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Real Reality
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:38 am Post subject: Government Asked to Help Foreign Teachers |
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Government Asked to Help Foreign Teachers From Association
By Kang Shin-who, Korea Times (February 26, 2008)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/02/117_19661.html
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Education authorities across the country are scrambling to hire more native English-speaking teachers for their schools. But they are paying little attention to building an environment to encourage teachers to stay here longer.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development did announce a set of steps to help establish or support a community or organization for foreign teachers at public schools. However, it has made little headway in doing this so far.....
It�s not easy for foreign teachers to form any kind of representative body or association. But foreign teachers here can get some clues from Japan.
Like EPIK in Korea, the country has run the "Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET)" program inviting young foreigners through various channels since 1987. However, unlike in Korea, the international program created an association for the teachers, "AJET," which is recognized by the government....
... AJET, consisting of 3,777 members out of some 6,000 JET participants, charges no membership fees, instead it operates under the sponsorship it gets from private institutions and various other interest groups,....
Also, Soleiman Dias, president of the International Professional Association in Education Korea Chapter, introduced his group.
"We have found it extremely hard to communicate with government officials and the media in general. In fact, we have tried to make our association more active and part of the KFTA, but there has been no response so far, and only last year were we able to set up a meeting with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education," he said.... |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:28 am Post subject: |
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| I try to be very open-minded, but from what I have seen in this country, I am not so encouraged to stay in this country. I have tried it for 2 years or so. And after my stint in Korea, I will definitely appreciate home much, much, much more. The government has done very little to help us teachers, though I give some credit to conscientious people in labour and in the courts. There is way too little oversight, and I am not sure enough people care about foreigners. They just want to learn English, but they don't really think about how we are treated. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:47 am Post subject: |
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Well said, Adventurer... and they don't seem to care about the backlash their treatment of foreigners is having abroad.
As one Canadian on this board once said, "Every teacher who comes here is like a little ambassador that returns home with an opinion, and they pass that opinion along to friends/business associates whenever Korea is mentioned." |
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mrsquirrel
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:14 pm Post subject: |
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| bassexpander wrote: |
Well said, Adventurer... and they don't seem to care about the backlash their treatment of foreigners is having abroad.
As one Canadian on this board once said, "Every teacher who comes here is like a little ambassador that returns home with an opinion, and they pass that opinion along to friends/business associates whenever Korea is mentioned." |
STD's? |
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Typhoon
Joined: 29 May 2007
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| bassexpander wrote: |
Well said, Adventurer... and they don't seem to care about the backlash their treatment of foreigners is having abroad.
As one Canadian on this board once said, "Every teacher who comes here is like a little ambassador that returns home with an opinion, and they pass that opinion along to friends/business associates whenever Korea is mentioned." |
That is so true. So many people have had horrible experiences here and they all leave Korea only to pass on their horrible experiences to friends, family members, and business contacts in their new job. If Korea really cared about its image (I'm not sure why they do care so much) they would be better off helping people off who live and work here instead of coming up with a new crappy slogan for Korea every year.
I hope that the gov't does set up someway to help all foreign workers who are having a hard time here, but I am not going to hold my breath. There a lot of problems that need to be addressed for the treatment of Korean nationals before they worry about the treatment of foreigners. |
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normalcyispasse
Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Location: Yeosu until the end of February WOOOOOOOO
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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| bassexpander wrote: |
Well said, Adventurer... and they don't seem to care about the backlash their treatment of foreigners is having abroad.
As one Canadian on this board once said, "Every teacher who comes here is like a little ambassador that returns home with an opinion, and they pass that opinion along to friends/business associates whenever Korea is mentioned." |
This is true. Furthermore, behavior abroad reflects on the group as a whole. When I was in the Phillippines I saw a number of motels and places that refused to serve Koreans because of past actions.
Sad, but true. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Typhoon wrote: |
| bassexpander wrote: |
Well said, Adventurer... and they don't seem to care about the backlash their treatment of foreigners is having abroad.
As one Canadian on this board once said, "Every teacher who comes here is like a little ambassador that returns home with an opinion, and they pass that opinion along to friends/business associates whenever Korea is mentioned." |
That is so true. So many people have had horrible experiences here and they all leave Korea only to pass on their horrible experiences to friends, family members, and business contacts in their new job. If Korea really cared about its image (I'm not sure why they do care so much) they would be better off helping people off who live and work here instead of coming up with a new crappy slogan for Korea every year.
I hope that the gov't does set up someway to help all foreign workers who are having a hard time here, but I am not going to hold my breath. There a lot of problems that need to be addressed for the treatment of Korean nationals before they worry about the treatment of foreigners. |
A friend of mine who is in the US, who is thinking of leaving the US again, I told him he should go to Japan or Latin America. I didn't encourage him to come back to Korea. I don't think it's really worth it to come back here except maybe for a visit for nostalgic reasons or if they've really reformed things to where foreigners don't have to deal with craziness time after time. I have a friend who works at a public school in Ilsan and his pay is late almost all the time, believe it or not. In the beginning, they wanted him to buy his own books. He said no way. I applied to a public school, and they wanted me to bring my own computer. I was incredulous.
This isn't Africa for God's sake. This is a country that makes computers. I am guessing sometimes these public schools pocket money that the government gives them for having a foreign teacher and try to cheat foreigners like hagwons do. The public schools are generally good, but some are worse than many hagwons. Someone I know who is in Japan, got tired of the problems in Korea and left for Japan and doesn't really have a desire to live here again. |
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