Korean Job Discussion Forums

[katydid]

OK, so we have all heard the horror stories about Korean hagwan owners stranding their new hire at the airport when they discover their great on paper candidate is NOT white or NOT skinny. We have also heard about other hagwan owners making life a living hell for those foreigners, hoping they will quit, or dismissing them before they can get their airfare reimbursed or the severance pay owed them.
While I am by no means condoning the dodgy practices hagwan owners subscribe to when it comes to firing a teacher because they are not attractive, not thin, or not white, I think the whole accent thing is also ridiculous, because surely the teacher spoke with the recruiter or the school before coming over to Korea, and if accents are such a big deal, ideally, the recruiter would have let the school know that the person, as he or she is not from America, does not speak American English. They KNEW who they would be working with, and how they spoke, well in advance.
What I would like to know, is has anyone here, or anyone you know been fired for another purely arbitrary reason: "We don't like your accent?" Has anyone here tried to deal with it and try to sound "more American," or in an overexaggerated dialect told them where they could go?

[just because]

I knew a gut who is fired for his Australian accent NINE MONTHS INTO his contract. When they hired him they know he was Australian and they knew for nine months, but one day he came to work and he was fired for his accent. he was SHOCKED!! He stayed here, went to the labour board and got his severance plus airfare and the 3 months till the end of his contract. he was pretty satisfied with that.

[Emma Clare]

Interestingly, my college hired my co-woker and I because we weren't from America. He's Canadian, and I'm English (Although the one American they did hire had to pull out, and was never replaced) My college thought it was important that the students be exposed to all different kinds of accents, as America is actually not the epi-centre of the world (It's true!) and that many Koreans also travel to places other than the US.

The weird thing is, that right from the start, my students have sounded more 'English' in their pronunciation than they ever did American (They sound about as American as Prince Charles does) and whenever I try and teach them with an American accent they all try and correct me.

I say, "Toe-mayy-toe"

They say "Huh?? Toe-mah-toe!"

[Kwangjuchicken]

I often worry that my having a chicken accent might be a cause for concern . But, it is an American chicken accent, so maybe that's ok.

[katydid]

[weatherman]

You hide your bean town voice quite well.

[katydid]

What's with the Emoticons on Parade, weatherman?
LOL Lucky for me I was only there for 5 years. My friends told me I was starting to sound more and more from there as the years went on.
I should do that sometime....teach Phonics with a Boston accent. Today we are studying the letter "Ah."
I told my boyfriend from Australia, who happens to be the inspiration for this thread, that for just one day he should show up with the worst ever American accent he could put on (My apologies to anyone who is from there, but I was thinking Deep DEEP South). I wonder if then, they'd be happy to take the lesser of the two "evils," and let him converse naturally.

[Mr. Pink]

Worst accents I have heard are from Africa...those countries that profess to speak English.

We had a couple people from Africa interview at our school a few years back...I could barely understand wtf they were saying.

So yeah I think if you decide you can understand someone enough to hire them, you should keep them.

[justagirl]

Hey, I'm from Iowa! ..... I should ask for a sign-on bonus for my next contract.....he he he

justa*un-accented*girl

[katydid]

Apparently, justa, Middle American is the type of accent the hagwans want for some reason. I'm from the Northeast myself, and somehow escaped there with all my R's intact. So people have a hard time guessing where I am from, when I feel like making them guess.

[Kwangjuchicken]

[quote="katydid"]Apparently, justa, Middle American is the type of accent the hagwans want for some reason. quote]

So, I guess my being a chicken from Ohio, has been an asset.

[Ryst Helmut]

[katydid]

[sid]

[katydid]

But you know, when a T is in the middle of the word, it just happens to slur to a D sound. Water, matter, better...it becomes a slight d.
I have heard that Konglish is pretty similar in pronunciation to British English, too. So...how come lots of Koreans get headaches whenever they hear a British person speak? Oh that's right....the hagwans and schools want everyone to speak American-style English!