Korean Job Discussion Forums

[humanuspneumos]

year after year make "Teacher" myopic? I know that one program I taught was- yawn -monolithic/oversimplified and was written by a person with almost no experience at teaching English. I wonder how many of you would survive in Korea if you were trapped in the same old thing year after year. Would you have to do mini-gymnastics in your mind to keep it distracted from thinking about what is actually out there in terms of the TESL industry? Or would you have to come here and give advice to everybody to feel like you're actually going somewhere in this universe of English?


I've taught in about 20 different situations from university-international businesses-housewives-kindergarten in Korea and liked the variety. I sometimes felt that those who only had a "one-cow-town" perspective (one language school experience) made me yawn. Some people like ________ would make me yawn even more by acting like they knew every program going in town and only had a couple of years of teaching at the same school in their pocket. Not trying to hurt any new teacher's feelings- but- it was hard to take advice from underlings who wanted to be the program manager and who only had experience at my school for a very small time (or anywhere for that matter).

I have some friends in Seoul who complain that such a person wrote his own program and now they have to teach it. They are yawning at its lack of depth which usually comes with a plethora of experiences. They say it sucks being there and are bored to tears with it all.

Anybody here been at the same school for a while? Do you feel like you're not growing or what advantages can you see in parking your carcass at one school name? I often think of Mr. Erickson at BCM head-quarters and wonder how he ever stuck-it-out for 14 years at the same school.

Those of you who have been in more than one situation- do you sometimes feel frustrated when people who park themselves at one program (University/School/Business Program) give their professional advice on things they have never done or seen before?

Also, those of you with 10 X the experience of your fellow-wanna-be-key- teachers- now that you've found a way to hide from it all- don't you just wanna set people straight who have little to no experience in the office?

I hope this one doesn't get locked! I really want some good answers.

[tomato]

If the director allows enough room for creativity, you can try different teaching methods. You can do this as easily at one location as you can at a different location.