Comments on: How Fucked Up is Korea’s English Teaching Racket?

By: FuQiang

FuQiang — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:53:21 +0000

A few comments. First, a good expat friend of mine got his bachelors in English and an MS in Korean linguistics from a top Korean university and was also barred from teaching English b/c of the same visa rules. He was made to understand that the visa rules were made to stop Korean-Americans/Canandians/etc. who immigrated as middle/high school students and then returned to Korea for college from getting these jobs since most of them are far from fluent English speakers. Given that they now have a different visa status for Korean-Americans I don’t know how good the logic still is.

Second, I recently audited a grad social science class at Korea University in Korean and found it to be not that different in reading load/discussion from my classes at a top US school (and if you think your Korean is good, try sitting in on a grad class - I have new found respect for my non-native english speaking colleagues. Being socially fluent and being able to discuss academic topics intelligently are very different things indeed.) Also, the profs in regular social science depts I know generally look down on the GSIS departments b/c the quality of the instruction is so low. They see GSIS as a money-maker/prestige builder for the university and little else.

By: a-letheia

a-letheia — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:04:24 +0000

30. I was talking to the venerable MrMao.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:47:30 +0000

#27,

Quebecois? Where?

PS. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m not a Quebecois.

By: Maddlew

Maddlew — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:46:53 +0000

I think I was being a bit hasty. After absorbing the whole thing more thoroughly I think that beaureacrats everywhere suffer from a lack of decision making ability. In the States it would be rare and perhaps detrimental to one’s job security to bend the rules for an individual. It happens, but too seldom. It is probably more rare here. Conformity in the population as a whole is strong, but within governmental agencies it is overwhelming.
I can also safely say that the States has authored quite a few f’d up laws and regulations.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:46:24 +0000

Isn’t this much ado about nothing since they will be allowing people who have degrees from countries in the “periphery of English” to get E2 visas?

By: a-letheia

a-letheia — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:57:46 +0000

#21 Me agrees. Quebecois beware!

By: a-letheia

a-letheia — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:47:55 +0000

#22. Right, sorry, the British grad schools are indeed self-driven–almost fetishistic.

Perhaps though we shouldn’t be using that as a yardstick for the Korean — American style– grad schools…

#25. I did, and I know.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:16:31 +0000

To add to #22,

I get the feeling you didn’t attend grad school if you don’t know what it involves.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:14:50 +0000

#20,

Right. I know a couple of Korean-Americans who have degrees in education from Korean universities.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:10:43 +0000

…probably top 5 in the world for my field of study.