As part of its recent batch of articles looking at the ESL industry in Korea, the Weekly Chosun published an article written by Lee Eun-ung, head of the infamous Anti-English Spectrum group, setting out his advice for Koreans and teachers.

I currently operate a website under the name “Citizens’ Movement to Expel Illegal Foreigner Teachers” (cafe.naver.com/englishspectrum), which has now accumulated an Internet community of 17,000 members. Since its establishment in January, 2005, through constant surveillance activities our community has become a leader in arresting, expelling, and fining about 100 unqualified native speaker teachers, and stopping them from teaching in classrooms. We have also consistently worked hard to get health check reports and criminal background check reports included in the E-2 visa issuing process.

While doing this work, we came into contact with many unqualified native speaker teachers, but that was not all what our work was about. We also found out about the existence of innocent victims who received massive amounts of criticism due to unqualified teachers, and also found out about the existence of really well-qualified world-class teachers. I also felt I had the responsibility of actively letting people know that there are many “excellent educators” among those native speaker teachers who work in Korea. However, it is a fact that the Korean media still connects native speaker teachers to drug addiction or sex crimes, and are planting prejudiced views among Koreans to have them think that native speaker teachers = bad people.

Currently, as of 2009, the number of native speaker teachers in Korea who carry E-2 visas now reaches 20,000. This number should be much higher if we consider those who are working unofficially. 20,000 is by no means a small number, because these people have been put into schools and hagwons and are currently responsible for a part of our country’s English education. As there are so many of them, it is inevitable that there would be many teachers who are unqualified and whose skills are not properly proven. Those who stir up trouble in society due to inappropriate behavior are also unqualified teachers.

The reason why Korean society has a strong negative opinion toward native speaker teachers is simple. The existence of bad teachers become known in an instant through press reports. However, the majority of good teachers who quietly go about their work hardly get any exposure. Most of those who are currently branded as unqualified teachers also did not receive that kind of evaluation from the very start. Due to the absence of communication that stemmed from cultural conflicts, they found it difficult to adjust and settle in Korea and consequently went askew without being able to properly understand Korea.

One of the reasons that has brought about these problems with native speaker teachers is the unbalance in demand and supply of teachers. Currently, the English education market in Korea is so overheated, the expression “mania” perfectly describes the state of the market. Since the supply of native speaker teachers is not able to follow the demand, extreme shortages of teachers are occurring everywhere. The reality is that whenever someone invites a native speaker teacher, the expression “모셔온다” [a highly honorific expression for invite/bring] is even being used. Education institutes such as schools and hagwons receive a certain “premium” just for the fact that they have a native speaker teacher. The competencies of Education Offices in cities and provinces are also judged based on how many native speaker teachers they are able to allot to the schools that they have jurisdiction over.

Of course, there absolutely must be proper and fair treatment toward native speaker teachers. The problem occurs when the treatment becomes excessive. There is a problem when a “greenhorn teacher” who has just graduated from college, gets the royal VIP treatment as soon as he sets foot on Korean soil, just because of the fact that he is a foreigner. In this kind of atmosphere, any teacher would find it difficult to stick to the “right path.” In addition, those who work in the English education industry should also change their attitudes. Native speaker teachers are undoubtedly educators. However, there are many who work in this industry that try to interpret this job only in commercial terms. In some aspect, we are the ones who have provided the reasons for native speaker teachers to think that “Korea and Koreans can be treated without much respect.”

In 2008, our community received a complaint by a native speaker teacher called “A.” “A” told us that he was fired for a ridiculous reason, along with other teachers, about 11 months into his contract because the hagwon owner did not want to pay retirement allowances. When the employment contract of a native speaker teachers expires, the teacher must leave the residence that was provided by his/her employer. That means the teacher has no place to sleep. Fortunately, “A” received help from us and was able to safely receive his retirement allowance by adopting relevant legal measures.

In the case of native speaker teacher “B” who was receiving work through an employment agency located in a rural district, the agency’s greed pushed “B” to go through a murderous teaching schedule which he could not continue with, and so “B” therefore turned to us for help. These kinds of cases show that there are many native speaker teachers who come to Korea with good intentions but accumulate ill will and return to their countries with bad feelings about Korea. Some of these teachers break their contracts or flee because they are unhappy with the abuses that their employer is carrying out against them. In the end, the victims are the students who are supposed to be listening to the lectures.

There are many things to point out about the attitudes of general Koreans toward native speaker teachers. There are surprisingly many people who don’t think much about mistakes made by native speaker teachers who do not understand Korean sentiments/proprieties and act inappropriately. They just think “It’s because they are foreigners,” or “It’s because foreigners are cool.” Some people go past the level of just turning a blind eye, and even thoughtlessly copy the actions of these foreigners.

However, this kind of thinking is very wrong. The native speaker teachers who are legally allowed to teach here are usually from advanced nations of the West such as the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. The rules and laws in these countries are by no means more open and looser than ours, and if anything they are stricter. If someone just unconditionally turns a blind eye to a mistake made by a foreigner, a mistake that would not even be allowed in their own country, then the result of that would be the destruction of social rules and legal systems. Native speaker teachers who are not called out on their mistakes cannot ever learn Korea’s rules and the order required in Korean society.

There is one thing that I absolutely must point out about the attitude of Koreans toward foreigner(s) (teachers). This would be the distorted and misguided views toward (dating) relationships between foreigners and Koreans. Of course, in regard to this issue, native speaker teachers are also responsible. Even now, cases of disorderly sexual conduct of foreigner teachers continue to keep appearing in the press. However, in this case also, we must not make the “mistake of generalization.” To treat all foreigners who date Koreans as “libertines” would be a problem. We must be strict and vigilant about not practicing prejudice by taking a phenomenon occurring among a very few people and treating it like it is a problem of the whole.

Our community does not only do activities related to finding out unqualified native speaker teachers, but we also actively engage ourselves in discovering and introducing excellent native speaker teachers. In the process, we were able to get to know many great teachers. “C” who is an American English teacher gets along well with his students while also doing things like playing soccer with them, even outside of his required class times. On the weekends, he even does such good deeds as visiting nearby orphanages on a regular basis. One of his hobbies is to travel into far corners of the countryside to explore Korean history and culture.

Last May, after receiving a report, members of our community set out to track down a “native speaker teacher who habitually engaged in drug use.” While conducting a stakeout for five months at one hagwon, we got to know one memorable teacher “D.” Over the course of the five months we knew him, he was always consistent in cheerfully answering the questions asked by children, and made rounds among the seated children to give them friendly advice. In order to concentrate on his classes, not only did he not answer his phone during class, sitting down was not even an option for him. Then there was the teacher “E” who would give out baked goods to children during recess. Teacher “F” traveled to do voluntary work to help clean up the oil spill in the Tae-an area. There are more good foreigner teachers out there than we think, who quietly go about their work at their given jobs. It’s just that they are not revealed.

It is true that Korean public opinion is not friendly toward native speaker teachers yet. However, we cannot keep “blaming others” regarding this problem. First and foremost, native speaker teachers themselves must take the initiative to change. The first thing that I would like to recommend to them would be to try to understand Korean culture and Korean society. Certain words or actions that may not mean much in their own country could create sadness or anger in Korea. Since they have made the effort to come to Korea, there is a need for them to try and make the effort to read between the lines.