Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cerriowen]

OK so maybe I'm just having a bad day. Maybe I'm expecting too much.

Two of my co-workers don't have a perfect english ability, but 99% of the time they are at least close. For example, saying someone passed out, instead of passed away.

But my third co-worker can barely have a coherent conversation with me. At least 90% of her sentences have misused words, grammatical errors, etc.

Today she had a really important presentation for all the teachers and some from other schools. This is supposed to be her best work, right?

"The golf ball almost get into the hole"
"My dog has a bad TV viewing habit"

And that's after extensive self-editing.

Is it really so easy to get a public school job? I was under the impression that there was a lot of competition for jobs in Korea.

WTF?

[Creeface]

Is there a lot of competition for public school jobs?

I had an interview with SMOE and I am waiting to hear back, I hope i get it just to know that I wont have to deal with any hogwan bullshit. Other than I speak English and have a BS i have nothing going for me, i hope it is not too competitive...

[Hank the Iconoclast]

[Creeface]

but seriously.. whose dog doesnt have bad tv viewing habits?

[Cracker006]

I'm talking about a Korean teacher, not a western teacher.

One co-worker is old-ish, and he makes a few mistakes, but he does pretty well.

The one I'm complaining about is only 24. She just started three months ago.

[marlow]

I would guess the general knowledge portion of the teachers' test is hard, but the English section isn't. I would also guess that those smart enough to become fluent have gone onto jobs better than teaching. The final thing is that if they are elementary school teachers they just want to become homeroom teachers, and probably don't even care about English.

I support TOEFL iBTing Korean teachers and weeding out the incompetent ones.

[Nexus11]

Wow, do public schools set the bar that low for English teachers? My hagwon has completely fluent Korean teachers. Even so, the ones with a bit of an accent are embarrassed about it. I would've guessed that PS teachers would have higher standards.

That is pretty pathetic if the public schools don't require fluency to be an English teacher. How can you teach a language you don't even fully understand yourself?

[drunkenfud]

[Smee]

I've never met a PS English teacher I'd consider fluent. One of mine this year is quite good, though. But I've never met a teacher who could produce an error-free sentence. I'm not exaggerating, either, couldn't go a sentence without making a mistake, because there's always something with grammar, pronunciation, or word choice. Every time. And their writing is just as bad. In my experience the younger teachers I've met aren't any better on average than the older ones. Matter of fact the student teachers we just got finished hosting had quite low levels of English, with pronunciation that made them veer into incomprehensibility quite often.

Yeah, we can talk all day long about what skills a PS English teacher actually needs, or what constitutes "good enough," but all I'm saying is they're exposed to English their entire lives, they've studied it for 20, 30 years or more, and yet cannot produce a single correct sentence. Where's the accountability? I'm usually a pretty nice guy, but these points come out every time foreign teachers get accussed of being terrible teachers or being unqualified or whatever.

A few of my coteachers told me they don't like teaching English because they feel it threatens Korean culture, so obviously we're not dealing with the sharpest knives in the drawer around here.

[schwa]

First time I met one of my coteachers (secondary school) I asked her:
"How are you?"
"It's nice," she replied.

[captain kirk]

[sargx]

I have 2 male co teachers, and maybe 5 female co teachers. They're all at 'decent' levels of English (with the exception of 1 older male teacher). I also live in a rural area. I'm in a new school, so that might be why.

[cruisemonkey]

LOL... I've had nine co-teachers who run the gamut from: essentially fluent in English, to some who can only manage to string together a (seemingly random) series English words - resulting in utterly incomprehensible gibberish.

[JJJ]

I have 6 co-teachers and 2 are so-so, 3 can hardly speak BUT can understand and translate well (yipee!!) and 1 is good but I only see her once a week in the low, low middle school class (kids who can't write, say the alphabet or days of the week, etc).

I've been doing this for 8 years and I think I have had only one excellent speaker of English as a co-worker and he finally realized he could make more money and have less pressure/hassle by getting out of the p.s. system.

[mnhnhyouh]

I am in a fairly big school, and have many co-teachers. Their level varies a fair bit.

I have no problems understanding any of them, though only a couple are really good. There are two male English teachers I dont teach with, and their English is very good.

I think the bar is set low enough so that the positions are filled. I am guessing there are regulations on how much money can be offered, so they are not allowed to increase wages to attract better speakers.

This week I have been consulted on a number of exam questions, and for the most part the questions have been about fairly complicated grammar matters.

As for speaking from students, the main problem is class size, it is very difficult to make any impact on speaking ability of a class of 40 students.



h