Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

�Gifts to teachers� issue heats up again
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2903936

April 23, 2009
With Teachers� Day looming on May 15, the annual debate over chonji is sure to heat up. The Korean word is widely identified with cash and sometimes gift vouchers, but its literal meaning is �a token of gratitude.� Some feel bribery would be a better description.

Due to the often obscure nature of the gift traditionally given by parents of students to teachers, chonji has become a symbol of corruption that the government has tried to eliminate. But teachers argue the government crackdown infringes their human rights.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission under the Prime Minister�s Office launched a secret investigation last month on elementary, middle and high schools in southern Seoul and Bundang on the southern outskirts of the capital city - areas which research shows have the largest number of parents who give chonji.

Disguising themselves as parents, the inspectors followed people carrying shopping bags and envelopes into schools. Kim, a teacher at an elementary school in Bundang, said a stranger abruptly came by and took out a cookie box from a bag that a mother of a student had given him. The interloper was checking if there was an envelope attached to the box. The incident happened immediately after the mother put the shopping bag on Kim�s desk. The stranger, who identified himself as an inspector, asked the mother where she bought the present and what it cost.

The Korea Federation of Teacher�s Associations, an umbrella group for teachers in Korea, said in an official statement, �The secret inspection is treating 500,000 teachers nationwide like potential criminals.� A poll by the commission of 1,660 parents nationwide last month showed 18.6 percent gave chonji at least once annually. By region, Gangnam in southern Seoul had the largest portion.

According to Kim Young-shim, a teacher at Namsa Elementary School in southern Seoul who says she has never accepted chonji in her 37-year career, parents seem to present the gift to teachers out of fear that their kids will be harmed if they don�t. �If parents trust teachers and vice versa, the worries about chonji will disappear,� she said.

Aiming to root out the long-standing practice, schools reached a consensus to close on Teachers� Day in 2006 and around 70 percent of schools in Seoul did. But faced with protests from teachers who said the action was humiliating, the portion of schools closing their doors has dwindled to as low as 8.8 percent.


By Jung Hyun-mok, Seo Ji-eun [[email protected]]

[wesharris]

I agree wit the Topic,
We must give gifts to teachers.
And beat our childrens.
_+_
Wes

[JJJ]

Who cares...really. It doesn't concern us, for the most part. And if someone gave me a few bucks, I'd say thanks and forget about it. I could always use a few extra won.

[sigmundsmith]

[TheUrbanMyth]

The simple way around this, would be to make that day a national holiday. Teachers may protest, but I bet many other groups would like that.

[harlowethrombey]

[Goku]

[Straphanger]

I work for a hakwon. Nobody even attempts to bribe me.

[ChinaBoy]

Korean parents know that the dirty foreigners have no control over students' grades or futures so decline to bribe them.

[Xuanzang]

Yet when it comes to application or contest time...
"Oh would you edit this for Suji."

[buymybook]

[wylies99]

[wylies99]

[ontheway]

So, how many foreign teachers, public school, private school, hogwan etc, receive expensive gifts?

[Mr. Pink]

I didn't get any good gifts as a high school teacher until I quit. One student's mom spent a ton of money buying me some type of fruit bowl. The thing that really got me was, I was leaving Korea so I had already shipped my stuff. That fruit bowl is now residing at my inlaws house.

As a hagwon teacher, doing kindie was the best gig for gifts. The kids loved me and so their parents were happy. I cleaned up good that year. I still use the hankies I got from that year, and it was over 10 yrs ago!!!