The end of an era.

I'd like to pause for a moment to reflect on the passing of one of Britain's most endearing personalities and an all-round nice guy.

Richard Whiteley (OBE), host of the cult word TV quiz Countdown for 23 years, died on Sunday night, aged 61, shortly after a two-month struggle with pneumonia.

Esther Rantzen's comment really strikes a chord: 'He was just one of those people who made you smile.'

There's a lovely tesimony by his long-time friend and co-host Carol Vorderman here.

Flirting in Korean / 한국말로 '플러트'하기

As a follow-up to the previous post trying to define (and accurately translate) a few notoriously 'Korean' concepts, how about the other way round?

The word that's doing the rounds of the staffroom right now is 'to flirt', in the sense of "to behave as if sexually attracted to someone, although not seriously". How can this be best expressed in Korean? There are a few suggestions below. And I've highlighted the most likely ones.

from the Yahoo Korean Dictionary
장난삼아 연애하다 [(of a woman) love someone for the fun of it]
아양/교태(를) 부리다 [(of a woman) flatter or play the coquette]
시시덕거리다 [(of a man) chat and laugh together]
희롱하다 [tease/joke with]

from students
꼬리(를) 치다 [entice/seduce someone (literally: wag one's tail)]
작업하다 [colloquially: act seductively]

Very Korean - 정.한.왕따.눈치

정 (情) jeong
My concise Korean Language Dictionary by Geum-Seong [Planet Venus] Press defines it as:
1. 사람이 다른 사람이나 동물과 함께 오랫동안 지내 오면서 생기는 좋아하는 마음. 또는, 사람이 오래 살거나 생활해 온 곳에 대하여 가깝게 느끼는 마음.
[1. A fond feeling/mood that arises as one lives with another person or animal for a long time. Or, a feeling of closeness towards a place where one has been living or making a living for a long time.]
2. 특히, 남녀간의 애정.
[2. Tenderness, especially between men and women.]
3. 남을 도와주거나 배려하는 따뜻한 마음.
[3. A warm feeling/mood for helping or concerning oneself with others.]
4. '감정', '마음'을 가리키는 말.
[4. (A word signifying) 'feelings' or 'mood'.]

The first, and apparently most common, meaning could probably best be expressed in English along the lines of "we're very close", "we're old friends" or "we've known each other a long time", where other people are concerned. Referring to a thing, "(I've) had it for such a long time..." or "(I) feel like it's a part of (me)" expresses a similar sentiment.

~~~
한 (恨) han
Korean Language Dictionary definition:
억울하거나 원통하거나 원망스러워 쉽게 잊히지 않고 마음속에 단단히 응어리가 진 감정.
[A feeling not easily forgotton and firmly ingrained in one's heart from feeling unfairly treated or let down or bitter]

NB. Would you say this could be best said as "a grudge", "I feel bitter (about it)", "(it) leaves a bad taste in your mouth" or "hurt" (uncountable), or something else?

~~~~~~~~~~
왕따 (王-) wang-tta
Planet Venus: 어떤 사람을 집단적으로 괴롭히고 따돌리는 일. 또는, 그런 따돌림을 받는 사람.
[Collectively harassing and excluding/ostracising a person, or the person who is ostracised.]

NB. This would seem to most closely fit the English words 'exclude', 'ostracise' or 'alienate' rather than, as most dictionaries would have it, 'bully' ('to hurt or frighten someone who is smaller or less powerful than you, often forcing them to do something they do not want to do' - Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary).

~~~~~~~~~~
눈치 nun-chi
1. 남의 마음이나 뜻을 그때그때의 상황으로 미루어 얼른 알아차리는 힘.
[1. The ability to judge or promptly perceive a person's mood or intentions in a given situation.]
2. 미루어 짐작할 만하게 사람의 행동에 은근히 드러나는 어떤 태도나 뜻.
[2. An attitude or intention quietly revealed in a person's behaviour, able to be judged or guessed.]

NB. 'Perceptiveness', 'intuition'; or simply 'alertness' 'being observant', 'being sensitive to someone's mood' or 'being on the ball'. (Therefore "눈치있네! --> You're very perceptive / observant!") What do folks out there reckon?

Top 10 Most Romantic Lines From New English Language Students

I love this! (From www.InnocentEnglish.com)

1. I fell in love with her the first time I sawed her.
2. He had such a worm heart.
3. We were two sheeps passing in the night.
4. We have hated each other for so long. I want to borrow the hatchet.
5. My dentist makes me blush twice a day.
6. I don't know if he will propose, but I am expecting.
7. I have something exciting to tell you. My girlfriend and I got enragedlast night!
8. The groom was wearing a very nice croissant.
9. He lifted the veal off her face and gave her a big kiss.
10. I think she is really glad she got marinated.

And more mistakes from the same site:

• Recipes: Next, chop all the vegetarians into little pieces.
• Health: It is dangerous to smoke while you are becoming pregnant.
• Sports: It was so exciting to watch! The cheerleaders threw up high into the air.
• Music: When he was through singing he had a standing ovulation.
• Food: Do you like this food? I made it from scratching!
• Weather: Rain makes old cars lust. So be careful about that.
• Travel: You can't sleep with me because it is too crowded. But you can probably sleep with my sister. That's what most of my friends do when they visit.

Baseball / 야구

Yesterday evening, for the first time in my life, I went to a baseball game.

Apart from only the vaguest memories of playing 'rounders' as a kid, I had not a clue of the rules or anything important like that. For the first ten minutes, in fact, I didn't have the heart to point out that I wasn't sure which team was which. But, well, I'm not the greatest sports spectator the world's ever known. I'll admit that much.

A friend of a friend here who's an amateur baseball player in a local team invited me along to watch Lotte (from Busan) play Kia (from Gwangju). Lotte had been doing very well so far this season I'd heard, and everyone's talking about them down here.

It took a while to have any idea what was going on on the field, but the crowd was entertainment enough until someone could take their eyes away from the four oversized brown molehills on the otherwise green pitch for long enough to try to explain the rules. Something like, there are only 8 people on a baseball team, even though I could clearly see at least 30 people wearing the same uniform; a 'strike' is when the guy with the bat DOESN'T strike the ball; and a 'ball' is actually a NO-BALL, because it's outside the 'strike zone'. You have to hit the ball. Preferably inside the stadium. The bats really aren't the most useful design for hitting such a small ball though, as evidenced by how many flew backwards into the crowd...

The atmosphere was terrific (apart from the downer at the end - Lotte lost, 5-7) as lots of groups of families and friends had turned out, laden with beer and dried squid aplenty, for the game. The cheerleaders were also very, er, professional.

Apparently, unlike the other clubs in Korea, Lotte have a tradition that when a ball gets hit into the crowd, it gets given to a youngster. Shouts of "아주라!" (Give it to a kid!) sprang up wherever a ball landed. The little boy in the seat in front of us was getting seriously excited about that - "아주라! 아주라!"

~~~~~~~~~~
To the catchy tune of "Glory, Glory, Halleluia", here's Lotte's theme tune:
"Lotte, Lotte, Lotte, Lo-tte,
Lotte, Lotte, Lotte, Lo-tte,
Lotte, Lotte, Lotte, Lo-tte,
Seung-ni-e [victory], Lotte!"

S Korea 'more hostile' for foreign staff

Teachers organise to counter poor treatment and a tarnished image, reports Liz Ford.

Friday June 24, 2005 Guardian Weekly

English-language teachers in South Korea are to set up a national union to counter a backlash against foreign workers. Last month delegates at a conference organised by Asian EFL Journal, attended by some 400 teachers, agreed to press ahead with "long overdue" plans to establish a union in order to protect teachers' rights. The union would be the first of its kind for English language teachers in the country.

An official from the ministry of labour told Learning English that any foreigners working in the country legally had the right to unionise. English teachers who work on government education programmes are already entitled to join the union for native Korean teachers, although applying can be a long process.

The move has been prompted by recent attacks on the profession in Korea. A documentary that portrayed English teachers as lazy and unqualified, broadcast on national television earlier this year, coupled with salacious comments about where to meet Korean women, discovered on the talkboards of a website specifically for English teachers - Englishspectrum.com - caused widespread consternation in the local press and sparked an online petition to keep foreigners out of the country.

This was followed in March by the high-profile arrest of two Canadian teachers who were jailed and later deported following a fight outside a bar in Seoul. One of the Canadian teachers was believed to be working in the country illegally.

The Korean government has been on a mission to expel illegal foreign workers for some time. Although the justice ministry denies there is a renewed crackdown, there does seem to be a more concerted effort to clean up the ELT sector, with raids on schools and the arrest of owners and teachers.

Four Korean recruiters were recently fined up to $10,000 for employing illegal teachers. And in March, police raided 28 English language schools in the southern city of Busan and arrested their owner for employing unqualified teachers who were working in the country on tourist visas. Some of the teachers were believed to be from Russia and Turkey who were being passed off as native English teachers.

Official figures put the number of English teachers working legally in Korea at 7,800, but the number of those working without the necessary papers is believed to be significant. The government would not speculate, but two years ago the Korea Times put the figure at close to 20,000.

An increase in the number of hagwon - privately run schools - set up in the country over the past 10 years to meet the growing demand for English language lessons has been partly blamed for the rise in illegal workers. Owners of some of these schools regularly flout labour and immigration laws, turning a blind eye to standards and employing foreigners without visas and, in some cases, with fake qualifications.

Caroline Linse, an associate professor at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, says the sector should be more demanding. "Anyone working with children should have the appropriate background check. People need a commitment to teach children. My concern is not a lot of people are talking about the issue."

While moves to clean up the industry have been largely welcomed by the EFL community, which believes it will ensure quality, it has also brought into focus the lack of rights afforded to teachers working in the country legally. The attacks on the profession do not appear to have deterred teachers from working in the country, but there are concerns that forcing schools to uphold standards could have a negative impact on them.

According to EFL-law.com, more than 20 teachers a week have serious contractual disputes with their employees, while a further 50 to 70 encounter minor problems.

"The most urgent thing is dismissal," says Davidson, who is one of the teaching union organisers. "As soon as someone is dismissed they have to leave Korea, so you can't fight for your rights."

The debate comes as the Korean government tries to increase the number of native English teachers in the country. According to reports in the Korea Times, the government wants to recruit more than 900 teachers in the capital alone to boost language learning in schools. It is also keen to encourage more "English villages" (all-English activity centres), which give students full immersion teaching.

Silence is golden

This is adapted from the The Observer, Sunday June 12, 2005.

When Greta Garbo said: 'I want to be alone', it sounded like a spoilt joke. Nowadays, tap the word 'retreat' into Google and an astonishing number of options appear: Christian, Buddhist, Zen, Sufi, New Age. The desire to find peace and solitude, according to the British Retreat Association, has never been so strong.

Why the need to get away from it all? And why now more than ever? According to Will Hutton, chief executive at the Work Foundation, research shows that for many people the message is: 'I don't want to give my all to employers. I want some part of me that's mine.' They want flexible hours - and time out. Hutton believes there is a growing number looking for 'inner calm'. He thinks it significant that hits on the foundation's website on work/life balance have more than quadrupled in two years.

Adam Phillips, the pyschoanalyst and writer, is not surprised by the growing popularity of retreats: 'People are aware of having too many external stimuli. What do you hear when you stop listening? The question is about whether anyone has an internal world any more.'

Mobile phones make us incessantly - often pointlessly - available. (How would Wordsworth have got on wandering lonely as a cloud with a mobile ringing in his pocket?) We are noise junkies, equipped to communicate 24/7. Not surprisingly, the British Retreat Association is extending its annuual National Quiet Day to cover the whole of next weekend.

I have been amazed to discover how many people I know have been on retreats but never mentioned them. Retreats are not like summer holidays. They are not a subject for small talk. Besides, silence resists words. One of my friends summed up a general feeling: 'We are endlessly reactive. Even people whose lives seem very successful are asking, "Where is the silence in this? Where is the space to confront mortality or who you are?"'

Caitlin is a full-time mother of three boys (aged three to 10). With the prospect of seven weeks of summer holidays ahead in sole charge of them, she knew what she needed. She needed it in the way that you suddenly need to throw open a window in an airless room. She told her husband: 'I have got to have five days to myself.' She had been getting really bad tempered. 'I was starting to crave being on my own in an almost obsessive way. Time alone is important. People are scared to take it or feel it is self-indulgent. It didn't feel self-indulgent to me at all. It felt like a priority - and it wasn't that I was cracking up.'

She took 'five squeezed-out days' in Cornwall. It was the first time she had been on her own for more than 10 years. How did it get to 10 years? she wondered as she travelled down to Cornwall. She resolved not to talk to anyone (except buying tickets etc). She rented a cottage with a view of the sea, 'a beautiful little spot that I came upon'. And she chose to do things that might have been unpopular with her family. She hired a bike (her husband hates cycling). She read for hours. She went for long walks along the coast. She did not bother to cook. She ate fruit and yoghurt. She got up when it suited her.

Before she left, she was apprehensive: 'Who am I under all this chaos?' She need not have worried. She loved the sense that 'no one knew where I was; it was very liberating'.
She switched off her mobile. There was no television. She was rejuvenated, although: 'I didn't feel like some wisp of a lass. I felt mature - I am nearly 40 - cycling uphill. I didn't care what people thought. The neighbours were curious. I was polite to them, but I wasn't about to chat. I felt this was more important than going away with my husband. I have a happy, loving family life but I didn't miss them at all. I didn't feel in the least bit guilty; I felt I deserved it.'

Adam Phillips says that the hope [in retreats] is that 'silence is unmediated contact with the self that brings you closer to authenticity'. He thinks: 'Words are often a way of not listening, talking a part of one's armour.' For many people, retreat is to do with 'a disillusionment about the value of communication, despair about relationship'.

[...]When I lay down, realising that absolutely nothing was required of me, that I was not about to be interrupted, I felt an unexpected wave of relief and tears sprang to my eyes.

I found a swing that hung from a tree among the rhodedendrons at the furthest margin of the garden. I sat on it, feeling unburdened, unreal, light as a child. I thought about haste. Does it help you get more done? I spent the afternoon looking out on a wild orchard. It was wonderful to feel that no one knew where I was. Wordsworth could have prepared me for it:

When from our better selves we have too long/ Been parted by the hurrying world,
and droop/ Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,/ How gracious, how
benign, is solitude.

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, it did not immediately strike me that there was an absolute suitability in what I was staring at. It was hiking gradually towards the long grass, its shell as queerly tilted as an ill-advisedly chosen hat. A snail.

Let there be music / 음악 연기해라

Sadly I've taken the bait. As a response to a challenge by Gumbi to name my top 10 albums, I've come up with this.

꾐에 빠졌군. Gumbi에서 내 최고 10대 앨범을 선택할 도전에 부응해서 이건 꺼냈다.

뭧시의 생각후에, 난 들었던 좋고 대단하고 지독한 음악을 생각해 본 후에 결과는 난 앨범보다 그냥 개개의 음악작품을 좋아하는 거다. 그렇지만 다음은 세월이 흐르면서 난 좋아했곤 했던 것들이다.

After hours spent thinking up all the good, great and abysmal music I've heard, I've come to the conclusion I'm more of an individual piece of music person than an album person. However, I'll willingly say that some of the ones I've most consistantly enjoyed over the years have been:

(by chronological order of discovery)
Graceland - Paul Simon
Ten - Pearl Jam
Ferment - Catherine Wheel
Hors Saison - Francis Cabrel
Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
The Best of - Paolo Conte
OK Computer - Radiohead
Swing When You're Winning - Robbie Williams
Rapture - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Way to Blue - Nick Drake

I can't put numbers beside these: they all mean such different things to me.
이것들이 나에게 아주 다른 의미를 하는데 평가하지 절대로 못 한다.

역시 클래식 음악을 아주 좋아한데 베토벤이 앨범 하나도 안 만들었지. 그래서 관심이 있으면 (이번 주의) 내 최고 5대의 클래식 음악 작품이 있다.
Also, classical music's one of my great loves and, for better or worse, Beethoven never 'did' albums. So, here for anyone who's interested, are my top 5 classical pieces (this week!):

Vltava (from Ma Vlast) - Bedrich Smetana
The Preludes - Ferenc Liszt
MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) - Michael Nyman
7th Symphony - Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto Number 1 - Béla Bartók

EFL - Crisp Otter

Via a link on Jiri's site - Penang's a beautiful place, isn't it? - I came across a help page for Chinese students wanting to improve their English. I was especially taken by the consonant clusters section:

To help them pronounce -gs (eg. dogs)
dog zone > dog's own > dogs

For -sp and -sps (eg. crisps)
Chris Potter > crisp otter > crisp > crisp salad > crisps

Some humour's completely wasted on learners, isn't it??

There are also some delightful ideas there for practising English rhythm through rhymes.
(Including a cute little rhythmic poem by A. A. Milne, entitled Disobedience.)

EFL - Six Thinking Hats

A little inspired by the work of seminal thinking teacher^^, Edward de Bono (no relation to Gumbi, methinks^^), I decided to spring something a little more creative on my unsuspecting advanced class.

Starting out from the highly likely scenario of them being alien archaeologists visiting Earth in a (probably not so) distant future where humans are extinct, I presented them with objects and asked them, in their capacity as experienced archaeologists, to
A) describe it in detail (colour, materials, shape, size) and
B) try to deduce what it might have been used for, then
C) from this, draw conclusions about the kind of society this was.

For an example, I waved a white, wire coathanger at them, gave them one or two ideas as to what it might be and elicited a few more. (Well, pestered them for more, let's say.) When they started giving up, I threw them a few more ideas, to prove how many uses there really could be, hopefully opening up their imaginations to the possibilities. Then, split them into small groups and gave them 5 fairly random objects each to let their imaginations play with...

(Note: the things that were obvious were harder to be inventive about than those they couldn't name...)

After a slow start, they far exceeded my expectations. One group deduced that humans had been a highly religious race of tiny beings, perhaps 20-30 centimetres tall. (I overheard a highly surreal argument going on about the significance of the chopstick in trying to determine their height.)

After giving them enough time to come up with a reasonably logical, if bizarre, ancient human society, I asked the groups to mingle and share information and views. This part was a lot of fun because they took their roles so seriously!

~~~~~~~~~~
Moving on...

I'd written "creative thinking" on the board in a fairly eccentric way. Under this I'd written de Bono's name and the name of his "Six Thinking Hats" idea. I drew the hats and wrote the most basic meaning of each below it:
white: objective facts
red: emotions
black: negative points
yellow: positive points
green: possibilities
blue: overview

I briefly explained who de Bono is and the idea of chaning hats to see things from different viewpoints. We'd just tried on mainly the white hat (descriptions of the alien objects) and the green hat (possible uses). To some extent they'd also looked at the pros and cons of each possibility, so the yellow and black ones too. And in explaining to the others, they'd had a fairly blue view.

As a class, we then went through another topic (foreign emmigration, as it happens, but any would do) and looked at the facts as they're known, possible solutions, pros and cons of each solution and how people feel about the solutions, and then summarised what we'd done and came to a few (obvious, but well-thought-through) conclusions... (Will they take up my suggestion to write to the government about it? Hmm...)

Outcomes: as they got the hang of all thinking together in one direction at a time, they excelled. They seemed to grasp the concept of the hats easily and enjoyed the challenge of the topic.

Perhaps it even opened their eyes a little to their own possibilities...

~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway, some possible uses for a coathanger:
-as a primitive archer's bow
-decoration (necklace)
-eat with it
-doorknocker/hammer
-wind chime (need two)
-sundial
-weighing scales
-aerial
-a fun spinning game for kids
-a fun balancing game for kids
-for hanging up leaves to dry and then eat
-template for miniature aircraft wings
-etc.

Learning Korean - YOU

To my mind, this can be the most infuriating word to try to say in Korean.

Depending on the context, it can be
너 "you [a little impolite]"
당신 "you [often overly polite]"
형(used by men) 오빠(used by women) "(older) bro."
누나(used by men) 언니(used by women) "(older) sis."
선생님 "teacher" or "Mr./Mrs."
etc.

Most foreigners seem at a loss as to when to use each of these, and misusing them can so easily cause offence in this hierarchy-happy land.

So I've been given this simple advice: grab the person's attention first:
그쪽,...("You there,...") or 저기요,...("Excuse me there...")

Or ask a question of the group or the world in general and wait for the surprised 저요?("Who, me?") that comes up so much in Korean conversations because they have little idea how to say 'you' either...

Then you're free to ask away without ever having to use 'you' again! Brilliant, eh? And after a while hopefully you'll find out their name and what they're happy being called. (Hopefully something more original than 'Mr. Kim'! :p)

Thought for today / 오늘의 생각

Women are like apples on a tree.

The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they're afraid of getting hurt. So instead, they just take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy to get... The apples at the top of the tree think there's something wrong with them, when, in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along - one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top.

Men, on the other hand, are like a fine wine.

They begin as grapes... and it's up to women to stomp on them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Dictionary / 사전

My Korean-English dictionary reads like something a Jane Austen novel. Lots of putting on airs and keeping up appearances, submitting to one's husband or master. Dozens of moralistic example sentences - "The neckline on her dress is cut much too low." Mostly overly stiff and formal English.

내 한영.영한 사전이 제인 오스틴 소설과 비슷한데 잘난 척 하기도 겉꾸리기도 남편과 주인에 복종하기도 많다. "그녀의 드레스의 목둘레가 아직 너무 깊다"같은 수십의 예가 있다. 대개는 과도하게 딱딱한 영어다.

It has been very useful, but when you're used to the OED being based on a language corpus and hence arranged with the most common meaning of a word first, the seemingly random order of definitions in the Korean-English one can be disorientating.

쓸모 정말 있지마는 내가 언어 집성(集成)에 근거를 두고 있는 OED[옥스포드 영어사전]에 익숙해졌으니 한영사전에 겉으로 정의의 무순이 방향을 상실하게 한다.

So, I decided to get a straightforward Korean dictionary. Hopefully it'll eliminate the problems inherant in trying to explain words in another language and I can come up with my own translations if necessary.

따라서 국어사전을 사기로 했다. 잘하면 다른 단어를 언어로 설명하는 문제를 제거할 것이다. 필요하다면 내 자신의 번역을 만들 수 있기도 한다.

I've opted for the "Concise Korean Language Dictionary" published by Geumseong Press. [콘사이스 국어사전. 금성출판사]

It seems to have the right mix of definitions, examples of usage and pronunciation help. Moreover, it's up-to-date enough to have "Bin Laden" in it...

정의와 관용의 예와 발음도움의 좋은 혼합인 거 같다. 게다가 아주 최신이니까 "빈라덴"도 있는데...

~~~~~~~~~~
While I was writing this, I found this informed page on formal and informal English.

EFL - Geert Hofstede

I'm very interested about finding out opinions on this! I may bring this topic up with some of my classes later this week...

For those of you who've not heard of Geert Hofstede, he's a Dutch university professor specialising in cultural differences in a business context. His research techniques have found him many critics (myself included) but to some extent his findings echo similar comments in tourist guidebooks and the Culture Shock series.

Between 1967 and 1973 he analysed data on over 70 countries, collected by IBM from employees worldwide. (The seemingly old age of the study matters little, according to Hofstede, as national culture is very slow to change.) There were 4 main elements of difference.

PDI - Power Distance Index
Large: Those in power try and look as powerful as possible. Others are a threat to one’s power and can rarely be trusted.
Small: Those in power try and look less powerful than they are. People at various power levels feel less threatened and more prepared to trust people.

UAI - Uncertainty Avoidance Index
Weak: Willingness to take risks. Uncertain situations are acceptable.
Strong: Great concern with security in life. Career stability is needed.

IDV - Individualism
Collectivist: Based on the social system. Order is provided by the organisation.
Individualist: Based on the individual. Autonomy, variety and pleasure are sought in the system.

MAS - Masculinity
Feminine: People and the environment are important. Quality of life is what counts. Service provides the drive. One sympathises with the unfortunate.
Masculine: Money and things are important. Performance is what counts. Ambition provides the drive. One admires the successful achiever.

There is also a 5th factor of cultural difference in East Asian countries: Confucianism.

LTO - Long-Term Orientation (Confucianism)
High: Long-term commitments are valued and business may take longer to develop in this society, particularly for an "outsider".
Low: The country does not reinforce the concept of LTO. Change can occur more rapidly as long-term traditions and commitments do not become impediments to change.

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I shall for a moment assume his comments about South Korea to be generally correct. Having lived here for 2 years before and had the pleasure to meet many Koreans outside Korea too, they have an intuitive truth about them, even if things are changing dramatically with each new generation. And also being aware of the negative effect of over-generalisations...

What do the conclusions of his research bode for ELT pedagogy in Korea? (And also for EFL teachers here, and the learning and teaching environment?) What practical advice might come of them?

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Consider that Korea's UAI is high - 85 - "indicating the society’s low level of tolerance for uncertainty". Consider also that most overseas English teachers here are from countries like Canada, the USA, the UK and Australia which have relatively low UAI scores (48, 46, 35 and 51, respectively).

This would suggest that a lot of teachers here would assume learners to be comfortable in a free classroom situation and willing to take risks (as language learners anywhere need to learn to do, right?) while the learners would assume the teacher should give a strict framework in which they should work and tell them exactly what to do.

Many Koreans feel insecure without the support framework of traditional power relationships - for example, traditional teacher-student "roles". (I recently had two students thank me for my "lecture", which, given the effort I make to make my classes as student-oriented as possible, hurt a little...)

"In an effort to minimize or reduce this level of uncertainty, strict rules, laws, policies, and regulations are adopted and implemented. The ultimate goal of this population is to control everything in order to eliminate or avoid the unexpected. As a result... the society does not readily accept change and is very risk adverse."

So, to bridge the gap in the most obvious way, the teacher should guide the learners to learn for themselves, can "scaffold" their learning, helping them to set realistic goals and achieve these.

To make sure learners don't clam up when they can't understand perfectly, students' will need a lot of practice of conversation strategies, negotiating meaning, and perhaps discussions/debates, to be carefully prepared for the real world. Lower them into it at a pace that's comfortable for them.

Self-confidence IS something we can help them with in the classroom! Classroom dynamics are really important here, as everywhere as!

Bearing in mind the fairly high PDI (need for hierarchies of power), the teacher could do worse than to play the role of a big brother or big sister, rather than pretending relations in a classroom are fully equal.

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"They generally lack flexibility..."

A new language entails an extension of one's identity, possibly new ways of imagining the world. (One good reason to feel sorry for monolinguals!) Of course, even in our first language we often adapt our personal characteristics to fit different situations (learners should maybe be made aware of this chameleon-like social identity we all have).

This goes for our use of foreign languages too. (Maybe conservative students could be nudged to develop their foreign language identities in a more open and conversational direction that would stand them in better stead when communicating with foreigners?) What do you think?

They'll probably need a lot of speaking practice to achieve this - slowly but consistently moving them away from the heavy grammar and overgeneralised dialogues found in oh-so-many English textbooks (thankfully the books I'm using right now are focussed on getting conversations going!).

Using plenty of graded real language material would help - plus perhaps a concordancer, real transcribed conversations and Eugene O'Neill, etc. whenever appropriate. This may seem obvious, but so many Koreans seem to be learning from the non-English of the TOEIC test or from over-enunciated TV news and the like. Building their confidence with real English as an extension of the language they already own and use every day.

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The existence of Confucianism in Korea, according to Hofstede, signals an aversity to change. If this is true, changes should be made carefully and with due warning. You need to help them overcome the possible anxiety they might get from the fear of the unknown. Let them know what'll be changing, why you're making the change and what things will be like therefater. In other words, removing all unknowns and making the change a pleasant experience for them.

Confucian societies are also notoriously closed to / untrustworthy of outsiders, which is problematic for meeting new people, even for Koreans. You need heavy machinery to "break the ice" upon first meeting someone - or plentiful alcohol. We need to get them confident about meeting others and give them the skills to control the flow of the conversation. (Generally speaking, whoever initiates the conversations has the most control, don't you agree?)

Trust is more important in the West, because we have legal structures (fairness) in place to punish those who abuse that trust. Yet, everyone learners meet is potentially a close friend - so shouldn't they trust people more readily? Make them need to meet people: set homework tasks, questionnaires or the like, asking them to find out opinions from non-Koreans.

Confucianism advocates silent, passive learners. However, an ideal language learner takes the initiative, takes all the opportunities available and creates them when they don't exist. Korean's aren't known for their initiative are they? In fact, in many 'traditional' situations, it's actively discouraged. See iTESLj for ideas on how to overcome this.

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"South Korea has a low Individualism (IDV) rank of 18." This apparently suggests that many Koreans are afraid of doing things on their own or trying new things. (From experience, Koreans abroad tend to form into little Korean cliques and will rarely do anything without at least one other person they know.)

Now, language learning requires a certain amount of learner autonomy. A language is a wee bit too large to "teach" in a classroom! Sadly, many Koreans seem ignorant (or willingly blind) of this fact. Perhaps though, if they know all their friends in the group are doing similar things, learning outside the classroom, this may inspire them to do likewise. (Probably also the reason why a number of them took the course in the first place!)

Having a study partner could also help - even though different people learn in different ways (with a certain degree of overlap), this support could be a strong motivational factor.

Don't be too quick to ask for personal opinions, especially in front of others. They tend to clam up, don't they? Debates in class, for example, will yield better results if you give out "roles" beforehand - they'll be defending a position, but within the safety of being merely an actor.

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Socially-exaggerated gaps between hierarchical groups (old and young, male and female)...

We need to take into account the needs, interests, learning styles of ALL learners (and the fact we all need a bit of all those styles - variety) when teaching. Empathy activities and team-building activites are very useful. (Even if these do occasionally skirt the main point of language learning, a little time sacrificed for a more conducive atmosphere will allow much better use of class time thereafter. Also, these skills are at least as important as the language itself in the outside world, right?)

Make them realise that foreigners will judge them by their values and actions far more than by their age, and that a valuable person is one who contributes, finds things out for themselves and shares important information, and who can learn for themself outside class (no matter how young or old they are).

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Good luck.^^

실명정보가 한국신용평가정보에 등록되어 있지 않습니다.

I've just been knocked back by yet another Korean website. I'm getting quite, quite annoyed by how many Korean sites I've come across recently that ask for a Korean I.D. Card number. I have a number on my Alien Registration Card which fits perfectly, but no site will allow it.

So, Koreans can log into overseas pages, but no-one but a Korean can log into Korean sites?

For those Koreans out there who use the web regularly, think about how many sites you have to log into and imagine that they're suddenly all off limits because your I.D. card number doesn't work. Irritating, right?

It seems I'm not the only one who feels this way. There's a petition to let foreign nationals register in Korea.

Please sign it if you haven't already.

11 steps to a better brain

From NewScientist.com. Read full article here.

WAYS TO
TO ENHANCE
YOUR
CONCENTRATION

The first step is to raise your arousal levels - the best drug-free strategy is to sleep well, eat foods packed with slow-release sugars, and take lots of exercise. It also helps if you are trying to focus on something that you find interesting.

The second step is to cut down on distractions. (Workplace studies have found that it takes up to 15 minutes to regain a deep state of concentration after a distraction such as a phone call.)

Music can help as long as you listen to something familiar and soothing that serves primarily to drown out background noise. Psychologists also recommend that you avoid working near potential diversions, such as the fridge.

There are mental drills to deal with distractions. College counsellors routinely teach students to recognise when their thoughts are wandering, and catch themselves by saying "Stop! Be here now!" It sounds corny but can develop into a valuable habit.

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And this on sleep, for those who've suffered the 'exam hell' of the Korean educational system where as the International Herald Tribune pointed out on 9th May:

'We have an old rule of four versus five. You can enter the college you want if you sleep only four hours a day, but you won't if you sleep five or more. 'You get used to it,' Hyun Chul said.

In South Korea, the college a student attends 'virtually determines his future for the rest of his life', said Mr Kim Dong Chun, a sociologist at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul. A worker's salary, position and prestige in his 60s is often due to whether he passed an exam to enter an elite university when he was 19.

But in the past month, when there are mid-term exams at most high schools, at least five students have killed themselves, reportedly because of pressure to get better grades. More than eight out of every 100,000 students aged 15 to 19 killed themselves in 2003.

Parents send youngsters to special boot camps run by marines to learn perseverance. 'Schools are driving us to endless competition, teaching us to step on our friends to succeed,' said Shin Ji Hae, a 16-year-old girl, in a speech.

As one chatroom reply offered:

Sleeping for 4 hours just to get better grades??? I think the person is stupider than everyone else gives them credit for. A smart person knows how to balance work load and the amount of rest they should get. Plus, a smart person does not need 20 hours to study. If they really understand the subject, give them 10 hours and they can preach you science.

So, back to New Scientist:

Sleep on it
SKIMPING on sleep does awful things to your brain. Sleep is critical to sustaining operational performance. Planning, problem-solving, learning, concentration,working memory and alertness all take a hit. IQ scores tumble. If you have been awake for 21 hours straight, your abilities are equivalent to someone who is legally drunk. And you don't need to pull an all-nighter to suffer the effects: two or three late nights and early mornings on the trot have the same effect.

Luckily, it's reversible - and more. If you let someone who isn't sleep-deprived have an extra hour or two of shut-eye, they perform much better than normal on tasks requiring sustained attention, such taking an exam. And being able to concentrate harder has knock-on benefits for overall mental performance. Attention is the base of a mental pyramid - if you boost that, you can't help boosting everything above it.

These are not the only benefits of a decent night's sleep. Sleep is when your brain processes new memories, practises and hones new skills - and even solves problems. Say you're trying to master a new video game. Instead of grinding away into the small hours, you would be better off playing for a couple of hours, then going to bed. While you are asleep your brain will reactivate the circuits it was using as you learned the game, rehearse them, and then shunt the new memories into long-term storage. When you wake up, hey presto! You will be a better player.

The same applies to other skills such as playing the piano, driving a car and, some researchers claim, memorising facts and figures. Even taking a nap after training can help. There is also some evidence that sleep can help produce moments of problem-solving insight. The famous story about the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev suddenly "getting" the periodic table in a dream after a day spent struggling with the problem is probably true.

It seems that sleep somehow allows the brain to juggle new memories to produce flashes of creative insight. So if you want to have a eureka moment, stop racking your brains and get your head down.

Innovation - Wottizzit?

I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago asking what I think is so innovative about my new workplace and the courses there. At the time I couldn't answer, but now, at the beginning of month two, I feel better placed to do so.

Without going into too many details, here's my reply.

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The teachers are actively encouraged to contribute our own knowledge and experience, and to try new ideas and share those that work well with co-workers. (Of course, any learning environment should work on this basis, but in my experience this isn't always so here in Korea.)

Learners preferably do have to cover a certain amount of the book (they'd probably not be best pleased if they bought a book they never used!), which lends a certain structure to classes and security to those students with high "Uncertainty Avoidance". However, how they are used is otherwise open to the teacher's (and the learners') preferences. (Again, this level of flexibility is something I haven't come across here before.)

The books are chock full of very varied activities, many of them simply variations on great ideas that have stood the test of time. (Which makes a nice change from the ideas that haven't stood that test: to name but one, heavy grammar is apparently still the cornerstone of second-language learning in Korea.) And they're conversational, grammar-lite, often focussing on language chunks, with the aim of improving fluency and naturalness.

Conversation topics have been chosen that are relevent to the learners (it's locally made), important to them, that they have strong opinions about. Mainly culture and values - global, local and personal. Most teachers also bring in hot topics from the news and so on. It's interesting, it's fun - and easy to make it fun.

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Why is this innovative? you may ask.

Well, in itself it represents more a triumph of common sense and experience than innovation per se. (But could it be that this line of thinking is innovative these days?) And there are the modern additions of a level of fairly natural level of language and the idea of using 'chunks' as the building blocks of fluency. It also encourages the two-way learner-teacher relations that most people believe to be the ideal in the language classroom (and which Korea's traditional hierarchy and continued use of corporal punishment have for so long kept at bay).

Let's say that for Korea this is indeed innovative stuff.
And by international standards, it's simply a good, and learning, language school.
I'm glad to be part of it.

Genetic miracle.

And now for something completely different...