| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
flakfizer
Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Location: scaling the Cliffs of Insanity with a frayed rope.
|
 Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 1:57 am Post subject: Petition protests English expansion plan |
 |
|
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2897808
The Joongang Ilbo:
| Quote: |
Petition protests English expansion plan
November 26, 2008
More than 24,000 teachers and parents signed a petition urging the Education Ministry to give up its proposed extension of English class hours for elementary school children, calling the move �English sycophancy.�
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology plans to lengthen English classes by one or two hours a week for students in the third to sixth grades. Officials say the current curriculum doesn�t provide enough English education, causing parents to spend on private tutoring.
Critics worry it will only further feed the obsession with English and put too much of a burden on young children who have yet to master their mother tongue and other basic subjects.
�The Education Ministry should get out of the daydream of English omnipotence and English sycophancy. As long as the ministry sticks with its English education enhancement team, educational development in Korea will remain only a remote idea,� said the petition signed by a total of 24,518 teachers and students. The embattled team mentioned is a new unit created under the ministry�s English drive.
Public English education in Korea starts in the third grade with an hour of classes a week. Fifth and sixth graders get two hours. The ministry plans to increase the hours to three to four hours starting as early as 2010.
The government hopes the move will cut the amount of money spent on private instruction and help narrow the growing English proficiency gap between rural and urban children.
According to 2007 government statistics, private spending for English education amounted to 6 trillion won ($4 billion), an enormous portion of the 18 trillion won spent on private education.
In a recent hearing, the ministry proposed hiring 4,000 native speakers to teach English conversation in elementary schools. Critics warned the plan would only increase the number of irregular and unlicensed teaching staff.
The Korean Teachers and Educational Workers� Union, a progressive umbrella union that wrote the appeal to the ministry, says the policy is a dangerous idea. Japan starts English education in middle school and France has only an hour or two of classes in elementary school, it says.
|
"The Education Ministry should get out of the daydream of English omnipotence and English sycophancy." Huh?
Is it really that bad for kids to learn English three hours a week rather than just one - especially when so many of them are already studying much more than that and paying dearly to do so?
My favorite part is at the end where Japan and France are held up as examples of countries that don't study English much at young ages. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 2:41 am Post subject: Re: Petition protests English expansion plan |
|
|
| flakfizer wrote: |
| My favorite part is at the end where Japan and France are held up as examples of countries that don't study English much at young ages. |
Two nations that are notoriously crap at foreign languages. Hey, let's emulate them!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Look at who is putting up a stink about it. It makes you wonder if they are worried about their own asses. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 7:29 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Japan's English abilities are pathetic. Significantly different than Korea. Korea should keep a good thing going, particularly since 3 hours a week is a fairly simple thing to do! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: Re: Petition protests English expansion plan |
|
|
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| flakfizer wrote: |
| My favorite part is at the end where Japan and France are held up as examples of countries that don't study English much at young ages. |
Two nations that are notoriously crap at foreign languages. Hey, let's emulate them! |
QTF |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Strange.
I did not only have 5 hours of Dutch, on top of that I had to follow 4 hours of English, 3 hours of French and 2 hours of German .......
These people are just afraid of change and they are not ready for it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
yawarakaijin
Joined: 08 Aug 2006
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
Man I hated it but I had at least one hour of French every single day from grade one to grade eleven. How the hell can they argue of one hour per week? Face it chumps, English is the international language.
Perhaps if Asian kids spent less time studying mathematics they could focus on some other subjects.  Seriously!
I was sitting on the train with some japanese kids on the way to work the other day when a few of them busted out some of their math homework. Holy shit! These kids must have been around 10 or 11 years old and they had shit going on that I never even encountered in my OAC (grade 13) physics classes. I was dumbfounded. In highschool we had a chinese math teach who had memorised sin, cos and tan up to 100 or something like that! Absolutely nuts!
Take some history classes dudes. Mix in a little english or other foreign language courses. Perhaps go crazy and do some politics or geography! Other than that of your very own country I mean.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
I agree, most Koreans don't need to learn English. Keep farming, selling shoes, making bondaeggi, etc. to other Koreans.
But let the educated, global-minded and motivated ones have as much as they can handle. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
| The esl thing in Korea always puzzled me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
OneWayTraffic
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I do company classes in LG and Samsung from time to time. In the LG head office at Yeoido, I don't think I've run into anyone who doesn't have at least an intermediate command of English. Many are advanced.
If you want the best jobs, then English is an indispensable skill. And every Korean Mum wants her little Johnny working at a Chaebol or somesuch.
If push comes to shove the Chaebols could put more pressure on the Govt than a teachers union. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I do feel that the majority of Koreans don't want to learn English. I could probably count on one hand the number of adult students I've had over the years that really wanted to learn.
Efl in Korea has never been about "learning English", it has been about jobs. Schools don't do a good job of teaching, so hagwans become necessary, and hagwans create a lot of jobs. Teachers, secretaries, administrators, bus drivers, the list goes on.
I suspect the protests have more to do with trying to keep foreign teachers from taking away Korean jobs. (whether it would be true or not, I think it is perceived that way). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 5:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| OneWayTraffic wrote: |
I do company classes in LG and Samsung from time to time. In the LG head office at Yeoido, I don't think I've run into anyone who doesn't have at least an intermediate command of English. Many are advanced.
If you want the best jobs, then English is an indispensable skill. And every Korean Mum wants her little Johnny working at a Chaebol or somesuch.
If push comes to shove the Chaebols could put more pressure on the Govt than a teachers union. |
The Korean government should listen to the teacher Unions but the teaching Unions really need to cop the *beep* on and start getting their members to think constructively about what needs to be done to improve the education system here and stop following the same old tired policy of expecting it's junior members to act as doormats for their higher ups.
Too many Koreans teachers seem to always be involved in doing pointless paper work and doing their kids school projects for them than and not enough time on actual lesson planning and teaching in general. The Unions also need to start demanding that their members get paid properly for agreeing to act as co teachers for foreign English teachers. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Binch Lover
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
This could do so much more than any English village or bullshit English experience zones. Language learning is all about exposure and practice. One hour a week is nothing, barely enough to learn a few vocabulary words.
It seems they might be on the right track now. The curriculum is changing either next year or the year after that. Add in more class time, and they might get some real progress going in elementary school.
This only counts for elementary though. I have no idea about middle or high school, but judging by Yu Bum Suk's example questions from the university exam, there is a long way to go at that level! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Troll_Bait
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: Re: Petition protests English expansion plan |
|
|
| flakfizer wrote: |
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2897808
The Joongang Ilbo:
| Quote: |
Petition protests English expansion plan
November 26, 2008
More than 24,000 teachers and parents signed a petition urging the Education Ministry to give up its proposed extension of English class hours for elementary school children, calling the move �English sycophancy.�
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology plans to lengthen English classes by one or two hours a week for students in the third to sixth grades. Officials say the current curriculum doesn�t provide enough English education, causing parents to spend on private tutoring.
Critics worry it will only further feed the obsession with English and put too much of a burden on young children who have yet to master their mother tongue and other basic subjects.
�The Education Ministry should get out of the daydream of English omnipotence and English sycophancy. As long as the ministry sticks with its English education enhancement team, educational development in Korea will remain only a remote idea,� said the petition signed by a total of 24,518 teachers and students. The embattled team mentioned is a new unit created under the ministry�s English drive.
Public English education in Korea starts in the third grade with an hour of classes a week. Fifth and sixth graders get two hours. The ministry plans to increase the hours to three to four hours starting as early as 2010.
The government hopes the move will cut the amount of money spent on private instruction and help narrow the growing English proficiency gap between rural and urban children.
According to 2007 government statistics, private spending for English education amounted to 6 trillion won ($4 billion), an enormous portion of the 18 trillion won spent on private education.
In a recent hearing, the ministry proposed hiring 4,000 native speakers to teach English conversation in elementary schools. Critics warned the plan would only increase the number of irregular and unlicensed teaching staff.
The Korean Teachers and Educational Workers� Union, a progressive umbrella union that wrote the appeal to the ministry, says the policy is a dangerous idea. Japan starts English education in middle school and France has only an hour or two of classes in elementary school, it says.
|
"The Education Ministry should get out of the daydream of English omnipotence and English sycophancy." Huh?
Is it really that bad for kids to learn English three hours a week rather than just one - especially when so many of them are already studying much more than that and paying dearly to do so?
My favorite part is at the end where Japan and France are held up as examples of countries that don't study English much at young ages. |
The Korean Teachers' Union, KTU, is notoriously anti-foreign teacher.
Several years ago, some Koreans and kyopos (ethnically-Korean foreign residents) were convicted of sexually assaulting some students at two of the English Villages. The KTU still tried to blame foreign teachers, claiming that these otherwise virtuous Koreans had been corrupted by the mere proximity of foreign teachers and by the corrupting influence of speaking English.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=58380&highlight=KTU
| Quote: |
In a statement, the KTEWU said, �...because the English camp sexual assaults are a structural problem brought on by unchecked native speakers, such incidents could potentially occur at any time".As basis for their claims, the union cited a) the fact that any native speaker with a degree could become an instructor, regardless of their teaching qualifications; b) native speakers� relatively free attitudes about sex (and their expression of said attitudes); c) native speakers� lack of a sense of responsibility...
...[B]oth incidents were allegedly committed by non-native speakers. The Seongnam incident was allegedly committed by a naturalized U.S. citizen who spoke Korean as his first language and was designated a �Korean� instructor [of English] by the camp. The Ansan incident was allegedly committed by a straight-up Korean. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jandar
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
|
| Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ^^ English makes me horny. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
