Why, this is just perfect!
You get a cheap brown worker whom you don't want here physically to provide the labor, you literally put a harmless white face on it, and instead of teaching kids to be more open about using a foreign language with a foreign PERSON, you simply let them play with a robot. Because of course, that's the best way to solve the problem, since foreigners are so SCARY, have HIV, molest children, destroy the honor of hapless Korean women in their free time, etc.
And the only reason foreigners break their contract (there's actually only a midnight run rate of 3%, despite the stereotype) or have friction in the workplace is because of us, not the hagwon owners who lie about working conditions, create a completely unprofessional workplace environment, and who exist in a system that completely rewards them for exploitative practices, but provides many foreigners with little real recourse other than to simply leave. Instead of fixing that, we got robots!
Less brown people behind a fake white face, learning foreign languages without the annoying associated crap of having to learn foreign ways of thinking or interacting with foreign people?
Like Korea's love of b-boy culture, rap, and other kinds of black culture -- black culture without black people!
Now, the pattern's expanded -- learning English without having to deal with dirty barbarians!
It's Korea's dream come true!
(HT to Alia)
