On My Way To Korea

There’s been a recent influx of commentary on the questionable article “Unfit, Foulmouthed, Drunken English Teachers Running Rampant” put out by South Korean’s Yonhap News (translated by the Korean Beat over here) which includes some questionable content.  It’s not just this article though, it’s the history of articles about English teachers in Korean.  I haven’t been to Korea yet, so if I only read Korean news I would probably not want to teach English there quite frankly.  Although I don’t do drugs, I’m not an alcoholic, etc. I feel like I would be placed in the same category as “one of THOSE people.”  Sadly, the news agencies further the stereotypes that cast foreign English speakers as drug-using, child-abusing, thoughtless, careless slime balls.

Here are some of the quotes in question.  From the main article translated by the Korean Beat:

… With native-speaker English teachers increasing in number doubts about their character remain. …

Brian pointed out a quote from another article:

Most of the native English speakers don’t have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems.

Brian also wrote an article here and here about some of the interesting culture tips found in the Korean texts that are very surprising:

Western people show exclamation even over trifles. This phenomenon isn’t found an oriental culture that appreciates people who control their feeling and taciturn. We can usually see Americans who are moved so easily by things that Koreans aren’t effected by. This means they are accustomed to expressing feeling freely and frankly. In Western culture, they start a conversation about the weather when they meet someone for the first time: “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?” This is reference to the inclement weather in England. The people who live in an area with nice weather like Korea aren’t touched by this kind of thing but Englishmen can be impressed.

Usually, in America, the elderly live alone. Unlike the elderly in Korea, who are supported by their oldest son. In America there are certain care centers for elderly people unable to care for themselves called, nursing homes or retirement homes for the aged. These are not government supported centers. The cost to live in these centers is quite high. Therefore the people who live on a pension can’t afford to live there without assistance. They envy the Oriental family system because their golden years can be very lonely.

Koreans can easily calculate prices without a calculator but Americans have difficulties even in simple calculations without a cash register or a calculator.

There is no doubt that there are bad English teachers who have forged credentials and have done everything that the article said.  The issue is that they are talking about this like it’s a problem only seen in foreigners and that it’s widespread.  Many of the English teachers in Korea have noted that there are many of the same issues with the Korean-native teachers.  It seems very ignorant to push all problems off on the easy-to-blame “foreigners” and ignore problems at home.

Here’s a list of recent articles by some of the bloggers I frequent and some of the interesting quotes:

• More f****ing garbage in the papers about native speaker English teachers
  • “If stories about teachers who don’t lesson plan or who come to work drunk are national news, then Yonhap better park a van outside each and every school to deal with its domestic teachers. Speaking of not knowing the basic purpose of education, let’s make a contest of spending five minutes and finding as many stories as we can about Korean teachers abusing and harassing their students, or driving their students to suicide, or forcing them to cram material all day long for tests.”
  • “I can count on one hand the number of times a co-teacher has lesson planned with me in my three years in public schools. And that hand has zero fingers. If we’re talking about elementary school teachers and lesson planning, like that one teacher is, let’s not forget that there is a g**d*** national curriculum with a CD-ROM and teachers’ guide—in Korean, not English—with worksheets and cut-outs that means, wait for it, these Korean teachers do not have to lesson plan for the entire year except for demonstration classes.”
• More shoddy racist journalism from Korea…
  • “Korean journalists, you are accomplishing nothing more than making your country look like a racist backwater.  Then again, if your goal is to keep us AIDS-ridden, drunk, student-raping foreign teachers from coming to your country, you’re doing a pretty good job, because the increasing levels of this kind of shoddy journalism are making foreigners who would have chosen to come teach your kids instead choose to teach elsewhere, even if it means lower pay.”
• Dear Korean Journalists: You Are Making Your Country Look Like a Racist Backwater
  • “Only a country full of racists would allow a media outlet to publish a piece as full of unchecked racism as this.”

Korea, are you really going to focus on country image?  Do you really want to attract outside capital?  Despite whether any of it is true or not, whether it was meant to be a stereotype or not, you are failing in country image 101.  I don’t feel like I can form an educated opinion across the ocean, but all I have to go off of is what is written online.

If you really want to fix things, do exactly what you said you should do.  No one is stopping you from selecting “better” teachers (whatever that means).  No one is stopping you from paying more money to attract more talent.  No one is stopping you from selecting teachers with higher credentials.  If there is a problem (assuming there is), what do you think the reason for it is?  The problem is obviously not the people you select but your method in selecting.  Stop attacking the native English teachers, stop whining about it, and start doing something to change it by starting where the underlying problem is (if there is a problem like you say).