Category: Ex-pat Files

If the authorities send the low quality foreign English Teachers to prison shouldn’t they also send the people that are employing them to jail as well?

I fail to see the news value in this the latest English teacher scandal that it should make headlines in the Chosun Ilbo, but heck at least it doesn’t involve GIs.  Marmot has a whole lot more.

I recently had a request by e-mail to post about what an American expat living in Korea should do in case war was to break out on the peninsula. Below I have posted my educated opinion on what to do in case a crisis was to break out on the Korean peninsula. I don’t consider myself an expert on this so take it for what it is worth.

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Here is great Korea 101 video put together by students of a Korean English language academy.  If you have never been to Korea before this video is worth checking out.  Great job by the students and teachers involved.

From Yonhap:

Number of foreign lawbreakers in S. Korea soar in Jan.-Aug. period SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) —

The number of foreign lawbreakers surged this year as an increasing number of Chinese fishers illegally operated in the nation’s waters or fabricated the South Korean currency, a government report said Saturday.

There were a total of 12,423 foreign lawbreakers in the January-August period this year, compared with 13,584 foreign lawbreakers during all of 2005, said the report by the Ministry of Justice submitted to an opposition lawmaker for the parliamentary audit.

“Foreigners’ lawbreaking cases surged as there was an increase in the number of foreign industrial trainees and interracial marriages,” the report said. “Of all, most notable increase is seen in the number of foreign illegal fishers and currency fabricators.”
The number of Chinese lawbreakers accounted for 65.7 percent of the total, or 8,162, while the number of U.S. lawbreakers reached 838. The number of Japanese lawbreakers was tallied at 238, while the remaining 3,185 lawbreakers were from other nations.

You gotta love this misleading headline of foreigner crime soaring, when in fact illegal Chinese fishermen are the ones causing the overall number to rise. Reminds me of when the media had past headlines about Surging GI Crime^TM but added in USFK parking tickets to inflate the overall crime total.  Now when is the Korean media going to write an article about the surging Korean on foreigner crime? I forgot Koreans would never, ever commit rape, assault, murder, stabbings, kidnappings or even force US GIs to make coerced statements on national TV. They would never do that, would they?

One of my favorite Korean actresses Kim Yun-jin continues to build her brand name with a sexy photo spread in the English magazine Arena:

Kim Yun-jin, whose stock has seen a sharp upward trend ever since she was cast on the hit series “Lost,” graces the covers of two big-name magazines from the U.K. and the U.S.

The first Korean to appear on the cover of TV Guide, one of the U.S.’s most highly-circulated magazines, in the late August edition, she is also featured on the cover of the September-October edition of Golf for Women (U.S.) and the October edition of the English men’s monthly Arena. There, she not only appears on the cover but is also featured in a sexy six-page spread on the inside.

Truthfully if no one told me, I would have a hard time telling this is Kim Yun-jin because she looks so different when dressed like some dominatrix.

Yep she is looking good.

I have been reading with amusement the current English teacher “scandal” in the Korean media reported here and then translated by Robert here. I say with amusement because it was all that long ago when US soldiers were looked down upon by the ex-pat English teacher crowd as giving them a bad image in Korea and aloe and be hold the tables have turned and the ex-pat English teacher crowd is giving us US soldiers a bad image. Especially with the latest “scandal” coming on the heels of last year’s Spectrum-gate “scandal”.

I can remember a few years back during my first tour in Korea a Canadian English teacher I met, yes in Itaewon, asked me why US soldiers were so misbehaved in Korea giving everyone else a bad name. I of course had to explain to this person that if you put a bunch of horny 18-21 year olds in a over sexed environment like Korea combined with unlimited amounts of alcohol, plus being away from home for the first time, what do think is going to happen? Boot camp doesn’t create asexual people who don’t want to drink.

It doesn’t matter where you are from young people are more obnoxious and get in trouble, it doesn’t matter if you are a GI, a English teacher, or a Korean for that fact. Ex-pats in a bar focus on the same obnoxious 18-21 year olds in the bars they frequent every weekend and not the majority of soldiers minding their own business in local bars or back on post calling their families in the US they haven’t seen in months and other people minding their own business in their room playing Playstation for example.

USFK currently has about 28,000 soldiers in it so of course there are going to be a few bad apples that cause problems and when problems do occur the Korean media sensationalizes it and it wasn’t to long ago that many ex-pats bought into the bad GI crap as well when in fact young GI’s were acting very similar to young ex-pats; it was just back then nobody cared about ex-pats, now people do.

I don’t know how many English teachers are in Korea but I’m sure there are thousands and of course within those thousands there are going to be a few bad apples that slip through the cracks. Should all English teachers be painted with the same brush because of the few bad apples? Of course not. Probably the best response I have read from this current “scandal” is from the Metropolitician that is a MUST READ if you are remotely interested in this topic. The Metropolitician I believe correctly believes that the real problem is with the Korean educational system that makes it easier for bad apple English teachers to enter the country, however it is easier to blame the foreigners instead of looking at the systematic problems within the country including sexual abuse of students by Korean teachers as well.

Believe it or not I actually have some English teaching experience. I taught English once every two weeks for nearly a year to elementary students near my camp. The school relied on US soldiers to teach accent and conversational skills to the students because they had no hired foreign English teachers at the school. Having US GI’s come in allowed the school to save the money of hiring a foreign English teacher and it gave us a chance to hang out with the kids and interact with the community. I really enjoyed my time helping out there, but something I found interesting was the fact that the Korean teacher in charge of the English language instruction at the school with a university degree in English could hardly speak it.

I was pretty much dependent on my KATUSA to translate what she wanted to tell me. In fact one of the 10 year old students had lived in America for a few years and spoke better English than her. She could read and write just fine, but talking and listening to English she had very minimal skills. If university educated teachers in Korea cannot speak English is it any wonder why the country is dependent on the same foreign English teachers that are now the subject of such ridiculous scorn by the Korean media?

With all the hoopla over the current English teacher “scandal” these ex-pats can at least take solace in the fact they don’t have to worry about having curfews, off limits policies, lock down on post, no drinking, and other restrictions put on them whenever an incident happens, like what USFK does. So it could be worse if that makes anyone feel better. But on the other hand USFK has proven that these restrictions work because behavior of US soldiers has improved greatly compared to as little as five years ago.

It is amazing to me that even after a year since Spectrum-gate the anti-foreigner focus is still on English teachers. I thought for sure it would shift back to US GI’s or 3D workers or some other ethnic group. Anyway in the spirit of international cooperation, I still offer my friendly advice from last year of how to blend in as a GI for any English teacher out there on the run from the English teacher Gestapo. I said last year that I thought this all would blow over and it has yet to blow over so what do I know, but it is still amusing.

Who would of thought a Russian music degree would be so valuable:

Prosecutors said Sunday that they have arrested a South Korean woman on charges of selling fake Russian music degrees to about 120 South Koreans in collusion with a Russian professor.

The 51-year-old woman, identified only by her family name Do, was charged with selling counterfeit Russian music doctorates to 21 South Korean professors and musicians and fake master’s degrees to about 100 other Koreans, prosecutors said.

Do is believed to have colluded with a Russian professor, who now serves as the dean of a Russian music college, identified only as its initial, V, they said…….

“Do advertised her institute as a Korean campus of the Russian university and the Russian college dean came here along with a couple of other Russian professors for about 10 days a year to provide lessens,” said a prosecutor. “Each student paid about 4 million to 5 million won in lesson fees per semester.”

Do, who runs a private musical institute in southern Seoul, was accused of receiving about 2.5 billion won (US$2.4 million) from the buyers of the fake Russian degrees, said the prosecutors, adding that the illegal proceeds were equally shared with the Russian professor.

So why would someone buy a fake Russian degree you may ask:

The 21 Koreans who bought fake doctorates are now teaching in universities or performing in symphony orchestras after registering their forged degrees with the Korea Research Foundation.

It kind of pisses me off that many people work hard for many years to get through college and earn real degrees and people like this take good jobs away from these people with their fake credentials.

I can remember the 2001 St. Patrick’s Day night that the American student Jamie Penich was murdered in Itaewon very clearly because I was out on the town that night and actually visited the bar that Penich was last at, though not at the same time so I never saw her. The murder definitely sent waves through the USFK community because it was suspected that a USFK servicemember was the person responsible for the murder. Many servicemembers were questioned about what they saw in Itaewon that night but no arrests were ever made.

This case took so many twists and turns that it could be made into a movie, but ultimately Penich’s friend was the only person charged with the murder which included allegations of lesbianism and a confession from the suspected killer to US authorities. However, the case continued to take more twists and turns as the suspected murderer withdrew her confession during the Korean court trial and was found innocent and now that not guilty verdict has been upheld:

The Supreme Court upheld yesterday a lower court ruling acquitting an American student on charges of murdering another U.S. student in Korea in 2001. The court said there was insufficient evidence to convict Kenzi Snider, 24, of killing Jamie Lynn Penich. Ms. Snider had been accused of beating Ms. Penich to death in a motel in Itaewon in March 2001.

The court said it did not accept Ms. Snider’s confession to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation because it was later retracted. After questioning in Korea, Ms. Snider was questioned by the F.B.I. in the United States and confessed to the murder. Extradited to Korea in 2002, Ms. Snider disavowed her confession at her trial here. The court said evidence from another country’s authorities is only admissible if the suspect confirms it to a court here.

I highly recommend that everyone read this Court TV report on the murder because the twists and turns this case takes is truly amazing, while the murderer is still at large. I wonder if the authorities could have solved this murder if they didn’t just focus on the GI murderer stereotype from the beginning of this case like they did? There will probably never be any justice for Jamie Penich’s family, but read the report to draw your own conclusions.

It looks like this group of mostly Canadians didn’t take my advice seriously:

In an ongoing investigation of forged diplomas, prosecutors have busted some 70 people including unqualified English language instructors and the brokers who supplied their fake documents.
Southern Seoul prosecutors arrested a Korean-American identified as Kang on suspicion of brokering the jobs and an accomplice identified as Kim for forging certificates. They also booked two Canadians without detention. They are among approximately 70 people who have been deported or are currently in the protection of the Seoul Immigration Bureau.

(…)

Canadians made up the bulk of the unqualified teachers (62) due to a visa exemption treaty that ensures a steady stream of travelers between the two countries. The others were four Australians, three Britons and three Americans. Starting next March, native foreign language instructors are to be sent to schools across the country, and Korea has had a bad reputation as a haven for unqualified English teachers, a prosecution source said. The large-scale bust will be a good deterrent to curb the influx of unqualified instructors.”

Should of got a haircut and a black backpack.