Man beats up elementary school student in the elevator . . .on tape.

Scroll down for updates (latest on April 6)

Some really ugly stuff here (on youtube here), but one of the top stories on Naver.



Video news report available here. One of the guys who originally broke the story said the video news report mentions the police's unwillingness to do anything, but of course I'm not fluent so I don't know for sure.

* Update 1: The Korea Times has the story in English now. Excerpts:

The girl had her hair pulled out and received bruises to body. Her parents reported it to the nearby police branch office about 10 minutes after the incident.

Police officers collected testimonies from the parents and the neighbor and checked the CCTV recording in the elevator. Despite the apparent kidnap attempt, the officers reported to Ilsan Police Station the next day that it was ``just a simple assault case'' committed by a drunken man, based on testimony that he smelled of alcohol.

and

Police are being criticized for neglecting the case and thus losing the chance to catch the suspect at an early stage. It was also reported that the police asked her mother not to talk about the case to the media.

President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that the public is incensed over the police's lukewarm attitude.

``As seen on the CCTV recording, it was really brutal. The state's utmost duty is to protect people's lives, but the police still show such an attitude at this time when many cruel cases remain unsolved and people feel pity for them. The police need to change,'' Lee said.

Absolutely Sparkling.

* Update 2: Caught him:



The Korea Times has the story in English. An excerpt:

Lee said that he was drunk when he was walking behind her. The girl gave him a suspicious glance, and he tried to tell her that he was not a bad person. He got angry at her attitude and beat up her, according to his testimony. Police are investigating the reason for this action.

He was previously in jail for 10 years for habitually sexually assaulting minors and was released two years ago, police said.

Police caught him after confirming through CCTV recordings in subway stations on line 3 that he took a subway train at Daehwa Station near the apartment complex and got off at Suseo Station.

Despite the arrest, police are being faulted for failing to react swiftly to the failed kidnapping and losing the chance to catch Lee earlier.

Her parents reported the attack to a nearby police office about 10 minutes after the incident. Police officers collected testimony from the parents and the neighbor and checked the CCTV recording in the elevator. Despite the apparent kidnap attempt, the officers reported to Ilsan Police Station the next day that it was ``just a simple assault case'' committed by a drunken man, based on testimony that he smelled of alcohol.

Ah, employing the "I was drunk" defense. Smart move.

* Update 3: The story is in all the papers now, as is news that "Child Sex Offenders Will Face Harsher Penalties." The Chosun Ilbo has a bunch of other articles and editorials on the matter, including "Too Dumb and Too Lazy to Protect and Serve?" An excerpt:

On March 27, around 100 leaflets displaying the face of the criminal were posted in and around the apartment complex, printed by the parents after they heard nothing from the police. It wasn’t until March 29 that a detective from Ilsan Police Station came to investigate the scene of the crime, which had been assigned to him on March 27. The detective is said to have taken a day off on March 28. It was only after the news report on Sunday night that the chief of Ilsan Police Station appointed an investigative team to the case and made a huge ruckus in the process.

At 11 a.m. on March 26, the National Police Agency had announced a comprehensive set of measures to deal with child abductions and missing children. The NPA had made the announcement after mounting criticism over its ineptitude after it took 82 days to catch the criminal who murdered Lee Hye-jin (11) and Wu Ye-seul (9). The murderer was discovered to have been a neighbor. The agency vowed it would create a 1,056-strong special unit handling missing child cases and would swiftly mobilize the maximum number of forces once a report is filed. Less than six hours after that, it was shown up to have been a huge bag of hot air.

For all the ragging on Dave's and the other forums, this is another story that was broken on that site, well before mention was ever made in (English-language) newspapers and on blogs. Other examples include the abusive daycare center in Itaewon, child molestor in Vermont Hanse Park, and the story of Bill Kapoun. So it does pay to sift through the "Why do Koreans have black hair?" and "Where should I live: Gangnam or Wando?" threads every once in a while.

* Update 4: From a Joongang Ilbo story from a few days ago:

About 170 police officers were assigned to the case yesterday.
The incident happened Wednesday afternoon. The suspect punched and kicked the third-grade girl, who sustained numerous bruises. The man then fled when a neighbor arrived.

Staggering how many officers had free time. As was demonstrated in the case of the abusive daycare, and was reaffirmed here, when it comes to criminal matters, especially against children, it is much more effective to go to the media than to the police. Another excerpt:

The girl’s father reported the case 10 minutes later. The Daehwa branch of the Ilsan police department took the call, but only informed higher authorities the next day, classifying it as a misdemeanor, police said.
Although witnesses and the surveillance footage showed the man was holding a weapon, the initial police report left out that information, police said. The case was initially categorized as misbehavior toward a child by a drunken man.
Police also obtained a fingerprint believed to be that of the suspect from the elevator, but waited two days to send the evidence to the crime lab. They didn’t get a positive identification, so they told the girl’s parents there was nothing they could do.
After the angry parents and neighbors criticized the lack of effort by the police and posted posters with a photo of the suspect from the video footage, the police on Saturday took a look at the tape for the first time.

And posters on one of Korea's expat forums made some good points. One, if the neighbor hadn't gotten involved, and would have just looked the other way as is common in Korea, the kid would have been gone. Two, that the police, both here and in the case in Anyang, seem to have made the assumption that these men were merely disciplining these children, and in Korea it is considered approrpriate for older people to set kids straight. Third, that for all we hear about how Korea is a safe country---and in many respects it is a safe country, much much safer than the US in many respects---it is definitely not a safe country for children. Children are the frequent victims of car crashes: 4th highest among OECD nations, according to this KT article, and that's of course not taking into account pedestrians, who comprise roughly 40% of fatalaties in car accidents over here. And as you see when you're flipping through the channels or looking at your bills, there is no shortage of children's faces for the missing persons reports.

That so many parents escorted their children to school following the Anyang case and this one is evidence that people are outraged by the crimes and by police ineffectiveness. That's a good thing. However, I also recall people being outraged after a middle school girl was held captive and raped by 800 men, but I haven't heard any updates on that. We'll see how this one goes.

* Update 5 (April 6, 19:00): I put the video up on youtube to make it easier to share, and in case the news article links change.

Good thing Hines Ward is bald and all grown up.

Because if the Pride of Korea were a student in Korea and had him some curly hair, he might have to cut it off. From the Hankyoreh, via Korea Beat, comes a story that students with naturally brown or curly hair will be issued ID cards to prove that their styles are natural . . . or else be forced to cut or dye their hair to conform to dress codes. Read the whole article here. Two excerpts:

Recently schools have been requiring students with naturally colored or curly hair to obtain proof. Students with naturally-colored hair must get confirmation form their parents and teacher and keep the proof with them when they go to school. A large number of schools in Seoul, including Ilshin girls’ High School, Gyeonggi Girls’ High School, Daewon Girls’ High School, Dongmyeong Girls’ High School, and Seomun Girls’ High School, issue the ID cards.

and

The “natural hair ID cards” are a “solution” to the issue. But there are many schols which don’t have the cards yet have no problems, so there appear to be no significant results from them, because the educational authorities’ call for “curly or colored hair” as the enforcement standard exposes a cramped view of standardization. Already in our society 1 in 8 marriages are international. Perhaps in the future students will also need “natural skin color ID cards” and “natural eye color ID cards”.

Here's a picture of a "natural hair ID card," from Hankyoreh via Daum:

Beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Well, not completely, but I couldn't think of a better title. The sun was shining for a while today, after a good downpour that ruined my plans yesterday. It clouded up after I left the damn apartment today, but whatever. A lot of trees were in bloom. I'm still getting the hang of this camera, and was kind of disappointed with some of the shots, so I'mma just blame the clouds, the awkward sunlight, and the insects. Anyway, anyone in Suncheon interested in seeing some blossoms in person ought to walk along 동천 stream from the Duckie Boat harbor nearly up to Suncheon National University, a good stretch which should take you between thirty and forty-five minutes. You'll also find blossoms along 중앙로 just past the university, near the new 유심천관광호텔, and along the stream which runs beside it. (April 6 update: There is a nice stretch of yellow flowers south of the Duckie Boats, so check that out too.)






A Jindo chained outside with his cute little friend.


Stones piled up at Hyangrimsa temple, a disappointment located sort of behind Suncheon National University.




Here's one from April 6th, the next weekend . . . no reason to start its own entry:



Just a reminder for anyone in the area who likes looking at flowers and stuff while walking, the Yeongchuisan Azalea Festival (영취산 진달래 축제) is on through April 10 on Yeosu's 영취산 mountain. Also on the mountain is Heungguksa temple, and since you're in the area why not visit me? you might be interested in Suncheon's Seonamsa temple, which is known for looking its best each spring. I agree. Here's a photo set from when I first visited Suncheon, and Seonamsa, about eleven months ago.

Bass so low you dig it with a shovel.

In celebration of nothing in particular, here's a damn catchy techno song from Seamus Haji and Doug Lazy, "Head to Toe.":

Uphill battles.

So I was sitting in the office today and a woman I had never seen comes in and starts talking to me. She's an office worker downstairs and started asking me all the basics (Where are you from? When did you come to Korea? 등). She told me she spent some time in Indiana and was very happy when Indianapolis won the Super Bowl a while back. She also knew a little about Penn State, where her sister once went to school.

After a few minutes we moved on to where I went to school and what I studied. I said I majored in English at a school in Pennsylvania, and the conversation took a predictable turn. The gist of her words are in italics, mine are in telligent (hahaha *cough*):

"Do you have any certificate for teaching?"
"No."
"You have no certificate for teaching middle school?"
"No."
"Ah. That is becoming a problem for Korea. Foreign teachers are increasing and they don't have certificate."
"Certificates aren't necessary for Korea."
"It is becoming problem for Korea. Many foreign teachers do violence in schools."
"No, they don't. Usually the Korean teachers do that."
"A foreign teacher last year, I read, did violence to a student in a hagwon, I think. Do you know hagwon? I read that."
"I don't think so."

I was like "Bitch must not know who the fuck I am, I'm the 원어민 bitch!" I happened to have a print-out of the Naver article about the teacher who taped shut the mouth of one of her kindergarten students. I showed it to her, and this woman asked me if a foreigner did that. Didn't wipe that smug shit-eating grin off her face.

I did bring it up at the teachers' workshop the following period, and mentioned that foreigners resent that line of questioning. Thankfully at least the two (ha!) teachers there agreed with me, and they were surprised to hear from me how often that topic comes up in person and in the media. Jesus Tapdancing Christ, of all the things to bring up on a first meeting . . . and it wasn't but seven days ago that a teacher at our school---the teacher designated as the fucking school disciplinarian---beat a student with her own shoe in front of nearly 1,000 students and teachers. Do violence. Shit. After I said that she asked me how I felt about hitting students, and I said "It's Korean culture."

Whatever. This is but one of the uphill battles I feel many of us are dealing with in our attempts at being respected members of the school community. Her feelings are not shared by everyone, but they are shared by enough people to make them a cause for concern. Hell, a few weeks ago the science teacher told me that Canadians can't find jobs back home so they come to Korea. Fuck, I'm a part time stripper and I do hair.

Today's workshop was between the more cooperative of my coteachers. Nevertheless, I'm moving toward more teaching at the workshop and less "free talking," or attempts at it. I brought up the thing about misspelling my name on the school website, and how often this happens. I said that while it's not a big deal for Koreans, the constant errors represent laziness and indifference to many English-speakers, including me. I brought up how the textbook doesn't write 한국말 but rather 우리말 for Korean, and just as Koreans take pride in their language, so do Americans in theirs. Though English may be a joke, a test subject, or a status symbol to Koreans, it's part of my culture, and I am interested in teaching it as best I can and in presenting it in a respectul, meaningful way. It's certainly rendered dull and useless in school, by teachers who could help students more by just staying home, but it's hardly lifeless for the hundreds of millions of people who have grown up with it. English is more than something to stick in ice cream commercials or some weird symbols you haphazardly throw on t-shirts and posters, but that kind of out-of-context bullshit is why you have students who can't apologize, but who can spit out "i'm so sorry but I love you." And that's why I have cut down on catcalls, and have eschewed the dancing monkey act as much as possible, while still providing informative, entertaining lessons. Well, I do my best anyway . . . some of my lessons have been pretty worthless, but I still take pride in the efforts.

I then asked them to come to me if they have any questions about American or English-language culture, because the textbooks usually have little cultural tips in each chapter. I pointed out that these are usually either oversimplified and outright wrong, and brought up the example of the 6th grade "blackface" skit, the redunkulous tips in the elementary school books, the unchecked use of nigger in dictionaries, and the garbage featured in New Countries, Far Countries, a best-selling children's edutainment history book.

True I've been kinda down on my coteachers lately, but I had planned to bring up the blackface skit and the comic book as part of a lesson on representation of foreign cultures anyway. While I don't play the part of a raving lunatic at school very often, and I don't think I've ever brought up "foreigner issues" before in the workshops, I don't think it's inappropriate for teachers to use workshop time to address some of the huge cultural gaps between native speakers and their Korean counterparts. As I said before, and as I'll get around to in a long-ass post one of these days, the way native speakers are imagined and presented in Korean schools plays a huge role in how successful they can be. Trying to work among colleagues---and under the influence of parents, reporters, and politicians---who have fairly narrow understandings of foreigners weakens our professional standing and undermines what we try to do in the classroom. That a stranger, someone on "our team," would bring up the "dangerous, unqualified foreign teacher" motif within ten minutes of meeting me, and on the strength of something she heard last year, shows me that I still have a lot of work to do.

Whatever, it's the weekend and the weather is warming up. I'm overthinking the issues a little, but that's what blogs are for. Here's a cute video of a 10-week-old Shih Tzu playing with its reflection:

He said he killed him with it over there.

More evidence that the Korea Times needs an editor. That headline is murder. Took quite a few read-throughs to have a vague idea what it's talking about. The opening paragraph is a killer, too.

The chief of a civic organization that looks after the house where former President Park Chung-hee was born was murdered by a man in his 20s at the house, Wednesday evening.

After a very dull teachers' workshop yesterday, and the misspelling of my name on the school website, perhaps I'm just hypersensitive about the bludgeoning of my native language.

Pittsburgh Pirates are Asian-free again.

Your Pittsburgh Pirates won't have any Asian players on the team for the first time since . . . a few months ago. They will buy out the contract of Gwangju's Byung-hyun Kim, who was signed in the off-season. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Kim, 29, was signed Feb. 24 to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract with an $850,000 salary and as much as $1.15 million available in performance bonuses. But he has been a major disappointment from the outset, taking five days to sign that contract after the agreement had been reached, then needing two weeks to get his arm into shape to pitch.

Once Kim finally pitched, it got worse: He had a 14.40 ERA and five home runs in as many innings.

As one senior team official put it, "He hasn't exactly made much of an impression."

That continued yesterday, when Kim missed what likely was his last chance to impress. He had been scheduled to pitch the seventh inning of the Pirates' game against the Minnesota Twins -- a 7-3 victory -- but he told the coaching staff he was ill and was given permission to leave McKechnie Field shortly after noon.

Kim was the first Korean in Pirates history. Not sure if he'll actually count, though, since he never pitched a regular season game for them. I wonder if he'll end up signing with the team in Gwangju? Former Major Leaguers Hee-seop Choi and Jaewong Seo are there, as is Jose Lima. As the East Windup Chronicle points out, if Kim doesn't stick around, and if Park Chan-ho gets cut, there won't be any Koreans in the Major Leagues.

And, according to today's Post-Gazette, Masumi Kuwata will retire. He was signed last year and was the first-ever Japanese player on the Pirates. The Post-Gazette tells us that he was a superstar in Japan, but in true Pirates fashion, they signed him as a 39-year-old, thirteen years after his MVP season. Thinking being that any Japanese player is better than your run-of-the-mill Pirate. The chronological sequence on his Baseball Reference wiki page is funny: "2003-2006: Further decline," "To the USA." From the Post-Gazette:

The Pirates offered him a chance to pitch today against the Detroit Tigers, one final time, but respectfully declined and said he preferred to simply watch the game from the bullpen.

General manager Neal Huntington also offered him a coaching job, and he turned that down, too.

Kuwata, a 20-year veteran in the Japanese Central League and 1994 most valuable player, fulfilled his dream of pitching in Major League Baseball last year when the Pirates promoted him June 9 for a game at Yankee Stadium. He would make 19 appearances and have a 9.43 ERA.

Pitch 19 games for Pittsburgh, get cut, be a coach. I guess the job market back home isn't as tough as I thought. Anyway, I felt really bad when Kuwata got cut last year. His family flew in from Japan to see him pitch in the Majors for the first time, and he got released the next day.

Interesting to note that the only two Koreans to ever play in the NHL got their start in Pittsburgh. Jim Paek spent parts of four seasons with the Penguins and earned two Stanley Cup rings. And Richard Park was drafted by the Penguins in 1994 and played 58 lackluster games with them before finding more success elsewhere. And an interesting bit of trivia is that the Pirates were reportedly trying to sign Lee Seung-yeop a couple of years ago. If I remember correctly, he was looking for big money, though, and when the Pirates and a half-dozen other teams wouldn't pay $25 million for an unproven, smallish slugger, he went back to Japan.

Abusive kindergarten teacher at my old school in Gangjin.

Pop-up at the 강진동초 site.

I stole this story from Korea Beat, who has translated a Naver article about a kindergarten teacher who taped shut the mouth of one of her students. This happened at the kindergarten adjacent to Gangjin East Elementary School. I used to teach the kindergarten students there once a week, in the same room shown on the video news report. An excerpt of the Korea Beat translation:

At this kindergarten on the 19th a teacher, Choi, used tape to close the mouth of 6-year old Yun for 30 minutes.

The reason was that the child frequently disturbed class and would not listen to the teacher.

The tape used was 5-centimeter vinyl tape of the kind used for packing boxes, kept at the school for arts and crafts.

The boy’s parents said this afternoon that he sufferes from sleeplessness and feelings of fear.

The school's website no longer allows people to view teachers' photos and now requires teachers to log-in. That prompt was not there a few days ago.


Cute kids. Like everyone else in Gangjin, they had no idea what I was talking about.

Brain. *sigh* Just can't win.

After seven months at my school, they finally put my name up on the website.



I know nobody else cares, but Jesus Tapdancing Christ, it is my name. A lot of Koreans are quick to point out my mistakes in hangeul, but when it comes to written English they sure are careless about spelling, punctuation, and typography. Pick up any English book or newspaper printed in Korea, or visit any English-language website here, and chances are you'll find pretty random capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. I have to conclude it's due to complete indifference about the rules of this monkey language. They are exposed to the alphabet their whole lives . . . just look at your keyboard, for instance. But the complete inability around here for many to use the English alphabet is face-slappingly exasperating. I'm gonna bring it up at next week's teachers' workshop. This last one was so dull that I regret not talking about forcing my love shots on unsuspecting women.

Well, "Brain" is a pretty common mistake, and even though that doesn't make me feel any better, this mistake isn't as bad as the name that's on my Kim's Club card---Deotsch---or the one that appeared on my schedule last month--Brian Dueth.

Legs good, love shots bad.

Two stories on sexual harassment rulings in two days from the Korea Times. Yesterday a court ruled that photographig a woman's legs in public does not constitute sexual harassment. Today the KT reports that forcing a woman to do a love shot does. An excerpt:

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a construction company owner identified as Koo, 48, must pay a 3 million won ($3,000) fine, upholding a lower court's decision.

The businessman was indicted without physical detention in August 2005 on charges of harassing two waitresses at a golf club's restaurant in South Gyeongsang Province.

In the ruling, the court said ``Despite the waitresses' resistance, Koo forced `love shots' on them by utilizing his relationship with the restaurant's owner.''

``Given overall matters concerned with this case ― the waitresses resisted Koo's attempts to hug and caress them before drinking ― we can only conclude his behavior was sexual harassment,'' the court said.

I'm wondering whether I should bring this up at my teachers' workshop this afternoon. I'm afraid, though, that if I give them an article with the line "Despite the waitresses' resistance, Koo forced love shots on them" I'll be charged with sexual harassment, too.

Actually I just brought up the teachers' workshop so I could sneak the "love shots on them" line in there. I'm sure this topic would induce just as much silence among them as any other. I've never witnessed forced love shots at a company dinner. The strangest time I recall was last month when one of the office workers started counting out the virgin women sitting at the table. "One virgin, two virgin, three virgin," and so on. At first I thought he was just really confused about the terms we use for unmarried women, since Koreans are virgins before marriage , and just had forgotten a term like Miss or unmarried. Then my coteacher clarfied things by saying that "virgin is somebody who didn't have sex." I must have misunderstood him, but now it made perfect sense. He wasn't trying to tell me about who was single, he was just telling me who hadn't had sex.

One commenter on the KT site has weighed in with his take:

schengen (121.129.42.54) 03-26-2008 02:27
PS lets line up this Koofucker together with the farmers who both represents old korea

schengen (121.129.42.54) 03-26-2008 02:25
ballast can have a destabilising effect on a ship in response a shipscrew will pump out the ballast my solutions is to get rid of this cocksucker Koo who is destabilising the progress of korea

So that's how that works.

Zauhory's interview at the embassy.

A guy heading to Mokpo soon had one of those requisite (really?) face-to-face interviews at the Korean Embassy. Here's how it went:

My name was written Zauhory, good times. The diplomat asked me my name, where I was from, my educational background, and my opinion of the Spitzer affair. The whole process took less than five minutes to do. Then I had to hop the bus home which was another four hours out of my day. Eight hours on a bus for a five minute interview?

Lame. For me, the face-to-face interview would most likely be a deal-breaker unless---fat chance---my boss reimbursed me for it. I handled everything in person at the Ko-nsulate in New York in 2005. The cost of plane tickets, the motel, the visa fees, and spend money put the trip at roughly $600. Okay, not an insane amount of money, but more than I'd like to spend on something useless. Plus, New York is a shithole. Since these new interviews look about as well put together as the immigration crackdown in 2005, it'd be hard to persuade me to jump through those hoops. Also, I'm kinda not, like, a criminal or anything, and I resent the implication and stuff.

"Zauhory" is the guy I mentioned yesterday who was going to work at the Gangjin Foreign Language Village, but got switched to Mokpo kinda last minute. That's how I'm vaguely acquainted with him and his blog.

Another horrible Korean cop story.

Another disgusting story for the "Korean Cops Are Utterly Worthless" category. Here's an excerpt from an article by Matthew Lamers in the Korea Herald (edit: you now have to pay to read the story on the KH site, but it was copied and pasted here):

David Kim, 37, and his wife, Kim Yun-hee were out for what they described as a midnight snack in Dapsimni, eastern Seoul, when they were attacked by a group they described as four gangsters on March 9.

David said after eating they went to a singing room, where the gangsters confronted them in the lobby, attaching various slurs to the word "foreigner," then the couple was physically attacked. He said the attackers broke his jaw in half and tried to rape Yun-hee. His wife came away from the incident with bruises and broken teeth.

"When I came back to Korea, my motherland, I obviously hoped for belonging and acceptance -- but it's really not there," said David.

"It's tough for me because when I go back to Canada, I'm not accepted as a white person, and in Korea I'm not accepted as Korean. I had a tough time growing up in Canada because there was a lot of racism," he explained.

In an interview at the hospital, David said: "My jaw is split in two. My front teeth are gone. They dragged (Yun-hee) into a norebang room, were holding her down and said they were going to rape her."

But she managed to break away for long enough to call the police. By the time they arrived at the scene, three of the four attackers had fled, but David's said his hope for justice didn't last long.

"At the police station it was apparent they (the police and one of the attackers) knew each other. They asked me to sign a statement that was completely false. They weren't concerned about my medical condition and no ambulance and no doctor was called, even though I had a broken jaw, and (Yun-hee) had been slapped around and almost raped."

What's most amazing, David said, was when the police telephoned Yun-hee and told her that no charges were going to be placed.

"Two days later the police called my wife and said we should take a settlement."

He added that the police investigator has not taken statements from the victims, now over two weeks past the incident, and he worries about a just outcome when only one side has the ear of the police.

"We got attacked by gang members and the police actually told us, the victims, that they, the attackers, aren't going to press charges. It's amazing," said David.

You don't have to look very hard for examples of Korean cops being absolutely worthless. But if you're interested in more examples of Korean cops being downright ugly toward foreigners, go read the Metropolitician's account of being arrested for trying to report harassment to the police, or the story of Winter Raymond's shoddy treatment by cops and by hospital staff after being assaulted and nearly raped. Matter of fact, I don't think I've ever heard of a run-in with the police here that ever turned out good for a foreigner.


Cops sparkling!

Gangjin Foreign Language Town will finally open.

The Gangjin Foreign Language Town in Chilryang-myeon will finally open on March 27th. It was originally slated to open in August, 2006 at Gangjin East Elementary School, and I was under contract to work there for all of last year. Yet in spite of the delays, budget problems, and indescribable disorganization, all of which gave them another 18 months to prepare, they still went ahead with "Welcome Your Visit to Gangjin-gun."


Stolen from Yonhap via Naver.

So bravo everyone's life over there. For those unfamiliar, English Villages are kind of like a mini-camp, where students will go for anywhere between one and five days and will participate in a lot of hands-on, interactive role-playing at different stations. The Gangjin Shinmun article mentions "hospital," "department store," "immigration counter," and so on. These villages are all the rage in Jeollanam-do, and there are already villages in Naju, Jangheung, Gurye, Gwangyang, Boseong, and a ton of other places. A different group of students arrive every few days or every week, so the teachers there run through the same lessons over and over. The article mentions that it will serve students from 3rd to 9th grade. I remember there was a big emphasis on preparing my students for going to the English Village, since they were pretty low level (well, consistent with rural elementary school students all over the province, I suppose). Anyway, you haven't experienced frustration until you've had to teach an "Immigration" dialogue to fifth-grade students who can't read, and a "hospital" dialogue to third-graders who can't do anything.



Originally the English Town was going to be placed above the cafeteria at Gangjin East Elementary School. There were a few empty classrooms up there, but they just put in a brand new library, with computers and stuff, up there, too, so a lot of folks didn't want that ripped out. The Foreign Language Town now occupies the former site of Chilryang Elementary School, which closed in 1999. Renovating that school cost about 650 million won.

It was also unpopular among some because it meant that foreign teachers would be taken out of the elementary schools and concentrated at the Village. So instead of each class seeing an English monkey foreign teacher every day, and having his class every week, they'd visit an immersion-ish Village once a semester.

Another consequence of phasing out native speakers was that homeroom teachers would have to teach English classes without the help of a native speaker. Not too difficult, since Koreans have had a decade or more of English education in schools, and are exposed to the language their entire lives. Moreover, the textbooks are to be taught with a CD-ROM, so the teacher really doesn't have to talk at all, and the teachers' guides are entirely in Korean. The entire curriculum is designed to accommodate Korean homeroom teachers who may or may not have any idea what they're doing. But in the infinite wisdom of the people at my school, the teachers decided this would be an incredibly difficult task, and wanted to get an early jump on it by teaching all their classes alone in the spring semester, even though they had a native speaker at their disposal. Not sure if you've ever been kicked out of your own English class or asked to leave your own office, but it's a terribly disrespectful thing to experience. To make matters all the more infuriating, my coworkers refused to take English lessons from me, and skipped all of the weekly Classroom English classes I hosted. The classes of theirs I did observe consisted of teachers speaking in Korean for the entire class, forcing students to memorize dialogues---even though most students didn't know their ABCs yet---and getting physical if a student failed.

One incident in particular really helped move Hite off the shelves at the local grocery store. There were tons of meetings throughout the year for Korean English teachers, since they would face some difficulties after the white people left such as pressing play. There were several demonstration classes, too, though I was usually never told. I did get wind of one and so I went. The class was okay, and the students were well rehearsed, well trained. Like any demonstration class, it was clear the teacher spent an unrealistic amount of time preparing for it, but whatever, it worked. Anyway, after the demonstration came time for the audience of teachers to give their thoughts. There were a few dozen of us, and I was the only white guy (by that point I was one of only two white elementary school teachers in the county). They went in order around the room, getting everybody's take, and you can probably guess what happened . . . they skipped over me, pretty blatantly. And it's not like I was among strangers. About a quarter of the people in the room were my colleagues. Afterward I told my coteacher that I wish somebody had stood up for me when the moderator skipped over me, and she responded with "why should they stand up for you, you're not the principal." I think she took "stand up" literally. *sigh* Or not. She did hate me after all.

I'm curious who will staff it. When I arrived in Gangjin in August, 2006, I was to be the only foreigner there. At various times throughout my contract they told me that as few as one and as many as nine foreigners would work at the Town. I've been in contact with one guy who was schedule to go there in late-March, but right before he was getting his contract and visa stuff in order they notified him that the position had already been filled. This Yonhap article (via Naver) says that three foreigners and one Korean teacher will work there, although who knows. I've seen statistics on other English Villages in Jeollanam-do, and the Korean teachers have almost always outnumbered the foreign teachers. At the one in Jangheung, for example, there are three Koreans, one Canadian, and one Filipino.

Nobody asked, but I don't really like the idea of English Towns. I think the money spent could have gone toward improving the nonexistant English skills of the Korean English teachers there. (My coteachers included a very pregnant music teacher who couldn't speak any English, a substitute gym teacher, and a 5th grade homeroom teacher). I'll admit I'm not an impartial observer, though, because of the overwhelmingly poor treatment I received at the hands of my coworkers. This English Town is also a curious thing to build since there is already an "English Only Zone" at 중앙초교 in Gangjin-eup, which already cycles the students in for immersion programs, and which already features a bunch of the same stations mentioned in the article. Whatever. It's quite clear that this is the direction Jeollanam-do is going in, and that form has again trumped function. As with most aspects of English education in South Korea, I liken this to using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. The students can't read and they can't spontaneously construct a sentence, and both students and teachers really need to get back to basics . . . but at least they'll be responding "It's sunny" to "How are you?" in style now and on a brand new soccer field.

Since Gangjin is throwing money around now, maybe they'll finally get around to paying my overtime, to paying me for my three-week-long winter camp, and to providing the very basic supplies I requested. Probably not. You know, I was a huge spokesman for Gangjin and Jeollanam-do last year, working hard to write up information on Galbijim and Waygook.org, and to provide positive English-language information for the county where there previously was none. Hell, some of the write-ups I did synthesized information that had never even been brought together in Korean. I was pretty eager to stick around, as it's a pleasant county. Sadly, some Koreans really do know how to kill the affection a foreigner feels for his home away from home. And just like a video like "Kicking it in Geumchon" will create more positive publicity for an unremarkable part of unremarkable Paju than any website or promotional campaign could, so too do posts like this and experiences like mine damage what little reputation that county has. After all, who else is writing or reading about Gangjin? I used to love nothing better than touring around the local attractions there, but when I went back in February, sort of on assignment to get some photos of Nammireuksa, by biggest priority was to get in and get out as quickly as possible. Shame.

Good news for Feet Man Seoul: "Photographing Legs is Not Sexual Harassment."

Good news for the bloggers over at Feet Man Seoul. The Korea Times has the story:

Does taking a picture of the legs of a woman in a miniskirt constitute sexual harassment or not? The nation’s top court said, ``No.’’

The Supreme Court acquitted a man of charges that he sexually harassed a young woman by taking a picture of her legs on the subway last December.

I'm just having fun, and have nothing against the blog. I hardly ever visit it because I don't care about what passes for fashion here, but I should spend more time taking advantage of their bilingual columns. Anyway, the real story here isn't taking pictures of pouty, curveless women with bored faces and no backside. The story is one of privacy, permission, and photography. The KT article concludes:

Women rights advocates criticized the ruling. ``No matter which part of the body the man photographed, it is an infringement of human rights if he took the picture without her permission,’’ said Kim Eun-kyung, a director of Korea Women’s Associations United.

``It is regrettable that recent court rulings are lenient to violators of women rights,’’ she added.

The Metropolitician---one of the contributors to FMS, if I'm not mistaken---has a long blog entry on "Korean Photo Paranoia," inspired by a recent news story at the time. From the Hankyoreh on January 12, 2007:

The man, identified as Jo, took a photo with his cell phone camera of a 50-year-old female sitting across him, identified as Choi. Choi then snatched the phone and stopped the bus. She reported the incident to the police and Jo was taken to a police station in Yongsan.

Jo claimed that he just had taken a picture of the upper half of Choi’s body, and had not focused on any specific section of her anatomy. The police investigated Jo for violating a law on sexual violence, but ended up sending the case to the prosecution for lack of evidence. The prosecution found that there were no photos of Choi stored in Jo’s camera, and also could not prove that Jo’s photos had focused on any particular body parts. Jo was cleared of the charges.

However, an official of the National Police Agency warned, "People who take photos of other persons without their permission can be brought to court. It is the same case for those who spread photos [of other people] through the Internet, even if they have taken the pictures with permission. People should not take photos of other persons in public places," advised the official.

The Metropolitician has a few examples of Koreans being displeased with their photo being taken whle they are in public places. He also has a few points gleaned and translated from a photojournalism textbook. An excerpt:

1) According to the 10th and 16th articles of the Korean Constitution, which defines a "right to happiness" and "right to privacy," respectively, as this is expressed in concrete terms in article 32, clause 4 of criminal law, a person entrusted with a picture of someone can't use or reproduce it without one's wishes or according to commercial whims, but "because there are no stipulations for punishments, one can only seek compensatory damages according to clause 750 of civil law," for which you have to show clear and concrete damages to one's person or reputation. That means, you gotta have lost a job, gotten a divorce, or something else o which you can put a dollar (or won) sign.

2) According to the book, since there are almost no actual precedents for seeking damages to "chosangkweon" alone – most of the cases shown in the book that set significant legal precedents were all cases in which individuals' images were used without their permission for commercial purposes – it is "little more than an academic issue."

Well, since the advent of the Internet, "dog poop girl," and the woman in Hongdae who posed in a picture with two white boys and was essentially cyberstalked and threatened, Koreans are worried about their faces in pictures more than ever before.

The funny thing is, pretty much any case that most people chalk up to violations of one's "right to their image" are actually clear violations of their "right to happiness" and/or their "right to privacy." In the case of the woman whose image of her and her poopy pooch were passed all over the Net – along with her home address, telephone number, school, and major – her rights were clearly violated. The same is true of the woman who dared appear in a photograph with foreign vermin.

Teachers certainly know how students feel . . . they'll mug for each other's cell phones, but will often cover each other's faces when a teacher tries to snap a photo. Even a lot of the girls have obscured their faces in their class pictures.

Anyway, not sure if Koreans are as thoughtful about right to privacy when it comes to foreigners and those photos. (I'll leave it up to others to debate whether foreigners actually have that constitutional right in this country.) I do know of some bizarre examples. Most of us know somebody who has unwittingly appeared in an advertisement for their hagwon, whether on a flyer, on a website, or on a giant billboard. Me and some coworkers ended up in an advertisement for a 삼계탕 restaurant a few years back. And a woman in Mokpo was sleeping on a ferry to Jeju one time, and when she woke up she found a Korean couple standing over them putting away their camera.

I guess I'm a little paranoid about having my photo taken by strangers, because I never know where it'll end up. My weirdest experience was last fall at the Chungjangno Festival in Gwangju. There were a few tents set up in a parking lot, displaying old photographs of downtown Gwangju. Because I don't know where else to find old photos of this area, I started snapping a few photographs of the ones hanging there. After I took a shot, I turned to my left to see a Korean guy a few feet away with a huge-lensed camera pointed straight at me. When I turned to him he turned away. I went to another display, took a photo, and when I looked to my side he was there again, taking my photo from a few feet away. I went to another picture and looked over my shoulder to find him turning his camera away from me again. After I snapped another shot I found him again in my face with the camera, so I went over and chased him out of the tent. When I caught up to him I asked him who he was, and he told me he was putting together an art project for his university class. I'm not sure if what he was doing would be considered legal, but I do know it was highly annoying, and I suspect he wouldn't have photographed me had I not been a foreigner showing an interest in Gwangju. It was a street festival after all, and there were thousands of other targets visitors.

Near-vacant campus in Gwangju.

[Edit: Sorry, I think my post about the animal show is causing problems with my site. Looks like the media player I embedded is causing a warning message to pop up and, sometimes, to close Internet Explorer. If anyone else is having problems let me know, and if it's affecting others, I'll take out the embedded videos.]

After a failed attempt to visit Gwangyang's Apricot Village, I rounded up the family and headed to Gwangju. First I bought a new camera at Kumho World---Gwangju's scaled-down version of Seoul's Techno Mart---and reminded myself why I hate buying big-ticket items. Sick of sales people walking away when a white guy comes over to the counter, while fawning over a Korean passerby the next second. Found a nice lady, though, willing to talk to my dumb ass and I ended up getting a newer version of my old Casio Exilim, which I had somehow scratched up in Beijing. (135호, if you're looking to throw some business their way.) As you might have seen from some of my other photos, there was a crescent-shaped scratch across the lens, which threw a . . . well, a crescent-shaped scratch into my pictures and gave my shots a kind of a supernatural look. It was kind of amusing when I was viewing pictures I had taken in a local cemetary, but I can assure you it was less amusing when the Holy Spirit crept into every other fucking shot.

Anyway, I did that, and my aimless strolling led me to 카톨릭대교육원, which I think translates to Catholic University Continuing Education Center, but I'm not 100% sure. I've always enjoyed visiting college campuses. To me they represent youth and hope, and Xenu knows I've squandered enough of both. Yonsei University in Seoul has a nice campus, as does Kangwon National University in Chuncheon. Others still have that tinge of romanticism, but aren't as uniform or as well-groomed as those back home.

I'm not sure how this particular campus is related to the main campus of Gwangju Catholic University, actually in Naju. I can tell you that this one is eerily vacant, and more than half the buildings are run-down and used for storage. A thread on Expatkorea about abandoned buildings in Korea reminded me of this campus, and since I was in the neighborhood I walked on over. Some nice blossoms this time of year, and lots of middle-aged people walking around the otherwise disused back half of campus. Anyone interested in having a look should go out exit 2 of 쌍촌역 on Gwangju's subway line. I have a set of 38 pictures on my flickr page.












Two Jindos chained outside.




Awwwwwww!




Okay, actually taken inside the Shinsegye Department Store.

Straight out of Paju: "Kickin it in Geumchon."

Straight out of Geumchon-dong, Paju city. These three men are wasting their talents at the local English Village.



"Drinkin' Cass-uh, drinkin Hite-uh, feelin' all right-uh, drinkin' all night-uh." That shit is hot.

And that's gonna bring in the tourists. Not really sure if the folks in Paju actually want more white people---the English Village brings enough thank you very much---but the video just installed the city in the foreign consciousness in a way that lame English-language websites couldn't. The video started off rocky, but picked up after the first verse. My message to other foreigners is please, please, please don't make a video for your town. Imitation videos area always lame, and bad things seem to happen when foreigners talk about Korea on tape (here and here). I don't to wake up tomorrow to "Poontang in Bundang" (it rhymes when some foreigners say it *grumble* trust me).

The Pain Train

Teachers love beatin them some students. I've seen a guy headbutt a kid in the office. I've seen another teacher punch a girl in the head twice. But, man, today took the cake. Today was the student body election day, so all 800-plus students were sitting in rows in the gymnasium. I guess a girl was fucking around, at least more than the other students, so in the middle of a speech the school disciplinarian went to her row, pushed her down, and beat her with her own shoe. Then he dragged her into the middle of the gymnasium, between the second- and third-graders, and made her kneel there for the duration of the presentations. I know it's kind of hilarious to read about somebody getting a whoopin with their own goddamn sandal, but it's less cool when it's a big gym teacher beating a 14-year-old girl.

This all went on in front of a huge banner stretched across the stage: "학교폭력추방의날" (School Violence Expulsion Month, awkwardly translated).

Back to school, again

I originally intended to post this a couple days after my first "back to school" article, but at the time I wanted to leave the Bill Kapoun posts near the top. After that I intended to post this in a timely manner, but because I've been busy, and because I've hated the internet this past week, that never happened. Doesn't really matter, as this whole entry is basically just an excuse to post this picture:



That's hanging above my Thursday-Friday's school cafeteria. The stuff at this feeding facilitie is far superior to that at my Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday school's corral. It's less fish-based, and there is usually a lot to choose from. They seem to have tofu quite a bit, which is nice, but the cafeteria workers also have the bad Korean habit of taking a perfectly good fruit salad and mixing it with mayonnaise.

The new school year has brought in tons of new students, two weeks removed from elementary school. They're remarkably tiny (which is cute) and remarkably scared of me (which is nice). For those students, and for the other classes that were given to me as a surprise, I busted out my go-to plan for introductory classes: the "find someone who . . ." activity. Not sure exactly what it's called. I initially titled it "Autograph Challenge," but that was before I came to these middle schools and before I learned that nobody knew what autograph or challenge meant. Basically, after introducing myself and my rules, I pass out a sheet with 7 or 8 questions on it. Under each question is two or three answers. After doing a listen-repeat session with all the questions and demonstrating the activity's rules, I have the students walk around the room asking each other the questions. If a classmate gives an answer that appears on the paper, they write their name next to it. If the classmate gives an answer that does not appear on the paper, the student will move on to another classmate. That goes on for about 15 minutes, and following the activity I have them write their classmates names on a bingo card and we play bingo. I'll read off a particular answer---"I have a younger brother," for example---and the students will look at their paper, find that question, find the name written beside the question, and cross it off the bingo card. Some students do cheat by molding their answers to fit the questions. Others do tend to speak Korean as the activity is winding down and they're looking for students who will fit a particular answer. But I find it's an excellent activity for practicing speaking, for building sentences, and for familiarizing the students with their teacher and classmates. The bingo activity also sharpens listening skills and reading comprehension. I attached a sample of the activity here, although the one I included there was designed for elementary school students. It's very easily customizable for any class or level, and so I did something slightly different for middle school students.

As part of the introduction I teach students how to address me and how they ought to behave in class (we'll see if the latter holds up). I teach them to address me as "Brian Teacher," and to greet me with "Hello, Brian Teacher" or "Good morning, Brian Teacher." I know there are a lot of foreign teachers who don't do "name + title," and who consider it too formal, too awkward, or too presumptuous, but I insist upon it from my students for a number of reasons. There seems to be some confusion on how to address foreign teachers: Brian? Teacher? Mr. Brian? More often than not, before I meet each class and before I give my little speech, they greet me with catcalls and shouts of "Ha-eee, "heLLO," "hey," "whasupman," or "nice to mee chu," all of which I object to as a self-respecting teacher and human being. Giving them "Brian Teacher" or "Hello Brian Teacher" has almost completely wiped out the catcalls and the obnoxious shouts that for some reason are considered appropriate to throw at foreigners. Adding a title is in line with the practice students are used to, and is in line with the treatment students would give a Korean teacher of the same station. Better classroom behavior seems to follow a proper greeting, and it lets students know that I don't fuck around. In my opinion, the biggest challenge foreign teachers face in the classroom, and the fount from which many other problems with English education in Korea arise, is the "zoo animal" stereotype, or the belief that we exist to be pranced about for a few minutes here and there as comic relief. As I see it, cutting out the grossly inapprorpriate language is a big step in correcting that.

Besides meeting a ton of new students, I've also met some new teachers. About two-thirds of the English teachers at my schools have moved on, and eight of my nine coteachers are new. And so that's meant spelling out to them my take on coteaching and team-teaching. The most important point of my philosophy is that I don't do it.

Now, I'm sure ideally it'd work best to have Koreans working alongside native speakers to complement each other and share the burden of teaching all the basic skills. In fact, the contracts and the government literature all speak of the importance of teamwork between Koreans and native speakers. One of the slogans that pops up on the Center for Global Education website---a government homepage serving Gyeonggi-do, and where lesson plans for government-mandated textbooks are available---is "Maximixing the potential for English Education through a partnership with Native Speaking English Teachers." However, in my experience, coteaching doesn't happen and hasn't happened, and any sort of widespread team-teaching would be logistically impossible.

As I explained to my coteachers in our first workshops of the year, I lead my classes and teach practically the entire hour on my own. An unpleasant year in Gangjin taught me to err on the side of strictness and authority when discussing my classes with Korean coworkers, and that being open or asking for advice is seen as a sign of inexperience and weakness. There are a few reasons why I prefer to teach classes on my own. The biggest reason, I guess, is to combat the "English monkey" image by having a meaningful role in my students' education. I see each class once every two weeks---that can average to about six times a semester when you account for holidays, tests, festivals, and random cancellations---while the Korean English teachers have each class three times a week. That's six times as many meetings with a Korean English teacher than with a foreign, and that's before you start subtracting minutes given over to a co-teacher. My response to overly-enthusiastic or -aggressive coteachers, who feel the need to translate everything or who try to dominate the classroom, has been that they are more than welcome to do whatever they please during their three hours per week, but that my hour is for me. Since they weren't teaching communciation skills in their own classes, I found it particularly inappropriate for teachers to introduce them into mine.

And there are other reasons for leading a class or for teaching without assistance. The students are forced to listen to me, rather than turning to a coteacher for a translation (which, more often than not, they aren't able to accurately give). I speak slowly and clearly, and am understood in most of what I say. Moreover, I can generally provide my own translations, when a translation is even necessary. Also, since our realms of "expertise" are fairly strictly divided---I do speaking, they do reading, listening, and grammar---there's really no need to have a second person in the room, especially one who doesn't know what they're doing. If I were invited to take place in, say, the reading or grammar portions, than I might consider opening the speaking sections to a coteacher, but as it stands I'm defensive of my fairly limited time. This isn't to say that only a native speaker can teach spoken English, or that only a Korean can teach grammar through Korean . . . those are both very heady issues, but given the reality of English education in the public schools, it's not too far-fetched to make either of those claims.

I do spend a lot of time having students work among themselves, and an coteacher is quite helpful in these cases. The two coteachers that do show up to my classes do speak English most of the time to students, and do get involved in checking comprehension and in speaking to students. However, they are the minorities, not only in my schools but in Korea as a whole.

My experiences have taught me that it's just unrealistic for me to make up lesson plans with a coteacher in mind, because the teachers will either not show up or will not participate. This was confirmed through the teachers' workshops, when seven of my nine coteachers said they would not be coming to my classes. In fact, at the one school, when my designated coteacher told them it was their responsibility to be in the class with me, they started whining about it, like kids being dragged to church. Kind of funny. I do partly understand their reluctance. They have a full schedule even before adding in my classes, and if they're not going to be doing anything, they might as well not show up. Part of a chicken-or-egg argument, though . . . do I teach on my own because the Korean teachers aren't there, or are the Korean teachers not there because I teach on my own?

Every now and again there will te talk of "TEE," or "Teaching English in English." Apparently this is done through "team teaching," by which---it was explained---Korean English teachers and native speakers are together in each class, rather than teaching speaking, reading, and grammar separately. Last fall I attended an open class with a bunch of other public school teachers in Jeollanam-do. It was exceedingly brutal. So, so, so fucking bad. The class didn't have a point, there was no target vocabulary or sentence patterns, the students spent almost no time actually speaking, the foreign teacher was giving stickers in return for one-word answers, the Korean teacher was calling on students using "you girl," and for some fucking reason they were playing a CD-Rom instead of using the native speaker. The Korean teacher controlled the class more than 60% of the time. That's not unusual, since we're assistant teachers after all, but because the emphasis was on improving communicative competence, it was quite revolting to listen to a Korean guy, with English worse than my students, lead speaking drills, have students repeat after him, and give directions in poor broken English. I expressed my opinions on the class on waygook.org, the forum for teachers in Jeollanam-do, and was roundly shouted down. However, my opinion remains that team-teaching neutralizes the strengths of both the Korean and foreign teacher. It takes away the Korean's ability to guide students in Korean, and subordinates the native speaker's superior spoken English to a stubborn coteacher. Students are deprived of meaningful interaction with a native speaker, which is one of the biggest reasons for importing us in the first place.

(Also worth mentioning, in passing, that it looks like team-teaching would be logistically impossible for every class without hiring tons more native speakers or firing a bunch of Korean speakers. There are just far too many classes in a week for them all to be team taught. I'm also wondering where one would find the time to plan all those lessons with a Korean co-teacher. If mine don't come to class or to the once-a-week workshops---where they have absolutely no responsibilities---I'm wary of them actually sitting down with me to plan a syllabus. But, my strong stance is firmly in the minority among foreign teachers.)

I had an excruciatingly dull, painfully quiet teachers' workshop yesterday---three didn't even show up---so that's probably still on my mind when I write that I just find it very bizarre to have Korean English teachers so disinterested in my classes and in me. I mentioned before that asking for advice or appearing open to new ideas seems to be interpreted negatively. But I will also add that advice is rarely forthcoming---aside from "give them candy"---and that native speakers are usually left to decide for themselves what to teach and how to teach it. The government is spending all kinds of money for training camps and immersion experiences, but when schools don't take advantage of the resources they already have (me, us), it seems like a great waste. I will say that there isn't any animosity among us---in fact, we hardly ever see each other---and we are at least cheerful to one another. I've just never found Korean English teachers to be terribly friendly people, which is odd considering how they make their living. Given their isolation and their reluctance to go out of their way to talk with me, I do get really annoyed when the "there's no opportunity to meet foreigners" or "Koreans are so shy" excuses get trotted out so regularly. I've become convinced that Koreans say "I want to learn English" with the same regularity and intention that Americans say "beautiful day, isn't it."

Thankfully I know the score, and am no longer expecting or requiring assistance. But what about the person overseas perusing a contract or considering job offers? The thought of classes with 30 to 40 students each scares a lot of people, but that is explained away by recruiters and employers by saying that there is always a Korean coteacher in the room to help with discipline and with comprehension. It's shocking to me, as I said, to find a lot of disinterest in English and in my classes, but it'd be a lot worse if I were 22, fresh off the plane, and plopped in front of a classroom alone. I guess if that were the case I'd have no choice but to give them candy.

Pretty intense stuff for the morning Hit Parade.

Here's a recent video for the KCM song "사랑하니까," featuring actress 김소연. Not sure who else has music videos on in the background in the morning besides me, but this isn't what I really want going through my head at six a.m.

Matthew Sellers and Bill Kapoun: Almost, kind of, a strange coincidence.

Yesterday on Dave's somebody posted a "RIP" message for Bill Kapoun, the teacher who died in Seoul March 8th, and Matthew Sellers. I wasn't familiar with Matthew Sellers so I ran a google search. Turns out he was an English teacher who died under extremely suspicious circumstances in Seoul five years ago. I'm glad I stumbled across his story, for it's one that shouldn't be collectively forgotten in our community. From the Birmingham News, April 20, 2003, via this geocities site:

South Korea has had an increasing anti-American element after an American army truck struck and killed two Korean teenagers last June. South Koreans have also demonstrated against the United States' presence in Iraq and in South Korea.

Sellers told his brothers April 14 that the mugging was the last straw and that he had bought a plane ticket to come home permanently on Saturday, April 19.

But the morning of April 19, he was picked up by police for climbing into the back seat of someone's car. Details about why Sellers was in the car, whose car it was and why police took him into custody have remained unclear because the police officer at the scene has been on vacation since the incident. But Sellers' brother, Oliver Sellers, said he wonders if his brother was being chased or threatened.

Police kept Sellers in their custody for the day, telling the embassy that they had a homeless, mentally ill man in their care. The embassy told the police to take him to the hospital or let him go. Police then took him to the hospital, where hospital workers sedated and restrained him.

Early Sunday hospital staff noted that Sellers' breathing was fast and his pulse was racing. He was sent to a different hospital for blood tests. He died en route to the second hospital.

The Joongang Ilbo ran a long story online on May 24, 2003, that reported Sellers was taken to a number of mental hospitals after climbing into the back of a stranger's car. An excerpt:

It was about 1:45 p.m on April 19, when Mr. Sellers arrived at Eunpyeong hospital. Park Jong-ik, the psychiatrist in charge of Mr. Sellers at the hospital, says, “Mr. Sellers did not have any external injuries. His death seems to have nothing to do with such a thing as anti-American sentiment.” After being injected with sedatives, Mr. Sellers reportedly was tranquilized. Mr. Robinson says that another friend who saw Mr. Sellers lying on the bed in the hospital said that he was sleeping and looked all right.

The next day, at approximately 3 p.m., Dr. Park noticed that Mr. Sellers’s condition was turning unstable. “Mr. Sellers’ vital signs started to dip ― it was something other than a psychiatric symptom. Mr. Sellers started to complain of a breathing problem. We needed to run tests to determine what was happening, which was not possible at this hospital because it specializes in mental problems.” About 5 p.m., Dr. Park transferred Mr. Sellers to Kangbuk Samsung Medical Center, a general hospital in central Seoul. While he was en route to that hospital in an ambulance, at about 5:20 p.m. on April 20, Mr. Sellers’s heart stopped beating.

An autopsy was performed April 22 by the National Institute of Scientific Investigation, and though the final results have not officially been released, it’s known that the cause of death is listed as “unknown.” Choi Yeong-geun, a detective in charge at the Gangnam precinct, says, “One thing’s for sure: He did not have a traumatic injury. The lack of an external wound is a sign that there is no suspicion of murder, which brings the case to the end, when confirmed.”

Ms. Love received word from the U.S. Embassy that her brother was given an injection of a mixture of Valium and Haldol against his will at Eunpyeong hospital. Valium is used to treat mildly anxious patients, as well as to help control epilepsy and alcohol addiction. Haldol, or haloperidol, is a prescription medicine indicated for use in management of psychotic disorders. A spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy says, “We’ve got preliminary reports of the autopsy, and we’re still working on the case.”

A subsequent Birmingham News article notes that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was looking into the case, and a May 18, 2003, article summarizes the events of April 19. An excerpt:

Saying he was mentally ill and homeless, the police took him to a psychiatric hospital, where he was restrained and sedated using anti-psychotic drugs. The hospital noted traces of marijuana in a urine sample. The next day, according to hospital records, Sellers had rapid breathing and pulse. En route to another hospital in an ambulance, he died.

On January 25, 2004, someone identifying themselves as Matthew's sister made a comment on the now-defunct War Liberal blog. Here is an excerpt of the update she gave:

My name is Lee Love; I am one of Matthew Sellers' sisters. Please know our family has not stopped seeking answers about our brother's death. I can update a couple of facts-the Institute for Scientific Investigation S. Korea has refused to issue any further details about Matthew's death. We were always told there would be a "final" autopsy pending further tests, now through the US State Department we are told they have been notified we are to consider the initial "preliminary" autopsy final. Cause of death remains unknown. The Koreans did not send his vital organs home for a detailed secondary autopsy. We would like to know what they did with them. Also to clear up the speculation about drugs or alcohol, Matt was found to have a "scant amount of marijuana in his urine" nothing else. No alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines or anything of the like. All the self-inflicted death speculation should stop. He did not cause his own death, the end. I want to tell you there is tangible concern Matthew's death has been downplayed to the point of cover-up by the US and the Koreans.

Our family was required to send $6,000.00 in order for Matthew's body to be sent home for burial, we were informed he would not be released until certain other bills were cleared up. Matthew had some money left in Seoul; here is how the US Embassy decided to disburse it. Matthew?s money paid the costs incurred by the "hospital" that killed him, the transport that took him to Samsung Hospital where they have real doctors, the storage charges for his body ($100.00 a day until the Korean Medical Examiner could perform an autopsy) and the autopsy itself. About that autopsy -- the Koreans insisted it must be performed in accordance with their law when a person dies while arrested and of no apparent reason ? even without family consent or notification. There were other incidentals which Matthew's money was used for. Over $1,200.00 was charged to send Matt's belongings gathered from his apartment by friends, this amounted to a large box and another box with very few contents.

Our State Department is not forthcoming with any information about an investigation into Matthew's death. My brothers have requested a meeting with Alabama Senator Richard Shelby sometime during the month January or February 2004. We want to lay out the facts we have gathered aspect by aspect. Evidence dictates clearly someone knows what happened to Matthew but no one wants to be accountable. The Korean Police say they turned everything over to the US Embassy, the US Embassy say the police are not cooperating -- which one is lying? The Embassy refused to help Matthew when they were called upon repeatedly - by the police, Matt?s friends and Matthew himself.

There's a lot of reading to do on the case (in particular the original Dave's thread and this collection of newspaper articles), and I haven't yet come close to making it through all of it. And there must be more news out there since that January, 2004 update.

Anyway I've posted all of this because, actually, the name Matthew Sellers did look familiar and I knew I had seen it somewhere recently. So I revisited the initial Korea Times article on Bill Kapoun:

Matthew Sellar, a part-time teacher at an elementary school in Seoul, said that the terrible situation could happen to other foreigners as well. ``The fact that William was uninsured is indicative of the larger issue that many foreign English teachers do not have insurance,’’ he said. ``I wish it was easier for foreigners to report illegal activities without fear of being fired, deported, or arrested. I love Korea. I love teaching my students.’’

The name is a little different, but it's almost, kind of, a strange coincidence connecting these two suspicious deaths of Americans in South Korea. Let's hope that, after all of the fundraisers have stopped and the sense of urgency has waned, that the foreign "community" down here again unites to push for a complete investigation of the fire that killed Kapoun and his girlfriend.

Korea Times editorial, "Immigrant Wives" and obscene KT comments.

Here's a bizarre editorial from the Korea Times two days ago on mail-order brides that touches on the recent deaths, unrelated, of two Vietnamese women imported to Korea as wives. One woman was murdered, the other was probably murdered. The anonymous editorial is bizarre in that it's very aggressive in its criticism of Korea's race ideology. Bizarre also in that it couldn't go four lines without a classless remark on America's racist legacy:

One killed herself. Another was beaten to death. A third was divorced after her duty as a surrogate mother was fulfilled.

No, these are not stories about ill-fated black women before slavery was prohibited in the United States.

The English-language press in South Korea is garbage, and I've asked myself time and time and timeandtimeandtime again why the papers seem completely uninterested in improving the quality of, if not their pieces and topics, than at least the grammar, punctuation, or syntax. Korea is, after all, obsessed with how its image is projected to the world, and superficially obsessed with its English ability, and I think its online newspapers are the sources of Korean-related information most turned-to and most-frequently used by overseas English-speakers. More relied upon than, say, Korean food, Korean pop culture, or Korean territorial disputes: Korea's self-appointed messengers.

I guess people can be forgiving of Korean websites' mistakes in English, and can applaud the effort rather than critique thte result. At least they're trying, right? Even if the official site of Korea's national brand is rife with errors, we oughtn't be too critical, right? (I'm being facetious, dumbass.) The same courtesy is, apparently, extended the major newspapers. How else can one excuse the ridiculous punctuation and formatting on the Joongang Ilbo site, the grammatical and spelling errors in Korea Times online articles, or the "what the fuck is this shit" content in the Seoul Times. I'm also curious why it takes so much longer for news to hit the English sources, since there are English writers and English correspondents in-country. And it kills me that slightly-older-than-recent articles on the Korea Herald site are available only through a paid subscription. That happens to newspapers all over the place, I know, but since this is a Korea blog I'mma just mention the Herald.

More damaging, in my opinion, to its reputation than poor journalism and worse editing, is the Korea Times comment section. The vile, racist garbage that is spilled out at the bottom of each article is an embarassment to the paper which condones it. I would skip the paper altogether if it weren't one of the few sources of English-language information available here. If you can stomach it, have a look at what follows the "Immigrant Wives" editorial I linked in the beginning:

dbrodie01 (121.136.115.230) 03-16-2008 08:55
Koreans are the master race? Ha Ha Ha. That must be why you invented so much stuff in your 5000 year history and never lost a war. Go eat a banana you little monkey

. . .

koreansarethemasterrace (76.204.47.14) 03-16-2008 06:14
Also, just have a look at any of the posts from my fellow Hangook brothers, like "fcia", "proudkorean", "ultrakorean", and "nycnamja". You can see how intelligent and classy we Koreans are by their posts. They are polite, refine, civil and never use racist terms or abusive language. I mean, their posts consist of only 4 words which are "dirty white boy", "spic", "jap fucker" and alot of talk bout "america is shit". See how classy we Koreans are?

. . .

koreansarethemasterrace (76.204.47.14) 03-16-2008 06:13
Also, I forgot one last thing. INTELLIGENCE: Look at how intelligent the comments of my fellow Korean and Kyopo brothers are here on Youtube. We Koreans never curse or talk bad about other nations. It's obvious that we can take criticism very well without having to stoop down to the level of non-kors. We never engage in racial attacks and laugh about people from other nations dying in war. We never spam posts and post the same thing over by copying and pasting other people's comments.

. . .

ProudKorean (96.231.154.11) 03-16-2008 01:59
pedro-el-wetback-pero barking like a chihuahua, again - WOOF WOOF! WOOF WOOF WOOF!! WOOF WOOF WOOF!!! Keep barking until your white master throws you a bone to chew on, b!tch.


pedro (99.132.217.150) 03-16-2008 01:20
PK those are MANIPULATED stats FOOL why don't your LAZY GOOK ASS do some REAL WORK or is it you are too retarded to BYUNG SHIN GA TEUN NOM SHIP SAE GI! Fuckers like you must get theur AIGALEE DAECUH


pedro (99.132.217.150) 03-16-2008 01:15
FYINFORMATION IRISH COFFE I BELIEVE THE LT GOVERNOR WILL TAKE OVER YOU DUMB ASS IDIOT BITCH MOTHERFUCKER DO YOUR RESEARCH YOU BITCK FUCK YOU IRISH GAY COCKSUCKING FAGGOT FUCK ALL YOU EGOTISTIC GOOKS AND MUST BE EXTERMINATED FUCK ALL YOU GOOKS!


pedro (99.132.217.150) 03-16-2008 01:13
irishcoffee YOU NEED TO IP DAP CHU like NYC NANCY! I am from BELize you BYUN TAE BABO GA TEUN SAE GI ALL GOOK MUST BE EXTERMINATED AND RAPED ALL YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN YOU MUST ALL DIE!

Globetrotter (219.251.75.103) 03-15-2008 21:19
At this point, all I got to say is I understand the South Korean Woman now---in fact more better as this subject matter continues to play out. i can understand why a smart Korean Woman want nothoing to do with a sweaty-stinken Korean Man of the Contry-Bumpkin Style.

nycnamja23 (72.17.142.186) 03-15-2008 05:51
shut the fuck up you dirty mexican and whats with ths sellout korean faggot making korean men look bad? oh like white , black and mexican guys dont do the same shit....gimme a fucking break..

Yeah, that goes on for a while. There has been bickering beneath the articles of that site for as long as I can remember comments being there, but I first really noticed the obscenity shortly after the Namdaemun fire. I called attention to the comments in a Dave's thread last month, and quoted some disgusting comments from articles on topics as diverse as Namdaemun, sports, politics, North Korea, plagiarism, and of course foreign English teachers.

I also included the email address of the webmaster, which I will include again should you want to pass along your complaints:

webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr

I sent an email last month saying that comments ought to be blocked from the site. I received no reply, but I did notice that shortly thereafter a number of vulgar comments had been pulled. Pulled from the recent articles, though, and not the older ones, which is why I could easily skim the archives for the examples I quoted on Dave's. You'll see that at the end of each article is a notice from the webmaster saying that obscene comments will not be tolerated, and that repeat offenders will be banned. Some users have disappeared, based on quick glances at some of the articles, but the worst are still around. The comment also includes the line "should problems continue we have no choice but to block all comment postings." The webmaster's comment appeared shortly after the Namdaemun fire---and just before I posted that Dave's thread on February 12---so that filth has been going on for at least a month without any meaningful response.

I'm not a guy who calls for censorship of things I don't like. Hell, I'm not even posting this because my fragile Victorian sensibilities are offended by words like "gook," "jap," "fucker," or "plagiarism." But I think most sensibile people'd agree that the comments beneath each and every Korea Times article have somehow made an unreadable paper much more unreadable. It'd be one thing if this were going on at Occidentalism, a blog that has allowed itself to be destroyed by its users, or any other hole-in-the-wall site. But the KT is one of the major English-language dailies in South Korea, a source many of us both in-country and overseas (grudgingly) rely upon for our Korean news and information. The garbage that goes on beneath the articles trumps the garbage that goes on inside them, and ought to be offensive to its readers and embarassing to its publishers.

And since it's a slow day, and since nobody you asked, here's a picture of a "Vietnamese brides never run away" banner like the one mentioned in the "Immigrant Wives" piece:


From Jeollabuk-do (063 area code), stolen from idontrememberwhere.

* bump * Face-to-face interviews at the embassy?

I put this video on a post back in December, but I wanted to bump it because I don't have anything else to write about it's perversely funny. It's how I imagine those face-to-face interviews at the Korean embassies back home would go, if they ever get implemented.

"동물농장," or "Close-Up Animals with a Wide-Angle Lens"

(Edit, April 5: Sorry, but the video player I had embedded was causing Internet Explorer to crash. I tried to steal them and stick them on youtube, but it didn't work, so instead I've just linked to the videos. You can find a lot more by navering 동물농장. Just be aware that, at least for me, that media player really slows down the computer. Not sure what the problem is.)

I like to watch animal shows on TV here, especially ones like 동물농장, which profiles people's strange pets or their unusual relationships with animals.



Apparently a recurring "character" in some of these is a cute little kid---nicknamed 장군아?---in Icheon who loves animals.

* Here he is feeding some puppies and visiting his grandparents. Lol @ him bowing to the dog.

* Here he is playing with, and drugging, a piglet.

* Here he is with his mother putting clothes on piglets:

* Again with the piglet.

* At the vet's office.

* And, finally, here is 장군아's mother exploiting his fear of pink rubber gloves:

Last week I caught an episode about a sheepdog who doubles as an office assistant. Two clips are available here and here, although none of them show the conclusion, when the employees gave him and some other dogs a bath in the middle of the office. Other quality episodes I recall include a woman raising a bunch of raccoons in her home, a family with their own family of prarie dogs, and an old woman who is obsessed with her Jindo dog "백구."

I think the show is cute and some of the episodes are heartwarming because I'm going through menopause. It's quite clear that the people featured truly love animals, and that provides some balance to the treatment of animals we usually see around here. Strangely, I get the complete opposite reaction whenever I see programs on Korean zoos. Because zoos exist here basically as a day's fun, zookeepers I've seen on the various animal programs appear part of the entertainment industry---playing with the animals, making the animals do tricks, mixing up species to see how they get along---whereas the amateurs profiled on 동물농장 and other similar shows have actually brought animals into their homes and into their lives. I'll leave it to more expert writers lay out how those Korean examples contrast to, say, public figures like Steve Irwin or Jack Hanna (both entertainers, but both involved in academic pursuits as well). Having actually been to animal displays in Korea, I feel confident in saying that playing with animals on talk shows or giving them silly voiceovers has not yet had a huge effect on how people react to zoos.


Stolen from here.

But as always, I need to add a disclaimer, and point out that people at my old place of work suffer from cranio-rectal inversion, too.

Guy in Daejeon murders Vietnamese wife, gets 12 years.

A Korean man in Daejeon got a "relatively heavy punishment" yesterday of 12 years in prison for killing his 19-year-old Vietnamese wife last year. The Korea Times has the story:

The Vietnamese woman, who suffered abuse at the hands of her husband and was impeded by a language barrier, decided to leave for her hometown on July 26, 2007, after one month of married life in Korea. But her intoxicated husband beat her to death.

In the ruling, the court said ``We saw the tragedy in which an older Korean male selected his wife in a matter of minutes then treated her like an imported product.''

Interestingly the Joongang Ilbo today has an article about a Vietnamese mother calling for the investigation of her daughter's death last year. The woman, married to an abusive Korean man, jumped or fell 14-floors to her death on February 6th. The case has been treated as a suicide in media reports, though her mother doesn't agree:

“I want to know exactly why and how she died. She is not the sort of person who would commit suicide,” Huynh said yesterday during a protest in front of the Gyeongsan police station, which is investigating the matter. During the protest, organized by local civic groups, the willowy 46-year-old broke into loud sobs, calling out Tran’s name.

The article is worth a read. Here's another excerpt:

Huynh said she refused to give permission [for cremation], but she did not know that Tran had already been cremated the day before.
Tran’s husband, Ha, was unavailable for comment yesterday. However, according to the local police, he said that he contacted the matchmaker after Tran’s death and was told by the broker that the mother had agreed to the cremation. During the investigation, police said, Ha told them his new wife did not adjust well to her new family and that she slept a lot and did not do her chores. The two, lacking a common language, had no way to communicate.
Just a week after Tran’s arrival in Korea, the couple filed for divorce and a short time later Tran bought a ticket for a flight back to Vietnam. A day later, she plunged to her death from the balcony.
“The circumstantial evidence indicated it was a suicide,” said a senior Gyeongsan police officer who refused to be named. Further forensic examination is impossible since the body was cremated at her husband’s request, he said. “We are still investigating. The case is not closed.”
Little is known about what happened during the six weeks before Tran died. Her diary, written from Jan. 17 to 29, revealed the typical problems in marriages between rural Korean men and women from developing countries.
“My husband slapped me across my face,” Tran wrote, “maybe because I didn’t do the chores the way he taught me. But I still don’t know what he’s talking about.”
The entries were mostly devoted to homesickness.
“I am counting the days before I go back to Vietnam. I miss my mother so much,” another entry reads. The diary ends on Jan. 29, a week before Tran died.

More information on that case is available here, as well as through a Google search.

Collision, spill off Yeosu.

* Update 1: The Chosun Ilbo has the story in English. An excerpt:

Coast guards said the latest oil spill would cause only minor damage since diesel oil evaporates easily. When the collision occurred, winds were not strong, blowing at 4-6 m per second. Waves were also moderate at 0.5 m. Coast guards believe the tanker will not sink. The collision occurred in distant waters and will no great impact on fish farming.

Stolen from the Naver article.

Original post:

Last night an oil tanker collided with a fishing boat 18 kilometers south of one of Yeosu's outlying islands, and caused the release of roughly 50 kiloliters (13,208 gallons) of oil. Yonhap has the story via Naver, and I'm sure English-language updates will come later in the day.

The last major accident off Yeosu happened in December, when two ships collided and 14 sailors went missing. That came about two weeks after the largest oil spill in Korean history.

If the 50 kiloliter, 13,208 gallon number is accurate, that is mercifully smaller than the December spill off Taean county, which released 2.7 million gallons.

So the Korean astronaut guy commits espionage?

So Korea picked its first space tourist by means of what amounts to a reality show, and the winner gets dropped by the Russians for taking classified material out of Russia. From Yonhap:

"The main reason for the change is based on two consecutive violations of training protocol by Ko," said Lee Sang-mok, the head of the ministry's space technology bureau. Ko mistakenly sent a mission training manual home along with his personal belongings last September, but it was sent back immediately.

I'm with ROK Drop in feeling very uncomfortable about the bullshit excuse given for Ko's two foul-ups. Yonhap again, emphasis mine:

"Ko was aware of the rules and signed an agreement not to break them on entering the program," Lee said. Controllers from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) had also warned him to be careful to abide by the rules, he added. The official speculated that an urge to study every aspect of the space program may have prompted Ko to study material that he was not authorized to read.

Today's Chosun Ilbo hits a little harder:

The ministry says he did it “because of his personal desire to study more.” These “minor mistakes” resulted in his replacement, because Russian authorities judged that similar mistakes might lead to a bigger disaster if they happened in space."

But some experts suspect the government encouraged Ko to gather information. "From the beginning, the authorities have stressed the need to secure information for their independent development of manned space flight, even though the astronaut training course is not unlike a general space tourism program in terms of the amount of money or technological details involved,” a space expert said. “This looks like the result of a formal or informal request for as much information as possible."

This was not the first time South Korea has caused security problems in its joint space development efforts with Russia. At first, Russia agreed with South Korea to jointly develop a liquid-propellant rocket engine, a key component for KSLV-I, a South Korean-made projectile that will be launched from Naro Space Center late this year. But Russia refused to transfer the technology for reasons of security regulations in the technological protection agreement.

Ko will now back-up Gwangju's own Yi So-yeon, who will be the first Korean quote-unquote astronaut and among the first Asian women in space. I'm also with ROK Drop in considering her a space tourist rather than an astronaut, akin to the late Christa McAuliffe and almost akin to former pop star Lance Bass.

I'm curious to see what fall out there will be over this espionage. Sure, Koreans don't care, but the measures to which South Korea has gone to bolster its embryonic (wo)manned space program ought to be shocking for its trade allies and for potential collaborators. We do know for sure, though, that one result of this switch will be that the Metropolitician won't be able to shut up about her.

It would be very sexist of me to write "Well, at least they'll have someone to cook the ramen and prepare the kimchi now," so I won't write that.

Black guy in Yeosu "fervently protests" the 2012 Expo; white guy in Suncheon unmoved.

Came across this letter in the Korea Times today. It's a reprinting of a letter originally sent to the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) prior to Yeosu winning the 2012 Expo. The guy also posted it on Dave's in January. An excerpt:

Last year, I received a lectureship at Chonnam National University. The university, the Language Education Center, and the students are wonderful, kind, warm, engaging, and intelligent. The city of Yeosu has some establishments that distrust and fear foreigners. Several dance clubs (a venue that those in their 20s, upon visiting the Expo, may want to explore) refused the entrance of some colleagues and myself simply because we were not Korean. I had a Korean student with me, who translated what one particular bar manager was saying. The manager said that ``we were foreign, and that we frightened Korean patrons,'' ``that our presence may encourage future visits by foreigners,'' and that ``we were not allowed to talk to other Koreans, male or female, because we were not Korean.''

I eventually called the police, who forced the club to let me in, since the club's reasoning behind their prohibition of foreigners was illogical and overtly racist.

I just linked to this article because the guy's in Jeollanam-do, not because I agree with him or because I necessarily think his cause needs more publicity. I was going to write a comment talking about "persecution complex," or something, but since the guy's a coworker of another guy I sort of know, I'll play nice here. But I do think he's lying: either he's lying about calling the police, or he's lying about the police actually coming and forcing the doormen to let him in. Actually, since he comes across as a prick online, and since his ramblings are further evidence that Korean universities aren't always attracting the cream of the academic crop (pun sort of intended, haha), I'll just add that I suspect foreigners in this region face more difficulties than not getting into a fucking nightclub, and perhaps he might use his time and energy might be better served putting things into perspective. Hell, the more he writes the less I want him in the nightclubs.

Worth reminding people that barring foreigners from nightclubs isn't exclusive to Jeollanam-do or other hick parts of the country. Pretty much how most night clubs operate in Korea, isn't it? Besides, foreigners tend to cause problems in these clubs because they don't know how to order drinks, how to reserve tables, or how to---or how not to---book girls. Last time I was at a night club my 40-year-old Canadian companion got into a shoving match with the manager and some of the ushers because he felt our table was overcharged by 20,000 won at the end of the night. The author's right that this club doesn't reflect Yeosu's international ambitions, but this is hardly a human rights issue or something that ought to bar Yeosu from holding an international exposition (which it has already been awarded). You'll find the same exclusionary policies in operation all throughout Seoul, so tying the opinion of one nightclub doorman to the attitudes of an entire region reveals this guy's own misunderstanding of the country and its culture. Not that there's anything wrong with misunderstanding, I do it all the damn time . . . I just don't go running to the newspapers to show it off (it's more convenient to do it here).

Sure, it sucks to not be allowed in some clubs or bars, but you know, given the way a lot of foreigners act, especially when drunk and especially when they speak no Korean except meck-jew and 앉어, I think it's perfectly fine for people to decide for themselves who they want to hang out with on a Saturday night. Hell, not even I want to hang out with most foreigners in my free time, and you can bet, in spite of my shiny happy tolerance or whatever, that I'd be less-than-thrilled if my local dive bar in Pittsburgh suddenly became "the foreigner bar" or took measures to "encourage visits by other foreigners." Besides, which is more disruptive: a club full of Koreans not letting in a couple of foreigners, or a couple of foreigners using the police to force them into a club full of Koreans? And the first person to bring up Brown vs. Board of Education here is getting a fat lip.

Anyway, there are some interesting night clubs in Yeosu he might want to try.

The Seoul Times: "Black Race Not Related To Apes!"

While it is technically a "special contribution" and not the work of a staff member, this is a pretty inflammatory column to run above the fold, so to speak. An excerpt:

Let's admit it! Many people, even blacks themselves, wonder whether black people are more closely related to apes because of certain facial features or other similarities. This issue needs to be dealt with in the open and honestly.

I had The Seoul Times bookmarked a while back for some reason, and when I browsed through it recently I noticed pretty quickly that it was shit, basically an outpost for wire reports and garbage culled from godknowswhere. There's no information on there about the staff or the history, so I have no idea why The Seoul Times exists. Doesn't seem to be related to an earlier incarnation, either. Mosey on over to the "Cartoon/Comics/Humor" section for bilingual jokes such as "Asshole," "'Code' for Sex," and "Equipment for Rape":

*"Your Honor, if you could *convict me of *moonshining just because I have the equipment, you'd better convict me of rape as well, because I have the equipment for that!"

And if you scroll down a little bit on the main page, you'll find the best content the site has to offer:



In addition to lots of NSFW pics you'll find photo galleries of Hitler, Dokdo, the Gwangju Massacre, and Abu Ghraib.

And, if you get bored, you might want to read the article on a Korean dentist who works with foreigners: "Dentist Treats Aliens As Friends."

Bill Kapoun has died.

Scroll down for updates.

Sad news to report. William Kapoun, the English teacher badly burned in a Seoul fire last week, has died of his injuries.



The "Save Bill Kapoun" Facebook group reported yesterday that they had collected over $41,000 thus far, before a benefit for Bill was held in Seoul last night. As there are still medical expenses, please do not curtail plans to donate, as the family is obviously one in great need. The support---financial, material, and other---thus far among expatriates in Korea has been incredible. Donation information can be found on the Facebook group and on www.billkapoun.com.

More details will be coming soon, I'm sure.

* Update 1: Here is an article from today's Korea Times. An excerpt:

His father Dan Kapoun, a retired soldier, plans to hold a memorial service at the U.S. Army Base in Yongsan as soon as his son’s body is conveyed to the family from the hospital after the settlement of treatment fees, estimated at 77 million won (about $80,000) in total.

Donators and supporters extended their helping hand to the Kapoun family through the blog site www.billkapoun.com. They also made direct donations to a bank account that was opened here under the name of Warren Franklin William Fund. The donations have reached about $60,000 in total, according to his friends.

``Thank you all of you, from our entire family for your support and good wishes. The Korean people have been very kind to us,’’ Judy Kapoun, his mother told The Korea Times. His parents will return to the United States after the memorial service here.

* Update 2: For information Korea’s National Medical Insurance Program, visit this informative post from one of the Korea Law Blogs.

Cyworld Fashionista contestant 변진영

The 20 finalists. All look same. Except for the two guys they snuck in there, lmfao. Like when Korean men signed up to be Playboy models. Stolen from here.

I was watching a video of a Jindo puppy when I saw an icon that peaked piqued (dumbass) my interest. It directed me to something about some contest or other. I guess Cyworld is hosting a contest to find a commercial model or something, and one of the contestants is a woman named 변진영. She wants to become the 싸이월드패셔니스타. It took me a couple of read-throughs to figure out what that was. Fashiony Star? WTF? Anyway, this is her:



You can read a little about her here and you can find an article about the contest here. You can watch a video of her exercising and talking too much here, which is basically the point of this whole post:



Folks never dressed like that at my gym in Gangjin, but then again I don't think I'd want to see anybody at my gym in Gangjin dress like that.

p.s.: What does she say at the beginning, I can't make out that word: 저는 싸이월드 패셔니스타 _____ 변진영입니다. Something-something 대? The name of her school?

"Bataan Death March on skates."

So I don't get a reputation as an irrational Korea-hater from my coverage of Korean hyperbole after the Namdaemun fire here's an example of homegrown ignorance. Pittsburgh's own Mark Madden wrote, in a column from 2003 about why Mario Lemieux needs to return to the Penguins lineup:

Compare that to the Penguins' recent offensive zone play, which has been akin to the Bataan Death March on skates. The Penguins have averaged 1.6 goals in the 13 games since Kovalev was traded. They have been shut out four times, held to one goal three times and held to two goals twice. Ah, the glory of the left-wing lock. If you're trying to win a scoring championship, it's not exactly the perfect system.

This column, which is five years old today, stood out for me at the time because I remember my journalism professor some years earlier, in a lecture on hyperbole in sports writing, giving the example of a sportswriter comparing a game or something to the Bataan Death March. Interestingly, Madden wrote about inappropriate war metaphors in sports two weeks later.

Mark Madden is a goddamn idiot, as any Pittsburgher knows. He strives to be a shock jock through his local sports talk radio show, and some of you might remember him---probably not---from his short stint as a broadcaster for WCW. He fancies himself a wrestler, frequently uses wrestling slang in his radio shows, routinely shouts down callers, and considers feuding with local celebrities like Hines Ward, Franco Harris, and Myron Cope a way to generate "heat" and get himself "over." An example of generating local heat has been taking the extremely unpopular stance, especially in Pittsburgh, that Bonds is better than Babe Ruth and is one of the greatest Pirates of all time. If for some reason you'd like to see a topless Madden get his fat ass beat up by a UFC fighter, you can watch the video here.

* Update: Welcome, visitors from The Big Lead. I doubt any of you care about South Korea issues, but you might be interested in a post I did a little while ago about some "Horry Kow" T-shirts on sale outside of Wrigley Field. Not sayin' they're the worst things ever, just sayin'. You might also be interested to read some coverage of the "Korea's 9/11" talk that was in full force a few months ago and that was inspired when one of Seoul's landmarks was hit by an arsonist. I'm sure many Americans would take exception to the comparisons some of the media over here made.

Chosun Ilbo: "Failure to Make Tenure Drives Instructor to Suicide"

Sad story reported by the Chosun Ilbo yesterday:

A part-time instructor in her 40s killed herself out of disappointment about her failure to get a job as a college professor. Korean-Americans in Austin, Texas, said the woman’s 16-year-old daughter found her groaning after taking pills at a motel there on Feb. 27. She was taken to hospital but died.

As a part-time instructor, the woman, identified as Han, taught English at a South Korean university identified as K. In a suicide note, she said she worked and studied hard for her dream to become a professor. But she realized that something other than academic accomplishment and lecture experience determines who gets tenure.

After graduating from Seoul National University of Education, Han worked as an elementary school teacher and obtained a doctoral degree in English education from the University of Texas-Austin in 2003. After she returned to Korea, Han worked as a part-time instructor at several colleges, landing the job at K in 2006 on a one-year contract basis.

As a non-regular employee, this year was the last chance for her to continue teaching at the college before the college either hired her full-time or let her go. In the suicide note, Han said the school took advantage of her status and forced her to sign a contract that benefits only the school. In the last semester, the calculation of mandatory classes that instructors have to teach during one semester was changed from 12 hours per week to 12 points per week, where two hours constitute one point, but the school refused to pay extra wages.

Disillusioned by the university’s “inconsistent, unfair treatment” of employees, Han said she finally found her long-cherished peace in Austin. A hospital in the Texan city said Han had bought her daughter new clothes, a new bag and new sneakers the day before the suicide and took the girl around the University of Texas-Austin.

A sloppy piece with few facts and little information. (So she died in Austin?) It did include this ambiguous last line:

The Korean university said it had paid her extra wages later.

After she died?

Nevertheless, a sad story, and the article reads more like an indictment of the professor racket than a news piece. I have no first hand knowledge what that "something other than academic accomplishment and lecture experience determines who gets tenure" might be, and I'm not going to speculate without facts or leads.

According to a 2007 Chosun Ilbo article, South Korea had the highest suicide rate among the 30 member-nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with 24.7 cases out of 100,000 people. (The World Health Organization and Wikipedia---based on WHO stats---give different numbers, but they are neither complete nor reliable.) Based on this International Herald Tribune article, it looks like that number was from 2005. That same Chosun Ilbo article said suicide rates were 6.8 per 100,000 in 1982, and "the leading cause of death for people in their 20s and 30s was suicide."

The Chosun Ilbo and IHT articles I linked will give a little background on suicide in South Korea, as will a google search. For information about suicide among Korean students, have a look at this Gusts of Popular Feeling post. Matt from Popular Gusts has another excellent, informative post on suicide here, one which deals primarily with a 16-year-old girl who, after losing a great deal of weight and appearing alongside pop group "Super Junior" on TV, was driven to suicide by cyberbullying and preexisting depression. And another 2007 Chosun Ilbo article has some information about suicide among elderly citizens.

Like I said I'm not knowledgable about what goes on in Korean universities. A quick Google search mostly turned up stuff about academic fraud, which I guess is pretty telling. For a look at how foreign professors are often treated, have a look at this post from The Marmot's Hole, which has translated a piece that ran in the Sisa Journal in September, 2007. An excerpt of Mr. Koehler's post:

Foreign professors are also being discriminated against in terms of hours and wages. Prof. Gabriel (fake name), who teaches at a certain university, said Korean professors teach an average of seven hours a week, while the foreign professors teach at least 12 hours. Prof. Karlson (fake name), who teaches at another university, said there were differences in wages, too, although he could reveal specific amounts. He also said Korean professors get bonuses such as research fees, but he didn’t know a single foreign professor getting such bonuses. He claimed that Korean professors get all sorts of allowances that foreign professors could only dream about. Prof. Michelle, who majored in Australian literature, said there was even one foreign professor who was earning only 2.2 million won a month teaching 20 hours a week. The professor eventually returned to the United States out of dissatisfaction with his pay.

So I don't know what "something other than academic accomplishment and lecture experience determines who gets tenure" might be, but judging from foreign lecturers' experiences, the right skin color is essential.

I was just about to type that the late Ms. Han's academic background (Seoul National University, University of Texas at Austin) would help her stand out from the competition, but out of curiosity I decided to have a look at the faculty teaching English Education at a few local universities. Her background is fairly ordinary. As a matter of fact, two of the six Korean professors of English Education at Chonnam National University in Gwangju graduated with advanced degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. In the same university's Department of English Literature, 9 of the 12 Korean professors earned a degree in the US, two of them from the University of Texas at Austin.

Incidentally, via the UTA Korean Student Association I found a link to a YTN video news report on the professor's death. I don't understand it, but have a look if you can understand Korean.

Update 1, March 23, 2008: Here's an update of sorts from last Saturday's Austin American-Statesman in an article titled "Hospital staff help stranded Korean teen":

On their last day together, a Korean mother visiting Austin with her daughter showed the 16-year-old the University of Texas, where she had earned a doctorate in foreign language education in 2003.

She took the teen shopping at the outlets, buying her clothes and a backpack. They went to a Korean restaurant and a pizza buffet.

On Feb. 27 at age 43, the mother died at the hospital. A letter was found. Her daughter, who didn't speak English, was alone, dealing with her mother's suicide.

From the 911 call from the hotel room to the time she got on a plane back to Korea, Kayoung Lee was embraced by the staff at St. David's Medical Center. Local Korean churches raised money for her flight home and for her mother's cremation.

* reminder * The Bill Kapoun Burn Fund.

Bill Kapoun, an English teacher in Seoul who suffered third-degree burns on nearly 70% of his body, still needs all the financial support he can get. For those who haven't yet heard, please take a look at his website and his Facebook group for the story.

Money is currently needed to get him airlifted to Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and the cost is estimated at $68,000. Other funds will go toward skin grafts, toward helping his family, toward other medical costs, and toward helping a guy whose dire situation puts a lot of our bitching in perspective.

Once again, if you're in Korea you can do a bank transfer:

KB Bank
794002 04 03 1635
Warren Franklin-William Fund

KB is 국민은행 for those without an English-language ATM around. Everybody ought to donate something, as every little bit helps. We all lead comfortable lives here, and sacrificing (at least) the cost of a night out or (at least) the cost of a few meals really isn't too much to ask. After donating, please spread the word to as many folks and forums as possible.

The Facebook group also reports that Bill's girlfriend has died as a result of her injuries.

Looks like other bloggers have finally picked up the story, and I don't want my initial message getting too deeply buried beneath news on VIPS and Astroturf. I'm kind of pissed that they spent a few days hosting quarrels among and about self-important, self-righteous foreign lawyers rather than helping to spread the word, but better late than never. Over on The Marmot's Hole, legal consultant Brendon Carr has some information about the National Medical Insurance Plan and any damages that Bill might be awarded by a Korean court.

Suncheon is getting a VIPS.

Suncheon is getting a VIPS restaurant, set to open on March 31. It will be located on Baekgang-no in Jorye-dong, basically between the Home Plus and Shidae Apartments. You can get bus and driving directions here from the VIPS homepage. You can take a look at the menu here.

In an earlier draft of this post I wasn't that pleased about this newest addition to the Suncheon dining experience---which already includes "familiy restaurants" like Joy's, Outback, Samba Samba, and Ashley---and wrote:

I've been there once in 30 months, and I guess it's okay, but like with all western family restaurants here, I consider it just another place to spend $30 on something that'd cost $6 back home. I don't know who I have to screw around here to get a Burger King in town, but if it's Ha Ji-won, I'll do it.

Actually, I was at Sizzler before, not VIPS, so there goes my whole first draft. Shame I can't use that Ha Ji-won line now, though.

What I do find really amusing is that a few blocks away there is a WIPS family restaurant, and there's another one on the way. Looking at the WIPS menu, though, I see there's not a fucking thing there I'd put in my mouth.

March issue of Gwangju News is out today.

The March issue of the Gwangju News is available online here as of today. I did a little write-up on Nammireuksa and Omcheonsa temples in Gangjin, and there are decent articles in there about "Greencanvas" and Dr. Fish. I also synthesized a few of my blog entries and comments on the Namdaemun fire into an article, "Careless Hyperbole Cheapens Impact of Sungnyemun Fire." An excerpt:

Any well-adjusted person knows that the Sungnyemun arson doesn’t belong in the same line of thought as concentration camps or sites of suicide attacks. So why have these comparisons been made? Well, I feel that there is, first of all, a profound misunderstanding of September 11th by many Koreans. For those separated physically and emotionally, the attacks were a televised action sequence that played out live on every network. Like Sungnyemun, the targets did have symbolic significance, but for many Koreans – and indeed for many outside the United States – the attacks represented a strike against American economic dominance and cultural hegemony. The attacks had a number of unpleasant consequences for Koreans that exacerbated an already fragile US-ROK relationship: military support in Afghanistan and Iraq, the execution of Kim Sun-il, and – as some have argued – the capture and ransom of Korean missionaries in Afghanistan in 2007. The human suffering was buried by other considerations and, I feel, was quite lost in translation.

There is also the belief by some that, to add legitimacy to things Korean, they must be cast by Koreans in the light of things Western. Jeju is called Korea's Hawaii, Tongyeong is Korea's Naples, and the singer Rain is Korea's Justin Timberlake. Such comparisons are damaging to both sides, and always cheapen the Korean claim.

And at times, this can also be a country prone to hyperbole and public displays of sorrow. Editorials on topics like English education or the Yeosu Expo depict the issues as matters of important national pride. It is not unusual to see news reports of disgraced public figures making tearful apologies and prostrations at press conferences. The blog "Gusts of Popular Feeling" has documented how Korean children were encouraged to cry on camera, and on cue, when news broke of Pyeongchang's latest failed Olympic bid. Korean music videos are another fine example, as today's top hits contain images of arson, assault, suicide, and murder. The emphasis in these being not the loss of life or destruction of property, but rather the pronounced reaction of the video's protagonist who has watched the scene unfold. The newspaper articles I mentioned weren't comparing the fire to other despicable events, mind you, but were merely trying to compare the emotional reactions.

It must also be said that the Korean press and a fair number of Koreans have displayed a worrying lack of empathy and tact regarding foreign cultures and countries. Lesser examples occur in the papers on a nearly daily basis, and the major gaffes have attracted worldwide attention. For example, the day after the
Virgina Tech massacre the Seoul Shinmun ran a cartoon using the 33 deaths to mock the United States' gun policies, though the newspaper pulled the cartoon when the shooter turned out to be a Korean. In April, 2006, at the COEX Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, the hotel's president was giving a lecture on poktanju, or "bomb alcohol." The president said to the gathered company, which included most notably the Japanese Ambassador, that poktanju "is like a flash and explosion of bubbles, like the moment of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima." There are also several Nazi-themed bars throughout the country, and they've just recently been given international media attention. In response to criticism, the owner of one such bar told a reporter, "I wanted to be different." One patron told a TIME magazine reporter in 2000 his views on the Nazis: "I don't hate them, I don't like them, but at least they dressed well." The highly-offensive "blackface" make-up has appeared on comedy programs, in music videos, and even in the current national elementary school curriculum. And I know I'm not the only teacher to have had students make jokes about terrorism, Bin Laden, and the crumbling Twin Towers.

The rest is available online. The issue of hyperbole is one that deserves more attention than 1,200 words allow. It's also worth pointing out that 9/11 itself is shrouded in hyperbole and excessive patriotism, and because the attacks were used to justify war in the Middle East, the sympathy ship has sailed for many. The Korean reaction isn't, as I see it, related to the September 11 attacks themselves, or to the sense of panic, hopelessness, and, well, terror, but rather to the imagined meaning the Koreans assign the attacks based on their interpretation of television coverage. That the attacks unfolded live on TV allowed viewers across the world to witness an "appropriate" reaction to the destruction of landmarks . . . and for some of the reasons I elaborated in the article---chiefly a profound misunderstanding of 9/11---there is no reason for Koreans in general to view the September 11 attacks as anything more than symbolic strikes on landmarks.

I also want to add that after I submitted the above article in late-February, the Joongang Ilbo ran an article attributing the trauma of the Namdaemun blaze to the fact that it occurred on live TV. In fact, it seems like the author is suggesting that the attacks were more traumatic for Koreans than 9/11 was for Americans because Koreans aren't as used to watching their landmarks destroyed in movies and on TV. An excerpt:

We have had our fair share of tragedy ― the collapse of the Sampoong Department Store and Seongsu Bridge, plus the arson attack on the Daegu subway.
However, cameras didn’t catch the moment of the accident. The fire at Naksansa Temple in 2005 still sticks in our memory, because we saw it on TV.
People could do nothing but watch the pitiful footage as the ancient temple burned and the bronze bell melted in the flames.
Viewers who saw those painful images will never forget them. The sounds of people shrieking as they looked on has been burned into the hearts of the people of Korea.

The Gwangju News is always looking for writers and good articles about the Gwangju/Jeonnam region (agentX and kiwiduncan, I'm looking in your direction). The anniversary of the Gwangju Massacre is coming up, and if there are any bloggers knowledgable on this subject who would like to contribute something for the May issue, please let me know. Anyone interested in writing should sign up and submit their stuff to the Gwangju News forum and/or get on the Gwangju News facebook page to stay updated.

Back to school.

Went back to school yesterday after a very long vacation. We have turf now.



In other news, I now have a seat in the teachers' office, rather than at the kids table being sequestered in the 3rd floor Language Lab. While some people love the quiet time of their own office, I really dislike being so isolated from everyone else, because adding physical separation to other forms of cultural distance makes it harder than usual for an anthropomorphic foreign teacher to fit in. My favorite schools have always been the ones where I've sat with everyone else, and I hope this continues the trend. Sitting with everyone else will build report rapport with colleagues and will make them a little more comfortable around the white guy (and I around them). My vice-principal made this desk change because he thinks this will help everyone learn English. Seeing as most of the English teachers speak to me in Korean, I think we have a long way to go, but it's a very nice gesture. It'll also make it a little easier to stay on top of school events. I really hated walking out of the lab to find that all the teachers gone, all the lights off, and all the doors locked.

Yesterday I was invited to the opening ceremony, I received a teachers' notebook and I got a brand new, supersmart co-teacher. Today I was given a school caldendar. I really hope all these positive developments lead to my first-ever appearance in a Korean yearbook.

Bill Kapoun's Burn Fund.

Update 1: Story's hitting the media now. Here's an article from the Korea Times.

Original Post:



Saw this on Dave's today. An excerpt from the "Bill Kapoun's Burn Fund" website:

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, 29 FEBRUARY 2008--Early last Sunday morning a near-fatal fire destroyed the apartment of William Lawrence Kapoun in Haebongchon, Yongsan, Seoul, nearly taking his life with it.

William, an English teacher of 14 months in northern Seoul, was left with third degree burns to nearly seventy percent of his body. He is now facing numerous surgeries and a lengthy recovery that could potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Because of William's contract in Korea he is now left without insurance. His parent's financial situation is no more promising. They have left 4 children, an exchange student and a grandmother undergoing cancer treatment at home. They are unable to work while taking care of their son in S.Korea, and Will's bills are already staggering.

Upon showing up at the hospital they were handed a bill for over $6,000 before they could even see their son. His first surgery alone cost $15,000. Our immediate concern is raising money for him to continue having the surgeries he requires.

Our estimated total is roughly $100, 000. This total does not include reconstructive surgery, physical therapy and various other treatments he will need to undergo in order to fully recover.

There is a Facebook group as well, with pics, progress updates, and donation information. For those in Korea, a bank transfer is possible:

KB Bank
794002 04 03 1635
Warren Franklin-William Fund

KB is 국민은행 for those without an English ATM around.

Dangerous air in Gwangju and Jeollanam-do.

The air in Jeollanam-do and Gwangju is dangerous, thanks to "yellow sand" blowing in from China. And so is the air in much of the southern half of the country. The weather agency has issued warnings. Here's a shot of the measurements from tonight, Sunday night (click to enlarge).



Thanks to an anonymous commentor on my last post for the link to "Air Korea." Here's information on Gwangju Air Force Base, from the US military's "Yellow Sand / Asian Dust Monitor System" (click to enlarge).



Off the charts, literally. That's very bad.

By Popular Demand: Gurye Girls High School, Street map of Gwangju, Lotte Mart movie theater.

Like I said last time, I put sitemeter on my page so I can figure out how people get here and what they're looking for. Most visitors to my site have been searching for pictures of naked Hong Kong celebrities. Shortly after I wrote that entry the number of hits on my site went way, way up . . . I had 250 in one day! *cough* Now I'm getting back to a more realistic average of 3 or 4 per hour.

I also subscribed to my feed through Google reader to see what it looks like. Google reader is annoying, though, and I much prefer to visit the actual sites. I did learn, though, that subscribers to my feed will see posts that I had later deleted. For example, a little after the Super Bowl I posted one of the parodies of "Der Untergang." And the first time I posted it my German grammar was wrong, how embarassing. Hitler parodies are usually in good taste, but the next morning I had planned to do a write-up on One Free Korea's "The Morally Retarded Lorin Maazel," and thought it unwise to lambast a Jewish guy for visiting North Korea while I was laughing at Bruno Ganz saying of the German people: "They will pay with their own blood!"

Anyway, I decided a little while ago to try and address some of the Jeonnam-related stuff people were searching for that isn't covered on my site and isn't very well covered on the internet at all. After my last entry the things I wrote on became the number one result through google, so provided people are looking for obscure information on an unpopular Korean province, they'll find it here. If you have any requests, let me know. I haven't been following too closely lately because, like I said, 80% of searches are for naked Hong Kong celebrities or the Wondergirls. Actually, I get a lot of people looking for Soulja Boy. If you're the guy searching for "Large pictures of soulja boy just them," stop slinging rock and get a real job.

* Anyway, there is no such thing as Gurye Girls High School. There's Gurye High School and Gurye Agricultural High School. Just a tip for people looking for particular schools: 99 times out of 100 you won't turn up anything searching in English. If you can, get the Korean name from your recruiter or figure it out yourself, and search for it through Naver. It may take a little doing . . . for example, you sometimes have to search for the city along with the school in order to get a result. If you're interested in browsing through all the schools in a county or city, just type the area into Naver and click on "고등학교" for high school, "중학교" for middle school, or "초등학교" for elementary school.

Edit: it just occurred to my dumb ass that a Korean search probably won't do much good for a lot of people. It will tell you if the school actually exists, it will give you basic statistics like student body, staff, and maybe the name of the foreigner already working there (you'll never find me, though, because none of my schools have ever named me on their websites ㅠㅠ). If you know Korean and are decent at finding information, the school's website will give you an address, from which you can get a map and ask around about a particular neighborhood. But somebody applying to Korea for the first time from back home probably won't be able to navigate the page, and is probably more interested in getting opinions on the school from current and former employees. So . . .

If you're searching in English through an English site you might get a hit on something provided somebody has blogged about the particular school. It's actually a good idea to try and find blogs entries written by former teachers. It's also absolutely essential that get contact information of current teachers through your recruiter. I was going to give tips on where else you might look, but I know a lot of teachers don't like getting anonymous inquiries about particular schools, especially since bad reporting can get you sued for libel.

* Got some people looking for maps of Jeollanam-do and Gwangju. I'll get to Jeollanam-do maps another time. But to the folks looking for a street map of Gwangju, I'm sorry to say you're out of luck, sort of. There are a couple things you can do online that may help you out. You can browse the area of Gwangju with a Naver map, in Korean, by clicking here. If you know where you're going, type it into Naver, and chances are you can pull up a map of the area. If you're looking for a particular restaurant chain or department store, you can either Naver it or visit the official website and go to the page for the Gwangju franchise(s), where you can often find a crude street map. Your best bet is to go to one of the tourist information centers and see what you can find. As you probably know, you can also find smaller street maps on display inside the subway stations, which will tell you were something is in relation to that particular station. But if you can type Korean and can navigate Korean sites a little, you ought to have a look around Naver, because it'll probably turn up what you're looking for.

* Hell, while we're at it, I'm not sure how "lotte mart movie theater" brings you to me, but it's worth pointing out that such a search will also lead you nowhere near a movie theater site. There is no such thing as "lotte mart movie theater," but the shitty thing about searching for Korean sites in English is that such a phrase won't even get you close to what you're looking for. Hell, "lotte movie theater" gets you nothing, either. You're looking for Lotte Cinema, a nationwide chain. Hahaha, and like just about every Korean website, the Lotte Cinema site "may harm your computer," and will bring up a malware warning when you search for it in google. *Sigh* I get that message for the local newspapers and for many of the official county websites.

* Got a few people looking for "suncheon brian korea esl." Um . . . okay, stop doing that.

* And, since we're slow today, I'll address some of the hits I got for "If U R YOUNG & WHITE, U R ALRIGHT" after I reposted that ad on Dave's a few days ago. I linked to it in this December post but it's buried in the archives. The original job listing isn't around anymore, but it's an ad for the Kid's Club near Ori Station in Bundang, and it originally ran on Work n' Play in July, 2007. I posted the ad on waygook.org, where you can read it in full. Here's an excerpt:

We are looking for young (20's), cheerful (smile!) teachers who fit our image of native English-speakers/Americans. By law, you must be a college graduate. Average-weight (or thin) people are preferred. Also, please, no Australians/New Zealanders/Irish/etc. Brits may be considered under special circumstances. (Of course no non-native English speakers or ethnic minorities.) Korean citizens/Kyopos with native-like English skills may be hired temporarily, and college degree is not required of them.
One-year contract required (by law). Please note, however, that cultural differences exist with respect to contracts. Here is a quote from http://www.aacircle.com.au/teach-in-korea.htm :
"English teachers in Korea occasionally have contract disputes with their employers. In the Korean context, a contract is simply a rough working agreement, subject to change depending upon the circumstances. Most Koreans do not view deviations from a contract as a breach of contract, and few Koreans would consider taking an employer to court over a contract dispute." We don't think you will take us to court, either!

LMFAO LMFAO LMFAO. Oh, and like the ad says,

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to call Gina Song any time, seven days a week, at 011-9334-4303

Feel free, if you have any questions. *cough* But to be fair, nobody really likes Australians/New Zealanders/Irish/etc, so she's not being ignorant, just practical.

* Edit: LOL, because of my post "More racial ass-hattery from the Korean press" I'm now the first google result for "Korean best ass" and number 10 for "Korean ass." I was going to type something lewd and offensive to my new visitors, but in the spirit of being helpful this March, I'll direct you instead to the contestants in Japan's "best butt contest." Doesn't look like Korea had any such festival, but then again I didn't spend too much time googling around for Korean backsides. That page is weird. Here's a funny quotation from the winner:

"I always take care of my bottom, but I'm embarrassed to show it today because I burned it by sitting on a hair iron the other day," said Watanabe, who was looking particularly pretty in purple.

More land to be taken from Japanese collaborators.

From the Joongang Ilbo:

Korea’s government will seize land worth more than 4 billion won from seven descendants of collaborators with Japan during its colonial rule here, a committee announced yesterday.
According to the Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators’ Property, a total of 308,388 square meters (76 acres) of land worth 4.1 billion won ($4,378,003) in Gyeonggi, North Chungcheong and in South Chungcheong will be taken.
The confiscated assets will be used to compensate independence fighters, as well as their descendants, for sacrifices made under Japanese colonial rule. Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945.

The Korea Times has a similar article here. Hmm, they could only find seven descendants of collaborators this time? These must be particularly heinous offenders *cough* because, after all, Korea's various Truth and Reconciliation committees have cleared a bunch of people, including war criminals, of culpability, while placing responsibility on politically expedient targets. It's as convenient a day for this as any, I suppose.

Fucking USA: 1 in every 99 adults in prison.

A new report tells us:

For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

And my homestate had the largest prison population growth last year:

Pennsylvania added about 1,600 prisoners to its state prison population in 2007 -- a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year -- and totaled 46,028 on Jan. 1.

Yet my hometown is considered among the most livable cities in the US. So that's good.

Sadly, mine is a widespread culture of crime. The US throws around death penalties, life sentences, and other harsh penalties, but has one of the highest rates of crime and violence in the civilized world. People are calling for the decriminalization of drugs, but the US has an out of control drug problem. People proclaim the sanctity of the 2nd Amendment and go on about how an armed populace is necessary for personal and political safety, yet Americans can't stop shooting one another. Go take a look at Japan or Korea. I'm not at all saying that Japan or Korea doesn't have crime, or don't have social ills of their own, but the things that go on in an average American city on any given day are enough to make the average citizen here sick to their stomach. The tolerance for violence and drug abuse in those countries are far less than in the US, where guns are constitutional and drugs are considered a person's choice. America has some great points, but it's on its way out. Half the time I'm embarassed by what's been permitted to go on in that country. Sad thing is, nobody cares.

It's a country that doesn't take care of its citizens. And it's a country full of citizens who can't take care of themselves. Kids are born into poverty, have no options to them but crime, then get locked up at 19 for the rest of their lives. Huge demographics of the population glorify violence, drugs, and idleness, then complain that "the man" doesn't give them any opportunities. It's a country that goes on about freedom, but gives too much of it at the expense of the greater good. It's a country that goes on and on about personal rights, but is completely silent on the issue of personal responsibilities.

Having 1% of the adult population in prison is embarassing. That Americans can allow themselves to live like that is embarassing. The solution isn't to let more people out of prison, or to become culturally softer on drugs than we already are. The solution is to foster a culture that encourages responsibility to society's greater good. Foster a culture that recognizes that when 1% of the population is in prison, we all suffer. Foster a culture that doesn't tolerate poverty, doesn't tolerate ignorance, doesn't tolerate slipping standards, and doesn't tolerate idleness.