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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:57 am Post subject: |
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Someone wrote on here a few years back that the Korean gov't gets money
from the US to promote English education. I don't know if this is true or not,
but it would explain many things.
Yes, we want to promote English education and have NETs in every school.
translates to
We want the money so we will go through this dog and pony show as long
as there's money to be had.
Meanwhile, the majority of Koreans don't have the slightest interest in
learning English and a significant percentage of the population are actually opposed to it. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Meanwhile, the majority of Koreans don't have the slightest interest in
learning English and a significant percentage of the population are actually opposed to it. |
I don�t know where you got that idea from. Unless it was just from watching your students being more interested in their smart phones during their lessons. Most people, especially parents, in Korea recognise how important English is. To study, work or live abroad. To get top jobs with foreign or Korean companies. To become a doctor, a university professor, a diplomat, a civil servant etc� To be able to travel independently. Are you saying that the majority of parents don't want these things for their children?
Yes, It�s very aspirational and of course it�ll be mostly the upper middle classes who will do these things but imagine the outcry if it was only the upper middle classes who were allowed access to these things through English. At the end of the day most kids don�t really want to study period. And there�ll always be a small section of adult society who thinks any form of academic study is a waste of time. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| With that, Koreans will be on their way to speaking Konglish. |
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blm
Joined: 11 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 6:07 pm Post subject: Re: Replacing us with Korean teachers will be a disaster |
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| Fox wrote: |
Sure, there are some individual Koreans who could do the job excellently, but no where near enough. |
Well said.
I have a new co teacher and she is sensational but I know she is a special case. Unnatural levels of enthusiasm compared to the other Korean teachers (of any subject) and a TOEIC score 100 points more than anyone my friend has trained at the Foreign institute where Korean teachers go to get their qualification topped up.
But she is just one person.
The other two teachers are competent by the book teachers not fully comfortable conversing in English. They are older teachers but there are plenty of young teachers who are comfortable conversing in English but are pretty traditional in their style and still have a fear of making mistakes. Or they are just lazy or not crazy enough to be different than what most of the other teachers are doing (fair enough I suppose).
I also think as good as she is she would burn (massive workload) out or get discouraged if she was the only one trying to really engage the students. |
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Mix1
Joined: 08 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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| tophatcat wrote: |
| Who's Your Daddy? wrote: |
| They don't care if it works or not. |
Bingo! They're just shaking the bag in an attempt to seem busy. Another working on the situation, while looking into a better situation with the possibility of changing the situation. Politics! |
Bingo! Every year there's a new buzzword they learn and it must be implemented immediately!
But, who gets the share of the blame when English levels or scores don't meet expectations? The foreigners do, with talk of not being 'qualified' enough, which justifies budget cuts or pay cuts.
...Despite the shifty higher ups in 'management' who made the qualifications and 'plan' and did the hiring and spent the budgets.
There are plenty of good individual foreign teachers, but they are thrown into a system with little planning or oversight, with a proportion in management who want it to fail for political reasons or personal gain.
I also knew some foreign teacher trainers whose job was to train the Korean teachers to take up the slack when they eventually boot the foreigners out.
However, their Korean supervisors knew next to nothing about English education (or apparently management) and gave them no plan or curriculum to follow, other than a few buzzwords they learned at the last government drinking retreat, which is where a lot of the budget seems to go anyway, along with other goodies for themselves, including overseas vacations... I mean 'workshops'.
When complaints came (as they always will), the foreign teacher trainers got blamed first as well. The Korean teachers resented them just as much as the other foreign teachers, despite reaping/copying many resources and lessons/activities from them.
Throwing tons of money and native speakers into a program does have some effect, but most gains made have been in spite of the management system, not because of it.
As for the Korean teachers, many seem to resent the foreign teachers anyway and will be happy to see them go. English education may take a slight dive, but most will be more comfortable without the foreign faces around so they can go back to business as usual.
And when/if the foreigners are all gone, some Korean government officials and teachers can later claim, "See, we are so smart. We didn't need them anyway. We did it all ourselves."
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 12:34 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
Exactly. I've said this many, many times.
OR maybe the parents don't know, and the hagwon hires a whitey for the mix to keep it from becoming suspicious.
Why hire a gypo when you could hire a Korean (a pretend gypo) for less money? |
Many hagwons do hire Koreans who can mumble some English-ee and try to pass them off as genuine native speakers. That's why Korean mothers are so leery of kyopos. They also like to hire Russians and pass them off as native speakers, but it only works for little kids and the Russians tend to play a number of cassettes during class time. It makes you wonder why Korean mothers still believe in the hagwon system. |
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Mr. Kalgukshi
Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Location: Here or on the International Job Forums
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| Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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Several postings containing curses/profanity have been deleted.
If you want to insure you will no longer be part of our community, continue with the curses/profanity.
Yes, I am serious.
Members observing postings containing curses/profanity are requested to advise the Mod Team by Report Post or PM. |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:48 am Post subject: |
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[quote="edwardcatflap"]
| Quote: |
Meanwhile, the majority of Koreans don't have the slightest interest in
learning English and a significant percentage of the population are actually opposed to it. |
I don�t know where you got that idea from. Unless it was just from watching your students being more interested in their smart phones during their lessons. Most people, especially parents, in Korea recognise how important English is. To study, work or live abroad. To get top jobs with foreign or Korean companies. To become a doctor, a university professor, a diplomat, a civil servant etc� To be able to travel independently. Are you saying that the majority of parents don't want these things for their children?
[quote: Edwardcatflap]
Some parents do recognize this, yes that is true. Some parents just send their kids to hagwons and things to keep them off the street and out of the PC bang. A lot more than you may realize.
As for people being opposed to English, I got that impression from the majority of Korean teachers I worked with in the public school system.
If they are in favor of English education, they certainly don't show it. |
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