The Hopefuls

In this post, i am not about to have tact. It's not for the weak, and definitely not for the patriotic.

The women i encountered...

I had to endure two weeks in this place. To have an intelligent conversation is wishful thinking. The place is swarming with matchmaking made in some places. There were three cases that were not: Mine, a 30-something woman who is doing a matchmaking business, and another one who used to work with her now-husband (aka office romance). The others in this place, disliked me heartily. They thought i was showing off by asking questions.

Like i cared.

First day: the first thing that i have noticed is that these women cannot speak English. Some of them can understand Korean better than English, and it was painful to listen to them. I have encountered my share of bad speakers, but this particular group takes the cake. I mean, COME ON! They're all aspiring teachers and they cannot even make a structured sentence! The older woman who used to clean my dorm room five years ago speaks better English than most of these women. My father-in-law, who has no idea when it comes to English speaks BETTER than most of these aspiring teachers.

Never mind the accent. That we can work with.

Much like a high school classroom, you would be able to identify who's who and what's what. The class clown, the eager, the quiet, the diligent, the ones who are there because of the ride, the weirdo (me), and the show offs. There was a woman there who wanted to show off. She was sitting in front and she wanted to make an impression that she is (was) a teacher, she taught high school (i did too), and that she knows what she needs to do.

Till i spoke (bwahahahaha!!). That put her into her place. One thing about reijene is that you can't strut your stuff if it ain't better than hers. Teaching had always been my passion. It's not just something i do for a living. It's something i do with my whole soul poured into. It's not to brandish to the whole world that i am smart. It's not something to boast about. It requires humility, to a T.

Keeping in mind that these were all on the first day. I was planning to shut up and listen (and i failed miserably), but because of that show off parading what she used to be (before marrying her old korean husband) to the whole class, and bringing up archaic and phased out teaching styles, i couldn't resist it.

Anyway...

I was observing these women. I went full blast friendly without them noticing what i was trying to hide (my annoyance about their tastes, for one). They thought i was just a clown. Course some of them would still be called pretentious, but i was able to make the class laugh at my antics.

reijene says... I have a knack of knowing a person just by looking. I don't need to ask questions. My speculations are usually accurate. These girls (I'm not to call them women) are not ambitious enough for anything, but to get married, have kids and get it over with. They're married because... maybe one of these things would be their reason, but I'd go for the most obvious: they want a greener pasture without any effort but their own vaginas. They're there because they need to earn money, they don't have any working experience, and their idiot Korean husbands who cannot speak English had given up on Korean women. But 45% of these women are promising.. very promising indeed. An intensive personality training and they'd be more powerful than i am.

And no, they cannot speak English properly. Some could, but most of them can't. My 6:00 student can speak better than 85% of the class! Not to mention wrong pronunciation of simple words (i.e pear, sheep vs ship or bitch vs beach). Wrong usage of words, wrong sentence formation, wrong grammar terminologies, wrong.. wrong.. WRONG!! Needless to say, i am eating my words: I want us to have jobs, i want the migrant women to have jobs. I want us to compete with the NS society when it comes to teaching. Now i just can't wish for it. Because i really am for quality, not quantity.

How can they compete if they can't even be up to that level? How can they teach without a good command of English? How CAN they teach with their sucky pronunciation and their crappy disposition? WHAT CAN WE SHOW THE ENTIRE NATION other than we can understand English better than Koreans, and yet we cannot even express it?

To be a teacher you have to look and DRESS the part.We can't be teachers with stereotype stamped on our foreheads and dressed like some wrinkled sluts after a night job, or a house maid for that matter.

After hearing (rather reading) the news that SMOE and GEPIK dropped 100 (or more?) NS who were supposed to do a lower level English, and the news that migrant women are about to be placed in schools, or charity cases, or house to house halfway through the course, i felt awful. Awful as i was a jobhunter not too long ago, and i know how it feels to be dropped like a hot potato to make way for someone you think cannot be better than you.

And with those thoughts, my sincerest apologies to the NS society. As much as i hate to admit it, most of these women cannot teach. They cannot do the part. They lack everything necessary to be effective in teaching.

**i just wish this photo was taken in a 180 degree angle, it'd have looked much better! i look like i have cankles, and had added an extra 5 kg to my 47 kg disposition!!!**