Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

So I did it - after more than three years of teaching at my 'Global School' I finally got off my ass and managed to arrange a pen-friend exchange between my best HS class and a random grade 10 class at a French school. I explained everything to my students and we spent two whole lessons on it, going over example letters and making first and second drafts. After proof-reading their first drafts and making lots of suggestions some of them came up with half-decent letters and at the lower end they at least came up with 100-word collections of drivel such as 'Do you know Dokdo?' and 'What do you think Big Bang?'. Feeling like I had accomplished a lot, I headed off to the post office with a big, brown envelope and, after three weeks, found out that Korea express mail had finally got them to where they needed to go.

Finally, a month later, a Fedex parcel arrived on my desk. Was I ever floored. The worst of the students can write better than any of my co-teachers and most of them are Lebanese who speak English as a third language! I had even written the class a cover letter in French, just because I wasn't certain if they understood exactly what I was hoping for, but it turns out that their English is way better than my French.

It's not that my students aren't smart or don't try. The class I chose is great, consisting of about the top 25% of students you'd find in a small Korean town. Most of them try hard, listen, have great attitudes and are attentive. But when it comes to any kind of practical application of English, they just, well, suck, just like almost every Korean English teacher, professor, school, or university. I knew that already but did this letter exchange ever drive it home. Koreans totally, absolutely, completely suck at English in every possible respect and there seems to be precious little that I or anyone I know can do to change it. A bunch of 15-year-old Lebanese kids, most of whom have never been to an English speaking country and speak Arabic, Armenian, or French at home, could totally kick any random group of Korean teachers' asses at an essay writing contest. And of course so could their teacher, who�s also not a native speaker.

I can only hope that, unlike their teacher, my kids feel more inspired than depressed by this exercise.

[ddeubel]

No need to feel depressed. Pat yourself on the back. Nor, is it your "hard working" student's fault.

English is not learned at school despite our pretending otherwise. (we can help in other ways). If you know the research, there just ain't enough hours in the school day, even a hagwon's. (despite the few who can learn a second or 10th language in a week like one idiot savant has).

Nor is English learned at home, at a desk, in isolation.

English is learned through contact with the living, real language. This can happen even in another country. Unfortunately, Korean's like Azerbajanis, Algerians or Albanians, don't get enough contact with the English language in their larger world. That's a failing of governments and leadership (and somewhat geography and history) - not English teachers. Nor students.

Nothing inherently different about Korean's language learning ability (despite this grand myth). Everyone, L1 or L2, has the same potential when it comes to learning a language. Human's can't swim well simply because we don't spend enough time in the water. And not just in the water but in the water and swimming. If we were there adrift, 20 hours a day - we'd all be capable of swimming the Channel.

Great job and do what you can.

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Thunndarr]

[runthegauntlet]

I did a similar thing. I had my first and second year middle school students write letters to a fourth grade class in the U.S. to try and help them understand a more practical side of learning English and to expose them to other students.

I think it really went well. Yeah, the kids English isn't super great, but I wasn't seeing anything mind-blowing from the fourth graders from the U.S. either. In the end it fizzled out because there was a one month or so turnaround and kids would drop out of the hagwon, etc. But the kids that did it a few times were absolutely enthralled about the chance to talk to other kids in other countries. A really, really worth-while activity in my opinion and I think it's great you took the time to set it up.

Don't despair! I think the kids really do get a lot out of it, not just from the writing in English thing but the opportunity to talk to other kids and maybe realizing that maybe English can be useful.

[runthegauntlet]

[Ed Provencher]

[ddeubel]

[Thunndarr]

[Draz]

[ddeubel]

Thundrr,

I am not arguing that all languages are equal in terms of acquisition. What I am arguing is that every language can be learned given the time, effort and environment. It is wrong to parade a notion that some languages just can't be learned no matter what or are extraordinarily difficult. That's the only cautionary note I'm trying to add. We all start from the same place. (I'm not talking about the 5% maybe who have significant LD (learning disabilities).

It all depends on the individual. Generalization, and comparing languages or even all the research on language transfer - can't account for how varied people are in HOW they learn a language. I had no trouble learning Czech but much with Korean. A good friend had the opposite problem but we are both of comparable ages and experiences.

I too don't have the time to debate the literature and issues about language transfer (so many myths) but I'll always err on the side of the individual when speaking about languages. Here's a short extract from an interview with Pinker and his thoughts. Worth reading the whole thing if you have time. http://wordsmith.org/chat/pinker.html YBS, note what he says about writing.

[fustiancorduroy]

...

[dmbfan]

I've said it before and I'l say again (and again after this)..........


...make English a course that all public school students are required to pass (well, at least for middle school and high school). Not having the fear of failing certainley does not help the motivation factor. When students see English class as a one hour, once a week break from the daily grind......it is destined to fail or not live up to any expectations.

The kids should be taking English class once a day, everyday. AND...they must pass.

This would save tons of money for the governemtn as well. They would not have to come up with these STUPID English villages and ESL centers (I currently have the misfortune of being suckered into one of these........completely pathetic...students don't even need to bring books).


Once koreans figure that out (and realize that learning English is not about singing meaningless songs, while watching some white dude/dudette juggle around), things WILL improve.

There is a reason why Korea spends so much (if not the most) money on ESL educaiton but has POOR and PATHETIC results.

Y.B.S.........good job! Don't let that experience get you down. You've done your best and that is what counts. I think that was a brilliant idea and if presented to the school in a fair way, they might realize that...."Wow....we need to step up".

dmbfan

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[quote="Thunndarr"]

[Xuanzang]

Kudos YBS for caring enough and establishing some sort of outreach program. They might have been crappybut at least you can say you motivated them to do SOMETHING besides "Nobody, Nobody but you"

[soul rebels]

i set up a pen pal lesson as my parents teach in nigeria so i got my students to write letters to students at thier school. was probly the best lesson i ever did most of the students were very interested in writing to someone in another country. out of a couple of hundred student three students wrote some offensive stuff but you would get that anywhere in the world.