tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post6576954155853559172..comments2024-02-23T23:53:54.842+09:00Comments on Gusts Of Popular Feeling: Seoul to perhaps cut even more foreign teachersmatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10296009437690229938noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-2121963240011569122012-11-02T15:08:05.583+09:002012-11-02T15:08:05.583+09:00I am an NSET and fully agree that we should be cut...I am an NSET and fully agree that we should be cut. What the various Boards of Education fail to see is that we are ineffective because of the education system. Hiring NSET's with Master's Degrees in English won't even help to improve the level. The real problem is this:<br />1)Students cannot fail. This is the biggest problem and until students learn that there are consequences for slacking in class all other measures will be futile.<br /><br />2) English classes with NSET's do not affect students' grade points. Why would they bother paying attention or taking the class seriously? The short answer is that they don't.<br /><br />Board of Education, wake up!!!! Your system is the problem.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09266817060242025096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-46303917912977010672012-08-09T03:15:26.759+09:002012-08-09T03:15:26.759+09:00Native speakers are not always better language tea...Native speakers are not always better language teachers than non-native speakers. Knowing a language and teaching it are two different things. They should look for the language teaching ability of the teachers and not whether they are natives or non-natives..Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07619361624034300415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-27180138066524667162012-08-03T05:16:31.333+09:002012-08-03T05:16:31.333+09:00Hi Matt,
My apologies for leaving this request o...Hi Matt, <br /><br />My apologies for leaving this request on your blog comments. I'm a freelance journalist for Maclean's magazine in Toronto, and Mark Russell mentioned that I might like to speak to you about an article I'm writing. Can you email me at lyndsiebourgon@gmail.com? <br /><br />Thanks, <br /><br />Lyndsiecopyeditshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14837222230061604561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-48179890792790636422012-08-02T17:47:41.829+09:002012-08-02T17:47:41.829+09:00RE:After all, Korea needs a "docile" wor...RE:<i>After all, Korea needs a "docile" workforce that thinks in uniform, predetermined patterns, so that the chaebol and national economy can continue to accumulate wealth as efficiently as possible.</i><br /><br />In general, I'm afraid, I agree with you. It's a capitalistic/industrial country and what you see many times is a version of industrialized education.<br /><br />We lose a surprising amount of time to "choreographed organizing" of kids each day. It's not as much about getting their attention as teaching them that being in sync with other Koreans is what's important. The medium may be the message in this case. Lot's of heavy social conditioning to say the least.<br /><br />While the goosestepping of North Korean soldiers looks obviously militaristic I 'd say it looks more & more Korean than North Korean to me at this point.newyorkyankees14456https://www.blogger.com/profile/17895887858060431104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-87585678302403184422012-08-02T16:03:00.363+09:002012-08-02T16:03:00.363+09:00This is bad news for aspiring teachers all over th...This is bad news for aspiring teachers all over the world who wants to live and have a chance in Korea. Opportunities before are so plenty and gave way to a lot of chances to foreigners. Hopefully, the cut won't be so drastic.Juliesse Mariehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13334237192228329521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-36595489418594442312012-08-01T10:46:19.067+09:002012-08-01T10:46:19.067+09:00If I were studying Korean as a second language in ...If I were studying Korean as a second language in high school in the US, would I want to learn it from some white guy who had lived in Daegu for a year or two, probably as a hermit with few local friends, or from a native-speaking Korean?<br /><br />I would want to learn it from a native-speaking Korean, because Western and Asian cultures are sufficiently different that the cultural and communicative aspects of their respective languages are just as important to master as simple vocabulary and grammar.<br /><br />The real solution to this problem is for actual native-speaking English teachers with proper qualifications to be hired, but of course Korea is not generally interested in learning or teaching English beyond a shallow, instrumentalized level, which is to say, teaching Korean students how to pass a few English-language tests and read technical English-language textbooks, but not actually have them too exposed to the "corruptions" of Western language and culture, since that might be too "risky."<br /><br />After all, Korea needs a "docile" workforce that thinks in uniform, predetermined patterns, so that the chaebol and national economy can continue to accumulate wealth as efficiently as possible. Korean citizens exposed to differing, non-Korean modes of thought at a young age are obviously more difficult to control later on, and hence a threat to the powers that be.<br /><br />Elementary students? Fine, we'll hold onto native-speaking teaching assistants at that level for now, since pronunciation is not unimportant for early learners and the level of discourse in the classroom is sufficiently basic not to be too much of a threat. Middle school and high school students? Well, once they've reached an age in which they can think for themselves in complex modes, we need to make sure they remain safely in the box we've created for them, and non-Korean teachers simply aren't a part of that program, are they?<br /><br />Carry on, Korea, Inc.King Baeksuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15106210206814275410noreply@blogger.com