GETs are not the problem

EPIK has the potential to be a great program, but can never be under the current culture of Korean education. From my two years of experience under EPIK, the failings of Korean students when it comes to English education are placed largely on the GETs, which is the last place it should be. As a GET, I had no means of authority or discipline in the classroom, so students ran rampant and co-teachers, when in class, rarely did anything to control the students. Slaps on the head or hands with rulers did nothing to discourage troublemakers or improve classroom morale.

When it comes to co-teachers, they NEED to be able to speak English, not only to effectively teach the language but to be able to communicate with the GET. Too many of my friends were little more than tape recorders or robots in the classroom, and had no means of improving their situation because the co-teacher couldn't understand them. In the US, if a teacher is instructing on a foreign language, they are required to be fluent in it, in reading, writing, grammar, AND speech. My English Dept. head could BARELY speak English and had no passion as a teacher, whereas my co-teacher in my last school was fluent and passionate but always cut down by her superiors. That is not right and an all-to-common example of the failure of Korean culture when it comes to education. The older teacher is NOT always right.

If EPIK wants to be a viable program, one that effectively instructs students on how to use English, there needs to be a nationwide curriculum, one that is taught by every teacher across the country. It's no wonder that Korean students are learning English at different paces and levels when every GET is forced to go it alone. Both years, I arrived to NO curriculum, having to scramble to create my own lessons with NO basis to follow. It's certainly expected to have to do lesson-planning, but without a base curriculum, what are we to teach that gives ALL students an equal chance to learn?

There's only so much whitewash one can use before the dirt shows thru, and that's what is happening with the Korean education system. I regularly saw Korean teachers faking important documents to hide the truth of their students' grades; I was told point-blank that all our high school seniors would graduate REGARDLESS of their grades. What's the point in teaching if everyone passes anyway? My Korean co-workers regularly commended my diligence in lesson-planning and teaching, but it's because it's a diligence they don't have! Too many times my KT told me she didn't care about the high school students because of their attitudes and behaviour, and so would not teach them. The growing ignorance of this generation of Korean students will surely show through the whitewash the longer the truth is covered up.

By cancelling the EPIK program, as is rumoured to be happening, you are not fixing the problem. The GETs are not the problem; they want to be the solution, to be the driving force in English education, but we are not given the tools, only the blame. And so, South Korea will isolate itself from the Western world by removing the thousands of Westerners who are eager to share their culture and experiences, allowing Korea to dive deeper into the homogeneity it so prizes. Maybe North and South will someday reunify, but in my view, the isolation caused by dismissing waygook teachers will create in the South a culture akin to that of the North, and they can be alone together.