Why ESLers able to live like King in Korea
by Consoleman » Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:08 am
S.Korea spent about $6 billion dollars per year in ESL education and have scored 121st place (2009 data - 157 countries) in speaking test.
So how did $6 billion with 20,000 naive English speaking teachers only able to scored 121th place (even worst than North Korea - who learned English from N.Korean teacher and worst than most African countries).
There's gotta be something wrong with education system, and ESL teachers as well.
One would think from the title of Herr Consoleman's thread and what he wrote that ESL teachers in South Korea are personally getting the $6 Billion a year. Of course, what he says has nothing to do with actually explaining why ESLers can live like kings.
Did I live like a king when I was in South Korea? Hmmm ... small ConApt hardly seems like a castle. Part of your pay scammed in some way by the school. (The favourite method of doing that seemed to be charging you double or more of the income tax rate, which they pocket.)
Now to be fair I did live well. I did save some money, but spent the bulk of it in South Korea. Thanks to the lower cost of living I was able to do more within Korea than I would at home. Go out more often. Travel more, when I had time off.
The funny thing is he has a point but his batshit obscures it. There IS something wrong with the education system in South Korea, not just the ESL part of it, and the teachers are part of the problem. They just aren't the part of it him and his fellow KKKlan members think they are.
The SYSTEM allows hagwons to hire people whose only claim to fame as a teacher is being born in an English speaking country and having a University degree. Hagwons prefer to hire younger teachers, fresh out of Uni. One might even call them NAIVE English speaking teachers because most haven't travelled abroad, let alone worked in another country. Not because they are skilled but because they are easier to screw over than more mature and experienced people.
Which would jibe with some of what he says later in the thread.
These ESL Hagwons aren't that stupid, they're using mainly North American to grab market share of $6 billion dollar a year industry.
Yes. The hagwons are a big part of the problem. All they care about is making money and not educating the students. Which is why students will be in classes that are too high a level for them. It keeps the parents happy. Low marks aren't sent home. Shit that drove me crazy at times when I worked at hagwons. They aren't stupid. They are just fucking greedy and will screw over the teachers as quickly as the students/parents to make a buck.
Having been exposed to Herr Consoleman's written English the last few years I think he should be complaining about the English education system in Australia. After all, he spent at least High School there, plus University, and his written English is bad. Just look at some of his sentences in this thread starting with the title.
Why ESLers able to live like King in Korea
It should read: Why are ESLers able to live like kings in Korea? or even How are ESLers able to live like kings in Korea?
So how did $6 billion with 20,000 naive English speaking teachers only able to scored 121th place (even worst than North Korea - who learned English from N.Korean teacher and worst than most African countries).
Where the hell do you even start with that clunky sentence?!?!? He makes it sound like naive English speaking teachers scored 121st place on a test. "Worst" than? Really? Fuck Herr Consoleman ... ewww didn't mean it that way ... you should see about suing the Australian Education system because they definitely didn't teach you proper English. How in the fuck can he communicate at work?!?!?
Oh well, at least he is entertaining in an insane kind of way. :)
It's exactly as you say. The hagwons, and their owners, are a big part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteBut that's the way they want it. The acquisition of money is their only guiding principle. Learning is not.
Yep ... and the hagwons want young and dumb (in the sense of not knowing they are being fucked over) ESL teachers so they can pay them less and cheat them.
ReplyDeleteIllogical and xenophobic Koreans like Herr Consoleman love blaming the Foreigners for the fact that their school system is broken.
ReplyDeleteFlint is right. Korea intentionally hires the youngest, most inexperienced people as teachers - because they are cheap and easy to jerk around. People with more professional credentials and experience wouldn't put up with how most Korean schools and hagwons operate. Nor would Korea be willing to pay for teachers with more of the "qualifications" they are forever moaning about.
None of that matters to the Koreans who hire Western EFL teachers. They just need a white face in a classroom. Preferably an attractive one, because projecting that image is more important than creating effective learning conditions for Korean students.
Foreign English teachers in Korea are often blamed for not teaching effectively, despite the fact that their lesson planning is often controlled by Koreans. For example, many Korean universities hire Westerners to teach their English classes, because it looks good on the surface. But then they force them use terrible pre-scripted lesson plans that rely on the use of outdated cassette tapes, and other methods that are a total waste of time. Who is at fault here? The teacher or the school that instructs him/her to teach in totally ineffective ways?
The Foreign teachers are only a symptom of the problem - which is that Korean EFL education is totally counterproductive.
I do think that there are some good points being made on the Korean Sentry page, about the Korean school system being rooted in traditions of authoritarianism inherited from the Japanese occupation. And about Japan's school system from that era being based on that of militaristic Prussia.
slowguy says "The answer is obvious: instead of using native speaking ability and a random college degree as the only qualifying criteria, bring in real ESL teachers, ones with real-world experience, and let them plan the lessons themselves. You can't have Korean teachers teach English in Korean the Korean way, which is the old Japanese way inherited from the occupation -- and look how well ESL education is going in Japan -- and expect wonders."
Well said Durham. I agree that they make some points on KS too but the craziness tends to obscure it.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, yes, when those balmy summer evenings come around and mosquito bites have woken me up, 'Korean Sentry,' beckons........... we live in a time where political correctness has made the Victorian peep show 'incorrect,' but it has no problem letting me read the inarticulate sentence fragments of shut-ins. Is there any other place where laughing at the mentally ill would not be looked down on?
ReplyDeleteKorean Sentry, the poor man's Korea Times.
But seriously, I really enjoy 'what the kimchi,' and am very glad you chose to keep posting,
vaya con dios amigo,
anonymously anonymous.