Korean-English teachers renew their love of English

Choi Tae-Hwan, an English teacher at Jeonnam Middle School in Gwangju, was one of 40 Korean teachers who attended a three-week training programme at St. Clare's. The aim of the course was to expose Korean-English teachers to an authentic English-speaking environment with a view to developing their teaching methodology and improving their English proficiency. Tae-Hwan's positive experience prompted him to write a review of the course in the Korean Times.

Teachers attended classes in the morning and took part in afternoon and weekend excursions. An interesting aspect of their course was described by Tae-Hwan "More than anything else, on the first day of our training program, what surprised the Korean-English teachers most was the wide-ranging use of British English with respect to words, phrases and pronunciation. British English is very different from the American English to which most Koreans are exposed. For example, the words ``toilet" and ``WC" for restroom, ``underground" and ``tube" for subway, ``ground floor" for first floor, and so on. We experienced some difficulty in learning to correctly pronounce words such as job, water, center, and other words, all of which will be of great help for our English students in Korea." This illustrates just how different learning English is in different English speaking countries.

These professional development programmes are beneficial in many ways but mainly give teachers an opportunity to step outside their comfort zone and stretch their skills. Again Tae-Hwan illustrates this point - "It goes without saying that this training program is sure to have the effect of recharging all 40 Korean-English teachers, all of whom are dissatisfied with teaching English in a classroom isolated from real English. The program has provided us with a golden opportunity to renew our love for the English language and for teaching English, as well as exposing us to a variety of authentic English teaching materials that we can use for the upcoming new semester."

Read the full article in the Korean Times.