Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Qinella]

One of my middle school students today showed me a book she uses at the hogwon upstairs from mine. It's essentially just a vocabulary book, with tons of words with their correlative Korean meanings and example usage. And then, just as an extra special part to really make sure the students understand English, the Korean English teacher had them transliterate each word into Korean.

When I saw that, my head almost exploded. So there'd be the word "democracy", and out in the margin was penciled in "���ũ���". Like holy hell god jupiter mindsnap. WTF is that supposed to be good for? These are middle school students who have been studying English for years. They know how to read English! They don't need gd transliteration!

See? I'm getting worked up now just thinking about it. I have first graders speaking almost perfectly and they never get transliteration, ever. The students who started with me and my awesome K coteachers have never seen transliteration, at least not from us, and their pronunciation is fantastic. It seems transliteration is... unnecessary!

And here's the real kicker. The only two girls in said middle school class who have serious, recurring pronunciation problems are, you guessed it, the two girls who have that transliterating moron for a teacher! They're the two girls whom I constantly remind not to end words with "uh" and "ee", and now I see why!

As soon as I finished my classes after seeing the book, I went upstairs to hunt down the teacher and let her know that people like her are what's causing Korea as a nation to suck at English, but she was in the middle of "teaching", so I didn't meet her. But, my students warned me that I'd better be prepared to explain the situation to her in Korean, as her English "isn't that good". And that jogged my memory to the one time I did try to talk to her and she had literally no idea what I was saying.

I tried to explain to my students why transliteration doesn't work. I said that �� is not the same as "phone". But teacher, they say, there is no "f" sound in Korean. Well that's exactly my point! But these kids are brainwashed into thinking transliteration is not only necessary, but simply natural. And guess who they believe when a conflict arises on how to pronounce something?

Aish.
Q.

[Qinella]

Qinella, you should:

- relax.
- get out more.
- get laid.
- stop taking your job so seriously.
- realize your purpose is to babysit, not teach English.
- drink less coffee.


Just thought I'd save a few people the hassle of having to post.

Q.

[jacl]

Yeah, don't get too upset. Just teach your students and they'll get it. It'll override what she's doing. I wouldn't run up to her and scream or anything. Be diplomatic and rule.

"F" takes a little work but you gotta drive it in 'em, eh? I'm doing good with "R" right now. "L" is a pain the butt. Have to take time out for that.

[jlb]

If you let stuff like that get to so much it's going to slowly kill you. Worry about the big stuff

[Bee Positive]

Qinella,

No fears, your initial reaction to the transliteration insanity remains valid, however much you may need to get out more/get laid/start smoking dope. (Wink!)

It goes beyond transliteration though.

Here's what I'm currently up against:

On my fourth yearly stint here in Korea, I'm teaching at what could probably be called one of the "better" hakwons in Busan. We charge more than anyone else, as far as I know. The parents are predominantly doctors, lawyers, and professors. Many of our students, roughly half at a guess, have lived for a year or more overseas and sometimes have flawless accents. It's amazing what it'll do for a Korean kid to have gone through fourth grade in an Ohio public school, or seventh and eighth grade in Pennsylvania (thinking of just two of my junior students).

We also teach adults, mostly in TOEIC-prep courses.

And to our credit, I must say, our Korean teachers speak remarkably good English. All of them have lived and studied overseas for substantial periods of time. Without exception, I can speak "ungraded," fluent, colloquial English with them, without any gaps in communication.

It's almost jaw-dropping to find a hakwon so well staffed.

And yet day after day, I can't help but notice that every class but mine is being conducted ALMOST ENTIRELY IN KOREAN.

I hear the Korean teachers greeting their students with "Annyeong haseyo," and it's almost all Korean from there on out. Grammar explained in Korean. Vocabulary explained via Korean translation. Translation into Korean the preferred route for reading instruction, and so forth.

After nearly four months on the job, I finally got up the nerve to suggest to the school director a week ago that we use more English in class.

In theory, he agrees with me. Or at least claims to.

Let me stress, by the way, that I am not at all averse to SOME use of Korean in class. In fact, I use it myself. Quick example: In adult conversation the other day, one of my students was talking about shooting pheasants. (Remembering his childhood up in the mountains.) I briefly attempted to explain what a pheasant is to the other students (a wild mountain bird), then wrote the Korean ("ggweong") up on the whiteboard. Comprehension dawned on their faces. So hey, if it works?

This is getting to be far too long a response.

I'll trust someone else to pick up the thread here.



Thanks.



BEE POSITIVE

[jacl]

I wouldn't worry about what someone else is doing in another class. That's just an unwanted headache. You don't need to solve all the world's problems. Just do what you do.

That's my 2 cents.

[ontheway]

Qinella,

About your first post: You're right. Transliteration, teaching by translation, and the Korean-English dictionaries and the translations that Koreans use have thousands of mistranslated words!, plus cultural differences and basic geographic and scientific "facts" that Korean teachers teach incorrectly, yes, these are the reasons that Koreans have trouble learning English.

About your second post: You're right again. Sorry.

[Qinella]

[jacl]

I was watching that Korean TV show with that really cute girl with the bent forward ears. There was one scene when the principal (or whatever he was) was walking up and down the hallway dragging a heavy stick on the wall. The students in the classes were cringing hoping he wouldn't come in. Finally he chose one class and picked out students randomly to translate Korean words into English. If they didn't know, or if they couldn't spell the words, he'd whack them on both hands a few times (I don't see why that stupid stick would hurt - maybe he hits them on the hand bone or something - I don't know). Anyway, when they said the correct English word, I had a really hard time understanding what they said. Their pronuniciation was really bad. He didn't whack them for that.

Need I say more?

[Qinella]

[jacl]

[tomato]

I was about to start a thread on the subject myself.
I have a preschool child named Justin who has been called ����ƾ so often that he thinks that's his name.

[kermo]

Transliteration can be occasionally handy if done right, but so often it's used to reinforce bad pronunciation. I was trying to teach my students how to pronounce "boss" properly, but insisted that my transliteration was the word "bus." No, guys, that's because your "bo-su" doesn't actually represent the word bus. Argh. (sorry- no hangul keyboard at the moment.)

[mithridates]

Here's what you do:

Ask them to help you with some Korean pronunciation:

Thank you: ���૵�ϫ�˫� (kamusahamunida)
Where is the bathroom? �ի﫸��󫰫���̫󫪫ǫ����裿 (fuwajangushiru nun odieyo?)
I like spicy food:����̫�᫦�󫦫૷������竢�ث�. (cho nun meun umshiguru choaheyo).

When they tell you that the pronunciation is all wrong, act all innocent and say that that's the best way to remember the pronunciation and that your Japanese friend lent you the vocabulary book.

I think that's the only way to get the point across.

[Zyzyfer]

You didn't write this on your list. Maybe the other hakwon sucks?