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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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| kiwiboy_nz_99 wrote: |
posco's trumpet is right. The only way to test the quality of language teaching in the Hagwons would be to test the students BEFORE they enter the middle school system. Otherwise you are dealing with a student who has had five to six years of "teaching" from a teacher who is far from fluent, who directs his teaching to the passing of a multi-choice listening exam, who uses a book written by Koreans that is riddled with errors, and who does not focus on real life oral communication. Whatever progress had been achieved at the Hagwon is effectively cancelled under these conditions.
More over, I'd like to know what criteria these foreigners are using assess the level of Korean's English ability. Who are they talking to? The current Hagwon craze is about ten years old. A university graduate today is not a "Hagwon kid". Thus I think it's premature to judge the Hagwon phenominon. I beleive that despite all this talk of innefective Hagwon teachers, we will see a marked increase in English ability in uni graduates within the next ten years, when the Hagwon kids who have gone right through from the age of five enter the work force. Hagwon teaching is not rocket science. If you care for your work and do your best, you don't have to be a genius or a trained teacher to make a major difference to the kids lives. Not only do they get a very solid grounding in the basics of English, spelling, phonetics, basic sentence structure, basic vocab etc, they are also going to be the first adults in Korea who don't see foreigners as something entirely weird and removed from reality, they will see us as human beings  and be much more comfortable with us in general.
I don't know if I'll be here, but when the "Hagwon kids" start taking positions of power in this country there will be some major changes for the better. |
This is exactly what I wrote to the guy who wrote that article, but his e-mail is invalid, and the letter bounced back to me. |
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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| posco's trumpet wrote: |
| Derrek wrote: |
A city of 12 Million people in such a small area. What kind of traffic problems are they expecting to make better?
I'd say the subway here is a pretty awesome thing!
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If Seoul is the first city they've lived in with a subway, or if they're originally from cities without subway systems, people tend to think the Seoul system is great.
On the other hand, if a person has any significant experience of the subway systems of London, Paris, Berlin, New York or Tokyo, then they'll probably agree that the Seoul subway system sucks ass. |
Oh, come on. I've been to a few of those places (Berlin and Tokyo), and been on the subways. It was more expensive. Especially Tokyo. And it was not as extensive (at least not where I was).
Now if I could just get them to add some more buses between Itaewon and Kangnam. I get so tired of waiting for 78-3. |
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Holyjoe
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: Away for a cuppa
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| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 12:59 am Post subject: |
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| posco's trumpet wrote: |
| Holyjoe wrote: |
| What exactly's wrong with it? |
The biggest problems with the Seoul system are
it doesn't cover nearly enough of the city
the stations may be some of the most poorly conceived archictecture I've ever seen: No thought went into the movement of people through the stations
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To give them credit... the first parts of London Underground were initially opened in 1863, Paris Metro in 1900, Berlin in 1902, New York in 1904 and Tokyo in 1927.
The Seoul system was opened in 1974, and in the 29 years it's been open it's become reasonably extensive.
And I've found the connecting tunnels and platforms to be a lot more open and negotiable than the Paris and London systems... but each to their own, I guess. |
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