This morning my friend Brooke sent me a link which her mom thought I'd find interesting. It's to an NPR segment entitled Ethnic Bias Seen in South Korea Teacher Hiring. You should all definitely go give it a listen.
I also loved the "It's not a stereotype. White people are just better, especially Canadians" line. That reminded me of your students saying, "We aren't racist. We just think that the Japanese are monkeys, and Koreans are superior to everyone else. Oh, and black people are scary."
They forgot to mention that there is an age bias here in South Korea against older foreign native teachers, and some institutes would rather hire a clown than a “real” teacher to keep the kids happy.
I am finishing up one year as a barely adequate English teacher (by my own account), but my bosses and kids seem to really like me and want me to continue on here. I consider myself only adequate because I can't really push these kids for fear of losing paying customers at our hagwon. I lost a couple of important students right off the bat, because I wasn't as entertaining, and wouldn't spend the entire class time speaking in Korean to the kids, like the last native teacher did. I thought I wouldn't make it through the first few months. It is only now that I am finding out how grateful the owners and kids are for actually teaching them as little as I really have. After seeing the pressure that many of these kids have thrust upon them, maybe it's a good thing that I'm not burdening them with excess studies any more than I already am.
The hagwon is small and in a poorer area of this sprawling metropolis, so the owners discount many of the children's tuition fees. They are great people and sadly must kowtow to the kids' parents on a great many things to keep enrollment up.
And, as for my not speaking Korean to the kids, my bosses prefer it, and the parents have actually commented that their kids English levels are improving at faster levels than they had under the previous native teachers. I wish I spoke more of the language, but the parents aren't paying for their kids to help me practice my Korean. They are paying for their kids to learn English in the hope of getting a leg up on an exponentially increasing competitive world that isn't getting any smaller but only a hell of a lot more crowded.
I wondered about all the giggling I heard in the background of the comment that the Korean mom was making... It almost sounded like she was making a joke of it? I don't know though.
I've heard that there is also a gender bias (often females are preferred) and a bias toward North American accents (Americans and Canadians). Reading some of the ads on Dave's, that seems quite probable. It's cool that NPR covered it, though.
Coming from an area that is especially diverse, I am curious to learn about how Koreans view race, since I've heard a lot of negative things about it. Like, I wonder how Koreans would view the fact that my sister is black... I suppose I can find out when I'm there!
It's all a matter of how the hagwon presents itself to the parents. Most owners tell the parents that the foreigners' classes will always be fun and the kids will just absorb English by being around us. Samson and I prefer the realistic approach. If little Min-Su is a slacker, he's probably not going to learn anything. I think introducing a non-white and highly competent faculty member to the parents would be much easier since we are already honest with our mothers.
As to the laughter from the Korean mothers on the NPR clip, I don't think they were being sarcastic. Laughing during uncomfortable moments is a part of Korean culture. It's all about maintaining the 기분 (ki-bun or mood/feeling) of the social interaction. Letting things get too heavy and in-your-face is a big no-no.
9 comments:
I'm happy to hire a non-white person! Competence will win the mothers over.
I agree. That's actually one of the points ExpatJane and Michael Hurt made in their podcase a while back.
grr. podcast. i can spell.
I also loved the "It's not a stereotype. White people are just better, especially Canadians" line. That reminded me of your students saying, "We aren't racist. We just think that the Japanese are monkeys, and Koreans are superior to everyone else. Oh, and black people are scary."
They forgot to mention that there is an age bias here in South Korea against older foreign native teachers, and some institutes would rather hire a clown than a “real” teacher to keep the kids happy.
I am finishing up one year as a barely adequate English teacher (by my own account), but my bosses and kids seem to really like me and want me to continue on here. I consider myself only adequate because I can't really push these kids for fear of losing paying customers at our hagwon. I lost a couple of important students right off the bat, because I wasn't as entertaining, and wouldn't spend the entire class time speaking in Korean to the kids, like the last native teacher did. I thought I wouldn't make it through the first few months. It is only now that I am finding out how grateful the owners and kids are for actually teaching them as little as I really have. After seeing the pressure that many of these kids have thrust upon them, maybe it's a good thing that I'm not burdening them with excess studies any more than I already am.
The hagwon is small and in a poorer area of this sprawling metropolis, so the owners discount many of the children's tuition fees. They are great people and sadly must kowtow to the kids' parents on a great many things to keep enrollment up.
And, as for my not speaking Korean to the kids, my bosses prefer it, and the parents have actually commented that their kids English levels are improving at faster levels than they had under the previous native teachers. I wish I spoke more of the language, but the parents aren't paying for their kids to help me practice my Korean. They are paying for their kids to learn English in the hope of getting a leg up on an exponentially increasing competitive world that isn't getting any smaller but only a hell of a lot more crowded.
I wondered about all the giggling I heard in the background of the comment that the Korean mom was making... It almost sounded like she was making a joke of it? I don't know though.
I've heard that there is also a gender bias (often females are preferred) and a bias toward North American accents (Americans and Canadians). Reading some of the ads on Dave's, that seems quite probable. It's cool that NPR covered it, though.
Coming from an area that is especially diverse, I am curious to learn about how Koreans view race, since I've heard a lot of negative things about it. Like, I wonder how Koreans would view the fact that my sister is black... I suppose I can find out when I'm there!
Thanks for posting the link.
For better insight into race issues here in Korea, you might want to check out Scribblings of the Metropolitician and ExpatJane.
I was just thrilled to be able to listen to an entire NPR story and then think, "Eh, I knew all of that already."
That NEVER happens.
So, thanks to Jane for that making that extremely cool experience possible.
It's all a matter of how the hagwon presents itself to the parents. Most owners tell the parents that the foreigners' classes will always be fun and the kids will just absorb English by being around us. Samson and I prefer the realistic approach. If little Min-Su is a slacker, he's probably not going to learn anything. I think introducing a non-white and highly competent faculty member to the parents would be much easier since we are already honest with our mothers.
As to the laughter from the Korean mothers on the NPR clip, I don't think they were being sarcastic. Laughing during uncomfortable moments is a part of Korean culture. It's all about maintaining the 기분 (ki-bun or mood/feeling) of the social interaction. Letting things get too heavy and in-your-face is a big no-no.
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