Envoys from countries excluded from the list of countries whose nationals are eligible for E-2 visas want are complaining. Those sounding off include the ambassadors of Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore and India, nations that have adopted English as an official language but whose nationals may not teach English in Korea. Current regs allow only nationals from countries where English is spoken as a “native language” to teach. Of course, even if the regulations were to change, there’s no guarantee that schools would actually hire Asians as teachers — see the comments by a parents group and a hagwon spokeswoman.
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27 Comments
They shouldn’t feel too bad. It is only comparatively recently that hagwons and schools would hire anyone who didn’t have a North American accent.
Anyway, even as a native speaker, I tend to have a real tough time understanding some people from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
On the other hand, I am sure that there are some nationals of those countries who are perfectly capable to using a more standard form of English and can minimise their often thick accents.
“It would not be the right English education if Filipinos or Indians teach our young children with a bad accent”
This mother needs to meet my former co-teacher. She taught our kids the classic children’s song, “Tinkle, tinkle, little star” while I was taking a sick day.
As an English native speaker, I find it easier to understand Filipinos’ English than most Australians’.
I can understand English-speaking Filipinos better than I can understand some Australians. I think Korea is missing a great opportunity by not using Filipino English teachers, especially in Korea’s elementary schools.
If Koreans with degrees in English can teach English in Korea, then why not Filipinos or Singaporeans with English degrees?
For a few decades, nationalistic thinking hurt English education in the Philippines, but now I think the Philippines government has started to realize that English is a valuable asset that they need to focus on again. English Call centers are big in the Philippines these days, and have caused many Filipinos to reassess their English speaking skills. Many probably did not realize they had a problem with English until they were turned down for jobs at call centers. Also, the large number of Koreans studying English in the Philippines has caused many Filippinos hoping to get a tutoring job to work harder on their English.
I had a small English tutoring center for Korean students in the Philippines from 1997 to 1999, and it was hard to find good tutors for my students. There were not only the grammar and pronunciation problems, but the Filipinos were not used to teaching Koreans, who expected their tutors to correct their mistakes. Many of my Korean students would come to me and complain that their tutors were not correcting their mistakes even though the students knew they were making some.
My Filipino teachers tended to get their feelings hurt when I would correct their English errors during our training sessions. They were not used to having people correct their English grammar and pronunciation. Even though I had tried to explain to them that Koreans were quite particular about grammar and pronunciation, many of my Filipino teachers still seemed to think that they would hurt the feelings of the Koreans if they corrected their mistakes. However, Koreans were paying for their tutors to improve their English, not to hear their tutors always telling them, “Very good,” even when the Koreans knew they were making mistakes. That kind of excessive positive reinforcement may work with young Korean children, but it was not working with the high school and college students we were teaching.
Anyway, when hiring English teachers, qualification should be the rule, not nationality.
and easier to understand than many Scots and some Irish.
There’s a reason the film “Trainspotting” had English subtitles.
I watched Trainspotting once with the Korean subtitles… My Korean isn’t great, but it was much better than the translator’s English. Pretty sure that no Koreans know what’s being said in that fine movie.
“As an English native speaker, I find it easier to understand Filipinos’ English than most Australians’.”
Really? How many Aussies have you met?
Well, I’m a Filipino and I’m not hurt at all by their preference. If they only want Caucasians then so be it. The world is full of opportunities to let someone like me be looked down by a group of people with racial preferences (notice I didn’t say country or society, as there are also people in Korea who are open-minded and unbiased).
It’s ironic. Local hagwons are shunning Asian teachers yet the number of children travelling to my country to learn English (for what, 3 months to a year?) is increasing rapidly. I guess what these local owners say in public and what we little ol’ Asians see are different.
In terms of acquaintances and co-workers, a couple of dozen. However, in numerous trips to Australia, I’ve spoken with at least hundreds of people, not all of whom of course have the same accent.
Then again, the number of people I’ve met is not the key issue for my understanding — it’s what my accent is, no? I’m from the U.S., where I have been exposed far more to Filipino-accented English than I have been to Strine.
I also find that with many Filipinos, while the intonation and plosives may be different from my speech, with Australians, very often it is the vowels and diphthongs that differ so radically from U.S. English and for some reason, this makes it harder for me to understand what they are saying 100% of the time.
I wonder if a more tactful approach would have been for Korea to state it only wants to hire English teachers from accredited universities of native English-speaking countries. That would weed out most of the Russians at least, although that doesn’t solve the problem of hiring the Aussies.
#9, I was just going to mention your nick as an example of a Filipino who is competent in English.
Oh, and the lady who doesn’t like the Indian accent she should count herself lucky if someone like Salman Rushdie teaches English to her kid(s).
Correction…drop the ’she’.
#11,
English-speaking countries? Like these?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.....of_Nations
Thanks, SomeguyinKorea. I guess the stereotyping around here won’t go away that fast, especially since it’s been ingrained in the minds of these individuals for years. In the same light, I’m truly believe that the other half of the local society (ie. Koreans who are not biased on race) will be the ones who will benefit most from this situation.
As they say, one’s man’s loss is another man’s gain.
Thanks, SomeguyinKorea. I guess the stereotyping around here won’t go away that fast, especially since it’s been ingrained in the minds of these individuals for years. In the same light, I truly believe that the other half of the local society (ie. Koreans who are not biased on race) will be the ones who will benefit most from this situation.
As they say, one’s man’s loss is another man’s gain.
Ooops, double-post. Can anybody delete the first one? Thanks!
This is certainly an area of misperception. If the parents are that concerned about their childrens pronunciation they might start paying closer attention to many of the Korean English teachers who are spending a great deal of time with their children. For about 90% of the lesson, it’s not English but Korean. Occasionally you’ll hear a “payjee” and “testew”, then they might read a sentence. I always look forward to the Korean teacher who tells me my pronunciation is wrong. I’m sure a Philippine teacher could no worse. In fact…
I’m interested to know whether this is being reported in the Korean language press?
Surely the issue here is not about accent (though i defend the australian accent, and will resist the temptation to make further comparisons), but about qualification to teach?
One of the reasons English teachers in Korea are not highly esteemed (to say the least - and not only by the Korean population, but by the wider (non-english-teaching) expat community) is that many of them are simply not qualified to conduct the work that they do.
As any of you who have ever had a Korean friend try to teach you Korean will know, being a native speaker does not mean that you know how to teach your own native tongue.
This is not the fault of the English teachers in Korea - they are simply taking advantage of an opportunity that Korea’s E2 visa system grants them. Many of them young people straight out of university, who are trying to pay off student loans, or save some money to travel. I myself was once one of them. The fault here lies with the Korean E2 visa system and I sympathise wholeheartedly with the arguments of countries such as the Phillipines, Singapore (and etc).
Someguy, in other words, discriminating against accreditation agencies would be a lot more understandable than discriminating against countries of native-English speakers (i.e. race).
By the way, I once had an American coworker of Philippino parents who was fired from her job because the students said she “wasn’t a real American. I guess even if the law did allow for Philippinos to obtain E-2 visas, they would eventually run into the underlying obstacle anyway, that is racial ignorance. Correcting the E-2 law is like putting clean socks on dirty feet.
Firstly, if ROK wants to do business with all of the economies of the world, allowing South Korean students to study with all English speakers is a decent notion.
However, regardless of what immigration does, I wonder if employers will hire non-Caucasians. I’m not condoning it, mind you. Considering the fact that I have learned about the world from co-workers, I would welcome any qualified English speaker.
The irony here is that while the government refuses to grant E-2 visas to teach English to persons from these countries, it nonetheless intends to utilize people of these nationalities to teach English - just not on E-2 visas. How that for consistency?
#24,
Maybe they’ll introduce a new kind of visa intentionally for Asian teachers.
#21,
No, I was vaguely expressing my doubts that we’ll be seeing many Africans teaching English in Korea soon despite the fact that there are many qualified English teachers there.
Speaking of accreditation and discrimination…
I’m qualified to teach linguistics at the university level and yet I’m relegated to teaching English conversation to the freshmen class. But, make not mistake, I have no illusion of being a victim of discrimination. I know that tenure sometimes comes with a hefty price…last I heard it was at least 35 million won.
Bottom line. These people are not native speakers. Koreans want to learn from native speakers. Can’t blame them.
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