English level of Korean teachers in Seoul schools

[weirdgirlinkorea]

I can only speak to the public elementary and middle schools but here's my experience in both in school and during contract teacher evaluations (that SMOE performs to hire). My first set of CTs was a mixed bag. One teacher slightly younger than me, very fluent including understanding most idioms (she studies them), another one brand new teacher, pretty fluent in standard English, and the other was not fluent but if you spoke really slow you could sort of conduct a complete conversation. The following term (last term) I got a teacher (who on paper looks really good) who is pretty fluent conversationally but in the classroom her grammar would sink (don't know why) and make me cringe and I'd have to covertly correct her to the students. This term, I only have one and it's the only one I've had since I've been here (the really fluent one) but I only teach one grade with her (I wish it was more). I am now (more or less) teaching the other grades alone with help from the homeroom teachers when they can. During camp I teach with the contract teacher and (I also evaluated incoming contract English teachers) it's my experience that the ones who pass are generally really fluent. The one at my school now is exceptionally fluent. I don't know her idiom ability, but she understands just about everything I say and I have no trouble understanding her. It was almost the same with our previous contract teacher. The English ability in my school for the most part seems to be by age level, from the oldest having virtually no English to the youngest (with a few exceptions) having excellent fluency.

[Haniekim]

well very agreed

I don't think that being in Seoul always means you're more likely to have coteachers with very high English levels. I teach at two tiny schools in Gyeongbuk, but three of my coteachers have excellent English and one is almost fluent. The fluent one is in her forties, but the other three are very young, so their ages might have something to do with it. Are your coteachers older?

[Incredagogue]

Teachers at my old Hagwon had noticeably better English than any of the 4 KTs at my current school. I need to speak very slowly and in very simple English to all my teachers these days, which makes lesson planning meetings extremely painful.

I would be interested to see a poll on this subject!

[Yu_Bumsuk]

I don't work in Seoul (I know, sorry) but maybe I can provide some insight here. I teach at a teacher's university and help students prepare for their teacher's certification exam. Each province or  large city has it's own exam and teachers must take the exam where they plan to teach. The amount of new jobs is set each year, this year in Seoul it's around 600. So...the top 600 scorers are the ones who will get jobs. The teacher's exam is taken in 3 parts, one of them being an English interview and lesson. Naturally, the pool is much more competitive in Seoul than it is everywhere else, so it's safe to assume the top 600 teachers hired in Seoul (a fraction of all those who sit the test) have impeccable English abilities/scores. Teachers in rural provinces are much more likely to have low scores because there is less competition.

Hope that helped 

So...are you saying that ALL teachers in Korea, as a part of their teachers certification, have to pass an exam in which they demonstrate something like proficiency in English?   This news is shocking to me--because, as I mentioned earlier--NO ONE in my Seoul school can utter a single correct/complete sentence in English.  I'm not exaggerating. 

Your post makes it sound really competitive---leading one to believe that any K teacher in Seoul should really be at the top of their game.  And I'm sure that's the case in most circumstances.  I don't know what happened at my school, though.

No, she's saying that younger, tenured teachers at "public-public" schools do.

[Davox]

I don't work in Seoul (I know, sorry) but maybe I can provide some insight here. I teach at a teacher's university and help students prepare for their teacher's certification exam. Each province or  large city has it's own exam and teachers must take the exam where they plan to teach. The amount of new jobs is set each year, this year in Seoul it's around 600. So...the top 600 scorers are the ones who will get jobs. The teacher's exam is taken in 3 parts, one of them being an English interview and lesson. Naturally, the pool is much more competitive in Seoul than it is everywhere else, so it's safe to assume the top 600 teachers hired in Seoul (a fraction of all those who sit the test) have impeccable English abilities/scores. Teachers in rural provinces are much more likely to have low scores because there is less competition.

Hope that helped 

So...are you saying that ALL teachers in Korea, as a part of their teachers certification, have to pass an exam in which they demonstrate something like proficiency in English?   This news is shocking to me--because, as I mentioned earlier--NO ONE in my Seoul school can utter a single correct/complete sentence in English.  I'm not exaggerating. 

Your post makes it sound really competitive---leading one to believe that any K teacher in Seoul should really be at the top of their game.  And I'm sure that's the case in most circumstances.  I don't know what happened at my school, though.

My understanding, based on conversations with teachers:  It is really competitive, and you DO have to be at the top of your game to pass,  but English is just a small part of a much larger and meaner test.  And the English interview portion of the test would be administered by other (older) Koreans who may or may not be fluent themselves.

And also, the English portion of the test would be much newer than the other portions, probably only the youngest teachers (if any) at your school would have had to do it.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

My understanding, based on conversations with teachers:  It is really competitive, and you DO have to be at the top of your game to pass,  but English is just a small part of a much larger and meaner test.  And the English interview portion of the test would be administered by other (older) Koreans who may or may not be fluent themselves.

And also, the English portion of the test would be much newer than the other portions, probably only the youngest teachers (if any) at your school would have had to do it.

Again, if they're not a contract teacher, which most younger teachers are in some districts.