Teaching > Theory and Practice

Issues Concerning Korean Learners of English: English Education in Korea and Som

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Misojner:
I'd say the perception of Korean students being "more polite" (generally speaking more polite than students in South Africa, Australia, USA, etc.) is from their interaction with Korean teachers.  Around my co-teachers, the students always followed a certain level of politeness, but around me, that usually dropped that (more so in middle school than elementary).  I'd still say that overall they're more polite, but when it's just me in the class my experience is more comparable to teaching in South Africa.  Some circumstances point towards this coming from friendliness or comfort level around a foreigner, but I imagine sometimes it could just be outright disrespect.  Either way, it's not easy to demand the same level of respect a Korean teacher gets from the students  - not that it's not possible or inadvisable - simply that if you're new here and you feel the discrepancy, it's best not to assume it's because the kids don't like you.

And never mind "Yes, it didn't" - a popular South African expression is "Ja nee", which is Afrikaans for "yes no"...

epinephrine9:

--- Quote from: pickle on October 08, 2010, 03:05:52 PM ---My students seem nothing like the description, though.  Maybe it's because I teach elementary and they were writing more with older students in mind?  My kids aren't nearly as shy/respectful as I would have thought from the article.  Actually, they often demand money from me when I walk by!

--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: jehall on October 08, 2010, 03:59:27 PM ---Yeah, the kids' behaviour surprised me when I came over here. I too read all the literature saying how respectful and shy there are. Sure, they bow to you in the hallways, but in the classroom, they're pretty much the same as North American kids.

--- End quote ---

Note the date on the article: 2004. Much of the research comes from before 2000. Most of the elementary kids that we are teaching are half a generation behind this article, and as such have had some (not much, but some) exposure to modern teaching methods. I can also assume that shifting corporal punishment out of the curriculum has caused this as well.

Nonetheless, this was a good read. I've read most of these topics before, but in particular, being an amateur linguist myself, I like how they went into the specific phonetic and grammatical difficulties the students face. I feel that the notion of "Foreign Language Ability" vs "Mental/Spiritual Maturity" is one that we as teachers do not focus on enough--it's always nice to be able to teach the students things they can actually immediately use once in a while.

Song6754:
I think the cultural difference matters than any other filters. We dont teach and they dont learn differences between eastern and western cultures.

luckycounty:
I am sure no one minds me writing something here in order to be allowed to download the article.

hardenca:
Thanks for the useful article. I'm just starting out as a English teacher in Korea and I want to read and learn as much as I can.

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