Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cathy OB]

Dr Bacon
Have you been neglecting to take your hormone replacement therapy lately?
Chill out. Stop annoying people.

[maggoli]

Haven't taken one away for over a year or more (ie, I take it out of the room, put it in my pocket, go down to the office until the puppy dog eyes and waterworks start up.)

I usually catch 'em in the act, call 'em by name, clear my throat, waggle/arch eyebrow, and take off my glasses saying: "See these babies? Made in Korea...got 'em with X-RAY vision, boyeeee! That's right, and I know whatcha had for lunch, too!" Well, that's mostly true, except for the lunch and x-ray vision business...the laughter usually takes over and they cease and desist.

Yeah, they try to get away with stuff, but hey, they're adults and they're going to have to learn some time that ideas and behaviour have consequences...for example, if they ignore what I say is on the test, they'll do badly..."Oooooh, Beom Chang...no A+? Wonder why...nice cell phone, is it a Motorola? Hello, Moto."

[Peeping Tom]

I take one about every other week. I usually give it to their regular English teacher, who keeps it for a week.

I asked a few of my better classes what an appropriate punishment was for students who spoke on cell phones during class, and most of them said keeping the phone for a week was appropriate (including students who have been caught). A surprisingly large number also said a month was reasonable.

[Pak Yu Man]

I usually get more MP3 players/handphones than I get handphones.

I think the record was more than 10 of the above mentioned items.
I told the other English teachers I was going to quit and start a used cellphone/MP3 gig.

[inspector gadget]

I just confiscated my first one in four months at a girls middle school. It hasn't really been a problem cause they all know that the punishment is severe, 1 month straight away for the first offence. Second offence gets you the entire semester.

I kind of feel bad about it cause the kid really is a good student but she knew the consequesnces before she started texting whomever it was.

Further to the subject I think that the whole hand phone revolution is a major problem in this society. Every one of my 1st grade middle school students have one, I believe they are 12 years old in western age. To me that is utterly ridiculous, not sure why parents give them one when they are so young. What possible benefits could come of this besides using it in an absolute emergency.

I know that it is cool and all to have one for koreans, if you don't you are shunned in this society. Having said that I also believe a lot of it has to do with insecurity as a person to have that stupid phone glued to them 24 hours a day.

Imagine how much time and money the korean education system would save if the teachers hand phones were banned from the workplace.

I estimate that so far today from 8:30 to 1:30 I have heard the teachers phones ringing about 200 times, as I look around the room now I see 9 teachers 7 of which are clutching thier phones as if it were thier first born child straight out of the womb.

It seems to me that this all stems from the fact that Koreans are very disorganized people and must be able to contact each other in an instant to deal with silly things. Yesterday the teacher next to me recieved 5 calls in a matter of 8 minutes. After she was done I asked her if everything was okay, she responded by saying yes its fine, my husband and I were just talking about what to have for dinner.

[poet13]

children with cell phones...
I think its a good thing. I rarely have problems with cell phones in my class, and when i do, its the adults texting and talking... In my town, most of the childrens' parents both work. Children hang out in the hakwon until a parent texts them and then they go home. I hear in Japan a lot of parents can now get cell phonesfor their kids with a form of GPS built in. Cool. Very cool.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ajuma]

I catch a lot of my uni students! I tell them at the beginning of the semester, that class time is MY time, and they can't use their phones in class. If they forget to put it on vibrate (I was going to say "manner mode, but didn't want to get flamed by doctor bacon ), and it rings, they MUST answer IN ENGLISH!! If I catch them texting, I take their phones for the rest of the class, and they have to erase the board as a penalty. On the first day of class, I demonstrate: I sit down and put my hands under the desk as if I'm texting. I tell the students "I know what you're doing...and if you give the the innocent "Who? Me?" look, I'll just laugh and say "give me your phone!"".

I love the phones with the loud vibrations. When I hear it, I keep writing on the board for a few seconds, then turn quickly and catch whoever is looking at the phone. I do the "evil laugh" and take the phone. Cracks everyone up, including the culprit! Apparently, K professors don't care if students text in class!!