Korean Job Discussion Forums

CanadaCommando · Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Location: People's Republic of C.C.

A RANT WHICH WILL LIKELY MAKE ME UNPOPULAR:

Reading some of the recent GEPIK postings, as well as some previous posts, I notice that some of you are the ONLY english teacher in your Public school. No Korean teaching English down the line. Just you.

In my opinion, this is a VERY bad thing...

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with you who do this...and I am sure you do it to the best of your ability. But I think any institution that places the entire burden of English on a foreign teacher is making a horrible mistake.

Here are my reasons:
1) Some of you don't have your Education degrees. Some of you may scoff at this, and point to your years of experience. Doesnt cancel out the benefits of having taken numerous courses in Child Pysch, development, Learning strategies, etc. Some of you may have taken the effort to effort to learn this stuff on your own. Congrats-I commend you on it. Move on to reason 2.

2) You're intrepreting Korean curriculum, and retranslating it back into English. The problems with this seem obvious-stuff will get lost in the translation. I am sure you put alot of effort into trying understand and communicate the curriculm, but unless you are FLUENT in Korean, you are going to be hampered by this. And the more difficulty YOU have with it, the more difficult it will be to bring to the students. Also, much of early language learning requires reference back to Korean-allowing for students to build using pre-acquired knowledge (scaffolding). Again, unless you are FLUENT, this is greatly damaged.

3) You are likely not teaching in the Korean format of Teacher based lecture. You probably think it is innovative and useful to have a more open, student centered approach to learning~you want to make learning English fun instead of the chore that it is with the Korean teachers. Bravo. I applaud the idea-I prefer student centered myself. HOWEVER, all forms of goverment testing, all grade wide evaluations, and all future teachers' grades WILL NOT be based on this format. So, in essence, you are setting the students up for a fall.

4) You are not a certified (ie. Wrote the Korean Educators Test) Teacher in Korea. I hear some of you got some nice pieces of paper saying otherwise. Good for you; hang it on your office wall. Doesn't matter. These exams obviously mean alot to Korean Educators, as EVERY teacher has to take this very in-depth and complex test-they study for months for this test. For you to skip this, and assume that your still just as qualified, seems ridiculous. And also a little unfair to all the rest of your colleagues.

So to me, unless you have the proper University education, are fluent in Korean, deliver your lessons lecture style, and have passed the Korean Education exam, you are not qualified to be the sole source of English education in the classroom.
Again, please don't see this as a personal attack. I have just seen alot of people celebrating the fact that they are the only English teacher, without seeming to explore the problematic nature of this. Don't get me wrong, I think that foreign teachers are great in Public schools (I am one!). I just think the role needs to be SUPPLEMENTARY to the role of the Korean English teacher. This has nothing to do with how good of educators you are...this has to do with the Korean Education and Evaluation systems.

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peppermint · Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:13 pm Post subject:

I'm the only English teacher at my school , though I certainly don't celebrate it. I recognize the validity of all of your complaints, but want to comment.

The problem with public elementary schools is that without us there probably isn't anyone who can speak, much less teach English on site. At my school, before I arrived it was the responsibility of the homeroom teachers, but in lots of cases the students speak better English than the teacher.

There needs to be a happy medium for sure, but I'm guesing it will be a while before people realize that.

FUBAR · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: The Y.C.

I think you are correct in all your points, but, why did you post this?

Is there a point behind this post other than a rant?

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

I think you make good points. I think one of the problems with the GEPIK and EPIK programmes is that they are placing FTs in schools and assume that things will work from there. There hasn't been much detailed planning. It seems to me that whenever the Department of Education updates the english cirrcumlum that they need to write one for FTs in english. This should also be followed up a formal assessment at the end of the year.

At my school the teacher last year was fresh out of a New Zealand teachers college and decided that the korean one didn't fit with all those theories he learnt so he did his own thing seperate to what the kids were learning. This may have worked however the first problem was that you're not in kiwiland anymore dude and second most FTs will only see the kids once a week.

I had to start from scratch writing my own, but a lot of my dovetailed off of what the kids were learning in class but the activities had a lot more emphasis on speaking and listening. This has been a hard process and I find myself thankful that a) I have an education degree so I have a grasp of theories of child development and language acquistion b) that I had some teaching experience. But even still I wouldn't be given this level of responsbility back home as a young teacher. I think it's a recpie for disaster to send people with no teaching experience nor creditentials into a classroom with a few days workshops under the belts and expect them to be responsible for the learning of these students.

pecan · Joined: 01 Jul 2004

Many students take an art class once a week, are you suggesting that they are unable to gain any value from being exposed to art on such a limited basis?

Every subject may be unique and different, as we use different parts of our brain, but learning is learning.

The aim of many of the Elementary English programs in the public schools is to expose children to the very basics. They are hoping to make children comfortable around foreigners, while having them learn some fundamentals ("fun"-damentals) in pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation from a native speaker. Once a week is a perfect sampler for many of these young minds that have never been exposed to English.

It is hard to understand why some of you would have difficulty with such a noble, yet modest undertaking.

Sure, every school would love to have an excellent, experienced, entertaining, educator, but they can not always fill the spots.

When they take what they can get, they may come to have some disappointment in their foreigner.

Blame them both, but they are at least attempting to help their students.

Nut

peppermint · Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 7:00 pm Post subject:

It sounds noble and modest until you factor in 250 kids a day that don't speak your language even a little, and a teachers guide that you can't read. Trying to keep control and explain a curriculum designed to be taught be Korean speakers is exhausting. Even when I ask my "co workers" about someting in the text, it takes fifteen minutes and consultation with four other teachers to explain.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

A couple of points to rebut

As a GEPIK teacher I am the only foreign English teacher in the school not the only teacher. There are about 20 teachers (Korean ) that teach English at the school.

I will be working with them. They are there to provide discipline and translation.

I will be following the curriculum, they are quite adamant about that.

I am a certified teacher with an Education Degree. Many of the other teachers in the program also have education degrees and some even have their masters.

I have not taken the Korean teachers certification exam. If it was in English I would like to think I would do pretty well.

I am glad that I am not the only English teacher in the school.

I do disagree that you seem to think teaching elementary students with only the lecture method is the best way.

I think that they need more active roles in the classroom. I know games are one method of teaching that can be more effective than droning on to 40 ten year olds. Not all games work but there are many that get the students interested, passionate and involved in learning English.

I only see each of my classes once a week for a short forty minutes but I hope to make a difference in their ability to communicate both orally and in writing using English.

Only time will tell whether putting a foreign English teacher in every school will pay dividends in the long run.

I am glad though that the responsability does not rest solely on my shoulders.

CanadaCommando · Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Location: People's Republic of C.C.

jaderedux · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Lurking outside Seoul

I am in a team teaching situation. I teach with a Korean teacher every class. I am not the only source of English.

I also am not professional teacher. I have studied on my own. I did some tutoring in America with Mexican nationals. I do not think that has hindered me as I am open to new ideas and theories. Generally speaking I find that the most difficult teacher to deal with is the professional trained teacher fresh out of college in some western country. Nothing they learned could have prepared them for this culture.

Some of the best teachers I know have been so called non-teachers. They are inventive, and not bound by artifical boundries or some theory they read in a textbook.

If you are serious about your teaching you should and owe it to your students to study and make your self a better teacher. But innovation and freshness is just what some of these students need.

A few months ago my students took english tests. Since I have been here they have consistently started to score higher...because of me....probably not but the combination of Korean Teachers speaking more english in thier classes and the fact that I have some grading power and administer speaking tests and summer vacation homework. I am not a dancing monkey.

I am a teacher....self taught yes...but so far I feel like I am making a difference. I know there are alot of us there. I am lucky enough to live in an area where it seems most the foreign teachers really care about their students and make an effort to be a "teacher".

Following the rigid "Korean" system is not a panacea, Speaking korean does not always mean you will have an easier time. In fact in some cases it will be a hinderence.

OP makes some good points but I think it is too far reaching in it's conclusions.

Jade

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

mack the knife · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: standing right behind you...

It's a silly rant for this reason:

We're not meant to teach the kids English. Surprised? So were we (GEPIK teachers) when we learned at the seminar that our job is not to teach English, per se, but to get the kids interested in learning English and perhaps correct their pronounciation along the way. Yes, the government lecturers at the GEPIK seminar actually told us that our job is not to teach English, but to make English learning fun with our Korean co-teachers.

Now, can you see the truth of it?

Some teachers have apparently been stuck in their own classrooms without the aid of a co-teacher. In that case your rant may or may not be too far off the mark, with regards to some teachers, anyway.

CanadaCommando · Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Location: People's Republic of C.C.

I want to clarify my point briefly, because perhaps it was a lil murky than I intend.

i) My post was not about who was qualified to teach in Public schools and who wasn't. (I would hope that the schools were picky enough to make that a moot point).

ii) My post was not about which method benefits the learning of English the most.

iii) My post WAS about how difficult it would be for FT to follow a curriculm written in a foreign language, geared towards a test culture.

If you are NOT the only English teacher in the room then PLEASE make posts with the fact that the OP did not have you in mind.

This post was not directed towards the EPIC crowd in particular, but rather to the people who are left with the task of teaching English ENTIRELY by themselves.

peppermint · Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 9:46 pm Post subject:

CLG- the test culture is very much absent from the English program in elementary schools. According to the standardized curriculum, around 50% of class time is devoted to games, and wether or not those games accentuate the language taught is debatable.

Pyongshin Sangja · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Location: I love baby!

CanadaCommando · Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Location: People's Republic of C.C.

That is exactly what I mean.

In my mind, no FT is qualified to be the only English teacher in a Public school.

Maybe I shoulda said that right off the bat and saved some confusion.

Would you hire a French teacher in Elementary school back home who could not read English well, who could not write well, who could not speak any more than a few words?

Principal: Well Mr Piere...let me see...you can't speak the native language, you can't read it...you don't really understand much of it, you don't have the neccesary certification that every other teacher has, you don't know the curriculum, you can't really read the text book you're supposed to use....but it says here that you taught back in your home country, and you tutored here for a bit... You're hired! Government tests start in 4 weeks! Good luck!