Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

Professor 선생님 arrived at the 영어책나라 airport with the Miriam Ferguson Society English class. After going through baggage claim and customs, the professor and students boarded the shuttle bus and rode to the hotel, all the time happily talking about the exciting plane ride which they enjoyed and the exciting adventure which was in store for them.

The group disembarked at the hotel and checked in. They all practiced their hello's and thank you's on the hotel personnel.

After unpacking their suitcases, the class ventured to the park across the street. They met some friendly people who were enjoying a leisurely afternoon. Professor 선 stood in front of the class and said, "한 둘 셋 넷 . . .�



The English students and the friendly new acquaintances all introduced themselves. In response to the song, one of the new friends clasped her hands and said, "Oh, it is so much fun to learn new songs!" The group sang the song one more time, this time with their new friends joining in.

The visitors and their new acquaintances gathered around, some of them standing, some of them sitting on the grass, and some of them sitting on park benches. The class asked their new friends what food they liked. This precipitated a flurry of questions and answers. "Do you like pizza?" "Yes, I like pizza. Do you like hamburgers?" "Yes, I like hamburgers." "Me, too."

Miss 간호사 tried to start a conversation on the Four Food Groups, but had little luck. When no one was looking, she sneaked out and returned to the hotel.

One individual said, "What food do you eat in Korea?" One of the MFS members told the new friends about kimchi. One person clasped his hands and said, "Oh, I find it so interesting to learn about food from different countries!" Another person said, "Me, too."

Someone said, "All this talk about food made me hungry." Someone else said, "Me, too."

So they all took a walk to the nearest restaurant. Here the new friends saw still more people they knew. Professor 선 stood in front of the group and said, "시작 . . .�



They drew several tables together and immediately began chattering about brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles. The waiter came to the table and the MSF members all practiced their English on the waiter.

음악자 spoke up. "I just noticed something: on measure 4, a dominant seventh chord on the tonic would sound nice, because it can be resolved to a subdominant chord on measure 5." Most of the people at the table frowned and said, "Huh?"

음악가 explained, "In the song we were just singing. If we had a piano, I could show you." This triggered a conversation of, "Do you play the piano?" "Yes, I play the piano. Do you play the violin?" "Oh, the violin is such a beautiful instrument! I just love the violin!" "Me, too."

음악가 got up from the table. "Could someone please cancel my order? I'm afraid I'd better turn in early tonight. It's--uh--the jet lag has gotten to me."

After dinner, the class received an invitation to a party that evening. A few hours later, the professor and the class, minus 간호사 and 음악가, boarded a taxi. They relished in their opportunity to practice English on the taxi driver.

The professor and students arrived at the party host's house and rang the doorbell. When the door opened, they saw people they recognized and people they didn't recognize. And that is very good, because you should make new friends and keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.

The visitors were invited in. Professor 선 stood in front of the group and said, "One, two, three . . ."



After the usual pleasantries, several conversations started. While holding their punch glasses and cookies, everyone clustered into groups and said, "I have blue eyes. Suzie has brown eyes." "You have brown hair. We both have brown hair." "I have two hands. I have two feet." "Me, too."

Mr. 김음란 asked, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

The hum of conversation stopped. Everyone looked at Mr. 김 with a puzzled frown. "Like what?" one of them said. 김 timidly explained with a hand gesture.
That only increased the puzzlement. 김 said, "Come on, now. I know you have something right here." 김 made the gesture again.

Someone said, "Like what?" A few party guests pulled down their pants,hoping for an explanation. Sure enough, there was nothing there.

An MFS member, who was as puzzled as anyone else, asked, "How do you have sex?"

Another voice asked, "Sex? What's that?"

Another MFS member tried another approach. "How do you reproduce?"

Came another answer. "Reproduce? Oh--we don't have to. We are created by the English textbook authors."

Professor 선 edged toward the door. "We really must be going."

The students quickly followed suit. The entire group left the party, heedless of pleadings of "But you just got here!" "The night is just a pup!"

The following year, the class took a field trip to the inner city ghetto.

[pucciniphile]

If you are currently applying for a job, you might have to pass a test.
It would help to study the test questions beforehand.

You will be asked to identify these words on the aural section of the test:

1. 집 = a good vehicle for a safari hunt
2. 씨 = where the sailor went to
3. 빈= a British cartoon character
4. 보 = opposite of belle
5. 이 = what an unliberated woman screams when she sees a mouse
6. 도 = a deer, a female deer
7. 피 = what you try not to do on a long bus trip
8. 문 = what looks romantic on a summer night
9. 눈 = the time when the factory whistle blows
10. 오 = what Pat Boone said to Bernadine

You will be asked to identify these symbols on the written section of the test:

1. ㄱ = a quarter rest
2. 내 = Lena Horne's initials
3. ㅋ = a sixteenth rest
4. ㅁ = a yes-no check box
5. ㅅ = a masculine Freudian symbol
6. ㅇ = a feminine Freudian symbol
7. ㅐ = a horizontal bar for doing chin-ups
8. 태 = Kaspar's response to Amahl
9. ㅜ = a corkscrew used to open wine bottles
10. ㅂ = a glass which is half full if you're an optimist, half empty if you're a pessimist

You will be invited to dinner at a nearby restaurant.
You will be awarded:
5 points for walking in with your shoes on
10 points for going in the wrong restroom
15 points for ordering imported beef

[happiness]

i speak Korean and every job Ive had here doesnt hide the fact, but one of those jobs, the director and EVERY TEACHER spoke to me in Korean above 3 words sentences, but every now and then, ONE (and its happened enough, and it was ALWAYS ONE!) parent will feel little Seong-Min's English isnt as good as his big brothers, and its because Happiness teacher speaks Korean in class.

So, I got the speech from the boss, IN KOREAN, to speak English but listen in Korean, and then turns around in front of another classroom and has a conversation with me in Korean. She was a great boss though.

I worked in a big business English school in Gangnam, and even the manager spoke to me in Korean in front of the customers.

sigh...

[r122925]

Wow this is an old topic, but I'm guessing not much has changed. I've been either discouraged or flat out told not to speak Korean at most of the teaching jobs I've had in Korea.

It is a bit silly in many cases, but there are some reasons for it. One of the main complaints against Korean English teachers is that they always speak Korean during class. Getting away from speaking Korean during English class is one of the main reasons why we are here. I do believe that a limited amount of Korean can be useful in the classroom. It's also understandable that the parents and hagwon directors go a little overboard and don't want it at all. But it's things like telling teachers not to speak Korean to other staff members in the break room that I really don't understand. But it has happened to me.

I think another problem is that many foreigners overestimate their Korean ability (not you, I'm sure your Korean is perfect ). I used to be involved in the hiring process at my previous hagwon. We almost never received a resume from anyone who had spent any amount of time in Korea who didn't list their Korean ability as "intermediate" or something similar. Some even had the audacity to write "fluent". Without fail, when these teachers showed up their Korean was low-beginner at best, often just a few memorized words and phrases. Nobody cared that much since we weren't hiring them for their Korean ability, but it's something I noticed.

I think if your Korean is actually good, and you can come up with appropriate limits to when it can and can't be used, then it can be advantageous in the classroom. But if your Korean isn't that good it's dangerous, especially if you're teaching children. You don't want to give the kids a position of power. As soon as you open the door to Korean, they're going to want to test you to see how much you know. And then they will use whatever they can against you.

Other problems that happened related to teachers speaking Korean at my hagwon:

One teacher said something offensive to a student during one of his classes. Student told mom. Mom complained. I presume the teacher made a mistake or at least didn't realize that it would be offensive.

Another teacher was trying to use a class full of 10 year olds to teach himself Korean. Everything that came up in the text book he would ask students to translate in Korean and he would write it down in a notebook. Once again, mothers found out, and mothers complained. This is probably more of a case of a teacher being an idiot, but even if he wasn't, it's not hard to see how people may think this way when Korean starts to enter the classroom.

It was after these 2 incidents that the hagwon director instituted the "no Korean whatsoever" rule. And it also shows how hagwons really work. This really isn't a secret or anything, but it seems that some people still don't get it. It doesn't matter if you have the best teaching technique in the history of the world, or if you can use Korean in an effective way in your class, if parents don't want you to do it then you shouldn't do it. The goal is to keep the parents paying money each month. Actually educating the kids is at best a secondary concern.

Public schools are different and largely depend on who is in charge. My first principal was happy to speak to me in Korean. Second principal seemed to have the idea that everyone in the school should be using me at every opportunity to practice English. At lunch and other times he used to command other random teachers in the school to go and talk to me while he watched. I hated it, not because I don't like talking to people, but because it made all of the other teachers in the school afraid of talking to me.

[Vix]

I have one girl who's 9 but speaks amazingly good English. She is just soo keen to teach me. I already speak Korean pretty well but it's so cute when she explains all the verb endings and slang and where the words came from. In a way she is still practicing English, I just don't let her do it in class

[MollyBloom]

[pucciniphile]

I can't find that, Molly Bloom.
Do you think you can give us a link?

[jvalmer]

[PatrickGHBusan]

It is true some westerners overestimate their Korean proficiency level. I can only repeat what I said way back when in this thread: it is silly for a school to ask a foreign teacher to hide his Korean speaking ability but there is logic in asking this same foreigner to not use Korean in class.

The use of Korean in English class can be useful if you are at a high enough level of mastery of the language, thereby ensuring you are not teaching mistakes. Under such conditions, a bit of Korean can be used to clear up certain questions in class, as a backup tool.

Otherwise, I would refrain from using Korean in class.

Finally, some foreign teachers I met treated their classes like some vast language exchange program where they used their kids to practice their Korean language skills. That can quickly become a problem...considering the kids are there to learn English.