Korean Job Discussion Forums

[IncognitoHFX]

I had a big whinefest on here a month or two ago, but since then things in the classroom and in the school have improved a lot. My classes generally go off without a hitch and when I can't make them work it's usually at a time when a lot of people wouldn't be able to make them work (the students are being brats + the co-teachers tell me not to worry about it / it's a class that's been universally "written off").

Anyway, lately I've come through for my school on a few things. I helped progress a sisterhood relationship with a Canadian school by presenting to a Canadian board of education at our HS. I've been going on seventy-five percent of the teacher outings when invited. I haven't been late for work since my first month (three or four months ago: when I made a post about it) and I stay late one or two days a week.

My lesson plans are getting progressively more solid overall as is my effectiveness. My activities & games have also been getting more fun and engaging.

I also do a lot of extra work. I teach an afternoon writing class on Fridays and a class on Saturdays (extra money). I teach teacher's classes twice a week (contract) and simply talk to the teachers, eat at the cafeteria, and say hello to everybody in a way that gets noticed (students, principal, teachers and everyone else).

The school also told me that they liked me and are asking me to renew next year even though I'm not at the six month mark yet.

All that aside, I still feel like I'm not "inside" yet. I also feel like I'm not seen as a teacher or an adult (granted, I'm closer to the student's ages than the next youngest teacher). I try my best, I act professional and I haven't crossed anyone's path intentionally. I also have no concrete evidence to back up this feeling. All I can say is that I just "feel" this way.

Anyone else get my vibe or share how I feel?

Thanks.

[fromtheuk]

Please look at all of my co-teacher threads. It'll provide you with a frank appraisal of Korean colleagues at a public school.

[DrunkenMaster]

You're just learning your place, white monkey.

It's a learning phase.

[EzeWong]

I felt the same. Till about 3 days ago. I'll tell you what I did in a minute.

Respect has always been a hard game for me to play. But my experience tells me it's really stupid little things that go a long way.

For 1)
Talking fast. Especially here in Korea. If you speak too fast, people won't understand and won't try. Same as back at home. Speaking slow shows you have somethign to say and that they will listen to you.

2) When someone says something, don't be quick to answer, think it out, and then respond. Never go with what you intially think, beleive me it's always stupid... for example if I always went with my first thought, it would most likely be a Pen1s joke... Yes that's what I usually think of most the time

3) Posture, as stupid as it sounds people earn respect with posture. Mines is still terrible... but i try everyday. It affects your mood and how people percieve you. It's probably the single most important aspect on how people judge you.

4) How you say it. You would think it's what you say that people judge you on, but beleive me, it's more about how you say it. If you have the right mind frame as you say it, people will pick up on it. If you're thinking bad thoughts in the back of your mind, people will pick up on it.

Oh and how I earned my teachers respect (Or realized it)

We were at some teacher outing, and I was thinking about my students. In a very humble but serious way I asked my co-teacher. "Sengsenmin, you've been teaching for many years and you're very experienced. For someone like me whos still new at teaching, what advice would you have to give as the single most important thing for a foreign teacher like me to do."

I could tell, after I asked that questions she had a lot of respect for me. I think the reason was because I asked her very seirously, and with a lot of sincerity. She knew my thoughts were about how to help the students, in addition she knew I was asking for her sincere advice. You could try asking your co-teacher something similar, but that's only if she takes her job seirously, otherwise you will make her lose face with a comment if she can't come up with anything.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ddeubel]

[poet13]

I think we as foreigners are granted a lot of superficial deference and "respect". I think though that the reality is that we are nothing and they don't give a shit what we say or think. We will be gone in a year or two, and they will still be plodding along in the same place, seeing an endless stream of the same, year after year.

[VanIslander]

[KYC]

[Tathen]

Suit up.

It's fall, so wearing a suit is alright. Keep a serious (in respects to looking busy and thoughtful when it comes to your work) and slightly kind look on your face. The comments about posture were also good.

Look (and of course act) like an adult, particularly a successful adult that is confident about them self, and perhaps respect will follow.

~Tathen

[EuroFunk]

hang it there man, I hope things will get better. I've got a feeling I'm going to get little or no respect as well

[Cheonmunka]

Trust your feelings.

[tomato]

Most of what's been written on this thread is true.
Koreans think we are complete imbeciles.
They think we're too stupid to teach English grammar because we don't know what nouns and verbs are.
Yet they are intelligent enough to know what 명사's and 동사's are.

I once attended group ocarina lessons.
The teacher found it necessary to stop and tell me what "Dal capo al fine" meant--as if Italian in my country were any different from Italian in Korea.

Before I arrived at the bus station one day, someone had tossed his cookies outside the bus station.
Someone took me by the shoulder and guided me away from the yuk puddle--as if I had never seen a yuk puddle in my own country.


It's not just my paranoid feelings either.
Another contributor to this forum once went into a bakery and asked how much the sandwiches were.
The clerk told him that they were sandwiches.
And that word is borrowed from English!

They are probably used to seeing us represented in English textbooks, where we ask each other inane questions like "Do you like apples?" and "Do you play basketball?"
So they think we sit around all day having inane conversations in real life.

[Yu_Bum_suk]