New interactive practice segment: Sam's Solutions in Life...

Dear Sam,
I'm a woman in trouble. Fifteen years have passed since I got married. We have children. My husband is a sports nut.-he is crazy about all kinds of sports. My family rarely went anywhere for a vacation or a holiday, since he didn't want to miss a football, baseball or basketball game on TV. Whenever we are in the car, he insisted that the radio should be tuned to a game. Conversation was allowed only during commercials. My children who are not interested in sports have nothing to talk to their father. I asked my husband to do things with me and my children for a recreation but he ignored!! I thought I could change him but I failed. What shall I do ?

Frustrated

I think I am a badly organized person. I want to do things as planned and I want to keep my belongings as the way they were. I always forget the place where I put my belongings or document. It always happens. I don't want to waste my time to find things any more.

And I really like to learn or do something new and I easily fall into something. However, it doesn't go long. I easily get bored with things I sarted with passion. That is my problem too. Once I was so into how to bake cookies and cakes, which didn't go long. And then I started to learn balloon art, and I started to watch videos related to that on the Internet . Now I really fell into cooking. I know this passion doesn't go long. What am I supposed to do? I really want to stick to one thing I really like.

Lee yujin wrote:Whenever I try to concentrate on something, I find myself easily distracted by everything surrounding me.
I want to get useful tips to help me concentrate from Sam!!!

To my shame,I used to be the person who was distrcted easily. I loved daydreaming. I used to find myself just spending doing nothing particular even if I had something to do .I asked people around me to give some advice to solve this problem but I failed to find the proper solution. I kept thinking and made up my mind to get used to writing the memos. I wrote the title on top of the memo -"Things to do today" and every morning, I wrote the things I had to do,giving them priority. I put those memos on my desk and on the screen so that I could easily go back to work . It paid off . I'm wondering if it will be beneficial to you as well. Anyway , how about giving it a try?

Dear Sam.

I have one student who have studied English so hard, but his performance has not improved yet. Whenever he took tests, his score remained the same. To see him disappointed is too much for me. What should I do for him?

I highly recommend you to do some exercises. I think running an half hour and going hiking to the small mountains will do. When you exercise, you will reach a point where you want to stop and quit. This is just a simple practice, When you get over with the limited points, you finally learn how to get it over and how to be patient for a long time.

Lee Hye Jin wrote:I think I am a badly organized person. I want to do things as planned and I want to keep my belongings as the way they were. I always forget the place where I put my belongings or document. It always happens. I don't want to waste my time to find things any more.

And I really like to learn or do something new and I easily fall into something. However, it doesn't go long. I easily get bored with things I sarted with passion. That is my problem too. Once I was so into how to bake cookies and cakes, which didn't go long. And then I started to learn balloon art, and I started to watch videos related to that on the Internet . Now I really fell into cooking. I know this passion doesn't go long. What am I supposed to do? I really want to stick to one thing I really like.

Dear a Promising English Teacher..

I think i know what you are talking about. I did the same work, felt the same way you do now. I couldn't utter or pen any English sentence unless i have seen it before in the newspaper or well-typed English literature. Everything from my head seemed to be just a literal translation from Korean to English. I was so embarrassed and puzzled as you may feell now that it sometimes took me an hour to jot down three or four sentences. Somehow i could have a chance to talk with some native speakers and ask them to proofread what i tranlsated. Thankfully, they pinpointed what's wrong or inappropriate in my composition and encouraged me to move forward. Then, i regained some confidence and pushed myself harder and harder. Even now i feel my tongue twisted when i meet a foreigner and my finger crooked when i am ready to interpret Korean to English. However, i think i can make myself understood in Englihs not fully but satisfactorily. DJ.. We are not born in an English-speaking country, but we have come this far. Let's keep up the good work.^^

jangdj wrote:Dear sam ..


Well. sometimes I ask myself what is going on around my head. "Puzzled", "complicated" , "annoyed" those words don't seem appropiate to define the situation . To express and deliver messages clearly in the target language I do not have native-control, is too much burden to me. I must confess that yet I still can not write in english . I am doing translating job as matter of fact. I do build a sentence and translate it into target languge.I do not think in english and wirte simuntaneously. Interval between two process just got much shorter than it was long so sometimes I make people think I am functioning in english rather than translating.
As a M.A STUDENT and in the graduate shool of education, I frequently feel I am simply not good enough to be a prospective teacher. I fully aware that there is no migic for this sort of problem. However , I hope to see lamp's Genne

Compared to other middle or high school subjects, English is worth putting efforts to improve its score. So, i humbly suggest to you that if your student is in middle school, i think you first check that he is a really hard-working student. If so, make him show his efforts to you every other day or every week. We often confuse diligence with modesty. Second, if your student is in high school and you are sure of his industry, then you have to wait and see. If you have enough patience to wait for more than 3 months while encouraging him to study hard, you will see the result. If his score doesn't improve much, it is very likely that he is not that diligent guy.

kurt wrote:Dear Sam.

I have one student who have studied English so hard, but his performance has not improved yet. Whenever he took tests, his score remained the same. To see him disappointed is too much for me. What should I do for him?

jangdj wrote:Dear sam ..


Well. sometimes I ask myself what is going on around my head. "Puzzled", "complicated" , "annoyed" those words don't seem appropiate to define the situation . To express and deliver messages clearly in the target language I do not have native-control, is too much burden to me. I must confess that yet I still can not write in english . I am doing translating job as matter of fact. I do build a sentence and translate it into target languge.I do not think in english and wirte simuntaneously. Interval between two process just got much shorter than it was long so sometimes I make people think I am functioning in english rather than translating.
As a M.A STUDENT and in the graduate shool of education, I frequently feel I am simply not good enough to be a prospective teacher. I fully aware that there is no migic for this sort of problem. However , I hope to see lamp's Genne

Dear the Puzzled
In all around world, we are looking for some magical tool to improve our English skills, but sooner or later, we are aware that there is none to do so for us. Ironically, in an incredibly, scientifically fast world we are getting nervous about what you haven't got yet, but more. I think you are great, awesome. You are doing right now writing some lines without any hesitation, I suppose. And one more thing, you will be getting better at using English. How incredible you are! Be more patient for a year or so, and you will know what your ability is quite well.
Cheer up!
Sam

kurt wrote:Dear Sam.

I have one student who have studied English so hard, but his performance has not improved yet. Whenever he took tests, his score remained the same. To see him disappointed is too much for me. What should I do for him?

Dear disappointed teacher
Let me say you should wait and wait.
One of my friends who have a crazy idea was trying to study very hard, but it took long time for him to have a good remark, so that you should give your student motivation not to give up with his result at the moment.
Keep helping him and encourage him.
And I would like to give my hands to you due to your effort and passion to student. Awesome!
Best wishes,
Sam

jangdj wrote:Dear sam ..


Well. sometimes I ask myself what is going on around my head. "Puzzled", "complicated" , "annoyed" those words don't seem appropiate to define the situation . To express and deliver messages clearly in the target language I do not have native-control, is too much burden to me. I must confess that yet I still can not write in english . I am doing translating job as matter of fact. I do build a sentence and translate it into target languge.I do not think in english and wirte simuntaneously. Interval between two process just got much shorter than it was long so sometimes I make people think I am functioning in english rather than translating.
As a M.A STUDENT and in the graduate shool of education, I frequently feel I am simply not good enough to be a prospective teacher. I fully aware that there is no migic for this sort of problem. However , I hope to see lamp's Genne

Hi Jangdj,

Sam here. Thanks for posting your heartfelt issue. You've already received some replies and I think they pass on very relevant and useful advice. Most of all, it appears you need to go easy on yourself in terms of expectations. Be patient. English is not a river to be crossed. It is a river to swim in and enjoy, to let the current take you gently downstream to bigger and better things.

To make a more practical solution, I heard from my friend Jason (he teaches your course at KNU) about how he increased his fluency in thinking and writing in his second language (Swedish). He kept a private diary in a small notebook that he could carry around with him on a constant basis. Even though he was really pathetic at Swedish at first (and had to have a dictionary on hand to spit out even the most simple thoughts on paper), he kept at it, writing anything and everything he could in that diary whenever he had a chance - on the train or bus, sitting waiting for classes, etc...

At first, of course, it was all basically translation between the two languages in his head - and usually pretty poor translation at that. But two years later, his diary entries had become much more fluent, and he had in fact "trained" himself to think much more directly in Swedish. This was possibly partly due to the progression in language proficiency, but mostly because of the general habit of doing the entries regularly, and eventually doing them without a dictionary on hand. He basically became used to expressing ideas with whatever Swedish he had at his disposal rather than thinking things through in detail in English and then trying to translate. The key thing was that he had to be willing to be patient and not fussy about his expression - he had to accept that he would not be able to think or express himself as elegantly in Swedish as he could in English. Being a private diary, this was not a big issue once he got used to the idea. He would even experiment with Swedish in playful ways, coming up with sentences that would have caused Alfred Nobel to turn in his grave with horror at seeing his beloved language being twisted and deformed in such ways.

However, it worked. Three years after commencing Swedish, he was fluent enough to be awarded a scholarship by his university (The University of Melbourne in Australia) to spend a year at Uppsala University in Sweden (the most prestigious university in Northern Europe). There he studied all his subjects in Swedish, and came home a year later almost completely fluent. The personal 'play' diary was a major facilitator in that process, and in the general process of teaching himself to 'think' in the second language.

I hope Jason's experience can inspire you. He's short, ugly, and not all that amusing, but he does have some good ideas from time to time...

Best regards and best of luck with it,

~ Sam Solution


***

Oksun wrote:Dear Sam,
I'm a woman in trouble. Fifteen years have passed since I got married. We have children. My husband is a sports nut.-he is crazy about all kinds of sports. My family rarely went anywhere for a vacation or a holiday, since he didn't want to miss a football, baseball or basketball game on TV. Whenever we are in the car, he insisted that the radio should be tuned to a game. Conversation was allowed only during commercials. My children who are not interested in sports have nothing to talk to their father. I asked my husband to do things with me and my children for a recreation but he ignored!! I thought I could change him but I failed. What shall I do ?

Frustrated

Dear the frustrated laday
Thank you for your sharing here. Your story isn't easy to discuss. I am sure it is the time your family have to be changed in time. As a married man, I don't quite well understand about Korean men, espeically who live in Kyoungsang area.
First of all, I don't think your husband has any chance to hear or see husbands who is kind enough to do some nice things at home. That means you should find out some seminar for married couples who have not good relationship between them. Therefore he might hear some ideal or factual behavior in his house. I am not talking about that your husband is so wrong that he needs some corrections from others. I mean it is time for him to see his married life in a different way to go. I hope it will work for your family.
And secondly, you need to tell him what will happen in the future. Nowadays children don't like to talk or play with their father any more, if so, it is not kind of ture thing to the children. If he doesn't play with children, it may happen to your husband. I am sure you and your children have a good relationship one another. That's more essential fact than the first reason here.
I do know your situation right now, but who else can understand your feelings? I am always supporting your idea that you try to keep your family warm and happy and if you don't give it up, it will gradually and finally work.
Best wishes,
Sam who is on your side.

Dear Sam

Now i have a newborn baby, a little over a month now, who doesn't sleep well.. i mean he barely sleeps for more than 2 hours at a time. When i am in school, my wife and my mother-in-law takes care of my baby. But, at night i am the one who is in charge of hugging, feeding, and making him sleep, which means i have also barely slept for more than 2 hours at one time since he was released from a nursery center. Sometimes i feel i can't stand this any more and i really would like to quit my MA study right away(^^). What should i do? Help me, Sam!

How eagerly do you want to be a teacher, especially middle and high school?

In my case, since I was a middle school student it has been my entire dream. BUT now.. frankly speaking, i don't know well.

After failure in teacher's exam, I wonder what I want to be. Now, I just teach kindergarten students and 1st/2nd grade elementary school students English. Through this experience I could learn something which I've never learn teacher's college. Compared to preschool education, secondary education is really different one. I think, now I'm learning what education is. general concept.. It's really interesting to hear my students' English saying, "good-bye", "brush your teeth", etc.. Even they are humming in English! When they call me smiling on their face, they hug me, and their mothers send me text-message "My child is really like this English class. Teacher, thank you very much.", I think, it is worth while to keep on this work.

However, because most friends around me want to be/are teachers, sometimes it seems to me that it is the way of failure not to be a real teacher(i mean "real teacher" = pass the teacher's exam). um.. just.. confused.. nowaday...

BUT I have a dream that every children who want to study can do it without financial difficulty. the truth education.. I mean Cham education.(참교육) Someday I will make it. I expect the day and train myself now...


p.s. ; my writing.. it's a little long~ and it seems serious story. If this makes you feel down, I'm sorry. I just want to say.. Sometimes telling something gets rid of stress. hahaha... ^______________^;;

Kyeong-im wrote:How eagerly do you want to be a teacher, especially middle and high school?

In my case, since I was a middle school student it has been my entire dream. BUT now.. frankly speaking, i don't know well.

After failure in teacher's exam, I wonder what I want to be. Now, I just teach kindergarten students and 1st/2nd grade elementary school students English. Through this experience I could learn something which I've never learn teacher's college. Compared to preschool education, secondary education is really different one. I think, now I'm learning what education is. general concept.. It's really interesting to hear my students' English saying, "good-bye", "brush your teeth", etc.. Even they are humming in English! When they call me smiling on their face, they hug me, and their mothers send me text-message "My child is really like this English class. Teacher, thank you very much.", I think, it is worth while to keep on this work.

However, because most friends around me want to be/are teachers, sometimes it seems to me that it is the way of failure not to be a real teacher(i mean "real teacher" = pass the teacher's exam). um.. just.. confused.. nowaday...

BUT I have a dream that every children who want to study can do it without financial difficulty. the truth education.. I mean Cham education.(참교육) Someday I will make it. I expect the day and train myself now...


p.s. ; my writing.. it's a little long~ and it seems serious story. If this makes you feel down, I'm sorry. I just want to say.. Sometimes telling something gets rid of stress. hahaha... ^______________^;;

Dear puzzled
I am impressed that you have your own idea about Cham education. And it sounds desirable. Since I came here I have been keep asking myself ,what cause me enter this course ?am I doing right thing ? how about the job stability ? It's pretty nerve breaking time for me. But this piece of writing really encouraged me
You doing well and you are doing right thing. Teaching is more than a delivering knowledges right? Based on what you did write , it sounds you truly interact and communicate with your students.


And about what you mentioned about true education particularly on the money issue. You can say that again.
Today this competitve country located in Far-East Asia seems making things worse especially after Lee adminstration has established. Trying to build more top- notch private high schools and harm the level playing field, It seems that they want to close the window of opportunity for students who came from low income- family.

kurt wrote:Dear Sam.

I have one student who have studied English so hard, but his performance has not improved yet. Whenever he took tests, his score remained the same. To see him disappointed is too much for me. What should I do for him?

Sometimes hardworking does not not pay off and that makes peole frustrated. When it comes to test score , especially in language it really does. Having a ggod command of language and getting a satisfactory result do not go together somtimes. We need to be a little tricky and clever at this point. Putiing aside genuine lingustic proficency for a while, your students need to learn how to be a " test wise student through test driven learning". I am sure you know some know-how and you share it rihgt away.

Oksun wrote:

Lee yujin wrote:Whenever I try to concentrate on something, I find myself easily distracted by everything surrounding me.
I want to get useful tips to help me concentrate from Sam!!!

To my shame,I used to be the person who was distrcted easily. I loved daydreaming. I used to find myself just spending doing nothing particular even if I had something to do .I asked people around me to give some advice to solve this problem but I failed to find the proper solution. I kept thinking and made up my mind to get used to writing the memos. I wrote the title on top of the memo -"Things to do today" and every morning, I wrote the things I had to do,giving them priority. I put those memos on my desk and on the screen so that I could easily go back to work . It paid off . I'm wondering if it will be beneficial to you as well. Anyway , how about giving it a try?

I also think I need to wirte down something to remind me of what I have to do.
I try to do likt that. I really appreciate for you to read and reply my problem.

Lee Hye Jin wrote:I think I am a badly organized person. I want to do things as planned and I want to keep my belongings as the way they were. I always forget the place where I put my belongings or document. It always happens. I don't want to waste my time to find things any more.

And I really like to learn or do something new and I easily fall into something. However, it doesn't go long. I easily get bored with things I sarted with passion. That is my problem too. Once I was so into how to bake cookies and cakes, which didn't go long. And then I started to learn balloon art, and I started to watch videos related to that on the Internet . Now I really fell into cooking. I know this passion doesn't go long. What am I supposed to do? I really want to stick to one thing I really like.

I have the same experiences like yours.
My room is always messy and I can't find where my belongings are...
I thought I must be the only person who are not good at organizing in this class.

Anyway we have to make the habit of note-taking, which would help us a lot.
Any whenever you start certain task, do remind you of the ultimate goal to achieve.
That may help you not to give up.

jangdj wrote:Dear sam ..


Well. sometimes I ask myself what is going on around my head. "Puzzled", "complicated" , "annoyed" those words don't seem appropiate to define the situation . To express and deliver messages clearly in the target language I do not have native-control, is too much burden to me. I must confess that yet I still can not write in english . I am doing translating job as matter of fact. I do build a sentence and translate it into target languge.I do not think in english and wirte simuntaneously. Interval between two process just got much shorter than it was long so sometimes I make people think I am functioning in english rather than translating.
As a M.A STUDENT and in the graduate shool of education, I frequently feel I am simply not good enough to be a prospective teacher. I fully aware that there is no migic for this sort of problem. However , I hope to see lamp's Genne

Nowdays I often feel like you. it seems like everybody is better than me. Everybody in the class is good at speaking and writing except me.
However I decided not to be frustrated even though my English is not so good. Because that means I have much room to improve my English. We are here to learn ,not to show perfect English. ^^
The thoughts we have also can be what our future students might think. Then we can understand better them and show them that is not the end.
You can be the best teacher!!!

After reading your article, I am a little ashamed of what i am currently doing and how i approach my students as a teacher. I don't think I have seriously thought about being a teacher in college or even right after graduation. I just belived that it was natural that i would beomce a teacher since i was a studnet of the teacher's college. But, once i got to work in high school, i had to face a lot of troubles. I always felt inadequate for teaching something to seemingly grow-ups, and had a few experiences that i taught something wrong and made corrections next class. Oh... it was really difficult to even find my own identity as a teacher. Unlike you, being a teacher has never been my dream. I had to re-define my life as a teacher.

I think this confusing time is sure to helpful to you as a future teacher. Give yourself enough time to think about being a real teacher and, above all else, like you are teaching kids, have as many experiences as possible. I think you are right on the track of being an inspirational teacher. Good luck to you!

Kyeong-im wrote:How eagerly do you want to be a teacher, especially middle and high school?

In my case, since I was a middle school student it has been my entire dream. BUT now.. frankly speaking, i don't know well.

After failure in teacher's exam, I wonder what I want to be. Now, I just teach kindergarten students and 1st/2nd grade elementary school students English. Through this experience I could learn something which I've never learn teacher's college. Compared to preschool education, secondary education is really different one. I think, now I'm learning what education is. general concept.. It's really interesting to hear my students' English saying, "good-bye", "brush your teeth", etc.. Even they are humming in English! When they call me smiling on their face, they hug me, and their mothers send me text-message "My child is really like this English class. Teacher, thank you very much.", I think, it is worth while to keep on this work.

However, because most friends around me want to be/are teachers, sometimes it seems to me that it is the way of failure not to be a real teacher(i mean "real teacher" = pass the teacher's exam). um.. just.. confused.. nowaday...

BUT I have a dream that every children who want to study can do it without financial difficulty. the truth education.. I mean Cham education.(참교육) Someday I will make it. I expect the day and train myself now...


p.s. ; my writing.. it's a little long~ and it seems serious story. If this makes you feel down, I'm sorry. I just want to say.. Sometimes telling something gets rid of stress. hahaha... ^______________^;;

You may feel sorry for him.
How about telling him the effective way to study? Some students try hard, but don't get good scores due to their lack of strategies. One of my students also have the same problem. I diagnosed that she didn't understand the scheme but stuck to the details strongly.
And you should encourage him not to lose patience. He may be disappointed and frustrated with his failure. But I think it's when you have to stand by him.
Cheer up!

kurt wrote:Dear Sam.

I have one student who have studied English so hard, but his performance has not improved yet. Whenever he took tests, his score remained the same. To see him disappointed is too much for me. What should I do for him?