Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Half of Native English Instructors Quit After a Year
by Kang Shin-who, Korea Times (December 30, 2008)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/12/117_37020.html

[wylies99]

[moosehead]

[Smee]

What a piece of shit.

But no need to worry, there's no reason for foreign teachers to stay at one school for longer than one year anyway.

[dmbfan]

I guess that they failed to mention the horrible reputation Korea has in the ESL industry........not only with how they treat expat teachers but the cost learning English vs results.


AGAIN.........if public schools would just make English a required passing course (and learn the meaning of honor and integrity) rather then treat it as a circus convention, things would be different.


dmbfan

[jdog2050]

[ulsanchris]

My guess as to why they are claiming a first year english teacher makes as much as a korean teacher who has taught for five years is that they are including the cost of housing, airfare, recruitment fee and bonus. Which would about put us on about par with what a korean teacher earns. but still they put it in a rather misleading way.

[wylies99]

This is the "Chairman of the Board" of English education in Korea- the Guy Caballero, so to speak.

[hogwonguy1979]

I'm not a ps teacher but based on what i've read here, how about principals and vps who treat their foreign teacher like garbage stuff as a reason people dont renew? given all you doing seat warming for the next month or so all by yourselves while the korean teachers are off somewhere because the vp wants to show how much of a man he is by running roughshod over the foreigner

but that would be blaming a korean for a problem which has never happened. koreans have never done anything wrong in their history

[Beej]

From what I have seen from my extensive time in Korean public schools, not many Korean English teachers can "conduct classes independently" either. This just goes to show that Koreans have no idea what it takes to run English programs in schools. They are afraid of quality foreign teachers.
How many of those teachers who left after one year would have left much sooner than a year if not for the carrot at the end of the contract?

[Xuanzang]

[pkang0202]

From my experience, the majority of people (more than half) that sign up with SMOE are either ex-Hagwon, or ex-GEPIK/EPIK. On top of that, you have a few peopel who have taught in other countries before.

The amount of people who are completely new to teaching are in the minority.

So, its not accurate to say that new SMOE teachers are inexperienced. Its just that they have experience, just never worked in SMOE before.

[Join Me]

Yes...once you get them trained and some experience under their belts you want them to quit. Then you can get someone new who has no idea what they are doing for the first 6 to 8 months to make a mess of things again.

With people like this leading English education in Korea it will be a long, long time until they begin to see any progress.

Most of the students in the public school system don't understand even the most basic English. How exactly do they benefit from having a new teacher? "Look, this one has brown hair. This one has black hair." Wow!

Does anyone have an e-mail for this idiot? I would love to forward my comments to him or her.

[buymybook]

This is the funniest..."Some foreign teachers did not want to renew due to worsening relations between South and North Korea," said Choi Chun-ok, a supervisor at the education office....

Just yesterday(or was it the day before?) Lee, Byung-min who acted as though he was involved somehow with the Education Ministry stressed the importance of certified and qualified NON-native teachers. Now, Lee, Young-chan(a true education official) says "it's not necessary for native teachers to renew every contract." Well, at least we know the importance he puts upon us resigning!

Also, he says..."We CAN'T conduct classes independently." What planet is he on? It's not illegal for us to do so, it's only the rule that we don't conduct the class alone. Of course HE should know of all people that the Education Ministries RULES are there for the Korean CO-TEACHERS to break.

I believe in most cases we control the classroom which is above and beyond "conducting the class independently." I wonder why doesn't he talk about what "we" can do?

The classic quote from Lee Young-chan..."hence their teaching experience doesn't matter much." So which is it, how Lee, Byung-min sees it(certificates/licenses required) or how Lee, Young-chan sees it(no experience necessary?

Below is what I do agree with but just what is the best way to see that this happens? He says..."It's better for students to have more new teachers so that they can meet various kinds of foreigners.''

These two articles in the Korea Times the past two days is a perfect example of how the Education Ministry is NOT together![/code]

[Whistleblower]

Imagine, you are a doctor, in surgery, about to perform a life saving operation and a plumber comes into the operating theatre. The plumber then proceeds to advise you on how you should perform the operation successfully.

Do you; a. listen to him or b. tell him to leave the surgery up to the most experienced?

I guess you would choose the later. Why is it that those who are in seniority are always happy to provide advice but never willing to accept it?

Public schools in Korea should allow TEFL Professionals to provide advice about teaching, hiring, curriculum, testing, training, etc. Now someone get that plumber out the way, I have a class to go to.