Anti-English Spectrum, irony, in the news again.

The Marmot's Hole brings us a story from the Chosun Ilbo that says Dave's ESL Cafe contains loads of threads demeaning Korean women and Korean culture. Because women are usually afforded plenty of opportunities for advancement and enrichment in South Korea, and aren't sexually exploited in the least by Korean men and women. I'll let you read his post on your own.

The part worth drawing attention to is that the group "The Citizens Group for Proper English Education" (his translation) was contacted for comment. Don't be fooled by the new name, this is the online cafe that was established as the "Anti-English Spectrum," and the url name reveals that fact. Today there's a wholesome picture of a child studying at the top of the page, but the earlier banner was less friendly.



The misuse of the hyphen makes it seem like they are opposed to English, rather than just the website English Spectrum which attracted their ire and which launched the cafe in the first place. You can read up on "Spectrumgate" here, but basically in 2005 a bunch of netizens came across some threads on a previous incarnation of EnglishSpectrum.com that talked about sexual adventures with Korean women, and which featured pictures of Korean women dancing with foreign men at bars. Pretty objectionable posts, yes, but the netizens launched a campaign of hatred and violence that resulted in the US Embassy in Seoul issuing a warning to foreign-looking men to avoid certain parts of Seoul.

Recently, inflammatory sexual content was posted to a website for English language teachers in Korea. That posting together with subsequent postings were taken by some to demean Korean women. We have noted recently, strong reaction in the form of web postings threatening attacks in the vicinity of Hongik University and the Sinchon area against Americans and other foreigners who speak English. All Americans and their families (especially young adults) are encouraged to exercise prudence and caution when visiting these neighborhoods. The Embassy advises that inappropriate social behavior in public may be seen as provocative by Korean nationals.

As an example, The Marmot's Hole cited an online petition and a "Counter-Yankee Strike Force":

The Korean portal site Daum has also started a petition signing campaign to expel “low-quality foreign teachers.” They’re looking for 10,000 signatures, and they’ve got about 3,931. The campaign is also recruiting a “[Counter-] Yankee Strike Force.” They say the use of violence is prohibited, but they’d like to get together and hold a protest demonstration. There targets are 1) the “Yankee bastards” who put up the instructions on how to molest female students, and their accomplices; 2) the “Yankee bastards” who threw the wild party in Hongik; 3) the club owner; 4) institute owners who hire ex-cons or under-qualified teachers; 5) as a “bonus,” drunk GIs who might be in the Shinchon area starting fights with local citizens. Membership is open to all Korean nationals (no kyopos allowed, apparently — perhaps the organizers read this) with “wholesome thoughts (more like worldview).” They’ll meet at 6:00 p.m. Saturday near the front gate of Hongik. Be there… or be square.

The group was given some attention earlier in the year from the Korea Times, which ran a glowing review of the "Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education," which said its aims were to improve the quality of English education in Korea by removing unqualified native speakers.

A Civic group said that its actions to expel illegal English teachers will help upgrade the image of legal foreign educators.

As part of this campaign, the article said that some members follow foreigners around to see if they're doing anything illegal. Something illegal like stalking and harassment, I guess. Korea Beat translated the group's statement of purpose, in which their passion to end foreign teachers seems to outstrip their goals to improve English education:

We gather here to do two things for that journey.

Anger at the arrogant English Spectrum, alive and well as ever despite criticism for its debasement of Korean women, and the expulsion of illegal, low-quality English instructors.

The small but powerful country, the Republic of Korea!

We are Anti-English Spectrum, fighting for justice for a land whose heart is not yet shriveled up.

Our work holds meaning for our country and our society. We do it together!

This is the citizens’ movement for the expulsion of illegal foreign language teachers.

Regardless of your opinion on foreign teachers as a whole, or on some demographics in particular, keep in mind what factors are going into fueling the resentment against them felt by too many Korean English teachers and parents. And regardless of your opinions of Dave's ESL Cafe, don't forget what kind of group is out there leading the charge against foreign teachers. Like the violent anti-American protests of 2002 and 2003, "Spectrumgate" is a chapter of "our" history we shouldn't forget, and a reminder of how ugly our neighbors can be.

A little more on Cho Joo-hee, including a hell of a KBS write-up.

I came across an undated KBS story on Cho Joo-hee, the woman who wrote that nasty, uninformed, sensationalist hit piece for ABC.com on foreign English teachers here titled "English Teachers Bring Drugs to South Korea." Here's a big excerpt under the subheading "Striving for balanced reporting," and brace yourself, this is really, really bad:

Westerners have as strong a prejudice against Asia as their aspirations for the region. Worse yet, the provocative nature of foreign media tends to further inflate existing prejudice against Asia. Korea has many characteristics which draw keen media attention, because what most people recall about the country is that it is still a Cold War frontier and remains divided, with an unstable security situation. Having knowledge of only the Korean War and intense political confrontation, the Western audience doesn't try to see and analyze the overall situation in the nation. The foreign media is apt to exaggerate the situation in the most provocative way to attract readers and viewers. Unfortunately, it is a fact that not many foreign journalists in Korea try to report the actual situation in the nation.

Under the circumstances, the way Cho, who is concurrently serving as Seoul correspondent for ABC News and The Washington Post, reports on South Korea vividly stands out. Her reporting has the power to prompt foreign media outlets, with their biased views on the nation, to strike a balance in their reporting on Korea. She is affiliated with the foreign press, but can maintain a viewpoint that sets her stories apart from reports made by other media agents. This is because she is a Korean national living in Korea, and can therefore describe the actual situation on the scene better than anyone.

Journalists are apt see issues and affairs in Korea with curiosity and sensationalism, rather than objectively. Unfortunately, they more often than not write stories on the domestic situation through a biased and subjective perspective. Foreign media headquarters often instruct their Korean correspondents to cover incidents and trends in Korea that even the correspondents themselves are not aware of.

In one such example, Cho was requested by her company headquarters to file an in-depth story on a fashion trend in which South Korean men reportedly were trying to mimic Bill Gates' style. She was momentarily perplexed when she received her instructions. She had never heard of such a trend, nor was she aware of anything remotely like it even though she lived right here in Seoul. But her foreign headquarters firmly believed that the "Bill Gates style" was in vogue among Korean men. She recognized what course of action she needed to take and what role to play as a correspondent going forward -- to accurately report the actual situation in Korea to the world.

"This is what I realized I should do: correct biased views on Korea by the foreign press, which is unaware of the actual reality here, and make it my duty to accurately and objectively report issues and affairs in Korea," she says. It was something that she could do because she is a Korean national as well as a correspondent for foreign media outlets stationed in Seoul. It was something possible only for someone with Cho's unique background.

Pretty broad generalizations there. I'll keep it short: the local media has no business criticizing the journalistic standards of Western reporters, that's for damn sure.

When she turns up elsewhere on the web, it looks to be either as a special correspondent to a hard-news story, or as the main author of a fluff piece. You'll find her name attached to several pieces on Cho Seung-hui, the man behind the Virginia Tech Massacre. You can also find some biography pages in English and Korean, as well as a few fan sites, in Korean. The biggest one looks to have the name "insideherjjh," so that's pleasant.

Not sure how helpful it will be, but if you'd like to complain to ABC.com, they have a comments and suggestions box here. I don't know what type of outcome one could expect with enough effort---apology, retraction, or what---but nevertheless that piece was offensive, insulting and plain old unacceptable. Let's just hope the Korean outlets don't pick it up and run with it, because who knows what kind of damage they'll be able to do by distorting distortions.

ABC: "English Teachers Bring Drugs to South Korea."

I don't have time to break this ABC.com article down, please just let my middle finger suffice. Here's the subtitle on that overblown, uninformed piece of garbage: "Tourists Gone Wild: Influx of Foreign-Born English Teachers Contributes to Increased Drug Use in South Korea." Um . . . I guess that second part is true, but I strongly resent the "tourists gone wild" tag. Sorry, I promised I wouldn't get into this, so here:

Visa regulations favor ethnic Koreans.

The KT has an article today talking about how foreign English teachers are subjected to criminal background checks and drug tests but ethnic Korean teachers aren't. According to one immigration official:

Regarding the complaints, the Korea Immigration Service said it was ``reasonable discrimination under the Immigration Law.’’

Kim Tae-soo, an immigration official said, ``It’s our authority and policy to favor ethnic Koreans. We know there might be unqualified ethnic Koreans teaching English here, but you also need to understand there is no 100 percent perfect system. Other European countries also favor to their own people.’’

Yeah, go ahead and suck it. Anecdotal evidence from other teachers and foreigners tells me that immigration and the police would be surprised to find out how many gyopo are actually doing drug-running and illegal teaching here.

It's whitey season again in Daejeon.

A Korea Times reporter accompanied some Daejeon police as they went around trying to bust foreigners teaching illegally.

Hur Chang-goo, a veteran immigration police officer, hopped in a car with his partner, a female interpreter. Their mission: To catch a foreign national illegally teaching English at a kindergarten.

Tipped off that a Canadian teacher was hired to teach at the private institute, they needed to check it out. On their way, they discussed ways to block any possible attempt by the teacher to flee. The Korea Times accompanied them.

You'll recall that Daejeon was where the local Foreign Language School association (sic) advertised on buses last year that "you are watched," that "private tutoring of English is a legal offense" (lol), and that informants would be rewarded for leading to the capture and deportation of illegal foreign teachers. Well, you might not recall that bullshit anymore, but you should.



Anyway, take a few minutes to read the KT piece. It's ridiculous and infurating, as usual, and I'm definitely tempted to pull out my overworked "Go fuck yourself" stamp for the piece's topic and its "just another day in the neighborhood" tone. But for the time being I just wanted to point out the sequence highlighted by "Ya-ta Boy" on Dave's:

The police officer did not go into the classroom

. . .

The officer failed to secure any concrete evidence that immigration law had been violated.

More of the same.

The Marmot's Hole dug this up, a cartoon some Korean blogger made of good-for-nothing foreign English teachers who get their drink on and their smoke on, and invariably go home with something to poke on (though the cartoonist didn't depict that).

Um, in a country where 73% of Korean men drink alcohol every day, and where 40% of adult males smoke cigarettes (an generously low estimate down from 72% in 1994). The World Health Organization estimated that a decade ago 43% of male physicians smoked, and yes I know the cartoon is probably refering to marijuana and yes I know ten years is a long time but I'm not going to let that stop me. I never got that angle of attack, and never understood the stereotype of foreign teachers teaching drunk or high. I'm sure it happens once in a blue moon, but not enough to warrant comment. They'd be better off getting us for not shaving, for dressing like slobs, and for smelling bad. Anyway, and I'm going to trot out my old stand-by, I'll bet if you counted all the foreigners busted over the years for drugs, for alcohol abuse, for violence, and for illegal teaching, they'd still total much less than the 800 men who raped a middle school girl held captive in Gwangju.

Tangentially related, it looks like that, regardless of the spin job done by the Korea Times earlier this month, the "Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education" lets its true colors show through on their Korean-language cafe. Known in a previous incarnation as the "Anti-English Spectrum Cafe," and oblivious to the existence of structural ambiguity in my language, Korea Beat has translated their "statement of purpose," and here's an excerpt:

We gather here to do two things for that journey.

Anger at the arrogant English Spectrum, alive and well as ever despite criticism for its debasement of Korean women, and the expulsion of illegal, low-quality English instructors.

The small but powerful country, the Republic of Korea!

We are Anti-English Spectrum, fighting for justice for a land whose heart is not yet shriveled up.

Our work holds meaning for our country and our society. We do it together!

This is the citizens’ movement for the expulsion of illegal foreign language teachers.

Yeah, for some reason the use of alcohol correlates to a person's visa status, and by having consensual sex rather than paying for it like everyone else we somehow invalidate our credentials. Anyway, their invitation to go fuck themselves still stands.

Edit: This comes a couple of hours after my original post---as my students are having an earthquake drill by hiding under their desks---but I just wanted to add that I liked Matt's comment on the Korea Beat post:

Let’s see, a group that wants to preserve the purity of the race by eliminating foreigners…I think we have a group like that back home. They’re called the KKK. What, exactly, makes these “patriots” any different from the KKK? I see two sides of the same coin.

I'm not equating online harassment with lynchings and cross-burnings, but remember that the organization admitted to stalking foreigners in that Korea Times piece, and remember the violent outburts that took place in 2005, and an analogy not that off-base.

So I guess they're going to start with everybody named "Kim"?

I already invited the Anti-English Spectrum club to go fuck itself, and I'll have to extend the same courtesy to the Korea Association of Foreign Language Academies. Where to begin with this latest gem from the KT?

``The government is under the illusion that an unlimited number of English teachers exists overseas,’’ said Seo Jung-sook, information director of the association. ``Inviting more foreign teachers will eventually degrade the average quality of instructors and drive up costs for us.’’

Native English speakers who have no teaching experience in their 20s receive the same salaries as Koreans who have taught English for more than 10 years, she said.

I have no idea why a Korean English teacher would earn less money than a native speaker. Unless you count the whole "suck at English" part, and "can't pronounce 'th,' 'v,' 'f,' 'z,' 'l,' and 'r.'" Not being able to produce a grammatical sentence to save one's life could be considered a big disadvantage, as could not being able to pronounce a huge fraction of a language's sounds.

Not worth getting into the article too much, but I found this amusing:

As for the proposed association for native English-speaking instructors, the owners said they will not hire teachers hired who belong to the union-like body.

``I don’t think the association will truly represent foreign English teachers, so we don’t see any point in talking with it, even if it is established,'' Choi said. KAFLA said it will take all measures possible to prevent foreign teachers from forming the representative body.

Really not sure why the Korea Times is allowing these one-sided hit pieces to go on. They have yet to acknowledge or run the rebuttal I wrote last week to the Anti-English Spectrum article.

Fuck you Anti-English Spectrum.

Yeah, really, fuck you. There's this in the Korea Times:

A Civic group said that its actions to expel illegal English teachers will help upgrade the image of legal foreign educators.

The group, named ``Citizens' Association for Lawful English Education,'' has some 16,000 members on its Web site (cafe.naver.com/englishspectrum).

That URL was a dead give away of what that group is all about. The cafe used to be called "Anti-English Spectrum," but I guess it dressed itself up as of late and replaced the old banner of a wet t-shirt contest with a new one of small children writing their ABCs. This cafe is as much an image upgrade as a kick in the face is a nose job, and I may have to eventually take the KT to task for this very one-sided profile on a domestic hate group. If you don't recall what "Spectrumgate" was about, refer to this Marmot's Hole post. Essentially some netizens became enraged about some posts on a former incarnation of "English Spectrum," including threads about how to seduce Korean women. There were also some threads featuring advertisements of, and pictures from, biracial clubs and wet t-shirt contests. That Marmot's Hole thread has tons of information, including translations of what was passed around the internet, what was said on Anti-English Spectrum, and even some interviews with two of the girls in the compromising photos (whose answers might surprise you). I'll just say that it's always terribly ironic when Korean men develop the sudden urge to protect their women.

Anyway, according to The Marmot's Hole, one of the internet reactions to all this was a "Counter-Yankee Strike Force":

The Korean portal site Daum has also started a petition signing campaign to expel “low-quality foreign teachers.” They’re looking for 10,000 signatures, and they’ve got about 3,931. The campaign is also recruiting a “[Counter-] Yankee Strike Force.” They say the use of violence is prohibited, but they’d like to get together and hold a protest demonstration. There targets are 1) the “Yankee bastards” who put up the instructions on how to molest female students, and their accomplices; 2) the “Yankee bastards” who threw the wild party in Hongik; 3) the club owner; 4) institute owners who hire ex-cons or under-qualified teachers; 5) as a “bonus,” drunk GIs who might be in the Shinchon area starting fights with local citizens. Membership is open to all Korean nationals (no kyopos allowed, apparently — perhaps the organizers read this) with “wholesome thoughts (more like worldview).” They’ll meet at 6:00 p.m. Saturday near the front gate of Hongik. Be there… or be square.

Violence was prohibited, hahaha, but the anger and aggression around that time became so great that the U.S. Embassy in Korea issued a warning on January 21, 2005:

Recently, inflammatory sexual content was posted to a website for English language teachers in Korea. That posting together with subsequent postings were taken by some to demean Korean women. We have noted recently, strong reaction in the form of web postings threatening attacks in the vicinity of Hongik University and the Sinchon area against Americans and other foreigners who speak English. All Americans and their families (especially young adults) are encouraged to exercise prudence and caution when visiting these neighborhoods. The Embassy advises that inappropriate social behavior in public may be seen as provocative by Korean nationals.

Like the anti-American protests of 2002 and 2003, this Spectrumgate garbage is something to remind us of just how ugly our neighbors can be when they put their minds to hate-mongering.

Immigration foils shocking plot by American child molestors' intending to infiltrate Korean schools and ravage kimchildren!

From today's Chosun Ilbo, which couldn't pass up an opportunity to take something completely unrelated to Korea and use it against foreign English teachers:

South Korea has banned the entry of 21 Americans convicted of sexually abusing children under 14.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security forwarded to the Ministry of Justice a list of 21 American child sex offenders known to travel frequently to Asian countries. The ministry immediately decided to permanently blacklist the offenders from entering Korea.

The U.S. has begun providing a list of child sex offenders to Asian nations such as Thailand in order to crack down on Americans traveling abroad for sex tourism. South Korea is among the nations receiving the list.

A ministry official said American sex offenders could commit sex crimes against children while teaching English at private institutes in Korea, so the moment the list was received all the offenders were banned.

Fuck you, as if there was any threat whatsoever of these individuals entering Korea, working at a school, and harming children. I guess the only way they'd get in would be if school directors and immigration were asleep at the switch and would fail to properly evaluate job applicants and their backgrounds . . . wait, nevermind, that wouldn't happen. *cough* Actually, that South Korea were on such a list says more about its notoriety as a hub of sex tourism and human trafficking than it does about its dangerous foreigners. And I've made no secret how pissed I get whenever foreigners get slandered like this in the media, considering the shit Korean teachers pulled in 2007. Whatever. Roboseyo has a longer write-up about all this, because garbage articles like this appeared in not one but four of Korea's papers today.

"Sexy Mong" battles drunk foreigners, interracial relationships.

As first reported by The Marmot's Hole, the first episode of the latenight softcore detective show 섹시몽리턴즈 (Sexy Mong Returns) dealt with foreign English teachers taking advantage of drunk Korean women in nightclubs. Mr. Koehler translated a paragraph from one of the Korean papers:

The first episode of “Sexy Mong Returns,” a four-part series to run every Wednesday and Thursday starting from April 23, is already drawing attention as its deals with an episode involving sexual assault by foreign English teachers, something that has been a social issue for some time.

I caught part of the episode tonight, and it featured a lot of groping and petting, a bit of nudity, and lots and lots of mangled Engrish. Actually, from what I can tell there was only one native English speaker. The other white guy was European and incomprehensible, and the other "American" was a Korean. The line "I only know about kimchi and Korean girls" belonged to him and his marble-mouthed gibberish. He ended up being the serial rapist, and admitted pretending to be a foreigner in order to pick up women, but wasn't "exposed" until the end, after he slapped around a topless Sexy Mong co-star. As for the white guy molesting a passed-out, topless woman in the club, I don't recall if he spoke at all. And of course we were treated to some of the worst bastardized English you'll find on TV.

You know, there aren't many examples of interracial relationships on Korean television between white men and Korean women---none, actually, that I can think of---and so this was a disappointing, degrading introduction. Ironic topic on a show that stars Djamilya, a shameless foreign woman who gained a small amount of fame in Korea via the TV show 미녀들의수다, a program that pretty much boiled down to Korean guys ogling foreign women. Establishing an Eastern European woman as a lead character, and giving her a nude shower scene and tons of opportunities to bend over and shove things in her mouth, while having a line of white people dry humping naked Korean women can't be construed as anything other than extreme disapproval of and disgust at interracial relationships between foreign men and Korean women.



I'd like to remind you, too, of 아냐, a 23-year-old Russian co-starring on the softcore porn show "5 Girls." I was called a racist for writing "she's just around for decoration and for poking," though I dare anyone to contest the roles of either women on these shows. They are softcore porn programs, after all, and so if they're not playing on these women's sex appeal, they're at least playing on their foreignness . . . oh, and on their exotic sex appeal.

So, yeah, a big fuck you to the foreign assholes who decided to flush the reputation of white people down the toilet for a few greenbacks. Cool, you got to feel up a Korean woman on TV, I hope it was worth it. In the meantime you helped perpetuate a very ugly, very common stereotype that does very real damage to a lot of us. Your faces are going up here if I get a screen capture because you deserve to be called out. A big fuck you to the foreigners who continue to go on Korean TV and make complete asses of themselves, our language, and our culture. Not that you give a damn. A big fuck you to those who make shows like these, and who can't seem to stay away from spicing up your programs with foreign women and foreign languages while slandering them at the same time.

This particular episode could have drawn its inspiration from any number of inflammatory sources. I suppose the most newsworthy was a YTN report from last year on "disgraceful foreigners" in Hongdae. But as Mr. Koehler rightly points out, and which is played out in the 섹시몽 episode, the real reason for this anti-foreigner sentiment is their imagined sexual immorality and the fear that strikes in the hearts of far too many. From a 2005 article titled "A one night stand paradise for foreigners," and kindly translated by The Marmot's Hole:

Hongdae is now an area hot with youthful passion that has degenerated from being mixed up with foreigners. As the recent act of indecent exposure by a punk band on live TV showed, the diversity and individuality of the area in front of Hongik University is nowhere to be found. As the number of foreigners with more of an interest in booking and one night stands than in the music increases, there are many women coming to the clubs in search of “blue-eyed men.”

Just a reminder that the show went ahead with this angle in the context of a city with wall-to-wall love motels and massage parlors, one in which prostitution is an accepted fact of life, and in a country that was named a "danger country" in terms of women's public safety by the OCED. I'm being facetious when I say that I don't think you can blame all that on unruly English teachers. Wasn't too long ago that we heard news of a middle school girl held captive and raped by 800 men, and it was last night's paper that taught us that you can beat a rape charge by folding her jeans when you're done.

Yes, I know it's just a latenight, softcore porn show, but that doesn't make its ugly stereotypes any less televised.

* Update 1: Otto has a write-up of Episode 2 here.

Good thing Hines Ward is bald and all grown up.

Because if the Pride of Korea were a student in Korea and had him some curly hair, he might have to cut it off. From the Hankyoreh, via Korea Beat, comes a story that students with naturally brown or curly hair will be issued ID cards to prove that their styles are natural . . . or else be forced to cut or dye their hair to conform to dress codes. Read the whole article here. Two excerpts:

Recently schools have been requiring students with naturally colored or curly hair to obtain proof. Students with naturally-colored hair must get confirmation form their parents and teacher and keep the proof with them when they go to school. A large number of schools in Seoul, including Ilshin girls’ High School, Gyeonggi Girls’ High School, Daewon Girls’ High School, Dongmyeong Girls’ High School, and Seomun Girls’ High School, issue the ID cards.

and

The “natural hair ID cards” are a “solution” to the issue. But there are many schols which don’t have the cards yet have no problems, so there appear to be no significant results from them, because the educational authorities’ call for “curly or colored hair” as the enforcement standard exposes a cramped view of standardization. Already in our society 1 in 8 marriages are international. Perhaps in the future students will also need “natural skin color ID cards” and “natural eye color ID cards”.

Here's a picture of a "natural hair ID card," from Hankyoreh via Daum:

Zauhory's interview at the embassy.

A guy heading to Mokpo soon had one of those requisite (really?) face-to-face interviews at the Korean Embassy. Here's how it went:

My name was written Zauhory, good times. The diplomat asked me my name, where I was from, my educational background, and my opinion of the Spitzer affair. The whole process took less than five minutes to do. Then I had to hop the bus home which was another four hours out of my day. Eight hours on a bus for a five minute interview?

Lame. For me, the face-to-face interview would most likely be a deal-breaker unless---fat chance---my boss reimbursed me for it. I handled everything in person at the Ko-nsulate in New York in 2005. The cost of plane tickets, the motel, the visa fees, and spend money put the trip at roughly $600. Okay, not an insane amount of money, but more than I'd like to spend on something useless. Plus, New York is a shithole. Since these new interviews look about as well put together as the immigration crackdown in 2005, it'd be hard to persuade me to jump through those hoops. Also, I'm kinda not, like, a criminal or anything, and I resent the implication and stuff.

"Zauhory" is the guy I mentioned yesterday who was going to work at the Gangjin Foreign Language Village, but got switched to Mokpo kinda last minute. That's how I'm vaguely acquainted with him and his blog.

U.S. Embassy addresses misinformation about the E-2 regulations.

A recent e-mail from the U.S. Embassy addressed the new E-2 visa regulations. Although they were to have taken effect over two weeks ago, apparently the Korean government still has no idea what it's doing. Two amusing/frustrating paragraphs (emphasis mine):

Regrettably, the Korea Immigration Service (KIS) has placed incorrect information on its website concerning services U.S. embassies can and cannot perform. As of this writing the "New Release: Mandatory Requirements of Criminal Background Check and Health Certificate" on the KIS website contains incorrect information about the length of time it can take to get a criminal records check in the U.S. and also states erroneously that the U.S. Embassy can notarize or certify background checks. We have asked that the incorrect information be removed from the KIS website and we regret any inconvenience or misunderstanding that has resulted from their explanation of our services.

As we receive updated information on the Korean visa requirements, we will post it on our website. The U.S. Embassy website will also continue to be the best source of information about the services that we are able to provide under U.S. law and regulation.

You can find more information from the U.S. Embassy on its website. There is still disinformation and confusion all around, including from the newspapers and from my provincial education office. Seems the best course of action for now is to wait it out, rather than jumping through all kinds of hoops that may be unnecessary or impossible. I still find all these measures reactionary, discriminatory, and xenophobic, but that should go without saying.

2007: In case you missed it.

Nobody can deny that foreigners in Korea are a despicable bunch and must be stopped. Thankfully there are new regulations in place that will send most foreigners to the countries that most deserve an influx of barbarians: China and Japan. We can honestly pin most of South Korea's social ills on white people, who spend most of their time touching children, smoking dope, harassing Korean women, eating hamburgers, punching cab drivers, and forging degrees. Some of these godless monstrosities even teach private lessons. Immigration is quite right to "eradicate illegal activities of native English teachers who are causing social problems such as ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes." I believe immigration is targeting the correct demographic, for improperly documented foreign teachers and their penchant for tutoring and cunnilingus pose an enormous threat to the survival of Korean society. As I've said before, you can never have too many documentaries, exposes, and columns about white people and their cheating ways.

But for the sake of balance I thought I'd share a few news stories of 2007 you might have missed. The headlines were dominated by foreigners behaving badly, so you might not have seen some other interesting developments. The in-demand pitcher of 2001 Chan-ho Park has bravely and selflessly decided to put his MLB career on hold in order to pitch for the national team, for example. With regard to criminal foreigners, to defend our good name against this xenophobic, race-baitng witch hunt add balance I've linked a few stories about the Korean frauds, perverts, and shitty teachers left unchecked, if only to show the negative influence these intruders have had.

Academic fraud

** Shin Jeong-ah - professor pegged as art director for the 2008 Gwangju Bienalle said she earned a Ph.D. from Yale University. The most high-profile story in the forgery scandal, her man on the side was a government official who helped conceal her forgery and funnel money into her projects.
** Venerable Jigwang - notable Buddhist monk who said he had a degree from Seoul National University.
** Lee Ji-young - radio host of KBS's "Good Morning Pops," Gwangyang native and former Suncheon National University student who built her reputation on her impressive overseas education that never took place.
** Lee Pil-sang - President of Korea University plagarized his students' theses.
** Ma Kwang-soo - poet, novelist, and Yonsei University professor plagarized her students' works.
** Ahn Yoo-jin (안유진) - bellydancer, used forged documents to get a part-time gig at Kwangju Women's University in 2006.
** Jeong Deok-hui (정덕희) - professor, author, actor
** Jun Yeong-hun (준영훈) - singer
** Lee Chang-ha - architect and professor who claimed to have a degree from New Bridge University's non-existant school of fine arts.
** Kim Ock-rang - professor and owner of a "performing arts space" who admitted to buying her degree from a California diploma mill.
** Daniel Henney - actor, model. Some online sources erroneously reported that he graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to his manager, as quoted in the Korea Times, “With the recent issue about academic records, we avoided correcting the problem because we were afraid it would reflect badly.”
** Choi Soo-jung - popular actor, humanitarian, good husband. Some of his official biographies erroneously claimed he graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and from an American university.
** Jang Mi-hee - singer
** "Fake degree scandal hits sports figures"
** Fake foreign degrees were popular in the military as well.
** "Deception" 2007 Word of the Year

Damn, too bad this is only about 2007. Otherwise I could have included Kim Byong-joon, the former fucking Minister of Education who resigned in 2006 after he admitted he plagarized his students. (HT to The Wanderer)

Teachers behaving badly

** Field trip to China and prostitutes
** Teacher beats students with a bamboo sword, gets a warning (HT to Gusts of Popular Feeling)
** Teacher who molests students gets a suspension and a transfer.
** Teacher leaks standardized test questions to students, parents, and cram schools
** Leaked questions feared to be widespread in Gyeonggi-do
** "Netizens Claim Teachers Helped Students Cheat on SATs."
** 5 Suncheon middle school students killed in bus crash on field trip
** Teacher bakes, beats students.
** "Children to Bear the Brunt if Parents Bribe Teachers." The Korea Federation of Teacher's Associations of course criticized this policy.
** If U R YOUNG & WHITE, U R ALRIGHT @ Bundang Kids Club!!!
** Teacher causes student to pass out over haircut.
** Suncheon teacher humilates high school class for being late.
** "Korean Teachers Wrong on FTA Facts."
** "Gov’t Warns Teachers Union Off Anti-FTA Classes"
** "Entrusting Our Children to Dangerous Lunatics."
** "One in five male high school students have had their hair chopped off by a teacher, a study has found."


Sexual misconduct

** Gwangju middle school girl held captive in motel and raped by 800 men.
** I'm gonna go ahead and say that again. Gwangju middle school girl held captive in motel and raped by 800 men.
** Man molests 11-year-old stepdaughter, found not guilty by reason of liquor.
** Government gives gifts to people who don't fuck whores on New Year's
** Hampyeong county police lieutentant puts cameras in bathrooms.
** Taxi driver rapes and kills two women in Seoul.
** Korea a "danger country" for women.
** Goyang detective kidnaps, rapes, robs women.
** "Chatting with the Beauties" star reveals her professor offered good grades in return for sex.
** "Teenage Sex Crimes Tripled in 8 Years"
** "Alleged South Korean Rape Cult Leader Arrested in China"


Just a reminder to any foreign teachers out there . . . please prepare your academic transcripts and your criminal background checks. Matter of fact I was just reminded again today about having a criminal check, two health exams, and my original degree. We can never be too careful when Korea's children are at stake. If you get too stressed out about these new visa and need to go running for the shelter of your mother's little helper, you'd better know that you're more likely to find drugs on a Korean than on a foreigner.

Boycott Korea?

Readers not in Korea might not know about Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old Canadian who was arrested in October in Thailand. He was wanted by Interpol for molesting children in Southeast Asia, and had been working in Gwangju at the time. Police had been tracking him, sort of, for three years, but it wasn't until his photographs were un-doctored and released to the public that they got some leads. Neil fled the country on October 11, shortly after his photograph was released, and he was apprehended 8 days later.

It has turned into a huge story, as probably should have been suspected. As I mention in an upcoming Gwangju News piece (from which I will plagarize parts below), the English-language media in Korea was pretty silent at first, and it wasn't until October 17---six days after he left Incheon International Airport---that the first news article came out. (The Korean-language media was silent at first, and I remember watching the evening news a few days after I learned about the story, and after it was big news in the West, but it wasn't even mentioned. Because my Korean sucks and because I don't read or watch Korean-language news, I can't testify to how soon he became the lead story.)

It didn't take long after that, though, for the ugliness to show up. Two days after his arrest, government-owned KBS ran an "In-Depth 60 Minutes" program that, under the guise of investigative journalism, profiled the scum and villany that reside among the foreign community here. On October 19, the Chosun Ilbo ran a factually inaccurate article about the rise of crime committed by foreigners, accompanied by this image:



As is wont to happen, all the ugly stereotypes were trotted out and mixed together: foreigners as pedophiles, as drug-users, as academic frauds, as alcoholics, as skirt-chasers, as AIDS carriers. An October 25 Chosun Ilbo article, for example, outlining the new regulations, reported that

[o]ver the past five years, over 800 foreign English instructors have been caught with forged degrees or having worked in Korea without proper visas. Some have even been found to have taught under the influence of drugs.

And an October 28 Korea Times article, while reporting on the same regulations for E-2 holders, refers for some reason to “two alcoholics and five sexual harassment offenders” caught in Daegu in July. Other sensationalist headlines from this year have included the Chosun Ilbo’s “White English Teacher Threatens Korean Woman with AIDS” and the Chosun Ilbo’s sports insert’s “Beware the Ugly White Teacher.”

And it's really worth remembering this gem from last year. In 2006, two Koreans were charged with molesting students at English Villages in Gyeonggi-do, to which the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union replied “the English camp sexual assaults are a structural problem brought on by unchecked native speakers, [and] such incidents could potentially occur at any time.”

Shortly after Neil was apprehended new visa regulations were proposed, to take effect December 15 and ostensibly to clean up the industry and put a stop to the practice of hiring anybody and everybody. Foreigners wanting an E-2 visa would have to submit their diplomas, their academic transcripts, a criminal record check from their home country, a medical exam from their home country, a medical exam from Korea, and would have to interview at the Korean embassy or consulate nearest their hometown, and would have to be fingerprinted as part of the background exam. There are a few other requirements that have slipped my mind, but I do know some schools are demanding their teachers verify their own transcripts by logging onto their university's website and producing a list of students.

This all would be extreme even if it were applied to all foreign instructors, all foreigners, or all English teachers (domestic and international). However, as Neil was an E-2 visa holder---one of about 17,000, according to a November Joongang Ilbo piece---the restrictions were only aimed at E-2 visa holders and applicants, like me. (Neil was an E-7 holder but the legislation was aimed at E-2 visa holders.) In a November notice sent out to schools, immigration couldn't hold back from attacking on all fronts. Here is the choicest quotation (translated by Pusanweb):

The Korean Government will prevent illegal activities by verifying requirements of native English teacher and tighten their non-immigrant status [...] [and will] eradicate illegal activities of native English teachers who are causing social problems such as ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes. English teachers, who disturb social order during their staying in Korea such as illegal teaching, taking drugs and sex crimes, will be banned from entering South Korea.[...] [They will] prevent illegal English teaching activities and the taking of drugs and sexual harassment of English teachers, [...] teachers who disrupt the social order by taking drugs, committing sexual harassment and alcohol intoxication.

There's no reason to get into how inconvenient, expensive, time-consuming, short-sighted, xenophobic, and blatantly racist that all is. Moreover, anybody who follows the news a little will not need reminded how ubiquitous problems like forgery, alcoholism, sexual harassment, prostitution, child abuse, domestic abuse, corruption, rape, sex crimes, and private tutoring are among Korean society.

It is good to see that foreign embassies are telling the Ministry of Justice to fuck itself, as per the following Joongang Ilbo article. However, according to the December 14 piece, the MoJ won't ease regulations, and its spokespeople still have the gall to say shit like:

I just don’t understand why they cannot make some exceptions to accommodate the needs of their own nationals. In Korea, criminal records can be easily obtained online. But they don’t have a centralized system.

As if---when we remember the anti-American protests of 2002, the anti-FTA protests, the pardoning of convicted war criminals, the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the "Yankee Go Home" talk, the visa protests---South Korea has done anything in recent memory to justify any exceptions extended it.

I wrote on another messageboard that I didn't expect much of a backlash from Koreans. I wrote that a few days after the story broke, and while Korean media outlets hadn't yet picked it up. There were a few relatively recent stories of Korean teachers behaving badly---taking students to Chinese hookers while on a field trip---and of sex crimes committed by Koreans, such as the case from Gwangju of a middle school girl held captive in a motel and raped by 800 people, for example, that I thought Koreans might have been humbled a bit. And, I thought that a lesson might have been learned from the example of Cho Seung-hui and the Virginia Tech massacre, where Koreans and Korean-Americans feared reprisals that never came.

Koreans had good reason to fear widespread racially-motivated attacks based on a single incident because that's how they operate. In 2004 (or 2005, can't find the source now) the US Embassy issued an advisory for its citizens in Seoul, after Korean men became angry when images showing foreign men and Korean women dancing together at a bar surfaced on a website that also had some sexist content. In 2002, the country erupted in anti-Americanism after a US military vehicle accidentally struck and killed two middle school girls. (More on that incident here and here)

I've maintained that should these rules and all their ugliness go into effect, I would have to leave on principle. Obviously I'm qualified and I'm not a criminal, but I don't like it implied explicitly stated that I am. I've handed in my degree 7 times since arriving in July, 2005, I've handed in several sets of transcripts, and I've had to forfeit my passport a few times as well. In December, 2005, all foreign teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi province were rounded up and sent to immigration for a degree verification procedure, supposed to be a "be all, end all" for such checks. Apparently nobody has any recollection of that, and nobody kept any records, because I'm still being asked for my diploma. This year I've refused to hand over my documents a few times, on principle.

Part of me feels silly forfeiting a chance to live, work, study, and travel abroad because of a few new regulations, and I know that many teachers would go along with the new regulations because, well, they don't have any principles. When I brought up the idea on waygook.org of standing up to our local education board, I was mocked, and I sense a lot of (uncle)tomfoolery going on in the name of "tolerance and acceptance." A lot of folks are so self-satisfied by their "When in Rome" attitude---until something infringes on their own pet issues like domestic violence, cats, or imported beer---that they are incapable of any perspective whatsoever.

The Metropolitician, one of the better-known bloggers in Korea and a resident since 1994, put up a few pretty angry posts today. Can't say I blame him, since he was arrested last month for assult for no good reason. One of today's posts discourages foreign teachers from coming here in the first place. An excerpt:

Let me just say right now that the only reason I'm staying in Korea is because I have an F-4 and am not subject to these requirements. But I am ever required to give drug and HIV tests in order to work, or rip out my single original copy of my diploma sitting in a frame in my mother's home in Ohio, it will be time for me to leave this country.

He continues:

I've got shit I need to do here, and shit I enjoy doing here. I'm grandfathered in. I've put too much energy into this country, society, and language to quit now. That's why I'm staying. That's the only reason.

But my patience with this country has worn pretty thin, and I'm having trouble right now not going over to the "dark side" and starting to hate this place. I might have to start looking for ruby crystals for my lightsaber soon. I'm struggling with another "dark time", just as I did in early 2003, when I would hear the word "nigger" more times in a week than I had in all the time I had spent in Korea to that point (more than 3 years, actually).

Things are changing, people, and it's for the worst.

My advice for newbies interested in teaching English as a means of living in Asia, I am sad to suggest:

DON'T COME TO KOREA. GO TO JAPAN OR CHINA.

Korea and Koreans, no matter what is said, doesn't really want foreigners here. We are treated like criminals by the law, and in the law. The media represents us as nothing more than drug fiends, AIDS carriers, and child molesters.

If you don't want to be treated as such by the law, required to submit a criminal background check, submit to drug and HIV tests, and have to submit your original diploma just to teach in some unprofessionally-run institute or elementary school in which whatever skills and ability you have won't be respected anyway...

DO NOT COME TO SOUTH KOREA TO LIVE AND TEACH.

Something to think about. My ideas aren't sophisticated enough yet to get into it, but I just wanted to pass his message along.

I also wanted to pass along a few nice links that give better timelines and overviews of all this garbage:

Gusts of Popular Feeling has an extensive timeline of English teacher scapegoating.

Jellomando incorporates the timeline and also gets into other areas of discrimination, such as foreigner-unfriendly banking restrictions.

The Metropolitician has a ton of good write-ups on race, education, history, etc., and I recommend reading his "starter posts" linked at the top-right of his blog, and also reading the articles in his "Korean Education" category.

US in Korea has a lot of entries on the political motivations for fanning anti-US feelings in South Korea, such as the above-mentioned 2002 incident, which was shelved until after the World Cup and exploited to curry favor with North Korea. Candlelight vigils continued two years later, and dwarfed the much bigger story of 2002: a skirmish between the North and South that killed 5 South Korean soldiers.

* Edit: I'm not well-travelled, but based on what I've read and heard I think it's a little naive to think that more tolerance is to be had in places like Japan and China. Even if these regulations go through, the start-up costs of Korea would be still be much less than Japan and Taiwan. I've had my fair share of days when I question what the hell I'm doing, and wonder how many of my acquaintances could give two shits whether I'm here or not. I'm not quite ready to give up, because I have a lot invested in staying here, too. Teaching EFL in Asia involves a lot of hard choices . . . just looks like making the decision to come to South Korea in the first place is becoming more difficult.

A reaction to Kang Eun-hee's "Korean English Teachers."

Okay, so I know that debating a Korean English teacher is like playing dodgeball against a fat kid. It's just that since I read this Korea Times piece a few days ago, I've been mulling over a few points. I've written a few drafts on the topic of English education, the most recent of which is about 2,300 words, without even getting to some of the objections I have to the article. For the sake of brevity I'll touch on a few things here and save the longer manifestos for later.

You know, I'm sure she's a nice enough lady, and I should cut her some slack because she's old and she's probably just happy to get her name in the paper. And, yeah, her piece is but one of, like, 3 million about quote-unquote English education that appear in the KT and the other rags each month, so on the one hand her article is nothing special, but on the other hand, it's the frequency with which such tripe is printed that is frustrating.

The piece is here, although I'll quote it below and write a little bit of my commentary.

Last year one native English teacher was assigned to our school. Our school became livelier than before. Especially on Halloween the students made much ado about candies.

Our satisfied principal publicized it to the parents on a gigantic scale, but after a few months we returned to the daily routine.

I don't understand why giving candy to students is exclusively the domain of foreigners. I don't do it in my classes, and any student who expects a treat for doing their job runs the risk of getting beat with my bamboo sword. But, in all honesty, I understand the arrival of a foreign teacher is a big deal, but it's a bit much to put the success of a holiday on a single person. Moreover, it's out of line to base an entire philosophy on one encounter with a white person.

Her disappointment at returning to the daily routine makes it clear that she views the foreigner as an attraction meant to be seen and enjoyed, and not as an essential component to the school.

One day I started to wonder if the temporary employment of native English teachers could fulfill our expectations: I have arrived at the conclusion based on my experiences.

In the long run, the expansion of intensive training programs for Korean English teachers is more urgent financially, than the employment of native English teachers.

Yes, training Korean English teachers does make sense. Though I do work with some wonderful people this year, I have encountered my fair share of dumb-fuck English teachers in the past two years, and am convinced that these unqualified teachers---who do the lion's share of English teaching anyway---do much more damage than the comparatively few inexperienced foreigners.

Based on what one of my coteachers has told me, it looks like there will be more opportunities for Korean English teachers to have intensive language and education training. According to him (so not sure how true it is), teachers have the choice to spend a semester studying at a university in Seoul, or spending a semester abroad. For teachers in Jeollanam-do, they have the opportunity twice a year to spend a month attending a training seminar in Damyang county.

Additionally, Korean English teachers are aware of the importance of the quality of English education and the emotional effect it has on the students.

Oh shit, she all done up and done it. If I may be so bold, I will suggest that a vigorous public smear campaign against foreigners and foreign English teachers has been more detrimental to the emotional well-being of Korean students than any of their imagined offenses. Based on what follows in Kang's piece, I would also suggest that "emotional effect" is another way of saying "kids are afraid to speak English (because I will hit them) so don't make them talk."

We will probably waste the national treasury in the long term, unless the government invests a lot more in training Korean English teachers rather than depending on the temporarily employed native English teachers.

The yearly cost for employing one native English teacher is approximately 45 million won in our school. The amount is almost as much as the gross income of a 25-year veteran Korean teacher (excluding the pension).

*Sigh* No need for hyperbole. Hiring white people will not waste the national treasury. Building a cross-country canal will do that. Relocating the capital from Seoul to Chungcheongnam-do will do that. Hell, ridiculous and misguided spending on poorly planned English Towns will do that. A foreigner in every school probably won't do that.

I dislike talking about money and salaries, especially when it comes to comparing mine to my Korean counterparts. There are too many factors worth considering. I get free airfare. They get holiday and performance bonuses. I get accommodation. They sometimes do, too, and they earn a higher salary. I have less work (sometimes), but they have more vacation time. I don't know what she's talking about with the 45 million figure, but I'm almost positive it's wrong. Even if my apartment were to cost a staggering million a month---which it doesn't, thanks to 전세---and even if you factor in the cost of a round-trip ticket, that hypothetical foreigner would still earn $200 more per month than me, and $600 more than a rookie. (I didn't figure in deductions like health care.)

I suspect what happened is she included other aspects of the budget, including the cost of creating and maintaining a "language lab," into that figure. Every school I've been in has had a fancy language lab, filled with computers, books, different listening devices, and a big TV. (In all of my schools, though, the equipment in the lab has been inferior to that found in other rooms). Anyway, it's unfair to include the cost of a language lab or an English Camp when calculating salary, especially when so many contributors to a Korean teacher's salary are left out. I hate pissing contests like that, and I really wish it weren't such an interesting topic of conversation for some.

American English teachers accept many financial preferences. They are exempted from income taxes for two years and the rate of the pension and the health insurance is lower than ours.

Again, she has her wires crossed. I think any minor financial advantages are offset by things like not receiving performance bonuses, or adequate yearly salary increases, or not getting bribes, etc. And I'm not sure why she singles out American teachers. I have no idea about the pension or health care figures, though.

Even the overtime pay is different. While they earn 20,000 won per teaching session, we get only 6,000 won. This is comparable to the 13.5 million won a trainee at the Korea National University of Education (KNUE) gets for six months.

The 6,000 won figure is wrong. The 13,500,000 figure, when divided by six, is comparable to what a foreign teacher receives each month. At just over 2.2 million per month, that's more, in fact, than many experienced teachers stand to earn.

One year intensive English training programs seem to be enough because we've already learned a lot about the methodology, grammar and reading from our former education. That means only two-thirds of the expenses for one native English teacher can create high value.

Again, I agree that training Korean teachers is a smart idea. I'm not sure we can talk about value, yet, because it will be necessary to hire foreign teachers for these Korean trainees. What she's talking about sounds similar to what's already in place. Some foreign teachers in Jeollanam-do, for instance, spend 9 or 10 months a year teaching in a public school, then spend a month or two training teachers in Damyang county.

I don't want to be (too) mean, but let's not overvalue the training in methodology, grammar, and reading the Korean teachers have already received. I don't deny that some are very enthusiastic about their subject. But, with few exceptions, the methodology consists of reading aloud from a textbook, of translating the day's lesson into Korean, and of punishing students who happen to get in the teacher's way. The myth of the Asian grammar expert is unfounded, in my experience. It's true that Asians study grammar throughout their school years, but do they actually learn it? I have a decent understanding of grammar---I've forgotten a lot since college---and I've never met a Korean teacher who has stumped me or who has known something I have not. Hell, some of them have been studying English longer than I've been alive. Moreover, how many Koreans have you met that could produce even the simplest grammatically-correct sentence?

It's not easy for the native English teachers to understand the student's personality or his or her level of former learning achievement. One of the most important effects on the students through education is in the emotional aspect.

Of course it's not easy. We are sent half-way around the world and put in front of a classroom with no training, with no curriculum, and with no support outside of "do what you want." This is one of the most glaring deficiencies in the system.

What also gets me is the sudden importance of "emotional aspects," or "emotional well-being," or "self-confidence," or whatever, any time English education comes up. Somehow, with the import of communication-based teaching and student-centered learning, the idea that students need to be coddled has come into vogue. Oh, not in all classes, mind you. Not in geography class, or music class, or gym class, and certainly not in a Korean English teacher's class.

Every foreign teacher will struggle with the "fun vs. functional" dichotomy. Should I spend my time playing games, giving candy, being their friend, and ultimately looking like an ass? Or, should I spend my time doing educational stuff, trying to actually teach something, and (at least to some) looking like a prick?

The teachers have to take into consideration the background or the character of each student. However this is difficult for our native English teacher, because she teaches more than 800 students, i.e. twenty-one classes each week. One day she asked a student who couldn't read or write to the front of the class to do some activities. The abashed student cried.

Actually, in my case I have 46 different classes (plus one workshop and one "English club") and about 1,700 students. After three months I know a few of their names. Not bad, considering I see them once or twice a month and have no seating chart. Any background information will be invaluable, but it's unrealistic to expect what amounts to a guest speaker to know anything about the students s/he will see 6 times a semester. I think "take into consideration the background or character of each student" means "don't yell at them."

I have, I'm ashamed to admit, embarassed a couple of students with development issues. In my defense, how the fuck am I supposed to know? They don't talk. Most students don't talk. The co-teachers don't say anything to me. Sometimes it's obvious who is painfully shy, and I try my best to work with them (because they are often capable, but just need personal attention to do the work), but there are times when I have no fucking idea, and I'd appreciate it if my embarassed coteacher wouldn't blab to the Korea Times about my dumb ass.

Additionally, if the native English teacher does not have any background knowledge of the Korean culture, they have difficulty relating to the students.

I agree that knowledge of Korean culture and a little of the Korean language is invaluable, and I can't imagine doing my job without either. I have had to speak Korean to my coworkers this year and last, and a knowledge of how their language works greatly helps me in adjusting my lessons to their needs.

Most foreigners who arrive in Korea will have no knowledge about its culture or its language. This is another area where a supportive co-teacher or a healthy welcoming committee would be helpful. In my experience, however, I haven't even had coworkers able to communicate with me, let alone explain particular cultural nuances to me.

I will add that the lack of knowledge about English-language culture has been astounding. For some reason, the word "please" seems to have been left out of the curriculum for the past 40 years.

Most of our students enjoyed the class with the native English teacher because many of them rarely had the chance to talk with foreigners; also the class structure allowed them move around freely compared to the formal grammar classes.

However, to their grief, they soon ran out of English words they knew and started to lose interest and in turn became stressed. The effect of the native English teacher employment is noteworthy in the short term.

See, I'm not sure why grammar can't be fun. And I'm not sure how what foreigners fundamentally do is really any different from what Korean teachers fundamentally do. When I make a table or a chart, or design an information gap activity, I'm hitting the same points as the Korean teacher. I don't scour the entire lesson and dissect every sort of sentence as some of my colleagues do, but by doing what I do with the main points, the students are moving around, using the language, producing sentences, and having a decent time. When I was growing up I learned English without the benefit of daily lectures in Korean, and I turned out all right.

If the students run out of words, TEACH THEM MORE. Jesus Tapdancing Christ. Waitwaitwait, don't teach them more. They already have weekly vocabulary tests and have workbooks filled with hundreds of words that they will never use. Why not spend a little more time showing them how English works, and how to utilize the lists they've collected. There's no sense in forcing them to memorize "pneumonia" or "hemorrhage" when they say things like "teacher, leg sick."

Show them how to use the language. Teach them what an adjective is. Have them describe their friends. Have them describe their friends' warts. Show them verbs. Have them build sentenes. Have them build questions. Have them role play. Type up a few sentences or paragraphs, stick some mistakes in there, and have the students fix them. Read a story but make mistakes and have the students correct you. Make surveys. Make information gap activities. The possibilities are endless. But until some people realize that there's more to English than tests, and a greater point to vocabulary than writing translations, they'll never learn. Jesus, if you look up "transparent" in a dictionary, you won't see "means the same as 투명한."

And learn how to fucking use the word "noteworthy."

Though we are not sure if the native English teachers help us curb soaring private education expenses as the government asserted, we can't deny that many Korean English teachers are motivated to improve and many students share in the