As reported by Dave on his blog “Big in Japan” and later by national papers in Japan - two JET Program English teachers were arrested on June 19th, 2009 in Okinawa on suspicion of importing illegal substances.  The two teachers (Ashley Lawrence, 22, and Kristin Zodrow, 23) claimed they had bought the substance online and were unaware it was illegal in Japan.  Some reports allege the substance in question to be “party pills,” containing benzylpierazine - a banned substance in many countries, including Japan and the USA.  44 pills were purchased from an online British company in April and seized in Tokyo upon their arrival to Japan.
 

This incident will no doubt have an ill effect on the reputation of foreign educators in Japan.
If you are going to teach in a foreign country, know and obey their laws. Check the government websites of the country you are teaching in before you travel. It is immature and often risky to remain ignorant of laws that govern your rights as a foreign national in another country. This is one of the many responsibilities an ESL teacher has to themselves and to others while working abroad. Very often the damage done from drug and/or sex offences perpetrated by ESL teachers, other than the risk and damage to themselves, in foreign countries has an ill effect on the whole community of foreign educators in that country. This isn’t to sound ‘preachy,’ but using the excuse of “I didn’t know,” isn’t simply ignorant, it’s aggravating. It’s aggravating that these teachers couldn’t stay home to get the ‘rave’ out of their system or simply go down to the Lawson’s and enjoy a bottle or can of a delicious Kirin beer, instead of ordering an illegal drug over the Internet from England.

Japanese society places a premium on reputation and unfortunately a case like this will only sully the reputation of the foreign teacher there. Japan is one of the few countries left in Asia that does not require a criminal background check or a series of drug and medical tests to be eligible to receive a teaching visa. Hopefully, the ministry of education and the Tokyo government will not overreact and introduce new visa regulations, but they would not be alone in such a reaction to a drug case, and one could say they would even be justified.

By Sean McCall

Sources:
Foreign Teacher Arrest Update

Foreign Teachers Arrested in Okinawa for Importing Illegal Substances

        

There was recently a discussion in ESL DAILY about disciplinary issues in hagwons. One blogger commented we are not allowed to lay a finger on troublesome students while the Korean teachers whack them frequently. I instantly connected to that cynical remark.

Hagwons usually practice extraordinary renditions of miscreant students. The ESL teacher is ordered to send them to a senior Korean teacher who will whack them sensitively. That previous sentence is meant to be funny.

I once mildly administered my own hand to a hagwon disciplinary rod. Boy it hurt! The Korean teacher will lay it on multiple times.


Many a time my fingers have itched to seize a brat, almost always a boy, and drub him. But in my heart of heart I have never meant to administer what is routine almost a past time with most Korean teachers.

As hagwons become more cut throat, this environment will get worse. Hagwons must all the time appeal to their students first and then their parents who get the feedback. That might seem to contradict the above. But Korean children are macho for physical punishment. They think it normal.

These days hagwons are increasingly videotaping classroom instruction. When I attended Teachers College in New Zealand, I was instructed in the psychology of positive and negative reinforcement. I tried to sensibly practice it. Under a videotape camera that is ill advised. You never know who is watching you. I was told the moment a student showed any kind of distress regardless of his shocking preceding behavior; I must cuddle and soothe that child. Sometimes I suppressed my own feelings, by whispering in the child's ears that he was a rat while I cuddled him.

Some Korean parents are absolutely dreadful in their demands on ESL teachers and indulgence of their children. They are the minority but they have all the power. We are for them just a bar of soap.

I could handle it better when the physical punishments were for actual extreme misbehavior. Children especially boys do try on the teachers until they have reached the limits of bad behavior. When I first came to South Korea in 2001, the boys of my hagwon had got into the habit of tossing their school footwear into the air. They had already broken one pair of my glasses and came close to breaking another. I could see this wasn't going to stop under gentle admonishments. So I informed the female Korean teachers. I tried to restrict the misdeed to one boy. But immediately of course the students named all the delinquents. Modern children unlike my generation are unfailing narks. They were lined up in front of the school and the awful deed, two sharp blows with a hard object, were administered to a brief whimper on the hands. That misbehavior instantly stopped.


Regretfully, many hagwons physically punish for routine school lesson errors. One of my hagwons came to increasingly distress and revolt me by this practice. The Korean teachers take their cues from the hagwon directors. This school director was a lovely kind man except for this perverse weakness. He would give back marked papers and then lay it on hard to every child in the classroom. Then at the end of the class period, he would lay it on again to half a dozen boys. One big boy would nonchalantly chat to his mates while his hand was being swiped. A young female teacher at the hagwon, Miss Lim, used to really get into the swing of it. She would come into class with her long stick and marked papers. Then while the rest of the class quailed she would deliver the blows to the luckless ones. I once watched her play with the senior boys a popular Korean school game. The boys struck her wrists with their finger nails to draw as many blood marks as possible while she moaned.

Physical punishment was not usually practiced on the senior students. They would refuse to put out their hands and would complain bitterly if it was tried on them.

Hagwons confirmed my suspicion that South Korea skipped the twentieth century while Japan never left it. A hundred years ago, physical punishment for classroom mistakes was standard in western schools, at least in the English speaking ones.

Hagwons are generally unruly and difficult places to learn or teach. The high hopes of South Korean Presidents of an English speaking student population within a decade have not been and are unlikely to be achieved. Instead I am hearing that English is being supplanted with various exotic Asian forms. I suppose in South Korea it is called Kinglish. I personally call that a cop out. I.E. a cover up for a global failure in achieving a universal global language.

I have heard that the ESL teaching results are higher in North Korea! That does not really surprise me. Communist countries have historically excelled in advancing education standards. They after all profess belief in elevating their children not just indulging them and making money out of them. I know that is an old fashioned way of thinking.

The western Communist countries were able to achieve these results while banning corporal punishment. I may be stupidly naïve. But I would love to find out that corporal punishment is banned in schools in North Korea.

Goethe

        

Just over two years have past since Lindsay Ann Hawker was brutally murdered in her apartment in Chiba prefecture, Tokyo.  The EFL teacher (Lindsay) was found dead in her bathtub in March 2007; since then the police have continued the investigation while her family have made numerous visits to the country from Britain posting wanted signs for her killer and pushing for further support.

Now, in hopes to find the killer, the local police have upped the reward to 10 000 000 Yen (just over 100 000 dollars US).  Previously the reward was at 1 000 000 Yen.  Currently Tatsuya Ichihashi, “the cross dressing killer,” remains to be the number one suspect and to this day eludes the police.  New reward signs have been posted and wanted flyers have been distributed at railway stations near the crime.

These changes have come about shortly after the detective in charge was replaced.  The family fears that the changes made might be too late.

Source:

Police up reward for Lindsay killer

Related Articles:

Japan: Detective on Hawker Case Replaced, Killer Still on Loose

        

As the economy seems to go deeper into recession and jobs become scarce, a ‘new breed’ of English teachers is immerging.  With what might be considered has highly educated and employable, recent graduates from good named universities are packing their bags and signing contracts to foreign lands to teach English.

The 11 year high unemployment rate in Canada has given rise to an abundance of individuals seeking employment through Canadian recruiters.  The National Post reports that one major recruiter

which places most of its applicants in South Korean schools, says more teachers working overseas are staying put rather than coming back because jobs at home are scarce.

Applicants to teach English overseas need a four-year university degree rather than formal teaching experience. But agencies say more people with post-graduate degrees and stronger qualifications are applying for the jobs.  - National Post

Though South Korea and other major EFL destinations have been hit by the current recession, the demand for English education has yet to be seriously damaged.  Yes, many private schools are feeling the economic crunch and many may have even folded.  However, with new education reforms in Korea, public schools are demanding an ever growing number of foreign teachers.  China and other Asian nations too are experiencing a growth in the EFL industry due to a growing demand for teachers and those seeking employment.   

        

It is reported that 27,000 South Korean students studied English abroadin 2007.  Now instead of the great distance and greater expenseinvolved with sending a child abroad, Korean families will be able tosend their children to the southern Korean island of Jeju to the attendelementary, middle or high school in a full-immersion environment.  The tuition for Jeju Global Education City will cost between US$3,100to US$4,700 - a far cry from the amount doled out to study overseas. Of course, there is an economic downside - with the poor economy andthe competition with 21 “English villages” already in existence (withmore on the way) it may prove difficult for investors to recoup theirinitial investment.  With an official opening set for 2011, officialshope an economic turnaround with additional enrollment from other Asiancountries will make Jeju the new Mecca for ESL in the Asia Pacificregion and a profitable venture to boot.

By Sean McCall

See link:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/24/skorea.english/

        

An interesting report recently posted by JoongAng Daily shows that despite the weakened Korean Won and threats of war from the North, ESL teachers in South Korea are not only renewing contracts at schools, but recruitment is on the rise.  

All of this is due to the slim prospects of work awaiting teachers in their respective home countries.  Those teachers who have student loan debts or mortgages have had to subsist on little in order to send home most, if not all, of their paychecks.  In the past, this would have meant teachers seeking out jobs in countries with better exchange rates (usually Japan or Taiwan) - and this is still happening to a lesser degree - but the trend seems to indicate a reluctance to risk a move anywhere right now.
 

The official data from Seoul’s Ministry of Justice indicates the number of E-2 visa holders is up 2,000 from last year; it would seem Korea is once again many teacher’s first choice.  This is not all that surprising. Japan has a higher cost of living than Korea and a surplus of unemployed English teachers. The best ESL jobs in Taiwan require a teacher to be in the country.  And with airfare, an apartment and the visa costs, Taiwan requires more startup cash. China’s ESL industry is still growing and as a result schools there generally offer only half of the wages of a Korean hogwan, even with a weakened currency.  And when all is said and done, despite the horror stories and the often ranted about negativity, a free apartment and round trip ticket are extremely strong selling points and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.


By Sean McCall

See links:

Bad times at home keep English teachers here

        

The ministry of Education has admitted, according to an article on June 15th in the Korea Times, the Lee Myung-bak administration’s “Practical English Lecturers” project has failed to meet applicant targets in nine regional education offices due to a lack of the program’s promotion.

The new program, an election promise kept in an otherwise unpopular presidency, is designed to improve the practical English skills of prospective Korean teachers, but it’s chief aim is to further reduce the burdening cost of private English language education and in time replace foreign teachers altogether. The administration of the late president Roh, Lee’s predecessor, took the first step in the slow process of reducing the country’s dependence on foreign teachers when in 2006 he introduced an extra hour of English language classes at the end of the regular school day in an effort to reduce private education tuition increases, driving many smaller companies out of business.


The Lee government is hoping to attract 10,000 special lecturers in the next two years to the program. Of the 4,228 available jobs for 2009, 4,543 applied. Which sounds good until you look at the rural school boards, for example North Gyeongbuk province, which received only 204 applicants for its 274 posts. Eight other regional education offices also fell short of their targets.

Aside from the program’s lack of marketing and promotion, “Practical English Lecturers” are at a disadvantage in several respects from their “regular” teacher colleagues. First, instructors under the program receive only 26 million won annually, generally lower than English teachers at cram schools or private academies. Second, Practical English Lecturers can only renew their contracts up to a maximum of four years at one school, unlike regular, career teachers at public schools and universities who can negotiate much longer contracts.
 

The idea of immersion is not new to Korean English language classrooms, but the policy is rarely enforced in either private language academies or at public institutions and as such is limited in its success. The instructors under this program will be trained to conduct classes in English immersion. But this “new” immersion policy of the Lee government begs the question: will the policy be strictly enforced this time, under this program? And who is responsible if the students fail to meet expectations? If Korean students are generally incapable of improving their English conversational skills with the immersion already offered by native-English speaking foreign teachers, how will this program change the outcome of a student’s ability to become fluent in English? The program may have more hidden flaws then the Ministry of Education is willing to admit. Or perhaps changing the country’s English language industry over to ethnic Koreans is a suitable compensation.

Spencer McCall

        

It seems that South Korea is being overrun with “unfit, foulmouthed, drunken English Teachers”.  Recently reported by Yonhap News, English teachers have once again been singled out as an evil that must be purged from the sanctified halls of “hogwans” through yet stricter regulations. If passed, these new restrictions would only make South Korea a less appealing destination for qualified teachers.  In the vain of reverse psychology, this may turn out to be the only humane thing to do in order to spare an unsuspecting new generation of teachers an undesirable post-graduate experience.  The article in question is full of angry quotes regarding foreigners, which are hardly worth repeating here (the masochist in you can click the link below for all the juicy details).  The quotes are, of course, from less than reliable sources.  There is unfortunately no attempt in objective journalistic integrity to quote foreign teachers or reference the foreign teacher’s point of view, lending the article an air of unadulterated hatred similar to a documentary aired on Korean news networks in 2005 that dealt with foreign teachers as sexual predators.  This short documentary incited its own string of regulatory reforms in regards to University degree verifications, as well as, a general wrath of public loathing toward foreign teachers throughout the peninsula.
 

The double standards and xenophobia that exist within Korea have been well documented and extrapolated upon ad nauseam.  However, the media is a viable culprit in this malaise of foreign teacher bashing.  A little responsibility could reasonably be called for with a media that has made an unapologetic habit of publicizing descriptions of foreign teachers that other countries would consider a dissemination of racist opinions.  Consider the opposite point of view, from an American media standpoint. American newspapers didn’t write hate articles towards Koreans or about Korean students in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting of April 16th, 2007, the deadliest peacetime shooting by a single gunman in American history.  This didn’t happen because the media and the government understood and were responsible enough not to condemn or defame an entire people based on the terrible actions of one disturbed individual.

A cult of personality may not exist in the South as it does in the North, but a population may be defined not only on what it is for, but also on what it is against. One can argue that the word ‘cult’ should not apply to the kind of xenophobic indoctrination the youth in South Korea receive from their textbooks, media reports and parental encouragement.  But there are many recent examples that would seem to fit to sway any argument regarding education and indoctrination towards a definition, if not short a label, of ‘cult.’


Consider this: In the sparkling nation of South Korea it’s a beautiful, candle lit night in April 2008.  In reaction to less than factual media reports about American beef, a rather gullible gathering of young and old rise as a mob against their government. They hold candle lit vigils across the country for weeks, protesting an unpopular move by their newly elected president, Lee Myung Bak, to import cheaper, higher quality beef from America. By the end of the summer, department stores across the country can’t keep up with demand; American beef is flying off their shelves. Than what were the protests about?  Just for the briefest of moments it seems the DMZ had vanished and a people separated for over half a century stood united in their obstinate ability to believe in fiction.

By Sean McCall

See links for source articles:

Yonhap: Unfit, Foulmouthed, Drunken English Teachers Running Rampant

More %$#@ing garbage in the papers about native speaker English teachers

Bills Seek Tighter Screening of Foreign Teachers

        

If you’re looking to add some “spice” to your classroom activities, consider using a digital camera. You can bring in your own, or borrow the school’s camera (if you ask, your school most certainly has a compact digital camera it uses to photograph field trips or activity days.) It’s true that many children have a natural aversion to their picture being taken, at least by their teacher they do. I usually witnessed this during the first day of a new semester when my director would go around and take a snap shot of all the new and returning students for the school’s online database and administrative system. The kids knew it wasn’t for even anything as flashy and embarrassing as a yearbook, yet they would still throw hands over their face, run around corners and even hide under desks to escape the flash of the camera.


That isn’t to say these children didn’t like having their picture taken in general, but if you plan to take their picture in school, their acceptance of it will all depend upon the circumstance and how you explain to them the reason why their picture is being taken. If you look at their cell phone, or their friend’s cell phone, you will undoubtedly find dozens of the students’ portraits, usually in goofy, silly poses, which would suggest far more embarrassment then would a simple school portrait. The trick to overcoming this obstacle is to thoroughly explain your activity before hand, perhaps even a class or two ahead of time. If there is still reluctance by a student to participate in having their photo taken, then hand the camera to one of their classmates, preferably a friend, and have them take the photo. In my experience this is the best solution and don’t worry about instruction regarding the camera – although you might not be proficient at using the digital technology, guaranteed the student will be a whiz.   

These are the top 5 ways you can use a digital camera (my choice is Nikon, but any camera will do) in the ESL classroom:

1)    Vocabulary exercises: [You will notice younger children, ages 6 to 10, are less self-conscious than more senior students and will more likely enjoy this exercise] Assign simple action or descriptive vocabulary to each student, two or three words at most – words like ‘smile,’ jump,’ ‘happy, ’ ‘sad’ – then have each student stand at the front of the class and “act out” their given words. Take a portrait of each student. Any photo editing software will allow you to do a quick collage of all the photos. Next class, bring in the photos (two or three 8x10s at most) and tape them to the board. Then have each student match the vocabulary word – printed on a small white piece of paper – to the appropriate picture.  Just make sure you get the approval of your director so you don’t have to spend any of your own money, but most schools have these materials on hand, i.e. photo paper and simple image editing software. Kids love acting out these words and will spend a lot of time laughing at their portraits, especially when posting the vocabulary to each photo.

2)    Descriptive Exercises: The small graphics and animations in textbooks can often leave students, especially older elementary and middle school students, bored and feeling superior to the material presented to them. A stunning landscape or portrait that either you have taken on your travels, or perhaps have come across surfing popular photo sites such as Fotoblur.com or Flickr.com, is a great way to engage the students. This usually works with a photo 8x10 or larger. Have each student a) describe the photo in as many ways as possible for 30 seconds, i.e., what’s going on, what’s the subject, what are the colours, etc. b) use 10 adjectives to describe the photo c) guess where the photo was taken d) ask each student why or why they do not like the photo.

3)    Photo Sharing: Works best with older students, 12-16+, and either a small or large class. Everyone today is an amateur photographer. It’s just a natural progression the ease digital technology has brought to photography. You don’t have to know about film speed, shutter speed or apertures – although you really should- to produce a properly exposed photograph on any compact digital camera set to automatic. You will be surprised at how many of your students are actually quite good amateur photographers. I was also surprised at how good one class of mine was at stop-motion filmmaking on their just cell phones! Bring in some of your travel photographs for discussion. Encourage your students to do the same.  They will welcome the opportunity to change the boring Friday lesson to a forty-minute discussion of their hobbies. This is best done on a laptop set in front of the class to save on the cost of photo printing. If the students don’t have large digital files or in a common file format like .jpeg – meaning they have photos they want to share on their cell phone, which will definitely happen – then ask if they wouldn’t mind passing around the phone so each student can view it. My students had no problem with this activity, but again it’s up to the discretion of the teacher to judge whether their particular group of 14 year olds are mature enough to handle this.

4)    Short Friday Films: Works with older students 12-16+, small or large classes. Most compact digital cameras, and some new Nikon DSLRs, come with the ability to shoot small file sized digital movies. Choose a short activity or game on a Friday afternoon and capture it in a movie. Because of their relatively small file size, these movies are easy to email. Collect your student’s emails and use your school’s email, or if you feel comfortable giving out your personal email to your students, to send out the videos after each class. These movies serve several purposes. First, the students feel a sense of community because they have a record of their class activity they can look back upon and share with friends. Second, that sense of community helps reinforce the positive aspects of class participation, which in turn helps them remember their Friday afternoon classes instead of them just counting down the seconds to run out of class. Third, the student’s parents will enjoy seeing their son or daughter use the English they pay so much money for a year. Keep those mothers happy!

5)    Photo assignments: This also works better with older students. After showing the class some examples of your own photography and leading them in a discussion about photography, their hobbies and what they like to photograph, hand out weekly assignments. These should not be strenuous exercises, but should emphasize the locale where they live. Assignment examples:

-    Famous spots around town (hiking trails, favorite shopping spots, tourist spots)

-    English signs (ask the students to take five pictures of anything written in English they see around town, i.e. shop signs, food menus, t-shirt logos)

Discuss these photos in the next class. These assignments are twofold: first, they are often valuable to the teacher in giving them a greater knowledge of the town or city where they live – many things only a citizen or native would know about; second, it gets the students to talk about and discuss their town or city in English instead of talking about a New York or London they have no experience of except through their Macmillan textbooks.

This is only a small selection of things you can do with a digital camera in the classroom taken from successful activities I have myself done with several classes over the years. Please feel free to comment on any of these activities, make any suggestions for improvement or even suggest your own. Teachers only get better through sharing with other teachers.

Spencer McCall

        

One of the most beautiful sounds in the world is the whirl of an automatic bank teller machine in the ears of an expat.

Many times in my years of ESL I have waited white knuckled for that sound. If it comes, the local currency issues out and life is once again a rose garden. If the machine stays silent, life can be hell.

In 2001 I on an impulse took the hovercraft to Japan from South Korea.  This was my first expat year.  I went complacently looking for a money exchange at the Japanese port. I was stunned to discover no place in Japan outside Tokyo would exchange the Korean won. Korea lay just across the horizon. Yet now their national currency in my wallet might as well have been straw. I had not thought of bringing any other currency. A port official gave me some coins and I took the bus to the nearest hotel. The hotel management would not accept the won under any terms.
 

The hotel receptionist rang up the Korean Consulate. She got instant short shift. She checked my visa card. She told me there was only one ATM in the city that would accept the card. That was at the international airport.

I walked in a state of growing anxiety through the gathering dusk back to the port. I couldn’t even afford to use the internet and had no cell phone.  There were hobos drinking around a small fire at a street corner and I actually considered I might have to join them.

I found a taxi driver who agreed without a fee to take me to the international airport. He tested my card in his cab and glumly predicted it was not going to work even at the airport. I crept into the international airport and found the ATM.  A telecom officer gave me directions over the phone. People gathered around. It didn’t work. I tried again under a completely wrong code and I heard that beautiful sound. I would sleep in a bed that night.

Japan a year or two later opened its money exchanges to the won. The Korean complaint that the Japanese practice bad neighborliness is not always without foundation. However expats might take note never cross into another country without its national currency. If that is not practical, at least always take with you a substantial number of American dollars. The American dollar can be exchanged in every country in the world at least for the rest of this year.

The ATM is a marvelous invention. But unfortunately it is owned by the worst kind of people. A dry economist recently on the BBC called all trading banks wolves. Like all wolves, ATMs have voracious appetites for swallowing what comes into their mouths. A horror for the expat is when the bank card is ‘detained’.  That is always a headache to retrieve it. The supreme horror is when the ATM chews it up and the card’s
bank has no offices in the country. That act seems incomprehensible but it happened to me in Thailand. Many weird things happen in Thailand.

I had been desperately looking for an ATM in Thailand that had sufficient money to draw from my New Zealand account.  The fourth ATM machine swallowed the card. The end consequence of this vandalism was a week of semi starvation and I had to return to New Zealand.

That brings me to my final ATM sorry story. This is what my father has just today called the fiasco with K.B. bank. Before I left Korea to Iraq, I consulted the K.B. teller. She assured me my K.B. Debit Card would work in all countries with ATM machines. She even rang up to check the card would work in Kurdistan Iraq.

I found out that was not the case in Turkey and in Iraq. In Kurdistan Iraq every bank assured me my cards would work in another bank not theirs.  I found out it was all a mirage like almost everything else to do with Kurdistan Iraq. The bank officials explained they had the ATM machines but no one had taught them how to make them work. I had to sleep under the stars that night.

My fellow ESL teacher had been caught out the same way.  Our University employer advanced us our salaries. I rang up the K.B. branch but could not understand their officers. The K.B. internet site did not reveal its email address. I found it out from a helpful K.B. official in London. I faxed bank and identification documents to my K.B bank branch in Korea. They sent me a dear customer email and refused in their tortured English to wire me my money. I googled South Korea bank ombudsman. But it seems no such office exists. I searched for K.B.head office. But the K.B branches appeared to be franchises. My ESL colleague was luckier. The Bank of Palestine in Nablus wired him his money.

I took the card to a Post Office to post it to New Zealand where my father could try to use it. While I was waiting, I read in microscopic letters a message at the bottom of the card.

Foreigners and non-residents are not allowed to use this card overseas.

That’s right guys. Not content with testing our blood and our police records in Korea, Korean racism now blocks our money entitlements in any place outside Korea. K.B can now play with my one million won until at some remote time in the future I return to their benighted country.

I will do it in ten years time to collect my one million won with its interest if KB bank or its successor still exists. The lesson there for expats is always wire all your money out when you leave a country. Never rely on what a bank teller tells you. And always read the small print even if you need a microscope.  

Goethe