A pencil can sometimes be borrowed but at times each kid says they don't have one, either they have just one pencil/pen for themselves or they don't want to lend one. I remember one story: in one class I had of kids who were about 2nd grade there was one boy who couln't bring his pencil for anything. Ironically, he carried a backpack stuffed with books, possibly notebooks or other things, but no pencil. I remember at the start of class finding out he didn't have one. Then I looked in a pencil can on the teacher's desk (it wasn't really my classroom) and picked out one pencil, then another finding them all to be either broken, unsharpened, too short or whatever. I think I did that at least two times. Also I got a Korean teacher to come in my room and told her. She looked at the students and said okay. I'm not sure if she actually did anything about it. When I told her this the boy even acted like he would cry but he continued to come pencil-free as long as I taught him, as I recall.
Books are a bigger deal. If a kid didn't bring his book to one of my hagwon classes one of the following happened:
1 - I took my book or antoher kid's book to the office where there was a copy machine. Many hagwons have copy machines which don't work well and it could be a struggle to get copies out. And, the machine may have been turned off at times. It takes a bit for a machine to warm up after being turned on. It took around five minutes to get back and forth with the copies, 5 minutes from a class which is usually 50 minutes, but some were 25 tor 40. A lot of time to take to make copies for one kid which is all it often was. Could be just copying 1-2 pages. A few minutes or five seems like nothing to a non-teacher but it is useful teaching time. It's enough time to get the class started and working on something. And if the teacher leaves for five minutes the kids will sit and talk. When the teacher returns they may have gotten comfortably just sitting and talking and not want to stop. Then it takes time to get them to quiet down. I don't remember that happening to me but it could happen. Depriving all the students of that time isn't fair. Also it's frustrating to struggle with the copy machine knowing that you are losing class time. When I talked to owners of one hagwon about students not bringing books they said I can make copies. They didn't have this experience I think.
1.5 - After a kid got copies they were often lost or thrown out after class. One class I had didn't use any book. I made worksheets for them for each class. After it had been going on a while one day one kid opened his backpack and I could see every worksheet we had ever done in his bag.
2 - Another option is asking the kid next to that kid to share their book. Seems like an easy, workable idea, doesn't it? But it didn't work. I have memories of two boys sharing one book. I went to their desks and placed the book so that it was in the middle of their space. Then after a few minutes I looked back to see the book's owner had pulled the book back onto his desk and the bookless kid was either staring into space, had his head down or possibly playing some little game. I saw this many times. I can't say it happened every time but enough that I don't think this is a solution to a kid not having a book. When I saw this I had to go back to their desks and re-position the book so they could both use it.
One class I had where students sat two by two. For some reason two boys in the front brought their books but two girls behind them didn't. This went on for a while. I think one of the girls had lost it or her parents wouldn't buy it but didn't want to say. The other girl I think just didn't bring it. I took one of the boys books to give to them. The boys likely weren't happy about it but didn't say. It really isn't fair.
In another case a Korean co-teacher I had must've been told by the kids that it was hard to bring books back and forth for some reason. She said they could put them in a space on my shelves. The problem was I sometimes gave homework from the books and of course the kids coudn't do it with no books. I remember one day after class the kids all ran to the shelf to put their books in and ran out as they often do after class when they are kids full of energy. I had wanted to say to them to not do this because of the homework but they moved so fast and I hesitated and then it was too late.
3 - Let a kid have the teacher's book. Many times I let at kid use my book. Seems fine but it was inconvienient for me. I'm not just saying that. With a book I could hold it up to show kids and to see for myself, tell them what page to turn to. Show them what they should be looking at. With no book what I did was while walking around the class I would look at the kids books from time to time and give instructions that way. Now that I think about it, I realize it's more clear for the students to see my book held up in the front of the room than for me to say something like: "Go to page 15 and look at the top." Some kids in English hagwons honestly don't understand English well. And none of them understand it the way they understand their native language. Pointing and showing clearly helps. As I write this I remember that when I told classes to turn to a certain page, many times some students did and some didn't. Could be half and half. I can't say for sure whether they didn't understand me or they were tired or maybe half-understood or just didn't want to do it. These times I went around and opened books to the right page for them.
At the last hagwon where I worked my boss told me that when students lose their books, sometimes the parents won't buy another. And I think he also said that some don't want to buy it at all. Actually I did hear from one hagwon teacher (not someone I worked with) that she had to copy entire books for students. Likely their parents didn't want to pay. Hmm, so you pay more than 100,000 won ($100) for a class and won't pay 10,000 ($10) for a book which the whole class is based on? I can understand that Koreans pay so much for kids' education and want to save where they can, but when you are paying so much each month does this little bit really make a difference?
Now the story of the kid who couldn't bring his book. I had one kid who had lost his book and came to class each day without one. I heard him say in Korean that he didn't want to buy another. He wasn't a good student anyway and I remember very well that during class after the kid next to him had taken back his book that I had asked him to share, this boy was either off in his own world or in some way not participating at all in class. I told the boss and Korean co-teacher about it. After this had gone on a long time I was talking with the boss one day and I remember saying I will pay for his book. I would rather pay 10,000 won than have him come with no book continuously. My boss who wasn't the greatest guy told me I didn't have to do that. I knew that much - I wanted to. Within the next few days the boy's sister found the book in their home someplace like under a stairwell. When the boss told me this I said: "He didn't bring his book for three months." Looking back now I don't know why me or the boss didn't come up with the idea to copy a book for him. I may have thought that he would find the book. Likely he would've lost the copy or forgot to bring it. We were using the Smile book series which I like. I copied pictures of them below.
One could say Korean kids have too many books already and too many classes in a day, however these books were the size of a Time or Newsweek and would fit into any pack and not add any weight. There was a regular book called a student book and a workbook - both same size and weight. The boss also said to me once that kids may ctome direct from school and not have time to go home to pick up their books. Considering, as I said, that the entire class was based on the book, I think they should prepare in the morning. I don't mean to be hard on kids, but this is important enough to take a little extra effort. I remember getting ready for school when I was young. I remember preparing what I needed for after school activities before I went out.
What's funny is not long after the kid found his book he stopped coming. I heard form his sister I think, who would make another interesting story, that he wasn't interested in coming/didn't really want to come or something like that. I really don't think I was disappointed. Students like this boy who have such low interest and don't seem to have much ability should not go to hagwons, in my opinion.
One quick story: another class I had at a different hagwon also had the book problem. One day I just decided the only way they will bring the books and notebooks which we used then was to give them stickers for it. So I did and I remember that it worked. Each day start of class I asked them to show me the books and notebooks and they each got a sticker. Later one teacher was complaining to me during break time about the book problem and I told him what I did. He replied, "Should I reward them for coming to class?" He didn't think we should have to give stickers for bringing books.
Another quick story: this story angers me each time I remember. One girl was attending my class for a while. She brought her book off and on, I can't say if it was more off than on or vice versa. When she was bookless she shared with her friend who sat next to her. I don't recall this being a problem. But what should happen. When we finished one book, which was also a Smile book, and moved to the next level (Smile has levels 1-6) the girl came in and (as I understood from her limited English) said her mother looked at her old book and found it was not finished so she said she wouldn't buy the next one. Duh if you don't bring your book so many times it won't be complete. Having no communication with the students' parents, there was no way I could talk to the mother to explain. I also didn't say anything to my boss. I probably didn't know what to do about this.
To conclude, every hagwon needs some solution to this. If you have to talk with kids and parents seriously about this or even require the kids to keep books in hagwons or make copies of entire books instead of requiring kids to buy them.
I'll add one more story about notebooks. So I had some middle school classes once. Not me but the boss decided that some classes would write diaries two times per week in a notebook which they bought from teh hagwon. I gave the kids the books and instructions and ... next class I saw maybe one notebook with a diary in it. I remember asking where they were once and one student said I have it but it's at home. Either that class or another I asked students one day to take out notebooks so we could use them to write something. Students gave me various responses such as "I have a notebook but it's for another class" or "My notebook is at home." After all these experiences I decided to have one class use a notebook for writing stories or diaries. Knowing about the notebook problems, I simply decided to buy the notebooks myself and keep them with me in my office. If they went home some would come back and others wouldn't. It worked out. I bought notebooks with different designs and let the students choose. When the class finished I gave them to the students. Each notebook was only 500 won (50 cents). People might say I should'nt have had to do that but it was the best option I could think of. By the way in the classes assigned to write diaries, only a few students actually did.
Quick story: The Eraser Story. Especially with young children, if kids wrote down one letter or word and realized it was wrong, they often shouted out "Jee-oo-gae" which means eraser. Then another kid would take one out of their pencil case and give it to this kid. If kids all had their own it would mean fewer interruptions.
Quick story: Shar-puh. The Korean Konglish name for mechanical pencil is Sharp. Koreans pronounce it shar-puh. In many classes the teacher and students work together to complete something. It matters that they all stay together. Well sometimes kids, particularly one I remember, the girl who couldn't bring her book, used this when the other kids had pencils. One time or more times I remember she was having trouble with it so took lots of small pieces of lead and layed them out in front of her. Then I guess what she did was put them in one by one. Meanwhile the other kids and I were completing our work. When I said to her something like come on, do this she answered: "Teacher, shar-puh!" An easy way to say she was having trouble with it. By the time she got her shar-puh in order we had finished the work. I can't remember after that but usually at times like these the other kids have to sit and wait while the one kid finishes the work they have already finished. It doesn't seem like such a big deal. Hagwons are casual overall. Some are strict and require a lot of work done in each class. Most aren't. However if you are a teacher and want to finish other things during your class, having to wait on one kid for a few minutes does make a difference.
If you are reading and think I'm making much ado about nothing or am too uptight, let me tell you that all these things DO matter. They affect teachers ability to teach.
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