Random Quote

Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin

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

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett

The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton

Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost

Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin

A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi

To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne

To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland

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

Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)

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

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton

"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

No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir

Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey

As soon as I buy the moose head, I have to go pick up some KY jelly.
---- Mary Roninette Kowal

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

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells

Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown

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

subscribe to RSS feed
 Friday May 09 2008

korea - qualifications no longer necessary to teach

Well it looks like starting this fall the only qualification that one will need to teach in Korea is a heartbeat and youthful looks. Having a degree is no longer necessary. See this post from the GalbiJim blog and news article (Korean language). see also this thread on Dave’s Cafe.

Lowering the already low standards is not going to help things - the Korean media already vilifies foreign EFL instructors due to a small minority of miscreants but now new teachers won’t even have completed a degree and can arrive younger and stupider in greater numbers. - it appears that Korea really does not value English Education.

It’s time to get out of this industry and out of this country - they don’t want professional teachers.



Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday May 9, 2008 at 09:23 PM
Teaching | ESL_in_the_News |
Picture of kangmi

kangmi wrote 71 words  on  Saturday May 10, 2008  at  12:23 AM United States

Wow. That’s a move back to the darker ages.

Years ago, until the early 90s, the government did not require a degree for an E-2 visa. One had to prove that one had completed two years of college (via official transcript), and I still remember the name of the last person my language institute hired under the old rules.

That’s how I was able to teach there in the late 80s.

Picture of JMac

JMac wrote 1 words  on  Saturday May 10, 2008  at  09:25 AM Korea (South)

Yikes.

Picture of Alex Case

Alex Case wrote 5 words  on  Saturday May 10, 2008  at  10:52 PM Japan

Congrats on getting out then!

Picture of kwandongbrian

kwandongbrian wrote 35 words  on  Sunday May 11, 2008  at  05:25 AM Korea (South)

Two steps forward and, uh, two steps back?

I wonder if this is a sort of amnesty for the illegal teachers already here.  Administratively, that might be a good idea but not so much educationally.

Sean.

Sean. wrote 63 words  on  Sunday May 11, 2008  at  06:17 PM Korea (South)

it’s definitely a mistake and one that is going to cost Korea big time as well as end up reflecting poorly on all native speakers.

I agree with Alex, my plan to get out of the country couldn’t come at a better time. - At least I’ve got some time to get the skills I need to transition out of EFL and Korea.

Picture of Alex Case

Alex Case wrote 7 words  on  Sunday May 11, 2008  at  06:58 PM Japan

Hope you keep the blog going though!

Sean.

Sean. wrote 22 words  on  Sunday May 11, 2008  at  07:07 PM Korea (South)

Alex, as long as I am teaching (3 more years is the plan) and longer if I can recruit regular guest authors.

Picture of Jeff

Jeff wrote 201 words  on  Thursday May 15, 2008  at  11:45 PM Canada

This is a gigantic step backwards in one way and a positive step forward in another way and so is very typicaly bureacratic in nature!

Step backwards: lowering the bar for qualification for a teaching visa. This will only hurt in the mid to long run as many more people who have no business teaching will head out to Korea based on the free airfare and accomodation. You might get more “Here for the cash” types.

Step forward: Buried in this is a positive outcome and that is the opening of the market to perhaps qualified teachers from countries or regions where English is an official language but not necessarily the native language. Being a native speaker has been a qualification for far too long when in reality it is just a state of being (was raised in the language). A focus on qualifications (if that happens) would be beneficial to ESL in Korea. Who is better to equipped to teach English? A young, inexperienced fresh grad from an English country with a degree in basket weaving or a graduate of an ESL or Education university program with a desire to teach but from say India or even Quebec in Canada?

Picture of Chris Cotter

Chris Cotter wrote 38 words  on  Tuesday May 20, 2008  at  11:47 AM Japan

And I thought the standards in Japan were low… and getting lower.  Obviously there seems to be little respect for the profession, if the government just believes anyone who happens to speak English will make a good teacher.

Sean.

Sean. wrote 54 words  on  Tuesday May 20, 2008  at  04:18 PM Korea (South)

Jeff,
Good questions and ones that would no doubt cause many an arguement in teachers rooms around Korea. Welcome to the blog and thanks for commenting. My apologies for taking so long to reply.

Cris,
I couldn’t agree more. Standards, what standards? All you need is a heartbeat to get a visa in Korea.

Picture of john

john wrote 197 words  on  Monday May 26, 2008  at  10:01 PM Korea (South)

I agree, to a point.  The thing is, I feel like people become a bit self-important when they step off a plane here.  Do you really believe that if you complete a degree, you are a qualified, professional teacher?  Obviously this is potentially a problem, but the fact is, the new president is pushing English in a major way, and there are only so many ‘qualified’ teachers out there.  Korea is not the #1 destination for native speakers, and while this could cause potential issues, I suppose they find themselves with limited options.
Head down to Itaewon on a Saturday night and take a look at what the current system provides us.  Yikes!  The majority of foreign teachers vilified in the media are not slammed for their poor teaching skills, but for their exploits after getting wasted with their friends and making asses of themselves.  Too many teachers do that, and consider their year in Korea as an extended party. 
Obviously there are a lot of great teachers out there, and of course this will have an impact on the system… but really, now we’ll just have a few more uneducated drunkards giving us a bad name.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Members





Auto-login on future visits
Show my name in the online users list

Forgot your password? |  Register

Polling Station

Are you Attending KOTESOL 2009?
pencil

Buy me a Coffee