"Foreign wolf teachers"

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
21

You also represent the CNA?

Let’s compare what your publication wrote

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—In light of frequent reports of foreign teachers committing sexual offenses against their students in Taiwan in the past, the Legislature’s Education and Culture Committee has greenlighted a stricter clean slate bill for first-time foreign teachers in Taiwan, according to a Central News Agency story, which quoted an official in the Ministry of Education (MOE) as saying on Wednesday.

with the CNA’s report

過去外籍狼師頻傳，教育部今天表示，立院教委會初審通過補習進修法修正草案，未來補習班外籍人士首次申請聘僱許可時，需檢附原護照國的行為良好證明。

and an unpolished translation (to save readers from the horrors of online translation services)

Foreign wolf [i.e. sex offender] teachers having been frequently reported in the past, the Ministry of Education today indicated, the Supplementary Education Act draft amendment having passed the Legislative Yuan Education Committee’s first reading, in the future when a buxiban applies for a foreigner’s first work permit, it will be necessary to check the original passport country’s good behavior certificate.

and also this part of the CNA’s report

過去曾陸續傳出外籍狼師來台犯案，教育部終身教育司長黃月麗表示，……

and once again an unpolished translation

There having been case after case in the past of of foreign wolf [i.e. sex offender] teachers coming to Taiwan and committing crimes, the Ministry of Education today indicated, …

I also read the “indicated” as referring to what comes after, not before. There are no quotation marks to separate what the official actually said from the author’s own comments.

We would be negligent in not providing the full picture of what was being discussed as rationale for the crackdown.

You’re not providing the full picture. All the other media (correct me if I’m wrong) reported this moral panic was caused by one thing, a (non-foreign) suicide case. On the basis of one sensational report (with “foreign wolf” in the headline) that contradicted what everyone else was reporting and did not match the official statement it was evidently based on, you went ahead and repeated the sensational claim.

Yes, the CNA is state-owned. That doesn’t give it the authority to speak on behalf of the MOE, nor does it make it exempt from scrutiny. Even if the statement is authentic, the MOE is not exempt from scrutiny, and it’s your job as the free and independent media to subject statements to fact checking. When did this supposed army of foreign sex offenders arrive in Taiwan? Where are the “frequent” reports of them terrorizing buxibans?

Notice how the CNA report and the official statement both give statistics for buxibans and foreign teachers, but not for foreign sex offenders. They don’t mention a single case, though the CNA report does contain a reference to the non-foreign case that actually sparked this whole thing.

As it stands, I find it difficult to believe the official in question actually mentioned “frequent reports” of foreign sex offenders, and I find it difficult to believe the claim is accurate, no matter where it originated.

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22

Good, I’d be interested in hearing CNA’s take on this. I assume the MOE will be diplomatic when confronted by a foreigner.

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Gotta love the kneejerk reactions.
Almost nothing on the news over the years about any “foreign wolves” , but one girl kills herself and claimed it was due to a local Taiwanese “wolf” (allegation unproven, because she died and he was never formally charged) and now foreigners get scapegoated. I guess we are a convenient target, can’t do anything about it.

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24

I’m sure they would be (when queried by a foreigner), but as I have pointed out multiple times, it looks to have nothing to do with the MOE, and everything to do with the CNA, if we simply read the CNA article. That is some kind of insurmountable hurdle I guess.

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Taiwan News staff won’t even contact CNA to confirm details of the article they copied from.

They want other people to do that for them.

Couldn’t make this stuff up.

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That’s a lot easier said than done Brianjones. Though I didn’t write this article from a different news agency, and most editors at the other expat rags wouldn’t give you the time of day, I am taking the extraordinary step of responding to all your comments and contacting CNA. I’ve already sent a couple messages to them through a couple different channels, both inside and out. But don’t hold your breath.

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Extraordinary. Well let us know how it goes with the fact checking.

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Please see the following correspondence between a concerned member of the public and the Ministry of Education.

[quote=“concerned member of the public”]關於中央通訊社於106年5月17日報導最近補習及進修教育法之修正草案係因「防補教外籍狼師」爲目的，該報導之內容含「過去外籍狼師頻傳,教育部今天表示…」及「過去曾陸續傳出外籍狼師來台犯案，部終身教育司長黃月麗表示…」惟貴部之當日新聞稿並不表示所謂「外籍狼師頻傳」等而不清楚是否黃月麗實際主張「外籍狼師頻傳」等還是中央社渲染。臺灣英文新聞於5月17日亦有 與中央社類似之報導，且最近於社會媒體該報導導致譁然。臺灣英文新聞之代言人表示「Complain to the Ministry of Education, they are the ones who cited the reports of “foreign sex wolf teachers” in their decision to crack down on foreign cram school teachers」（向教育部申訴吧,就是他們決定鎮壓外籍補習班老師時引用「外籍色狼老師」的報導），而且代言人另主張「CNA’s source was interviewing an MOE official in person」（中央社的來源是親自採訪教育部的官員）。請問：（一）、貴部之官員是否向中央社表示「外籍狼師頻傳」等語？（二）、所谓「外籍狼師」之情況如何？換言之，有多少「外籍狼師」犯案，最近犯案係何日期發生，如何閱讀更多資料云云？此致
[/quote]

Unofficial translation:

Regarding the Central News Agency having reported on 2017-05-17 that the reason for the recent amendment to the Supplementary Education Act is for the purpose of “guarding against foreign wolf teachers”, the report’s content includes “there having been frequent reports in the past of foreign wolf teachers, the Ministry of Education today indicated…” and “there having been reports in the past one case after another of foreign wolf teachers comings to Taiwan and committing crimes, the leader of the Ministry’s Department of Continuing Education Huang Yueli indicated…”, yet the Honorable Ministry’s press release on that day definitely did not indicate so-called “frequent reports of foreign wolf teachers” etc., so it is not clear whether Huang Yueli actually claimed “frequent reports of foreign wolf teachers” etc. or whether the CNA made an embellishment. Taiwan News [“Taiwan English News”] on 05-17 also had a report similar to the the CNA’s, and recently on social media these reports caused an uproar. A spokesperson for Taiwan News indicated, “Complain to the Ministry of Education, they are the ones who cited the reports of ‘foreign sex wolf teachers’ in their decision to crack down on foreign cram school teachers”, and the spokesperson additionally claimed that “CNA’s source was interviewing an MOE official in person”. Please may it be asked: (1) Did an official of the Honorable Ministry indicate “frequent reports of foreign wolf teachers” to the CNA? (2) What is the situation of so-called “foreign wolf teachers”? In other words, how many “foreign wolf teacher” cases are there, on what date did the most recent case occur, how may one read more information, and so on? Sincerely.

Response:

Unofficial translation:

  1. The report concerning “frequent reports of foreign wolf teachers” does not describe words that were provided by this Ministry, and this Ministry on that day did not accept an exclusive interview with the CNA. Regarding the passage of the Legislative Yuan’s first reading of the draft amendment of Art. 9 of the Supplementary Education Act, this Ministry’s legislative explanation of the relevant part, “when a buxiban applies for the first time for permission to employ a foreigner, it should check and attach a good behavior certificate issued by the original passport country”, is mainly that in the Legislative Yuan’s original discussion the teacher would need a police criminal record certificate (generally called a good person certificate), and a foreign buxiban teacher should also have the same stipulation, also avoiding causing a foreign buxiban teacher who is already in the country to return to one’s country to apply for a good behavior certificate, so the stipulation that a buxiban should inspect and attach a good behavior certificate issued by the original passport country only when applying for permission to employ a foreigner for the first time is acceptable, and this is definitely not special treatment compared to the stipulation that for a supplementary [i.e. buxiban] teacher of our country the good person certificate should be inspected and attached.
  1. Thank you for your suggestion and concern about supplementary education, and if there is anything you still do not understand about the content of this Ministry’s response, or if you have any suggestions, you are welcome to contact us, and this Ministry will sincerely endeavor to serve you.

From this I gather that (1) the MOE did not cite reports of foreign sex offenders in relation to this issue, (2) the CNA did not have an inside scoop, (3) neither Taiwan News nor the CNA performed basic fact checking for the articles in question, and (4) combined with the bizarre decision to defend the supposed accuracy of both articles by attempting to place the blame on the MOE, this shows Taiwan News to be an unreliable source (and that’s putting it charitably). Moreover, (5) the MOE is not “cracking down” on foreign teachers but rather expressing an opinion on equal treament for local and foreign teachers.

If the CNA has a different explanation, I’m all ears.

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29

As I said: “I assume the MOE will be diplomatic when confronted by a foreigner.”

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“according to a Central News Agency story, which quoted an official in the Ministry of Education (MOE) as saying on Wednesday.” The onus is on CNA. We contacted them multiple times through different channels and there has been no response so far.We are not affiliated with CNA. We simply reported what the government’s Central News Agency had stated, which still remains on their website. Until that changes, the facts are still the same.

Furthermore, we are not going to make editorial changes because an unnamed person on an online forum produces text from an unknown, unverified source.

31

I take this part

[quote=“Ministry of Education”]The report concerning “frequent reports of foreign wolf teachers” does not describe words that were provided by this Ministry, and this Ministry on that day did not accept an exclusive interview with the CNA.
[/quote]

as a simple statement of fact, not a diplomatic spin. Are you suggesting the MOE has made a false statement for the purpose of a cover-up?

You could easily verify the MOE’s statement by asking them, but that would be, well, journalism.

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32

Good job “concerned citizen.”

So it turns out the it was the CNA reporter who just made up the “frequent reports of foreign wolf teachers”

The CNA writes fake news!

That’s why locals call Taiwan “Ghost Island.”

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33

I also contacted the Taiwan News and asked them to get George Liao to respond to the same complaint and to produce any evidence he is aware of that there is an issue with foreign buxiban teachers raping students. They said they forwarded my email to him and asked him to comment. Strangely enough old George hasn’t replied.

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Something like “If it enrages, it makes the front pages”

Jeez Louise, how fuckin hard would it have been to write it as:

in the first friggin place, huh?
Fuckin E-rag™ (credit @tempogain)

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35

Hey guys, just a reminder. Our monthly ‘evil foreign wolf teacher’ bake sale is happening next Friday. Please bring your freshly baked cookies and roofies!

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36

Please, can we adhere to the preferred nomenclature??
色狼, rather than simply “狼”
We’re not, after all, animals.

Well, OK, except for me.

37

Maybe we should stop the jokes. We don’t want ole Georgie-peorgie to see this and report it as fact.

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38

I didn’t know there were wolves in Taiwan that need teaching

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39

Are you suggesting yyy made that up kman? To what purpose?

Even a cursory reading of the CNA article suggested that those were unsubstantiated opinions. Their hurtful and unfair character was equally obvious. The CNA won’t substantiate them as you admit. Unless the CNA has some godlike, unquestionable status in the world of journalism that I’m unaware of, there’s no defense for your policy here except that it’s simply expedient for your site to simply pass along whatever is shoveled its way without any thought whatsoever. I’m not sure why you would wish to stick to it except for that reason. I would suggest that the TN would be well served by re-examining it.

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FOREIGN wolves! They don’t know how to use chopsticks!

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