Korean Job Discussion Forums

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

My kids know the meaning of every spelling word AND can use them in a sentence. I also teach them alternate meanings. When the word "nut" came up in our phonics books, I told them that it can also be used to describe a person you think is crazy or very silly. They asked, "like loco?" I'm not an idiot and neither are they.

Farnsworth · Joined: 28 Apr 2006

jacl · Joined: 31 Oct 2005

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

Yeah, and let me remind everyone again that these are PHONICS words. We are talking simple words

hand, lamb, ram, bed, nut, fist, etc.

It's not like I'm teaching them TOEIC words. Also, I teach these kids every day. We start at 9:45 and end at 1:00. Granted, lunch and other activities are in there, but I have them for a good chunk of the day, 5 days a week. You can do a lot when you have the time to do it. This is not the kind of hagwon that has the kids in English class for 20 minutes a day or every other day. This is English immersion.

As for the "loco" bit, this school celebrates Cinco de Mayo on the 4th of every May. My kids learned how to sing the months of the year in Spanish and to count to 10. I don't know if they still remember that as we don't use it. But, they loved learning "loco" and that'll probably remain in their vocabulary for a very long time. Laughing

We tried to also learn the days of the week, but I couldn't get MY tongue around Wednesday in Spanish, so I didn't really make an effort to teach them. We basically listened to the song a few times.

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

JongnoGuru, I imagine it'll cause her far greater pain to have her son taken completely out of the testing. With this, my boss is in agreement and the Korean teacher also looked relieved to be told this child would no longer be tested. I imagine that she gets lots of phone calls from this mother, wanting her son to be pushed more, given more homework, tested on a daily basis, etc.

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Try and stay away from number grades. Korean parents and teachers love 'grading' kids. Like previous ops said: then the mothers can boast about their kid's performance to other mothers. But you should know that giving less than a perfect score (100) could result in your student being beaten.

Once I've taught students for 2-3 months they 'open up' and actually tell the truth (and show me the marks). You can not believe your Hakwon teachers or Director when they say parents don't punish their kids for bad grades. Korean parents are merciless when it comes to their kids education.
After all, these kids are not children - they do not have a 'childhood' as Westerns know it. Korean kids are being trained as future 'economic units' for their family. Plain and simple. Bad grades = loss of face = and bad future for family - whack!

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

Speaking of ludicrously driven parents.

A few weeks ago, the parents of four of my boys sent them on some Boy Scout trip or something. They missed two classes. The parents insisted that we teach them two extra classes for free. The worst part is that they got their way, too. Rolling Eyes

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

huffdaddy · Joined: 25 Nov 2005

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

No, I explained to them that we couldn't celebrate it on the fifth because there was no school due to Children's Day. While we celebrated it on the fourth, I made references to it being Cuatro de Mayo. The kids really didn't care...it was an excuse to beat a pinata to death and play games and dance around. Laughing