Korean Job Discussion Forums

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Cracked up the middle school class today. They are usually head down and non-commital, whispering answers so I can't hear what they're saying which isn't much, one word. It was simply about what time you get up in the morning, get out of bed. For some reason they cracked right up. I'm leaving in a week so am pretty giddy and far out in left field enjoying the remaining time in class, the personalities. What cracked them up was I began to describe how 'princess' Geehae gets up in the morning; her mother carries in a little princess cake and puts a bit between her lips as she sleeps. Geehae langorously stretches while, still with closed eyes, tasting the cake realizes it's Wednesday. Because Wednesday it's a kiwifruit morning princess cake. The boy in the class, Changbin, is greeted differently by his mother in the morning. She yanks him out of bed hauling on one of his arms and begins to kick him. She also holds a basket of stones, pitching them at his stubbornly sleeping form on the floor. This completely cracked them up! Full moon maybe. It's all about being goofy and loose, apparently.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Well done!!

Getting a smile, never mind a laugh, out of Korean middle-schoolers is like getting the proverbial blood from a stone.

They are unbearably self-conscious!!! Some are like zombies they are worked so hard.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

It was awesome. I couldn't believe it. It was like a huge fruit basket after days of that class being like a quiet ward. One of the guys was in the earlier class; the boss put him there as a 'plant'/a spy because he figures, maybe, I'll just not give a rip the last week. I actually said in front of that class that Changbin is here to be a spy for the boss. He looked a bit embarrassed, but he's a solid guy and work is just a free for all of slingin it, nothing meant by it, so wazzaflock he probably got around to thinking. This set him up for cracking up later. He had his hands over his face which became a spewing pommegranite. Geehae across the desk couldn't believe it; neither could I. So everybody could let loose then.
Since I'm leaving soon I've been telling the students I'm a 'bempire'. This started in the tots/kindy class. It drives the boss nuts, I think, especially his wife. If you work with kids, you know how much they like to hack around. Anyway, what do I care if they tell their mom teacher says he's a 'bempire', and hisses? So with the ten year olds I was warding off their fingers held to make 'crosses', etc. I'm already dead, that's the way of a 'bempire', so 'not even a wonjon poke tang' (nuclear bomb)can kill me! I also won't be here next week Cool

Thanks, eamo. The weird thing is how does a teacher not become self-conscious about the middle schoolers being self-conscious? Drive a motorcycle into class wearing an Elvis suit?

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

So you're on the final countdown before home? Weird feeling isn't it?

I remember the last week or two of my last two contracts cuttin' loose a bit.

Yet, I would get frustrated because I just wanted this annoyingly short period to be over and done with so I could move on to the next thing.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 2:59 pm Post subject:

Ah, the middle schoolers. While it's admittedly easier to get them to lighten up in the middle school itself, the easiest way to get everybody to have fun is nab up one of the new first year boys and tease him mercilessly. Helps if he was a former student. Class clown kind of thing.

Definitely feel others' pain with the middle schoolers, but the students can be so much fun when they open up.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

That's your specialty, zyz, middle schoolers; you teach a school of them. These guys are the fifth class of the day of kids, so I've had enough fun already, but am ready for more except they are usually clammed up, tired. So instead of being irate they're no fun, and pushing the day away 'til the end head down doing my job, it's 'what the heck'. All they want to do is play, and when they do they're a riot, right zyz. It's about the first time I've seen because I'm totally lackadaisical ready to go in a week. And yeah, eamo, it's a crawl some days wishing I was elsewhere and already there, or a buzz; I'm really going; it's 'unbelievable'.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:11 am Post subject:

Well, I was reflecting on my old hakwon days with the middle school kids.

I've had some students who were from both environments, and they're totally different in both. Usually very quiet and shy in the hakwon, and really open up in school. Like night and day for them.

First year middle schoolers have a lot of enery to harvest, but second years have lost it and prefer to mope in class and the boys prefer to talk about sex(!).

I used to teach middle schoolers on a Saturday; it was brutal. Kids are already tired by 6th period at school, let alone at the end of the week, let alone after a 6 day week. When you get them, they're just thinking "meet my friends and talk! Woo!" Never could find the usefullness in those Saturday classes...

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

Zyzyfer,

You're a middle-school specialist. Give us some tips on how to open them up.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Yeah, Zyz, if you feel like talking about work. You teach middle school full time, I think, right? It's interesting what you say about them being in high spirits at middle school, but relatively deflated at the hagwon. I feel about the same way, after four classes of elementary before meeting the mopey middle schoolers at the hagwon.
I taught in public school in Taiwan for a semester, mostly elementary. But also grade six; that's as close as I got to what I imagine you're doing. It was a gas when it was on. They sure like to have fun if you sort of find and catch the wave with them.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 8:51 pm Post subject:

The big difference between the hakwon and public middle schoolers, at least in my specific middle school, is that the classes are still segregated-boys with boys, girls with girls. The sexes are divided somewhere along the middle of the school, and the only boys who talk to girls, and vice versa, are the ones in those two central classes.

So when my boy and girl students are forced to interact in my after-school tutorial classes, they clam up really fast, hakwon style. It took a lot for them to even look at each other, but after a couple of weeks I've got them nearly behaving like normal children in the class.

This year's 7th graders are all from the year of the horse on the Chinese calendar, and this is how the Korean teachers explained all of my 7th grade classes surging with so much energy. It's a real strain to maintain sanity when 35 students decide not to take you seriously for a class, but luckily the students generally are good souls, and one good class is all it takes to put a big, stupid smile on my face for the day.

So find your 7th graders, and try to connect with them before they get stale and become 8th graders and bumps on logs. That's what I do.