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Category Archives: English Teaching

Boycott Korea

23-Dec-07
A round-up of recent less favourable coverage. First, the Metropolitician's account of his 20 November arrest for being harrassed by a local racist is essential reading. He follows it up on 16 December with an equally explosive post with the simple warning message addressed to any foreigner thinking of coming to Korea to live and teach. Don't. Go to Japan or China instead. Other articles: Brian Deutsch in a 17 December article summarises some of the recent anti-foreign teacher coverage, in a post with a title too good not to re-use, while over at A Year in Mokpo another teacher provides a useful summary of racism and xenophobia in Korea. In a country which the local papers think is multiracial. Links (including some not terribly ...
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History of scapegoating English teachers

17-Nov-07
English language teachers are never out of the press for long. Most recently there's the Canadian paedophile who was teaching in Korea, and then a fairly familiar story about teachers being busted for smoking cannabis. The thing that struck me most about the cannabis story is the price. I knew that English teaching in Korea is meant to be relatively well-paid, but this guy seemed to be rolling in it: The teacher is said to have smoked the drug five to six times a week. The teacher also allegedly bought from W2 million to W30 million worth of hashish, enough for 20 uses, and resold or gave it to other instructors and his Korean girlfriend. I'm assuming that there's a stray zero ...
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Brits need not apply

14-Aug-07
Or Aussies or Kiwis for that matter. A full-page ad in the current issue of Seoul Magazine seeks to satisfy Korea's seemingly insatiable appetite for English language teachers. The ad starts: Thousands of College Graduates are going to South Korea to teach English to pay off their student loans and to gain international experience. The only qualifications a potential teacher needs is Fluency in the English language A Bachelor's Degree from an accredited university An American or Canadian passport A desire for adventure And what's on offer? Up to $5,000 a month, "incentives" relating to airfare, housing & relocation, free training, free Korean classes and "adventures in Asia". Sounds extremely tempting. But why only Americans and Canadians? Maybe it's because a "British" accent isn't considered as "cute" in Korea ...
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Fakes and curruption in art and academia

22-Jul-07
There has been a number of stories of fakes recently. Here's a brief round-up of links 1 Shin Jeong-ah. Dongguk University Fires Bogus Professor, Korea Times, 20 July Stroke of luck, raw talent fueled Shin's ascent, JoongAng Daily, 14 July. Some selected extracts: Shin Jeong-ah was 23 when the 1995 collapse of the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul buried her in darkness. She lay in the rubble for 24 hours before getting plucked out. Shin was one of the few survivors of the worst collapse in Korean history, which killed more than 500 people. From the day of the collapse on, Shin said she vowed to change. Instead of being shy and reclusive, she developed an aggressive, extroverted personality. "She just tried to organize exhibitions ...
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Teaching English in Korea

11-Jun-06
I'm going to tread, very gingerly, into the minefield of discussing matters relating to English language teaching in Korea. A dangerous topic for an outsider to get involved in, firstly because the majority of English-language bloggers on Korea seem to be ESL teachers, and secondly because there are some hot issues. I'm not sure that I have any particularly original observations; and as ever one of the main reasons for posting at all is to make a note of some interesting links which I don't want to lose. Related posts:History of scapegoating English teachers English language teachers are never out of the press for...Boycott Korea A round-up of recent less favourable coverage. First, the Metropolitician’s...Brits need not apply Or Aussies or ...
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