Random Quote
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
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
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
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
As soon as I buy the moose head, I have to go pick up some KY jelly.
---- Mary Roninette Kowal
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
"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
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
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
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Korea does not value English
Korea does not value English. Really it’s true. I know that Korea spends milliions and millions of dollars (billions of won) on English education, but it’s just for show. If Korea were truly interested in quality then there would be a focus on quality language instructors. However the government is now considering loosening the already loose academic regulations for English teaching visas. Currently to get a teaching visa in Korea all you need is a degree. Your degree could be in basket weaving and you are qualified to be a language teacher.
According to the Korea Times this is all going to change in order to meet growing demand in rural areas that are shunned by foreign teachers. I have a better idea, why not offer a salary that would attract a qualified professional teacher? Another option, hire qualified Korean English teachers. I know several who would be better teachers than most native speakers with a degree in basket weaving.
Mr D wrote 2 words on Tuesday Apr 8, 2008 at 08:25 PM
Hear, hear!
Mark wrote 258 words on Wednesday Apr 9, 2008 at 04:05 PM
Here in Taiwan, I know quite a few excellent teachers who came here after having spent several years in Korea. Some had English, Linguistics or foreign language degrees, but many of the best teachers I’ve known have had entirely unrelated degrees. One thing that was constant between them, though, is what they said about Korea. It seems that working in Korea is already a better package in terms of hours, benefits and salary. However, from a social and legal standpoint, they had more difficulties there.
I can’t say too much about Korea since I’ve never lived there, but I can share my experiences living in Taiwan. The occasional boss here swindles a teacher, especially at illegal schools, but it’s the exception, not the rule. At licensed schools the rules are enforced and the law is protective of the workers. Racial stereotypes do run rampant and many older people are far too impressed by foreigners’ poor Chinese, but “hostile” racial prejudice against westerners is rare here in Taiwan. My boss at the biggest school I’d worked at was a black guy. It’s nearly unheard of for a landlord to refuse housing to someone for being a foreigner, as long as there aren’t language issues. Long term integration is doable here, too. Many, many foreigners I know here are here for the long haul, buying houses, sending their kids to the local schools, etc…
From what I’ve heard about Korea, it’s a bit tougher for long term foreigners. Throwing money at the problem might not be enough to solve it.