Random Quote

Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson

Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown

To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin

As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill

America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)

As soon as I buy the moose head, I have to go pick up some KY jelly.
---- Mary Roninette Kowal

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison

Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey

"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost

Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford

Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell

subscribe to RSS feed
 Friday December 30 2005

TOEIC on the way out!

Via Gord a link to Jodi who discusses her thoughts about a the Chosun article detailing The End of the Road for TOEIC. I have always stated that the TOEIC test is a fundementally useless test for indicating communicative English ability. However in Korea (and probably elsewhere) TOEIC scores are used to determine success of job applicants and the difference of 10 points or less could decide ones future career, so it is good to read the following:

Korea is the world’s last bastion of the Test of English for International Communication or TOEIC, but the compromised test may at last be on its way out. Some 12 corporations including GS Retail have dropped a TOEIC score requirement for job applicants, and three others like Doosan had lowered the minimum requirement, according to a survey of 27 major companies. SK, Industrial Bank of Korea and Pantech & Curitel also did away with test score requirements from the second half of the year, while Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics lowered the barrier.

“Until last year, we required applicants to have TOEIC scores of 830 and above, but we judged that the TOEIC isn’t an appropriate indicator of actual English skills, so we stopped asking for TOEIC scores from the second half,” says Lee Jeong, the head of personnel at Industrial Bank of Korea.

In case you didn’t read it, I highly recommend reading Jodi’s thoughts on this - I basically agree with everything she said.



Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Dec 30, 2005 at 05:06 AM
ESL_in_the_News |
Picture of Nathan B.

Nathan B. wrote 18 words  on  Sunday Jan 1, 2006  at  08:34 PM Korea (South)

Happy New Year, to you!  I hope you’ll still have time to blog in the next few months!

Sean.

Sean. wrote 23 words  on  Monday Jan 2, 2006  at  05:42 AM Korea (South)

Nathan,

Of course. Though blogging will be light until I start teaching again in March. Right now I’m doing full time Korean studies.

Picture of Tim Nall

Tim Nall wrote 34 words  on  Thursday Jan 12, 2006  at  02:11 AM United States

Hi Blinger,

Long time no surf the Net, but had no homework today. wink Saw your comments about the TOEIC. There’s an article about it here:

  http://www.geocities.com/twocentseltcafe/teach/toeic.html

  The TOEIC Test: Discussion and analysis

Later,
Tim

Sean.

Sean. wrote 22 words  on  Thursday Jan 12, 2006  at  05:46 AM Korea (South)

Tim,

Thanks for the links - I looked at your email also and fixed that. Will look at your links later today.

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

Members





Auto-login on future visits
Show my name in the online users list

Forgot your password? |  Register

Polling Station

Are you Attending KOTESOL 2008?
pencil

Buy me a Coffee