Korean Job Discussion Forums

coolsage · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:14 am Post subject:

I'm not current with the hagwon situation these days, but from my experience at a Teacher's College (Kyodae), it seems that half of the Korean faculty were attempting to impart methodology, while the other half were doing nursery rhymes. It was left to the (two) native speakers to generate the conversational component. And irrespective of their major, graduate elementary school teachers, even if they had taken only one semester of English, were the designated English teachers. (Nobody else wanted the job.) And of course, the notion of 'teaching to the test' in the end serves up little in terms of actual learning.

PolyChronic Time Girl · Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Location: Korea Exited

My adult students remarked that Korea has the worst English ability than any other Asian country and that it is to blame on too much focus on grammer and stupid TOEIC passages.

Koreabound2004 · Joined: 19 Nov 2003

I used to work with international students in Canada, most were from Asia. My job was to help them to enter top Canadian universities and colleges.

In my experience with them, I would say 70-80% spoke very little English. In fact, most of them could not even fill out the application or book their TOEFL test on the phone. I wondered why the universities accepted them. I quickly learned that such schools want international students because of the high tuition fees they pay, almost 3 times as much as a Canadian...and also because they can "diversify" their campus by adding such students.

As far as TOEFL, the students who spoke the best usually did the worst on the exam, perhaps because they focused on speaking to others, and not memorizing from a book. Other students took the test several times, memorized a lot, or had someone else take the test for them. I could not believe how many students had amazingly high scores...yet could not even tell me what their name was when asked.

In fact, universities caught on to a large ring of Chinese students who were using one older man to take their TOEFL tests. They got caught when one of the university officials noticed the same person pictured on many score reports. Students were found to be paying up to 10,000 CAD to have this man take the test for them. Other Asian students used to go back home to write the test, rather than take it in Canada, because they tended to get higher scores from their home countries. They said it was easier to fly back home from Canada, than to go to Toronto. Hmmm..... Rolling Eyes

Students were terrified when they learned that a speaking portion would be added to the test for 2005. However, I think it will be a positive change. It is very necessary, and long overdue. Although, I think that TOEFL is a horrible way of assessing student ability overall. Other English proficiency tests are much better.

As for the K-Engrish teachers, there are many. It is amazing how some students learn anything from them....I guess that's why we are here, to attempt to make some improvement in this system.

iiicalypso · Joined: 13 Aug 2003 Location: is everything

I think that part of the problem is that there is little consideration of the student's level when teachers are being selected. It isn't the use of Korean in the classroom that is necessarily the problem; I have worked with some excellent Korean teachers with less than great English who worked wonders with the first and second graders. It only makes sense that when you are first learning a new language you would want to have explanations given in your native tongue.

However, there is a problem when after five or six years of supposed study you still need everything to be given to you in Korean. By this time you should have developed the ability to understand well enough to get most of your instruction in English.

However, at least at the hagwons where I have been, teachers are akin to interchangeable parts, which is absurd. If a teacher cannot speak English fluently, he should be teaching beginners. If a teacher is fluent and understands the nuances of the language, he should teach more sophisticated learners.

Grotto · Joined: 21 Mar 2004

sadly the quality of the Koreans teachers English is much worse than the Koreans I worked with in hogwans(for the most part)

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

As another thread mentioned, speaking skills will soon be a real part of the TOEIC or other tests. If speaking really matters, most are screwed.

Bozo Yoroshiku · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:31 am Post subject:

peppermint · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:48 am Post subject:

That's marginally better than my kids. After getting used to my co teacher saying good morning then asking about the weather, this dialogue occured on Friday :

KT: Good morning class! How are you?

Class: It's cloudy!

Shocked

theSeeker · Joined: 18 Jun 2004

i feel strangely sad saying it, but i feel better after reading your posts. i thought that i was in an unusual situation at my school but it seems that it is normal, and not as unusual as some seem to have it.

next question...

how do you deal with the frustration that this creates?

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

You look for the bright spots. Sometimes they find you.
Don't spend too much time fretting over the negative aspects, they will always be there no matter how much you try and change things.

Remember how much you hated French class back in Canada, and then do a mental comparison. These kids are actually much better at English than I was at French. Embarassed

Boy do I wish I had studied French now.

Badmojo · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:57 pm Post subject:

paperbag princess · Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Location: veggie hell

i've had all sorts of run-ins with korean co-teachers. my current co-teacher is an awesome girl, but she still teaches the kids incorrectly.

me: ok class, what's another word that has long u in it, long u, like tube?

nothing from the class, so the co-teacher queitly whispers "sun" to one of the students who then says "sun!"

i hate making the co-teacher look bad, but sometimes they don't help.

the worst situation i was in was at my first hogwan though. it was really terrible, the korean teachers only spoke korean to the students and they also were constantly giving there students cookies, candies and icecream. man, by the time the kids would show up in my class room they'd be on sugar highs and covered in whatever they were eating.

teachingld2004 · Joined: 29 Mar 2004

What bothers me, is we are hiring a Korean-English teacher to help the beginners. I asked her to translate something for one of my students while my boss was on the phone. Her English was (to be nice) not so good. Now here is my question: When the schools hire a Korean_English teacher, why are int interviews always dont in Korean, and not in English? It they would just have me speak to them, most would not get more thne a polite "goodby" from me. 2 kids were play fighting, and I tried to explain that was not allowed, so I asked one of the teachers to tell them that we do not even play fight, and then she said to me? "Playing fight? You want me speak him?". Well, it was not a "him" I brought over, it was "they", and man.............this is who they are going to hire?