My response to "Ten Tips for Newbies to the Korean University Teaching Experience"

 My Life! has a great post called "Ten Tips for Newbies to the Korean University Teaching Experience"

I typed up my response to these tips for the comments, but then realized that my response was both longer than her original post and also did not even fit in the comment field. I thought that I'd like to post it and the original points here for you to enjoy. Here are her 10 tips:

1. Your students will not be as high of level as you think.  While they may have an impressive range of vocabulary, they're often extremely weak in actually using it.  And basic grammar points will need to be reviewed.

2. University is a party-time for Korean students, between Sooneung Hell and selling their souls to Samsung or Hyundai or Kia.  Adjust your classes accordingly.  If you make them too hard with too much homework, the students will be unhappy.  Give a little bit or homework and a few tests so you can have some self-respect but don't stress too much about making it like a university class is "back home."

3. Don't trust the students to "check" the box for their own attendance.  They will lie and cheat for their friends.  You need to personally do it.  And carefully.  It's the only fair way.

4. Don't accept Kyeol-gung-wons (absence excuse papers) for minor things like colds.  Reserve it for the serious such as a car accident/brain trauma/close family member's death. 

5. Chill out.  Korea is a Bali-Bali (fast-fast) last minute kind of culture.  Lots of decisions will happen just in time with regard to classes and schedules and housing.  Don't worry about it and just go with the flow.  If you stress out about it, something terrible might happen to you by the end of your year, like all your hair falling out.  I guarantee it.

6. Cheating (cunning) is not such a serious offense in Korea as it is in the Western World.  Most students think nothing of plagiarizing something off the Internet for a written assignment.  Or copying off their friend in the few minutes before class starts.  Or bringing a cheating paper to the test.  So give assignments and tests that minimize this and you won't have to deal with it.  I do exclusively speaking tests, with groups of 2-4 students in my office.  There is no possible way for them to cheat.  And I simply don't assign the "workbook" as homework. 

7. Class sizes really do matter.  Before accepting a job, perhaps the most important question to ask would be, "What are the class sizes?"  I'm not sure I would ever take a job with more than 40.  This was the reality in my first semester and it was extremely difficult.  Now, some of my classes are down to 10 students and the difference is astounding.  I can actually get to know my students as individuals and see them actually improve their English skills.  It's far more rewarding.

8. Simple is better.  Syllabi, tests, activities, grammar points.  Everything really.

9. Keep on top of the paperwork.  Input attendance into the computer each week.  Enter grades into your spreadsheets as you get them.  Have at least a couple of weeks lessons planned ahead of time.

10. Your teaching impact does not equal your self-worth.  You'll have some bad classes and students that don't like you.  It doesn't mean that you're a bad person, or a terrible teacher.  Get some hobbies and friends and learn to leave your teaching behind you at the end of the day.

After 19 semesters of teaching in Korean universities, I'd say this list isn't too far off.  I’d like to add my 20 won to each of these, if you don’t mind.

1. I agree that students will be lower level than you think. More importantly, I think that our students vary much more than we realize in every given class. They each have a very different set of strengths and weaknesses that are not apparent at first. You may have to dig a little deeper than you expect to figure out their overall levels.

2.  This is certainly true for the first-year students. I noticed it to be true for the guys before they go off to do their military service as well. I use past tense because I’ve been at a women’s university for the past 6 years and things are a little different here. About five years ago, the administration gave the department the green light to “make the curriculum more academically challenging.” With support from above, we were able to make changes. Students started taking the classes more seriously because they were told they had to. This trend is not just limited to my place of work, but something I’ve noticed at other Seoul-based universities (to some extent). The key is that it has to be top-down. As a new teacher, you are not going to change the world. If you try, you will become the square peg that just does not fit in and you will have many problems.

3. Absolutely true. This is related to number 6 as well. I tell my students that I trust them individually as people; that I know that they (personally) would NEVER do anything like that but I don’t trust students in general because all of the other students will cheat.

4. This one is complicated. Unlike North American universities, Korean colleges check attendance, and if a student misses too many classes they fail. Part of the system is that they get a note from the doctor. After my own experience with getting a doctor’s note (for an extension on an assignment for my doctoral studies), I now treat these all with a grain of salt. In my case, I sat down with the doctor and told him what I needed it to say. I told him the dates and he wrote what I asked him to write. I paid a fee for the document and that was it.) I’ve had students come in at the end of the semester with one of these notes for each day they had missed throughout the whole semester. Now I know what she did.

On the other hand, people get sick. In Korea, people get sick and go to work/class. Then more people get sick. I tell them that if they are not well to send me a message before class and I’ll probably forget about it. Probably. They know that they are responsible for anything missed. I don’t want sick people in the class. I’d rather they stayed home or went home and rested and tried to get better. They’re not very likely to learn much anyway.

Have your own attendance policy that adheres to the “spirit” of the university system, if not to the letter. Ms Bolen states that she doesn’t check 결궁원’s for minor things. That is her policy. I have known people who tell them that they all get two freebie absences—no questions asked. After that, they are penalized—again, no questions asked, or no excuses accepted. They then use them very wisely. Knowing the teacher, there are times when exceptions are made, but only if it is something major and they talk to the teacher in a timely manner.

5. This is probably the best advice. In fact there are times that I have to remind myself of this even after more than a decade in the country. I think the people who are most successful are best at dealing with this aspect of the culture.

6. This is one of the biggest areas of stress for many a teacher or professor. The way around it is through planning. It also helps to understand it. All cultures have a hierarchy of values. Western culture tends to value honesty higher than loyalty (or at least on an equal level). Here, loyalty trumps all. Loyalty to your family, to your seniors, to your friends, and to your juniors. Sometimes if you’ve got an age difference in your class, the younger student really will have no choice but to help the older one cheat—if asked.

The trick here is in the curriculum and assessment design. Speaking tests are good for this, but for beginning teachers can be difficult to assess fairly and accurately. Speaking tests are also only good if you are teaching a speaking course. The assessment should match the course’s aims, goals, and objectives. For writing, focus on the process and actually give class time for them to work. Make sure they know that you will be collecting everything they write (brainstorms, outlines, drafts, etc) and follow them along in the process. If they submit a paper without all the other stuff, or if the paper doesn’t match the process, you’ve got red flags.

You’ll need to teach them about plagiarism. You’ll have to teach them about how to cite sources and why. Much of the plagiarism stems from a COMPLETE ignorance of it. We’re teachers—teach them what they need to know so they don’t make the mistake.

7. Class sizes should be a bigger deciding factor in accepting a job than teaching hours. I’ve had classes as big as 60 and as small as 12. In the former, everyone’s time was wasted while in the latter, real learning took place.

8. Simple is better. I don’t want to add much to this so as not to complicate things.

But I will.
Clear instructions are just as important. ALWAYS write instructions out on the board or printed on paper. This will save you more time, will improve the quality of work you receive, and will help facilitate a more smoothly-run class.

9. Two minutes per day per class is nothing if you do it every day. It’s a whole day if you wait until the end of the semester to do your attendance. It’s another day of Excel madness if keep your grades on a paper and then try to enter everything at once.

10. When you are at work, work. I like to bring as little work home as possible, even if it means I stay late or come in very early in the morning. Then when I leave work, I leave the work there. Hobbies are good. Friends outside of work are good.
Having a blog about teaching is... well... I suppose it might just make one get burnt out.