing one version of a story and jumping to conclusions.

We must teach children to think not to blindly accept.

Or am I asking too much?
PBB

[Homer]

Actually we must also teach adults to think before they accept....and consider all the evidence along with the fact that yes, their kids can be wrong.

[patchy]

I'm not so sure now how fictitious the incident is. Do the boy and his family have grounds for complaint? Was he misbehaving in other ways and what does 'playing around with one's food' mean? Throwing it around the room? Being rowdy and noisy? I can understand the disciplining if that had been the case.

But if he was just pushing the food around his plate, not eating it, or doing something similar that did not impact on anybody else, then why the fuss? Why was the lunchroom monitor so disturbed by this? Not eating the food hurts nobody except for the boy (maybe he has a poor appetite). There is no mention of him doing anything to disrupt anyone else, just his eating habits. It seems like an over-reaction segregating the boy nine times for simply this. How strict are the rules on lunchroom behavior normally? Maybe the boy continued not eating his food properly as a form of rebellion because he felt like he was being picked on by the monitor.

I wonder if the boy had problems in school and this was his way of acting out, perhaps he was depressed and his not eating properly, 'playing with the food', was a symptom of something deeper going on. Did he act out in other ways? Did he chronically misbehave in the classroom?

Very strange incident. It's hard to know which side to believe without getting more information about it.

[patchy]

[endo]

Man patchy, it's really hard to read you.

You are clearly on the left end of the spectrum when it comes to your political identification, however, your stance on PC is very similar to conservative groups in the U.S.



Plus, "our PC baggage" is a part of who we are. This country brings us over as native speakers and all that comes with it, including our cultural beliefs.

In case you've forgotten, it's a global world and cultural mixing in inevitable.


Plus some of our PC baggage can help improve this society.

For example:

- Changing many of my students opinions that all black people are dirty.

- that some of my students who are naturally left handed are being forced to write with their right hand (much to their distain) because of a cultural belief that is no longer relevant.

- the fact that Korean women cannot smoke openly on the street without being harassed.

- the underground mass social acceptance of adultery


Now on the other hand, us westerners can also learn a lot from Koreans.

Such as:

- respect of elders

- the unbelievable lack of crime which I believe is strongly a result of the idea of family honor




We both have much to learn from one another.

[coolsage]

I disagree. If there was the vaunted 'respect of elders', then why are elderly women gathering up cardboard on the coldest nights? Crime? Bull. Somebody stole my scooter, and it wasn't a white guy. And why do they put crackers in packets of seven, when you're preparing a cheese-plate for eight? I don't get that.

[Homer]

[patchy]

[Hollywoodaction]

Well, this story is a prime example of Canadian parents's tendency to overreact and of the unfair bias held against school teachers by the Canadian media and the general public.