Korean Job Discussion Forums

[HapKi]

It seems that Koreans in the position to hire consider those with a BA in English to be somewhat more qualified than those in possession of various other BA's. This is according to my occasional browsing through the various job boards and classified ads, plus the favorable response I got from directors back during my Hagwon days (I have a BA in English. Lucky me).

However, as an alumni from the California State University system, I can say that at least in my experience, the curriculum covered in my undergraduate studies in no way touched upon the English language in the grammatical sense. (Courses that were even remotely related I guess would be History of the English Language, Creative Writing, Literary Criticism).

Anyway, English degrees as I know it are very literary based, with both American, British, other European, modern, 19th, poetry, etc... Now, unless we are teaching Disintegration of Self in Poe's Short Stories, or something like that, I don't see the upper hand we would have in basic conversation skills and teaching.

My question, although I already imagine its true, is "Do most Koreans in the position to hire, at any level, see the major in English and assume we are better equiped for the job here at hand."

[turtlepi1]

They see you as easily marketed to the hagwon mothers.
(after all isn't that what is most important?)

I had this same pondering myself but as I don't have a BA in English felt I would have gone down in flames if I posed the question.

In Canada I think you need to take English composition and English Lit. in any discipline. Generally speaking they are the courses that "might" help you in a hagwon situation. (Still not grammer intenstive by any means.)

Granted us science types write papers that are better suited to passive voice, but I would suggest we do as much writing (and reading) as the BA crowd.

A degree in applied linguistics should give someone a step up. So too should teacher training, or a CELTA or DELTA, but the BA in English is an easy sell when a hagwon mom (exactly the same as a Canadian rink mom BTW) asks if the teachers are "qualified".

I teach the momma's class and they love me now but when they heard my degree was a BSc (computers) they were a little skeptical. Of course my winning personality and 7 years teaching experience won them over )

Now they hear I am leaving to be a "professor" in the Middle East and they are talking about how "lucky" their children were to have a chance to study with me.

*sigh*

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

Hey, I'm Cal State too! Where did you go? I'm from Fullerton.
You're right that the undergrad didn't touch too much upon grammatical and linguistics...I think I took one course and struggled a bit (them dang sentence diagrams )
On the defense of my school, what I love about the Cals State system is that even in my undergrad, I had qualified Ph.D professors and developed a close rapport with them....that's better than being in a class of 100 students and being taught by some grad student.
But I'm more of a literature-head than an ESL teacher...so I'm going back to finish my Master's and get into the teaching that I actually like.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

From my experience they seem so clueless it wouldn't matter. If you have a degree in computer science from a community college they think you're qualified to jump into a classroom and teach little children, or even develop the course yourself.

[Zenpickle]

I agree. None of my English courses taught grammar. I don't remember any English courses in the course lists teaching grammer.

On the other hand, as Communications majors, we all had to take two rigorous grammar courses in order to graduate.

[Bulsajo]

[mindmetoo]

Shouldn't that be "What AN English major really is?", n'est pas?

Grammar isn't exactly calculus. Any North American school system should be able to teach a kid everything he/she needs to know about grammar in k-12. Ideally, you shouldn't have to teach it at the university level for any discipline. If someone is going major in English, one would doubly think that person has a firm grasp of grammar.

It's like a computer science BS degree would assume the first year student has completed a year of calculus, geometry, and functions/relations at the high school level. You're not supposed to be still struggling with BEDMAS if you're taking any science degree.

I personally found, as arts editor at my university newspaper, that the worst writers were English and Communications majors, notably the J-school track types.

[peppermint]

I know at my university, an English comp course is mandatory for everyone. and when I was an RA, I spent a lot of time proofreading papers from that course, and trust me- gramar counted for a lot. One of the most useful things I brought to Korea was the composition guide book. The English majors had to take intensive courses in gramar, and the continous compositions and the continued attention to grammar had to do something to us.

I think that majoring in a foreign language is undervalued here among parents. I know that my own experiences studying French and German, as well as Korean have had a big affect on how I teach.

[jinks]

[HapKi]

Hey Jinks- Go ***** ********

[The Bobster]

[Blind Willie]

[The Bobster]

[jinks]

[Yu_Bum_suk]