Korean Job Discussion Forums

ubum · Joined: 23 Aug 2005 Location: Gwangju

I only have 3 children classes a day, but I swear. At least 1 kid cries every week, well maybe not every week, but it happens too much for my liking. These kids are all between the ages of 8 and 11, Korean. Is this common?

Dan The Chainsawman · Joined: 05 May 2005

I have 24 children's classes and get about 1 crier every 3 months.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

When I taught hogwan my record was three in one week. All boys.

I'll hope I can get through a year of high school without ever being directly responsible for it.

Binch Lover · Joined: 25 Jul 2005

Kids here seem to cry all the time. It happens to me every single week. Some of them will cry just because they lost a stupid activity or if someone touched their bag. I've got one kid who cries in about 75 percent of classes and he's 12 Korean age (he's a weirdo though). I guess they're so indulged and overprotected they can't deal with it when things don't go their way.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

I have about 15 childrens classes..

Some months I will get 1 a week and then i will go a month or two without anything....

On average once a month...

The evil penguin · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:02 pm Post subject:

I get a crier in nearly every childrens class i have to take.

But it's usually me so nobody really cares...

casey's moon · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: Daejeon

I teach kindergarten and I have a total of 214 students. At least 5 of these students seem to cry during my class time in a day -- but rarely directly related to me. One girl cried last week because she wanted to say, "I like ice cream" but none of the flash cards (choices) were "ice cream." A large number of kids cry when they bonk heads with each other when they're standing up to sing a song -- especially the three-year olds. In one class I actually make sure they are sitting with a buffer between each of them before I even think about asking them to stand up.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

It's been a while I've made a kid cry because I had to discipline him. I'm not sure if that's because the kids have learned to behave around me or I have a greater BS tolerance. I think I've gotten a lot tougher. I suspect at the start of your career, you make more kids cry as they're not used to you and they try to test your limits... which results in a solid, loud, tongue lashings.

My 8 year olds fight a lot and cry for weird assed reasons.

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

My students cry often. There's one student who is 7 Korean age and he cries almost every class. It was funny at first, but now it's frustrating for me and the other two students. He cries, for example, every time he doesn't win a game, or if he gets a question wrong.

I've had students cry when I make them switch seats. Especially if I move a girl to sit next to a boy because she won't stop talking with her friends. That one really elicits the waterworks.

One time I made nicknames for a class of 10 year olds. One girl cried because of Lucy Goosey. Her friends, being the typical lemmings they are, all cried over their names, simply because their friend was crying. So I had four girls crying simultaneously, each sustaining the others' despair for at least 30 minutes.

No cryers yet today.

Q~

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I teach middle school boys. I don't think I've made one of the cry. I hate seeing em cry though

Lizara · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Location: Seoul

At my school last year I'd get at least two or three a week, usually because they didn't get picked first in a game, had fewer happy faces than their friend, weren't finished their paper when the bell rang, they didn't get the red scissors, etc., etc... this year I teach a lot more kindergarten classes but my kindergartners are much sturdier and very rarely cry unless they fall and hurt themselves (which, granted, is still pretty often for the youngest class.) I've been here over a month and I don't think I've made one cry yet, and I've definitely been a lot stricter this year than last, so... I blame it on the fact that my last school was in Daechi and the kindergartners were largely spoiled brats who never understood why they couldn't get or do anything they wanted RIGHT NOW, but who really knows.

teachingld2004 · Joined: 29 Mar 2004

Kindy kids cry all the time. In the last school I worked in, I had a class of 8 6 yr olds. Since my korean stinks, what ever they say to eachother I cant make out. But, I can understand enough words to know when kids are mean.

Some kids are really mean. One of the girls made half the class cry all the time. then I would make them cry when they did not understand me. One kid would always say "Me bathroom" I would say no, you are a boy. She is a girl, etc. you have to say "can I go to the bathroom, or bathroom please". The kids would all tell him this in Korean, yet he would say "Me bathroom", and I would say, "Bathroom please", and he would scream "me bathroom and no one could get him to stop crying.

Then I had a kid who would hit me all the time, and I would grab her hand, and she would cry for the longest time.

Kids do not need a reason to cry, they just do.

When the older kids did not have pencils and I would say "borrow one from a friend please", they would cry.

So they cry, I am sure it is not u.

crazy teacher · Joined: 08 Jun 2005 Location: Seoul

I have one who cries hysterically every time I have him.

Mind you he also eats paper (huge lumps of the stuff), eats crayons, tries to break his glasses (his mum obviously caught on to this one as they are now the bendy sort), throws his desk and chair over, tries to bite my arse or breast (however he only does this when happy!!) and various other wee things so perhaps he is not the best example!

I occasionaly make someone cry when disiplining them, but I only feel bad about that if I know they just didnt understand! If they understand me and deserve the punishment then tough shite!

If I get random criers then I am sympathetic for a moment and ask whats wrong, then I ignore! I have found that by leaving most of them to it they get over whatever trauma it is pretty quickly when there is a lack of attention!

wylde · Joined: 14 Apr 2003

i've made em cry in an adult hakwon, childrens hakwon, high school and college...

it is rewarding when the one who cries is the biggest troublemaker.. i usually laugh and pay out on him/her.. been in trouble for it a bunch of times too....

however, i feel terrible if 1 of the good students cry.. it breaks my heart

Dan The Chainsawman · Joined: 05 May 2005

Honest I have been working with kids for about 7 years now including my time in the states. I really don't care any more why they cry. I don't even care if they cry. It just pisses me off that I have to listen to their whiney little asses. It always surprises the ones who are being 'tards who get theirs and start bawling, only find themselves frogged marched out the door, and left to sit in the hallway to wallow in their tears. Surprising how the rest of the class gives me a few thumbs up, and a rousing chorus of laughter at the troublemaker's expense.

I tend to let the friends of the good kids talk to them to cheer them up, then back to work. My favorite student started bawling over being told no game, and when she thought she was going to get her game she found out she landed the whole class extra homework. More tears...... Laughing