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Theme
Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Location: Cedar Rapids Iowa
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 Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| Olivencia wrote: |
Your question is based on a false premise. We aren't "teachers" (well a vast majority of us) anyway. We are just talking English machines.
1. No one cares about what we have to say about quality education.
2. No one cares about our opinions, thoughts and feelings about anything.
3. We are all just druggies, thieves, womanizers, rapists, pedophiles etc etc........"learned helplessness".
4. When wronged we are told that we just don't understand Korean culture.
5. When we try to express our culture no matter how benign it is we are told that "This is Korea". Once again demonstrating the truism that Korea wants the world to embrace Korea but Korea doesn't want to embrace the world.
ESL teachers acting awful...so what? It doesn't matter. "I am what I am...and what society has made me" ("Billy Budd", Herman Melville). |
I completed several year long or two year long contracts in Korea from 1995 to 2008. When I worked in Taiwan I always free-lanced on a tourist visa.
Points 1 and 2 above were my experience exactly. I was often challenged by my co-workers who said I had it wrong! The fact that I was a life long native speaker AND provided an example from an online pronunciation guide did not change a thing.
I often heard when I asked the question; why are you teaching your students incorrectly?
"Because that is what I was taught!"
And the cycle goes on.
As far as EFL Teachers in Korea being losers, nothing could be farther from the truth in my opinion after spending this past year in the states working at a call center.
Call Centers are this millenium's factories, complete with the trailer trash crowd of losers that would make any EFL Teacher look like CEO material.
During breaks most personal phone calls on their cell phones are either about "hooking the power back up" or problems with the sitter.
I anticipate many leaving soon once they get their tax refund which will include a large Earned Income Credit refund amount.
This, compared to University graduates who put in all that time and money to earn their degree and now have student loans to pay off because of their education, who now earn more money than they can spend each month; many saving as much as half their salary ( as many Koreans do as well) and whose future could be bright depending on the choices they make going forward.
These are losers?
Those who believe English Teachers in Korea are losers need a serious reality check. |
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spyro25
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:30 am Post subject: |
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| i'm no loser either. i came to korea in 2003, left in 2009, made 200,000 dollars in cash, and now study at cambridge university. travelled most of asia too. betcha 90% of koreans couldn't have done that aged 23. and the ESL teachers in korea are meant to be the LOSERS? we are the freaking WINNERS my good man. |
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Theme
Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Location: Cedar Rapids Iowa
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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| spyro25 wrote: |
| i'm no loser either. i came to korea in 2003, left in 2009, made 200,000 dollars in cash, and now study at cambridge university. travelled most of asia too. betcha 90% of koreans couldn't have done that aged 23. and the ESL teachers in korea are meant to be the LOSERS? we are the freaking WINNERS my good man. |
Amen to that.
Another example is a friend of mine who is now training in DC for USAID! He was in Korea for several years, paid off student loans, saved some serious bucks and got his Masters!
This loser myth has to stop. It is simple Xenophobia, period. |
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Olivencia
Joined: 08 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Know all too well the looks on their faces when I pronounce or define something and I get the response......."But the book says it is pronounced like this"....or...."You are wrong because the Korean-English dictionary defines it this way".... |
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Seoulio
Joined: 02 Jan 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Olivencia wrote: |
| Know all too well the looks on their faces when I pronounce or define something and I get the response......."But the book says it is pronounced like this"....or...."You are wrong because the Korean-English dictionary defines it this way".... |
I guess I must teach with some odd koreans. Every single one I have EVER met understands that I know better (than a book written by KOreans how speak english) how to pronounce an english word. |
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Olivencia
Joined: 08 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Seoulio from what I've seen everything about you is odd. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Try to tell a Korean that 'almost' does not mean 'almost all' or 'almost every'. You actually need that determiner. "Almost Koreans are very stressed" is wrong, why must I tell you that once a day? |
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Seoulio
Joined: 02 Jan 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 4:35 am Post subject: |
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| Olivencia wrote: |
| Seoulio from what I've seen everything about you is odd. |
Well for one, you havent seen anything of me, but you've read a bit.
For another, the only thing you really know about me is that I value a teaching work ethic you don't have ( and this hardly makes me odd)
And for my last point, I said the Koreans I work with must be "odd" (meaning normal) as they understand that I likely know how a word is pronounced. I never said I was odd.
But I like the way your comments makes a side jibe that Koreans are not intelligent enough to figure this universal truth out, and that you think I am the one that is odd. |
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