October 12, 2016
신재연 (Jaeyeon Shin)
College English Program
Seoul National University
Dear Ms Shin;
As a cover letter, this will be a bit of an autobiography. Of course, I will state that I am fully qualified to serve as an English teacher, and have performed that duty successfully in the past.
I began thinking about teaching in 1993. I had been working in software development on the Apple Macintosh platform when I was approached by representatives of the California Department of Employment to develop a bilingual software program for the Mac to teach ‘computers’ to a group of Hispanic women who had been laid off by the Green Giant Corporation when it moved its frozen food plant to Mexico. These women were highly skilled and highly paid (thus the concern of the Department because they had to pay these women a large portion of their previous salary), but practically uneducated, so the program had to be tactile and fundamental, not intellectual. In the process, I realized I knew a lot about programming, but nothing about teaching. It occurred to me that people had been teaching language for centuries and that I was essentially teaching the language of computers.
I entered the Linguistics and Language Development Department at San Jose State University (SJSU) in their Master’s Program in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in 1995, and graduated in 1997. One of my colleagues at SJSU, Park Jeong Suk, got me my first teaching job at Kyeong Nam University in Jinju. There, I was able to put theory from SJSU into practice, employing a kind of ‘language in action’ program, utilizing the idea that language was a tool and it was necessary to use the tool to learn the tool. This went well and I found my students to be delightfully responsive and creative, The classes were a lot of fun and productive, although there were some in the department who did not appreciate my methods, mostly fellow native English speaker teachers, who felt I was not working “in the trenches” as they were.
I really loved being in Korea—food, culture, language. During Chuseok, I took a bus to a Buddhist temple my department head recommended—I cannot remember the name exactly, but it was something about chestnuts, and was situated at the head of a valley, protecting the spring. The monks informed me that things had changed since Professor Kim had been a guest there, that I was welcome to stay but had to stay as a monk and participate fully in the life of the temple. It was wonderful! I bowed and meditated day after day, full of vigor and light. At the end of the week, the monks drove me home.
Back in Jinju, I made a big mistake. I kept up my bowing and meditating practice in my room and on the roof of my building. I also felt much more free socially, and I began meeting Korean students from outside my department. They informed me of a terrible tragedy that had occurred where a young student had been murdered by the Korean Secret Police. I learned more about the incident and was deeply moved. Some students had set up an altar with a bowing mat and incense to offer. I saw that and said to myself, “I know what to do.” So, I made three full bows and offered incense, then went home. Very innocent, I thought, just me showing solidarity with the students. I did not understand the impact of an American doing so, but I soon learned.
The next day, two Immigration agents grabbed me, packed up all my things, and drove like madmen to Masan, constantly looking back. They put me on the first airplane out of the country, in this case to Japan. They informed me that they had learned that the Secret Police were going to arrest me and they felt they had to get me out of the country fast, thus explaining their strange driving and behavior. By the way, it was quite difficult to get back to the States from Japan!
I worked as a teacher constantly after this episode, even going to China to teach. Then, I settled down in Santa Cruz, teaching at the University of California’s English Language International (ELI) program. At ELI, I was a regular English teacher, but because of my education, was assigned to teach Humphrey and Fulbright scholars how to be successful graduate students in an American university. This task brought into play my fullest abilities and knowledge from my time at university, both undergrad and graduate. Later, I was the chief teacher for a group of Chinese mid-level bureaucrats at ELI for a semester to learn English, computer applications, business, public relations, etc. I did the same for a group from Mongolia. This job at ELI was quite fulfilling, until one day in December, 2008, I learned that ELI was closing, that the university bureaucracy had determined it was not cost effective. This decision still baffles me since the people I knew in our administration informed me that ELI was quite profitable. Furthermore, our program had created good will towards America in thousands of students from all over the globe, value not measurable in ‘profit’.
ELI had a cap in hours for us teachers that if we went beyond would trigger all kinds of expensive benefits that the University wished to not pay. So, I worked there ‘part-time’, usually 12 hours/week. This suited me fine because I decided to study for a degree in Computational Linguistics (I never ceased interest in computer applications for language learning). To accomplish this, I took courses in computer science and mathematics at the local community college, then entered SJSU in 2004 in the Linguistics Department Master’s program. I fit classwork into my ELI schedule.
When I started studying, the Department head asked me to teach a course in Academic English, a course for entering freshmen who failed their English entrance exams, primarily essay writing, but some grammar. I did so, and the next year was offered three courses. Even after graduating, ready to work for Silicon Valley in computational linguistics, I stayed on teaching. I liked the work, I loved the kids, and I felt needed, i.e. I was the only one who could help these young people succeed at university. I took this responsibility very seriously.
Then, the troubles started. Because of the financial crisis, in 2007 the State of California’s revenues decreased abruptly. To balance their budget, the State decreased our salaries by 10%, promising to restore them as soon as possible (the irony is that teachers cannot teach 90%, so this was just a pay cut). Of course, I also earned a salary at ELI; however, the next year, the State cut the salaries another 10%, and they eliminated half of the Academic English program, that is, we considered our program to last two semesters and they cut the second half of the program, which I considered cruel, shortsighted, and stingy. However, we teachers soldiered through and close to 90% of our students passed their exam after one semester—but it was an incredible amount of work.
When ELI folded, I was faced with teaching only two or three classes for only one semester at SJSU, so, I decided to retire early and let some of the younger teachers have my classes. My daughter and son-in-law had just landed jobs as professors at Florida State University, so I moved to Florida. Then, I used my pension money to buy a 10m sailboat, and I now live on it in a small fishing village on the north end of the Gulf of Mexico, Apalachicola.
It is lovely here, except for the occasional hurricane. I teach ESL sometimes to the local Hispanic immigrant community, and I tutor high school students in math. However, I feel underutilized. I am 71, but quite healthy and vigorous and still have a number of good years to engage the world. So, I keep an eye on the careers.tesol.org website, and when I saw your solicitation, I thought it would be worthwhile to give a try. I remember Korea so fondly that I would love to go back, especially since Kim Dae Jung disbanded the people who wanted to punish me for bowing. I sincerely believe that I would be an asset to your school and could teach your students well. Also, I believe Korea to still be a Buddhist country, so I, as a Buddhist, would offer less cultural clash than the typical American. And, my English is excellent. I write and edit and during my years at Stanford, I was an English major until I got too baffled by deconstructionism and changed to Chinese. I studied Korean as well, linguistically and practically, and still remember chogum.
Thank you much for your consideration,
Edward Lyle Tripp (Ted)
