In the Times this evening, talking about Park Nam-sheik and English teachers.

Much to my surprise the Korea Times this evening ran the piece I wrote on April 23rd after reading International Graduate School of English president Park Nam-sheik's comments on native speaker English teachers. To refresh your memory:

The president [Park Nam-sheik] stressed that a teaching license doesn't mean competence as an English teacher. ``Schools should open their doors more to those who can speak English well. Still many teachers are opposing to give opportunities to English teachers without teaching certificates to teach students at public schools,'' Park said. At the same time, he was very pessimistic about the increasing number of foreign English teachers from the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

``Most of the native English speakers don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems,'' Park said. ``If we need native English speakers, it would be better inviting young ethnic Koreans who have hometowns here. Also, we have to invite qualified English teachers from India, Malaysia and the Philippines as English is not a language only for Americans and British people.''
``Above all, we should produce qualified teachers who can replace native English speakers. I can assure you our school will produce such teachers,'' he added.

You can re-read what I and another teacher wrote in response here, or check it out on the Times' website here. A lengthy excerpt:

There is no evidence whatsoever that native speaker teachers lack affection for students. Ironically, this ``affection'' is often taken to mean beating students in order to encourage them to study harder.

But on the contrary, teachers like myself and many others spend hours each week preparing for our regularly scheduled classes, for conversation clubs, and for teachers' workshops.

Without the benefit of proper textbooks or teachers' guides, we develop material that is both educational and entertaining.

We teach our classes entirely in the target, foreign language, and we do not fall back on speaking Korean or letting a CD do the talking for us. And let's not forget we do this while adjusting to life in a foreign country.

Furthermore there is also no reason to say we often cause problems. Actually, when we read stories about teachers behaving badly, it is not native speaker teachers but rather Korean teachers who accept bribes, beat students, sexually abuse minors, or participate in anti-government rallies.

Just as it would be irresponsible to suggest that ``many'' Korean teachers cause problems, it is inappropriate to do the same for foreign ones.

There is, as I often say, a profound ignorance about what we do in the classroom. Perhaps the biggest challenge we face is creating a classroom environment that encourages learning in a way so contrary to the traditional Korean style.

People think we ``just talk'' or simply play games with the students, but in reality we try to create lessons that give students a chance to use the language they've studied for years.

We have the difficult task of bucking not only the system of passive rote learning and obedience, but also the stereotype that foreign teachers are clowns or zoo animals.

And there are further challenges we face that people don't seem to think about. There is no curriculum in place for us, no plan for our purpose in the classroom.

Sometimes we are simply there to repeat a few lines of text, sometimes we team teach with experienced Korean teachers, or sometimes we teach entirely on our own.

And sometimes all three in the same day! We are contractually paired with co-teachers who, it must be said, rarely come to class or show interest in participating.

We are given little direction beyond ``do whatever you want'' or ``teach them speaking,'' and we are often unable to understand the school's textbooks because the teachers' guides are in Korean.

It's true that putting so many native speakers in public schools can create some headaches. Korean administrators often don't understand what's written in our contracts, and foreigners are often ignorant about the workplace culture of Korea.

These are some of the ``problems" Park is perhaps referring to, but if schools are hiring foreigners, and if foreigners are working in Korean schools, it would behoove each party to be understanding of each other's perspective.

Rather than taking the easy way out and blaming native speaker teachers ― who were, after all, recruited and hired at the behest of both the government and consumers ― Park and others would be better off finding ways to meaningfully involve them in the curriculum.

My piece hits quite hard, I think, and I'm both pleased and surprised to see it in. It, or rather that it was rejected by the paper originally, was the impetus for my article last week on ten common misconceptions held of native speaker English teachers, and the future work that will grow out of it. And I know, I'm not photogenic.



Or am I? Nonetheless I'd encourage you to read what I had to say on Friday about the Times and their noticeable shift in direction recently.