Rather than constantly quoting your students poor pronunciation, why don’t you correct it instead? I’ve found that my 9-year old Korean students have no problem calling me by a properly pronounced “teacher”. I?€™ve found that with the proper attention that Korean kids, adults are an obvious exception, should have no problem learning how to say even difficult words like ?€œruler?€? where they have to flip between the ?€œr?€? and ?€œl?€? sounds.

In this specific instance, all of the ESL posts are timely and thus there shouldn’t be any issue with them being posted here. I have personal experience on the matter, and it seemed it wouldn’t be too much out of the zone of the Marmot’s Hole “brand image” to talking about stuff like that right now.

Oh…I’m thinking of starting a quick and dirty (to begin with) expat monthly at some point in the near future…any regular Marmot’s Hole comment folks interested in contributing?

is it necessary to post so consistently about your english teaching trials and tribulations here? granted there will always be an english teaching thread on this site, but wouldn’t it be more appropriate and fit much better at dave’s esl or some such similar site?

fyi, these are rhetorical questions.

And the part about being married with a Korean woman meaning nothing to them wasn’t about the D-8 [which I was still waiting for]. It came up [it was back in late 2001, early 2002] as a remark about foreigners living in Korea. Like “no job, no visa”. If this has changed since I am happy, although it doesn’t matter any more to me, as I will never ask for a Korean visa anymore, but cool nonetheless.

/me shudders at the idea of dealing with Mokdong again…

Immigration people don’t give a shit about the rubbish surrounding why you were in Korea working without a visa. I’m sure they’ve heard every excuse in the book. Government bureaucrats (here and abroad)can be brutal. My sister worked for revenue Canada and depending on how you treated her, you could leave the office happy as a clam or even in tears. Part of the perks of being a government worker.

The fact you were married to a Korean woman probably meant nothing because you were on a D-8 Visa.

Re: green cards, that’s precisely the point: they don’t want foreigners to stay too long. They want our companies to invest there, but please stay away from our country. My last visa’s difficulties started when a guy there decided that I had changed companies [4 in 11 years for crissake!] once too many, and wanted to deny the visa on that basis. wdf? Telling the whole story would take up a few screens, so I’ll refrain, but it was a nightmare. I was even at a point without any visa, working illegally for my employer, because they had their ass firmly planted on their heads. And I remember saying once during all the meetings and crap that happened then, “But I am even married with a Korean woman!” which was answered by an immigration asshole with: “So what? Doesn’t give you any right!”.

A solution was finally found, involving threats to close the company, and some entertainment. With a proper DMZ between me, my company and the immigration office. That’s what lawyers are there for I suppose.

Prolly one of the most expensive D-8 visas that was ever issued, if you factor in the number of people involved and the time wasted on such crazyness…

I agree with Sonagi. Whenever I dealt with the Korean Immigration office I was impressed with how fast they processed my paperwork. Canadian Immigration workers were slow as fuck and rude as hell. After trying to renew my passport I wanted to the kill the little bitch who gave me a hard time. Suddenly the function of the glass partition that separated us became clear.

My brother’s nanny had neglected to update her visa and Canadian Immigration told her get outta town before sundown. Period.

I agree with Dda that the annual renewal thing is annoying. How about green cards, Korea? You say you want globalization, so why not make it easier for foreign nationals to make Korea their permanent home? Even foreigners in red China can get green cards if they meet residency and language requirements.