Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

An anglophone ESL teacher working for a Montreal French school board since early December 2006 recently voiced complaints to the Union that he was being ignored in the classroom and that information, sometimes essential, was not being given to him. For example, the anglophone was not informed about pedagogical days, and was also kept waiting for weeks before being given class lists.

When anglophone goes to the school library to see if English books are available as teaching resources, the francophone librarian barks back "pas de livres d'Anglais ici!" (no English books here!).

In the staffroom, angloguy is a total wall flower, but the one advantage is that he is privy to all the titillating details of the conversations between all the francophone teachers, who have basically forgotten he is there.....

Angloguy learned the names of all the teachers and tried engaging them in conversation, but out of about 12 teachers (11 female) only one teacher knows the name of angloguy! This is after 4 months on the job.

In Quebec, if you are not a "pure laine Qu�becois" (born and bred french mother tongue Quebecer) - you will not fit in or be appreciated. It is a tough situation to be in that kind of environment, because friendship and counsel with other teachers is therapeutic and also beneficial because you get inside information.

In Quebec school, angloguy only gets addressed by the francophone ladies when they have something to complain about, like "you forgot to accompany the students down the stairs for recess!"

You really have to experience this stuff to realize why so many anglos have left Quebec in frustration and disgust.

When ghost worked as an FSL teacher in Ontario, there were many francophone colleagues, and they did not face the same treatment compared to what the anglos get in Quebec. There is a lot of covert discrimination in Quebec, but it is subtle and not "in your face" so it is difficult to prove.

On another note, one of the janitors from the French school board made a suicide attempt last week, after months of harassment from the female principal of the school.

Another fact - Quebec Province has the second highest suicide rate in the industrialized world.

One more interesting fact: To teach English in Quebec Province you need to pass a very tough test in French (Le C�franc) - a test which is failed by over 75% of the applicants - even applicants who have fluent french skills.

The French test for English teachers is simply a way for Quebec to discourage and eliminate anglophone applicants. It took ghost over 5 years of work and testing to be admitted into the French system! And ghost has qualifications in FSL from Ontario (B.Ed.)...go figure.

Imagine Korea, or any other country for that matter, putting in a law requiring EFL teachers to be fluent (oral and written) in the language of the country - you would lose 99.0% of the applicants!

Quebec knows that they need English, but the Province is still reluctant to do things in an intelligent way, and anglos are definetely not welcome in the French system.

When ghost studied at McGill it noted, with interest, that over 25% of the students (at McGill) were francophone. Then ghost did courses at Universit� du Qu�bec and the Universit� de Montr�al, and noted from the stats. that less than 0.3% of the students in the French Universities in Montreal were anglophones!

Further - the rectors and many of the top officials at McGill and Concordia Universities are French Quebecers and they are welcomed with open arms by the Anglo Universities, but never, ever, would you see an English name at the head of a French Quebec University, no matter how fluent or qualified (in French) the anglo happened to be....

If this seems like venting, you are right, it is....

Ghost, certified ESL/FSL specialist, French Montreal school board.

[Sine qua non]

[ghost]

[blaseblasphemener]

That sucks.

What about if you teach in the English system, do the same rules still apply?

[caniff]

The horror.

[ghost]

[caniff]

[Anyong Bluth]

[jaganath69]

Can you please stop talking about yourself in the third person? It's creepy.

[mindmetoo]

What I find funny are French Canadian Quebecers who come to Korea to teach english (read score Korean women). I wonder how they live with themselves... Do they ever get used to the bile in their mouth?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Whatever happened to multiculturalism?

[Big_Crazy_Ape]

[Hanson]

I just spent 20 minutes writing a detailed reply to ghost, but when I hit submit, it sent me back to the log-in page.

I don't want to spend another 20 minutes on this, but if ghost doesn't come back on here to change his very misleading and totally false accusations, why, I'll be firced to... umm... God darn it! I'll be forced to spend 20 minutes disproving him again!

Quebec doesn't NEED ghost!

[huffdaddy]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I studied and taught at Concordia and many of my best and favourite students were Quebecois. Apart from being unable to speak English without swearing in class they were great to teach. I also studied at what was basically a Quebecois hagwon and my French teacher was fantastic - way better than my Canadian and Welsh French teachers in BC. Quebecois are a very friendly and open people and it's often difficult to get them to speak French to you if you're keen to practice. Yes, there is a club culture in some workplaces that no one but a pure-blood will break through, but to try to compare it to Korea just does not work in any way. The only thing in common would be not being told anything, but if you talk to junior Korean teachers, they're often just as out of the loop as you, so it's not just a foreign thing.

At any rate, Ghost should get a job at a Korean school where he's the only foreigner and see how quickly he gets tired of people trying to engage him in useless, inane conversations.