By If you are an English teacher in South Korea and you don’t like your hagwon owner, well remember it could always be worse; how would you like to have a North Korean as your boss?:
The people sitting before Chris Lawrence will one day be running North Korea.
It was a freezing cold February morning and Chris’s new classroom at the elite Kim Il-sung University in the capital Pyongyang wasn’t much warmer than the streets outside.
These days even the children of the party faithful can’t escape some of the hardships of everyday life in North Korea.
“The main problem is a lack of heating,” he said.
“Most of us in here are wearing our outdoor clothes as we work.”
Chris is one of a small team of English teachers forming a joint project between the British Council and the Government in Pyongyang.
In a sign that it may one day open up to the Western world, North Korea has gradually shifted a lot of its language training away from Chinese and Russian and towards English. [BBC via reader tip]
How many times have we been told that this is an impending sign of North Korea opening up? North Korea does not want to open up because the regime cannot open up without risking its own collapse once people find out what a fraud it is. These kids are learning English simply for business, which in North Korea means they need someone in the future to run their counterfeit operations, insurance scams, drug running, weapons smuggling, etc. operations. They are also learning English in order to have someone continue to the tradition of extorting money from the Western World in return for their supposed compliance with signed agreements they always seem to break.
1:41 pm on February 16th, 2010 1
Those classes must be a hoot.
"Uh, actually running dog imperial lackey isn't really all that useful at the department store."
"No, you shouldn't use Brigandish to describe your landlord."
"You really shouldn't threaten to turn your neighbor's house into a sea of fire if he plays the radio too loud."
4:22 pm on February 16th, 2010 2
"How would you like to have a North Korean as your boss?"
Having a North Korean boss wouldn't be the problem, as nice people tend to come from all nations. The problem would be working in North Korea.
4:22 pm on February 16th, 2010 3
That's why I'm not too worried about the 10 billion $ China is trying to pump into N Korea. To really take advantage of and not squander that money away, N Korea has to open up, which it will never do. Opening up means the populace realizing they were lied to all these decades.
4:52 pm on February 16th, 2010 4
“Most of us in here are wearing our outdoor clothes as we work.”
The same thing happens in the south. how do they explain this when they are suppose to be a developed nation?
8:26 pm on February 16th, 2010 5
Teaching English to the children of North Korean Communist Party leaders is NOT a "humanitarian" mission. It's being done by "useful idiots" who would have taught English in Nazi Germany during the 1930's. Ever wonder how the Germans had all of those English spakers to confuse things during the Battle of the Bulge? It was probably a result of amoral and stupid English teachers like these.
8:50 pm on February 16th, 2010 6
Here is my first lesson.
"Hello class. Today we will talk about units of measurement. Does anybody here like deer fat?"
(a few muted and unintelligible responses)
"Come on! Who likes deer fat?"
(a slightly larger unintelligible response)
"O.K. Deer fat is weighed in kilograms. You might say, 'I have five kilograms of deer fat.'"
(class mumbles, 'I habe pibe kirroglams ob dill pat')
"Can you have a liter of deer fat?"
(class mumbles 'no')
"Good. Repeat after me. The deer liter is a useless unit of fat."
(students never see it coming)
(I'm deported and they are shot)
(only later do they realize I was working under a fake ID and nobody is really named Rick Venus)
10:23 pm on February 16th, 2010 7
[...] is the original post: BBC On Teaching English In North Korea | ROK Drop Posted in insurance scams [...]
11:16 am on February 17th, 2010 8
Didn't we already see this propaganda? “ABC News Primetime North Korea: Inside the Shadows" with Diane Sawyer actually did a much more thorough investigation into North Korea over 12 days in which the average student actually thought "Shrek" and "Toy Story" were North Korean (you can order this video from Amazon.com) and were speaking perfect English 4 years ago back in 2006.
For a look at how the average person in North Korea lives check out this movie made by the lucky few that have escaped his gulags and his man-made food shortages (most of the fertile land is used to grow drugs to provide hard currency to the regime): http://www.kimjongiliathemovie.com
One of the most frustrating things about living in South Korea is just how little the students here actually know about what is really going on north of the DMZ in the other Korea.
2:02 am on August 12th, 2010 9
the student in that picture looks very cute~
3:39 am on August 12th, 2010 10
#9
Wait until you run into her in a deserted area and she finds out you are a capitalist pig from ROK or US. You will regret ever saying she looks cute…
6:21 pm on January 18th, 2011 11
I briefly met two North Koreans from at the language school where I did my TEFL certificate in South Africa. Their teacher said that they had absolutely no interest in seeing/visiting some of the sights and wild animals from Africa that were available. Their main ambition was to see the beautiful sights of their glorious homeland.They seemed to be friendly but close-minded in the extreme.
I wouldn't mind teaching there for a month or so just to get an idea.Currently in China, might try a visit but it seems over- priced
11:19 pm on April 23rd, 2012 12
Man, some people are ignorant.
North Koreans are not a nasty people! That is like saying all American act like their government!
As to the guy who states that teaching English to North Koreans is bad, oh please. Grow up. Helping individuals to communicate with other people may well be how we solve differences in the future.
2:05 am on April 24th, 2012 13
@12
You do know North Korea has NEVER tried to “Solve Differences Peacefully?” They just don’t do it.
It’s always wishful thinking by the South Koreans and the U.S, until the next atrocity. And right now? They are threatening “reduce South Korea “to ashes” in less than four minutes.”
Yes, Aaron. Some people really are ignorant. They really are.