koreaherald-korean teens have the worst social skills in the WORLD!

[kate.d]

read for yourself

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110328000432

[jmbaatz]

"Their score for conflict management, however, was second only to Denmark at 0.94, thanks to their rich knowledge of possible democratic solutions to conflicts, according to the report."

Anyone else immediately think of their "paper, rock, scissors" skills?

I've said before... I honestly believe the entire Korean society would come crashing down if not for this one saving grace.

You ever seen them in groups of like six people doing this.  I can't even follow who is winning or losing, they go so fast.

[lizteacher10]

lol, so true! This weekend I saw three kids playing rock paper scissors to get up the stairs, taking stair one at a time. Really, thats all you can figure out to play????

[kate.d]

so great to read this in the koreatimes:

"South Korean teens scored the lowest among the 36 nations with scores of zero in the two areas -- relationship promotion and social cooperation -- that valued highly voluntary participation in local and school communities."

"Social interaction skills are linked to the ability to live harmoniously with culturally or socioeconomically different counterparts, so they are very important to teenagers who are the leading players in a globalized and multicultural age,"

ah yes, not being able to live harmoniously with culturally different counterparts-they printed it, not me!

[portlandzach]

thanks, this will make for a juicy teachers workshop haha :)

[Yu_Bumsuk]

"Each nation was assessed in the three areas of relationship promotion, social cooperation and conflict management through surveys of students' participation in local and school communities, their perceptions of community and foreigners, as well as democratic solutions to conflicts, the report said."

That's pretty subjective and prone to cross-cultural misunderstandings.

[gwiffey]

"Each nation was assessed in the three areas of relationship promotion, social cooperation and conflict management through surveys of students' participation in local and school communities, their perceptions of community and foreigners, as well as democratic solutions to conflicts, the report said."

That's pretty subjective and prone to cross-cultural misunderstandings.

Yeah, I'd really like to see what the survey questions were like. When it comes to social interaction, survey questions are pretty unlikely to be able to paint a decent picture of reality.

[sweet_potato]

It makes sense.

Teacher: "What did you do yesterday?"
Student: "Play computer games" "Go to academy"

Teacher: "Did you play with your friends?"
Student: "No. Computer game.

Kids are engaging in a lot of solo activities, but this isn't just Koreans. Kids back home are the same. It gives the parents a piece of mind to enroll their kids in an after-school activity or let them play at home because that way they're not running around outside.

I think it's the difference of activities here. Kids mostly go to hogwans for English, math, science, piano, taekwondo. In all these subjects, kids are expected to listen and perform. Back home, I feel like there is more interest in team sports (although there are some here too). I guess kids who play on a baseball team interact more than those who are at an academy. Personally, the only after-school activities I ever did when I was younger were playing sports for my school. This meant spending more casual time with my classmates, going to practices, getting rides from other kids' parents to games, etc. I was an ESL student at that time, and it forced me to talk to kids even though I felt a bit awkward about it. It definitely got me out of my shell.

Kids here spend a ton of time at these academies and activities. Performance is measured way higher, over - let's say - "fun". One of my grade 6 boys goes to a sports academy EVERY DAY, and he has often told me that he doesn't like it, because he's not very good and the coach is always criticizing him. I feel like back home we'd give the kids a high-five for having a good attitude, and not grilling them for being lousy at a sport.

[crawlingkingsnake]

"Social interaction skills are linked to the ability to live harmoniously with culturally or socioeconomically different counterparts, so they are very important to teenagers who are the leading players in a globalized and multicultural age,"



I can only imagine the reaction from some of the students I've run across in my day:



Surveyor: "What do you think when you see the following pictures?"
  (Shows picture of black child)
Student: "Aggggrgh! Teacher NO! Dirty Teacher (covers face and cringes)!"
Surveyor checks box labelled "No."


That would be a fairly simple, and arguably quite accurate, indication.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

It makes sense.

Teacher: "What did you do yesterday?"
Student: "Play computer games" "Go to academy"

Teacher: "Did you play with your friends?"
Student: "No. Computer game.

Kids are engaging in a lot of solo activities, but this isn't just Koreans. Kids back home are the same. It gives the parents a piece of mind to enroll their kids in an after-school activity or let them play at home because that way they're not running around outside.

I think one could also argue an opposite train of thought and say that kids here are actually forced to socialise much more than in the west. Kids here spend a lot more time together unsupervised, and yet amazingly there are far fewer real fights (play-fighting aside). And those activities you mention? They're doing them together, even if the focus may more often be solo. My students are constantly walking around with each other, and much less often alone, while they're going to and from these various after-school things. In fact, I'm sure that the amount of time the average Korean kid spends alone is much less than the average American kid.

[rhetoric]

I've often been amazed, when I ask or expect students to share their results, they refuse to do so.  For example, when completing a worksheet, I'll indicate to the slower students that they should get the answers from their more competent peers, or in other ways help each other out.  The students routinely shield their results from their fellow students. 

[sweet_potato]

It makes sense.

Teacher: "What did you do yesterday?"
Student: "Play computer games" "Go to academy"

Teacher: "Did you play with your friends?"
Student: "No. Computer game.

Kids are engaging in a lot of solo activities, but this isn't just Koreans. Kids back home are the same. It gives the parents a piece of mind to enroll their kids in an after-school activity or let them play at home because that way they're not running around outside.

I think one could also argue an opposite train of thought and say that kids here are actually forced to socialise much more than in the west. Kids here spend a lot more time together unsupervised, and yet amazingly there are far fewer real fights (play-fighting aside). And those activities you mention? They're doing them together, even if the focus may more often be solo. My students are constantly walking around with each other, and much less often alone, while they're going to and from these various after-school things. In fact, I'm sure that the amount of time the average Korean kid spends alone is much less than the average American kid.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. They do hang out with other kids a lot, but when I wrote my comment, I was thinking along the lines of Korean kids being in classes (hogwans) where they're supposed to be learning, compared to kids back home who do after-school activities where the focus is more often on socializing, than sitting down and listening.

And since you brought it up, I also noticed that it's a big deal for a Korean kid to be a "loner". I've had a few coteachers who have confronted an entire class because it seemed that 1 student "didn't have any friends". One of them kind of gave the class hell for it, basically telling them that they are "unfair". That was the extent of my understanding. I feel like adult Koreans are often in groups, but not really socializing so much. I think it's important for them to be together and fit in. What goes on between them socially is pretty mysterious to me as I don't understand them :)

[gilbert.a.h]

I've often been amazed, when I ask or expect students to share their results, they refuse to do so.  For example, when completing a worksheet, I'll indicate to the slower students that they should get the answers from their more competent peers, or in other ways help each other out.  The students routinely shield their results from their fellow students.

Really? I have the complete opposite problem, then again, none of the kids at my school are "above average"... actually, about a third of them are "special needs." At my school, they blert out the answers, even during a test. It gets really hard to have them play games, cause the few who get whats going on just gives the answers to those who don't know or are unsure. But that is probably cause that is exactly how their previous English teacher taught them. All she did was translate everything and then tell them what the answer is. Zero thinking.

For me, at my school, I get upset when they share answers. They are getting better, but the older students are too far behind to be remotely where the textbooks are. (Elementary school... sixth grade can't do third grade's textbooks)