Andy tells it like it is.

Andy in South Korea has a nice summary of how native speakers are generally used in schools around here:

It's like someone saying, I want ice-cream, and they want you to go to Baskin Robbins. They don't tell you what kind of ice-cream they want, or how much they want, or if they want different flavours in the same bucket, or just all of the same one. Also, you just know that when you get back with the ice cream, they don't like it, or you chose the wrong size, and then say it's your fault.

For me, that is pretty much Korea in a nutshell.

And, yes, it is always your fault, nevermind that you have no guidance or support whatsoever. Jangseong-based Andy will be escaping Korea in a few days, and I feel bad for not finding out about his blog until a little while ago. Another interesting entry that had me nodding is the one immediately following the above one. After some students said "shit" in class, which my students always do but it comes out like "shed," Andy got upset and got this reply from them:



The post continues:

So, this went on for about a minute. I'm wrong, because I'm not the Korean teacher. Shit is okay, because the Korean teacher said it's okay, and I'm wrong, because I'm the foreigner. But, I'm the native speaker. Children really shouldn't say shit. I'm sure that a Korean teacher would be pissed off if a student was saying 씨발 and 개세끼.

Yeah, that happens pretty much all the time. Just today the coteacher disagreed with my pronunciation of "Saturday" in class. Apparently I was saying "Saturday" instead of "Saturday," and confusing the students. I typed them the same because she pronounced them the same, though she told me the students are used to the British pronunciation which goes "Saturday" (I dunno, I guess she was referring to a tap, but students and teachers can't do it). I was like "British? WTF, no they're not thinking of British English. Jesus Christ." Well, I thought that, but just ended up saying "um . . . nooooooo." And I can't even count the number of times a teacher has asked me a question only to have my answer trumped by "the textbook says . . ." Just last week, against my campaigning, the teachers were unshaken in their belief that "What do you like to do on Saturdays" and "What do you like doing on Saturdays" are different because the former implies what you want to do rather than what you usually do.

What do you like doing?은 일반적으로 좋아하는 것을 묻는 표현이며, What do you like to do?는 무엇을 하고 싶은지를 묻는 표현이다.

Um . . . no, that's "What would you like to do?" but I had the misfortune of not being born a textbook. I'm all for input, since Korean English teachers are of course professionals too, but jeez, the unflinching pride of some people.

Worth pointing out, too, that the lack of support in the classroom is a big reason why native speaker classes aren't as effective as they might be. Ironic, considering the push to teach all English classes in English in the next few years, and the format of our classes will need to be adopted by all English teachers. The disinterest in our classes on the part of bosses and colleagues never seems to come up, though, when we're getting slammed in the media.