Korean English Teacher 2

This is an end of 2009 video of English as a second language "co-teaching" with Korean teachers in Korea at a public middle school (GEPIK). According to contract, native English speakers are supposed to be the assistant teachers and Korean teachers are supposed to help us make lesson plans which also never happens. The Korean teacher stands absolutely still typically more than
2/3rds of the class time and almost never talk. This scenario, albeit very unjust, is fairly common.

Do not trust Korean contracts regarding teaching ESL in Korea. They are vague, not worth the paper they are written on, and are purposely made to leave out numerous minor and important details. Contracts are a bait and switch scam to get you to Korea and then mistreat you after you have invested your time and effort and gone past the point of no return. There are no checks and balances to ensure your wellbeing.

English native teachers are disposable in Korea. DO NOT think you will be treated fairly. DO NOT teach English in Korea. They will not treat you with respect behind the closed doors of the still very individually managed schools. Korea is still knee-deep in its archaic, male-dominated, and hierarchical system of management.

Korean co-teachers will try very hard to hide their laziness. Just to remind you, they get a college degree and teaching certificate in teaching English, they get to go to numerous seminars, and have many years of hands on practice. What do they do with all this experience and training? Absolutely nothing. I even had Korean co-teachers that wouldn't hand out papers unless I forced them to.

You, meanwhile, have none and have come to Korea to teach because supposedly you don't need any experience and they will train you (not). Teachers are still highly regarded in Korean society without any concept of what actually goes on.

This video was made with an Korean co-teacher after roughly 3 months of being together. I had six Korean co-teachers; all were fairly similiar in their lack of usefulness/effort. All efforts made to try to fix the obvious unbalance of work are met with organizational resistance which will inevitably label you an outcast by the co-teachers that are supposed to help you, but
usually don't. There are no places to speak out about this injustice since those that you turn to will tell you to "grin and bear it."

Korean co-teacher
100% sitting doing nothing
2 % talking in korean
0 % talking in English
0 % actual teaching or effort

Native co-teacher (Me)
100% Powerpoint creation
100% finding/photocopying worksheets
100% lesson planning
100% actual teaching / class lecture
90+% constant movement around the classroom
90+% talking to students in English

Check out my website regarding my experiences teaching in Korea. -
teachingenglishsucksinkorea.blogspot.com/
ihateteachinginkorea.blogspot.com/