Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

English seems artificial in the classroom as you know the students never use it outside the classroom. So you deliver the knowledge while it seems so unreal. The students mock it and pretend to understand it but most haven't a clue. That's what i'm encountering. I hear the students pretending as though they could actually ever speak to a real English speaking kid, which they will never meet. They're saying "well yes, how are you? I'M fine" etc.. in that exaggerated way. It's very strange teaching English in a place where English usage is quite uncommon, where English seems like it belongs to another planet. Because for most Koreans, English speakers are from another planet.

[tomato]

Hello, Jajdude!

I sometimes get the impression that the students think English is a collection of nonsense syllables created by textbook writers, and for no other purpose than to torment innocent students.

When I remind them to add the s sound for plural, possessive, and third person singular, they seem to think this is merely a neurosis on my part. After all, the Korean is not such a stickler; why should I be? I wish I could convince them that where I come, everybody adds the s sound for plural, possessive, and third person singular!

[Kwangjuchicken]

I think a lot of it depends on how "public" and "friendly" you are. I make it a point to be very visible and approachable.. I spend a lot of out of class time just wondering around campus ect. and striking up conversations with the students, Both ones in my classes and others.

I have been told many times that I am the only native teacher they see on a regular basis. Then you get a reputation for being friendly, and more and more students will use English with me for real communicative purposes.

The same is true with kid's. I am always there early, and the students who are early love to have conversations before class.

And when I am in a store etc. and a kid says, hi etc. I turn it into a conversation. Just the other day at Emart. This girl said hi to me. I saw an older man looking on a bit proud. I figured it was her dad. So, I not only said hi, but added, "Is that your father over there." She said, "No, that is my uncle". I said, "is he your mother's brother or your father's brother", she said, "father", then her uncle joined in and we had an interesting talk about the different brands of soy sauce that was there in front of us.


BEING APPROACHABLE + BEING FRIEDLY= REAL CONVERSATIONS

AND where is it written that you can not have real conversations with your students as part of the regular class. I imagine that you are in a Hagwon, so you must have small classes (not like me with 40 in come of the university classes). But like most. if not all, colleges and universities in Korea, we also have an on campus Hogwan program, and our children and adult classes are small, and I have real conversations in class with the students no matter how old or young they are.



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[Corky]

Think of it like learning an instrument: everything sounds forced and unnatural until you're good at it. Not everyone who learns how to play guitar is going to be a performer though. I bet the music teacher gets sick of fixing the same bad habits over the years.

[Saxiif]

Yeah, know how you guys feel. Even with the older kids who've got good grammar and vocab I get things like a lot of giggling about "excrement" since that's the word they got when they used a dictionary, which of course american kids their ages probably wouldn't know much less use constantly.

[jajdude]

Chicken,

You make some good points. I do have real conversations with my students, the ones who are capable enough. I was thinking more of the beginners for whom English seems so foreign and unreal, and who really don't seem to enjoy the class a lot as their ability is so low. It can be like pulling teeth making them read or whatever. Otherwise I've got students who are able to have a chat between classes, and with whom we jabber on about lots of stuff during classes too. Just doing the book all the time is dull. But with the students who are really weak on converstion it is hard to try chatting, so the focus is on the book. Also I guess this helps reduce their embarrassment some. For the basic students there really isn't much possibility of conservation, only a fake sort of one, like reading a dialogue. I'm speaker A, you are B---- type dialogues. I guess there really is no other way around this. I know the parents would love to see their kids able to actually speak English but for beginners the road is not so short. In Taiwan I got the impression parents were more unrealistic than in Korea. Like expecting fluency in a matter of months! Seems like a lot of academy changes occurred because the kids didn't learn English at an impossibly fast rate. Fortunately I think Koreans are more realistic and realize even a few years isn't a long time to gain much competence in this quite foreign language.