Comments on: Chungnam Gets Serious About Fake Degrees

By: globalvillageidiot

globalvillageidiot — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:42:06 +0000

“This surge will only push the miscreants into other provinces.”

Probably. Also, Chungnam hagwons will have a much harder time finding anybody to teach. But soon the crack down will end. And they’ll resume hiring any foreigner - preferably white and North American, but beggars can’t always be choosers - with a pulse. And soon enough we’ll be right back where we started.

By: gbnhj

gbnhj — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:24:05 +0000

Who would have thought that nice Kenyan man at the local Ding Daeng Dong was uncredentialed?

You know, this is like going into the kitchen of your favorite restaurant and seeing how your food is actually prepared. Sometimes, you’re just better off not knowing.

By: exexpatPete

exexpatPete — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:35:34 +0000

Funnily enough some of the best teachers I knew over there were those with fake degrees - and I met plenty of folks with legitimate MAs who couldn’t teach worth a damn as well. I always got the feeling that the government were just making sure that, at the very least, the teacher had to demonstrate the stick-to-itiveness to get a degree properly (not that getting a scrubby BS is really that hard) or the resourcefulness to get a bulletproof fake one. That said, my first job there (along with most of the teachers I met) was at a small hagwon where the owner certainly bribed the immigration official, and once you’re in, they don’t often check again. I did have to tote my degree around with me at interview times though, the hagwon directors really wanted to see the actual document.

By: slim

slim — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:07:16 +0000

This surge will only push the miscreants into other provinces.

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:51:13 +0000

Maekchu, I am told by a reliable source that people here want to see the actual sheepskin. I guess that is cheaper than making a call.

By: Maekchu

Maekchu — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:42:48 +0000

I’m curious… How can the Chungcheongnam-do Department of Education even verify if a degree is legitimate or not? For example, if they were to check my degree, would they be calling the Hawaii-Pacific University offices in Honolulu to ascertain whether or not I actually attended school and graduated from there?

Are teachers required to bring their actual degrees to Korea for inspection? Even so, with the printing capabilities these days the only way to actually verify the legitimacy of any degree is to directly call the university. I can’t imagine the Chungcheongnam-do having the money and resources to do this. About the only thing they can do is weed out the Canadian degrees drawn up in crayon. Ho ho. j/k.

By: foobat

foobat — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:42:15 +0000

Half the netizen responses to stories about Koreans with fake degrees are along the lines of “so what? give ‘em a break.”

That’s because the slight ebb of rebellion against the-education-until-you-drop fever is just a glint in a young Korean’s eye at this moment.

[Foreigners... are a different matter. They all come from rich English speaking countries and have had the world handed to them on a silver platter, THEN they come here and steal our women and abuse kids and treat Koreans like shit while not having to really bust their ass for anything. Round them all up and let immigration sort them to the airports. The less of that dead weight, the better.]

By: Herod

Herod — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:04:54 +0000

I dare say they’re investigating all teachers, but only the foreigners with faked degrees get the immediate chop.
Half the netizen responses to stories about Koreans with fake degrees are along the lines of “so what? give ‘em a break.”

By: hoju_saram

hoju_saram — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:03:40 +0000

lol, amen to that.

Personally, I don’t condone illegal teaching, so I’ve decided to take a break from it for a few weeks.

Besides, who cares about police harrassment when we’ve got a shiny - nay, a “sparkling” new museum to enjoy, just for us.

(On a side note, by my estimates, about 8 of the 17 who were busted were black. Odd, considering 90% {at a guess} of teachers around these parts, illegal or not, are white…)

By: foobat

foobat — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:02:11 +0000

Man, this looking at the fine grade of crumbs in the rug of education is pretty funny. This country is full of posers some with fake degrees and some not.

I hope that at point along this strange path, someone will get the idea that an over-emphasis of education and institutional credentials is not a good way to determine character or ability.

It’s along the lines of “white people are better English speakers” that hagwons ~~used to~~ cling to so much.