Jason Lim suggests the government explore hiring highly educated Korean-Americans as English teachers. It’s a good idea, but I have to wonder how this will fly with said highly educated Korean-Americans: “[T]he government would have extra leverage in recruiting highly-qualified Korean Americans because they have a natural affinity and inclination to explore their parents’ country… This means that highly-educated Korean Americans, who would otherwise take more lucrative positions in the U.S., would come to teach English in Korea for lower pay just for the experience.”
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21 Comments
This, plus the backlash from the Neil situation, plus the new (proposed?) E-2 visa regulations, has provided plenty of opportunities for the media to sound off on how we’re all dirty, unqualified, AIDS-carrying pedophiles. I’m pretty damn sick of it, and I feel that Mr. Lim’s language in the piece counteracts any sort of positive message he may have had. I wrote a follow-up a few days later: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/ww.....ryCode=137
You know what? Plan F, if med school thing (& Plan B through E) fails.
No problem, they can still make a ton of cash from illegal tutoring on the side and avoiding taxes on it. Duh.
Without fear of the Man since periodic immigration crackdowns target only furiners.
Jason Lim writes like he’s the first to have thought of the idea of recruiting qualified gyopos. The Harvard scholar is probably KA, not Korean, since he misses the point that Koreans want not only good English instruction but also contact with foreigners. Back in college, I was disappointed at first when learned that our instructor was an ethnic Turk. I came to understand that Turkish immigrants are part of the fabric of modern German life, and she gave us different insights into German society than what we would have gotten from an ethnic German.
correction: German language instructor
I can’t imagine the parents allowing such a non-career-building sojourn for their pride and joy.
That said, I ran into more than a few whose parents had dispatched them on a mission to find an “authentic Korean” spouse during their stint back in the homeland - perhaps if the government agreed to set up a matchmaking service for their new hires? (Not that it would attract the teachers themselves, mind, but the parents…)
“My son graduated from MIT - and now he’s reminding soju-brained underachievers of the same basic English grammar rules, day after day. For 2 million a month! And the glory of the race.” Somehow I don’t think so.
CV-enhancing charity work, preferably carried out in big uniformed groups - now that’s more likely to attract gyopos.
Why would highly educated Korean-Americans work in a hagwon when they can work (and do work) on the Korean equivalent of wall street?
Excellent rebuttal article Smee!
You nailed it!
This Jason Lim character wrote a very poorly thought out article to promote Korean Americans in Korea while continuing the smeering/trashing of white teachers.
To me, he sounds like he’s bitter about Koreans discriminating against KA teachers in their preference for whiteys and he wants a little payback. Instead of targetting Koreans and their silly discriminatory practices, he chooses to go after the white teachers. Good one, Jason Lim. Your mother must be proud!
# 8,
We KAs have underachieving dead beats who wallow in community colleges and state uni’s as well, who don’t have a clear idea of what they want to do after they graduate with their XYZ Humanities degrees…
Uh, now that I think of it (i.e. right after I clicked “post”) that last comment didn’t come off as I intended. I meant to poke fun of Korean Americans, not any one else who may come to Korea from any other part of the world to teach english after college.
“the Korean equivalent of Wall Street” is an extremely generous description of the bleak, Dickensian reality that is present-day Yeoido, where miserable US-educated Koreans toil before 4-monitor workstations at unidimensional work that seeks only to hock K-stocks to foreign fund managers, and dream of escaping to Kangnam, where lie their only real chances to realize their dreams of a ‘good life’ in Korea, and their language skills and education might actually get them meaningful work to perform.
Linkd,
Would the “good life” be this by any chance?
http://www.hereinreality.com/chung.htm
Peter Chung… wangja @sshole galor…
Yep, that’s it alright. If you know Peter (who works for Carlyle), give him a couple months to meet some of his compadres working for Korean financial firms, and ask him what they have to say.
May all business schools thank their lucky stars that job possibilities such as Peter’s (and perhaps WangKon’s) continue to drive enrolment.
Is Chung king of some other domain yet? He doesn’t work for Carlyle anymore.
What will happen when all the white teachers leave Korea? Who will the Koreans go after next? White business people? White lawyers? White profs? This is just a reflection of the increasing xenophobia in Korean society. This will only hinder their progress in the future. It can already be seen in regards to FDI. China and India, they are the future…not Korea. I doubt Korean-Americans will come here en mass to teach English. Why would they?! Alex Lee should come to Korea and serve in the military. He and pawi can be barracks buddies.
What sense is there in replacing discriminatory hiring practices with others equally wrong ones?
…correction. Delete ‘others’.
# 14 and #15,
Peter Chung’s email is legend all across the Korean American (as well as the larger “entry” level investment banking) financial services world. I don’t know Peter or anyone who knew him, but from the stories I heard, he was a Senior Analyst level guy at Carlyle whose email got forwarded so many times, it ultimately ended up in the inbox of his Managing Director within a few weeks. It was rumored that he took out his boss’s Porsche, used his boss’s penthouse (when the boss was away) and the Carlyle expense account to whore around in Kangnam. Once the MD got the email, Peter was immediately canned.
I call BS on his email. You know why? It says he’s only been there a week and a half. The Private Equity world is brutal, especially for an underling like Peter. Basically the Associates and MD’s send Analysts like Peter to do the grunt work that they don’t want to do, particularly overseas. How many women can you bed in 10 days on a PE Senior Analyst’s schedule? I’m betting you can’t do many.
Anyways, he was an idiot for writing an email that probably A) wasn’t true or B) a gross exaggeration or c) a product of a frat boy’s wet dreams. With a stunt like that in his background, I doubt Peter is in the PE or IB industry anymore…
Isn’t the Big Hominid enough? He should count for at least three or four kyopo spots. Or does he not count since only one of his parents is “of the blood?”
I had an internship in Korea the summer before I graduated. I learned that even if I improved my Korean language ability, I would still be at a great disadvantage in Korea. I just don’t deal with “because I said so and I’m older than you” too well. Actually, I learned pretty quickly that if those words had to be said, I had already gone too far.
Working in Korea? I don’t think so unless I can clearly go as an expat with very well defined authority. Teaching English for below-market rates? Hmmm, I’m not a teacher and I can’t think of any reason why I should accept anything less than market rates. Oh, but I would be helping the motherland? I have a better idea. Let me invest in the country without any restrictions and then actually exercise my ownership rights. My money and my requirements for sufficient returns would do Korea more good than me teaching English ever would.
Before any of you get any ideas of me having great wealth, that last sentence was purely rhetorical.
I’ve worked with a lot of gyopos over the years and they were/are no different from anyone else as far as quality of teaching goes. Most are/were good, some are/were bad. Some KOREAN students (or their PARENTS in the case of younger students) didn’t want them teaching English. We all know the dumb ass reasoning behind this. Of course there is the whole conscription thing too.