Korean Job Discussion Forums

[NohopeSeriously]

I hope this doesn't offend the moderators because I will radically criticize the Korean education system (mostly public) that is not related to NETs. This was intended as a response of http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=199284 but it got expanded.

There are so many recent Korean students graduated from the Seoul National University of Education, AKA Gyodae (교대). They all cannot become teachers in public or private schools after they graduate. Why? Two reasons. 1) Too many of them failed the mock class interviews 2) Too many of them can't follow the demands of the high standards in their duty as teachers.

You have to know that the younger South Korean teachers are teachers with high quality teaching skills. What kills their ego in their working environment (public or private schools; especially public) is the horrifying school administration. The school administration here typically involves "old school" prinicples and vice-prinicples who manage the affairs with a bad rep and stiffles the teachers' creativity and efficiencies. Of course, bureaucracy kills the hearts of many teachers.

How do I feel about this? Full-time (non-contracted) Korean public school teachers are treated like slaves of the South Korean government regulations run by a horrible administration. Much like Cuban doctors are treated like slaves.

As an NET who speaks native level Korean, the South Korean school system is doomed to be failed. South Korea will be the first Asian country to completely collapse its public school system.

[Vagabundo]

[NohopeSeriously]

[Vagabundo]

[Vagabundo]

perhaps you should clue us in on just why you reached the conclusions you have reached and why you were so mistreated as a gyopo (I would've thought you'd be better treated, though I do know they are under enormous pressure for not being "Korean" (enough)) and can't escape the cultural Confucian lunacyland like us whiteys can.

[NohopeSeriously]

[Vagabundo]

btw. I'm not exactly sure on how the school administration much less the hierarchy in the form of the Principal or VP (or even Dept Head) "stifles the creativity" of my Korean English coteachers).

They have to teach the material as dictated by the POE and use the selected textbooks, etc, but no one interferes with how they run their classrooms, what they do within it, how they teach the material, etc.

I'd say our students' low academic level and general disinterest in school are far more stifling.

The paperwork and Korean cultural inanities that become even more magnified in the workplace are far more suicide thought inducing.

[sigmundsmith]

[Vagabundo]

[enchoo]

The public educational system burns out the students (stay in school until 11pm when you are a senior) and its teachers. Before this hell, the private system encourages students to attend until 10pm. After enduring such long hours to get into SNU or Yonsei, then serving in the Korean Army for 2 years, later trying to compete in the uber-competitive job market, what is the damn point of being creative or motivated.

When Obama says that the American school system should copy that of the Koreans I think it was more than slightly misguided.

[DosEquisXX]

A lot of the education in ROK is a "means to an end" type of mentality. You learn to do well on tests that let you go on to schools where you take more tests so you can go elsewhere and take more tests. In America, students will take elective courses because they have an interest in the subject material rather than requiring it for a major or future job. That type of mindset appears to be pretty rare in ROK. Everything is done according to a rigid step-by-step guide from birth until your job to become an engineer, a doctor or some other person of importance.

Dammit, when's a kid gonna have some fun?

[whiteshoes]

Here's a question I've heard before, why don't the parents just send kids to hagwon and not public school?

Think about it. Most affluent kids don't much of any learning at school. They do the "real" learning at hagwon.

I suppose the main reason is socially, but they can just as well socialize at hagwon, can't they?

[NohopeSeriously]

I worked at a Korean public school. It's not the best thing for a English-speaking Korean guy to work in that environment where you receive more demands compare to the other "professional" Korean teachers.

[Vagabundo]

[NohopeSeriously]