Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Police Make Mass Bust of Unqualified English Teachers
The Foreign Affairs Division of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency arrested two Americans and booked 37 foreign language instructors without detention on Tuesday for fabricating their educational backgrounds or working in Korea as foreign language teachers without proper visas. In addition, 50 owners of foreign language institutes, including a 37 year-old identified by his family name of Lee, and 27 brokers were also booked.

According to police, the arrested Americans, a 51-year-old man identified as "R," and a 31-year-old "M," obtained forged diplomas and transcripts through brokers and Internet sites, came to Korea and worked as native English instructors in three to four institutes. R and M are both high school graduates. R had a bogus bachelor and master's degree from a well-known state university in the United States, and worked as an instructor in high schools and universities in Korea. M worked in private foreign language institutes in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, and reportedly enjoyed improper relations with his female students.

Brokers, including a 33-year-old by the name of Cho, received W800,000 (about US$800) to W2 million in procurement fees for full-time instructors and W300,000 to W800,000 for part-time lecturers, and supplied unqualified foreign language teachers to 50 institutes nationwide. They took over W80 million in illegal profits.

The police uncovered these illicit dealings by hunting through over 30 online communities for foreign language instructors and degree forgery sites. There were not only unqualified Anglophone instructors from the United States, Canada, and Australia, but also those from Japan, China and Taiwan. It was discovered that the practice of employing uncertified foreign lecturers is taking place all across the country.
Chosun Ilbo (August 16, 2005)
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200508/200508160028.html

[Captain Corea]

Well, at least they were nice enough to tell us how they did it.

[waterbaby]

The only thing I'm surprised about is how long it's taken them to make a mass bust like this.

Surely it can't be that hard to check people's backgrounds?

But most glad to hear that the hagwon owners and the dodgy recruiters are in trouble, too. Koreans complain about the illegal foreign teachers here - but who's hiring them? Who's helping them get the fake degrees?

[weatherman]

It sounds terrible, but in the long run, the Korean government should be doing more of this.

What bothers me is that the sentiment of the Korean citizens are a bit ruffled as the Korean media has portrayed English teachers in not the best of light. This comes with a good deal of self satisfying gloating the part of the locals.

[itaewonguy]

thats a mass bust!?????
2 teachers!!!! hahahaahah whatever!! like thats gonna make a dent !!!
wow a mass bust... 2 teachers the other 27 were all the recruiters getting a piece of the pay hahhahha

stupid! whats the point!!

[chiaa]

"M worked in private foreign language institutes in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, and reportedly enjoyed improper relations with his female students."

[Grotto]

Damn all those Americans working illegally

Wheres Derreck

Almost wish one of the American teachers was named D

Headline should have read: "Mass bust nets only Americans...Canadians escape the sweep"

[Real Reality]

Here is a video
http://news.naver.com/vod/vod.nhn?mode=LSD&office_id=052&article_id=0000088419
If the link does not work, you can try this link
http://news.naver.com/tv/read.php?mode=LSD&office_id=052&article_id=0000088419
another video
http://news.naver.com/vod/vod.nhn?mode=LSD&office_id=052&article_id=0000088374
another article
http://news.naver.com/tv/read.php?mode=LSD&office_id=052&article_id=0000088374

Here is another article
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Hankyoreh
http://www.hani.co.kr/kisa/section-002001000/2005/08/002001000200508161950352.html

Is it okay to show or print the full names of the teachers? What about the full names of the 50 owners of foreign language institutes and the 27 brokers (recruiters)?

[Ya-ta Boy]

The two arrested are American. Does anyone know the breakdown by nationality of the 37 who were booked?

[PaperTiger]

I love how they allowed the illegal foreigner's name to be shown on TV and they didn't take much care to obscure his face, but if it was a Korean
there would be a huge blur or censor's blur to hide their identity? Do I sense a double standard or am I just being paranoid. Could be the latter, been pounding down the instant Folger's crystals today.

[Bulsajo]

I'd be extremely worried about holding a legitimate degree and getting caught up in such a sweep by mistake- does anyone trust Immigration to be experts on the veracity of University degrees?

"Sorry but Harvard isn't returning our messages so you must be using a forgery; What's that you say, it's 3AM in Cambridge now?
But we are calling Harvard, not Cambridge! Harvard is in Cambridge?
No, stop trying to trick us we know Cambridge is in England and you have a forged American degree!
Anyway it's too late for that now, your flight leaves in 1 hour.
Your spouse and child? We'll let them know, but you should have thought of them before forging degrees!"
[Teacher is frog-marched away by Immigration officers]

[Captain Corea]

Why am I slightly impressed by how organized they are?



Seriously, they had a lot of info spread out there.

[Vince]

I certainly don't defend people going to Korea with fake degrees, but I wonder about the motivation behind this newsflash. Any halfway intelligent person realizes that this kind of thing is going to occasionally happen. In other words, it's hardly news. But you wouldn't get that impression by watching the videoes. They have the fake diploma as the visual for the story, video from a police facility that makes the whole thing look like a major drug bust, and officials making statements. This is obviously an exaggerated issue, and I can imagine how many Koreans will interpret it.

[Bulsajo]

[dogbert]