A million festivals in the area this weekend.

This is a big weekend for festivals in and around Jeollanam-do. For many of us, it's a big weekend period; I have no school on the 4th and 5th, but even though we're all communists down here do not have May Day off, meaning it's only a four-day weekend for me.

* The bicycle race associated with the first annual Korean Bicycle Festival (대한민국자전거축제), which started on April 25th, will be in Suncheon on May 2nd. The race's Stage 8 starts from Palma Stadium and goes around Suncheon and Gwangyang before ending in Jinju. The parade from city hall to the stadium starts at 11:30, and the race begins at 1. More information, in Korean, from the Stage 8 page and from the two .hwp files linked on the city page.

* The Hampyeong Butterfly Festival (함평나비대축제) has been on since April 24th and will continue through May 10th. There aren't many butterflies, but the festival site is huge, pretty, and crowded.

* The Jeonju Film Festival (전주국제영화제) opened today and will continue through the 8th.

* There are a pair of festivals in Yeosu, the Turtleship Festival (여수거북선대축제) and the Tall Ship Festival (여수국제법선). I've had it up to here (motions with hand) with hearing about Yi Sun-shin, but the other festival looks pretty interesting. Both were profiled on Korea.net recently.

* Another important Korean historical figure will have a festival in his name on the 2nd and 3rd in Wando at the Jangbogo Festival (완도장보고축제).

* The Bamboo Festival (담양대나무축제) opens in Damyang on the 2nd and runs through the 7th. That should be crowded, but all right.

* The Jeamsan Royal Azalea Festival (제암산철쭉체) in Jangheung county is on the 3rd.

* The Hong Gildong Festival (홍길동축제) is in Jangseong county from the 2nd through the 5th. He is a fictious character who is, dare I say, like a Korean Robin Hood.

* And the "City of Beautiful People" until you showed up Suncheon will host the Nagan Folk Culture Festival (낙안민속문화축제) at the Nagan Folk Village from the 3rd through the 5th. I attended last year, and went to the village again for the food festival. I recommend visiting. It's accessible from city buses 63 and 68.

* A couple of festivals nearby are the tea festival in Hadong (하동야생차문화축제) and the Chunhyang Festival (춘향제) in Namwon, a cute little city that calls itself the "City of Love."

What the KT wouldn't print.

On April 23rd I submitted a piece to the Korea Times about Park Nam-sheik's ignorant comments on native speakers in an article about the school he runs to train Korean English teachers.

The president [Park Nam-sheik] stressed that a teaching license doesn't mean competence as an English teacher. ``Schools should open their doors more to those who can speak English well. Still many teachers are opposing to give opportunities to English teachers without teaching certificates to teach students at public schools,'' Park said. At the same time, he was very pessimistic about the increasing number of foreign English teachers from the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

``Most of the native English speakers don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems,'' Park said. ``If we need native English speakers, it would be better inviting young ethnic Koreans who have hometowns here. Also, we have to invite qualified English teachers from India, Malaysia and the Philippines as English is not a language only for Americans and British people.''
``Above all, we should produce qualified teachers who can replace native English speakers. I can assure you our school will produce such teachers,'' he added.

When I submitted a follow-up a few days later, which touched upon Park's comments and the rash of inflammatory pieces in the Korea Times these days, I was told by the editor, "It is not advisable to make a comment on a specific person." Why it's inappropriate for me to do so, yet others are given an open forum to make unsubstantiated claims of a high-profile minority group is probably due to Park being a friend of the paper.

I got a message on Dave's ESL Cafe from Yu_bum_suk, a public school teacher, who was also bothered by Park's comments and who also submitted a letter that went unpublished. He posted his letter on Dave's today, and it's reprinted below.

I read with both interest and disappointment Kang Shin-who’s article ‘IGSE to Nurture Top Quality English Teachers’. While I think it’s great that this institute wishes to produce potential English teachers who are actually fluent in English, I was rather struck by President Park Nahm-sheik’s statement ‘Most of the native English speakers [teaching in Korea] don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems’.

To be sure, native English teachers (NETs), like the Korean teachers IGSE employs, no doubt, are probably interested in making money. And yes, I can certainly think of some native English teachers who cause problems. However, I wonder just what he means by ‘most’ and ‘often’.

As an expert on the English language Mr Park should know that ‘most’ implies at least 51%, but more commonly implies 70% or more. He should also know that ‘often’ falls somewhere between ‘usually’ and ‘sometimes’, and that most grammarians would place it at around a 60% rate of probability. I wonder on just what research or observations, if any, he is basing these allegations.

If Mr Park is correct, and a considerable majority of the NETs employed in Korea are affectionless towards their students and / or problem-causers, this is quite unsettling indeed. But it’s also a bit puzzling. According to research presented by Professor Kim Jeong-Ryeol of Korea National University of Education at Soongsil University on 28 March of this year, public schools that have had a NET for one year or more are averaging significantly higher scores on government listening tests than schools that don’t. I wonder how this is possible when, according to Mr Park, NETs lack so much affection and cause so many problems. Just imagine the improvements that could be made if it were possible to attract NETs who do have more affection and are less prone to causing problems than the NETs Mr Park characterises.

I also wonder if Mr Park has done much thinking about why some NETs who start jobs in Korea with a lot of enthusiasm sometimes lose it. I certainly don’t blame some NETs for lacking affection when they have to deal with rude or racist employers, co-workers, or students. My first Korean boss called me ‘shebal gaesekki’ in front of a Korean teacher because I was quitting on account of his lack of professionalism. Would Mr Park be keen on displaying much affection at a workplace such as that? I was recently called ‘shebal shipsekki’ (along with various attempts to employ the F-word) by a group of high school students - thankfully not my own - passing by me on their motorbikes. I definitely wouldn’t have much affection for them if I were their teacher. Would Mr Park have much affection for foreign students who treated him like that? Will the Indians, Malaysians, and Filipinos Mr Park wishes to bring to Korea?

Of course, the generalising works in many directions. I’ve heard a number of NETs make statements such as ‘Most Korean teachers physically abuse their students’ or ‘Korean teachers often spend more time at school sleeping and Internet shopping than making lesson plans’. I wonder what Mr Park would think if I were to make such statements in an interview with a Canadian newspaper. Even if I could provide plenty of anecdotal evidence of Korean teachers doing such things, he’d probably think that I’d had some very bitter experiences with Koreans and had a particular ax to grind. I hope he realises that that’s exactly how he comes across to English readers.

Without exception, every Korean I’ve met who’s gained a high level of fluency in English has done so with the help of native speakers. Given his attitude, it will be interesting to see how Mr Park manages to prove an exception to this. I’m sure that all of the foreign universities with which he wishes to connect, many of whom have instructors who’ve taught overseas in countries like Korea, will be delighted to hear about his attitude towards native speakers and very eager to work with someone who thinks that NETs are mostly affectionless towards their students.

Fortunately, I’m blessed and grateful to work with Koreans who have a much more positive attitude about what an NET can do. Our students may not be the brightest in the nation, or be getting the very best education that money can buy (which would likely entail moving outside the nation, in any event); but I do know that for the most part I’m free to focus on what my students and I can do, not bureaucratically restricted by people who’d rather focus on what we can’t. Even if IGCE offered jobs - working with Korea’s ‘elite’ – to NETs, I’d much rather stick with a small-town school in which I know that management has a much more positive attitude.

If IGCE can produce a whopping fifty English teachers a year who are fully competent in the language they teach it could be an important drop in the bucket. However, the attitude of its president leaves me feeling very sceptical. I personally would recommend that any Korean wishing to develop more fluent and accurate English skills seek out an institution that tries to attract and retain NETs who do have passion and concern about their students and what they’re learning, and not one that rejects NETs wholesale on account of the prejudices of its director.

I like his better than mine; here's what I submitted:

I was pleased to learn about the International Graduate School of English profiled on April 22nd. And being a Jeollanam-do guy myself I was interested to read a little about Park Nam-sheik, a Chonnam National University graduate and a Seoul National University professor. The president of IGSE, Park is interested in training Korean English teachers to be more communicatively competent in the classroom, and had interesting things to say about competence being more than simply a teaching license. Korean English teachers are often unable or unwilling to use English in meaningful ways in the classroom, and any progress on that front with the younger generation is encouraging.

However, I was disappointed to read what Park had to say about native speaker teachers. “Most of the native English speakers don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems,” he said.

This statement is ignorant and damaging to the validity of the other points Park tried to make about training Korean English teachers, or hiring certified teachers from other countries. It shows a profound ignorance about who we are and what we do, and regrettably suggests that Park is not as trustworthy an authority on English education as believed.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the only case of cranio-rectal inversion by big names in the field of English education. The most grievous example is from Lee Young-chan, a Ministry of Education official who told the Korea Times in December, in a story about the turnover rate of teachers in Seoul, “[native speakers] are neither regular teachers nor lecturers who can conduct classes independently. They are “assistant teachers,” hence their teaching experience doesn't matter much. Rather, it's better for students to have more new teachers so that they can meet various kinds of foreigners.” The most painful thing about that statement is that Lee is actually in charge of native speaker teachers at the Ministry.

In March, Koo Young-sun, the supervisor of the Incheon Office of Education, told the Times that “some [native speaker teachers] are not ethically qualified to treat children,” and a ministry spokesperson told another paper that “[f]oreign native English speakers cannot teach students without Korean teachers.”

If we as a community of native speaker teachers are to correct these stereotypes, it’s true that we need to lead by example. But it’s also true that educators and policymakers need to get with the times and quit making such groundless, sweeping generalizations. There is no evidence whatsoever that native speaker teachers lack affection for students. Ironically, this “affection” is often taken to mean beating students in order to encourage them to study harder. But on the contrary, teachers like myself and many others spend hours each week preparing for our regularly-scheduled classes, for conversation clubs, and for teachers’ workshops. Without the benefit of proper textbooks or teachers’ guides, we develop material that is both educational and entertaining. We teach our classes entirely in the target, foreign language, and we do not fall back on speaking Korean or letting a CD do the talking for us. And let’s not forget we do this while adjusting to life in a foreign country.

Furthermore there is also no reason to say we often cause problems. Actually, when we read stories about teachers behaving badly, it is not native speaker teachers but rather Korean teachers who accept bribes, beat students, sexually abuse minors, or participate in anti-government rallies. Just as it would be irresponsible to suggest that “many” Korean teachers cause problems, it is inappropriate to do the same for foreign ones.

There is, as I often say, a profound ignorance about what we do in the classroom. Perhaps the biggest challenge we face is creating a classroom environment that encourages learning in a way so contrary to the traditional Korean style. People think we “just talk” or simply play games with the students, but in reality we try to create lessons that give students a chance to use the language they’ve studied for years. We have the difficult task of bucking not only the system of passive rote learning and obedience, but also the stereotype that foreign teachers are clowns or zoo animals.

And there are further challenges we face that people don’t seem to think about. There is no curriculum in place for us, no plan for our purpose in the classroom. Sometimes we are simply there to repeat a few lines of text, sometimes we team teach with experienced Korean teachers, or sometimes we teach entirely on our own. And sometimes all three in the same day! We are contractually paired with co-teachers who, it must be said, rarely come to class or show interest in participating. We are given little direction beyond “do whatever you want” or “teach them speaking,” and we are often unable to understand the school’s textbooks because the teachers’ guides are in Korean.

It’s true that putting so many native speakers in public schools can create some headaches. Korean administrators often don’t understand what’s written in our contracts, and foreigners are often ignorant about the workplace culture of Korea. These are some of the “problems” Park is perhaps referring to, but if schools are hiring foreigners, and if foreigners are working in Korean schools, it would behoove each party to be understanding of each other’s perspective.

Rather than taking the easy way out and blaming native speaker teachers---who were, after all, recruited and hired at the behest of both the government and consumers---Park and others would be better off finding ways to meaningfully involve them in the curriculum. There may come a time when native speaker teachers may be mostly phased out of public schools, but clearly that time is well into the future, and it is in the best interest of everyone to cooperate with the goal of meaningful English education in mind.

So while the Korea Times prints prank letters, letters from maladjusted Koreans studying abroad who rant on "white-looking" English teachers, and opinions from self-hating foreigners looking to impress Koreans by blasting fellow teachers, commentary on actual articles goes unpublished. I'm not saying they should automatically print anything I write---even though they usually do---I'm just saying that if you're going to give a forum to ignorant horsefuckers who have something nasty to say about us, at least give us equal space to respond. In all fairness I do have some bigger projects with the KT that should see the light of day next month, and they've shown some willingness behind the scenes to change the current course and be more responsible to our demographic, but let me also say that should this crap continue I've got several great ideas for fake articles that will prove just as popular.

This will make your eyes bug out.

I chuckled when I saw this on Naver the other day.



It's an advertisement for a Mamonde sex toy beauty product, with Han Ga-in, one of the celebrities I can't bear to look at. Her primary function seems to be make go on TV and ridiculously make her eyes seem as big as possible.

Foreign professors at HUFS to attend sexual harassment workshop.

No, they won't be learning how to sexually harass students and coworkers, sorry about that ambiguity. From the Korea Herald:

The Hankuk University of Foreign Studies said [Tuesday] it would proceed with an hour-long session for 182 foreign professors, more than 30 percent of its faculty, each day. The session will be held in English.

"In the past, we didn't have enough foreign professors to hold such education sessions in a foreign language. But with their increased numbers, we have translated the government-distributed information booklet into English and will hold the education course, all in English, once a year," a university official said.

The content of the session will include informing professors of how the concept and standards of sexual harassment are set at schools in Korea and how such action impacts the school, the victim and the offender as well as giving them specific exemplary cases of sexual harassment, university officials said.

While these particular courses will be for foreigners---as the session is in English---the original material was translated from Korean. I'm curious, though, if Korean professors are also attending workshops. Although when we read about sexual harassment of students and colleagues in Korea it is always committed by Koreans, and in fact HUFS fired a professor in 2007 for harassing a panelist on "Chat with the Beauties," the article does come across as if it's addressing a problem area.

Lee Myeong-jo, who is the course instructor, said the educational session had been designed to prevent any possible sexual harassment activity that could result from cultural differences.

I assume that line speaks to cases like the one out of Seoul National University in December, in which a Pakistani grad student sexually harassed five women because

He told school officials that he inadvertently made mistakes due to Pakistani culture, which deems women inferior to men.

Well, though things are changing, that's not exactly a foreign notion in Korea, either.

Is this yet another fake letter in the Korea Times?

It looks like He Who Shall Never Be Named Again has one fan: a nine-year-old girl.

Gwangju female high school students stripped by English teacher as punishment.

The Gwangju Ilbo has two stories about female high school students who had their skirts forcibly removed as part of their corporal punishment. The first article, posted below, says because of poor test scores about 10 students were subject to the punishment, which had the students take their skirts off and get on their knees in front of the teachers' desk.

I can't figure out how to link directly to the two articles on the story---GFN's Michael Simning passed them along to me by searching for "치마" on the 광주일보 site---so I will repost them below. Perhaps Korea Beat or another blog can translate them in full.

‘치마 벗겨 체벌’ 10여명이 받았다

광주 C여고 여교사가 성적이 나쁜 학생들에게 교복 치마를 벗게 하는 체벌을 줬다는 보도〈본보 28일자〉와 관련, 광주시교육청이 진상조사에 나선 결과 사실로 확인됐다.
시 교육청은 28일 “해당 학교 교사와 학생들을 대상으로 조사를 벌인 결과, 이 학교 영어교사가 수업도중 일부 여학생에게 치마를 벗게 하는 체벌을 준 것으로 드러났다”고 밝혔다.
이날 시 교육청이 조사한 결과에 따르면 이 학교 1학년 영어 담당 여교사는 수업시간에 본 쪽지시험에서 성적이 나쁜 학생에게 교복 치마를 벗은 채 무릎을 꿇도록 하고, 교탁 주변을 돌게하는 벌칙을 줬다.
이 같은 벌칙은 신학기인 지난달 쪽지시험에서 ‘0점’을 맞은 학생들을 중심으로 10여명이 받았다.
이들 중 일부는 치마를 벗고 교탁 뒤에서 2∼3분간 무릎을 꿇다가 제자리로 되돌아갔고, 일부는 치마를 벗은 채 교탁 주변을 왔다갔다하는 벌을 받았다고 시 교육청은 설명했다.
문제의 여교사는 진상조사에서 “성적이 너무 나쁜 아이에 대한 벌칙의 하나로 학생들이 제안한 ‘이마 매 맞기’와 ‘치마 벗기’ 중 하나를 정했다”고 해명했다.
하지만 일부 학생들은 “학생들이 이 같은 벌칙을 제안했다는 주장은 사실이 아니며, 치마를 벗고 교실을 돌게 하는 벌칙까지 줬다”고 반박했다.
시 교육청 관계자는 “학생들과 논의해 정했다 하더라도 체벌방식이 적절치 않으므로 정확한 진상조사를 거쳐 징계 등의 조치를 취하겠다”고 밝혔다. 한편 시 교육청은 이 같은 체벌이 재발하지 않도록 광주지역 교사들을 대상으로 체벌 방지 교육 등을 강화해 나가기로 했다.
/박진표기자 lucky@kwangju.co.kr

* * *

여고생 치마 벗겨 벌 세우기

광주의 한 여자고등학교에서 일부 교사들이 수업 도중 학생들에게 교복 치마를 벗게 하는 벌칙을 주고, 욕설을 했다는 주장이 제기돼 인권침해 논란이 일고 있다.
27일 광주 C여고 학생과 학부모들에 따르면 이 학교 1학년 영어 담당 여교사가 수업 시간 도중 쪽지시험을 본 뒤 성적이 나쁜 학생들에게 교복 치마를 벗고 교실을 도는 벌칙을 주고 있다는 것.
이 학교 한 학생은 “친구들 앞에서 교복 치마를 벗고 교실을 돌면서 극심한 수치심을 느꼈다”면서 “저는 한 번 밖에 벌칙을 받지 않았지만, 다른 친구들은 수차례에 걸쳐 이러한 벌칙을 받기도 했다”고 주장했다.
또 다른 학생도 “아무리 공부를 못한다고 사춘기 소녀들의 치마를 벗기는 게 말이나 되느냐”면서 “선생님께 항의하고 싶었지만, 미움을 받을까봐 꾹 참았다”고 말했다.
이에 대해 해당 교사는 “학기초에 쪽지 시험을 봤는 데 ‘0’점이 나온 아이들이 있어 두 차례에 걸쳐 치마를 벗게한 뒤 무릎을 꿇고 있게 했으며, 벗은 치마로는 무릎을 덮고 있게 했다”면서 “치마를 벗고 교실을 돌게 했다는 말은 사실이 아니며, 요즘은 이마저도 하지 않고 있다”고 해명했다.
이 학교의 또 다른 여교사는 1학년인 A양이 꽃무늬가 새겨진 가방을 들고 등교했다는 이유로 가방을 빼앗고, 폭언을 한 것으로 알려져 학부모의 반발을 사고 있다. 이 학교는 숙녀용 가방과 빨간색 등 화려한 색상이나 꽃무늬 등이 새겨진 가방을 들고 등교하는 것을 금지하고 있다.
A양은 “다음날 학교 홈페이지 게시판에 ‘가방의 기준은 어디까지 인가’라는 글을 올렸는데, 이를 본 선생님이 저를 교무실로 부르더니 여러 선생님들이 지켜보는 앞에서 ‘낮과 밤이 다른 X’, ‘이 것도 홈페이지에 올려라’라는 등의 폭언을 했다”고 주장했다. 이후 심각한 스트레스를 겪은 A양은 결국 부모님과 상의 끝에 전학을 가기로 결정했다.
A양의 어머니는 “아이가 극심한 스트레스를 받고 우울증 증세를 보여 전학을 결심하게 됐다”면서 “우리 아이가 마지막 피해자가 되길 바라는 마음에서 시 교육청에 감사를 의뢰할 생각”이라고 울먹였다.
이에 대해 이 학교 교감은 “가방과 관련해서는 해당 교사로부터 폭언을 한 사실이 없다는 말을 들었다”면서 “치마를 벗기는 벌칙도 학생들을 의욕적으로 지도 하는 과정에서 일어난 일로 보인다”고 해명했다.
/박진표기자 lucky@kwangju.co.kr
/김형호기자 khh@kwangju.co.kr

* Update: translation by Korea Beat here; an excerpt:

According to the investigation, the female English teacher had the students, who had done poorly on a pop quiz, remove their skirts and duck-walk around the teacher’s desk.

A similar punishment was meted out to over 10 students who scored 0 on a pop quiz last month.

Some of them removed their skirts and spent two to three minutes with their knees bent before returning to their desks, and others removed their skirts and walked to the teacher’s desk and back, the Office explained.

The teacher at isse explained to the investigation, “I gave the extremely low-scoring students a choice between taking their skirts off or being hit on the forehead.”

But some of the students criticized her, saying, “the students didn’t ask for the punishment, we had to take our skirts off and walk around the classroom.”

If you're looking for a drink that will shape your face into an English letter you can't pronounce, Kim Tae-hee's got the tea for you.

Hey Korea Times, quit plagiarizing.

In my last post I made fun of the preventative measures against swine flu suggested by the Korean Center for Disease Control, since habits like handwashing with soap and mouth-covering are rarely practiced by Koreans. Thanks to commenter sonagi92 who points out that the Korea Times actually lifted all that information from a page on US's Center for Disease Control website titled "Swine Influenza and You," while attributing the information to the KCDC.

No preventative measures available against swine flu in Korea.

Korea began taking measures to screen visitors from Mexico and the United States shortly after word of the latest swine flu outbreak spread. And although pork from those two countries pose no threat, the government announced it would scrutinize imports more closely.

The government has also said that no vaccine exists for swine flu, and indicated that there are no preventative measures available to Koreans. The Korean Center for Disease Control released the following information, which comes to us via the Korea Times:

The best method is prevention. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Also, try to avoid close contact with sick people. If you feel sick, the government recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

On Monday the KCDC said it may have found the first case of swine flu in a Korean, after a woman returned from a trip to Mexico.

In Jindo last weekend.

Because my post about the Gwangyang Apricot Blossom Festival was so popular---you know the festival post about a festival I didn't actually get to---I've decided to revisit the concept with a post about the Jindo Sea-Parting Festival on April 25th through 27th. I'll open with this three-minute video of a cross-dressing man selling 엿 as old women danced around him, because I know the rest of the post will just bore you.



If that isn't the best video you've seen all month, then clearly you're unqualified. I went to Jindo on Saturday, met Kelsey from Living Life Frame by Frame, wandered through town a little bit, then took a cab ride along the scenic route to Gagye Beach. Unfortunately it was too cold for my tastes, and there wasn't much going on that day. When we found a program we learned that most of the events, including the full walk, were actually scheduled for Sunday. I didn't stick around, and went back to Gwangju because I'm socially awkward to spend time with my sick girlfriend. I'll refer you to Kelsey's page for some quality pictures; here's what I ended up with:


On the big island a few hours before people could walk to the small one.


Unloading lanterns.



Straw crafts.


Old women enjoying themselves as visitors learn to play the Jindo Arirang.



People walking along the rocks as the tide goes out. The women in the second picture are collecting seaweed.


Cute Jindo puppies.


Here's a dog chained to the stage and fixed to a wagon, for some reason.


Jindo puppies shivering in the cold. They were selling for 500,000 won each.


Standing on Gagye Beach, looking out toward Haenam county.

If anyone else attended the festival, feel free to leave links to your galleries in the comments section. I'm still a little bothered that I made a combined four-and-a-half hour bus ride to Jindo to find that the festivities wouldn't take place until the next day, but, hey, at least next year people will be better informed.

Well done, Korea Herald.

The Korea Herald finally updated its webpage, and opened up its archives. This means I'll have to make it part of my daily news routine. If they could make a way to permalink to older articles---besides clicking on "print"---we'd be all set.

In honor of the professors giving midterms.

In honor of professors giving midterms this week---a practice that spawns all kinds of face-palm-inducing threads on the forums about cheating, inflating grades, and overall indifference---I'll repost an excerpt from an account of teaching English at a Korean university in the 1960s. It comes from a piece titled "My Experiences of Teaching English in Korea" from a 1965 edition of Korea Journal.

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.

In the paper.

My latest weekly piece for the Joongang Ilbo is out, this time on the post I wrote about "rescuing" animals. It's again sans preface, so read the remarks I made here and here.

I did some reading last Friday as I assembled the piece, and came across this blog entry from a former teacher in Mokpo. An excerpt:

Veterinarians unfortunately aren't always a lot of help. We've met a few Koreans who feel that being a vet is a good job and choosing it as a career should have little to do with love of animals. Our vet speaks great English, but Shannon and I have decided he really doesn't care for any animals' well-being. He often neglects to find proper treatment for Miso, and when Shannon and I find what's needed, he mentions how he knew that already, doesn't bother to look at our dog for any illnesses, and carries on his way. That kitten I mentioned earlier that died, our vet looked at him - well he didn't actually look, he just glanced - and said the cat was fine. 3 days later a more accomplished vet said the cat should have been on an IV and had a heat pad the whole time, and it died shortly after.

. . .

A teacher in town was walking to school and noticed a pile of garbage bags had something scurrying through it, and decided it was probably rats. 2 days went by of this scuttling, yet she never actually saw a rat, just movement amongst the bags. Finally curiosity got the better of her, and after 5 days, she dug through the garbage and found a puppy tied to a pole at the bottom of it. It had been there at least the 5 days she had noticed it, but the rope it was on was so short it had been stuck under the garbage pile the whole time.

She took it to the vet who asked why she saved it, as obviously someone wanted to get rid of it. He was even more surprised when she wanted to clean it up, get it healthy and take care of it. There's a strong "why bother" mentality here, with very few opportunities for disadvantaged animals to survive.

At the end of the piece I mentioned Animal Rescue Korea and the Facebook group "I adopted a homeless animal in Korea and lived to tell the tale," so check those out if you're looking for more information about responsibly adopting a pet and eventually taking it home with you.

Korea Times presents Korean dining etiquette.

Thanks to GFN's "City of Light" program for reminding me of this, from last week. The Korea Times presented some etiquette tips for those who would like to enjoy Korean food.

1. Wait until the oldest or most senior person at the table has begun eating before starting to eat.

2. Do not hold your spoon and chopsticks in one hand. When using chopsticks, place your spoon on the table.

3. Use your spoon to eat soup and other watery dishes before eating rice or other dishes.

4. Eat as quietly as possible and do not make excessive sounds with your utensils.

5. Refrain from excessive stirring of soup or rice at the table and do not pick out ingredients or seasonings you dislike.

6. For shared dishes, transfer food to individual plates. It is also good manners to transfer dipping sauces to individual plates before use.

7. Discreetly throw away meat and fish bones by wrapping them in tissue or paper napkin.

8. If you have to cough or sneeze, turn your face to the side and cover your mouth with your hand or a handkerchief out of courtesy to other people at the table.

I don't think I've ever seen "as quietly as possible" used to dictate any behavior in Korea, ever.

Overall divorce rates continue to drop, though international marriages continue to break up.

Korean divorce rates have dropped for the fifth consecutive year.

The number of couples filing for divorce fell in 2008 for the fifth consecutive year due mainly to a mandatory system under which couples are required to take a one- to three-month cooling off period.

Wait, what? Anyway, divorces by international couples are on the rise. From the Hankyoreh:

According to a report released Monday by Korea National Statistical Office the (KNSO), divorce rates are rapidly rising for international couples (meaning one Korean spouse and one foreign spouse) living in South Korea. Based on last year’s figures, divorce statistics show some 11,255 international couples divorced last year, representing a 29.8 percent increase from 2007 compared to a 7.5 percent increase for Koreans and their Korean spouses over the same period.

Among the divorces for international couples last year, divorces between a South Korean man and a foreign spouse accounted for 7,962 cases, more than twice the 3,293 divorces between a South Korean woman and a foreign spouse. Moreover, the 39.5 percent increase in divorces between South Korean men and foreign spouse far exceeded the 11.1 percent increase in divorces between South Korean women and a foreign spouse.

Experts are interpreting the rapid rise in divorces among international couples as having a direct correlation with the large increase since the 1980s in rural South Korean men’s rate of international marriage. The number of marriages between South Korean men and foreign women, which was 6,945 in 2000, roughly quadrupled to 28,163 marriages last year. During the same period, South Korean women’s rate of international marriage nearly doubled as well, increasing from 4,660 marriages to 8,041.

Well, there goes your Halloween lesson.

Thanks to singer "IU" (아이유) and her bringing the hottest American English slang of 2004 to Korea, you'll have a hell of a time with your Halloween lesson. K-pop has already made it difficult to get away with saying "One more time," "tell me," and "nobody," although my students seem to have forgotten that any of those songs ever existed. Here's "Boo":



For this particular video the 15-year-old decided to not wear pants, and instead opted for . . . I dunno, is that supposed to be a tutu?

* Update: dave points out that "Boo" samples Debbie Gibson's "Only in my dreams."

18-year-old Korean-American baseball player Jane Uh is continuing her quest to become the first woman in the Korean big leagues.

Jeollanam-do expected to have 65 new centenarians this year.

There are 65 people born in 1909 still in Jeollanam-do, and should everyone keep on as they've been keeping on, there will be 220 centenarians in the province this year. Of those 65---12 men and 53 women---Yeosu has seven, the administrative division with the most. Suncheon and Gwangyang have six each.

As it stands now, Suncheon has the highest number of centenarians in the province, at 27. Suncheon had, according to a 2006 article (reprinted below), the highest number of centenarians in the country in 2005.

South Korea had 961 people over the age of 100 as of November last year, the latest population and housing census said Wednesday. This is a 2.9 percent gain from 2000, the report compiled by the National Statistical Office (NSO) said. It added that the number of centenarians per 100,000 people came to 2.03 as of Nov. 1, 2005, up slightly from 2.02 in 2000. The census also said there were 857 female and 104 male centenarians, indicating that women lived longer than men, although the number of men over 100 jumped 26.8 percent compared to 2000, much higher than the 0.6 percent increase in women. Of the total, 394 were 100 years old as of last year, 199 were 101 years old and 54 were 104. The oldest persons alive as of late last year were two women born in 1894 who are 111 years old.

The oldest man alive is 107, while the census showed one married couple older than 100. The centenarians mainly worked in the agricultural sector. They also lived in a extended family structure made up of two to three generations living under the same roof. Reflecting the importance of healthy living habits, many ate moderately, did not smoke or drink and followed well-regulated daily activities. People who lived long usually had optimistic dispositions and enjoyed eating fruits and vegetables. Many lost their spouses to death, and very few through divorce. They also got married relatively young, with the average male taking a wife at the age of 21, while the women wed at 17.3. By area, 152 lived in Gyeonggi Province, followed by Seoul and South Jeolla Province. By city, Suncheon in South Jeolla Province had the largest number of centenarians with 18, followed by Jeju and Yeosu. The NSO report, however, said that of the 961 centenarians, 165 had been reported dead as of March 22.

South Korea takes first steps against swine flu.

The Korean government has begun screening passengers arriving from the US and Mexico, says the Korea Times, in light of the outbreak of Mexican swine flu that has killed 81 so far in those two countries, and which has led the US to declare a public health emergency.

The Incheon International Airport quarantine office has toughened a rapid antigen test to screen out possibly affected people on the spot. Those detected will immediately be sent to hospitals for treatment and isolation.

``If anyone has a high fever, feels lethargic and sick, has a runny nose or severely itchy throats for a week after a trip, he or she is advised to report to the nearest public healthcare center,'' Shin Sang-sook, a KCDC official said.

The government is also looking more closely at pork imports.

The Korean National Veterinarian Research and Quarantine Service said Sunday it would toughen inspections on sampled American and Mexican pork from Monday. ``There's no possibility that the meat will give people human swine flu, but the measure is expected to settle public anxiety toward the swine influenza A (H1N1), the newest strain of the virus detected,'' an institution spokesman said.

According to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Korea imported 200 tons of Mexican and 28,700 tons of American pork in the first quarter. Per capita pork consumption totaled 19.6 kilograms last year.

``It's safe to eat pork as it's commonly heated above 71 degrees Celsius,'' a ministry official said.

The KCDC also advised outbound travelers to monitor their food consumption while traveling.

The Joongang Ilbo also has the story. The BBC website answers some basic questions about the virus.

Photo of the day: Jindo Moses Miracle.

Visitors to Jindo walk the 2.8 kilometers from Gagye Beach to an outlying island as the sea parted for a few hours on Sunday.

I'll post my own pictures from my visit a little later, though I was disappointed in that nearly all the festival events---and the complete walk itself---turned out to be scheduled for Sunday, so I didn't stay too long on Saturday.

Korean the official language of Australia and New Zealand?

Dr. Kim Jae-bum, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, has written the Joongang Ilbo advocating establishing "language FTAs" with Australia and New Zealand:

In this context, a pact with Australia and New Zealand to use Korean and English as common official languages should be proposed as the best way to lay a solid foundation for concrete measures to achieve greater friendship and cooperation.

A language FTA would mean Korean, though geographically surrounded by the two mega-languages Chinese and Japanese, would overtake them in terms of practical use in Oceania. Korean would be taught at schools at all levels by Korean teachers with high proficiency in English. Korean would be used along with English in all public documents and road signs. Korean residents there will be the initial beneficiaries of such an accord.

Conversely, more Australian and New Zealand teachers with high proficiency in Korean will teach English in Korea. They will occupy a greater share of the huge English education market here.

If he's being facetious and satirizing the idea held by some to make English an official language of Korea, then his piece was very effective. If he's being serious . . . well, not so much. Your thoughts?

Feel like racing up Wolchulsan for charity?

A local teacher has organized a "King of the Mountain" race up Yeongam county's Wolchulsan, one of the region's most scenic and most popular mountains. It will take place on May 9th, will cost 5,000 won per person, and will have all proceeds going toward an orphanage in Yeosu. More on the website:

Prizes will be given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, and a certificate for all who enter. Although sponsorship is not mandatory, a prize will also be given for the person who raises the most money for the orphanage.

Even if you don't think you're up for the challenge of racing over a mountain, please join in and do a "fun run / walk" with your friends.

Registration will be from 9am.

The race will start at 10am. (Weather permitting)

See also the Facebook event page. Kudos to him for taking the initiative to organize such an event.

The commercial for Skylife HD with the Obama impersonator seems to be back in circulation.

That's a hell of a troll job.

I have to tip my hat, this is a fine piece of work in the Korea Times this evening.

As someone who has tutored a lot in Itaewon, Seoul, and worked with a lot of Koreans over my illustrious career, one thing distresses me to no end when I'm working in Korea: Canadian flags.

They're everywhere. They're sewn onto the backpacks of numerous drunken Canadians staggering in and out of nightclubs. They're being waved by loud Canadians in the bars in Itaewon.

They're on the clothing of Canadians selling marijuana. They're all over the place, kind of like Canadian English teachers with fake diplomas.

Brought to you courtesy of The Marmot's Hole. I am distressed that the KT chose this over my response to Park Nam-sheik's comments on native speaker English teachers, though. Maybe next week.

I also, in all seriousness, need to fire off some emails to the editors over there, because this is ridiculous. Any native speaker copyeditor would not have okayed this letter, the numerous ones that are obvious fakes, or the garbage rants we see with increasing frequency, and you'd think any Korean copyeditor worth his salary would disapprove of stuff like this. The KT is still a good source of news, but its reputation is severely damaged when it prints stuff like this on its opinion page.

Cab drivers rip-off Japanese tourists, says MBC's 불만제로.

According to an MBC show, black "call vans" in Seoul routinely rip-off tourists, especially Japanese. Something to think about in light of the new "foreigner-only" cabs on the way; will this practice increase or decrease?

Seven school staff killed in car accident.

Picture from this article.

The Korea Times reports seven teachers were killed last night.

The accident occurred at around 10 p.m. when a bus rear-ended a passenger car and about nine other vehicles, including those parked at roadside in Suyu-dong. Gangbuk-gu. The exact number of cars involved was not immediately known.

All the seven occupants of the Avante car were killed after moving to a nearby coffee shop after a dinner meeting, the police said, without giving details about the conditions of the injured.

A poster on Dave's says they were accountants and office workers, not teachers. To echo the comments on the article, my condolences, but there shouldn't have been seven people in an Avante. More in Korean here, and here's another photo.

* Update: Here's a little update a few days later.

Jeollanam-do festival preview in the KT.

My May festival preview article is in the Korea Times today. I don't often laugh at my own jokes, but I'm pleased with the seventh paragraph.

2009 Nagan Folk Culture Festival: May 3rd - 5th.

The 16th Nagan Folk Culture Festival will take place at Suncheon's Nagan Folk Village from May 3rd through the 5th. Odd timing perhaps, as that's a Sunday through Tuesday, though the 5th is Children's Day and thus a day we're off from school. It also means everyone else is off, so expect crowds.

I went to this festival last year, and highly recommended it as a good time to visit the folk village if you've never been. I'll just direct your attention to that post for a fuller write-up on the village and the festival, but I will quote again from a blogger who loves the village:

This place impressed me on several levels. Part museum, part artists' colony, and part time machine, this historic, inhabited fortress town is an ideal destination for those of us who adore travel but are easily bored by museums and standard touristy fare.

The Korean counterpart to Western Renaissance Fairs, folk villages are communities dedicated to preserving and perpetuating traditional customs and craftsmanship. The village at Nagan is exceptional in that it is housed inside a Chosun-era walled fortress, which in itself is a formidable historic landmark.

Here are a few photos I took last May:







And a 귀여운 아줌마:



I was standing there filming her go at the ddeok, but since this is Korea and people are oblivious to those around them, you can guess what somebody did.

City buses 63 and 68 go there, but they run somewhat sporadically so I recommend checking the online timetable so you don't end up waiting forever.

I added this to my list of Jeollanam-do festivals about a week after it originally came out. It'll be a busy week for festivals: the Damyang Bamboo Festival is the 2nd through the 7th, the Yeosu Turtleship Festival is the 2nd through the 5th, the Wando Jangbogo Festival is also the 2nd through the 5th, and the Boseong Green Tea Festival is the 8th through the 11th. The Jeonju Film Festival and the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival will still be on, as will a couple of smaller ones. Check the list for more information.

Pretty lanterns at Songgwangsa.

Photos of lanterns reflected in a pond at Suncheon's Songgwangsa temple were on the wire yesterday.



Songgwangsa is one of two significant temples in Suncheon, as is located on the otherside of Jogyesan from the other, Seonamsa. For my money, Seonamsa is more worth the visit, although I'd love to hike someday from one to the other.

Somebody in Toronto doesn't like me.

Judging by some recent revisions by 74.12.78.191 to the Seoul Podcast Wikipedia page, somebody in Toronto doesn't like me.

Ignorance from yet another big name in the English industry.

You know, I was going to give a nice little write-up of the International Graduate School of English, in light of the profile in the Korea Times this morning, but I don't think I'll be as friendly now.

The president [Park Nam-sheik] stressed that a teaching license doesn't mean competence as an English teacher. ``Schools should open their doors more to those who can speak English well. Still many teachers are opposing to give opportunities to English teachers without teaching certificates to teach students at public schools,'' Park said. At the same time, he was very pessimistic about the increasing number of foreign English teachers from the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

``Most of the native English speakers don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems,'' Park said. ``If we need native English speakers, it would be better inviting young ethnic Koreans who have hometowns here. Also, we have to invite qualified English teachers from India, Malaysia and the Philippines as English is not a language only for Americans and British people.''
``Above all, we should produce qualified teachers who can replace native English speakers. I can assure you our school will produce such teachers,'' he added.

If by lacking affection you mean that we don't beat the students to study harder, then yes, we are not as affectionate as our Korean peers. And it's remarkable how the industry is so eager to attract foreign teachers, then so resentful of them once they're here.

Yes, yes, it's our job to lead by example and buck these stereotypes, but it would also be helpful of policy-makers and business leaders didn't have such severe cases of cranio-rectal inversion. There was a lot of what I liked in the KT's profile, but I've got to be dismissive of a guy so ill-informed about who we are and what we do.

National Assembly panel okays KORUS FTA.

The Chosun Ilbo has a bunch of photos from today's match, including one devoted to the always ricetarded Kang Ki-kap.



Still, I think my all-time favorite Kang Ki-kap gallery is this one, courtesy of Korea Beat. Here's another great one. Why does he always look like he's going after Tommy Dreamer?




If you're interested, the Joongang Ilbo profiled him back in November, and brings us this image of him versus Sabu:

You won't be so cool when you're dead.

On the day one serial killer was sentenced to death, the Joongang Ilbo reminded us of another. The Korean Consumer Agency warned of this danger in 2007 (see post 17), and the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism also issued a caution in its Cultural Guidebook for Foreigners last year.

Suncheon Dongcheon Lantern Festival coming this Sunday.

This will be of no interest to those not in Suncheon, but if you live here you might want to check out the lantern festival (순천동천유등축제) coming on Sunday at 7:00 pm. It is prominently advertised this year with the lantern in the middle of the Medical Rotary (의료원로터리, near McDonald's). It's to celebrate Buddha's birthday (부처님오신날), which actually falls on May 2nd this year, and has a small parade along the river as well as a collection of a few lanterns. It's hard to write how small this festival actually is without sounding obnoxiously modest, but it is quite tiny. I stumbled upon it last year, though, and enjoyed the fireworks and the walk along the river. It will be held at Subyeon Park (수변공원), just in front of 탑웨딩홀.

Foreigner-only taxis that foreigners don't want to debut next month.

Foreigner-only taxis that will charge 20% more for the foreign-language abilities of their drivers will debut next month. Foreigners will be able to reserve them ahead of time, although the two websites listed in the article are not yet operational.

As you've probably noticed many cabs around the country have "free interpretation" signs on their window, which means the drivers are able to phone an interpreter. As Korea Beat translated last year, many drivers refuse to use this service, though, saying it's too impersonal. You'll notice that I have "BBB," the free over-the-phone interpretation service linked on my sidebar, which is something you might keep handy if you anticipate problems.

I've written about these cabs three times: here, here, and here. It makes more sense to either learn a few words of Korean or insist on using the free interpretation service already in place, rather than being on the look-out for these foreigner-only cabs. Well, if you're Korean is that bad that you can't say the name of your destination, then maybe you deserve to spend more.

And, you do have to wonder about what will qualify as foreign-language proficiency here. I linked to a Korea Times article in February that sounded encouraging

``Some interviewees were so fluent in foreign languages that we had a difficult time understanding what they said,'' said a Seoul government official and interviewer. ``We expect that they, with proficient language skills, will help upgrade taxi services for foreign customers.''

but after taking a quote-unquote English-language tour at Changdeokgung last weekend, and after meeting scores of Korean English teachers over the years, I have reasons to be skeptical. If you live in Korea, take a few seconds to learn how to pronounce where you're going, and don't overpay for something that's presented under the guise of being helpful. I find taxi drivers generally quite friendly and patient with my poor Korean, and are evidentally competent in dealing with some of the cretins that live around here, so hailing a cab shouldn't be an intimidating experience. Rather than further isolating ourselves from our communities, and getting driven around like we're some plump British imperialist touring the colonies, just do your best and deal with the challenges that come with operating in a foreign language and a foreign country.

All kinds of ssireum going on in Gurye.

All kinds of ssireum (씨름, Korean traditional wrestling) going on at a little tournament last weekend in Gurye county.




You know, I think I'd like to go to one of those matches. They had some in Naju the weekend before last, and as far as I know my next chance around here will be June 26th-28th when the inaugural women's tournament comes to Gurye. But, they seem to have little exhibitions all the time---like at upcoming festivals in Daegu and Gangwon---so maybe some fights will break out around me soon.

My latest is in the Joongang Ilbo today. They haven't yet run any sort of introduction to the premise, so please read how I prefaced it here and here. They also inexplicably edited the last paragraph to read:

If you don’t include North Korea, Japan is the closest foreign country to South Korea. Indeed most Koreans are far more likely to meet a Japanese person on the street than an Anglophone - bad blood between the two nations notwithstanding.

That doesn't make any sense. Here's how it read when I submitted it:

If you don’t include North Korea, Japan is the closest foreign country to South Korea, and each year citizens from both countries visit the other. Indeed most Koreans are far more likely to meaningfully use Japanese than English or other foreign languages, and with the economy being what it is, are more likely to meet a Japanese person on the street than an Anglophone. The bad blood between the two nations notwithstanding, considering the linguistic and geographic closeness, and considering the relatively poor ability of Koreans in English, perhaps we will see more interest in learning Japanese in the future.

Thank you Haydn Sennitt.

Well, trashing English teachers in a Korean newspaper is a quick way to get laid---writing about Dokdo is quicker---but I don't think Haydn is interested.

Since I've lived in Seoul, I've not really gone out of my way to meet westerners here. For one thing, many of them grumble incessantly (and needlessly) about Korea and make no attempt to learn the language or meet the locals. None of them want to contribute to the country, they just want to make a buck, pay back their debts at home, have sex with as many women as they can and add them to their ``trophy" collection, and then move onto the next country.

I've had the displeasure of hearing the most vile and despicable conversations at work, where North Americans talk about all the women they've slept with in Korea. They're sleazebags who don't even have the dignity to call their ex-lovers ``women." Instead, they call them ``sluts" and believe that Asian women are loose and ``dirty." These guys are highly educated, friendly and come from both the city and the country. They're black and white and some are even ``gyomin." They have an attitude of invade, rape, and pillage that makes me embarrassed to call myself a westerner, and being alone is preferable to being friends with people like that.

I'd invite him to go fuck himself, but he'd probably abstain. That wouldn't be appropriate for a man who spends so much time writing about gays living in sin.

Slow Walking Festival on Cheongsan-do.

Cheongsan-do island in Wando county is one of the four places in Jeollanam-do designated as "slow cities" by the Cittaslow movement. It seems especially beautiful, and the papers have more pictures this week of the canola flowers I linked to last week:



This past weekend Cheongsan-do held the first annual "Slow Walking Festival" (세계슬로우걷기축제), and there are loads of pictures on it from the wire.














As you can see they invited some foreigners to come in and take photos, though they're looking here a little 재미없어. The title of the last one is "청산도 체험하는 외국인," and while people love to photograph foreigners doing just about anything remotely Korean, they could just have easily labelled the other photos "청산도 체험하는 한국인" because the "slow cities" are so counter what most Koreans experience in their daily lives. Rural life has become quite exoticized: the rural experience and its daily chores have become the basis of a popular reality show, and even today Koreans will deny that elements of it exist into the 21st century. That's essentially what these slow cities symbolize, isn't it? A real-life, fully-functional folk village? Well, real-life until the older generation dies out, and fully-functional until it stops supporting itself by means other than the tourist industry. Not a bad idea, perhaps, and on that note I'll quote something I wrote last month, because I know you wouldn't click through the link and read it there:

It reminds me of something I thought a lot about while I was in Vietnam this past January. Tourists were spending lots of money---by Vietnamese standards at least---to visit floating markets and ramshackle villages in the Mekong Delta; I'm sure the locals appreciated the extra money, but I wonder what they thought about people paying to experience what poverty and isolation necessitate. I wonder, too, what the people who live in Jeollanam-do's "slow cities" have to say about this designation. I was going to write that I'm glad to see places in Jeollanam-do getting some attention, but after seeing the way people run rough-shod over the rural flavors of the month on TV, I wonder if it's not better to just leave these communities alone.

Meanwhile, the Korea Tourism Organization plans to offer hands-on experience of slow cities nationwide.

I thought about this, too, in Vietnam, and wondered if locals would be interested in doing something like a rural experience weekend, where they . . . um, experience rural life for a weekend. Koreans have come to render the rural part of their country exotic, to the point of denying it exists to outsiders, though watching tear-jerking commercials tells me there are still flickers of appreciation for it somewhere. Likewise, a popular TV program is all about celebrities acting like fish out of water in remote farming communities. Again, ironic to pay to do what poverty and geography necessitate, but I chuckled to myself that as South Korea is trying its hardest to promote tourism and its local attractions, foreigners from all over the world were paying to boat down a dirty river and take pictures of decrepit shelters and crowded alleys.