01/07/2008

News / Indifference to E-2 Visa Holders

By Mark Shryock

A little over a month ago, I contacted the Korean Ministry of Justice over a personal immigration matter and ended up talking with Lee Dong-wook. He was extremely helpful and very concerned about helping me with an immigration question concerning my wife. So much so, he gave me his personal cell phone number and told me if ever again I had a problem concerning an immigration issue, to please fell free to contact him personally. By the time I finished the conversation I had developed feelings of deep respect for a man who gave me far more than I expected from him. I have just finished reading his article ``Misunderstanding of New E-2 Visa'' in the Korean Times.

Since I am now an E-1 visa holder, and no longer working with minors, the decision to enforce a police background check does not affect me visa wise personally, however its rhetoric does, and I fell compelled to voice an opinion.

First, it would seem a strange inconsistency to me, both in the man and the Ministry of Justice, to be so kind and helpful to myself concerning my own visa matters, and yet so incredibly indifferent to all the rest of the foreign English teachers concerning their visa matters.

I cannot fault a man or his office because he chooses to protect the children, regardless of what events caused the visa changes. I trust Lee Dong-wook, because of the kindness he showed me, when he had no reason to go to the lengths he did, besides simple humanity. I cannot believe a man of this sort, who has also felt the weight, responsibility, and burden of working and living on foreign soil, is not doing everything in his power to aid us as foreign teachers, while protecting the kids. And honestly, if you do not think protecting the kids should be first priority, even if it causes us some difficulty, then perhaps you should question if you are in the right field anyway. I do not think I would want anyone teaching my kid if it was not a first priority. We demand this from our own native teachers or any kind of childcare worker in the United States. How can we stand in integrity and not think Koreans should have the same right to ask it of a foreign teacher?

There is not a place in the United States that I am aware off; you can work with a minor without a police background check. I know. I have worked in various clinical and educational settings from elementary and secondary education, to working with challenged teens, the mentally challenged, and even the Salivation Army. In all of these jobs I had to present, and pay for, a police background check. So why should Korean children be any less protected than our own countries children?

Any challenge presents an opportunity for growth. The new visa rules can be a beginning for a new spirit of closeness between foreign English teachers and the Korean educational system on all levels. There is room for improvement on both sides. We can begin by asking how we can help each other more. We can begin by refusing to focus on the differences in each other and begin to focus on the sameness and the task of service at hand. There is no such thing as a better Korean teachers or better native English teachers. We each have our gifts to give. It is a New Year and new beginning. What will you focus on? What ever you focus on is what you are going to get.

The writer is a professor at Kangnung National University, Wonju Campus, Gangwon Province.

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