Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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.

21 comments:

Jamie said...

Do they read the articles they print?

A. Chayanov said...

Ouch! way to call out Hamburger Heaven, Elizabeth

kushibo said...

Fake, fake, fake. At least I hope it's fake, because I would be horrified by a parent allowing their nine-year-old girl (and that is her job description) to publicize her email address.

I used to know the editor of the KT. I might head over there this summer and have a sit-down with whomever is left among the people I knew. They really need to clean up their act.

Anonymous said...

Not a chance in hell that is real. What 9 year old says "typically boring matters"?

Michael Foster said...

"I had no idea how much trouble the Korean people go through just to make us feel welcome and communicate. "

What, you don't think 9 yr olds talk like that?

Rawdogger said...

This is a satirical letter aimed at showing how ridiculous Mr. Huer's article was....bravo indeed.

King Baeksu said...

I'm a 5 year old toddler, and even though I think girls are icky, I like her letter a lot!

Unknown said...

I could see it as satire because nine-year-olds don't write like that, and some of what is written is beyond the cognitive ability of someone who's nine.

I've been in Korea long enough to have lost my eye for satire.

kushibo said...

A very precocious 4th or 5th grader could sound like that, but it would be rare.

I was reading the front page and editorial page in 5th grade and I know I wasn't the only one.

But there are too many other clues that it's likely someone taking the piss.

Brian said...

It's a good piece of satire. I'm disappointed, though, to see it printed. I doubt whoever is in charge of the desk over there realized it was a joke, though---just like with the Ron Jeremy letter on Friday---and instead saw some merit in the letter.

King Baeksu said...

NOTE: REAL TALK!

I've been in Korea off and on since 1996 and have had a number of essays published in the Korea Times over the years.

I stopped making contributions to them mainly because the editors there are such goddamn flakes.

They hardly ever return emails, and sometimes take more than two months to pay for contributions. In fact, they never actually paid me for an essay I wrote on the 2002 World Cup.

I think they are ripe for being punk'd mainly for their half-assed approach to their job. Ever notice how many of their stories are rip-offs from other papers? No doubt, they just forward whatever letters to the editor they get to the designers, and barely give them a second glance.

I think I'm a pretty well-known writer here and have written for everything from the Chosun Ilbo to Cine21 to Newsweek over the years, and yet the KT editors are still quite rude to me and can't even return emails or pay me on time. That's why I stopped writing for them. I can only imagine what kind of attitude they have towards less well-known contributors.

All they have to do is call up each contributor whose article they want to print in order to verify the authenticity of the writer, but like I said they're too full of themselves and too half-assed to bother actually doing that.

So I say screw them, and fully encourage others to keep on punking them until they get their damn act together!

bingbing said...

Doubt it's "fake". They put a pic up to legitimise it.. and they'd get their asses sued off if it were. Na, it probably is a nine year old girl... with mummy patting her on the back (understatement).

Sounds like mommy's hubby ain't an English teacher over here.

This Is Me Posting said...

Whenever I see an email address ending with a number that could easily double for a birth year, I always assume it is, because by and large, people are pretty uncreative with their email addresses.

Muckefuck said...

It's Jon Huer's daughter.

Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Scott, it's interesting to hear your inside scoop about the Korea Times. I wrote four or five articles for them last fall and never received a penny. They seem very poorly organized.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

Brian said...

Last summer I was told I'd be paid for what I write, but haven't seen a penny yet either.

Brian said...

Last night I emailed the editor about this spoof; kind of ironic because earlier in the day I warned him about printing inflammatory letters and fakes. He replied today and said they emailed and confirmed that it was actually from a nine-year-old. *face palm* I guess they don't realize anybody can make an email address.

m.f. said...

Brian, I want to say thank you for reading the Korea Times so I don't have to.

Roboseyo said...

m.f.: funny you say that. I feel the same way about Brian's trips to Dave's ESL Cafe for community updates.

bingbing said...

Agreed m.f. and Roboseyo.

Brian said...

I think the KT is still good for news---though I've been checking the Herald a lot more lately since it no longer has a ridiculous website---but when I check the opinion page of the KT, I do it with the intention of finding something to make fun of. I'm rarely disappointed.

What they should do (I forgot to mention this), is limit letters to the editor to a hundred words or something. Like TIME magazine. Give the space to the columnists, to people picked by the staff to write about a certain issue, or to submissions worthy of print.