My Career Profile

Hello and welcome to my career page. Here I'll talk about my education and work experience.

Education-wise, I've got a B.A. in English and an M.A. in International Cooperation. Politics is one of my main interests, which helps explain my drift away from fiction and poetry towards the history and current affairs. I still plan to do a Ph.D., but the challenge is finding an arena that is both practical (i.e., Will it get me a good job?) and appealing to my interests.

So far, my work experience consists mainly of English education. I've been teaching English to Koreans, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese, part-time and full-time since 1996. Most of my time as an English instructor has been spent in Korea. Recently, I've become more interested in publishing ESL books and producing online ESL content. I figure that I can help more people that way.

The reason I feel this way is that English books published in Korea are usually second-rate on an international scale. Many, if not most ESL books published in Korea contain English mistakes or otherwise unnatural language. My business partners in Korea and I believe this needs to be changed. We believe native English speakers should be doing the English writing. (By this I intend no offense to Koreans. I just feel that if one is not a native speaker or near-native speaker of English, one shouldn't be writing English books. Imagine me writing Korean books in my flawed Korean! Brother!)

My last job was as an English instructor at Sookmyung Women's University, the #2 women's college in Korea, which was founded in 1906. I worked there for almost two years and enjoyed it a lot, but then my wife got pregnant and we decided it would be best to raise our children in Japan. At Sookmyung, I did my best to provide my students with a superior ESL education; I also hope that I helped boost the school's prestige and strengthen its reputation.

I also function as the Vice President of e4k (English for Koreans), a Korean company I founded with my colleague, Duke Moon. At e4k, we write English education books for the Korean market and also run an online English café.

I am currently working at Utsunomiya English Center in Tochigi, Japan. I teach both English and French to nonnative speakers.

OK, that's all I have to say for now. Below you can see a list of my publications. Click on the scans to enlarge the view.

English Talk Box (2002)

English Talk Box was my first book. I co-wrote it with two other people. Mark Plaice wrote the book, Duke Moon translated it into Korean, and I did the editing. Intended for advanced learners, ETB features very natural, idiomatic dialogs, as well as "Culture Notes" briefing Koreans on the differences between Korean and Western culture.

English
Communication
Manager (2002)

English Communication Manager was written by David Wagner for the Japanese ESL market. Neung-Yule bought the rights to translate the book into Korean and edit it for the Korean market. Actually, I just modeled for this book. Thought I would mention it here anyway.

"Chotal" (2003)

My second book, which lacks an English title, is nicknamed "Chotal" in Korean. I wrote the English part and Han Jin, my partner at Neung-Yule, wrote the Korean portion. This is a book for basic English speakers. Its focus is colloquial English, and it features simple and common expressions, both in slang and standard English. Notes on culture and language usage are made throughout the book.

Tomato (2003)

This book's Korean title is Tomato. It's one installment in Neung-Yule's series of immensely popular (and profitable) books on TOEIC. I helped edit this book along with two other native English speakers.

Travel English (2003)

Travel English, written by a flight attendant at Korean Air, contains useful English phrases and expressions for those journeying to an English-speaking land. The expressions in this book meet the needs of speakers in most situations—shopping, accomodations, drinking, and illness, to name just a few. I was responsible for proofreading the entire English content of this book.

TOEIC Building (2003)

TOEIC Building is the first book in a new TOEIC series launched by Neung-Yule. I was one of this text's three editors. Nowadays, it seems that almost every ambitious young Korean is preparing for the TOEIC. Why? Most decent (and I stress "decent") jobs in this country require a very high TOEIC score. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

English
Conversation
Sketch (2004)

Written by Marwan Alkarout and edited by myself, English Conversation Sketch is e4k's third book. Packed with engaging drawings, the book functions as a sort of picture dictionary. Produced with real conversation in mind, Sketch introduces useful vocabulary as well as phrases, and includes exercises to reinforce the contents of each chapter. The illustrations are not just fun but instructive, as the book is designed to help English learners of all levels enrich their repertoire of everyday English words and phrases.

Gosoo (2004)

"Gosoo," which means "master" in Korean, is a high-school English text I worked on. I produced about two dozen dialogs and reading passages. Interestingly, before taking on the project, I had asked whether it was possible for my name to be included in the list of contributors. I received an "OK" at the time, but the person in question reneged on the bargain. Ah, how you do say "sour grapes" in Korean?

Hankuk Saram (2004)

e4k's fourth book, nicknamed Hankuk Saram, or Koreans, represents the culmination of five years of research and writing by four native English speakers and two Koreans. This book is e4k's most ambitious undertaking so far, as the project involved a great deal of painstaking research, revision, and editing. Hankuk Saram is a thorough and comprehensive overview of Koreans' common errors in English. The book covers hundreds of typical errors, not only identifying the errors themselves but also giving the reasons for the errors and the appropriate corrections.

Click here to go back to the top