Monday, December 28, 2009

[Must Read] A Native English Teacher’s Declaration

I believe that the Korean education system is being deliberately abused by those who have the power to fix it. But who am I to say such things.

If I could recommend anything for anyone deciding to come to Korea -- Don’t, without great thought. Koreans have not figured out how to manage money, how to manage themselves, and how to manage 'foreigners'. Money is usually spent making classrooms nicer, not making education standards better. Work standards do not exist and every job is a shot in the dark. Everything here is about eye candy and appeasing the voices of Koreans which demand English programs with no proven effectiveness. They don’t care the cost; they just want to hear and see their spoon-fed lies.

When you first come to Korea, you will be pretty willing to go along with most things because you don’t really understand what your duties are and who is trying to help you in your professional growth. But take my advice, very few Koreans truly want to help a native teacher, they want to use you as a way of furthering their own careers. The native teacher is a status symbol of progress, but it carries with it a big sign that says “use me.”

If you don’t believe me, then ask any native teacher about the teaching demonstration that everyone has to endure. It is a comical farce that will leave you scratching your head in bewilderment. It is the one time of the year you are judged from an outside perspective, but it is meaningless. The setup is rigged well ahead of time and everything is kept nicely scripted. Koreans use this as a way of one-upmanship to other schools, thereby showing their prized steed is worth its weight. Instead, a few internal checks and balances would be much better utilized. Koreans have an indifference to us and our teachings which are shown in their lack of effort and desire to integrate teaching methods, lesson plans, and shared responsibility in the classroom. As long as we are out of the way, and let them do nothing, they’re just fine letting us do what we do.

Koreans are quite content “forcing” native English teachers to do the entire lesson planning when it states implicitly in the contract that you are supposed to be working together on them. In all actuality, what is work when it comes to education? It’s not standing there and spouting a few rare words like most Korean co-teachers. It is the lesson plan, the bulk of what you are doing, and for the most part, they care not. I can easily see how one could stand back and go, “oh, they’re doing it just fine without me.” They are content to watch us dance, and play the fool – untrained, unfocused, un-helped, and irrelevant. We are experimenting with the future youth of Korea and we don’t even get a few tips to get us started. But alas, watch what happens when you say the equality is unbalanced… they huff and puff and blow miserly in your direction, how dare you say anything against them, you are the outsider, they hired you and we should be so lucky.

I once asked a middle-aged Korean co-teacher how long she had been a teacher, because she was arguing with me over who should make the lesson plan (although we get paid the same for after school class and I did it all myself for the first semester). With a tearful gleam in her eye, she asked me why I asked, I asked because after all these years, if they still don’t know how to make an English lesson plan, I thought, what hope do they have for the future. She told me that her English was poor and I said, “You should set an example and try to speak even though you cannot speak well.” If some untrained idiot from across the sea can make a lesson plan that defies and astounds the educational standards of Korea's well respected and highly coveted teaching positions, then there is something very amiss. The Korean English teachers will not change because there is no incentive for them to change or make a difference.

We are progressive, we symbolize change, and yet, native English teachers are composed of the most ragtag group of people I have ever met. We come from all walks of life – all educational and work experience backgrounds. Some have mentioned there is some instability among our ranks, but that is expected. We are hired with no thought to our ability, no thought to the culture clash that might ensue.

Our contracts are to most, worthless and devoid of value. The MOE (Ministry of Education) likes to dangle them in front of potential hires to show them an idealistic job, when really, there is little truth to them and a lot of societal pressure to not follow certain aspects of it. Recruiters are full of the same lies and half-truths; they only want to get as many people over here as they can. Koreans at your workplace will use the line “but, the other schools do it this way” as if that one excuse could nullify any validity in your contract.

Watch out for the vague terms that they use that mean nothing in reality, words such as assistant teacher (what we are supposed to be), together (lesson planning), paid sick days (we have 15, which are virtually impossible to use). Also, beware of contract clauses that leave you open to manipulation - the 'we can make you do anything' clauses; there are at least a few. Camps are ambiguously scheduled; maybe you'll get to know how long and what level of students last minute. Work loads vary from school to school. So much for fairness. So much for feeling secure.

What about the native English teacher, what happens to them in this world of deceit? Half of the people that work in Korea are survivors, and the other half has somehow found a semi-decent patch of work (I suspect more people of this regard to fall into the elementary teaching category). I do wonder what the rate of turnover is in various places around Korea. As if the MOE would release that data, it would scare off potential candidates. Potential candidates is something they seem to have too much of these days, so much so that they can nullify contracts, at will, even if you have packed up, left your native life, and crossed the point of no return.

The native English teacher is a peon – A lowly servant and treated as such. Human rights, I daresay we have none, none that are clear enough for us to understand and access easily. It’s not like the schools would want to empower those that it wants to use for their ill gain. We are tucked away from high management, and our only outlet is our co-teacher whom has questionable motives of their own. They will stifle your attempts to complain, muffle your attempts to fix the corruption. Their excuse, that is commonly used, is cultural differences, because people aren’t people anymore in the ROK (Republic of Korea). There is a chasm of separation between them and anyone that's not them. Native teachers just don’t understand how Korean teachers are so respected for caring so little.

Feedback, a word that is thrown around a lot in management, yet never exists in this part of the world. Do not act as though you have a voice in Korea, because your views are not welcome here. Who are we to understand the intricacies of Korean education? Who are we, to speak our minds to the face of failure?

The discontented voices of thousands of native English teachers are meaningless to the Korean education machine. In the Korean ladder to success, the native English teacher is just another rung.

I believe there are two truths, the ideal Korea and the reality that is. I remember watching a documentary of an escaped North Korean, he spoke about the time when he was in an adjustment camp and saw many happy and smiling people on television; then, when he had a chance to see the real South Koreans, there were none.

Food choices in Korea

Eating day to day

There aren’t many choices, or shall I say, there are only very few choices available when eating in Korea. Dining out is common if you live in the city. There are various establishments for quick Korean food or if you’re not as picky fast-food. If you don’t live in the city, well, your choices are limited even further. The stores don’t offer much, so your skills at combining various ingredients will come in handy. A toaster oven will also help, but they tend to be expensive and slightly difficult to get because most stores stock the ones with the stove grills attached to them. So, most people from abroad don’t tend to buy them.

Some common foods you’ll find available to you:

Pasta (only tomato based sauce and possibly carbonara), rice, noodles (rice, udon/Japanese thick style, ramen), corndogs (called hotdogs), curry (Korean style only, no Indian flavored), frozen dumplings, beef jerky, eggs, bread (sweet kinds prevail), tofu

Vegetables:

Spinach, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms (about 3 kinds), tomatoes (usually cherry sized)

Frozen peas, frozen corn, canned peas (harder consistency), canned corn

Fruits:

Bananas, persimmons, mandarin oranges, pineapple, apples (one kind), grapes (two kinds, big with seeds and small), oranges

Meats:

Chicken (chicken breast can be difficult to find, most likely to find chicken chunks with bones), beef (small pieces, no steaks), pork (thicker slices of bacon if you will), duck (typically in squared slices).

Canned meat is typically beef in soy sauce and many kinds of tuna (they love it here for some reason). You will find chicken, but sometimes it will be mixed with other things into a chicken salad type flavor.

Drinks:

Aloe, corn tea, grain tea, lemonade, soda, water, energy drinks (labeled different but most taste the same), milk, apple juice, orange juice, tomato juice, pear juice

This is probably the majority of the foods that are typically western diet friendly. Some foods aren’t listed because they are considered exotic and cost a lot to purchase such as avocados. There are other foods, but they are atypically Korean in nature, so it depends on how adventurous your eating is and how much time you want to devote to making generally laborious Korean style food. Your meals will usually be some combination of the above. The only exception is if you bring certain foods, have them sent to you from abroad, go to a foreign food market (which generally also lack selection due to size), or go to Costco (there are 3 in the Seoul area, a few in some other cities in Korea).

Korea Sparkling

This was their official motto for the Korean tourism website while I was working. As some have mentioned, Korea tries to revamp its tourism image very often... http://www.news.bkhmer.com/?p=4783. Now it's Korea Be Inspired (more like 'Be Uninspired'). What a load of dung. When I think of Korea I sure as hell don’t think of sparkling or inspiration. Korea doesn’t have much going for it in the way of tourism, probably ever. It has re-creations of its burned down temples and buildings; they’re about as entertaining as watching paint dry.

They don’t have any attractions that really warrant coming to Korea. No good beaches, no good amusement parks, no good food, and no good anything.

When it comes to tourism, they need to fix the image problem that they have. I remember when China was trying to change their image due to the Olympics. They taught people basic greetings and tried to get the public to stop spitting. Korea could easily do a campaign to help Korean people smile more than never.


Well, I heartily laughed when I saw this. Koreans don't know what courteous means... Even if they do do it, they're the farthest from my thoughts when I think of the word. As an example, they'll bump into people without saying or acknowledging the other person. I have yet to see random acts of kindness or anything that resembles polite behavior towards others.

There tends to be a veil of "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" behind every action that is done for others. One situation comes to mind, when I helped my co-teacher with the co-teaching competition (which she failed miserably at because she never actually co-teaches, practiced with only one class, and under practiced the class time by 15 minutes), she asked me afterwards if I would like to go out to eat "her treat." This is a common scenario I've encountered, ask me a favor, try to pay me off with food - uh, how about if they did they actual job they were supposed to the whole school year. Yeah, that's an ingenious idea.

Korean language and the fiancée


Inevitably a native speaking teacher will start to learn some Korean. It’s been said that one must love the society to learn the language well, that’s probably why most people that come here are absolutely horrible at it. If Korean's actually wanted English teachers to come and stay in their country, they would make it a lot easier to learn their language. What good is it if every year, most schools rehire a new inexperienced person from another country? Racial integration falls on deaf ears. I think strip clubs have a similar business model.

Korea Sparkling: Come to Korea, do your dance, take your money, get out.

So, I learned some Korean to be functional in everyday life. This, I find, was not my only hurdle. I have a fiancée that is Chinese; she teaches English here as well. To Koreans she looks Korean, which I find silly. I would think they would be able to distinguish themselves from their neighboring countries inhabitants.

If I walk into a restaurant with her (or try to do any other type of transaction) and try to use my Korean language, the store owner will immediately bypass my existence and try to talk to my fiancée. So much for making native speakers feel at ease. My fiancée doesn’t speak any Korean. Inevitably, they have to talk to me, but not without first ignoring me (the person standing right in front of them trying to talk to them in their own language). This has happened more times than I care to mention. I tell my fiancée to stay out of their line of sight, because they’ll find any means possible not to talk to me.

Apparently, it’s not rude to ignore the person talking to you and pretend like they don’t exist. For a society that's trying to become global, they sure do have problems with being polite and friendly.


Swine Flu


When I came to Korea I saw people wearing masks, not because of swine flu, but because they were a) afraid of catching a cold, or b) sick and trying not to spread germs. This I thought was strange, but since I didn’t see it too often I was okay with it.

Then, the swine flu pandemic broke out and I watched the pandemonium that ensued firsthand. Paranoia grew to epic proportions. Kids were forced to wear masks, forced to use hand sanitizer constantly, forced to listen to lectures of how random activities could lead to catching it, forced to check their temperatures (with the same ear thermometer that everyone else used) at the first sign of anything abnormal, and forced to be subjected to the idiocy without fail. They were even forced to get the vaccine. When I say forced, I mean tons of societal, teacher, parent, and peer pressure were applied on top of the continual media manipulation which made them have to do/use whatever was offered.

It was as overblown as the Y2K bug, but massively larger in scale. City buses had announcements that broadcast Swine flu precautions at specified stops (which still continue to this day, a constant reminder of a phobia blown out of control). I didn’t go a day without hearing swine flu uttered from the mouth of a teacher in the school or a teacher warned (shamed) into wearing a mask. Giant hand sanitizer bottles were stationed in front of the school; others were placed in hallways, in classrooms, and even handed out to students.

Native teachers were singled out as a source of swine flu and were treated even worse than usual. Their jobs were threatened, vacations threatened, and they were quarantined on top of it all. I never heard of one Korean teacher getting quarantined. One of my Korean co-teachers got the swine flu after some students did, and all I could think was, thank goodness it wasn’t me, because I would have been singled out even more than necessary in the Korean narrow-mindedness that is my workplace.

I didn’t give a rat’s ass about getting the swine flu, I just didn’t want to be treated even more shittier than usual. Strangely enough, I would have been quite happy just to be able to use a sick day or two without feeling the wrath of Kahn bearing down on me.