Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chi-chi]

mods you may delete

[rapier]

Jack sarang: White south Afrivans: for around half of them, Afrikaans is their mother tongue. Those of English forebears probably speak better English than the English themselves,- being of colonial stock. I hail from neighboring Zimbabwe, of colonial English stock. When I transferred to school in England I had noticeably better grammar/ reading abilities than the poms did. Now I have the British passport I just tell Koreans I'm English- wouldn't want to cause complications by upsetting their perceptions.
large parts of ex- colonial Africa speak English fluently and well, - in fact its almost a mother tongue to many African states now. And I've heard many black Africans speak better grammatical English than Americans for example.

[The Marchioness]

Hey Fonzarelli

I personally know a couple of ladies here who are not native English speakers, but who nevertheless teach English. Their English skills, especially syntax and grammar, could put any native speaker's knowledge of his or her own 'native' language to the test.

In addition, I also know many 'native' speakers who cannot tell what a noun is - not even to save their own lives; furthermore, asking them what a verb might be, or, heaven forbid, an adverb or adjective, causes them to roll their eyes in embarrassment or a pretend shrug of the shoulders, as if they could care less!

Then, if we want to address the subject of spelling: many native speakers cannot spell their way out of a paperbag and that is an understatement. On the other hand, an astonishing number of non-native speakers have no trouble at all, having taken the time and made the effort to learn. To top it all of, most so-called 'English teachers' here in Korea wouldn't cut it back home - in any department.

TM

[rapier]

The dutch have the best standard of English for non- native speakers, I've noticed. Which is why its virtually impossible to score an English -teaching job in the Netherlands. They're awesome, and would probably make better teachers than many expats I've seen out here.
I'd be interested to know how many esl teachers here even knew the difference between present continuous, and simple present tenses when they started here!!!

[Zyzyfer]

[Mody Ba]

I agree with Z on that one.The hakwons aren't the only place to make money,and it is probably preferable to avoid them entirely if you can come up with a better job,which is entirely possible.

[Len8]

There are a lot of non native speakers who speak Korean fluently as well as very good English. I have heard that many hogwons find these people attractive, because they can explaining a lot of grammar in Korean.

[Guest]

[panthermodern]

I remember .......


A new guy walked into the hakwon one day ....

White bread, North American .... probibily a nice guy never got to know him well ....

The first thing out of his mouth were the following words:

"So, do the student speak English good, or what?"

I retorted ...

"Well, they speak English gooder then you."

Many other staff member had to leave at this point due to coffee coming out of their noses.

Ah, the good old days.

cya

panthermodern