Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kwangjuchicken]

[Kennyftw]

[carleverson]

[some waygug-in]

A native teacher should have a strong background in a foreign language (any language) in order to understand what it is all about to learn a foreign langauge.[/quote]


I disagree.

I hated learning Spanish when I was in high school. I had absolutely NO background whatsoever in ANY foreign language upon arriving in Korea. BUT, I went to college to be a teacher. Furthermore, I like kids, I like to help people and I understand how the young mind thinks. It doesn't take exposure and knowledge of another language to know how to teach ESL. It takes a person who has knowledge of educational techniques and awareness of how the human mind works and takes in knowledge.

I'd also like to add if you don't know to talk slow, use easy or level-appropriate words, and pronounce everything you say clearly before entering ESL--you should have stayed out and done something else. Nothing makes me more angry to see a "teacher" talk way too fast, garble his words and spit them out incomprehensibly even to me. I've known a few in the past and they had NO business teaching English. They should have stayed in basket weaving, or whatever their "career" was before coming to Korea.[/quote]
*****************************************************
Not knowing Spanish probably helped you more than you know. When I first entered Korea, I was always trying to answer people in Spanish. (because my brain had to get past the idea of learning yet another language)
I also studied French in university, so I was not unaware about learning languages.

Studying Indo-European languages really doesn't prepare you for what you will face in Asia. Before coming to Korea, I taught EFL in Mexico,
so I wasn't new to teaching either. This is what I was trying to explain, my past experience really wasn't all that helpful in Korea, in fact it gave me more of an ego-complex to get over first.

I agree with what you've said by the way.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[Bruce W Sims]

[Carbon]

[shifty]

[PatrickGHBusan]

wow.

[Bruce W Sims]

On the surface, Shifty, your logic would follow, IF the goal of the class were simply communication. Unfortunately, the goal, as I understand it is to learn the English language, one subset of which is communication. In the communicative model that I follow, there are some clear---perhaps even correct---criticisms that the intellectual aspect of English (IE. grammar; syntax; context) take a backseat. I, personally, have not found this to be the case, but have spent time in the company of folks for whom this criticism might find ground. FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[some waygug-in]

Well I think there is a certain portion of Korean society who would certainly agree with Shifty.

When I started in Korea, I worked at an adult hagwon and that was pretty much the attitude I faced.

I'm not saying it's right or even a good attitude, and neither is Shifty by the way, but it is quite prevalent.

The question becomes, do you give 'em what they want or what they need?

[Chris.Quigley]

I 100% disagree with #6. Overseas experience does look good. The problem is that you have to use it to complement something else. By itself it means nothing.

For example, say I was applying for a job working for a financial services firm in HongKong. I have a masters in finance and 4 years work experience for an investment bank in the United States. Oh, and I lived in Korea for 3 years. (hypothetical)

Do they care that I taught English? No. Do they care that it was Korea? No. Does it say something about me? Yes, actually it might say a lot.

It says that I can adapt to a new environment - something that is important when moving to another country. It says that I can work with people of different cultural backgrounds. It says that I can stick things out when they get difficult.

How do I know this? Because I talk to recruiters for accounting firms (because I am studying accounting). One of the first things they ask me about is Korea. It leads to at least a five minute conversation about what I learned from my experience, what I liked, what I didn't like. It gives me an opportunity to separate myself from the 100 other applicants.

[silkhighway]

[shifty]

[shifty]