Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dev]

Koreans seem to think nothing about smoking. They do it everywhere. I don't know about you, but just 15 minutes of breathing the air in a PC Bang really gets to me. I wish Korea would clean up its act in this department for its own health & well being.

In addition to teaching them English, I think teaching them about the health risks of smoking would have a lasting impact after you leave Korea. Do you talk to your students about this topic? No age group is too young for this topic I think.
Here's an interesting site; www.tobaccofacts.org

[dogbert]

The majority of Korean males seem to believe that cigarettes are an all-in-one air freshener, flavor enhancer, and aphrodesiac.

It will be chuckle-inducing in a few years to watch millions of them wonder why the hell they have lung cancer.

[uberscheisse]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The other day I was helping my grade 3 middle school student edit her speech about smoking, as I sat there looking into my pocket at a pack of Marlboro's, running my nicotine-stained fingers over the pages. It was called 'The Dangers of Teenagers Smoking' and started off expressing such grave concern that the % of teens smoking has gone up in recent years.

Gone up what - from 3 to 5%? In over a year on the job I've only seen one of my 500 or so students smoking and I pretended that I didn't because I didn't want to drag her to the staff room for a beating.

If they want to stop smoking in this country, ban it in the military, where 75% of Korean males learn to smoke. So long as every Korean male goes through an institution where almost everyone smokes every chance they get, not much will change.

Now, as I do after every Dave's post that comes up about smoking, I'm off to the smoke-pit so that I can start off teaching a nother pack of impressionable young minds smelling like an ashtray, he he he.

[indytrucks]

[uberscheisse]

i think that the korean word for cigarette is also misleading...

to me, 담배! sounds like... "ole" or something, some triumphant call to arms or rousing party cheer.

if they changed the word to something like 촑맊차빠부비 i think the anti-smoking movement here would really go somewhere.

[ajgeddes]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

This afternoon I was going for a smoke break between classes right outside the front door of the school. It was slightly breezy and my lighter was flickering out, so I went right up against the glass door to light up my smoke. All of a sudden as I'm lighting it up a face pops up on the other side of the glass inches away from my face and it's my student from the speech contest - and she wants some more help with her speech on the dangers of teenagers smoking.

And this being Korea, no one sees any hypocrisy in that whatsoever...

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Qinella]

My students give me a hard time about smoking. If ever they catch me outside smoking, the next class of theirs I enter everyone is giving me their best evil eye attempts. Tight lips, furrowed brows, contrived posture..

They scold me for my nasty habit, at which point I take a vote and 70% of them raise their hands. You know what the question is.

[yodanole]

When I run out of smokes, I can always bum a couple from the elementary school girls in my class.

[Homer]

[ajuma]

There's a sign in my uni that says "Reconsider your non-smoking". Doesn't this mean if you DON'T smoke, you should reconsider??

(Acutally, the clinic gives free patches for those trying to quit!)

[uberscheisse]

[Dev]