Nice specific topic.
Korea of course likes to demonize “The Other”, this may be the US Army, English teachers, Hideyoshi, or the Manchu hordes. ESL teachers are targeted from time to time, and when one looks at Korea’s English test scores, one wouldn’t be terribly untoward if one were to assume that the blame must fall on the teachers.
Well, yes it should, I guess. But we’re not exactly here to ramp up test scores, at least most of us. I’ve never seen that stated in any job add I’ve come across. Test scores are for celebrity Korean cram school teachers, who advertise on buses in various dynamic poses.
We’re here to deflect the natural Korean reaction to not being perfect at something in a social situation: abject terror. If we can associate a good feeling with speaking English, we’ve done our jobs, at least when it comes to teaching kids.
Much is made of ‘unqualified’ teachers in Korea, and this is a perfect term because it cannot be defined. What exactly does ‘unqualified’ mean? “Qualified” is a relative term, relative to the explicitly stated job duties of the individual position and also any government standards that may apply to that profession/position.
Taking these criteria into consideration, we are ‘qualified’. We have 4 year degrees, no criminal record, and we love Korean culture. Most of us are not certified teachers back home, which is to be expected. Korea can’t compete with the wages or benefits that a certified teacher would garner in the West, at least in the US. Koreans oughtn’t be surprised at this, supply and demand applies even to Korea and its wonderful 5000 year history.
The problem is the parents. Most of this generation of Korea is not educated well (different from well educated), and don’t really have any goals that they can articulate for their kids–improve speaking’ is not a goal, BTW. Korean education does not equip parents or kids to figure out what their specific needs or goals are beyond getting a test score. Goals given to ‘unqualified’ teachers would eventually either be achieved or not, and truly ‘unqualified’ teachers would fall by the wayside (not all of the time, but more than they do now).
Parents in Korea need to undersand a little of the process of authentic communicative language learning, just a little. If they can do this, they could vastly improve the quality of their kids’ education here.
