Korean Job Discussion Forums

[AbbeFaria]

...that their kids aren't talking to other foriengers on the streets.

Basically I'm wondering how much I should worry about this. The boss lady tells me that their kids won't talk to people on the streets and she wants me to do this that and the other to work on it with them. I'm all about doing a better job, but if they won't talk on the streets there isn't anything I can do. From what I've seen, anytime their parents are around, these kids lock up tighter than a bank vault. Tonight I ran in to one of my students and his mother while walking home and he wouldn't even speak to her in Korean, let alone talk to me in English.

I nod to her and agree, but I already give them as many chances to talk in the class as the lesson allows. I make them answer in sentences, I quiz them on the story materials, I engage them as much as I can on random topics, everything I can think of to get english out of them. I told her all this, and that if they won't speak to foriengers on the street there's nothing I can do, they're just nervous. One student is so shy that she only just started talking to the other teachers and I this last week and she's been at the school for 3 1/2 months.

Even though the boss lady knows this, it's apparently still my responsibility to make them un-shy and get them talking infront of their parents. If there's a better way to do this, I'm all ears. But at this point it seems that I'm doing the best I can and the problem lies with the fear these kids have of making a mistake and being punished for it.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

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[Summer Wine]

I have been in korea a few years and children not applying their use of english is not one thing I have missed out on. What I have missed out on is them using more than the basic learned phrases, though there are always the few that surprise me.

I had one of the best conversations in english with a 6 yr old student of mine out on a street. His mum was shopping in the store and he was sitting on the steps waiting for her. The only thing that ruined it was the incredulous looks of people passing by.

If you bring me here to teach your children and thats what they can do, then why act like its a miracle Or Weird

[xeno439]

I had a student see me at E-Mart when he was with his parents. He did his best to hide like hell. I did eventually talk to him after he escaped from his parents. I asked why he was hiding, and he said he didn't want his parents to see how bad his English was. This was actually one of my pretty good students. So yeah. they definitely lock up in those situations.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I run into my students quite often when they're around their parents. I'll tell you, there seems to be nothing that makes a k-parent glow with pride more than if their kid's able to hold a conversation with a foreign teacher.

[matthews_world]

I don't mind students coming up to me on the street and striking a conversation with me, but in certain instances, I usually try to go out of my way to ignore them in certain situations.

The "Helloooo!...." thing really bugs me however. When they do this, they are usually doing this on a dare from their friends or just being facetious.

On the same token, Korean kids are really infamous about volunteering their English without giving any sort of eye contact. I'll be standing on a bus and all the sudden I'll hear "Hi! Where are you from?" just minding my own business. They'll continue. I find this a little rude and disrespectful as I know that they haven't had the opportunities to use proper tactfulness.

Just my 2 cents.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[OiGirl]

Is it appropriate and safe for them to be talking to random foreigners on the street?

[periwinkle]

Korean people don't approach random strangers on the street, so why approach foreigners? Just because we are living in this country does not mean we are obligated to have conversations with anyone and everyone. Privacy doesn't seem to be respected much over here, and neither does personal space, so I don't think people will get it. I really hate it when I'm shopping or something, and a parent is like, hey- there's a foreigner- go talk to her. I just don't like to be bothered by strangers. Oh, I'm not rude or anything, either (since I've set myself up for a flaming). I just don't enjoy it, and I will never learn to enjoy it. That's my culture, and you can't take it out of me.

[keithinkorea]

[crazylemongirl]

alll my kids are honor bound to give at least a bow and hello, teacher.

I remember once my friend and I were talking to a student (high school) when some little kids ran up and said hello, and asked some easy questions. I swear the dicks pf the adjeoshis walking by grew by five inches watching that their kids had mastered the english language.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[bulgogiboy]

I agree about the lack of privacy for foreigners. I think some Koreans are too caught up in the buzz of speaking English and they forget about how rude what they're doing might seem. I think I'm guilty of that as well when I'm speaking Korean sometimes.

Anyway:I was in Gwangju bus station writing an email on one of the public computers and an ajumma was standing right behind me, blatantly reading my email and making no effort to disguise the fact she was. I turned around a couple of times to show her I was aware of the situation, not angrily though. I was in a good mood and actually quite amused at her slack-jawed, gawking. Anyway, hanging over my shoulder and pointing at my email she told me(in Korean only) that I had made a mistake(I hadn't). I was polite and said thank you, finished my email and got my bus.

Like I said, I was in a good mood but if she'd caught me on another day I might have told her(in Korean) that I'm British and she's Korean and she can't even speak basic English so what business does she have telling me how to write my own language? Lack of privacy for sure but I think some waeguks over-react to the "hellos" "where are you froms",etc, depending on how much they keep having to hear the same questions.

Let's face it, it's only somebody "hello", or some other pointless phrase. It's not very offensive at all really. It's not like they're calling you a paki or chinkie bas(they usually don't) which is what Asians get in the UK.

[UncleAlex]

I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't simply the case where we have only one
influential and intimidating parent complain about something unreasonable,
in your case the mother you had met on the street. Hagwon owners tend to
exaggerate the situation by inflating the number of complaints lodged by either
students or their parents. Perhaps you can mollify your dragon lady and the
lone mother by taking her child's class to a nearby MacDonald's, sitting with them
for a spell before encouraging them and leading them in a conversation with a
foreigner who might be there getting his junk food fix.

[mindmetoo]

[fdwilliams]

I think it is not unreasonable for a hagwon owner to ask that teachers try to prepare students to actually use English outside the classroom. In fact, for conversation teachers, it should be the goal. My own opinion, when I was a conversation teacher, was that a textbook was totally inappropriate for beginning speakers (which, in Korea, includes almost everyone). I learned English from speech, not from texts. So did every other native speaker.

The barrier to overcome (and it is a high one) is the misguided Korean education system. Koreans are not really taught English in most schools, they are taught complex rules of grammar by teachers who usually cannot speak English well. They learn a thousand ways of committing an error, and countless rules for avoiding embarrassment. As a result, students become tongue-tied. If I had to speak English by carefully considering all the applicable grammar rules, I would stop talking too.

Thus, we are always greeted with the same predictable and safe phrases: "hello," "glad to meet you," etc.

Undoing the public education system may be beyond our abilities, but we might at least address the issue directly. When I taught adult students, I reminded them that it was totally unimportant to follow rules of grammar -- noting that Confucius (Kong-Ja in Korean) said that the purpose of language is to be understood. Around the world one might meet with millions of people who speak English that is quite dreadful, ungrammatical, and filled with misused words -- BUT PEOPLE DO SPEAK -- and they are, after a fashion, understood.

If you can convince students that errors are not at all important in conversational English, you may begin the breakthrough that will allow them to actually converse in public.

Then you can try the next step -- convincing them that even if they are very shy, they can pretend to be very bold. If they pretend often enough, they will see that they aren't really shy at all -- they are quite capable of being bold.

And that's the beginning of realizing that change is possible.