With a degree in education, a teaching license and years of experience teaching English to Korean students in her homeland, Filipino teacher Angelie Sawyer thought it would be easy to find a job in Korea, the country where demand for English teachers outruns supply.

Sawyer came to Seoul last February, joining her husband, American lawyer Michael Sawyer, but has not been able to find a teaching job purely because of her nationality. She had applied for teaching positions at the programs run by education authorities in Seoul and Gyeonggi, but was rejected.

``When I saw some ads, I would send my resume. But they would call me and ask about my nationality, and if I said I’m Filipino, they would say it’s hard to get a visa,” Sawyer told The Korea Times. “I feel really bad about it. It’s unfair. Koreans go to the Philippines to learn English, but here in Korea, Filipinos can’t teach English.’’

Sawyer has yet to get a teaching job. She and her husband are volunteering at the Seoul Global Center to teach English to underprivileged kids.

She says it’s obviously “racial discrimination” issuing English teaching (E-2) visas for the mere reason people are white rather than verifying their qualifications as a teacher.

After The Korea Times reported in 2008 that foreign envoys and English teachers whose countries adopt English as an official language had criticized the E-2 visa regulations, immigration authorities revised the rules so that English teachers from India, Singapore and the Philippines are able to come to Korea.

However, there is one precondition ㅡ countries must sign a trade contract with Korea, containing clauses on employment as English teachers, government officials said. Korea and the Philippines have not signed the needed contract as yet.

According to Korean government officials, the Indian government was very positive about exporting its English teachers, so the two countries inked a deal last year enabling Indian nationals to teach English in Korea.

However, the Philippine government has remained lukewarm about sending its English teachers here.

Kuem Yong-han, director at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), said “we once talked to the Filipino embassy in order to invite English teachers from the country, but they were afraid of a brain drain of talented teachers.”

‘Have to be white’

On top of the regulatory hurdles, many experts point out that non-white English teachers have to overcome bias and unfavorable views of parents against them.

Yoon Ho-sang, senior supervisor at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SOME) also said Korean parents and students want to learn English from native speakers, adding that schools might not want to hire Filipino teachers.

Reflecting this sentiment, if applicants are from America and other nations where English is the mother tongue, schools here don’t require work experience or a relevant university major to be able to teach English in Korea.

Sawyer and her husband Michael last month filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea against SMOE, Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education and MEST agency recruiting foreign English teachers. She says the complaint deals specifically with her case, not all Asian English teachers.

Mr. Sawyer, a lawyer teaching at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said in the complaint, ``The current language teacher visa regulations in Korea discriminatorily violate World Trade Organization rules. Why then does Korea so blatantly choose to violate this provision of the OECD rules? If Korea is going to talk the talk, then it follows that it should walk the walk, not simply pick and choose the rules which it likes.”

The Sawyers are hoping the Commission will act on the complaint, but Michael admitted they just wanted to get more public awareness about the matter.

``I hope something happens. But I’m not sure if Koreans can actually accept darker skinned people as their equals. To be a teacher here, you have to be white. It’s discriminatory. People here only prefer to be taught by whites,’’ Mr. Sawyer said.

“I thought her case would be a great test case on the issue for the agency,” he added.

Courtesy: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/117_67219.html