Comments on: Diplomats Criticize Descriminatory E-2 Visa Rules

By: the_dog_catcha

the_dog_catcha — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:43:31 +0000

Bottom line. These people are not native speakers. Koreans want to learn from native speakers. Can’t blame them.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:37:56 +0000

#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.

By: littlebrownasian

littlebrownasian — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:45:49 +0000

#24,

Maybe they’ll introduce a new kind of visa intentionally for Asian teachers.

By: Global Voices Online » Philippines: Critisism of Korean English Teacher Visa Policy

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:10:07 +0000

[...] from Singapore, Philippines and some other Asian countries are critical of South Korea's new Visa Policy that bars Asians from Teaching English. Share [...]

By: gbnhj

gbnhj — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:18:14 +0000

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?

By: Baltimoron

Baltimoron — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:28:12 +0000

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.

By: boshintang

boshintang — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:47:04 +0000

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.

By: boshintang

boshintang — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:40:46 +0000

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: deece

deece — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:34:38 +0000

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).

By: deece

deece — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:26:30 +0000

I’m interested to know whether this is being reported in the Korean language press?