Korean Job Discussion Forums

yakey · Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Location: Korea

I met a guy who basically lived all his life Belgium and spoke French, but because he got Canadian citizenship he's deemed a Native Speaker by Korean law and is now teaching a brand of French Konglish at an English school in Korea.

On the other side, if someone was born in Australia, educated in Australia, had a Master's in English, spoke only English, but later became the citizen of a non-English-speaking country, would Korean law strip him of his Native Speaker status simply because he doesn't carry the right passport?

Somehow I think the second person in this proposed scenario would be a much better English teacher.

mithridates · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 7:59 pm Post subject:

It's worse than that. A person who was born, raised and educated in Canada but who decided to spend the last year of his university in his sister university in Brazil and graduated from there isn't eligible to work here.

peppermint · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 8:15 pm Post subject:

well, until quite recently there were lots of loopholes for these situations. I've personally taught at schools that hired a Hungarian who emmigrated to Australia, and a Mauritian who got his permanent residency in Canada about a year after working here.

sid · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Location: Berkshire, England

I know the Belgian guy and I think despite 'is accent 'e is a good teacher.

There was a far worse faux-native speaker at my old school, a 'Korean American' who had lived in the States in his 20s and 30s but had ropey English. We noticed him quickly deteriorating into Konglish, as back in Korea he was only speaking English with students and spoke Korean the rest of the time.

rok_the-boat · Joined: 24 Jan 2004

Koreans think that any Korean who has spent time in the USA or elsewhere must be a great speaker of English. And, I wonder, just how do you define Korean-American anyway? Sure, some are perfectly fluent - they are basically American because they grew up there, but many are not fluent, not even close. I have seen several non-fluents get employed as English teachers. To be honest, it does not really bother me at all. It is their country (the non-fluents are mostly Koreans more than Korean-Americans) and they are allowed to &*^% it up anyway they like.

Wrench · Joined: 07 Apr 2005

Native speaker is not justified.

I am not a native speaker technically. I was born and raised until I was 10 in Poland. I then came to Canada, yes I speak english and No I have no accent (well Canadian one any way). Technicaly English is my 2nd language.