This is a perspective of someone who is in a small relatively new institute and is the only native speaker there. We have three Korean teachers and myself. Often I feel that my role there is more about providing the students with the opportunity to have contact with a native speaker. That being said this is my take on the education system in Korea as I have come to understand it.
- Korean students are overworked and as a result are often unmotivated by the time you see them. It is not unusual for students to spend 3-6 hours over their normal public school day in additional classes at private academies.
- The respect level that I have encountered with Korean students is quite a bit lower than the Korean teachers get, but as one of my friends put it they might just view us as the ones that don't hit them with sticks and judge the respect level they have to give accordingly.
- The one thing that I was not prepared for was the fact that much of the English language instuction is given in Korean, so the students may become frustrated by having to figure out your English instuctions when they are used to getting that stuff in the native tongue.
- The big tests for English in Korea do not involve a speaking component so if the students are not planning on going overseas they might not see the point in putting too much effort into improving their speaking because they cannot see any real reward for their effort.
- It is my understanding that students do 90% of their hard work pre-university and when they get there things get a lot easier.
- Some of the stuff you have to do or teach might not seem to make much sense but in the end you are being paid to do what they want, I always try to gently give my opinion but respect the end decision of the director. Every now and then they might listen to you.
- Be prepared to be "native speaker wallpaper" this does not happen everywhere but it is certainly what I am at my institute, while some might view this as a dream job I find it totally unmotivating and want to be more like a "real teacher".
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