The five hagwon teachers, all Koreans, including a man surnamed Lee, 26, and a woman named Park, 25, allegedly met up routinely in areas of Seoul including Gangnam, Sinchon and Hongdae in order to take marijuana and methamphetamine. Police said they have verified that the teachers sold the drugs to each other at about 850,000 won ($756) a gram; they are still investigating whether other sales were made.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said the teachers each paid $240-$300 to www.phonydiploma.com in order to obtain graduate certificates in English literature or education from universities such as California State University in Long Beach and Old Dominion University in Virginia. Police said the Web site issued their diplomas in less than a month via international mail.
Phonydiploma.com says:
People purchase phony diplomas for a multitude to reasons such as:
* Wow your friends and family
* Give as a gift to loved ones and friends or colleagues
* Replace an missing original
* Show off at a reunion (family, school or otherwise)
* Boost your self-esteem
* Add to your social media profile
* Increase your desire to obtain a real diploma or degree
but clearly some Koreans have recognized another market. Academic fraud is of course a big problem in South Korea and has been for years, though that hasn't interfered with moral panics over foreign English teachers supposedly using forged degrees to get jobs. Just like a few drug-taking, degree-forging foriegn English teachers damage the profession, so do these five teachers, working as they were in very wealthy areas, damage the credibility of Korean English teachers as a whole. Plenty of hagwon advertise where their teachers attended school, and knowing what I know about Korean students abroad and about "English" in Korea, I've always looked suspiciously at claims of degrees earned at American universities. Stories like this don't help that image.
8 comments:
Count down until Kang Who Bang of the KT reports the story and drops in the requisite fear mongering about foreigner teachers.
This is almost the same story from a couple years ago where people were passing off fake SNU creds in Daechi-dong to get jobs at hagwons there. Now it's fake foreign degrees. I would gather no immigration check is necessary. The schools themselves are likely required to simply verify credentials like any other employer hiring a Korean citizen.
Really, this is a non E2 issue but it will be tied to that and the real story -- hagwons cheat/turn blind eyes/or are simply grossly incompetent -- will be ignored in favor of the Korean press's rediscovery of 1930s Germany Der Sturmer press reporting tactics.
So screw that, I'm not buying that Samsung smart phone. That'll show 'em.
$800 a gram!!! what kind of fool would pay that much to get high? Wouldn't 250 cups of coffee do the same thing for a lot longer period of time (like a whole year!), and be legal as well? It would be cheaper (and safer) to fly to a different country, buy more than a couple grams there, get high and fly back.
i dont even know how to defend myself when the odd case someone mentions bad english teachers...
some of the locals just seem hell bent...
Bookmark this story, people. The next time someone makes a blanket statement about how foreigners are ripping Koreans off or doing drugs, show them this article - it's the Koreans doing it to themselves more than anything else.
Perhaps KSW is looking the other way...?
that's easy-- in this case, all the perpetrators are native Koreans. And in Korea, only Koreans do meth. They get all up-in-arms about any sort drug, but meth is a pretty serious, heavy drug. Pot is harmless in comparison. Give it a couple of years when there are a lot more meth addicts (all Korean), and a bunch of foreigner dopeheads will be the least of their worries.
In English-speaking countries, meth addicts are very unlikely to ever make it to university, let alone finding the motivation to get a job in a foreign country.
Good this got published. I would think those of you who watch out for how Foreigners are portrayed in the K-media would be happy.
I mean the article shows these English teachers are of Korean origin.
Still, good they got busted.
$ 756 a gramm? Is that number right?
Yes, that number is right. In Korea.
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