Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

Sometimes I wish the Korean school system fostered creative thinking. It would make my job more fun. Sometimes I like the kids to make up wacky examples. We did a lesson on "I like��" "I don't like..". "I like pizza." "I don't like carrots." For "I don't likes" I asked the kids to make up weird foods that no one would like. I listed some examples on the board: spider pie, potato juice, kimchi ice cream.

You think the kids could manage their own wacky examples? Sigh, it went a little like this:

First Kid: I don't like, errr, spider pie?

Me: Okay, sure, that's one I put on the board but try to make up your own.

Second Kid: I don't like, errr, potato juice?

Me: Okay I listed that one on the board too. Make up your own. Think of something that would not taste good.

Third kid: I don't like, errr, kimchi and spider pie ice cream?

[SuperHero]

You need to check this thread about creative thinking.

[butter808fly]

some of my kids are creative... instead of drawing the dialogue, they draw a potatoe family with some strange creature blowing fumes at them. kids are naturally creative. thats why they are so wonderful

[peppermint]

I think if you give them opportunities they might surprise you. I taught a summer camp thing, and I tried to do something arty or creative a couple of times a week and it was great!

[Hyalucent]

My kids would give me a lot of feedback from public school. Even if an answer was technically correct, if it wasn't in the book then they'd be called wrong and punished. I think this has a residual effect, based on the look of panic they get when they're asked to volunteer an idea.

[the saint]

I find my kids very creative provided you yourself show you appreciate the creativity and give them space in class to attempt it. Creativity is messy and there tends to be an approach in education, even in the west, which steers clear of being messy in the classroom.

I've done lots of craft kinds of activities with younger kids and let them design/draw/mould their own things and have been surprised by the level of creativity - especially in drawing. Also, with older kids, I try to get them to think outside the box a bit by going there for them and then encouraging those that follow while simply only acknowledging those that play by the rules so to speak. There is a great book that follows the same approach you used for food (can't remember the title but it is something like Do you like Ketchup on your Cornflakes?). My kids love the book and it stimulates them to do anything BUT the ordinary after seeing that. I'm talking about 8 year olds here so perhaps you are working with older kids where I would imagine there is pressure to tow the line.

You gave some examples to the kids but perhaps the class simply isn't whacky enough week in and week out to provide the safety net they need to be creative. Creativity can't usually be squeezed out on demand - there has to be an environment fostered and that takes lots of time, trust and testing.

Your approach had one major flaw - why did you write the examples on the board if you didn't want the students to subsequently use them? If you want them to create examples from their own head, providing examples on the board will confuse them. You then pass them the baton and they feel obliged, understandably, to use those you put on the board. If you had given them food word cards or picture cards at random or had them pick them from cards face down to create wierd combinations (or perhaps not so wierd) you would have generated more interest, chance and stimulated them towards creating their own examples using a combination of items. As it was, your writing them down prevented them from escaping from the language the teacher provided.

Having said this, I would say that your opening statement blaming the Korean ed system for not fostering creativity is disingenuous. Perhaps you should ask yourself that question first.

[mindmetoo]

[CanKorea]

A lot of my kids are great! Although, I do work at a hagwon specializing in returnee kids.

If you give them a chance, you'd be surprised with what they can come up with. Even a simple writing assignment can be quite a showcase. With my non-returnee students I need to really work them up to it. They usually amaze me with their creativity.

Try a comic strip activity to review a story. I divide a sheet of paper into 8 or so squares then tell the kids to draw and write captions for 8 major events in a story that we've read and discussed together. They like it and I get a kick out of what they produce. Fun for them, fun for me, we're happy all around.

Just my two cents. Cheers,

[Danielos]

I had a great one today with older elementary kids. I am a rather fat guy and we were talking about clothes sizes and how people in North America tend to be fatter. Anyway, I decided to see if they could figure out different ways I could get pants to wear in Korea. Some of the solutions were rather conventional like going to a tailor. But they also came up with buying 2 or 3 pairs of pants and sewing them together. But the suggestion that took the cake was to change my occupation to a manual labour job where I could wear overalls. Some Korean kids are obviously creative.

[Apple Scruff]

[the saint]

[captain kirk]

If you mean creative in the sense of actively creating art, yup. Female highschool student in her last year getting ready to go to Indiana for a homestay to learn English and go to highschool there for a year. She went to an Arts Highschool in Pusan and commuted by bus every day the 35 k from Ulsan. BUT she turned out to be a snooty, elitist, pain in the butt. I don't know how that happened. Some people get into the arts and get all uppity about it. Like get into the politics, or all self-conscious about being the 'mediator' between their artistic vision, 'heaven', and the medium, 'earth'. Self-serious artistic types can be a self-conscious burden to have around, playful and hypercritical at once, in turns. Because they have to have the critic to measure what they're doing, for fear it's lacking, or superficial, or whatever. If I'd a chance to see some of her artisic creations I'd overlook her Miss Prissy Picasso snootiness, but I remained in the dark about that.
General, not going to art school, Korean kids creative? Hell ya! You must be overlooking their sense of humour, quickness at innovating a joke in class. But I think all kids, not just Korean kids, are creative on all fronts of their lives and in how they perceive reality. I don't know which psychologist mentioned 'the magical child', but he's referring to an age where cliches and stereotypes don't exist. Everything is 'remade' as it's perceived with loads of associations going on, the mind freely at play.
Maybe you aren't seeing it because their English isn't so good and they aren't putting it so well, not precisely enough in proper English for you to be able to acknowledge it so well. Or you've set yourself aside and above these 'elementary' proceedings.
For example, of humour and creative thinking. Kathy and her sister, Jenny, are 14 and 12, I think. Their mother teaches them English at home, as well as sending them to the hagwon. Their mom's a teacher. Kathy is practically fluent except for there being a millisecond processing pause before she responds (big deal). One day I asked Kathy's class to make a sentence someone in a 'philosophical' mood would say while looking at a sunrise(the study word was philosophical). She said in her precise, deadpan tone with a joking smile, 'today, someone is going to die'.
It's the humorous joking in class that's creative. They jump into it naturally, total play.