Student Behavior in Korea

Perhaps the hardest thing about teaching in Korea is keeping the kids in line. Months ago I attended the 2010 Gyeongsangnam-do Foreign Language Instructor's Seminar where classroom discipline was a hot topic, at least among the students. I think this seminar is mandatory of all foreign language teachers, at least for this in the hagwons (private academies). Our speaker was an English professor from Gyeongsang National University. His lecture was divided into two parts: culture and classroom. Much of what he presented were basics things I already knew (some teachers in the audience had been in Korea for years), but we all listened respectfully.

But during his lectures on the classroom, students began to raise their hands when it became clear classroom discipline was not going to be covered. The professor had advised us not to hit our students, and to treat them with kindness. Well of course, that all goes without saying. But how on earth do you keep them in line? He couldn't give a straight answer and I over a matter of minutes I saw him crumble under the pressure from the student's questions. I walked out of the auditorium annoyed, but a little comforted in that I was not the only teacher who had difficult students.

In my classroom my students have:
+screamed at me
+kicked me in the shins
+taken off their shoes and beat me
+ran their fingernails over my arms
+refused to move to another seat
+beat their heads against the desk or wall
+ddungchimed me or other students (explanation below)
+spat into my hand when I give them a high five
+grab my fingers and suck onto them
+hurl desks across the room
+throw workbook pages out a third floor window
+refuse to speak in English and make fun of me in Korean to my face, with an evil smile
+bring exacto knives and/or box cutters to class in their pencil cases. On one occasion a student threatened another with an exacto knife, hidden in his pocket

...That might be about it, or at least the most outrageous things I can remember. That's not to say there aren't any good kids. There are plenty of really wonderful students here. And I even have affection for the crazy one that beat me with her shoe. But this would never happen in America, that's for sure.

In my first few weeks here I was having trouble with a young student, Ella, who always kicked me in the shins whenever I asked her to read out of her book. One day after I tried to get her to move to another seat, she took off her shoe, let out an Indian war-whelp and attacked me with her shoe. I wasn't going to stand for this; I fetched the director's wife (another teacher here) immediately. What happened? Ella got yelled at. She cried. I felt a little bad. Ella moved to another seat. Class continued.

What would have happened in America? Certainly a call home. Perhaps suspension. Perhaps a parent-teacher conference. But here the students just get a tongue lashing, and it's over. Not that that tongue lashing isn't scary - the director's wife scares the crap out of me with her presence! I guess the problem is that the students keep repeating their offense, and I've learned it's best to find my own solutions to the problems rather than run to the director every time. I want the students to see me as the person in control of my classroom, not someone else, and definitely not a student.

This is an on going struggle and I'm glad to say I hardly have any of the problems listed above anymore. But everyday has its own unique problems and you have to improv your way through it. More on this later.....

But before I finish writing, I must explain the ddungchim. Ddungchim comes from two Korean words, and translates as "shit needle". Like a twisted game of cowboys and Indians, Korean children will chase each other around the room, or more commonly, sneak up behind, and stick their fingers, shaped in a gun, up your ass. Hence the name--a syringe of poison, stuck up your ass.

Pleasant, yes?

This has only happened to me two times, thank god, and with only two students. It's not exactly painful, but very embarrassing. As with most things in the classroom, I haven't brought it to the attention of the director because I don't believe it would solve anything (perhaps I'm wrong). But when the students have done this to me, I usually turn around, give them a cold look, squat down in front of them with a firm grip on their hands, and tell them in a quiet, firm voice not to ever do that again. Sometimes I even tell them that it makes me sad--they seem to understand that and I've usually gotten sincere looks and even an apology.