Thoughts on SMOE

It's been officially a week since I've been in Korea and I have to say I am not impressed with SMOE more specifically Jon Pak. When I arrived I knew very little about the SMOE program. I did read from the discussion boards that they were unprofessional and there were problems with the program before, however, I thought that since we were a new group things might be a little different and there might be changes from one semester to another. HA! Silly me, why who anyone ever try and improve on a program.

160 teachers were kept in the Hyundai Learning Center right outside of Seoul for a week. We had each had two roommates and married couples were not allowed to room together. The men were kept on one side of the hall and the women on the other, sort of. There was no alcohol allowed and grown adults were not allowed to leave the compound.

Our days were spent in the "lecture hall" begining from 9am and ending at 9pm usually with 1-2 hours of break time. While majority of the lectures were quite helpful, one in particular stood out as unnecessary and far too long. It was a 2 1/2 hour lecture telling all the foreign teachers how innapproiate they will become and ways to avoid it. We should volunteer more of our time and expect nothing in return. We are not allowed to touch the students but "patting is fine." We were also made to feel guilt for the problems that came up with the past foreign teachers.

My problem with SMOE lies with one person: Jon Pak. There are certain aspects of Jon's job which really sucks and I do feel bad for him. However, there are a few things that would make his life a lot easier if only he would do it.

1) Tell the foreign teachers where there schools are located.
2) Show on a map where the school is.
3) Translate the school name into English.