Understanding of Each Other’s Perspective

By Brian Deutsch

I was pleased to learn about the International Graduate School of English after reading the April 23 article, ``IGSE to Nurture Top Quality English Teachers."

And being a Jeolla-namdo (South Jeolla Province) guy myself I was interested to read a little about Park Nam-sheik, a Chonnam National University graduate and a Seoul National University professor.

The president of IGSE, Park is interested in training Korean English teachers to be more communicatively competent in the classroom, and had interesting things to say about competence being more than simply a teaching license.

Korean English teachers are often unable or unwilling to use English in meaningful ways in the classroom, and any progress on that front with the younger generation is encouraging.

However, I was disappointed to read what Park had to say about native speaker teachers. ``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,'' he said.

This statement is ignorant and damaging to the validity of the other points Park tried to make about training Korean English teachers, or hiring certified teachers from other countries.

It shows a profound ignorance about who we are and what we do, and regrettably suggests that Park is not as trustworthy an authority on English education as believed.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only case by big names in the field of English education.

The most grievous example is from Lee Young-chan, a Ministry of Education official who told The Korea Times in December, in a story about the turnover rate of teachers in Seoul, ``[Native speakers] are neither regular teachers nor lecturers who can conduct classes independently. They are `assistant teachers,' hence their teaching experience doesn't matter much.

``Rather, it's better for students to have more new teachers so that they can meet various kinds of foreigners.'' The most painful thing about that statement is that Lee is actually in charge of native speaker teachers at the ministry.

In March, Koo Young-sun, the supervisor of the Incheon Office of Education, told the Times that ``some [native speaker teachers] are not ethically qualified to treat children,'' and a ministry spokesperson told another paper that ``foreign native English speakers cannot teach students without Korean teachers.''

If we as a community of native speaker teachers are to correct these stereotypes, it's true that we need to lead by example. But it's also true that educators and policymakers need to get with the times and quit making such groundless, sweeping generalizations.

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.

There may come a time when native speaker teachers may be mostly phased out of public schools, but clearly that time is well into the future, and it is in the best interest of everyone to cooperate with the goal of meaningful English education in mind.

Brian Deutsch is an English teacher in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province. He can be reached at deutsch.brian@gmail.com.