Hidden curriculum by Auerbach and Burgess

Reading the article reminded me of a class I taught before I came to America. It was one of the required courses in English department of a Korean college and the title was "Practical English". I think most of non-native English speaking countries' colleges have a similar course. Honestly I still have no idea of what "practical English" is. Unlike the curricula in the article, what would be the practical in EFL setting? At a glance, the problem is that it is hard to testify or verify the "practicality" of what the students will learn in EFL settings. What I did in the class was just introducing how to settle down into American community as a foreigner, just like in the article - arrival at the airport, housing, getting a driver's license, buying a car, shopping, American holidays, etc., all of whose expressions are hardly used in Korea. I was deceiving the students by forcing them to take that English is real, authentic, useful, therefore practical.

According to the authors, students' roles outside the classroom should be taken into consideration of English teaching curriculum, but if students' roles outside the classroom in EFL settings is different from those in ESL settings, more specifically, if students' English usage outside the classroom is rare, then the consideration of the role should be taken into another aspect, for example, what they want to learn in English class in general.
Extremely speaking, a real practical English could be a business English, for example, if we suppose the practicality is about what students need in English learning.

The problem is, to what extent do we follow their needs as a teacher?

I don't know...

The Native - Non-native English teachers inequality in reality

While I was reading articles on the absurdity of NS-NNS English teachers, I was happy to get to know that being a Non-native English speaker is not a shame but advantage which I can take. I agree to Dr. Paul Matsuda Key's idea that being proud of being a non-native English speaker but it would be hard for me to be proud of being a non-native English teacher in my country. The prevailing preference to westerners for an English teacher is so deep-rooted in the society that it seems impossible to change people's (mis)conception about native English teachers. Still we cannot stop being proud of ourselves as non-native English teachers, I believe. I don't think we have to fight the reality but need to invest more on ourselves, just to be a better non-native English teacher. Just as a good plumber knows how to unclog a sink easily.

Wny don't we have a look at the recruitment of native English teachers in Korea?
http://www.ybmedu.com/introduction/2_instructor1_01.asp?sCodeVal=31&pt_seq=17&pt_name=Speaking%5B%BF%DC%B1%B9%C0%CE%C8%B8%C8%AD%5D

Ask yourself here. "What if you are teaching their classes, in English, as a non-native English teacher? Are you 100% sure you're gonna confident and better than those natives?"