From 2006 - English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6: Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’

On August 16, 2006, BreakNews published the following article at its site. I would guess it was not published in hard copy because the material below was recycled for its next article. As well, the article at their site follows what is below with a reprint of its previous article. It does go to show how much this material was being recycled and republished in order to draw attention to the issue, particularly online, as well as how the paper used the comments section at its BreakNews site elicit commentary and material for future articles. Note: most of this article was not translated by me.

-----------------------

English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women'

'Inside Story' Special report on 'Native speaker instructor blacklist'

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

There is a growing stir from the issue of the "ow-quality foreign English instructor blacklist," reported in an exclusive in Issue 432 of weekly news magazine 'Inside Story.'

On August 15, "Y" news agency, major dailies and broadcasters ran stories on the "native English speaker blacklist" based on our report.

This paper has done two in-depth reports, issue 429's "Foreign instructors 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs," and issue 432's "Low-quality foreign English instructor blacklist" Since then, there have been a flood of phoned-in tips and comments by netizen in this paper's internet edition, BreakNews.

A netizen going by the name "Min So-hee" said, "I decided to learn English, but after watching the behavior of the foreign male teachers at the hagwon, I felt serious doubts, and now I have fundamental questions about why I must learn English." She said, "Learning English is fine, but I hope this article become an opportunity to inform countless women like me that it's not good to get close to English teachers."

The netizen 'Yeongaesomun' wrote critically, "Frankly, for me it's easy. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is an important problem that is entangled with Western fundamentalism, in which low-quality English teachers and other whites treat other races as inferior races, as well as other issues. After this article, I think there will be a lot of tips and information. There is still too much that needs to be put into article form."

The netizen "Marilyn Gonro" drew attention with an essay exposing the realities of low-grade foreign English instructors.

They said, "There are 30,000 foreign teachers residing in Korea thanks to Korea's English-learning craze, and for someone like me, who has thought the one issue we must overcome is that of the legal qualifications and unethical character of foreign teachers, it was very nice to see an article showing the realities of these low-quality English teachers.

Just because you speak English as a native language doesn't mean you can be a teacher, and by the same token, if there's a problem in the character of a teacher, there must be severe discipline for that person. In Korea, there are good foreign teachers combining legal credentials and proper character, low-quality teachers who are both unqualified and unethical, and low-quality teachers who are legal but unethical." "With the current system, it's hard to sort them out.

But this is something we must do. The fact is that anyone who has experienced English education has experienced low-quality teachers, and even if they've never experienced one directly, they've heard around them instances of harm. I've heard stories of people suffering from classes taught by bad teachers, and beyond the educational damage, there are everyday cases of female victims keeping silent about their experiences because they are of a personal and sexual nature.

So that more instances of harm caused by low-quality teachers do not occur, I think we must acknowledge the problems of the current situation and discuss the many views as to how to solve them," he said, pointing out the problems with Korea's English-learning craze and saying that Korea's foreign instructor qualification screening should be strengthened.

The netizen 'kaebi' wrote, "In five years of teaching, I saw many kinds of native speaker teachers. While working with them, there were many times when I had to quit because I felt dirty and ashamed due to their feelings of superiority and insincere class preparation, and native speakers lacking even morals are given full-service like a king, receiving money for their plane ticket, free apartments, cable, Internet and furniture. Now with even women satisfying them in bed, would native speakers return to their own countries to work in Walmart again?"