::A Geek in Korea::

My wife went to an interview today for a job at a local elementary school. She wants to be hired as an English teacher. She and I used to work together at our school, and she’s been working at different schools around the city. The headhunter agency got her an interview where she would be the solo applicant. She put down all her relative experience and information, and was prepared for an interview about substantive topics. Instead she came back home to talk about how weird the interview was.

The principals and head teachers were involved in the interview process. They asked amazingly inane questions such as:

“When students travel to other countries, they frequently can’t understand what people are saying. Why is that?”

Yeah, no kidding. People probably speak faster, use harder vocabulary, and don’t greet everyone by saying “Hello, how are you?” every single time. You also can’t ask them to repeat the CD and listen 20 times to memorize the response. Do you really think the joke programs most elementary schools have prepare anyone for life outside a kindergarten class?

“What accents can you speak in?”

This threw her for a loop. Was he seriously asking about regional dialects? The principal wanted her to do voices? What was he even asking? The follow up question was even more bizarre:

“What is the “original” pronunciation people should sound like? Which is the correct way to pronounce English?”

In Korean, the accent most people hear is somewhat standardized around the Kyeonggi region because that’s what on television most often. There are regional dialects like any other language. This guy wanted to know which one was “correct.” Somewhat exasperated by the question, she explained how each country talked differently, and of course they all thought they were “correct” in their own way or another. She said she was comfortable listening to an American accent because she lived with me, but that she also learned “British” English studying in Australia.

She didn’t ask if the principal would go to another region in Korea and tell the people their way of speaking was “incorrect” and “not original”. It’s best not to make waves when you are being interviewed by a clueless middle aged Korean man in a high ranking position. They’ll disqualify you for showing them up.

One of the other people sitting in on the meeting asked:

“Which is better for learning English? Studying at school, or studying at an academy?”

My wife, having taught at both, gave her opinion thusly: If you want intensive learning in English, once or twice a week isn’t going to be enough. If students see things more often, it can help their memory. It depends on the program and their systems. Academies are more intensive and give more in depth information. They also have a foreigner to talk to and learn from. This helps people practice their pronunciation and getting over shyness when speaking.

“Have you worked with, or know any foreigners?”

Hello? She said she was MARRIED to one on the resume ? (Yeah, Korean resumes have stuff like that on them. Weird right?)

“Have you traveled outside of Korea?”

She listed an education certification from Australia, and she had to have mentioned that she had studied there for a year by this point in the interview. Also, she’s traveled to the United States, Europe, and parts of Asia with me.

Probably there is no room on her resume to list vacations, but why would this even matter? I’ve been to China, but I’m no more qualified to teach Chinese because of it. I guess certain people view travel as a qualification, and I know it’s made me a better teacher, but I’m not sure if that’s ever come up in an interview before.

I’m sure there were even more brain dead questions the interviewers had, but she didn’t tell me any of them. She was the only person applying for the job. The other applicant had been notified by phone that they didn’t meet the qualifications. Whatever they had done, they had looked at that person’s resume to decide they weren’t getting the job. This makes the questions they asked my wife more mysterious.