By Steve Schertzer

In light of the current flap over some 100 foreign English teachers who were dropped from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) recently, much still needs to be said and facts clarified before blaming the Korean government or any public or private agency.

That many foreign teachers are livid about this and are expressing their views on open forums, such as Dave's ESL Cafe, is understandable. But their anger is misdirected and lacks any recent historical realities. Many of these foreign English teachers, who seem so adamant about defending the rights and virtues of the newbie teachers, are themselves veterans on Dave's ESL Cafe. They have spent months, even years, castigating Koreans and Korean society. Now they want Koreans to understand their plight?

What these veteran ESL teachers fail to understand is that the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is a business and an industry. And as an industry, it is obsessed with money. That SMOE over-hired English teachers for this school year is a common occurrence, especially in times of an economic downturn. Since there are now more teachers applying for the same number of jobs, these are exceptional times for the Korean TEFL industry.

In times of a teacher shortage, I did not hear a peep from the foreign teachers about how good the times were for them in Korea. Although it was party time for the foreign teachers ― a teacher's market ― they still found time to congregate on open forums and complain about their jobs, their co-teachers, their free accommodations, or anything else that crept into their bored minds.

Now that they have to compete for that coveted SMOE position, now that the shoe is on the other foot, their ``damn the Koreans" attitude comes to the fore once again. The foreign teachers' lack of understanding of supply and demand has made them the laughing stock of the TEFL industry. Only a fool with a narcissistic nature would expect the rules of economics to always side with them.

It must be so hard for these ESL teachers to acclimatize to the Korean school system. Oh, the foreign teachers have it so bad in the public schools. Sitting around for five of their eight hours a day in an air-conditioned office with their very own computer on their desk, playing online poker, chatting with friends, reading novels, stuffing their faces with free rice cakes that their Korean co-teachers bought. It must be unbearable for them.

I don't know how these foreign English teachers put up with that. Then they go back to their free apartments and drink beer or watch TV. Let's not forget their long paid vacations every summer and winter. I don't know how these ESL teachers put up with such abuse.

Here's a thought: Round up all of these ungrateful ESL ingrates teaching in Korean public schools and fire them. It's not like they are contributing great things to the Korean school system. It's not like they are grateful for having jobs in this recession. It's not like they are grateful for teaching children. Their refusal to better themselves and the lives of the students they teach, as well as their incessant tirades on expat open forums, have made them a liability to Korean society.

That these ingrates can possibly justify their tirades is a disgrace and an embarrassment to all good and dedicated teachers everywhere. That many of them have chosen to portray the dropping of 100 or so teachers by SMOE as victims is an insult to any intelligent and rational thinking human being.

For years, independent and mature teachers have flown to countries all over the world, on their own dime, I might add, to find teaching jobs. They have found apartments for themselves and have even set up their own bank accounts. Imagine that! Now, these posters on open forums would have us believe that American, Canadian, British and Australian citizens with university degrees are so useless that they can't find their own way to a grocery store or pick themselves up after a negative experience. Grow up and give the rest of us a break.

Students everywhere, including Korea, deserve mature and responsible foreign English teachers, not cry babies.

The writer was an English teacher in Busan middle schools for three years through EPIK, or the English Program in Korea. He can be reached at esl_steve@excite.com.