Blueprint for Korean English Hagwon
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Part 1: Synchronicity
Imagine this: It’s Monday morning and you are in your English hagwon with your colleagues, both native English teachers (NETs) and Korean English teachers (KETs). You are all in the school’s biggest room together. You wouldn’t normally be there at this time, but you’re all being paid to be there and there’s even a monthly bonus thrown on in top! It’s only once a month and the boss looks upon the extra expense as an investment. After the meeting is over, lunch is on him too!
Your boss is a huge fan of cooperation and teamwork. He believes NETs and KETs have a lot to learn from each other. He knows that these groups often feel threatened by each other, are mostly uncommunicative and even hostile on occasion, but he wants to shoot for a happy staffroom. He wants the teachers to respect each other and he wants to offer the best deal to all stakeholders. He knows the false ideas each group can often have about the other. He also knows that these people are pros and know infinitely more about teaching English than he does, but he wants to be there, so he can learn something himself and so he can protect them all from the whims of ultra conservatives and basically be a better employer.
In this meeting the KETs present which grammatical structures will be taught this month and which listening texts and reading passages will be used. NETs agree to stay on message and deliver speaking and writing tasks to activate/recycle the same grammar and vocabulary in speech and writing, if possible staying within the same themes/topics.
NETs share with KETs fun ways they know to present language and encourage them to develop pairwork, incorporate games, fun activities and useful error correction techniques. There’s even a schedule for a little peer observation! KETs explain about Korean student mentality, do’s and don’ts and why some activities are dogs that won’t hunt.
The two groups then discuss which lessons can be repeated to minimize the workload and the session finishes off with everyone sharing humorous little communiqués they’ve come up with such as “Top 10 foreigner misconceptions about KETs” or “10 ways to avoid boring your students to death!”
Not to feel left out, the Boss even weighs in with a tongue in cheek “10 ways I tend to irritate my teachers” or even “I am the boss round here, not the students or parents!” All light hearted stuff!
There’s a Q&A session where everyone can ask questions about common difficulties. The boss encourages everyone to share their knowledge and to never be too shy to ask questions of anyone, quoting the ancient Japanese maxim: All of us is stronger than one of us and the slightly less arcane: There are no silly questions, just silly answers. (exeunt. flourish)
Contrast this with a picture of another world. Tired and grumpy teachers arrive at their hagwon later that same day to prepare for the day’s lessons. KETs are earnestly beavering away checking answers at the back of their books and pondering how to be more dynamic in the way they present new language instead of the usual chalk and talk style. NETs nark about how much more vacation they could be getting elsewhere and what an affront it is that Koreans should have anything to do with the teaching of English.
NETs and KETs greet each other with a polite “Hi” but that’s really the extent of the dialogue as far as teaching English is concerned. Once the lessons start, it’s everyone for themselves. Everyone’s the undisputed world champion in their own separate discipline – the Grammar guru, the Listening Lecturer, the Reading Queen or the Speaking Master. The student, rather than being Jack of all trades, is master of, well….none.
The boss dialogues with each group separately and dictates new protocol/passes on negative feedback to each, often reflecting students’ or parents’ criticisms, mostly self-defeating and irrational. Both groups have no idea why the other tends to get bent out of shape about certain issues but the KETs are irritated that NETs get to do all the fun stuff while they have to do all the hard work, while NETs are amused at the enormous numbers of butterflies being broken on wheels.
At the end of the day, all make their way home reflecting on minor successes and failures. All are frustrated by the puzzling lack of progress in many of the students but are dimly aware of the fact there’s got to be more than this. We all could get a whole lot more out of this if we put our heads together…
