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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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 Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:50 am Post subject: |
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Korea is only a generation away from being completely able to teach English to all Korean students with only Korean teachers and no NETs.
Of course, twenty years ago, Korea was only a generation away from being able to teach English with only Korean teachers and no NETS.
And the real problem is that twenty years from now, Korea will still be a generation away from being able to teach English to all Korean students with only Korean teachers and no NETS.
Korea suffers from horrible mistranslations in movies, books, news ... the Korean teachers, students, university professors, experts and translators are completely unable to understand what they are reading because of the thousands of mistranslations that have been institutionalized, are included in the dictionaries, teaching materials and tests and they are just unable to percieve as wrong - because they believe what they were taught. Koreans are even worse at understanding English grammar and expressions - although arrogance leads them to the opposite erroneous conclusion.
If Koreans are ever going to learn English, they need to STOP teaching English and start learning English. This is especially true for the teachers and professors. They must all go back to school with NETs or live abroad for many years. Then they can come home, throw out their books and dictionaries and start over. They can use native English materials instead of their own, and make new dictionaries and translations with the newly educated Koreans and native English speakers working side by side to make new K/E and E/K dictionaries. Only then will Koreans have a chance to understand English meanings, grammar and translations. Only then will Koreans know enough to teach English. And only then will Koreans truly be a generation away from being able to teach English to their own students with no NETs. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:09 am Post subject: Re: Is the end in sight for ESL in Korea? |
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| nautilus wrote: |
I'm told by several Korean teachers who have been attending their meetings... that the Korean Education authority has definitely decided on a plan to gradually phase out NETS within 10 years. Has anyone heard more on this?
Apparently the reasons given are:
1) "Employing foreign teachers has not produced the results expected over the past few years. Many of them are unqualified, it has been a waste of government money".
2) "There have been many difficulties encountered with hosting and working with so many foreigners in this country".
The plan will be staged as follows:
a) Employ many Korean English conversation teachers to work in public schools. They do not require co-teachers and are cheaper than foreigners.
b) Gradually train KT's to be better at English by giving them english training abroad.
So you've been warned:FT's are on borrowed time. I presume that China will be more attractive financially within 10 years anyhow.
What I find intriguing is that no other ESL country has followed this path. Taiwan, japan and China still look to employing foreign teachers. Apparently its only Korea that has decided that foreign teachers aren't worth the money. 
It appears the Korean english experiment has failed. |
Some may believe this is bogus or unrealistic but actually it is completely logical and a likely outcome at some point.
Why bring in Foreign Teachers? Because they are in many ways a stop gap measure while you train locals to teach English.
The unqualified masses of Foreign Teachers now in Korea will eventually be phased out. How long this will take is hard to say but it will eventually happen because it is far more profitable to have trained Koreans teaching English.
That would leave jobs for truly qualified teachers. |
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Wishmaster
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:40 am Post subject: |
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| If it is the end, so be it. Really, at the end of the day, it is just a job. Nothing more, nothing less. If this is the only job that you are capable of doing in your life, I feel sorry for you. |
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proustme
Joined: 13 Jun 2009
Location: Nowon-gu
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Students are taught to study English. Sadly, they don't learn English. |
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Olivencia
Joined: 08 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:34 pm Post subject: |
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ontheway,
Very well put. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| If this were really the case, there'd be a whole lot more people working at SETI training teachers. But there's not. We're not coming in here to train teachers we're coming in here to placate parents. |
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asmith
Joined: 18 Jun 2009
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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As a great man said
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| waynehead wrote: |
| Korean teachers conducting classes in English? I'll believe it when I see it. |
From what I understand, they are bringing in a load of "conversation teachers", ie Koreans with good english ability but who aren't qualified/certified teachers.Theres actually tons of them around.Most hogwon teachers I've known have been better than the Korean govt teachers at english...for example.
Its a sort of hogwonisation of govt schools happening. The govt has long wanted to do away with the whole private academies sector. Ultimately these recruits will be doing all the hard work at less cost than certified teachers.
From what I hear they will be no more welcome by the "real" teachers than the foreign teachers have been. |
And how long will it be before this "teachers" realize they made more at hagwons and didn't have all the political BS to deal with?
In the end hagwans will still be here, foreign teachers will still be here and both sides will be blaming each other for all the problems they see. |
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winterfall
Joined: 21 May 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 5:37 pm Post subject: Re: Is the end in sight for ESL in Korea? |
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| PatrickGHBusan wrote: |
Why bring in Foreign Teachers? Because they are in many ways a stop gap measure while you train locals to teach English.
The unqualified masses of Foreign Teachers now in Korea will eventually be phased out. How long this will take is hard to say but it will eventually happen because it is far more profitable to have trained Koreans teaching English.
That would leave jobs for truly qualified teachers. |
Even though my job security is at risk. I second this. I've only met a few very highly qualified teachers that are willing to get in the trenches and go beyond their job as specified by their contract. Others hide behind the contract and cry foul when they're expected to do slightly more.
And even still a lot of Fts are just using this as a springboard to see Asia. They don't bother making lesson plans and when they do they're chaotic, others play games or watch movies all the time. |
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ippy
Joined: 25 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| [tangent: Cheers Netz! That was awfully kind of you to say. Alas i cant reply to PMs so have to reply here instead]. |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Having a white guy in a Korean school is like a Roman Catholic allowing Attila the Hun to participate in the Eucharist. |
Hehe.. glad you're back on this forum, Asmith.
I don't think, within reason, it's so bad to have duplicate threads. Our thinking changes little by little over the weeks and months and years as new events happen.
I would be very surprised to see EPIK/SMOE last ten years with foreign teachers. I think the quality of applicants is going to fall and it will get harder to find qualified English foreigners with valid degrees, and the backlash is going to increase as their numbers have increased. I give it a shorter lifespan, 1-3 years.
Although we are in a recession in the west and supply is temporarily up, one thing I've noticed in my six-odd years in Korea is that pay really hasn't budged here much while costs have risen. At the same time, pay in SE Asia and China has gone from laughable to respectable. There are 1.2 billion Chinese. If the Chinese government decided to implement their own EPIK/JET program, they would decimate the supply of western teachers, particularly if pay was good and at Chinese costs of living.
The Koreans are not going to raise the pay in the public schools, and people with BEds are not going to come here at these wages. They will be forced to hire somewhat better Korean English teachers, gyopos, and English teachers from non-native countries such as Singapore, India, and the Philippines. So I think that the numbers of western teachers in public Korean schools, and to a certain extent hogwans, is going to shrink.
I am not saying this is a good thing. The quality of English education in public schools will deteriorate further as native speakers leave and are replaced with L2 ones, albeit some with good qualifications. But spite will trump reason, and Korean school administrators will refuse to see that they get what they pay for and that the system was poorly implemented.
In 20 years Korean may be much like Japan in the regard that there will be westerners in the university and some private institutes but otherwise mainly in industries other than education. |
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gillod
Joined: 02 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Honestly? Good idea. NETs are undersupported and often undermined. There's 0 accountability for students. No wonder they don't produce results- They don't even get a GRADE! Fun while it lasted, but it just seems like. If you're going to go all in, why bother? |
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creeper1
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:33 pm Post subject: LMFAO |
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| ippy wrote: |
when those people had screwed off back to the US and were now professionals with nice companies in the US, they would think back favourably to their time in japan whenever international trade relations or business deals needed to be made.
Japanese people are wise.
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LMFAO!!!!!! Do you really see the foreigners here in Korea opening up companies in the US and becoming CEOs.
Two quick points
1. Economically the west is finished. The future is Asia. We are the third world now.
2. The foreigners I saw getting drunk outside GS25 sll summer (every night )aint going to become CEOs in their lifetime.
Mate you just crack me up. |
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ippy
Joined: 25 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:43 pm Post subject: |
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ah creeper. It wont work mate. The magic is gone. You play your troll hand way too heavily.  |
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