Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hyeon Een]

[Grotto]

After spending a semester with an incompetant, rude, bossy, inept co-teacher I can pass on some words of advice.

Take her aside...privately...and put her in her place. Let her know you wont tolerate her rudeness and if she doesnt like it she can quit being your co-teacher.

OR

Keep going with the status quo and be bored.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Just had a lesson with one - only one where he "co-teaches" with me all week - where he just sat at the back giving out the occasional answer. The best part was, however, he got a few of them wrong and I actually had to talk the students through the right answers, giving them hints that made them think about things.

I really don't know what's going on in some of these people's heads, however. At least the one I co-teach most of my classes with will ask for my opinion on how she can help, but I still have her far from trained. But how do they teach their own lessons? Do they not want anyone to think for themselves, and if so, how do they expect anyone to learn a *language*?

I like having a Korean teacher in the classroom for first- and second-year year middle school, but for lessons beyond that, I'm tempted just politely to ask them to stay behind in the staff room where they can do something more useful. I mean, how on earth does someone think he's helping just by sitting in the back paying almost no attention to the students, occasionally giving out an answer (which may be right or wrong)?

[baldrick]

Welcome to "Korean style".

The first of the seven steps is acceptance. Accept the situation for what it is: A farce driven not by the desire to educate, but by bizarre korean social rituals entwined in status, power shifting and reputations. No matter how long you play with it in your head, it will never make sense, so just do what I do. That is, don't get dragged into it, just observe with amusement. If you bite, then the bait has been taken, and next time its size must increase. You must understand the indescribable obsession some koreans have with not being 'outdone'. If one class has a production of 'peter pan', next week another class will suddenly be doing a full costume production of 'oliver twist' with orchestra....etc etc.

If your time was taken up with making sure you don't slip off the social ladder and lose the popularity, power and respect you have accrued, maybe your mind would become twisted too. The consequences for someone losing this power and respect can sometimes be horrible to witness. It means months of slowly rebuilding relationships to try and get back to where you once stood - and then its someone elses turn. The key is to understand that you are NOT part of this and you don't have to be. Just sit at the back, do what you are asked and take your money home. Hopefully you have some lessons where you CAN be a professional educator. If not, relax, that time will come, with the right job.

[EFLtrainer]

Discussing changes I want to make to the English "program" at my school after being told for the umpteenth time we can't do that because "it is not the Korean way", "you don't understand Korea(ns)":

People in Korea study English as much or more than any nation on Earth, yet have some of the lowest communication skills. Also, you ahd a foreign teacher here for a year before I came, so why can't your students understand, "Open your book?"

Answer: They are Korean. He still doesn't understand the implications of this statement.

Some things I asked for: All teachers speak English in class. (Two Koreans, both speak English, though definitely not perfectly.) Answer: they are teaching grammar. They don't need to speak English. You are the foreign teacher. You speak English.

"OK, but perhaps the most important aspect to acquisition is simple exposure."

See above.

Related to this, can we please not teach English phonics through Korean script? This is unnecessary. A symbol has a sound. Teach it. These combinations have these sounds. Teach them. You are teaching errors. Korean script cannot correctly reproduce the sounds of most English words.

Answer: They cannot understand. We must use Korean. And the mothers want it.



I'm pretty sure this is my last year in Korea.

Krunk.

[captain kirk]

Butterfly that was a really funny post. Really funny. You're funny when you're annoyed. How she hogs the class and gives you a token five minutes. And for her part talks in Korean most of the time. And how, when you're talking, she plays with her phone at the front, talks to kids, or writes on the board. And steals your drama bits just to be annoying.

And you're annoyed.

You've got a genuine interest in doing your job well. But she's blocking you.

I had a co-teacher like that in Taiwan. I had two. One was great and the other was like yours above.

The great one was really great. We were a unit. She actually had senority over the bad one but that didn't stop the crap co-teacher from being pointedly annoying like...

-talking with the kids in Chinese too much
-sitting back and looking bored and not assisting
-not physically moving to be of assistance in class
-leaving class early

There were some political issues about foreign teachers 'taking' the jobs of Taiwanese English teachers in public schools.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[baldrick]

[butter808fly]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[EFLtrainer]

This provides some insight into why taching English in Korea, even in the public schools, isn't getting anywhere. It's written by a Korean.

PDF

http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/Sept_04_yke.pdf

Web

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:skSM2Hqp7kUJ:www.asian-efl-journal.com/Sept_04_yke.pdf+EFL+practices+in+Korea&hl=en

Conclusion
This paper has discussed the attempts to implement CLT through the recent curricula changes in an EFL situation in Korea and the limitations of those attempts, one of which is the inadequate choice of the notional-functional approach. The notional-functional approach, initially seen as different from the grammatical syllabus, turned out to be very similar in practice (Nunan 1988: 40). Therefore, in order to apply CLT, curriculum developers should consider more essential features of communication rather than simply replacing grammar with functions in syllabus design: broader contexts should be presented at the discourse level, and interaction or negotiation procedures among speakers should also be taken into account. Additionally, in other EFL situations in which CLT has received attention, it is necessary to investigate which specific approach among various CLT versions currently gives the best theoretical basis, how actual teaching is carried out under its influence, and how the curriculum could be improved by changing or refining the curricular decisions.

[Saxiif]

[thursdays child]

Totally understand - felt the same frustration and fury only a month ago.... but it's all a been resolved.

It got to a point where my co-teacher and i were screaming at each other in class - not, not good! Anyway, he complained about my attitude I complained about his uselessness - to the principal. The principal conducted an undercover investigation!!! Asking students opinions and the head of English watched some classes. The result...... much to the schools surprise - yes, he is useless and I'm doing a good job. And to my surprise my coteacher took this in his stride and is now asking for constructive feedback and help with teaching - very harmonious!! He is a good teacher but has no idea about team-teaching or teaching conversation and I admit he can teach me about teaching grammar.

[ilovebdt]

[rok_the-boat]

My very first job as an Enlgish teacher was in Japan, 1989. Team teaching they said - fine by me.

So, I walk into class with my team-teacher, he introduces me in Japanese, then leaves. From the above, it was probably for the best