
It saddens me when Korean media make claims that native English teachers in Korea are irresponsible, unqualified, drunken womanisers.
I have lived in Korea for over 5 years now and have had the pleasure of meeting some of the most intelligent, well motivated people here who teach English to Korean people because they genuinely want to help their students learn English and improve their lives.
I have met very few, if any, teachers who come under the stereotype that many people in the Korean media like to portray as a typical foreign English teacher in Korea. Of course, there will inevitably be a few foreigners in Korea who take advantage of their position and carry out irresponsible acts, but in my experience of living and working in Korea these foreigners are few and far between. The point is that these teachers are a very small minority and very rarely stay in Korea for very long.
It is wrong of the Korean media to paint ALL English teachers as if they were womanising drunks. They are not. Many of the teachers who are accused of being under qualified are brought here by unscrupulous KOREAN institute owners who pay them very little, put them in squalid housing, under pay them (if at all) and leave them stranded in a foreign country with no money to get home and nowhere to live. It is very rare for the Korean media to report on these stories, I guess that is because it would start to show the real picture of what is going on in this country and would demonise the real culprits of this issue, namely fraudulent Korean businessmen out to make a quick buck.
It is odd that the media in Korea never learns about fairness and balanced reporting from the foreign media. When the Korean born mass killer killed all those students at Virginia Tech, the American media did not start claiming that ALL Korean born students were mass murders. When the islamic terrorists killed 52 people on the London Underground in 2005 the British media never claimed that ALL Muslims were terrorists. And when the terrorists blew up the trains in Milan in 2003, the Spanish media never claimed that ALL Muslims living in Spain were terrorists.
Indeed the media in the US, UK and Spain when to great lengths to point out that these acts were carried out by individuals and that the majority of the group these people came from, were not involved nor would they ever entertain such horrific thoughts.
It is about time that when it comes to foreigners living in Korea the Korean media needs to show the real side of living in Korea as a foreign English teacher - that is the majority of teachers take a great deal of pride and show a lot of care, professionalism and attention in making sure that their students get the best English education they can give.
So I plead with all sensible and even minded Korean people out there, to truly understand that over 95% of the native English teachers in Korea are fully qualified, genuine people who come to your fantastic country to experience the wonderful and dynamic culture here and to help you to learn English, a very important language, and to help you improve your life and your career prospects.