Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

You aren't a horrible teacher. Language is a hard thing to learn. In a way, I am much like that little kid you bumped into on your walk to work. I take Korean classes, and learn all these neat little phrases. In class, I can perform OK... not amazing, but I can at least repeat, then say, and sometimes even correctly respond to the teacher in Korean.

However, when I find myself trying to use it in daily life, I too freeze up and forget exactly what I am supposed to say. Learning a language is tough stuff, at least for most people... don't worry, your student must have been out of the classroom environment and couldn't switch to "english thinking mode" quick enough.

[jajdude]

10 months in and feel like a failure? Not a big deal.

Now if you are like me, and over 8 years in, and know you are failure, ..... may be a problem.

[Wrench]

[Rteacher]

I've concluded that most students learn very little from my explanations presented from the front of class unless I go up to each kid one-on-one to make sure they're getting it (while engaging the rest of the class in some busy activity...)

[jajdude]

[UncleAlex]

If it's any consolation, high school students are the same.
The problem is that students are set in a passive mode of
learning here at a very young age. The school system has
taught them just to listen to what is being said by the master
or mistress of the classroom. As a result, the children here
lack the discipline to formulate their own thoughts and express
what they know by synthesising the information they have been
exposed to. Active learning and creative activity is scarce in
Korean elementary schools and practically non-existent in the
secondary sector. When we try to engage in a relatively lengthy
conversation with our students, it's not just shyness or the fear
of making boo boos, but a feeling of strangeness, that bottles the
kids up. It's our job not just to teach English, but to teach kids
how to learn English or any second language for that matter.

[Qinella]

Well, lately I've been loading up my classes with questions. I ask a million and one questions, and insist that the better students do not translate for the weaker ones. To my surprise, the students are doing pretty well. I think perhaps I was just blowing everything out of proportion.

Even the student I mentioned in the OP has been very responsive. I saw her again today on the way to school and she was playing with friends. I asked if she was having fun and she said, "Yeah!" So, that's a good sign. Perhaps the other time, she was just out of it since it was still early.

So, I'm gonna keep asking more questions. Questions galore.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Argh, yesterday another huge disappointment. I was getting my hair cut at one of my student's mother's shop and my student just flat-lined in front of her mother. She's one of my grade one vocational students who's not too bad for a vocational student and usually tries hard and is eager to participate in class. I was hoping that she could at least translate a few basic instructions but no, I was stuck to miming again.

Then right afterward I ran into the vice-principal's daughter and we had a two-minute conversation. Have to take the good with the bad, I guess.

[I_Am_Wrong]

It's interesting how it works, sometimes the very best students simply "forget" outside of the classroom because they haven't had the out of class practise.

I won't forget the worst grade 5 student at my Elementary School last year in Suwon. He was a nice kids (as they generally are), however, he never listened to any teachers in the school. His writing on the desk was so problematic that his homeroom teacher eventually glued thick cardboard paper to his desk so he couldn't write on it etc.

One day after school I was waiting at a crosswalk and he ran up and was waiting too. I said "hello" to him and he replied with "annyeong haseyo teacha." I then asked him, "What are you doing?" He turned to me with a huge smile, pointed across the street and said, "I go to PC room!!!" Not perfect, not great, but I was amazed that this kid that every teacher in the school has written off as a failure understood me without a problem and even gave an answer almost as good as students that did pay attention and study.

Don't worry about it and don't see yourself as a failure.

[aisainmind]

Don't worry about it, and most of all don't blame yourself, she is just a kid. What do you want her to say to her teacher? How was breakfast? Think about what you said to your teachers in the hallway when you were in grade 6. Don't blame yourself, you sound like a great teacher.

[Zaphirelee]

There is actually a large body of research that shows that games can be an effective teaching tool in the classroom. Students who are more relaxed actually learn more than students who aren't. I teach young learners but even older learners enjoy the occassional game. If you link what you are teaching to the game it is often easier to get the students to pay closer attention to the other student's conversation practice.
My students from four years ago come up to me and initiate full conversations about their current lives. Some of these students haven't seen me for two years, but they can tell me about the things they think are important.
Other students also embarrass me by forgetting how to say hello, but those students have only been studying English for a few months. Time, experience, and good teaching make a difference. Middle School students tend to be shy and if Mom is there, forget it.