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jurassic5
Joined: 02 Apr 2003
Location: PA
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 Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:30 pm Post subject: N. Korean English Teachers |
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if you guys think seoul sucks...imagine being one of the few foreign ESL teachers up north. i would need lots of soju. i wonder what their pension is like....
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PYONGYANG, North Korea — When he spotted an Australian tourist taking in the sights at the capital's Kim Il Sung Square, the young North Korean tour guide was delighted by the chance to practice his English.
"Hello, how are you from to country?" the guide recalled asking the woman.
When she looked puzzled, he followed up with another question. "How many old are you?"
For decades after the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea's government deemed English a language of the enemy and banned it almost entirely. Russian was the leading foreign tongue because of the communist regime's extensive economic ties with the Soviet Union.
Now, years after the rest of Asia went through a craze for learning English, North Korea has belatedly discovered the utility of the lingua franca of international affairs. But the pursuit of proficiency has been complicated by the reclusive regime's fear of opening the floodgates to Western influences.
Almost all English-language books, newspapers, advertisements, movies and songs are still forbidden. Even T-shirts with English slogans are not allowed. There are few native speakers available to serve as instructors.
Haltingly, though, the government has started making changes, sending some of the best students abroad to study and even admitting a small number of British and Canadian teachers. Elite students are being encouraged to speak with foreign visitors in Pyongyang at trade fairs and other official events to practice their English — contacts that once would have been considered a serious crime.
According to the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J., 4,783 North Koreans took the standardized test for English as a second language, or TOEFL, last year, triple the number six years earlier.
"They are not as unglobalized as they are portrayed. There is an acceptance that you need to learn English to have access to modern science and technology," said James Hoare, a former British ambassador to Pyongyang who helped bring English teachers into North Korea.
An expatriate living in Pyongyang who is involved with the nation's English-language programs said English had replaced Russian as the largest department at the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, the leading foreign-language institute.
"There is a big drive now for learning and speaking English. The Ministry of Education is really trying to promote it," said the expatriate, who asked not to be quoted by name because of the North Korean regime's sensitivity about news coverage.
Several young North Koreans interviewed in Pyongyang expressed both a desire to learn English and frustration at the difficulties.
The tour guide, a lanky 30-year-old with a passion for basketball, said he had spent years studying English, including one year as an English major at the University of Foreign Studies, but still couldn't make small talk.
Aside from common courtesies, most of his vocabulary was made up of sports terminology.
"English is a common language between countries. Therefore, learning some basic English is helpful to our lives," the guide, who asked to be quoted only by his family name, Kim, said this spring.
One young woman, a member of an elite family, said she used to lock the door of her dormitory room so that she could read books in English that her father had smuggled in from business trips abroad.
Another woman, also a tour guide, lamented that she was told to study Russian in high school instead of English.
"My father said that three things needed to be done in one's life — to get married, to drive a car and to learn English," said the woman.
The biggest complaints of English students were the lack of native speakers and the dearth of English-language materials.
A few elite students have been trained with Hollywood movies — "Titanic," "Jaws" and "The Sound of Music" are among a select number of titles deemed acceptable — but most students have to settle for English translations of the sayings of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder. To the extent that any Western literature makes it into North Korea, it is usually from the 19th century. Charles Dickens, for example, is popular. |
LA Times |
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trigger123
Joined: 08 Sep 2004
Location: TALKING TO STRANGERS, IN A BETTER PLACE
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| Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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hehehehehehe
Charles d ickens got bleeped!
oh dear, must be friday...
(p.s. yes, the article is very interesting, ta) |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 3:47 am Post subject: |
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| Interesting article. If memory serves, someone on this board years ago was going to do just that (teach in the DPRK) |
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thebum
Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Location: North Korea
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:17 am Post subject: |
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| I'd do it. |
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ilovebdt
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: Nr Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| I'd do it to just for the experience. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:18 am Post subject: |
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What I imagine the NK-ESL texbook to look like:
"Hands Up!"
"Put down your weapon!"
"Don't move or I'll shoot!"
"Surrender Imperial lackey!"
"Don't say that about the Dear Leader, Capitalist dog!"
"Do you have any food?" |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:25 am Post subject: |
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I don't know for sure but if I was forced to spend a year in NK I'm not sure I'd make it out alive.
Then again if in Pyongyang one would surely be able to latch onto a few other foreigners for sanity's sake? Would the locals be allowed to talk to you? Would shopping be a problem? Would eating be a problem? Would you like to go without internet and TV and something to read? Would you stay sane?
Hell who knows? It would be rough though I imagine. I think some prisons would be easier. |
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buddy bradley
Joined: 24 Aug 2003
Location: The Beyond
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 12:19 pm Post subject: |
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| jajdude wrote: |
I don't know for sure but if I was forced to spend a year in NK I'm not sure I'd make it out alive.
Then again if in Pyongyang one would surely be able to latch onto a few other foreigners for sanity's sake? Would the locals be allowed to talk to you? Would shopping be a problem? Would eating be a problem? Would you like to go without internet and TV and something to read? Would you stay sane?
Hell who knows? It would be rough though I imagine. I think some prisons would be easier. |
Actually, you could be anywhere and it would probably be pure hell, knowing you.
Welcome to Ghana, stable man! |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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| God you got me there. Seriously, I feel exposed. Seriously. Damn, now, I'm depressed. Wait, I'm always depressed. So stuff that in your pipe and smoke it. Ghana....mmm... chcocolate. |
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buddy bradley
Joined: 24 Aug 2003
Location: The Beyond
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| Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| jajdude wrote: |
| God you got me there. Seriously, I feel exposed. Seriously. Damn, now, I'm depressed. Wait, I'm always depressed. So stuff that in your pipe and smoke it. Ghana....mmm... chcocolate. |
Jajdude, you know I've always loved you, so...
...hold me. |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:16 am Post subject: |
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I wonder what kind of teaching materials you would use..I'm sure most conversation books we teach in South Asia would be far too racy for the North. The thought of teaching English with copies of Nicholas Nickleby and DPRK propoganda pamphlets sounds comical.
And what would you do in your free-time? Eat grass and sing songs about the Great Leader? Why would you put yourself through that for a whole year? |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 7:27 am Post subject: Re: N. Korean English Teachers |
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I remember seeing a job ad at Dave's for two English teachers to go to North Korea for a year.
I was tempted to apply.
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| ..."My father said that three things needed to be done in one's life — to get married, to drive a car and to learn English," said the woman. |
Wow. That's really telling.
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| A few elite students have been trained with Hollywood movies — "Titanic," "Jaws" and "The Sound of Music" are among a select number of titles deemed acceptable |
 Being sunk in a huge ship, being eaten by a huge shark and being threatened by the Nazis after dancing on a mountain. That's what life is like for Westerners, they'll think. |
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FlagWaver
Joined: 12 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Somehow I can't see anyone doing a midnight run frm up North. |
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deessell
Joined: 08 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| If you were a teacher in NK you would be teaching the elite. They would all be Ministry children and you would find that they were no different from any ministry or diplobrats. When I worked in Vietnam I taught the daughter of the NK ambassador, she was a shopping, mobile phone obsessed brat. |
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junkmail
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Wonder what the pay is like? |
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