This year's collection of foreign teacher cartoons

Having come across a new foreign teacher comic in the form of the devil pot cookie, I came across a few others from this year that I had missed, and decided to catalogue the ones that have appeared this year to add to this massive collection of newspaper cartoons about foreign teachers.

The first cartoon is from a lengthy March 2012 Donga Ilbo article about the effect the disappearance of native speaking teachers would have on public schools in Seoul, and points out at one point that some school districts in the city such as Eunpyeong-gu and Geumcheon-gu have no independent budget for NSETs (outside of funding by the city or SMOE), while Gangnam-gu has 4 billion won set aside for foreign teachers. This is what the cartoon is trying to illustrate, with its flaccid phallus-nosed NSET standing on the money pile of Gangnam-gu.

(I knew foreign teachers slept on beds made of money, 

but flaunting it in the classroom like this is just taking things too far!)

The next image is from a July 2012 Donga Ilbo article titled "University student 'English study tip': A part time job in Itaewon." In it, several students point out that they've killed two birds - the need to study English and make money - with one stone by working in restaurants or bars in Itaewon, Hongdae or Jongno which cater to foreigners. That you can make money and get over your fear of speaking with foreigners is attractive to one student. However, there is a lot of competition for these jobs, and on one job site only 7,000 out of 210,000 jobs would involve serving foreigners.

As well, some people argue that there is little hope of improving your English skills, since there are few opportunities for a server in a restaurant to have an in-depth conversation with a customer beyond simple phrases and questions. The article ends with: "Students working part-time in the area vented their feelings, saying that there are many instances where you could be hurt by drunk, violent foreigners or have your self-respect wounded."

Insert your own caption.

Clearly, in Korea drunken violence and blows to young people's pride could only occur when there are foreigners around. One hopes the above conversation doesn't end 'bitterly' (and with pride wounded) like the ones described here in 2006 (and illustrated on the left with a foreigner thinking about "the girls of Hongdae").



On August 24, 2012, Financial News posted an article titled "Public education 'video English' craze [embraces] native speaking teachers" about the use in school English classes of video chatting with native speakers. At that time, 1,000 students in after school classes at 57 different schools in Gangwon-do were using the program, and there were plans to use it in Gyeonggi-do as well, where the GEPIK program had been drastically cut. This image of a happy little blond-haired fellow accompanied the article; thankfully, he can't actually pop out of the screen like that.

And of course, on October 11, 2012, the Gyeongnam Sinmun offered the following cartoon in an article titled "Foreign kindergarten instructor habitually took drugs" to illustrate the effects of demonic pot cookies upon westerners.

All in all, it seems to have been a slow year for cartoons, but then in 2011 there were only three, so I guess it's picked up a bit. On the bright side, the Donga Ilbo's cartoonist did the 'part time job in Itaewon' cartoon above, and if we combine it with the other two he/she's done and rearrange the order, we're left with a tale of woe:

Tired of students riding his nose all day, unable to find peace even in restaurants, our hero turns to demonweed.

That's all for teacher-related cartoons, but I did enjoy this Chosun Ilbo cartoon (via the Marmot's Hole) representing the head of the Korea society in New York berating a Korean employee for displaying Dokdo pamphlets sent by the Korean Consulate.

Somehow the 'throwing the pamphlets on the floor" part was left out of the article, but that's no reason not to illustrate an American acting all high-and-mighty and insulting Korea. I guess you could be hurt by violent foreigners or have your self-respect wounded even when you work at the Korea Society.