Korean Job Discussion Forums

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

It's been said that the Korean Teachers Union has been encouraging young people to attend the beef protests.

How much of the anti-beef sentiment is actually anti-LMB's policy of wanting to have everything taught in English?

Troll_Bait · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:58 pm Post subject:

I think that you are correct that the Korean Teachers' Union (KTU) has orchestrated these protest by shamelessly using their young impressionable students as pawns to further their political agenda.

However, I believe that it has little to do with English education. Those plans to have everything taught in English were dropped almost as soon as they were suggested, long before the current trouble began.

Shortly before this whole beef brouhaha started up (aroung May 15th), the KTU was told by the newly-elected Lee Myungbak administration that it could no longer teach its pro-North Korean, anti-American propaganda in class. I think that this is what they are seeking veangeance for.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/05/117_24277.html

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

Troll_Bait · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:41 pm Post subject:

This article is better than the one I posted previously.

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2008042815428

(Hat Tip to this post at the DPRK Studies blog)

P.S. I was incorrect about the mid-May date. It was more like the end of April.

Troll_Bait · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:52 pm Post subject:

I've looked through some archives and come up with a timeline that confirms for me that the KTU has indeed orchestrated this in retaliation for educational reforms like teacher evaluations.

* April 28: the Lee Myung-bak administration announces that school textbooks will be revamped so that they glorify North Korea less

* April 29: TV show "PD Notebook" airs mad-cow program. Shortly thereafter, netizens denounce the opening up of Korea's beef market.

* May 2: madly unscientific rumours begin to gain momentum in the Internet

* May 3: the first anti-American beef protests

It's been well documented that a good number of the participants at these early rallies were schoolchildren and the teachers, KTU members, who encouraged them to go.

http://koreabeat.com/?p=994

caniff · Joined: 03 Feb 2004 Location: All over the map

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

Yes, I got in trouble at school when I wrote an article for the KT in which I was critical of the KTU for two lines. They took exception to my writing that teachers were coercing students to attend the rallies with misinformation, and also when I wrote that the KTU was notoriously anti-American.

You can check out a little of what the KTU has been up to:
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/06/those-who-cant-do-teach-those-who-cant.html

http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/05/perhaps-korean-teachers-union-doesnt.html

This cartoon kills me every time . . . it ran in the union's newspaper: http://news.eduhope.net/data/media-50/photo/15/9871/크기변환_02_그림판.jpg

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

My students have been totally uninterested in talking about the beef issue.

They're sick of hearing about it.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994