Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

my coteacher is beginning to get to me... this individual should not be teaching English, if anything this individual's presence is a hindrance... do i have any options?

i know i am being vague, i don't want to gripe too much... just trying to make a bad situation better.

[kermo]

[Julius]

I have new co teacher for 2 weeks now. At first it was murder. i had to sit her down after every class and say what I thought she was doing was wrong, and why. (While allowing some room for her new ideas too).My rules are..equality. Equal time spent teaching, nobody interrupts the other, and so on...a partnership.We've finally begun to settle on a good routine now and its looking up nicely.

in your case: how long have you had this co-teacher? if things have been bad for a while then you have a problem. if she's new, then there is hope.
find a way to properly express your opinions without stamping all over her sensibilities. Compromise a bit, but if you have the better plan, make sure she knows what it is and why.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My new middle school co-teacher just copies everything that I do, so it's not really a problem, even though she can't speak English.

For the OP, it all depends on whether the teacher is older or younger, or more or less experienced than you. If younger and less experienced, you can just pull rank. I had a new one at my high school last term (thankfully I teach my better classes solo) and at the beginning of one lesson, when he was busy chatting away with a student about something irrelevant to my lesson, I just clamped down on the both of them, treating him like he was just an annoying student. They were both looking at something she was showing him and they were chatting away in Korean after I had already started, so I just began marching over and said 'put that away and pay attention! It's time to get started!' in my stern-teacher voice. That worked really well to shut him up and he's been careful not to have a repeat of such an incident since.

I have another MS co-teacher who can be a bit annoying sometimes but she's older than me and way more experienced so I wouldn't try something like that (and she is, all in all, a decent teacher). What I find works well to train them is to call them to the front and give them something long to translate (that you've given them well beforehand), even if it's fairly pointless to do so, and while they're explaining show them what the teacher who's not talking should be doing - stand guard at the back, make sure the students are paying attention, immediately confiscate any distractions, and if students try to get your attention motion them shhhh with your finger, point to your ear, and then point towards the teacher to whom they should be paying attention.

No KT has ever taken a course in how to teach with a FT, and some of them can be pretty clueless gits.

[Return Jones]

[kermo]

[chaz47]

[Julius]

The basic probem is that they resent you taking charge. Which you need to do in order to keep focussed and on track.

In my opinion koreans are prone to seeing everything as a competition and taking offence easily. You want to avoid a conflict scenario, where they've been offended and then stubbornly stop helping you in any way.

When they've done something stupid i always wait til we're alone later to bring it up and go over it. Works well...

[Julius]

[chaz47]

[Milwaukiedave]

I know you don't want to hear this, but I thank my lucky stars I have good Korean teachers. Yes, many of them can't speak English well, but they get along with me.

I've heard some stories similar to yours from other foreign teachers in Incheon. YBS is right, most of the KT are not trained to work with foreign teachers. Some of it is that the KT are afraid of making mistakes in front of a foreign teacher and either a) getting corrected or b) looking stupid. I also think some of the teachers might be getting forced into co-teaching English, when that's not what they want to do (this is based on something I heard at our orientation).

It's not a perfect system that's for sure.

You might try to sit down and negociate something outside of class with the teacher (if they speak English well enough to communicate with you).

Also realize next March, things might change (I'm not sure when your contract is up) because it's the beginning of a new school year. My understanding is that teachers rotate every 3 or 4 years. The prinicipals also have a say in which of the KT teach English.

I hope that helps a bit.

[inspector gadget]

I have two korean co teachers, one speaks excellent english, the other..... well she sucks at english. Every time she asks me a question I have to ask her to repeat it three or four times before my brain works like a savage to try and figure out what she is saying.

I teach about 8 (non english) korean teachers at my school four times a week, she was told by the VP she shouldn't join the group. Lately she has been squeezing her way into the lessons and I think she is not happy she has done so. Half of the other teachers I teach speak much better than she does and I think she has noticed and is embarresed.

I would say that at least 15-20 of my middle school students speak better english than she does. It boggles my mind how some of these teachers can be hired as an english teacher when they have no idea at all how to speak the language.

The other korean english teacher is awesome we have a reat relationship and I speak to her as she is a native speaker but I still teach all of my classes solo and have done so since the third week after I arrived.

Consider teaching solo if its possible.

[Milwaukiedave]

[ChopChaeJoe]

I pretty much tell the school how things should be done.
You have to take charge of a bad situation. Analyze it to find the problem, then remove the problem. the soulution isn't always pretty, but it's a better situation.

[Junior]