Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ou812]

we all know that the amount Koreans spend in English education is ever increasing.

yes, the hogwans (institutes) get richer, but the students are not increasing their level of English. Parents continue this trend, but when is the last time that you talked to a Korean kid and they could respond?

the biggest con is in Korea about the Foreigner majority teaching Korean kids (adults) English. The institues and recruiting agencies get richer but are the students actually improving (?) No, of course not.

2-3 hours per week is not enough. Teachers (foreign, and also domestic) don't care. Parents have alot to do with this false perception.

but, still Korean idealogy will put many $$$ in the coffers of the institutes anyways.

if some Korean reads this then you should put this in Korean and put this tragedy in the limelight of all Korean citizens.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Students are improving. It's not like they don't learn any English. Students learn a lot of English in hagwons. Of course they don't/can't/don't way to use English in the streets. Everyone speaks Koreans and the majority of students are too shy or too self-conscious to use it. I was the same way with French when I was in French-immersion in Canada. I didn't want to speak French, wasn't confident enough to speak it, and had really no reason to use it at all. Most of what they learn can be used in later years. When they're adults. If they happen to move to an English-speaking country, they'll pick up on free-speach very quickly.

That's the way I look at it. We can get them to speak in class as much as possible, but most are never going to get to a great, confident level of speaking until they need it. The knowledge we give them stays with them. If need be, and they need to use English the majority of the time when adults, they have the knowledge and the capability.

Don't expect too much.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It's all a matter of standards. The only place where there are any standards that really count are with university matriculation exams and company workers trying to get higher TOIEC scores. Until recently these tests have been based on a bit of listening and mostly grammar-translation method test materials. Otherwise there are few standards that are useful. Hagwons can make their own standards. English students can graduate with a degree in English having no idea how to write an English essay. Until recently there have been almost no standards to measure communicative ability. If it's possible to change this, it will be possible to increase the effectiveness of an entire educational system.

[tiger fancini]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[ulmaeri]

Some of the hagwons are doing their jobs. Last year when I was teaching at the hagwon level, I had a few kindy classes. One of them, I took from just a few words to being about to do basic expressions in English. We are not talking about cookie cutter expressions. For kindy students they were only prolly a few years behind their western counterparts.
Don't lump all places into the con game. Yes, some don't teach much except on how to pass the gov't exams. Some do a somewhat decent job.