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Uni teacher's complaints from 1965

 
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kimchikowboy



Joined: 24 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2006 1:53 am    Post subject: Uni teacher's complaints from 1965 Reply with quote

I came across this while doing research. It's a description from an English conversation teacher here in 1965, which some might find interesting.

http://www.ekoreajournal.net/archive/detail.jsp?VOLUMENO=5&BOOKNUM=9&PAPERNUM=3&TOTALSEARCH=english&AUTHORENAME=&PAPERTITLE=&KEYWORD=&PAPERTYPE=0&SUBJECT=0&STARTYEAR=&ENDYEAR=&LISTOPTION=1&KEYPAGE=10&PAGE=2
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Corky



Joined: 06 Jan 2004

PostPosted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My god. It hasn't changed at all at my uni.

"Student X is a scholarship student. He needs a B+ to maintain his scholarship. You must give him at least a B+."

"But he didn't come to class. Not once."

"That's ok. He's a scholarship student. He needs a B+ to maintain..."


Last edited by Corky on Sat Oct 14, 2006 1:00 am; edited 1 time in total
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lastat06513



Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Location: Sensus amo Caesar , etiamnunc victus amo uni plebian

PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2006 1:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Amazing, simply amazing!!!!!

It was the same back in the developing stage of the educational system as it is now forty-so years later as Korea boasts a highly developed educational system.
He spoke an length about the same problems we all face or faced while teaching in Korea and it makes me think seriously whether the "university culture" or the mentality of the students should be changed by society at large rather than by the individual teacher.
And it painfully shows that if things remained the way they were only 13 years after the end of the war, can we honestly expect any change now or even later?
It makes one think..... Confused
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Paji eh Wong



Joined: 03 Jun 2003

PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2006 4:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Christ. Plus ca change ...
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gypsyfish



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2006 5:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What a hoot. Except for the class size, it sounds very familiar.
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VanIslander



Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!

PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

insightful into how the lackadaisical university student culture developed into its rep today; students are horrified when I tell them 50% of Canadian undergraduates fail their first year of university.

Quote:
"...a student who once told me he enjoyed English literature very much but hated reading books."

Laughing I've known a few waygooks like that too! (the book review readin' kind of chatterers)
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antoniothegreat



Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Location: Yangpyeong

PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

is anyone else having trouble reading this? can someone please copy and paste it for me?
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Privateer



Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.

PostPosted: Sun May 07, 2006 8:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Judging by some of the comments on reading and conversation skills back then, standards of English have risen significantly, and class sizes have more than halved, but still many things ring true. Besides what has already been mentioned:

Homework:

Quote:
...the slipshod work that is done during the five minutes before, and the first five minutes, in the class in the name of assignments.


Immaturity:

Quote:
...the feeling on the part of the teacher that the students are for these reasons schoolchildren not students.


Not knowing how to behave in class:

Quote:
Noisiness, a perpetual problem, and petty cheating during class assignments - students here do not look upon work done communally as dishonest, let alone see that it does them individually little good - one had to stop schoolmaster fashion and to me it was a loathsome business.


Lacking in the basics but unaware of it / unwilling to work to make up for it:

Quote:
Many people sing the praises of sentence-pattern study but, though most of my students needed it, most thought it was too elementary after seven or eight years of English.
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