In the beginning book, most of the readings are three to four simple paragraphs that run the gamut of extreme courses a student might encounter in colleges of various specialties, and each topic is a jumping off point to discuss these unique situations that most students in Daejeon have no idea even exist yet as they are still young middle school and elementary school students with little knowledge of life outside this town or their local PC Bangs.

For sections that I don’t use, or are useless, in texts, I just tell the students to “X” them out. They love that. There is one section in American Start With English 3 that deals with telling time with out-dated terminology like twenty to three or a quarter after five. Absolutely useless in the digital age when it is 2:40 or 5:15. Come on…a quarter for kids used to won, pesos, rubles, or yen. Unbelievable.

If I wasn’t leaving the profession (and South Korea) six months from Monday, I would actually look into trying to merge some of the better books into one super book. I wonder how hard it would be since most of them are published by Oxford.

The reason I returned for a second year at my hagwon was because I could pick and choose my own texts and sources to use in class without having to have the franchise pressure me into using their pitiful excuses for learning materials in my class. I even use the Amazing Race Asia to show how important knowing, and using, more than one language is in this world of ours. But outside forces, and the wonderful South Korean legal system’s (much better than the North’s) treatment of foreigners here over their own, are forcing me out this business, and country, for the sake of my health due to the fear of incarceration for sticking up and protecting my students, fellow teachers, and boss from an awful situation that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I’ve taught this series! I picked it out for last year’s classes. While the content in all the books is good, the layout and format is some of the worst I’ve ever encountered. The book is designed by a madman, and everyone that had to use this series disliked the organization. If they reorganized this series, I’d TOTALLY use it again.

Unfortunately, it seems we’ll be forced to use the terrible book series I’ve been using this month long term. We’re partners now. FUCK.

I spent what seems like days inside English Plus and Kim and Johnson’s trying to find decent replacement texts for the mistake-filled, rip-off one’s my franchise is supposed to be using. You would think that with what seems like billions of English textbooks out there for ESL use, that there would be a set or two that could stand on their own. The series I use most often are Magic and English Time, Get Together, and American Start with English in conjunction with each other.

I want to be able to support my fanchise’s, or another franchise partner’s, books, but they aren’t worth wiping my rear end with. Good texts and materials are half the battle when teaching any subject. It’s just too bad that the South Korean system is more about making money than in actually providing a quality education for the future of this country.

The U.S. system also has many faults as well though. I still can’t believe all the class time I lost teaching that much needed skill of cursive writing in today’s keyboard-driven society, or that the educational system hasn’t kept up with the changing times. I don’t have many answers, but I know staying stuck in the past (because that is the way it has always been done) isn’t good for the kids’ future or the country’s.