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