Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Philkaz]

So I am coming to Korea next month. I was thinking of bringing a scrabble board to my school as a gift. Would this be looked at as kissing a** or would the school be pumped to have a new activity for the students?

[Lemon84]

It will definitely not be perceived as kissing azz. I think all koreans like getting gifts. Especially if it's from overseas

Never occured to me to get something for the school instead of getting something for the boss. Sounds like a good idea thou I have purchased my boss (female) an eye cream. Since majority of the korean females are somewhat fanatical about keeping their skin youthful looking. If your boss is female, some sorta skin care product will probably be appreciated. If you're from USA there's tonns of affordable brands/products everywhere.

[sheba]

Boxes of chocs, wine, cracker selections, biscuit selections
Creams and body products
Souvenir packs are great - I found a set including matching key ring pen and business card holder, golfing sets for golfers, stationary sets
or for a little more, small sets at duty free are great for women - mini makeup sets, perfume sample packs etc

Oh, and after you arrive and start working there, bringing food to work occasionally works wonders for staff relations! A few bits from the bakery, those boxes of drinks, fruit...

It wont be viewed as kissing ass, they will LOVE it.

[frankly speaking]

"Oh, and after you arrive and start working there, bringing food to work occasionally works wonders for staff relations! A few bits from the bakery, those boxes of drinks, fruit...

It wont be viewed as kissing ass, they will LOVE it."

This is a very good point. Especially if you bring their favorite traditional snacks.

Scrabble is a pretty common game and available. Perhaps your school already has this game. I would bring it and use it with the kids and then leave it when you leave, but giving gifts is often a waste of time.

[wylies99]

No one needs to bring a gift to their new school.

Also, you may want to check the English level of the students BEFORE you decide which games are right for them.

[nomad-ish]

i wouldn't (i did for my first two schools and both schools treated me badly). wait until you find out if your school is nice to you or not.

for my current school (which i love), i didn't bring any gifts but decided after my vacation to bring back some presents then. you can always bring gifts after a trip somewhere.

[Illysook]

I love scrabble. I wanted to use it with my kids, but they were not careful with my game and it proved quite difficult for them.

What I did instead was make paper letters with points on them and use them for what my kids called "letter game" I laminated them so that they didn't get torn up and we made up a few different games using those letters. In one of these games, I'd walk around the classroom with the letter cards and have each child tell me a word that began with that letter. When they did this correctly, I would give them the card. Whoever earned the most cards was the winner.

I never got the whole set laminated. My boss started coming down on the use of the lamination plastic. We bumbled along and Perhaps a different mix of letters would be better for this kind of use. When given seven cards, my kids could make simple 3 and 4 letter words. Figuring out the most commonly used words and letters in their vocabularies and adjusting the game accordingly would be a good idea...the crossword idea only flew with the more advanced students...maybe it would if you could have a co-teacher translate, or made the rules a bit more liberal...it is very difficult to find places to put words when only very short words are being used...which can be how you win, but they don't know that!

[daddy daycare]

If you are coming to a private language institute in a place called Eunhaeng-dong, Siheung-si, Gyoenggi-do, then think again..

PM me if you are the unfortunate teacher coming in my place...

And if you are the poor soul, they have a scrabble board already.....

[balzor]

[balzor]