Teaching English in Korea is a challenge...
I've been exchanging some tweets and emails of late with my good mate Sheetal Makhan, and she got me thinking about the challenges involved in being a (foreign) teacher of English in Korea.
Having spent a full decade there as a teacher, school manager, materials writer, university "professor" and Business English consultant (not to mention marrying into a Korean family and having two children there), it's hard to pinpoint exactly the general characteristics foreigners need to consider to not just survive but actually prosper in that context.
If I had to say it in one quick sentence, it would be this:
You need to have a character made of bamboo.
Bamboo is super-tough, but also super-flexible. You need to be both tough and flexible to get by and prosper as both a foreigner and a native speaker teacher of English there. I know many would say these characteristics are important for any foreign context, but I think in Korea in particular they are absolutely essential.
Another very general thing worth considering is the difference between proactivity and receptiveness, or more specifically: consideration as opposed to tolerance.
Most people who grow up in western cultures are conditioned from an early age to be considerate of others - or at least see this as a major virtue. A considerate boss will not ask teachers to do certain things. A considerate teacher will be sensitive to the needs of his/her learners. A considerate person will not barge into the elevator before the people inside have time to come out, and the same person would think twice before drilling into the concrete of their apartment wall at 7.30 am - mindful of the agony this would create for neighbours as far away as 10 floors down and 6 apartments across the way.
In Korea, there is consideration, but to the westerner there appears to be precious little of it.
To Koreans, the ultimate virtue is tolerance and putting the needs/requirements of the broader group ahead of their own perferences. Your average Korean teacher puts up with last minute schedule changes, the requirement of going out for a staff dinner at the drop of a hat, and not telling that git of a teacher colleague what an inconsiderate pain in the butt he/she is. And yes, of course, the average well-raised Korean is blissfully (at least on the outside) tolerant of the other people shoving into them in queues or on buses, squishing them against the not-quite-open doors of the elevator, and turning their whole apartment into a grating, vibrating hell-hole first thing in the morning.
And to Koreans, westerners do exhibit some measure of tolerance - but again: precious little of it!
And this then is where the divide between cultures both wears thin and tends to open gaping chasms. The foreign teachers try to be considerate, get upset when this appears to be completely lost on their Korean colleagues, and then get downright cranky when it becomes apparent that the Koreans around them are showing them no respect of consideration. The Koreans, for their part, try to be tolerant of their foreign colleagues' helplessness and whining, and then start to get annoyed when these foreigners appear to show no tolerance whatsoever for the context and culture they have chosen to come and live and teach in.
Perhaps the secret is for one side to show their consideration by being more tolerant, and for the other side to show their tolerance by being more considerate...
Whichever way you look at it, the fact remains: if you realistically want to get along and prosper in Korea for any decent period of time...
Bamboo teacher you must be!
:-)
