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.
26 comments:
"...have sex with as many women as they can and add them to their ``trophy" collection...."
-- Oh, now THAT hurts!
An undergrad I know approached me last semester to ask about teaching English in Korea, knowing that I live in Seoul, after he saw an ad for a recruiter on one of the campus bulletin boards.
I asked him what his interest was in going abroad to teach (Did he have some interest in Korea? Was he interested in teaching? Did he want to travel? Did he think he could make good money? Were job prospects not good right now in Hawaii?).
The first thing out of his mouth was that he heard it was easy to meet girls there.
I told him he'd have better luck picking off mai-tai'd tourists in Waikiki. I also asked him if he smokes pot, because it's not something you should do at all in Korea, but he said he doesn't.
I'm not sure if he contacted the recruiter.
Anyway, such people do exist. I'd like to think that people who are serious about their work far outnumber the people who came for whoring, but the stereotype is sort of self-perpetuating, even if the Haydn Sennitts of the world don't bring it up in print.
Still, this kind of op-ed is drivel. The KT needs to do a complete housecleaning and do away with the high school newspaper twaddle.
WORD VERIFICATION: ingledia
I think I'm going to name my first daughter that.
Dude's a Twat!
Come to think of it, I think this is all a ruse.
WORD VERIFICATION:
cycho
Cool.
It's amusing that someone who quotes from the bible so much forgot this line: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone..."
Also, this is amusing:
"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 ....
Most of my close friends here in Seoul are American Christians..."
If 'none of' the people he meets want to contribute to the country, etc, I guess that must include his Christian friends, whose failings he overlooks because of their religion?
"Well I am truly sorry for offending, and I must say that my colleagues that I spoke to are actually Canadian... The problems I spoke about aren't just American either, but much of what I've expericenced here with Americans is the seedier side. What Koreans are doing here is basically adopting another culture without really knowing what they're taking on... It's as if all things North American are good, and it's actually quite scary."
From the comment section on this douche's blog.
http://giraffepen.blogspot.com/2009/04/article-for-korea-times.html#comments
It seems like he's done some dating and banging of his own.
Any time I see these asskissing articles in print, I tell myself I'm glad I work and hang out with people who don't meet such dickhead descriptions at all. Seriously, where must one work to meet such overwhelming numbers of these losers?
Then another thought occurs to me. The company you keep says more about you than it does them. If Mr.Holy Roller is meeting and hanging out with so many assfaces, that's on HIM, isn't it?
I think it's hilarious, while blogging about his wife's wedding singing, he let's the world know she wasn't singing that well because she had the hershey squirts.
Lovely.
ROK Hound wrote:
Then another thought occurs to me. The company you keep says more about you than it does them. If Mr.Holy Roller is meeting and hanging out with so many assfaces, that's on HIM, isn't it?
Hmm... as much as I think this guy is a real duckweed, I don't know if it's fair to come to that conclusion. The Anglophone community is scattered enough among a much larger population that you have a much smaller "foreigner" pool of potential "friends" and acquaintances to choose from.
Particularly back in the 1990s I had a close friend with whom I shared a similar academic background and we got along well. We were friends with people he knew from his primary place of work, including one New Yorker who was at heart a generous guy, but who could be really abrasive at times. I remember thinking that if I'd known this guy back in California, I wouldn't hang out with him at all. I would have just gotten sick of it all and hung out with other people. But those other "better" people weren't always easy to find in Seoul.
In the end, though, I'm glad I got to know this guy. He was older and had been in Korea (as part of the military) for a lot longer than I had (he was the inspiration for this May 2006 post), and he had good stories to share. I became less of a snob and learned to tolerate stuff I might not have before.
So, yeah, while there are some jackasses, I guess the situation is a rewarding one in that we can broaden our horizons in terms of the type of people we encounter and get to know.
I'm not sure I really had a point.
If you look at the guys entries under the 'SSA' tag, it becomes clear that the guy has issues.
John B wrote:
If you look at the guys entries under the 'SSA' tag, it becomes clear that the guy has issues.
He clearly states that he "used to be" gay:
When I came out of the gay lifestyle my actions and mannerisms were quite effeminate and I gave out signals to other men- both deliberate and subconsciously subtle- that I wasn't comfortable in my masculine identity.So running against your God-given grain is bound to give someone issues.
I feel sorry for his wife. Unless he's found one of those women who is sexually repressed and thinks getting nekkid and having intercourse is "지저분해." Then they're perfect for each other.
All reformed gay men should come to Korea, where a movie entitled "40-year-old virgin" would be about an entire demographic.
This is like a John Huer/Jessica Kim mashup, right?
PS: And aren't John Huer and Jessica Kim both from America?
Practice what you preach, matey-mate!
Holy cow, I read the comments that Matt linked to and had to ask myself if people really communicate in such a manner. And hiding behind that black mask is fitting.
That's it! I'm going to start writing about Christians and homos on my blog. Look at all the comments this twat gets!
Also forgive my ignorance - what is an SSA?
@Stafford--
Took me awhile to figure out what SSA meant as well-- Same Sex Attracted. Haydn is gay but has "reformed" by marrying a Korean woman, though by his own admission, he is still attracted to guys. No wonder he has so many issues-- he is lying to himself.
ZOMG how the hell did this get published?
When he assumes that a country doesn't have enough cultural integrity to adopt these things by choice, that they are simply helpless, doe-eyed victims of cultural imperialism who can't make their own choices, then he's being just as condescending towards Korea as the people he's criticizing.
Simply assuming that just because a Korean person is going to pricey coffee shops because they want to be more Western isn't giving that person much credit. The Korean people I know go to those coffee shops for the same reason anyone else in the world does: they want a good cup of coffee and a place to sit down and study or chat with friends. Yeah buying overpriced coffee is a shallow status symbol, but that strikes me as more of a Korean thing than anything else.
Just having Western brands doesn't mean Korea is forfeiting its culture. People around the world co-opt cultural phenomena from other countries all the time...and then it make it their own: California rolls, French hip-hop, and Korean Dunkin Donuts are just a few examples.
The assumption he makes from the outset is that Korea is "Westernizing" because they long to be more like Americans. I prefer to call it what it really is: globalization. It's a topic that been dealt with plenty of times and doesn't need clowns like him making commentary on. Asshat.
"Same Sex Attracted". Is that what the kids are calling it these days!? I almost spat my coke all over my laptop!
If a guy comes to Korea just to soak his noodle, so what? Let him bang away until his pecker falls off. It ain't wrong.
He probably dresses his wife up as a dude and corn holes her.
Just in case you haven't seen it --- Mr. Sennitt is a formerly practicing homosexual:
http://www.ssatoday.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/october_17.pdf
God bless the Korea Times --- more entertainment than "America's Got Talent."
Stafford:
I think SSA works like a euphemism for those in the certain demographics who believe homosexuality can be "cured" and want to refer to it by euphemism in order to make it seem so sinful that we don't even dare say its name. Dudes liking dudes is the Voldemort of sins, didn't you know? I went to a Christian university where you could meet people who very earnestly and prayerfully meant to talk their "struggling" friends out of being gay, and I'm still at a loss as to what I'd say to them.
Kind of like "Living in sin" instead of "moving in together"
as for the article...when Peter talks about Paul, we learn more about Peter than we do about Paul.
Er ... I deleted my last comment because, apparently, I can't type a sentence without making 461 typos. Anyway:
Roboseyo said: as for the article...when Peter talks about Paul, we learn more about Peter than we do about Paul.That was well said. I feel sorry for the guy actually. I think I called him a wanker or something yesterday but really I think the whole thing is real, real sad.
I cannot understand comments like these. I've been in Korea a few years now, and yeah, I've met some assholes, but I've only met ONE sleazeball like this guy is talking about.
Out of the many dozens of foreigners I've met/known in Korea one sleazeball does not seem like a high percentage.
This is so much exaggeration here it's ridiculous.
I often wonder if anyone even edits Korean newspapers...
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