Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SHANE02]

I'm interested to hear what people think Lee Myoung Bak 's govt. will do in the way of education and other areas.

Do you see any NEW visa changes, or maybe the latest changes discarded?

Didnt he say he would open more specialist English schools?

Do you see a more or less foreign friendly govt. led by this guy?

[Captain Corea]

I hope and expect:

-More foreign language High Schools opening.
-Lessen restrictions on Universities.
-Promote investment in R&D
-Continued investment in English Public School programs.


And that's just what I expect from his Education policies.

[bassexpander]

The next five years has much in store:

1. The hearings and attempt to bar Lee Myung Bak from office, and the political firestorm thereafter.
2. The death of Kim Jung Il
3. A somewhat serious economic recession in Korea after the China Olympic games fail to boost things here.

[SHANE02]

Well that's pretty positive from one, and negative from another. I do hope there is less anti US feeling.

Give me that grain fed steak at a good price.

More specialized English schools can't be bad for us teachers either.

[boyne11]

Change the ELI's title to Native English Teacher (NET).

Change the Korean co-teacher's title to Assistant English Teacher (AET).

And let us be in charge of teaching English-e.

[Milwaukiedave]

I'm not sure what to expect. I would hope:

1) Less anti-foreigner sentiment
2) The whole thing with the new requirements blows over and they don't enforce them.
3) Korea starts importing American beef again.
4) English as a second language is taken seriously instead of as something they HAVE to do. I feel like Koreans pay a lot of lip service in terms of learning English, but most don't take it seriously.

[SHANE02]

[CasperTheFriendlyGhost]

3) Korea starts importing American beef again.


I just had a bunch for dinner.

[Juregen]

The new president is and thinks like a businessman.
In other words he thinks in terms of consumers and producers. Not as possible voter or not.

I believe that we will see a more hands on political shift in the making.

I also believe he is an intelligent man, albeit not a clean slate, but then, who has in Korea?

*fingers crossed*

[daemyann]

I was talking with my Hagwon boss today about this, and he seemed to think that Bak was veeeeery corrupt, but then admitted to voting for him. He said that Bak's time in Seoul (if I'm even talking about the right guy) gave him a huge regional following, but that it's his business "prowess" that has gained him the majority of his votes...

Strange...
(please don't chime in with "welcome to Korea")

[Col.Brandon]

Give me grass-fed steak.

[CentralCali]

What to expect? Hard to say. Either he'll bribe his way out of going to jail or he'll the be first president in the country to preside from jail.

[bobbyhanlon]

expect nothing. he'll be too busy avoiding scandal and trying to figure out ways to reach the miraculous/ridiculous $40000 GDP per capita to care about a tiny minority group of people who are unable to vote, and are generally disliked by the rest of the population.
besides, the best you can hope for from a politician is to be able to look back in a few years and say 'well, at least he didn't screw it up'.

[mindmetoo]

As long as he doesn't go ahead with his stupid canal idea.

[Gwangjuboy]

I was no fan of Roh Moo Hyun but his performance vis a vis the economy was hardly worthy of condemnation. Korea was still seeing some of the highest economic growth rates amoung the advanced economy nations throughout his stewardship. Koreans have wild expectations when it comes to the economy largely because they were used to seeing almost double digit GDP growth rates decade after decade but when an economy crosses the threshold which puts it into the league of economically developed countries it can no longer maintain this kind of growth. Double digit growth rates are almost exclusive to developiong economies; Korea is now regarded as a fully developed economy. Lee Myong Bak will have a huge task ahead of him if he wants Korea to achieve a 7 percent annual growth rate and propel it into the top seven economies in the world. I wouldn't expect Lee Myong Bak to substantially improve things here. Expect a marginally harder line on North Korea but not much else.