Useful reading on teaching English in Asia

Written by Isabelle Saturday, 05 February 2011 11:59

Thanks, Isabelle, for sending in these poignant insights for us to check out/share:

"First, there's the U.S. Embassy's description of ESL teaching in South Korea.  Their description of working conditions in the EPIK program hits the nail on the head. 
http://seoul.usembassy.gov/t_types.html

Second, there's a series of articles at "Transitions Abroad," by Gregory Mavrides, an American who's taught English there for 8 years.  He's very perceptive, and most of what he says applies to teaching English in Korea, at least what I've experienced so far. 

a)  "How to Choose Your First Job Teaching English in China."  http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/esl/articles/choosing-first-job-teaching-english-china.shtml

Worth reading for this paragraph alone: ".. as a rule, foreign English teachers are not recruited by deliberate choice or preference on the part of either the educational system or the private English language school industry. Public schools and universities are simply meeting a highly contested and bitterly resented national requirement of the Ministry of Education that states all Chinese students of English must be exposed to a native English speaker and, in the latter case, the hiring of white faces with which to adorn the classrooms is considered a necessary and very costly business expense. You won’t find one foreign language department head in China who truly believes that the presence of the foreign teacher is anything but superfluous (at best) and, similarly, you won’t find one Chinese owner of a private English language school who wouldn’t prefer to replace every single one of his foreign teachers with a licensed Chinese teacher if he knew doing so wouldn’t hurt his business, i.e., Chinese parents expect to see foreign faces at private English language schools." 

I suspect this is true in Korea.  It can be overcome, but the skepticism is there. 

b)  "Culture Shock in China."  http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/articles/culture_shock_in_china.shtml

Very good on the language barrier (a highway to infantilization) and last-minute scheduling of everything:  "From a Western perspective, it seems that even the most mundane occurrences—such as upcoming holidays and rescheduled work days—are treated like domestic top secrets. Due to the rather complex nature of Chinese government and organizational bureaucracy, this is an ingrained part of the culture and nothing you can say or do is going to have any influence. Complaining repeatedly about how you expect to be given advance notice is not going to change a system that has cultural antecedents dating back some 4,000 years, so it is best that you simply remain flexible and, by all means, do not personalize it." 

c)  "Keeping Face in China"  http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/articles/keeping_face_in_china.shtml

All of it.  Just read it."