Korea to Hire Filipinos, Indians as Cafeteria Servers?? Fuck This.

Whoever talks to the cafeteria lady? Korea, and specifically Gyeonggi Schools want exactly that.They want highly competent Filipinos, which even the United States is running after, to serve kimchi during lunchtime? Are you kidding me? At what? 600,000 Won? That's just like 600 USD and with rent in an ugly apartment in a city in Gyeonggi about 300 USD/month ++ bills, does Korea think that we are some kind of slaves?

Since "Non-native English Speakers" cannot teach English in Korea (Only citizens of the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa are allowed to teach in Korea and I have met some of them personally.) so definitely- Filipinos can't teach there unless they are married to some uneducated Korean farmer. Filipino teachers which are highly prized even by native-English speaking countries like the United States can't teach in Korea while 111,000 Koreans went to the Philippines last year to study English. Stupid you think? Me thinks so too.

English Education in Korea is totally fucked. How can you learn English when all your TV Stations on Cable are basically Korean? All the newspapers are in Korean?? It's hard to get around because most of the maps are in Korean! Even the damn computer programs are in freaking Korean? And you hire a country boy from a countrytown in the US or Canada who spells pagoda as "pogoda" and says he is "hurted" (based on true experience) just because he is a native English Speaker? English speaking is not English teaching.

Apparently, South Korean officials are in deep shit now for signing the FTA with the US over beef imports (haha- US sent them beef with Mad Cow Disease) - and their President who champions English instruction apparently can't read English and the stipulations of the agreement.

I have met some nice people in Korea during my stay but I think the country is totally screwed when it comes to this department. The people are just not ready for a global culture. On one of my nights I stayed in Korea, I was passing through a hair salon in Icheon (Gyeonggi-do) one night and saw this sign "Live Hair Salon" and me and my hunny thought that was funny - so I snapped a photo of the sign. Out came this hairstylist about to go home, demanding why was I taking photos of the place (in Korean) and since I don't know how to speak in Korean - she launched into a tirade - "These fucking foreigners who comes to Korea and not speaking in Korean." Emphasis on "fucking"- she used the "shibalo"- a very bad curse in Korea. I got my revenge the next time we passed through that place. I'll post the video.
                                                               "Live Hair Salon"
That's Korea for you folks.

Read on.





Gyeeonggi Schools to Hire English-Speaking Workers
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The Gyeeonggi Provincial Office of Education said it will encourage schools to hire English-speaking Indians and Filipinos for jobs at cafeterias or stores within schools to give students more chances to speak English.

``We will encourage schools to hire Indians and Filipinos for English zones and school stores to give students opportunities to use English during lunch and break times,’’ it said in a statement. It expects schools to hire them at relatively lower costs than native English speakers. About 50 schools in the province will initially test run the scheme.

However, the statement of the education agency has invited criticism from embassies and civic organizations as well as other education offices.

``Cheap doesn’t mean low quality. We have many high-quality English teachers in the Philippines,’’ said Jed Dayang, spokesman of the Philippine Embassy to Seoul.

A source from Indian embassy also said that Indians will not come to Korea to work at stores at schools, mentioning that there are many high-quality English teachers working in the U.S., Japan and China.

A supervisor from Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also pointed out it is discriminative. ``So Americans are not allowed to work at English zones and stores?’’ she said.

Regarding this, Hwang Ik-joong, senior supervisor of the Gyeonggi Education Office told The Korea Times, ``We meant to use foreigners who can speak English well but cannot teach English in Korea due to immigration regulations that only allow foreign teachers by nationality.’’

Additionally, the education office plans to increase the number of native English-speaking teachers from 1,272 to 1,952 by 2010 so that all schools will have at least one native English teacher, at a cost of 24 billion won ($24 million).

The education authorities will also strengthen training programs for foreign teachers. Under the plan, supervisors from the education office will monitor and assist foreign English teachers during the classes to help improve their teaching skills.

Meanwhile, the education office plans to increase the number of Korean English teachers who can conduct classes only in English from current 56 percent to 70 percent through traininig programs by the end of the year. It will ultimately make all English teachers teach only in Enlgish by 2011.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/03/113_21557.html
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^^ They can't even spell 'English' right.

"The entire Korean peninsula is like a human appendix (interestingly it looks like that too), you are not sure why it is there since it serves no purpose other than potentially killing you when your appendix bursts (sic Nuclear instability)."

Visit to the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, WSBI Conference, Dongbu Savings Meeting

All in Seoul

Rainy Day Icheon

One of those cold rainy days in Korea..

View of the Jung-gu District, Seoul From Lotte Hotel

View of the Jung-Gu District from the Garnet Room (37F) of Lotte Hotel in Seoul

A Song of Waiting

Today, I ate numbness for breakfast,
the daze digested
inside my stomach.

The blur of sunrise seized me as I wakened
of the melancholia that held me captive in
the crumpled sheets of my now unfamiliar bed.

You are not there
when I looked for that sigh
everytime our gazes met, even furtively.

This longing that haunts
me every single time the long hands tick
on the clock on my pallid wall.

The world is now overcast.
For I missed you like the rivers rushing to meet the waiting sea,
and I missed your shadow that falls on the wooden floor,
the silent breathing of your somnolence,
and the singing crystals that fall from your mouth everytime you speak.

My heart is an uneasy silence- and the world has lost its song,
albeit temporarily,
I will wait and I will wait
until I am back in the tightness of your embrace.

And then the world around me will finally wake up with me
once again.

Gickr.com: Create GIF Animations online | Upload pictures or get images from Flickr | Pimp myspace graphics

http://gickr.com/upload_files

Filipino Kid wins English Speaking Union (ESU) International Public Speaking Contest

Just because we are not "Native Speakers of English" doesn't mean that we can't whip the asses of so-called "native english speakers" that countries like Korea hire to teach its population and instead hire teachers that spells "Pagoda" as "pogoda" and "hurted". This is the second time a Filipino wins the top plum since it joined the ESU competitions in 2002. With the Philippines, one of the main players in BPO and Contact Center services- the country has a huge pool of highly skilled, well-educated English-speaking population that counts as one of the biggest in the world. Why not? Even the Philippine Constitution is in English, the executive, legislative and judicial proceedings are all in English, all the major newspapers are in English.



Filipino wins UK contest with fish mucus, fungus
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:31:00 06/02/2008

MANILA, Philippines—While London was abuzz with the premiere of "Sex and the City" last month, a Filipino wowed Brits with a speech on fish mucus and foot fungus.

Gian Karlo Dapul, 16, won this year's International Public Speaking Competition conducted on May 9 by the English-Speaking Union (ESU) for his speech titled "Fish Mucus and Foot Fungus."

"I wasn't confident of winning. I wasn't planning on winning," Dapul told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday. "On the plane I was just thinking: 'Yehey, I get to stay in London for a week.'"

The incoming senior at the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City was one of the youngest contestants, yet he bested 57 speakers from more than 30 other countries, including the United States, England and Australia.

Dapul is the second Filipino to top the competition after then University of the Philippines student Patricia Evangelista won in 2004, proving anew that foreigners can speak English well. Evangelista now writes a column for the Inquirer newspaper, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

The competition is one of the ESU's most popular international programs. The ESU is an international charity founded in 1918 with the aim of fostering international understanding through the English language.

Dapul acknowledged that the other competitors spoke more eloquently of their topics -- teenage sex, communism, the bane of Internet, yearning for peace -- but reckoned that the content of his speech gave him the edge.

Improbable items

He delivered a speech on the wonders that scientific research could do for the country's public health, citing for instance, researches on the curative powers of fish mucus and foot fungus.

"Although I'm only 16 years old and an incoming fourth year high school student, I know that my country has more problems than any Mathematics book. Strangely enough, the answers to some of our problems are fish mucus and foot fungus," he said in his speech. "These seemingly improbable items are products of what we call scientific research."

Dapul went on to point out that nudibranch, a soft-bodied sea creature, has been used in tumor research, that samples of fish mucus have certain antibacterial properties, and some types of infectious fungi that coat a person's toes "form beneficial relationships" that support plant growth.

"New challenges are coming, and they will always confront us. What we need is an army of scientific researchers that will help find the solutions in advance. I want to be part of the army that would cross the new frontiers first," he said.

By accident

In the interview with the Inquirer, Dapul said he learned of the ESU national competition in Manila by "accident" from a classmate -- a fellow member of the high school debating team --who prodded him to join for kicks. He almost didn't make it.

He signed up, but forgot all about it until the night before the April 8 competition.

"I checked it out, and shucks, I found out it was going to be held the next day. What's more, I didn't know I had to deliver a prepared speech. So I panicked," Dapul said.

So he locked himself in his room the whole night and wrote his speech in some five hours, finding the topic of scientific research "perfect" for the ESU theme of "New Horizons, New Frontiers."

"I crammed for my speech," he said, recalling that he wrote down his major ideas in bullet points.

The next day, Dapul, the fourth of six children, asked his mother Rosanna to drive him to the contest venue on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City -- the first time he told his parents about the competition.

There, he found himself pitted against college students. But to his surprise and his parents', he was named one of the eight finalists that day, and the winner, the next day.

"We were all surprised. They were just telling me to do well so I could land second or third place," he said.

The national contest was initiated by a Philippine chapter of the ESU, which has been sending representatives to the international competition each year since it was formed in 2002 by a group of Filipino writers.

As the winner, Dapul represented the country in the ESU's international public speaking competition in London, and delivered essentially the same -- but more polished -- speech.

Last speaker

On May 5, Dapul traveled with his father Santi to London, and stayed for a day at the home of his brother Omar before he checked in at a hotel, an accommodation provided by the ESU.

During the semifinal heats at the ESU headquarters in Dartmouth House, the young Dapul was bracketed with 14 others, including native speakers of English from the United States, England and Australia. He was the first speaker.

"After my speech, I watched the others. They were really, really good. I felt nervous for the first time," he recalled.

In the end, only he and another Chinese student in their bracket moved on to the finals, along with six others, later held that day at the US Embassy. This time, he was the last speaker. After his speech, he fielded questions from the audience.

Scientific romance

"In the finals, I was more confident. As they say on 'American Idol' (reality talent show), the last spot is the winning spot. It gave me confidence because I saw what I was up against," he said.

"They had good delivery, but I had better content. That's what I told myself then," he added.

After he was declared the winner, Dapul was presented a winner's cup and a silver gavel. The cup stayed at the ESU headquarters for display. In November, he will be presented with a certificate at the ESU awards ceremony by Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, at Buckingham Palace.

Choosing scientific research as a topic was just natural for him, said Dapul, who has been a consistent director's list scholar and an officer of the student council since his freshman year.

By focusing on the topic, he was able to highlight potential researches, particularly those dealing with cures to diseases, waiting to be discovered, tested and applied.

Likes trains

"I thought that if people saw how our research can actually help, not only here but also internationally, the government might notice and start funding the research," he said.

Of his London experience, Dapul relished the rollicking fun he and the other students had while touring the city, including visits to the House of Parliament and a theater.

"The most exciting part was commuting on [subway] trains. I'm not really fond of the attractions. The trains were intersecting. It was easy to get on and off. It was very convenient," he said.


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