Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

This warrants its own thread....

Lee Myung Bak went to the media and said that, if he were elected, he would push for a special certification/license for Korean teachers to speak "English-only" in English class.

This guy is complaining about what we've all been complaining about for years: Korean teachers aren't teaching English in English.

In other words, this would either be required of Korean teachers, or they would be required to get this certification/license in order to make a higher pay grade or teach certain classes specified as English only. Their English classes would have to be in English. One can only imagine the uproar this is causing with your local communist Korean Teachers Union.

He also went another route with this, and wants ... get this... KOREAN LANGUAGE classes for Korean students to be taught IN ENGLISH.

How the heck he'd expect #2 to be pulled-off, I have no idea.

[spliff]

[bassexpander]

[cdninkorea]

One of my adult students today said a presidential hopeful (forget the name) was arguing that Korean history should be taught in English. Did anyone else hear this? Sounds absurd to me, but maybe there's a reason for it I'm not aware of...

[spliff]

Seems he's showing he's gung ho about English which is a very good thing for you and I.

[xtchr]

They also have licences to drive, but does that mean they can?

[garykasparov]

This is another politician promising something to the Korean people to gain votes.

[Hyeon Een]

Well if they really really want to be bi-lingual, it isn't loony.

In India all subjects in middle and high school were taught in English until recently. This is still the case in the majority of the schools. This fluency in English has helped India earn a lot of money the last few years.

In my school in Britain their was a bi-lingual program in which the kids enrolled were taught all subjects in either French, German or Japanese in order to make them bi-lingual.

I think rolling it out across Korea will be impossible though due to a lack of teachers capable of carrying it out.

[keane]

[ddeubel]

I"m not sure if the label "immersion" would apply. More the limited CBI, content based instruction.

But all nations that have reached successful levels of English language fluency penetration have gone this road. Makes sense along with more expenditure in the public realm on English service/media access/use.

I really think a beneficial and cost effective way to increase the English fluency and effectiveness of Korean English teachers is not only the early retirement offered these days (to get younger teachers in the classrooms, who are generally more fluent and less resistant to communicative methods) but rather more money.

I'm always surprised to meet teachers in schools who speak great English yet they aren't teaching English. There simply is no incentive, in particular, monetary. A bonus for English language instructors, a significant one, would be a welcome and constructive change. You get what you pay for......everywhere in the world.

DD

[bassexpander]

All I know is that the Japanese have been teaching all subjects in English at several unis for a while, and the Korean unis are worried about being outdone. Too many students (2 of my former HS students) are now at Waseda in the all-English uni program. This has alarmed Korean unis, and the bigger ones have already followed suit.

It has now trickled-down to my small uni, and I've had one department head ask me to teach business classes for them (I have ZERO experience in business, so I declined). Two others are wanting to take private lessons from me because they're afraid of having to teach their classes in English.

Life is grand.

[Alyallen]

[bassexpander]

Another problem is that the best English speakers in this country are often those who are going for jobs in other fields. It's that way at my uni. We have a few students who speak great English who major in English, but a fair number of the English majors at my school tend to be the ones who are trying to choose SOMETHING for a major, and English is easier than others.

My theory is that English majors who are really good at English aren't the ones going to my school. They moved on to higher-level unis.

Also, maybe the people who are good at English, but go into business, trade, engineering, etc., feel they can make more money doing something other than teaching? That doesn't make sense to me, because my lady tells me that a lot of people want to leave jobs with Samsung, etc., to become a public school teacher. They want the stability, and view the job as less stressful.

Maybe they figure this out and want to change occupations later?

[cbclark4]

I think that at the very least an English Test should be printed in English.

[Alyallen]