A Native English Teacher’s Declaration

I believe that the Korean education system is being deliberately abused by those who have the power to fix it. But who am I to say such things.

If I could recommend anything for any foreigner deciding to come to Korea -- Don’t, without great thought. Koreans have not figured out how to manage money, how to manage themselves, and how to manage foreigners. Money is usually spent making classrooms nicer, not making education standards better. Work standards do not exist and every job is a shot in the dark. Everything here is about eye candy and appeasing the voices of Koreans which demand English programs with no proven effectiveness. They don’t care the cost; they just want to hear and see their spoon-fed lies.

When you first come to Korea, you will be pretty willing to go along with most things because you don’t really understand what your duties are and who is trying to help you in your professional growth. But take my advice, very few Koreans truly want to help a foreigner, they want to use you as a way of furthering their own careers. The foreigner is a status symbol of progress, but it carries with it a big sign that says “use me.”

If you don’t believe me, then ask any foreigner about the teaching demonstration that everyone has to endure. It is a comical farce that will leave you scratching your head in bewilderment. It is the one time of the year you are judged from an outside perspective, but it is meaningless. The setup is rigged well ahead of time and everything is kept nicely scripted. Koreans use this as a way of one-upmanship to other schools, thereby showing their prized steed is worth its weight. Instead, a few internal checks and balances would be much better utilized. Koreans have an indifference to us and our teachings which are shown in their lack of effort and desire to integrate teaching methods, lesson plans, and shared responsibility in the classroom. As long as we are out of the way, and let them do nothing, they’re just fine letting us do what we do.

Koreans are quite content “forcing” foreigners to do the entire lesson planning when it states implicitly in the contract that you are supposed to be working together on them. In all actuality, what is work when it comes to education? It’s not standing there and spouting a few rare words like most Korean co-teachers. It is the lesson plan, the bulk of what you are doing, and for the most part, they care not. I can easily see how one could stand back and go, “oh, they’re doing it just fine without me.” They are content to watch us dance, and play the fool – untrained, unfocused, un-helped, and irrelevant. We are experimenting with the future youth of Korea and we don’t even get a few tips to get us started. But alas, watch what happens when you say the equality is unbalanced… they huff and puff and blow miserly in your direction, how dare you say anything against them, you are the outsider, they hired you and we should be so lucky.

I once asked a middle-aged Korean co-teacher how long she had been a teacher, because she was arguing with me over who should make the lesson plan (although we get paid the same for after school class and I did it all myself for the first semester). With a tearful gleam in her eye, she asked me why I asked, I asked because after all these years, if they still don’t know how to make an English lesson plan, I thought, what hope do they have for the future. She told me that her English was poor and I said, “You should set an example and try to speak even though you cannot speak well.” If some untrained idiot from across the sea can make a lesson plan that defies and astounds the educational standards of Korea's well respected and highly coveted teaching positions, then there is something very amiss. The Korean English teachers will not change because there is no incentive for them to change or make a difference.

We are progressive, we symbolize change, and yet, foreigners are composed of the most ragtag group of people I have ever met. We come from all walks of life – all educational and work experience backgrounds. Some have mentioned there is some instability among our ranks, but that is expected. We are hired with no thought to our ability, no thought to the culture clash that might ensue.

Our contracts are to most, worthless and devoid of value. The MOE (Ministry of Education) likes to dangle them in front of foreigners to show them an idealistic job, when really, there is little truth to them and a lot of societal pressure to not follow certain aspects of it. Recruiters are full of the same lies and half-truths; they only want to get as many people over here as they can. Koreans at your workplace will use the line “but, the other schools do it this way” as if that one excuse could nullify any validity in your contract.

Watch out for the vague terms that they use that mean nothing in reality, words such as assistant teacher (what we are supposed to be), together (lesson planning), paid sick days (we have 15, which are frowned upon heavily).

What about the foreigner, what happens to them in this world of deceit? Half of the people that work in Korea are survivors, and the other half has somehow found a semi-decent patch of work (I suspect more people of this regard to fall into the elementary teaching category). I do wonder what the rate of turnover is in various places around Korea. As if the MOE would release that data, it would scare off potential candidates. Potential candidates is something they seem to have too much of these days, so much so that they can nullify contracts, at will, even if you have packed up, left your native life, and crossed the point of no return.

The foreign teacher is a peon – A lowly servant and treated as such. Human rights, I daresay we have none, none that are clear enough for us to understand and access easily. It’s not like the schools would want to empower those that it wants to use for their ill gain. We are tucked away from high management, and our only outlet is our co-teacher whom has questionable motives of their own. They will stifle your attempts to complain, muffle your attempts to fix the corruption. Their excuse, that is commonly used, is cultural differences, because people aren’t people anymore in the ROK (Republic of Korea). We just don’t understand how teachers are so respected for caring so little.

Feedback, a word that is thrown around a lot in management, yet never exists in this part of the world. Do not act as though you have a voice in Korea, because your views are not welcome here. Who are we to understand the intricacies of Korean education? Who are we, to speak our minds to the face of failure?

The discontented voices of thousands of foreigners are meaningless to the Korean education machine. In the Korean ladder to success, the foreigner is just another rung.

I believe there are two truths, the ideal Korea and the reality that is. I remember watching a documentary of an escaped North Korean, he spoke about the time when he was in an adjustment camp and saw many happy and smiling people on television. Then, when he had a chance to see the real South Koreans, there were none.