North Koreans Learning English

by Robert Koehler on October 31, 2007

in Asides, Ministry of Barbarian Affairs, North Korea

Are you a Nova teacher out of work (HT to reader)? Perhaps you’d like to teach in Korea, but don’t want to submit your rap sheet to immigration? Fret not — VOA (Korean) reports that North Korea’s upper class is in the grips of an English-learning craze.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 jdog2050 October 31, 2007 at 6:12 pm

I’d go; for like 3-6 months. I was watching a documentary where they actually got to interview some NK students in the elite foreign language academy. Their naivety was such a contrast to the grim reality.

2 Wedge October 31, 2007 at 11:22 pm

On the Nova thing: Having lived in Tokyo a while and seen Nova billboards and train ads everywhere every fricken day, I actually have a slight interest in the story of its demise and the hopeful reduction in Japan’s visual pollution. I ran across this lengthy piece in the Herald (which seems to have turned into the English-teacher-rant paper of record):

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/N.....310053.asp

Anyway, if anyone is actually still reading this, I found the tales of woe of the poor expat teachers to be a wee bit funny. And the writer even equates the Nova implosion with Enron and WorldCom. So my point, after this excessive circumlocution, is that the teachers should’ve seen this coming.

Here’s the money quote: “Worsley is well-known in Japan and his coverage of the Nova saga has been well-documented. For instance, he forecasted months ago that Nova would declare bankruptcy on Nov. 1 this year. He only missed that prediction by five days.”

OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

3 Wedge October 31, 2007 at 11:30 pm

That should say: “Having lived in Tokyo a while and BEEN ASSAULTED BY Nova billboards and train ads everywhere every fricken day…”

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