Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BuHaoChi]

And get off your lazy @sses and do something about it.

That�s right, this is your call to arms.

The thread on this topic has gone on for some 23 pages and counting now. There have been over 20,000 hits and several spin off threads, and guess what? None of that matters one bit. No one gives a crap about what you say on some message board. Nothings going to change, regardless of how passionate, morally correct, rationally argued, or outraged your argument is on here.

We as foreigners and upstanding residents of Korea have been wronged and slandered. We have a perfect opportunity to make our move and force some change. However small and insignificant, change is change. Like the Chinese say, a journey of 10,000 Li starts with a single footstep.

We�ve had one person offer to file a human rights complaint on our behalf. To my knowledge, no one (besides myself) bothered to take him up on his offer. (I apologize in advance if you did and did not inform this board)

Chris Gelken has offered to publish your letters in the Herald. How many of you took him up on that? Three people. Three out of potentially hundreds. Mr. Gelken can write articles till his hands fall off, but they don�t mean anything until he has the full and active support of the ESL community. Change won�t happen because of him, it will happen because of us. And before you go dropping turds on the Herald, remember: this battle will be fought and won in the media, not on Dave�s. Any media coverage is better than no media coverage. And while the Herald�s circulation is smaller than most Korean language dailies, it IS read by the people who matter (e.g. other journalists, diplomats, politicians, etc).

The bottom line is: put up, or shut up. Take some action. Some real action. Write to the English or Korean papers. Write the DFEA. Write to a lawyer, the hagwons, your embassy or your congressman/MP. Get your friends together and start a protest. Make a website. Go on strike, whatever it takes. But stop talking about how angry you are, about how racist the DFEA is, about how Koreans keep stereotyping and discriminating against foreigners. Stop playing PC Bang activist and get into the real world. Sure, you can continue to be complacent and indifferent to the situation and accept the status quo (as I fear most ESL teachers do), but then don�t come on here complaining about how a �great injustice� has been committed against you.

Strike when the iron is hot, and it�s never been hotter than it is now.

Oh, and before I get accused of �well what have you done?,� here are my contributions:

1) Filed a human rights complaint against the DFEA today (probably worthless for me to do so, but I figured a symbolic gesture is better than no gesture at all)

2) Wrote one of these letters here:
https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/06/06/200706060059.asp

3) Started this group on Facebook to inform people of the problem (which only one other person has joined, despite having advertised it on all the major Korean ESL groups):
http://umichigan.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3078395283&ref=mf

4) Started this thread on EFL-Law to ask for legal advice (which no one has yet provided):
http://www.efl-law.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1600

ADMITEDLY, this is nothing. But it�s a start.

Oh, and I�m not even a teacher!

[Cheonmunka]

Most people probably realise there is some truth to the matter and they won't do anything because they ARE working illegally.
On the other hand, parents themselves know it's not legal, yet employ a private tutor.
The only thing I would take issue with is the use of the word 모두, since not all 'foreigners' who teach privately are doing so illegally, but due to their family status are quite free to do so.

[insam]

right, none of it matters, daejeon is a cool place for foreigners, and they have fields! get over it, you have been duped or otherwise are bored and have a vendetta against deaejeon? what's the point? go back to your lives people.

[TheDude]

This topic is already dealt with in two active threads.

Go there to comment further.