Thanks for that Dayle...good read...it belongs in the orientation handbook for all newbies I think!

Sonya

Really great article.  Thanks for sharing

Yeah, I think it's such a short piece though, that they have to be very general.  There are definitely situations where you'd say "No, I do," for example, but in most situations it isn't suitable.  And the thing about "hit strongly" was that I would never say strongly with hit.  It just sounds awkward to me... I would usually say hit hard or something like that.

I completely understand the last part, (Foreign Language Ability" vs "Mental/Spiritual Maturity).  I think they just mean that when you get to a certain point in your language study you want to talk about something deeper than what kinds of foods you like, but you just don't have the words for it.  It can be really frustrating when you realize the way you are able to express yourself is miles behind who you really are.  I felt that keenly when I lived in Japan and realized I sounded like a child (or maybe a moron) to anyone who heard my broken Japanese!  I could never completely say what I thought, so it was hard to have relationships.  I guess if you're also being evaluated, it adds another level of stress to it.

Hmm, I'm not sure if they were really trying to say that about Korean students only... it's just one issue when you're teaching in Korea so they mentioned it.  And it is hard to foresee your students feeling that way if you never have.

You're right, there are a lot of obstacles when we communicate with our teachers, too.  I think we all (Korean and native teachers) forget to consider the other side often, so it's easy to jump to conclusions and get frustrated.

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!

Where did you live in Japan?  I was up in Fukushima-ken for two years.

thank you for sharing this, it's an interesting read!

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!

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.

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.

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

Thanks for the useful article! I just starting teaching and I have been having difficulty understanding what works best for the students and why...this really helps!

this was a very informative read--thank you so much for posting it! it helps me understand certain behaviors and certain difficulties my students have with some sounds better

Does anyone have an essays or articles that deal with the teen suicide rate among young Koreans because of school stress/pressure.  I've heard that the statistics for this are very high but have not found any specific numbers or prevention sites..