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Are All Kindergarten Jobs ILLEGAL now?

 
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wonkavite62



Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Location: Jeollanamdo, South Korea.

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 3:51 pm    Post subject: Are All Kindergarten Jobs ILLEGAL now? Reply with quote

I read an article in the Korea times. The new government wants to stop teaching English to kids younger than the second grade. They have decided to interpret the law strictly, so teaching English in government kindergartens is now regarded as illegal. So too is teaching in after school programs to grades one and two. This is because the minister of education has decided that teaching English too early will interfere with learning Korean.
Okay, but does this mean that ALL teaching in kindie hagwons is now illegal too? I ask that question because I still see a lot of kindergarten hagwon jobs advertised on this website.
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Aine1979



Joined: 20 Jan 2013
Location: Incheon

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No. It's still legal to teach English to kindergarten age students in hagwons. The new laws only apply to real schools and Korean kindergartens.
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Coltronator



Joined: 04 Dec 2013

PostPosted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 8:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are also Kindy Hagwons that look like Kindergartens and function like them but have no government funding. So they are very expensive (though an American or [non Quebec]Canadian might not find them as expensive) compared to the near free government supported Preschools/Daycares and free Public Kindergartens.
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Hotpants



Joined: 27 Jan 2006

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I saw a YouTube vlog yesterday posted by a couple under the name 'Life Spent Making', and they were describing how they've been deported from Korea because they were teaching at a quasi international school on an E2 visa. I guess this is part of the new regs about 'real' schools. From what they were saying, though, the point that caused the deportation was that on an E2 visa, the visa holder is only meant to be literally teaching conversation. They were saying that in the Korean explanation of what duties an E2 holder cover, it specifically says 'conversation' whereas this word is absent from the English explanation. If that's the case, then it's a bit worrying, as I think a lot of us have experience of teaching much more than just conversation in our roles. Is this a new wave of deportations? It's also disturbing that the couple in the vlog were issued an E2 in immi's apparent full knowledge of the nature of the school that they were teaching at. Sounds like they've been pretty screwed by the system. It'd be interesting to have Tompatz's take on this.
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wonkavite62



Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Location: Jeollanamdo, South Korea.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:11 pm    Post subject: Hi Hotpants Reply with quote

Thank you. I will check out the YouTube vlog you mentioned about the deported couple. It should be interesting.

As I understand it, there was a scandal last year, centering on registered teachers from Canada working in British Columbia's international schools here in Korea. These schools were controlled by the BC board of education, at least in principle. They followed a Canadian curriculum. So far so good. But the teachers were issued the wrong visa by the school. They should have gotten an E-7, which is just for international schools. Now the problem was that although the teachers were experienced and professional, they did not know about Korea's somewhat complex visa system. Perhaps the international school was unaware, or did not think it mattered. Perhaps the school lied to immigration and pretended to be a hagwon! This can happen. The story is covered in issues of Groove Magazine from 1017.

As you pointed out, not all schools are what they seem. A kindie hagwon can dress itself up as a standard kindergarten. A hagwon can pretend to be an international school, teaching a north American syllabus, when it is legally just a hagwon and has not got a license to be an international school That happened last year, and the hagwons got caught.

In any case, I've replied to some of the private kindergartens and I have set up interviews.
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nicwr2002



Joined: 17 Aug 2011

PostPosted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 9:00 pm    Post subject: Re: Hi Hotpants Reply with quote

wonkavite62 wrote:
Thank you. I will check out the YouTube vlog you mentioned about the deported couple. It should be interesting.

As I understand it, there was a scandal last year, centering on registered teachers from Canada working in British Columbia's international schools here in Korea. These schools were controlled by the BC board of education, at least in principle. They followed a Canadian curriculum. So far so good. But the teachers were issued the wrong visa by the school. They should have gotten an E-7, which is just for international schools. Now the problem was that although the teachers were experienced and professional, they did not know about Korea's somewhat complex visa system. Perhaps the international school was unaware, or did not think it mattered. Perhaps the school lied to immigration and pretended to be a hagwon! This can happen. The story is covered in issues of Groove Magazine from 1017.

As you pointed out, not all schools are what they seem. A kindie hagwon can dress itself up as a standard kindergarten. A hagwon can pretend to be an international school, teaching a north American syllabus, when it is legally just a hagwon and has not got a license to be an international school That happened last year, and the hagwons got caught.

In any case, I've replied to some of the private kindergartens and I have set up interviews.


They were issued E2 visas because that "International School" wasn't registered as a real international school. They were only registered as a Hagwon and thus, unable to provide an E7 sponsorship. There are a lot of requirements for a school to be registered as an actual school.
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Biblethumper



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Location: Busan, Korea

PostPosted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 8:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems that recent Korean governments are reverting more and more to the failed policies of the 19th century Joseon dynasty, especially of the Dae Won Gun, who tried to protect pure Korea against evil foreign culture. 19th century Japan embraced the West and flourished therefore. When Japan became more and more imperialistic, it had many allies and sympathizers among the great powers; but Korea had not a single friend except the equally backward Qing China. After 1945 on the other hand, Korea became gradually more and more open.

When I first came to Korea in 1999, the Korean government was as eager for international knowledge and friendship as its citizens, but since about 2009, the Korean government has fallen in love with the concept of the hermit kingdom, steadily restricting the inflow of foreign teachers and the running of private English schools.

When I visited Japan on visa runs (back when the foreigner-friendly Korean government allowed such quick visa runs), I noticed how shockingly less English there was in Japan. Since 2000 Japan has experienced nothing but stagnation, and part of that is due to their inward looking frozen culture.

Furthermore, the ministers and bureaucrats of education must have no dealings with actual children. All of the kindergartners whom I have ever met in English kindergartens in Korea are fluent in Korean, and the best of the students of English also turn out to have good child-level knowledge of more formal Korean and hanja. There is no danger to Korean culture from learning other languages. Continental Europeans have the right idea: most educated Europeans are fluent from childhood in three or more languages.
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wonkavite62



Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Location: Jeollanamdo, South Korea.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 6:33 pm    Post subject: Hi Reply with quote

Yes, and the stagnation in Japan is partly because of Japanese business practices which protected the Keiretsu-Japanese-style chaebols. Some of that protectionism exists here, with big business influencing government, etc. There are some other parallels, such as a very low birthrate etc.
I read (in Groove magazine and other places); that Lee Myung Bak had decide to massively expend public school positions, even as the E-2 visa became much harder to get. Then suddenly he started cutting the jobs back. His reasoning was that his aim-making all public school students fluent in English by 2012-had failed. The aim was an impossible one. But as a consequence, Korean governments kept on cutting back those jobs and requiring more paperwork.
Forbidding younger kids to learn English is also an example of false reasoning.
I sometimes wonder if Mun Jae-In is appeasing the older, suspicious, anti-foreign groups within Korea.
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Unigwont



Joined: 11 Jul 2016

PostPosted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Biblethumper wrote:
It seems that recent Korean governments are reverting more and more to the failed policies of the 19th century Joseon dynasty, especially of the Dae Won Gun, who tried to protect pure Korea against evil foreign culture. 19th century Japan embraced the West and flourished therefore. When Japan became more and more imperialistic, it had many allies and sympathizers among the great powers; but Korea had not a single friend except the equally backward Qing China. After 1945 on the other hand, Korea became gradually more and more open.



Odd you say this... I have felt the same.

Also, totally unrealated to teaching, but foreigners who have enjoyed ham radio operations in Korea for nearly 50 years are being told they will no longer be able to renew licenses.

We are also seeing income taxes on foreigners explode. These changes are always under the guise of "fairness", in that foreigners are seen as being favored.

In many ways, I do feel as if this current government wants to cut off foreign connections and hide.
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