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TECO
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:25 pm Post subject: June Crackdown on EFL'ers in Korea |
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There are only approx. 5,000 EFL'ers in Korea this year? That sounds pretty low.
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Fracas turns critical Korean eye on Tefl community
Liz Ford
Monday April 11, 2005
Two English language teachers from Canada are due to appear in court in South Korea tomorrow in connection with an incident outside a bar in Seoul in which a local man was hospitalised with facial injuries.
The arrests have added to an already tense situation for the country's foreign workers, after a disparaging television documentary and a salacious website posting sparked a backlash against EFL teachers.
Jason Beaton and Scott Thompson, from Nova Scotia, were arrested and jailed on March 11. It is unclear whether they have been charged.
Both had been working as English conversation teachers in a hagwon - a privately run college - just outside the city since 2003. One of the men is believed to have been working illegally on a tourist visa. The hagwon owner was understood to have been arrested after the incident, but was released without charge.
The men claim they were provoked, but provocation and self-defence are not recognised under Korean law. It is the person with the least number of injuries, or no injuries at all, that is charged with any crime.
To secure their release from jail, the men have to pay the victim compensation, or "blood money" as it is known locally, of $30,000 (£15,000). Family and friends have raised $15,000 (£7,500), but their lawyers hope to reach a compromise with the victim during tomorrow's court hearing. If the court agrees to release the men, they are likely to be deported.
The arrests have divided the Tefl community, which has begun to take a dim view of teachers working in the country illegally, and comes on the back of a documentary shown on Korean television last month that painted a picture of foreign teachers as unqualified and unprofessional. As a result, the authorities have begun investigating the authenticity of workers' qualifications and the practices of the hagwon owners who employ them. A number of teachers have since been deported and fines of up to $4,000 (£2,000) have been issued against employers.
The documentary was immediately condemned by EFL teachers as evidence of increasing government xenophobia against English teachers.
Further misery came with the discovery of an online forum on the EnglishSpectrum.com website discussing where foreign workers could go to meet Korean women. The posting brought a torrent of protest from locals and calls for street protests against foreigners. The site was temporarily shut down and those responsible for the posting were reportedly advised to leave the country for their own safety.
The Korean government is now preparing for a June crackdown on illegal workers, and on those hiring them.
However, Tom Davidson, a former lawyer who established the EFL-law.org website, which offers legal advice to teachers working in Asia, is not confident that much will change, although routing out illegal workers could create more opportunities for qualified teachers.
"They've been talking about this for the past seven years," said Mr Davidson. "The business is totally unregulated, that's the problem. Anyone can set up a school. The owner doesn't have to know anything about teaching, he just needs a licence. It's definitely an industry that needs a lot of work."
He added that teacher numbers in the country have dropped from 13,000 in 1997 to little over 5,000 in 2005 because of a tightening of immigration laws.
The future of the Tefl industry in Korea is due to be discussed at a conference organised by the Asian EFL Journal next month. The conference will include a session on legal issues, such as unfair dismissal, visas, labour law and criminal court procedures |
http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,5500,1457114,00.html |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Wow. They made the Guardian. Violence rules! |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Anyone else think 13,000 in '97 sounds way high? |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:33 pm Post subject: |
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For those of us who are here legally such a crackdown will only increase future job opportunities.
"Anyone can set up a school. The owner doesn't have to know anything about teaching, he just needs a licence."
This quotation says it all. When you start hearing this from people named Kim, Lee, and Park, rather than Davidson, maybe Korea's education system won't be such a waste. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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| For those of us who are here legally such a crackdown will only increase future job opportunities. |
i have heard that said on many occasions but somehow, I doubt it. Honestly, if you're in the middle of a contract, there is a crack down, and jobs are a plenty... do you really think that i'll affect you that much 6 months later? |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
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| For those of us who are here legally such a crackdown will only increase future job opportunities. |
i have heard that said on many occasions but somehow, I doubt it. Honestly, if you're in the middle of a contract, there is a crack down, and jobs are a plenty... do you really think that i'll affect you that much 6 months later? |
It all depends on just how effective the crackdown is - a truly effective one would take months to enact. If you were a legal fruit picker in the US don't you think you're job prospects would be looking brighter if two million Mexicans left? Such a crackdown would also have the effect of making bosses value workers more, and not want to fire them on a whim. |
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Gollum
Joined: 04 Sep 2003
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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I doubt the number of total teachers working here has decreased at all... does anyone else feel this?
I think a lot of people got wise to the fact that they can work here illegally, and don't bother getting a working visa. I wonder what they numbers would be if they counted tourist visas that were renewed by 24 to 40 year-old people every 3 to 6 months.
The truth is that people don't want to be locked into the strange, mostly one-way contract rules, and they can make a lot more money part-time.
Korea is a goofy place. The Ministry of Education says one thing, and you can follow their rules but still be fined, jailed and deported by immigration, which says another. |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Anyone else think 13,000 in '97 sounds way high? |
Well, pre- IMF there were a lot of teachers here. There was good coin to be made back then. When the IMF hit many people took off. Since then, many have come back. Hard to judge the numbers since those who are illegal aren't on the books.
I do wonder about where he got the number 5,000 from. Is that E-2 Visas? Does it include F Visas and Kyopo Visas, etc.? Interesting thread. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, in '97 there were about 10 foreign English teachers in my little town. Now there must be 3 times as many. |
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Teufelswacht
Joined: 06 Sep 2004
Location: Land Of The Not Quite Right
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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| I take exception at one remark in the article. Where it says the TEFL community has begun to take a dim view of illegal teachers. I am a long time reader of Dave's (4+ years) and can tell you that the dim view of illegal teachers has been present on this board for all of those years. Koreans need to wake up and realize that calls to professionalize the Korean EFL scene and deport illegal teachers have always been a part of the foreign TEFL community. They are just starting to catch up - as usual. |
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TECO
Joined: 20 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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I know I posted this news article but I actually take them with a grain of salt.
Also, instead of going after the illegal teachers, the government should be going directly to the source of the problem - the business owners who hire illegal teachers.
When one illegal teacher gets deported, the hogwan owner can just go out and hire another teacher illegally.
I suppose their are deeper issues here, though, which prevent this from happening like their are in Taiwan and Thailand, etc. |
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FUBAR
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: The Y.C.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:37 pm Post subject: |
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It really isn't going to do anything. The part-timers will get deported, but the hogwon owners aren't going to start rushing to hire new teachers. They wanted a teacher for only a few hours.
If anything, the people on F-visas will be more in demand thus giving an increase in their hourly wage. It won't do anything for teachers on E-visas. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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This has also made the EL-gazette.
Korea to expel ESL cowboys
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Mitchell said that he has taught at numerous Korean institutes and
doesn��t intend to leave the country anytime soon. ��There are so many illegal teachers in Korea that if they deported us all, there��d be a national crisis. |
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According to ��Mr Kim��, a Ministry of Justice official who agreed to speak with the Gazette on condition that only his surname be used, the crackdown will see officers from the Immigration Bureau, the Seoul Metropolitan Police and provincial police agencies joining together in a coordinated effort to rid Korea of foreign nationals teaching English
illegally. ��This is an open sewer that has long needed cleaning,�� Kim said when asked the reasons for June��s crackdown. ��Recent events and public pressure has forced the government into action; those caught teaching English illegally will be punished like never before.�� |
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Daechidong Waygookin
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Location: No Longer on Dave's. Ive quit.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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| FUBAR wrote: |
It really isn't going to do anything. The part-timers will get deported, but the hogwon owners aren't going to start rushing to hire new teachers. They wanted a teacher for only a few hours.
If anything, the people on F-visas will be more in demand thus giving an increase in their hourly wage. It won't do anything for teachers on E-visas. |
Oh, thats good:) Glad to have an F visa hehe |
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weatherman
Joined: 14 Jan 2003
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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| This is all very good news in the long run. The industry truly needs some cleansing. Might, in the long run be good for the overall level of English in this country. |
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