Over the past eight months Korea has undergone some serious changes in English education. Heightened
visa regulations on foreign language teachers, the introduction of the
TaLK Program,
Jeju Island to launch an
English education complex, and now an official pledge to “make sure that all <Seoul> schools will have native English teachers.” Kong Jeong-taek, Seoul’s first citizen elected superintendent for the Office of Education, has been busy making plans for education reform. The Korea Times reports:
In line with the market-oriented education policy of the Lee Myung-bak administration, Kong has vowed to increase English-only classes and bring in more native English-speaking teachers during his presidency. Some schools have already started to use English in subjects such as math and science in what are called ``English immersion classes.'' - Korea Times
My son goes to Korean public school and they have some of these English programs and the teachers do not know how to speak English. They just read a little out of a book. The students know way more English than the teachers. This program actually makes my sons English worse, by teaching him Konglish and not English. If they are going to institute this program, then they should have teachers learn enough English to teach it, not Konglish.
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Koreans should not be teaching subjects in English. They should leave that up to foreigners. I'm a science subject teacher in an immersion program in Bangkok. I speak normally and my students not only get the benefit of learning English in a natural way, but from a native speaker.
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Indeed. I have on several occasions been shown my students' English homework from school and it is more often than not peppered with mistakes. I've even had students tell me that I was wrong when I corrected the mistakes, as if they truly believed that their Korean teacher was a better English speaker than me, a native speaker.
The education system here is in dire straights and I have little trust that a superintendent is going to do the good that previous governments were unable to do. However, him not being a politician may prove fruitful.
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I hate S.Koreans. Recently, the consulate refused to give me a visa E2, so I wasn't able to go and teach English in Seoul.
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So you hate all South Koreans because Immigration didn't provide you a visa?
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south koreans are racist pigs..anything young, white and cute are acceptable...
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I agree. Koreans are racist pigs. I have never met anyone in the world who says nice things about them, except for some English teachers in Korea. I'm so happy to live in Japan with polite people.
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