Polly don't wanna cracker, Polly wanna twinkie.

A couple generic Korean-American community leaders were talking in this evening's Korea Times about that plan to attract Korean-Americans to volunteer or work in Korea's rural areas (here and here for background information). They explained that the plan doesn't seem appealing to many Korean-Americans, and that South Korea needs to step up with more incentives to attract those of Korean descent. I have no idea what this guy's talking about with the "it" and "this" in the following paragraph:

``Actually, it is not our job. The Korean government should take this up and support more programs for young ethnic Koreans around the world. Still, many more young students are interested in learning about Korea,'' said former KAYAC President Ahn Yong-jin.

They said the government needs to learn from China, Japan and especially from Israel. ``The Jewish people work hard to embrace their kindred all around the world. There are about 850 Jews in the White House, for example, and they are the power and driving force of Israel,'' said Lee, who also served as president of the Korea-American Association of New York.

``We should do something for young Koreans overseas. If we don't, there will be no more chances and our children will have no roots,'' Lee added.

They also asked the Korean government to take care of Korean adoptees in the United States. ``Many adopted Koreans have bad feelings about their parents and mother country. Their motherland should embrace them,'' Ahn said.

They said a greater pool of ethnic Korean assets will be nurtured across the world in 15- 20 years. The government should invest in them so that it can attract them as driving power for Korea in the future. ``I hope President Lee suggests a vision and long-run plans for ethnic Koreans instead of just talking to us in `pragmatic' ways,'' Lee said.

And we wanna stay up late and eat ice cream with sprinkles and a cherry on top, and we wanna go on a pony ride every day, and we don't wanna eat the crust on the pizza. I already did a little write-up on the drive to attract more teachers to rural areas, the logistics involved in staffing these schools, the incorrect assumption that teachers are "shunning" these posts, an entry which you can read here. As for Lee and Ahn, their points can best be summarized with the following:



In all fairness, though, me and Google just snooped around a little and it doesn't seem like any of the organizations mentioned in the article actually mean anything. Actually, nobody mentioned in the article turned up on a Google search.

There's really not much point in debating articles like this but it's a slow news day. What really stands out to me is the vastly different valuations of Korean-Americans as English teachers. On the one hand you have people like shithead professor and KT columnist Jason Lim and many others who consider Korean-Americans an invaluable resource in a land full of white people. He writes:

Although private language institutes might have to cater to their customers' prejudices in order to maximize their profits, the government doesn't. The government is free to pursue the highest qualified native-English speakers who would adjust well to life in Korea without regard to their skin color.

Further, the government would have extra leverage in recruiting highly-qualified Korean Americans because they have a natural affinity and inclination to explore their parents' country.

This means that highly-educated Korean Americans, who would otherwise take more lucrative positions in the U.S., would come to teach English in Korea for lower pay just for the experience.

The gist of his article is the tired argument that Korean-Americans are more suited to teaching English in Korea because they will have an easier time adjusting and will, because of their ancestry and imagined ties to Korea, be extra motivated to both work hard and study hard . . . which kind of contradicts that "without regard to their skin color" line. Yet, of course, Korean-Americans are often paid less and, as we can see from the latest round of articles, are slated to earn considerably less money working out in rural areas. While they might gain some sympathy as they quote-unquote rediscover their culture *cough*, they generally lack any credibility as native speakers, and often face rejection by students, parents, and colleagues. But, when I read shit like how Koreans need to be more like Jews---really, really sick of that line of thinking---or shit like the following from the same Jason Lim article, my reaction is pretty much "well, fuck 'em":

I still remember being chewed out by the president of the language institute I worked for 10 years ago because I hired a Korean American UCLA graduate who was far more qualified than one of those 'Let's travel through Asia while earning money as English teachers and score some women at the same time, dude!" types of instructors that were so prevalent in those days.

Yet, the latter was considered a better hire than the Korean American because he was white and therefore a more authentic English speaker.

Such hiring practices have led to recent scandals in which some native-English instructors have been shown to be less than ideal teachers. Many lacked professional qualifications, lied about their academic training, and enjoyed less than exemplary lifestyle involving the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock n roll.

Korea was recently shocked to find out that one of them was a pedophile who had brazenly posted his pictures with the very Asian kids that he had sexually abused.

By the way, back in November I took Lim to task for his race-baiting and for his stubborn contention that Korean-Americans are better fits in the Korean TEFL scene. Anybody who has ever hung around with some of the Korean-American cliques around here won't be so quick to champion that demographic.