"International Marriage Horrific... 4th Grader Still Can't Read Hangul" Controversy Over Current Teacher's Post

"International Marriage with Southeast Asian Women"
"Feeling Limitations Even from the Perspective of Teaching Children"

A post by a current teacher claiming that marrying Southeast Asian women through international marriages is terrible has sparked controversy.

"Children are effectively illiterate... Cannot be overcome through education"

[Image source=Pixabay]

On the 15th, an online community 'Nate Pann' published a post titled "From a teacher's perspective, international marriage is too terrible."

The author, who introduced themselves as a current teacher named A, said, "Personally, I do not view arranged marriages negatively," but added, "International marriages involving bringing Southeast Asian women here are too terrible."

He pointed out, "Fourth graders cannot even master Hangul," and said, "Since the mothers cannot speak Korean and the fathers belong to lower social classes, they completely neglect home education, resulting in many children who cannot even master Hangul."

He continued, "It's not just minor spelling mistakes; they cannot read long Hangul texts," and added, "When I asked teachers of fifth and sixth graders, they said these children are 'effectively illiterate.'"

A said, "When these children grow up, they will certainly inherit slum conditions and exhibit antisocial tendencies, but because the low birthrate issue is urgent, this cannot be discussed," and claimed, "It is clear that this will cause terrible outcomes as a social cost."

He also said, "I know this is not something a teacher should say, but this is not a problem that can be overcome through education," and added, "I worked in the city but came to a rural school for the first time this year, and it is very disheartening."

Finally, A said, "On the contrary, rural schools receive good budget allocations and have better after-school classes and facilities, but since the students themselves lack will and do nothing, I clearly feel the limits as a teacher."

"May Promote Prejudice Against Children from Multicultural Families"

[Image source=Pixabay]

However, there were also criticisms that A's post could promote prejudice against multicultural families. A netizen who also identified as a current teacher said, "I have taught children from multicultural families, and one first grader initially struggled to adapt because they had not yet mastered Hangul at the beginning of the semester," but "by the end of the school year, they were able to read and write Hangul to some extent."

He added, "It is true that language barriers make teaching difficult, but if the child is kind and willing to study, learning ability can be developed over time," and criticized, "As a fellow teacher, calling them 'terrible outcomes' is crossing a line."

He also said, "This post is at a level that could promote prejudice against children from multicultural families," and expressed regret, saying, "I wish the post had been written with the intention of finding solutions together."

Number of Multicultural Family Students Hits Record High

On October 9th last year, a multicultural choir was singing at the National Hangeul Museum in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on Hangeul Day.

While the number of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students continues to decline due to low birthrates, the number of multicultural students is steadily increasing.

According to the '2023 Basic Education Statistics' released in August by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Educational Development Institute, the number of multicultural students attending regular elementary, middle, and high schools as well as alternative schools reached 181,178 this year, an increase of 12,533 (7.4%) compared to one year ago. The proportion of multicultural students among all students has also continued to rise, surpassing 3.0% for the first time in 2021, then 3.2% in 2022, and 3.5% in 2023.

However, the total number of kindergarten through high school students has been decreasing for 18 consecutive years. The total number of students from kindergarten to high school is 5,783,612, a decrease of 96,156 (1.6%) compared to last year. The decline is larger than last year's decrease of 77,350 (1.3%).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.