Friday, November 07, 2014

BBC: Irish woman not hired as teacher due to "alcoholism nature of your kind"

Currently the second most shared and seventh most read story at BBC News is "'Irish alcoholism nature' reason for job rejection for Irish teacher in South Korea":
The teacher had emailed the application when a job was advertised on listings website Craigslist in September.

She told the agency that she had been teaching English for over three years, in Barcelona, Oxford and Abu Dhabi as well as South Korea.

Last week, she received a reply that said: "I am sorry to inform you that my client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism nature of your kind".

Ms Mulrennan said she did not know who the recruiter was as their details were not listed on the site.
She's since found a job and has laughed it off, saying, "I still love the country and being in Seoul." She also said, "A friend saw it and encouraged me to post it online as it might go viral." And so it has. The article notes that "The 26-year-old told the BBC that she could not believe the email was real at first." One hopes the BBC has done its due diligence here, because it's almost a little too perfect; but then sometimes these things happen (I remember the first hagwon owner I worked for complaining about the lack of housekeeping of former teachers, saying they were "like animals" (though not one of them had a housewife like he did to keep their domiciles spotless)). If the email is real, well, being the center of attention and being ridiculed is just what it deserves.

(Hat tip to Ryan.)

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