Hi Jason,

Yes, both my short Korean public school career and anecdotal evidence from colleagues, leads me to confirm that things are really sad there.

Both students and teachers waste enormous amounts of time on meaningless, repetitive tasks while patting themselves on the back for putting in so many hours. Unfortunately, it's so deeply embedded in the culture that they don't even see it.

As I've mentioned elsewhere before, this is also a contributing factor to the high youth suicide rate in South Korea. A colleague told me at her school they didn't even acknowledge when this happened to one of her students - it was just business as usual. Does that mean suicide is "normal"? If all one's youth was wasted sitting in sweaty classrooms with no vacation breaks, no time for friends, endless homework and memorisation, and seemingly uncaring parents, one might wonder whether life was worth living as well.

If we could spend an equal amount of time educating governments, parents and administrators there on efficient and effective ways to learn, we could PERHAPS turn things around. However, I fear that nothing short of a "shock and awe" campaign would have any impact on the entrenched ideas, the ruthless pursuit of profit, or the fear they feel towards many things non-Korean.

I'd have to say too that as an "outsider" while living there I felt powerless to influence change. It WILL come in time, but at what cost?

Posted 6th August, 2010 at http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/08/teaching-in-korea-eight-days-a-week-and-a-cruel-summer.html

Back to front – the progression from elementary to university teaching in Korea.

Hi Jason,

I couldn’t agree more. The weird part about it is that Koreans, without realising it, actually know that teaching small children English is very difficult too. How? By providing a co-teacher who speaks their first language! You won’t find these in high schools or universities.
Teaching older students, by comparison, is a snap! By the time they get to university they’ve already had years and years of English lessons and they WANT to improve. So, there are also fewer motivational issues. This, in turn, means you don’t NEED to find ways of endlessly entertaining them.

Marisa, you will be reassured to know that a number of us here in Taiwan teaching elementary kids are over 50 and registered teachers in our home countries.

Peter may be surprised to know that we teach kids from grades 1 to 6 – so some are only 5 years old! And, at cram schools, they might be as young as 2 1/2. (Don’t worry about grammar – worry about incontinence!!!)

Anna and Barbara – spot on!

Jason, my only additions would be to say that (1) from what I’ve observed, in China a university job in EFL is often paid the same or less than a school-aged teacher, and (2) if you want to be at the bottom of the social ladder, tell people in these countries that you teach English. Just about any other subject teacher will be given more respect.

Thanks for a very stimulating discussion.
Greg.

Posted on Jason Renshaw’s Weblog by: Greg Quinlivan | May 16, 2010 at 12:42 PM