Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mashimaro]

[Medic]

Was at a social gathering with some Korean English teachers, and one of them was honest enough to say that "the students studying English are good, but most of the Korean English teachers are no good". He was one of the few who actually tried to speak English. Many of the others said they hated speaking English.

[dominic]

her mother hated me because i was white, we were together for 2.5 years and she came to canada to meet my family and friends, broke up a week later. ummm ok the *beep* did u bother coming to canada then? I dont get it either, but that's ok whatever, havent talked to her since june, didnt feel good at the time, because i even took a job on line 2 so id be closer to her and she moved to LA lol by the way her mom met me once for 15 mins so it wasnt my tough guy attitude that made her not like me, i just wasnt good enough for her little princess.

[captain kirk]

Your honesty and clarity are refreshing! I think everyone can relate to the situation. I don't want to sound melodramatic but it happened to me, too! But I'm still here, teaching in hagwons and do you know what?! When I look at the kids whose minds are so flexible and who are so immediate and fresh in their outlooks (in spite of being fed what their parents tell them) I don't see a CULTURE. The 'Korean way' so locked up and tight up against itself it gives an outsider the HORRORS! And love can make a person feel young, like they can do anything, transcend the differences 'keeping them apart' imbibed with the Romeo and Juliet's respective cultures! Unfortunately time not only heals all wounds, it tends to seal off the everywhichway of openings and potential of youth, and the open eyes and hearts of couples in love when the cement of culture sets. But it doesn't HAVE TO be that way, of course. Everybody's got the option to skedaddle loose every moment and 'live free'. Things like art, meditation, the right people, and so on. My TWO CENTS!

[Thomas]

I love to hear about Korean Government programs concerning English in the public schools. As a 4 year EPIK vet, I managed to see the good, the bad, and the ugly when the gov't tries to get involved. Without a standardized program with good money and organization, it will not work. Each year I was in EPIK, the program promised large numbers of new native teachers for the public schools... asking for 2000 and getting less than 200. I am not sure the EPIK program is still alive. If I were working in a hagwon, I don't think I'd let this news upset me.

(side note: in my experience, there were a lot of good things about the EPIK I experienced, but there were a lot of people for whom the program probably did more harm than good regarding relations and English learning... here's a couple links to my experience with EPIK in the Job Information Journal if you don't know what EPIK is...)
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:987053340-3724.txt
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobinfo/asia/sefer.cgi?display:990769976-14433.txt

[caniff]

I have been working at a foreign language public high school in Korea for 6 months (I was the 1st native speaker to be hired). I can say that there is definitely a wide disparity amongst the Korea English teachers in terms of both actual communication ability and the willingness to attempt to improve their proficiency by engaging in actual conversation. There are some that are fairly decent, but some that you wouldn't guess were English teachers based on their apparent ability. This also seems to somewhat carry over to the general level in their classes (I teach 17 different classes a week, and there seems to be a strong correlation. No wonder....

As a side note, the school is interested in expanding this program. They just hired my friend from the US who I recommended, as he wanted to stay in Korea but get out of the hagwon scene (can't blame him there). Working in a public setting is WAAAY better than a typical hagwon, for numerous reasons (even if the pay itself isn't much more).