Public ideology

When I went to the Danoje festival in Korea after a few months being here, a woman that was participating in the event helping people paint masks tried to ask a few questions in Korean. I, knowing some of the basics tried to answer as I could.

Inevitably the generic questions led to the question of what do you do. Because, often we will be confused as college students. By the way, there are college students that do attend schools in Korea.

I said, "we are English teachers." This seems to set most Koreans back in confusion. Not only her, but also a hair stylist, and others as well. The reasoning is because the ability of native teachers to speak Korean is non-existent for the most part. Recruiters and Korea prefer that you don't speak any Korean before you come.

Then, they ask, "How?"

So, we end up giving the simplest answer, "we work together with Korean teachers," thereby helping to propagate a lie. We don't mean to lie in this fashion, but it is much easier to explain the real truth. The truth that people don't want to hear.

The Korean teacher is just a ruse and we have to do everything. If only they knew the truth.