Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wooden nickels]

[talentedcrayon]

My school wouldn't let me use the photocopier. In fact, I was not allowed to use paper or ink unless I got 3 levels of approval (head of English dept, vice principal, principal) for each class. That meant filling out a form and getting it approved by three people for every 40 sheets of paper I wanted to print. I didn't bother.

So... not only did I have no curriculum... I had no paper and couldn't use work sheets...

Another thing I can add to my list of reasons GEPIK failed: corruption.

My principal used the budget from GEPIK that was supposed to be used to upgrade a classroom and provide supplies... on a new renovated office. Since there were two NETs at my school, that meant about 20 million won.

The head of the English dept told me and the other teacher this. The head of the English dept. was also pretty pissed off about it.

edit: I will say this, the principal had some class. His office and the rest of the school are two completely different worlds... He even has one of those little golf putter thingies.

[Chaparrastique]

[wooden nickels]

I had a great principal who was very supportive and helpful in every way. Eventually, I had a newly remodeled classroom to work from. The principal would come by and check my classes and give me a bow and a smile.

The problem for me was the K English teachers. A couple of them were good but the others seemed to be making a coordinated effort to make my life and job miserable. It wasn't every minute of the day but it was every day and constant and continues enough to make working conditions a headache. This was beyond the petty stuff that goes on in a hakwon. The K English teachers at the public school were very open about not liking my presence there and let me know it.

I politely turned down an offer from the public school and decided to expand my own school with my wife.

[World Traveler]

Why Korean and Japanese Students Can't Speak English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW920zWkIQI

[yfb]

[jvalmer]

[f12]

Total waste of resources. Anyone who claims otherwise either has no clue or is sweating to have their contracts renewed.

[northway]

[chickenpie]

The main problem is most of the Korean teachers don't know how to teach anything but grammar translation, and the FTs mostly are freshly hired despite teachers with loads of experience being let go.

Time to end the farce, let the Koreans who need English to study it in Uni when they have an idea of how important it will be.

[AsiaESLbound]

Having Western teachers in Korean public school adds enormously to the students experience in opening them up to learn about the world. However, I feel job placements should require an interview with the school and co-teachers instead of a recruiter in Seoul randomly sending NETS to randomly selected schools where they don't know what or who they're receiving resulting in many misunderstandings, surprises, and mishaps. Why? Personality conflicts, ageism, sexism, lies, head games, and unspoken expectations unmet causes a most awkward breakdown in communication, conflicts, and failed relations which the students pick up on very quickly that would never happen where the staff are professional.

I've held three Korean public elementary school jobs over the years and taught in ten different public schools for a total of four years. While my first two jobs went super and I extended, my third job was hell as the two co-teachers ran an office of tyranny with creating conflicts out of refusing to cooperate and communicate for lesson planning, but saying in front of classes mine were never good enough, and then cooking up hundreds of false generalized accusations of student favoritism while always trying to prove Westerners weren't needed nor wanted by being able to actually speak and teach English. It was so increasingly hostile, downright strange, and most awkward, I decided one evening to leave without notice the next morning in spite of having a co-teaching team of two bipolar narcissist ladies on a war path of dramatic highs and lows.

While it depends on teacher/school fit if it's right or wrong to have a Westerner in public schools, I'll most certainly pass on accepting a job without interview or a meeting unless the visa is not attached to the job.

[andrewchon]

[wonkavite62]

Well, I taught in a public school-a technical High school-in Korea. I had quite a lot of really good classes, with enthusiastic teachers, but there were some classes where the kids were unruly and basically bitter and cynical before I came. The Korean teacher was usually absent.
Now I am in Beijing. I have been told that I have already made a difference to students' oral abilities, and I am receiving some nice comments. Co-teachers are almost always present. Students behaviour is better.(There are issues, though, -e..g. the local education dept. does not provide housing).
As regards, public schools in Korea, there was an education expert whose research concluded that western teachers were a waste of resources in Korea. I do wonder if this was simply what the current Korean government wanted to hear? It might have been.
Western people can be of great use in the classroom. I would like to return to Korea-the over all pay and conditions would be better in Korea, and I have A LOT of friends-mainly drinking partners, but real friends, in Seoul. But that might be hard.
Experience suggests that Koreans are profoundly irrational about the teaching of English. One of the replies mentioned the excessive expense on "English rooms" which have been phased out in one of the schools I taught at in Korea. But there's more. Ever wondere why so many westerners in Korea are from Canada or the U.S.? Or at least why they are preferred. Why will so many schools in Seoul only hire north Americans under 30?There are all sorts of notions that some Korean hagwon bosses and parents have which have nothing whatever to do with teaching ability. If you look back over the past ten to fifteen years you will see that the EFL teaching landscape in Korea has changed wildly, at least in the public sector. Such changes will no doubt continue.

[lowpo]

When I was teaching at a public school in China many years ago I would work with a Chinese co-teacher, who was fluent in English. All the Chinese co-teachers that I worked with were not allowed to speak Chinese in the classroom, unless a student didn't understand something. Plus, all the students were given a speaking test at the end of each chapter.
In Korea you have to be a strong minded teacher if you want the kids to learn English in the classroom. Because almost all the KET's don't speak English to the students and only want the students to focus on the test. I have worked in the public system in for 9 years now and I have only meet a couple of KET's that can get the kids to study more on speak, without also losing focus the tests.
If the Koreans really want to have a NET in the public school sysytem, they need to hire more experence teachers or have some kind of traning program for the NET.

[isitts]