CHOSUN ILBO - ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITION
March 29, 2005
English Schools Employing Bogus Native Speakers Busted
Police have busted 28 English language institutes in Busan area that passed off Caucasians from non-English speaking countries like Turkey and Russia as native English speakers.
Busan Police on Wednesday detained and questioned a broker, identified as Lee, 39, suspected of arranging for non-English speaking foreigners visiting the country on tourist or student visas to find jobs at language schools by passing them off as native English speakers.
The police also booked the 28 heads of the schools they say employed unqualified foreign instructors brokered by Lee.
By introducing 30-odd unqualified foreigners, Lee pocketed a total of W20 million (US$20,000) in fees on 61 occasions since May 2002, police said.
"For foreigners to lawfully become English language instructors in the country, they must either have E-2 (conversation instruction) visas or get permission separately. But most of the disqualified instructors had tourist or student visas," a police officer said. "Foreigners from non-English speaking countries, in particular, were employed at institutes catering to infants and elementary school pupils for fear that their deficiency in English might be detected more easily elsewhere."
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