Native English Teachers

Half of Native English Instructors Quit After a Year

"According to Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Tuesday, 144 of 273 foreign English teachers who were eligible for a renewal of their contract have signed to stay on another year.

Lee Young-chan, an education Ministry official in charge of native teachers said it was not necessary to renew every contract. ``They are neither regular teachers nor lecturers who can conduct classes independently. They are `assistant teachers,' hence their teaching experience doesn't matter much,'' he said. ``Rather, it's better for students to have more new teachers so that they can meet various kinds of foreigners,'' he added.

Last year, the city education office also saw about half of its foreign teachers renew their one-year contract, however, it had only 11 who had more than three years teaching experience.

``Some foreign teachers did not want to renew due to the devaluing of the won, while others cited worsening relations between South and North Korea,'' said Choi Chun-ok, a supervisor at the education office.

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`` Of course, some employers don't want teachers to stay. In fact, with some it is an unstated policy not to employ teachers for more than a year, no matter how good the teachers are,'' Thomas said. ``These employers are more concerned with managing their businesses than providing an education. New teachers often have lower expectations and are easier to manage.''

The total government budget for native English speakers has risen to 147 billion won this year from 105 billion won in 2007 and 69 billion won in 2006. This year, the government is expected to spend some 180 billion won to employ about 4,500 - 5,000 foreign teachers at elementary and secondary schools nationwide. A native English speaker who has just started to teach English in Korea can receive a salary equivalent to that paid to a Korean teacher with five years of experience, an official said.

Some education experts are skeptical about the effectiveness of the system.

``Native English speakers have to get through a certain period of training and need experience and know-how,'' said Jeon Byung-man, an English education professor at Chonbuk National University. ``I don't think native English speakers are helpful for our students. If they need native English speakers, they should hire those who have teaching licenses.''"

The information above doesn't particularly surprise me. Many people come here for cheap travel, attractiveness as a foreign culture, and a working vacation. I myself didn't plan on staying for two years, but now the thought has occurred to me and become more attractive. I'm not particularly worried about the North Korean threat and the won will recover eventually.

If you are thinking about coming here to teach, now is the time if you read the later paragraphs. They're offering a lot more incentives to attract teachers. I also do agree with some of the sentiment of the last paragraph. Like any working environment, you'll have good workers and bad. Everyone has a different teaching style and some work and others don't. I don't know how to evaluate myself, but my students like me and I think that they have learned quite a bit so far. I have a lot of room to improve and develop my abilities, but I know I'm not terrible.

There is another English teacher that lives in Danny's building. His name is Steve and he's been here since 1997. We've managed to talk to some of his students and they hate him. Apparently he just gives them passages to read and translate for every class. He has been here for a while, has years of experience, but is still a bad teacher. As to the quote from the education professor, most of us probably have no business teaching here. But a teaching license does not guarantee a quality education. Any one who's been to school can attest to that.