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Real Reality
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:08 am Post subject: Hiring More Native Speakers to Teach English? |
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Primary School Kids to Get English Classes
All students attending elementary schools will be able to learn English in regular classes starting in the fall semester this year. Currently, only third to sixth graders at elementary schools are required to take regular English classes.... The ministry will earmark about 51 trillion won for the project over the next five years.... The ministry will also recruit English speakers as assistant teachers in all middle schools nationwide by 2010 in an effort to enhance English conversation and English teaching skills.
by Chung Ah-young, Korea Times (January 11, 2006)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200601/kt2006011117114011990.htm
Last edited by Real Reality on Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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capebretoncanadian
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:35 am Post subject: |
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| This sounds great. Well on the way to putting shady Hagwons outta business and getting me off work before 10 o'clock at night. Swell |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:57 am Post subject: |
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| it should, but it won't. Korean parents don't trust the school system to deliver the goods and even if they did, "keeping up with the Kims" is too much a part of the culture for most people to give up on hagwons any time soon. |
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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:03 am Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| it should, but it won't. Korean parents don't trust the school system to deliver the goods and even if they did, "keeping up with the Kims" is too much a part of the culture for most people to give up on hagwons any time soon. |
Unfortunately for the kids, peppermint is sooo right! |
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Real Reality
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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Native Speakers to Teach English
... the ministry is planning to deploy 2,900 English native assistant teachers to all middle schools by 2010 and conduct a pilot-base "English immersion education" which teaches mathematics and science in English in elementary, middle, and high schools in the Special Economic Zone and Jeju Free International City starting from 2008.
by In-Chul Lee, Donga.com (January 12, 2006)
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2006011203608 |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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But it may force employers to improve pay and conditions if there is more competition for a limited number of foreign teachers. May. Things that you think would make sense in Korea don't always happen.
Ken:> |
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Butterfly
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: Kuwait
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| laogaiguk wrote: |
| peppermint wrote: |
| it should, but it won't. Korean parents don't trust the school system to deliver the goods and even if they did, "keeping up with the Kims" is too much a part of the culture for most people to give up on hagwons any time soon. |
Unfortunately for the kids, peppermint is sooo right! |
She's only right as long as the new school system doesn't yield decent results, if kids actually start learing English through this new system and culture then there will simply be no need for the English hakwon, they'll send their nippers to Maths/ Art / Korean / Music hakwons instead. For Korea, I'l all for that. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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The other part of the problem is that Korean teachers seem to cling to outdated and ineffective teaching methods, at least where English is concerned
About a month ago, I did an open class for the teachers at my school, and their one complaint (translated for me) was that I didn't do enough "listen and repeat". I'd imagine that method would work well to train a parrot, but it really doesn't work for people that well. |
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Paji eh Wong
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Butterfly wrote: |
| laogaiguk wrote: |
| peppermint wrote: |
| it should, but it won't. Korean parents don't trust the school system to deliver the goods and even if they did, "keeping up with the Kims" is too much a part of the culture for most people to give up on hagwons any time soon. |
Unfortunately for the kids, peppermint is sooo right! |
She's only right as long as the new school system doesn't yield decent results, if kids actually start learing English through this new system and culture then there will simply be no need for the English hakwon, they'll send their nippers to Maths/ Art / Korean / Music hakwons instead. For Korea, I'l all for that. |
IMO the biggest problem with the kiddy industry is that monolingual parents are in no position to judge whether their kids can speak English or not. And by "monolingual", I mean all of them.
I think that's why I've had to teach so much "reading". The kids can be taught to make English sounds quickly and easily. Enough to impress mom and dad.
So, in summary, the vast majority of Koreans are in no place to ascertain what "decent results" actually are. "That's why teacher drinks", I tell my kids. In keeping with the OP, will hiring more honkies help? God says "No". |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Moldy Rutabaga wrote: |
But it may force employers to improve pay and conditions if there is more competition for a limited number of foreign teachers. May. Things that you think would make sense in Korea don't always happen.
Ken:> |
If by cutting vacation and stagnating pay you mean improving conditions you'd be on the money here. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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| crazylemongirl wrote: |
| Moldy Rutabaga wrote: |
But it may force employers to improve pay and conditions if there is more competition for a limited number of foreign teachers. May. Things that you think would make sense in Korea don't always happen.
Ken:> |
If by cutting vacation and stagnating pay you mean improving conditions you'd be on the money here. |
You're talking about schools while Moldy was talking about hagwons, no? Because schools will be hiring more native speakers, the hagwons will have to up the ante by improving conditions to keep theirs. That's how I understood it. Hagwons aren't cutting pay & vacations too, are they? |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| If by cutting vacation and stagnating pay you mean improving conditions you'd be on the money here. |
I don't know. You may be right. EPIK is a government-administered program to place foreign teachers into public classrooms, and it is a mess. Standards aren't enforced, contracts are deceptive, pay is mediocre, vacation times are poor. Is this a vision of the future?
| Quote: |
The other part of the problem is that Korean teachers seem to cling to outdated and ineffective teaching methods, at least where English is concerned
About a month ago, I did an open class for the teachers at my school, and their one complaint (translated for me) was that I didn't do enough "listen and repeat". I'd imagine that method would work well to train a parrot, but it really doesn't work for people that well. |
I teach older Korean English teachers in a government intensive English program. My best students, I feel, are learning for their own self-improvement. Many don't give a sheet. Most are in the middle, learning and getting by but fully aware that after I've taught them for five months about using conversational and compositional English in a student-centred format they have to go back to the classroom and teach English verb endings in Korean from a 1940s grammar textbook-- because that's what their principals expect them to do, and that's what their students will demand to pass the exams.
There may be gradual change as competition for teachers heats up and people start going to Thailand, Vietnam, or China in large numbers for better pay and nice beaches. There might also be gradual change as the MTV generation grows up in Korea and starts becoming principals and administrators. But the short-term result of replacing hogwans with public school hogwans doesn't seem like an improvement to me. It could be worse-- how do you sue the Korean government for ignoring your contract?
Ken:> |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:25 am Post subject: |
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| crazylemongirl wrote: |
| Moldy Rutabaga wrote: |
But it may force employers to improve pay and conditions if there is more competition for a limited number of foreign teachers. May. Things that you think would make sense in Korea don't always happen.
Ken:> |
If by cutting vacation and stagnating pay you mean improving conditions you'd be on the money here. |
"If there IS MORE competition for a limited number of foreign teachers" was what Mr Rutabage said.
But there's not so far. To my understanding GEPIK has more teachers in its program than last year. Guess that's what is making them think that they can cut back on our vacations and other perks. |
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bellum99
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: don't need to know
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| Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:50 am Post subject: |
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| They can cut them and you will stay and take it because it is better than a private school. Any newbie off the plane will be happy to take your job. We all know that most people will complain and take it up the butt with a smile. |
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Fat Sam
Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Location: Gyeonggi-do
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| Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 2:11 am Post subject: |
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Having spent eight hours today teaching no students in an empty school simply because my contract restricts me to 14 days vacation, I've had plenty of time to wonder why the Education Board, and GEPIK in particular, are so concerned with making this the standard for public school jobs.
I'm starting to think that, in a year or two when every school is conforming to this, they will initiate many more intensive English camps that will require us to teach at least 22 hours for the entirety of the school vacation -milking us for every last won.
It makes sense, considering we have signed up for almost fifty weeks a year, that they would try to get as much out of us as possible. |
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