President of Seoul National University of Education calls native speaker English teachers unqualified, drug-takers.

So that's how you take the lead in a quest for multicultural society?

Song also stressed that Korean teachers should replace native English-speaking teachers as soon as possible. "Currently, only 20.5 percent of native English speaking teachers (at schools) have teaching licenses (according to data from the Education Ministry, November 2008), so it is urgent for us to foster teachers who have excellent English proficiency," Song said.

"The native speakers are not qualified and are often involved in sexual harassment and drugs."

This was posted to Gusts of Popular Feeling, which rightly points out it was written by Kang Shin-who, the worst journalist in Korea's English-language press. He links to a post I did in June, bringing into question some of the controversial comments the head of the International Graduate School of English said about native speaker English teachers. Here's what Park Nam-sheik was quoted as saying in the Times in April:

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.

This post provides some commentary on that, and I have it on pretty good authority that Kang twisted and even fabricated some of what's attributed to Park.

I most recently brought up Kang Shin-who on the 13th, when Professor Douglas Gress of Seoul National University claimed Kang distorted what he said in an interview about foreign professors and their hardships at that university.

And Gusts of Popular Feeling links to another of his own posts:

Another article by Kang from March this year has the supervisor of the Incheon education office, Koo Young-sun, on record saying that, "Many foreign teachers lack teaching methodology and some of them are not ethically qualified to treat children." A Yonhap article on the same topic (in Korean) has no mention of these controversial statements from the supervisor.

So either the people in charge of English education and its development in Korea are terribly ignorant, or some journalists feel compelled to create such a belief. Either way, it doesn't help us. I've written several times that there's a profound ignorance among many Koreans about who native speaker English teachers are and what they do, and articles like this, articles that perpetuate this ignorance, are dangerous. University presidents, or plenary speakers at KOTESOL conferences, can get a round of applause by pointing out how bad native speaker English teachers can be, but perhaps it would be more useful to point out just how broken the system is, just how many "unqualified" Korean "English" teachers there are, how the system sets up native speaker English teachers to fail, and that South Korea has decided not to make certificates and other "qualifications" necessary in its quest for quantity over quality.

I'd encourage you to browse the "English in the news" category for more about, well, English in the local news.

The Gwangju Kimchi Festival, and kimchi pop art.

I spent a few hours at the Gwangju Kimchi Cultural Festival (광주김치문화축제) on Wednesday. Actually, all the students at my school's Korean-language program were supposed to attend together, but those plans were cancelled on Wednesday morning because of swine flu worries. Apparently they anticipated more people at a festival on the outskirts of town on a Wednesday afternoon than on a crowded university campus. *cough* Anyway, it was especially quiet, and a very nice time.

The cabbage mascots were one of the highlights, seen here with a white guy photoshopped in.



They always travelled as a pair, chasing each other, fighting, proposing marriage, wrestling, and so on. I wonder if I can rent some for my next party. I took a short video, but once I started filming they stopped fighting.

It was a nice, quiet day at the festival site.







Inside the Bitgoeul Gymnasium, pictured above, is the Kimchi History & Culture Exhibition. Different varieties of kimchi, including some by award-winners, were on display.





Some kimchi art as well.




There was a fairly large collection, though it didn't photograph well. They had several exhibits inside, though most of the displays were in Korean. This one was close.



At the end of a hall was a small roulette wheel, and depending on which number you got you could try a sample of food from one of Gwangju's several sister cities. I got pork and sauerkraut from Germany.



Here comes the Kimchi Train.



The largest building on the grounds is Yeongju Gymnasium (영주종합체육관). Around the outside to the right was a number of food stalls and restaurants, while to the left were vendors selling local specialities, such as Shinan salt products or gulbi from Yeonggwang county.




The Kimchi Buffet Restaurant, like all the others in the middle of the afternoon, was empty. But if you go this weekend you can come here and . . . eat as much kimchi as you'd like.



The Turkish Kebab guys never miss a festival.



Inside the gymnasium were a number of vendors. It smelled like a subway car.






For especially big orders.



For 5,000 won you could of course make your own kimchi. This year they made it easier for photojournalists.



Photographers and visitors alike were largely absent on Wednesday. Here's another white guy photoshopped in.



It was all right, but a little disappointing because the head kimchi maker pretty much did everything. "First you have to mix the ingredients," he said. Then he mixed the ingredients. "Then you take the cabbage in your left hand and dab the sauce with your right." Then he took the cabbage in his left hand and dabbed the sauce with his right. I got to do a little bit, but I guess this way it guarantees it'll taste all right.

My favorite part, though, was behind the gymnasium and across from the park's swimming pool.



I like dioramas.







Inside the hall were dozens of posters about kimchi and the festival. Some were done by students, I learned, though some look like they were done by professionals. They were great.





Koreans' attempts at promoting their food and their culture overseas can appear quite aggressive, over-the-top, and ridiculous. Things like the "Kimchi Warrior" cartoon and the "Kimchi Love Festival" look kitsch to us, but I really don't think they were intended that way. These were probably not intended to be ironic as well, but they're both a commentary on the dish and its promotion, and I'll tell you what, if prints were available, or if they made t-shirts out of them, I'd certainly buy a ton. Much more palatable, pun sort of intended, than spokespeople telling us that kimchi prevents SARS, AIDS, and stab wounds, or government officials talking about Korean food invading and conquering foreign cultures, this was a nice, quirky way to promote a food that, to be honest, really won't find more than a niche market outside of Korea.









My apologies for the quality. I planned on cropping them for this post, but that would have taken forever. I asked some of the attendants in the hall where the posters came from, and what would be done with them after the festival, and they didn't know. They asked a couple of the student artists---high school or college, perhaps---and they said they would just be returned when the festival closes.

The festival is held next to Gwangju's World Cup Stadium, surrounded by a nice little park.





The festival runs through Sunday, November 1st. The World Cup Stadium is accessible by a few city buses. There are also shuttle buses to the Design Biennale, which stop between the stadium and the festival site; I'm not sure if shuttle buses run to the Kimchi Festival, but buses to the Bienalle leave at 10:20, 11:40, 14:30, 15:00, 16:20, and 17:40. I suspect the festival will be a lot more crowded this weekend, though if you're in the area it's worth checking out.

One good thing about the Gwangju Photonics Expo.

The Gwangju Photonics Expo (2009 광주세계광엑스포) was supposed to run from September 10th through November 5th, was scaled back to October 9th through November 5th because of swine flu concerns, but has yet to open.

But there is one good thing to come out of this ridiculously over-hyped event: the logo.



It's the Chinese character 光, meaning "light," neatly combined by the red stroke with the Korean word "빛," also meaning "light." That's the same 光, pronounced 광, in Gwangju.

Kwangju Women's University picks its Smile Queen.

Rows of smiling faces (1, 2) at the Kwangju Women's University Smile Queen Contest (광주여자대학교 제3회 스마일 퀸 콘테스트):





These are women in the university's "Stewardess" department (스튜어디스학과). Say what you want about South Korea using primarily young, attractive women on their flights; the service is far superior to anything I've dealt with from North American airlines.

Kim Han-na, 22-years-old presumably by Korean reckoning, was named the Smile Queen: