Canada - Korea FTA concluded

Well, that took awhile:

Negotiations with Canada were the longest ever for an FTA by Korea. Initial talks began in July 2005, followed by 13 rounds through March 2008. Negotiations were halted in April 2009 after Canada challenged Korea’s ban on imports of Canadian beef six years earlier at the World Trade Organization. Korea instituted the ban in 2003 after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease.
Korea resumed Canadian beef imports in January 2012, and the trade talks resumed last November. Korea was the last major Asian market to lift its ban. Under the accord reached yesterday, Korea will reduce tariffs on Canadian beef over 15 years.

Canada will eliminate a 6.1 percent tariff on Korean automobiles within two years of the deal being ratified, compared to the five years in Korea’s FTA with the United States, which went into effect in 2012.

Korean automakers had a combined 12 percent share of the Canadian automobile market last year versus 34 percent for Japanese and 45 percent for Americans, and automobiles accounted for 42.8 percent of Korea’s exports to Canada in the same year.

Tariffs on textile machinery, a large export item from Korea, will be removed over five years. Within two years Canada will also remove most of its tariffs on clothing and textile products, which now stand at 18 percent at the maximum.[...]

Bilateral trade volume tallied $9.9 billion last year, and Canada was Korea’s 23rd largest export partner.

According to the Canadian government,

the Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement is projected to create thousands of jobs for hardworking Canadians by boosting Canada’s economy by $1.7 billion and increase Canadian exports to South Korea by 32 percent.

I love the addition of 'hardworking' above. An article announcing Harper's visit gave this information:

Diplomatic ties between South Korea and Canada were established in 1963. Approximately 230,000 South Korean nationals reside in Canada. 

That's more than ten times the number of Canadians who live here (half of whom are Korean Canadian).

I could only think when I heard about the Prime Minister's visit that the embassy staff here must have been pretty damned busy preparing for it...

Sweet Dream online

Several years ago I posted about the 1936 film Sweet Dream, which I interpreted as a "story of how modernity is corrupting women." Back then they were called 'modern women'; more recently they've been known as 'doenjang nyeo,' or 'bean paste girls.'I couldn't help noticing that in Declaration of Idiots (the 1983 film mentioned in my last post), as well as that film's director Lee Jang-ho's next film, Between the Knees (which can be seen here, without subtitles), the vectors of western consumerism and open sexuality are women.

At any rate, Sweet Dream can be watched online with subtitles, courtesy of the Korean Film Archive:

Screening of 'Declaration of Idiots'

Lee Jang-ho's waaaaaay out there 1983 film 바보선언,  or 'Declaration of Idiots,' is screening for free at the Korean Film Archive Sunday at 4pm. More about the film can be read here (beware the spoilers in the last sentence or two of the synopsis), where we can read this quote from director: "I don't claim to have made Declaration of Idiot: it was created by Korea's dictatorial regime at the time." The film is pretty much unlike anything I'd ever seen before, and with its lack of dialogue (meaning the lack of subtitles is no barrier to understanding it) and humor, it's reminiscent of a silent film, though one which uses music and sound in interesting ways, bashing together pansori and video game sounds to illustrate the clash of the traditional and the modern occurring under the military dictatorship of the time. The regime and the society it ruled over are eviscerated using satire, but in such a way that the censorship authorities simply didn't understand it and allowed it to be filmed and screened.

Here's a short scene from the film:




More about the theater can be found here. Here's a map to the venue:

What is the problem with hiring foreign instructors?

On February 18, Ilyo Sinmun published the following article:

What is the problem with hiring foreign instructors?
As long as they're pretty or handsome, it's okay?

Foreigners who want to work in Korea as English instructors must submit documents such as criminal record checks and medical certificates which include drug test results. Nevertheless, reports have continually appeared in the media about molestation or drug use by foreign instructors or their denigration of Koreans, creating headaches for employment agencies.

A representative of the company 'Job In Korea,' which arranges for the employment of foreign instructors, said that ,"Before hiring a foreign instructor, they must submit things like a criminal record check from their home country. Misdemeanors like drunk driving here are also inquired into." "However the fact is it's difficult to inquire into their character by only looking into crimes. Currently when a teacher finishes a one year contract in Korea and moves to another hagwon, it's more difficult to make an inquiry into a Korean criminal record."

However, industry officials point out that employers' attitudes have not changed in that their first worry is the foreign instructor's appearance or nationality rather than their ability. In particular, 'appearance' is considered the top qualification for foreign instructors. A representative of a foreign instructor agency who requested anonymity said, "Every time problems with foreign instructors stand out in society, hagwon owners who employ them are very sensitive to it. But even in such a situation the first instructor they want to find is a 'pretty girl.'

Eric Kim (50), of another foreign instructor agency, ESL, said, "There are hagwon directors who say in a word [they want] 'White North American women in their late 20s.' Most, but not all, are like this." "There are hagwon directors who claim that after interviewing them over skype, the foreign instructor who arrives in Korea is different than the person seen over skype, or that their photos are different. It's also unusual in the US to request a photo during the hiring process. There is little consideration given to character or ability [in Korea]."

It's argued that since the fact will never change that employers' preferences are for appearance or particular region [or origin], even if the foreign instructor process is improved it won't be effective.

Eric Kim said, "When he sent in a resume, one white male simply wrote on one line, 'Only Hongdae' (the foreign instructor's preferred area). I don't know how angry I got. In order to improve the learning environment, there should be no cases in which foreign instructors who have ability and like children are excluded because they are black or because of their appearance."

While it starts off by looking at crimes by foreign teachers (though, it must be noted, it correctly notes that "reports have continually appeared in the media" about foreign teacher crime), and makes a bizarre claim about people using stand-ins during Skype interviews (which, what with fake test-taker stories I've heard in Korea, may be a case of projecting), the rest of the article makes good points about the one of the main problems with the system being the choices made by hagwon owners. Of course, they'll simply say they're catering to parents and following what the market wants. The 2011 revision to the Hagwon law was made in part to make sure the hagwon owners were doing what they were supposed to in checking the backgrounds of foreign teachers, and though there were excesses (the drug test requirement and duplication of criminal record checks for E-2 visa holders), there have been some improvements, at least. Even though it comes off as a bit of an advertorial for some recruiting agencies, I wouldn't mind seeing more articles criticize hagwon owners for their lack of due diligence when hiring instructors.

SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...  
Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum
Part 52: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1
Part 53: SBS, 'Is Korea their paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 2 

[Note: the episode files have been re-uploaded for those who couldn't get them.]

In the last post, I looked at the first third of the February 19, 2005 broadcast of the SBS 'investigative news program' 그것이 알고싶다 (I want to know that)'s episode about English Teachers, titled "Is Korea their Paradise? Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers." The show can be downloaded in a rar archive here (in four parts - 1, 2, 3, 4 - download them all and click on the first part to extract the file).

In the first third, we were shown how white English teachers are unqualified and only interested in partying with alcohol or drugs and having sex with Korean women, including their underage students.

This is followed by other stories of unfit foreign teachers told by foreigners speaking in English:

Sam (English Instructor): 'There was a Korean American guy who was supposed to sell hashish to high school students.'
- He was a hagwon teacher?
'Yes.'
-Two or three [students]?
'Well, he used the word students. That means more than one.'

Alex (English Instructor): "I don’t know how, but they met some underage girl and she was 16 years old and was in high school or something and he had sexual relations with her. Middle or high school. You need to, y'know, watch some foreign teachers. You should be careful."

Choi Su-yeon (former recruiter): 'One seemed like he had schizophrenia, a Canadian, and he got treatment and fled. Many marijuana addicts come. There were some with bad credit or who were bankrupt who came as well.'

Ryu Il-yun (Hagwon manager for 3 years): 'The only thing we can check is the person’s inflated resume. For example if there’s mental disorder or drug use maybe there’s a criminal record. It’s impossible to check.'
-Out of all foreign teachers, how many have proper qualifications?
'From what I’ve seen, 5%.'

The host then says there are teachers who are arrested for drugs, and it’s hard to know who is teaching our children and we should be concerned about the danger they may pose. Hagwons hire native speakers and bring them to Korea; what kind of experience do they have?

'Last December, police caught an American. He was working at a university.'

This story is related in this Korea Herald article:

The news last November of a foreign bellboy-turned-profesor who forged his degree spurred some universities to confirm the credentials of their staff. But still, it is easy for fake degrees to slip past, especially if an international phone call isn't made.

Hector Manuel Ramos, Jr. taught at Konkuk University in Seoul for two years until he was arrested by police on charges of forged documents. He worked as a bellhop in a New York hotel before he bought forged degrees in Thailand, one purporting to be from Columbia University and the other from Central Michigan University, according to police.

The arrested teacher was interviewed at the police station: 
'The reason I can't work in America? It's fake. You know my evaluation? I have a 90% evaluation from students.'

Student: 'I'm surprised. How did he become a professor, and how did the school not know about it?'
 
It goes on to point out that he was a high school graduate who had worked as a bellboy and was also growing and smoking marijuana.

They then use the same foreign actor who previously molested little girls and slept with a high school girl to re-enact how the above teacher was able to do it.

In the scenes where he’s interviewed by police at the police station, he not only smokes a cigarette – he also yells at them and carries on in what sounds to be fluent Korean. This is made clearer in this Yonhap article, which shows his fake PhD diploma which has 'Kim' as his last name, as opposed to his Masters diploma, which has a different surname. What's hilarious is that on the show, they censor out only the diploma with 'Kim' on it (at right, below):

A university official says that among foreigners coming to Korea not many try to be professors, and that people with a PhD, Americans, are extremely hard to find and are a resource, and are treated as valuable.

The teacher in question also used other people’s theses and had them published in a journal. (His name can be made out on the table of contents below, but it does not appear in the table of contents for that issue today.

University official: 'His thesis was in a prestigious journal so we were very surprised, he didn't seem like a very deep person. He made 4 million won each time an article was published, 12 million in all. They didn't confirm his diploma because it would take too much effort, they usually depend on whether someone answers questions well or not.'

The host then says an E2 visa is needed which requires a 4 year university degree, but it's not easy to confirm degrees.

They then switch to the story of Robert, who we're told is an illegal English teacher working on a tourist visa.

He says, 'In Thailand they bought their degree. So, basically you say, "I'll have a degree in Law from Yale." And then they print it. And they came to Korea and got jobs on an E-2 visa. Online, it's easy to buy a degree.' [Emphasis added.]

Note that while he is clearly talking about someone else buying a fake degree, the subtitles make no such distinction, and make it appear that he's talking about himself. Which, again, raises doubts that he is what the host claims he is, an illegal teacher.

[Cue menacing music.] The host tells us that, in truth, you can easily buy a fake diploma on the internet and come to Korea on a tourist visa.

Robert: 'I can post my resume and photo and some information on the internet and within a day or two agencies will be calling me. They call all the time, almost every day.'

A recruiter talks about how teachers can go to a hagwon and meet the director and say they’re happy to work on a tourist visa. Others don’t use recruiters and do it this way and hide the fact they’re only working 3 months.

A former recruiter adds that hagwons might be onto those who come with fake diplomas, but with a year long contract in place, the need to hire a new teacher, and possible complaints from parents, they don’t let it out. If you’re white with blonde hair it just takes one resume posted online, and within a week they'll be contacted for jobs, especially if they're female.

A hagwon owner says that stress is put on appearance; preferences are for white, female, young teachers.

Ryu Il-yun, who has operated a hagwon for three years, asks how they can properly teach the next day if they go dancing and drink at night. They should come to Korea to teach children and put effort into preparing classes, 'but between you and me they never do.'

They interview a student who says that her foreign teacher doesn't know the difference between a noun and verb and that she has to look up stuff in the electronic dictionary to show the teacher. Her mother says mistakes are made even with the alphabet.

Choi Su-yeon, a former recruiter, says that most foreign instructors teach a lot of slang, which makes her feel embarrassed when she sees the class. They hold grammar books but make mistakes, and it's surprising. They don't know grammar, they really are that ignorant. The lecture in itself is funny.

Then they talk to an official from SMOE. Outside of periodic fact finding or crackdowns, there's no way to enforce [laws]. Asked why there's no crackdown, he says there aren't enough people. They only have 40 enforcement personnel to deal with 70 or 80,000 hagwons.

They they talk to Song Hyo-geun, head of Incheon Immigration office, who says that last year they caught 2,200 people.

- Among those people, were there many white people arrested, as opposed to southeast Asians?
'There really weren't many white people caught.'
- Last week two hagwon instructors were caught and deported. Currently there is one white person reported to be an illegal sojourner.

Our host returns to show the costs of hiring a foreign instructor:
1.5 million for recruiting fee, 2.5 for salary, 1.5 for return airfare, and housing and furniture is provided as well. This adds up to 40 million won per year.

This will lead into the last part of the show, in which such lenient attitudes towards foreign teachers, upon whom too much money is spent, are compared to attitudes towards migrant workers from third world countries.

SBS: 'Is Korea their Paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...  
Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum
Part 52 : SBS: 'Is Korea their Paradise? Blond hair blue eyes' part 1

[Note: The episode files have been re-uploaded.]

The last several posts in this [intermittent] series have been building up to the February 19, 2005 broadcast of the SBS 'investigative news program' 그것이 알고싶다 (I want to know that)'s episode about English Teachers, titled "Is Korea their Paradise? Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers."

The show can be downloaded in a rar archive here (in four parts - 1, 2, 3, 4 - download them all and click on the first part to extract the file).

While KBS had already done a reasonably balanced 5 minute morning report, and MBC a more negative 15 minute late-night report, SBS decided to spend a full hour detailing the threat to Korean society white, male English teachers posed.

The show opens with the image above as menacing music plays and the show's host narrates, 'An internet site for foreign instructors working in Korea. Last December posts denigrating Korean women were posted.' We're then shown examples of what was written:

That's right - they couldn't be bothered to find the original sentences written in English; instead they translated them again from Korean into broken English and had a native speaker read them (with obvious difficulty).

We're then told that at another site, a post detailing how to molest students was put up which breaks down methods for students by age. The image on the show is taken from Anti-English Spectrum, where the post was copied and disseminated to the public:

The narration then switches to English: 'Play a game, and make the boys win. They win a prize and leave class a few minutes early. Lock the door.'

'When you are alone, that is your cue. Give her a massage.'



'When you are in your place making dinner for them, yes, cook with rum or something.'

We're then told that this made netizens angry and they formed an anti site (Anti English Spectrum). The problem site (English Spectrum) is now down.

And so begins a 50 minute "Report on the Real Conditions of Blond-haired, Blue-eyed Teachers" - with a re-enactment of about the worst thing on the internet written by a foreign English teacher (which may have never happened). The producers spend the rest of the episode trying to provoke or outrage the audience by focusing entirely on the negative aspects of the white males teaching English in Korea (with, as the title of the episode puts it, 'blond hair and blue eyes'). In fact, when the title appeared during the show it was compressed, reducing it to purely racial terms:

"Blond hair, blue eyes - is Korea their paradise?"

Our host, Jang Jin-yeong, appears and promises that this episode will find out the truth about the white men who made these posts, and about the foreigners teaching our children, many of whom are unfit or unqualified to teach. The best place to start is, of course, a certain university area in Seoul, and we're shown images of white men hanging out with Korean women on the street of Hongdae.

They talk with a foreign instructor there who is a college professor in Suwon who worked in a recycling factory in his home country:

'I teach English. I work at many companies too. Every foreigner does, and the government knows it, too, so I'm not telling you any secrets.'

The narrator tells us that "Foreigners can easily work illegally in Korea."

They ask someone who's a student if he's taught English; when he says yes, they ask what kind of visa he has, and he says a student visa, and – after a part of their conversation is obviously edited out - that he taught at two different universities in Korea. They also show him walking away with a Korean woman. In fact, several such couples are shown, while the host talks about the teacher's inability to grasp his illegal behaviour.

More white men with Korean women on the street are shown, as well as 'hot' scenes in a club. The host talks about how easy it is for foreigners and what their true purpose in going to Hongdae is.

Michael (English instructor): 'About an hour and a half' [on site sound] [Subtitles: to pick up a girl]. Dubbed sound: I'm not saying you're going to bring home a beautiful girl, but if you want to have a one night stand with anybody, I'm sure that you can.

Then we are presented with Andy, who's listed as an English instructor:

He says, "At first a girl will think: wow he's American or he’s a foreigner, I can go talk to him and learn some English and be friends, but the foreigner's thinking 'It's a girl that I could have sex with… to go out with. That's it.'" Watching this more than once, it becomes clear that the person is nodding at all the wrong times; the conversation has been dubbed.

This is followed by another obviously overdubbed conversation read by a native speaker but clearly written by a Korean: "90% of the guy who come to Hongik University Street are English teachers." (This is about the opposite of the reality that most of the men who go to Hongdae are Korean.)

As can be seen from this photo, the foreigner pictured in the scene with the overdubbed English above is the same guy who re-enacted the 'student molestation guide' which opened the show.

Suddenly, Andy appears again but is listed as 'Korean American' and speaks fluent Korean, saying that guys just go to Hongdae to pick up. It then becomes obvious that Andy's first appearance was dubbed over with another native speaker's conversation.

It then reveals the evil guide 'Making out in Korean,' a book which shall live in infamy, and shows some key phrases like 'You’re sexy,' 'Your… is/are beautiful,' 'Look into my eyes,' 'Take your… off!' 'Don’t be shy,' 'Close your eyes,' 'Turn off the light.'

In the next interview it's implied that the teacher being spoken to is sleeping with the students who are mentioned.

Tomi (Canadian English teacher): My youngest student was maybe, 21? My oldest one is maybe 38.
Interviewer: She must get married.
"She used to. She was a student there."

Up next... Hey! Andy’s back!



And he's a 'foreign instructor' again, but has a new voice which speaks English slowly: 'I have sex around 50 Korean girls in a year. Usually to have sex 2 or 3 every week.' It's good to see that SBS will find native speakers willing to divulge such stories about their personal lives, even if they have to make it all up. It would be laughable if it hadn't been so effective, as we will see.

This is followed by shots of blue eyed men and Korean women getting into taxis together.

 Then the next day they interview Jon, a Canadian English teacher.

-When you came to Korea, how much luggage did you...
'Very little. A travel bag. [They show a backpack sitting in the corner.] I had absolutely no plans when I came here. Originally it was to travel.' [Korean translation: He started working as an English instructor in order to travel.]
 -Normally how many hours do you teach?
'Around 4 maybe a day.'
-Do you have a written schedule?
'Unfortunately I don’t, which is why I sometimes miss classes (laughs).'

He goes on to say he has shot stuff for TV and other random jobs.

-When you go back to Canada, do you think you’ll be able to teach children?
'There’s a lot of overqualified teachers in Canada. So it’s a very hard market to get into.'
-But you can't really teach without a teaching certificate.
'Right. I would need to get certification if I wanted to teach in Canada.'
-You don’t have special preparation for class?
'I shower. That’s my preparation for going to class, you know?'
'If you’re working too hard you can't really enjoy what you're making. So, I prefer working a couple of days a week, a couple of hours a day, enjoy myself, every now and again travel.'

He teaches elementary school students and says he makes 3 million a month, and doesn’t work Monday or Wednesday. He's working illegally and not paying tax. He's asked how he feels when he sees a cop on the street, and he says he doesn't feel scared, and that there's never been an immigration crackdown.

He then prepares to go out, and says the easiest place to pick up is Itaewon , the hardest is Apgujeong, the place where it’s 50-50 is Hongdae.

The host tells viewers: 'Earning money easily and with no fear, for blue eyed foreigners Korea is a paradise.'

MacGrey (American elementary school teacher): 'The teachers I meet here who work illegally are here and they're gone. They don’t settle down for a year or two in Korea because the risk is too high. They come, they make a few million won, and they go to Thailand for a year. They sort of use Korea as a cash machine at a bank.'

Bob (Irish teacher): 'Korea pays the most in Asia. They're traveling, they realize they could go to Korea for a year, save money, and keep traveling.'

Erin (businessman): They don't do enough background checks so they're not hiring professional teachers. They're just hiring people who want to come and have fun or save some money and have fun. So Korea has that reputation of come here, save money, party and have fun.

The host returns to talk about teachers who see Korea as a cash machine and paradise and who aren’t qualified – but more than education problems are problems associated with them teaching our children.

Two informers - hagwon students - tell of an unbelievable incident at an English Hagwon.

There they have an American teacher and a small number of students, so they get along well. They would often eat and drink alcohol with their teacher. After school they had a party and 20 students came and they bought foreign alcohol, tequila, some other strange alcohol, and went to the teacher's house.

There was a first year high school girl there. People got drunk and passed out and the girl was discovered in the teacher's bed and their clothes were on the floor.



Menacing music plays as the camera pans across the sleeping couple, clothes on the floor, and the empty alcohol bottles.

And – he also rolled green leaves in white paper and suggested they all smoke it – it was marijuana. The high school girl smoked it too.

 (Don't try rolling tobacco in toilet paper at home!)

SBS then heads to the hagwon, and finds that 'Peter' teaches classes of at least 10 university students or high school students who are good at English conversation. They follow him as he teaches privates and interviews a parent of one of his students ( an elementary student) who pays him 250,000 won a month for 3 days a week. When asked if he knows it's illegal, the father says yes. But what can he do?

SBS then shows up at his house with the police and a translator.

-We've been informed you smoked marijuana with students. Tell him if he moves we can punish him, don't move.
'Shouldn't I have a lawyer?'
-Tell him that under Korean law a lawyer doesn't accompany him.

They find a pipe and he tells them how he uses it .

'Very relaxing and if I have a lot of stress, it's healthier.'
-When did you smoke it?
'Three weeks ago.'
-Did you know that smoking marijuana in Korea is illegal?
'Yeah. I didn’t know it as a fact, but I had an idea.'
-Have you smoked marijuana with your students?
'No.'

-Do you have a student named __?
'Yes, I taught her for about a year.'
-Have you ever drunk with her?
'Yes I have. We had a party one time and there was tequila there, but I can’t say whether she drank it or not, I don’t know.'
-Do you have a Korean girlfriend?
'No, not like a serious one.'

Menacing music then plays as photos, presumably from his house, of Korean women are shown.

He's next taken to the police station and fingerprinted.

-What do you expect next?
"I expect everything to be fine since I don’t think there’s a problem here. That is healthier, [it's] very unhealthy smoking cigarettes."

Drug tests results see him booked for breaking the drug control law and an investigation into whether his students were involved.

We're then told that there are more victims.

We're told a Canadian English teacher sexually assaulted a middle school second grader who was at his hagwon.

A phone conversation with someone working at a hagwon reveals that something happened when she was in second grade, that it didn't happen at the hagwon, that she was invited to a house to study English, and that she moved to another hagwon afterward. The subtitles reveals that what happened was '(sexual assault)', though those words are never spoken in the phone interview we hear. After seeing at least three conversations having been obviously dubbed, you'll have to forgive me for being skeptical of the story above.

Of course, above is a description of the first third or so of the program, which is just getting started, as we will see in the next post.

On the passing of Alan Heyman

[Update]

Jeremy Seligson writes about Alan Heyman's life here.

[Original post]

Alan Heyman, a Korean music scholar who first came to Korea during the Korean War as a medic and who had lived here since 1960, passed away on Saturday a the age of 83. My condolences to his family.

More about his life can be found in this Korea Herald article, and interviews with him can be listened to here.

I've posted several articles by James Wade from his 1967 book One Man's Korea before, and thought it might be fitting to include his portrait of Alan Heyman, who was a friend of his, from that book:

Judging from the life he led in Korea, perhaps the answer to the question posed at the end was 'no.'