Foreign Schools in Korea: Book Early to Avoid Disappointment
by Brendon Carr
Not being able to enroll your kids in an English-speaking school is a worry for every parent, but this story in the JoongAng Ilbo’s English edition made me smile:
Korea’s notorious lack of convenient services for foreigners has claimed another. The latest victim in the long list of displeased expatriates is none other than the former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
The problem, which has traveled by word-of-mouth among foreign business professionals here, began when Jeffrey Jones, 56, a current attorney at Kim and Chang, attempted to enroll his two sons at a popular local foreign school.
As one of the most influential business professionals in Korea, he didn’t think he’d have any problems gaining his sons a spot in school. After all, he was the first foreigner to work on a committee for deregulation of the Korean government, and he’s been credited for attracting a large amount of foreign investment here.
But then the school put Jones’ sons on a waiting list, saying they currently had no openings for new students. Jones was not available for comment at press time.
Why am I pleased to see this? It doesn’t have anything to do with the subject of the story, but I am a populist. The fact that Jeffrey Jones is or is not a powerful figure—whether he’s “attracted a large amount of foreign investment” (and that voodoo power appears to be fading), or works for a large law firm or the Korean government—should be of no relevance to the admission of his children to a wait-listed foreign school. There are published rules and everyone on the list should get the same fair shake. That Jeff’s kids got stiffed indicates that whichever school stiffed them is concerned about such fairness. Since this sort of egalitarianism is not how Korea usually operates, it’s heartening news to a populist.
However, there is the other question, which is Why on Earth is this in the newspaper? My kid got blanked by Seoul Foreign School at kindergarten time, and we simply enrolled at Early Childhood Learning Centre, a fine Montessori school. But for some reason, we didn’t make the paper. Now, my kids are enrolled at Yongsan International School and we love it there. That’s not news either.
For those of you coming to Seoul, note this lesson: No matter who you are, contact the admissions offices of the foreign schools as early as possible, and get onto the waiting list.
UPDATE 5/9—Now the Chosun gets in on the action. The Koreans are chasing foreign investment away by Jeff Shock! It’s all anyone can talk about. They’ll rue the day they treated Jeff Jones like an ordinary person…
For those of you losing sleep over the issue, the Chosun reports that Jones’ older, seven year-old son has been granted a place in one of the foreign schools (his stay on the waiting list sure was short...), leaving only the little one out in the barren wilderness. Whew. That is a big relief.
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Valid points, but don’t speak so soon, Brendon. I just don’t hope that in weeks’ or even days’ time that this school will somehow discover a way to make special accommodations for this way too special chap’s tikes. Am I being too cynical if I refuse to buy that this “problem” has made the news merely by “word-of-mouth?”
We tried to get our children into Yongsan Foreign School for next September, but they have a nine month waiting list, so we decided to return to our own country (the bank included).
Hold on there, joyboy—are you saying that you work for a bank which was considering an investment in Korea, and that after you encountered the long waiting list at Yongsan International School (and presumably also at Seoul Foreign School and Seoul International School too), your employer decided not to proceed with the planned investment?
‘Jeff shock’? Has anyone actually heard anybody using this term prior to the Chosun’s May 9 article? Sorry, but this sounds contrived (not that the ever-concerned-with-integrity Chosun Ilbo would ever knowingly put out some puffery, of course).
Well, I used the term at a dinner party on the 10th. My interlocutors were a country manager, a business owner, two accounting-firm resident foreign partners. Until I inquired about “Jeff Shock!” nobody had heard of the earth-shaking problem of Jeffrey Jones’ children being on a waiting list.
Foreign school and International schools. Are they the same? I have heard that a Korean child can’t be enrolled in a foreign or International school unless they have proof that they lived in an English speaking country for at least 5 years. Is that true. If so does anyone know if it’s strictly enforced, or do many korean families enrol their kids in those schools anyway regardless of the rules.