"I’m touched by the desperateness of the mother who stood in front of the water canon cars with her dear child.”

The Dong-A Ilbo brings us a story about some stuff that happened somewhere a little while back. They talked to the guy who was there and he was all "whatever." That's pretty much the level of specificity found in this article about a mock-protest staged in an elementary school classroom.

Also in today's paper is a story of a woman who used her baby buggy---and her baby---to stand in the way of the police and their water canons (sic, lol).

At around 1:40 p.m. June 26, police stationed two water canon vehicles in front of Saemoonan Church, downtown Seoul. It was to dismiss the protestors overcrowding the road.

As the police prepared for a second spurt after spouting water for 10 minutes, a housewife suddenly approached the water canon vehicles pushing forth a baby buggy with her child in it.

The police requested the mother to move aside to the footpath, but she stayed right there saying, “I’ll only move aside after the water canon vehicles move away.”

The protesters began to give her a hand. When the combat policemen came toward her, they immediately surrounded the baby buggy blocking access. Police persuaded the mother without using force so as not to provoke the protesters, but she did not yield. Police withdrew the water canon vehicles from the site after a 30-minute-long fuss.

About 40 protesters with baby buggies who took part in the rally on June 25 and were near the Sejong intersection were also faced with a dangerous situation as the rally turned violent.

When the police forced the protesters toward Taepyeong Street, about 100 of them were driven to the rear where baby-buggy members were sitting with their children. Fortunately the protesters and policemen caught sight of them and refrained from physical collision, preventing any casualty.

The article talks about messages of support posted on a website 유모차부대, for example the one that provides this post's title. A Naver search turns up tons of photos of group members strolling through protests with . . . strollers. Here are a few.






Korean babies are absolutely adorable and provide hours of entertainment. I want one. They also make great accessories and are the perfect complement to a lonely and frustrated life, so if you have a vagina you really ought to put it to use, what with Korea's declining birth rate and all. I posted a little something about these mothers at the protests a while back, pointing out the hypocracy of this "살고 싶다!" ("I want to live") crap when a recent study found that only 12% of Korean parents used car seats for their kids and that, LMFAO, Koreans actually fought against car seat legislation. But as any Jeollanam-do resident will point out, traffic safety and beef protests are not related, and complete indifference to well-being in one sector of life does not preclude one for clamoring for it in another. *cough*



Going on over to the Hankyoreh I found the cartoon "Another Gwangju" that puts it all in perspective. I noted back around the anniversary of the Gwangju Massacre that the protestors, amidst their wall-to-wall anti-beef stuff, were trying to cast these latest demonstrations in the same spirit of the democratization movement. I see their point, and maybe if they weren't so batshit insane I'd be more sympathetic. But anyway, the Hankyoreh article goes on to talk about all the police brutality going on nowadays. Pardon my boldness, but I just have to say that police brutality sucks. It's, like, fucked up. But, um, you can't beat the shit out of riot cops and then expect them to sit there and take it.



Ooooh, bad timing, sorry. Incidentally, just as my coworkers vehemently deny there were any anti-American displays at the 5/18 commemoration or that "PD Diary" lied, they also deny that protestors are attacking police. It's worth repeating that understanding Korea's long and unique culture *cough*, as people like me are often implored to do, becomes so much easier when you can completely ignore huge chunks of it. And like I've said before, and like was reiterated on the latest Seoul Podcast, I'm all for being anti-establishment and raging against this machine or that, but the rub is that here all the quote-unquote liberal papers are so off the fucking wall that it's pretty much impossible to get behind their causes. Staggering.

Life's a boar in Wando.

HAHAHAHAHA *cough* This weekend Girlfriend in Jeollanam-do and I visited the drama set in Suncheon, a pretty neat site just outside of "new downtown." It was the subject of my second-ever post and you can see photos from my first visit on my flickr page.



(Top) Photo from last September.
(Bottom) Interesting way to write "Morning Coffee" (모닝커피). Wonder if it derived from the Japanese pronunciation.

The inclement weather meant we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves, just like the last time I was there. The set is just comprised of empty buildings, so there's not much to do beyond walk around, but it's a nice spot worth a visit if you're in the area. As I'm kind of interested in 20th century Korean history, and in looking at stuff from these eras, I think it'd be neat to turn some of these places into "folk village"-type places, with restaurants, movies, exhibits, and other old-timey stuff. There is something a little like that, I guess, in Incheon called the "Sudoguksan Museum of Housing and Living" that looks neat---but whose site seems to crash my browser---though I don't think it'd be too practical to have something like that in Suncheon since not many people pass through. But interests of foreign residents aside, I don't think these kinds of folk museums would work too well because it doesn't seem like a time period too many Koreans would be interested in revisiting in too much detail just yet. Anyway, the weather on Saturday was shitty, but we had a nice time and saw a Oriental Fire-bellied Toad (무당개구리), so that was neat.

Speaking of wild animals in Korea----HAHAHAHAHAHA---searching google news for Jeollanam-do stuff took me to a recent article in the piece of shit Seoul Times about wild boars. Here's the first couple paragraphs, if you're interested.

Wild boars are threatening many cities and rural areas of South Korea due to its fast breeding and disappearance of its predators such as tigers, leopards and wolves.
Ever since 2005, there are nearly 30 cases of wild boars attacking residents and citizens in the city, and the total crop damage last year was worth 6.5 billion won (some 6.2 million US dollars).
In 2006, goats have been cruelly torn and bitten into pieces every night by an unknown creature in remote Saengil Island of Wando-gun, South Jeolla Province. About 20 goats have been killed and residents got scared without knowing what or who this monstrous killer was.

Hmm, well no fucking way Korea would have wild animals, I thought, but the Joongang Ilbo points us to some other good stories about boars going wild in Korea. An interesting article from April, 2006 titled "A hunting ban spurs city boar baby boom" says that a recent study showed twice as many boars in and around Seoul than in other parts of the country. It continues, um, like this:

At least one of seven recent incidents would have been humorous had it not resulted in injuries. In September, a boar weighing about 130 kilograms (290 pounds) burst into a bar in Amsa-dong in southeast Seoul, injured a customer, escaped and then attacked a man in a nearby park. The animal was eventually tracked down and killed after leading pursuers on a day-long chase.

A contemporary article goes into a little more detail, lol:

After police failed to corral the boar after a search by the officers assigned to the area, they mobilized 90 foot patrolmen and two police cars for an expanded search that began at about 7 a.m. By the time the animal was spotted again, at about 11 a.m. at the south end of the Cheonho Bridge, it had traveled back across the river.
The police used hunting dogs and anesthetic guns in their search, but the boar did not give up easily. It was captured at about 11:30 a.m. and, after a struggle with its captors, was stabbed and killed by a knife-wielding professional hunter who had joined the hunt. “We wanted to catch it alive but it just wouldn’t give up,” an officer in the search team said after the wild pig was dispatched.

The pig ended up getting stuffed and mounted, in that order. *cough* The first article also says that in 2004 there were 254,000 wild boars in the country at the time. Damn. The paper also points us to an article about a boar that drowned in the Han River, and to another one that eluded 90 pursuers for 12 hours near the Blue House. Here's a photo of the outcome:



The first article says that they have boar season in some parts of the country, but I don't know anything about that. However, an article from a few years earlier says that boars were protected animals, and even though a naver search turned up results for boar meat, that article says boars were "off the menu." It talks about a bill being drafted, but no word on if it went into effect. A 2005 article says that people are allowed to kill boars only if they damage crops and, at the time, damage gravesites. Also mentioned in that article were Manchurian black bears, which were reintroduced to Jirisan a little while back, and a 2001 article called "10-Year 'Sabbatical' Restores a Mountain" tells us that the wild boar population there was apparently thriving. Searching around for "Jirisan wild boar" doesn't turn up much beyond a little mention of a boar restaurant:

This wild boar dish has no smell typical of boar and does not contain any artificial ingredients. Though the price is a little more expensive than other restaurants, the tender and delicious meat of wild boar here is very distinct, and this restaurant consequently has many guests.

Here's another mention of boars in an article about a 2001 tiger sighting, lol, in Gyeongsangbuk-do. So as not to end on a smarmy note, Wikipedia has a gold-star page on "Mammals in Korea." Cool, but I can't figure out how to open the external reference pages I want to see.

Korea in 1919 National Geographic.

A Dave's poster scanned in an article on Korea from a 1919 edition of National Geographic magazine. There are 25 pages in all, starting with this one. Just change the file name in the url to go to the next one. The next page would become ng26.jpg, for example. Interesting perspective, but as you know National Geographic was pretty objectionable at times in its depiction of strange places and exotic peoples. This article certainly has its moments. My favorite is the caption on page 29: "The Korean peasant woman's neck muscles are as well developed for burden-bearing upon the head as are those of the southern darky." Offensive on a couple of levels right there.

* Update: It's now available here as a .pdf file and here as a collection of images on flickr.

* Update 2: Here's another National Geographic article on South Korea from 1950, right before the war broke out.

Apt.

This business model applies to about 93% of the things that appear on my blog.



Wikipedia tells us, on the episode's page:

None of the gnomes actually know what the second phase is, and all of them assume that someone else within the organization does.

I regret not wearing a t-shirt with that three-step plan on it every time I read something about English education, like in my last post for example. The clip from whence the above screen capture came is available here.

Jesus Fucking Christ why on earth do they need to shout across the office about something so lackluster as the class schedule? Mercifully the weekend is here.

So, um, college drop-outs can become English teachers now?

Today's Korea Times tells us:

``Some foreign students have to give up their university studies due to financial difficulties. We will invite those young English-speaking foreigners to our schools for the program,'' Hwang Ik-jung, an official at the education office, told The Korea Times. ``It is very helpful for our country as those students can be emissaries for Korea in the future.''

Talk about mixed signals. People bitch and moan all the time about quote-unquote unqualified teachers, and that term is used as a catch-all under which all foreigners' offenses fall. Foreigners sleeping with Korean women? Unqualified teachers. Foreigners taking drugs? Unqualified teachers. Foreigners earning high salaries? Unqualified teachers. Foreigners teaching private lessons, just like countless Korean teachers and college students? Unqualified teachers. Foreigners coming to South Korea at the invitation of the government and at the behest of the free market? Unqualified teachers.

Korean teachers aren't, of course, painted with the same wide brush domestically. There are plenty of legitimate gripes against foreigners here, and I make them pretty frequently, but you can't just hire white people willy-nilly with no plans in place and expect things to improve. Well, okay Korea can and probably will, but I meant to say they shouldn't. I suspect this won't sit well with the Korean Association of Foreign Language Academies, who told the Korea Times last month:

``The government is under the illusion that an unlimited number of English teachers exists overseas,’’ said Seo Jung-sook, information director of the association. ``Inviting more foreign teachers will eventually degrade the average quality of instructors and drive up costs for us.’’

and

``No hagwon owners want to work with unqualified foreigners. Most hagwon employers terminate contracts of unacceptable foreigners, those guilty of sexual harassment or taking drugs,'' general director Choi Chang-jin said.

``However, many of these `blacklisted' foreigners return and teach English at other hagwon. I have seen a foreigner, who was expelled on drug charges, return here within three days. This is because the government does not keep records on these foreigners,'' Choi said.

I already extended KAFLA an invitation to have intercourse with itself, but I'm a generous man and have no qualms about issuing another, should the opportunity present itself.


Stolen from here.

As most of us know, it was just last fall that foreign teachers---foreign teachers on E-2 visas, I mean---were the subject of a moral panic that arose when a teacher in Gwangju was arrested on child molestation charges for stuff he did in another country. We---foreign teachers on E-2 visas, I mean---were hit with all kinds of new regulations making the visa process more grueling and stringent. But because foreign teachers stopped applying---a recruiter on a Seoul Podcast episode said applicants were down by about 2/3rds---and because the teachers here started leaving, these regulations were greatly relaxed. So much so that I have no idea what they even are, and can't get any clear answers from my higher-ups at the local education office, a cause for concern since I need to renew my visa, like, soon. As I mentioned before, it's worth remembering that the Korean government went ahead and imposed all these regulations, even though foreign embassies were not equipped or interested in complying. We ought to call to mind, too, the arrogance of some officials, who had the gall to say shit like:

“I just don’t understand why [foreign embassies] cannot make some exceptions to accommodate the needs of their own nationals,” Choi [at the Justice Ministry] said. “In Korea, criminal records can be easily obtained online. But they don’t have a centralized system.”

As if South Korea has done anything of late to warrant this sort of consideration from foreign governments.

Also important to remember the statement immigration released last fall, in the middle of the moral panic:

The Korean Government will prevent illegal activities by verifying requirements of native English teacher and tighten their non-immigrant status [...] [and will] eradicate illegal activities of native English teachers who are causing social problems such as ineligible lectures, taking drugs and sex crimes. English teachers, who disturb social order during their staying in Korea such as illegal teaching, taking drugs and sex crimes, will be banned from entering South Korea.[...] [They will] prevent illegal English teaching activities and the taking of drugs and sexual harassment of English teachers, [...] teachers who disrupt the social order by taking drugs, committing sexual harassment and alcohol intoxication.

Um, that in the land where 73% of Korean men drink every day, in the land where rougly half smoke cigarettes, in the land that was labeled a "danger country for women," in the land where human trafficking is permitted to thrive and the sex trade openly plied, in the land where teachers routinely behave very badly, and in the land where private tutoring (.pdf) and after-school academies have long been part of the local culture, immigration decided to come out with that directed at a few thousand residents. Anyway, there have been all kinds of recruitment campaigns to get more foreigners in Korean schools after, paradoxically, the government and other forces had been working so hard to drive them away. Because there is little to no attention paid to how foreign teachers are to be used in schools, and because they often serve no greater purpose than window dressing, I do have to question how effective they'll be. But, given the extremely low abilities of many Korean English teachers, I suppose boatloads of foreigners can't do much worse. And given Koreans' remarkably low test scores, especially considering that education here revolves entirely around teaching toward tests, perhaps it is time for a change.

* Update: Galbijim brought up a good point:

Just wait till these guys see how little 1.6 is in this industry and how much they can make in privates or moonlighting at local hagwons and the govt realizes that they’ve created 600 teachers working illegally.

"Koreans Dominate U.S. Women's Open."

So the Chosun Ilbo says, but since the tournament hasn't begun yet, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The hyperbole says one thing, but the article says another, pointing out that nearly 30% of participants are ethnic Koreans.

I always get really excited when I hear about Korean women golfers and their dominance. I didn't say aroused, I said excited. Excited because we all know what article we'll get to revisit! But before we get to that let's first look at one of the "related articles" the Chosun Ilbo has displayed on the above-linked article. It's from 2004 and called "Culture, Social Factors Behind Success of Korean LPGA Golfers," so you know it's going to be good. It deals with an 82-year-old sociology professor at the University of South Carolina and a thesis he wrote about the success of Korean women golfers, which, as the title suggests, he attributed to cultural and social factors. An excerpt from the CI piece:

Among the factors Shin attributed to the success of female Korean golfers were 1) the Korean "Golf Boom" that began in the 1980s; 2) the toughness of Korean women; 3) the close father-daughter relationship in Korea in which fathers are quite indulgent of their daughters; and 4) excellent hand-eye coordination that is a product of a culture in which women traditionally sew and people use chopsticks.

Holy shit, LOL. But he ain't got shit on this next article, probably my favorite piece of Korean journalism, and soon to be your favorite, too. It was in the Korea Times in 2005, but the link is broken, so instead we have to rely on the wonderful excerpts preserved on Asia Pundit and which I will include below in its entirety in order to better preserve this priceless cultural treasure:

What enables South Korean lady golfers to be so formidable in the U.S. LPGA Tour? It is nothing less than the Koreans' talent to make things skillfully with their hands, a trait handed down from generation to generation for thousands years. Celadon in Koryo and the Yi dynasty are world famous for blue and white china in quality, and you know that pottery involves the same skills as playing golf.

Not to change the subject, South Koreans' special talent to make things skillfully with their hands is also believed to greatly contribute to their making almost a clean sweep of the World Skills Competition. By the same token, Koreans are good at various sports that are played chiefly with the hands: handball, archery and table tennis, to name a few.

Professor Hwang Woo-suk of the Seoul National University who led the first cloning of embryonic human stem cells told in a public lecture that one of his assistants surprised the stem cell big shots of the world with his skills, which were beyond their imagination but actually nothing for Koreans. Professor Hwang, referring to the use of chopsticks, mentioned that the Koreans’ skill with their hands contributed to their success in cloning embryonic human stem cells.

An editor golf fan of an English daily newspaper mentioned that one of the root causes for Korean ladies to play such great golf in the U.S. is closely connected to dexterity, which is also critical to preparing delicious Kimchi, a Korean side dish loved by the people around the world.

Japanese, who also use chopsticks like Koreans, once produced a golf great named Ayako Okamoto, who became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1981 and won 17 events between 1982 and 1992. She was recorded as the first woman from outside the U.S. to top the LPGA tour’s money list in 1987. Among Japanese golfers playing in the PGA of America is Shigeki Maruyama, who is often compared to South Korean golfer Kyung-ju Choi. Despite this, the Japanese do not surpass Koreans in the golf world possibly because they do not attach as much importance to the hands in preparing foods. They use sashimi knife in preparing raw fish, their all-time favorite, instead of directly using hands as Koreans do.

Similarly, the Chinese do not distinguish themselves as much as Koreans in the LPGA tour of America because they do not stress the role of hands in making foods. Their food culture features fire. Mostly they use fire to create taste instead of using their hands.  Among Chinese golfers, Hong Mei Yang became the first Chinese player to win a tournament in the United States in April 2004 by capturing the IOS Futures Golf Classic in El Paso, Texas, the developmental circuit for the LPGA Tour.

Of course, there are some other factors that make all the great achievements possible including tenacity and indomitability, two characteristics of Koreans, along with quite a lot of synergy among the South Korean golfers. But without the dexterity unique to Koreans their great success would be hard to imagine.

Okay, I just pooped my pants. Holy fucking shit. And that's got to be the absolute worst use of "not to change the subject" I've ever seen.

At this point is it even necessary to write "Fuck you, PD Diary"?

The Joongang Ilbo, via The Marmot's Hole, tells us of PD Diary's latest bullshit stunt. It is now saying the errors in its April 29th report on American beef and Mad Cow Disease were the product of poor translations. Just go read the whole JI article, because it's really hard to pick one representative excerpt. But I'll try:

PD Diary also claimed Tuesday that the host of the show made a simple slip of tongue when he called a downer cow “a cow suspected of being infected with mad cow disease.”

Its earlier translation of “dairy cow” as “mad cow disease-infected cow” was not a poor translation, but a translation with interpretation, the program argued.

The episode, seen by many as the catalyst of Mad Bull Shit, was pretty much immediately attacked by papers like the Chosun Ilbo, and was almost unanimously lambasted by foreign bloggers here. Yet, living in Jeollanam-do. it pains me to say that because this article appeared in the Joongang Ilbo, and because attacks against the program are coming from it and other quote-unquote conservative papers, it will be immediately rejected as fabrication by many of my neighbors. After all, they've heretofore refused to believe that any of this hysteria was the product of media manipulation and government deception, and have instead claimed that its been the conservative outlets engaging in yellow journalism to discredit those opposed to President Lee Myung-bak. As I've learned this past week, a common tactic used when discussing controversial issues is to simply refuse to acknowledge the other side. Like on Monday when a colleague tried to discredit my latest KT article by refusing to believe that there were anti-American displays at last month's Gwangju Massacre commemoration. *cough* Learning about and understanding Korea's unique culture and Korea's long history *cough cough cough* appears so much easier when you simply ignore the parts you don't like. Is it vacation yet?

Ah, forgot to mention that Korea Beat yesterday pointed us to a lengthy Korean-language Wikipedia article on that infamous "PD Diary" episode. Zen Kimchi did a write-up here, and last week Gusts of Popular Feeling looked at PD Diary's long relationship with dishonesty.

WPO poll: South Korea worst country for widows and divorcees.

The Chosun Ilbo tells us that South Korea was voted the worst country in the world for widows and divorcees, according to a poll conducted by World Public Opinion. From what I can tell the WPO poll, though, isn't exactly about measuring discriminatory treatment, but rather measuring the perception of it, and in this department South Korea was ranked worst among 17 countries. Two excerpts:

"Discrimination against widows and divorced women appears to be a phenomenon of many countries, not just some traditional cultures," says Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "People in most countries, including developed ones, recognize there is at least some discrimination."

Poorer treatment may take a variety of forms. In less developed countries, women's rights and development experts have long noted that wherever the wife has trouble securing her property rights after her husband's death, the widow and her children can become impoverished--in extreme cases by being stripped of her land or goods and expelled from the household. Divorce laws that do not recognize the wife's labor as constituting an economic stake in the household can have the same result. In developed countries, since women live longer, gaps in a country's social safety net are more likely to affect women. In the United States, for example, poverty rates for widows and divorced or separated women are far above the average.

and

. . . South Korea has the largest majorities believing that widows (81%) and divorcees (82%) are mistreated in their country. Recently South Korea has enacted legal reforms advancing women's status, and in 2005 its high court granted women for the first time the right to claim an equal share in jointly owned family property. Jeong Han Wool of the East Asian Institute (Seoul) adds: "Up until this year Korea employed a family registry system under which the status of "widow or divorcee" could cause some complications." Such changes may well have raised the salience of the issue in the minds of Koreans.

There is lots more information available on the WPO write-up, including a link to the full .pdf version of their findings. The blog The Grand Narrative has much more on gender issues and sexuality in South Korea, of particular interest here being this post and this post from January on, among other things, the short-lived Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Pittsburgh, Gwangju, Mad Cow Disease, and deception, all in the same editorial.

Interesting editorial in yesterday's Chosun Ilbo, titled "Exposing Ex-Minister's Deception Is Child's Play." It was the first I heard of former agriculture minister Kim Sung-hoon and his, um, creative use of numbers and information when writing on Mad Cow Disease. The first two paragraphs:

Former agriculture minister Kim Sung-hoon in an article in a weekly newspaper last month said the U.S. government was concealing the results of tests by Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh showing that at least 250,000 to 650,000 people in the United States have died from the human form of mad cow disease but this was being covered up as deaths from senile dementia.

To repeat the point that has been mentioned countless times already, there has yet to be a single recorded case of a person contracting variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD), or the human form of mad cow disease, after consuming American beef. The Yale and University of Pittsburgh research papers cited by Kim say 5 to 13 percent of senile dementia patients in the United States suffer from standard Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD), which has been officially confirmed to have no relation to beef or mad cow disease. Citing a different disease, Kim said there were 650,000 vCJD victims in the U.S. when in fact there are none. This is an unbelievable act of deception.

The editorial then brings up the Gwangju elementary school students who wrote to Lee Myung-bak offering their support. The Chosun Ilbo's take:

In stark contrast to Kim stands a group of elementary schoolchildren in Gwangju. One of the students there posted a letter on the homepage of Cheong Wa Dae saying they realized much of the information about mad cow disease they had was exaggerated or false. The reason the student wrote the letter was a class teaching them to base their claims on scientific facts. In the beginning, most of the students there are said to have supported illegal acts in order to defend what is right and to topple Cheong Wa Dae and set it on fire.

Startled by all this, their teacher proposed a debate on the issue after researching the topic. The teacher told them they must know their facts before they go about insulting something. After research, they reached the conclusion that Korea should inspect beef being imported but also realized that most of the information they knew about mad cow disease differed from the truth. What thoughts will have passed through Kim’s mind as he watched these children?

For those keeping score at home, this is the second time University of Pittsburgh scientists have shown up on South Korean radar. The first time was back during the Hwang Woo-suk mess, when the name of one of his assistants---Dr. Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh---kept popping up. And so this is, I think, the fourth time I've seen Pittsburgh mentioned in the local media since I've been here. The first time was because of Schatten, the second time was of course because of Pride of Korea Hines Ward, and the third time was because of Byung-hyun Kim's short stint on the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Awww, Suncheon's two bus terminals become one.

I've been extremely busy and extremely frazzled lately, and haven't had much time to write any big posts. So another bite-sized one for today, this one of interest to only two or three of my readers. Yesterday the Suncheon Express Bus Terminal closed and merged into the larger Intercity Bus Terminal, ending 34 years of division. The Suncheon Internet News has the story here, in Korean, of the plan that was announced back in January. I always wondered why the Express Bus Terminal existed, small as it was. The article says the building will be razed and the site will be incorporated into some kind of cultural public place, which I assume will use up the surrounding lots which have been vacant and blocked off for, like, ever.

In other Suncheon news, the government website brings us this:

Suncheon City has aimed to become the Eco-capital in Korea determined to create the "Green Forest" at the railroad sides in new downtown area. We expects the project.

The City will create the Green Forest at the idle land of the railroad sides that is between Yeonhyang-dong of Suncheon City to Sangsam-ri of Haeryeong-myeon of Jeolla Line, and the well-being natural trail will be provided for citizens.

According to the City, the well-being trail, small sports facilities, and resting places will be prepared at the 850 meters of Green Forest, and 60 thousand trees such as pine trees and camellia trees that are green in four seasons, ginkgo trees, cherry trees, zelkova trees, and royal azaleas will be planted harmoniously.

It continues:

Also the scrapped railroad ground of 2.2Km between Geumdang greenbelt and Eastern Suncheon Interchange(IC), and of 2.3Km between Geumdang greenbelt and Sindae Supporting Complex that will be stayed in downtown by the railroad improvement of Jeolla Line will be the connection green tract of land. The well-being road and bicycle road will be prepared in the ground.

The city expects that if the Green Forest in the new downtown the using citizens of 5,000 persons will be double. Also the City will expense 230 million won to construct and remodel the physical training facilities, resting places, and toilets in Gangnam Children Park which the size is 2,100㎡ and located in the end of new downtown Green Forest.

Okay, to be honest, little of that Engrish mess made sense to me, but I like parks and I like the idea of developing some of the abandoned tracts of Suncheon's downtown, so these ideas sound nice. Read the rest by going here and clicking on number 72. There are two operational train stations in Suncheon, Suncheon Station and Guryegu Station across the river from Gurye county, but believe it or not there are another eight now-defunct stations within the city limits.

"It's Hyorish."

Talk about your slow news day. A promotional poster for an upcoming album by Lee Hyori, the attractive woman who did some famous thing or other a few years ago, I guess. Hyorish? Seriously, what the fuck. Well, google is my friend and tells me there's more here and here. It's also on Pop Seoul, but I don't want you going over there.

New Education Secretary appointee Cheong Jean-gon in trouble, guess why?

I'm not even going to tell you what Cheong Jean-gon (정진곤) confessed to, three days after being nominated, because I really want you to guess. I'll bet you can. Not the first time "you know what" has happened to a public figure. In 2006 the Minister of Education resigned for doing "you know what," and 2007 was a big year in all fields for stuff like "you know what." The Hankyoreh also has the story here, and the Blue House issued a press release here.

Gwangju elementary school students offer their support to President Lee.

A class of elementary school students in Gwangju wrote letters to President Lee Myung-bak offering their encouragement during this difficult time. 데일리안 has the story and the letter's text here, in Korean, and a second article dealing with it and the Candlegirls cafe here. In the letter it says "원어민 선생님께서도 FTA는 한국에 도움을 준다고 말씀하셨고," which is what why the article showed up when I was searching for something else.

GEPIK offers culture tips.

Gyeonggi English Program in Korea (GEPIK) has 33 culture tips up on their site to help teachers adjust to Korea. A few of my favorites:

4. You may be disgusted by some food such as dog meat or dog soup if you keep a dog as a pet but they do not eat every kind of dog.

11. You may be insisted to drink alcohol beyond your capacity.

13. You may be bothered by children and youngsters who want to speak to foreigners, now and then with bad words which are not intended badly.

14. Koreans are against America politically, not socially.

22. Girls and ladies walk sometimes hand in hand or arm in arm. But they are not lesbians. It means kind of affection.

30. Some Koreans are less punctual than Americans but usually they are more tolerant than westerners.

33. Koreans sometimes say yes when they are confused in speaking English.

Hmmm, certainly don't agree with number 13.

Earlier we read about the cultural tips from the elementary school teachers' guides, the facts on foreign countries provided by VANK, and the dangers of fan death as featured in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Cultural Guidebook For Foreigners.

"57% of Teenagers Don't Know When Korean War Broke Out"

According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, via the Korea Times. An excerpt from their article:

Moreover, 51 percent did not know that the war started with North Korea's invasion of the South. About 14 percent picked Japan as the nation responsible for the war; 13.4 percent, the United States, and 11 percent Russia. About 2 percent even said it was the South invading the North.

While the United States is regarded as the main ally of the country, 28 percent said it was the key ``threat'' for national security, 4 percentage points higher than North Korea.

Telling. And I'll save you the trouble by pointing out that American students don't know much, either, but this isn't a blog on the US.

Update: LOL, the Joongang Ilbo has a better headline.

Colonial-era building demolished in Gangjin.

The Gangjin Shinmun has a caption beneath this photo of this colonial-era building being demolished in Gangjin-eup. How would we translate that, "commerce building," "original commerce building"? I know I have a photo of the building intact lying around here somewhere, because I used to walk past it every day, but as I always recall the facade looking nearly as shoddy as it does in this picture, I can't really say I have a photo of it in better days. Anyway, a couple days ago there was a fire not too far away, and I wonder if that expedited this process?

What the heck, since we're here, here's a photo of Gangjin-eup (pop. 16,000) from atop Boeunsan, to give you an idea of what kind of size we're talking about when we talk about rural towns, and below it is an ordinary shot of the main street:

Were you wearing pants two years ago?

Tuesday Korea time, actually, will be the second anniversary of that. On June 23, 2006, Korea lost to Switzerland in a World Cup match by the score of 2-0. Switzerland's second goal was considered the product of bad officiating, and spawned a rash of netizen and citizen anger that brought down the FIFA webpage, circulated a petition demanding a rematch, and called in a bomb threat to the Swiss Embassy. Lots of good reading on the topic from contemporary sources, including these two posts from The Marmot's Hole, this one from Gusts of Popular Feeling, this one from before the Switzerland game from The Metropolitician, and this one from Ruminations in Korea.

Subscribers to my google feed will have seen a longer version of this post, but I've decided to abbreviate the commentary in the interest of seeming less negative and less off-the-deep-end.

In other news, and on topics that had better not offend anyone because I'm really not in the mood, turns out a Korean singer is against her nude photos being shown in Japan.

With import requests coming in from China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam and other places, however, it appears that she will sign contracts to send her photos to all those regions -- except Japan.

I don't know why she feels that way, but the story is funny because it's, like, four years old but is currently the most-viewed item on the Chosun Ilbo site. Every now and then you'll get a random old article pop up in the top-five.

Pronunciation matters.

The Marmot's Hole brings us a story via the Chosun Ilbo about Korean English teachers feeling pressure from students to improve their poor spoken English ability. The teachers' poor spoken English, I mean. Two excerpts from the Marmot's write-up:

According to the Chosun, due to the English craze gripping Korea, students and parents are concerned more about how well the teachers can converse in English than about the quality of class. And with many students having studied abroad or studied English from kindergarten, teachers sometimes find themselves the target of humiliation from their own students.

and

Another stressful element is the ability differences in students. Some teachers wonder how they are to teach when students exhibit such wide differences in language ability. Then there are the districts where early English education is almost nonexistent, and teachers worry how students will fare if teachers begin teaching in English, as they are supposed to do from 2010.

That last excerpt is a glimpse into my world, since I have to teach English in English every day, after all, to classes of mixed-level students who show little interest in being there.

I'm torn. On the one hand it drives me absolutely up the wall that far too many colleagues can't pronounce many of English's sounds. And I'm not even talking about with a "perfect" accent, whatever that's supposed to mean, I just mean in a way to distinguish the distinct sounds and to be understood. I've met far too many teachers who consistently cross over into incomprehensibility---or who permanently reside there---due to poor pronunciation and grammar. While I think it's a good idea to use as much English as possible in the classroom, I sometimes worry about the input the students are receiving in these situations. I do my best to model some tricky sounds in my class, but seeing each group of students once or twice a month does little to combat the poor pronunciation they're getting from other teachers or from TV, and constantly using so many English loan words in Korean doesn't help, either. I had to be a bit of a stickler on my recent speaking exams and give lower grades for poor pronunciation. 마이 패보러트 서브제크트 이즈 마스 isn't English, sorry, and didn't get an A.

On the other hand, though, there's more to knowing a language than simply being able to converse in it. And, you see, I'm trying to be sensitive and positive and not so cynical in this post. If the goal of learning English is purely academic, as it was in Korea for a while, having a decent vocabulary and an understanding of grammar is sufficient. Right now there are mixed signals, though, because while spoken English nominally gets a lot of attention, the emphasis is, largely, still on teaching for tests. But, and I say this knowing it sounds negative and knowing that I myself have sooo much room for improvement, I really have to question the myth of the Korean grammar expert given what I've experienced fairly consistently in school and from reading the papers and around the internet. That causes me to question what, exactly, English teachers learned in school and to what purpose they're being groomed.

Irregardless *cough* one of the users on waygook.org put together a nice little list of pronunciation activities you might modify for your classes or for your teachers' workshops. It's always tricky to bring up pronunciation among teachers, especially when they're the proud sort, but it needs to be done. Often times teachers and students alike will resent remedial lessons, especially when they've spent years working on more advanced stuff, but honestly it's necessary, it's just a matter of tactfully bringing it up. Whether it has a lasting effect remains to be seen.

"Gaya Land: Not Quite the Happiest Place on Earth."

Hmm, I've only gotten two emails regarding my latest KT piece, so that's nice, although I got a few very stern talkings-to at work. *sigh* Expect much more on this matter when I provide an update to my little netizen run-in, but let me just say that with all the negative attention I've drawn these past few weeks, none of my critics have ever attempted to dispute what I've said, but rather have taken exception to saying anything at all. And I can't help but marvel at the arrogance of attacking a guy writing in a foreign language when it's clear they don't understand my points at all. But, like I said, I'll save all that for a big ol' post o' negativity coming up soon.

In other news, I was browsing my "Favorites" the other day and for some reason I had "Where in the World" in there. Not that it's not a nice little blog and doesn't deserve to be in somebody's favorites, but I just couldn't figure out why the hell it was in mine. But s/he did have a neat little post last weekend on "Gaya Land," (가야랜드) a semi-abandoned amusement park in Gimhae.




More photos on the original post, and an article on the dying park here, in Korean. Dead and dying amusement parks are cute and depressing at the same time, though I think back to my days working around decrepit attractions and remember how happy the children were regardless. ExpatKorea has a few threads devoted to abandoned amusement parks and old buildings, the former containing a photo of a woman reenacting the death of a child on one of the attractions:

Korea Times: "2002 Tank Incident and Aftermath."

Um . . . okay, to be fair, I wrote this piece last Friday, before all of this other garbage started happening. So not the most opportune time to have the article appear, but I stand by it nonetheless. An excerpt:

But now that we're six years on from the incident, it's time for some reflection. In the aftermath of the accident, after the U.S. genuinely and sincerely apologized numerous times, paid damages, and followed all protocol dictated by culture and by treaty, we witnessed a display of anti-Americanism and plain old xenophobic hatred that perhaps may never be rivaled here again.

Soldiers were stabbed, kidnapped, beaten up, and showered with rocks and aggression. There were numerous cases of assaults against foreigners, and countless cases of intimidation and discrimination against foreigners and Korean women in the company of foreign-looking men.

Restaurants and businesses prohibited foreigners from entering, with signs that said ``Americans not welcome here'' and ``USFK You are all guilty.''

And the netizens and mainstream media, then as now, distorted facts, fabricated accounts and intentionally mislead the public into taking to the streets with a wild-eyed fervor usually reserved for democratic movements and soccer games.

As with the anti-beef protests of today, when it comes to this incident, opinions seem to be divided according to nationality.

Koreans, in general, still firmly believe the U.S. military committed a grievous error and still contend the incident represented U.S. arrogance and carelessness.

On the other hand, Americans look at the events of 2002 and see that, though the deaths were a tragedy, the public outrage was far too aggressive for such an accident.

Yes, no amount of money can bring those two girls back, but is it not hypocritical to be so outraged in a country ranked the most-dangerous in the world for pedestrians? Is it not hypocritical to protest the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) when South Korea has them with countries that quarter the ROK military?

Is it not hypocritical to bemoan the U.S. military in this case when vehicular homicides involving South Koreans go unnoticed every day? And is it not hypocritical to profess to want to internationalize and welcome foreigners, while at the same time attacking them, blaming them, and forcing them away?

Thus, in order to properly normalize relations between cultures, it is proper that South Korea and its level-headed citizens apologize for the ugly behavior exhibited in the aftermath of this accident.

By popular demand: Naju's Samhanji Theme Park.

Another little installment of "by popular demand," where I do write-ups on the things people are googling to get to my site, but which I hadn't really adequately addressed. I've been getting some hits looking for Naju's Samhanji Theme Park (삼한지테마파크), which I wrote about briefly at the bottom of an earlier post. It is a set used as a filming location for some movies and dramas, most notably---I guess---the historical drama Jumong. From what I can tell there doesn't seem to be a bus directly from Gwangju, but VisitKorea tells us you can take bus 180-1 across from the bus terminal in Naju, alight in Gongsan, and take a cab the rest of the way. There are buses to Naju from Gwangju most hours of the day, and it is usually the first stop on routes to smaller towns like Gangjin and Jangheung. You can find more pages on via a Naver search, and can see some more photos here.



Naju has some other points of interest and historical sites for people passing through. Check my earlier post for details, and my subsequent post on Naju's Gates. There is also a recently-built water park in Nampyeong-eup.

Ugly dog abuse video from Mokpo.

No, I don't mean the abuse of an ugly dog, I mean a teacher I know in Mokpo caught his school's groundskeeper---and his downstairs neighbor---beating one of the dogs on his farm with a big stick.



Eating a dog raised like that should make his dick nice and hard. Make sure you go and read the teacher's account of what happened, and what his coteacher had to say about it. An excerpt:

45 seconds later he's in my house! He just walked right in ranting and yelling and continuing his string of various 'son-of-a-bitch'-like insults. Again, I refused to speak to him, to acknowledge him in any verbal form except "get out. ....GET - OUT .... GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" I repeated this very clearly, very decisively (but without yelling) and with the unmistakeable hand guesture over and over.
INSTEAD, he started advancing on me! He backed me into my own bedroom! He feigned a punch!!!!!! He's fucking CRAZY and I'm surprised he didn't in fact hit me!!! Then he started ranting in setnence-form (far to quickly for me to understand amid all the "song of a bitch" continuing yelling), but he provided me with hand guestures as well -- to his dogs, me watching, me taking photos, one I didn't get, then a throat-slitting motion! He left shortly after, THANK - FUCKING - GOD!

Man, last time we heard about Mokpo they were tormenting animals at a local festival and harassing and assaulting foreigners for putting their trash in the wrong bags. That really is the City of beauty, romanticism, and Dream!

It's whitey season again in Daejeon.

A Korea Times reporter accompanied some Daejeon police as they went around trying to bust foreigners teaching illegally.

Hur Chang-goo, a veteran immigration police officer, hopped in a car with his partner, a female interpreter. Their mission: To catch a foreign national illegally teaching English at a kindergarten.

Tipped off that a Canadian teacher was hired to teach at the private institute, they needed to check it out. On their way, they discussed ways to block any possible attempt by the teacher to flee. The Korea Times accompanied them.

You'll recall that Daejeon was where the local Foreign Language School association (sic) advertised on buses last year that "you are watched," that "private tutoring of English is a legal offense" (lol), and that informants would be rewarded for leading to the capture and deportation of illegal foreign teachers. Well, you might not recall that bullshit anymore, but you should.



Anyway, take a few minutes to read the KT piece. It's ridiculous and infurating, as usual, and I'm definitely tempted to pull out my overworked "Go fuck yourself" stamp for the piece's topic and its "just another day in the neighborhood" tone. But for the time being I just wanted to point out the sequence highlighted by "Ya-ta Boy" on Dave's:

The police officer did not go into the classroom

. . .

The officer failed to secure any concrete evidence that immigration law had been violated.

South Korea wants Japan to give aid to the North.

That takes some balls, doesn't it? Here's today's story from the AP, and here's a little about the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea that took place between 1977 and 1983. Here's some more on the topic, too, from One Free Korea who has some interesting stuff in his "Japan & Korea" category, including a link to February article that quotes a release from North Korea's KCNA which said, in part:

North Korea-Japan relations will never improve if Japan continues to link their improvement with a bilateral dispute over North Korea’s past abductions of Japanese nationals, North Korea’s state-run media said Thursday.

In a lengthy commentary, the Korean Central News Agency said that North Korea has not forgiven Japan for forcing many Korean women into sexual slavery and taking many Korean men to Japan during World War II, and that it will make the country pay.

Whoa really famous American "D.M.C." speaks on Mad Cow, provides comfort, validation to millions.

Looks like NoCutNews was pretty liberal with their translation of rapper DMC's comments on Mad Cow Disease. According to the Metropolitician, posting on The Marmot's Hole, the band members were badgered with questions on American beef, and DMC replied with "Well, I guess no one wants mad cow” and “Gotta protect the people, safety first.” NoCutNews ran with that and put up a story under the headline translated by the Metropolitician as "DMC says ‘In the importation of American beef…the safety of the people is most important" (디엠씨 "미국산 쇠고기 수입 … 자국민 안전이 가장 중요). Not as grievous a manipulation of an ultra-sensitive issue as when a Japanese man's run was labelled a "Repentance Marathon" a few years back. I think that's my favorite one.

In other news, I can't say I agree with the Korea Times' headline "Obama Has Bad Impression of Korea." Something along the lines of "you have a bad impression" is one of those phrases usually thrown in a sentence that borders "you must understand our situation," and is a bit too dismissive and subjective for my taste. To my ears, or eyes rather, "bad impression" seems pretty condescending and implies that his views, somehow, must be corrected, or that will be corrected if he only quote-unquote learned about Korea, as if he as a American doesn't understand what is best for his country politically and economically, and isn't imbibed with authority to speak on certain issues.

Continuing today's theme of "shoddy journalism," the Chosun Ilbo reported yesterday that according to the Center for Disease Control Aretha Vinson did not die of vCJD, as reported on "PD Diary." Ooops. So was "PD Diary" actually right on anything? That paper also says advertisers there and in other conservative papers have become targets of "telephone terror" that is causing severe damage to their businesses. An excerpt:

Travel agencies are not the only victims. Health food, clothing and teaching materials companies that market their products mostly through newspaper ads also suffer. One footwear maker who used to get about 400 orders a day by advertising in newspapers is now only getting malicious calls.

A health food company staffer said, "Our company will go out of business if we fail to put ads on newspapers with large circulation, because we depend largely on orders for sale. If this situation continues, we'll have to close down." A 29-year-old female staffer in the public relations office of a mid-level construction company said, "They put even the telephone numbers of our company's planning office, general affairs department, personnel department and other departments on the Internet to paralyze the operation of the entire company."

Despite a number of huge setbacks I'm still chugging forward with my own little situation, and I hope to get some resolution soon. Unfortunately, as was told to me today, the authorities have their hands full with cases of cyber crime and they might not have to get to mine. *cough* Yeah, that answer didn't really fly with me either, so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

You're doing it wrong.

Dairy farmer dousing himself in milk at a protest in Seoul.

Cultural Guide Book For Foreigners warns of killer fans.

From page 33 of the Cultural Guide Book For Foreigners that just came out, published by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism:

Dangerous electric fans

In summer many go to bed with a fan on. In some cases a fan turned on too long can cause death from oxygen deficiency, hypothermia, or fire from overheating. A fan with a timer can help prevent such dangers: you can set the timer before going to bed for one to two hours' run. Do not forget to have the windows open for ventilation.

Good find, "glimmer."

Perfect fit!

My my my, that's an unfortunate headline for this picture:



As an aside, and because I don't want to devote a whole nother post to this, does anyone know how to search and access Korea Times articles from when the url was still times.hankooki.com? I've tried google news searches and I've tried to see if the articles I'm looking for were mirrored on any other sites, but they weren't. Just curious.

"Grand Sale turning out to be big planning mess."

LOL.

2008 Muju Festival

So . . . um, in other news, I went to the Muju Festival this weekend. On brochures and stuff it's called the "Muju Firefly Festival" (무주반딧불축제), but since there were no fireflies there at all, I don't feel quite right misleading you any longer. Yeah, I don't know how they can get away with that. It was pleasant enough, and Muju-eup is a cute town, but still. I didn't take many pictures because there were flood lights all over the place, meaning some parts were painfully bright and others were pitch black, making the pictures I did take come out weird. Moths and other insects would fly through the beams and would reflect light, giving the illusion of being fireflies, but I didn't spy a single, actual firefly. In unrelated news, did you know the "lightening bug" is the state insect of Pennsylvania? Of course you did.


You're doing it wrong.

Because the trip from Gwangju to Muju took three-and-a-half hours, it was more like a bus tour of southern Jeollabuk-do. Like I said the town was cute, but I was kind of disappointed by the lack of fireflies. I'd like to hear what others thought about it. I found one review from the festival last year, from a guy who says "Under no circumstances should the photos or text be used without the express permission of the Author." So here you go:

We also found a little dark tent, where they were keeping a few fireflies. They were the only 3 fireflies we saw the whole weekend!

The Joongang Ilbo had a preview about it back in February. An excerpt:

The highlight of the festival is an arcade decorated with thousands of sparkling fireflies, which you can stroll under at night. There’s also a special somber session held to pray for the prosperity of the firefly and an environmental speech contest for children.

The arcade doesn't consist of fireflies, though, but instead appears, from photos, to be made out of electric lights. We never did find it, and I haven't seen any pictures from this year that feature it. Let's just play it safe and blame the lack of fireflies on the Japanese like poet Ron Slate:

He is waiting to be seen.
In this world I hardly matter.

What goes into the dark
to be seen? Nothing like me.


There is a festival of fireflies
in Muju-gun in August

where people pray for firefly prosperity,
in Korea, since the Japanese

exterminated their fireflies
experimenting with insecticides.

So anyway my plan was to steal some good photos off the internet, but I couldn't find many of those, either. Here's what I could dig up, and you can find more from this year and years gone by via a Naver search:


Instead of fireflies they strung sparkler-things across the river. The bridge in the background looks new, and perhaps that has replaced the one that used to be the photogenic one strung with lights in previous years.


There was also a narrow, earthen bridge that was kind of treacherous to walk across as there were two lanes of traffic. Nevertheless, they had parades and, it looks like, a wedding ceremony go across it regularly.


We did see these guys. LMFAO at the guy on the right.

It was kind of a cute festival, but nothing you won't find in any other county throughout the country. I also don't think I'd go this far:

As fireflies have a unique identity as an environmental messenger, we believe the Muju Firefly Festival is an unrivaled environmental event in the global market. Therefore will make it a one-stop shop meeting multicultural and multinational needs themed on the environment, culture, and tourism. The more the times and the climate change with worldwide informatization, the more people want the sustenance of cultural and tourism entertainment. The Muju Firefly Festival indeed has a rich fund of resources in its regional culture and natural surroundings. We expect that it will bring about the harmonious well-being of people and nature in the coming eco-conscious times of the new millennium.

Writer, editor of "Expat Living" stabbed with a broken bottle.

Gypsy Scholar tells us that Matthew Lamers was stabbed in the arm with a broken bottle in Hongdae on Saturday. He's the man who edits the "Expat Living" section of the Korea Herald and who has reported on issues of interest to foreigners that would otherwise to without mention in the local media. He's apparently all right, though he didn't go to the police. An excerpt from the original post:

Matt didn't bother to report the 'incident' to the police even though he'd lost a bit of blood, had seen three taxis refuse to help, and had endured the first hospital that he'd visited do little but send him on to another hospital.

"Why didn't you report it?" I asked.

"I've written enough articles about police inaction when foreigners are attacked that I knew nothing would be done," he explained.

He was the one who wrote this story, for example, and he has also written on racism in hagwon hiring practices, on Bill Kapoun, and on other topics related to the foreign community here. As commenter Sonagi pointed out, if a white foreigner is going to be randomly assaulted in Seoul, chances are it will be in Hongdae because of the way it's been portrayed in the media as a wretched hive of foreigner scum and villany.

I've attracted the ire of Korean netizen bullies.

Scroll down for updates.

This morning a couple Korean blogs have started linking to me as well as the "Candlegirls" cafe.  The Candlegirls site links to me as a "촛불시위를 비하하는 외국인강사."  Another blog, in an entry called "광우병 촛불집회를 비하하는 외국인," has posted my name, blog, and Facebook page, as well as the information of the Gwangju News, and has reposted the article I wrote in this month's issue.  It also includes the name, school, and contact information of my editor, and has directed readers to email our employers. I'll copy and paste what they wrote in case the link changes.

안녕하세요. 제가 이렇게 글을 올리게 된 계기는 최근에 광주 전남지역 국제교류센터의 외국인들과 지역 영어교육인들을 대상으로 발간되는 ‘Gwangju News’라는 잡지에서, 국내의 광우병 촛불시위 그리고 더 나아가 한국인들을 너무 심하게 조롱하고 있는 한 외국인의 글을 보고 너무 분통이 터져서입니다. 한국인들의 촛불시위가 광우병에 대한 과장과 잘못된 정보, 그리고 그것을 확대하는 정치인과 언론때문이고, 한국 중고학생들은 주체적인 생각없이 그냥 그런 잘못된 정보를 믿고 우르르 거리로 나온 것 뿐이라고 하네요. 그리고 한국에서 광우병으로 병거리고 죽을 확률보다 교통사고로 죽을 확률이 훨씬 많다면서, 광우병 신경쓸 에너지 있으면, 교통사고 문제나 더 신경쓰라고 합니다. 이 글의 저자 Brian Deutsch은 그 전 ‘남대문 화재’ 및 ‘박진희의 코리아나’ 관련 기사에서도 계속 한국에 관해 비아냥거리는 글을 올려서 제가 항의메일을 보냈지만, 이번 기사에서 보여지듯이 아무런 태도의 변화를 보이지 않고, 오히려 노골적으로 더욱 한국을 비하하고 있습니다. 그리고 실제에 이 사람 블러그에 가시면 훨씬 많은 한국을 비하하는 글들을 볼 수 있을 것입니다. 이 밖에 이 잡지의 이번 호에서는 한 주한미군 장교가 ‘효순,미순’의 장갑차 사건을 다루면서, 그 사건은 단순히 교통사고 발생 위험성이 높은 지역에서 우연히 발생한 한 사건이었을 뿐인데, 몇몇 선동가들이 지나치게 사건을 확대시켰다고 주장하고 있습니다. 한국에대해 이렇게 몰이해적이고 한국인을 비아냥 거리는 글들이 계속 실리는데는 이 잡지의 편집장인 JS의 책임이 크다고 할 것입니다. 심지어 저를 비롯한 여러 한국사람들이 반론을 보냈음에도 한국인들의 의견은 무시하고 일방적으로 편협하고 한국을 비아냥 거리는 외국인의 글들을 계속 출간하고 있으니까요. 무엇보다도 제가 기분이 나쁜 것은 이렇게 한국을 비하하는 한국인들이 한국에서 한국인들에게 자기들의 모국어를 가르치면서 많은 돈을 벌면서, 한국과 한국인을 비웃고 있다는 것입니다.이런 몰지각한 외국인의 버릇을 고쳐주기위해서 여러분의 힘이 필요하다고 생각합니다.   먼저 편집장인 JS의 근무처인 xx대와 그녀의 email에 항의합시다. 그리고 순천에 계시는 분들은 Brian Deutsch이 어느 학교나 학원에 근무하는지 확인해서 항의 부탁드립니다. 그리고 그들의 블러그에도 적극적인 항의 부탁드립니다. 한국에 있는 외국인의 시각도 교정하지 못한다면, 어떻게 미국의 부시의 버릇을 잡아주겠습니까?[출처] 광우병 촛불집회를 비하하는 외국인|작성자 개나리꽃

It's also mirrored here.  I'd appreciate it if somebody could translate what this says.  [Update: Rough translation here, thanks "Juicy."] Running it through Babelfish it looks like this guy has taken issue with my tone in several articles and originally sent a letter to the Gwangju News that was apparently ignored (I myself haven't received any feedback on my latest article).  Apparently the guy is also upset that I'm criticizing the country that employs me.  And, it looks like they want to find out my school and send letters of protest there, too.  I'm curious, though, if these people actually took the time to read what I've written, or if they just jumped to conclusions based on the topic.  Regardless, I'm sure we'll be getting tons of emails now, and any inflammatory or threatening ones that come my way will be shared with you here.

* Update 1 (Saturday, June 14, 11:03): Somehow the original poster "개나리꽃이 필때" found out where I work and put that information online.

* Update 2: I discovered the identity of the original poster, and the one who posted all of our information online but I don't think I should post it just yet, because we'd like to investigate this and potentially press charges. Posting the name and information as retribution would perhaps damage any case we have, especially since we're disadvantaged already as foreigners. Needless to say I think you will be quite shocked to find out who it is.

* Update 3 (June 15, 17:30): Okay, so maybe you won't be "shocked" but it's from a surprising source. I can't say anything right now, though I am really itching to do a full write-up as soon as I can because while it came from what is apparently a no-name blogger, I can assure you it's not a random attack, and I am absolutely furious about this and the response from what I'll call "his corner." Thanks for all of your comments. I'm too busy to respond to everyone right now. I have taken out my colleague's name from the original post, and taken out her school. Also, looks like a commenter alerted the blogger to a post on Dave's about this. Yes, he's right, we are all planning a response now.

* Update 4 (Monday June 16, 18:30): The blogger changed it from the original message to:

여러분의 많은 지지 덕분에,

광주 전남지역 국제교류센터의 외국인들과 지역 영어교육인들을 대상으로 발간되는 ‘Gwangju News’에서

'광우병 위험성이 있는 미국쇠고기 수입에 반대하는 한국인의 의견'을 다음달 호에 올리기로 결정했습니다.

한국에 있는 많은 외국인 친구들에게 우리의 생각과 의견을 알릴 수 있도록,

영어 실력이 출중하신 많은 분들이 아래의 메일로 '광우병 위험성이 있는 미국쇠고기 수입에 반대하는 이유'를 보내 주셨으면 합니다.

여러분의 이런 소중한 노력이 국내 외국인들을 설득시키고, 나아가 미국에서의 국내 입장에 대한 좋은 여론을 조성하는데, 소중한 역할을 할 것이라고 생각됩니다. 그럼 ~~^^

Also wanted to remind people that this little campaign was against two foreigners, not just me, and that he's made life quite difficult for us the past three days. I plan to do a full write-up on this whole ordeal, sooner rather than later I hope, once things get back to normal and get resolved a little bit. Sorry, Roboseyo, I don't have a mystery guest blogger, and the culprit isn't Scott Hall.

* Update 5 (July 2, 2008, 13:47): I've written a lengthy update here.

Required reading, and I never use that term lightly.

Y'all need to make some time and read GI Korea's post "GI Myths: The 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident." He recaps in great detail the events surrounding the deaths of two middle school girls six years ago, and the intense, intense outpouring of anti-Americanism across the entire nation. The article, in our own time of nationwide anti-beef protests and rampant yellow journalism, provides an important reminder of how hateful and how ugly our friends and neighbors can be at the slightest provocation, and is something to keep in mind the next time you hear about Korea's desire to embrace foreigners or its love affair with English. It's exactly why I don't feel at all comfortable around large numbers of angry Koreans, such as we find at the beef protests going on today. Then, after you've read GI Korea's report, go over and read the Metropolitician's take, as well as the vast compilation of material on USinKorea.org's page on the incident and on other anti-American orgies of hate, to appropriate his term.


One of many massive anti-American rallies, this one 50,000-strong.


Here are a couple of excerpts from GI Korea's post, though you really ought to go and read them in context:

Simply telling the truth about what happened on that road side that fateful June morning along Highway 56 would not be enough to cause the general public to join the anti-US groups’ cause to expel USFK from Korea. Instead of the truth to mobilize the masses, the NGOs had to create a perception, and the perception they chose to create was one of a great injustice against the Korean people that everyone could identify with. The NGOs launched a propaganda campaign centered around creating an image of evil, non-apologetic American GI’s mercilessly running over two angelic school girls on their way to a birthday party and getting away with it. This image is so powerful because Koreans love their children just like any culture, but it was also equating the US military with the Japanese Imperial Army that colonized the Korean peninsula prior to the country’s liberation after World War II. Due to this sometime extremely brutal colonial period, many Koreans today still hold a very bitter grudge against the Japanese. The fact that the Eighth United States Army headquarters is based out of Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, which used to be the headquarters of the old Imperial Japanese military only helped to feed this perception. It would be an easy leap of logic for someone in Korea to conclude that the Japanese had disrespected and brutalized Korea than and the US military is doing it now.

. . .

The NGOs decided by spreading simple disinformation through the Internet about what happened would be the most plausible way to implement their strategy. Stories on internet message boards spread about how the American soldiers had intentionally ran over the two girls. The most famous story that made its way around all the Korean internet message boards was how the US soldiers in the convoy that day were laughing at the fact that they had ran over the two girls. The laughing so angered KATUSA (Korean Augmentee to the US Army) soldiers serving with the unit that they started a fight with the laughing soldiers. This story is not supported by any of the witnesses that were at the scene that day and additionally no one can produce the KATUSA soldiers that were allegedly involved in the fight. Despite the lack of evidence to support the claim that KATUSA soldiers fought with laughing GIs that day, it is still a common belief among many Koreans that this story is in fact true.

. . .

One of the common themes in the media was that even though the US military apologized for the accident, the apology was not “sincere”[ix]. After the accident every commanding US general in USFK issued an apology after the accident happened, the US Ambassador apologized, an initial solation payment was made to the family, a candle light vigil by US soldiers was held, and a fundraising drive was initiated that raised $22,000 for the girl’s families and another $30,000 for a memorial in their honor. Despite all this, the Korean media declares the US military’s response insincere. Incredibly even President Bush would later go on and apologize for the accident.

Before long the misinformation being put out was not limited to internet message boards and print newspapers, but was on the average Korean’s television screen as well. The networks repeated much of what was already available on-line and is wasn’t too long before the networks produced sensational misinformation of their own making. The most infamous example of misinformation was when the major news network MBC aired footage of someone claiming to be a former Korean Army tank driver who was able to “prove” in an interview that the American soldiers in the AVLB intentionally ran over the girls and then ground guided the vehicle back over the bodies again to make sure they were dead. This interview entered into the common mythology of what happened that even to this day, much like the KATUSA story, many Koreans believe this story to be true.

. . .

The sensationalism by the Korean media of the armoured vehicle accident was made quite clear when on June 29, 2002 North Korean patrol boats deliberately ambushed a South Korean Naval vessel patrolling the maritime border between the two countries. Six South Korean sailors died in the attack and the South Korean government, NGOs, and media did everything possible to minimize the deliberate murder of six South Korean sailors while continuing to sensationalize the accidental death of the two school girls[xiv]. The hypocrisy is quite stunning but when it comes to the Korean media they could care less about hypocrisy and more about ratings and sensationalism of the Highway 56 traffic accident was bringing in those ratings. There would be plenty more sensationalism to come.

The slander and accusations against USFK continued to fly both on the web and through the television networks. The tragic accident had taken on a life of its own as the major media outlets competed with the new start up internet media sites in their rush to condemn these soldiers for murder. The propaganda against USFK would become so effective that US soldiers were being assaulted and spat upon on the streets of Seoul with waiting Korean news cameramen recording it all for the nation to see[xv]. Signs went up all around Seoul refusing service to Americans in restaurants, hotels, and businesses. Massive rallies were held where demonstrators burned and tore American flags.

. . .

Probably the most blatant example of anti-US hate was when three US soldiers on a Seoul subway were assaulted by Korean protesters travelling to a rally on university campus. The protesters beat the soldiers and then abducted them from the subway car and began dragging them towards the anti-US demonstration. Korean policemen were able to free two of the soldiers but the third soldier was dragged into the demonstration held at the university’s sports stadium. He was threatened and forced to make coerce statements against the US by the demonstrators and make forced apologies. Despite everything that happened to them, the soldiers were charged with assault by the Korean police.

. . .

Out of the 30 nations that compose the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Korea ranked as the most dangerous place to drive. The data gathered from 2003 just one year after the armoured vehicle accident showed that Korea had 137 car accidents per 10,000 vehicles on the road. Additionally for every 100,000 people involved in a traffic accident, 15 people died. Each statistic topped the OECD’s rankings. Probably the most dubious statistic is that Korea ranked first in the OECD in traffic related child deaths. 82 children died every day in Korea with 70 percent of those accident involving children walking alongside a road.

As the statistics show, a tragic accident like what happened in June 2002 is not uncommon in Korea and the reasons for these accidents happening has nothing to do with the US military and the Korean police who helped investigate the tragedy realized this. That is why the police concluded with the USFK investigators that this was a tragic accident like many other tragic accidents involving children in Korea; the only difference was that this one involved the US military.

. . .

Korean NGOs demanded that USFK hand over the two soldiers to be tried in Korean courts despite their SOFA status. This demand was especially hypocritical considering that due to Article 2 of the Korean Military Court Act, the Korean military has jurisdiction over all crimes committed by their servicemembers whether they were off duty or not[xxi]. The fact that ROK military personnel never stand trial in Korean courts is an inconvenient fact that many Koreans would rather not acknowledge. A USFK servicemember on the other hand is subject to Korean civilian court for any crime committed while off duty. With the differences in jurisdiction between the Korean and American militaries, it makes you wonder that if the Korean civilian judicial system is not good enough for the Korean military than why should it be good enough to try American soldiers in? This is an inconvenient fact that is left unaddressed by the anti-US groups and their media allies. The hypocrisy is stunning, but like I said before hypocrisy is of little significance in Korea.

The SOFA was activated and the Korean soldier was handled by a ROK military court martial. In 2006 a Korean soldier driving a military truck was involved in a traffic accident where he caused the death of a 53 year old Kurdish politician. Once again the South Korean military activated their SOFA. This is what Colonel Ha Du-cheol told reporters after the accident, “The traffic accident occurred in the line of duty, so we are seeking ways to compensate the victim’s family.” Sound familiar? It should because it is the same thing the US military did after the 2002 armoured vehicle accident, which these groups were demanding SOFA revisions for. However, when a nearly identical situation happens with a Korean soldier it receives a small passage in the newspaper and no righteous indignation from anyone complaining about an unequal SOFA between Korea and Kurdistan.

The Korean military has never allowed one of their soldiers to be tried in a foreign host nation’s civilian courts, which shouldn’t be surprising considering that Korean soldiers do not even stand trial in civilian courts in their own country. Despite all of these inconvenient facts the anti-US groups and their media allies have the nerve to condemn USFK for an unfair status of forces agreement.

When I brought up this incident and its aftermath in one of my teachers' workshops---as I was making the connection between Mad Bull Shit and total indifference toward terrible traffic safety---I got the familiar lines "the US never really apologized," "people were mourning the girls," and "the US was arrogant." They were completely ignorant, though, of the basic facts surrounding the actual accident and of the particulars of the aftermath of hate. "Some Koreans" participated, they said. Well, after kidnappings, stabbings, numerous assaults and innumerable cases of harassment, intimidation, and discrimination, is it too much for us to demand an apology? I'll tell you what, and yes I'm being completely serious, that's something we as a community ought to be fighting for.

While most of you who read this site are bloggers yourselves and will most likely have read GI Korea's page well before you got to mine, I'd encourage the rest of you---especially my new visitors in Jeollanam-do---to pass these reports along to friends, family, and coworkers, in order to put both these latest protests and ourselves as foreigners into some context here.


The popular song "Fucking USA," which attacks the US for allegedly killing civilians in the Korean War and for winning a speedskating match against a Korean.

And, this is an addendum that comes a few minutes after I published my original entry. Turns out, as we pretty much expected, some are planning to incorporate this anniversary into the latest anti-beef protests. Korea Beat has the scoop, and here's an excerpt:

It appears that on June 13th, the sixth anniversary of the deaths of Shin Hyo-sun and Shim Mi-seon, killed after being struck by a US military armored personnel carrier, will become the main focus of the candlelight vigils which have been going on for over one month.

On the 12th the “Citizens’ Committee on Mad Cow Disease” (광우병 국민대책회의) announced that the 37th candlelight vigil to be held in front of Seoul City Hall on the 13th against the importation of US beef would incorporate a memorial ceremony for Hyo-sun and Mi-seon.

The sixth anniversary of Hyo-sun and Mi-seon’s deaths will easily excite anti-American sentiment among the citizenry, and the Committee will, on the 13th and 14th, intensify its calls for banning the import of US beef.

The Chosun Ilbo, according to Korea Beat, also says the relatives of these school girls do not want their children's and grandchildren's names being attached to these protests, and we recall GI Korea mentioning that they did not want their daughters used as symbols in a larger anti-American crusade back in 2002, 2003.

If you'll recall we saw reminders of this tank incident trotted out on May 17th and May 18th in Gwangju, being tied in both with the anti-beef protests and in the larger theme of repelling the foreign invaders, represented by the military and by the KORUS Free Trade Agreement.