Random Quote
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
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
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
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
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
"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
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
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
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
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
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
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
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
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
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
Three Year Rule
The three year rule is a mistake. What is the three year rule you ask? For teachers in Korea teaching at universities commonly, or at least it is percieved to be common, there is a limit to the number of contracts you can sign with the same school. This only applies to foreigners teaching at Universities. Kevin and Joe Seoul Man have both been hit by this rule. It seems like the still have some time, but the school is implementing it retroactively to 2005.
Interstingly other than seeing it on Dave’s Cafe and at the previously mentioned blogs I have not personally met anyone who’s been affected by this “rule”. It seems to have a pseudo official status as some schools abide by it and others do not. Fortunately for me my university has not implemented this rule — yet.
Where does this rule come from and what is it’s purpose? This thread on Dave’s Cafe offers some insight and whether what is said there is true or not it is still a good read. It seems that the general consensus is that the rule is to prevent foreigners from recieving tenure. Clearly a xenophobic (and racist?) attitute, but not really necessary. I have, in ten years, met only 1 foreigner with a Ph.D and two others in process of acquiring one. If this is indicative of the number of foreign English instructors with doctorate level degrees (and I think it is) then what is the worry about? Do tenure professors usually have only an M.A? Do any tenure professors have an M.A? no. It’s due to some law stating that full-time university instructors are to automatically recieve tenure after a certain period or so I’ve heard. If that’s the case just change the law to limit it to professors with a Ph.D.
A more likely reason is money. After three years, I’ve also heard five, the employers pension contribution doubles. To me this is hardly a worthwhile reason to not renew your instructors contracts. With the transient nature of ELT it is quite difficult to find teachers who stay longer than two or three years. Why would you want to kick them out, especially if the teachers are doing an excellent job with high student satisfaction.
It is extremely counter productive to not renew a contract because a teacher has reached a certain amount of time at the school. Instead schools should be offering pay increases and incentives to retain effective instructors who contribute to the university and profession as a whole through quality teaching and professional development (articles, presentations, attending conferences, etc.) But no, the school would rather save a couple of million won a year (us$2,000) and take their chances with an untried and potentially damaging instructor (read about the Freaky Waygooks).
If universities really feel the need to non-renew foreign instructors, then they should choose some criteria to decide which instructors need to be culled. I’m not sure what this criteria should be or how it could be implemented, but anything is better than letting excellent teachers go just to save a little money or to avoid passing on tenure. And regarding tenure, it’s only as good as the Visa status - language instructors typically have an E2 visa that must be renewed every year. if the school doesn’t renew it, they don’t have tenure and cannot be in the country simple. F2, F4 & F5 visa holders can stay in the country indefinitely and their visas are not tied to their place of employment so they would be able to benefit from tenure. The thing is the F2 & F5 visa’s were not around at the time the three year rule started being implemented.
I do not see any solution to this problem as it is also illegal for foreigners to be a member of or start a union in Korea. Additionally if long-term expats in Korea decided as a group to not accept contracts at schools using this rule, there would be no repercussions for the schools. They would be easily able to find joe backpacker to take the job. Sure the quality of instruction in general would probably go down due to the increased transiency of teacher population, but clearly that’s worth saving a few won or $.
here is an article by David Alwinckle, a well known foreigner in Japan, on pretty much the same thing.
My question to readers is does this sort of thing happen in the country where you teach? Has it been fixed? Please comment and let me know what you think.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Apr 2, 2007 at 07:35 PM
Public_Service_Announcement | Teaching |
Mom & Dad wrote 55 words on Tuesday Apr 3, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Hi there…..........hardly seems fair, get rid of the good apple and bring in the rotten one. You should be judged on you performance and qualifications, not by the time spent there. Good performance evaluations should be the #1 reason to be kept on, not the high and mighty $ figure. Keep up the good work…....Me
gordsellar wrote 295 words on Sunday Apr 8, 2007 at 10:25 PM
Hey,
I’m affected by this rule too, and it seems one of the worst-conceived ever. It’s embarrassingly silly, and I hardly have the heart to point that out. It also makes me wonder whether Korean teachers’ pension rates go up after 3 years. This shady dodging of benefits reminds me of how it worked in retail as an undegrad back home, and that’s not the only way I’m reminded of it. (The pay is better, though.)
Anyway, the good thing is that the Koreans I know who know of it agree it’s a bad rule… and acknowledge that Korea is going to get precisely as much skill, know-how, and benefit as one imagines this rule to guarantee. As for me, I’m happy to say I’m not taking it personally… Korean universities following this rule suggests just what’s most important to them in a foreign teacher: replaceability, and price. With standards like that, it’s unsurprising when quality above a very low minimum standard is unappreciated.
I think I told you the other pension story I had, right? When I was working in Jeonju, we were “promoted” (less pay in my case, which doesn’t make sense, but whatever). Anyway, we weren’t told pension would be shifted to a private pension system until later, and when we were told, it was long after. And nobody mentioned that severance pay would not be paid anymore since it’s not required when one is on a private pension. (Happily, everyone got their pension money from prior years when they were “promoted”.) I warned people to not expect severance, and a year and six months later—or was it two years?—what do you know, but people who were leaving got no severance pay. They could at least have been warned ahead of time.
gordsellar wrote 16 words on Sunday Apr 8, 2007 at 10:27 PM
Whoops, forgot to subscribe to follow-ups, so here I am posting a worthless post for it.
gordsellar wrote 117 words on Sunday Apr 8, 2007 at 10:33 PM
One more thought: there is a solution, at least for the foreigners who aren’t finding a decent long-term work environment here: move on to someplace that offers one. Korea can have all the unskilled, uneducated, shoddy, questionable weirdoes it can handle… if that’s what Korea really wants, it will get it through this system.
For foreigners stuck here—by which I imagine stuck involves a marriage to a local—it’s legal to teach privately if you register and pay taxes, or so I’ve heard, and it can be quite lucrative. So go private. No benefits, but if you have a working spouse, it’s not such a big worry, especially since, if you’re desperate, you can always find something here.