By Yoon Won-sup, Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporters
President-elect Lee Myung-bak's power transition team is considering issuing English teaching visa to Asians whose countries have English as an official language.
The team's officials acknowledged a flaw in the current visa regulation that issues English teaching, or E-2 visas according to nationality. Authorities allow English teaching visas only to native-English speakers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.
``Not all native English speakers can teach English well. So we should give visas only to qualified and verified English teachers,'' Jung Dong-ki, the team's legal affairs head told The Korea Times. ``We will carefully consider revising the regulation because visa issuance should be based on qualification rather than nationality.''
Rep. Lee Ju-ho in charge of education policy in the team was positive about hiring qualified Asian English teachers.
``It would be feasible to hire Asian English teachers in primary and secondary schools at the discretion of the regional chief educators because each district educational office will take charge of employment,'' Lee said. ``However, the visa is a legal matter, which is under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry.''
Actually, some Filipinos married to Koreans are teaching English, particularly in rural regions where schools have difficulty hiring native English teachers. Philippine Ambassador to Seoul Susan Castrence asked Korea to undertake a feasibility study on how good they are in teaching English as she is sure that Koreans will be happy with their performance.
The nation's teachers' association also hailed the move to introduce Asian teachers. ``The increasing inflow of native English teachers corresponds to the global demands and the nation's English education goal. But we seek ways to prevent unqualified native speakers from coming by introducing a `qualification certificate for foreign teachers,''' said Lee Myung-gyun, of the Korean Federation of Teachers' Association.
Lee said that nationality-based visa issuance is meaningless.
Chae Ji-yeon, English teacher of Chunghyun High School in Gyeonggi Province, said that qualified Asian English teachers could be better than native English speakers especially in grammer.
However, even if English teaching visas are given to Asians, they will likely be hired in public schools only _ not in the private language schools and institutes where the majority of teachers are Caucasians. Education experts said that Asians would have to fight the misconception by Koreans that Asians are behind Caucasians in English proficiency.
``Regarding the parents' skepticism over inviting Asian English teachers, I'd like to say they need to change their perception. English is not knowledge but a skill,'' said Min Byoung-chul, English professor at Chung-ang University in Seoul.
Ian Simm, director of the British Council in Korea, also agreed with the invitation of non-Western English teachers in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
``We don't insist teachers of English language should come from native speaking countries. I have lived in India for six years and many Indians can speak better English than I do, really they do. Same in Singapore even though they have accents,'' he said.
What matters for an English teaching job are English teaching certificates and a high level of English language ability, Simm said.
Choi Chun-ok, supervisor in charge of recruiting native English speakers at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said that students in middle or high schools will benefit from the presence of Asian English teachers with various accents.
``It's time for our country to open and have a global mindset. We have been too conservative in the classroom,'' Choi said.