Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Optimus Prime]

Any ideas on how to teach an adult Korean "numbers?" Got this student who can't get thousands, millions, billions straight in his mind. He deals with money and wants to learn, and I'm kinda at a loss on how to teach it. It's a 1-on-on class. Flash cards crossed my mind, but he's an older guy, and I'd feel a little silly (and he'd be uncomfortable) holding flash cards for him. Anyone have any success teaching numbers to Koreans?

[Ya-ta Boy]

How about math activities?

Have him say a 4 or 5 digit number and then you give one for him to add to it, or subtract from it, or multiply it by. Since it's one-on-one, have him solve the problems out loud.

Play 'Hi-Lo' with him. Take in a picture of a car, HDTV or whatever costs in the millions and have him guess the price. When he's too high tell him 'High' and let him guess again. You can also use the distances to the various planets. Have him write each guess and say it as he writes it.

As you know, you aren't teaching him math, but re-programming his math concepts into our system, so it's just a matter of lots of repetition, like we got in 3rd Grade.

[Manner of Speaking]

[Vicissitude]

Oh, NUMBERS!!! I love to teach numbers. I have a few methods that work really well and my students catch on to it very fast. I write a number on the board such as: 9,576,821

I wait for all the gasps to calm down and then I say, "can someone read me this number?" I get no answers other than "it's too difficult." Good, that's what I was hoping for. Some brave people will attempt, but still unsuccessful. I have a handout that's difficult to explain on here, but I pass it out and then go over it in about five minutes.

My lecture:
Students, if you can count from 1 to 999, you can read this number I have here on the board. It's very easy and I'm going to show you just how simple it is. Someone read me this number [covering all the numbers except the nine]. Good. See these two commas, the first one is million and the second one is always thousand. Remember that and it's not millions or thousands. It's million and thousand. So when I point at this comma, you say million. Now read me this number [covering all but the 576]. Good, it's five hundred seventy-six. [pointing at the next comma and eliciting a response] Good thousand. [By this time students are predicting the last part and saying eight hundred twenty one or eight hundred and twenty one. I tell them either way is okay.]

I start all over again from the nine and elicit over and over until the students really get it. Then I erase it and put up another number such as 10,234,567
95,876,432

I keep practicing with many different number and I also discuss dollars and how to read in terms of money. Okay this isn't a formal lesson plan I've given but it gives you an idea. I've taught this way to at least a thousand students and it really works. I am really big on teaching numbers. I also teach ordinal numbers in order to read dates properly. Good luck! Hope it works.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

"2 cappuccinos, please!"

"That'll be 9 million dollars."

Only in Korea.

[MarionG]

Very, very good job, Visci! What a simple and effective way to teach numbers - kudos.