In a scene similar to what you'd likely find in schools all over the country, the office was capitvated by the WBC final, and many classes were replaced by the game. I was on break, thankfully, because it would have been difficult to compete with hoots and hollers coming from the other classes. I can't say I disagree too much with the decision to let students watch the game, although I'm sure parents would have been pissed if their kid came home and said "We watched baseball in English Monkey Teacher's class!" It was a once-in-a-lifetime . . . er, once-in-an-adolescence opportunity, and would have been an even bigger deal had Korea won. Not saying the crossword puzzle you took off Boggles World wasn't awesome, or anything.
21 comments:
Yeah, I was struck by that message too. WTF? I mean, sure, they made it to the final and played well... but why belittle the Japanese win? Is the Korean self-image that brittle?
I guess...
What does it say? (For those of us that cannot read the language?)
Just says "Korea 2009 WBC Second Place." Strange that it was displayed as soon as the last out was made and Japan was celebrating, and as you can see it's quite prominent on the screen.
I'm sorry, but I just don't see this as a problem. Compare it with Olympic events where the compatriot athlete is followed and the media focuses on his/her performance. This is, after all, national television coverage of the national team, which did pretty darn well.
On the other hand, if nobody at SBS said "Japan did a good job" or "Congratulations to Japan," or some such, then I would find that problematic. I myself would have done it differently than this, but I don't see this as that big a deal.
Jeez, I don't see what's the big deal. SBS serves the Korean public, so they naturally would present what the public would want to see. You wouldn't expect NHK to do the opposite.
Like bushibo says
"This is, after all, national television coverage of the national team"
Yeah this is not a big deal, I think.
But.. could anyone tell me if it's true that this article is now blaming the WBC system and saying Japan was just lucky?
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=001&oid=079&aid=0002043325
Always the classy losers, aren't they? (Emphisis on losers).
Msta,
Korea Beat answers your question for you. (I put your link in as a translation request.)
We didn't have the game on, but I figured out the result when a class came in making death drawings of Ichiro and cursing him. I had to stop in the middle of class and tell them to stop the hatefest.
The "Ichiro Monkey" meme has found some popularity among some students and internet users, too.
Maybe I'm being a bit too nuanced (or too generous), but I'm not too surprised or all that dismayed about talk addressed at Suzuki Ichiro himself.
After all, the blunt trash-talker started this himself, with his にんにく garlic ethnic slurs (echos of the past). Even Japanese I know say he's too blunt for their taste.
(And, no, I don't think the monkey thing is any better. But it's really hard to get kids who have been slurred to be sweet angels to the one who has slurred them. They know this guy is a trash-talker.)
And while we're at it, what is up with English speakers using the word "Jap"? (Not here, but I saw it in some of the baseball discussions and no one seemed to bat an eye, no pun intended.)
Thank you for the link, kushibo.
"the blunt trash-talker started this himself"
What did Ichiro do to Korean people?
Are you sure Korean media is not making up stories or intentionally mistranslating to turn people against Ichiro or Japan? like they photoshoped Korean flag into Japanese flag.
Msta, it is possible that Ichiro's trash-talking and ethnic slurs are a media-created myth. I've spilled a lot of ink over my criticisms of the Korean media, and sports media can be particularly bad sometimes.
But I've seen the garlic comments in non-Korean media as well, and some Japanese I know have talked about it, so I'm inclined to believe he really did say the stuff.
At any rate, I think there is more of an anti-Ichiro thing than an anti-Japan thing. Were Ichiro a more magnanimous sort, a lot of people wouldn't mind losing to him, not as much anyway.
WORD VERIFICATION: pasta
“non-Korean media” …. Could it be angry Korean American?
bushibo, I don’t know what you believe Ichiro said about Korean people or Korea. I have read that he said he could smell garlic or kimchi at Korean airport. Were Korean people offended by the comment?
He recently refused to make comments when journalists asked him about Korea. I probably would say nothing too if I were him. Everything he says seems to anger Korean people.
Any way, don’t let kids act so brutal even if Ichiro made those comments. It’s sad. Just teach them not to be like him.
Oh, and one of his comments that Korean people are talking about
“Japanese baseball was 30 years ahead of Korean baseball“, or “Korea will never be able to win in 30 years"
Truth is he didn’t even say the word “Korea.”
He merely showed the eagerness to win the games (any games).
Yes, he sounds a bit arrogant sometimes. But I don’t see why Korean people have to get so angry about him.
“non-Korean media” …. Could it be angry Korean American?
I'm talking about US media, which Koreans do not control — yet.
Everything he says seems to anger Korean people.
Well, garlic eater-type comments are an ethnic slur, so if that and talking about Korean being backward and behind the times is all he says, then expect people to get angry.
Msta, is there a reason you keep writing "bushibo" instead of "kushibo"?
Are you combining 武士道 and kushibo, which isn't the worst thing, I s'pose.
Well, it goes both ways. You can't expect him to keep his mouth shut talking about a rival team. That gets turned up when we're talking about a rival country like Korea. We need no reminder that Korea and Japan aren't on the best of terms. Koreans respect his skills on the diamond, it's true, but it's not like Korean fans or the media go out of their way to be respectful. The ethnic slurs go over the top, if he even said what he's rumored to have said, but the trash-talking is just a part of sports. And as we've seen, Ichiro doesn't reserve his colorful quotations for Korea alone.
So, I guess the "Ichiro Monkey" thing isn't unexpected. After all, Koreans often compare each other to animals (my students have animal nicknames for what they think their friends resemble), so it's not unusual that they'd jump to monkey. The Hirobumi stuff is out of line, though, and Ichiro would be right to turn right back around and throw it Korea's way. Or beat them in the WBC, whatever is more satisfying.
The Hirobumi stuff is beyond the pale, simply because there is an implicit but real threat of violence behind it. (Responsible people in the public sphere must reasonably assume that imbalanced people might take some of their heated words to heart, such that demonizing talk can be a threat.)
The Ichiro Hirobumi thing would never have come up, though, if Bong were named Bong Cholsu instead of Bong Chunggǔn. In that sense, the Hirobumi comment was an extension of the Chunggǔn idea and not the kernel itself.
Still, it's overly hyped up and it's potentially dangerous. I may consider writing a note to that paper (we've seen how effective I am at note-writing^^).
kushibo
oh lol
Did I keep writing bushibo instead of kushibo?
I apologize. I really didn't realize that. (But I knew it was kushibo not bushibo".) Thank you for pointing out.
I was hoping for a more interesting story than that. ;)
For some reason Gerry Bevers of "Dokdo!" fame had a habit of calling me kushido.
Anyway, it's all good. To this day I still write Ewha as "E What."
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