By SHELTON BUMGARNER
Marmot’s Hole Guest Blogger
Well, it’s starting to look like there isn’t so much of a crackdown on ESL teachers in Korea as the percentage of the Canadian population to have taught English in Korea has reached the proper critical mass so bitching and moaning about it sells newspapers.
The Globe and Mail has another piece on the “50 Canadian citizens have been caught in a crackdown this month.” This time, it’s how dumb asses without a college degree are getting arrested ’cause they don’t have a degree from Acadia University, even though they told the delightful folks at ROK immigration that they did.
An unlikely tribute to a small Canadian university is scribbled, in magic marker, on the walls of a holding cell in Seoul: Acadia University “rocks.”
It’s a dubious honour for the Wolfville, N.S., school, which through no fault of its own is developing a tarnished reputation in South Korea. Fake degrees in the institution’s name are at the centre of a crackdown on English teachers by authorities there.
A danger exists that in the popular imagination in Canada the issue is going to get seriously mixed up. A lot of young people who would probably find success here will be scared off, thinking that they’re just randomly going to get kicked out of the country right after getting a full body cavity search by a seriously hungover ajushee.
The issue is folks with fake degrees, not the average ESL teacher with an actual four-year-degree. (Their problems, of course, are more likely to be associated with not getting paid on time. But that, gentle reader, is a different post altogether.)
But wait, there’s more!
Speaking from his family home in Barrie, Ont., Andrew Dekker, 28, described the chain of events that led Canadians like him to be jailed in Korea alongside illegal factory workers from Pakistan and China.
He says he turned himself in to immigration authorities early this month, but spent five days in custody before being deported.
“I thought I would be given exit papers and possibly fined,” he said.
“Next thing I know it’s ‘Stand here and take your clothes off.’ I said ‘Whoa. Whoa. I’m talking to my lawyer,’ and they’re like ‘Turn your phone off. Take your clothes off. Put your shoes in this basket.’”
Mr. Dekker soon discovered he was not alone. “We had a Canada House in prison,” he said, explaining that several of his countrymen had been locked up alongside him.
He remembers calling his parents in the middle of the night, to say he was being held in a dingy foreign jail cell with a hole in the ground for a toilet.
“I said, ‘Mom, come on, please do something,’” he recalled.
Across Canada, dozens of parents recently got calls like this, and they, in turn, began to light up the switchboards of Foreign Affairs and their local MPs.
As an American, I am rather envious that the Canucks have a government that, like, cares and stuff about the issues surrounding teaching ESL in Korea. If I had a problem, I could put my local House member on speed dial and all I’d get would be a franked, computer-generated greeting sent to my jail cell while I celebrated Christmas with some dude from Sri Lanka.
Be sure to read the rest of the article on your own.
37 Comments
Infidel, you’re a hakwon whore! Our “educational experiences” aren’t so different after all although I turned legit and got a teaching license.
Donald, what do you mean almost all Koreans don’t need English. You’ve put your English skills to good use posting at this forum.
I’m Canadian and I LEGALLY worked in Seoul for 3 years. I now have a job with a future in Canada, I love my job, and I am treated with respect by my employer. I was not trained as an English teacher, I will never be an English teacher again, but while I was one, I tried my best and I did a reasonably good job.
I don’t feel bad for these fools at all. It is pathetic the way the Globe Mail and CBC are using this story. Instead of exposing these people as frauds, the Canadian media has turned this story into a sympathy plea and reminding people that “we have to obey the laws of other countries while we are abroad.”
The fact is that if workers came here with fake credentials we would deport them just the same. What’s worse is that North Americans discredit degrees from non-English speaking countries. It’s really quite sad that people come here with masters and doctorates and end up working as labourers.
The Korean media has also taken it too far. In a country that is ethnically isolated, they have made the people, who are partially responsible for the education of the country, into enemies. Sure, there are tons of bad English teachers, but what about the good teachers that put in lots of extra hours to prepare and genuinely care about their students? These people will only be given credit by the occasional parent and maybe by student who realizes that they are lucky enough to have been placed with a good educator.
Everybody is wrong, but people love to generalize because it is so much easier than talking about specifics.
Recently Canadian English teachers took the place of USKF completely in terms of being getting blamed from Korean people. Korea is heated with English study fever(Just a fever! In Korea, almost all Koreans don’t need to have a good command of English at work or for actual use. To put it simply, English is not spoken in Korea at all! But strangely enough, they “must” have a high standard of English fluency to get promoted. You may have seen many Korean office workers and college students who study abroad in English-speaking countries to master their English. They often argue with ESL teachers at the Level Test, regardless of their real English skills, insisting “I must take an advanced level course at this ESL school to get promoted at work in Korea.”)
Hagwon owners in Korea earn easy money by employing unqualified people, and also unqualified English natives come to Korea to earn easy money by becoming “so called teachers” at Hagwon. I think Korean people formed an antipathy against Canadian English teachers after a SBS TV program telecast about an illegal Canadian English teacher and reenactment actor who seduced minor-aged Korean high school girls, made them smoke marijuana forcibly, and then had sex with them.
I think Korean people formed an antipathy against Canadian English teachers after a SBS TV program telecast about an illegal Canadian English teacher and reenactment actor who seduced minor-aged Korean high school girls, made them smoke marijuana forcibly, and then had sex with them.
That’s hot.
Nerdieboy:
Canadian Immigration authorities recently picked up Chinese immigrants on fake Korean passports and deported them. This could be payback.
I work with an ESL teacher and Acadia grad (double major with two degrees) who was picked up from campus and placed in an Immigration van. He spent four or more hours whisking around Busan as the driver picked up other Acadia grads. This was made more unbearable by the fact the driver did not know where he was supposed to go and didn’t know the streets. Not uncommon for Korea! Also, the windows were shut the whole time. When they all reached the immigration office, they were prompted to find their names on a computer website for Acadia listing graduates’ names. Unfortuntely, this friend graduated before Acadia started listed names online. Also, his older diploma featured insignia that Acadia had changed after he graduated. So, they thought the degree was bogus. He had to explain, and fortunatley did successively, these circumstances. He returned to work later that evening.
Now all of us on the staff have been required this month to produce an emaiil verification from our universities to verify our graduation from a 4-year insitution. What do they pay these idiots to do? My university shunts concerned third parties to a website requiring payment and an American SSN to verify my graduation. I agree with this policy. I think the ROK government should have to pay the money and take the time to do the research, instead of wasting my time. Besides, they have my transcripts.
next year, after a winter feature exposing renewed corruption of this measure, there will be a new policy and crackdown.
It’s about time people bitched at Canada instead of America.
Sonagi:
That was at a university, one worse than a hagwon, that is. Working at universities are getting to be really annoying jobs.
As for our educational experiences, don’t try to make comparisons. I’m slumming until I grow up. If I wanted to work for real, I know where it is. I just laugh at the South Koreans who are supposedly the elite of their professions stealing oxygen on campus. I pity those even more who have to take on what is another job running hagwons on the side when they’re not trained to do it, or two completely different jobs at once.
I just laugh, too, because here it is I worked for the Army because of my degree and I go to grad school, and some lazy fuck at Immigration is going to tell me I’m not a grad because he’s too lazy and dumb to contact my university and ask one question.
Just to be clear, I meant seducing minor-aged Korean high school girls, making them smoke marijuana forcibly, and then having sex with them was hot, not antipathy against Canadians.
A rather naive question for those “hakwon whores” on here: how great of a command of English does one need to teach in Korea? I’ve assumed you were teaching little kids how to say cat and mouse.
Thankfully Canada is a law abiding nation. Look at the comments of the globe and mail. They overwhelmingly do not sympathize with the law breakers (which they are and should be treated as such). The only ones who are complaining are the Canadian teachers with forged papers who got caught and are now on their way home. What to expect other then some jail time when they break the law? I guess they’ve never been to immigration jails in Canada - there they also have illegal Pakistani and Chinese immigrants being held for few days then deported. Every country has the right to enforce their immigration laws. That includes Canada who has the right to deport illegal immigrants whether they be Korean overstayers of visas or Chinese with forged Korean passports.
It’s sad that Globe and Mail is even bothering to cover this tabloid story for some 50 people with forged papers. Where is the news?
Why is this a big news? Read the lines:
He remembers calling his parents in the middle of the night, to say he was being held in a dingy foreign jail cell with a hole in the ground for a toilet.
“I said, ‘Mom, come on, please do something,’” he recalled.
Across Canada, dozens of parents recently got calls like this, and they, in turn, began to light up the switchboards of Foreign Affairs and their local MPs.
When you get in trouble, call mom and they’ll call the government who’ll make a big diplomatic stink to get you outta jail.
I love how there is always an American around to stick their nose into the business of others and make a comment which really has nothing to do with the topic at hand. You will do your country proud.
To be honest, I met two people in Korea who had fake degrees. They both worked in Seoul; one still does as far as I know. To be fair this person did have a real degree but he lost it and just got a fake replacement. Regardless, both of these people were Americans. The first was admittedly a pedophile who, when called on it, did a midnight run to Prague and has been teaching there ever since. The other is a late-50s, pervert, whore monger, who used weed while in Korea. He can’t go back to the U.S. because he has major problems with the IRS and is just waiting for him millionaire Daddy to die so he can move to the Philippines and hookup with underage girls.
This just goes to show that the people who really need to be caught have been ignored for years and the media is just capitalizing on this story now. I was horrified when I say this story on CBC Newsworld last night and they did nothing except help provide excuses for these teachers.
When you get in trouble, call mom and they?ll call the government who?ll make a big diplomatic stink to get you outta jail.
Let me tell you, they ALL do this. American and Canadian parents are the worst about leaning all over the poor Embassy personnel, blaming and denouncing the civil servants, and calling their numbskull Congressmen or Members of Parliament to “open investigations” of how the Embassy is falling down on the job of protecting their poor pot-smoking, or fist-fighting, or diploma-forging wonder child from “third world” justice.
“I heard they make him sleep on the floor!” “Well, to be honest with you sir, my Korean wife makes me sleep on the floor.”
One other question: How is this going to affect Immigration’s evaluation of my law degree from Aruba U.?
What happens if you are in the country illegally, marry a Korean woman, and, at a later date, are captured by the immigration authorities? Will you be banned from the country or will you simply be forced to pay a fine?
KrZ, I’m pretty sure they try not to deport family members of Koreans.
however, if someone was using a fake dgree i suppose they could still be criminally convicted.
You went to school in Aruba Brendon? That kicks ass.
This is why the US should not pull out of Korea. Americans get a lot more respect than Canadians in Korea, or the French, or even the stuffy English.
Projection of Force. Korean adjussis understand this and respect this. They secretly, or sometimes openly, admire America, and her strength.
Canandians are dogmeats. No clout and no repect. Canadian house? It may grow into a Canadian neighborhood or a slum.
Canada, have some real weapons and lean and mean Army soldiers. You will get some respect around the world.
Being married to a Korean woman doesn’t give you the right to stay in Korea. There are exceptions, largely kyop’os and the odd Westerner who’s been there too long anyway. But by and large, being married to a Korean woman doesn’t entitle you to a resident card. Being married to a Korean man does, though… So if you are captured by the immigration, you lose your visa ? if you had any in the first place ? and thus your right to stay in Korea. It’s goodbye fella…
I saw an immigration officer yell at a Korean woman who had taken US citizenship ? and thus lost her Korean citizenship ? and who had later divorced her husband. She came back to mummy, but couldn’t get a visa.
“? ????”
“???????? ???????????… ?????? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ?????”
Is the kind of things she got from the guy manning the US counter. Professionalism at its best, eh? However hard she tried to explain her situation [which is how I know...] she got only more abuse from that jerk… Of course, she did have a solution, take back her Korean citizenship, but that was not the right place for that. So you see, it’s not just the foreign-looking people who get badly treated.
Baduk. Korea just got its first shipment of obsolete F-15 fighter jets to replace some of the Vietnam era F-4 Phantoms and the pop group GOD just broke up to enter military service……
Is that your idea of “real weapons” and “mean” soldiers?
Even Anne Murray in a hanglider could kick that !!!
DDa. Marriage to a Korean woman gives you an F-1 Visa up to two years.
How long have you been out of the country?
I understand they could force re-entry if you had no visa and were married to a Korean woman. But would they really force a man out of the country, and not let him back in to be with his Korean wife and children? That seems pretty sadistic.
kimbob is right: this shouldn’t even be a news story. Fifty of Canada’s dregs getting caught out for visa fraud? Boo hoo! Just go back to whatever Podunk town you were from and ask people if they want fries with their order, k? Seriously, folks: here’s a quarter, call someone who cares.
That being said, if the Korean government were really serious about cracking down on this problem, perhaps it would be advised to check visa applicants’ credentials. Like, if a Canadian has multiple entry stamps and leaves the country after 5 months and 29 days each time, you can be pretty sure it isn’t because he’s so taken with the beauty of Jeju-do. This begs the question of whether Koreans think it’s actually in their short-term interests to have these yahoos teach their kids, or whether they will actually regulate the hagwon industry more seriously and bring in a higher quality of instructor.
Gotta feel for the real Acadia grads, though a quick phone call to the registrar’s office should confirm their attendance…
How long have you been out of the country?
12 months… and [not] counting
CBC did a story about another guy who was deported as well:
http://stjohns.cbc.ca/regional.....her_051013
There’s a link to an interview with the guy at the top right.
The Guardian also ‘wrote’ an article, but it is basically a word for word copy of the original Globe and Mail one, except that every once in awhile the phrase “according to the [GM] article..” appears. The original article itself was incredibly lax in looking for real sources, but the Guardian’s article is beyond belief.
Just in case, here it is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/inte.....?gusrc=rss
I think Korean people formed an antipathy against Canadian English teachers after a SBS TV program telecast about an illegal Canadian English teacher and reenactment actor who seduced minor-aged Korean high school girls, made them smoke marijuana forcibly, and then had sex with them.
This is an example of the ‘telephone game’, really. That segment of the show depicted a Canadian teacher (who may well have been legal) having a party at his house, as described by a student (but I couldn’t tell whether the student had been there or had heard about it). There were a number of high school students, they drank together, and he offered one or more of them pot. Then he was seen in bed with one of the girls, but whether this was a first hand account or was handed down to the student telling the story I wasn’t 100% clear. The reenactments end, and then it shows the actual teacher being busted and the cops finding a pipe; he also admits he had a party with some students where alcohol was served.
‘Made them smoke marijuana forcibly’? That may be a bit much - the informant, referring to the students at the party (and pot), said, “?????????? ???? ?? ????????”. The meanings in the dictionary for ?????? run the gamut from ‘recommend’ and ‘offer’ to ‘persuade’ and ‘force’. I’m sure someone else here would have a better idea than I which translation is better..
Of course, while this is a description of what was said, the somewhat distorted version quoted above may better represent how people who saw the show remember it.
Starting the show off with a translation of the advice in the “How to molest your students” post at koreanesl along with a re-enactment showing the advice being put into practice probably didn’t help matters much.
The quicker that we foreigners realize that we are all pawns in some fashion or another to be played and at times sacrificed here for the benefit of our selfish Korean kings, the quicker we can all get the Hell out of here and let Korea devolve into the unified dog-eat-dog world (or man-eat-dog, rather) that it so desperately wants to become.
dda: Actually, the rules for foreign men married to Korean women changed some years back. You can get an F-2-1 visa (???? ??????) if you are married to a Korean woman, but you have to specifically apply for it. If you have an F-2-1 visa for five years (I think), then you are eligible for a green card (or whatever they call them here).
But they don’t really advertise these changes, and the immigration people will not generally volunteer the information (i.e., you have to specifically ask them about it), so it’s not surprising that you didn’t know. I only found out about it three years ago, even though the change was made long before that.
Thanks Charles. Back in late 2001, I was told it wasn’t possible, period. I know someone who’s had it for a very long time, but he always made it sound like he had found a gap in the system, and forced his way into the F-2 system by way of ???????s and lengthy talks ? something I wasn’t, am not, and will not be willing to undertake. If these have changed, fine. I am still doubtfull about the green card. Sounds a bit too generous and straightforward. Time will tell I guess.
Sonagi, for more information, I am French, and I happen to teach French language at Hagwon in Korea. LOL
Donald, your native tongue is far more widely spoken thatn Korean, and you did, nevertheless, learn English as a second language and probably find it a very useful skill.
As a Canadian who did an illegal temp job once for the extra cash, all I have to say about my fellow nationals being locked up is: Fuck ‘em.
You knowingly break the laws, you should be willing to take your medicine if you get caught. And you’d figure that a country that locks you up for a couple of years for a toke may not the best place to work illegally, wouldn’t yah?
I have no sympathy for these people.
Dearest Baduk,
“Canadian troops are serving bravely in Afghanistan at this hour.”
Can’t you even say thank you? I mean really, are you that ignorant?
And I will add…
Just two weeks ago, NATO countries showed their esteem for your military by electing General Ray Henault as Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee. This admiration for your armed forces goes way back, and for good reason. It was said during World War I, the Canadians never budge. America respects the skill and honor and the sacrifice of Canadians’ armed — Canada’s armed forces.
And this is not my opinion this is someone else
Baduk I think you should say sorry.
Ok. I went too far with American flag waving. I am sorry. As long as Cadana does not go the way of the French and support Europe more than the US, I will respect Canada.
However, if Canada does misbehave, the US will take over the country. I like to see that happen. We need a direct route to Alaska.
Not to start the permanent floating flame war vis-a-vis the United States and Canada, but the United States has had many, many, many years and many, many chances to take over Canada. Yes, we “lost” against Canada/UK during the War of 1812, but the Brits sure did get nervous about the fate of Canada after the American Civil War was finished.
In the end, I guess the powers that be in the United States decided that despite the vast resources and geopolitical goodies that Canada would provide, it just wasn’t worth it. Canada’s great and all, but it’s too cold for Americans, you have the whole French problem and it just wouldn’t be worth the effort involved.
Also, most Americans I know would have to struggle to form an opinion on Canada. So, they’d really REALLY have to be “misbehaving” to get anyone interested. In fact, the only situation in the recent past where the United States would have been involved militarily in Canada was in, what, 1994, when Quebec almost left the country? At the time, I remember a lot of commentators in the United States saying that if a civil war broke out in Canada, the United States wouldn’t really appreciate it if fighter craft from Canada started whizzing over American airspace.
I will now commit a voluntary self-immolation upon an American flag. Thank you for your time.
I will now commit a voluntary self-immolation upon an American flag. Thank you for your time.
I thought you’d finally written a sentence I approve of, Shelton, until I saw that bit about the flag.
Ok I could understand Afghanistan for the terrorist.
I could also understand Iraq for the oil.
But Canada?
You short on igloos or maple syrup?
I keep writing, and you keep reading.
What more could I ask for? Wink.
Oh, BTW, the second largest contingent in Afghanistan is French, if memory serves