Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nautilus]

I'm told by several Korean teachers who have been attending their meetings... that the Korean Education authority has definitely decided on a plan to gradually phase out NETS within 10 years. Has anyone heard more on this?

Apparently the reasons given are:

1) "Employing foreign teachers has not produced the results expected over the past few years. Many of them are unqualified, it has been a waste of government money".
2) "There have been many difficulties encountered with hosting and working with so many foreigners in this country".

The plan will be staged as follows:

a) Employ many Korean English conversation teachers to work in public schools. They do not require co-teachers and are cheaper than foreigners.
b) Gradually train KT's to be better at English by giving them english training abroad.


So you've been warned:FT's are on borrowed time. I presume that China will be more attractive financially within 10 years anyhow.

What I find intriguing is that no other ESL country has followed this path. Taiwan, japan and China still look to employing foreign teachers. Apparently its only Korea that has decided that foreign teachers aren't worth the money.
It appears the Korean english experiment has failed.

[some waygug-in]

This is coming from the Korean teachers union. If anything has failed, it's because they wanted it to fail. They want foreign teachers out of their schools because they are scared of losing jobs to foreigners.

[VanIslander]

So what? There weren't many PS jobs before the surge in '06 anyways. The Korean hagwon industry will continue to hum along as long as one ajumma in a hundred has success with the waygook teacher. Public perception is still that it works, and that perception will grow as the first hagwon generation (those who started in grades 3 and 4 back in the late nineties) finishes university soon - in fact, five to ten years from now that generation will be parents demanding their kids get a waygook just as they had, because however mixed is the level of real teaching that has gone in hagwons over the last decade, the one consistent kids have found is: the waygook English hagwon class is fun! clowns, cowboys, gamesters, and a lack of Korean discipline is gonna have a profound impact, not necessarily on society as a whole, but in pockets of popular culture and in the parental demands of English education. Not to mention all those Koreans who went abroad to study and can see through in a nanosecond the shortfalls of a non-native English speaker, their parents enrolling them in waygook-employed hagwons only, even if they have to pay a premium, as is the case at the two hagwons-with-waygookin in this town.

[DosEquisXX]

Well, good thing I only plan to be here one more year.

[Ya-ta Boy]

OP, haven't you posted the same topic at least two other times in the past?

[lifeinkorea]

I don't they realize the need yet. Right now they are picking the teaches they want and cutting jobs only because the money isn't there.

When the economy is better, people with money will definitely compete.

[Old Gil]

If you look at China offering 12000 RMB a month gigs, you begin to see that maybe it's Korea pre empting the inevitable.

[asylum seeker]

[waynehead]

Korean teachers conducting classes in English? I'll believe it when I see it.

[nautilus]

[sunnata1]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=171384&highlight=

This has been discussed before.

[nautilus]

[ippy]

Theres a book all about the inside of the JET programme. Its called importing diversity or something like that.

One of its most controversial claims was that the JET Programme was never set uop to teach english. It wasnt even set up to facilitate exposure to the gaijin. Instead in the 1980s, the US was mad at Japan because the US felt it wasnt getting enough back from all its japanese imports and agreements.
Japan went and had a think about it and said "i know, we have this stupid british teacher thing, we will bring lots of your graduates to japan, show them wonderful hospitality, and let them teach and experience japan and give them some excellent experience into the bargain with high quality pay!"

The US was happy. And the Japanese were happy, because in 20 years time when those people had screwed off back to the US and were now professionals with nice companies in the US, they would think back favourably to their time in japan whenever international trade relations or business deals needed to be made.

Japanese people are wise.

I always get this feeling that korea saw the JET programme, thought it was giving the japanese a leg up in the whole language thing, and decided to set up its own version. Only they missed the point entirely and thought it was all about English and didnt realise that they were alienating an entire generation of graduates who pretty much saw it as a place to get some money for a few years and put up with a bit of crap to pay off their loans before doing something else definitely NOT related to korea

Ask me in two years how i feel about that

[ippy]

PS. Dont know what its like in korea, but in Japan testing covers your reading and writing abilities, only at the highest levels is there a speaking component for university admission. AMAZINGLY the JET programme also hasnt seen spectacular results! And thats because 1 class a week is dedicated to communication. Frankly, it could be better spent regurgitating more grammar and drilling for university entrance exams!
The aims of Japanese English teachers (a rounded English language ability - yes, most do really believe in this) and Japanese university entrance exams (the ability to discern a seemingly normal sentence as incorrect - which 99% of native speakers would struggle with by the way) are often inimical.
I assume korea is pretty much the same, but i may be wrong.

[Netz]