Gusts Of Popular Feeling: Education

Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 07, 2018

From 2006 - There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

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"There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!"

[Exclusive report] A former gangsters who committed murders sneaks into Korea and works at a well-known language hagwon and school

Reporter Sin Yeon-hui

[Exclusive confirmation] Native speaker blacklist "caught by NIS information network"

'Inside Story' has published 7 in-depth reports on the shocking realities of unqualified and low-quality native speaking instructors. This paper has reported on such shocking facts as foreign instructors' drug parties, their sexual denigration of Korean women, diploma forgery of diplomacy, and spreading nude photos of female pupils on the internet.

After this paper's exclusive report (in issue 432) on the blacklist of native speaking English instructors in particular, this story was reported by domestic broadcasters and media, causing a huge stir.

Among the native speaking instructors included on the blacklist was one who had committed murder in his home country and had fled to Korea, where he worked as an English instructor and a criminal. Amid this, the stir [over foreign instructors] expanded when on October 23 a large number of English hagwon native speaking instructors were caught for taking drugs.

It was shocking that included among them was an instructor from A English Hagwon, which is affiliated with a top school, which this paper confirmed came as a result of its news gathering.

"This case of the English instructors caught for drugs is just the tip of the iceberg," said Mr. K, who is leading a movement to track down unqualified and low quality native speaking instructors in Korea and expel them. "The ongoing investigation by police should proceed. Since there are a lot of native speaking instructors with criminal records, you can't rule out the possibility of a murder happening," he said, pointing out the serious situation of native speaker instructors who have lost all morality.

Police: "There are 80 people listed in a book belonging to an illegal employment broker"

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Department drug trafficking team arrested 15 people, including 12 who had taken drugs and taught English in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area elementary and middle schools, neighbourhood offices, and well-known English hagwons, among whom were foreign instructors and a Korean American criminal who had been deported, as well as 3 other people including broker Mr. Kim and his wife and a hagwon owner who had hired the instructors. 7 were booked for drug use.

The number of foreigner [typo - 'foreign language'] hagwons has been steadily increasing, from 5.232 in 2004, to 5,689 in 2005, to 6,058 this year [2006].

As the number of English language institutes increases like this, hagwons are competing to recruit native speaking instructors. Amid this, unqualified native speaking language instructors who are not properly verified pose as instructors and professors at large-scale hagwons and schools.

Now 12 native speaking instructors have been caught by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Drug Investigation Team for taking drugs. It has been disclosed that they habitually took drugs in Seoul and the Gyeonggi-do area.

Police arrested 15 people, including an unregistered employment agency which introduced the instructors to hagwons and the owner of a hagwon which hired them, and booked seven of them.

Investigation into drug use and illegal employment expanded

Police arrested five others, including naturalized citizens and American and Canadian foreign instructors, who habitually took methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.

The police said, "Due to differences in culture and law, foreign English instructors and those deported from the US [hereafter "the deportees"] staying in Korea can easily be exposed to drugs, so we will expand our investigation into whether they are taking drugs."

Police are investigating the ledger, bank accounts and computers seized from Kim in order to determine the role of the broker and the deportees. Police said that Kim played a lead role in the illegal employment of the deportees as English teachers, and that there is a list of about 80 English instructors in the ledger seized from Kim.

In addition, the police are trying to secure additional suspects by comparing the ledger and bank accounts in relation to statements that Kim interacted with the deportees, and will request that Kim's deleted computer be restored for use in the investigation.

In general, in the case of Korean drug offenders, drug trafficking routes are carefully traced starting from the suspect's phone call history, but in the case of foreigners they are vague and form in places where foreigners gather, drug squad officials explained.

For example, suppose that drugs could be bought from an obscure dealer with a common name like Brian in an area with lots of clubs where mainly foreigners gather, like Hongdae or Itaewon. During close questioning, when police ask people who have been caught with drugs "Where is the dealer?" they can answer "He left the country, I don't know him." In other words, this means it is difficult to find a supply route with such obscure dealers.

The seven deportees and five foreign instructors who were arrested for drug taking all obtained and used at home marijuana or meth on their own. Because they were not all in the same group, they were separately arrested over two months, and each of them bought drugs through different sources, police said they have yet to find where they got the drugs or the supply route.

Among the 15 arrested, those who are not involved in drug abuse are three such as the president of c and the husband and wife of broker Kim. To summarize the suspects in this case, the brokers are divided into nine illegal immigrants who are working illegally through a couple of brothers, namely, Koreans and foreigners.

Top class English language instructor, belonging to Korean gang
Many of the native English speakers 'Drug · Sex · Theft addict'

The starting point of the case was the group of deportees, centering on the broker Kim and his wife and branching out to Mr. K and his live-in girlfriend, Mr. Han and Mr. A, Mr. N, and Mr. C. Each of these people was illegally found a job by Kim and his wife, and Mr. K and his live-in girlfriend, Mr. Han and his hagwon coworker Mr. A took drugs. They were all arrested in September and October due to persistent tracking by the police.

Hagwon owners who hire an unqualified English instructor are subject to criminal or administrative penalties. Police explained that hagwon owner C was arrested in this case because he hired a tourist visa-holder, rather than a work visa-holder, as an instructor, while other hagwon owners who hired the deportees or foreigners who did drugs were not subject to police criminal penalties.

A violent offender with a gang background

According to police, the arrested native speaking instructors had obtained green cards as children but were deported from the United States for gang activity, possession of firearms, theft and robbery, or the manufacture and sale of narcotics.

The broker, Mr. Kim (44), who was also deported for illegal gun possession in May 2000, set up an employment agency to find English instructors jobs in Korea for other deportees, and after forging US college diplomas arranged instructor jobs for unqualified people.

It was discovered that those who became instructors with counterfeit diplomas were habitually taking drugs and then teaching students. As well, it turned out that the middle schools, academies, and district offices that hired them did not properly confirm whether or not they had qualifications due to the lack of instructors caused by the English learning craze.

Police are planning to expand investigations into whether or not those deported from the US and native speaking English instructors at hagwons in Korea have done drugs.

The past criminal history of those arrested is truly serious.

The suspect K belonged to the notorious ethnic Korean gang 'K.P.B.' in the United States and was convicted of violent crime such as robbery and deported, while Mr. Han, A, N, and C were part of the L.A. gang L.G.K.K. and were deported for producing and selling drugs, use of illegal firearms, and first degree burglary. It was also discovered that Mr. Lee, an American citizen, was a member of the Korean gang 'cys.'

The suspect Mr. K was arrested for violating the Narcotics Control Act in 2004 and he left work as a public service worker at a district office and the broker Mr. Kim forged a diploma and used his illegal job-finding company to get him and his live-in girlfriend, who was an American citizen, jobs as instructors together at C English hagwon. They were arrested on charges of smoking marijuana in their home.

Ex-cons and high school dropouts worked as hagwon and school instructors
Immigration: "Attaching a foreign criminal record infringes on personal information"

The suspect Mr. K was the starting point for the 15 people arrested. According to the police, in March of this year, after receiving intelligence about K from the NIS, they started an investigation and found the district office where K had worked as a public servant, but he had already left that workplace.

At the end of the police investigation, K was arrested in September, but in the process of investigating his background police wondered how K, who had dropped out of high school in the US, was able to work as an English instructor, which ultimately revealed the truth about the brokers Kim and his wife and the other deportees.

The police investigation found that K's girlfriend was also a US citizen and like K had been able to illegally find work as an instructor at A English hagwon with the help of the broker Mr. Kim. However, Mr. K's wife was working as an instructor on a tourist visa rather than a work visa, and as a result, the owner of A English hagwon's Anyang branch, Mr. J, was arrested for violating the Immigration Control Act.

A English hagwon is considered one of the leading foreign language academies in Gangnam, represented by well-known Korean English instructors. K was working at Anyang branch of this institute. A English hagwon Anyang branch director J hired K's girlfriend as an instructor even though he knew she was in Korea on a tourist visa. In addition, he hired K without even checking his identity despite him submitting to the hagwon a fake diploma with a third party's name on it, and he did not register them as instructors at the education office.

Another suspect, Mr. Han, was deported in 1998 due to possession of an illegal gun, and after coming to Korea was arrested for violating the Narcotics Control Law in 2006 and served a sentence, but he was working as an instructor at a well-known hagwon.

Mr. Han was arrested for habitually smoking marijuana at a his lodgings, which were provided by B English hagwon in Ansan, with fellow deportee and co-worker Mr. A. In Mr. Han's case in particular, at the time of his arrest, the homepage of the hagwon's head office showed that he had been selected as "Excellent Instructor of the Month" from among instructors nationwide. This is shocking in that it proves there is a serious hole in the management of the English instructor by English hagwons.

B English hagwon in particular is operated by famous broadcaster Mr. L. Mr. L is a famous English instructor who is active on TV and radio.

The broker Mr. Kim and his wife were also deported on charges of using an illegal firearm in 2000.
From July 9, 2003 to October this year, Kim operated an unregistered employment agency called "one and one English" in Namyangju City.

He advertised on a foreign English instructor job site and recruited unqualified English instructors. Most of them had been in gangs in the US or deported on charges of violent crime, and by recruiting them and placing them and foreigners in places like hagwons they earned through fees the sizeable income of 300 million won.

Kim forged college diplomas for himself and the other deportees and submitted them to schools, academies, and ward offices, and Kim himself taught students at two middle schools in Seoul's Yangjae-dong and Seongsu-dong neighbourhoods, as well as at a district office.

According to the police, the middle schools and ward offices that hired them did not even confirm the authenticity of the diplomas that had been submitted to and registered at Kim's employment agency, and Kim took part in widespread exchanges with the deportees and arranged regular meetings with them, constantly managing them.

In other words, as a group the deportees and those illegally hired as English instructors kept up the act. In an incident in May when arrests were made by Mapo police for manufacturing methamphetamine using cold medicine, Kim also provided funds and the main culprits of the incident were found to be deportees working as English hagwon instructors.

syh@breaknews.com

[Shocking testimony] Low quality native speaking instructor expulsion site manager Mr. K
"The only thing left [to encounter among foreign instructors] is a murderer."

The informant Mr. K, who has contributed detailed reports on the realities of unqualified and low quality foreign instructors to this paper, pointed out that it is the natural result of the worrying things that have been revealed one by one.

Kim said, "There are many native speaker instructors who have faked their diplomas and habitually molested women while taking drugs and having stoned parties," and criticized [the authorities], saying "I've requested that the E-2 visa be strengthened and that criminal records [be required] but things haven't improved."

Kim said, "The things that we were concerned about are actually appearing in society. Sexual molester instructors and drug [taking] instructors have been caught by police. All that is left is a foreign instructor with a murder record or one with a criminal past who may commit murder. The suspect in the [JonBenét] Ramsey case had actually been an instructor in Korea, so who can guarantee that there won't be a second Ramsey incident?" he said, and demanded thorough government-level supervision follow upon the English craze.

Kim is currently conducting a campaign at agencies relevant to drug [taking] native speaking instructors to attach medical certificates and criminal record checks. In addition, he is preparing materials and is in contact with policy makers and lawmakers so as to strongly urge the inclusion of medical certificates and criminal record checks for native speaking instructors.

Kim has also made this recommendation to the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Office. The following is the full content of Kim's October 6 petition:

"Please include a medical examination certificate and a criminal record check with the E-2 visa. Even if you would rather not bring up the qualification problem of native speaking English instructors, you will know enough about it from the authorities. Looking at the Ramsay incident now, the problem with native speaking English instructors is becoming more and more serious. E-2 visa applicant countries Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa must include a medical certificate for an employment visa. Whether or not they committed an offense is also an issue so it must be included. Only in Korea do we not include them due to issues with human rights or instructor supply and demands. This means many disqualified people will not be blocked. However, these documents are included for native speaking assistant teachers [hired by] the Ministry of Education. As the E-2 visa is a visa related to English language education, it should be administered more strictly. If a second Ramsay incident occurs in Korea, who will assume the responsibility? A medical check can block an influx of native speaking instructors who use drugs and have sexually transmitted diseases, and a criminal record check can block instructors with criminal records. Children are being exposed to great danger. Please add medical examination certificates and criminal record checks to the documents [needed] for E-2 visas. Once something happens it will be too late."

In response to Kim's complaint, the Immigration Inspection Division sent a response on Oct. 17 saying it could not enforce this for reasons of protecting personal information and privacy violations"

"As there are many problems to consider such as personal information protection, invasion of privacy and the principle of reciprocity, requesting a foreign criminal record and medical certificate prior to entering the country and blocking entry beforehand cannot be implemented. However, we will continue to strengthen the conversation instruction (E-2) visa issuance screening and establish continuous measures through consultation with institutions related to [foreigners] sojourns."

In regard to this, Kim emphasized that, "This is directly related to the safety of students and our children, and even though criminals and unqualified people are openly with children even in schools due to lax management of them, and more than saying preposterous things like checking into foreign instructors' criminal past at the time of entry goes against protection of personal information, it's urgent to prepare more concrete measures."

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

From 2006: 'Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees'

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Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees

[Exclusive report] Out of 5 women a Canadian foreign instructor was dating, 3 were housewives!!

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

'Native speaker blacklist,' illegal, low-grade foreign instructor scandal part 5

Over the last month this paper has carried four in-depth articles on the realities of English Spectrum and illegal and low-grade foreign English instructors. In particular, readers could not repress their astonishment and shock at the repulsiveness of some foreign instructors who see Korean women as sex toys and habitually molest or rape them.

After 'Inside Story' released its exclusive report "Native speaking instructor blacklist," it made a huge impact. On the basis of this news report, local and international broadcasters and media have reported one after the other on the realities of illegal and low quality foreign instructors.

As a result, we have learned that an inspection agency is making efforts to study the realities of native speaking instructors in Korea. It was confirmed that the investigation was started by the prosecution after the article "Foreign instructor spread naked photos of female students on the internet" was published in issue 434 of our paper.

A reporter confirmed that foreign instructor A is currently on the run. Meanwhile, another tip related to illegal and low quality foreign instructors was received by this paper on September 1. The informant revealed the shocking news that there is an online café for Korean women who have foreigners as lovers and that housewives were having affairs with foreign English instructors who taught their children.

Tracing the internet cafe for lovers of foreigners ... which outwardly appears a healthy space

Actual writing posted on the site is full of complaints of victimization like rape and abortion

Following up on the tip, this reporter tracked down the Internet café for women with foreign lovers. The informant explained that among the foreigners whom date, many are English instructors.

The two cafes in question were registered on a portal site. These cafes look like healthy spaces where women share their love stories, but if you read the actual postings at the site, they are not like that at all.

Many of the group's female members complained of pregnancies and abortions, as well as things like unreasonable sexual demands. Most of the postings vent their frustration and pain, saying things such as "I'm four weeks pregnant...", "I'm going to the hospital to have an abortion tomorrow," or "Foreigners are like that. He didn't care that what he was demanding was painful." Beside these, there are also a lot of postings about foreign instructors' shocking romantic / sexual behavior with Korean women.

A female member disclosed the perverted and degenerate behavior of her foreign boyfriend in a posting titled 'My boyfriend now scares me.'

"These days I am worried because of my (foreign) boyfriend who makes more and more demands in our relationship. When we are together, we argue but also fool around and have fun. But when I contact him when we're apart, my boyfriend says a lot of sexual things, like talking about his fantasies. I want to make a video with you. I want to have sex in public. I want to make out with you and other women together and see you do naughty things. And he even talked about bondage ... I like to have sex and tend to enjoy it, but not perverted stuff. So my boyfriend and I have never really complained to each other about sex. Last time we had sex I took photos just for fun. I erased them later, but since then my boyfriend has wanted to do such perverted things that I've gotten really stressed. He is the second boyfriend I've had and it's been almost a year now and we're serious about each other, but he's asking too much. I've lived with people cursing foreign men, saying I should totally ignore them and that they are all really perverts, but now the more I meet him the more I see him changing into a pervert, so it's hard.

Another female member attracted attention by uploading a post denouncing a secret meeting of foreign instructors in Itaewon.

"Not long ago I heard something shocking from a friend. I also once met that person (foreign instructor Mr. C). He is from Italy, but went to school in the US and now lives near Samgakji. On weekends, he usually tries to find girls at clubs or on chat sites, and if she seems easy he sleeps with her a few times and then passes her on to his friends. A while ago I met Mr. C via chatting and he was good looking and didn't seem perverted, but after I had a drink he followed me to the bathroom and suddenly kissed me like it wasn't a spectacle. That many women have suffered this makes me even more angry."

There are many more articles posted on this cafe complaining of the women members' suffering and victimization, but as only a few have been excerpted only a few have been made public.

Regarding this, informant L worried, saying "Women who join this group are complaining of common suffering. Though they share it, there are cases where they do not realize that they are becoming victims."

In being lured, housewives are no exception.

It is now closed, but [there was once a] foreign instructor job search site called 'English Spectrum' where foreign instructors posted and shared articles such as "How to molest Korean elementary school students", and "how to extort money." Informant L saved a post that was uploaded there in 2005 and gave it to this reporter, and its contents are shocking.

"(Foreign instructor) XX [could] really go to jail ... really! In Korea, adultery is still a big crime (remember this is a Confucian country). When he goes to jail, he will suffer a lot. XX may not be the only one going to jail, (Korean woman) 00, who he slept with, might go to jail too. It could happen because her husband found out. That's why I pay a lot of money, to not go to jail. XX could rot for two years in a cell, or be deported. My advice: prostitutes are easy to find in Korea, so it's better to go there. Next time, take your money and have fun with the prostitutes."

This is a comment in response to the original post by a friend of a foreign instructor who told the story of how his friend was sleeping with a housewife and this was discovered [by the husband].

XX, who was in trouble due to adultery, was an English tutor. He demanded that the mother of the student he taught have sex with him instead of paying tuition, and after that this he was found out. A psychiatric counselor who is friends with this reporter told of a Canadian English instructor who bragged, "I've had five Korean women as lovers, three of whom were housewives."

Mr. K, who launched a movement to expel illegal and low-quality foreign language instructors, said, "We have filed civil complaints with the police, received reports from female victims, and have continued to take action to help them, but among problematic foreign instructors there are still many who are not even aware that they've done wrong." "This issue should be steadily publicized so that it does not just get temporary attention and die down. It is urgent that we create an environment in which we can improve laws and the [employment] system so that unqualified foreigners can't be hired as instructors anymore."

Monday, July 02, 2018

From 2006 - Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet

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 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet

On August 21, 2006, BreakNews published the following story in its series on the scum and villainy to be found among foreign English teachers; it draws a great deal on the previous article. This translation was originally posted at another site back in 2006 and is reposted here with permission.

Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet

[Inside Story exclusive report 3] The secret of the nude photos on the website of a famous native speaking English instructor

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

There is a growing stir from the issue of the “low-quality foreign English teacher blacklist,” reported in an exclusive in Issue 432 of Inside Story.

Broadcasters, “Y” news agency and major dailies ran stories on the “native English speaker blacklist” on Aug. 15 based on our report. In particular, with the U.S. media raising issue with the quality of native English speaking teachers in Korea and [other parts of] Asia and this paper running its report, there have been a string of reports on the realities of low-quality native speaking English teachers.

Prior to our report on the blacklist, we ran an in-depth report on the shocking debauchery of some low-quality foreign English teachers subtitled, “Low-quality foreign teachers absorbed in women, drugs.” This got a huge response.

Since the paper ran two exclusive investigative reports into the realities of low-quality foreign teachers, netizens have been flooding our Internet edition, “BreakNews.com,” with comments and tips.

Meanwhile, we’ve gotten a shocking tip from Mr. Kim, who tipped this paper off to the “native speaking teacher blacklist.” The new tip from Mr. Kim includes:

—People being sued or personally threatened after they’ve lodged complaints against unqualified English teachers;
—Foreign teachers going around with high school girls;
—A famous English teacher openly posting pictures of nude Korean women on his homepage;
—English teachers who appear on TV illegally tutoring or asking outrageous prices.

Since we reported on the blacklist, composed based on acts of degree forgery, sexual assault, theft and other misdeeds by foreign English teachers, we’ve gotten a string of trips about native speaking English teachers from former and current English teachers and students. This is evidence that the problem isn’t limited to just a small minority of foreign teachers.

Posting naked women photos on his homepage

Of all the examples we’ve seen so far, the decadent behavior of American Mr. A, a well-known teacher at a famous foreign language hagwon, is the most shocking.

Mr. A is a native speaking instructor who is supposedly doing well, who in addition to his good looks is the main teacher at his hagwon. But on his personal homepage, Mr. A has shockingly posted nude photos of the Korean women with whom he has slept and is sharing them with other native speaking instructors.

When we visited the homepage address, provided us by tipster Mr. Kim, nude photos of Korean women—their faces visable—were openly posted. The photo were taken on a bed and sofa, while in the background, your attention is drawn to various articles that appear to be personal items.

In this place, presumed to be Mr. A’s home, it appears he naturally took nude photographs of Korean women wearing not even a stitch.

Kim explained, however, that there is room to debate whether the women were Mr. A’s students or paid models.

Mr. A, whose homepage contains an astonishing number of nude photos, is still working as an instructor at the well-known foreign language academy.

The Kim family, who run a restaurant in a neighborhood with many hagwons, tipped this paper to the following scenes they’ve witnessed in a Gyeonggi-do hagwon area:

—A foreigner and a Korean high school student in their restaurant. At first they thought they were teacher and student, but they caught them kissing in the bathroom;
—The girl paid for the food;
—In the car, the student and the foreigner shamelessly engaged in embarrassing acts of affection;
—You can witness many such scenes near the train station and throughout the hagwon area.

The Kim family pleaded to our paper, “If you have the power to help our youth study properly, please help.”

Partiality for high school girls

In an email tip to this reporter, Mr. Bae, who works as a hagwon English teacher, strongly criticized a) some teachers who joke around during their conversation classes; b) foreign teachers who think students should be grateful for their time even when they [the students] buy them meals, unlike Korean teachers who buy meals for their students; c) the attitudes of foreign teachers, who emphasize only time and bonuses.

Bae said, “Korean departments of education should try to cultivate Korean [English] teachers rather than insisting on native speakers only.”

He added, “With white loafers who can’t get jobs back home working as English teachers, we must sound the alarm again some instructors who joke around, waste time and act arrogantly.” He stressed, “More than anything else, what needs to change is the attitude of students who insist on learning from native speaker instructors only.”

Mr. Jeong, who recruits teachers for English hagwons, said, “When we place an advertisement for native English speaking instructors, there are numerous occasions when many of the native speaker applicants are unqualified. In particular, I was surprised to hear that among some of the foreign job seekers registered at woXXX.XX.co.kr, it’s the rage to engage in illegal tutoring.” He scolded the government for lacking measures to deal with low-quality native speaker instructors, saying, “We are virtually ridden by illegal native speaker instructors, but it seems the government has formulated no measures at all. In this situation, native speaker instructors must really look down upon the government and Korean people.”

He also said some of the people who appear on TV are openly working as English teachers. “I inquired about private tutoring and was introduced to a female actress who frequently appeared on a certain TV program. I turned her down, however, when she asked for 70,000 won an hour.

It’s absurd that someone would ask for several times more money just because they’re riding their fame from appearing on TV. This is clearly illegal, and we must awaken to how the broadcast companies and these individuals are being managed.”

Accuse me, and I’ll file charges

The inappropriate behavior of some foreign teachers has reached a dangerous level, but the reality is that there’s really no place to file complaints about the unethical behavior of low-quality English teachers. In fact, there are increasing instances of tipsters having their identity exposed or receiving threats.

Mr. Ahn, a tipster who complained of this, told of his experience when he protested the behavior of one foreign teacher whose behavior he could no longer tolerate. The teacher, who teaches in an English hagwon for young children, did not even graduate from college. In class, he swears at students to “shut the fuck up,” and when they play “the question game” (if you answer the question, you win), he lets students win by asking the other side, “Do you want to sleep with me?”

Ahn said, “I asked the teacher why the students were cursing in his class, and he said that since it was English class, it didn’t matter if they swore in English.” At this point he understood this wasn’t a person qualified to teach children.

According to Ahn, one of the teacher’s parents is Korean, so even though he’s an American citizen, he has an F-4 visa (permanent residency issued to North Americans of Korean descent), and using this, he conveniently acts Korean or American depending on the situation. Unable to graduate college, he drifted around without work and is now teaching kindergarten and elementary school students English at a hagwon in Gyeonggi-do.

Furious that the teacher was using swear words with the students, Ahn strongly protested to the hagwon, but outrageously, the hagwon arranged a meeting between him and the teacher, who in turn threatened to report Ahn to the police.

Ahn was dumbfounded. “If you protest to hagwon about an unqualified teacher, I naturally thought the school would take measures to get the teacher to wake up or fire him, but I never expected that a complaint could be lodged against me with the police.”

Mr. Lee, who experienced a similar instance, said he received several threatening text messages from the teacher. Feeling threatened, Lee asked the police and immigration bureau for help, but at the immigration office, he was told that all the teacher needed to do is say he didn’t do it. The police, meanwhile, told him they visited the hagwon and said he [Mr. Lee] had placed a tip, exposing his identity as the tipster.

The hagwon is standing with the problematic teacher. Lee bitterly complained, “I made a just complaint in my own country, but nobody will help, and an unqualified foreign teacher, from a position of superiority, is turning on me like a thief on a master.”

Meanwhile, most of the netizens who read this paper’s exclusive report on the “native speaker teacher blacklist” agreed that low-quality foreign teachers should be expelled from the country.

The following are netizen comments posted at “BreakNews.com,” our Internet edition.

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.”

Another netizen wrote, “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.”

Another netizen drew attention with an essay exposing the realities of foreign English teachers.
Pointing out the problems of Korea’s English-learning craze and calling for improved screening of foreign teachers, he wrote:

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.

Another netizen wrote, “In five years of teaching, I saw many kind 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?”

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

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

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.

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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?"

Monday, November 20, 2017

Colonial-era collaboration and the controversy surrounding Helen Kim's statue

An article titled "Controversy continues over 'treacherous' 1st Ewha President" appeared in the Korea Times a few days ago. It reports on Ewha University students who put up a sign Monday near a statue of the university's first president, Kim Hwal-ran, or Helen Kim, to draw attention to her "treacherous," "pro-Japanese" statements "under the Japanese occupation."

The students said a continued failure to remove the statue represents the shameful history the country is in the process of eradicating.

“Pro-Japanese activities are a crime that in no way can be justified under any circumstances. Many figures including Kim who committed such acts are still revered on the campuses of many universities,” they said.

Kim’s controversial remarks included, “We are now able to welcome the overwhelming joy of the long-awaited conscription. We, the women, should send our husbands and sons to the battlefield with a graceful smile.” She justified her words as "necessary in order to keep Ewha open under harsh colonial policies.”

Personally, I don't think a sign including some of a public figure's less laudable acts to give a more balanced picture is a bad thing. I doubt "balance" is what these fundamentalist students are aiming for, however. Rather than celebrating a woman who "spent 40 years at Ewha as an educator," who was "the first Korean woman to earn a Ph.D.," and the founder of the Korea Times, the students want the statue removed and one of Yu Gwan-sun put up instead. Personally, I'm surprised there isn't a statue of Yu at Ewha University (there is one at Jangchungdong Park). At the same time, despite her courage, it seems to me it's her martyrdom - her "innocent victim" status, of the sort that motivated the 2002 candlelight protests - that has been memorialized above her accomplishments. She seems more remembered for her death than her life, and replacing Helen Kim's statue with one of her would be like tearing down Horace Underwood's statue (for the third time) at Yonsei and replacing it with one of Lee Han-yeol. (Admittedly this isn't the best comparison; Lee's death, despite his presence at the protest, was more of a tragic accident; Yu organized and took part in protests, and continued to protest in prison, knowing full well the fate that likely lay in store for her.)

To give an idea of what the sign the students erected looks like, it's not the placard or banner I was expecting (from here):

There's nothing wrong with highlighting the less-than-patriotic statements of public figures, but it seems to me what Helen Kim wrote or said was not all that uncommon at the time. It really should say above that her statements were made during the Pacific War. Saying "under the Japanese occupation" creates the impression she did this for years, and not under the extraordinary conditions of total war and "imperialization" of Koreans in the Japanese Empire in the early 1940s. While there are certainly people who deserve the label "pro-Japanese" (Yi Wan-yeong, for example), others fall into a much grayer area, particularly those who made statements during the war.

Though combat never reached the peninsula (other than a few bombings), the Pacific War was still a time of suffering and difficult choices for Koreans, particularly for those drafted / coerced into the Imperial Army, labor battalions, or into becoming comfort women. Korean intellectuals and artists faced challenges throughout the colonial period, what with being educated most often in Japan but finding little chance for employment in Korea (see Chae Man-sik's story 'Ready-Made Life,' for example). During the Pacific War, however, they faced two options: to make statements or art supporting the war effort, or to not work. Some, like author Yi Tae-jun, retired to the countryside for the duration of the war (as detailed in his story 'Before and After Liberation' which is translated in On the Eve of the Uprising and other stories from colonial Korea). For most people, however, foregoing an income was not an option.

To what degree intellectuals actually supported the war effort can be hard to tell. To be sure, some people were rather genuine supporters of Japan. That younger people would have supported Japan wouldn't be too surprising, considering that generation grew up under Japanese rule. Once the war started, some who were more critical of Western imperialism may have been happy to see Japan "liberating" Asia. As described in Mark Caprio's book Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945, for example, Yun Chiho responded to the "electrifying news" of Pearl Harbor by writing in his diary, "A new Day has indeed dawned on the Old World! This is a real war of races—the Yellow against the White." For the first six months of the Pacific War, Japan was winning (and did its best to hide its subsequent losses), so it wouldn't be surprising that some would have seen Japan as the right horse to back.

To highlight their defeat at the hands of the Japanese Army, 1,000 British and Australian Prisoners of War captured in Singapore were shipped to Korea, marched through the streets of Busan, Incheon, and Seoul in late September 1942, and interned in POW camps in the latter two cities. Some POWs were ordered to labour in front of Koreans to emphasize how defeated they were. From accounts by these POWs, however, it's clear that many Koreans were sympathetic to them and did things like give them food. Even Korean POW guards shared information with them, wanted to learn English from them, or even, in one case at the end of the war, offered to give them their guns to break out of the prison camp.

British and Australian POWs marching through Pusan

Upon the arrival of the POWs in Korea, the Maeil Sinbo, the Korean-language mouthpiece of the Government General, published numerous articles about the POWs over two days. On the second day, September 26, 1942, there appeared numerous testimonials by intellectuals (some Korean, others perhaps Japanese, though since by that point most Koreans had Japanese names, it can be hard to tell). Here is one I translated:

Thinking again about the crimes of the British and Americans
Shirehara Rakujun

After the Great East Asian War our grateful citizens will always be moved by seeing in photos and newspaper articles the military exploits of the invincible imperial army, but today as we saw the POWs directly with our own eyes this deep feeling grew further and we were thankful for the efforts of the imperial army.

Now as we strive to make greater efforts to impress upon those people the spirit and power of the empire, we deeply feel that we are in the glorious position of victorious imperial subjects and will ever more firmly resolve to win.

Looking from the position of a religious person, I think again about the British and Americans when they came in the past with an overly proud attitude of arrogance, of only pretending to believe in Christianity, and also masking this.

Now they have surrendered before the righteous imperial army and the day when they must keenly feel the sins of the past has come.

Now when we face the POWs we will fulfill our duty with a solemn bearing as imperial subjects and meanwhile we will not become careless and carried away by the feeling of victory but will further strive to achieve our goal in the Great East Asian War

The Korean name of Shirehara Rakujun was Baek Nak-jun, better known as George Paik, friend of missionaries and, up to 1939, a teacher at, and then dean of, Chosen Christian College. According to this book, Paik spent much of the war under house arrest, so one assumes he wrote the above column under duress. He went on to organize Seoul National University after liberation, became president of Yonhui College and oversaw its merger with Severence Medical College in 1957 into Yonsei University, and served as Minister of Education from 1950 to 1952.

What Baek wrote (or what is attributed to him) is typical of that kind of writing that was in the Maeil Sinbo when the POWs arrived. It seemed as if the Japanese believed that by repeating mantras like "we felt ever more moved to have become imperial subjects and felt more keenly the deep desire to support the war to its end," Koreans would actually believe it. I thought Jun Uchida put it quite eloquently in her book Brokers of Empire when she spoke of "the veneer of submission that the majority of Koreans were forced to maintain under total war."

Where should Baek be placed on the scale of collaborators and nation builders? And what of Helen Kim, whose statue has so raised the ire of certain Ewha students? It's not an easy question, and is one needing careful examination of evidence, consideration of the pressure put on intellectuals and prominent Koreans in the 1940s, and the weighing of their actions before and after their statements. As Koen De Ceuster's "The Nation Exorcised: The Historiography of Collaboration in South Korea" and Don Baker's "Memory Wars and Prospects for Reconciliation in South Korea" make clear, however, the question of whether someone is guilty of collaboration is beholden to serving current political needs more than anything else.

The truth that many do not want to admit is that most intellectuals at that time made statements or created works supporting the war; it was what they had to do to continue working. Likewise, most people were forced to recite oaths of loyalty to the Japanese Empire, bow at Shinto Shrines, or to compromise in other ways. The Shinto Shrine issue proved incredibly divisive for Korean Christians, particularly when some foreign missionaries thought they should simply obey and tell themselves they were simply "looking at their shoes" when they bowed. Some did not compromise, of course, and actively stood up to Japan, facing prison or death for their efforts, but by the 1940s most of those actively resisting Japan did so outside of the country. The problem with admitting this is that it seems to allow for only exiles, or those serving prison terms at the time, to have any kind of legitimacy. That certainly seems to have been the way Kim Ku felt, as related by Mark Gayn in his book Japan Diary, about his visit to Korea in 1946:

I recalled the story of a press conference at which Kim Koo, the irreconcilable enemy of Japan and of Korean collaborators. was asked what he would do with the latter. With characteristic bluntness, Kim Koo said:

"Practically everyone in Korea is a collaborator. They all ought to be in jail."

A young adviser doubling in brass as an interpreter did not even blink. "Mr. Kim Koo says," he translated, "that it's problem to be studied carefully." [Page 433-34]

And studied carefully it has been, with a Biographical Dictionary of Collaborators (친일인명사전) listing over 4,300 people having been published in 2009 by the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities (민족문제연구소). In 2004, the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities published Colonial Korea and War Art (식민지 조선과 전쟁미술), which spent 30 pages listing Korean artists who made art "glorifying the war." It charged that these artists

beautified and supported the Japanese Empire’s foreign war of aggression, and it was a time of extreme, treasonous acts like urging [Koreans] to go as far giving their lives for the emperor and the construction of Greater East Asia. Therefore the pro-Japanese activities of a good many Korean artists which got into full swing after the [start of the] Sino-Japanese War were not just anti-national / traitorous acts, but, in regard to driving a good number of Koreans to become cannon fodder in the war of aggression, compelling their deaths, they were also war crimes. The pro-Japanese art of that time deserves to be ruled as anti-national and anti-human criminal activity. [Page 179]

Needless to say, declaring the activities of artists to be "war crimes" pulls off the neat trick of making Kim Ku's "Practically everyone in Korea is a collaborator. They all ought to be in jail" seem moderate in comparison. Kim was right to some degree, in that everyone living in Korea had to make some kind of accommodation with the Japanese, regardless of how they felt. But admitting to such complexity does not seem to make for a useful national memory of the colonial period, so it's easier to draw a line and single out a small number of "traitors" who committed the sin of not resisting Japanese rule like the rest of the nation. As Don Baker pointed out, the argument between left and right in South Korea has not been over whether to allow for more or less nuance, but where to draw the line, with the left wanting Park Chung-hee and other elites connected to authoritarian rule and jaebeols included, and the right resisting this.

With the kind of Manichean discourse quoted above, rife with terms like "anti-national," "anti-human" and "war crime," being seen as not out of the ordinary in South Korea, it's not surprising that Ewha students would want to tear down the statue of a woman who devoted 40 years of her life to their university for her "traitorous" act of making comments supporting the Pacific War, whether it was a common-enough act among intellectuals at the time or not. Returning to the Ewha protest, here is a photo of the banner the students displayed (from here):

The text in red reads "I say goodbye Hwal-ran, okay" in English, but written in Hangeul. Ignoring the rudeness of using her first name, I couldn't help take note of the English in use on the sign. This actually dovetails into a thought experiment that came to mind some time ago in regard to the question of collaboration. Namely, what would happen if North Korea took over the South and and had to deal with a population that included many, many people who had links to the Korean race's eternal enemy, the United States? Would being able to speak English be cause for suspicion? (One assumes many English loan words would be excised from the language, as South Korea's Yusin government announced it would do in 1976.) Defectors have already spoken of the North Korean military's plan to set up camps to exterminate "half breeds," but what of people who had, say, studied in the US? They might say they were just trying to improve their lot in life, that it didn't mean they had any great love for the US, but if the North Koreans used the fundamentalist logic of the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities, they'd be sent off to camps - or worse - with little debate. While the excuses they might make for their "collaboration" with the US - a nation that some even now declare is "occupying" Korea - might suffice to justify themselves in their own eyes, it seems such latitude is not to be extended to people faced with difficult choices more than 70 years ago.

All things considered, the issue of collaboration is a complex one, and is part of a debate which is still very much unfinished in Korea - as I believe much related to the colonial era will continue to be, as long as the country is divided. So it might be worthy of a bit more gravity than party hats and the equivalent of shouting "Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye."

Monday, October 02, 2017

From 2006: A parade of lascivious foreign teachers; or, They shoot Canadians, don't they?

The article is supposed to be here, but the link no longer works. Luckily, the next article in the series - at least at its website - reprints the article in its entirety for some reason. It was also reprinted at Anti English Spectrum, where I got the photos.

It should be noted that all of the BreakNews articles mention the informant Mr Kim (or Mr. K) and/or Anti-English Spectrum. In a November 2006 BreakNews article, Mr. K also made comments, and is described as "Low quality native speaking teacher deportation site manager Mr. K," suggesting this is a pseudonym for AES head Lee Eun-ung. Two days before that article appeared, an older BreakNews article was reposted at Anti-English Spectrum, and in the comments, members thanked 'Mr. Kim'. 'M2' - the ID of Lee Eun-ung, the manager and public face of the site - coyly wrote "I'm curious about Mr. Kim;..." Regular poster 'jasminhyang' later wrote in a comment "the first letter of Mr. Kim's nickname is 'm'." There is a blurred photo below of Mr. Kim. It can be compared to this photo originally published in the LA Times in 2010 (though it is no longer on the site):

For all the sensationalism and one-sideness of the article, it's a reminder that the negative stereotype of foreign English teachers which developed with the help of such articles didn't come from out of nowhere.

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Low-quality native speaking instructors: “Korean women give us money and are sex partners”

[The Inside Story’s exclusive, part 2]

Foreign English instructor blacklist

Reporter Sin Yeon-hui

In the Inside Story’s 430th issue, the in-depth article "Foreign instructors earn money, are ‘absorbed in decadence,’ women and drugs" reported on the shocking reality of some foreign English teachers in Korea who are stained with illegality/crime and decadence. After that report, netizens who criticized such low foreign instructors or who claimed to be victims of them denounced them one after the other in the discussion rooms and bulletin boards of this newspaper’s internet edition, Break News.

In addition, information on foreign instructors flooded in. Mr. Kim (37), who has been taking measures against low-grade foreign instructors, said the illegal employment and decadent behavior of foreign instructors are far worse than has been made known through media reports, and he tipped off this paper about shocking victimization cases and the low-grade foreign instructor blacklist.

On August 2 this reporter met Mr. Kim, who knows better than anyone about the English Spectrum Incident, and interviewed him.

'Hello ... Please punish the bad guys who are blind to their own mistakes while smoking marijuana and who denigrate Korean women. I know the academy that he works for. Please tell me how to report it.' 'I've seen foreign English instructors smoke marijuana a lot, and I think it should not spread. I've heard stories of them buying marijuana in Itaewon.'

These are just some of the tips that Mr. Kim has received. In the meantime, many of the women who have complained that they suffered at the hands of low-grade foreign instructors were school or hagwon students. Recently, however, these instructors have been using pen pal sites to introduce themselves as English language instructors and attract women online, he disclosed.

Approaching [women] through pen pal sites

According to Miss A, a woman shared the story of meeting a foreigner who is a native speaking instructor at the provincial K University via a pen pal site, this English instructor, as well as his friends, of course, have at least two Korean girlfriends. They said that Korean girls are generous with money and sleep with them, and that they make the best girlfriends.

Another woman, Miss B, said, "A foreign instructor I became friends with on a pen pal site is dating a female Korean instructor who works at the same institute. The woman is responsible for paying his share, and he is dating the female instructor as a sex partner."

According to Miss B, beyond the 4 million won a month he earns at the hagwon, the foreign instructor earns a lot of money from private lessons and so has a high monthly income.

Among the things that a victimized Korean woman reported to Mr. Kim about a foreign instructor she met on the 'xxx Love' site, one of the many sites for chatting with foreign instructors, one message he sent to the woman while chatting stood out: "To be frank, I am in Korea for sex and money. If you don't have either why come here?” Obviously, it was shocking.

The case of the woman Miss C was even more terrible. Miss C dated a Canadian foreign instructor and became pregnant but had an abortion and even thought about suicide. What was especially shocking was that the foreign instructor was famous for appearing on a TV program.

Miss C, learning she was pregnant, worried he would be even more surprised and agonized, but when she told him his reaction was, "It is just an egg," and said curtly, "Get an abortion, but I can't pay for it."

"When I was on the operating table the doctor asked why I was crying. Was I crying because I was sad, because I was nervous, because I'd taken anesthesia? I just said that I was nervous. I felt horrible, wondering how I had come to this," Miss C said, pouring out her miserable feelings from that time.

"Now I don't believe in God. During the months I suffered pain due to my baby, he was performing on TV, tutoring, and lecturing at a hagwon. If there is a God, if the life given to me is 60 year, it would be good to die at 50, I want him to die. If I commit suicide one day, I will do it on August 21, the day I aborted my child," Miss C lamented, and worried that this instructor might victimize another Korean woman.

Mr. Kim explained that instances in which women become pregnant while dating a foreign instructor are common. He disclosed the story of Miss L, who was abandoned and attempted suicide after finding out she was pregnant while dating a foreign instructor.

After graduating from junior college, Miss L began working and while attending a foreign language academy met and dated a Canadian instructor but they broke up. The instructor was soon dating a Korean female student in another class but after breaking up Miss L found out she was pregnant.

Miss L's friend met the foreign instructor and demanded he take responsibility for the abortion surgery, but all he said, coldly, was "We once had feelings for each other and I have no responsibility.”

Miss L, who experienced betrayal and pregnancy from her first love at a young age, is struggling to cope day by day with suicidal impulses.

Miss D, who dated a native speaking professor at A university, said, "The professor is dating several women. If this becomes known, he has a habit of using violence, like throwing furniture at the woman he is dating."

He has been charged with assault by police several times, but the foreign professor only paid hundreds of thousands of won in fines and as this is not grounds to divest him of his professorship he is still working at D University.

Miss E, who currently resides in Japan, had an experience while working for a while in Korea.

"As I’' been in a foreign country for a long time and all my friends had married and lived far away, I felt a little lonely. Then I came to know the 'xxx Love' site on a certain portal site, and as I was lonely and wanted to find a pen pal there and write them letters, I joined it,” and in this way became friends with a Canadian living in Korea.

Since Miss E was also an expat, they shared their stories about life abroad and became acquainted, and she learned that he was a famous English instructor who had appeared on TV.

However, once they had become acquainted, he revealed his true colors and made sexual demands of Miss E. She said he was so explicit, especially when they were chatting together, that it is hard to express in words.

Miss E said that while she had a [preconceived] image of Korean people and just tried to move beyond it, he said, 'You are not a child. I want to teach you many things. I do not like nuns," all while continuously hitting on her.

In addition to the TV program, the foreign instructor also appeared on a New Year's special and went to parties every week. "Fortunately, I was not directly victimized, but I was sexually harassed several times, and the problem in particular was that the foreigner did not think of Korean women as people but simply as sex partners," worried Miss E.

Mr. Kim pointed out that the number of Korean women who are victimized after meeting foreign instructors online in the manner mentioned above is increasing rapidly.

According to Mr. Kim, what is worse is that a link to an obscene site containing images of Korean women there can be found at the pen pal site, which, he said angrily, leads to even further debasement of Korean women by low-grade foreign instructors.

This can be seen at 'Xxxlove, repuxxxx.xxxx.com, and oreanxxx.xxxx.com', and these sites are still running, he said. And in some cases, links to the pen pal site are exchanged at the obscene sites.

Alcoholic instructors abound

Informant Mr. Kim

Mr. Kim pointed out that there are still plenty of job postings for unqualified foreigners at the native speaking instructor job search site English Spectrum, and that there is an urgent need for authorities to strengthen the qualifications for foreign instructors.

Mr. Kim said the fact is some corporate-type English hagwons find out that foreign instructors have criminal records or are alcoholics and hire them anyway, and some smaller hagwons have stopped the formality of recruitment screenings, making it easy for low-grade foreign instructors to be hired.

In fact, at an English hagwon in Daegu, an instructor was found to be an alcoholic, arousing criticism. His family in his home country said his alcoholism was so serious he should be hospitalized and asked around about his whereabouts. The instructor in question was reported to be working again as a hagwon instructor in another area.

Foreign instructors are required to obtain an E-2 visa, which is an English conversation instructor visa, in order to teach English in Korea. After the English Spectrum Incident in 2005, the qualification requirements for E-2 visas were somewhat strengthened so that in addition to diplomas, transcripts have to submitted, and a fake document detection system has also been established.

According to Mr. Kim, one can be relieved that currently steps are being developed so that at least foreigners working as assistant teachers in Seoul elementary and middle school can be said to be in the top 30%.

Mr. Kim said, "I do not want only foreigners to be unconditionally chosen as instructors. Korean English instructors with English ability are also acceptable enough. Finland and Sweden are now investing heavily in their English language teachers, so students in Northern Europe are not hindered in their English communication due to their local English teachers who have improved their English skills." "If even half of the budget to bring foreign teachers were invested in Korean English instructors, quality education could be provided to students," he emphasized.

In order to prevent the mass occurrence of secondary and tertiary victims by drawing attention to the harm caused by low-grade foreign English instructors, Anti-English Spectrum, who were introduced through an article in this newspaper, has launched a movement to distribute 5,000 flyers in Hongdae, where there are lots of clubs, and at girls’ high schools and women’s universities, as well as to send petitions to authorities such as the immigration office and to senior officials. They are also launching an online campaign to expel low-grade foreign instructors which aims for 10,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, the Korean Native Speaking Instructor Recruiting Association has published a blacklist of 17 unqualified foreign instructors with profiles and reasons for their ineligibility. The reasons for their being blacklisted were things such as many midnight runs, disappearing after receiving their salary, student molestation, theft, and document forgery.

Friday, September 29, 2017

2006 flashback: Foreign instructors "absorbed in decadence," women and drugs

"Nongae, we miss you."

If we remember, the kisaeng Nongae threw herself - and the Japanese officer she had wooed to the edge of the cliff over the river - to their deaths after the fall of Jinju in 1593. So the kind of gal AES likes is one who not only resists having sex with foreign men (traditionally through suicide), but who kills the foreign man along with herself. Classy. Almost as classy as having kids re-enact her plunge to her death.

I started translating this a year or two ago and upon finding it today decided to finish the translation and post it. The original article is here.

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Foreign instructors earn money, are "absorbed in decadence," women and drugs

[Report on social conditions] Some illegally sojourning English instructors are self indulgent and highly renowned as "crown princes of the night"

Reporter Sin Yeon-hui

[Shadows of the English craze]

Is Korea a paradise for illegal sojourner foreign instructors?

The Republic of Korea is entirely swept up in the English craze. Recently, as the number of low-grade foreign instructors who are capitalizing on this phenomenon has increased, it has created a serious social problem. As problems arise regarding these people who work as instructors or teachers in hagwons or schools, at one portal site a signature campaign to expel low-grade foreign instructors has been signed by 10,000 people.

As cases of victimization published at a cafe at N portal site, which blows the whistle on low-grade foreign instructors, spread rapidly through the internet, calls for the strengthening of screening regulations for foreign instructors are growing louder. Much of the writing at the cafe frankly shows the actual situation of low-grade foreign instructors who disparage Korea and treat Korean women as sexual playthings here.

Most of them are shocking things about Korean English hagwons which are dying to bring foreign instructors and do not properly screen instructor qualifications, and include many instances of instructors sexually toying with Korean women and denigrating them as 'fast food.' As well, they are reporting [teachers] who are treated better than their ability deserves, expensive tuition, and the problem of foreign men who do not even have moral qualifications working openly as professors at well known universities in Korea.

These things have already been reported countless times in the media but they are not being eradicated. This newspaper will make clear actual cases of some foreign instructors who sexually toyed with Korean women and the shocking truth about how they enjoy lewd parties and drugs at decadent establishments at night.

▲ The Anti-English Spectrum cafe at N site, which reports the corruption of illegal foreign instructors

Anti-English Spectrum blows the whistle on 'inferior, lascivious foreign English instructors'

What is the ‘English Spectrum’ site? Officially it is a community and job site for foreign instructors living in Korea. However, because this site was filled with posts denigrating and toying with Korean women it also led to a social scandal, the “English Spectrum Incident.”

At that time, netizens said of English Spectrum “It’s an online business for foreign English instructors in Korea that gains outrageous, undeserved, ill-gotten income and pays no tax as it receives advertising fees from Koreans offering jobs (mostly English hagwon owners) and Itaewon adult entertainment establishment owners but doesn’t receive a cent for advertising fees from high-income-earning foreign instructors,” and carried out a movement to close the site.

A classmate of the Seoul National University biology major who completed the above sentence tipped off the J Ilbo and as it was reported and magnified significantly it blew up into the so-called “English Spectrum Incident.”

A sharp increase in incidents of Korean women being sexually toyed with and denigrated as ‘fast food’

As well, as photos of a decadent drug party involving foreign instructors and Korean women spread an enormous social stir was created.

At this site as well, messages with shocking content such as "How to molest Korean female children and Korean female elementary female students" and "How to borrow money from Korean women" were posted and because of this the netizens' anger exploded. Their outcry criticized the government for being overly lenient/generous towards foreign instructors.

At an online cafe called "Anti-English Spectrum" set up by an English hagwon student after this, a movement to expel low-grade foreign instructors is operated, blowing the whistle on illegal foreign language instructors who have appeared on English Spectrum for belittling Korea, illegal activity such as distributing drugs, and victimizing women.

The posts published at this cafe are spreading online rapidly. Some illegal foreign instructors live with a number of Korean women and have sex under false promises of marriage; hence there are women who have committed suicide too; some marry calculatingly in order to get a residence visa; there are cases of them being professors at famous universities and distributing drugs to university students; of foreign instructors at women's universities toying with their pupils; many illegal / unqualified foreign instructors who have faked their diplomas or educational background exist; among them spreads talk like "Let's go to Korea and make some money and also meet women"; because of excessive pay for foreign instructors by hagwons, tuition is expensive; decadent drug parties; dating Korean women, borrowing money from them, and escaping to their home countries. Such shocking cases make up most of them and forewarn of a [negative] social impact.

Enjoying drugs and lewd, decadent parties

'A,' who posted at the cafe, explained, "An Australian instructor at an English hagwon in Gangnam dated close to ten Korean women on the pretext of marriage and, in order to get a residence, married one of these women and also still continued to date one of the other women. However, after a year he divorced and two months later married another woman."

A said his interest in the realities of illegal foreign language instructors is due to a 25 year old friend who committed suicide after being toyed with by a foreign instructor.

An American professor at S University in Seoul, Mr. B, a professor at Seoul, was arrested for distributing drugs such as cocaine to college students for several years while taking his students around the Itaewon entertainment district on weekends. The professor's drug distribution case was brought out into the open by a thorough investigation by Yongsan Police at that time, but his punishment was no more than deportation.

A netizen revealed that they have seen many instances of Korean women who have actually dated foreign English instructors and suffered mental, physical, and economic losses, and there are statistics that marriages to foreign instructors last for 2 to 3 years on average and many cases where [the instructors] divorce them without paying any alimony at all and go to their home country but after 3 to 4 months they return to Korea and live with or marry another Korean woman.

He said that not only lesser-known hagwons but also at large scale English hagwons foreign language teachers dated students and for the most part economically or sexually toyed with them. He pointed out that many of these instructors were under-qualified and illegal sojourners.

It is no wonder, then, that the owners of front line English hagwons who pay for air fare, finder's fees, and hire foreign English instructors on all manner of conditions never have even a day when when they can feel at ease. In addition to guaranteeing them a high monthly salary, these hagwons provide housing, monthly rent, utilities, and vacation expenses.

As an English instructor job advertisement in a foreign newspaper puts it, "If you want to become a Hollywood star, go to Korea ..."

Even so, if most foreign instructors hear that they can get more money elsewhere, it is common for them to do a midnight run, so English hagwon owners complain in unison, "If not for parents and female students, we would hire Koreans right now."

Among the more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxon foreign lecturers currently here, many entered the country initially on tourist visas and work as unqualified English instructors, and not a few are illegal sojourners [likely meaning visa overstayers].

Another netizen saw an ad in a newspaper in Vancouver, Canada by a Korean English hagwon recruiting an English instructor with the title, "If you want to become a Hollywood star, why not go to Korea?" and beneath an illustration of East Asian women it [offered] working hours of 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, free accommodation [including] monthly rent and utilities, and guaranteed supplementary income through private tutoring, suggesting a $6,000 monthly income, and its only qualification requirement was a "college graduate" (a junior college in Korea rather than a university) and it said one's major did not matter.

He also criticized the former mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak, who announced in 2004 that he would create a "solarium for foreigners" at the Han River outdoor swimming pool to attract foreign tourists, and criticized the disorderly behavior of foreigners he assumed were English instructors at the Han River outdoor swimming pool every summer.

Excessive treatment, students' harm

Actually, what he pointed out does not only occur at the Han River outdoor swimming pool. Every summer at beaches, outdoor events like the mud festival are promoted to attract foreign tourists, but according to the testimony of local concerned parties, among the foreigners at these places, rather than tourists, there are more foreign instructors or foreigners whose jobs aren't clear who drink alcohol and cause disturbances.

There is an urgent need for fundamental measures to stop the harm to students caused by some illegal or unqualified foreign instructors who toy with and denigrate Korean women and foster drug and decadent culture, as well as the harm caused by their excessive treatment by hagwons which have no qualification screenings. In particular, it is urgent to adjust the gender ratio [which at the moment] puts foreign men first to increase the number of female students, as well as to adjust the role of the authorities' measures and of media.

Anti-English Spectrum points out that the Immigration Office, which manages illegal sojourners, is suffering from a significant shortage of personnel and that the Ministry of Education should cooperate with the police and relevant agencies to crack down on illegal foreign instructors.

"A university in Gangbuk, Seoul, hired an unqualified native speaker as a professor and when problems arose dismissed him. The university itself needs to make efforts to verify [teachers]," a netizen emphasized.

In the reader's page of a certain newspaper on the 9th, a housewife, Mrs. Kang, said, "At the English hagwon my children go to the native speaking instructor often changes, and it's because at the hagwon they hired illegal sojourners and when trouble arises they send them back," while others do the same but don't send them away, which is disquieting, she said.

As well, "Those illegal sojourners who lack qualifications receive a salary of 4 ~ 5 million won a month, but when we look at our serious unemployment situation this is a problem, and what are the government's measures regarding harm to students?"

Meanwhile, the 'Anti-English Spectrum' cafe is constantly carrying out campaigns in various quarters to report on the realities of such low-grade foreign instructors and expel them from the country.