Korean Job Discussion Forums

[HapKi]

I admit, I left myself open and deserve to be raked over the coals, as I was. However, I'd like it if this thread focused on the message, and not the medium. (Albeit, my poor grammar and typing skills in a quickly composed submission supports the case I was making, that those with English degrees are not necessarily masters of the language, as the name of the degree might suggest.)

[jinks]

[Rather_Dashing]

[Zyzyfer]

Playing Devil's Advocate, my university offered emphases on particular fields within the larger field of English, such as Creative Writing, Technical Writing, Linguistics, Literature, and others. Moreover, if you run with the ball and have a good academic advisor for your department (like I did), you can cheat yourself out of a few Lit. classes and study more of your own particular focus while studying overseas. So, it is possible to turn an English degree into something very useful over here, but not many people really will take notice of these finer points. I took like 3 Lit. Classes or something during my time in Uni.

Generally speaking though, I guess people are just under the assumption over here that English majors wouldn't be English majors unless they felt confident in and enjoyed English?

[Chillin' Villain]

[HapKi]

"Hey Kettle- You're black!!" said the pot.

[phaedrus]

At least Koreans are assuming love of English, and aren't focusing on marijuana consumption. Not that these exclude each other or must go together.

[Zenpickle]

[bosintang]

Even though I think foreign language training and teaching credentials certainly demonstrate a passion and commitment towards it, and even gives you practice and teaches you a few tricks along the way, I'm not convinced that any discipline is discriminatively more well-suited for the job of teaching and managing a classroom of ESL-learners.

This job is not rocket science. I pick rocket science not because of the obvious cliche, but also because there is a huge need for precision. This is not true of ESL-teaching, which is ultimately a skill, and one with a large margin of error. Ultimately an ESL-teacher's personality, passion, energy, intelligence, and innovation will account for more than their book knowledge. For instance: not quite clear on a grammatical concept or question? Look it up. A lesson doesn't go well and you find yourself having a bad lesson? Then learn from your mistakes and improve on it next time. Looking for new ideas, ways of presenting material, or ways of improving yourself? Read books and look on the internet. Watch other teachers and ask for advice.

To take this example to the extreme: Are your own parents and others who have taught you how to speak English, professional linguists?

Anyways, teaching ESL in Korea almost makes this argument moot. Arguing an English major makes a better ESL-teacher here in Korea, is like arguing a commerce major makes a better door-to-door vacuum salesman.

[HapKi]

very well put

[ajuma]

I have a hard enough time teaching "a" "an" and "the" to uni students...and NOW I have to start teaching ENGLIGH majors from the STATES?????

[Smee]