Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Chamchiman]

Here's the article:

http://media.daum.net/society/view.html?cateid=1012&newsid=20081228135011924&p=yonhap


I'm too tired to translate all of it carefully, but I gather:

- the Indian teacher must be certified and have a four-year degree relating to English

- they will work in public schools from next year (not in hagwons)

- the idea is they will "help" students in rural areas (so it seems like they won't be placed in urban centers)

- the Korean people who are commenting below don't like it!


Anyone with more energy care to take a crack at translating it?

[Smee]

In English here:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/12/117_36881.html

[ChinaBoy]

of course no one likes it.. do you know anyone who calls a company and gets some friggin' Indian who likes it??

[sojourner1]

[princess]

Goodie. One can take my place in 2 months. That is, if he or she wants a hagwon job. Be my guest.

[weatherman]

Lets see how this plays out. Might mean an improvement for teachers who are qualified in the trade. Key word "might" .... This being Korea who knows what will happen.

[Tux]

"The other fact is more than 50 percent of all visitors to Korea who use English are not native speakers, so it would be good for students to hear many different varieties of English"

Now theres a plan isn't it? Lets just get anyone, no matter how broken their English is to teach because learning different accents is so important! Forget about the fact that they can't construct a cohesive sentence, saving the govt money is priority one

I found this amusing also

"more than half of current foreign assistant teachers don't even have basic English teaching certificates such as TESOL."

Who needs these things for this job? Seriously. The only reason I'm gonna do one is for the salary bump, not because I think my students will benefit from the knowledge. I guess I am over simplifying a little coming from an elementary level background here in Korea, but teaching my kids the grammar and linguistic theory offered by these courses is material that is way over their heads.

[Join Me]

Korea's beloved teachers union will blow a hole in this. They always find a reason to shoot down anything that could possibly be good for the kids but is a threat to their egos. You think they really want to work with "qualified" teachers who will be more competent in speaking English as well. I have learned to wait and see on anything that is proposed in Korea.

[Scotticus]

[Unposter]

While I do agree that there will be some Korean English teachers who will find it hard enough to compete with a Westerner much less an Indian, in general, if you can not compete for English teaching jobs with someone from India, then the Indian deserves the job. If you believe Korea should globalize and open up itself up to free trade, you should support this decision as well.

Personally, I am not scared and I think it is time for Koreans to open up to a wide variety of backgrounds for English teachers.

I also think that most TESOL programs are money-making farces but you cannot win them all.

[jurassic82]

I don't think we will really have to worry about this. I can't imagine hogwans and public schools hiring mass amounts of Indian and Filipino teachers. Its a horrible thing to say but most Koreans are pretty xenophobic and at times down right racist. They want their kids taught by a white face with what they believe to be the proper accent. Also, what was said before about having a TEFL qualification. Most schools don't even care about it and for what most of the jobs here require it isn't needed.

[Join Me]

From the article...

Parents' groups also showed positive reaction to Asian English teachers. ``Korean English education has put too lopsided focus on American English so far and there have been many unqualified teachers at schools. We don't oppose English teachers from India or the Philippines as long as they are proven teachers,'' said Yoon Sook-ja, chairwoman of the National Association of Parents for True Education.

I would bet any amount of money this woman's kids go to school in Seoul and will continue to have a white teacher teaching them English. In other words, she is saying this is OK for Korean kids out in the sticks, and hell...why not? This plan will give her kids an advantage in Korea's extremely competitive education system. Her kids will learn to speak English with an "American" accent and poor kids out in the country will speak like someone from Hewlett Packard's call center in India.

Which, of course, would be wonderful if Koreans could put their xenophobia aside long enough to consider that India will be one of their largest export markets in the upcoming years. But, that would require rational thinking.

[Smee]

Here's that organization if anyone wants to take a look around: http://www.hakbumo.or.kr/

[rooster_2006]

This is incredibly dumb.

I understand Korea letting in Filipinos to teach English, because indeed some Filipinos are hard-working, cheap, and speak acceptable English, but INDIANS? This is a new level. When I worked in the US, my boss and co-workers were pretty much all Indians, and they spoke HORRIBLE English -- and they were living in the United States! If Indians in the US can't even speak decent English, how the hell are Indians straight out of India going to be able to TEACH English? In theory, Korean immigration could make them take standardized tests to make these Indians prove they can speak real English, but we all know something that intelligent is something Immy would never do.

I know everyone talks about how "great" Indian English is, but sorry, I don't buy it. The Filipinos I've met have much better English.

Well, I plan to get out of here in the next six months anyway, so whatever. I'll call it an even five years, then nobody can say "you should have given Korea more of a chance."

[Xuanzang]

Maybe they think they`re getting British sounding Indians like Mohinder Suresh from Heroes.
What a rude awakening this is going to be for the government.