Korean Job Discussion Forums

[maryjanes]

I have a puppet monkey that I use as a prop for teaching (middle school, lower level classes). He/she/it has been useful for work around prepositions of place (the monkey is on/under/near/behind etc the desk) and I've tended to use it has a last 10 minutes 'fun-time' thing where the children can talk about or to the monkey, in order to encourage conversation. I've seen some really wonderful effects - children explaining Korean culture to the monkey because he's from Africa and might not understand the differences etc. etc.

One student has studied in the UK and the US (complex family life, I suppose) and uses every opportunity to shout, 'I'm spanking the money!'. I've looked up this phrase and have realised it's not appropriate, but since the rest of the class find this funny in an innocent way, what am I supposed to do?

Should I explain the meaning, tell the kid to quit, take the much-loved beast and tool for English conversation away forever?

Any thoughts appreciated.

[ChrisGuy]

Sounds like its not doing any real harm. The monkey is making teaching fun for everyone, which probably means that they are learning more, as they are enjoying the class. If it were me, i think id keep the class fun, let the boy have a laugh... and id probably laugh at him too (tho, i guess it does depend on how oftern he is doing it per lesson!)

[maryjanes]

Well, when the monkey comes out it's game on for the l'il man to start shouting. I think he must have told his close friends about the meaning because 3 or 4 boys snigger in a way that's not relevent to what's going on.

The girls love the monkey thing, thay're always first up to tell him/her/it stories and that's really encouraging because in a non-urbanised Korea setting girls have a really hard time of it and aren't particularly encouraged to try with their English.

[Savant]

Serious response: Just keep going with the class. No harm, no foul. Unless the kid becomes obsessed with making those comments and it disrupts the class. Then, speak to one of the Korean teachers who can/may inform his parents of his inappropriate behaviour.

Funny response: When I first read the heading I somehow thought it was going to be about Korean co-teachers' use of NETs in Public Schools.

[maryjanes]

lol with Savant - maybe I need to change the heading!

[reactionary]

Just change to a different stuffed animal toy - preferably not a doggy.

[bixlerscott]

OMG, they find the monkey business funny. You could get that, "Do the Monkey," karaoke video from icnelly on Youtube and have that monkey puppet move it's mouth like it's singing with them. The lil' ones find monkeys so hilarious. Spanking the monkey is an American idiom for masturbation which is inappropriate to be said at school. I'd probably bust out laughing. LOL

Monkey says...


Do anything except spank your monkey. Just do the monkey.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[Murakano]

[I'm no Picasso]

I work at all boys middle school and the students make open comments all the time about porn and all sorts of other things. They do it openly in Korean with their Korean teachers as well, who laugh and tell me about it later.

It was really shocking to me at first, just because you'd never see an American student making jokes about porn to his teacher, at least not without serious repercussions, but apparently they just don't get bent out of shape about it here. So I don't get bent out of shape about it either. I usually just make some joke about how I don't need to know about that and then move on. It's only funny to do something that gets no reaction for so long.....

[Hyeon Een]

[Goon-Yang]

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[I'm no Picasso]

[seonsengnimble]