In a recent story, the Munhwa Ilbo (Korean) complained that some “over-the-phone English classes” supposedly taught by “native speakers” were actually being taught by Filipinos without credentials to teach English conversation (which, apparently, falls into something of a legal gray area).
The article is all fine and good, but Jesus, with all the Filipino wives in the country now (some of whom, interestingly enough, are being employed by local governments as English teachers in rural communities), the Munhwa Ilbo might have reconsidered running an accompanying illustration like this:
11 Comments
Well…it’s not as if most customers don’t know about it. My wife told me that her friend’s son is doing the phone English thing and that the teacher was Filipino. They don’t care: the kid enjoys talking on the phone in English.
Nice touch having a “white guy” pocket the money, as if the vast majority of foreign language education institutions are not owned by Koreans. (well his hair certainly isn’t black)
The way he’s handling the money, looks like a Korean dude.
I have to agree with captbbq : if a foreigner can be blamed, blame the foreigner. In this case, the cartoon is disparaging both the Filipino and white guys - very racist on both counts.
Is there a single one of these places owned by a white guy ?
great, more ambiguous proof of the evil foreigner.Don’t you just love living in a place that blames you, the foreigner, for every problem created by some Koreans’ greed and stupidity? Oh well, what do I care? Korean greed and stupidity is paying my bills, and paying them quite well, I might add. Maybe I don’t want any Koreans to take their heads out of the sand quite yet. And thank god not every Korean is so greedy and stupid or it would be unbearable.
The girl who’s learning English on the phone looks white too. I don’t see any Korean here do you?
No, she’s not Korean. If she were she’d have blue hair, huge breasts and large insect-like eyes. Oh, and she’d be winking.
With all the Koreans moving to the PI perhaps Tagalog lessons are needed. Seeing how apt they are to spread their wings and really embrace the host nation’s culture…nevermind.
The guy counting money looks Korean to me. I’d say the features, the hair, and the clothes are stylized to represent the typical white collar Korean ajoshi. Korean people are aware that these hagwon owners are Korean, and this is a story about Koreans scamming Koreans. No need to get overly defensive here.
I agree with Leefr. In the world of Korean cartoons, white people are endowed with much longer Pinocchio-like noses and usually have blond hair.
What about a English lesson/Phone Sex business idea?