Korean Job Discussion Forums

[deadman]

In my first lesson this morning, with sixth graders, a black covered, artfully prepared notebook happened to find its way into my hands. (It was being passed around or something).

It had the words "Death Note" on the front, [EDIT for clarity - he'd made the notebook himself, not bought it] and inside the first six pages were printed and glued "Rules of the Death Note", (conveniently written in both English and Korean), white writing on black background (he must've used a lot of printer ink), and adorned with the odd skull here and there.

While my coteacher was doing her thing I read through them. I found them on the internet later at Rules Of The Death Note - here they are:

[Wrench]

Its a japanese movie. I saw it, its pretty interesting but I think its idiotic that these kids are allowed to buy such things. They have No fucking clue what some of the english means.

I have Kids saying 0h *beep* in my class and the Korean teacher does nothing. It pisses my off, she is useless in my opinion. SHe says they don't understand, I don't give a flying rats ass, its not something you say in a classroom. I explained why they know now when they use it they are out of my classroom.

[Hotpants]

There's a whole slew of death note-type horror movies from Korea and Japan that involve high school girls and are really quite grisly. I've also noticed quite a lot of odd stuff in manga and anime. The weirdest one I've seen was one about a lesbian boarding school called 'Strawberry Panic'. Wonder whether it sparked a Korean middle school lesbian epidemic? --Anyone noticed? I also once lived with for a while with a 16 year old Korean girl who refused to watch any TV programs that had real people in them. She told me that real actors were 'too dull'! It's funny that you'd never guess that there was such an appeal for extreme fantasy by the zombie like expressions that greet you in many Korean classrooms.

I think a lot of the kids seriously have a lot of trouble distinguishing the animated world from the real one - although it's not exclusively a Korean problem. (As we know, many psychotic attacks in the West have been prompted by the influence of fictitious characters). I think it was a good idea that you had a chat with him, so well done! You probably destroyed all his fantasies, though!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Some Korean kids, especially teenage girls, can have very morbid minds. I have a grade 1 HS student whose English name is Sad Bloody Aroma who's always drawing the most macabre sketches and likes to deface things with skulls. So far as I can tell it's pretty benign, and she's very nice to me despite the fact she obviously doesn't like learning English. Last year in grade 3 MS she was the dominant in a pseudo-lesbian relationship, but her girlfriend went to a different high school and she still seems to lonely and depressed because of it. Perhaps all that morbid crap is just a way of coping and better than holding it all inside.

[xtchr]

And yet your username for Dave's is Deadman???

[sheba]

My kids have been talking about this movie for the past 2 weeks! It must be pretty popular. I think you dealt with it approapriately. The kids just need to be told what is acceptable and what is not.... hope their parents arent TOO hard on them.

[babtangee]

Pffft. They're just writing some innane crap. It's from a movie, for crying out loud. Who gives a toss if Billy has childish fantasies about wishing a gunshot wound to Jenny's head. Everyone has such fantasies to some extent. It's part of what prevents people from acting upon them, and indicates nothing but a healthy imagination. I don't think it's a good idea to make kids feel guilty for passively hating someone who made them look an arse in public.

[thu_tinh]

yeah some of my students made these notebooks and I have to say they are NICE looking ones!
Especially since back home I have a younger brother who went and brought one that looks just as good as the ones the kids makes.

[twg]

[ontheway]

I hope you corrected his Konglish and explained to him that it's a "notebook" and not a "note".

[deadman]

[deadman]

[passport220]

I had a middle school 2nd grader come to the front of the class to show me the same thing 1st period yesterday. I complemented him on his penmanship and told him to sit down.

[butlerian]

Yeah, they're everywhere in one of the schools I'm working at. The teachers here don't seem to mind, and from what I've seen nothing sinister is going on so I guess it's not a big problem.

[spliff]

Pretty normal behavior for school boys, IMHO. We did it back in High School. Actually, had four kids die by their own hands that were involved in the activity. I wouldn't consider it a problem....