Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Canuckophile]

Don't know what you're smoking but
(a) I said specifically that I initially THOUGHT the teacher was a Kyopo/Gyopo (who cares what transliteration you use, eh?) ... his father was a diplomat and he actually had gone to the American international school in Seoul as a child. He is perfectly bilingual and nearly accentless. In fact, his English is better than a lot of westerners I've met in Korea . But all he can teach is kindies cuz no uni degree

Clear now?

(b) I know I met one KATUSA unless he was lying, which I doubt. We talked at some length about his army service. He was perfectly understandable to me (because I've spent a fair amount of time in Korea) but he would have difficulty if, for ex., he went to a western univ. Dunno what his writing/reading was like, but he had a strong Korean accent and did not use colloquial English comfortably. (I'm sure he'd learned all the US cuss words though - in fact, that was a lot of what we were joking about.)

Clear now?

I think that if you stay in Korea a long time, a lot of Korean speakers will seem much better to you than they really are.... because they're so much better than other Koreans. I was astonished traveling in Laos (only recently opened to tourism) because the Lao were picking up English easily and fluently - pretty much on the street - much better and faster than I would have thought. (Theirs is a tonal language - certainly no easier for them to learn English than it is for Koreans.) Many Lao whose English was picked up "on the streets" spoke MUCH better English than Korean high school and univ grads who've had anywhere from 6-12 years of formal study.

Just another indictment of Korean system. Koreans are NOT dumb and there's no reason for this other than the crappy system they have for learning a foreign language.

So I stand by what I said - please read more carefully. Or maybe start a new thread
You say tom-ah-to
I say to-may-to
You say Gyopo
I say Kyopo
NOW CAN WE ALL AGREE AT LEAST ON ONE THING?
Can we all say PO TAY TO????

Not as good as the original, eh? Why do you interject this minor stuff? It's a waste of everyone's time. I've heard the new transliteration is considered inferior to the old, anyway, though I personally don't care. At any rate, keep (or would you prefer that I write GEEP?) to the subject.

CANUCKOPHILE

[philinkorea]

what did anyone make of the rescent article in the korean herald?

made some good points about why korea didnt attract good teachers.

ive enjoyed korea. ive saved 10M wan this year and teaching adults has been ace. im unqualified but i like to think that im a good teacher and i really enjoy it. however, the kids hagwans are so unprofessional you feel like an entertainer (and thats all your required as), also the closed nature of korean society can make the experience v alienating,the culture id think is more difficult than others to live in, all the dodgy hagwans too.

ive had an interesting and colourful 2 years and ill go back with the money ive got to pursue my counselling career. my friends at home are qualified teachers and id talk of my good experiences but i dont know if due to these factors i could really recommend korea to them should they fancy a gap year from england teaching. id have to think perhaps they could be better off with somewhere else im not sure. i dont want to be too idealistic but id feel theres a better land to be for a fully qualified teacher who's just looking for a change for a while. what do you think?

[lastat06513]

Philinkorea wrote;

[chronicpride]

They're all buggered up over what they want. There was a school in Daegu once, that had 'high standards' of who they hired. They specifically wanted a young female, from an Ivy League school. I did the requisite 'I'll get back to you', but by some form of miracle, I was emailed a resume/photo, 5 days later, of a young, pretty girl who just graduated from Harvard. They took a pass on her, because, based on the attire in her picture, which we might call 'granola', they thought that she dressed too old-fashioned for their tastes and took a pass.

[Canuckophile]

Does anyone know of any Ivy Leaguers who've bothered to come here -- for teaching and other typical foreigner jobs, anyway?

The only one I heard of was some Harvard grad (not terribly attractive and more than a little odd) who did a one year uni stint and collected himself a stunner of a K wife. He was also something of an affirmative action baby, I think (black guy, arch-conservative Republican) who went on to become the poster black in a very conservative think tank in Washington, DC - he used to email constantly -- reams and reams -- on one of the ex-pat boards... rather looked to me like he had Nothing To Do at the Office.

Otherwise, I've only met one Kyopo who claimed to be Harvard - and I very much doubt she was, since she seemed to have been shipped back to Korea to find a suitable Korean husband that would satisfy the demanding standards of her traditional Korean family (i.e., overbearing father). When I last heard, she was doing hogwon recruiting - somehow I think a Harvard grad would set sights on something a bit better/more lucrative, eh?

I applied for one editorial job in which the company advertised that they wanted Ivy Leaguers - doubt they got any (but then I didn't get the job either).

There are undoubtedly some Ivy Leaguers here with the big guys (Hyundai, etc.) - wonder if they are asked to teach conversational English on their lunch hour?

Exactly why Koreans think someone with Ivy League credentials would come to a foreign country with no "glamour" (maybe someone would do it right out of college to live in France or something, but KOREA????) to teach English ... boggles the mind. Maybe the odd one who wants to "get away from it all" - but my guess is any such teachers would indeed be VERY odd, like the black conservative dude - come to find lovely K lass for matrimony.

CANUCKOPHILE

[The King of Kwangju]