Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hanson]

I was reading the CBC website (http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_expatfiles/stewart_20041103.html), and found this article about the brain drain with the following comment by a reader:

[Alias]

I'm from Atlantic Canada. The comments I hear are always positive. People often comment on "what a great experience" it must be.
As for the teaching itself, many people assume that all Korean students must be diligent workers and a pleasure to teach.

[captain kirk]

The last time I went home, three months ago and for two months, I was at a Catholic monastery for a spell (a month) doing a solo meditation retreat. Yeah, weird, ainit? And when I went for meals at the cafeteria the cooks, married with children, talked about flyers.

Yes, flyers. Not a sports team. Not airmen.

Promotions put out like four page newspapers showing what's on sale. There were the big competitors; SaveOn foods, IGA, Safeway, Co-op, Peavey Mart. So they scanned the flyers and zoned in on what to get where to save the most money.

When I mentioned South Korea they looked at me like I was making it up. And if I wasn't making it up, then the world must be round and not flat as the prairie.

I'm sorry, but it was too hilarious

[steroidmaximus]

To shoot myself in the foot, the writer does have a point about service to the community. Unfortunately, there are so many university graduates in Canada and only a limited number of fairly compensated positions that the effect is inevitable that so many Canadians end up in Korea.

[Hanson]

I'm sorry, but in today's globalized (and crazy-getting-crazier) world, serving any community is a good thing in my book. For the reader who wrote in to say that community service in Canada is better than community service outside of Canada is pretty narrow-minded and insulting to anyone who gives their time to worthwhile causes outside Canada, not to mention highly insulting.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Yeah, well I don't see that old retard down here painting my house so
he can put a sock in it!

[Derrek]

I'll never forget going on a church youth group trip when I was in high school. We went to South Carolina, and were helping roof a house for a poor black family off of John's Island. The house had maybe two rooms (including a bathroom). The work was free (us) and the materials were paid for by the church.

We sweated, scouped off old shingles, and hammered for hours. We were all feeling good about ourselves until the family pulled up in a fully decked-out Chevy Lumina (I believe the Luminas were in their first year that year) and walked inside of the house -- saying little or nothing to us.

Of course, this is just one story about one particular family -- not singling out anyone by race here.

Before coming to Korea, I volunteered my time to teach inner-city youth for a summer. I used to drive by their home and pick them up (scary neighborhood with drugs and guns). The mother had no money for food, so meals were delivered by good samaritans. But there sat the kids -- playing Nintendo on a big-screen TV/Entertainment system. I always hated to walk through the kitchen and pass the sink full of dirty dishes with roaches crawling around them.

Priorities.

[weatherman]

[Homer]

They don't.


But, when they do they are often ill informed and blind to the realities of ESL teaching.

The cbc site is interesting but some of the responses on it considering the value of ESL teaching reflect deep ignorance on the part of some people.

[shifty]

Derrek, I think yr experiences would knock the wind out of any do-gooder's sails.

I'm not an advocate of community service, but I think, however, that their actions were only human. During the great depression, folk who hadn't worked for 3 years would get a job sweeping a basement or whatever, something menial.

Instead of working with abandon, they'd drag their feet and give off ungrateful vibes. The employers would shake their heads in disbelief at this paradoxical behaviour.

I think people who feel they are victims act like that. Probably we would, too.

[chronicpride]

I think as a career educator, one is going to have some opinion of teaching ESL overseas, even if they have never taught abroad. As for the rest who aren't in the industry, I think pretty much every one on this thread referred to somethng that we all see in the majority of our feedback, back home, which are all the people remarking how wonderful and character-building that it must have been. The vast majority of resumes and bios of career ESL educators that I've seen of people teaching back in the west, have all done stints abroad, so I think it's kind of moot. You also have to factor in that the teacher quoted with those remarks was a male talking about his vocation, and last I heard, there are a few males kicking around in the world who wax superiority/inferiority over their lot in life, their career, Trans Am, etc...There are a couple of forum sites that I could refer to highlight my point, but memory fades.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

At least I don't live in Delta.

[Kimchieluver]

I lived in North Delta along time ago, back in my teens. It was a lot of fun and the girls were great!

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Blah, blah, blah. DEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLTAAAAAAAAAAAAA

DDDDDEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAA

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAA

[TECO]

I've lived in North Delta back, also.

This guy is completely correct - how do Canadians know that a year teaching in Osaka is equal to the experience teaching in Ontario or British Columbia?

What kind of school?
What level?
Teaching what?

I don't think it should be recognized - it's impossible.