What would YOU do?

Living in a different country naturally poses its challenges and whatnot, but with patience and an open mind, there is usually very little conflict between ones 'native' values and those of the host country. What is interesting is when you discover a value you had previously considered to be fairly universal is in fact not.

I have been teaching what's referred to as Freshman English for a year now, and one of the more important differences between this type of class and the conversation classes I had been teaching previously is that these are credited university classes where I am fully responsible for assigning the grades.

Now, I am an educated person and I come from with a reasonably well-educated populace. Koreans too are generally well-educated; in fact the average Korean probably spends a great deal more time in school and studying than the average educated Canadian. On the surface it would seem that educational values would be of a similar degree between the two countries. This is the case only when the idea of education remains unchallenged and unanalysed.

Since being directly involved in an institution of higher education I have had occasion to question what is meant by 'education'. A recent incident sharply brought into focus differences in the way 'an education' may be administered within a given society and caused me to strongly identify a belief which has turned out to be culture specific.

About the third week of December 2006 saw the final days of the semester, replete with exams and final assignments. Final grades were due to be input into the central university system by December 27th. The student body then has about a week to check their grades, and if they wish, contact the relevant professor or teacher to ask about a grade.

Cultural difference #1: It appears to be the custom that if a student is unsatisfied with their grade, they may ask the professor for a higher grade. There are no particular grounds necessary for doing this. Basically the formula seems to be something along the lines of 'Dear Professor, I worked really hard and thank you for your teaching, but I got a B. Could I please have a B+ or an A?' Apparently this approach works because many students do it.

Now there is a special variation on the above, and that is for fourth year students, particularly males. Men here are generally a little old when they graduate (around 26) due to their mandatory military service of 2 years. This in addition to a very competitive job market (especially for jobs that don't really suck) means that these students are very very eager to get a job straight after university. So eager in fact that it is not unusual for some of them to get a job BEFORE they've graduated. This in itself is a little hard to grasp for a lot of the western teachers as none of us have every felt such a pressing need to get a job so very quickly at the end of our university career. Furthermore, said job would certainly interfere with concluding our studies.

So what happens in these cases? Well, it would seem the convention is, if a student gets a job at some point during the final semester of their studies, it is understood that their professors will unilaterally award them Ds so that they may graduate. Apparently, if the students don't graduate they will lose their job.

Now, I came across this situation twice last semester and since I was unwilling to simply pass them, I told one student to switch to a night class (this was early on in the semester) and the other to do some makeup work. In both cases the students willingly complied with my requests, so in both cases they were able to get their marks and presumably graduate (the class I teach is a degree requirement for all students).

This month (December) myself and the other foreign teachers are working at a special intensive English program for university students. Last week, we were regrouping in the teacher's room after a busy morning of teaching. The two TAs were their talking with a man, and as I entered around their collective gaze moved in my direction. I walked over to see what was up. One TA explained that this man was my student and he was here to talk to me about his grade. I looked the man in the face and said, 'My student? I have never seen this person in my life.' I waited for explanation where upon he turned to the TA and asked in Korean if she could translate for him. She said that this guy had received an F and needed a D since he had a job and needed to graduate lest he lose his job. Furthermore, he claimed to have previously given me a certification of employment and the reason he hadn't contacted me during the semester is because he was too busy with his job. At this point I became quite angry. Though the students I teach numbers in the hundreds I have a pretty good memory for faces and I knew that I had never once met this man, and had certainly not received any documents from him. Secondly, here he was showing up in person (most students email first) THE DAY BEFORE the last day to change grades. He kept looking at me expectantly like it was a simple matter for me to agree to his request. At that point I said something about talking to my boss if he wanted his grade changed cause I certainly wouldn't do it and moved to extricate myself from the situation. I sat at my desk, but he continued to talk at length to the TAs, presumably about his 'situation'. This further infuriated me since the TAs certainly have nothing to do with his 'situation' and they clearly looked uncomfortable. I told them to tell him that at the end of the day I would go to my office, review this guy's file and render a decision at that time. Still furious, I went to lunch with my coworkers thinking the matter to be concluded.

After lunch, much to my delight the man reappeared. He walked into the office bearing a box of vitamin drinks and offered them to me. I refused to accept them and sat down at my desk. He came over to my desk and put the box next to the desk and left. My first bribe!! Another teacher asked what was in the box, I said it was drinks for the teachers and to put them on the snack table. I would have nothing to do with those tainted beverages.

At the end of the day the man was still around and presented me with a hand written note (click on the image to make it larger) presumably explaining his situation. I again told him I would go to my office and review his file. At my office, I found no documents from him, no record of any emails from him and the attendance records showed he had not once attended class.

As I reflected upon why I got so angry I realized I was in the midst of a genuine cultural values conflict. The crux of this was that as someone raised within a 'western' education system, the link between receiving a grade and doing work is immutable. In the Korean system this is relation is clearly a lot more flexible. Most Koreans I asked about the Special Case of the Fourth Years admitted that it was a 'delicate' situation, hinting that they were aware of its inherent contradictions but proceeding to explain that this is basically how things were done.

Though I was aware of this fact, this particular student approached me in a manner which so flagrantly and shamelessly exploited this flexibility that I couldn't help but become angry and disgusted. I am conscious of the fact that I am not in Korea to assert Canadian, Western or whatever other values in the face of my employer. At the same time, however, I do believe this practice to be fundamentally flawed. It is disrespectful not only to the teacher as it devalues their work but also to the other students who have attended class and worked hard. Furthermore, it undermines the integrity of the institution as it means that grades are effectively awarded arbitrarily. But the roles of institutions and how they are constituted is the subject for another entirely too long post.

So, what do you think I did…?