Korean Job Discussion Forums

[the saint]

...for a "balanced and OBJECTIVE" view of EFL in Korea

That's a quote from someone on another forum who will remain nameless.

I disagree that while there are many worst case scenarios here, this board, if you read it in enough depth, will tell you what teaching in Korea is really like.

After all, is anything objective anyway?

[just because]

It definnatly gives many opinions and to be honest, if you come here and read this for a few weeks before you came here you would be a bit more knowledgable about what gos on here.

I would take everything on here with a grain of salt. Some peole do take this place way to seriously.

[kangnamdragon]

How could anyone give an objective opinion? Opinions on this board tend to be from people with more experience. I think this is a good thing as many questions can be answered by intelligent people with experience. Is the board balanced? Well, more hagwon owners would have to post to be balanced, but I believe the board is very useful and serves a good purpose.

[Bulsajo]

"Balanced and objective"?

Compared to what-

Actual working conditions in Korea?
I have no idea, it seems no two experiences will ever be exactly the same.

Compared to other message boards on TESL in Korea?
In my experience- yes.

[Draven]

I think message boards like this one, by their inherent nature, tend to be more subjective than objective. Being burned by a school in the past, for example, would probably colour one's responses to posters in similar situations. People post for a variety of reasons: to promote or continue interesting discussions; to seek specific advice; or even simply out of boredom.

Message boards are not academic journals and should not be perceived as such. I don't believe posters have a responsibility to provide an objective view of living and working in Korea. I didn't see that in the rules I agreed to when I signed up. If a poster is way off base in their positions, however, certainly others will enter the discussion to set them straight. I think a place like Dave's is more for promoting a sense of community and providing a forum for people with similar backgrounds to share the trials and tribulations of living in a new culture.

That does not mean, however, that this board can't provide valuable insight to those thinking about coming to Korea to teach. Considering the same kinds of solicitations of advice come up quite regularly, readers can realize many of the issues that affect teachers here.

[sadsac]

Very articulate Draven and I agree with you whole heartedly. The joys of having an opinion and being able to express them freely and have others debate the pros and cons of that opinion is a wonderful things. Dave's offers that to all who wish to participate. Good, bad or indifferent, it has an inherent usefulness.

[the saint]

I concur with the above comments but I often hear about how negative many posters are here. There certainly seems to be a very different air on this forum than the 'rest of the world' forum. What gives it that, I'm not quite sure.

There is also no Newbie forum here which I find a bit strange. I think a Newbie forum allows people to enter the forum on somewhat safer ground and get some basic questions answered without getting flamed. It also means that people answering queries are usually more experienced and therefore providing a more balanced perspective.

Perhaps that's why this forum gives the impression of being populated to a large extent by hardened cyncics...

[kangnamdragon]

[Gollum]

This board helped me a ton when finding a job.

Overall, it's a very good thing if you avoid a lot of the know-it-all riff-raff in the Off-Topic forum. Still interesting to go there for a laugh sometimes.

[The Lemon]

[TECO]

No way this forum is representative of EFL'ers out there.

You get a handful - 15 to 30 regulars here? Some think they know it all and start off as expert advisors after their first contract.

There are thousands of TEFL'ers in Asia who probably never even look at Daves EFL board never mind post here. Nope - not representative.

Posters here are an extremely small sample of the population of teachers out there.

[osangrl]

compared to koreanesl and english spectrum....this site rocks.... i vow to never get banned again,,,, it was a long and lonely two weeks!

[crazylemongirl]

[kangnamdragon]

[kangnamdragon]