Korean Job Discussion Forums

[laogaiguk]

Grade 6, Gyeonggi-do curriculum, Chapter 14 "Would you like to come to my house?".

It has...

"Oh, don't take off your shoes. We don't take off our shoes in the house."

Now, while it's true for, I am guessing, 50% of back home, many people do and this would not be good to teach them. Being from an area where we have snow for atleast 4-5 months a year, I don't know many people who don't take off their shoes, and even in the summer, unless you are in a hurry in and out, most people take off their shoes.

Should I just skip the parts that say that, or let them know many do. I have complete control to do whatever I want, even skip the whole chapter if I want to.

[Qinella]

Why don't you teach them the truth? Tell them that Koreans need to stop generalizing about westerners because it's nearly impossible.

[laogaiguk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ilovebdt]

[laogaiguk]

[Novernae]

I'd use it to teach them the truth. But not in a 'this textbook is stupid' kind of way. Maybe use it as a lesson (if possible level wise) to show how unhomogeneous NA is, and how overgeneralisation could get them into trouble. (I guess that would be heterogeneous )

[Wrench]

I am at the same point in the book. These people watch to much tv, I had the Korean teacher explain to them that 90% of the people I know take of their shoes in the house. Do Korean think we are pigs or something?

I hate other parts of the book where they don't use formal greeting it really pisses me off.

I prefer Good morning, Good Afternoon to Hi and Hello bullshit. I don't respond to any one that uses that greeting with me even with teachers I just nod. I especially hate it when they greet me by my first name. I am not your friend I am your teacher don't use my first name. I prefer Mr or Teacher.

I really hate the voices they use on the cd's. The Korean kids just sound idiotic especially Nami.

[deadman]

That lesson seems to be a bit all over the place with language structure.

"Would you like to come to my house/party?"
"Would you like to try some pie/turkey"
"Don't take off your shoes/gloves"

For the last one, I didn't dwell on the cultural aspect of shoe wearing, and instead of doing that component in the listen and repeat, I introduced "put on" as the opposite to eake off, and did various listen and repeat phrases Take off your..., Put on your... Don't take off your..., which was more useful, i feel.

Probably too late to be of any use but - maybe next year!

[Wrench]

I have a useless coteacher.. If its not in the book I can't teach it. She is an old fart that needs to be put out in the pasture. Koreans can't teach a language if their lives depended on it.

[Return Jones]

There's a whole dang song that goes along with that unit, too. Hard to skip the "Don't take off your shoes" concept unless you skip the entire unit. As suggested earlier, find a way to mention tactfully that most people indeed take their shoes off when then enter someone's home.

[laogaiguk]

[sock]

While you're at it, why don't you also teach them that not everyone scarfs down an entire turkey, nor do people usually make up invitation cards to invite their friends to Thanskgiving dinner? This whole chapter made me cringe, more so than usual.

It was almost like there was no effort whatsoever to make sure that cultural differences were being presented accurately. And if you're not going to present them accurately, what's the point of pointing out cultural differences at all?

What they really need is a chapter called, "Excuse me, I didn't notice you standing there as I almost ran you down in the crosswalk," or "Pardon me for staring, but are you by chance a foreigner?" or "Oh, were you waiting in line before I butted in front of you?"

Let's start with some of the most important cultural differences. Whether or not you take off your shoes in someone's home is not that critical on the list of social faux pas.

[laogaiguk]