The course: Teaching methodology
To sum up the course at Keimyung University in one word is simple. Terrible. Before I joined the course I did not expect anything except the traditional teaching methods of Korea, and to this extent, my expectations were met.
The teacher explains everything (grammar, vocabulary etc.) until they think the students understand, and then the students write and repeat example sentences. This is the standard from level 1-6.
Despite this, the promotional materials promise “speaking, writing, listening and reading”, in reality the lessons are structured as follows: 80% listening to the teacher “explain” things, 10% reading, 5% writing, 4% actual listening, and 1% speaking. This makes the classes incredibly boring, as 80% of the time is spent sitting in silence “listening” to the teacher.
The course: The materials
The terrible course and teaching is partly due to the awful Keimyung published and produced textbooks. Up to level 4 they use the same format of: no. 1 a dialogue, no. 2 grammar and vocabulary, no. 3. writing example sentences, no. 4 listening, no. 5 reading. And repeat for chapter 2. And chapter 3 and chapter xxx, and level 1 and level 2 and level xxx. That translates as the same thing every day for 40 weeks!
I got to level 5 and we started using a new textbook, published by a Seoul university. But my hopes were soon dashed when it was obvious the teachers had no idea how to use it. They successfully managed to do the impossible and made the class even more boring than before!
The course: Teachers
In fact what I found the most surprising was the sheer unprofessionalism and incompetence of the teachers themselves.
The teachers see the (adult) students as little children, and treat them as such. We are discouraged from mentioning or discussing, politics, current events, history, literature. Even colloquialisms are out of the question.
This is only the top of the iceberg though. From the first day of class the older teachers pick which students to talk to and like, and which students to ignore and hate, carrying on like this until the end of the 10 weeks.
The younger teachers are generally friendly but completely incompetent: I saw a teacher actually wandering around the class doodling on a piece of paper, pretending to listen and take notes! Other teachers spend ages rustling through pieces of paper, or standing in silence for 5 minutes, pretending to think before abruptly ending the class when the clock hits the right time.
The course: Results
The abysmal materials and teaching methods are not just my opinion. Absence and lateness are common among students, 10 minute break time becomes half an hour. Many students fail the in-house tests and have to repeat a level.
But worst of all students on the scholarship program who have to get a level 3 score on the national TOPIK Korean test, fail in high numbers. In 2011, after 1 year of Korean study, 1 out of 4 scholarship students passed. This year there are 60 new scholarship students. If the trend continues that means 45 of them will fail this year!
