If America said that Asians could work in America without any English, but that Mexicans would need to pass an English exam, I think it’d be the cause of an outcry about how racist the American government was. Why should it be any different in this case?

Actually, as an English teacher I think that a Korean test would be beneficial for teachers; problem is, (a) people who scored high on it would probably be shunned by many schools and hakwons that think an English teacher knowing Korean or even Korean culture is a minus, not a plus, and thus prefer not to hire people who’ve got more than a year of experience here. (One of the most prominent private high schools in the province I’m in has this very policy.) Meanwhile, I look around at the kind of moronic theories that some English teachers espouse or advance, and I laugh: anyone who had ever studied a foreign langauge before, or even a second language, even lazily would know better than to buy half their silly theories. I believe that a number of these lame-asses might understand this better (or shove off) if they indeed were asked to study a foreign language.

I suspect, though, that testing foreigners on their Korean would be ineffective, because in my experience many Koreans overestimate the ability of a white person who knows a little Korean. After a couple of words, we routinely hear “Wow, your Korean is so good!”

In any case, the problem, I think, is that imposing a test would be unfair, whereas offering a program somehow might be a lot more effective. I know there’s a crop of new graduates from a new Korean-Education-for-Foreigners program at a local uni here, and I’m sure there are other such graduates all over, looking for experience and for work. Programs could be set up. Only problem? Funding, I suppose.

Ah well, as someone else noted, the labour pool will just get smaller and then they’ll have to repeal it. Too bad, though: properly directed, such an initiative could help those 3D labourers, instead of making things harder for them. But, oh, goodness, God forbid they should actually integrate. (And still, the rate of reproduction is low, low, low.)

BTW, Wedge - you ever drive a Tiburon around Dalmaji?

The Korean has the right to catergorise foreigners according to their own standards. If anyone thinks that an English teacher represents the same kind overstaying visa risk as a third world laborer, then its time to put down the crack pipe.

If foreigners want to go to Korea, then they will have to follow the visa regulations of the Korean government. After all, no one is forcing them to go to Korea.

1. A way of favoring ethnic Koreans around Asia
2. Following China’s recent initiatives to promote the Chinese language around the continent , a way of promoting the Korean language around Asia as the second or third language of choice.

Concerning language requirements for those other than 3D workers, they already informally exist in most of the language institutions and universities I am familiar with. German, French, Japanese and Chinese instructors are often required by the schools to have a reasonably good grasp of either English or Korean. Discussions between them and administration are usually conducted in English. Contracts are written in English and Korean.

i do smell a rat, though… maybe the government is rewarding lonely planet for changing ’sea of japan’ to ‘east sea’ by giving them a chance to sell more phrasebooks.

Actually, to clarify my position, I don’t think a mandatory test, per say, is unfair. Unnecessary, but not unfair. What I think is unfair is that it’s being imposed on some foreigners but not others.