Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/07/18/200707180060.asp

Hagwon owners and public school officials insist that foreign classes be fun while placing little or no emphasis on students' progress.
I have been somewhat taken aback by such an insistence. Thinking back to my Spanish classes in the United States, the language learning environment was much different. My Spanish teacher was by far the most serious of all my teachers. She conducted class with an austerity that I had theretofore not experienced. Indeed, Spanish was one of the most difficult classes I had ever taken. As a result, I would say that I learned quite a bit from this class.

Thus, from my perspective, it is hard to see why hagwon owners and public school officials constantly insist that classes taught by foreigners be fun. Does fun in class translate into quality education? If so, why is such fun not pushed into English classes taught by Korean teachers? I have yet to see my Korean counterparts' classes bursting with laughter and joy. These classes are usually sober and focused. So why should the class atmosphere be any different in a class taught by a foreigner?

Foreign teachers are expected to go into class and amuse students rather than actually teach. This is, after all, what Koreans expect. Perhaps more importantly, this is what sells. Thus, ESL teachers are not teachers in the sense that they are expected to inculcate information among students. Rather, they are placed in a position of entertaining, similar to that of a clown.

In theory, ESL teachers are in Korea to mitigate a significant shortage. There are not enough teachers who can speak Korean and English fluently enough to teach a class in English. In reality, however, foreign teachers are simply good for hagwon and even public school PR and advertising.

This is an incredibly unfortunate misuse of foreign teachers. Their classes are not taken seriously by either Korean teachers or students. If hagwon owners and public school officials took the time to design a sober and progressive curriculum, using foreign teachers in conjunction with Korea teachers, English education in Korea could be in such a better state.

Nicholas Sheridan




2007.07.18

[Juregen]

Is he trying to say that creating a more relaxed atmosphere is counter productive?

I better change my style then.

[Sody]

Oh I agree with what this writer is saying and that's why I think no new teacher should work for a hagwon and only for a public school. At least in a public school there is a greater chance that you can teach what you want and the way you want to. Also you can discipline the way you want to. It's only at a good hagwon where you have the opportunities to be a really good teacher, even more so than at a public school. But how the heck do u even find one of those jobs if you are new? Of course there is the opposite argument that public schools will drive away many new teachers as is often the case with many schools even back home. Lots of new teachers can't handle the large classes.

Regardless, if you find a good job that allows you to actually teach instead of play games then you have a greater chance at being an actual teacher. That is what Korea needs, so funny that the industry promotes bad teaching and hires new and inexperienced teachers who end up hurting it even more.

Sody

[Jizzo T. Clown]

I think the point is that K-teachers don't have to be "fun" but they expect it from whitey.

One of my coteachers once asked me "Why don't you give candy?" to which I replied: "Why don't you?"

Also, if you're a child (age 5-17) and 40 hours a week you see stoic Mr. Kim, holding his big stick and having silent classes, then you see smiling Jizzo T Clown for one hour a week, with no big stick and dancing around playing games, who are you going to respect more?

[cbclark4]

What a bunch of dopes.

Learning isn't supposed to be fun?

Every lesson needs to be beaten into these kids?

If it ain't fun it ain't worth learnin'!

[koon_taung_daeng]

i cant stand ANYBODY telling me how to teach especially Korean hogwon owners that cant speak a lick of English and have Absolutley no rapport established with the kids.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

cbclark4--
I'm all for engaging classes, but not being a dancing monkey. Maybe your teaching style is that of a circus clown (and that's fine) but some of us have more self-respect than that.

I incorporate language games and multimedia into my lessons, I have to if I want my kids to pay attention and learn what I'm trying to teach.

My point is that Korean teachers shouldn't chastise FTs for not being edutainers when they themselves are hopelessly behind the times, and that taking one's job seriously doesn't necessarily equate to "beating a lesson into them."

[bosintang]

[Roch]

[Roch]

[bosintang]

[Roch]

[Unposter]

While it would probably take a book, not a letter to the editor, to address all the questions and side issues that will come up, he still makes a good point: FT's are rarely used properly. For all the complaints there are in Korea about English-language education, 90% of them would be solved by Koreans looking at themselves in the mirror.

Education should be interesting. Some of this falls on the shoulders of the students and some of this falls on the shoulders of teachers. Now, here the key word is interesting -- not fun, funny or circus-like.

The problem is the little white lie that grew into a monster: the parent's answer to their child's question, why should I learn English? The white lie answer being because it's fun -- and like many other white lies we tell children the confusion of the reality versus the picture of the lie only causes more damage. The child finds that learning English is not always fun; it may not even be mostly fun; it is hard work but this is not what my parents said so there must be some kind of problem here. It is the teachers fault, the school's fault, the educational system's fault. Soon they are looking for greener pastures somewhere else such as Australia, Canada and the U.S.

It is the confusion between the educational objective and an educational means. A comfortable classroom, topics that are interesting to the students, drills, games, tasks and activities are all means. The objectives should be educational such as language, culture, or other content oriented. For many schools, especially hakwons, they tell you just play games with the kids but they almost never ask you to achieve educational objectives. This is just half (if that) a class.

We all know the reasons for this: Hakwons think it will keep the kids interested and coming back for more; schools see our role as just language interaction and the "real education" will be done by Korean teachers; Korea still focuses almost exclusively on grammar and translation with little to no emphasis on using the language so they see FTs as a way to entertain the kids while other real work is to be done in the Korean language.

This issue would probably never have been addressed if FTs were not put in public schools begging the question of what is the role of FTs in English-education in Korea.

English-language education should be fun but that should not be an end in of itself. Education should.

[wylies99]

Someone named "Mary Poppins" sang "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down", but the "sugar" has replaced the "medicine" in our industry.

[bosintang]