Thursday, April 10, 2014

Article about drug arrest of Korean national states "Drug crimes by native speaking teachers are never ending"

On April 3, Daejeon City Journal followed up their article from a day earlier about this drug bust with this article by reporter Shin Yu-jin. And the first paragraph isn't badly written due to my translation; it's faithful to the original, which used 등 a few too many times:
No inquiry made into native speaking instructor who taught students while on drugs

Criminal record inquiry only confirmed whether there were sex crimes

Since it was recently exposed that people such as native speaking instructors who teach children in places such as hagwons or schools taught children while high on drugs such as methamphetamine, it's been pointed out that the preparation of countermeasures is urgent.

In particular, since criminal record checks mean to filter such criminals out beforehand are limited only to sex crimes, people have loudly expressed that they should be expanded to include crimes such as drugs as well.
It then goes on to retell the story of A, the Thai tour guide who brought and sold the meth to B, the problem with whom was that he was a native speaking instructor who taught students. It continues:
Besides this, it was disclosed that nine other people including acquaintances bought the meth from B and used it, and among these was a hagwon instructor who, like B, taught children.

In addition, before these two hagwon instructors were arrested, they worked in places like hagwons and an investigation confirmed that they were criminals with records involving five and fourteen charges, respectively, including drug crimes.

Prior to this, last month as well an English instructor of United States nationality was booked without detention for smuggling drugs. Drug crimes by native speaking teachers are never ending.

In fact, if we look at the status of native speaking assistant English teacher crime, between 2009 and August 2013, twenty five committed crimes, with drug crimes making up most (8), as compared to six drunk driving charges, three assault charges, and two theft charges.

The reason for such a high drug crime rate is that the criminal record inquiry for hagwon instructors who teach children or teens only confirms whether there are sex crimes.

An official from the West Daejeon Education Office said, "In the case of hagwon instructors, one month before they are hired they receive a physical examination at a designated hospital where they are also checked for drugs, but after they are hired they can use drugs." "Foreigners have criminal record checks from their home countries, but in connection to the child and youth law the criminal record check only inquires into sex crimes."

In regard to this, one parent asked, "What would happen if they committed other crimes when teaching children while high on drugs?" "There should be, without a doubt, inquiries into not only sex crimes, but also drugs."
I have a hard time believing drug crimes for foreign instructors are not looked at by immigration, but have no idea how the Ministry of Education operates; there's nothing about only sex crimes being looked at in the 2011 Hagwon Law revision. At any rate, Koreans are not subject to the the part of the law dealing with 'foreign instructors,' though the subjects of the most current arrests are Korean citizens (the second 'hagwon instructor' mentioned above is neither described as 'foreign' or as an 'English instructor,' and you can be sure he/she would be described so if they were).

More fun is the fact that we're dealing with Korean nationals being arrested, but the reporter can declare "Drug crimes by native speaking teachers are never ending." Even better is the fact that he/she quotes from statistics about crime by public school foreign teachers* and then declares that "The reason for such a high drug crime rate is that the criminal record inquiry for hagwon instructors who teach children or teens only confirms whether there are sex crimes." Brilliant. I actually had trouble translating that sentence because it took a minute to realize it was actually saying something that stupid.


* Statistics which reveals a drug arrest rate about average for foreigners in Korea (which is not that much higher than the Korean rate, of course).

2 comments:

King Baeksu said...

This focus on foreign sex or drug crimes is just a way to distract from the larger crime, namely that public schools and hagwons here can't be arsed to hire properly trained, certified and professional native English teachers.

Pay peanuts and you get monkeys, duh. You'd have to be high to think otherwise, wouldn't you?

K said...

Just how does one properly train and certify someone to teach Koreans to speak English? It's not like flying a plane. Learn on the job. As for professionalism, Korea's culture of entitlement and bribery is a poor place to learn about exhibiting restraint.