Friday, March 28, 2014

Keep it in the family!

At the Korea Herald, columnist Kim Ji-hyun asks, "Dear Lufthansa, are you racist?" She then immediately answers her own question with "Probably not, but this was the question that first popped into my mind when I heard about a bunch of unfortunate [Korean] reporters who missed their Lufthansa flight out of Europe a few days ago." The reporters "mistook the time of their flight ― they had confused the boarding time and the time the plane actually took off ― and had to buy tickets for another flight out of the country the following day." She first criticizes them for their lack of intelligence, but then goes on to surmise that the staff were unhelpful to this "boisterous group of loud and probably less-than-attractive Asian reporters (compared to their blond, long-legged European counterparts anyway)" because the staff were racist. Though she imagines the Korean reporters were "making a lot of noise, I’m sure, as Asians usually seem to do when they get together abroad" and calls them "boisterous," the reason the staff were unhelpful was not because of their (assumed) annoying behaviour, but because they were "less-than-attractive Asian reporters."

I could only think to myself when I read this, "Projecting much?" She finishes with this:
All in all, it was the Korean reporters who made a mess of things, since everything started when they mistook their flight time. But when you think about Korean Air and Asiana, and the pains they take to be nice to patrons, one can’t help but think, why fly anything else?
Indeed. Best to keep it in the family.


[Hat tip to Patrick.]

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Putting the wrong people in charge

Well, this is certainly an interesting story about the head of the Korean Association of Hagwon (hat tip to Scott Burgeson - see his comment here):
Police are investigating allegations that Pagoda Education Group President Park Kyung-sil plotted to kill a relative of her estranged husband Go In-kyung.[...]

According to investigators, in August last year Park allegedly paid her driver to kill one of Go’s relatives who had frequently advised him on business matters.

However, the driver did not carry out the murder; and he has been questioned by police several times.[...]

Lee Jung-hwan, Park’s lawyer, denied the allegations, claiming that his client gave the driver the money to find and hire a new legal representative for business matters.

“We explained to the police that she would not be immediately available because of the upcoming election for the Korea Association of Hagwon (KAH),” Lee said.

“It also overlaps with the schedule for another legal case.”

In this case, police are investigating claims that last year Park gave 1 billion won ($926,354) to a middleman identified as Seo to allegedly bribe officers investigating her for embezzlement and breach of duty.

However, on Jan. 6 she was found guilty of the charges by Seoul Central District Court and sentenced to 18 months in prison suspended for two years.[...]

Park has led the Korea Association of Hagwon (private learning institutes), which has more than 50,000 private institutions under its wing, since 2011.
Sounds like the kind of person you want as the national figurehead of owners of businesses that care for children (but hey, hagwon owners have to evade taxes too, right?).

Speaking of putting the wrong person in charge, the Joongang Ilbo reports on the fustercluck that the Namdaemun restoration has turned out to be.
Authorities investigating the faulty restoration of Sungnyemun, or Namdaemun Gate, said yesterday that they will further investigate Sin Eung-soo, the chief carpenter for the restoration process, over allegations he spirited away lumber donated by the public for the reconstruction of the country’s No. 1 national treasure.

Authorities estimated that the value of the stolen lumber was approximately 42 million won ($39,020).

The police raided Sin’s lumber mill in January on suspicions he supplied substandard wood for the restoration. The gate reopened last May after a five-year restoration, but some of the work was found to be rushed and substandard.

The police also suspect the 71-year-old carpenter purloined four Geumgang pine trees that were provided in 2008 by the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) for the reconstruction of Gwanghwamun, the main gate of the Gyeongbok Palace, under Sin’s supervision. Geumgang pine trees are praised for their resilience, straightness and density. The estimated value of the four pine trees is about 60 million won.
Both of these stories are surprising, and yet not really that surprising, at the same time.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Viewers of 'Realities of unfit foreign instructors' outraged

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...
 
Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum
Part 52:
SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1
Part 53: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2 
Part 54: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 3
Part 55: Viewers of 'Realities of unfit foreign instructors' outraged

On February 19, the morning after the SBS report on foreign instructors was broadcast, Star News published the following article:
Viewers of 'Realities of unfit foreign instructors' outraged

"I was so infuriated after watching yesterday's program that I couldn't sleep."

After watching the SBS current affairs program 'I want to know that's report on unfit, white foreign instructors working in Korea, viewers' anger exploded.

After the broadcast, comment after comment was left at the 'I Want to Know That' viewers' internet bulletin board saying things like "Why did this broadcast take so long to come out?" and "I'm frightened to send my children to an academy."

The "I Want to Know That" report from the 19th, entitled "Is Korea their Paradise? Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers," reported on the problem of white foreign instructors who teach conversation in Korea and habitually commit various illegal acts.

The broadcast that day looked at the problem of white foreign instructors who fraudulently teach English to children and openly call Korea 'a place where it's easy to sleep with the women' or 'a place where it's easy to make money.' It also introduced extreme examples such as raping students or enjoying drugs.

As well, it also pointed out the pathetic social conditions in which our children are put into the care of foreign instructors who haven't had their qualifications properly verified and where the relevant authorities use a double standard in treating foreigners or illegal sojourners depending on their nationality or race.

Viewers who saw the program rushed to leave comments at the program's bulletin board expressing surprise and anger such as, "I'd heard many rumours related to this before, but I didn't know it was this bad." From right after the broadcast finished to right now at 10am on the 20th, over 1,200 comments have already been left.

They were surprised at the remarks of hagwon officials who considered appearance first and ability last when choosing instructors, and reflected on the racism and English first-ism within ourselves. Voices also called for related authorities to strengthen the crackdowns on illegal sojourner foreign instructors and to establish criteria for foreign instructor qualifications.

Meanwhile, they cheered on Peter Park, a Korean American whose story was introduced in which he came to Korea after thinking that he'd like to do something significant in his home country but, despite having qualifications found it difficult to get hired on account of his race and saw unqualified white instructors take the places of decent instructors.  On the bulletin board viewers shared information about finding a job and asked for help from him in learning English directly from him.

However, there were also many viewers concerned about the side effects of this broadcast. Already on the viewer's bulletin board were dozens of comments denouncing women as 'Yanggongju,' generating debate. Viewers also worried greatly about the possibility of the fallout affecting hardworking foreign instructors.
Somehow I doubt many were 'worried greatly about the possibility of the fallout affecting hardworking foreign instructors.' Needless to say, the broadcast did its job as a piece of sensationalized propaganda, and even more people would watch the show via SBS's Video On Demand service as the angry response by viewers became known.

Monday, March 24, 2014

A look at 2013 drug arrests in Korea and some statistics on foreigners

News 1 reported on March 17 that a 31-year-old Korean American English instructor had been booked without detention in Seoul for using bitcoin on January 6 to pay $480 for 126 ecstacy pills from an overseas drug selling site with plans to sell them. Prosecutors also found that he'd taken a pill at a concert at Jamsil Stadium last June with a Mr. Park, as well as one at a water park in Yongin in October.

Speaking of drug arrests, in the past I've posted about Supreme Prosecutor's Office reports on annual drug arrests, such as in 2011 and 2012. The Office publishes statistics monthly here; the year end report for 2013 is here.

The total number of arrests for 2013 was 9,764, up 5.5% from 9,255 in 2012. Worth noting is that the number of those booked with detention (ie held in prison until trial) was 2,040 in 2012 and 2,062 in 2013.

The number of foreigners arrested for drugs in 2013 rose 6.1% from 359 in 2012 to 381. Compare the figure of 381 to arrest figures since 2001:


Here is a breakdown of arrests by nationality:

2013:

USA, 121
China, 105,
Philippines, 25
Russia, 21
Thailand, 17
Uzbekistan, 16
Vietnam, 15
Canada, 12
Kazakhstan, 7
Australia, 6
Japan, Germany, UK, 4 each
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, 3 each
Spain, Taiwan, Myanmar, 2 each
Egypt, Yemen, Brazil, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Jordon, Iran, Romania, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, New Zealand, 1 each


2012:

USA, 121
China, 97,
Vietnam, 28
Canada, 18
Thailand, 17
Uzbekistan, 17
Russia, 13
Sri Lanka, 7
UK, Taiwan, 5 each
Egypt, Philippines, 3 each
Netherlands, France, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, 2 each
Spain, Singapore, Burkina Faso, Australia, Japan, Pakistan, Poland, Nigeria, New Zealand, Germany, Liberia, Mexico, Moldova, 1 each


2011:

China, 104
US, 81
Vietnam, 33
Canada, 19
Nigeria, 12
Russia, 9
Thailand, 8
Japan, South Africa, 3 each
Taiwan, Germany, Brazil, UK, Iran, 2 each
New Zealand, Romania, Surinam, Spain, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Ireland, Uzbekistan, Israel, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Australia, 1 each


According to immigration statistics, the foreign population of Korea was 1,395,077 at the end of 2011, 1,445,103 at the end of 2012, and 1,576,034 at the end of 2013 (note the increase of 130,000 foreigners in 2013). According to the 2010 census, the population of Korea was 48,580,000, and 590,000 of these were foreigners, so if we make calculations out of 47,991000 Koreans, here are comparative arrest figures for Korean nationals and foreigners in Korea over the past three years:

2011: Korean nationals, 18.5 arrests per 100,000, foreigners, 21.1 arrests per 100,000.
2012: Korean nationals, 18.5 arrests per 100,000, foreigners, 24.8 arrests per 100,000.
2013: Korean nationals, 20.1 arrests per 100,000, foreigners, 24.1 arrests per 100,000.


There really aren't large discrepancies when you make these comparisons, but that didn't stop the Ministry of Justice in 2011 2012 from expanding the drug tests for E-2 visas to non-professional Employment (E-9), ship crew employment (E-10), or Working Visit (H-2) visas - about half a million people.

And speaking of immigration statistics, the number of people on E-2 visas continues to drop, from 22,541 in 2011 to 21,603 in 2012 to 20,030 at the end of last year.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 3

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...
 
Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum
Part 52:
SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1
Part 53: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2 
Part 54: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 3

In the last two posts, I looked at the first two thirds of the February 19, 2005 broadcast of the SBS 'investigative news program' 그것이 알고싶다 (I want to know that)'s episode about English Teachers, titled "Is Korea their Paradise? Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers." The show can be downloaded in a rar archive here (in four parts - 1, 2, 3, 4 - download them all and click on the first part to extract the file).

In the first third, we were shown how white English teachers are unqualified and only interested in partying with alcohol or drugs and having sex with Korean women, including their underage students. Next we were told more negative stories about white, male English teachers, how they can cheat the system with fake diplomas, and how the hagwon industry, education office, and immigration office overlook this.

From there, host Jang Jin-yeong introduces the next section, in which we will be shown how lightly white foreign teachers get off in comparison to how southeast Asians are treated in regard to enforcement of immigration law. Thanks to Ami for help with transcription and translation.

In Incheon's southeast factory district, immigration police arrest a foreign worker.


The camera then records an altercation in which workers complain that a worker was hit; police say they had to grab him since he ran away, that he wasn't hurt, they just grabbed his clothes. The arrested worker is then shown without his face being masked and when asked says he's Filipino [I guess Filipinos have no right to privacy, SBS?] It's pointed out that he's bleeding, as can be seen below:


Police say he tried to escape and take him away. We see what seem to be immigration police say angrily that they didn't slap handcuffs on a person with proper ID, nor that they hurt his arm.

The worker asks if anyone can speak English and says he wasn't trying to escape, he just didn't have his ID with him. They argue about this, and people we assume to be migrant workers say police put people in handcuffs even if they do have proper ID. When asked if they're put in handcuffs even if they don't resist, they answer, yes. Police say it's for the safety of the arrested person and their own safety.

The worker says, "I was running from immigration because they came in my factory, because I was scared."
A witness, a middle-aged woman, says the police were swearing and were saying 'you bastard, what country are you from?'
A few more quick interviews make clear the point that police are unnecessarily rough with foreign workers who they arrest.

Pyo Chang-won, former Gyeonggi Police foreign affairs chief, now Police academy professor, is interviewed and says that equipment like handcuffs and batons should only be used on important criminals sentenced to death or life imprisonment, or criminals caught in the act. If a foreigner in our country who has legal sojourner status is slapped in handcuffs for no reason it is a violation of the foreigner's human rights as well as a clear violation of the law.

We met someone else who has suffered this, a Pakistani worker named Mari.


In the late morning he was driving down the street with a friend to meet another friend when there was a crackdown. He was confined for ten days in a center. According to the Korean translation, "There were only Indonesians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis in the center. There were no Americans or Canadians." [He doesn't appear to actually say that last sentence, but SBS needs to beat the audience over the head.]

We then return to Pyo Chang-won, the Police academy professor, who talks about the true threat to Korea:


"In fact, if we're concerned about national evils, foreigners who work illegally in hagwons teaching foreign languages are more harmful. Because they have no qualifications, they can't properly educate [their students]. Because of them the outflow of foreign currency is far greater. Foreigners come in on tourist visas and work in hagwons, but these foreigners are almost never caught or cracked down on. If there is a problem, hagwon students can make a report and they can be caught, but I've never seen one put in handcuffs or forcefully taken to the police station before. We can expect that their embassies would immediately issue a protest to our government and make diplomatic waves and create difficulties for our trade goods entering that country."



Next the camera crew visits the house of a foreign couple - 'Jane,' a Canadian English instructor, and 'Igor,' an illegal factory worker. The interview begins with Jane offering some tea and saying, "I think our skin actually looks really nice together." Introduced as an English instructor and factory worker, mentions are made of the "very different set of standards for English teachers" Koreans have compared to migrant workers. Jane relates the following story:
The immigration officers busted into my classroom and I'm standing there with some chalk, and the students are like, "Ahhhh!"  My boss ended up cutting a deal with immigration and we were allowed to teach again. [Cut] I have good friends who have gotten in trouble with immigration before and generally what they do is just leave the country and come back the next day - no problem.
The narrator then tells us, "But it's different for her husband."
Every day I feel scared and I don’t know if today when the factory finishes or at dinner time I might not come home. If I’m really scared I don’t ride the bus, I take a taxi. When I’ll be caught we don’t know.

Why [Koreans] think like this, I don't know. When I talk with friends, they say we have bad luck because we come from poor countries.
Their story ends with them walking down the street in Itaewon and this comment by Jane:
In Korea there’s kind of a hierarchy of value, that the white, English speaking foreigner has the highest value, and then the white, non-English speaking foreigner has a lesser value, and so on and so on, until you get to the developing countries with people with brown skin and they’re at the bottom of the list.
As I've mentioned before, despite disguising their faces and voices, I immediately recognized them to be my friends Nancy and Kabir, who were involved in the migrant workers' movement at the time. As Nancy told me,
Kabir and I were sort of "tricked" into doing that show. According to Kabir, he was approached by SBS, who said they were doing a show about migrant workers in Korea, and Kabir, being at that time being a bit of a media hound trying to get more exposure on the issue of migrant worker rights, readily said yes, without asking me. When he did ask me (after he had said yes to SBS), I looked into the program and based on what people told me about it, I said no. By that time we had found out that they would be interviewing English teachers, which made me even more nervous as the English Spectrum fallout was then in full swing.

Kabir still thought that it was going to be about migrant workers, and didn't understand that the show was likely going to be a big fat sensationalistic crappy yellow dump on English teachers, which was my fear. Soon after, I arrived home from work one night to find an SBS crew in my apartment. Reluctantly, I agreed to do the show and offered the crew some tea.

I didn't like the reporter. Some of the questions she asked: "How do you feel when you are with a brown man and people stare at you on the subway?" "How does your family feel about you being married to a poor brown man?"

I remember talking a lot about how the illegality of doing privates outside of one's contract encourages the "unqualified" teacher market and that Korea being so rabidly "English crazy" made it next to impossible to ensure that foreign teachers met minimal standards. Not sure if that made the final cut. All I really knew at the time was that I didn't trust the producer/journalist one little bit as they seemed opportunistic, insincere, and slimy.
The part about Korea being rabidly "English crazy" did not make the final cut, though part of the conversation about their different coloured skin did, and is mentioned at the beginning of the interview.


After the interview with Jane and Igor, and her description of the 'hierarchy of value,' the host then shows us what is meant to be a disturbing statistic – of 22,826 'illegal' foreigners arrested in 2004, only 123, or 0.5%, were foreign instructors.


Lee Min-hui, the immigration chief, is interviewed next, and relates that last year [2004], among 400,000 foreigners, were 180,000 illegal foreigners, and it is those foreigners that they intensively focus on catching. In January and February of 2005 they caught 61 illegal foreigners - the same number they caught over a six month period in 2004. He then says they are focusing on foreign instructors who are teaching illegally.

The host stresses the need for strengthened enforcement of laws for illegal native speaking instructors, and spends four minutes telling the story of a woman who met her foreign instructor husband at a hagwon eight years earlier.

In an interview, she says that when he first came he was on a tourist visa, had no money, and just came to travel. He heard from other foreign instructors that it was easy to become an English teacher and began working illegally. He taught at universities and large companies and earned lots of money. He had no university degree. They married, and for eight years she gave him emotional and material support but he wondered how he should live in Korea. She knew all of this but felt really settled down with him.
Host:  However, once their lives stabilized, he started to cheat on her.

Woman: "It's upsetting, very upsetting."


Host:  She was regretting her past choices. The groundless admiration she held for white people had kept her from seeing things clearly.

Woman: I can’t deny that at first, I had a favorable impression of him – he was a white person who was from a different culture [from mine]. But now I really feel that I was used as a stepping stone to his success for 10 years, and once he reached a place where he didn’t need me, I was abandoned.

Host:  She eventually sued him for adultery, but expressed dejection because she felt her husband would not be punished.

Woman: The ambassador came.

SBS: The ambassador came?

Woman: He personally came and basically said that this law doesn’t exist anymore, so I should just let him go, and this was his way of protecting their citizens. They let him go without detention even though he’s a foreigner and can leave the country any time, and he goes to work every day as if nothing’s happened...

Host:  With memories of her painful experience fresh on her mind, she insists that the culture of treating people well just because they are white and can speak English needs to be changed.

Woman: "Now it's like our society has become a place where white people can come and earn money so easily and enjoy pleasures. Korean society in itself... Those people all know. If they go to Korea, it’s a paradise where they can have anything. It's something to look down on Korean society for."
The host then states that "We also met a person who has suffered from racial discrimination in Korea."

Peter Park: 'I'm an American – a Korean American. I went there when I was six. I've lived there for almost twenty years. [He came to Korea five years ago, but did not find it easy to become an English instructor.] They needed an instructor urgently, but I didn’t meet them in an office, but on the subway. I got a phone number, they said, hurry and come soon, it’s urgent. As soon as they saw me they said no. It was like I just deflated.'

The email he got reads: "I think your teaching experience is good and you're a qualified teacher, but you are so familiar because your appearance is similar with us, Korean. They want a teacher who looks like a Caucasian. So I think we have to send a teacher like that."

They then show his degree in business administration from the University of Guam and his transcripts.

Over the phone they say, okay, looks good, but then they ask if he's a Korean American and he says yes, they say, "Sorry, we’re looking for a white person." And that's it. They hired an illegal teacher from New Zealand. White kids used to call me 'chink.' [Visibly moved, he recalls and imitates what they said to him] "Hey, you fricken' chink! You motherfucking chink!"


He explains that in the US, if they really belittle people with contempt, it’s good. Over there, if you immigrated later, they can be very mean. Then to come to Korea and face the same treatment even though he’s not different, he’s Korean - it’s frustrating and upsetting and has brought him to tears.

They go to his house to talk more. He's been teaching English over the phone, and says students mistake him for a white person. He feels bad – he says he's never done anything wrong, but has to lie, and feels bad for this. Isn’t someone who reveals it confidently and honestly a better person?

He’s on the phone for 12 to 20 hours (a week, presumably). He earns 300,000 to 500,000 a month.


The narrator then reiterates his story – a Korean who faced discrimination in the US now faces it in Korea, and though he’s American he can’t get a good job like white people can. We’re then shown photos of this good, proper Korean’s home life – his graduation and wedding photos, his wife and child as they play together wholesomely. This is no one night stand with a misguided Korean harlot or a marriage that ends with the money grubbing white man cheating and leaving her – this is a wholesome Korean family – and just to make that point clear, the final shot of the report is a freeze frame of the family walking hand in hand in the park.


This helps to reiterate the assault upon the wholesome Korean family unit - and the national 'family' - that these white foreigners represent.

The host then reiterates the main points of the show ("White teacher... bad") and it ends with the phone number to report foreigners illegally working (or illegally being hired) and the phone number of the National Intelligence Service (which would likely welcome a break from investigating the current administration’s political opponents).


And so it ends.

To summarize its message, white male English teachers think that Korean women are easy and even try to sleep with their underage students, which is dramatized to help enrage viewers. Stories are presented which show that many work illegally in Korea, don’t work hard, and just want to party and go to Hongdae to pick up girls or try to sleep with university students. Interviews paint a picture of unqualified teachers who have criminal records and do drugs, and another dramatization depicts a foreign teacher doing drugs and drinking with underage students, and even sleeping with one; he’s eventually arrested. It's suggested that many teachers use fake diplomas to con their way into jobs, but it’s too difficult for Koreans to verify these diplomas, so many ignorant people teach English. As well, education offices don’t have the manpower to crack down on foreign teachers, and an immigration office tells us that in the previous year, "There really weren't many white people caught." This stands in opposition to how non-white foreign workers are treated, with tens of thousands of them arrested every year, often roughly. While white teachers are paid well, foreign workers are not, and while illegal foreign workers live in fear of the police, illegal teachers do not. The inclusion of the white male teacher who married a Korean woman, used her as "a stepping stone to success" and then cheated on her and abandoned her mystified at least one blogger when the show was broadcast, but this story is meant to stand in comparison to the Korean American teacher who was discriminated against in the US for being Korean, and who is now discriminated against in his mother country because he isn’t white. While he is portrayed as a good family man, he can barely make ends meet, while the bad white teacher who was also married cheated on his wife while he raked in the cash. Both the abandoned wife and Korean American are symbols of Koreans victimized by a preference for English and white people, for whom Korea is "a paradise where they can have anything.: And the abandoned wife makes clear one of the main points of this episode: "It's something to look down on Korean society for," a point hammered home by the host, who says "the culture of treating people well just because they are white and can speak English needs to be changed."

While the show makes valid points about the lack of a qualification screening system for foreign teachers and the unconditional preference for white teachers, the sensational way in which it went about it – constantly couching it in racial terms, portraying (literally, by dramatizing it) white males as evil child molesters, rapists, and adulterers, leaves something to be desired. Mind you, as a piece of propaganda, it did its job skilfully, and resulted in a huge, angry response online, which will make up the final portion of this series.

[Unfortunately, the final posts might take awhile...]

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Bits and pieces

Via the Marmot's Hole, this report on the possible horrible fate awaiting space rocks in Korea is an amusing read:
According to Kopri [Korea Polar Research Institute] and local residents, an American meteorite hunter who introduced himself as Robert had distributed business cards and asked people to sell him any meteorite fragments that are found. That has raised fears of precious space rocks that rained down on Korea being spirited overseas.

“We are considering measures to prevent such leaks by designating them as ‘monuments,’ a kind of cultural asset recognized by relevant law,” said an official of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea. [...]

According to cases in foreign countries, ownership goes to a person who finds meteorites on his or her own land - which means strangers should keep their hands off of Jinju’s space debris.
Nice to see the Cultural Heritage Administration claiming alien geology as a monument of the minjok.

I found the headline of this Chosun Ilbo article to be amusing: "Seoul Braces for Disruptions for Filming of 'Avengers' Sequel." It makes it sound like a typhoon is about to hit.
Commuters and Seoul residents may experience some inconvenience traveling around the city from March 30 to April 14 due to the filming of the sequel to the Hollywood blockbuster "The Avengers."

Traffic will be blocked in several downtown areas such as Mapo Bridge and Gangnam areas to facilitate the filming of car chase and battle scenes, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Tuesday.[...]

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" follows the exploits of a team of superheroes as they do battle with a villainous robot. Major battle and chase scenes set in Seoul will take up about 15 to 20 minutes of the two-hour film. About W10 billion (US$1=W1,071) will be spent on shooting in Seoul. [...]

Seoul will be portrayed as a city featuring cutting-edge technology and ultramodern buildings. The headquarters of a Korean IT institute on a small islet on the Han River will also play a central role as villainous robot Ultron tries to acquire state-of-the-art technology. The superheroes are tasked with protecting the institute and keeping the world safe. [...]

The core scene set in Seoul involves Ultron laying parts of the city to waste. It will be shot partly at densely populated areas near Gangnam Subway Station.[...]
Gangnam Style, indeed.
"We expect that filming the sequel of 'The Avengers' in Seoul will help promote the city," said Kang Ki-hong, vice president of the Korea Tourism Organization.
While there has been criticism of the 'idiots' chorus' of those overselling the benefits of the movie being filmed here, somehow I don't think it's a bad thing that the sequel to one of the highest-grossing movies of all time (as in, 1.5 billion dollars worldwide) is going to feature 15-20 minutes showcasing Seoul "as a city featuring cutting-edge technology and ultramodern buildings."


It's got to be better way of drawing attention to Seoul, at least, than sticking a bizarre ad in the New York times for bulgogi, the latest in a long line of ill-advised ads or billboards, some of the latter of which have apparently not been paid for.

Speaking of food, zenkimchi's posts on 12 myths about Korean food and the gentrification of Itaewon (or its restaurants, at least) are worth reading.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Some old photos

A reader reminded me of this photo of a medic treating an injured girl during the Korean War which I posted a few years ago (it's part of a series: 1, 2, 3, 4).



I found it in the Life Magazine archives, which led me to dig around and find some others, such as these:

This photo of Kim Gu was taken in May 1947 outside his house near Seodaemun Station, which should be included in this tour I'll be leading for the RAS in April.


I also found this photo of Kim Kyu-sik taken around the same time. You can also find photos of other prominent politicians such as Lyuh Woon-hyung (in front of the Chosun Hotel) two months before his murder, and Syngman Rhee.


What's interesting to me about the above photo is the (one presumes) US military housing on the grounds in the background. The caption reads "Kimm Kiusic, chairman of the interim legislative assembly, standing on the balcony outside his office." I can only assume that the interim legislative assembly was located in the former Japanese Government General Building which stood on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung until it was demolished in 1995 (a theory perhaps supported by this photo), which means the US military was camped out on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung, which probably didn't impress people much.

I found this image of what the Russians were up to, building-wise, in Pyongyang to be interesting:


Taken in November 1950, its caption reads "Russian housing at Kim Il Sung Univ. provided modern buildings for Communist faculty members."

The above photo was taken during the war, as, obviously, was this one:


Other aerial photos of Seoul from 1951 can be seen in the related photos at this link.

Those interested in older photos of Korea should check out Pictori, the Korean Media Library here.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Canada - Korea FTA concluded

Well, that took awhile:
Negotiations with Canada were the longest ever for an FTA by Korea. Initial talks began in July 2005, followed by 13 rounds through March 2008. Negotiations were halted in April 2009 after Canada challenged Korea’s ban on imports of Canadian beef six years earlier at the World Trade Organization. Korea instituted the ban in 2003 after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease.
Korea resumed Canadian beef imports in January 2012, and the trade talks resumed last November. Korea was the last major Asian market to lift its ban. Under the accord reached yesterday, Korea will reduce tariffs on Canadian beef over 15 years.

Canada will eliminate a 6.1 percent tariff on Korean automobiles within two years of the deal being ratified, compared to the five years in Korea’s FTA with the United States, which went into effect in 2012.

Korean automakers had a combined 12 percent share of the Canadian automobile market last year versus 34 percent for Japanese and 45 percent for Americans, and automobiles accounted for 42.8 percent of Korea’s exports to Canada in the same year.

Tariffs on textile machinery, a large export item from Korea, will be removed over five years. Within two years Canada will also remove most of its tariffs on clothing and textile products, which now stand at 18 percent at the maximum.[...]

Bilateral trade volume tallied $9.9 billion last year, and Canada was Korea’s 23rd largest export partner.
According to the Canadian government,
the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement is projected to create thousands of jobs for hardworking Canadians by boosting Canada’s economy by $1.7 billion and increase Canadian exports to South Korea by 32 percent.
I love the addition of 'hardworking' above. An article announcing Harper's visit gave this information:
Diplomatic ties between South Korea and Canada were established in 1963. Approximately 230,000 South Korean nationals reside in Canada. 
That's more than ten times the number of Canadians who live here (half of whom are Korean Canadian).

I could only think when I heard about the Prime Minister's visit that the embassy staff here must have been pretty damned busy preparing for it...

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Sweet Dream online

Several years ago I posted about the 1936 film Sweet Dream, which I interpreted as a "story of how modernity is corrupting women." Back then they were called 'modern women'; more recently they've been known as 'doenjang nyeo,' or 'bean paste girls.'I couldn't help noticing that in Declaration of Idiots (the 1983 film mentioned in my last post), as well as that film's director Lee Jang-ho's next film, Between the Knees (which can be seen here, without subtitles), the vectors of western consumerism and open sexuality are women.

At any rate, Sweet Dream can be watched online with subtitles, courtesy of the Korean Film Archive:

Saturday, March 08, 2014

Screening of 'Declaration of Idiots'

Lee Jang-ho's waaaaaay out there 1983 film 바보선언,  or 'Declaration of Idiots,' is screening for free at the Korean Film Archive Sunday at 4pm. More about the film can be read here (beware the spoilers in the last sentence or two of the synopsis), where we can read this quote from director: "I don't claim to have made Declaration of Idiot: it was created by Korea's dictatorial regime at the time." The film is pretty much unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and with its lack of dialogue (meaning the lack of subtitles is no barrier to understanding it) and humor, it's reminiscent of a silent film, though one which uses music and sound in interesting ways, bashing together pansori and video game sounds to illustrate the clash of the traditional and the modern occurring under the military dictatorship of the time. The regime and the society it ruled over are eviscerated using satire, but in such a way that the censorship authorities simply didn't understand it and allowed it to be filmed and screened.

Here's a short scene from the film:




More about the theater can be found here. Here's a map to the venue:


Friday, March 07, 2014

What is the problem with hiring foreign instructors?

On February 18, Ilyo Sinmun published the following article:
What is the problem with hiring foreign instructors?
As long as they're pretty or handsome, it's okay?

Foreigners who want to work in Korea as English instructors must submit documents such as criminal record checks and medical certificates which include drug test results. Nevertheless, reports have continually appeared in the media about molestation or drug use by foreign instructors or their denigration of Koreans, creating headaches for employment agencies.

A representative of the company 'Job In Korea,' which arranges for the employment of foreign instructors, said that ,"Before hiring a foreign instructor, they must submit things like a criminal record check from their home country. Misdemeanors like drunk driving here are also inquired into." "However the fact is it's difficult to inquire into their character by only looking into crimes. Currently when a teacher finishes a one year contract in Korea and moves to another hagwon, it's more difficult to make an inquiry into a Korean criminal record."

However, industry officials point out that employers' attitudes have not changed in that their first worry is the foreign instructor's appearance or nationality rather than their ability. In particular, 'appearance' is considered the top qualification for foreign instructors. A representative of a foreign instructor agency who requested anonymity said, "Every time problems with foreign instructors stand out in society, hagwon owners who employ them are very sensitive to it. But even in such a situation the first instructor they want to find is a 'pretty girl.'

Eric Kim (50), of another foreign instructor agency, ESL, said, "There are hagwon directors who say in a word [they want] 'White North American women in their late 20s.' Most, but not all, are like this." "There are hagwon directors who claim that after interviewing them over skype, the foreign instructor who arrives in Korea is different than the person seen over skype, or that their photos are different. It's also unusual in the US to request a photo during the hiring process. There is little consideration given to character or ability [in Korea]."

It's argued that since the fact will never change that employers' preferences are for appearance or particular region [or origin], even if the foreign instructor process is improved it won't be effective.

Eric Kim said, "When he sent in a resume, one white male simply wrote on one line, 'Only Hongdae' (the foreign instructor's preferred area). I don't know how angry I got. In order to improve the learning environment, there should be no cases in which foreign instructors who have ability and like children are excluded because they are black or because of their appearance."
While it starts off by looking at crimes by foreign teachers (though, it must be noted, it correctly notes that "reports have continually appeared in the media" about foreign teacher crime), and makes a bizarre claim about people using stand-ins during Skype interviews (which, what with fake test-taker stories I've heard in Korea, may be a case of projecting), the rest of the article makes good points about the one of the main problems with the system being the choices made by hagwon owners. Of course, they'll simply say they're catering to parents and following what the market wants. The 2011 revision to the Hagwon law was made in part to make sure the hagwon owners were doing what they were supposed to in checking the backgrounds of foreign teachers, and though there were excesses (the drug test requirement and duplication of criminal record checks for E-2 visa holders), there have been some improvements, at least. Even though it comes off as a bit of an advertorial for some recruiting agencies, I wouldn't mind seeing more articles criticize hagwon owners for their lack of due diligence when hiring instructors.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...
 
Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum
Part 52:
SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1
Part 53: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2 

[Note: the episode files have been re-uploaded for those who couldn't get them.]

In the last post, I looked at the first third of the February 19, 2005 broadcast of the SBS 'investigative news program' 그것이 알고싶다 (I want to know that)'s episode about English Teachers, titled "Is Korea their Paradise? Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers." The show can be downloaded in a rar archive here (in four parts - 1, 2, 3, 4 - download them all and click on the first part to extract the file).

In the first third, we were shown how white English teachers are unqualified and only interested in partying with alcohol or drugs and having sex with Korean women, including their underage students.

This is followed by other stories of unfit foreign teachers told by foreigners speaking in English:
Sam (English Instructor): 'There was a Korean American guy who was supposed to sell hashish to high school students.'
- He was a hagwon teacher?
'Yes.'
-Two or three [students]?
'Well, he used the word students. That means more than one.'
Alex (English Instructor): "I don’t know how, but they met some underage girl and she was 16 years old and was in high school or something and he had sexual relations with her. Middle or high school. You need to, y'know, watch some foreign teachers. You should be careful."

Choi Su-yeon (former recruiter): 'One seemed like he had schizophrenia, a Canadian, and he got treatment and fled. Many marijuana addicts come. There were some with bad credit or who were bankrupt who came as well.'

Ryu Il-yun (Hagwon manager for 3 years): 'The only thing we can check is the person’s inflated resume. For example if there’s mental disorder or drug use maybe there’s a criminal record. It’s impossible to check.'
-Out of all foreign teachers, how many have proper qualifications?
'From what I’ve seen, 5%.'

The host then says there are teachers who are arrested for drugs, and it’s hard to know who is teaching our children and we should be concerned about the danger they may pose. Hagwons hire native speakers and bring them to Korea; what kind of experience do they have?

'Last December, police caught an American. He was working at a university.'

This story is related in this Korea Herald article:
The news last November of a foreign bellboy-turned-profesor who forged his degree spurred some universities to confirm the credentials of their staff. But still, it is easy for fake degrees to slip past, especially if an international phone call isn't made.
Hector Manuel Ramos, Jr. taught at Konkuk University in Seoul for two years until he was arrested by police on charges of forged documents. He worked as a bellhop in a New York hotel before he bought forged degrees in Thailand, one purporting to be from Columbia University and the other from Central Michigan University, according to police.
The arrested teacher was interviewed at the police station: 
'The reason I can't work in America? It's fake. You know my evaluation? I have a 90% evaluation from students.'

Student: 'I'm surprised. How did he become a professor, and how did the school not know about it?'
 
It goes on to point out that he was a high school graduate who had worked as a bellboy and was also growing and smoking marijuana.


They then use the same foreign actor who previously molested little girls and slept with a high school girl to re-enact how the above teacher was able to do it.


In the scenes where he’s interviewed by police at the police station, he not only smokes a cigarette – he also yells at them and carries on in what sounds to be fluent Korean. This is made clearer in this Yonhap article, which shows his fake PhD diploma which has 'Kim' as his last name, as opposed to his Masters diploma, which has a different surname. What's hilarious is that on the show, they censor out only the diploma with 'Kim' on it (at right, below):


A university official says that among foreigners coming to Korea not many try to be professors, and that people with a PhD, Americans, are extremely hard to find and are a resource, and are treated as valuable.

The teacher in question also used other people’s theses and had them published in a journal. (His name can be made out on the table of contents below, but it does not appear in the table of contents for that issue today.


University official: 'His thesis was in a prestigious journal so we were very surprised, he didn't seem like a very deep person. He made 4 million won each time an article was published, 12 million in all. They didn't confirm his diploma because it would take too much effort, they usually depend on whether someone answers questions well or not.'

The host then says an E2 visa is needed which requires a 4 year university degree, but it's not easy to confirm degrees.

They then switch to the story of Robert, who we're told is an illegal English teacher working on a tourist visa.

He says, 'In Thailand they bought their degree. So, basically you say, "I'll have a degree in Law from Yale." And then they print it. And they came to Korea and got jobs on an E-2 visa. Online, it's easy to buy a degree.' [Emphasis added.]

Note that while he is clearly talking about someone else buying a fake degree, the subtitles make no such distinction, and make it appear that he's talking about himself. Which, again, raises doubts that he is what the host claims he is, an illegal teacher.


[Cue menacing music.] The host tells us that, in truth, you can easily buy a fake diploma on the internet and come to Korea on a tourist visa.

Robert: 'I can post my resume and photo and some information on the internet and within a day or two agencies will be calling me. They call all the time, almost every day.'

A recruiter talks about how teachers can go to a hagwon and meet the director and say they’re happy to work on a tourist visa. Others don’t use recruiters and do it this way and hide the fact they’re only working 3 months.

A former recruiter adds that hagwons might be onto those who come with fake diplomas, but with a year long contract in place, the need to hire a new teacher, and possible complaints from parents, they don’t let it out. If you’re white with blonde hair it just takes one resume posted online, and within a week they'll be contacted for jobs, especially if they're female.

A hagwon owner says that stress is put on appearance; preferences are for white, female, young teachers.


Ryu Il-yun, who has operated a hagwon for three years, asks how they can properly teach the next day if they go dancing and drink at night. They should come to Korea to teach children and put effort into preparing classes, 'but between you and me they never do.'

They interview a student who says that her foreign teacher doesn't know the difference between a noun and verb and that she has to look up stuff in the electronic dictionary to show the teacher. Her mother says mistakes are made even with the alphabet.

Choi Su-yeon, a former recruiter, says that most foreign instructors teach a lot of slang, which makes her feel embarrassed when she sees the class. They hold grammar books but make mistakes, and it's surprising. They don't know grammar, they really are that ignorant. The lecture in itself is funny.

Then they talk to an official from SMOE. Outside of periodic fact finding or crackdowns, there's no way to enforce [laws]. Asked why there's no crackdown, he says there aren't enough people. They only have 40 enforcement personnel to deal with 70 or 80,000 hagwons.


They they talk to Song Hyo-geun, head of Incheon Immigration office, who says that last year they caught 2,200 people.
- Among those people, were there many white people arrested, as opposed to southeast Asians?
'There really weren't many white people caught.'
- Last week two hagwon instructors were caught and deported. Currently there is one white person reported to be an illegal sojourner.
Our host returns to show the costs of hiring a foreign instructor:
1.5 million for recruiting fee, 2.5 for salary, 1.5 for return airfare, and housing and furniture is provided as well. This adds up to 40 million won per year.

This will lead into the last part of the show, in which such lenient attitudes towards foreign teachers, upon whom too much money is spent, are compared to attitudes towards migrant workers from third world countries.