As a response to this divide, as well as recognizing the financial obstacles for parents, Soo and a few other English teachers created a non-profit organization to provide free English lessons to underprivileged children.Read the rest here.
Part of their thinking was that English education is expensive in Korea, and part of it was that they realized they were making money here and wanted to give something back.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Expats bridge class divide
The Korea Herald ran a story of mine this week about the challenges of making English education affordable for low-income families.
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3 comments:
Interestingly, the government has not prosecuted these upstarts.
No kidding. When I lived in Jeonju, the local government sent out a plea for Anglophones to volunteer teaching orphans and such. And also included a stern warning that anyone volunteering without appropriate visa clearance (ie. paying for permission from the local Immigration office, and procuring permission from their employer) would be caught and punished. The turnout was predictably very low.
I even confirmed it with the local immigration office at some point where I was there about something else, and they reiterated that, yes, you're not allowed to VOLUNTEER your time in the service of orphans, animals, or anyone else in Korea unless you get permission. Sometimes I wonder whether my publication of fiction abroad is considered illegal. Or playing in a band. (I was told it is illegal.) Or my going to the toilet without permission.
Maybe things are less insane in Seoul...
Nice blog you got here, by the way...
That doesn't make much sense at all, does it? It goes back to what I was writing about in that article. If kids without money can't receive adequate (or competitive) English education, then what chance do they have to compete for jobs with their peers? I realize this is a bit over-simplified, but in a sense, English education is directly causing the class divide to widen.
As far as the legality of it, I interviewed a half-dozen people and none of them mentioned it being illegal. I'll do more research and see if I can find out some more info. Thanks for the comment.
Gord,
This is from the email I received from HOPE:
"It is completely legal to volunteer in Korea if you are here under a work visa (i.e. E2 visa). As long as you are not getting paid for your volunteer work, it is now within your legal right to do volunteer work. There has been considerable confusion regarding this matter, as the immigration office has not posted information on their website and refuses to provide written documentation stating their position on volunteering. We have, however, contacted them multiple times over the phone and were reassured that it was completely fine. They encourage any individuals, uncertain of policies regarding volunteer work, to personally confirm this, by contacting their local immigration office at: http://www.hikorea.go.kr/pt/GvrnSrchPageR_en.pt"
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