Korean Job Discussion Forums

trinity24651 · Joined: 05 Nov 2006

Do you think it would be a good idea, since I am still in the states, to go to the local elementary school and see if one of the classes might want to be pen pals with my new class in Korea?

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

trinity24651 · Joined: 05 Nov 2006

Then how about one collective letter to/from each class?

frankly speaking · Joined: 23 Oct 2005

I have tried this many different times and it has always failed. I have many colleagues and friends in the states that are public school teachers. I was one also. I always tried with my classes in Korea but only one student out of 20 in a class ever really wrote. Many of my students don't really want to make friends with foreigners.

My suggestion would be to just talk to the teachers at the schools and get their email addresses. Then when you are in Korea you can set it up from there. Most teachers would be happy to open the relationship so would most kids in the states. The trick is to get the kids in Korea interested.

trinity24651 · Joined: 05 Nov 2006

Sounds like a good idea!!!

Hotpants · Joined: 27 Jan 2006

There are some ESL penpal schemes on the Internet - need to make sure you can verify the people you are writing to are legit, but at least anyone who posts there is doing so because they are keen to write. Go to my site below and scroll down to 'p' for 'penpals' to find the sites.

I also agree that if you are going to be working at a hogwan, you probably don't have extra time to set up and maintain a penpal scheme, even though the idea is nice.

trinity24651 · Joined: 05 Nov 2006

That is a really great website. I wish that there was some way to flag, on Dave's site, the forums that have good stuff. By the time I get to Korea, I will have forgotten where to go. Crying or Very sad

heydelores · Joined: 24 Apr 2006

I'm in a hakwon and doing a penpal program with a friend who is a teacher in the US. It's a huge success. The kids and parents love it. BUT it helps to have students who are very proficient in English. Otherwise, it's quite difficult for them to write letters, and they get frustrated and lose interest. I would not try it with a lower level class without a Korean teacher (or someone who speaks Korean and can help translate for the kids).

Another thing I found is to make sure the kids you are writing to are the same age as your students or close to it. In my experience, when some of the older kids found out that their foreign penpals are younger, they felt a bit slighted.