‘Hello Katie, I am sorry to inform you that my client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism [sic] nature of your kind.’ (Fox News, November 10, 2014) The above message, sent to an Irish woman applying to teach English in South Korea in 2014 and shared widely in the media (Fox News, November 10, 2014; McCauley, 2014; Taylor, 2014) demonstrates that issues of nationality can shape the hiring of ‘foreign’ English teachers in East Asia. To better understand these issues, this study examines Irish English-language teachers’ experiences and understandings of seeking employment in Korea through interviews with six Irish English-language teachers who taught in Korea. Only one teacher explicitly stated he was discriminated against on the basis of being Irish, with three others discussing discrimination in ways which avoided explicitly taking a position regarding discrimination against Irish English-language teachers. Two participants explicitly stated they never experienced discrimination on the basis of being Irish, but surprisingly also discussed experiences in which their employment opportunities were limited due to being Irish. Additionally, certain aspects of Irish English and the desire in Korea for American English and American curriculum were identified as potential limitations on Irish English-language teachers’ employment opportunities in Korea.

中文翻译：

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在韩国寻找爱尔兰英语老师的工作

“你好，凯蒂，我很遗憾地通知你，由于你这种人有酗酒的本性，我的客户不雇用爱尔兰人。” （福克斯新闻，2014 年 11 月 10 日）上述信息是 2014 年发送给一位申请在韩国教英语的爱尔兰女性的，并在媒体上广泛传播（福克斯新闻，2014 年 11 月 10 日；麦考利，2014；Taylor，2014）表明，国籍问题可能会影响东亚“外籍”英语教师的聘用。为了更好地理解这些问题，本研究通过采访六位在韩国任教的爱尔兰英语教师，考察了爱尔兰英语教师在韩国求职的经历和理解。只有一名教师明确表示他因爱尔兰人身份而受到歧视，另外三名教师在讨论歧视时避免明确就歧视爱尔兰英语教师的问题采取立场。两名参与者明确表示，他们从未经历过因爱尔兰人身份而受到的歧视，但令人惊讶的是，他们也讨论了由于爱尔兰人身份而导致就业机会受到限制的经历。此外，爱尔兰英语的某些方面以及韩国对美式英语和美式课程的渴望被认为是爱尔兰英语教师在韩国就业机会的潜在限制。