Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The thread about child psychology got me thinking. Why is it that Korean teachers (all teachers, not just English teachers in particular) micromanage to such a ridiculous extent and try to discourage initiative as much as possible? With Korean teenagers, why is there such a ridiculous catch-22 cycle of treating them like little children, them acting childishly, teachers responding by treating them like children, them responding by acting childishly, etc.? When it comes to teaching, it seems KTs are so afraid of students not needing them to tell them everything they need to know and do. When I was a uni TA, I always thought it was great if a student knew more than me about something and would just sit back and let them explain. It seems that KTs will only let students say something in class about irrelevant and inane matters and when it comes to material to be covered, will only ever call on a student to give the one particular right answer.

This general attitude seems to present its greatest problem when it comes to teaching English, especially at the high school level. Except with the most brilliant English teachers (who probably aren't teaching high school), a class of 30 will likely have a much larger collective English vocabulary than their English teacher. Some students will be more gifted at pronunciation, listening comprehension, and writing than their teacher. So what, exactly, can the teacher teach them? He / She can prepare material in advance that he / she already knows the answers to and that's about it. Actually practicing and employing English in speach and writing would only show that the best students would be better off taking the initiative for their own language learning, making the KT feel useless. Compound this with the already existing tendency to treat them like children and spoon-feed them anything they need to know, with the sole focus on examinations, and you have a recipe for zapping any creative focus students may have, something essential for language acquisition.

The end result seems to be students who, by and large, are incapable of doing anything for themselves, something it would appear the teachers rather like. It greatly enhances their sense of power and importance. Much the same holds true with the relationship between KTs and FTs - if we could do everything ourselves, what need would there be for them? As a result, with the best of intentions at the concious level but feeling very insecure at the subconcious level, they feed us all sorts of useless information but withhold necessary information, with the subtle attempt to make us dependent, just like their students. What ways have you found to help break this mould?

Sometimes I think it's a good thing my students slip their shoes on and off or else they'd probably be coming up to teachers to tie thier shoes.

[HydePark]

Perhaps it differs by school. At my school, students are encouraged to have a dialogue with the teachers, and teachers are reminded to listen to students' ideas and concerns. Also, students are independent and don't have to follow the same route to get the desired result.
I find that even the English teachers who may not speak with great fluency are teaching valuable phrases to our students, as the students say these phrases to me and I'm surprised and pleased that they're using what they've been taught by others.

As you said,

[laogaiguk]

On a bit of a different note, the independence teachers give students outside of class (I sort of agree with you and sort of do not about inside the class) is vastly different from back home. People back home would call it negligence, but you do not see children dying every day.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Hotpants]

[oldfatfarang]

Korea's confucian culture is hierarchical. Nobody, including students, is expected to do any thinking when there is an older/more senior person in the room. The Confucian sschool system stifles independent thinking as Korean kids wanting to work in Korea have to fit into a rigid hierarchical social structure. That means that at school or work - someone senior will always make your decisions.
This doesn't only apply to schooling. Many Koreans rely on their parents/seniors for advice and support well into their adult life. For example, so-called adults live at home and have their finances , future, and marriage decided by their parents. It's a system that's worked here for thousands of years but heaven help any Korean trying to work/live in the Western world where independent thinking is valued.

[chilgok007]

At my school, I've only seen a KT's lesson once and that was with a group of 3 year olds, so I've never actually witnessed what your talking about (not that I'm in any way doubting that it's true). My best guess is that it's a cultural thing. The boss in Korea not only has to be the boss but also has to act like the boss (ice-cold demenor, barking orders, treating everone as subservients), and it's the same with teachers. The title is not good enough. They also have to fill a certain culturally-defined role in the heirarchy. If the students are more advanced than the teacher and showing it, then the teacher looses face because then the roles reverse: the teacher becomes the student and the student becomes the teacher. Apparantly in universities, it's very rude for students to even ask questions to the professor, lest the professor be unable to answer them. All of this is out of fear that if they don't fulfill their predetermined role, no one will take them seriously. In Micheal Breen's "The Koreans" (St. Martins Griffen Press), there's some interesting commentary on the Korean workplace. I highly recommend checking it out for more info.

[Hotpants]

I think Koreans are more liberal minded than we often make them out to be. I've been surprised at some of the underlying attitudes contradicting traditional societal values when talking to quite a large number of university students. For anyone who's taught in Japan, Korean liberalism and independent thought seems light years ahead by comparison! Korea is slowly but surely changing. Hoorah!