Korean Job Discussion Forums

snishler · Joined: 24 May 2009

Kudos to PatrickGHBusan who wrote (ATEK as a network for teachers is already something better than what was before which was nothing!). The rest of you are complaining about nothing. Why complain??? What do any of you actually do here in Korea that's positive besides hide behind your computer screens and post here, especially sojusucks, who seems to love posting on Daves like it's the coolest thing in the world? At least the person who conducted this interview got off his butt, and seems to be trying to invoke some positive change by exposing ATEK through video, even if they still do struggle as an organization.. I think it's great.

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

T-J · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Location: Seoul EunpyungGu Yeonsinnae

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 4:27 am Post subject:

snishler,

While I said ATEK improved, they really had nowhere to go but up after the horrible wreck of a start they had.

I am still not sure about what this organisation will be, I argued and am arguing about what IT SHOULD be in a REALISTIC fashion.

However, I will join others in saying that ATEK members\followers who respond to criticism on here (or on blogs) tend to be near-religious in their defense of an association that is still vastly irrelevant in the grander scheme of things ESL Korea.

Furtermore, this "what do you do for teachers except post messages" crap along with "at least this ATEK member is doing somethinh" is one of the most ignorant and stupid comments that comes from many ATEK members who post or posted here.

Why?

Because numerous posters here have contributed far more than ATEK members to help and improve things for ESL Teachers. These people do far more than post messages but they sure did not need to join an organisation that at first shouted Human Rights abuse on every rooftop.

Tom is one of those people who has helped a lot more than the vast majority of ATEK members, I could name dozens of other long time posters as well.

When I was in Korea, I too helped others whenever I could. I ran free workshops on Saturdays for new teachers, this was on my own time and with the help of other teachers who donated their time.

As a group we tried to organise professional development activities, like for example attending KOTESOL. We all took new teachers at our schools under our wing and tries to show them the ropes.

These are concrete acts that lead to concrete help for real people, not just "posting on Daves".

So before you jump on people who post here, learn a thing or two.

ATEK made changes, but in large part these changes were critical to its survival after the initial mess made by the founders of the association. That organisation still has elections where only one candidate is up for a position. They still have elections where a person can be elected to a position on as little as 10% of the membership vote.

In essence, at this point, ATEK is a group of Teachers (roughly 1200) most of whom do nothing concrete. The leadership for the most part have Teaching jobs and can only spend time on ATEK issues part time. This is fine if ATEK gets it and tries to simply be a network of information for Teachers. However, if ATEK tries to be more, they will hit the same walls they hit before because frankly speaking, they do not have the resources, full time expertise on staff or mandate to do otherwise.

luckylooch · Joined: 01 Mar 2009

I'm entertained by the fact that non-members just seem to hate on the organization. And by saying this I'm certainly not 'defending' the organization, either, but I'm sure plenty of people will think otherwise..

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:50 am Post subject:

nathanrutledge · Joined: 01 May 2008 Location: Marakesh

ttompatz for the win.

snishler · Joined: 24 May 2009

sojusucks · Joined: 31 May 2008

ATEK could have done some good if the organization had actually addressed issues that matter to foreign teachers in Korea but the leadership chose to act in a juvenile fashion and engaged in petty spats. Meanwhile nothing gets done and the important issues remain unaddressed.

vincentmiser · Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Location: Everywhere

I dunno anything about ATEK. So this was an introduction for me. Also, I am not into teaching English that much.

But, I learned something.

WIN

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

vincentmiser · Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Location: Everywhere

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:30 am Post subject:

Well to be fair to crossmr, he has a point...

Internet "journalists" as they often refer to themselves are notoriously uneven in the quality of what they produce.

The web is great in many ways, but it also provides a stage for just about anyone to do just about anything.

Case in point: the launch video for ATEK...had that been run by professionals, it would never have seen the light of day. Instead, it was put together by a bunch of amateurs and it showed.

The same is true of this upcoming interview. The tone of the intro video is childish with cheesy animations of a LOOOOOOONNNNGGGGA trip to Busan added for fun.

It looks more like "little joe goes on a big trip" than like a journalist is interviewing the president of an association.

Sometimes hitting pause before you submit or post a video is better than going ahead with it. Pause tends to allow for perspective to form. Better yet, have someone look over the video before you post it up.

Then again, if this was meant as a light video to go on some informal and random blog about Korea...then present it as such.

Finally, the guy has been a member of ATEK for 2 years and JUST NOW decides to find out "just what this organisation does".

Heck, why did he join in the first place and what has he been doing???