More on classes at Yonsei - the good!

So - the program is traditional, teacher-centered, and highly standardized. And - it's fast! The claim is that if a student takes all six levels one right after the other, which they can do in 6 quarters or 18 months, they can go from being a total beginner to being ready for Korean university courses. 18 months!! Does it work?

These things I have found quite positive:

• No time is wasted! Class starts on time and breaks are never longer than the alloted time. Each hour is packed! No time is spent trying to get the Internet to work or looking for sites, no time spent passing out handouts, getting students into groups, giving complicated directions, etc. It's just language, language, language.
• There is a great deal of recycling of material and varied practice with the same vocabulary and structures. The 3 books really support each other. We listen, repeat, memorize, copy, pronounce, and use as speaking or writing models the same or similar material over and over.
• Homework and study is efficient because we know exactly what we will need to know for the next class, exactly what will be on any tests or quizzes, and exactly how to do the exercises, since they're always done the same way. It isn't boring because we're always using new language, and that's enough novelty.
• The constant focus on individual daily performance (written homework, listening dictations, Q/A etc.) assures that all the students stay attentive and keep up.
• We use every page of every text. The texts were developed here at Yonsei, and there is clearly an enormous pride and confidence in the value of these books and in the methods used here. This helps us to accept the books and methods, to trust that if we do all we're asked, we'll learn!

There are certainly drawbacks, which I will try to list later. But actually, I am so deep into studying and trying to keep up right now that it's hard to sit back and make a detached judgment. It's too early to tell what the results are going to be. But I have lessened my resistance to a program like this. I'm sure I will take some of these advantages and try to work them more into my own teaching when I get back.