If You're Going or If You're There - Part 6

I used to read this Brian Deutsch's blog when I was in Jeonju.  I found him again today on The Korea Herald website.  I have to say his point is huge!!  I always had a hard time putting my finger on the Korean attitude about their history and culture.  It's a good place to live, but a hard place to get past the ego. 

Skip kimchi lesson - teachers want real training

http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/  

Representative Cho Jeon-hyuk of the GNP has some big plans for English education, and they include making it mandatory for native speaker English teachers to undergo training programs on Korean culture. According to an English-language article from KBS, last week he said "most foreign teachers in the nation do not have enough of an understanding about Korea's culture and practices," and this program would "(raise) the quality of the nation's English education programs by mandating that foreign teachers have better knowledge of Korea."


At first glance this looks like another attempt to criticize foreign teachers without providing any evidence. How did Cho come to the conclusion, for example, that "most foreign teachers" here don't know about Korean culture and what impact does that have on Korean schools? But Cho's plan hits on some important issues worth discussing by foreign and domestic teachers alike if any real progress toward "raising the quality of the nation's English education programs" is to be made.


When Cho talks about "better knowledge of Korea" and "Korea's culture and practices" what does he mean? He might be surprised to learn that public school teachers often undergo mandatory orientation sessions and seminars already, though unfortunately for them they focus not on teacher training but rather, well, on "Korea's culture and practices." When I attended a week-long orientation in 2006, I sat through many lengthy presentations on topics such as musical instruments, holidays and funerals, and through several redundant talks on "Korean culture" reminding me that kimchi is spicy and that Korea has four distinct seasons. There was nothing, though, on lesson planning, classroom management, or on the expectations of NSETs. Anecdotal evidence shows my experience is not unique, and that teachers consider sessions poorly-planned, impractical and condescending.

I'm reminded of a passage in a book called "Mastering Business in Korea: A Practical Guide" by Tom Coyner which I think applies well here. He notes that most books on Korea start with the same lengthy introduction to Korean history and culture, though his is different: "we assume the reader knows how to use the internet and can read up to his or her heart's content about Korean history." Knowing about Baekje and gayageum is less important than other considerations, and though he talks here about business professionals, we might change that to fit our situation: "As a business professional, however, one need not be conversant on historical trivia but one does need to know the important basics that Koreans will eventually expect even a foreigner to know at a minimum - and perhaps more importantly, one should have some insight on the impact of the legacies of Korean history in the workplace."

The word he uses in his title is "practical," and the orientation sessions mandated thus far have been anything but. And what's "practical," what's vital for native-speaker English teachers, is an understanding of the Korean classroom and how they fit into it. I've written numerous times that most of the challenges that accompany NSETs are due to the lack of planning and support they receive and to the ambiguous role they fill in the system, and any new training session needs to address these concerns.

A new teacher doesn't need a lecture about kimchi - he'll get it often enough at mealtime - but would benefit from presentations on lesson planning for a class of 40. A foreign teacher doesn't need a lesson on how to pour drinks Korean-style - she'll get one from her friends later - but will need to learn how to fit into the teachers' office. An orientation doesn't need a mundane lecture on Hangeul - teachers take the initiative to learn on their own - but NSETs should be given the opportunity to take Korean classes while here. Teachers - some of whom have never taught before - need to be acclimated to the Korean classroom as quickly as possible through practical lessons from experienced NSETs, not from teachers or bureaucrats who don't understand the NSET experience.

Training sessions need to focus on the classroom and how English is taught, and thus need to include Korean English teachers. It's been several years since NSETs have been introduced, yet schools are still unclear about how they're to be used. With some co-teachers, NSETs work as pronunciation guides, with others they split time, and in some cases the co-teacher doesn't show up for class or workshops at all.


And just as there is ignorance of Korean culture by some NSETs, there is ignorance of English and the culture of English-speaking cultures held by Korean teachers, an ignorance that can damage how English is learned and how its speakers are understood. Some teachers believe, for example, that English doesn't have polite speech, or that "What's up!" is an acceptable greeting, or that "negro" or "colored" is an appropriate term for "heukin" because the dictionary says so.

One wonders whether a new mandatory training session on "Korea's culture and practices" would be for the benefit of NSETs or Koreans. Koreans spend a lot of time worrying about their image in the eyes of foreigners, and it's no coincidence that unsavory elements of Korean culture are suppressed around foreign teachers in favor of sources of pride such as food or weather. Koreans resent that some teachers come to Korea to travel and have fun, though this motive is perpetuated not only by recruiting companies that advertise Korea thusly, but by presentations that treat teachers not like professionals but as tourists.


Foreign teachers actually seem responsive to the idea, and though a local reporter titled his story on this "Foreign Teachers Unenthusiastic Over Culture Course," the president of the Association for Teachers of English in Korea said right in the article, "This is a great idea, if it's done right."


Unless Cho intends to give teachers a lesson on Korean bias and last-minute planning, a lot of thought needs to go into making these sessions work for everybody. He should start by first offering opportunities for practical training, language courses and professional development, rather than announcing with much fanfare that they'll be mandated.