Random Quote
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
Am I too old to teach in Korea?
I recieved the following email a few days ago.
First a little background. I retired a few years ago and things were going well until this year when my financial world came to an end. I have been unable to find work in the area that I reside in and so, am seeking other options.
I am old, VERY old..62, though i look younger. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea back in the day when children still used quill and papyrus. I am thinking about returning to Korea to teach though I DO not have an ESL/EFL degree so IF I was hired I am guessing that it would have to be at a hagwon..shudder!!!!!
What is the job situation there?
Does an old white coot like myself have any chance?I am SURE I would be able to get all the necessary visa documents(criminal background check etc) and medical would be no problem BUT on some sites I have read that its almost impossible for someone my age to gain employment, true?
My reply
I think it may be possbile but very unlikely. If you would like, I could post your question on my blog and see if other readers would have more detailed ideas for you.
Art Supplies
I recieved the email below from a reader, but am unable to answer it since I haven’t worked in a hagwon for 8 years. If you know the answer, please leave a comment.
Can you email a list of the typical art supplies available in the Hagwon classrooms? For example, scissors, paste/glue, construction paper, crayons, markers, rubber bands, string or yarn, etc.
My guess is that most of this stuff is available, and if it isn’t it is cheap to buy at the local stationary store (I know because I buy it for my children).
Video in the Classroom
My latest article for the Korea Herald is now out and it is on using video in the classroom. Read it at the Korea Herald site or look in the extended entry.
I have previously posted several entries with materials for download on this blog. You can find them below.
There might be more, but I can’t remember everything I’ve written on this blog in the last 4.5 years. If you find these useful, please leave a comment and let me know.
At the bottom of the article I’ve included a reader question - the first on the column, if you can help out, why not leave a comment.
Korea Herald Readers
Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.
Read the rest of this post
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jul 22, 2008 at 01:43 PM
Teaching | KH Column | teaching_application | Readers_Questions |
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Real ESL
Real ESL is a video blog by Kim Purcell that answers questions from second language learners and posts them up in a video on YouTube. Kim’s blog also contains a transcript of each video as an aid for learners.
Kim sent me an email introducing her site, which I had stumbled across before. I was checking it out in more detail this time when my wife (Korean) commented on her voice saying that she spoke very clearly - good for students. Kim has over 10 years of teaching experience in Mexico, Korea, and L.A. - from her bio.
Below you can see a video from this entry. Watch the video and then check out her blog, it’s been running solid for several months now.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jul 1, 2008 at 07:40 PM
useful_web_sites | Readers_Questions | Video |
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Privates in Korea
Heidi sent an email to me last night:
Hey- I don’t have the patience to search all of your postings, but you seem to have put a lot of effort into knowing the law and likeness of Korea. What do you know about private tutoring? Is there any way to do it legally besides marrying a Korean? What if you have permission from your Hogwan boss? Just curious. I’d like to do it, but I want to do it legally, obviously. Do you know a good website with information of the illegality of it?
Thanks!
Heidi
I know that it is illegal and a deportable offense if you have an E2 visa. For those teaching on the F2-1, F5 and F4 visa’s it is not illegal but you are still required to register with the MOE and pay taxes on the income.
I do not know any web sites with information specifically related to this, but the immigration site might have information though I doubt it since they are pretty much like bureaucrats in any country, useless. If any readers have more information on this please comment and help Heidi out as well as other E2 visa holders.
p.s. Heidi, you might want to use the search before sending an email in the future - it’s not difficult and if you are too lazy too do it, don’t let the blogger know that. I almost didn’t bother replying to you at all.
Question for those teaching at a University
Kevin, of The Big Hominid Asks questions of university teachers. I have reposted his entire post here and will respond later. Right now you would not believe how busy I am. And on top of that there is this article in the Korea Herald that is deserving of commentary, but I probably won’t have time to get to that either.
a question for you university English teachers
No need to identify your university in your answer, but I’m currently mulling over the following questions, which require replies from people working at many different Korean universities:
1. How does your university calculate the number of hours you are required to work, and does that calculation vary? What does “work” consist of? Teaching and… what other duties? Is the method of calculation spelled out in precise language in your contract?
2. How does your university calculate overtime pay? Is the method of calculation spelled out in precise language in your contract?
3. If, in a given semester, it is determined that you have not worked the required minimum number of hours, what is done about this? How are you informed of this “undertime”? was the possibility of “undertime” spelled out in your contract?
4. Do you feel your university’s methods of calculation are straightforward, up-front, trustworthy, consistent, etc.? If the answer is not a definite “yes,” then do you feel that the problem(s) you’re experiencing may be the result of malice, disorganization/incompetence, or both?
5. If you have breaks between terms (say, a one-week break between summer and fall terms), are these breaks considered vacation (and noted as such in your contract), or are you “on call” during this time? If you are considered on call, are you paid for being on call, or are you obliged to “make up” that break because you weren’t teaching?
I look forward to many and varied replies. If a particular question doesn’t seem relevant to you, please note its irrelevance. If you have something more to add, something not covered by the above questions, please feel free to unload.
I decided to post these questions here rather than over at Dave’s ESL Cafe because I’m convinced that, collectively speaking, DESLC has no sense of perspective. The bitterness, the hatred, the more-than-occasional racism were a turn-off for me on the rare occasions I ventured into those forums. Better to post my questions here and elicit level-headed responses of a generally higher quality.
Oh, yes: PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THIS POST. I’d like a large library of answers from people all over the peninsula.
Vygotsky
Kevin has a question about Vygotsky. If you can give him an answer please help out. I want to answer, but for some reason my brain is currently incapable of forming coherent thoughts. No I’m not hungover or drunk - I don’t drink.
Reader Question
I recieved the following email but was unable to help. I asked permission to post the letter hear in order to get reader response. PLease help out MB.
My sister is about to move to Gunsan to work for a school called Top Academy, which she found through Dave’s ESL café and eslcom.net. I am extremely worried about her as I have read the hagwon blacklist on the Internet and all the horror stories about teachers being treated badly. Please can you tell me where to get reliable information about this school,
or perhaps you know of it yourself? I would very much appreciate it if you could possibly find the time to reply. Thank you very much for your time,
MB
question - re: CDI and teachaway
I recieved the following question by email, but was unable to provide a satisfactory answer. The reader has agreed to have their email posted anonymously. If have some information for them please respond in the comment section below.
Hello—
My name is **********, I am from Knoxville, TN, I am considering moving to S.
Korea for a teaching position. The advice that I have received thus far
seems to all line up, but I am contacting you because you have been in the
country for 9 years. I really appreciate the information on your website.I am working with an independent recruiting firm based out of Toronto
called teachaway. The website is http://www.teachaway.com. They have lined me up
for an interview with an English teaching institute called CDI. Have you
heard of this institute? If so, are you aware of any pitfalls that I should
be looking for when considering employment with this company? Do you know
anything about their reputation? The website for CDI is
http://www.teachinkorea.com.Any help that you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
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Nathans Question
Nathan, formally of Seoul Hero - now Coquitlam Odysseus, writes:
Hi,
How are you? I have a quick question: do you know of any plug-ins for the
Windows Media player that show a simple, clear relationship between what you
see in terms of visualizations, and what you hear in terms of pitch and
volume? It might be useful for teaching listening exercises.Thanks & all the best,
Nathan
I have no answer to this, but hopefully a reader can help out and provide a link or other possible resource.
Reflective Language Learner
Earlier today I recieved an email from a reader of my Korean learning group blog telling me about their blog.
hi, my name is ***** and i recently started a blog about learning cantonese. I was born in seoul and am half korean so there will be lots of stuff on korean also. anyways, i’m fascinated by languages and a lot of my entries are just my whole take on the language learning process. in any case, i hope you take a look. the address is http://houhousihk.blogspot.com/
I took a look and liked it so far. It is always interesting to read about anothers experience learning a foreign language. I in particular enjoyed Things I wish I Knew Before and Language Proficiency Tests and Why They Suck I agree that they suck, but not necessarily for the same reasons as the author. Anyhow go give 好好食 a read and see what you think.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Dec 7, 2006 at 07:04 PM
About_Language | Random_Ramblings | Readers_Questions |
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Elementary ESL Advice
Yesterday I recieved an Email form Adam asking questions about teaching English to Korean children in the U.S. However I don’t teach children and have no desire to do so and consequently am at a loss as to what kind of advice to offer him. Adams letter is in the extended entry and I encourage readers who teach children to help Adam out either in comments or in the forums. I removed his surname but did not edit any more in the letter.
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Jul 1, 2006 at 05:11 PM
Teaching | Readers_Questions |
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Fonts on the IELTS
I just got an email from John at Sinosplice asking if I could help with a question he had from one of his students.
I’ve been helping a student prepare for the IELTS (雅思 in Chinese), and she recently brought an interesting point to my attention. In her book of practice tests (a quality book published by Oxford University Press), different fonts were used for different reading selections. For example, a selection about biology was written in Times New Roman, whereas an article about education was written in Arial, and a passage about blindness and visualization was written in Verdana. She wanted to know if the real test was going to be like that.
Unfortunately I have no idea why any publisher would put out a book that uses different fonts. If for some reason IELTS actually uses different fonts for each question on the exam I would think that undermines the reliability of the test. Like John, I quickly googled and additionally took a quick look around the IELTS site but unfortunately couldn’t find any answers.
Anyhow if you know the answer to this please leave a comment on Johns blog entry.
Jiri’s Question
On Monday Jiri, a long term reader, sent me an email asking a question that I am unable to answer. I wrote back to him and asked if he would like me to post the question here. In his reply email he suggested a good poll idea, so now we have a new poll as well. comments about the poll are in the extended entry - Jiri’s Question:
I was just wondering if you could help me out here with a couple things. I’m a non-native teacher and I realized that’s what I want to do, or am called on to do. I’m reading up these days on pronunciation and for a non-native it can be something of a tough nut, especially things like connected speech. Would you then know of a
dictionary that would provide phonetic transcription for not only infinitive forms, but also other forms and/or even some frequent chunks?Am sure I had more questions but it all slipped my mind now.
Anyway, would be grateful for any help..
Jiri
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday May 22, 2005 at 07:11 AM
Polling_Station | Readers_Questions | Lesson_Plans |
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Error Analysis: help a reader
Sejeong Park wrote an email to me this evening asking for some help regarding common errors that Koreans make when learning English. Unfortunately my brain is fried at the moment from studying and ODing on coffee so I cannot think of any examples. I turn to you the reader for help. In the extended entry you can find his email and my response.
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Apr 24, 2005 at 09:09 PM
general_linguistic_study | Public_Service_Announcement | Readers_Questions |
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