“The 400m individual swimming medley has been an Olympic competition since the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo, Japan.”
(Wikipedia online)

A new metaphor

There have been many metaphors describing the difficulties of studying English in Japan over the years: studying English is like learning to ride a bicycle; like learning to play a musical instrument; or like learning how to cook. In various ways, these metaphors all highlighted the need for practice, perseverance and patience. One old adage went, “Imagine being taught, in explicit details, how to play the flute but never actually touching it” or “Imagine being allowed to touch the flute and practice the fingering, but never actually blowing into it.” This picture was painted to argue that learners must use English in order to improve at English. Now, a new swimming metaphor offers an almost perfect parallel analogy of what it is like for Japanese to try to learn English in the Japanese context: a context where the educational system handicaps learners way beyond anything that would be advocated or even tolerated in sports, but is completely accepted as the norm in our junior and senior high school English classes.

Can you imagine an individual medley swimmer who has to swim the four different strokes in a competition, but never practices one or two of those strokes prior to the event? Imagine that they worked very hard on the breaststroke and the backstroke but never practiced the butterfly stroke, the crawl, or even making turns at the end of each length. It defies common sense and almost totally handicaps the swimmer’s chance of success when the time comes for them to perform. It goes without saying that if one wishes to compete in the individual swimming medley, and not feel like a complete failure, then you must practice all four strokes, the start, the turns and some overall mental “image” training tied to confidence and success. Obviously, the same can be said for studying English, and the large number of students who feel like failures at English, those who are not prepared when the time comes to perform, are simply victims of a national self-imposed handicap that is both unnecessary and without reason.

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Steven Herder inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Sep 10, 2009 at 06:38 AM
Teaching | Guest Author | (0) | |

I’m not sure if this blog has died or not. Needless to say I don’t post here very much. I’m considering selling the domain, but also don’t want all of my content to disappear – is that egotistic or what? I suppose if I got a good enough offer I would let the domain go, as well as Let’s Learn Korean, but it would have to be pretty good.

I’m still teaching, at least until summer 2011 when I repatriate back to Canada so there is a fair chance that I’ll post something here somewhat regularly between now and then. I am still open to guest authors, but am going to be a little more careful about who I approve as it looks like the last couple of them were more commercially oriented than I liked. Personally I want guest authors here to be active teachers with something to say to other teachers.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Aug 3, 2009 at 07:50 PM
Random_Ramblings | Guest Author | |

I’m looking for regular, or non-regular contributors to this blog. Basically if you have something to say about language teaching, linguistics or language in general even only vaguely related you’re welcome to contribute. If you’d like to be a regular contributer, say 1-2 times a month or more then I’ll set you up with direct access to publishing without moderation.

If you just want to contribute a one time peice or be a little less regular feel free to use the guest entry form (you will need to be logged in first), which will send your submission to a moderation queue. 99.99% of the time, I’ll approve the entry as soon as I see it. The only reason I won’t approve it is if it’s spam or obviously a product placement in the form of a blog entry.

Contribute away.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Mar 27, 2009 at 08:56 AM
Guest Author | |

If you have lived in South Korea for more than a few years you will have noticed that the country and the Seoul metro region in particular are becoming increasingly diverse. If you only just arrived in Seoul and don’t think it’s very diverse, just ask someone who has been here a few years. This just doesn’t mean more tourists, but also large numbers of migrant workers, Korean-Chinese, marriage migrants, international students and, of course, English teachers. Let’s be clear, Seoul is hardly a New York, Toronto, London, Dubai or Singapore, but its increasing diversity is making a big difference. From a wider range of restaurants, public festivals celebrating different cultural backgrounds, new churches and mosques, a wider range of languages to be heard and, of course, the different sorts of people you will meet.

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Francis Collins inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Feb 9, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching | Guest Author | |

I spent over 15 years attempting to teach English conversation in Japanese schools and colleges. Getting students to talk to each other was often hard work, but it was better than having no conversation at all! However, now I’m back in the UK I have seen how much better the communicative method works when you have a variety of different nationalities. Wouldn’t it be nice to recreate this in classrooms in Japan, Korea etc. Well, now we have the technology! What you need is a good broadband connection, webcameras and headsets. And a link with a school or college in a neighbouring non-English-speaking country who have similar goals in mind.
I know of a couple of schools and colleges in Japan who would be interested in taking part in such an experiment with a school or college in Korea.
Maybe some of you are already doing this. Maybe some of you are interested in trying this out. I’d be grateful for any information, advice or leads anyone has.
Please contact me via this site or directly by email at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Thanks.

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japanbond inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Aug 21, 2008 at 05:38 AM
Teaching | Languages_&_Cultures_in_Contact | Guest Author | |

I’ve set up a new blog where I’ll be writing all of my entries related to web design, free lancing, and setting up a small business. The point here is that I won’t be cluttering up this space with unrelated material. For the record I have a paying client and am just waiting for the deposit before starting work - I’ll post a link to the finished product once I finish it.

This blog will continue to recieve my attention and regular posts as my full-time job is still teaching and I will continue to write articles for the Korea Herald. I have two scheduled articles for July. Though like every other vacation period, posting will be light.

Just a reminder that guest authoring is still available to anyone and I am actively looking for semi-regular contributors though one off posts are also very welcome. If you have any questions please send me an email or leave a comment.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jun 24, 2008 at 03:08 PM
Random_Ramblings | Web Design | Guest Author | web_site | |

An article in the Korea Times today reveals that government is revising regulations on E2 visas to allow foreigners more control over where they work. See thread on Dave’s Cafe as well.

Under current rules, E-2 visa holders sign contracts with hagwon owners on a one-year basis and are required to work at least nine months at a maximum of only two locations.

The immigration authorities told the association on April 16 that it will let E-2 visa holders transfer to other working places after a month and allow them to work at more than two locations. The planned relaxation of the rules is aimed at maximizing the convenience for foreign English teachers, according to the KIS. Hagwon owners, however, are worried that this will lead to a high job turnover rate and jack up wages.

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Woland inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 02:31 PM
ESL_in_the_News | Guest Author | |

I’ve disabled membership registration on this site due to large numbers of email spam that I am getting. Being a member isn’t required for commenting (though members don’t have to submit the captcha) and no one is using the forums nor the wiki so I don’t think it will be missed. Besides when my site redesign is complete the forums and wiki will be gone - unless I get a lot of comments requesting me to keep them.

I’ve also pruned membership - any member for longer than 180 days with zero comments, guest entries or forum posts has been deleted.

Regarding guest authoring - membership is required. If you would like to guest author on this blog, leave a comment or email me and I’ll get back to you about how to register for the site. I really would like to get 2-3 semi-regular guest authors here who would be willing to write at least once a month, but more is of course better.

Of course those already with a membership can already guest author.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Guest Author | web_site | |

As they navigate the dating landscape, people often think to themselves, “What if my one true love is in another country? My ideal partner probably doesn’t even speak my language…”

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English, baby! inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Feb 12, 2008 at 05:08 PM
useful_web_sites | Guest Author | |

Korean mothers only want a White Native-Speaker English teacher for their children: Myth or reality?

In blogs and break rooms alike, you may have heard that Korean mothers prefer native speakers to teach their children English. But who counts as a native speaker? Do Korean parents of hagwon kids want anyone who has spoken English from early childhood? Those of us who have taught here for a while have looked around and noticed that, in Korea, not all native speakers are created equal. If this is true, then what kind of native speaker do they prefer? Are Korean and other non-White teachers unilaterally seen as less preferable, or are there factors that might increase their appeal? Does gender matter? Do mothers prefer female teachers, as we’ve heard? We know age is important in Korea, but how important is it for choosing an English teacher? Or perhaps we’re assigning blame where none is due. Is it the hagwon owners who are to blame for hiring on the basis of race, age, native-speaker status, and plain old good looks?

We were curious about what Korean moms really look for when shopping for an English teacher for their child. As part of our research into the issue, we have been asking Korean mothers from a variety of social and economic backgrounds what they want in an English teacher for their child and why. Our research aims to heighten the understanding of the issue and to better address non-native English speaking teacher (NNEST) inequality in Korea. There have been only a few studies on this subject (Chang, 2005) and our study serves as an investigation into the factors that influence perceptions and preferences for English teachers.

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kmacd inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jan 24, 2008 at 08:43 PM
general_linguistic_study | Teaching | KOTESOL | Guest Author | |

The EFL Geek described a new KSL class online and I am in the process of giving it a try. Koreanclass101 is growing and currently has ‘newbie lessons’, beginner lessons and a little more (the audioblog seems geared toward stronger Korean ability). The site offers free podcasts and additional paid material. When you sign up, you get a free week of access to the premium material, including transcripts and review.

I am about to game the system. I don’t recommend this, but I will soon sign up with a second email address (doesn’t everyone have a handful of email accounts these days?) for a further week of free access to the full service. My trivial excuses are: 1) I’m doing this for you -helping give you a better account of the services offered, and 2) I was busy that week - it was a bad time to explore the content.

A more serious reason is that I have not yet found my true level in the material offered. Again, I was busy. Perhaps a level test is needed (is ‘level test’ a Konglish term -it rolls naturally off my tongue but I’m not sure). I would even accept a sort of eye test: “Can you read and understand this line?” “How about this line?” There’s not much point in cheating on a level test, after all.

I don’t mind, and probably need, review. I am not a ‘newbie’ but, well, false beginners are always hard to place.

Anyway, the podcasts are clear and stand alone well. The documentation prints out in good format, but I don’t really like PDF files. I would prefer a simple ‘.txt’ file that I could store in my phone’s ebook folder and read while listening on the bus. That would be handier than paper in my situation.

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kwandongbrian inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Oct 30, 2007 at 11:55 AM
About_Language | Podcasting | Guest Author | |

I’ve come to be quite a fan of the one to one lesson. I like that when you teach a “group” of one, it’s easier to adapt the overall content of the class to the student’s needs and interests.  There’s just more flexibility when you don’t have to balance the needs of a dozen learners.

I think EFL Geek himself hit the nail on the head about a possible downside of one to one’s when he commented on my blog that one to one students often expect to set the agenda even though they know nothing about language acquisition.  If a student wants to pay for a class with me and do nothing but chat, and politely resists my efforts to hover around some useful language or structure by going off topic all the time, I can live with that.  But it’s no good when they resist my direction and then feel disappointed at a lack of progress.  Fortunately, I think my ability to trick people into learning – and to politely but authoritatively direct the lesson - is increasing with practice. 

I have to admit though that the main reason I like one to ones is that they make it possible to interact with people who I would just never cross paths with in my regular life.

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Katie inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Aug 6, 2007 at 06:26 AM
Teaching | teaching_application | Guest Author | |

I’ve finished teaching for summer semester. All lessons went better than expected and overall I’m very satisfied with this course. Tomorrow is a holiday and then Wednesday is the final exam so a little bit of grading and then I will be finished until the last week of August. There will probably be very few entries between now and then, but don’t give up on me, I’ll be back.

Just so everyone knows, I’m still looking for guest authors either as a one off entry or a semi-regular contributor. You can write on anything you want as long as it is somewhat related to linguistics, teaching, language, or language learning.

Finally I’ve just finished the upgrade to EE 1.6 and all went smoothly. I also added the new social bookmarking module. The bookmarks will only be available on the permalink/comments page. The control panel for the module is a little buggy right now so I can only have the default two social sites, but once it’s fixed will add a few more. Will complete the forum upgrade probably tomorrow, right now I’m off to relax with some coffee and DVDs.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Jul 16, 2007 at 01:07 PM
META | Expression_Engine | Guest Author | web_site | Teaching | |

Aaron has posted a review of the JALTCALL 2007 - Conference Report. Go give it a read. Aaron doesn’t blog often, but when he does it is always worth reading.

Just a reminder that guest entry submissions are always welcome here. If you attend a conference, write a review. If you have some thoughts on current issues in ELT, a great lesson plan or comments on a journal you read, please write something here. I think that this is a great idea for people who would like to post thier thougths, but don’t want to maintain a blog or if you have a blog, but it’s not ELT centred.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Jun 4, 2007 at 08:39 AM
Conferences | Guest Author | |

The 1st Annual Global EIL Congress was held at Korea University on May 26, 2007. The motto of the Global EIL Conference, “Bringing the World Together,” was entirely appropriate; the conference attendees had the opportunity to meet and converse with distinguished speakers and educators from all over the world. Presenters arrived from nations such as Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, Kazakhstan, Japan, Malaysia, and many of the “Western Countries.” The range of cultures, accents, and perspectives were all an integral part of the modest, but well-deserved success of this conference. The light attendance was a bit disappointing, but not surprising, for reasons which will be mentioned later.

The theme of the conference was “English as an International Language: Setting the Standards.” Lecturers focused heavily on the premise that EFL/ESL should be renamed EIL (English as an International Language) due to the rapid expansion of English as the language of commerce and education. The presenters lectured on themes such the effects of globalization (“The Question of Global English Language Teaching: A Turkish Perspective” by Rana Yildarim and Zuhal Okhan), international language prospectus (“English as an International Lingua Franca” (Matthew Waterson), and practical teaching and/or theory “Assessing Students’ Reading Competencies: Setting Global Standards” by Prof. Reima Al-Jarf).

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LadySapphire inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday May 31, 2007 at 08:45 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | Conferences | Teaching | Guest Author | |

Did you attend this conference this weekend? If you did and would like to review your experience there please write a guest entry.

I was unable to attend and would like to hear a review of what went down.

update
There is a confirmed guest author for this coming soon. They are in the middle of writing it and will post soon. I’m looking forward to it. Additionally I have another friend, previously mentioned, who is undertaking a distance M.A. and will also be posting soon. Exciting things happening here at my little spot on the internet.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday May 27, 2007 at 11:05 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | Guest Author | |

This is a test of the guest entry form. If it works this entry should go to the submission queue for moderation. AFter moderation it will be approved and appear with a guest entry icon.

Let’s hope everything works out.

I am planning on getting two to three semi-regular guest authors here. It is not however necessary to write regularly, if you want to guest author, just click on the guest entry link above and post your entry. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask in the forums or send me an email using the links above.

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王音癡 inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday May 20, 2007 at 09:21 AM
META | Guest Author | web_site | |