Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mikejelai]

http://www.academicleadership.org/emprical_research/The_Foreign_English_Teacher_A_Necessary_Danger_in_South_Korea.shtml

[KoreanAmbition]

Interesting article.

[PigeonFart]

Thank you fellow poster. That was indeed an interesting article.

[Oliver]

It's a good piece. I think schools need to sit down and discuss exactly what they want in an English teacher and what their aims for English Education are.

Korea is in a good position to become a bi-lingual nation but for things to move forward it needs to make English teaching a career option. That is, qualified teachers should be brought in and offered similar opportunities and conditions to that of Korean teachers.

Though I do still think a lot has to be said for experience. Even those unqualified teachers can learn a lot in a short time. That's important because its a sign that you don't initially need that teaching credential to be a good teacher.

In the long term I'm sure that formal training in education would be a good thing in that it helps you understand more fully the needs of young learners, how to help them develop and how to manage a class effectively.

[SeoulNate]

nice read, not a realistic solution, but a nice read.

[Old fat expat]

It is good these things are being said.

They have been said before. Many times over.

Many of the things said here are HR 101. There are some points that are a little fuzzy or not fully developed. Still.

Unfortunately, Koreans do nor want to hear criticism from the hired help.

[moosehead]

[The Gipkik]

Yes, interesting, but the tone is more polemic than academic. I wonder about the charts for pay wages in terms of cost of living comparisons and carrying over public school experience overseas as equivalent...

[ChilgokBlackHole]

OLD

[Oliver]

[drkalbi]

Asking Koreans to think logically about a problem is impossible.

[schwa]

A concise & cogent article about Korea's English project (kudos to the author). Smart minds in the MOE have assuredly already been chewing over the issues the writer raises.

There are many millions of dollars at stake & the govt wants to see results.

If you've been here just a year or three, you're only getting a snapshot of English education in this country. Changes over the last ten years have been enormous & will redouble, quickly. Five years from now, it will be a very different scenario.

[Unposter]

I agree with the person who wrote that it is more polemic than academic.

While I agree with some of the ideas, none of which couldn't be found on Dave's on any given day - in fact he even cites the job board.

He mostly bases it on Prof. Wagner's fine work and then blogs like Marmot's Hole, which while good reading is hardly academic.

Also, he only uses one point of view. There is nothing there from the Ministry of Education or Immigration.

He doesn't really address the question of what would the educational impact of hiring "qualified" teachers or even what a "qualified" teacher is or why Koreans have to decide between unqualified "white" teachers (not all Western teachers are caucasion) and "qualified" teachers from countries who speak English as a second language. There is probably a million other problems (and unaswered questions) with this so called "article."

Just my personal opinion but this type of discussion is fine for Dave's - it makes for some interesting conversation - but this article is not so good in terms of academic work. At least, it certainly could have been better.

Anyway, it does make for a good discussion.

[Jessiegirl]

It's an interesting article and I agree with many of the author's points. I left Korea 8 years ago and now when I check the websites and see the postings, I'm shocked to see the salaries have not increased and have remained the same.

[El Macho]

Pretty funny that the article was in the Empirical Research section of the 'journal'.