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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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 Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:34 pm Post subject: White Monkey Circus Part II |
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Didn't get your fix at your local Engrishee Viragee?
Well don't fret boys and girls. Step right up to the newest dazzle-fangled money sinkhole, THE ENGLISH TOWN!
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/12/16/200612160027.asp
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The government announced Thursday that a special educational town will be set up on the southern island as early as 2010, where students will hear only English in classrooms, streets and shops. The envisioned town will be 1.5 times the size of Yeouido, or 3.8 million square meters.
"Students will stay there for one or two years for intensive English immersion programs, with a regular school curriculum in English," explained Cho Won-dong, director general of the Finance Ministry.
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Sounds about as fun as Alcatraz, doesn't it? And all for the bargain price of about 1.2 trillion won ($1.3 billion)! The stupidity has reached mind-boggling heights! |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:35 pm Post subject: |
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| dont they have better things to spend their money on? |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Inmates could always escape by playing dead and being thrown off the cliff tied up in a sack. |
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riley
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: where creditors can find me
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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Anybody else thinking that this has the potential for a great movie?
"ESCAPE FROM ENGLISH ISLAND!!!"
Too bad Kurt Russell's getting old, I mean this movie just calls out for Snake Plisken. Now how would Snake get sent to the island? |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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1.3 billion dollars. At my high school it would cost about $130,000 / year in salaries and supplies to have an English department entirely staffed by foriegners, teaching reading, writing, speaking, and listening teaching a completely different curriculum. For $1.3 billion 1,000 schools the size of mine could have a completely native-speaker taught English programme for the next ten years.
But no, let's build an English island with more white clowns. We couldn't possibly let foreigners take control of something Korean that already exists. We have to make something new for them to do, making sure that they also get to work in the most ineffective manner possible. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| They have English Towns in almost every county here in Jeollanam-do. The idea is to keep kids here rather than having to bus them to Gyeonggi or Seoul. Just a very expensive fad. |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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I would think that Dok-Do Island is much better choice for English prison.
Either way, I'm a strong swimmer so there may be some chance for me.  |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Smee wrote: |
| They have English Towns in almost every county here in Jeollanam-do. The idea is to keep kids here rather than having to bus them to Gyeonggi or Seoul. Just a very expensive fad. |
This is different. You're thinking of an English Village where kids go for one or two weeks. This is an English Town where kids are going to go for a year or two, and it's not going to be local. It's going to on a remote part of Jejudo, the idea being, that the students would be cut off from Korea simulating them going to a foreign country without actually going to a foreign country.
English Villages as they're implemented are a baked idea.I can't even begin to wrap my head around this one. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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korea would learn english 100X more effectively if it simply dropped its xenophobia and started to see foreigners as fellow humans.
No amount of expensive projects, villages, camps and islands will make them learn english. they're focussing on the wrong things.. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Junior wrote: |
korea would learn english 100X more effectively if it simply dropped its xenophobia and started to see foreigners as fellow humans.
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Indeed. Even many of the ones who are foreigner friendly are genuinely xenophobic (afraid of us). There's an English teacher at my MS who cannot, simply cannot, speak English without giggling. She never uses English as the language of instruction unless she's reading, but even if she triend, how the hell is she going to get MS students to take her seriously if she can't stop giggling.
TOIC tests now requiring a writing component is going to be a God-send to the TEFL industry. 99% of KTs cannot write grammatically and at some point the Koreans who clue in to what works and recognise the need to teach for tests (something already ingrained in them) will have to turn that over to us. |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
korea would learn english 100X more effectively if it simply dropped its xenophobia and started to see foreigners as fellow humans.
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Indeed. Even many of the ones who are foreigner friendly are genuinely xenophobic (afraid of us). There's an English teacher at my MS who cannot, simply cannot, speak English without giggling. She never uses English as the language of instruction unless she's reading, but even if she triend, how the hell is she going to get MS students to take her seriously if she can't stop giggling.
TOIC tests now requiring a writing component is going to be a God-send to the TEFL industry. 99% of KTs cannot write grammatically and at some point the Koreans who clue in to what works and recognise the need to teach for tests (something already ingrained in them) will have to turn that over to us. |
Yep, I totally agree. They should let FTs take charge of the English programs in public schools and make all KTs assistants. How can KTs call themselves English teachers if they can't even put together a simple sentence/paragraph/essay in English? |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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| ChuckECheese wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Junior wrote: |
korea would learn english 100X more effectively if it simply dropped its xenophobia and started to see foreigners as fellow humans.
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Indeed. Even many of the ones who are foreigner friendly are genuinely xenophobic (afraid of us). There's an English teacher at my MS who cannot, simply cannot, speak English without giggling. She never uses English as the language of instruction unless she's reading, but even if she triend, how the hell is she going to get MS students to take her seriously if she can't stop giggling.
TOIC tests now requiring a writing component is going to be a God-send to the TEFL industry. 99% of KTs cannot write grammatically and at some point the Koreans who clue in to what works and recognise the need to teach for tests (something already ingrained in them) will have to turn that over to us. |
Yep, I totally agree. They should let FTs take charge of the English programs in public schools and make all KTs assistants. How can KTs call themselves English teachers if they can't even put together a simple sentence/paragraph/essay in English? |
well thats it exactly. Unfortunately koreans are too proud to allow foreigners authority or control. The KT often insists on being the number 1 teacher. I've just battled with a supposed assistant who couldn't handle the idea of being second in command and went all out to undermine me.Not hard to do when they speak korean but not english, woohoo! Koreans cannot accept being beneath foreigners in any way here because nationalism/xenophobia is the foundation of every thought they ever have.
Last edited by Junior on Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:13 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Paddycakes
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:44 am Post subject: |
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| Instead of the Island of Dr. Moreau, it will be the Island of Dr. Kim... |
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indytrucks
Joined: 09 Apr 2003
Location: The Shelf
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:05 am Post subject: |
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| some moron wrote: |
Indeed. Even many of the ones who are foreigner friendly are genuinely xenophobic (afraid of us). |
Then ...
| Quote: |
| There's an English teacher at my MS who cannot, simply cannot, speak English without giggling. She never uses English as the language of instruction unless she's reading, but even if she triend, how the hell is she going to get MS students to take her seriously if she can't stop giggling. |
How is this an example of xenophobia? |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:16 am Post subject: |
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| indytrucks wrote: |
How is this an example of xenophobia? |
do you giggle constantly when you speak korean as if it were some sort of silly language? |
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