Well, this is coming out of left field — Ye Olde Chosun reports that English teacher recruiting sites — with a nice image of Dave’s ESL Cafe — demean Korean women.
The paper says it went into representative recruitment sites like Dave’s ESL Cafe and English Spectrum and found dozens of posts describing Korean women as sex objects or sexually demeaning them. There are even people who post their sexual exploits with Korean women in places like Itaewon and Hongdae and openly use expressions that would make you blush.
What’s more — are you sitting down for this? — there are even posts demeaning Korean culture, for example, comparing kimchi to food waste.
Oh yes, children. Oh yes. I could hardly believe it myself.
These sites are frequently visited by foreign teachers in Korea seeking employment and living information. Local colleges and hagwon also use the sites to find teachers.
Some point out that because of this, a growing number of teachers are entering the country with a “distorted image” of Korea.
A Miss Lee (27), who worked as an English teacher at a Jongno hagwon, said she was quite embarrassed when a white colleague of hers asked her if it was true that Korean women will sleep with [foreign teachers] if they just teach them English. She said the prejudices of foreign teachers about Korea and Korean women in particular are much more serious than she thought.
Moreover, these sites openly host ads for tutoring, which for foreign teachers is illegal. E2 visa holders may only teach in their designated schools or hagwon; teaching at several hagwon at the same time or doing private tutoring is forbidden.
Lee Eun-ung (39), the administrator of “The Citizens Group for Proper English Education” (note the address) said hagwon were paying for ads on ESL sites that with posts that slander Korea and Korean women and contain ads for illegal activity. He said there are many teachers who think they can earn money illegally in Korea.
Lee said in the past, these sites had their servers in Korea, so it was possible to have their posts erased and crack down on them, but now, their servers are overseas, so cracking down on them is virtually impossible.
(HT to reader)
UPDATE: Given the exagerated and provocative nature of this piece, I’m convinced it originated in the Western media. (In case you’ve forgotten Ms. Cho…)
24 Comments
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so, Mr. Koehler, I always wanted to know.
Is there really a department there that exists solely to generate a desired public response to a certain issue?
And that response is: “Yawn”.
wjk — you mean at the Chosun Ilbo?
Not as far as I know.
A commonly held prejudice among Koreans is that a Korean woman dating a foreign teacher is doing so only to learn English. Such women are often openly looked down upon.
So it’s okay for Koreans to hold such prejudices, but it’s “serious” when foreigners do?
Oh right, I forgot. It’s a unique situation, and we need to understand it.
Untrue and ludicrous. Why would these sites host ads for tutoring? The sites are aimed at teachers. While some of the teachers I’ve met could stand a bit of remedial English tutoring, I don’t think there’s much of a market for that on Dave’s ESL Cafe.
As for discussions about tutoring, they do occur. Recall, however, that not everyone teaching English in Korea is not here on an E-2 visa. F-2, F-4, and F-5 holders can legally tutor, provided of course that they register with the office of education and properly report their income to the tax office.
More shoddy sensationalist journalism designed to whip up anti-foreigner sentiment from the Korean press. As an earlier commenter put it, yawn.
Oops… make that
Bah. You can time the beginning of Fall with these articles.
I thought there might not be any of these articles this Fall, but with the recent turn of events (Korean won being devalued and angry nutizens ‘pushing’ some celebrities to suicide), I guess someone to try to create an artificial balance.
“As for discussions about tutoring, they do occur. Recall, however, that not everyone teaching English in Korea is not here on an E-2 visa. F-2, F-4, and F-5 holders can legally tutor, provided of course that they register with the office of education and properly report their income to the tax office.”
Yes, and as I recall, anyone one on an E2 that asks about tutoring is told by other members that it is illegal unless they have an F-visa.
“As for discussions about tutoring, they do occur. Recall, however, that not everyone teaching English in Korea is not here on an E-2 visa. F-2, F-4, and F-5 holders can legally tutor, provided of course that they register with the office of education and properly report their income to the tax office.”
Yes, and as I recall, anyone on an E2 that asks about tutoring is told by other members that it is illegal unless they have an F-visa.
Time to leave. I wouldn’t piss on this country if it were on fire. Bye.
Funny how the image attached to the article is a teacher simply repeating negative comments one of his students made about Korean women and Korean women who date foreigners in particular.
This is Korea. Our women get paid to bang foreigners.
In dire economic times the freebies must cease.
When do the articles about how much hard currency you’re remitting home begin?
“Funny how the image attached to the article is a teacher simply repeating negative comments one of his students made about Korean women and Korean women who date foreigners in particular.”
Yes, the irony was obviously wasted on those responsible for that article.
PS. Should we bother to dig up that post and the thread in which it appeared?
#12,
That one would be quite ironic given that the devaluation of the Won is due to Korean investors flooding the markets with their currency as they sell in order to buy dollars.
한국여자…홍대주변에 걸레들아 아예 외국나가서 살아라!!! 한국사람들 망신주지말고!!
Yet the Korean media demeans us- English teachers and all other non-Koreans- all the time!
Hypersensitive hypocrites!
#5 nailed it with:
“Oh right, I forgot. It’s a unique situation, and we need to understand it.”
Freakin’ sick of the silly excuses they give for thinking it’s perfectly fine for Koreans to be racist and totally demeaning to non-Koreans yet take the most miniscule perception of slight against Korea/Koreans, take it out of context and blow it out of proportion to try and get all jihad style against the waygookin they pay to come over here and teach their damn kids.
Gettin’ really f***in’ sick of the hypocrisy!
Was that one of the comments are on the piece, hoju_saram? I take it’s not a reflection of your own personal views.
Well, to be more accurate, it ignores you most of the time. It just demeans you on the rare occasions it notices your presence.
The first thread about this was pulled from Dave’s within minutes. Apparently Dave is scared of the allmighty Korean press and their racisit leanings.
Just a cut and paste from the comments. I was trying to be ironical
*If* this “Dave” guy is so sensitive about such comments, why did he not moderate his forum to begin with, especially if certain comments did not accurately reflect his constituency?
He might make money from having people use his site but he seems unwilling to take the responsibility for maintaining it.
#18 damn, Robert. I hate it when you’re right!
I believe Dave’s ESL is moderated (by team), but moderating any forum that big isn’t easy.
Is it still okay to speed date off UBLOVE? Is speed dating over?
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