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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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 Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 4:47 am Post subject: Everyone who weighed in on this forum told me not to do TaLK |
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You were wrong.
That is all, carry on. |
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blackjack
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: anyang
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 5:33 am Post subject: |
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Good for you.
That is all |
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Radius
Joined: 20 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 5:40 am Post subject: |
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| FTW? |
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definitely maybe
Joined: 16 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 5:56 am Post subject: |
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| The student has become the master? |
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northway
Joined: 05 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 6:03 am Post subject: |
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| Were you the dude who said he was going to drop out of school with a year left in order to do TALK? |
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goat
Joined: 23 Feb 2010
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| Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| definitely maybe wrote: |
| The student has become the master? |
I can imagine chungbukdo strutting around the playground and demanding that everyone call him Professor Do Chungbuk. |
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chungbukdo
Joined: 22 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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| northway wrote: |
| Were you the dude who said he was going to drop out of school with a year left in order to do TALK? |
Nope, I'm the guy who is teaching with TaLK 4 days a week (all half-days), spends his 3 day weekends traveling, has a 1.5 month winter vacation (and all of August off this summer), is doing his degree through distance ed, and is saving about 900,000w per month just like any other regular teacher.
lol Thanks for the advice everybody. You were all really sure of yourselves and quite argumentative that you were right, too. |
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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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It's good that you're enjoying yourself, but you'd be enjoying yourself more if you had that degree. Distance ed  University of Phoenix, likely. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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I never understood the scorn so many people express about distance education. Is a lecture less informative if you read it instead of sitting in class listening to it? I don't think so. Is an essay somehow less demonstrative of knowledge if it is emailed to your professor instead of handed to them? I don't see how. Are discussion sections less valuable if carried out by post? If anything, I think they both allow for and encourage more interaction, since they aren't limited by time, and even shy speakers can easily express themselves.
The only real potential weak point I see in distance education is that closed-book testing isn't really feasible, but closed-book testing is the sign of a comparatively weak course that relies on memorization to be challenging. Real tests utilize questions which remain challenging even when the source material is laid out before you.
I'm sure a lot of distance learning institutions are just "degree mills", but to be honest, so are a lot of institutions which require one's presence. It's the institution, it's teaching staff, and what you walk away learning that matters in my mind, not your physical presence. Then again, I don't derive my self-worth from belittling others, so it's easy for me to take a relaxed stance on the issue.
Glad TALK has worked out for you, original poster. |
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Skippy
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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Okay we are wrong! And.......... WTF! <Joe who was that?>
I feel slightly bushwhacked. Buddy try some manners and some commonsense. Okay once again we are wrong? And..... Why!? Give us details! Answer some questions! Educate us on why we are so wrong!
So some questions! How long have you been in the program! I find many people who start something will say everything is peaches and cream the first few months then BAM! Everything starts to suck or go wrong! Now if you are 9 months in! Good for you! Looks like things worked out. If this comes one month in, I will give it whole lotta less credence.
Next question! Where are you located! As they say location .. location .. location .. The place they place you can mean the difference between cutting your wrists with a broken soju bottle to have the best memories in life.
So please tell us MORE? |
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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 5:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Fox wrote: |
I never understood the scorn so many people express about distance education. Is a lecture less informative if you read it instead of sitting in class listening to it? I don't think so. Is an essay somehow less demonstrative of knowledge if it is emailed to your professor instead of handed to them? I don't see how. Are discussion sections less valuable if carried out by post? If anything, I think they both allow for and encourage more interaction, since they aren't limited by time, and even shy speakers can easily express themselves.
The only real potential weak point I see in distance education is that closed-book testing isn't really feasible, but closed-book testing is the sign of a comparatively weak course that relies on memorization to be challenging. Real tests utilize questions which remain challenging even when the source material is laid out before you.
I'm sure a lot of distance learning institutions are just "degree mills", but to be honest, so are a lot of institutions which require one's presence. It's the institution, it's teaching staff, and what you walk away learning that matters in my mind, not your physical presence. Then again, I don't derive my self-worth from belittling others, so it's easy for me to take a relaxed stance on the issue.
Glad TALK has worked out for you, original poster. |
Even writing an essay can be faked with a distance course, though. One can always pay someone to write their exam final. You can't do that when you have to sit in the class and write an essay.
Perhaps the OP should use some of that 900,000 a month for a class on manners. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| NYC_Gal wrote: |
Even writing an essay can be faked with a distance course, though. One can always pay someone to write their exam final. You can't do that when you have to sit in the class and write an essay.
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Essays written while sitting in a testing room are trivialities that the system would be better off without, invariably focused too heavily on regurgitation. Real, in-depth essays that demonstrate substantial knowledge and understanding are invariably done on your own time and turned in later (it would be impossible to just sit down and write something like that out in an hour or two), and these are equally susceptible to cheating no matter what sort of institution you attend.
Distance learning is fine. |
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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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It certainly isn't impossible. 2-3 hours is adequate time to formulate and write a short (3-4 page) essay with in-depth analysis. At least that way you couldn't have your friend write it. Crib notes or not (for an outline), you still need to do the writing. You can't fake that.
Of course, there are always going to be people who cheat. I was making a snarky joke about Phoenix (advertised on TV but really just a diploma mill) because the OP was nasty to people who'd given him or her advice. Being gracious is an important social skill, I'm sure you'd agree. |
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rooster_2006
Joined: 14 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| chungbukdo wrote: |
| northway wrote: |
| Were you the dude who said he was going to drop out of school with a year left in order to do TALK? |
Nope, I'm the guy who is teaching with TaLK 4 days a week (all half-days), spends his 3 day weekends traveling, has a 1.5 month winter vacation (and all of August off this summer), is doing his degree through distance ed, and is saving about 900,000w per month just like any other regular teacher.
lol Thanks for the advice everybody. You were all really sure of yourselves and quite argumentative that you were right, too. |
I was not among the people who discouraged you because I did a similar thing, basically. 
I moved to Korea when I was 19 and finished my associate's degree there, in addition to graduating from Yonsei University Korean Language Institute and getting CELTA certified in Seoul. Then I moved to Taiwan, where the minimum requirement to teach English is an associate's degree and a TEFL cert. I lived on beautiful, tropical Cijin Island five minutes from the beach for a whole year and took a boat to work many days, and later moved to Fongshan. I completed my bachelor's degree by distance just last week. It's accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, just like any other degree earned in New York.
Many of the other Dave's ESL Cafe posters wanted me to move back to Virginia and flip burgers at McDonald's or Burger King or clean toilets. They didn't want me to compete with them for jobs. I said "no, I refuse." I used my AA+CELTA to compete with them, and yes, there were times when I probably did beat someone with a BA out of a job. Too bad. I was the better job candidate.
Now that I have finished a bachelor's degree, have had over four years of incredible experiences in Korea and Taiwan, have become proficient in two Asian languages, have CELTA, and graduated from YSKLI to boot, it's pretty hard to argue that I should have stayed home.
OP, there's no point in saying "I told you so" to Dave's posters. It'd be like preaching a new religion to a group of fundamentalist Baptist ministers. Most are incapable of a single creative thought. The idea of putting oneself through university overseas, or doing anything whatsoever off the beaten path is completely alien to them. Most prefer to just say "YOU CAN'T DO THAT! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! IMPOSSIBLE! IMPOSSIBLE! CAN'T BE DONE! WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN 30 SECONDS!!!"
Last edited by rooster_2006 on Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:29 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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chellovek
Joined: 29 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Pats on the back all round, methinks. |
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