Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hyunjoo77]

[b] :D Hi, there
I'm Korean female, 28, wanna improve and practice English.
I'm mastering English Education in graduate school.
I really want to become an English teacher in public school.
A few days ago, i searched several English institue around my place to register native english speaker's class, but most teachers were not interested in teaching but just chatting and and silly talk.
One of the teacher has got Master's degree in his major, but that's not big deal to teach. He doesn't care about current issue and even doesn't read newspapers. He said, he was so tired to study in his Doctor's degree and came to korea to teach. How irresponsible comments!
I know most native english speaker here is the same attitude when it comes to teach. So I'm sick and tired of registering english institue now.

Well, I wrote a lot.
I really hope to see some replys. Even i wrote that I need native english speaker, but it's OK that anyone from any countries as long as they have fluent English speaking skills.

Thank you for reading.

[/b]

[kurt]

Hi Hiyun,

I'm sure it's frustrating to be so goal-oriented yet learn from someone who doesn't have the same focus as you. As for the "chatting" and "silly talk", this may not apply to your situation, but I've occassionally had TOEFL students who always expected every second in class to be related to a problem on the TOEFL and did not see the value of extemporaneous speech. I think "chatting" and "silly talk", as long as it's in English, can provide useful idioms and insights into the native English-speaking mind. Plus English (or any language) is probably the only subject where you can go off on a tangent and still learn something about the subject.

However, I also think an excess of this type of talk can be a product of laziness. And it sounds like you're dealing more with this variety of "silly talk." And unfortunately advanced degrees are no substitute for talent or desire. I guess you just need to shop around for a good teacher.

I don't know that much about schools in Korea, but I'm interested in hearing more about your experiences. So, I would be happy to talk to you.

Kurt

http://www.kurtweissgerber.com