[CUFS_English Presentations for Global Communication] 1st Discussion

Note: As I have neither any business backgrounds nor experiences of working at a company, I’ve slightly changed the given question in order for me to answer with better ideas and details. I would be happy to post new answers if this can’t be accepted. Thank you.


Topic(Setting): Preparing a Presentation as a Teacher for an English Class about
“A Smartwatch that is Trending Among Kids /Teens”


As a teacher currently working at a small private institute, known as “Hagwon” in Korea, it is an everyday job for me to give an informative presentation in class to teach students English. As to whether or not I enjoy giving presentations, I would say it varies depending on how much focused my students are that day, because even if I try to keep my speech clear and concise, and that I am pretty confident about my performance, kids─especially of elementary school─usually have short attention span. Their willingness to listen to lectures is usually affected by their mood or condition of the day.

It sounds like a decent opportunity if I could have a class that guarantees the time to prepare for a special class dealing with a specific topic to grab students’ attention. Unlike the usual classes I’ve done so far that only need a white board and some markers, this theme-based class would need me to check if my classroom is equipped with things necessary for having a class presentation such as a projector, a laptop and the likes. Then I will no doubt choose “Google Slides” for that I can save my work online real time, as well as its being able to export the work into any formats the platform offers.

The most important part of this preparation is outlining the content of presentation. For the introduction, I will bring a real smartwatch to the class and let students take turns wearing and testing it. While giving them time to freely discuss the pros and cons of a smartwatch after trial, the presentation screen has already been on with an introductory question of ‘Do you want to get a smartwatch? Why or why not?’

After that, the body of the presentation shows the recent trend of more and more kids wanting smartwatches. The library database is a best bet to find credible information, especially when I want to reference the figures or research done by respected authors or institutions. Also, smartwatch-related news articles can be cited, however they should be summarized in my own words. And I will probably link some YouTube clips of various kids’ reactions to smartwatches to my presentation. Although it might be too subjective for just a handful of YouTubers’ opinions to be referenced, I think the more kids could engage in the presentation, the better it would be to not be too strict about the data.

Instead of giving a conclusion in the closing part, I might give the students a chance to work on writing an essay, posing a question ‘Do kids really need a smartwatch?’

[CUFS_시사영어 2_Essay] 교육 관련

My Argument: English Education in Korea Must Be Changed

Koreans may have unresolved feelings for English. In a world where English proficiency is mandatory in any workplace, the pressure fueled the growth of an industry of English education. The irony, however, is that in grade schools, English education is structured to emphasize grammar, and a little bit of listening and speaking are followed.

I have over ten years of experience working in so-called “hagwon” industry, from working as an administrator to becoming an English teacher. Seeing this practice for half a decade, I still find nothing changed; usually English academies make curriculums for primary school kids focused on listening and speaking. When these kids grow up to be middle schoolers, institutes suddenly instill the importance of grammar and test scores. This sudden change embarrasses children, leading them to see English as more like the subject they must excel at.

Middle and high schools putting reading and grammar the first place is understandable as English test in CSAT(College Scholastic Ability Test) requires teenagers to read complicated passages in limited time. What if the once-in-a-lifetime exam allowed students to write about a suggested topic instead of selecting an answer, which native English speakers can go wrong. Test takers would then realize extensive reading is needed to support their idea. Schools, in turn, wouldn’t have to nag them to study grammar and vocabularies because students will voluntarily look up words and ask teachers for help with grammar to understand what they are reading. Another idea is to make it necessary for the system to establish conversational classes that enable students to submit the completion certificate to college admission.

I hope Korea will be full of youngsters who can express themselves globally. 

(총 294단어)

[CUFS_Ticket to America_Essay] San Francisco as my travel destination

San Francisco, California, is the state I would like to visit. Its usually mild temperature is the most reason that has persuaded me to consider as a possible destination. In addition, I’ve learned that the Frisco is known to be one of the friendly states in the US to the LGBT community. This means that I can experience many different cultures if I add Castro District to my itinerary, the gay village in San Francisco, with the perception that where the LGBT people live and thrive is likely to have more unique and decent shops or restaurants.

I would not hesitate to go right to the Golden Gate Bridge on the first day of my San Francisco trip. I have seen this famous bridge many times in post-cards or movies. The state’s foggy weather in the morning encourages me to visit there in the morning so that I can take one fabulous picture in which the Golden Gate Bridge mysteriously covered with the morning traveler, fog.

Next, the itinerary will take me to Lombard Street. The fact that it is the crookedest street is sufficient why I have to see it for myself. I will take a cable car for the top of the street and then stroll down to fully enjoy the scenery.

Because I like watching baseball at a ballpark, AT&T must be the best choice for me to experience what Major League baseball is like. I may feel like having a hotdog with beer in the stadium.

Finally, visiting the Alcatraz Island would be the highlight of the trip. The island is best known for having put Al Capone, the legendary American crime boss from New York in prison. I would like to try Alcatraz Night Tour as I enjoy thrilling experiences. (300 words)

[CUFS_TESOL Foundations and Methods] 1st Discussion

Q. Cross-linguistic influence happens when someone is learning an L2. What are some cross-linguistic influences that might occur when a Korean L1 speaker is learning English as their L2?

I’ve found the two cross-linguistic influences from the students, mostly from elementary ones to middle schoolers whom I have taught so far in English class.

The first one is the different word order between Korean and English when describing a place and time. In English, the information “when” follows “where”, while the position of those details are switched in Korean language. I think it is because of the tendency of eastern culture viewing things in a whole at first glance, rather than seeing objects in detail, which is solely my opinion of why my first language, Korean, puts time ahead of place. I often find this happens when I ask middle school students to translate English sentences into Korean. If one applies the Korean order of time-to-place to the challenged sentence, it is always easy to give her/him feedback to correct on her/his own. However, it is never easy to make them fully understand why such an error occurs.

And this second issue, in my opinion, is the most frequently found when you teach younger kids aged between 8 and 10. My current students always say hello to me when they come into class. Then they are asked “How are you today?” and they habitually make a mistake of responding in “Happy” or “Excited”, simply with such a feeling word. I actually don’t see it as wrong, because there is no problem in their saying from a communicative perspective. Rather, their cute error has given me a chance to think about the real reason of the students’ omitting a subject and a copula: it is so uncommon for Koreans to use pronouns, especially “I”, in their statement. In this respect, the students might have said in the way to which they are used when speaking in Korean.

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Secrets Between Couples (the pros and cons of lying)

Topic: Secrets Between Couples(the pros and cons of lying)

“Should you lie to your partner?”

I couldn’t disagree with more that lying is acceptable when it’s needed.

First, telling a lie can be habitual and eventually, your partner may lose trust in you. When people lie, they do it thinking that it is all about keeping their relationship solid and avoiding unnecessary conflicts. However, not only does deceiving your partner bars you from building the ability to solve problems with her/him in any way, it will force you to tell more lies to support the first one. As a result, you will be at the point of taking lying as the easiest method to relieve your partner.

Second to last, manipulating someone should be considered a serious issue not only for between couples but for society at large. No one in the real world seems to like the truth. They would be rather lied to and wouldn’t have any meaningful conversations. Kids grown up in the real world easily attain how to tell lies and we all fall victims to playing political games. The world made up of manipulators only does more harm than good to our society, taking away any chance for us to be decent citizens who never lose his/her integrity. (198 words)

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Stay-at-home Dad

Topic: Is it appropriate for fathers to be primary caregivers?

In my opinion, it is not the matter of saying yes or no. Both mom and dad should equally be involved in childcare as parents.

From the birth to at least 3 or 4 year-old of a child, it seems natural and appropriate for moms to primarily take care of their child, as it is known that how much time a mother spends on her kid at the toddler stage plays a huge role in a child's development.

Once your kid becomes the age eligible for kindergarten, however, a mom doesn't necessarily need to be a sole caregiver. For instance, if both parents work full time, they can decide who contributes more to daily childcare and who takes a role of financially supporting a family. Even if it is the dad who would have to take care of the child mostly, the kid might be able to understand this, because it is much better for any kids to have a stay-home-dad than just to be alone all day home or be sent to private schools, known as hagwon in Korea, in order to fill in the time daily in which parents are supposed to be.

I hope any parents could use flexibility relying on the circumstances of their own. Through a lot of talks with each other can they succeed in balancing both childcare and the relationship between a couple.

[CUFS_시사영어 2_Essay] 설탕 섭취 관련

My argument: It is not only our fault that we often get to take in more added sugar than the suggested amount.

It is not that difficult to see health experts or news warning how badly added sugar affects our health and give us some advice on eating less. But such tips often make me wonder why it is the ordinary people who are to be blamed for the great amount of sugar intake. So here are some reasons for the other factors of what really drives us to take in much sugar.

First, with putting in an over amount of added sugar, the food industry has long been inducing us to prefer sugary tastes which can be addictive. Had been for any measure that strictly supervise the industry to keep the right amount, people could not have been hard-wired to crave sweet tastes at the first place.

Second, popular recipes from some TV cooking shows usually tell us to use some sugar in making so-called “their own secret sauce”. This definitely helps us believe that sugar plays an important role in making tasty food.

Lastly, increased sugar consumption can be attributable to Korean culture of “a dinner after work” because of people’s fancy going to restaurants where they can eat foods cooked with a lot of sugar and salt that go well with alcohol drinks, which is absolutely unhealthy.

For these reasons, I argue that both the public and the health officials should spare no efforts to first address the problems I mentioned above. (총 255단어)

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Same-Sex Marriage

I'd like to introduce fellows to the fact that I assume people rarely know about, instead of writing my opinion on the topic.

I recently came across an old article about the British consul killed in Jamaica, who once revealed himself as gay in the country and had worked as a diplomat in Montego Bay, the northern part of the island. He was found strangled in a bed, which was suspected to be the homophobic crime. I was really surprised to read this news because of my usual perception about the country - beautiful nature, sunshine and reggae music that mostly talk about peace and love. Being curious, I got to search on what gay rights in Jamaica are like. My wiki search has it that Jamaica is notorious for its homophobia especially for men couples. And the country strictly punishes people having a relationship between same sexes. But it is particularly odd that the rule does not apply to lesbians.

The links are as follow for those who'd like to know more about homophobia in Jamaica.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Jamaica

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/jamaica/6172040/British-diplomat-murder-John-Terry-seen-with-man-before-death.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/02/gayrights.gender

[CUFS_Ohio TET] Week 9. Answers to the Warm Up Questions

1. What method have you used to improve your listening skills or your students' in a language learning classroom?

-I teach two classes listening. To improve both their listening and speaking skills in a short period of given time they usually have for class, First I make them not look at the textbook when they are listening because it distracts their attention from listening in details. Preventing them from looking at the book while listening is also for them not to prejudge the answer.

Then I make them repeat after each sentence of the dialogue all together and check the students' comprehension or I give them explanation needed for their better understanding in Korean sometimes, but I try not to use Koreans as using it, I believe, rather gets in the way of their use of English during class.

Finally, we check the answers for the questions in the book together. I usually find students more confident of giving their answers and responding in English(even if it's not in a full sentence), after going through the process mentioned above.


2. What technological methods can you think of to teach listening in a more interesting way?

-I often use YOUTUBE for my listening classes. If the theme of a lesson is to be 'clothes', I usually go hunting on Youtube for short clips that have appropriate images and sounds for the lower level learners to catch up. One time I showed my students a clip about men/women clothes. And there went underwear. Everyone shouted and giggled at the point, which was, in turn, hilarious for the class.

[CUFS_TET_Ohio Discussion] The Most Challenging Aspect of Teaching Grammar

I made a little change to the question number 1 removing 'online' because I usually teach students offline. I feel every area of English skills is difficult when it comes to teaching, but Grammar is especially challenging, given that English structure is totally different from Korean language and that learning Grammar, to some extent, requires students' efforts to memorize certain rules of the language, which is not likely fascinating at all to young students. Nevertheless, I believe there are some ways that would make both teaching and learning Grammar more accessible.

From a teacher's perspective, it is unrealistic to spend a lot of time coming up with activities and preparing materials solely for Grammar lessons to be fun. And when it comes to teaching middle school students grammar, there is even a set curriculum pushing a teacher to finish as many chapters as possible in a short period of time.

When I teach kids grammar, I usually make them go right into practice questions in the designated textbook. It is because students focus better when they solve questions in person. Moreover, every teacher doesn't necessarily feel pressured to be a fluent grammar lecturer even if they are not ready to do so. One way lecture is sometimes needed, but the more important thing in class is interaction with students.

If the students go wrong, then I give them some time to think about why it's incorrect. I give them explanations when it's needed. Once they mark their answers, students must read a full sentence with the right answer they've just got. I emphasize this part because I believe a lot of repetitions after model or correct sentences can contribute to students' natural ability to form a correct structure.

At times, when I have to teach difficult concepts of grammar, then I encourage students to do their usual learning differently by offering them a flipped classroom. One time, we were to do the lesson of subject/object complement. I recommended some youtube clips about 'complement' and shared them on a kakao chat of our room. They were also asked to hunt more clips they would find easy to understand. On the next day, I distributed about 10 minutes to each student to do their own lesson based on what they learned through the clips. After each flipped lesson, we had some time to freely talk about how the lesson was. In this process, I tried to mention what was good in the lecture that we rarely find in adults teachers' lesson.

I should go the extra mile in terms of teaching Grammar. What I can do now is to make a class in which a teacher lets students have as many chances as they can to do trials and errors.

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Premarital Cohabitation

Q. Should people live together before they are married?

I personally recommend people who are in serious relationship to move in together prior to getting married. Here are several reasons why.

First, it does save money by splitting the cost of living especially if you live on your own. I have lived together with my husband before we got married. He moved in with me to save the time spent on commuting to work. Since the cohabitation, the burden of paying rent and other necessary bills had been reduced. This allowed me to feel less pinched for money, letting me focused on what I do.

Second, I can disagree with people who consider cohabitation promiscuous. I have seen some people get married due to an unplanned pregnancy even if they had not been living together. This proves that it is a matter of how a couple should pursue their intimacy that would determine marriage to be wanted or unwanted.

Third and lastly, premarital cohabitation could serve a test for marital compatibility as well as a decreased chance of getting divorced. I actually have a friend of mine who rushed to marriage for an unexpected pregnancy, which didn't even give her the chance to get to know how her husband really is. Of course the couple does good job as parents, she often tells me that she still regrets not having had enough time to know about her husband because she feels incompatible with him for not having things in common.

For these reasons, I urge those who view cohabitation unacceptable to be a little tolerant of couples living together. What we should really worry is the growing rate of divorce that would negatively affect the kids left alone from couples' splitting up.

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Gender Equality

Q. Should women be treated equally in the workplace?

Most of my careers have been teaching at a comparatively small institution and I haven't been still discriminated or treated unfairly just because I am female in the workplace, fortunately. Rather, being a woman made it easier for me to be hired at the workplaces that I've been at where they usually seek female teachers, with the widespread notion of women being more meticulous than men. That is, men, who might want to work as a teacher, can be discriminated by the stereotype for their gender. In that respect, I think the disparity between men and women in the workplace comes from gender stereotypes. Here are a few reasons why this unfair belief should be addressed.

First, any career fields these days are pursuing the destruction of gender roles, meaning that the boundaries between two sexes are becoming ambiguous. Now it is not hard to see some women break into then-male dominant fields and stand out with their own talent or potential.

Second, the fact that women and men are biologically different can never be a standard to evaluate one's capability at work. I believe any abilities for your interest that you are not born with can be developed through a lot of practice. So we should not diminish our potential to be what we want.

Lastly, as women tend to be great collaborators in any groups, the society that cleverly uses the feature can strike a balance to make a happier community. Moreover, by employing more of the population, we can strengthen the workforce.

Gender should never be the barometer of a person's chance to be treated equally or not. It depends on us whether the longstanding gender stereotypes will fade away.

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Public Displays of Affection

Q. Should couples avoid public displays of affection?

I personally neither care much about couples showing PDA nor want to preach anyone to avoid displaying their physical affection for each other. Nevertheless, I feel a certain need for any couples to exhibit a moderate amount of PDA on a level that other people could accept.

First, too much PDA crossing a line would rather degrade a relationship. Some PDA seem to have become normal and natural - a little bit of touching, hugging and kissing. However, it would be inconsiderate if one gropes a partner's buttock or other body parts looking too intentional for sexual pleasure. It would also make the couple look cheap.

Second, PDA is not something that we can simply ignore when it goes beyond the level of acceptance. I am afraid to say, but I think a couple's PDA is to show off how strong their relationship is to others whereas they just go with the flow just out of feelings for each other. Just as people normally don't want to get along with a person with a tendency to show off every time you see her/him, too much of a good thing can be a cause that might leave anyone uncomfortable.

It is perfectly normal for couples to show physical affection. But those in a relationship wanting PDA need to make sure they are in public. Being a little more considerate of others, everyone can have their own rights - the right to not see unwanted things and the right to express feelings for a loved one.

[CUFS_Professor's Film Blog] Indie Movies

Now I can say 'Buffalo 66' is my favorite indie movie out of thinking a lot of what to choose from so many indie films I like.

Billy(Vincent Gallo) is not the type of kidnapper we can generally envision. It is odd that his kidnapping Layla(Christina Ricci) is getting to be all justified for some reasons, at least in my perspective. Billy went to jail just for the crime he had not commit but his friend did. As soon as he got released from prison, he kidnapped Layla, a tap dancer who he met at some bar, just to use her in a way of forcing Layla to pretend to be his fiance. For him, at the very least, the fake would make a representation of his having lived a normal life to his parents by whom he has never been loved. Strangely, Layla is getting into Billy's insecurity and starting to love him the way he is. Minding these factors allows a room for us to feel sympathy for the protagonist.

How Vincent Gallo(the director and screenwriter of Buffalo 66) cleverly showed Billy's being insecure and hypersensitive is owing to the camera work making Billy usually out of focus, the one who's supposed to be in the center of a frame. Even when he has a full shot, he looks too fragile in a scene to think him as the one holding a hostage.

Some of my favorite scenes are when Layla's tap dancing out of the blue in a bowling alley with lights out as if she were on the stage. One hilarious moment of the movie is when they're about to take a picture in a photo booth. Billy asks Layla to pretend a happy decent couple but when she tries to kiss him or do some silly he reacts aggressively to her getting her off of him, which brilliantly signals that he's never been loved by anyone before.

Thanks to this blog's post, I got to see this movie again in my DVD and was able to have different ideas about it in a more critical method that I've learned in a movie class I currently attend. Thank you for reading.

Layla's Tapdancing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZL_3PDh_K4


Buffalo 66 Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1duitd-N1Us

I can't let this my favorite genre go with just one comment. Here are my two recommendations. One is Simple Man(1992) directed by Hal Hartley. I watched it a long long time ago and also has a dvd of it. I just immediately fell in love with this movie the minute I saw the scene of the three main casts dancing with 'Kool Thing' by Sonic Youth. The scene also made me buy the Sonic Youth's album [GOO]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqUSTpL8RHo

The recent Korean indie film I've watched was 'Jane in a dream'. The English title is just [Jane] but the original one is what I've translated [꿈의 제인] but not sure if it's correct. I saw this as one unique indie movie mixed with some queer and teenage dramas with no specific purpose to give audiences a clear message. And I actually like the way of this movie's portrait. Hope you can get a glimpse of [Jane] through Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XJUC-UStYo

[CUFS_Tourism English_Essay] Tour Recommendation in Korea

1. Why I Recommend Namdaemun Market to Travelers

There may be many different purposes when visiting Korea but I think most foreign tourists might come to Seoul in order to shop, eat and get the local vibes. In that sense, Namdaemun Market is one of the most vibrant destinations for travelers from around the world. This grand shopping district has every item imaginable: clothes, foods, kitchenware, toys, accessories, stationery and you name it. Moreover, the location of the market is close to other popular places to visit, such as Seoul City Hall, Gyeongbok Palace, Gwanghwamun Square and more, which means starting the itinerary from this market area gives you the convenience of both one-stop shopping and time-saving tour.

2. What You Get from Touring the Biggest Traditional Market in Korea

One time my aunt living in the States came to Korea and I accompanied her to the Namdaemun Market shopping and there, I was so surprised to see how tactfully she haggled at one of the retailer shops in the market – when the retailer didn’t accept the price she’d suggest, insisting face value, she just took the products leaving the money she had in mind and exited the store in a hurry. I don’t personally encourage the way of her bargain, but I think such a thing can be possible only in this old-fashioned market where you can take a special kind of Korean love, Jeong, all in. Another memory about the market is that my mom used to bring me to Namdaemun and got me a couple cheap outfits. After shopping we went to the Kalguksu alley(literally knife-cut noodles) for a quick meal. The alley still offers Kalguksu, bibimbap and Naengmyeon(Cold Noodles) at once for the cheap price of 5,000 won.

3. Things that Make You Frown When in the busiest market in Seoul

Getting something for cheaper comes at a cost. If you eat in the Kalguksu alley, you must feel pressured to finish your bowl quickly as the area is always packed with people waiting for their turn to get a seat. I also experienced the server asking me to eat faster and my having to leave some of the foods. Furthermore, although every store in the market takes credit card payment, visitors should bring enough cash with them because they know almost every store prefers cash. And if one pays by card, it is very likely that the owner would show discomfort as well as little chance of getting a discount.

Until now, Nevertheless, Namdaemun Market boasts so many visitors who want to see the real lives of Koreans. I would gladly suggest a Namdaemun Market tour if I have to guide foreign friends or guests for sightseeing.

[CUFS_Ticket to America_Essay] Making an itinerary of travelling Washington D.C.

I would like to visit Washington D.C. again. Because my aunt lives in Virginia, the time of my first visit to U.S. could easily include the city of George Washington. Unfortunately, however, it was only a one-day tour that later I felt an urge to look the city around thoroughly.

For transportation, I will use the METRO. This fast-moving ride is still in a good memory of mine for its pedestrian-friendly and neat atmosphere compared to New York subway.

My new itinerary will have Smithsonian Museum again. I remember how amazing it was to see Smithsonian institutions have a vast amount of displays in many subjects, which is I feel I should aside one day fully only for Smithsonian.

The next place I want to visit again is Korean War Veterans Memorial. My uncle, who spent most of his lifetime working an officer for Pentagon, told me that it is crucial for us never to forget the veterans’ sacrifice for those who they had not seen ever before – the South Korea people. I think revisiting the Memorial will be a good chance to remind me of the importance of Korea-U.S. relations as the closest of allies.

I would grab half smokes at Ben’s Chili Bowl, which is I’ve never done during the trip. As the hotdog store usually has its franchises near in the area of National Mall, it is the best bet to drop by it on the way to Smithsonian.

Washington D.C. is also the city of Duke Ellington, one of the greatest jazz musicians in jazz history. He even had his band named ‘the Washingtonians’. Just this fact is enough for me to visit Blues Alley, where I can be offered live that is reminiscent of the 1920’ and 30’s jazz.

[CUFS_Professor's Business Blog] Networking Conversation Q & A

1. Tell me about your business, what do you do?
-Currently I work part time teaching elementary and middle school students English. I usually teach lower level listening and grammar. These are the areas I am not confident at but I have been trying to do my best to be good at.

2. What’s the most unique aspect of what you do?
-I can hands down say that letting me wear casual is the most unique and best part of this job.

3. What is your biggest goal with your business?
-My final goal of life is nothing to do with teaching. I am still figuring out what job would make me lead a happy life. The reason that led me to choose to be a part timer is that I wanted a job that enables me to both work and study while pursuing more balance. Although the money is not satisfactory, I am content with the kids I teach now.

4. Who are your power/key partners? If you don’t have any, who would they be?
-I have a co-worker who I have known for over 5 years and we have become friends over time. We first met in the hagwon where I started to work as a teacher. After we went seperate ways, she was looking for a new workplace and I recommended her to a then principal of the hagwon I was working at for the second time. Since then, we have always talked and shared about our jobs and other related occurances.

5. How can I help you in business and networking?
-I have already been given many helps from CUFS and its professors and fellows, especially this never cafe has helped me a lot to gain my confidence in English back.

6. What are your primary job responsibilities?
-One of the best things of teaching part time is that I don't have to deal with other works such as making phone calls to students' parents or unnecessary paper work. That is to say, I have to be fully prepared for my classes. In every class preparation, what I take a special look at is to make sure of each unit's language objective and its key words.

7. What experience did you have to get your job?
-Before being an instructor, I worked as a coordinator of some hagwon for more than 4 years to take care of all administrative works. But at the time I had not considered getting a teaching job in the future at all.

8. How long have you been in your current position?
-I left the previous hagwon last February then restarted my career from December 2017. It has been about 3 months.

9. What did you do before your current job?
-After I got out of my coordinator job, I tried to change my career to a movie marketing and luckliy was hired by a small-sized company. However, the further I got into the job, the more disappointing factors I found and then I quit without looking back.

10. How did you break into this field?
-After the failure of changing the field of my job, I only sought a part time job because I needed my own time to get myself together. Then I was arranged for an interview of my first hagwon that allowed me to start my teaching job.

11. What skills are required in your position on a day-to day basis?
-The most qualification a teacher needs is, I think, how well he/she controls each class with flexibility and how effectively a teacher gets students involved in class participation.

[CUFS_Ohio TET] Week 1. Answers to the Warm Up Questions

1. Why do you think technology is needed to teach languages? What motivates you to think that technology is important in language learning classrooms?

What happened yesterday in the classroom got me to think that technology is definitely needed to make things go smoothly. I normally have a 30-min. prep time prior to the first class(the upper Phonics). As We've already done comprehension of the phonics reading, I had to come up with a better idea of how to stretch time for class. In the reading, the kids read a very short story about how the lost pup got back to his owner and there was the line saying 'I wish I could find my pup'. So I decided to use the sentence phrase to make the students write about their wish pet puppy, such as 'I wish I could have (dog breeds)'. But I had to teach them many types of dogs so that they could choose from them and match their chosen kind to its appearance. For about 10 minutes left, I got to google many dog breeds and their pictures and did a multiple cut and paste on EXCEL to make flash cards. Unfortunately the time was too short to finish cutting out the cards, leaving me to make it done in class. At that time I thought, 'What if I brought my i-pad and just searched and showed them pics real time?' This had me learn that just using technology could prevent a hassle.

2. What challenges do you think using technology presents in the classrooms? Have you experienced any?

At my previous workplace(hagwon), I used the application called 'CLASSCARD', which is a free program that allows any teachers to input and upload data for word tests, making it possible to convert the data to certain formats that help students with word memorizing, like priming. But this work of putting vocabularies into the site burdened not only teachers including myself but also the children, because they had been so used to studying words by just looking over and every time I checked who did and didn't, it felt like just giving students another extra work to do that they never want.

[CUFS_Ohio Discussion] Kahoot and Opinion on the trend of teachers' using technology

1) You have watched a tutorial video on how to use Kahoot. How would you integrate language skills (speaking, writing, listening, and reading) with Kahoot in the classroom? Pick one/two language skill(s) and explain how you want to use Kahoot to teach your students.

If my current workplace let me use this useful application, Kahoot, I would want to integrate Speaking and Listening with it. I currently work at a small private English institute where I teach two listening classes, one very beginner speaking book and a middle school grammar. Unfortunately, it seems that where I work now is very text-book focused with only 40 minutes(checking students' homework included) given to each lesson. As a teacher with a strong desire for fun and helpful class, however, I am willing to challenge the stereotype: just finishing books thoroughly and making students do some worksheets if time's allowed. That is my first reason to use Kahoot. Second of all, kids these days feel very comfortable with using multimedia and entertaining apps, which means just a little bit of Kahoot use can make children feel at ease so that they will feel like being engaged in their learning.

For my lower level speaking class, I would use Quiz Kahoot and divide my students into two groups for a team competition. Let's say they have learned about 'school supplies'. I could make at least 10 questions about the theme. They are challenged to guess the school stuff like, "You wrote wrong on your sheet and you want to remove it. What do you need?" "An eraser". Getting an answer would give them a sense of achievement that they've just understood 'English'. Additionally, I can let each team make one sentence using the answer word in order to make the team with no answer not to be discouraged and continue participating in the activity.

To integrate my listening class with Kahoot, I would actively link Youtube to Kahoot Quiz, thinking that textbook listening doesn't represent real English you can hear abroad. For example, if students have learned the topic, My Family, I can get some native-English audio resources on Youtube that are learner-friendly. And then I would make some comprehension quizzes about the chosen clip. In class, it would be great if I could project the screen of Kahoot quizzes onto the whiteboard, enabling students to do listening activities without their textbook. Freeing ourselves from texts not only helps me(teacher) but also my students to pay more attention to hearing.

I became to know Kahoot from this Teaching with Technology and was amazed at how the current IT companies around the world can be cooperative with a vast amount of subjects. I am sure we educators can benefit from this blessing. How we are going to use this is our own choice.


2) Respond to the following statement: “Technology will not replace teachers; teachers who use technology will replace those who don’t!” (Fotos & Browne, 2004, p. 7). This quote describes Fotos & Browne's view on technology and teaching. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why or why not? Briefly explain your point of view.

I agree that those who actively use technology for class will be a gamechanger for learning environment. More and more students nowadays are becoming used to getting their work done with their own laptop or smartphones, not to mention that these devices are what they can't live without 24/7. In that respect, our teachers can tap into this trend and provide students with challenging assignments or quizzes using resources or apps that are usually free of charge and mostly useful. I sometimes think of an ideal class where a teacher can assign students essay or quiz homework and then give feedback online. I believe this not only allows both a teacher and kids to save the time that would be spent on homework checking, but also reinforce the relationship between them because they can easily focus more on conversations or discussions, while already finishing their extra learning online.

[CUFS_Current English 1_Essay] Plastic Surgery

I couldn't disagree more with that having plastic surgery gives people more confidence levels or a positive self-image for two reasons.

First, people can never be content with what they have now. That is, once you start getting cosmetic surgery, it could be that you are not happy with your new look because you could see a worse result than you expected from the procedure, let alone your urge to be more beautiful. This similarly applies to our lives. We make money but we want to earn more feeling that's not enough to afford your endless to-buy lists. In that respect, one's own contentment of beauty would never be fulfilled, which means her/his levels of confidence can be changed.

Second to last, I believe one's own attractiveness comes from inner beauty and it can be many characters that you own, such as your intelligence, passion for what you do, and having a sense of humor and the likes. Think about the time when you found someone engaging. You wouldn't have feelings for her/him just because she/he has good look. There might be other qualities coming out of that person. Although I have to admit that people can have a better chance to thrive with good look, it doesn't go a long way because beauty can't be the only thing we pursue in our lives. It is the character and nature you have inside that makes YOU.