Korean Job Discussion Forums

[phaedrus]

I am just thinking about the old days when I used to teach kindergarten....

There was this one kid who was such a bonehead. I mean after one year he knew almost nothing, and it wasn't for lack of trying. My boss gave me a big rant about how much a year of English kindergarten costs for this kids parents and how they expect results (I'm not the one pocketing most of this money anyway). I had to take the fall. It was one of the many first steps to my departure. The teacher he was given over to had no better results. This is not what I'm really thinking about though.

I'm thinking about English kindergarten in general here in Korea.

Many questions:

Do these kids need a foreign teacher? I would be more inclined to think a Korean teacher with moderate English is better, but then why would they work at a kindergarten if they had decent English?

Is it even useful dollar wise? It is very expensive, and I don't know if it would translate even for bright kids into a worthwhile investment.

It seems like a bit of torture to subject Korean five year olds to three and a half hours of English per day. They kid can learn English fine later if parents are worried about their kid getting ahead.

[SweetBear]

I've pondered these questions myself, many a time. Sometimes I think it is wasteful to bring someone half way across the world and pay them big bucks to teach a five year old who barely even has a grasp of the Korean language. Sometimes I think it is just glorified day care but if little So Young can say hello in English she makes her parents proud. My attitude has improved toward kindy in general, but I still think it's a waste of their time, their money and my talent.

[Eazy_E]

I suppose there's always the "younger is better" mantra when it comes to learning languages. If the kids get an early start AND IF they continue to learn the language through their childhood and adolescence, they could have a real advantage.

Mind you, I don't think it's necessary for a native speaker of English to teach them. The kids can barely make themselves understood in their own language, so pronunciation and grammar wouldn't be too important at this stage. It would be just as good for the kids (and cheaper) to hire a Korean teacher who knows early childhood education. Just dont tell the hogwan owners.....

[JackSarang]

Well, at my school, some kids just recently graduated (to start Grade 1 at regular school) who had been at the hogwan since they were 5 (they're 8 now). They never lived overseas and their parents speak little to no english. So basically they have been exposed to english about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 years.

The english skills of these kids are impressive, to say the least. They speak without an accent and they communicate fully in english extremely well. They have better english vocabularies of native speakers their own age. They also study like mad and do their homework religiously... whereas I don't remember even knowing the concept of "homework" in grade one, nevermind kindergarten.

I have no doubts that if these kids keep studying, they'll have a degree of fluency by the time they're 10.

Whether these kids "need" a foreign teacher? Hard to say, but their perfectly neutral North American accents didn't come from their korean teachers.

[phaedrus]

One of the advantages I can see with a foreign teacher is that although a lot of Koreans know the amount of English that a young learner is capable of learning and could teach this, many Koreans lack fluency, and a foreigner who is teaching properly is a gold mine for little sponges. Kids have a knack for soaking up stuff they don't overtly learn.

But darn, I think English Kindergarten is very pricy. I really have no idea, but would guess 700,000 or so per month. I'm not sure a hello and some colors is worth it, except for bragging rights.

[Dawn]

I think a lot of it depends on the program itself. I'm in my second year at the same school and looped with about half my class this in January. In comparing last year's lesson plans to this year's, I can't believe the difference.

Every child in the classroom this year is capable of carrying on basic conversations. We can talk about weather, seasons, hobbies, likes/dislikes, families, pets, etc. Their grammar may not be perfect, but every one of them is able to communicate. All but one (a newcomer) recognize all the letters in the English alphabet, know how to form them correctly, know what sounds they make, and can identify the first and final consonant sounds in pretty much any word. Seven out of ten can read simple storybooks with little or no assistance. Two are reading at a second-grade reading level.

For math, we're using a series of workbooks written for 1st-2nd graders in North America. This particular series stresses concepts more than drills, so the kids have to be able to talk their way through whatever mathematical process we happen to be studying. They can't just look at problems, think in Korean and write down answers. The only real problem we've encountered is that the books are too easy for at least half the students. I've now got one group using Unifix cubes to explore the hows and whys of multiplication while the rest of them figure out how to add and subtract with regrouping.

Social studies and science are largely theme-based, but virtually every activity we do is geared toward native speakers. (Out of 150+ resource books, I own fewer than a dozen written specifically for ESL/EFL instructional purposes.) Last year, most activities had to be modified and some extensively. This year, there's very little difference between our class and your typical academic kindergarten class in the U.S.

Is it worth what it costs? Well, the parents of our children seem to think so, and at least a third of them are themselves educators. We've got more parents wanting to get their kids enrolled than we have program spaces, and we've even got native speakers wanting to send their kids to our program instead of the kindergartens at the nearby international schools (costs are about the same).

But this isn't your standard Korean kindergarten program. Class sizes are capped at 12-15 students, we've got two certified teachers per class (one Korean, one native English speaker), and we're with the same kids three and a half hours a day, five days a week.

On the flip side, I've got a first grader who spent the past year in a now-defunct "typical" kindergarten, and she came with a more limited vocabulary than some of the kids who had never been to English class before. Come to think of it, my one non-reading kindergartner transferred from that same school last month, and he arrived not knowing how to write his name. Didn't even know what letter it started with, and he's a bright child.

[Snatch]

They should start as early as possible. As phaedrus mentioned, they are like sponges and they just soak everything up.

We've just started a new year and those kindergarten kids who have gone to elementary school, but still come to afternoon classes are much better than the others. They've learned to read and have no resistance against being corrected (none of the "...no, Korean teacher said it should be like this..."). I've got 13 year-olds who are crap compared to them.

Our hagwon doesn't charge anywhere close to 700 000 though.