Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bosintang]

Does it make sense hiring native speakers in public schools? With class sizes of 40-45 students one time a week, with a good percentage of foreign teachers ill-properly trained, why bother? What exactly are you public school teachers accomplishing?

In a country with a lagging economy and high youth unemployment, it would make more sense to me to put young Korean uni grads through English bootcamps and get them up to speed on proper English-teaching certification. If you did that you could phase out native speakers rather than bring in even more, and for the same price you could have at least two Korean English-teachers for the price of one foreign teacher. In the beginning, these teachers could act in much the same role as foreign teachers do now, but over the course of a few years the English curriculum could be refined around them.

Korean public schools could eliminate current contract, visa, and recruiting headaches, and get better value for their money. Leave native speakers for the hagwons and people willing to pay for them.

[fidel]

I'll go one further and say remove them from the universities and ban them from every government funded institution including the government itself.

Do you work in a public school, and are you

[crazylemongirl]

[schwa]

The "young Korean uni grads" would immediately buckle under to the status quo & get sucked into the vortex of present ineffectual practices.

Native speakers in the classroom are making a difference.

[plato's republic]

Bosingtang-There's a BIG difference between Korean teachers teaching English and native-english speaking teachers teaching English.
The state of English education in this country is nothing to wax lyrical about, and by increasing the number of Korean english teachers and decreasing the number of native-english speaking teachers i hardly think you're going to improve the situation.
And how exactly would the English curriculum be 'refined' around them? I think they would just end up teaching a new language....'Konglish'.

[Rock]

This sounds like one of those defeatist replies. What's the use? Really, are we of anyvalue?

Take it lightly, these streneous work loads. No, you're probably not making a great contribution, but in my eyes, you are making some.

You've got all the everyday colloquilisms down to a tee. A non-native speaker couldn't pick up on this. The Korean kids wouldn't be as interested in a Korean English teacher, let alone feel challenged to speak English. Your presence is benefitting the Korean English teachers, some of those more proficient. And you can offer them some creative means to learn English, more than a textbook can or a Korean.

The majority of students, or staff, want English teachers. We're there to bring them-the kids-out of the dark ages of learning English.

[bosintang]

[Daechidong Waygookin]

[coolsage]

Believe it or not, we do make a difference. If one stays here long enough, progress can be seen. As important as proficiency is confidence in using English, and Korean speakers of English evaluate their own competency by their ability to converse with native speakers.

[bosintang]

I'm combining a bunch of responses here...