In a presentation entitled “What is unification to us?” delivered at Sungduk Girls’ Commercial High School in Gangdong-gu yesterday, Lee Dong-bok, the head of the North Korea Democratization Forum, made a series of statements defending the dictatorship and promoting an anti-North Korean ideology. Lee said, “The Republic of Korea was able to realize this much economic growth in a short period of time because it had the capabilities of a leader like former President Park Chung-hee within a stark reality of national security.” Lee also said, “While it is true that there was suppression of democratization forces, it is inefficient to insist on democratization excessively.” He added, “If the 38th parallel had not been drawn, you might have become just like our fellow Koreans languishing in North Korea.”
The lectures were designed by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to teach “healthy values and a correct sense of history and country,” in response to a government survey conducted this year that half of middle and high school students do not know the date and cause of the Korean War (1950-1953). All high schools must hold two lectures between November and February.
The teachers’ union criticized the talks, saying, “Lecturers include those who led the creation of an ‘alternative textbook’ that stated Japan’s colonization led to Korea’s modernization, including Lee Dong-bok and Seoul National University Professor Park Hyo-chong.”
I'm gonna be a bad boy.
``Spinning is my magic stick inside your shaking body/ The body shake that feels the limit it cannot go beyond"
If you drilling these chicks they like Major Payne
When I make it rain, they be like "yo... do it again"
From the club to the coupe, inside my gates
Up in my bedroom screaming that you're the snake
They was perty perty, and I was flirty flirty
Lil' dro, lil' bub now they getting' dirty dirty
Don't ax me what my name is, stupid bitch I'm famous
You gon' make me aim this
Leave your ass brainless
I'm tryin' to stay R&B
But these streets is a part of me
So don't get it twisted
You see I order one bottle, then I fuck with one model
Then I order more bottles, now I got more models
I'm from that city where them niggaz don't play mayn
I take a chick to my room like caveman
So ask your girlfriend my name, I bet she go
"Skeet skeet skeet, Weatherman 'bout to make it rain!"
However, Rain and his agency, Jtune Entertainment, explained such wording is quite common in Western pop songs and Korean fans are mature enough not to be affected by them.
KFC's Zinger and Tower burgers, both of which contain a thick piece of chicken breast, are no longer available in most of its 140 outlets nationwide. The two sandwiches reportedly account for 15 percent of KFC's overall sales.
KFC said the discontinuation was mainly due to a supply shortage of large chickens after the bird-killing virus, avian influenza, broke out earlier this year. It said the fillet used for the popular burgers come from these larger chickens.
However, the supply of chicken breasts shrunk by 40 percent after the bird flu led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of chickens in farms across the country, according to industry experts.
Local police assume careless driving to be the cause of the tragedy.
A domestic think tank finds that 85 percent of Koreans think the labeling of the Dokdo islets is the most urgent historical dispute.
The Northeast Asian History Foundation recently conducted a survey on adults in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, 500 from each city, to find out their take on history.
Ninety-five percent of Koreans said that the waters between Korea and Japan should be labeled as the East Sea.
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Thursday it had rounded up three people, including one unidentified American actor who performed on the MBC entertainment program ``Surprise'' and one Korean-American identified as Choi for smuggling in illegal drugs they bought on a Web site.
Among other detainees are seven drug users including a Canadian actor and a native English-speaking teacher at an elementary school, police said.
Christmas is one of the major holidays celebrated in South Korea, home to one of Asia's largest Christian populations.
"I believe that the students will successfully act as Santa Clauses of Everland after the mental and physical training at the Santa School," said Choi Mi-yeon, a Santa lecturer.
Instead of riding a sleigh, the male and female Santa students ride the roller coaster, are taught special dance moves and the best way to sing carols.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a popular actress who tried to overturn the country's law that criminalizes adultery be thrown in jail for a year and a half for having an affair, local media reported.The Marmot's Hole has a whole bunch of links related to this mess. The story I just quoted is the most-viewed story on Reuters, making this a good week for bad news from Korea. Certainly damaging to Korea's image overseas, one would think, but I'm more concerned about putting more kimchi in more American restaurants and more Korean dramas in more living rooms, thank you very much.
South Korean enacted its adultery law more than 50 years ago to protect women who had few rights in the male-dominated society but critics say now it is a draconian measure no longer fit for a country with an advanced civil and family court system.
Actress Ok So-ri's case has created a sensation in South Korea after she admitted to an affair with a singer and called on the country's Constitutional Court to overturn the statute that can send a person to jail for up to two years for adultery.
"The accuser (her husband) wanted a severe sentence," prosecutors said in court as to why they are seeking 18 months in jail for Ok, Yonhap news agency reported. Prosecutors were not available for comment.
경찰조사결과 A 씨는 지난 22일 순천에 있는 자신의 아파트에서 B 씨와의 내연 문제로 아내와 다투고 집을 나간 뒤 연락이 끊겼다.
[Developers] will replace natural wetlands with artificial ones and turn riverbeds into lakes. They will build a park along the road on the sea dyke and try to attract tourists with a theme park, convention center and even perhaps a casino.
adapted his pragmatism to the ``wise use of wetlands,'' the No.1 priority of the Ramsar Convention. ``What must be protected must be protected, but it would be even better if wetlands are utilized as eco-tourism sites because that could result in not only their protection but also the revitalization of the local economy,'' he said.
Singh and Patel came to the United States six months ago after being the top finishers in an Indian reality TV show called the "Million Dollar Arm" that drew about 30,000 contestants. The show sought to find athletes who could throw strikes at 85 miles per hour or faster.
While neither pitcher threw hard enough to earn the $1 million prize, Singh made $100,000 from the contest and Patel made $2,500, plus his trip to the United States.
"The Pirates are committed to creatively adding talent to our organization," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said Monday. "By adding these two young men, the Pirates are pleased to not only add two prospects to our system but also hope to open a pathway to an untapped market. We are intrigued by Patel's arm strength and Singh's frame and potential."
Kim Yong-deok, the president of the Northeast Asian History Foundation, which sponsored the contest, said this event was designed for foreign nationals ``as a way to help boost awareness in foreign countries about this issue and the fact that Dokdo belongs to Korea."
"We plan to make sure that the incoming Barack Obama administration clearly acknowledges Dokdo as South Korea's land, thereby not making mistakes such as wrongly defining or naming the islets," Won Yoo-chul, who will be leading the delegation, said.
Won was referring to an averted move by the U.S. Library of Congress in July to change the name of the Dokdo islets to Liancourt Rocks, considered a more neutral name by the agency. The library postponed the decision, however, citing lack of information and the sensitivity of the issue.
A court handed down suspended jail terms to four family members who repeatedly raped a teenage relative who suffered from an intellectual disability.
The Cheongju District Court Thursday sentenced an 87-year-old grandfather and two uncles of a 16-year-old girl to four-year suspended prison terms for sexually assaulting and raping the girl for the last seven years. Another uncle received a three-year suspended jail term.
The court acknowledged that their crime was ``sinful'' as they used the young girl, who is their family member, to satisfy their sexual desires. But it gave the suspended terms, saying, ``The accused have fostered the girl in her parents' place. Considering her disability, she will also need their care and help in living in the future.''
The court added it took the accused people's old age and illness into consideration.
Citizens strongly denounced the ruling, saying the punishments were too lenient for the grave crime. Internet users said it is absurd to release them to ``take care of her,'' as she needs help from others, not from rapists. They also said those committing such a crime do not deserve consideration regarding old age or illnesses.
Some bloggers are collecting signatures to oust the judge who made the ruling. The prosecution also decided to appeal. ``One of them even has a previous conviction for rape but was given a suspended term. The ruling is unacceptable,'' a prosecutor said.
Eleutian Technology hires people in towns across northern Wyoming to teach English to Koreans of all ages using Skype, the free online calling and person-to-person video service. Two years old, Eleutian already is one of Wyoming's fastest-growing businesses.
The company has close to 300 teachers hooked up to more than 15,000 students in Korea, and CEO Kent Holiday said he's just getting started.
Eleutian's teachers include Kathleen Hampton, whose home is remote even by Wyoming standards.
Hampton moved to Wyoming from New Jersey when she met her rancher husband during a trip out West 13 years ago. She teaches English online several nights a week after her 30-mile commute home from teaching kindergarten in Ten Sleep.
She teaches most Korean students one-on-one. Many are in college. A few are middle-aged business executives. Hampton also teaches groups that are in private schools called "hakwons," which students attend after the regular school day.
"They're always fun because they're always yelling out in the background," Hampton said. "You get 14-year-old boys yelling out `I love you!' because they learn these English expressions and try to use them."
Eleutian pays its teachers $15 an hour to start. They're required to have state certification but don't have to be currently employed in schools.
"When you put on those first headphones and you're talking to somebody, it's nerve-racking to start with," Hampton said. "But it doesn't take long. If you're a teacher and used to explaining things, it makes no difference."
Growling at her students is one of her techniques. The idea is to get them to make an English-sounding "r."
"I'll be growling at them and there's some of these 20-year-old boys who will laugh, and they'll growl right back at you. And their roommates are in the background laughing at you and they get right into it," Hampton said. "And then you will have these quiet, little, studious people that will look at you and just won't do it."
Tuition for Eleutian's courses varies with factors like the size of the class and the business that's contracting Eleutian's services. But like any outsourcing company, Eleutian competes aggressively on price. For instance, one weekly one-on-one Internet course from Eleutian costs $150 for a whole semester, while English tutors in Korea charge from $40 to $60 an hour, Holiday said.
Currently, EPIK recruits only native-English speakers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.They're opening it up to residents outside the Big 7, then, to include people from Singapore, Hong Kong, India, and many others.
But it plans to allow those who can speak English fluently from countries adopting English as official language from next year at the earliest.
It will deploy 608 English-teaching positions at elementary and secondary public schools and training centers in six metropolitan cities and seven provinces across the country for the next spring semester.
The program teachers will receive 1.5-2.5 million won per month according to their degrees and teaching certificates and can receive entry and settlement allowance and free single furnished housing. Successful candidates will conduct English conversation classes with Korean co-teachers.
According data submitted by the Seoul Office of Education to Seoul councilman Nam Jae-gyeong (Grand National Party), only 166 of the 810 foreign English teachers (20.5%) in city schools were certified teachers.
Only 303, or 37.4%, had TESOL certifications, while 44 (5.4%) had both teaching and TESOL certifications.
Only 136 (16.8%) had majors related to English education, and only 102 (12.6%) were education majors.
Meanwhile, 385 teachers — 48% — had neither teacher certifications or TESOL certifications.
I go every year, for obvious reasons, but it usually blows. It is full of old people and children. There are constant fights as they all try to get free samples of yet another Korean taste treat.
It is supposed to be an opportunity for vendors to find new outlets for their products but it is really a tourism event. I have only made one contact and even that guy gave up on trying to sell his products in Korea when he realized that there were really no potential buyers other than two or three whities.
I guess the city of Gwangju has to justify the construction of the Kim Daejung Convention Center somehow.
Few may know that the Korean Peninsula was a haven for dinosaurs 80 million years ago. To show what it looked like back then, the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) will bring the gigantic creatures that roamed Korea to life in a three part documentary called ``Koreanosaurus.''
``Koreanosaurus'' was filmed in New Zealand because of the location's atmosphere, which still holds that Cretaceos period touch.
"It's not impossible and we are hoping for the best. If they do decide to register the area, it will bring a whole new dimension to the study of Korean dinosaurs."
``We have seen dinosaurs in Western movies such as Jurassic Park and picture books. But here, we also had flying reptiles, and all kinds of dinosaurs walking, drinking, laying eggs and living just like any other creature,'' he said.
As these [various] features clearly distinguish the Uhangri tracks from Pteraichnus and Purbeckopus, we assign them to a new genus, Haenamichnus which accommodates the new ichnospecies, Haenamichnus uhangriensis. The prints are five to six times larger than those of Pteraichnus, and are currently the largest pterosaur ichnites known.As you can see, Korea has 100 million years of history.
Airplane delays departure to let “Korean passengers go first”
28 October, an airplane for Korea’s Asiana Airlines was delayed due to a mechanical problem while in Taiwan. After Taiwanese passengers suffered many hours of waiting, the plane finished repairs and was preparing to depart. But Asiana Airlines then notified Taiwanese passengers to let the Korean passengers go first, enraging the Taiwanese tour group who pointed out that this was discrimination against Chinese people.
Ex-Communist guerrilla Nim Churl Jin, homesick, ill & disillusioned with Communism, after two years in the hills with guerrilla forces, walking down road to his family's home.
Hannam-dong offers great views and creature comforts for uppity foreigners living in Seoul. The picture shows housing areas with a view of the Han River.
The ministry says the texts should be revised because some phrases used deny the country’s legitimacy and hurt the national pride. Such sections include portions that say Korea won its independence because of the allied victory over Japan - which also contributed to the division of the Korean Peninsula - the ministry said in the guidelines.
However, the scholars said history is not about pride.
“History is not supposed to teach pride - unless we are talking the nationalistic versions of history like the ones that dominated South Korea under the late President Park Chung Hee and still dominate North Korea,” Tikhonov said.
You may have heard that some of our franchises were fined earlier this fall for assorted violations. As fine is a synonym of good and pleasant, we are pleased with this distinction. Nearly two dozen Avalon School locations, on the other hand, were baded. Thank you for reading my paper.
The government said Thursday it plans to employ about 4,000 new ``English lecturers’’ for primary schools as early as 2010.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced the plan after a public hearing on the introduction of the new lecturers at the National Institute for International Education.
The ministry has been working on introducing teachers specialized in teaching English conversation, and expanding hours for English classes. It has yet to decide the exact number of English lecturers to be hired for secondary schools.
The ministry will call them ``lecturers’’ to distinguish them from existing teachers who have civil servant and permanent job status. The recruited lecturers will be working on a contract basis and not be given civil servant status.
During the public hearing, Cho Seok-hoon, a professor at Cheongju University, one of the research members for the project, said that working conditions for the teachers should not be the same as those of government employed teachers due to opposition from current teachers.
Regarding criteria for applicants for the positions, Cho said the ministry could limit the pool of candidates to those who hold teaching licenses, but would leave that consideration up to education offices in local governments.
Kim Young-ik, a high school teacher, asserted it was dangerous to open the positions to anyone simply because they can speak English.
Meanwhile, more than half of English teachers are opposing the introduction of ``Teaching English in English (TEE)’’ teachers, planned by the government for next year. The government plans to recruit 23,000 TEE teachers, who will conduct classes only in English, over the next five years.
Korea’s largest teachers group, the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association said Sunday that 56.7 percent of English teachers negatively responded to the TEE teacher plans in a recent survey, while 24.9 percent said they need TEE teachers.
Among those respondents against ``English-only'' teachers, 46 percent said it would bring unqualified teachers to schools and 21 percent said current teacher levels are already enough for English education. The teachers' group questioned 425 English teachers at elementary and secondary schools nationwide between April and May.
Kim Hye-ri, a professor of Seoul National University of Education, pointed out the new system has been introduced due to the lack of English skills of current teachers, so universities need to change their curricula so that teachers can conduct English classes in English and the government should strengthen teacher training programs.
They are expected to be hired based on four-year contracts.
Funny anecdote, a colleague came back from spending a month at the teachers' training camp in Damyang. You know, the one where twentysomething white people show Korean teachers with twenty years' experience how to teach English? Yeah, anyway, she really enjoyed it and learned a lot, but told me that she won't use any of the activities at our school because her students don't like speaking English. Nice, a month of free training that amounts to little more than upward mobility and promotion points.
The ministry plans to announce the final plans on the new positions by the end of the year, based on suggestions from public hearings.
This is Hooters of Korea.
We are franchise restaurant from Hooters of America.
We have opened first restaurant in Apgujeong Seoul city Korea 2007.1. and
Second store which is Gangnam was opened in 2007.8.
We are now hiring PT / FT Hooters Girl (Foreigners) position.
If you are curious and or interested Please submit what is need below and we can start from there Thank You
NEEDED IS:
★Pictures
★Visa Type
★Birth year
★Weight
★Height
★Nationality
★Languages Spoken
★Any special skills
★Availability
★Expected period of stay in Korea
★Contact e-mail
★Contact Cell Phone
If you have any qestion about this, please feel free to ask.
Thank you.
Hooters of Korea
Jungsoo Lee
The area's unemployment rate was about 5 percent in September, actually a bit better than the 6.1 percent national average that month. But often the jobs are not high-paying. Many workers lack health insurance, and corporate wellness programs — common at large national companies — are rare.
Poverty hovers, with the area rate at 19 percent, much higher than the national average. In the hilly coal fields to the South, people still live in houses or trailers with drooping, battered roofs. They stare hard at any stranger in a new car. In Huntington and its outskirts, many people think of exercise and healthy eating as luxuries.
The economy needs to pick up "so people can afford to get healthy," said Ronnie Adkins, 67, a retired policeman, as he sat one recent morning on the smoking porch of the Jolly Pirate Donuts shop on U.S. 60.
Doughnut shops don't help either, of course. But breakfast pastry shops aren't the most common outlets for fatty food. Pizza joints are. They are seemingly on every block in some parts of the city. The online Yellow Pages lists more pizza places (nearly 200) for the Huntington area than the entire state of West Virginia has gyms and health clubs (149).
Hot dog places also abound, with the city hosting an annual hot dog festival every summer. "I've never seen so many places that are hot dog oriented. I guess it's a cultural thing. Appalachian," said Mayor Felinton, who grew up in Maryland and moved to Huntington to attend Marshall University and stayed put.
Fast food has become a staple, with many residents convinced they can't afford to buy healthier foods, said Keri Kennedy, manager of the state health department's Office of Healthy Lifestyles.
Kennedy said she had just seen a commercial that presented "The KFC $10 Challenge." The fried-chicken chain placed a family in a grocery store and challenged them to put together a dinner for $10 or less that was comparable to KFC's seven-piece, $9.99 value meal.
"This is what we're up against," said Kennedy, noting it's an extremely persuasive ad for a low-income family that is accustomed to fried foods. "I don't know what you do to counter that."
Approximately six out of every 10 athletes at secondary schools were found to have suffered sexual harassment from their coaches and seniors, according to a survey by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) released Monday.
The human rights agency surveyed a total of 1,139 male and female athletes at middle and high schools nationwide over six months in cooperation with a research center at Ewha Womans University.
The report found that 63.8 percent of respondents had been sexually harassed, either physically or verbally. By type, verbal sexual harassment formed the largest portion at 44 percent, while 20 percent answered they were physically harassed. Of them, 1.5 percent said they were asked to have sex by their coaches or colleagues. Of 17 sex demand cases, 11 led to sexual assault, and six were male victims.
Some of her liberal fans linked Moon's exemplary deeds to her grandfather, a teacher-turned-political prisoner. Ryu Nak-jin, who died of old age in 2005, was a pro-North Korea guerrilla fighter operating around Gwangju, a traditional progressive stronghold, before he was jailed at the end of the Korean War. He was released but imprisoned again on charges of spying for North Korea in 1971 when then authoritarian government of Park Chung-hee apprehended more than 150 such suspected spies. He was released on a special amnesty in 1999.
Moon rarely speaks of her grandfather, but once asked by reporters of her donations, she said: "My parents are troubled that I am making a lot of money at a young age. And they say we shouldn't use it haplessly. I am following my father's and mother's will."
Some critics suspect a masked ideological campaign behind the donations. Ji Man-won, an ultra conservative military critic, wrote in his blog (www.systemclub.co.kr) that Moon serves as partisan propaganda material for leftists.
"Not only do they beautify the deeds with videos and messages on the Internet, but they are also playing at a kind of conspiracy. There is a hidden message to sublimate a non-converted Communist prisoner into a unification activist," Jin wrote.
Jin's blog fanned vicious comments on the Web, such as, "It is only an image-making stunt to raise her pay," or, "She pretends to donate anonymously as the only good girl."
The Community Chest said Moon's mother had personally called and asked her daughter's name be withheld, anticipating that good deeds can draw verbal attacks when publicized. As phones kept ringing and other stars were wrongfully targeted online, however, the organization decided to identify Moon, said Yu Soo-kyung, its spokesperson.
"She did it out of good will, but some people don't see it as it is but twist it," Yu said. "We are embarrassed."
Voice recording and translation- Turkey person
Conditions
- Native Turkey person
Projects
1. Translation
- translate English(Korean) into Terkey language.
2. Voice recording
- Native Turkey female
Location
- Yeoido
Kim Hyuck
017 237 8107
010 6211 1269
dgkkim@empal.com
ps) Hurry up please.
[W]hat is most troubling is the stubborn and arrogant commitment to dictating what foreign workers must do and demanding their governments comply, without so much as checking to see whether these governments are willing or able to comply in the first place.
As a result of the lack of planning, the subsequent ever-changing requirements and the constant round of moral panics makes fewer and fewer foreign teachers trust in the reliability of immigration to commit to a single policy. And given the economic situation and the sometimes unfriendly environment toward things foreign, many are choosing to simply go elsewhere.
Elves held a rally outside the Hamilton Hotel Saturday protesting the defamation of Santa Claus. The demonstration was filmed by a local news crew.
Actually, the whole event was a promotion for MW Productions, Seoul's newest ex-pat English-language theater company, producer of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, by Jeff Goode.
The promotional event was tinged with good humor as actors dressed as elves swigging bottles of fake alcohol, lamented the good old days before political correctness labeled Santa Clause a menace to society.
Passers by were highly amused by the gaggle of ``little people" crowding the sidewalk on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
The play itself is a dark comedy with some very course language and politically incorrect characters.
For the record, the elves believe that Santa Clause is innocent and wanted to draw media attention to the situation at the North Pole.
Why not label them as "tourist taxis" and encourage them to hang out in Itaewon, and around hotels and airports? Let them gouge tourists; that is a time-honoured practise and one that only the truly inexperienced traveller would be surprised or outraged at. Leave the rest of us alone to fend for ourselves. And for those that live here: if you cannot communicate with a taxi driver, you deserve whatever grief you get.
Some foreigners even seriously criticized the ``foreigner-only taxis,'' claiming they could cause an atmosphere of segregation between Koreans and foreigners.
``Most expatriates object to the policy because it increases an atmosphere of separation, when we simply want to be treated as equals here, and have the same access to public services as everyone else,'' an Internet user with the ID Jsburgeson said on The Korea Times Web site.
One textbook, published by the Institute for Better Education, says that President Rhee, revered as a nation-builder by the conservatives but detested by liberals as a ruthless anti-Communist, exploited the North Korean threat to “shore up his dictatorial regime.”
The Ministry of National Defense has demanded the Rhee passage be rewritten to say, “He did his best to contain Communism.”
According to the Kumsung textbook, Park Chung-hee — who seized power in a coup in 1961 and tortured political dissidents, while mobilizing the nation for export-driven economic growth — was “a president who placed himself above the nation’s Constitution.”
The Defense Ministry wants this to be replaced with “a president who contributed to the nation’s modernization.”
As for the “sunshine policy” of engagement with North Korea espoused by President Kim Dae-jung, whose inauguration in 1998 ousted the conservative establishment and brought many former dissidents into positions of power, the Ministry of Unification now suggests that this term be replaced in textbooks with the official, drier “policy of reconciliation and cooperation.”
Despite the actress’s requests to keep her name secret, the charity group, after being harassed by the press, finally confirmed the 21-year-old donor was Moon.My dad has asked me to tone down the language on the blog, saying it scares away potential "serious" readers. But if you can think of a response to Ji Man-won other than "why don't you go fuck yourself you slimy, opportunistic hack?" then please volunteer it.
Following the revelation, however, she was subject to cyber attacks by people called her donations politically motivated. Her private blog and articles praising her behavior were bombarded with numerous nasty comments belittling the donations as a way to enhance her reputation for her career.
Also a conservative columnist claimed Moon’s donations promoted communism in Korea, citing her late grandfather’s pro-North activities. Her late grandfather Ryu Nak-jin was a pro-communism guerrilla in the South during and after the Korean War (1950-1953) and refused to convert right up to his death in 2005.
In an article, Ji Man-won, said, ``This is part of communist-led psychological warfare aimed to beautify a descendant of the communist. Articles speaking highly of her donations help make people respect communists as activists striving to reunite the two Koreas.’’
God bless her bright, squirrelly eyes, even as they stare at me from the side of every fifth bus in Seoul.
Western people show exclamation even over trifles. This phenomenon isn't found an oriental culture that appreciates people who control their feeling and taciturn. We can usually see Americans who are moved so easily by things that Koreans aren't effected by. This means they are accustomed to expressing feeling freely and frankly. In Western culture, they start a conversation about the weather when they meet someone for the first time: "It's a lovely day, isn't it?" This is reference to the inclement weather in England. The people who live in an area with nice weather like Korea aren't touched by this kind of thing but Englishmen can be impressed.
feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong -- all these combined
Korea has more special things than other countries. Korea has many things to be proud of. There is history, traditions, and other things. My three favorite things about being Korean is geography, modern Korea, and our traditions. Often, I am proud of Modern Korea and I like to share my pride with foreigners,too.
First, let's look at fit Korean geography. Korea has 4 distinct seasons. Some countries envy Korea because of its 4 distinct seasons. Some countries always have winter and some countries always have summer. Korea has many mountains. They are not high, so Koreans can climb them easily. Korean mountains are very beautiful! Korea is a peninsula, so Korea has many marine products. Korea has Jeju and Dokdo. They are only islands, but they are very nice places. Jeju is always warm, so it has a lot of maridarins. Dokdo has very many rare animals. So, it is very beautiful. One of my favorite things about being Korean is geography because it has good climate and many interesting landforms.
On Monday morning, Korean Air upgraded the seat of its first Korean passenger heading to the U.S. on a visa-free visit and provided him with free accommodation and dinner at a hotel.
Asiana Airlines also upgraded the seat of the first passenger flying visa-free to Los Angeles.
In the afternoon, United Airlines held a tape-cutting ceremony at the airport gate with U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens.
Asiana Airlines will increase the frequency of Incheon-Seattle flights to four per week from the current three starting Dec. 11. From Dec. 16, the number of weekly flights between Incheon and Los Angeles will also rise to 14 from 11.
``We expect the demand for flights to the U.S. to increase by about 12 percent and annual gains by some 25 billion won,'' an Asiana official said.
One in every three female secondary school students in Busan were found to have received sex trade proposals while chatting online, according to a survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality Monday.
The ministry questioned 2,012 female students in the southeastern port city and found 33.4 percent, or 672, answered they received prostitution offers.
Among the female students who received the offers, only 35 percent said they ignored them. Nearly 20 percent said they were actually engaged in the sex trade, while the rest said they were ``intrigued'' by the offers.
``It's a survey of students in Busan and it could be difficult to generalize. But it's obviously a case in point showing how serious online sex trading is,'' a ministry official said.
A high school senior died in an apparent suicide Saturday, two days after taking the college entrance exam. Police in Yeonggwang, South Jeolla Province, said that the student, 18-year-old Park, was found dead in the parking lot of an apartment complex around 1:50 p.m.
Park's schoolbag was found on the top of the 40-meter-high apartment building and police suspect he jumped off it. No suicide note was found. His family and friends said that Park, who used to do well at school, was disappointed by the test result.
On Sunday, a 14-year-old boy committed suicide in his room in Daegu around 6 p.m. His mother reported it to police.
The mother testified that she and the son had a quarrel over allowances for a school trip. The boy went to his room and later was found hanging.
Separately, a 15-year-old girl was found unconscious after a drinking binge near the guardhouse of an apartment in north of Seoul at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. The girl was transferred to a hospital but died.
Fourth, a mature and thoughtful political leadership must serve to rectify the perception of false history in the region, which has long plagued the peoples of the three states and retarded closer and stronger cooperation at the cultural and diplomatic level.
In this light, China must voluntarily backtrack on its controversial research program, the ``Northeastern Project,'' in which Chinese historians claimed that the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo belonged to China. And Japan must stop claiming that South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo are Japanese territory.
If the sacked Japanese air force chief had had the correct perception of the history of Japanese colonialism and its wartime atrocities, as well as the inhuman suffering of the Korean and Chinese people, he would not have come up with such an unfounded essay.
Last but not least, the perception of hegemony should be discarded. The increasing level of economic and financial integration will not let it work in any form. China and Japan need no longer think of hegemony, because both are in a closely connected network on multiple levels.
Korea is emerging to mitigate and obstruct the thinking of hegemony among the three at a time of necessity. Given this regional situation, the raging nationalism among the three peoples must be tamed and become thoughtful.
A continued strong perception of hegemony and nationalism yields evil rather than good. I assert that mature and thoughtful political leadership by the leaders of the three nations will certainly serve to promote the common good. This is the right way to Northeast Asian integration.
NIIED will hold an Essay Contest for Guest English Teachers in Korea. The purpose of the contest is to find a way to improve EPIK, encourage current GETs and the officials in charge, and enhance the quality of English education. GETs with excellent works will be given awards and prize money.
□ Contest Subjects
- GETs' experience in adjusting to Korean customs, overcoming cultural barriers and conflicts with Korean teachers and students.
- Ways to improve English education
(After-school English program, extra-curricular activities, English training for
Korean teachers, etc.)
The uproar began after American television audiences watched a Korean crowd explode Thursday night after a referee's decision to penalize a Korean boxer. Enraged Korean boxing officials punched the referee, some threw chairs into the ring, and a disconsolate boxer staged an hour long sit-in to protest the decision.
Koreans' shame at the incident has turned to rage at NBC and other foreign news organizations' coverage both of the boxing imbroglio and of South Korea itself. Ever sensitive to their international image, South Koreans are particuarly angry about any coverage they deem negative because they see the Olympics more as a potential public relations bonanza than a sports event.
What is less easy to sympathize with [than economic considerations] is the acceptance of an appreciable number of students of the pressure and their using it to avoid 'unnecessary' work. The willingness of the faculty to assist graduation by generous marking has the deplorable effect in class of making many students complaisant towards their work. Why work, after all, if examination passing is more or less automatic? Students have frequently come to me with their names and vital statistics written on a piece of paper and asked me to give them an 'A' or a 'B' grade because they had been unable (or unwilling?) to attend any classes during the semester.
Most frustrating of all in this respect is what my friend and I have called 'the conspiracy of mediocrity.' This is a description of an apparent tendency to control the amount and the quality of work done in class in order to facilitate revision for, and the passing of, examinations. The 'conspiracy' manifests itself in complaints that work is too difficult, failure to do assignments, the arranging of class picnics for weekdays instead of weekends and numerous delaying and diversionary tactics in class---the favourite being to ask one to tell the class all about England and English university life. This is made the more annoying by the fact that there are many excellent students in class who went to get on but find that their loyalty to their classmates is stronger.
An offshoot of the economic handicap is the business of the education industry in Korea and its effect on classes, on the students, and hence on the teacher. Koreans tell me with pride of the widescale interest in,and concern for, education here. Everybody either wants to have or wants to give his children as extensive an education as possible. The pressure upon university students does not merely come from the need to present a graduation certificate to their potential employers. It also comes from parents and relatives and the social atmosphere in Korea that insist that a university education is necessary for one who wishes to become an acceptable member of society regardless of whether he is equipped for university or not. I find this objectionable if only because it is bursting with snobbery. I also find that it adversely influences the atmosphere in class.
I used the phrase 'education industry' advisedly and unpejoratively. There is an enormous demand for education and therefore it is supplied on what amounts to a commercial basis---unlike in England where education is largely in the state. Subject ot certain government controls universities must think in terms of fees paid for services rendered of profit and loss. Classes are large and for the reason given in the previous paragraph, they are often filled with students who, perhaps, should never be in a university in the sense in which one usually understands a university. They seem to be willing cogs in a credit-card filling machine. Other students for one reason or another find themselves studying a subject in which they have lost interest but in which they must continue since to change faculties is so difficult. The two kinds of student were neatly blended for me in a student who once told me that he enjoyed English literature very much but hated reading books.
Naturally enough this contributes to the casual approach towards study that is often found in class, to the ever-ready cutting of classes by all students for slight excuses like inter-university football matches (even though few students from the class may actually go to watch the game), to the attitude that if there is a street demonstration in the morning then there can be no classes in the afternoon, to the slipshod work that is done during the five minutes before, and the first five minutes in, the class in the name of assignments and finally to the feeling on the part of the teacher that the students are for these reasons schoolchildren not students.
There is another totally different handicap that students suffer when learning English at university, especially from a foreign teacher. It is the totally inadequate instruction given in middle and high schools in the practical use of English. Students, through little fault of their own other than lack of private initiative, are unable to read English quickly enough for university purposes. When I asked some graduate school students to read a short book as background material for my lectures one of the students said that it would take a fortnight to do so. This I think represents average ability. The problem is aggravated by the difficulty of obtaining books. Students, as a rule, are unable to borrow books from the university library. The choice of books available in city bookshops is limited and those books which a student can afford are even fewer in number. Students are not by English standards well read. One sophomore class of English Literature department students had not, when asked, heard of a poet called Alexander Pope.
Few students have a sufficient mastery of the language to understand a lecture given in English. Most classwork has to be done on the blackboard---what I wrote on the blackboard constituted the whole of what a sizable number of my students learned---and literature and other texts had to be selected according to whether they could be conveniently duplicated or not. All these are very constricting to a foreigner who initially expects to be able to do much more advanced work. It is a little depressing to reflect when one marks examination papers that all that has been understood of one's lectures h as been the notes one wrote on the blackboard, and that therefore one might just as well have written up a term's notes, have had them duplicated and distributed, and then simply not to have bothered to hold the classes.
The answers to the problems that these handicaps cause are hard to find, and it is quite possible that I never found them. Inattentiveness in class I ignored though other professors say that they throw daydreamers out of the classroom. Noisiness, a perpetual problem, and petty cheating during class assignments---students here do not look upon work done communally as dishonest, let alone see that it does them individually little good---one had to stop schoolmaster fashion and to me it was a loathsome business.
Most of the work I had to do was under the vague title 'English Conversation' and I know that the university administrations had little idea of what they wanted me to do. One thinks immediately of small classes and interesting discussions, but in practice one is foiled by the large size of most classes---classes sometimes contained up to sixty or seventy students---and the almost negligible grasp of spoken English by the majority of the students. The better students often implored me to have discussions in conversation classes, but less than a semester of this---my first---showed me that the discussions were held primarily between myself and a handful of good students, and the weaker brethren, even when called upon to speak, seldom said more than that they could not speak English very well.
There is in fact almost no way to bridge the large gap between the able and the poor that exists in the average class. Many people sing the praises of sentence-pattern study, but, though most of my students needed it, most thought it was too elementary after seven or eight years of English. The kind of work I did was basically oral so that there was some advantage in my being a native speaker of English. At the beginning of each semester I did a lot of dictation work. The dictations grew more difficult later and then were turned into story reproductions---I read a story two or three times and they had to reproduce it in their own words. A permanent fixture throughout the semester was pronunciation exercises, based on pairs of similar words chosen to contrast both vowels and consonants that Koreans find especially difficult in the English language. Towards the end of the semester I had students---usually volunteers---tell stories of Korea or explain things that peculiarly Korean and then, using this as a basis, I asked questions of the whole class in the hope, sometimes realized, that discussion would follow. For the rest I did oral exercises based on miscellaneous features of the English language. I used any opportunity to broaden the exercise out into free discussion if any seemed likely to be forthcoming and wrote everything that the students found difficult on the blackboard. This kind of work met, if it did not answer, the problem of large classes since it was possible to refer two or three times to every member of the class in every class. Moreover it gave the students something tangible to revise, and me something to mark out of a hundred, when it came to the examination which pure discussion classes never could.
The bulk of my teaching was, therefore, a compromise between the ideal and what I actually found in Korea. It was only for my students to say whether my compromise was adequate, useful, or successful. Some may have better answers to the problems discussed here, others, Koreans, may say that I have shown Korean education in an unjustly bad light. From the first i can learn, to the second I apologise and to both I can only say that this has been my experience.
The team has applied for four basic technology patents related to the battery in South Korea, the United States and the European Union, and commercial production could begin in four to five years, said Cho.
However, as the organization announced a list of their top donors in tune with its 10th anniversary and ruled out Moon's name with an ``anonymous actress in her 20s,'' there had been ongoing rumors about the mysterious donor. People working in and out of the entertainment business started to point to Moon, as she had already donated in the past.
Community Chest of Korea finally revealed that it was indeed Moon who donated the money, adding that the donations were given in large sums, 50 million to even 100 million won, instead of regular contributions.
Hwang, who is abroad, told the Chosun Ilbo by phone he promised BioArts not to give media interviews.
Currently, two different unique native-Korean religious cults make their home [on Jirisan]; my impression is that only the one in the northeast sector is very well-known to the Korean and foreign-resident publics. That cult is famous for continuing to live in a reconstruction of the Joseon-Dynasty Neo-Confucian style, with traditional clothing and long uncut hair (worn in a long braid by unmarried men and women, and in a topknot covered by a horsehair hat by married men). Until 1992 they did not have electricity and there was no road reaching this area (visitors had to hike a few hours from the end of the dirt road); therefore they had no television or other modern-culture influences, and their children learned only classical teachings in Chinese characters, like the Koreans of centuries gone by. They live in old-style Korean Hanok wooden houses with tile or thatched roofs and mulberry-papered walls, and survive by traditional agriculture and crafts, all quite deliberately. Due to official recognition of their religion-inspired special lifestyle and commitment to remaining un-modern, this was the only village in Korea that was exempted from the military draft, and also from the 1960s~80s Saemaeul-undong [New Village Movement] that transformed Korea's rural communities from poverty to prosperity -- and destroyed their traditional lifestyles in the process.
When at the beginning of the 1990s the Korean government built a paved highway all the way up that long valley to Cheonghak-dong, and brought in electric and telephone lines, this cult faced major challenges to the survival of their chosen lifestyle. Their children started watching television, public buses and telephones made contacts with the outside world much easier, and many Koreans started driving their private cars up to this legendary refuge and acting like tourists. The cult evolved in response, deciding that this was a sign that the savior-hero would soon be born, and that these curious picture-snapping tourists were a Heaven-granted opportunity to earn enough money to build a proper Palace for the Sage-King to rule the world from. They built parking lots, restaurants and a souvenir/crafts shop (featuring their own "Shinseon-ju", herbal-wine of spiritual-immortality). With the sharply increased revenue and interest in their lifestyle and beliefs, they have started construction of a gigantic new Palace-Temple in the cleared area above their Jinju-am. The future of this group will be quite interesting to watch.
As said on the previous page, there are two different native-Korean religious cults that make their home in the legendary remote Azure (refined blue) Crane Village [Cheonghak-dong]. The less-known (but more interesting, in my opinion) one occupies the south-western side of the alpine valley, in an area also called the Spirit-immortal Valley [Shinseon-gol] or Daoist-Masters Village [Do-in-cheon]. They are led by a hereditary Daoist priest and martial-arts teacher by the name of Ham Pil who is called by the title Seon-sa [meditation-master], who claims that his family-based Daoist lineage has occupied that land for 400 years.
He has led the construction of the earthly-paradise they call the Three Sages Palace [Samseong-gung], especially the hundreds of stone pagoda-towers [dol-tap]. The group is devoted to martial arts, meditation, Korean traditions and ceremonial worship of the "Three Sages" (see below) enshrined in the building shown above. Serenely confident in their basic orientation of extreme Korean-cultural-nationalism, they maintain a serious, dignified, religious atmosphere here. Their colorful semi-annual festivals, however, are filled with joy, friendship, drink and dance. Casual "tourists" are not welcome, but they admit all with a sincere desire for knowledge, readiness to participate and respectful attitude -- a refreshing difference from most other "folk culture" sites in Korea. Visiting the Samseong-gung is a privilege that leaves a lasting spiritual impression; it is my choice for "the coolest place in Korea".
The centers provide a range of services, from business advice to information about daily living and cultural exchanges, as well as support for migrant workers.
The centers can also help with administrative services involving confusing paperwork such as foreigner registration and local tax payments. They also provide useful information about facilities, employment and health care.
Seoul's ranking in globalization in comparison to other Asian countries was rather low, according to a survey by the city government.
It assessed that Korea ranked 29th in the globalization index in 2006 when Hong Kong ranked 10th and Japan was 15th, city officials said. In a survey on business environment, Korea was placed 26th whereas Singapore was 3rd and Hong Kong was ranked 9th, officials said.
In another survey on attitudes toward foreigners, Seoul received 2 points on a scale of 10, whereas Hong Kong received 4.33 points and Singapore rated 4.5 points, city officials said. The use of English in public service was given worse scores, with Seoul getting 1.8 points compared to Hong Kong with 4.56 points and Singapore with 5 points, said officials, on a scale of 1-5.
- Seorae Road (500m) in Seorae Village will be made into a French-style street that reflects different aspects of the French culture.
The basic plan will be prepared by 2H/08, and the project will be implemented starting in 2009. - Mannam Road (470m) in Yeonnam-dong will be made into the Chinese Culture Street as a part of the China Town Project.
- Also, detailed designing works for the “Streets We Want to Walk” Project run by Yeoksam-dong and Gangnam-gu will incorporate the essence of the globalization project.
- Itaeweon-dong will be made the Global Cultural Exchange Zone, and the Specified Streets will be created to attract more foreign visitors.
The reason, the town of Suncheon stands out among foreigners is that it is possible to experience Korean culture in different ways with little time and Suncheon Bay, is the first sandbar of be selected as the site picturesque Songgwangsa and Seonamsa where you can admire the history of Korean Buddhism and Nagan-eubseong where people still live in preserving all that was past.
On the one hand, the city strives to leave a good impression by posting interpreters of English, Japanese, Chinese etc. for foreign tourists whose number increases gradually.
Thursday, about 590,000 students will take the nine-hour test, which consists mostly of multiple-choice questions. Around 6 p.m., when the test is over, evening newspapers publish the questions and answers. Students who fare poorly can try again next year.
SK Energy, the nation’s top refiner, opened a gas station targeting female drivers in Bangbae-dong, southern Seoul yesterday. The purple-and-white station features a saloon providing nail care, cooking lessons and other services.
The Embassy is aware of the problem and has been working with the MoJ to resolve the situation.
The Korean authorities are still requiring the submission of a VS check as a condition of E-2 visa issuance.
As per the Canadian Criminal Records Act, approved use of a VS check is very limited and restricted.
VS checks are not approved for use by foreign authorities. Korean authorities have been made aware of this fact.
Canada police authorities may not legally conduct a VS check for the purposes of teaching English in Korea.
The Korean MoJ has recently granted Canadian citizens a three month grace period to obtain their VS check.
Canadian citizens may lodge complaints to the MoJ at:
Border Control Team
Korean Immigration Service
Ministry of Justice
Government Complex Gwacheon
427-705, Republic of Korea
Fax: 82-2-500-9127
Canadian citizens may lodge complaints to their elected Member of National Assembly. You may find your elected Member of National Assembly at:
http://korea.na.go.kr/index.jsp
The Embassy continues to work towards a resolution of this problem
Hope it proves helpful.
Thank you.
Consular Services / Services Consulaires
Embassy of Canada, Seoul / Ambassade du Canada, Séoul
As an instructor teaching English in Korea, you should at least learn to respect the culture. If you're going to live there, don't complain. If you dislike the entertainment there, just hop on a plane and return home. Korean students don't need ignorant teachers like you.
Rep. Kim Tae-won of the ruling National Grand Party said that the number of police officers at the foreign affairs department stood at 1,096 nationwide in October. About 1.2 million foreigners are living here.
``Simply put, the number of residents per foreign affairs police officer is 1,073, compared with 504 Koreans per officer nationwide,'' he said. ``We lack police officers who can handle crimes committed by foreign nationals.''
The number of crimes has risen steadily with the foreign population increase, reaching 14,524 in 2007 from 12,657 the previous year. ``The number already reached 16,198 as of October.
Also more violent crimes are being committed including murder and rape, alongside an increase in drug trafficking.
``We have seen a massive influx of foreigners in recent years. We need more officers to over see them,'' said an official from the Foreign Department at the National Police Agency, who declined to be named.
They plan to open security centers in regions where foreigners established their own districts such as the ethnic Korean-Chinese and Chinese village in Guro, Seoul and a Bangladeshi town in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, he said.
Congratulations to Americans for setting another outstanding precedent. It is a remarkable achievement for a nation that 230 years ago was founded on a slave economy, and which Africans like Obama's ancestors, were kidnapped from their land and forced to work against their will.
The American history is one that tries ceaselessly to perfect itself. Its Founding Fathers disenfranchised women and blacks ― blacks worth only three fifths of a person. It was in the 1960s and through JFK and LBJ that blacks began to gain full rights.
For what purpose is a reminder of this unhappy chapter of American history when Obama's victory has healed the wounds?
Some elated Americans argue that Obama's victory has brought closure to a proposition made by Lincoln at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, about the advancement of the ``unfinished work'' by the Union's victory over the Confederates. Others claim that Obama represents the consummation of Rev. King's dream for equality for black Americans.
This festive mood is understandable, considering the current plight America faces. It has driven the global economy into the ground, waged two wars ― one justified and the other based on a personal vendetta ― and acted as if it were a chosen people by divine oracle. Obama may be an outlet for Americans' frustration, helping them feel good about themselves once again.
Bring a cool head to this elation, however, and it is plain to see that Obama's victory is not wholesome and accounts for three fifths of the whole, two fifths short. Out of the remaining two fifths, one is for Americans to fulfill and the other for Obama.
Being myopic and going after a narrow self-interest is a tempting proposition, but in today's globalized world however, making the same mistake would prove even more costly.
I'm sure Keith Olberman is prepping his somber apology and practicing his righteous indignation in the mirror as we speak, that is if he’s done paying off last night’s hooker (worst kept secret in New York). Joe seemingly meant to say "F you" but instead said "fuck you". I sometimes say the wrong thing too. Like the other day, one of the models told me she was pregnant, and instead of saying, "it's okay I'm here for you maybe we should get married", I said "OH MY GOD what's that behind you" then ran away and moved to another town.
The only in the Honam region as a result of Gangnam in Seoul, Haeundae in Pusan, and Changwon in Gyeongnam
The Suncheon City was honored to be selected for 2 years after "Ten Beautiful City to Live" in the price of regional autonomy of Korea in 2008.
The city is ranked among the top 10 in the 4th prize of regional autonomy of Korea elected by the satisfaction survey for 229 communities of regional autonomy in the nation, and organized by the Forum of the Korean press on the service to the population, public health, transport, environment, culture and so on.
According to the city, it is shown that the city was selected as the 4th best city to live in response to Gangnam in Seoul, Haeundae in Pusan, and Changwon in Gyeongnam.
This is the result of having various exercised strategies to build a city where human beings and nature blend perfectly, and cultivating a green environment pleasant for improving quality of life.
In addition, as the best city to study life in the nation, the city won the grand prize in the category of education receiving a high evaluation of efforts such as managing the Korean writing class, the extension of small libraries, management of the education program at all levels, and the construction of institutions of culture and education for the people so.
Although Internet piracy is more of a concern, movie studios are frustrated about the private DVD copies sold on the streets. Street vendors camped in front of subway stations selling three to four private copies for a single 10,000 won bill are almost part of the landscape. In the film council’s survey, 8.1 percent of respondents said they have bought pirated DVD copies on the streets at least once.
It was confirmed that the Mokpo Correctional Service confined three inmates, including Jeong, in the single-occupancy cell for one month in May. The two other inmates are: Lee Yong-seop, 49, who was punished for sending a letter of complaint to Cheong Wa Dae, and a 42-year-old inmate identified by the surname Seo, who was punished for refusing to transfer to a correctional facility in Cheongsong.
The Mokpo Correctional Service generally confines one person to a cell the size of the one used to hold Jeong, Lee and Seo. However, if inmates are ill, the correctional facility is required to carry out the punishment only after a course of treatment has been completed. At the time of their imprisonment in the single-occupancy cell, Jeong and Seo were suffering from allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis, while Lee was a diabetic. The correctional facility has been accused of allowing the three men’s illnesses to worsen.
Kim's mother testified that she, her son and the girl got off the elevator at the third floor, but the girl got on it again for fun and the elevator went up. The mother looked for her before hearing a thud and found the girl lying on the ground.
As the 117-centimeter-high parapet of the apartment corridor was too high for the 86-centimeter-tall girl to jump off, police examined the CCTV recording of the elevator, which showed the boy was with her.
According to the recording, the girl got off the elevator at the sixth floor, but the boy, identified only as Park who lives on the same floor, took her back into the elevator and they went up to the 13th floor.
One-and-a-half minutes later, she fell to the ground. After her fall, Park went down by another elevator. Kim was moved to hospital but died about six hours later.
Police suspect Park threw her off the corridor.
Park had medical treatment for impulse control disorder about a year ago, and had previously destroyed cars at his school and the apartment by throwing heavy items out of a window, said police.
A South Korean man admitted to police that he killed a former school teacher who punished him for cheating on a test 21 years ago, authorities said Monday.
The man, who police identified only as Kim, told officers that he had repeatedly sought an apology from the teacher for the 1987 incident -- but was rebuffed.
At the time, Kim was a 10th grader, the investigating detective at Seoul's Eunpyeong police station said.
He told police he had finished a test about 20 minutes early and decided to take a nap. When he awoke, he looked around at his fellow test-takers.
The teacher, a 58-year-old man identified by police only as Song, accused him of cheating and gave him a severe beating.
Kim told police that the teacher beat him about 100 times.
Investigators said Mr Kim had been stalking Mr Song since January to demand he apologise but the teacher ignored him.
He repeatedly telephoned, visited or emailed Mr Song.
One email message read: "I have not been cheating. Apologise. Otherwise, I will not leave you alone.''
The suspect lurked near Mr Song's Seoul home for half an hour before repeatedly stabbing his victim.
He was caught the following day while receiving hospital treatment for hand wounds he suffered during the alleged murder.
The problem arose when the ministry and the immigration office abruptly began demanding the VSS document in September without notifying any of the parties concerned including the Canadian Embassy, teachers and local hagwon. Before that, Canadian teachers only needed a check from local or provincial police in Canada, which teachers can request while in Korea.
“Korean consulates in Canada suggested that we require the VSS from English teachers or teacher candidates,” said Kim Tae-soo, a deputy director at the Korean Immigration Service. “The VSS is very detailed.”
Kim explained that they decided to require the document because it shows records of crimes or drug use. He said in Canada, educational institutions require the document for those who work with children. Kim said the immigration office discussed whether to request this document with the Canadian Embassy in advance but did not notify the embassy that it had started implementing the policy.
“It was only an addition to the background check we have already adopted so we didn’t inform the Canadian Embassy,” Kim said.
Another problem with the VSS is that it is issued by different provinces in Canada that sometimes use different forms. The Korean immigration office has refused to accept applications from some provinces, such as British Columbia, that do not clearly show Vulnerable Sector Screening in large letters.
The recruiting manager said police in different towns and provinces in Canada should not issue a VSS if the teacher is not working with a “vulnerable” group or outside of Canada.
As an additional Catch-22, Canadian authorities do not accept fingerprints taken outside of Canada in processing VSS requests.
And Korean authorities won’t accept a background check by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, though it’s more extensive than a VSS check. The problem: the RCMP documents do not include the key letters VSS.
“The VSS is to be used in Canada. The Canadian Embassy recently stated that it is impossible to get a VSS from Korea or any country outside of Canada,” the recruiting manager said. “You must be in Canada to get it.”
This means that Canadian teachers currently in Korea need to fly back to Canada at a cost of thousands of dollars.
“Many people are simply giving up. They will go someplace else like Taiwan or Thailand,” the Canadian teacher said.
Canadian teachers recognize the need for background checks but they said they cannot understand the lack of communication between the Korean immigration office and the Canadian Embassy. They say the immigration office did not try to inform the teachers.
“Background checks are a good idea,” the recruiting manager said. “But when they implemented the change they didn’t inform the Embassy. Not everything on the Web site of the Korea immigration office is up to date,” he said.
Goddamn, your girlfriend is ugly as shit, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Until now, airport lounges were only made available to business class passengers and first class passengers. However, the Hub Lounge is now available to anyone for a small fee of 35,000 won. Once admitted, passengers may comfortably take advantage of the hotel-class facilities for as long as they like. Attractive characteristics of the lounge include complimentary sandwiches, coffee, and buffet-style meals along with free refreshments.
In addition, desserts, beer, and hard liquor are also provided free of charge. Internet facilities and shower booths are also offered to all customers free of charge. These facilities are made available with no reservations necessary. Furthermore, newspapers, magazines, and books are made ready for your enjoyment on one side, along with a TV room to watch the news. Currently, there are about 200~300 people who utilize the facilities every day.
President-elect Barak Obama will support the passage of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) in the long run to maintain the strategic relationship between the two countries, according to a noted U.S. expert.
He added that although Korea may face rising pressure from the Obama administration to remove barriers regarding the import of U.S. products, such pressure will not weaken the alliance.
``I do not expect any fundamental change in the Korea-U.S. relationship under the Obama administration,'' Jeffrey Jones, an international lawyer at Kim & Chang, one of the largest law firms in Korea, told The Korea Times.
Seoul's top trade negotiator Lee Hye-min made it clear Wednesday that it would be difficult for Seoul and Washington to renegotiate the deal, saying it ``goes against international customs.'' Trying to renegotiate the text when it has been signed and awaiting ratification by the National Assembly and the Congress is inappropriate, he added.
According to a joint survey by the Themed Entertainment Association and Economic Research Associates, Caribbean Bay attracted 1.4 million visitors last year, ranking third in terms of the number of visitors.
Disneyland's Typhoon Lagoon in the United States ranked first, with over two million visitors, followed by another U.S. waterpark: Blizzard Beach in Miami, with 1.9 million people.
Meanwhile, Korea's three other popular waterparks also made the list.
Ocean World was in 8th place, with 900,000 visitors last year, while Deoksan Spa Castle ranked 11th and Seorak Waterpia 13th.
South Korea's leading universities will invite 81 distinguished foreign scholars, including nine Nobel Prize laureates, to teach at their domestic campuses next year as part of a state-initiated campaign to upgrade the quality of the nation's higher education, Yonhap News reported Sunday quoting government officials.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said it will financially support the planned invitations of world-class scholars by 30 local universities, including Seoul National University, to participate in about 80 state-funded research projects in 2009.
The project, formally named the "World Class University" program, was launched in June under a government-led drive to improve educational quality at local colleges by allowing their students access to lectures from internationally eminent scholars and professors.
Sangju police in North Gyeongsang Province on Thursday sought an arrest warrant for a 29-year-old man identified as Bae on charges of sexual assault. While wearing the ankle bracelet, Bae on Tuesday allegedly assaulted a 24-year-old woman identified as Oh who delivered coffee to his home. This case shows electronic tagging cannot fully prevent convicts from reoffending.
Here's a story for you. Recently, one of my students was gang beat. He was beaten almost to his death on a saturday. He was found with a shattered thy and god knows what else. He had to get surgery equalling about 10000USD which his family had to pay out. He spent over a week in the hospital.
So, I suggested, there's 100 teachers in our school, why don't we all throw in some money to help this kid out and his family since they are now in a bit of debt over this. I was then told, "that's not allowed because the principal and the vice principal are trying to cover up the incident." I was surprised. I learned they were afraid their reputations would be damaged because they've been aware of the group of students picking on this boy for YEARS! They broke his nose a few months ago. They haven't even punished the group of students that almost killed him. They also tried to hide this from the police. Thank god, the parents decided to get the police involved a week after the kid was beaten. So the school knows who did it, knows how long it's been going on for, knows how much money this kid's family had to pay, and they are pretending it never happened. They let the kids who did it, run free!
So I was really pissed off when I found this out. I wanted some kind of justice. So I tutor a kid in his final year. He's a good student. I do it for free too. So I just asked him what he knew and I told him the story. Now this one really surprised me. His reaction was, "AGAIN?!" So these stupid lowlifes, had the same thing happen 2 years ago. One junior was beat to the point he landed in the hospital, and the same VP covered it up from everyone. She didn't even punish the students. The kid just quietly disappeared from school.
IS THERE NO JUSTICE HERE?! HOW CAN THESE PEOPLE BE IN CHARGE OF KIDS! THEY ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH!
If anyone has any suggestions as to what to do about this, anyone to tell or something, please let me know.
Apparently, TOP was suffering from depression. The frontman never showed any signs since he is known to be quiet and keep to himself. But this attempt to end his life is a desperate plea for help. The poor guy is obviously unable to cope with the pressures and demands of being a star.
As may be expected, the film goes out of its way to cast Su-hyun in an idealized light. Athletic, popular and good with the guitar, Su-hyun is portrayed as an extremely well-adjusted young man with strong family values and a firm sense of morality; there are several scenes in which he steps in to help someone in trouble.
In addition, the movie carefully establishes Su-hyun's Korean identity with scenes of Korean-style family meals, ancestral rituals and traditional music performances. While perhaps providing a cultural context for Japanese moviegoers, these idealized moments also serve to show Su-hyun as being deeply rooted in tradition, a trait that his modernized Japanese friends sorely lack.
Indeed, there is an implied criticism of Japanese society in presenting Su-hyun in such a heroic and stereotypical fashion. Particularly in scenes that highlight Japanese prejudice towards Koreans, director Junji Hanado seems to accuse his country of losing touch with important moral and traditional values still upheld by fine Korean men such as Su-hyun.
Chung mentioned the Netherlands, whose citizens can speak an average of three or four languages and provides home to companies whose combined investments makes the land of daffodils and windmills the world's third largest destination for investors.
``It's no coincidence that Dutchmen are doing well on the international stage,'' Chung said, citing the country's low corporate taxes and individuals' readiness to accommodate foreign businesses.
Obviously, he understands the difficulty in adopting English as an official language.
``We are different from Singapore or Ireland,'' he said, saying that they are desperate to attract foreign investment but Korea has a strong industrial base,'' he said.
``Years from now, we may look back on a lost chance with regret,'' he said.
“Part of the pact may not be good for one side, but the free trade deal is a balanced agreement which reflects the interests of both sides,” Lee Hye-min, deputy minister for the FTA, told reporters. “The new administration of the United States will come to recognize that the FTA promises balanced results for both countries.”
“If [the U.S.] requests a renegotiation because of a certain area [automobiles] it would be like opening Pandora’s box as the countering party can also find faults,” Lee added.
Seoul's top trade negotiator Lee Hye-min made it clear Wednesday that it would be difficult for Seoul and Washington to renegotiate the deal, saying it ``goes against international customs.'' Trying to renegotiate the text when it has been signed and awaiting ratification by the National Assembly and the Congress is inappropriate, he added.
"Every round we have reiterated that rice is not up for discussion," said Lee Hye-min, Seoul's deputy chief negotiator. "There's no change. You have to keep in mind that it's that much of a sensitive subject."
