Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hockeyguy109]

I am considering showing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to my 6th grade class. I can't find the subtitles, but I hate showing movies with Korean subtitles (just because they don't try to hear the English).

The last time I showed a cartoon (Loony Toons) without Korean subtitles, they started talking to their friends and not paying attention at all. So do you think its a good idea just to show it to them anyways?

[Ramen]

"South Park" is your answer.

[hockeyguy109]

haha, I wish! Has anyone actually shown South Park to elementary students? Sounds a bit adult for them...I mean, wouldn't the K-Teachers get peed?

[Illysook]

I tried showing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving to my classes last year after I'd been teaching for about 3 months. All my students did was talk and not pay attention. The story made me sad and I thought the kids were being rude, and I was seriously homesick, so I went home and cried my eyes out for one of the worst Thanksgiving days ever.

When it comes to videos and 6th graders, they should be short and you should discuss them. If I tried this again, I would stop the story every 5 minutes, ask questions, and discuss it. Getting through the entire story might take a couple of days, but if you teach daily at a Hagwon this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Alternatively, you could write a Thanksgiving story or find one on the net, then print out copies for all, and read it aloud as they follow along (probably repeating the words after you, they are conditioned to do this and it's hard to get them to stop.) follow up by asking them questions about the story. They will be very shy about answering the questions, so be sure to throw in some silly ones. This exercise involves reading, listening, and speaking, and if you made a worksheet, you could involve writing and thus incorporate all 4 aspects of language learning...which might be one of your goals when you plan a lesson.

[Xuanzang]

The one done by Miss Sailer on Youtube isn't so bad. I didn't understand where some of the vocabulary came from at the end though.

[hockeyguy109]

[Xuanzang]

[NightSky]

yeah, don't show them anything that you have any emotional/childhood connection to, because when they start ragging on it and being stupid it's hard not to take it at least a little personally.

also watch that what you choose is not too juvenile. you may think they are just kids, but they go home and watch much more adult stuff with their parents. plus their interests are usually much more inline with the current K-stuff being piped to their elders. my fourth and fifth graders were really into Boys Over Flowers last year when it aired and had no interest in cartoons, they were all like, "teacher, disney movies, ugh, lame." even if they get the english, and they usually don't, there is soooo much cultural stuff that goes right over their heads and it ends up being boring for them.

[Big Mac]

The kids love Mr. Bean. No need for subtitles either as it's all physical comedy.

[Xuanzang]

[Big Mac]

No, but why the need for Thanksgiving stuff anyway? It's not Thanksgiving here. Thanksgiving was early last month (at least in my country, but I'm not there so who cares). Why do they care about your Thanksgiving? They have no interest in learning about your culture.

If you insist there's a Mr. Bean Christmas episode where he gets a turkey stuck on his head. The kids love that one.

[Xuanzang]

[Big Mac]

Oh yes, that lesson really annoys me.

First of all it focuses on only one country's traditions...why do Korean kids care only about the United States? There are other countries out there where people speak English. It's an insult, for example, to Canadians that only the American Thanksgiving is recognized by the timing of the lesson. Why, as a Canadian, do I want to teach Korean children about another country's culture and holidays? I wouldn't teach them about Canada's holidays either...why do they care?

Second of all, the dialogue is full of stupid Korean stereotypes about foreigners (ie. Americans, because they're the only people who speak English according to this textbook). "Don't take off your shoes in the house, we don't take off our shoes in the house." What the hell? If someone walked through my mom's house with their shoes on she'd be pretty pissed. Do Koreans really think that we all walk around our houses with shoes on? Maybe Americans do, I don't know because I am thankfully not American, but we certainly don't do that where I'm from, especially in winter.

Does the mom not eat? I guess in Korea the women just do it all and never eat but where I'm from it's a family effort on Thanksgiving. Nice of them to apply their cultural standards to ours (I guess that's what you do when you don't know any better).

Oh, and who puts the whole turkey on the table anyway? Don't you cut it up first?

The focus of the lesson is not about Thanksgiving, by the way, it's about inviting people to your house. Focus on that, not teaching them YOUR culture, which in my experience Korean kids have absolutely no interest in.

Anyways, the public school curriculum pisses me off in more ways than just this, but this one especially. It was made by a bunch of people who have a very poor understanding of English and of the way English-speaking people speak and behave in real life.

[xingyiman]

The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving episode is not one of the better ones in my opinion. I showed it to my class and the kids had a hard time relating.

[Xuanzang]

I've just seen a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving fully dubbed in Korean. I'm thinking it must be up on indischool.