BPU2 has now put decision on my (potential) position off until Wednesday. I can't tell if this is just the traditional Korean way of saying no without actually having to come out and say it, or if it is just administrative dicking about.
Either way it's a pain in the ass, and the director at BPU (the original) needs to know if I am staying or going - a fact he reminds me of in email and every time we see each other in the halls. I suppose that means they want me to stay, but it is still a pain in the ass..
Oh well, if BPU2 puts it off past Friday, it becomes the Korean "no" in any case, as I'll need to commit to BPU or lose whatever pathetic advantages I've accrued in my one year "tenure" here.
Showing posts with label BPU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BPU. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
More from the front lines..
This week marked the beginning of my "Administrative" classes here at BPU. These are something like Staff Development classes in the states - employees take them to get some kind of credit with their managers. Employees get off work at 6 and are expected to be in class by 6:10.
The first day of my class, only 3 of my 12 students showed up, so I had a chance to talk to them pretty extensively. I went through my basic intro routine and then started asking them some questions. The first thing I said was that they wouldn't have to buy books. They nodded their heads in relief and one even said, "that's good." Which was why it was odd to discover, about 5 minutes later, that each of my students already had their books. As I followed up why that was the case, I discovered that the three doughty lads before me had taken this particular B level class, the one I am teaching them in now, last semester. They then launched into some rather personal attacks on the previous professor (who, of course, I knew) which gave me the disheartening feeling that they weren't inclined to like ANY professor. As I began asking about the missing students, who it turned out were missing because they know the first day of any class at BPU is administrivia, it became clear that ALL 12 of my students had been in the class at the B level the previous term. ALL 12 of them had also been in the class at the B level the term before the last one.
And, of course, they had all been through the exact same book in those two previous terms. I went for the inspirational speech; something along the lines of, "Well, if you've been in here two terms and you're in your third, now is the time for us to work together to move you up to level C."
You might have thought I had asked them to eat cold bricks of pig-shit without kimchi on the side. All three physically recoiled in their seats and two threw up their arms in front of themselves. Larry, Curly, and Moe all yelled, "no teacher!" in high voices and then hastily proposed various arguments as to why they were in the B level and that was where they were supposed to be, and that was where they intended to stay.
This was a bit dis-spiriting, though it did allow me to mentally start adjusting the bar.... down a bit.
The next class 10 students showed up and they all had books.... excellent! I began on my lessons and these guys were fast and accurate. When we did the readbacks everyone's answers were perfect. Which made me pretty suspicious, since they didn't understand English very well.
A closer look and, DUH!, after two semesters with the same books, they already had the correct answers written in them. ;-) Thank god I had some worksheets from the workbook to hand out. The class also demanded that the class end at 7:30, and I accomodated them in that wish.
Still, pretty emblematic of BPU and the Korean English Language Education Enterprise in general. The students are forced to be in my class because their employer "wants" them to learn English, but no one cares in the slightest if they are learning English.
Oh well, it won't be a tough class, but still...
The first day of my class, only 3 of my 12 students showed up, so I had a chance to talk to them pretty extensively. I went through my basic intro routine and then started asking them some questions. The first thing I said was that they wouldn't have to buy books. They nodded their heads in relief and one even said, "that's good." Which was why it was odd to discover, about 5 minutes later, that each of my students already had their books. As I followed up why that was the case, I discovered that the three doughty lads before me had taken this particular B level class, the one I am teaching them in now, last semester. They then launched into some rather personal attacks on the previous professor (who, of course, I knew) which gave me the disheartening feeling that they weren't inclined to like ANY professor. As I began asking about the missing students, who it turned out were missing because they know the first day of any class at BPU is administrivia, it became clear that ALL 12 of my students had been in the class at the B level the previous term. ALL 12 of them had also been in the class at the B level the term before the last one.
And, of course, they had all been through the exact same book in those two previous terms. I went for the inspirational speech; something along the lines of, "Well, if you've been in here two terms and you're in your third, now is the time for us to work together to move you up to level C."
You might have thought I had asked them to eat cold bricks of pig-shit without kimchi on the side. All three physically recoiled in their seats and two threw up their arms in front of themselves. Larry, Curly, and Moe all yelled, "no teacher!" in high voices and then hastily proposed various arguments as to why they were in the B level and that was where they were supposed to be, and that was where they intended to stay.
This was a bit dis-spiriting, though it did allow me to mentally start adjusting the bar.... down a bit.
The next class 10 students showed up and they all had books.... excellent! I began on my lessons and these guys were fast and accurate. When we did the readbacks everyone's answers were perfect. Which made me pretty suspicious, since they didn't understand English very well.
A closer look and, DUH!, after two semesters with the same books, they already had the correct answers written in them. ;-) Thank god I had some worksheets from the workbook to hand out. The class also demanded that the class end at 7:30, and I accomodated them in that wish.
Still, pretty emblematic of BPU and the Korean English Language Education Enterprise in general. The students are forced to be in my class because their employer "wants" them to learn English, but no one cares in the slightest if they are learning English.
Oh well, it won't be a tough class, but still...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Worst Lesson EVAR!
I decided to try a couple of new things with my Chinese students, all of which failed miserably. There are three hours to fill, so I'm always looking to try something new. They wanted more conversation and listening, but I think all they'll go away with today is a group headache.
First I had them to read an article about China's increasing economic clout. They read it just fine, but trying to get a class of 18 students to discuss the thing was like pulling teeth. They wouldn't even answer simple questions like, "what makes China so powerful?" I had assumed that playing to their chauvinism would get them going, but instead in clammed them up like, well, clams.
I finally just punted on that part of the lecture (thank god there had been an institutional questionnaire to fill up 10 minutes of the first hour).
I returned to the second segmentof the lecture with the "What Am I" game, which went somewhat better, and the lesson was sort of back on track and I knew I had a strong finish coming because it was a video. To end the second segment of class I introduced the questions for that video. The video is from the "No Reservations" TV series by Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain talks quickly, and with a NY accent, so I wanted the kids prepped for each question. With 15 minutes to go until the computer HAD to be wheeled in, I was starting to get nervous and headed down to see where it was.
Turns out that all (by which I mean two) laptops had been checked out to other instructors, even though I had requested mine last week. The office did, however, have a projector.
I was too polite to ask what good a projector was without a laptop.
This was a non-starter, so I asked if a computer lab was available. It was, and I rushed up to it, to discover that it was unequipped to play mkv files. Not quite cutting edge. "No problem," sez I, as I quickly downloaded VLC and had that part of the puzzle fixed in about two minutes.
More alarming was that the connection to the ceiling projector was not attached to the computer, and there was no remote for the projector in any case. I hooked up the projector, but there was no way to operate it. Worse, the sound cables to the projector were RCA and there were only the standard 1/4" outlets on the back.
No video AND no audio for the complete win!
Now, I sit here with my students happily surfing the internet and not learning a lick of English.
Pretty much of a total disaster of a lesson.
First I had them to read an article about China's increasing economic clout. They read it just fine, but trying to get a class of 18 students to discuss the thing was like pulling teeth. They wouldn't even answer simple questions like, "what makes China so powerful?" I had assumed that playing to their chauvinism would get them going, but instead in clammed them up like, well, clams.
I finally just punted on that part of the lecture (thank god there had been an institutional questionnaire to fill up 10 minutes of the first hour).
I returned to the second segmentof the lecture with the "What Am I" game, which went somewhat better, and the lesson was sort of back on track and I knew I had a strong finish coming because it was a video. To end the second segment of class I introduced the questions for that video. The video is from the "No Reservations" TV series by Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain talks quickly, and with a NY accent, so I wanted the kids prepped for each question. With 15 minutes to go until the computer HAD to be wheeled in, I was starting to get nervous and headed down to see where it was.
Turns out that all (by which I mean two) laptops had been checked out to other instructors, even though I had requested mine last week. The office did, however, have a projector.
I was too polite to ask what good a projector was without a laptop.
This was a non-starter, so I asked if a computer lab was available. It was, and I rushed up to it, to discover that it was unequipped to play mkv files. Not quite cutting edge. "No problem," sez I, as I quickly downloaded VLC and had that part of the puzzle fixed in about two minutes.
More alarming was that the connection to the ceiling projector was not attached to the computer, and there was no remote for the projector in any case. I hooked up the projector, but there was no way to operate it. Worse, the sound cables to the projector were RCA and there were only the standard 1/4" outlets on the back.
No video AND no audio for the complete win!
Now, I sit here with my students happily surfing the internet and not learning a lick of English.
Pretty much of a total disaster of a lesson.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Some of that schedule love came crashing down this morning when I got to work and had a new schedule in my box. It gave me a class on 9 am on Wednesday morning. A class that was only on my schedule and not on the master schedule for the college, business school, university, or institute. Also, no building or room number, no book, no syllabus, no class description.
Anyway.. at the zoo we saw two slight mis-spellings… unless there actually is a person who is old, handicapped, and feedle… I fit two of these criteria.. ;-)
I went to the Uni and they said it wasn’t their class, I went to the college and it wasn’t their class, I went to the institute and it wasn’t their class. Eventually I tracked it down and it is a business class of Chinese students who were allowed to enter the business program without Korean or English levels that will allow them to learn anything. So, ultra-quick, these ‘retard’ English classes were tossed together.
They say the book will come in sometime next week. Nice.
And the class is three hours, not two, as my schedule gives me credit for.
So I tossed a few things together (the art of English instruction at BPUis often an improvisational one) and went downstairs and…. Well, of course.. since it is the second day of instruction.. the copy center is closed.. BPU is not world renowned for it’s organizat …. Oh, let’s just say it isn’t world-renowned or organized…
Which was also demonstrated when I checked and discovered my Uni class wasn’t on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as the schedule said, but Tuesdays and Fridays….
Oh.. and I work til 9 on Friday night…
Also, the new class ends at 12 and then I have a 5 hour wait until my next course back at the Institute. Oh well, this will turn into workout time, I imagine…
Working out my anger pounding Soju!
Anyway.. at the zoo we saw two slight mis-spellings… unless there actually is a person who is old, handicapped, and feedle… I fit two of these criteria.. ;-)Oddly, in the direction that sign pointed we saw what must be the “feedle person” monkey..
Who could rather zip around…
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
New Pad
I'm excited to be moving, as I always am. I really like tossing things out, and since I have to walk all my belongings down three flights of stairs, up three blocks and then up five flights of stairs, this is a good chance to shed some things.Also, it will be a relief to move out from underneath TMS. I'm sure that since I'm such a noise-pansy I'll find something to dislike in the new place, but for now I am optimistic. The place is a bit messy (rice strewn here and there, bits of fluff on the floor) but I like it. When TSR was in the place he had a couch, and there was some rumor that he was going to leave that for me. When he left, however, it was unclear who would get the apartment, so he apparently gave it to someone else. This turns out to be a bonus, as it makes the place much more spacious (the picture to the left somehow makes the place look smaller than it actually is).
I'm also glad the new place has an area I can dedicate to the computer and books. Sharing a table between computer gear and dinner never really worked out for me. The "kitchen" in the new place is minimalist - 1.5 electric burners, a sink, and a dormer
fridge, but I've dealt with a lot less than that in the past, so I don't think that should be an issue.For today, this all just means a lot of trips up the hill with various furniture and with my suitcase on wheels.
It's a heck of a way to spend my vacation!
;-)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Teaching the Teachers: Talent and Techology (NOT!)
As of Monday I've been on the "Teach the Teachers" program. These are elementary school instructors (all but one is a woman, for reasons I've covered elsewhere on the blog). And they are achingly sincere in their desire to learn English.
It must be a very difficult thing to be an L2 learner and be teaching that language as an L2 instructor. My mind boggles, anyway. So, they sign up for our "camp" to improve their skills. Perhaps what is most amazing is how skilled they are. I won't say that there aren't some amazingly difficult accents among them, but they are all smart, tenacious, and have vocabularies that would make many native English speakers quail (if English speakers didn't think that meant "be a bird" - or, more likely, didn't understand it at all). I only have them for 10 days, so each day I'm giving them an in-class writing assignment and taking it home to grade. Which wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't also going home and dealing with the sh*tty technology that I'm forced to use in my other class.
My other class is "Listening and Dictation" which really means "listening and then writing down some answers to questions about the listening." And this should be the easiest class ever. If it works right, the students just listen and then write.. the instructor is really just a carbon-based on-off switch for the sound files. There's more to it that that of course - we toss in cultural info, etymology, idioms, whatever we can to bring some kind of relevance to the content of the sound files. But still.. pretty automatic.
Except that they provided us with tapes and rooms without tape players. So, I noted the computers and began digitizing the tapes and making CDs..
It was with much amusement I got out of my writing class - which had a thoroughly killer teacher's multimedia station I really didn't need - and into my dictation class.
Which had a blackboard.
Wha?
So I switched classes with another instructor and got the CD thing working. The second day there was no room change and I had to sock-puppet the dialogues (and in many cases make them up, since there are no transcripts in the teacher's manual) and generally make entertaining shit up as I went along. Thankfully, a discussion with an INCREDIBLY helpful staff member seems to have resulted in a room change.
Still, this means that every night I am rushing home and digitizing the next day's tapes.
Tapes may have been cutting edge once, but they are now shit. No random access to files or locations --- that whole "hit rewind and pray you stop at the right point" sucks. Then there's the issue that rewinding takes time and.. well, tapes suck....
So every night I digitize about 40 minutes of tape into tracks. Time that really should be used ondrinking grading.
It is possible that BPU is not completely cutting edge....
It must be a very difficult thing to be an L2 learner and be teaching that language as an L2 instructor. My mind boggles, anyway. So, they sign up for our "camp" to improve their skills. Perhaps what is most amazing is how skilled they are. I won't say that there aren't some amazingly difficult accents among them, but they are all smart, tenacious, and have vocabularies that would make many native English speakers quail (if English speakers didn't think that meant "be a bird" - or, more likely, didn't understand it at all). I only have them for 10 days, so each day I'm giving them an in-class writing assignment and taking it home to grade. Which wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't also going home and dealing with the sh*tty technology that I'm forced to use in my other class.
My other class is "Listening and Dictation" which really means "listening and then writing down some answers to questions about the listening." And this should be the easiest class ever. If it works right, the students just listen and then write.. the instructor is really just a carbon-based on-off switch for the sound files. There's more to it that that of course - we toss in cultural info, etymology, idioms, whatever we can to bring some kind of relevance to the content of the sound files. But still.. pretty automatic.
Except that they provided us with tapes and rooms without tape players. So, I noted the computers and began digitizing the tapes and making CDs..
It was with much amusement I got out of my writing class - which had a thoroughly killer teacher's multimedia station I really didn't need - and into my dictation class.
Which had a blackboard.
Wha?
So I switched classes with another instructor and got the CD thing working. The second day there was no room change and I had to sock-puppet the dialogues (and in many cases make them up, since there are no transcripts in the teacher's manual) and generally make entertaining shit up as I went along. Thankfully, a discussion with an INCREDIBLY helpful staff member seems to have resulted in a room change.
Still, this means that every night I am rushing home and digitizing the next day's tapes.
Tapes may have been cutting edge once, but they are now shit. No random access to files or locations --- that whole "hit rewind and pray you stop at the right point" sucks. Then there's the issue that rewinding takes time and.. well, tapes suck....
So every night I digitize about 40 minutes of tape into tracks. Time that really should be used on
It is possible that BPU is not completely cutting edge....
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Students Speak (Semester Evals)
Well this is a bit weird, the classes ranked me in exact opposite order I would have ranked my own success. Go figure.
Starting with the bad..
In Japanese Studies my rating was a 75%
The overall rating was an 81.2%
I attribute part of this to their only being three sections and the TSR, who is my teaching superior (in fact from whom I've swiped a lot of my new approaches), was the evaluee on one of the other sections. I bet he scored consistently in the 90s.
In International Management my rating was 94.5%
The overall rating was an 81.2%
So I did well on that one
My "triumph" was in the class that I doubt I taught one decent thing.
In Computer Science my overall rating was 100%
The overall rating was 82.6%
So I did well on that one also.
I'm going to have to spend a bit of time pondering why the ratings went this way, when I would have predicted the exact opposite.
Weird.
Still, ok numbers for my first semester teaching.
Starting with the bad..
In Japanese Studies my rating was a 75%
The overall rating was an 81.2%
I attribute part of this to their only being three sections and the TSR, who is my teaching superior (in fact from whom I've swiped a lot of my new approaches), was the evaluee on one of the other sections. I bet he scored consistently in the 90s.
In International Management my rating was 94.5%
The overall rating was an 81.2%
So I did well on that one
My "triumph" was in the class that I doubt I taught one decent thing.
In Computer Science my overall rating was 100%
The overall rating was 82.6%
So I did well on that one also.
I'm going to have to spend a bit of time pondering why the ratings went this way, when I would have predicted the exact opposite.
Weird.
Still, ok numbers for my first semester teaching.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Goodbye to the Scholarship Class
This week was the last class of the death-march "Scholarship" class. This class is called "scholarship" for no discernible reason - the kids in it spoke almost no English and really had no desire to learn it. They are all two-year certificate kids and none of them will need a bit of English once they graduate.Then there's the fact that this class is a four-week, three hour a day job. That's pedagogically sound!
Still, the kids were all friendly and on the last day we reviewed for the final, watched a movie, and I bought a couple of pizzas. Then we took a group shot with the half of the class that showed up.
The girl right behind me to the right had a crush on me (she was teased mercilessly by her classmates about that). Now she goes off to one more English class, before graduation, and some other teacher to have a crush on. ;-)
Anyway, good kids considering the horrible schedule BPU put them through.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
False Economy at BPU
So, deep in the bowels of our office-building is a small reprographics office which contains one Canon copier and one Duplo machine. And a new, and not so swift copy-dude (the previous one was sharp as a tack and fast). The "rules" are that under 30 copies are to be made on the copier and over 30 copies are to be made on the duplo machine. This applies as a "per page" rule, and not in terms of total copies.
So if I make 31 copies of a certain page it goes on the Duplo machine, but if I make 29 copies of a 20 page document it goes on the copier.
This has to do with some economy of scale thing that I am too doltish too understand, because I don't get that last example.
Today the copier was down and someone came in to make 12 copies of 5 pages. The copy-dude refused because the copier was broken.
The instructor kept making the point that she needed the handouts for her class.
The copy-dude kept making the point that he could not make them because the copier was broken and the job didn't require 30 copies of each page.
I thought the obvious thing, "ok, ask him to make 30 copies." But then again I thought the copy dude might go mad if she pulled such an obvious switcheroo/fraud on him.
But after 3 fruitless minutes of argument, my solution came to her mind. "Alright," she said, "I need 30 copies of this." And she jammed the papers at him.
He beamed. Not only was he not mad at her, he saw this as a victory for the rules.
So he made the 12 copies (60 pages) that she needed, and then went on to make 18 copies (90) pages that were immediately binned.
Somewhere, in Brazil, a rain-forest wept.
and wept harder when I asked for 30 copies of 10 pages of stuff for which I really only needed 15 copies.
Bizarre to me... the copy dude couldn't see past the number 30 and so, all day, reams of paper were copied to and then tossed out.
So if I make 31 copies of a certain page it goes on the Duplo machine, but if I make 29 copies of a 20 page document it goes on the copier.
This has to do with some economy of scale thing that I am too doltish too understand, because I don't get that last example.
Today the copier was down and someone came in to make 12 copies of 5 pages. The copy-dude refused because the copier was broken.
The instructor kept making the point that she needed the handouts for her class.
The copy-dude kept making the point that he could not make them because the copier was broken and the job didn't require 30 copies of each page.
I thought the obvious thing, "ok, ask him to make 30 copies." But then again I thought the copy dude might go mad if she pulled such an obvious switcheroo/fraud on him.
But after 3 fruitless minutes of argument, my solution came to her mind. "Alright," she said, "I need 30 copies of this." And she jammed the papers at him.
He beamed. Not only was he not mad at her, he saw this as a victory for the rules.
So he made the 12 copies (60 pages) that she needed, and then went on to make 18 copies (90) pages that were immediately binned.
Somewhere, in Brazil, a rain-forest wept.
and wept harder when I asked for 30 copies of 10 pages of stuff for which I really only needed 15 copies.
Bizarre to me... the copy dude couldn't see past the number 30 and so, all day, reams of paper were copied to and then tossed out.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Slow Blogging Week and my Teaching Schedule
ME AND MY STUDENTS
I wasn't very attentive to my blogging as this was finals week here in Korea and all my students were in rare "ohmygodyoumeanIwillgetGRADEDforthis?" form....
As though the previous 14 weeks never happened and the syllabus had been written in Greek. My office mates are receiving the same kind of response, my favorite so far being the woman disputing an absence in week six (now 9 weeks ago) by saying, "remember, I was wearing a red sweater and red hat?"
I received about 100 emails, which all had to be graded, and since I gave participation credit for visits to my office hours I had about 40 office hour visits. All in one week and that in contrast to the 4 or so that I had for the previous 14 weeks. Students, if they're the future of the planet, we may just be doomed.
SCHEDULE
My schedule for summer is working its way into a better thing. I have been moved “up” to the English Learning Center and will be teaching an immersion class five days a week for three weeks. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be a bit of a drag.. a class at nine and then another one at one, but that’s a small price to pay. It will give me a chance to get my administrative work done while in my office. On the other three days I will get a chance to go to the gym and work out. The happy days of weight-loss by application of soju are just about over, so it’s time to pull the next card out of the deck.
Later in the semester I will be part of the “teacher training” program. This program gives local teachers who need to teach in English as part of their classes a chance to learn from us (supposedly the pros). I will be teaching reading and writing, which couldn’t be better if I had been allowed to create my own schedule. This should look good on my resume, either for Seoul next year or for the United States the year after.
There are several large empty blocks in my schedule and I note, with horror, that there are two kidz academies still out there. I hope these twain shall never meet (Note - I have already been give one week of kiddies to cover for an instructor who will be on vacation. Crap!).
I will also say that I had underestimated the amount of work that goes into class preparation. Teaching is still one of the easier gigs in the world, but my idea that it was just sauntering into the class and doing a bit of the old “Dead Poet's Society" shtick? That was a bad idea.
UPDATE ON ELBONICS
It looks like he OAF will NOT have to have elbow surgery which is splendid news. She does need to keep the cast on for another week, which bummed her out, but that’s very little time if everything turns out ok.
We plan to do a cheesy video this evening, so clear your internet-viewing schedule for that thrill-ride.
I wasn't very attentive to my blogging as this was finals week here in Korea and all my students were in rare "ohmygodyoumeanIwillgetGRADEDforthis?" form....
As though the previous 14 weeks never happened and the syllabus had been written in Greek. My office mates are receiving the same kind of response, my favorite so far being the woman disputing an absence in week six (now 9 weeks ago) by saying, "remember, I was wearing a red sweater and red hat?"
I received about 100 emails, which all had to be graded, and since I gave participation credit for visits to my office hours I had about 40 office hour visits. All in one week and that in contrast to the 4 or so that I had for the previous 14 weeks. Students, if they're the future of the planet, we may just be doomed.
SCHEDULE
My schedule for summer is working its way into a better thing. I have been moved “up” to the English Learning Center and will be teaching an immersion class five days a week for three weeks. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be a bit of a drag.. a class at nine and then another one at one, but that’s a small price to pay. It will give me a chance to get my administrative work done while in my office. On the other three days I will get a chance to go to the gym and work out. The happy days of weight-loss by application of soju are just about over, so it’s time to pull the next card out of the deck.
Later in the semester I will be part of the “teacher training” program. This program gives local teachers who need to teach in English as part of their classes a chance to learn from us (supposedly the pros). I will be teaching reading and writing, which couldn’t be better if I had been allowed to create my own schedule. This should look good on my resume, either for Seoul next year or for the United States the year after.
There are several large empty blocks in my schedule and I note, with horror, that there are two kidz academies still out there. I hope these twain shall never meet (Note - I have already been give one week of kiddies to cover for an instructor who will be on vacation. Crap!).
I will also say that I had underestimated the amount of work that goes into class preparation. Teaching is still one of the easier gigs in the world, but my idea that it was just sauntering into the class and doing a bit of the old “Dead Poet's Society" shtick? That was a bad idea.
UPDATE ON ELBONICS
It looks like he OAF will NOT have to have elbow surgery which is splendid news. She does need to keep the cast on for another week, which bummed her out, but that’s very little time if everything turns out ok.
We plan to do a cheesy video this evening, so clear your internet-viewing schedule for that thrill-ride.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Food Porn
Friday morning BPU had it's culinary arts show. The theme was food of the world and I stopped by to take a few snapshots. The presentation was remarkable from the enormous breadcastle on entry,
to the simplest anju laid out just so.
And the "decorated crab" (about to attack part of Tokyo, if I read the remainder of the layout correctly).
There was also the excellently hideous as some kind of turkey thing was turned into a chihuahua who had lost a bitch-fight with a blowtorch
And, of course, as inexplicable as anything, the need for every public display of talent in Korea - the mighty diorama!
And two fish who were pining for the fiords..
to the simplest anju laid out just so.
And the "decorated crab" (about to attack part of Tokyo, if I read the remainder of the layout correctly).
There was also the excellently hideous as some kind of turkey thing was turned into a chihuahua who had lost a bitch-fight with a blowtorch
And, of course, as inexplicable as anything, the need for every public display of talent in Korea - the mighty diorama!
And two fish who were pining for the fiords..
Friday, May 23, 2008
Rounding Up the Week..
I've been an uncertain blogespondant this week. With the OAF landing and the first five-day work week in a few, I've been kind of busy.I'll start with that photo over there on the left. This is courtesy of Koreabeat. It is a picture one of many low-income elderly couples, who were too poor throughout their lives to afford a wedding ceremony. So this week, in Seoul, they were given free wedding ceremonies. Couples had to be at least 65 and married for at least 20 years. Weddings in Korea are expensive and have a lot of mandatory "procedures" and these folks couldn't swing it.
Nice photo!
As to me, Monday was "Senior English Test Day" at BPU. BPU claims that all it's graduates can speak English, so at the end of their tour, graduates must take the test that proves it.
That the test is 5 minutes long (that is our upper limit) and contains such questions as, "what is your name?" is irrelevant. I did my time and it was ok. The Korean professor I was working with was a good guy, and he completely stone-faced the one or two students who tried to ask him about the questions I was asking in English. The unspoken rule of this test is, of course, you absolutely cannot fail someone and I was lucky enough to be working with Korean students who, despite being clearly scared, could work out reasonable answers.
A couple of the kids were even gamers. We asked them a question like, "what sports are absolutely horrific?" Not a single one knew the word "horrific," but about three of them figured out that all they needed to do was fit a sport into their answer ("I find soccer horrific.") and they'd be good.
Other English Profs had the students being fed answers by the Korean profs, and at least one English Prof failed multiple students. An unwise approach, and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on that. Some English Profs (EP from now on) here are unable to lose the model in their heads of English in musty halls contained in brick buildings covered with ivy. This is NOT what the Korean education system is about. The English requirement is largely a symbolic one (this result is a tangle of Korea's conflicted interest in English, it's focus on test scores as rubric for achievment, and the fact that Korea does not target those students who need English, rather it tries the shotgun approach).
Anyway, all my kids passed and it made me so happy that on Thursday I tried to teach my students some things. This resulted in my re-working my blackboard style.. mostly successfully... and that will be the topic of my next post..
.... after I take a quick shower.
In beer and soju!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
WTF? Flashbacks Already? Mentor....
Part of the induction process at BPU is that you get a “mentor” whose job is to chaperone you through the difficult parts of acculturation and help you figure out the administrative and practical steps of teaching at BPU. My mentor was Philip the Great. He was, unfortunately, greatly absent when I landed. He was off on vacation, if you can call getting married a vacation. I think of it along the same lines as I think of that classic old Dead Kennedy’s song “Holiday in Cambodia.” But that’s just me.
On my third day, or so, in town, I received a message from the BPU office that my mentor was looking for me and wanted to have lunch with me. This message arrived at about 11:45 so, even if it was precipitate, it was timely. We went out to a lunch during which we discussed very little of work, and a very great deal about expatriates. Phillip’s wife, who was a Russian teacher, and not coincidentally Russian, showed up partway through and completely silenced the group of Russian students next to us (Global BPU baby) by speaking to them in their native tongue. Like me, they presume on their own incognitology.
The Mentor had a car and this was the best thing ever. We ran to several stores and purchased a crap-load of needed things. A pillow, for instance, and another comforter in case the swine at BPU felt like stranding me again in some cold, unheated place. The comforter purchase was interesting. The comforters were in piles and I chose the one that had the fewest emasculating cartoon figures on it. As we walked away with it, a store clerk buzzed up to us. Any store of any size in Korea has more store clerks than you can shake a pointed stick at. It’s a service economy (premised, I think, on extremely low wages) and I have already taken to not shaving and having my iPod plugged into my ears every time I go into anything larger than the corner store. Otherwise, I am pestered nearly unto justified homicide. Anyway, this clerk was nearly overflowing in Korean and we stood, for about 5 minutes, at the escalator unhappily not communicating with each other. We wayguk decided just to go and check out, and the clerk retreated, obviously unhappy. Phillip noted that and decided to call a friend who spoke Korean and could, over the phone, translate. It, apparently, all boiled down to this.
1) Korean beddings are only sold in complete sets
2) Unless the clerk wraps the individual piece in a large bag BEFORE you get to the register.
It seemed fairly nonsensical, but after the wrapping the clerk was happy we had done it the right way and I was happy to get out of the store with another comforter. About a week later, walking randomly around Daejeon I discovered at least 3 small stores that sold comforters individually and for about 2/3 the price.
Mentor also took me to the “old” downtown by the river, which included a traditional Koran market of alleys and umbrellas. Particularly to one alley in which you could purchase “traditional” US items that seemed to have come over the barbed wire fence at US army bases in Korea. This was a hodge-podge of weird things. US candy, canned food, even an 8-pak of Vaseline in plastic. This latter item gave me pause to wonder what exactly the US army thinks its men are doing in Korea. Either getting very chafed, having lots of children, or using unsafe lubricants.
We also picked up a case of bottled water and a few other heavy things.
After this useful bit of shopping I was dropped off home. About 45 seconds after I collapsed into my icy-cold room, there was a pounding on the door. My Mentor stood outside with my “training” manual. He said goodbye and then said, “Oh, they’ll give you an evaluation sheet on my mentoring. Give me high marks.”
I never saw him again and when I got the evaluation sheet I saw that he had basically done nothing he was supposed to do. I had no idea where my classes were, the layout of the two campuses, how to get copies made, how grading went, well.. anything.
Still, I had food, clean water, and a nice warm comforter.
I gave him an excellent evaluation. ;-)
On my third day, or so, in town, I received a message from the BPU office that my mentor was looking for me and wanted to have lunch with me. This message arrived at about 11:45 so, even if it was precipitate, it was timely. We went out to a lunch during which we discussed very little of work, and a very great deal about expatriates. Phillip’s wife, who was a Russian teacher, and not coincidentally Russian, showed up partway through and completely silenced the group of Russian students next to us (Global BPU baby) by speaking to them in their native tongue. Like me, they presume on their own incognitology.
The Mentor had a car and this was the best thing ever. We ran to several stores and purchased a crap-load of needed things. A pillow, for instance, and another comforter in case the swine at BPU felt like stranding me again in some cold, unheated place. The comforter purchase was interesting. The comforters were in piles and I chose the one that had the fewest emasculating cartoon figures on it. As we walked away with it, a store clerk buzzed up to us. Any store of any size in Korea has more store clerks than you can shake a pointed stick at. It’s a service economy (premised, I think, on extremely low wages) and I have already taken to not shaving and having my iPod plugged into my ears every time I go into anything larger than the corner store. Otherwise, I am pestered nearly unto justified homicide. Anyway, this clerk was nearly overflowing in Korean and we stood, for about 5 minutes, at the escalator unhappily not communicating with each other. We wayguk decided just to go and check out, and the clerk retreated, obviously unhappy. Phillip noted that and decided to call a friend who spoke Korean and could, over the phone, translate. It, apparently, all boiled down to this.
1) Korean beddings are only sold in complete sets
2) Unless the clerk wraps the individual piece in a large bag BEFORE you get to the register.
It seemed fairly nonsensical, but after the wrapping the clerk was happy we had done it the right way and I was happy to get out of the store with another comforter. About a week later, walking randomly around Daejeon I discovered at least 3 small stores that sold comforters individually and for about 2/3 the price.
Mentor also took me to the “old” downtown by the river, which included a traditional Koran market of alleys and umbrellas. Particularly to one alley in which you could purchase “traditional” US items that seemed to have come over the barbed wire fence at US army bases in Korea. This was a hodge-podge of weird things. US candy, canned food, even an 8-pak of Vaseline in plastic. This latter item gave me pause to wonder what exactly the US army thinks its men are doing in Korea. Either getting very chafed, having lots of children, or using unsafe lubricants.
We also picked up a case of bottled water and a few other heavy things.
After this useful bit of shopping I was dropped off home. About 45 seconds after I collapsed into my icy-cold room, there was a pounding on the door. My Mentor stood outside with my “training” manual. He said goodbye and then said, “Oh, they’ll give you an evaluation sheet on my mentoring. Give me high marks.”
I never saw him again and when I got the evaluation sheet I saw that he had basically done nothing he was supposed to do. I had no idea where my classes were, the layout of the two campuses, how to get copies made, how grading went, well.. anything.
Still, I had food, clean water, and a nice warm comforter.
I gave him an excellent evaluation. ;-)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Rocks in they Chinese Heads, Marbles in they Mouths..
Play along.. you'll like it!
It is "midterm" time. Midterm time is the only chance we have to grade our students on how good their English is. We do this by sitting down, one-on-one with each student, and asking them between 4 and 8 questions.
Which I do to my class of Chinese students. This is a bit complicated in this class, as I have 36 Chinese, one Korean, and one Vietnamese student in this class. I am told that makes 38, in total. And I have 180 minutes to test them all. Which is slightly less than 5 minutes per student. So I extend my class hours (undoubtedly against the rules) and fit them all in and await the kind of communication nightmares that will ensue.
In the event, I discover that most of them speak quite decent English. They are Sophmores, so they've had a year of college-level English, and many of them also had some quite good training back in China. I had some startling conversations (and suspect the Guoanbu is now after me) and all this makes me ask myself the question, why won't the Tibet-Oppressing, girl-baby exposing, commie abortionists talk in class?
I need to ponder on this, since I'm sure this kind of issue will pop up again...
oh well.. for now it's off to find the copy boy....
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Twice a Week Wonders
My writing class continues to be the best thing ever. All three women were there tonight with nearly final drafts of their papers. These were 4 pages, 5 pages and nearly 7. The seven page paper came from the student who had never written anything longer than two pages! Last week we had to go over plagiarism because of her writing (well, re-typing), and she actually came up after class and apologized for “letting me down.” I was flabbergasted and said, “no, no, no, this is exactly what this class is for – you didn’t let me down, you gave me a chance to teach.” Then she didn’t show up for the next class and I thought, “way to go idjit, you chased a good student out!”
But she emailed me yesterday and showed up today with her epic paper
As I looked over her paper and switched from the printed out to the page she had written on lined paper I became suspicious she had slid back on the plagiarism thing. I raised the issue gently.
She said, “oh no, I used the ‘close the book’ and write the ideas trick that we discussed last week.”
I reread her work and it just flowed, and in really nice structure and high-level vocabulary; a sneaking suspicion came over me. I told her it seemed she wrote better away from the computer and that I thought her handwriting was good enough that she could do that til the final version.
She said she had looked at her writing and noticed the same thing. With her left hand she described a line from her head, past her shoulder and down to her right hand. She said, “It flows when I write.”
So not only have we solved the plagiarism problem, but I think we’ve got the way she should write. I remember when I used to do that, legal pad, double-spaced, edit in the blank lines and then to the computer. I’d try that now, but my handwriting has deteriorated so badly that it would not be possible. Aaah.. deterioration.. the ongoing story of my life. ;-)
Anyway, all three students were beaming (and rightly so) by the end of the class and the ringleader said (pointing to another student), “Last week we talked after class, we would like to take this class again if you are teaching it again.” She paused.
I allowed as how it looked like it would be me.
She hunched over a little like she was pulling up a shawl, “Well, what we thought was, if there were no…..” Here she paused and made a gesture like she was shooing dogs or unruly children away, “strangers in the class, we could talk more.”
I laughed inside, because that was pretty Korean. The new students would be “strangers” and would only intrude. I said I had a plan for a split-level class, but that if there were a lot of new students they would have to be taught just as well. I puzzled over what “talking more” meant - it could be more high-level conversational practice (since the conversational classes tend to be very low level) or it could mean talking more about the topics before we write. Or it could mean something else I didn’t think of. I said, “Ok, that will be your last assignment next week, write me a description of what you would like to do if there were a second semester Academic Writing class.”
So if I get these ladies back, at least they will have done the class outline for me. ;-)
LSD baby… LSD!
But she emailed me yesterday and showed up today with her epic paper
As I looked over her paper and switched from the printed out to the page she had written on lined paper I became suspicious she had slid back on the plagiarism thing. I raised the issue gently.
She said, “oh no, I used the ‘close the book’ and write the ideas trick that we discussed last week.”
I reread her work and it just flowed, and in really nice structure and high-level vocabulary; a sneaking suspicion came over me. I told her it seemed she wrote better away from the computer and that I thought her handwriting was good enough that she could do that til the final version.
She said she had looked at her writing and noticed the same thing. With her left hand she described a line from her head, past her shoulder and down to her right hand. She said, “It flows when I write.”
So not only have we solved the plagiarism problem, but I think we’ve got the way she should write. I remember when I used to do that, legal pad, double-spaced, edit in the blank lines and then to the computer. I’d try that now, but my handwriting has deteriorated so badly that it would not be possible. Aaah.. deterioration.. the ongoing story of my life. ;-)
Anyway, all three students were beaming (and rightly so) by the end of the class and the ringleader said (pointing to another student), “Last week we talked after class, we would like to take this class again if you are teaching it again.” She paused.
I allowed as how it looked like it would be me.
She hunched over a little like she was pulling up a shawl, “Well, what we thought was, if there were no…..” Here she paused and made a gesture like she was shooing dogs or unruly children away, “strangers in the class, we could talk more.”
I laughed inside, because that was pretty Korean. The new students would be “strangers” and would only intrude. I said I had a plan for a split-level class, but that if there were a lot of new students they would have to be taught just as well. I puzzled over what “talking more” meant - it could be more high-level conversational practice (since the conversational classes tend to be very low level) or it could mean talking more about the topics before we write. Or it could mean something else I didn’t think of. I said, “Ok, that will be your last assignment next week, write me a description of what you would like to do if there were a second semester Academic Writing class.”
So if I get these ladies back, at least they will have done the class outline for me. ;-)
LSD baby… LSD!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
It's a Good Day When
1) You forget what day it is and you plan out the next TWO days of classes.
2) The Linksys network in one building of BPU is fully on and you file your income taxes E-lectronically
3) You also Limewire down about 15 new songs.
4) Full updates of system, iPod, and Adobe through the same network..
If there had only been more time I'd be up to my (insert body part here - so to speak) in gnarly porn.
As it is, I'll take it.
And tonight I meet with the Tourism Ph.D. who may want to work with me on the conference.
so far, so good...
2) The Linksys network in one building of BPU is fully on and you file your income taxes E-lectronically
3) You also Limewire down about 15 new songs.
4) Full updates of system, iPod, and Adobe through the same network..
If there had only been more time I'd be up to my (insert body part here - so to speak) in gnarly porn.
As it is, I'll take it.
And tonight I meet with the Tourism Ph.D. who may want to work with me on the conference.
so far, so good...
Friday, April 11, 2008
Upgrades
UPGRADE #1 - The OAF has received a contract offer from an Hagwon here in South-Central. If she decides to visit the hood, she will be making a princely 2.3 mil (a direct result of the stupid immigration laws that Korea implemented but, hey, we'll take it!). Some details need to be figured out, but it looks likely that she will reverse that trip her ancestors made, yo so many years ago, across the land bridge (historical evidence indicates they were essentially kicked out). And land here. Excellent!
UPGRADE #2 - It seems likely (possible?) that I will get kicked up to a partly administrative gig here. There are a couple of organizational positions coming open and they need someone who has
a) A Masters (and this excludes more people than you would think)
b) Decent people skills (eye-contact while speaking, ability to control drool, excuses self to go to the bathroom)
c) Decent verbal skills (you'd think that any "English Instructor" would have these. Not so.)
The jobs would only get about a 10% raise, but they would also look oh so nifty on my resume when I return.
So.. it looks like this. If I get one of these jobs I will stay in Daejeon for that second year. If I don't, I will either return to the US (unlikely at this moment) or move up to Seoul for my second year.
I'm comfortable with any of these options right now.. so the next thing to do is get the OAF settled in and then see how the rest of this stuff plays out.
Next week midterms begin.. and since they mean brief chats with each student, they include no preparation. It's like another vacation!
UPGRADE #2 - It seems likely (possible?) that I will get kicked up to a partly administrative gig here. There are a couple of organizational positions coming open and they need someone who has
a) A Masters (and this excludes more people than you would think)
b) Decent people skills (eye-contact while speaking, ability to control drool, excuses self to go to the bathroom)
c) Decent verbal skills (you'd think that any "English Instructor" would have these. Not so.)
The jobs would only get about a 10% raise, but they would also look oh so nifty on my resume when I return.
So.. it looks like this. If I get one of these jobs I will stay in Daejeon for that second year. If I don't, I will either return to the US (unlikely at this moment) or move up to Seoul for my second year.
I'm comfortable with any of these options right now.. so the next thing to do is get the OAF settled in and then see how the rest of this stuff plays out.
Next week midterms begin.. and since they mean brief chats with each student, they include no preparation. It's like another vacation!
Friday, April 04, 2008
Friday becomes Freeday
It was a lovely day in Daejeon. I had gone to bed a bit late last night –Social Club Night- but Thumper was there as well, so he didn’t wake up quite as early as normal, nor did he do his “midnight confessions.” I was a bit shaggy when I woke up. I only had three beers at the SC, but they were 500cc which are, I think, bigger than pints?But I wandered up to work and quickly Questia’d a bit more of the book I will be reviewing. I now have about .25 of the short stories (three to read tonight) and since I also figured out how to use the English floor of the BPU Library, I have “Traditional Korea A Cultural History.” It should be a good reading weekend. I went up to a 
restaurant where all the partiers from last night were going. Good thing I left early as it turned into a soju-shot party. I’m too old for that, I’m afraid. Still, shot the shit with a bunch of instructors and had a US quality grilled cheese sammich and US quality coffee. This cafe was opened by the wife of an instructor and I think she might make a mint. No other Korean has noticed that there are about 100 rich (relatively speaking) foreigners all trapped in one building. This is classically Korean. Most Koreans could no more imagine the inside of the head of a non-Korea than they could turn themselves inside out and crap gold bricks. They don’t see potential markets because, well, to be honest, since nothing is better than Kimchi, why serve anything else? It i
s a version of the general Korean marketing problem – inability to understand that others might have other things they like.. The proprietress has figured this out and the place has some hours where it does gangbuster business. It also makes some very western cakes and cookies and that seems to have caught on with students (she is two blocks down the main road from the University Gate). I predict success. She’ll see me at least two times a week just because she has real coffee.
restaurant where all the partiers from last night were going. Good thing I left early as it turned into a soju-shot party. I’m too old for that, I’m afraid. Still, shot the shit with a bunch of instructors and had a US quality grilled cheese sammich and US quality coffee. This cafe was opened by the wife of an instructor and I think she might make a mint. No other Korean has noticed that there are about 100 rich (relatively speaking) foreigners all trapped in one building. This is classically Korean. Most Koreans could no more imagine the inside of the head of a non-Korea than they could turn themselves inside out and crap gold bricks. They don’t see potential markets because, well, to be honest, since nothing is better than Kimchi, why serve anything else? It i
s a version of the general Korean marketing problem – inability to understand that others might have other things they like.. The proprietress has figured this out and the place has some hours where it does gangbuster business. It also makes some very western cakes and cookies and that seems to have caught on with students (she is two blocks down the main road from the University Gate). I predict success. She’ll see me at least two times a week just because she has real coffee.After that, I thought I’d head up to the Uni. My classes had been cancelled for some kind of Freshman Athletic Event and I thought I’d see if my Japanese Studies students were on the field, winning glory (The pics you see here are from that event). I’d run in the morning, so my legs were a bit creaky, but I found the students and spent the next three hours watching bizarre Korean team-building exercises. In the “race with a bowl of water” the Japanese Studies team busted out in the early stages. One of the guys in my class, Wolf, ran like.. well a wolf and handed the JS team the “come from behind” lead in the second stage. Sadly, he then handed off to some guy who promptly surrendered the lead and then.. it was unclear.. handed off to another runner (a woman in my
class) and the two either got tangled up, or she just plain corkscrewed in. She got up and finished her lap, but the spill meant the team finished second to last. Still, not last, so although it was sad that an accident occurred, some other team became the nerds.
class) and the two either got tangled up, or she just plain corkscrewed in. She got up and finished her lap, but the spill meant the team finished second to last. Still, not last, so although it was sad that an accident occurred, some other team became the nerds.The “track” was just chalk lines on one of those malignant dirt-n-spit soccer pitches and although the woman tried to walk off the abrasion on her arm, the team leader just about screamed the scratched woman’s head off. There was no way the team leader was letting the abrasion lay untreated and the non-fallen comrade was dragged off to the medical tent for some thorough 
cleaning, spraying with life-icide, and a rather impressive bandage. Can’t have the tuition paying kiddies expiring in their first terms!
cleaning, spraying with life-icide, and a rather impressive bandage. Can’t have the tuition paying kiddies expiring in their first terms!Then there was a soccer game. It was a mind-numbing nil-nil tie at the half, but the All-Whites woke up in the second half and scored twice directly after halftime. Then it went all mind-numbing again. I don’t think I’ll ever completely enjoy watching soccer unless they legalize flamethrowers and ninja stars. I’ll also be needing completely nude cheerleaders.
Wandered back down home, where I sit with a delicious Soju cocktail (yeah, it’s past 5) contemplating a trip to the PC Bang to post this thing and do some preliminary sucking up to Education in Asia about possible photo opportunities in the future.
The other thing that happened last night, was I saw the flat I want next term. My Scotts friend is
leaving and he had me up to take a look at his room. It is just up the road. It is top floor(!) and in the back. And it has three times the storage this joint has. Even better? All utilities are assessed at 60K won per month. The place is smaller (one bedroom as opposed to living room and bedroom) and only has the electric cooking top, but everything else is golden. The bed is also a nice double so if OAF ever shows up she won’t have to sleep on the floor. I have to figure out how to make sure I get this place. There’s some knob-polishing in my future, that’s for sure. ;-)
leaving and he had me up to take a look at his room. It is just up the road. It is top floor(!) and in the back. And it has three times the storage this joint has. Even better? All utilities are assessed at 60K won per month. The place is smaller (one bedroom as opposed to living room and bedroom) and only has the electric cooking top, but everything else is golden. The bed is also a nice double so if OAF ever shows up she won’t have to sleep on the floor. I have to figure out how to make sure I get this place. There’s some knob-polishing in my future, that’s for sure. ;-)Monday, March 31, 2008
What Teaching? Teaching What?
DPP (D. Pucaaiaiaiai! Pilipina) asks about education.
Just like in the US, not so very much.
But since I nearly ran off with DPP to smuggle guano to the Solomon Islands (Alas, a handsome Anglo named Bruce Geer stole her away with his manly and direct glance. These things happen. It turned out for the best as I have the OAF and DPP now lives in her cluttered office amongst half-eaten candies, dog-eared books, and two book-eared dogs.) I thought I might start on about that.
Since I’m always going on about something.
The commitment to “learning” English is stated but not real.
While I teach a “conversational” class, the final the students take to assess their ‘conversational’ skills will be 100% written. A deaf mute could pass these tests.
I was talking to my coordinator about the fact that they have given us a textbook which presents us with 7 “exercises” to do in 90 minutes. In 75 minutes, actually, since a 15 minute break is given. So assume 5 minutes for taking roll, announcements, getting the chairs shifted, and so forth, we have 10 minutes per exercise to include explanation of the task, modeling (most of the books are big on modeling), and then the actual exercise.
This is unattainable in even the most frenetic forced lockstep. So, you assign some as homework and hope it gets done. When I had this conversation with my director he shrugged (this is his response, similar to the program director’s sigh and faraway unfocused stare) and said, “it happens every term. They assign us a certain amount of chapters and by the midterm we are far behind.” But the next semester they give us the same number of chapters. Since most of the courses are curved I suppose that none of this matters, 10-20% will get A’s and the rest will follow below. I’m not teaching at a prestigious university. But no one is learning conversational English here.
I have noted the number of Koreans one can see, in Seoul, on the underground reading a book in English. And not just any book, frequently books of some heft, both physically and in the canon. I’ve seen Dickens, Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, you name it. But any attempt to speak with these readers would be futile. They can’t speak more than a few words of English, and certainly couldn’t construct a spoken sentence under any circumstances. The Korean educational approach to instruction is one of the many reasons this is so.
Most Koreans don’t see this as a problem. Korean men in the United States are sometimes referred to as “hi-bye” men because of their lack of fluency. Kim Seong-kon, writing in the Korea Herald notes that the problem really is that the goal of Korean education is to pass tests. Kim refers students to US institutions and says that the institutions are always amazed at the high TOEFL and GRE scores of Korean applicants. He says, “Indeed, who could be better-trained than Korean students when it comes to choosing the right answer on an exam sheet? Due to the notorious college entrance exam that decides one’s future, Korean students begin training to choose the right answer as early as elementary school. Kim goes on to note that the second “amazement” these institutions get is when the Korean students arrive in the US and are not able to speak English.” Kim says that he has to walk these people through an understanding that test-taking and speaking ability are essentially uncoupled in Korea. While in the United States tests are supposed to measure, and even increase, knowledge, in Korea the tests are supposed to measure, well, test-taking ability.
And so it is that, somewhere in there, the little kids on the street who can speak limited, but pretty accentless English, become the college Freshmen who are entirely unfamiliar with English. 12 years of education has done its job and rendered these students entirely mute.
Society is pleased.
And I get paid, so it’s ALL good.
Just like in the US, not so very much.
But since I nearly ran off with DPP to smuggle guano to the Solomon Islands (Alas, a handsome Anglo named Bruce Geer stole her away with his manly and direct glance. These things happen. It turned out for the best as I have the OAF and DPP now lives in her cluttered office amongst half-eaten candies, dog-eared books, and two book-eared dogs.) I thought I might start on about that.
Since I’m always going on about something.
The commitment to “learning” English is stated but not real.
While I teach a “conversational” class, the final the students take to assess their ‘conversational’ skills will be 100% written. A deaf mute could pass these tests.
I was talking to my coordinator about the fact that they have given us a textbook which presents us with 7 “exercises” to do in 90 minutes. In 75 minutes, actually, since a 15 minute break is given. So assume 5 minutes for taking roll, announcements, getting the chairs shifted, and so forth, we have 10 minutes per exercise to include explanation of the task, modeling (most of the books are big on modeling), and then the actual exercise.
This is unattainable in even the most frenetic forced lockstep. So, you assign some as homework and hope it gets done. When I had this conversation with my director he shrugged (this is his response, similar to the program director’s sigh and faraway unfocused stare) and said, “it happens every term. They assign us a certain amount of chapters and by the midterm we are far behind.” But the next semester they give us the same number of chapters. Since most of the courses are curved I suppose that none of this matters, 10-20% will get A’s and the rest will follow below. I’m not teaching at a prestigious university. But no one is learning conversational English here.
I have noted the number of Koreans one can see, in Seoul, on the underground reading a book in English. And not just any book, frequently books of some heft, both physically and in the canon. I’ve seen Dickens, Shakespeare, Wuthering Heights, you name it. But any attempt to speak with these readers would be futile. They can’t speak more than a few words of English, and certainly couldn’t construct a spoken sentence under any circumstances. The Korean educational approach to instruction is one of the many reasons this is so.
Most Koreans don’t see this as a problem. Korean men in the United States are sometimes referred to as “hi-bye” men because of their lack of fluency. Kim Seong-kon, writing in the Korea Herald notes that the problem really is that the goal of Korean education is to pass tests. Kim refers students to US institutions and says that the institutions are always amazed at the high TOEFL and GRE scores of Korean applicants. He says, “Indeed, who could be better-trained than Korean students when it comes to choosing the right answer on an exam sheet? Due to the notorious college entrance exam that decides one’s future, Korean students begin training to choose the right answer as early as elementary school. Kim goes on to note that the second “amazement” these institutions get is when the Korean students arrive in the US and are not able to speak English.” Kim says that he has to walk these people through an understanding that test-taking and speaking ability are essentially uncoupled in Korea. While in the United States tests are supposed to measure, and even increase, knowledge, in Korea the tests are supposed to measure, well, test-taking ability.
And so it is that, somewhere in there, the little kids on the street who can speak limited, but pretty accentless English, become the college Freshmen who are entirely unfamiliar with English. 12 years of education has done its job and rendered these students entirely mute.
Society is pleased.
And I get paid, so it’s ALL good.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Back In The Saddle Again
Aaah.. it doesn’t take much getting better to feel better. Got up this morning, did my normal morning things and headed up to my Computer Science class for which I was massively unprepared. Got there early so I could buy the student book that I had lost but, alas, the bookstore was out of it. Still, they said they would have it by the time I got out of my first class and I took that as a good omen. Even better, as usual half of my Computer Science class had gone missing. This always makes it more fun to teach as with a handful of students I get a better vibe (better kibun?) and I can spend more time with the ones who really aren’t getting it. Class went splendidly and I talked to the kid who spent high-school in 
Went to the bookstore and the book was in. Went to the Post Office and paid my bills; 85K which is not as bad as it could have been and still leaves me well within my projected budget for this month.
Headed over to the cafeteria for my healthy Korean lunch and pondered that eternal question. If you’re having Kimchi rice, why do you also need a bowl of Kimchi? Shouldn’t you also then need a bowl of rice?
door to my CS class. Let’s just say that Korea isn’t going to go for any of that pansy “25 feet from a door” smoking prohibition thing.
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