I Live In Korea

My name is Ben Gwynne. I USED to teach English in Incheon, South Korea. Here's some photos, stories, videos, etc.

I have a class where some of their homework assignments require students to look up and write the definition of new vocabulary words and use each of them in an example sentence. That is what they are supposed to do, but because of the incredible amount of work they already have to do, the Korean teacher allows them to just rewrite the word 10 times. I guess this helps them with the spelling of the word?

I told the kids for my classes, they don’t have to write it 10 times, but they HAVE to use the word in an example sentence. That way they are practicing their sentence writing and thinking about how to use the word. At first they complained that this was too hard and they have too much work to do already, but we usually finish our lessons early and I let them do their homework, I even help them out on it. The sentences don’t have to be related to the lesson we learned, I told them to use them in ANY way possible, as long as it makes sense. I even told them they can say whatever they want about me, my family, USA, whatever, as long as it makes sense! The end result ended up back firing on me…

(not all of the pics were taken before I graded their work so the grammar is sometimes still incorrect)

Dangerous


Effective


Aware


Pair


Product


Crash


Fail



Maniac


Habit


Humble




Dumbest




Monarch


Jail


Feature


Lazy


Toddler


Global



A lot of these came from an 11 year old girl with impeccable handwriting, who is one of the sweetest, shyest, and smartest girls in the school. I speak with her a lot and she likes me, so I don’t care if she is messing around and writing about me. I’m kind of happy I’m encouraging her to be a smart ass actually.

17 comments:

Sofia Florén said...

hahahaha!!! xD

Ben Gwynne said...

Yeah yeah, laugh it up. I'm sure if I waited 2 more months to post this I would have about 30-40 more. It's been a growing trend as of late.

Maggie said...

your students are funny! though i do think that "i crashed my car into ben" is a correct sentence the way it is. i let one of my french students send a letter to her english pen pal in which she repeatedly referred to her dog as "my bitch." technically, it was the correct word...

Ben Gwynne said...

I know, I didn't mark them all before I took pictures. Only a few.

Anonymous said...

cute

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious, Ben. I loving your blog. Keep it coming.
--Chia

Ben Gwynne said...

Thanks. I most certainly will. There's going to be a swarm of material this last month, home stretch!

LAWJOEY said...

HAHAHAHA! they are so creative but it's quite rude actually. i love your kids! ;D

bg said...

Thanks Joey, there's a few more posts like this, check em out.

xmyp said...

correction-"the" dumbest. haha I wonder if they write those kinds of things about female teachers.

bg said...

I think i'm the unlucky one

Anonymous said...

LOL. I really wanna teach English in Korea. I hope my students are creative AND rude haha :)
We gotta teach em how to fit into America well, right?

Anonymous said...

hahaha lols ben i love your website..it reminds me of my experiences when i was teaching esl..how about you let them read the tounge twister, "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck...etc..." haha

Anonymous said...

Thanks anonymous and Darialois. BTW, if I'm ever teaching ESL in Korea again, I'll be SURE to introduce/torture them with tongue twisters, lol

- Ben

hk said...

I really enjoyed many of your stories but this one was my favorite. I laughed so hard.... I found your blog while searching to find a fix for my nostalgia for the life I didn't have in Korea. I immigrated when I was twelve years and I often wonder how it would have been like to grow up and live in Korea. Thank you for sharing with a sense of humor and frankness.

Anonymous said...

Thanks HK! I really liked my time over there, the kids were so sweet. I hope you enjoy your time in Korea regardless!

bg

Anonymous said...

nah, they liked me so it was okay.

bg