Ever since the Lee Myung Bak Administration came into office, one of the principal campaign promises was to reduce the cost of private education. After fits and starts, the Administration is moving forward. (more…)

Roboseyo shares some key points about the May 2009 working paper, “Discrimination Against Non-Citizens in the Republic of Korea in the Context of the E-2 Foreign Language Teaching Visa.” It was written by Benjamin Wagner, an attorney associated with the Kyunghee University School of Law, hence the alternate name “the Wagner Report.” Written for educational purposes, the report elaborates on the points made in a 2008 complaint to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK).

Check our the report and the summary [Roboseyo]

We’re reproducing Mizar5’s comment at the Marmots Open Thread (comment #22), because it highlights the differences between Engrish and English beautifully! Right on target, Mizar5!

“What I’m sure most English teachers must realize by now, or should (not that I speak for them, rather I speak from the Korean perspective is that Engrish occupies an interesting niche in Korean culture that is wholely unrelated to communication.” (read the rest…)

Starbucks Socialist, Seo Eun-mi, also an English professor at Howon University, takes legitimate aim at kindergarten-aged children ordering/drinking coffee while also taking liberal aim at hagwons, consumer capitalism, and beautiful teachers. (more…)

The Berlin Airlift this was not, but we’re glad to say that random folks who read about the teachers’ situation have now made a small difference in the comfort levels of some of them. Find out how you can help and make an even bigger difference of your own for the rest. The 7-Day Drive continues…

This is the bold idea: before the KCDC cuts off the internet and completely isolates the instructors for a week:

Deliver care packages to the teachers so that they can have the most peaceful, entertaining, self-fulfilled, relaxing bit of zen that metropolites like us could only dream about in our wildest temple-stay daydreams.

A Tennessee dad whose son is half Korean-half Caucasian weighs in on the advantages and disadvantages of raising a kid in the American or Korean education system:

An excerpt:

“Educational Advantages of Korean Public Schools
Schooling is taken very seriously in Korea, as students are required to study a variety of subjects, including two foreign languages. When classes end in the afternoon, the students supplement their knowledge at hagwon, or private institutes, sometimes studying past 10 p.m.

The idea blurted out three weeks ago by Kwak Seung-jun, the head of the Presidential Council for Future and Vision, was an ‘ambitious plan’ to crack down on hagwons who operated after 10pm. It created nothing short of its own firestorm from all sides, which left the Lee Myung-bak Administration with no other option than to distance themselves from their over-exposed pointman on education policy.

Now, the Korea Times reports:

Police will not be allowed to crackdown on private institutions providing middle or high school students with courses after 10 p.m., the chief policymaker of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said Monday.

Rep. Yim Tae-hee told reporters that the party’s key post holders vetoed the plan to introduce a bill aimed at setting a curfew for hagwon operating hours and using police to crackdown on private institutions violating the regulation at a meeting with education ministry officials.

For hardworking public school teachers of fine moral standing, a happy Teachers Day may have included several carnations and a warm-hearted chorus of thanks from kids and their parents. But, reports the LA Times, these days it is another tradition lying beneath such thanks that the government is trying to stamp out. (more…)