Korea Life Blog - The Korean English Teachers' Lessons (1) - Prank Calls are Bad

I get frustrated on a daily basis when I ask my students the most basic of questions, such as, "How was your day?" (usual response is "I'm fine, thank you, and you?") or "What did you eat for lunch?" (usual response is "ehhh!?") As is usual in Korea, the students know a decent amount of vocabulary, but it's still impossible to have even a simple conversation. Since I only teach each class once a week, I can't hold myself responsible, naturally. Therefore, I have decided to ocassionally look into what the Korean teachers are teaching.


A page from the story book, Prank Calls are Bad, which the Korean teacher's at my school were forced to teach last week. (All of these stories books, full of random vocabulary and pointless topics, are made by the company that owns our Hagwon and the students' parents are forced to buy them - a pretty good business idea considering there's a whopping 597 franchises.) This scene comes after the boy's mother found out her son made a prank call to the police and left the phone off the hook so that grandfather couldn't get a hold of her. I guess the lesson is if you make prank phone calls, your mother will make you sit on your knees with your hands in the air while beating you senseless. After reading the books, the students wrote a book report. Almost every student wrote: "Prank calls are bad. Prank calls are very bad. Prank calls are very very bad. I like book. Book good. Book very very good." On a side note, I've noticed that in almost every book, the Korean kids are being beat by their parents, made fun of by other kids, and always seem to have snot running out of their noses....hmm...