'Irish alcoholism nature' reason for job rejection for Irish teacher in South Korea
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'Irish alcoholism nature' reason for job rejection for Irish teacher in South Korea
Wow tough crowd... BBC News - 'Irish alcoholism nature' reason for job rejection for Irish teacher in South Korea
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Hmmm, I'm going to have to give the BBC the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did more research into this story than just looking at a screenshot.
In any case, I have heard a lot about this story, being very familiar with the English Teaching scene in Korea. I can tell that alcoholism is a serious, serious concern there, both with the teachers themselves ( very rough hand anecdotal evidence, but would guess at least 25% of the teachers I knew were active alcoholics, probably higher) and the general Korean population.
In any case, I have heard a lot about this story, being very familiar with the English Teaching scene in Korea. I can tell that alcoholism is a serious, serious concern there, both with the teachers themselves ( very rough hand anecdotal evidence, but would guess at least 25% of the teachers I knew were active alcoholics, probably higher) and the general Korean population.
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This is pretty funny considering that Korean people drink a lot.
A friend of mine who happens to be an alcoholic, worked at a South Korean school and said how the teachers would drink at holiday parties, and always go out nightly to drink after work. Many Korean people also drink with dinner daily.
A friend of mine who happens to be an alcoholic, worked at a South Korean school and said how the teachers would drink at holiday parties, and always go out nightly to drink after work. Many Korean people also drink with dinner daily.
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Something like that happened on the north of Australia in 2011 during the mining construction boom. Hundreds of Irish construction workers came over for jobs. Eventually Australian companies started to turn them away because a few of the lads had out drunk us Aussies. I guess the Irish will forever carry that stigma. As the saying goes "if it weren't for the drink the Irish would rule the world".
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The Pot Calling The Kettle Black
A Search for 'Teacher' on the BBC NI Site indicates this is one of many Search Result Stories there. I think it's legit. 06 Nov 2014 on Page 2.
A couple of things are at play here IMO, based on traveling to S. Korea on Biz.
Yep, they're serious Drinkers. The hilarity of this Story is the proverbial Pot calling the Kettle black.
I did a quick Search the other night when I first saw this here. As with Japan, Korea is very homogeneous. ~96% of Korea is comprised of - wait for it - Koreans. This means they don't have the exposure to actual Irish.
In mish-mash Cultures, we're used to encountering various Immigrants. Not necessarily so in Korea. So, Stereotypes persist in ways we can't believe are 'real' in this day & age. I dealt with plenty of Stereotypes re: Americans. We're all very wealthy, because this-or-that Culture has watched Reruns of 'Dallas'. Seriously.
This is why I believe this Story, and this e.mail.
BBC NI Site
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A couple of things are at play here IMO, based on traveling to S. Korea on Biz.
Yep, they're serious Drinkers. The hilarity of this Story is the proverbial Pot calling the Kettle black.
I did a quick Search the other night when I first saw this here. As with Japan, Korea is very homogeneous. ~96% of Korea is comprised of - wait for it - Koreans. This means they don't have the exposure to actual Irish.
In mish-mash Cultures, we're used to encountering various Immigrants. Not necessarily so in Korea. So, Stereotypes persist in ways we can't believe are 'real' in this day & age. I dealt with plenty of Stereotypes re: Americans. We're all very wealthy, because this-or-that Culture has watched Reruns of 'Dallas'. Seriously.
This is why I believe this Story, and this e.mail.
BBC NI Site
-----
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Join Date: Jan 2010
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ESL teachers in South Korea are selected basically on how white and English you look in the photograph. I would have thought they would just think the accent was not the one they were looking for.
Even though this is what they do in reality, it's unusually tactless that they say so explicitly. I guess since this was a middle-person who made the response, they were in some way wanting to expose the ugly fact, but if I were the client I'd fire that person. Here is the news flash though: they have tonnes of ESL applicants they know barely anything about. Naturally they have to narrow it down, and the way they do that is going to be based on stereotypes. They don't have the money to do a super rigorous selection process like JET does (and even JET ends up importing some pretty nasty people).
Even though this is what they do in reality, it's unusually tactless that they say so explicitly. I guess since this was a middle-person who made the response, they were in some way wanting to expose the ugly fact, but if I were the client I'd fire that person. Here is the news flash though: they have tonnes of ESL applicants they know barely anything about. Naturally they have to narrow it down, and the way they do that is going to be based on stereotypes. They don't have the money to do a super rigorous selection process like JET does (and even JET ends up importing some pretty nasty people).
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