In the News
Tonight KBS News at 9:00pm had a report on English education. For whatever reason, my school was one of the ones selected to be recorded in the report. When the reporters arrived at my school earlier today, it was clear they had an agenda they wanted to portray. They came early, and rather than interview my coteacher as was originally the plan, they interviewed me.
My interview did not appear in the news report – just images of my coteacher and I teaching in the segue and during the report. It was clear in the interview that the interviewer wanted me to say certain things based on her line of questioning, but I did not give those answers.
In the report, (only in Korean), the two basic points were 1. English class sizes are too big (which I agree with) and 2. there need to be more native teachers teaching in public schools (which I don’t agree with). I don’t agree with the second point because most of the foreigners here do not have anywhere near the needed Korean ability to explain certain aspects of the English language to students using Korean.
During the report, they showed images of students – the students in my school looked tired and like they wanted to go – understandable since they were prevented from having lunch because the KBS News team did not arrive at the correct time, and were unwilling to wait until the previously scheduled time. I should add these were new students for my coteacher, so she was not familiar with their needs – this was the first English class for them of the semester.
The second half of the segment showed a cram school, with a small group of kids having fun being educated. It seemed pretty obvious who the man behind the curtain was, using their influence to make the report on national TV…
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