Beatrix
- 2005-04-15
Why must one have a police interview exactly?
You areassuming that criminals come to teach English, not law-abiding people such as myself.
What has the police got to do with an innocent English teacher who has never committed any crimes.
This idea is propogating spy networks. Do you know how horrible it is when you are innocent to have spys continuously looking over your shoulders watching your emails, asking who you are meeting in the weekend, etc. They are luckly such teachers are here, living under these conditions.
I really think you oughta re-think why one must have a police interview.
Chris
- 2005-04-13
Sarah,
That was a valid response. However, it was very simplistic and it painted one place (Korea) as hell....
Really now, I have been here for 5 years and it is a very nice place to live.
Sarah
- 2005-04-06
In response to the above "The good, the bad and the ugly"- an easy life in Korea??? You've got to be kidding. I lived there for one year in the mid 90's and it was anything but easy. It was the hardest year of my life. I came to love and appreciate Korea but I never "denounced" the West, and I'm sorry, but corporate capitalism?? One thing I made perfectly clear to my friends back home was that the "degradation" and greed of the West was far more rampant in Korea than in the West itself. Throw in the choking pollution and destruction of natural environment and um, sorry, but it's not all Buddhist temples and meditating. Buddy, you have to get out and take on a different perspective for a bit. You're sounding a little narrow-minded there.
Chunping Wu
- 2005-04-01
I found there is a trend of getting a certificate from a certain seminar in Shanghai for a couple of weeks. Quite a few foreigners and local non-English teachers were involved. I am doubtful their proficiencies. Anybody knows?
Mic
- 2005-03-28
I think the Korean people are right. I think there are many foreigners who teach overseas for the wrong reasons. Many of them are young graduates who come to enjoy an easy life and live in immoral decadence while overseas. Some of them are older men who want to try and live life again like when they were younger. There are a few foreigners who come for the right reasons such as they are interested in Buddhism or Korean history. There are some who are TRUE ex-patriots who denounce the West and the immoral corporate capitalist ways of Western countries.
English language schools have become a corrupt business in many Asian countries, with both illigitimate employers and employees.
It is important for Korean people to protect their homeland from the "poisons" of the West. But, it is also important that the Korean people not become too "closed" like their brothers and sisters in the North (DPRK).
I think the following can be done to ensure problems like this do not occur in the future:
1. Stricter screening of work-visas for foreigners including a negative HIV blood test in order to be issued a work visa.
2. A standard question-survey or screening done by local police when the foreigner settles into residence overseas after one month.
3. Stricter laws and government control forcing all English Schools to have an employment licence in order to hire foreigners.
4. A union for foreign teachers to help foreigners protect themselves from corruption and illegal schools.
5. Require teachers to have a teaching certificate.
Mic
- 2005-03-28
What a great thing. Now they want to throw out all the corrupt foreigners. It is about time. I agree, I hope China does the same. Maybe they will make a rule NO bourgeois capitalist, proletarian socialist only. That should keep things clean.
Chunping Wu
- 2005-03-28
I don't blame the foreign teachers. It's the parents and the school runners who exaggerated too much on the effectiveness of hiring "Native language speakers" and the ignorance of most of the parents who never learn a foreign language before and wanted their children to keep up with the trend. I still feel indebted to our domesticated language teachers. Without their teaching, I wouldn't have the good foundation in grammar. Since the schools needs "natives", they even hire illiterates, under-qualified and non-certified ones to fill up their needs. Some even ask for young, good-looking whites and females! I think the Koreans are right to the standing up for corrections. No sooner, I wish the Chinese should be smart enough to follow up to do the cleansing.
Chunping Wu
- 2005-03-28
Good, responsible teachers are welcomed and shouldn't be bothered.
March 22, 2005
http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/353.html
Canadian English teachers are among the main targets after a TV show painted a picture of foreigners in South Korea as an assortment of high-school dropouts, losers, drug peddlers and pedophiles.
A homegrown campaign urging foreigners to leave South Korea has prompted warnings for western visitors to stay away from certain parts of Seoul.
The Seoul Times reported that demonstrations against foreigners are planned and an online petition to keep foreigners out of South Korea has already received thousands of signatures.
The US embassy, the paper said, has warned American citizens to stay away from certain parts of Seoul.
Many foreigners are worried, some have already left, the paper said.
The Canadian Embassy in Seoul on its website said that it is concerned at the rate of sexual assault against foreigners.
The use of public transport after dark may be safer than using taxis when travelling alone, it states.
The embassy website also advises that strikes and demonstrations frequently occur in Seoul on short notice.
Canadians are reminded that political, labour, and student demonstrations and marches can become confrontational or violent. Canadians should exercise caution, avoid areas where demonstrations are being held and avoid confrontations with protestors.
A major flashpoint for the anti-western sentiment in South Korea is a website set up to help Western English teachers find jobs.
Featured on the site was a forum dedicated to Seouls social life which also organised parties where Westerners and local girls drank, danced and flirted.
Koreans got wind of the site, hacked it, and brought it down.
The Seoul Times said that a local Yahoo-style portal named Daum has also set up a petition to rid South Korea of low-grade Westerners.
Demonstrations are planned and activists are encouraged to confront Western men who are seen with Korean women.
The Yonhap News Agency said that TV station SBS recently aired a program painting a picture of foreign teachers in South Korea as an assortment of high-school dropouts, losers, drug peddlers and pedophiles.
The shows high ratings cashed in on the negative sentiment sparked by a foreign-administered Web site that pulled the plug after incensing the nation by allowing a step-by-step guide to bedding local women on its bulletin board posted by a foreign English teacher.
Korean students at a Hagwon
Since the early-1990s, a wave of hagwon or English schools have sprung up all over South Korea offering conversational English tuition to students, bored housewives and professionals.
According to the South Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources, there are 5,138 foreign language institutes and 6,410 foreign teachers, including hundreds of Canadians in the country.
Because the English-language institutes frequently only require a native tongue there is a high degree of latitude in terms of quality.
In some quarters, the system provides excellent immersion teaching. In others, it lays itself open for abuse, says English-language instructor Nathan Millard from Britain, according to Yonhap.
Hagwon class in session
It is ridiculous that someone who knows nothing of Korea, knows nothing about teaching and has only a degree can walk into a job teaching a foreign language So this is a problem in Korea, but it is a problem that Korea has created for itself, said the teacher based in Ilsan, a satellite city of the capital.
Korean media said the feeding frenzy for English has spun off a lucrative black market where people who skipped college can earn up to C$60 an hour for reading the days news in their native language.
Were not teachers. Were entertainers, said Ray Jordan, a Canadian finance student who worked for an illegal outfit in 2003 that sends teachers to home-classes in suburban areas.
We do the same thing every lesson chanting and picture cards. Sometimes we circle round to the same kids and go through exactly the same routine. The kids even remember us.
Like many, he was wooed into Koreas teaching market by the offer of free international flights, C$2,422-plus a month, free apartment and the taste of a new culture, said the Korean news report.
Foreigners celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in Itaewon, Seoul's night district
My hagwon falsified teachers resumes, saying they were from prestigious schools like Berkeley, said a Korean-Canadian woman employed in the affluent district of Daichi-dong in southern Seoul two years ago.
The Seoul Times said in an increasingly nationalistic South Korea, civic groups, local government, and on and off-line communities react fast to any perceived sleight on their nation.
When incidents like this happen, hordes of angry young netizens get to work, calling for boycotts, backlashes and action, the paper said.
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