U.S. Embassy in Seoul: "At this time, there is no consideration of an evacuation."

For American citizens in Seoul interested to know what to do in case of an emergency evacuation, I hope you memorized it last week, because the US Embassy pulled the emergency evacuation plans off its website.

At this time, there is no consideration of an evacuation.

Should an evacuation become necessary, we will issue an updated warden message and post appropriate information specific to the circumstances on our website at http://seoul.usembassy.gov

The page goes on to advise citizens to register with the Embassy and to read the State Department's "Residing Abroad" page.

So I heard you had male enhancement surgery.

Sometimes clicking on the ads on the Korea Times website can be rewarding.



The 예작비뇨기과 knows that white women do like the 파이프.

Talk of public schools phasing out native speaker English teachers.

I received a message about this last month via twitter, but until recently hadn't had any corroboration, though according to active threads on Dave's ESL Cafe and Waygook.org, schools will drastically cut the number of native speaker English teachers over the next several years. The sources remain, for now, largely Korean coteachers, but, if true, it is a story worth following. The six-page thread on Dave's ESL Cafe begins in Gyeonggi-do with GEPIK:

A few weeks ago I recall being at a bar when one of my friends mentioned a GEPIK coordinator gave notice that there were massive budget cuts, and all schools in Goyang with more than one teacher would lose half of their budget.

Didn't hear much about it since then, until yesterday.

Apparently they want to slash the number of NETs in Goyang down to 20 for all elementary schools, as there isn't a budget for English like there was 2/3 years ago.

For all the nay-sayers that will claim this is a bluff, that they will not 'fire' us, that isn't what they are doing. Instead they will phase us out and not renew our contracts. In doing that, they can tell the moms anything they want.

Has anyone else heard of this? I know I only mentioned Goyang but are there other cities that are also affected?

The thread continues with news and rumors about budget cuts and non-renewals elsewhere in the province.

Waygook.org's "The end of Native Teachers" thread beginning on November 24th looks at other provinces and cities. jehall writes:

Hey my co-teacher just told me that she got word today from GEPIK that they will begin decrasing the Native English teachers they bring in as they are now near the point where they believe they have enough Korean teachers in the system who speak fluent English. She said next year's batch of Native English teachers will be much less than this years and the plan is to phase them out completely in the next 3 years.

And Janitor:

Yes, I had heard that by 2014 Busan will stop hiring foreigners to work in the public schools. Ulsan has already started training Korean teachers to replace foreign teachers but will probably wait until Busan stops hiring before they do anything. Last year, I did my open class alone and was told that it was the same for the part-time "English Language Professionals"

We will see what happens. Again, by not hiring foreign teachers the school systems will saving a lot of money and you know where most of the MOE's heart are. Certainly not with the quality of language acquisition.

And honeymooners:

We in Gangwon-do recently had a talk from our regional coordinator. She said there will be a 10% decrease in teachers next year, I think 30% year after and 40% year after (total reductions).

I've written about the phasing-out of native speaker English teachers [NSETs] a few times, and pointed to things like the hiring of Korean English "lecturers" with greater English proficiency; the future adoption of a "practical English" exam; the use of less expensive English teachers from outside the "Big Seven" countries; the wide gap between the "teach for tests" method and what NSETs bring and represent to English education; and the general complaints among academics and journalists about NSETs' ineffeciency, unprofessionalism, and cost, all as evidence of the trend. If this proves to be correct, and the number of sources from across the country leads me to believe it is, than this severe lack of future job security for NSETs---in an industry already greatly lacking in it---will serve as motivation for inexperienced applicants to either boost their credentials or qualifications for positions that even value them, or to reconsider a year abroad in South Korea altogether.

Gwangju Human Rights Film Festival (광주인권영화제), November 25th - 28th.

The 15th Gwangju Human Rights Film Festival (광주인권영화제) will run from the 25th through November 28th at the Gwangju Visual Content Center (광주영상복합문화관). The official site has a brief program in English.

“그만 파쇼”, the theme of the 15th Gwangju Human Rights Film Festival, literally means “Stop digging’ in Korean. However, using ‘파쇼’, the shorten word of ‘파시오’, the festival theme “그만 파쇼(Stop Fascio)” can be interpreted in various ways.

The write-up on What's the Story?! notes that one of the films, appropriate of the theme, will be on the controversial Grand Canal proposal.

The Gwangju Visual Content Center (광주영상복합문화관) is located east of Exit 2 of the Culture Complex (문화전당) subway station.

Embassy contact information and evacuation details.

From 연합뉴스.

There are other sources---Google News, The Marmot's Hole---for information and updates about the latest North Korean attack, though it's perhaps worth sharing again Chris in South Korea's May post on emergency evacuation information, with contact information for several foreign embassies in South Korea of interest to English teachers there and tips on how to prepare for a quick exit.

The link to the US Embassy page shared in that post is broken as can be expected though you'll find more information about what to do and where to go for an evacuation here. American readers in Jeollanam-do find themselves in Area 4, and will report to the Evacuation Control Center in Chinhae (진해, now written as Jinhae).



It's too early to speculate on how necessary any evacuation procedures may be, though the naval attack and missile tests of recent memory have inspired debate on whether North Korean aggression will scare you away from signing or completing a contract. It may also be paradoxically, um, reassuring to know that skirmishes and firefights between North and South Korea aren't uncommon. Not included on the list was the 1998 sinking of a North Korean submarine off the coast of Yeosu.

수능 문제지와 답안지: Want to look through the 2011 college entrance exam?

All the big Korean news sites have the questions and answers to this year's college entrance examination (2011 대학수학능력시험), with Naver having a list of eleven sources. Each link has them organized by subject, with 3교시 being English, and the fifth period being an optional foreign-language section with German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, the exceptionally-popular Arabic, and Hanja.

The English portion is quite difficult, considering the levels of most Korean students and teachers, and, in previous years, has like most Korean English exams been plagued by poor grammar, awkward readings, and ambiguous answers.

On a related note, last November I had the opportunity to watch the pre-test festivities outside a local high school as friends, teachers, parents, and underclass(wo)men cheered on their classmates:



And as police officers escorted late students to their classrooms:

Help Frank Osei, Ghanan worker in Gwangju hospital.

The Facebook Group "Help Frank Osei" and this Gwangju Blog post have more information about a Ghanan migrant worker in Gwangju in a coma with Encephalitis, and with mounting medical expenses.

Frank Orsei is a migrant worker currently in Gwangju Christian
Hospital, he has been in a coma since mid-October. The hospital diagnosed him with symptoms of hydrocephalus (water on the brain).

On November 10th after slowly coming out of a critical period he began to become responsive, though is still unable to breathe for himself and remained unconscious.

Frank's family remain in Ghana, unable to afford the lengthy journey to Korea.

As is typical of migrant workers Frank worked without insurance and he now faces mounting hospital bills. The hospital and government have kindly arranged to pay a portion of the bills, though Frank still faces heavy costs of nearly 16 000 000 Won ($14,200).

If you would like to help Frank out by making a donation please transfer money to 외환은행 (KEB Bank) 040-22-02413-8 to the 광주국제류센터 (The Gwangju International Center - GIC).

The 광주일보 says it's Japanese Encephalitis, from which a Canadian in Seoul died last month.

Time magazine names Korea's English-teaching robot one of the year's best inventions.

One of several designs for an English-teaching robot; from 연합.

Top-whatever numerical lists are totally lame, but it might be worth passing along that Time magazine named South Korea's English-teaching robot as one of its 50 Best Inventions of 2010.

Call it the job terminator. South Korea, which employs some 30,000 foreigners to teach English, has plans for a new addition to its language classrooms: the English-speaking robot. Students in a few schools started learning English from the robo-teachers late last year; by the end of this year, the government hopes to have them in 18 more schools. The brightly colored, squat androids are part of an effort to keep South Korean students competitive in English. Not surprisingly, the proposal has worried a few human teachers — and with good reason. Experts say the bots could eventually phase out flesh-and-blood foreign English teachers altogether.

When I wrote about these robots in March, looking at one of several recent articles on the topic, I noted that these things seem to exist simply to show that South Korea can produce them. From a Korea Times article on a few trial runs, with special attention to the second paragraph quoted below:

"Using teaching robots in classes is expected to raise the quality of public school education, thus leading to less dependence on the private education," said Kim Hong-joo, a ministry official.

Also, an early start in teaching robot projects will be helpful in leading the new global market as the nation aims to be one of the top three global leaders in this field by 2013, he added.

They may very well be a remarkable invention or concept, then, but not a useful classroom tool. Other blog posts at the time share some teacher experiences with "Engkey" and its cousins. From a comment linked to by a February Gusts of Popular Feeling post:

I'm currently teaching in South Korea (and yes, there are always job openings... though less than usual, with the recession on). I teach at two public elementary schools, one of which is on the extreme outskirts of the city and only has 46 students. For some reason, this tiny school got an English robot called the Cybertalker, which uses voice recognition and some kind of face recognition to tailor pre-made conversations to students. The only time I've seen the thing turned on was in the frantic lead up to a school inspection, when my English classes were cancelled in favour of registering all the students in the system and trying to make it perform for the school board officials. Even with days of practice, the students couldn't make it respond - even the almost fluent teachers couldn't make it recognize their English. These are the crappiest teaching robots in existence. A Speak and Spell would be more useful.

And a New York Times profile, linked by a July Extra! Korea post, shows the limitations of robots in conversation:

“How can I help you today?” Engkey said.

“Do you have any fruits on sale?” the student said.

“Wow! Very good!” Engkey exulted. She sounded a fanfare, spun and raised her left arm for a high-five. A screen on her chest showed stars grading the student.

. . .

When Yang said, “I don’t like apples” instead of “I love apples,” as he was supposed to, Engkey froze. The boy patted her and said, “Hello, are you alive or dead?”

My March 2010 entry lists several other blog posts that detail the struggles these foreign, native speaker English teachers experience within this Korean experiment. Deploying gimmick robots won't do much good when their handlers---the administrators and Korean English teachers who have thus far proven ineffective leaders of "flesh-and-blood" foreign teachers---have limited English abilities and technical know-how themselves.



If "English Fever" is as exceptionally high in South Korea as we observe and foreign correspondents note, and if communicative competence is as high a priority as the national curriculum has dictated for nearly a decade, it would behoove policy-makers to finally stop rash spending on gimmicks---like robots, expensive English-Only Zones, or inexperienced white people by the thousands---and start developing real solutions that produce results in the classroom, or at least ones that are suitable stand-ins until a generation of domestic English teachers can catch up to the roles in a communication-based English classroom for which they are currently unprepared.


Better English through robots, racing models; from 파이낸셜뉴스.

Three die in Gwangju motel fire.

The Paradise Motel (파라다이스모텔) in 우산동, from Newsis.

Yonhap reports on a fire at a motel in Gwangju that killed three and injured ten.

Three people were killed and ten others were injured when a fire took place in a motel early Saturday morning, authorities said.

The fire erupted at an underground bar of the motel in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, shortly before 5 a.m., officials at the Gwangju Fire Station said.

The bar was still open at the time and about 30 guests were staying in the motel, according to the officials.

Dispatched firefighters evacuated people and put out the fire in about 20 minutes, they said.

While bar employees and customers immediately exited, guests sleeping in their rooms were killed or became seriously ill as toxic gas rapidly spread throughout the five-story building.

School in Jeollabuk-do imports Indian English teacher.

Kang Shin-who has written a pair of articles in the Korea Times about a private school in Wanju county that has imported an Indian English teacher, the first of his kind:

[A] small private school in North Jeolla Province has challenged this prejudice by inviting the first-ever Indian English teacher here last September.

Wanju High School became the destination of the teacher, Abby Thomas, who made English education history in Korea. Although some cautiously raised concerns that it may be difficult to understand an Indian English accent, the school students, parents and other fellow teachers responded positively to the Indian teacher.

“I cannot tell much difference between Thomas and other Westerners from whom I learned English when I was in middle school,” said Yang Gang-yeal, a second grader at the school.

In case of Na Eun-ha, another student, the Indian teacher’s English is easier to understand, compared to other foreign teachers she has experienced. “Thomas is very friendly and I really enjoy the class,” she said. “I can also learn Indian culture and traditions from him.”

The North Jeolla Province Office of Education has so far recruited two Indian teachers including Thomas. Another teacher Robins Mathew is working at an English experience center in the province. Lee Chae-chong, a supervisor dealing with English teacher recruitment at the education office, said, “Their English is understandable like that of South Africa. We plan to recruit more teachers from India, depending on responses from students and parents.”

The article says Thomas is paid 300,000 won less per month than a native speaker English teacher, and closes with:

It’s true that some native English teachers are not so serious about their classes and look down on Korean teachers. But our English teacher is very devoted to his classes,” said Yang In-sun, one of Wanju High School’s English teachers. “He also understands Asian values very well.”

Though some Korean co-teachers and academics do hold negative opinions of native speaker English teachers, as Gusts of Popular Feeling reminds us, and as many readers already know, Kang has a long history fabricating quotations that belittle native speaker English teachers, and given the bias and the translation back into English, it's unclear what exactly was said.

It's worth reiterating, though, that when the effectiveness of native speaker English teachers is criticized, that they have been practically set up to fail, with no support given them, no thought or planning toward their implementation, and, for most of their history, no interest in their qualifications or personal development. It's likewise hard to draw conclusions about the effectiveness and adaptability of Indian English teachers in South Korea when Thomas is the first: his maturity and apparent success could owe as much to his age, his teaching experience, or his personality than to his cultural upbringing, and might encourage authorities to actively recruit older, experienced, credentialed teachers, rather than continuing budgeting for young, cheap, untraveled ones and placing the blame on the foreign imports.

Also on the 10th Kang wrote a short profile about Thomas and his classroom manner.

Thomas said that Indian teachers use only positive words because of their belief and tradition.

“We don’t use ‘shut up,’ and many children in our country might not understand it. We say ‘Be silent’ instead of ‘Don’t make noise.’ ‘Come on time,’ instead of ‘Don’t be late.’”

“In India, no people are swearing. It is because we believe if we say negative words, we create negative energy. Which energy teachers spread in the school classes is very important,” he added.

The 53-year-old teacher said, “I am older than other teachers and treat students as my daughter and my son. Loving students is the most important qualification for teachers.”

Asked about his opinion about Korean English education, he said Koreans should not fear mistakes.

“I say to students, ‘Make a mistake and another mistake.’ Don’t try to speak perfect English, that’s the way to learn English,” said Thomas, who came here 10 years ago.

In spite of the veiled commentary by Kang in the articles, it's encouraging to see this Indian teacher succeeding in spite of discrimination against not only non-native accents but against darker skin and those from areas considered less-developed than South Korea. The 서울신문 has a recent article about 토마스 애비 as well, along with a short video report. I've written about South Korea's plan to import Indian English teachers a few times before, most recently in June when we learned English Program in Korea [EPIK] was recruiting 12 Indians for domestic public schools.

Teacher and student fight in Suncheon classroom.

Illustration from the 동아일보.

First noticed in the Jeonnam Ilbo on the 12th, now in English in the Dong-a Ilbo, in a lengthier piece about how the new quote-unquote ban on corporal punishment in Korean classrooms undermines discipline:

Around 12:30 p.m. Oct. 15 in a middle school classroom in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, a teacher approached a female student and asked her what she was writing on her notebook.

When the teacher tried to take the notebook, the student protested. The teacher hit her on the head and the student revolted, saying, “Is it right for a teacher to hit a student? Just teach.”

The student tried to leave the classroom but the teacher grabbed her neck and hair to force her to sit down. The student then grabbed the teacher’s hair.

After this incident, members of the school steering committee held meetings with teachers and parents. Committee members and the school principal asked for a slap on the wrist for the student, but teachers demanded heavier punishment, urging the student’s expulsion.

Korean version here, which reports the teacher's age as 55 and the student's as 12, likely in Western reckoning.

That corporal punishment has long been common in Korean classrooms is a frequent topic on expatriate blogs and messageboards, so it won't be given another lengthy run-down here. I've written earlier that I've seen punches, headbutts, and beatings with brooms in my previous schools, and that the, um, "best" beating was at a school assembly in front of nearly 1,000 gathered students and faculty, where the school's disciplinarian beat a student with her own sandal. When we combine cases like that with what the Dong-A Ilbo has translated, it looks to me that what has undermined corporal punishment's effectiveness in the Korean classroom is that far too many teachers act like bullies, using brute force and intimdation to control their classes where sound methodology and healthy respect are lacking. "Just teach."


From a survey on the shape, sizes, and hardness of teachers' "lovesticks," by Ed Provencher.

Readying a thatched roof at Suncheon's Nagan Folk Village for winter, via Yonhap.

The 9th brought the region's first snow of the season, on Gwangju's Mudeungsan, seen here by a Yonhap photographer and a couple others.

Suncheon finalist at 2010 International LivCom Awards.

Suncheon's mayor receiving the award; from Newsis.

Tallahassee.com writes that Tallahassee, TN---and Suncheon, Jeollanam-do---were finalists in the "Whole City Award" category at The International Awards for Livable Communities on November 7th, with both cities winning Silver Awards in their seven-city division. From LivcomAwards.com:

The LivCom Awards were launched in 1997 and are endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme. LivCom is the world’s only Awards Competition focussing on Best Practice regarding the management of the local environment. The objective of LivCom is to improve the quality of life of individual citizens through the creation of ‘liveable communities’.

The official site has the criteria for judging the "Whole City Award."

Suncheon, where I lived for two years, is a lovely town, and one that has ranked among the country's most livable ("살기좋은도시") several times in recent years. It has been on an environmental kick the past few years in anticipation of hosting the International Garden Expo (2013년국제정원박람회) in 2013, with preparations including bicycle rentals throughout the city and along its river, solar-powered bus stop displays, increased promotion of Suncheon Bay as an ecotourism destination, and branding itself "Korea's Ecological Capital" (대한민국 생태수도) beginning in 2008.


Suncheon Bay, in August 2007.

Korea Auto Valley Operation accused of mishandling funds for Yeongam F1.

Shortly after news that the F3 race scheduled in Yeongam county was cancelled---a month after South Korea's first Formula One race there---because of spectator seating areas that did not pass, or even complete, inspection comes speculation that there is corruption afoot. From the Korea Herald:

Korea’s inaugural Formula One Grand Prix is over, but worries about its future are raging, with local organizations facing mounting criticism for their mishandling and misuse of the event.

South Jeolla provincial government, which approved and funded the F1 Korean Grand Prix, is planning to conduct inspections of the Korea Auto Valley Operation, the race organizer, according to a member of the provincial assembly.

“Over the next week, we’re going to look through all the documents of KAVO,” said Jung Hwan-dae, the vice-chairman of South Jeolla provincial assembly.

“We’re also planning to summon officials from KAVO to investigate how the money was spent. There is something wrong here,” the provincial legislator added.

Media have reported suspicions over the organization’s expenditure, citing that around 60 billion won ($53.7 million) was spent without proper documentation.

A KAVO spokesperson has denied illegal use of funds. The article, quoted in yesterday's post, has an unfortunate quotation from a provincial official about why the inspection wasn't completed:

Although the racing track was completed just in time, the organizer failed to complete a safety inspection on spectator seats after struggling until the last minute to build 80,000-seat stands.

“We knew that it was wrong, but there was no time for delay,” said an official from the South Jeolla government.

Yeongam had a four-year headstart, though, according to the earliest English-language article, which said the events had been planned, or "planned," for rural Jeollanam-do since 2006.

F3 race scheduled for November cancelled.

More Formula One news out of Yeongam county, from Motorsport.com:

The inaugural running of last month's Korean Grand Prix has been brought into question with a piece of emerging news on Thursday.

Although F1's FIA inspectors cleared the bespoke venue in Yeongam for the October 24 event, it has emerged that state inspectors have deemed mobile stands unsafe for an international F3 race scheduled for late November.

Organiser Barry Bland said in a statement: "(Local promoter) KAVO have had to cancel the (event) due to Force Majeure."

He said the reason was a "legal technicality with the circuit", and a KAVO spokesman told AFP news agency that the cancellation is due to "delayed approval from inspectors".

KAVO, or Korea Auto Valley Operation, is a joint private venture involving the Jeollanam-do regional government.

Unsuitable mobile stands were one of the many complaints visitors had about the infrastructure at, and the planning of, the Formula One event in Yeongam county in October, an event seemingly thrown together at the last minute in spite of four years' advance notice. From the Korea Herald today:

KAVO was already under fire at home and abroad for poor preparation. It hosted the F1 Grand Prix from Oct. 22-24 in Yeongam after frantic last-minute work to build the circuit. FIA, the sport’s governing body, approved the Yeongam track less than two weeks from the scheduled race due to the delay in construction.

Although the racing track was completed just in time, the organizer failed to complete a safety inspection on spectator seats after struggling until the last minute to build 80,000-seat stands.

“We knew that it was wrong, but there was no time for delay,” said an official from the South Jeolla government.

He added that the local government is now conducting a full inspection of the newly built track, and is expected to obtain approval from inspectors before the end of this month.

On Wednesday, the KAVO announced that the Korean F3 Superprix, the one-off racing event, which was due to be held at the Yeongam circuit this month, had been canceled due to a delay in receiving approval from the inspectors.

The comment from the Jeollanam-do government official is striking, but sadly not surprising.

"New" dinosaur named after Boseong county.

From the Chosun Daily, about the Koreanosaurus Boseongensis (코리아노사우루스보성엔시스):

After seven years of research and restoration efforts, the Korea Dinosaur Research Center at Chonnam National University on Monday unveiled an indigenous dinosaur that lived on the Korean peninsula during the Late Cretaceous period. Koreanosaurus Boseongensis is a Hypsilophodontid, or small ornithopod.

A team of researchers at university discovered the fossil remains in the Boseong region in May 2003.

McDonald's brings Quarter Pounder to Korea.

From the official McDonald's Korea site.

After a limited release in 2008, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese and the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese debuted in South Korea on November 1st and, as the JoongAng Daily writes, McDonald's is giving away 500 free iPhones to customers who order it. Like the Big Mac, Chicken McNuggets, and the Egg McMuffin, the Quarter Pounder is a signature menu item at McDonald's, which likely explains its addition, though South Korea of course doesn't use "pounds"---the name in Korean is simply "quarter pounder cheese" written in the Korean alphabet, 쿼터파운더치즈---and customers won't associate the name with the heft as American consumers once did. The sandwiches will serve as additional large beef sandwiches on the menu, with the Double Quarter Pounder---at 226 grams of beef---surpassing the Double Bulgogi Burger, the Bacon Tomato Deluxe, and the Big Mac in size.


From 아시아경제.

The 1924 광주고보야구사건 and the Kwangju Students' Independence Movement.

November 3rd is the anniversary of the Kwangju Students' Independence Movement (광주학생항일운동), an that is said to have been set in motion in 1929 when students were apprehended for fighting with Japanese schoolchildren on a train from Naju to Gwangju.

Last November, while looking for information related to this, I came across some captivating pictures out of Gwangju's Jeil High School, a reenactment of what I'll translate as the Gwangju High School Baseball Incident (광주보고야구사건, after 광주고등보통학교, the former name of 광주제일고등학교).



No English-language information exists to give background, though November 1, 2009 Newsis articles briefly summarize:

'광주고보 야구사건'은 일제강점기 시절인 1924년 6월 중순 두 팀이 광주고보 운동장에서 친선경기를 벌이던 중 심판 판정에 불만을 품은 일본팀 단장이 광주고보 투수를 폭행하자 선수들과 학생, 시민 등 400여명이 경기장으로 뛰어들어 항거했던 사건이다.

According to a lengthier article, a June 1924 baseball game between the Gwangju high school and a Japanese student all-star team ended with a play at the plate and a 1-0 upset, leading to a brawl at the mound among the teams and their fans. The nine Gwangju athletes were arrested and imprisoned for three months, a game and an outcome that would remain influential five years later.

Newsis photographers were on hand last year for a reenactment to coincide with the anniversary of the 1929 uprising.

Rates of English teachers in Jeollanam-do schools low.

If you're interested in possibly learning how many schools in Jeollanam-do have English conversation teachers, a recent article in the Jeonnam Ilbo provides statistics. Suncheon, for instance, has a rate of 62%; Mokpo 43%; Yeosu 65%; and, as the headline says, Shinan county 11%. In my experience in Gangjin schools---where the county has a rate of 21%---few had the luxury of teachers who taught the subject exclusively: English was taught usually either by homeroom teachers or by other subject teachers---science, physical education---who had free periods.

The article, by the way, is talking about Korean English teachers. The article goes on to list the salaries offered these "lecturers" being recruited to provide competent instruction in conversational English, and apparently in many cases, to be an English teacher were previously there was none:

월 200만원의 기본 보수에 섬지역 50만원, 농어촌지역 30만원씩의 추가수당이 지급되는 등 높은 수준의 급여에도 강사들이 기피하는 것은 열악한 근무여건 탓이다.

Numbers released by two lawmakers in late-September show the native speaker English teacher rates for public schools in the country's administrative regions. Gwangju and Jeollanam-do are in the middle of the pack, with 84.2% and 74.4% of schools, respectively, having NSETs.