I’ve been meaning to write a post about some hot issues that have occurred here in the past couple of months.

First of all, just recently, GEPIK (Gyeonggi-do English Program in Korea, responsible for hiring native English teachers (NETs) for the area surrounding Seoul) announced that their upcoming orientation for new NETs would have a ban on alcohol. According to the thread over at Waygook.org1:

Though these instances are in the minority, they’re significant enough that it’s totally understandable that GEPIK would want to ban alcohol as a result of the NETs behaviour. I’d suggest that rather than banning alcohol, simply firing these types of people on the spot would immediately eliminate these types of people from ever stepping foot into a classroom.

Secondly, a couple of months ago the deaths of two native English teachers occurred. The first was an apparent suicide by a 31-year-old American, identified by the media as K, who jumped out of his 14th storey window wearing no clothes from the waist down. It was assumed that K was an alcoholic due to the empty soju bottles in his apartment, being caught on CCTV in the elevator drinking soju, and the fact that he caused a scene while inebriated at Gimhae airport the day prior.

The English media in Korea was sympathetic. From ATEK:

The Korean media took a different stance.

So rather than expressing sympathy, the author chose to attack native teachers in general. Further down in the article the qualifications of native teachers are questioned and more stringent checks of qualifications and health are suggested.

The second death occurred shortly afterwards. A Canadian English teacher, identified as A, passed out on train tracks around 5:50am and was killed by a train. Though it’s unknown whether he was an alcoholic, police believe he was highly intoxicated that particular night.

The Korean media jumped on this with zero sympathy. Instead, criticism of the NET hiring process:

(my translation, forgive me for not getting the exact meaning)

So, we have some examples of “NETs behaving badly.” And the Korean media mentioning that there should be more strict criteria and requirements for the hiring of native English teachers. Let’s have a look at the current government-mandated criteria.

1. A native speaker from Canada, U.S.A, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
2. Four-year university degree
3. National criminal background check
4. Health check (for HIV and drug usage, including marijuana)
5. Consular interview

So basically, one just need to be a native speaker of English who graduated from university and is not a criminal or drug user. Optionally, if one has a degree in English, a TEFL/TESOL or CELTA/DELTA certificate, or is a licensed teacher in their home country, their pay level goes up.

Presumably, experienced teachers wouldn’t show up to orientation and drink their faces off. People with certifications tend to take their jobs more seriously since, for them, it’s a career rather than just a one-year working vacation. So why not require certifications at the minimum for NETs?

Sigh…

It would appear that, despite Koreans wanting higher-quality native English teachers, they’re doing the exact opposite. GEPIK (the same education office that is banning alcohol at their orientation) has recently decided not to renew the contracts of various NETs due to budgetary concerns. From a thread on Waygook.org:

As Brian Deutsch points out, SMOE, GEPIK, and EPIK all require teachers to be a maximum of 55 years old6. Something tells me that teachers in this age range would be unlikely to engage is binge drinking.

Furthermore, according to user “bern” on the original thread:

So, doesn’t it make sense to increase the entrance requirements to avoid undesirable people coming in and causing a ruckus? And rather than hiring fresh-faced university graduates who have a tendency to go wild, hire those who are more experienced and less likely to cause trouble.

Korea can’t have both low salaries and highly qualified teachers.

Sources

1 “Alcohol banned at GEPIK orientation”

2 “Message From ATEK On Recent Busan English Teacher Suicide”

3 “One can only be aghast” that a suicidal drunk was teaching children”

4 “어느 원어민 강사의 죽음” (“One Native English Teacher’s Death”)

5 “GEPIK Budget Cuts”

6 “No room for older, experienced teachers at public schools”

7 “GEPIK Budget Cuts”

Having lived here for two and a half years I’ve had the opportunity to drink a countless number of times with Koreans. During these times I encountered a ton of games to play while consuming alcohol.

Chopstick Number Pointing
One person is designated the number caller. Everybody then takes a chopstick. The number caller says a number (usually between two and 20) and everybody simultaneously points at someone else. The idea is to trace the route from the number called along the path of the pointed chopsticks, counting a number up for each person. If the number called was five, then the fifth person on the path must drink a shot.

Image Game
The object of this game is to cause five descriptive statements to apply to someone else. Everybody holds up an open-faced hand. The first person then says a statement, like “…has brown hair.” or “…is a girl.” If the statement applies to a person they must put one of their fingers down. The next person then says another statement. The first person with all fingers down must drink a shot.

Example sentences:
“…is under 50kg.”
“…has kissed more than ten people.” (Try “more than two people” if you’re playing with Koreans.)
“…is currently wearing glasses.”

Soju Bottle Cap Flick
Take the bottle cap from an opened soju bottle and twist the dangling metal strip into itself (so that it curls) until it’s straight. Then, pass the cap around and take turns flicking it. The person who flicks it off can drink, or the people next to her must take a love shot.

Soju Bottle Cap Number Guessing Game
Every bottle of soju’s cap has a two-digit number on the surface of the inside. The objective of this game is for the players to NOT guess the correct number. The person who had to drink the previous shot is designated the ref of this game. They look at the number (let’s say it’s 35 in this case) and give a range that the number falls in, such as “It’s between twenty and fifty.” Each person guesses a number (“25!”) and the ref says “up” or “down” (in this case, “up!”). The next person guesses the next number and the ref keeps saying “up” or “down” until one person guesses the correct number. And with that correct guess comes a shot of soju.

눈치 (Noon-chi) Game
This involves each person saying a number from one sequentially upwards. If there are six people playing, the sixth person (yelling “six!”) would have to drink. Or, if two people say the same number at the same time they must drink together.

3-6-9
Another number game. Everybody counts upwards in turns starting with one. However, for any number where a 3, 6, or 9 is present the person must clap instead. So “one,” “two”, *clap*, “four”, “five”, *clap”, etc. This means 13, 16, 19, 23, etc. If the number has two banned numbers (such as 33, 36, 63) then the person must clap two times.

End Notes
흑기사 (heuk-gi-sa) is “white knight”. If your girlfriend doesn’t want to drink her shot she can say “white knight” as a request for you to drink her shot. If you do it then she owes you a favour (such a making her sing a song or kiss you). If you refuse the white knight, she must drink a double shot.

I’ve been super busy with four weeks of intensive English camps and have had no time to update. Well, technically I’ve had time but I choose to drink beer and sleep instead of posting here; a decision which I don’t regret at all.

Anyway, I recently found out that as of September, 2010, olleh KT (old names: SHOW, KTF) customers can simply call in to customer service to request their iPhone 3Gs or 4 be unlocked. This allows for the phone to be used overseas with a local SIM card, avoiding expensive roaming fees. To do this previously one would have to jailbreak and unlock using moderately difficult to use software, then keep up-to-date on software updates (or risk losing their unlock forever).

Step 1
Get your IMEI number from your phone. It’s found under the Settings app, General, About. And it’s 15 digits. This number is a world-wide unique number that is assigned to your phone for tracking and other purposes. It’s required by olleh KT to process your unlock (since it’s specific to your IMEI).

Step 2
Call 114 (customer service). In my case, since my phone is registered under my co-teacher’s account I had her call them. Tell them that you’d like to request a “Country Unlock”. They will ask for the IMEI and give instructions on how to complete it.

If you are having a co-teacher or girlfriend call for you, show them this link so that they have an idea of what they are doing http://cs.show.co.kr/notice/notice_20109007.html.

Step 3
Wait for an SMS from olleh KT (114). It can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days depending on the load. I got mine a half hour later. It explains in Korean how to proceed with the unlock.

Step 4
Connect your phone to iTunes. Sync.

Step 5
Replace your Korean SIM with a foreign SIM. (If you don’t have one, you’ll have to wait until you get to a foreign country to do this, requiring your computer as well).

Step 6
Sync again. iTunes should show a message saying, “Congratulations, your phone has been unlocked.”

You’re ready to go! Keep in mind that you can still jailbreak if you want (for custom SMS notification sounds, MyWi, and other stuff that you might want to jailbreak for). But you don’t have to worry about keeping the same baseband for the unlock.

If you have a particularly shy or unmotivated class, one way to get them to participate is the use of plastic hammers. For sale in most school equipment stores, they are a very effective tool that can be used for motivation.

During a song, have two students patrol the classroom. If someone isn’t singing, they are allowed to whack the non-participator in the arm. Or, do a quick word test between two students. Whoever says the word first gets to whack the other student on the arm.

The legality of these devices is not certain. I doubt you’d be able to use them in Canada due to overly strict rules and to avoid legal liability. So you might as well have fun while you’re here in Korea.

If you’ve lived in or visited Korea for more than thirty seconds, you will probably have realized that Koreans are more image-conscious than Westerners. The easiest way to gain respect and status at your school is to look good. Thus, a native speaker should spend as much time here improving their appearance and the appearance of teaching well as they do preparing lessons!

Why bother? Well, you’ll get taken more seriously, have more leeway with things like vacation time and sick leave, and generally have an easier life at your school.

Wear nice clothes
Leave the cargo pants, sandals, and hats at home. Don’t bother with khakis. Since business casual doesn’t exist in Korea, there’s a sharp divide between casual and dressy. Go with nice jeans and a sweater or t-shirt or suit pants and a dress shirt. Save the suit for special occasions, like when you wake up early enough to have time to tie a tie. And don’t wear the same style every day; mix it up! Going from nice jeans and a sweater to a suit gets noticed more than wearing the same style of shirt and pants every day. Also, wear clothes that fit you properly; nothing says sloppy like a baggy dress shirt.

A quick rule of thumb is to dress like a Korean celebrity. You’ll get tons of compliments from fellow teachers. Your administrative staff will be proud rather than embarrassed to show you off.

For women, I really have no idea. Just don’t wear anything that shows off any cleavage whatsoever and you’ll probably be fine. Though you can show off your stocking’d legs until mere inches below your butt cheeks and you’ll be fine as well.

Spice up your lessons
Use lots of computer-based materials. They’re more interesting to look at than your chicken-scratch on the whiteboard and they save tons of time, too. Load them up with photos and videos. This puts on a good show for your co-teacher and for the admin. Plus, students get more interested in your materials and behave better, which also makes you look like a better teacher.

Realia, real life objects, instead of flash cards are a great way to help students memorize and use vocabulary. Plus, using realia means you’ve done some work in acquiring them, making you look like a better teacher.

Study Korean
Learn some basic Korean words and phrases to impress the non-English teachers and staff at your school. Saying “안녕하세요” rather than “hello” will start you off right. Even “저는 (your name) 입니다” will get you some “Wow, you speak Korean well”. Dropping “맛있어요!” for the first time at lunch cause some pleasantly surprised looks at the lunch table. Just don’t repeat the swear words that your Korean friends taught you while drinking together. Even basic studying shows that you’re putting in effort to integrate with Korean culture.

Conclusion
Those are some things you can do to make yourself appear to be a better teacher than you really are. Obviously, if you have no teaching skill all the suits in the world won’t make up for it. But, if you can teach you might as well make yourself look as good as possible while doing it.

And don’t take this stuff too seriously, either! Sometimes I don’t even know how far embedded my own tongue is in my cheek.

There’s a saying that some English teachers here use: “It’s nice to get to work on Monday and relax after a busy weekend”. The implication being that our jobs can sometimes be quite easy. For those of you with some free time during your regular work hours, sleeping is an excellent way to recover that lost energy after conducting intensive classes to groups of elementary or middle school kids.

The advice here is highly dependent on your school. At many schools, the administration has no problem with taking power naps to help you recover, especially if you have free time. At other schools, the admin might not look so kindly on this, so use your judgment.

The main goal of sleeping at school is to regenerate some of that lost energy from your morning of classes. The most effective way to do this is by falling asleep quickly and staying asleep for as long as possible. If there are distractions, such as teachers talking or bright sunlight streaming into the office, it is more difficult to fall and stay asleep.

1. Location. Choose a nice low traffic area for sleeping to ensure you don’t get woken up (or seen, if you’re not allowed to sleep). Your empty English classroom is a good first choice, although they might have extra classes at the time. Your office is good too, though other teachers might talk loudly (or want to sleep there as well). The teacher’s lounge is also a great place to catch some sleep if their classes are still running when you’ve got break time. As a last resort, the school nurse’s office has a couple of beds as well.

2. Get earplugs or in-ear earbuds as well as a face mask. The earplugs will block any noise. In-ear buds are great because they block noise and also enhance your music listening experience. I use these in combination with a white noise generator on my iPhone. You can use a face mask (I use the Korean Air one that I got when I flew here for the first time) or a t-shirt, or anything that covers your face. Darkness plus silence is a good way to fall asleep quickly.

3. Get comfortable. The most comfortable thing for me is pillow plus blanket. Bring in a small blanket and pillow for nap usage. If you have no space for a blanket, your jacket serves as a nice alternative. Make sure to wear warm socks in the winter since feet tend to get rather cold when you’re not wearing slippers.

4. Set an alarm. If you have to wake up before your VP shows up or have other work to do it’s a good idea to use an alarm. I use my phone’s alarm which plays through my ear buds. This also ensures that I don’t disturb other teachers. Set a second alarm just in case you fall back asleep after the first one (which you will if you are comfortable enough).

5. (For advanced users only.) Down a couple of those Maxim instant coffees and nap immediately. When you wake up in a half hour or an hour you’ll feel immediately energized and ready to take on any work. If you sleep longer than that the effects will wear off.

잘 자! (Sleep well!)

I’ve been asked a couple of times recently about how much money a renewing teacher should end up with. Since even individual schools seem to be confused about the issue I’ve posted the correct information here. Keep in mind this applies to EPIK contracts. Other contracts may be different (but the information about severance is the same).

Renewal Bonus

When I first got here, my EPIK contract stated that I would be reimbursed for a one-way flight there and a one-way flight after my year contract. After a year, if I decided to renew they would pay for round-trip airfare to my home country so that I could take a two-week home leave. Any time a teacher renewed their contract they would be entitled to this round-trip airfare. I believe GEPIK still does this. Once the teacher decides to not renew and go home permanently they are then entitled to a one-way flight back home.

In 2009, EPIK changed their contract. Instead of offering to reimburse airfare they simply pay a 1.3 million won entrance (to cover your ticket to Korean) and a 1.3 million won exit (to cover your ticket back home after your contract). If you renew, instead of reimbursing your round-trip airfare they give you 2.0 million won. I think they did this in order to better estimate how much money they’d have to budget for airfare. With teachers in different parts of the world and fluctuating flight prices and exchange rates it’s easier to just give everyone the same amount of money.

So, if you don’t renew you get 1.3 million won. If you renew, you get 2.0 million won. Both of these amounts must be paid right after the end date of your previous contract. (I received mine lumped with my first paycheque the next month.)

Severance Pay

This is mandated by the government and is equal to approximately one month’s salary before bonuses and after taxes. You are entitled this after each completed contract, regardless of whether you renew or not. However, your POE can choose to pay this after each contract or in a lump sum after all of your contracts are completed. Either way, the amount is the same but it’s their choice whether to pay each year or at the end.

There are some stipulations. You must complete your full contract. If you leave a day early you are not entitled to severance pay. Severance is also pro-rated. So if you don’t get paid your severance for your first contract and quit during your second contract, you get your first severance plus partial severance for the months worked during your second contract. However, if you got paid severance for your first contract and then left during your second contract, you wouldn’t get any additional severance.

Many schools confuse severance pay with renewal bonus because the amounts are very similar. However, they are totally separate and you are entitled to both of these directly after your contract is finished.

Summary

If you want to skip all the explanation and go directly to the meat of this post, if you renew, you get 2.0 million renewal bonus AND severance pay (equal to approx. one month salary). If you don’t renew, you get 1.3 million exit AND severance pay.

If there’s any confusion, show your school your EPIK contract and point them to the relevant sections: 제10조3 (Section 10, Article 3: renewal bonus) and 제13조7 (Section 13, Article 7: severance).

I’ve copy and pasted the relevant articles here for easy reference:
제10조 ③ 재계약 체결시 고용자는 피고용자에게 재계약 보상비(200만원)를 재계약 개시 후 지급한다.
Article 10 ③ Employer shall provide Employee with contract renewal allowance of 2,000,000 Korean Won (KRW) after the commencement of the renewed term.

제13조 ⑦ 피고용자가 1년 이상의 고용계약을 성실히 마치면 약 1개월의 보수에 해당하는 퇴직금을 임무 만료 후 받을 수 있다.
Article 13 ⑦ Employee shall be entitled to severance pay (equivalent to approximate one month’s salary), upon successful completion of his/her duties.

My previous slightly tongue-in-cheek post was all about saving your hard-earned money. This not-at-all tongue-in-cheek post deals with the exact opposite. Also, I promise that I won’t use so many dashes between words in the future.

1. Go out and meet friends as much as possible

You work hard (relatively speaking). So don’t waste your off-time sitting at home watching streaming American TV shows. Go out, grab dinner with friends, have a few beers, have a good time. There’s no point in flying halfway around the world for a year if you’re just going to work and sit at home.

2. Get a motorcycle or take taxis everywhere

If you’re in Seoul or Busan, the subway is pretty convenient for longer journeys. However, for short trips, or if you’re not in Seoul or Busan just take a taxi. The time you save by just hopping in and going can be pretty huge over descending into the subway, waiting for a train, going through all the stops, transferring, then ascending from the subway. The bus is even worse: you have a relatively infrequent schedule plus you’re stuck in traffic.

Alternatively, buy a motorcycle or scooter. The absolute most fun way to travel in Korea is by motorcycle. It’s also by-far the fastest since you can just lane split to the front of packs of cars.

3. Travel

You’ve got at least a month of vacation time. Flights from Korea to places around Asia are obviously much cheaper than from your home country. So head over to Thailand or the Philippines in the winter for a hot beach break. Or go to Hong Kong or Japan in the spring or summer to experience a different culture while the weather is nice. And go with good friends for both safety and fun.

4. Make a realistic budget

I mentioned in my previous post to make a budget and stick with it. I’m not going to contradict that but I will reiterate to make it realistic. There’s no point in making a razor-thin budget then blowing it every month. Be realistic about your expenditures so that you can actually succeed in living by your budget.

I came here with the attitude that because everything is so cheap here it would be easy to save lots of money. However, expenses can creep up and you might find yourself with little to none of your pay cheque left at the end of the month.

Here are some tips that would have helped me in the past:

1. Only eat Korean food and drink Korean beer and soju

This is pretty obvious and self-explanatory. Any food made in Korea is generally cheaper than stuff from abroad. You’re looking at 4000 to 6000 won for a hearty Korean meal versus the same price for unhealthy and poor nutritional value American fast food. Or plenty more 20,000 to 50,000 for a great-tasting meal at a foreign restaurant.

Korean alcohol is also dirt cheap. At most places, 650 cc of Korean draft will run 3,000 to 4000 won, versus 6,000-7,000 for imported draft. Import bottles are even more expensive. Wa Bar has the nerve to charge 12,000 won for a 355 ml bottle of Guinness!

Soju, the ultimate cheap alcohol, is unbeatable at 1,000 won for a bottle at convenience stores. It’s so cheap that most Western-style bars don’t even serve it. You can get it easily at any restaurant or hof for 3,000 per bottle. This is the ultimate cheap way to drink in Korea, though your head will not be thanking you the next day.

2. Try not to go out on weeknights

The more you go out, the more money you spend. Naturally, you can nip this by not going out on weeknights. Study Korean, take a class, work out, or just plain go to bed early instead of going out.

Let’s say the average night out cost is 30,000 won. If you go out once a week you spend 120,000 won in a month. If you go out four times per week you end up spending 480,000 won! So try to stay in as much as possible.

3. Take the subway or bus

Though taxis in Korea are super cheap compared to the west the cost still adds up, especially for traveling great distances. You can’t beat 1,000 to 1,500 won per trip, versus at least 2,500, closer to 7,000 or 8,000. This adds up a lot over the month.

4. Don’t put stuff on your foreign credit card

If you spend money using your cash or Korean check card it gets deducted from your bank balance immediately. You know exactly how much is left. If you put stuff on your credit card, you tend to forget about it. You’ll end up receiving a bill at the end of the month with lots of stuff you forgot about. This is an easy way to overspend your monthly budget. Plus, you might end up paying more money for things if the value of the won drops since you purchased those goods (since they are purchased at the daily exchange rate and you’d be paying them off at the end-of-the-month rate).

5. Pay dutch

Koreans have a tendency to treat each other when going out. Each time they go out a different person will treat the group. Ideally, this would work out to be even, however, in practice it is not the case. If you’re a particularly generous person you might end up paying more than your fair share by accident. Plus, foreigners tend to go dutch so if you are generous enough to treat them for the first round they might forget to pay back the favour!

6. Don’t buy a car or motorcycle
Motorcycles are dangerous. I know of numerous teachers who have been injured by cars through no fault of their own. Gas is cheap but they do break and regular maintenance is required. Cars are an especially stupid purchase since you get dinged with high gas prices, yearly insurance, and taxes every six months.

7. Don’t travel

Places like Vietnam and Thailand are super cheap. However, simply getting there involves spending major coin on round-trip air tickets. Plus, those nights in hostels and motels add up over time. And there’s no way you’re going to travel and not party at night.

8. Make a budget and stick to it

Set realistic spending limits for the categories of things you need to purchase (entertainment, food, transportation, etc.). To figure this out for the first time, each time you spend money write it down and categorize it. At the end of the month, plug all of this into an Excel spreadsheet and total up your expenditures for each category. This gives you an idea of how much money you need to spend so you can set your budget around this.

So, there are seven tips that you can use to try and save money.

Before coming to Korea I had basically no experience teaching children. When I arrived my co-teacher was great and really on-the-ball when it came to teaching. Unlike a lot of people, I wasn’t thrown into the classroom fresh off the plane and expected to teach. For the most part, I didn’t have create lesson plans at all for the first few months as she took care of that and let me focus on actually teaching the lessons. As time passed I eventually took on more responsibility (out of personal development and boredom). I recently took my TEFL certification and learned a bit more about the structure of lessons and how to effectively use the short 40-minute period that is provided.

Below is some advice for new teachers (and even seasoned veterans who aren’t fluent with technology). It’s what I’ve found works in my public school and in the various camps that I’ve taught. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments section below.

The First Day

You may or may not have an amazing co-teacher. You can make the best of this by preparing some photos from your hometown and about your life. Students love to see photos (and videos) about your life in your home country. Photos of your family, friends, birthdays, baby photos, your house and school are all good ideas. You could even use Google Maps and zoom in on your old house and school.

Intentionally speak slower than you’re accustomed to. Your native speech speed is probably much faster than what your new students are used to. Speak about 70% of your usual speed, speak clearly, and try not to use complex words.

You will probably be exhausted and confused after your first few days. It’ll pass. Take the weekend to relax, meet people, party it up in celebration of the completion of your first week. As weeks pass you’ll get into a routine and stop worrying about teaching and relax more. I remember that for the first few months I’d frequently have dreams about class and not being prepared and such. Fortunately, these go away.

Make It Interesting

As you get more comfortable teaching you’ll probably feel the desire to add your own materials and stray from the curriculum. The most important thing you can do to ensure students absorb the material and stay focused is to make your lessons interesting and engaging. Teaching by the book doesn’t work very effectively because it’s usually boring. And, unless you really stretch it out, the book doesn’t provide enough material to keep students engaged for the full 40- or 50-minute lesson. You must supplement the book materials and activities with your own. Do a quick warm-up games or activity (not necessarily related to English) to get them woken up and focused. Then teach the meat of the lesson. After that, close with a fun and interesting activity.

When teaching the meat of the lesson, use a loud voice, over-emphasize your actions, and try to be as visually interesting as possible. Move around the room. This creates a dynamic energy in the classroom (I hate this sentence but it’s the best way I can think to describe it).

Suggested sites for this:

• Waygook.org: plenty of downloadable PPT files, games and suggestions on how to make the book lessons more interesting.
• Barryfunenglish.com: Pay site, but worth every penny. It has tons of vocabulary sets and lots of fun games. Plus, it’s got a section specifically for Korean public school native teachers with vocabulary sets designed around each of our lessons.

Discipline

Discipline here is totally different than in Western countries. For the most part, your Korean co-teacher will be able to handle the kids extremely well, allowing you to simply teach your lesson. However, if discipline is a problem then there are a few things you can try. Unfortunately, bringing the students to their homeroom teacher causes that teacher to lose face and look bad. Also, bringing the students to the VP or Principal is a huge mistake as both your co-teacher and the homeroom teacher lose face, big time. The best way to deal with discipline is within the classroom itself.

• Near the beginning of the term, be strict. You’re not their friend so don’t act like it. If they see you as a friend they won’t respect you as a teacher and discipline will be difficult or impossible.
  Single out the worst students and be strict with them. Don’t give them any room to act up otherwise they will keep pushing you further.
• Punish the whole class for the actions of an individual. Count down from five and if students are talking past zero, deduct a minute from the class break time. After a couple of minutes are deducted because of one student the rest of the class will get pretty annoyed at that student.
• Unfortunately, purely verbal punishment doesn’t always work in Korea. Students are generally used to the idea that a Korean teacher can give them a good whack on the head. As a result, they don’t necessarily take verbal punishment seriously. To adapt to this difference, use some light physical punishment. Don’t hit them or touch them in any way. But, have them come to the front and hold their hands in the air. Or have them hold a heavy book in the air. Have them do push-up stance. Have them write out a sentence 20 or 30 times. Sometimes it’s the only way to really get students to listen.

Use Technology

Tying into my previous point (make it interesting) is the use of technology. Flash and PPT games can be used to spice up any lesson. Using picture slideshows instead of flash cards allows students to more clearly see the images, plus it’s less preparation time for you. Fill-in-the-blank worksheet answers can be done with PowerPoint. There are also plenty of games made by technologically-savvy Korean teachers that can be used as well. If you’ve got a Mac, Apple Keynote can make some dazzling presentations that students love. Just export them as a Quicktime movie so they can be played on your school’s Windows computer.

I hope these tips help to improve your teaching. I’ve been aided by the many blogs and forum posts by fellow native English teachers in the country over my years here. Just remember to keep calm, do your best, and relax after work!