Korean Job Discussion Forums

[myenglishisno]

I worked with kids this year. I don't mind teaching kids but after doing it for awhile, moving onto adults is a nice change of pace.

I was just wondering something. In a hagwon situation, do Korean elementary school students behave the same way as Western/non-Korean students would? I can control the classes pretty well but even when I did control them, it always felt like a state of controlled anarchy at best. Either they were too loud or too quiet and getting them into that middle ground was nearly impossible.

I know that kids are kids. I've also never taught in my home country. The thing is, when I was a kid, we knew that it was rude to speak when the teacher was speaking, it was unheard of to yell when the teacher was speaking. We also knew how to raise our hands and the consequences of not follow protocol.

I've always found Korean elementary school kids, not all of them but a large share of them, don't have any concept of any of these rules. Nor do they respect the teacher or the classroom initially. Every teacher basically has to drill the kids for months before they get to the point where they're "well behaved." Then, you have hagwons that will threaten teachers if they discipline too much or if the kid complains that the class wasn't "fun enough" because the teacher yelled.

It always felt like I had to do five times as much work to get them to behave 1/5th as well as kids the same age would behave in a public school situation back home.

When I bring this up to other foreigners, they share my frustration but say that it's kids in general and not Korean kids. The kind of behaviour my hagwon put up with on a daily basis largely consisted of acts that would put kids either in detention or have them suspended back home.

In short, the vast majority of kids here, especially the ones who go to hagwons, behave like spoiled brats that have never been disciplined in their lives. Other than spending all day in school, nothing is expected of them. Not even the most basic of manners bordering on common sense. Sometimes, it honestly felt like kids were polite to me just because I'm a foreigner and they know that in my culture, we value manners. Then they turn around and behave ridiculously to everyone else.

Just curious to see what everyone thinks.

[Adventurer]

I don't know how old you are. I am not going to ask. When it comes to teaching in North America, it's fine in the suburbs, generally, but not as much in the big cities. It's generally better in Canada than the US, but there are some real problematic areas in Canada, too. I understand also that many of the schools in England require a really tough skin. Korean students, generally, are supposed to be easier to deal with than the kids back in several Western countries. It's relative. German kids, I would expect, especially those who are of German stock would probably be somewhat better behaved than American students. In France, it's rough in the banlieus or the suburbs outside of the cities in the poorer areas.
Kids are going to require energy no matter where you go.

I do not claim to be an expert. I am going based on what I've experienced, what I've read, and what other teachers have told me.

[ZIFA]

[Dodge7]

Yes OP! It was if you were speaking straight from my lips.
Korean kids are pretty bad compared to kids the same age in my country.
They are abusive (physically and verbally--swear words constantly), and do things MOST Western kids would hardly ever do--throw things against the wall, pick a chair up and toss it, throw paper on the floor like it was nothing, draw on the walls, etc...these behavior are called out INSTANTANEOUSLY by Western teachers to teach the children manners. These kids don't have any, and are even worse (using banmal, openly swearing) to foreigners.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Dodge7]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Dodge7]

[The Floating World]

The average Korean male student aged from ele g1 - mid school yr 2 acts liek what back home I'd consider someone with a behavioural problem or adhd or something.

Only in the foriegners class, though, not in the K teachers class (especially if male.)

We are seen by most of the kids as nothing more than hired daycare on a lower rung of the ladder, sort of a cross between a victorian 'cha lady' and a childminder.

[The Floating World]

[ZIFA]

[The Floating World]

[Adventurer]

I taught at three hagwons, and the kids behaved very well. I don't know what you're talking about. They seemed more respectful than so many kids in the U.S. I am sure the poor kids in Korea also act better than a lot of the kids in the urban schools. Korea is not so bad. Come on...

[DIsbell]

I guess the only thing I find shocking is that it's not inner-city kids who have pretty poor classroom behavior here, but affluent kids in the education epicenters of the country.

Definitely a difference in how they conduct themselves in Korean teacher and foreign teacher classes. I've observed both at my current workplace.

I think a lot of it, though, is just a product of young kids being cooped up inside all day- when they see a potential outlet for energy, many kids will take it without thinking twice. I almost don't blame them.... almost.

[The Floating World]