In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a translation of the government decree calling for measures to eradicate illegal activity by English teachers, like “ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes.” Measures include a blacklist “to prevent native English teachers who disrupt social order with taking drugs, committing sexual harassment and alcohol intoxication.” Stop laughing, damn it!
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71 Comments
It is about time. I had my criminal background check done a couple years ago.My guess is that 1 in 35 visas will be stopped by the criminal background checks.
The health checks? Who knows? But it can’t hurt.
The Land of the Morning Calm just got a lot calmer.
In principle, I favor the increased examination of applicants. As a practical matter, however, there are some foreseeable problems connected with the new requirements. For example, the criminal-record check that iwshim mentioned now needs to be certified by the local police authority in the applicant’s home country, rather than from an online entity; this was done by one of my coworkers, and it took him several weeks (don’t remember how many now, but more than two). Also, the now-required interview in their home country may be a small inconvenience for some first-time applicants but a large one for others. First-time applicants from eastern Canada, for example, will have to travel to Montreal, and first-time Austalian applicants will have to travel to either Canberra or Sydney.
All in all, the process of hiring a new teacher - already long as a result of advertising, interviewing, selecting and processing - has just gotten some weeks longer and a fair bit more expensive, and that’s a problem for both employer and employee. As I said before, I’m not against this idea (although they can toss out the droning rhetoric about sex and drugs, IMO), but simply recognize its problems as well.
gbnhj, that’s my main complaint as well, and also that there should be a more diligent check on said persons’ education/experience, hopefully also getting employers to lessen racial based hirings at the same time. For a place where ‘balli’ and ‘babo’ are the candidate choices for working encouragement, the government officials sure don’t listen…
At least even if will delay processes, it’s in somewhat of the right direction, and the sooner it gets passed, the sooner they will slowly start to listen to further needed improvements in the system.
Shortage? Oh yeah! To get past each step will be nothing short of a miracle. What was that about how they will combat the teacher shortage?
“□ Supplying native English teachers flexibly. ○ The Korean Government will implement measures to utilize English teachers and professional personnel(What Professional Personel? They aren’t Native English Teachers?) who are staying in South Korea to solve the shortage problems of native English teachers which may occur due to the tightening verification of eligibility of native English teachers…etc What’s in Article 20 of the Immigration law?
Those of you who have already slipped in under the wire might take some comfort from this little bit of economic theory: any supply hindrance that causes demand to go unmet (even temporarily) will inevitably lead to price inflation. That is, rising pay for those teachers whose field of competitors has just been trimmed. If it doesn’t find you automatically, then pick your moment and ask for a raise.
Linkd, I can’t speak for everyone, but this aspect of market economics is not lost on many fully qualified and currently employed teachers. Also, many longterm teachers hold spousal visas instead, and their marketability will soon rise, too. In this situation, collective bargaining may yield greater benefits.
While I do not endorse the illegal practice of private teaching above the government’s proscribed legal/financial limits, it would be expected that there would be an increased demand in that segment as well.
Private teaching is only illegal for those on teaching visas. The Spousal visa holders are legally entitled to work freely.
Well, if the logistics involved in getting a legal teaching job here become as difficult as these regulations imply, a lot current teachers will leave and prospective ones will be discouraged from coming in the first place. This might get rid of a few dodgy characters, but it will also see a shortage of decent people who would be willing and able to do the entry-level type institute jobs that most teachers start off with here.
I can’t see a lot of people someone driving halfway across Canada, the United States, or Australia to a Korean consulate so they can get the chance to teach split shifts in kids hagwans in Iksan, Gimcheon, or Cheongju for $2000/month, a tiny apartment, and crappy vacations. For teachers who are already here (and haven’t already decided that one year in Korea was plenty, thank you) and are looking at dropping a couple of grand to go home and go through the visa process there, most would probably just leave rather than go through the time, effort, and money.
As has been pointed out, this shortage could see higher hourly rates for private or company classes for those who remain. It would also result in even more people coming in on tourist visas and teaching to meet what will be an unchanged demand for native speaking teachers. (It might make more sense for former E-2 holders to go this route instead of having to go through a lot of grief to change jobs legally.)
Unfortunately, this law - if it ever comes to be, that is - will do nothing to improve English education in Korea. The main problems here are systematic, and a few cosmetic changes aren’t going to remedy them.
The gov’t has never functioned to improve education quality; its actions have always been populist. Immoral teachers? Screen them. Black market teachers? Reward neighbors for snitching on them. Wealthy teachers? Get your state-run media to expose the cash carousel of an illicit teacher’s daily grind. Make English illiteracy a badge of honor for the proletariat.
The pendulum will swing back. The stricter laws won’t just criminalize the teachers, it will also criminalize their customers. Until the gates open wider again, and they certainly will, those who are in should be grateful for the reduced competition, not angy about it. Unless they’re idealists, or just dumb.
Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:5
Hi Sonagi - I thought the same thing. I mean just how many foreign English teachers are sexually harassing Korean women? If there were a trend or if it were statistically higher than that of Korean men then it probably warrants mention in a newspaper, but I seriously doubt it. I guess all that puke on the streets of Seoul was foreign teachers too.
Private teaching is only illegal for those on teaching visas. The Spousal visa holders are legally entitled to work freely.
Private teaching should mean the teaching of English to individuals or groups by a person who directly contracts with the students to teach them in their home or place of work. It should be differentiated from the practice of teaching students as part of a contractual agreement with an an(other) employer.
E2 visaholders are legally allowed to teach for another employer, if their visa sponsor and the Immigration (and sometimes other) Department permits it. It may be subject to limitation by either the employer or government official who processes the visa.
F2-1 or F5 visaholders may legally and freely seek additional employment with another employer (assuming their employment contract does not specifically forbid this); their secondary employer should be responsible for retaining and paying taxes.
F2-1 or F5 visaholders may also legally teach students in their own (and not the student’s) home, provided that they have applied for a license to do such. Thes license is to be displyed on the wall in the teacher’s home, in the room where teaching usually occurs. It should be understood that that teachers are legally restricted as to the maximum hourly rate they may charge students in this situation; this information is written on the permit which the teachers must post. Visaholders are expected to pay taxes on estimated earnings.
In actuality, few may follow these laws completely. However, those on spousal visas are not freed from abiding by Korean employment law, and should know that they may be running the risk of violating laws depending on the activities they undertake. Caveat praeceptor.
As twelve year holder of an E2, I also welcome these new regulations as long as they get data based. It would be horrendous to do this every time you changed jobs. Korea really should implement at the national level (as Japan does) the visa for teaching English. Having the employer owning the teaching visa of each and ever E2 holder is part and parcel of the problem. And as we know, this industry is rife with dodgy owners and managers, (or is this just a reflection of society as a whole?)
Korea is just not worth it. They make it very clear we are not wanted there. Screw them. Let them teach each other Englishee since they are so much superior and know everything. The visa setup there is outrageous. No thanks, I would rather not be owned by Mr.Park or Mr.Kim.
Linkd is right, the pendulum will slip back.
This law exists only to be overturned by the next administration as a sign of Korea’s commitment to globalization.
thanks for the link. I updated the post with more information and a poll.
i really doubt a “teacher shortage” is going to be clearly visible any time soon. at the moment, it appears there is a superfluous teacher overload, as even just about every other ipshi hakwon that even dabbles in the realm of English has at least one part-time native speaker working under the table. if these schools have any problem filling some shoes, they will just hire gyopos or Koreans who can do the job. All one needs to do is take a quick look at the infamous englishspectrum.com to see that illegal work is abundant and foreigners blatantly post their resumes in search of that work in hords everyday.
some schools end up changing their fly-by-night teachers on a monthly basis. It will take a long time for these laws to have any visible effect, and before that happens they will probably come up with some new idea.
why don’t they make a special visa available to a certain perecentage of foreigners who have demonstrated stability, good conduct, and proper credentials, and give them the same freedom to freelance that teachers in the rest of Asia do? And what will companies like Samsung and LG do to meet their demands? I know they prefer to do things with legal teachers, but I also know for a fact they often don’t.
#16
Not fair to only mention the one website you did, worknplay gets far more action/daily job offerings of questionable positions. How does one go the dark side with Sam and GL?
I sense on the part of some posters an odd faith in the Korean government’s desire to improve the nation’s English skills. The Korean government’s goal is to make as much moolah as possible for members and supporters before it is replaced by a Korean government with exactly the same goal. (Note: the US government is no different!) Until English teachers form a lobby, the hagwon lobby will decide what hoops English teachers are to jump through.
Exactly. And don’t forget their children. The goal of the Korean elite is to keep the children of their competitors trapped in an inadequate, skills-destroying educational system while making sure their own kids get every advantage. This is indeed all about preserving the social order.
As the English language is unmistakably an advantage in the global economy, one observes Korean elites making sure their own children are educated overseas (or obtain foreign citizenship for access to “foreign schools” in Korea), at great expense unattainable to the hoi polloi. Like how Reagan broke the Soviet Union: He could spend more than they could, for a longer period of time.
Meanwhile they cynically foment nationalist objections like “defending Korea’s culture” to prevent sensible educational methods from taking root domestically. Hey, who gives a shit? Their own kids go to school elsewhere.
Why can Norwegian kids talk about science and politics in English, while after 10 years of study Korean kids can’t string together sentences beyond “Ha-ee! A-ee em a Ko-ree-an boy-ee” and the Foreign Ministry has to hang the phone up when an English-speaker calls? In Norway, English is not only a subject taught from first grade, but also a pedagogical tool — a medium of instruction rather than a subject.
If regular Korean kids could have the opportunity to use English in their daily lives at school — to study literature, science, math, and history in English — then we might see English removed as a tool to select out less-affluent kids. I see the Ministry of Education’s constriction of English-teaching services as having the happy (coincidental, I’m sure) side effect of pricing English lessons even further from the reach of ordinary Korean families.
Oh well, at least you still have Isaac Durst free on the teevee!
I don’t have faith there will be any changes. The construction of
foreigner zoos“English villages”, to me, represents a massive waste of resources and a predictably Korean phenomenon. Why would you put all that money into building those stupid theme parks, which unprepared kids can visit for a day or two at best? Here’s a hint: Construction companies pay bribes.And it’s still very clear what’s going to have to happen next year when I want to renew my contract. Am I really going to have to fly 11 hours home at my own expense, see the doc and go to the cop shop. I’ve been here 4 years - my last medical was done here in Korea and accepted - surely my 4 crime free years here in Korea should be sufficient?! Immigration really needs to let us know what’s going to happen if we are here at the moment and intend on staying!
More economic theory: #17 - pricing happens at the margins. There doesn’t need to be widespread shortage. If the market contracts even a few percent, the employers who are now out those few teachers will be willing to pay more to replace them. The new price applies to all.
#18 - the economic concept of “holdup”. You’ll never work directly for the chaebol. You work for an agent who dispatches teachers to the chaebol. They are the agent’s most valuable, demanding and reputation-enhancing customers. If your agent knows you’re good enough to generate repeat chaebol business, you can hold him/her up for a greater cut of the payment. And chaebol premises don’t get raided by immigration.
The English Villages are probably worse than you think Brandon. The one in my neighbored cost between 200-300 million US to build. A high school in the same neighborhood cost 70 million and has a greater seating capacity.
None of my kids go to the English Village because it is too expensive. I ask the kids why don’t you have better English facilities at your school and they reply “cause all the money has been wasted on the English Village.” Not bad reasoning for 12 year olds.
They would better off to set up a co-op system of having American teachers come and do their teaching internships in this country instead of at home.
a. The American interns are professionals and since it is an internship have an academic interest conducting themselves accordingly.
b. It is a global education. The interns learn something new through a cultural comparison of the educations systems.
c. Korean teachers act as mentors and create long term relationships among professionals.
d. When the American teachers go back home and work in their schools they can forge relationships between schools in Korea.
e. It is cheaper.
Government is the problem: they pay for their kid’s elite education through corruption and the poor get stiffed.
I think you must be off by a factor of 10. The construction cost for the buildings and earthworks at Yongsan International School was only W30 billion or so, and that facility accommodates almost 1000 students and staff every day.
The provincial land underlying the English Villages can’t be so expensive as that, can it?
#20,
Yes, the banning of private tutoring for E2 visa holders has everything to do with giving off the appearance that the elite cares about the common folk. It also seeks to minimize the flow of currency outside of this country at the hands of foreigners, which wins the government some points with the most xenophobic section of the electorate and ensures that the money will continue finding its way into the coffers of the chaebols. It has little to do with any of the reasons listed in the rather inflammatory document linked above.
I’ve been to one of those English villages. My kid loved it. The instructors there were very professional, excellent with the kids…However, it still remains, as you said, a theme park that few kids will have the opportunity to visit more than one or twice. Nevertheless, it has its uses. For one, I’m sure it’s a motivation booster for the kids who go there…and it was relatively cheap.
Not According to the Education Minister. I will quote him from the Chosun Ilbo (Apr 2 2006). BTW, the 70 million for the place near me was for a high school and middle school so 30 mil for the Yongsan school seems right. How much is he off? I don’t know but he said 200 -300 million US.
Another Blow to Education From the Minister
Education Minister Kim Jin-pyo, at a conference of primary school principals in Gyeonggi Province on Friday, cast plans for so-called “English Villages” in doubt, saying no more of them should be built. He said it costs between W200 billion (US$200 million) and W300 billion to build such total-immersion language learning facilities, and the cost of running them would be enough to give more than W100 million to each primary, middle and high school in the country. “It would be more effective for each school to hire three native-speaking instructors with that subsidy,” the minister said.
“He said it costs between W200 billion (US$200 million) and W300 billion to build such total-immersion language learning facilities, and the cost of running them would be enough to give more than W100 million to each primary, middle and high school in the country.”
Sure, but when I said it was cheap, I was obviously talking about the cost of the tickets, not the cost of building and running the the sites. If you’d been to any of these so-called English villages you’d know I couldn’t have made that mistake.
Anyway, I don’t really care. My kids go to the Taj Mahal in Hannam-dong and are already comfortably bilingual — including high school-level hanja in the fourth grade. And so are my friends’ kids. So the heck with your smelly kids, right?
How much is the “rebate” on W300 billion worth of construction, anyway?
Why yes I have been there, the one in Suyu is a 20 minute walk from where I live. I went there with a group of educational professionals from the states when it first opened. The amusement park (school) was less than transparent to show the facilities.
The cost of ticket? I ride the subway and the ticket cost is subsidized, not sure if it feasible for private enterprise to go at it first but I would like them to have chance first because government always corrupts and takes a slice of the tax payer dollar.
Anyways, the cost of English Village (Idiot) ticket does not represent the true cost of the establishment. Maybe that is why private enterprise has not gotten involved. Politically a government (especially if there is gravy to go around) will build such monstrosities before the market will.
Government justifies taking my money by creating more government. More government justifies their ineptitude by saying there is not enough money. Government takes more money to justify creating more government….
So now we end up with millions on English Idiot Village no one is interested in.
Do we really want kids to learn there? I do not want kids to just have a ticket on the roller coaster but I want them to actually learn the mechanics of a roller coaster. So…
English Villages are amusement parks not places of education. Very expensive amusement parks.
The rebate? From what I smell downwind, enough to send your kids overseas and to Ehwa. Bad smell,I avoid it.
Korean journalist suck! Forget bitching about the lack of lawyers, where is the common sense approach to examining a story? 200 million US dollars! All graft.
Ps> Brandon - My kids (the ones I teach) could open a can of kick ass on your kids anytime.
Anyways. Government justifies taking my money by creating more government. More government justifies their ineptitude by saying there is not enough money. Government takes more money to justify creating more government…
Poor Korea, Poor Govenment. Who wins? Answer - The English Village Idiot.
“My kids go to the Taj Mahal in Hannam-dong and are already comfortably bilingual — including high school-level hanja in the fourth grade. And so are my friends’ kids. So the heck with your smelly kids, right?”
Pshaw, my son would count to 20 before he could walk. He just began kindergarten and can already speak 3 languages fluently. He reads and writes in 2. So, the heck with your non-gifted kids.
Brendon’s #20 is the cynical brilliant Truth… unfortunately.
So let me see…only E-2 holders use drugs, harass Korean girls and get drunk? Gyopos and others don’t do that? Interesting…
If this little law being proposed is for reals, it confirms a little point that I’ve been ranting about for quite some time: that despite appearances to the contrary, the number of illegal English teachers (or English teachers engaged in criminal activities) has been going down even as the raw number of English teachers and foreigners has been going up.
I’d like to know more about that little stat at the end of this proposed law.
If these numbers are true, why is this law being proposed, again? If things are the best they’ve ever been, then what’s to account for this, besides a deluge of coverage over an actually far fewer number incidents than say 5 or 10 years ago?
Well, this is a hypothesis, rather than a “point” I’ve been making. I’d like more facts, but from the observations I’ve been making so far, and from comparing with what I saw in the early 1990’s here, the quality of English teachers has come a long way, baby.
#17,
Maybe that would hold for the more popular areas of Seoul, but out here in the provinces it’s a different story. Anecdotally, I mentioned amongst a couple of hagwon owners and a recruiter that I may have a friend coming to teach here at some point and my phone did not stop ringing for weeks after. Offers for facilitating the entry of said whitey into their schools sky-rocketed over the weeks and all while I saw two viable schools arrive at the verge of closure for want of a native speaker. I also know of teachers who have hammered as much as 3.6 million out of desperate owners, exploiting short-term gaps and have known others to earn just under that mark, plus fringe benefits as a result of clever negotiation. My own school (private elementary) has given raises well over the rate of inflation over the last two years in order to retain quality teachers, and it’s one of the more attractive jobs in town. There is no point in speculating wage inflation, it’s already here.
My parents tell me I could read before I could walk. But I started walking at age 14.
#34,
Yeah, it’s not as if the ESL teachers are the ones smuggling in methamphetamine from North Korea.
#35,
Metro, the current government has been manipulating xenophobia and ethnic nationalism at its advantage from the get go, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that they would do this in the middle of an election, just a few weeks after you know who turned out to have been in Korea.
#38,
That would explain why you misspell your given name as if it was a surname.
Kidding aside, my son does speak 3 languages fluently and could count before he was 2.
What are you talking about!? “All the soldiers are out of step except my son.”
Re: #35
I’m guessing it’s ye olde “bring out the xenophobia” at election time where the misdeeds of the DPRK are ignored while the misdeeds of a tiny minority of foreigners are brought front and center.
The usual around election time.
If you have a Master’s degree, you can get an E-1 me thinks. The government knows that people with a Master’s don’t do drugs, get drunk, or harass women.
I’ve been on an E-7 for three years. I was required to hand in a criminal check my first time around and I thought it was a good thing. I thought it was strange that to sit in a cube and work on policy I needed the document, but didn’t in order to teach young children. I also had to have a physical…which was conducted at a clinic that resembled an assembly line. It was one of the most embarrassing moments I’ve ever had actually.
Anyway, if you are Canadian, you can get the criminal check from your local police headquarters for about $30 bucks and you wait a few minutes for it. It’s simple.
People from states like California are going to have a much harder time.
I’m also glad they dropped the ‘interview’ portion. That was the only thing I thought went overboard.
“Anyway, if you are Canadian, you can get the criminal check from your local police headquarters for about $30 bucks and you wait a few minutes for it. It’s simple.
People from states like California are going to have a much harder time.”
Nah, takes longer than that in Canada. From a few weeks to several months, I’ve read. I’ve also read that Americans can get an FBI check done in 10 to 21 days if they take care to write down on the envelope the reasons why they need a check (need a visa to work in South Korea) and the date by which they need it (it gets their application bumped to the front of the line).
“What are you talking about!? “All the soldiers are out of step except my son.””
If anybody noticed, they probably just shrugged it off as being another commissioned officer who can’t tell left from right.
44. Well I went to Police HQ in Toronto and paid around $30 and filled out a form. Ten minutes later I was handed a piece of paper with security features. Anyway, that’s my experience.
If you have a Master’s degree, you can get an E-1 me thinks. The government knows that people with a Master’s don’t do drugs, get drunk, or harass women.
It isn’t really a matter of what one may be eligible to receive, but rather of what one is required to get. In the case of an E-1, I believe that the advanced degree must be in the same or closely-related field in order for the applicant to be eligible.
I don’t find Korea sparkling enough to want to spend what will amount to a couple of month’s salary to go piss in a jar in a Vancouver hospital.
RE: E-1
Immigration used to hand out E-1s to teachers with master’s degrees, but they quit doing that back in the early to mid-90s. I was told by a bilingual, PhD-holding longtime foreign professor at my school that teachers with the job title “language instructor” could get only an E-2 and that the E-1 was restricted to foreign faculty with the title of professor or researcher. I left in 2001, so I don’t know if the regulation has changed again.
This is a good example of ill-thought-out, unwise policies of Korean governments of various levels. When there is a significant shortage of supply for foreign teachers, making it more difficult with extra procedure for relatively minor problems such as small number of sexual deviants and potheads is plain foolish. They should perhaps look at Japan and see how they do it. But the chances are those bureaucrats who’re proposing this policy will probably see the folly of their ideas and revert back to the old ways before very long.
#20, “The goal of the Korean elite is to keep the children of their competitors trapped in an inadequate, skills-destroying educational system while making sure their own kids get every advantage. This is indeed all about preserving the social order.”
I’m not sure whether the goal was intended that way, but even if it was, it doesn’t seem to be working well as such, as you can see in the following two examples:
1) the little country boy who grew up in a very poor family, even by the standard of those days, and couldn’t afford to go to an ordinary high(grammar) shool, so ended up going to a commerce high shool, but realised he was too ambitious to finish his study at the high school level, but couldn’t afford a university, so taught himself to become a lawyer, and then ended up becoming the ruler of the country, although he might be recorded as one of the most incompetent in modern times of Korea,
2) the boy who grew up in a shanty town in Seoul and worked as a scavenger and educated himself through a major university and then worked his way through the corporate system and recognised as one of the most successful business managers of the country, then the successful mayor of Soul before becoming to be the most popular Presidential candidate.
You could say neither of the above two had the benefit of coming from the privileged families.
The differentiation that Sonagi mentioned still holds. I know of many persons with advanced degrees, earned from both online and from brick-and-mortar institutions, who teach under E-2’s; despite being referred to as ‘professor’, officially and categorically, these visaholders are at their most respectable 전임강사들. Pension funds similarly place these persons differently from E-1’s. It’s not a function of their education, but rather of the position they’ve applied for and accepted.
As others have mentioned, what foreign teachers are accused of doing in profusion are done by a lot of natives also. True true.
Honestly, I think it’s human nature to magnify (exaggerate?) the vices done by foreign people. One of the arguments that illegal immigrant foes use is that they think illegal immigrants create a lot more crime. I haven’t seen any statistical data to prove of deny this, but it’s a perception that exists among humans, regardless of nationality.
Carr dug up newspaper stories a couple months ago that showed foreigners commit crimes at about the same rates as the locals.
#50, babarian.
i’ve gotta bridge i’d like to sell you …
in every social structure where the intent is to keep a massive uneducated underclass, there are “examples” of success without the advantages maintained by the wealthy. without such examples, there would be little reason to keep slogging away for “the man” and the true nature of the system would become a lot more obvious.
the one, two, or even twenty kids who didn’t adhere the system in place and ‘made it’ despite the built-in disadvantages are not the sign of a system that is equal, fair, just, or even working in a slightly dysfunctional manner from its purpose, as you seem to be suggesting in disagreement with Brendon’s original comment.
but about the bridge … i can sell you any automobile bridge that crosses the Han for a cool 20 million, and naturally, you would then control access and set fees accordingly. managed correctly, you could make your money back from your bridge in a few short weeks.
#46,
That’s the OPP, right? I read it takes longer for an RCMP checkup, although I’ve also read there really isn’t any difference between the two since the come out of the same database.
Nope the RCMP does not take longer. 30min and 30 dollars for me at the RCMP station in Yellowknife NWT.
The changes in the Korean law are not so bad. People just try to make them seem worse than they are.
Someguy, you’re right about how long it can take for a police check. The RCMP takes as long as four months to do a criminal record check. On the bright side, you can still pay with a $US 18 money order instead of a $CDN 25 one!
globalvillageidiot
4 months if you want to join an organization that needs a security check - like scis or the cia or the fbi.
Your talking about the wrong document!
fear-mongering!
#58,
Could be. It all depends what one is asking of them.
#12,
I’m pretty sure it is legal to teach in students’ homes for Korean citizens as well as F-series visa holders, but you do need a different kind of license and are subject to different restrictions. There are several very large franchises that do this exclusively (my wife worked for one for a while), so I’m pretty sure that it’s legal, although I agree with you that most people who do it(Korean or foreign) don’t bother to go through the paperwork.
Over the years I’ve done some recruiting for my company which is one of the biggest. I am also friends with a company recruiter and four branch managers. There has been a huge decline in those interested in teaching here, at least in regard to my company.
There really aren’t enough “qualified” wannabe English instructors. This is especially true when trying to get women over here. Some prospective instructors have already stopped trying I’ve been told and the policies haven’t even been implemented yet. On a positive note, there seem to be more Gyopos being hired in the last year or two.
I’m in my last few months of my time in Korea, but I’m a little concerned about how these new xenophobic government policies will effect the company I work for in the future.
iwshim,
I was referring to the length of time it can take to get a criminal record check, with specific reference to the RCMP service. I did not write that one must use the RCMP. (Nobody really knows what the Korean authorities will require/accept at this point, and it doesn’t happen to matter to me.) I did not suggest that other services will take as long as the RCMP one. I am not “fear-mongering”.
I should point out that if you visit the RCMP website, they clearly perform the criminal record check service for many different purposes, not solely for employment organizations requiring security checks. I’m having it done right now for the purpose of employement in education in Canada - I don’t need one for Korea - so I just might happen to know a little bit about the requirements, fees, etc. And, the Canadian intelligence service is named “CSIS” not “SCIS”.
skindleshanks, I looked into this a little after reading #12, and he may correct, although it looks as if the law is regularly violated. Prior to 2001, all private teaching, by Korean and non-Korean, was considered illegal, until the constitutional court found the law unconstitutional. But there are always advertisements up in our apt for Korean instructors supposedly from the top 3 Korean universities to visit students in their homes for lessons.
It’s important to separate what people will do from what they are permitted to do under the law. Merely because individuals engage in a practice does not make that practice lawful. The flyers skindleshanks mentioned are not a priori proof of legality or illegality, but rather of commerce; the apartment management almost always collects a fee for notices posted, but does not check to accertain the legality of the service offered. Very often, those flyers advertise language services offered by university students, who have a legal exemption to teach in others’ homes under the law. But anyone can make a flyer, and anyone can go to the building management and request to be able to put up flyers.
Likewise, simply because a business will send someone to teach at another’s home does not mean that this action is done in compliance of the law. I really recommend that anyone interested in discovering what rights and limitations extend to F-class visaholders talk to the folks at their local immigration and tax offices. Don’t take my word for it - check it out yourself.
The length of time to process the document is 30 min.
It is titled Canadian Police Certificate for visa/ foreign travel /foreign work permits
That sounds like the correct form. I hope the Koreans are dumb enough to ask for something more but if they use the correct form it is only 30 min.
You could do it at the airport. It is that easy.
CSIS – ouch – been away too long.
(…wry smile…)
I’ve been going to immigration offices and tax offices for over 10 years, and have found that the “law” pertaining to whatever my issue is changes with whatever person I’m speaking to.
True, Linkd, true. Moreover, they are sometimes hesitant to make declarive statements about the law, for fear of being held accountable for giving incorrect information. Still, the description I provided above is the same one told to four other F-class visaholders I know, so I put stock in it.
That’s one of the most frustrating things about being a legal advisor here. You get pantsed almost every single day. But I find the breeze refreshing.
“CSIS – ouch – been away too long.”
I hear ya iwshim. 11 years and counting…
I am a hakwon teacher. I must say that I do welcome the changes. Taiwan, which also has a large English-teaching industry, requires background searches, though I think that they require the FBI records search or its equivalent.
I spoke with the Korean Embassy in Washington and the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles about the changes. Both stated that a letter of clearance from your local police station was OK, just as long as it was notarised and apostilled. I am getting the FBI search though, too, just in case. It seems strange to accept a local police force statement. People could have moved, you know? People could have offended in other states!
I think that TB testing, HIV testing, and other contagious disease testing is a good idea and about damn time in my humble opinion.
I think that there are good intentions behind the proposed changes. The thing that worries me, though, is the implementation! I wish that they had put more planning into it. The health statement form is very vague. It gives the appearance of being very hastily put together.
I do have a genuine affection for Koreans and all things Korean. But the bbali, bbali implementation of immigration statutes worries me.
My favourite comment from the health statement reads, “Do you have now or have you had HIV”? I sort of thought that HIV was a permanent thing.
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Visa Rules revisited…
A couple of weeks ago I posted a translation of the new visa rules. Today the JoongAng Daily has the lowdown on the official regulations coming from immigration. I've posted the entire article in the extended section but have choice quotes right h…