Korean Job Discussion Forums

[olsanairbase]

Almost 30 robots have started teaching English to youngsters in a South Korean city, education officials said Tuesday, in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.

Engkey, a white, egg-shaped robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science of Technology (KIST), began taking classes Monday at 21 elementary schools in the southeastern city of Daegu.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101228/tc_afp/skoreaphilippinesroboteducationtechnologyoffbeat_20101228051921

[fugitive chicken]

I think it's hilarious. They don't want to learn a language to speak to actual people. Cuz apparently that's terrifying and not what learning a language is about anyway.

[AsiaESLbound]

You know there were already at least a half dozen threads of which the mods locked most of them due to the topic being repeated? Sorry I don't mean to rain on the robot teachers making their appearance. I think it's funniest thing I've ever seen, but at the same time, I'd feel extremely angry and jealous if anyone felt they like the robot teacher more than my teaching. I would be insulted if the kids or adults said a robot would be a more appropriate fit to do the job. If you had one of these at your school, it opens up a new can of worms to establish that currently, it's still just a teaching aid; not a teacher replacement. It would be cool to co-teach with it where you use it as a teaching aid. New technology brings about the need to have conversations you'd only see in a science fiction movie including the ethics and new problems involved with including A.I. droids in our lives. Before you do something radically new it has to be established just what the goal is and how it is to be achieved, but maybe this is all experimental where someday when the technology is more perfected it accidentally replaces humans without a stated intent to do just that. Things evolve without a clear plan just because it works out so.

[Ice Tea]

The word ridiculous doesn't come close to describing these robots.

1) If robots could actually teach people to speak another language, don't you think the rest of world would have already done away with physical teachers and replaced them with robots?

2) I guess they have a Filipino do the voice for it while a white female face is the avatar. That's so racist and sexist my brain can hardly process it.

3) Filipinos are not a replacement for native teachers same as Koreans who speak English can't replace natives. And it has very little to do with our pronunciation. All Koreans understand is that natives get results. They don't know why or how, they just know we do. They think it's because Koreans can't speak English. Wrong! Lots of people can speak English. The difference is our work ethic and educational background. We come from a results orientated culture. We want to see our students learn and we think long and hard about how to do that. we don't just babysit. Korean teachers would just babysit, but we don't. that's why we work. that's also why a new generation of English speaking Koreans isn't going to change anything. The same way their plethora of engineer graduates haven't produced any ground-breaking designs and continue to copy Western corporations.

4) I'm willing to bet nobody at public schools will be able to troubleshoot the technical difficulties, so they'll end up having to pay a technician to constantly maintain the thing. In other words, the robot may become more expensive then a real teacher.

[lifeinkorea]

I don't think the idea here is to replace native speakers, but instead add to the market. The old Speak & Spell ( http://www.speaknspell.co.uk/ ) didn't replace the English teacher either, but I sure remember more hours I spent on that thing than the time I spent learning English in school.

[Morticae]

Are you KIDDING me? Maybe a robot should replace you! How many times will this same thread be repeated?

[Who's Your Daddy?]

[Kurtz]

"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while."


Good call!

Sorry, didn't realize this has all been done before on another thread, I though I-robot was the name of a new film.

[Depths of My Soul]

This would be an excellent idea if the robot was 'live' (kind of like Skype teaching) and the 'teacher' had control over the robot from home, including the ability to administer electric shocks to naughty students.

An additional bonus includes, no getting poked in the ass by those pervy kiddies.

WIN WIN WIN!

[Junior]

Koreans will probably opt for the robots.. because they have absolutely no clue what real teaching is about anyway.

"It looks shiny and new. Must be better".

[Ice Tea]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

Actually, to be fair, as of last year the students all had 2 hours per week, and 5th and 6th graders will have 3 hours per week as of March.

This doesn't include all of the extra English classes that we have at my school (English movie time, cooking, arts and crafts club).

Some public schools are really trying. A bit is BS (the English Zone has a mini "house" that the kids have used maybe thrice during after school), but the poorer kids that can't afford hagwons do benefit a lot. I work in a not-very-affluent area in Incheon

[Smee]

[matthews_world]

[quote="Kurtz"]"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while."


The robot or the Filipino?

[Steelrails]

I said it in the other thread, this is all something cooked up by RobotCoKorea to make kiss my butt money and to get the schools to foot the bill for their R&D costs. I bet after these 30 come 1000 cheaply made units that require oodles of money to replace their parts.

This kind of thing does have to happen though...Countries/Companies do need in field work developing the language capabilities of robots, it just sucks that our industry is a prime target for such things...