Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

So there's been a lot of talk about all the American 'scholars' who will be joining us teaching EFL this summer. But they're only half the picture. What about all the Korean students who'll be paired up with them? How will things look from their perspective?

Presumably they'll be BEd students from universities of education, probably in the middle of their second or third year. It's not easy to get into such a programme (unlike secondary school education programmes), and most such students are quite bright and talented. Will they have the same orientation, a different orientation, or no orientation? Then what will happen when they're sent out to hicksville to 'co-teach'?

I doubt they'll also be making 1.5 million a month, creating an immediate cause for jealousy. Who knows what kind of housing they'll get, but if they do get any it will likely be a rented room, not a single apartment. Perhaps if there are enough of them in an area they'll get roommates.

Then it's time to go to school. For most of these schools, the American will be the first white person ever to step foot in them. Children will swarm and give celebrity cheers, banners will be unfurled, photos will be taken, important people will be met, and the 'scholar' will be thoroughly perplexed, as school district officials treat him like he's the mayor and children treat him like he's the mascot. Cowering somewhere in the corner will be the Korean 'scholar', who's just joined an institution where she's somewhere on the staff totem pole below the cafeteria ajumas.

Most of the American 'scholars' will be guys and the vast majority of the Korean 'scholars' will be girls. The Korean may well be the only English speaker within 20 miles and the American will necessarily have to depend on her for everything from shopping to what button on the computer keyboard switches fonts back to English. They'll also be years if not decades younger than the regular teachers at their school. It won't take long before the teachers, students, and parents all think they have more than just a professional relationship; and in a few cases, they'll be right. Now, thankfully she'll be from somewhere else and it's not as though he's defiling the purity of the local women. However, the *beep* from the city and the stereotypical debauched whitey will be an image that's hard to avoid, even if their relationship is strictly professional. Not to mention the local high school girls who'll have an unhealthy curiosity about Joe Average with his 'movie star' good looks.

Each will likely assume that the other one knows what he / she's doing. The Korean will likely figure that the orientation training taught the American what do to, and after all he's a real whitey just like the guys on EBS and ESL Cafe. The American will likely assume that the Korean, who's been studying English education for several years, knows how to handle things.

For the kids things should get off to an interesting start. Once the novelty of having a forienger at their school wears off things may get even more interesting. They'll reckon that uni student-teacher = not very serious and American = fun time. There should be plenty of moments when the American can't understand why the Korean is getting so upset by what the kids are saying in Korean and when the Korean can't understand why the American is getting so upset at the kids chatting in Korean while he's talking. I imagine that by month 7 or 8 the DVD player will be getting a lot of use.

Then will come the inevitable *beep* ups by the American for which the K-student will be held responsible. Worse still may be the schools who try to press-gang the American into doing all sorts of extra things, for which someone at the school may be pocketing extra fees, with the K-student expected to do all the arm-twisting to make it work.

While this does in theory have the potential to be 'great opportunity' for the Korean student to get exposure to a native speaker and some hands-on experience teaching kids, I can only imagine what sort of a nightmare it's going to turn out for some.

[Bryan]

As an ESL volunteer at my university, I've had the pleasure of working with plenty of Korean women, many education or English majors, without having sex with any of them--despite the fact that we were both young! Amazing!!!

Do you have sex with your co-teachers when they're the same age as you?



Almost everything you wrote about applies equally to BA holders.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[TheUrbanMyth]