An Article in Defense of Native Speakers

Most reporters and newspapers run sensationalist stories on a regular basis about how terrible native speaking teachers are. They claim we're all unqualified and unprofessional. They go as far as to pick out the handful of eye-opening cases, and run them with big, bold headlines about how we are all ruining their children.

Well, for once, there was an article defending the native speaking teacher. Jason Lim, of The Korea Times, wrote a column saying that this isn't just poor journalism, but a form of racism.

Lim writes:

"This article is not a search for the truth but a list of disparate episodes that have been connected in such a way as to create a narrative that is unjustified, inaccurate and dishonest. It's alarmist. Worse, it's outright racist because it attributes certain failings ― in this case, nothing less than a failure of character ― to a whole group of people based on the actions of a few individuals because they bear superficial physical resemblance, come from comparable cultural backgrounds, or share a similar language skill set."

He's absolutely right. I haven't written much on this topic, because much of my first year has been focused on my adventures. The more time I spend here, the more our focus on the society and what I feel they do right and wrong.

Check the full story here.