Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

One thing that often goes unmentioned in teaching guides written by westerners is the importance of being in harmony with your coworkers when teaching in Korea. In fact, I think it might even be better sometimes to help pull the cart in the wrong direction with a dickhead than to try to correct the course, going against the grain.

I'll give you a few examples. My school district has an English camp with five foreign staff. This summer a group of my kids went there. There was one teacher who didn't get along with any of the other foreigners. The first week after my students were back we were re-writing a dialogue in class about a boy who didn't have a present for his mother's birthday. First I asked the students for some new names and they gave me two of the camp teachers' names. We changed around everything in the dialogue and it turned into a dialogue about the wangta teacher at the camp who didn't have any friends to invite over on her birthday. Obviously my kids could sense exactly the feelings between the foriegn teachers at the camp.

Today my (excellent) grade one MS co-teacher had to go away on business leaving me to teach solo. She inherrited the grade one classes from a rookie temp who taught them last term when she was on leave. This morning in one of the classes, in the absense of any Korean teachers, the students were very eager to know if I liked her more than the temp. 'Mrs ________'s a very, very good teacher' I told them. 'You like her than _________-teachuh?' they asked. 'What do you think?' I replied and they all laughed. There's just no way to hide the fact that I hated working with the previous teacher, even though I did my best to be supportive, even punishing students who were rude to him (they really didn't like him much, either).

Another case - at my gym I was talking to some students from another school, one of whom had unusually good conversational skills for what's a rather low-level school. I know the FT there and asked him if he liked her, him obviously having an unusual interest in English. 'Oh no' he replied immediately. 'Why not?' I enquired. 'Other teachuh no like' he exlplained. So, because the other teachers don't like her he doesn't either, even though I'm sure she's a lot kinder to her students than some of the KTs at that particular school.

This all goes to show a very important point about teaching in Korea: if your students don't see you as being on the same side as all the other teachers, it will be much more of an uphill struggle. And this holds true for both Korean and foreign teachers, from what I've observed. Trying to be 'popular' in fact has little to do with whether the students like you. Being in harmony - having jeong - with the rest of the school sure does. It's a factor that I think is important not to underestimate.

[Fishead soup]

All very true. I've seen people with Masters Degee's really blow it. When the teacher who is less skilled can just wing it. Getting along with your co-teacher is more important than your ability to teach.

There is an obvious danger with always wanting to do things by the book.
particularly if it goes against the grain of your schools situation.

Going out with your school and exchanging soju glasses also helps. Yesterday I did a full about turn after accepting a glass from the principal.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Demophobe]

[stevemcgarrett]

YuBumsuk:

It's important at all levels except the tertiary, I'd say.

A book that might interest you (and confirms what you say, albeit indirectly) is Richard Nisbett's The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently (2003).

Nisbett is a comparative cognitive psychologist at the Univ. of Michigan and has done numerous cross-cultural studies with Korean, Chinese, and Japanese academics into the cognitive orientation of these groups.

It's a fascinating read, groundbreaking stuff really, and available via whatthebook.

Should be required reading for intercultural communication courses and crosscultural trainers.

[butlerian]

[quote="Yu_Bum_suk"]

[RokofKangnam]

[jinju]

[babtangee]