Working with Korean kids at an English school requires one to become a little…. multilingual, shall we say. I knew no Korean before I arrived in Korea – and even today I still don’t know a whole lot. The aforementioned Korean kids know more Korean than English (and are more likely to speak to each other in Korean than English), so you have to quickly become comfortable not knowing everything they’re saying to each other.
Obviously you’d like them to know enough English to comprehend what you’re asking them to do… but they’re in an English school for a reason. They have to know English before they can really comprehend it… In any case, I’ve found myself inserting a little bit of Korean here and there so that I’m better understood. For example, some of the kids have trouble understanding a two-digit number – important when you’re telling them which page to turn to. I’ll usually start by saying ‘turn to page 55′, then after a few moments say ‘page oshibo’ and they get it. Without fail, more than one kid will go ‘woah!’ and give you that look of ‘he knows Korean!’
At other times, a new word will come into their vocabulary. I’ll ask the class if they know what it means, and ask them to write the Korean word up on the board. They’ll write the hangeul (Korean alphabet) for the word, and I’ll read it out loud, writing the English translation on the board. Again – without fail, more than one kid will go ‘woah!’ and give you that look of ‘he knows Korean!’
Another thing that turns out to be important as well: giving the kids some time away from English. Yes, they’re brought here to learn English – but some of them may end up spending more time in a classroom than a parent does at the office. It goes without saying that if the adults are tired from their eight-hour day, the kids will be too… In any case, there’s usually a few minutes at the beginning and ending of the class as things are getting ready or almost finished where I’m a bit more flexible with them. During lunch and other breaks the kids almost entirely speak in Korean – no telling how confusing it can be to go back and forth from one language to another, but for the most part they handle it pretty well.
The moral of the story: even though your job is to teach English, it helps to know (and be open to learning) Korean while on the job. Trying to force English all the time ends up being more counter-productive than you think.
