Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that real power. – Clint Eastwood
Saturday, March 27, 2015 (DAY 1,118)
While, I mentioned in my previous blog several suggestions for both Koreans and non-native English speakers that are living in Seoul or throughout Korea with helpful tips of what to ask or look for when searching for a good private 1:1, group, or company English (영어) teacher or tutor (가정 교사 ), I also thought I should take a moment to discuss helpful hints for students. Because, when you do find a good English teacher, not only does the respect for one another go both ways, but in all honesty, if you continually fail to follow these helpful hints below, your English tutor may easily discontinue lessons with you! And, speaking even more frankly, you—the student(s)—needs a good native English teacher more than the other way around. Because, once again finding not only a native English teacher that is both certified and legal to work in Korea may not only be difficult, but this could eventually cost you opportunities such as; gaining employment through job interview preparation and understating, obtaining a higher score on your TOEFLⓇ or TOEICⓇ, receiving that promotion at work, or achieving any of your goals with improving both your English AND your confidence. Therefore, please take a moment to really stop and pay attention in understanding these five simple suggestions to be a good ESL (English as a second language) student.
While, I mentioned in my previous blog several suggestions for both Koreans and non-native English speakers that are living in Seoul or throughout Korea with helpful tips of what to ask or look for when searching for a good private 1:1, group, or company English (영어) teacher or tutor (가정 교사 ), I also thought I should take a moment to discuss helpful hints for students. Because, when you do find a good English teacher, not only does the respect for one another go both ways, but in all honesty, if you continually fail to follow these helpful hints below, your English tutor may easily discontinue lessons with you! And, speaking even more frankly, you—the student(s)—needs a good native English teacher more than the other way around. Because, once again finding not only a native English teacher that is both certified and legal to work in Korea may not only be difficult, but this could eventually cost you opportunities such as; gaining employment through job interview preparation and understating, obtaining a higher score on your TOEFLⓇ or TOEICⓇ, receiving that promotion at work, or achieving any of your goals with improving both your English AND your confidence. Therefore, please take a moment to really stop and pay attention in understanding these five simple suggestions to be a good ESL (English as a second language) student.
In order to be a effective with having private 1:1 English (ESL) lessons, students MUST BE WILLING TO LEARN AND LISTEN to their teacher. Of course, it's ok to disagree, but there is a difference between ARGUING with your Teacher and/or REFUSING to have an attitude of LEARNING from them as a native English speaker that understands English AND Western differences, because you are not just learning English BUT you are also learning the complexities of the English Language in its entirety. "Many multi-linguists consider English the most difficult language because there are so many rules that are constantly broken and pronunciations that are inexplicable to the foreigner." (quoted sourced from: LINK HERE)
1. PLEASE BE ON TIME
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I understand that Korean culture can be a very fast–paced lifestyle, but just how you would not show up to class or a meeting late and expect not to have consequences, please be respectful of showing up on time to your lesson. If you are late, first of all for myself I try to accommodate this IF I can, however, the duration of our lesson will often end as scheduled and not be extended. For example, if there is a scheduled 1-hour lesson to begin at 7pm (19:00) and you show up at 7:15pm (19:15) you cannot expect to receive a full 1-hour lesson because you were late. Once again, for myself personally, often if I have the time to accommodate lateness or tardiness I will try to provide you with a full hour lesson, however this is not always possible, and you cannot expect a discount because you were late. This is how the real world operates, and you cannot expect special exceptions with English tutoring. So once again please be respectful of the time, or if you are late understand that your lesson time will be less time.
2. LOCATION AND ETIQUETTE
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Since most English tutoring is conducted at coffee shops–normally this is at the request of the students, unless the student wants to a private study room–either way it is the responsibility of the student to pay for the English tutor's coffee or for the study room, since the location is normally decided upon the student. Since you are using a businesses' establishment for a meeting it is understand that you need to be a paying customer in order to utilize this space, and it is very rude for the student to purchase a coffee for only them. Once again it is one thing if the English tutor declines wanting anything, but to not even offer can be quite offensive.
Once again for the handful or limited number of certified native English speaking teachers that are living in Korea that are legal to work as a private tutors is a low number. According to the Korea Times from a 2011 study foreign residents only made up only 3% of the population. This is an extremely low number, especially when you consider foreigners that are from native English speaking countries, and also those that are not international or foreign exchange students or E2 Visa workers, which again BOTH are not allowed to work as English tutors and when caught the penalties can be very severe and may even pass on to those that are supporting illegal workers by paying them money. If you think this won't happen, in January 23, 2015 there were 17 foreigners that were arrested for teaching English illegally in Thailand. In my opinion, it is only a matter of time that the Korean Government–whether that be the Ministry of Education or Korean Immigration Department–eventually there will be individuals that will be caught and made examples of through harsh penalties.
3. PLEASE RESPECT THE AGREED SCHEDULED
4. AVOID MISCOMMUNICATION
No matter whether you are talking from one native Korean speaker to another native Korean speaker or a native English speaker to another, there are plenty of times we have all experienced levels of miscommunication. And, when you add both cultural and language differences, this obviously makes the possibility of miscommunication more likely. In order to TRY and avoid miscommunications between myself (as a English teacher/tutor) and the student(s) I try to be very clear in my communication, whether that is through Kakao, email, text, or phone. For example I will always include; the exact day of the week, the date, the time, and our lesson material. This information is very specific and clear and therefore if you–as the student–fail or mistakenly mix up the date or time, this unfortunately can again possibility cost you a good tutor. This is why attention to detail is a very important part of life in general. There are numerous articles that talk about the importance of 'attention to details' and this is just one of them.
5. MANAGE EXPECTATIONS
Managing YOUR expectations and reasons for WHY you are wanting or taking private English tutoring lessons should be addressed before you begin searching for a legal ESL tutor in Korea. Learning a second language myself–Spanish where I hired my own private 1:1 tutor and met with her 4-5 hours per day Monday—Friday and lived in a small town in Guatemala where very few people spoke English therefore it was a full immersion of culture and language, it still took me a long time to develop my Spanish listening and speaking skills. Therefore, you cannot expect to meet with an English tutor one-hour per week, where you do not practice outside of this one-hour per week lesson, and expect to become fluent or see great strides in improvement of your English. Improving a second language takes work, discipline, and practice. Therefore, pause and ask yourself again;
1) WHY DO I WANT TO HAVE A PRIVATE ENGLISH (#ESL) TUTOR?
2) WHAT DO I HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
2) WHAT DO I HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
Set goals, work to accomplish them, and be successful through improving your English today!
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