This article is really insulting. The article is about how half of the Native English instructors in Korea didn’t renew their annual contract. I am not one of those English instructors here, but I found this entire paragraph very unpleasant:

Lee Young-chan, an education Ministry official in charge of native teachers said it was not necessary to renew every contract. “They are neither regular teachers nor lecturers who can conduct classes independently. They are ‘assistant teachers,’ hence their teaching experience doesn’t matter much,” he said. “Rather, it’s better for students to have more new teachers so that they can meet various kinds of foreigners,” he added.

Yes, I’m aware that many English instructors here aren’t licensed instructors, but this paragraph is delivering a wrong message here. It has an undertone of “because they aren’t real teachers, you don’t need to respect or listen to them.” No. That is the wrong message to deliver to anyone wanting to learn or teach English. It’s especially the worse kind of message to deliver to a young child who learns English from these “assistant teachers.” And furthermore, the fact that an education Ministry official said this . . . What a nice comment, sir.

Now, of course, there is a matter of translation. Maybe in the original Korean language, he didn’t say it that way. Maybe he said it in a more polite way. If that’s the case, then Korea Times, you really need to write your articles using better word choices. I’ve been reading your articles for a while now, and I’m picking up sentences and other stuff that needs to be publicized better. Or, at least be more objective with your writing.