The ESL Caste System in Asia

I guess it's one of those things that should be expected, but there's a full blown caste system that exists in Korea and Asia, in general, between the different foreigners who work here teaching English to the Asian population. You wouldn't think this would be the case, as one would think that as foreigners these people would try to stick together in some kind of familiar comraderie, but that's anything but the case.

As it turns out, your placement on the caste system is as simple as it is being a part of the caste system in India. In other words, everyone has a say in it, and there are almost no real clear cut rules. First off, there's a ranking structure that has to do with what type of school you teach at. It goes something like: University, college, private institution, Hagwon, and a couple of other lower entities as well that I don't yet understand or recognize. Then there is a delineation based on your education. But that's not all. If you have a higher level degree, there's a caste system based on exactly where your degree came from, how prestigious that school is, and whether or not you might be making big bucks back in the states if you were not here. But also, if you CAN make big bucks back in the states, you automatically lose a few placements in the caste system because there's something obviously wrong with you if you are here instead of back in the states making big bucks.

So far, my analysis of the caste system has resulted in this mathematical formula:

Let A = you. Let B = the jerk who thinks he/she is better than you because he/she is not you

So, your status = A = B - B's overblown ego - B's lack of ability to think beyond $$ = A's new caste placement

I read this article in the Korea Times a few days ago where this English teacher who has obviously been here too long went on a column sized diatribe about how every other English teacher is a moron, everyone should learn to be fluent in Korean, and until then everyone should just shut the **** up. I found it somewhat unique that he wasn't fluent in Korean himself, but he felt everyone else should be.

What I think this whole caste system crap seems to miss is that people are people, and they come to this stage in their life for all sorts of different reasons. I don't even have a reason for why I'm here, other than I felt I wanted to come here, mainly just to see if this place has changed that much in the last twenty years. And it has. In some ways, better. In other ways, not. In some ways, things have stayed annoyingly the same, except the annoyances have now become institutionalized. Corruption is a major problem here. No one will acknowledge it. They just accept it. And that is tragic. But again, no one really cares because they grew up being used to it.

The ESL community here is somewhat unique in that it seems to be massively tied to the idea of commercialism and greedy capitalism. In other words, people aren't here because they want to help young Koreans (or Asians, depending upon where they are) to learn English better. They're here, according to ESL theory of caste rationalization, because of how much money they can make, how much future money they might make, and because they have no other options in the real world to be productive.

It's kind of like listening to a bunch of garbage men yell at each other over who is the better garbage collector, meanwhile trying to avoid the obvious realization that their entire day consists of taking out other peoples' trash.

Stumble It!