The Hankuk University of Foreign Studies said [Tuesday] it would proceed with an hour-long session for 182 foreign professors, more than 30 percent of its faculty, each day. The session will be held in English.
"In the past, we didn't have enough foreign professors to hold such education sessions in a foreign language. But with their increased numbers, we have translated the government-distributed information booklet into English and will hold the education course, all in English, once a year," a university official said.
The content of the session will include informing professors of how the concept and standards of sexual harassment are set at schools in Korea and how such action impacts the school, the victim and the offender as well as giving them specific exemplary cases of sexual harassment, university officials said.
While these particular courses will be for foreigners---as the session is in English---the original material was translated from Korean. I'm curious, though, if Korean professors are also attending workshops. Although when we read about sexual harassment of students and colleagues in Korea it is always committed by Koreans, and in fact HUFS fired a professor in 2007 for harassing a panelist on "Chat with the Beauties," the article does come across as if it's addressing a problem area.
Lee Myeong-jo, who is the course instructor, said the educational session had been designed to prevent any possible sexual harassment activity that could result from cultural differences.
I assume that line speaks to cases like the one out of Seoul National University in December, in which a Pakistani grad student sexually harassed five women because
He told school officials that he inadvertently made mistakes due to Pakistani culture, which deems women inferior to men.
Well, though things are changing, that's not exactly a foreign notion in Korea, either.
4 comments:
The professor who propositioned the girl was korean. But they're sending their foreigners into workshops. One of my friends was working at HUFS when the scandal went down, and saw it all close up, including a stressful period between the confession and the revelation of who it was, during which time the foreign teachers had a lot of fingers pointed at them.
If I were an E2 teacher, I'd be begging my school/institute to pay for me to attend this — and, if possible, get them to pay for my time as well.
Then, for shits and giggles, I'd get my school/institute to pay me to run the same workshop for all the employees there (in English, probably), with pay for me of course.
The most important thing of just attending, but especially if you run your own workshop, is that you would remove yourself from being in a position of suspicion and instead become a master of the topic. You'd be the last one suspected. Ha ha!
Anyway, lots of Koreans go through this in their own professional setting, but it's not across the board: like in the US, it's often reactive. Here in Hawaii, when I was a teaching assistant, I was told to go over the school's code of conduct on sexual harassment. You'd be surprised how many things fall into that, including such statements as, "Man, what's her problem? That girl needs to get laid!" which is exactly what one football player said about my co-TA.
I work at a women's university. A couple years years ago, a female Korean co-worker told me all the Korean professors had to attend a sexual harassment seminar. The outcome was that male professors were warned not to talk about anything in class that might get them in trouble, but that female professors could talk about whatever they wanted. There was no seminar for foreign staff.
When i was at HUFS I lived with the profs in the same apt. block and we all got harassed into joining all kinds of silly dinner parties by a notably Lesbian English lit. prof and a gay Brazilian Portuguese prof. who had taken a liking especially to my fair headed young adonis look a like roomy, who innocently enough actually did answer one of the profs many invites to come up for a cool drink after our afternoon football matches. lol. imo all of the profs are a nice enough bunch with wives and kids and all and the exceptions are only interested in extra curricular activities with foreign exchange students so that would keep the problem 'contained' as it were. hehe. I do wonder what went on during that refreshing drink. He always avoids the question, to this day.
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