Chopsticks and French Fries: How and Why to Teach English in South Korea

Rating:
Summary: a good first start...
Review: ...both for the author and the reader. This little book was my first guide to teaching English in South Korea (not including a full and witty 70 page document prepared by my recruiting agency). This book is short (but see below), attractively presented, and inexpensive. The author adopts a frank, reasonable, informal voice, and is quite likeable. As a foreign-English-teacher-to-be (I'll be leaving for Seoul next month), I'm glad to have read the book. The book contains a number of nuggets which should help to minimize culture shock.

There is a welcome warning about the Korean preference for rote memorization. Apart from this, however, and one page of suggested teaching activities, there is actually nothing on teaching methodology, no small disappointment to me. Korean language aquisition is completely overlooked. There is absolutely no bibliography, a serious defect which will hopefully be remedied in future editions. Any book of this nature should include at least one or two annotated entries on each of the following:
-general guides to traveling South Korea (travel guides often include cultural orientation in addition to travel information)
-general guides to teaching English in S.K. or in the far East
-introductory and intermediate Korean-language resources

Despite the author's respectably-sized database of interviews, there are no percentages or figures of people quoted on any subject.

In short, the book only lived up to half its subtitle (which probably should have been "...Cautions in Culture-Shock"). The price means you can't go wrong buying it; the ommissions mean you'll need to shell out more elsewhere (after having researched the titles you'll need to purchase).