Bitchin about foreigners and other hobbies...

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Hagwons, Regional Colleges Pissed at New E-2 Regulations
Marmot's Hole....

The Maeil Sinmun reports that schools — particularly regional colleges — and private academies are up in arms about the Ministry of Justice’s new visa requirements for foreigners looking to teach English in Korea.

More specifically, they say the new regulations — including the requirement to submit a criminal background check, which would require the nationals of nations not party to the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (read: Canadians) to return to their homeland once a year — are turning potential teachers off to Korea and making it difficult for schools to fill their staff requirements.

Moreover, the measures are driving up salaries for foreign teachers and finding fees to recruiting agencies.

Schools acknowledge the need to filter foreign teachers looking to come to Korea, but claim the new regulations — which treat all foreign teachers like criminals (their words, not mine) — are insufficient and will bring only ill side-effects.

The Ministry of Justice, however, is having none of it. The ministry said (or the Maeil Sinmun said it said) public insecurity about foreign language education has skyrocketed due to recent problems, including foreign teachers’ fake degrees, pot smoking and news that a serial child molester had taught in Korea. Accordingly, its new regulations would go into effect from Dec 15. A ministry official noted that nationals of Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents member nations could get their criminal records in Korea, and that it was studying measures so that instructors with experience teaching in Korea would not have to go through unnecessary measures.




I thought this was a very well written and insightful article in the Korea Times. it's all about the time-honored hobby of many Koreans...especially Korean English Teachers "Slaggin Foreign English Teachers"! I used to get so pissed off when I was teacher at Pagoda and some students would slag me or at least bitch about "other" foreign English teachers. Looks as if things still haven't changed.

Korean English Teachers must truely be pleased with the new visa regulations that are about to be enacted.

About Foreign Teachers
By Brian Deutsch

In response to Kang Eun-hee's article ``Korean English Teachers" published in The Korea Times on Nov. 23, I should say first that she introduces a few important concepts.

However, I feel that her argument has several troubling weaknesses, and the real story is not the cultural gaps between native speakers of English and Korean students, but rather between foreign teachers and their Korean counterparts.

Ms. Kang brings up, for example, the issue of money, and hints that native speakers are paid 45 million won per annum. I am not sure where she got this figure, but I do know that Koreans do tend to exaggerate our income, and that her number is roughly twice what a rookie public school teacher can expect to make.

Even if we do include the housing offered in so many contracts, the calculations still work out to much more than a veteran public school teacher can expect to earn.

Moreover, foreign teachers aren't privy to the same holiday and performance bonuses, and under-the-table cash advances, that frequently pad the purses of Korean teachers, so an objective comparison is difficult.

She also relates a story of an embarrassed student during a Halloween lesson. Many foreign teachers, myself included, know the pain of trying to urge a student to participate only to later find out that he or she has a learning disability.

I will suggest, however, that the cultural gap between foreign teachers and their students is perhaps not so different than the generation gap between Korean teachers and theirs.

I will also suggest that the authority given to Korean teachers (but withheld from foreigners) often instills fear and prompts far more tears than a Halloween lesson ever can.

You won't read many stories about foreigners attacking students with swords, as happened recently in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, nor will you see native speakers slapping, punching, or head-butting their students in the hallways, things I witness between Korean teachers and their students on a regular basis.

Ms. Kang suggests that one cause for the cultural disconnect is that foreign teachers are burdened with a large number of students whom they see infrequently. In my case I have nearly 50 different classes and 1,600 students, whom I see once or twice a month.

Compare that to the tri-weekly meetings between Korean English teachers and their students, and it's easy to see why native speakers are perhaps not as effective as intended. Moreover, when we consider that foreign teachers are, contractually, assistant teachers and are often used as such, the amount of meaningful interaction is even less.

It's also very important to remember that there is no curriculum in place for foreign teachers in public middle and high schools, and little thought is given to how we run our bi-monthly classes.

Our co-teachers are frequently absent from the classroom, are rarely involved in lesson planning, and often say nothing more than ``do whatever you want.''

Were teachers, administrators, and government officials really worried about results or money, they would spend more of both in designing an effective way to integrate foreigners into the classroom.

As it stands now, the foreigner's classroom is a novelty, a gimmick, for as Ms. Kang says, students have had so little time to talk to foreigners.

Finally, Ms. Kang echoes a complaint used far too much, that foreign teachers are a transient population and thus not an effective long-term solution.

Let's please not forget the obstacles in place that prevent long-term employment and which push more and more foreigners out the door. There are ceilings on our salaries and meager financial and professional incentive for post-graduate degrees.

There is no curriculum in the schools and no viable long-term plan for native speakers. And, most recent and most troubling, there is legislation in place that not only increases paperwork and makes it more difficult to work in Korea, but which, quite frankly, insults the foreign community by implicitly degrading us and explicitly calling us unqualified, drug-using pedophiles who are a nuisance to Korean society, as per a recent immigration press release.

It's unwise and unhealthy to always point the finger at the foreign population, especially with such an unintentionally humorous e-mail address.

Foreign teachers were imported, after all, to rectify the glaring deficiencies of Korean English teachers, and even after a decade of exposure, there is much work to be done. For all Ms. Kang's talk about culture, there is a startling dearth of knowledge about the culture of the countries from whence these foreign teachers come.

And, there is a disappointing inability for many Korean English teachers to effectively do their jobs. Considering that Korean teachers lead the majority of English classes in public and private schools, given Korea's low standardized test scores and the general lack of English competence, mightn't we also question the effectiveness of using so many domestic teachers?

There are a bevy of solutions to the problems highlighted both here and in Ms. Kang's piece. I wonder, though, if anyone cares. More conversations on English education take place in this paper than in the schools between colleagues, where they belong.

And lately I have the impression that Korean officials are actually trying to repel all its teachers, and when I read pieces like Ms. Kang's or Mr. Jason Lim's, I wonder if anybody really wants to teach or learn English at all.

Brian Deutsch is an English teacher in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province. He can be reached at deutsch.brian@gmail.com. See origninal...

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NGO Seeks to Drive Out Illegal Aliens
civic organization plans to launch a campaign to expel illegal aliens next week.

The Movement of Extradition of Illegal Workers will hold a protest in front of the Immigration Office in Mok-dong, Seoul Dec. 18. At the event, members will urge the government to introduce tighter measures on illegal migrant workers in Korea, estimated at around 220,000. They will call for a more drastic plan ― such as collecting fingerprints of foreigners entering Korea, which was widely considered, but criticized in other countries.

They have already set out plans for the post-rally, too ― written complaints to media outlets on those who turn a blind eye to workers remaining in the country on tourist visas, and visits to headquarters of human rights civic groups for foreigners.

``We are not against all foreigners in the country. We are just against those who come here illegally and take away our chance to work and make a living,'' a member of the group said.

Many of the members do admit that most of the jobs these workers are taking are not attractive to them. ``But we are asking for those people to respect our law,'' he said.

Many people display hatred toward illegal immigrants complaining about crimes some of them commit or the economic loss they cause to society by not paying taxes. Some of these people form online communities and hold campaigns and offline meetings, blaming them for causing high unemployment and the economic slowdown.

Another online community is seeking the expulsion of illegal English instructors who come with tourists' visa and work at ``hagwons (private educational institutions).'' If some of these offenders are reported to have committed sexual assaults or involved in drug trafficking, the movement will make a blacklist and report it to the media and the government.

However, the organizations are being observed with grave concern. Some say these ideas can easily be viewed as racist. ``Many people think they are disadvantaged by these illegal visitors. Their requests may look like actions to do away with illegalities, but deep down in their hearts, there is hatred toward foreigners in general,'' Woo Sam-yeol, head of the Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea, said.

``When experiencing difficulties in getting jobs, youngsters tend to blame it on foreigners,'' Prof. Yoon In-jin of Korea University told the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper.

``We are not saying their undocumented sojourn in Korea is recommendable or good. But what we are saying is that they too have rights to live like any other human, without being neglected or hated in this country,'' said a staff member at the migrant worker's rights committee.

Meanwhile, Park Jae-wan of the Ministry of Justice Immigration Office said, ``The government has already applied strict rules to illegal workers. Those charged with illegal or undocumented work activity are expelled from the country or sentenced to up to three years in prison.''
Korea Times

Apparently so many Koreans hate foreign English teachers because they were hoping to get jobs as English Teachers?? Doubt it. Same thing seems to happen in every country. Those who can't take responsibility for their own shortcomings need scapegoats. For others, I think English teacher bashing is simply a hobby; like running, collecting baseball cards and drinking soju in the park.