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Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
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nev
Joined: 04 Jan 2004
Location: ch7t
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 Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Although uncertain about my overall impact on the Korean economy, I can say with great certainty that the producers of Melon Milk, as sold in Daegu Carrefour, have very welcomed my addition to this nation. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Swiss James wrote: |
| Hellofaniceguy wrote: |
| In my opinion...many KT's should NOT be teaching English! Some native teachers also, but many of you KT's have no business teaching! Heck...most of you can't speak competent English either! |
This might be a cheap shot, but your writing style is absolutely appalling so in my opinion.....you should NOT be teaching English also, to kid's either!? |
Wow...  What's brought on this uncharacteristic feistiness? Coming off a long hot day of hunting for lost luggage down there, James? 
| Swiss James wrote: |
Back to the OT- the whole ESL industry here (everywhere?) seems to be based on the assumption that, in the long term, English speakers will earn more money than non-Anglophones.
I suppose in that case the question is whether the parents sending their kids to Hagwons expect them to make this money because of foreign investment in Korea (+ for the economy) or by emigrating to a western country (- for Korea).
Which do you think it is? |
I don't know which, but I've wondered about that too. I do know one surefire (though ridiculously hypothetical and impracticable) way of finding out. Impose a lifetime ban on emigrating to a western English-speaking country for any Korean who studies English at a hagwon. Would such a ban flatten the English hagwon industry overnight? Would it flatten any Korean institution, for that matter?
Friends in Japan say this hypothetical ban would not have much impact on language institutes there, and that Japan's decade-long economic slump didn't produce a flood of emigrants to western English-speaking countries or to anywhere. My Korean friends say that's only because Japan is rich and Korea isn't. I don't know about that, though. How come the media (and RR maybe) tell us it's the comparatively wealthier Koreans who make up the bulk of emigrants to the West?
Another question I have is why the Korean government is now so gung-ho about promoting English language study. Yes, it may make sense that some individual Koreans would study English as a means to better jobs and higher salaries, but why should this be a national cause?
Surely national economic might, in a broad sense, doesn't hinge on the English-speaking ability of the general public. Otherwise the Philippines would be a world-beater and Japan would be a Third World basket case.
When you've got middle-income Korean families literally impoverishing themselves to pay for after-school classes for their kids (yes, yes, yes, along with many other unrelated expenses) and a lot of other Koreans stressing out because they can't afford to keep up... Jeez.
I think a very good argument could be made that this current study-English-at-all-costs craze in Korea is a wasteful and short-sighted mismanagement of national wealth. I'm not saying the country can't use better English speakers in strategic industries and positions... It's just a matter of degrees of overzealousness, and getting a country's priorities right.
On a semi-related note, for years the Korean government has been carping about rising real estate prices in Seoul, specifically south of the Han, and more specifically Daechi-dong and thereabouts. The "culprits" are the prominent high schools and, consequently, the university entrance exam "cram" hagwons clustered around there. I always thought a nifty solution to that problem -- and one that I think would appeal to the overzealous, meddlesome and extremist tendencies of many Korean bureaucrats -- would be to forcibly relocate every hagwon from Gangnam to Ullung-do. They could bill it as an effort to "correct imbalanced regional development", a la the current nonsense about moving the capital from Seoul to Nowhere-dong.
Back to the topic... Yeah, I think foreigners, corporations and investors all contribute significantly to the Korean economy. But that's a real sore issue with me around tax time.
The Guru |
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The Great Toad
Joined: 12 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by The Great Toad on Wed Nov 18, 2009 10:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:06 pm Post subject: |
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| for years the Korean government has been carping about rising real estate prices in Seoul, specifically south of the Han, and more specifically Daechi-dong and thereabouts. |
oooooh good catch, I forgot about that one. I'm sure having to provide free housing for all of us in what tends to be very coveted bits of real estate (since hagwons are much more common in rich areas like Daechidong where I live) doesn't help solve the problems with Seoul's real estate market. |
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Swiss James
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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| TheGuru wrote: |
Wow... What's brought on this uncharacteristic feistiness? Coming off a long hot day of hunting for lost luggage down there, James?
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If you ever spot me giving anyone a hard time on here, it's an absolute certainty I stayed out drinking too late the previous day and am at work feeling crap. You could set your watch by me.
| Mr Toad wrote: |
| Hey James yer blog links c00l- I think I met the short haired woman in one of your pictures- She was pleasant and well spoken; I would be happy to have further discourse with her on a Jeju beach. |
Ta very much-
Which woman? Which picture? |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:47 am Post subject: |
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| I doubt very much that a few thousand foreigners (most of whom make only as much as a bus driver according to Real Reality) make much of a impact on a ecomony with 45 MILLION people. Get a grip on yourselves. We are not that important. If we were, there'd be stricter laws on our importing and exporting currency. Nobody really cares, we don't have enough effect on the ecomony for them to. |
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inkoreaforgood
Joined: 15 Dec 2003
Location: Inchon
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 5:40 am Post subject: |
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JongnoGuru,
That was an excellent post, and very well put. Been thinking the same thing for years, all the money the parents pay out for their children. The irony, for me at least, is the kids end up at a school where the teachers are poorly trained and often fresh off the plane, the children piddle around in class, and the school owners nickle and dime everyone and lie to keep the students coming back for another pay period!!
Korean friend of mine checked up on prices for sending his kid to a good math hagwon in Seoul. Then he compared it to the best private schools in America, and found out that he would save a fair bit of money if he sent his child to America. Sad and funny, and how very Korean. |
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captain kirk
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 8:10 am Post subject: |
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The video rental place gets a steady boost.
Same for the Homeplus nibbling up their N.Z. cheese.
Lose a few umbrellas and buy them again, amazed at the pissing down sneaking up on yuh. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 3:37 am Post subject: |
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>. Looked over the thread here, & while there've been a whole number of great points & issues raised, has anyone mentioned our investing in & bolstering their long-term ( god-forbid ) global competiveness  |
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