Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

I am pretty sure why the elementary school teachers I experienced were better at teaching English than the secondary school teachers was the fact that, when you teach beginning level English, and most/much of it in English, --- you get a good feel for how students learn language.

That is why an inexperienced foreigner being thrown into a hakwon class with no help and little material will learn a good bit fast about language teaching - if they want to. It took me 6-9 months in the hakwons before I started to feel like I wasn't sucking, but it was great experience for later in my teaching career.

Korean teachers who teach almost wholly in Korean don't get the chance to see how language learning takes place.

And TESOL methodology has been talking about this since they started focuing on how children learn their original language.

If Korean secondary school teachers would teach in primarily English, their students would learn the language much faster, and they would not only be able to use the language to communicate, they would also make higher scores on things like the Korean SAT, TOEFL, TOIEC and other standardized tests.

Students who learn how to communicate (including reading and writing) in the language develop a "feel" for it ---- a feel for it they can't get memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules.

[Weigookin74]

No man, trust me. When I speak to some of my middle school students, they don't understand me. Their English is poor. Only when the teacher has to step in and translate are they able to understand. Kids don't understand. They don't try to understand, they just start talking to each other unless the Korean teacher yells at them. The kids start getting bored in elementary in grades 5 and 6. What they need to do is start teaching English at younger ages. Kindergarten or grade one elementary school. In grade 3 and 4 when English starts and kids are still at an impressionible age, they only get one or two English classes a week. Once they get set in their ways, then they begin to teach more English. By then, it's too late.

TESOL theories are great for adults who are motivated and want to learn English because they will do the work and study the vocabulary words. Middle school kids mostly do not.

[iggyb]

I've taught survival level K-early elementary in Korea, and TESOL theory works. I've taught all age elementary and middle, and high school in hakwons and didn't have an unteachable problem with their English, and I'm teaching public school elementary now and have no problem teaching them beginner level English.

I've taught survival and low beginner in the US.

If you find that you are struggling beyond the ability to get things done, most likely you are trying to get the class to do things too far beyond their ability.

You have to tailor material to the class - including instructions - and it isn't that difficult.

Maybe since you have to teach a middle school textbook material that is too advanced, and if they won't let you gear it down to the overall level of the students in the class, it would be hard.

But, I have to guess that you must be teaching in a fairly unique area of Seoul (or in some small local area elsewhere), because the number of survival level students in my elementary shcool classes is only about 1 or 2 per class.

Overall, my classes are low to middle beginners with a couple of intermediates thrown in.

And it makes what I saw in the hakwons years ago before English was pushed as hard by the goverment as it has been in recent years.

[atwood]

[iggyb]

The co-teacher I don't like working with, who is new to ESL but has taught for about 8 years, kept repeating that line when I tried to get her to move beyond the book at the start of the semester --- that a few of the kids couldn't afford a hakwon and never studied English and thus we had to go slow for them.

I kept saying I had been teaching ESL for 8 years, and had taught survival level English to people who'd never studied it before, both in Korea and the US, and it didn't matter --- our textbook was TERRIBLE, because students can learn so much faster - especially the younger the age.

She wouldn't listen. She'd repeat herself and say things like kids in rural areas didn't have parents at home that pushed English education and so on.

Besides telling about my firsthand experience, I also tried telling her about what TESOL theory has been saying for the past few decades, but it was no use.....

She kept insisting that over a period of two weeks - per lesson - students can only learn a small amount of new words and a couple of sentence patters ---- and that is all we do ---- Again and again and again and again and again.

80-90% of the students already know the material, and all of them are bored to tears most days.

It is a really crappy learning situation.

[atwood]

The end result is exactly as you posted--any half-way intelligent kid is going to be bored out of his or her mind and plus, because they've quickly mastered any material to be covered on the test, be very unmotivated.

[wylies99]

Juicy tales? I know on about a South African foreign teacher, in GEPIK, who arrived in Korea and was told that she was going to live with her head teacher and the 400,000 won was going to the head teacher. GEPIK and the recruiter wouldn't do anything because, evidently, this foreign teacher had signed paperwork allowing this. She didn't realize she had signed her apartment away. She eventually resigned and left Korea.

I head another one about how some Korean teachers were using the foreign teacher's apartment as a party pad. In between foreign teachers there was about a week's time, and a bunch of Korean teachers got the key, held a big soju blowout, and trashed the apartment. When the next foreign teacher arrived at the school the apartment was trashed. The teacher called GEPIK but they did nothing. GEPIK and the school both claimed that anything that happens in the apartment before the start date is not their responsibility. The recruiter paid to clean the apartment.

There are many stories about affairs with Korean teachers and even with Principals.


I'll post more if others post.

[atwood]

This was at a hagwon. One of the teachers decided to go into business for himself as a recruiter and started to try and take some of the hagwon's business jobs.

He was summoned to the owner's office for a late night meeting. He showed up for work the next morning with, among other things, a pronounced limp. Seems he had been thrown down the marble stairs at the hagwon by one of the boss's "chums."

[jurassic82]

I think it really is a crap shoot at a public school. I have been really blessed. My coteachers are great. I have gone above and beyond to be a good coworker and have seen great results. My coteachers are very open and often invite me out to dinner and other outings. I have heard of so many others that weren't so lucky. Sometimes I wonder though if some of the Native English teachers don't brings these problems up themselves. I hear of some teachers starting arguments of how things are done in their own country when it comes to teaching English and how the Korean way is bullshit.

I think this is just asking for troubles and I don't get it why people get on this board and complain about it. Yes, it doesn't make sense a lot of the time but it is what it is and if you don't like it go home. I work at a public elementary school in Seoul and yes the book is dreadfully too easy for my students but I have found this as a wonderful opportunity to try new things in the classroom like videos, ppts, different games and role playing, etc.... If teachers on this board spent less time complaining about their situation and more time on their lesson plans I am sure we would see more improvement in the Korean educational system. Remember we are guests here and not meant to really play some influential role in changing the Korean Education system. What we can do is make the most of the situation by engaging our students in interesting lessons and by being a foriegner getting them comfortable using English with a native speaker which is something new to xenophobic Koreans. We have a lot of influence over our students. Much more than our Korean coteacher. Try and make the most out of your experience here. There is a lot of fun to be had teaching. Anyways, enough out of me. Hope everyone has a great week.

[iggyb]

[thegadfly]

[iggyb]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[thegadfly]

[edwardcatflap]