Another reason to hate native English teachers

Unless you are a native, it will be very hard to catch this sort of shenanigan. It's too bad a few expats give the rest of us a bad name.

They should just kick out all native male English teachers. I have to admit, women are more mature than men.

We all know why they're really in Korea anyway.

I don't mind pranks, but why use offensive language in a book intended for children? That's not right.

This is funny and very sad.

If it weren't a kids book it would be okay. But kids are innocent.

Brian wrote:
If Korea needed another reason to kick every native English speaking teacher out of the country and quit with the irrational obsession to learn English, here's another.

There has been an endless supply of obnoxious people in the semi-professional proofreading field, but I don't think this is an example of that kind of thing.

Do a Google search for "eye chart" and that's the first image that pops up. An illustrator who is simply looking for a sample of a Western eye chart — which we all know are very different from Korean eye charts — could easily (and reasonably) think it's legitimate.

The problem then, is not some rogue English teacher behaving badly, but someone back in an anglophone country who thought WTF and STFU were appropriate things to have on a t-shirt worn around in public and, presumably, in front of children.

It's time you stop blaming English teachers for everything! ;)

Kushibo,
That's possible, of course. But as the author posting on reddit said, he helped edit the textbook in 2004 and was aware of the eye chart.

Assuming he is telling the truth, and we have no way of knowing whether he is or not, then the fact that the chart appears on google changes little.

If he didn't personally pick out the chart himself, then as an English speaking editor performing in that capacity, it was his responsibility to raise an objection to this particular chart.

Ultimately, we have no idea how things went down or who's responsible for what. We're all merely speculating here. But if we take the reddit poster at his word, then it does not reflect well on English teachers (as well as the incompetent hagwons).

Color me incredulous about the guy's claim.

At any rate, even if that's true, I don't think an English native inserted the STFU. That was almost certainly the work on an illustrator who probably didn't know any better. But it is possible a native English speaker may deliberately have left it in after spotting it.

But as I mention here ...

http://kushibo.b...-defense-of.html

... I didn't pick up on anything wrong when I first saw this, and if I'd been proofreading this, I might have missed it myself.

"Color me incredulous about the guy's claim. "

You may be right. Who knows, but it's a weird thing to claim. Why not just say, "Hey, I found this ESL book from Korea, check it out!". It's just as funny and effective.

"But it is possible a native English speaker may deliberately have left it in after spotting it. "

The guy wrote, "Talking to the artists, they already had everything ready to go, except for anything that had to do with the words. This included the eye chart."

So apparently, he takes direct and full responsiblity, not merely negligence. But again, we're just speculating here. We don't know what really happened. And besides, this was back in '04.

"I didn't pick up on anything wrong when I first saw this, and if I'd been proofreading this, I might have missed it myself."

I agree. It's hard to notice unless you're looking for it.

I find it interesting that no one has questioned a much more obvious problem with this 'phonics' book: the insertion of Hangeul transliterations. Despite attempts to create a textbook to teach native pronunciation, someone has inserted very faulty Hangeul transliterations, turning 'ax' and 'yak' into bi-syllabic words and teaching that 'z' is pronounced 'ㅈ'. Who really cares about acronyms that over 99% of Korean 'English teachers' wouldn't recognise when children are being encouraged to mispronounce English from the earliest age? That speaks a lot more about what's wrong with English education in Korea than a foreign editor taking the piss re: his / her Korean colleagues' utter ignorance of of real English.

I agree, Yu, but as far as the 'Z' sound goes, you know that there is no "z" in korean. The "j" is the closest approximation.

I think learning to pronounce perfectly is overrated.

You may think that good pronunciation is overrated, but try telling that to the Korean in the middle east looking for the zoo.

David,

LOL!!

Disney animators have long been burying worse in children's movies. What Koreans have to understand is this is part of our unique culture. No wait. The editor was curious. No wait. He was drunk.

Yu Bumsuk wrote:
I find it interesting that no one has questioned a much more obvious problem with this 'phonics' book: the insertion of Hangeul transliterations.

I did (see link above). In fact, I think the scrawled Hangul translations (they're not transliterations, since for zebra they wrote 얼룩말, not 제브라 or 지브라) actually point to the possibility of even more fakery, since what was written for "ax" was not a proper translation (it's 도끼, I think) nor even a proper transliteration (it would be 액스, not 엑스).

David tz wrote:
You may think that good pronunciation is overrated, but try telling that to the Korean in the middle east looking for the zoo.

I don't see the problem. In some Islamist locales, that's right where they keep them.

This behavior is irresponsible, granted, but chances are not a child in Korea ever noticed or will be hurt in any way. Who reads an eye chart anyway?

The author of this post and her/his promoting poor stereotypes of native-speaking English teachers is much more dangerous than that textbook ever was. Imagine if a Korean had done something similar in a Korean textbook in the States. Would anyone advocate "kick every native Korean speaking teacher out of the country" as was done above? It would be considered ridiculously prejudiced and called racist by many. Frankly that first statement above is very irresponsible in the way it incites animosity toward a minority in THIS country.

And the statement, "when you hand adult responsibilities to twenty-somethings partying overseas" is utterly ludicrous. Are not twenty-somethings adults? At what age to you propose we allow someone to become a teacher? Last time I checked, a 22-year-old with a college degree was plenty ready to be considered an adult, and many of them are the most enthusiastic and passionate teachers around.

And what's wrong with partying overseas? I know plenty of people who party in their home countries and plenty of people who party overseas. Does that make them bad teachers? I'm sure even the author doesn't believe that they are partying while they're teaching. Are teachers not allowed to go to parties after work? You'll lose a lot of quality teachers if they're not allowed to have fun with friends outside of the classroom.

Overall I think the author needs to think through postings quite a bit more before making blanket statements about any class or group of people.

@ Steve

You have a point. I think what the author is referring to is the rising number of English teachers in Korea who are stirring the pot. Koreans aren't diggin' it. There's nothing wrong with partying either, but there's a point where the party "fuck around" mentality starts to spill over into work. This could be a manifestation of that.

And I won't even get into all the other crap I hear first hand from the native English teachers I know...

It seems that the writer of this blog has a major bug up his/her anal cavity. He/she represents many things wrong with Korea: irrationality, ethnocentrism, racism, prejudice and reactionary thinking.

There are many good native English teachers here in Korea. They are dedicated to the success of their Korean pupils. Just because some fool does something inane does not mean that we agree with it. We serious teachers condemn such sophomoric behavior. We want those teachers to get the boot as much as the blogger. But the lump all of us in this is fundamentally unfair and reactionary.

We native English teachers wouldn't need to be here if: 1) Korea stopped its backward obsession with test-taking; 2) Korean EFL teachers stopped "teaching to the test"; and 3) Koreans put their ethnocentrism (which I argue is an affective filter preventing and resisting full competence in the language) to the side long enough to learn English in meaningful way.

(As a side note, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) is concerned about South Korea's ethnocentrism. See UNCERD CERD/C/SR.1834 August 16, 2007 Report)

We are here to get the Korean teachers to move towards the communicative language teaching (CLT) methodology which they resist to do in their classes. The continue to use the grammar-translation method, which is widely discredited, in their classrooms. This method is very much a demotivating factor in ELT classrooms.

Students sit in the class while the Korean teacher teaches ABOUT English. It is a lecture about grammar and vocabulary. Nothing else is taught. No wonder Koreans are known around the world as some of the worst English speakers. (I was in Africa recently and a Malaysian law professor who teaches in Australia told me that his Korean students are the worst at English. Also, 44% of Koreans drop out of elite American universities because of their lack of English academic literacy and communication skills.)

Because of this failure to teach CLT, Korean parents have no confidence in Korean English teachers and enroll their children in the Haqwons. As a South African professor told me, when the public schools cannot fill the need, people naturally will go the private route. That means we will see this English frenzy and the need for Native English teachers continue indefinitely.

He/she represents many things wrong with Korea: irrationality, ethnocentrism, racism, prejudice and reactionary thinking ... But the lump all of us in this is fundamentally unfair and reactionary.

You've misunderstood the nature of the post. Reread, including the postscript.

@OBT,

You sir, represent the typical ugly and arrogant foreigner who comes to Korea pretending to know what is exactly wrong with them, what is best for them, and because you are superior, should be listened to by all of them.

If it is your belief that Koreans have many things wrong with them, including being "irrational, ethnocentric, racist, prejudiced and reactionary", why don't you leave already? They don't need you and from the tone of your post, you clearly don't like them.

And save your UN Committee claptrap. The last thing Korea needs are left-wing social experimenters like you and your ilk that would like nothing better than to turn Korea into a garbage dump. Again, if you don't like how you are being treated in Korea, just leave. Or learn to deal with being a minority. Everyone else does and I never hear them grousing as much as I do white male English teachers.

By the way, learn to read. The writer of the blog is clearly not lumping all English teachers together although it's obvious you deserve a few lumps on the head.

And save your lecture on CLT. While mildly interesting, the blog post is not about that. You're off on a tangent.

Somehow I just stumbled on to this blog. I think you folks have been had. Kushibo has the obvious answer on what happened here, regardless of what some clown said on Reddit. Someone writing this book googled "eye chart" and got this. Then he or she decided more numerals were needed and thus substituted a "2" for the "T."

But at the end of the day, what does it matter? In what universe do Korean kids know some of these initialisms are obscenities? No harm, no foul. Next.

A Brooks-

You are a big fool and a hater. Take your hate somewhere else.

what about teaching the korean kids that gay marriage is ok? ..that abortion is ok? I worked there and the parents had no idea the 22 year old American teachers said that to the young girls, specifically that if pregnant, simply abort!

*********

another reason to hate americans

[ Editor: Please don't post personal informations -- you're gonna get me into trouble! ]

yes aand some openly flaunt sexual ideas, and even try to sleep with students. global prodigy

teaching homosexuality etc. yes we know why many come to korea

It is interesting how some articles just collect dozens of enthusiastic comments. And this article does not even mention "Kim Yuna" !!!

Tim Avants, you sound insane or are a coward. If teachers tried to sleep with students you need to go back and press charges... or this is all in your head, and you're insane.

I'm covering my bets and betting on both: insane coward.

no ur a closeter doing things in the dark=thats why UR here
got one urself? whatcha doin idiot?

in fact ive been here 4 years and know 8 people who slept with students. what ur REAL name? whos the coward? uh huh

im betting ur doing the SAME THING MAYBE SAME SEX!

hey chris dont hide behind the internet
be a real man there in tx
we know where ur located
san antonio?
insane?
whos the coward?

san antonio
keep talkin

chrissy = scaredy cat