Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Newbie]

Over the years I've worked with some locals that have truly excellent English. But, there have also been a good number that were quite bad. I've read some of their homework assignments, lesson plans, etc. and been in awe at how bad their English was. A lot of them seem nowhere near good enough at English to be teaching it. With some of them, it has just hurt my head trying to have a conversation with them.

Not trying to get down on them, but it does help to explain why you get a bunch of students that have been lead way off course.

Yes, I realize a good number of foreigners here are also nowhere near good enough to be teaching English, but that's another post.

[Homer]

In most cases they are good enough to teach the grammar. The conversation bit is a challenge for them sometimes.

Their knowledge of English grammar is however far superior to your average foreign teacher. So co-teaching (each teacher gets the same group back to back) maximises the learning potential of the students if both teachers are qualified (know how to teach) and talk to each other (coordinate their teaching).

[Smee]

I don't have stats for my school or anything but I've had quite a few Korean coworkers who were not good enough to teach English. Obviously they didn't speak much more than "Hello" and they didn't know too much about English grammar. They relied on the (often erroneous) textbooks and many times I'd walk into class, look at the unerased grammar lesson on the whiteboard and shake my head.

So a percentage of the Koreans at my school have been worthless . . . but it doesn't really matter. They've got authority as teachers, whether they've earned it or not. The way we talk about "earning" authority is different than the way they do it in Korea. They don't have to know anything about English because the parents and students are only interested in going through the motions. We could also get into a big long debate about whether native speakers are qualified to teach solely by virtue of their mother tongue. The thread about "English as Superficial Language" talks more about Korea's love of half-a-s-s-ing it.

Besides, 33% of the classes at my hagwon are listening. So the teachers just press "play" and stand there for 50 minutes. Seriously.

[mindmetoo]

[weatherman]

[mindmetoo]

[Corporal]

The large majority of my K-coworkers and foreign coworkers have been substandard. I work with people that can't spell summarize, have never heard of Phillis Wheatley, and can't define simple TOEFL-type words without a lot of thought. I know some of these people have been more popular with their students, and some of them had great classroom management skills (better than mine, sure) but as for being truly learned? Nah.

[kermo]

I'd like to see Korean teachers conduct their classes with more of an immersion style- it blows my mind when I listen in and barely hear a word of the language being ostensibly taught. What are they on about?

[shortskirt_longjacket]

A recent sentence that my K-teacher partner had the kids copy into their notebooks:

I have 3 of sandwich.

The ones at my school are terrible. And the reason they are is because they are paid very little. We've been trying to hire a new Korean teacher for a month to replace one who quit after three days (actually, she lied and said she fell down in the bathroom and broke her coccyx [sp?] and would be out for a month...when the school said they'd wait for her to recover, she said that they should just find a new teacher). Anyway, every teacher that comes in for an interview refuses the job offer because of the pay (so I'm told). Hey, the hagwons get what they pay for. Same goes for the quality of native English-speaking teachers as well.

[HapKi]

I used to work at a hagwon with a classroom I called the fishbowl, as it had ceiling to floor windows on 2 sides and put you and your lesson fully visible to the floor's lobby. Anyway, I was always curious what the Korean TOEIC teacher was teaching. Once on the board was, "Cooking the baby."
Now I know this probably stemmed from the idiom, "to have a bun in the oven," but I from that day forth I wondered if he was just pointing out the ridgidness of idiom phrases, or if he just didn't have a clue himself.

When you say, "teach English," I think you should reexamine the vastness of your statement. Korean's should stick to explicit English language rules and grammar, which they teach quite well. Foreigners with the implicit side of speaking and communicative competence. The two combine well.

[billybrobby]

is all that grammar junk worthwhile? i mean, if WE don't know it, why should they? seems like a waste of time.

i think nothing is more worthless than a person who knows a bunch of grammar but can't put together a sentence. it's like knowing a bunch traffic laws but you can't drive.

[Big_Bird]

The ESL racket in Korea is just a joke. It's driven to a degree by the greed of 'get rich quick' hagwan owners. To keep up with the demand, Korean recruiting agencies are working hard in Canada, NZ, Australia etc aggressively recruiting any 'pale face' they can find - teaching experience and qualifications 'nice but optional.' Such is the demand, any Korean who can recite their abc can get a job at the less 'selective' hagwans. I've been shocked at the blackboard scribblings of some of the k teachers here - they clearly do NOT know their grammar.

The Korean consumer is being exploited left right and centre and would probably be better off just buying a few good textbooks with accompanying CDs and teaching themselves, than paying good money to these hagwan sharks.

If only the parents of Korea would collectively go on strike and say NO to extracurricular schooling. Then Korea could concentrate on providing quality state education, and they would be able to concentrate on employing quality teachers, both native and Korean.

I laughed when I first found myself teaching in Korea, a low bitter laugh, when I realised (despite having an appropriate qualification) that I was just a white monkey - there for show. Education in Korea is a bitter joke!

That said, I've worked with some good Korean and Native teachers - who truly have the best intentions and care dearly about their students' progress - but they are not as common as they should be.

[Big_Bird]

[HapKi]

Personally I'm thankful that Koreans have done their jobs teaching grammar, so that by the time I get the students in college, they can read, understand, and for the most part recognize, correct grammar when they see it. I can focus on communicative-based speaking.
I'm sure not a fan of a purely grammar-based teaching methodology. But I'd much rather a student had a public school background in English grammar than not one at all. Who out there is going to teach it better? Us? I doubt I could very well, I don't want to, and neither do you.
And don't give me any crap about Krashen acquisition theory or total immersion. Korean elementary students may benefit, but the education system isn't ready for it.

[Neil]

When I worked in the sticks they were usually awful...I mean they tried hard but had never been out of Korea and only knew phases from textbooks and a basic vocab.

Since moving to Seoul every K-teacher bar none I've worked with has spent 2 or more years in the States and has been fluent.