Today some comments from somebody purporting to be Professor Douglas Gress, interviewed in Kang's piece, showed up in the comment section under the Korea Times website. Yesterday's post received a visit today from SNUDoug, directing readers to the Times' comment section, and adding the following comment:
Yes, I was interviewed, but in a nutshell, almost everything was taken out of context, and the purpose of the interview was to introduce a new framework for the integration of foreign faculty into Korean universities. The interview had absolutely nothing to do with SNU, and I stated that emphatically several times.
Sitemeter tells me that SNUDoug came to my site by running a daum.net search for douglas gress, and his IP address places the user at Seoul National University, for what that's worth. Here are some of the comments SNUDoug left on the Korea Times page:
Just for the record, I was the person interviewed for this 'Exclusive'. The purpose of the interview was to highlight a framework for the successful integration of foreign professors into Korean universities. Througout the interview, I constantly stressed that our article, currently accepted for publication, has nothing to do with SNU in particular. Nothing. Many of the quotes the reporter uses are taken totally out of context.
. . .
Orientation, both for new foreign professors and for students, is only one of several general recommendations, all discussed in the interview, that we make for all universities in Korea wishing to invite teaching and research professionals. The 'seniority system' was mentioned in the interview, but only in passing. It was not stressed, but merely given as an example of an organizational and cultural difference.
. . .
Also, I never said that the competition for foreign professors in any way diminishes the potential benefit to students of employing foreign professors at Korean universities. This was taken totally out of context (and doesn't even make sense!). The purpose of the article was to introduce our framework for the successful integration of foreign faculty to Korean universities.
. . .
The reporter slipped in some quotes and seems to have only served his own sensationalist agenda. Too bad, because during the interview, I tried to stress the potential benefits of the framework we developed. In fact, I told him that any time change is introduced into a system, there is a process of adjustment.
. . .
I pointed out that the large scale recruitment of foreign profs in Korea is a relatively new concept. I just wanted to clear up some potential misconceptions pertaining to the actual purpose of the interview. Personally, I'm very disappointed with the results.
. . .
And if anyone tries to claim that there was a language barrier, that's just not true. The entire interview was recorded, and I speak Korean. The interview was conducted in English, but obviously the transcript wasn't reviewed. Again, too bad.
. . .
My co-author and I NEVER published anything related to SNU in our findings or recommendations. I NEVER said that SNU neglected foreign professors after they arrived.
. . .
And, for the record, I am aware of no 'speculation' regarding the exit of a foreign professor. As for the 'dismal future of the state-run university', SNU just broke into the rankings of the Top-50 universities in the world. Oh, and that WAS mentioned during the interview!
. . .
And, for the record, I distinctly told the reporter that SNU DOES have a newly created International Office that DOES provide orientation and support for foreign faculty.
. . .
My research is primarily on E. Asian firms and my wife is Korean, so why not be here? Over 30 professors from N. American and Europe applied for this position. It's competitive. As for the shave? Sure, I just came off of 3 weeks of intense writing and was invited to deliver the opening paper at an international society's innaugural conference. I was pretty tired! Nobody told me they'd be taking pics during the interview. In my defense, I usually do shave.
Good for the professor, if that's him, for trying to set the record straight. But, when you talk to Kang Shin-who, that's what you get, and Gress really should have known better. Recently Kang has drawn the ire of foreign English teachers for his biased articles, he has angered people at the International Graduate School of English by mangling and fabricating an interview with the president, and he recently did a piece about ATEK in which he interviewed the head of a xenophobic hate group but didn't talk to anyone with the ATEK organization. It's been said before, and needs to be said again, that if you have an issue you'd like covered in the papers, do not deal with the Korea Times or Kang Shin-who.
14 comments:
LOL...way to track me down, and props for verifying the authenticity of my comments. Also, thanks for that synopsis! Yes, I'm in my office at SNU, and, yes, I do have a Ph.D. (in economic geography) Good luck with your blog and thanks, again, for the follow through. Much appreciated.
Yeah, that is in fact Doug responding alright, I know that he quite disturbed by all of this.
The irony of this 'report' on the disregard for foreigners is that clearly Kang Shin-woo used a relatively powerless foreigner to further his own anti-SNU agenda. What a shameful display again by the Korea Times.
whose piece, not who's piece
I'm correcting the mistake because it's highly visible in the title. Wouldn't want a Korean reporter mistaking you for an unqualified foreign English teacher. ;)
At what point is someone just going to punch Kang in the face?
The slogan for my blog is all the news the "KT" won't print. Korea the rape capital of Asia or korean Father gets 2 years for raping his 8 year-old daughter for the last 3 years. http://www.youseok.wordpress.com
Good lord, Kang surely has to lose his job someday soon... These embarrassing screw-ups are enough to sink anyone.
Now if a retraction peice was ever written id do a flip in my seat, its seems that kang is accountable to no-one hence he keeps getting away with trashy reporting
I don't get the part about the shave? Your comment indicates that you were unshaven during the interview; Did Kang report that in his article? I think it is not uncommon to have busy professors teaching or around campus unshaven in the west. But I guess if you are a white guy, you grow a man-style beard as opposed to the high school boy peach fuzz more Korean man can barely grow. Again, they don't (cannot) understand us.
Does anyone think that by speaking out (and thank you Dr. Gress) some accountability will arise?
I am glad that the first person to (sort of) publicly respond to Mr. Kang's 5th grade-esque "journalism" is not en E-2 visa holder, but a Ph.D. holding professor at Korea's most respected institution (in that I include banks, the government, police, etc).
That being said, in order for a larger change to occur, not just in regards to Mr. Kang's employment but in the coverage of all things pertaining to foreigners, we need more people to step forward on OTHER viable news sources and call out the poor integrity of papers like The Herald. Imagine if all the misquoted foreigners, bar owners, police officers, rape victims, and German TV personalities (and she did) came forward and said outright "I was misquoted, misrepresented, and taken out of context and I demand a retraction and an apology from (news source here)."
If The Herald wants to remain Korea's #1 source of English news as they claim they are (although in my case this blog seems to be) then they need to up their ante. Hire better editors and reporters and demand quality. Their competition has an unbelievable opportunity to upend the market for foreign news by printing piece after piece of "second hand" stories about how the Herald's stories are blatantly wrong, biased, and disrespectful.
This is long, but hopefully will help to set the record straight. Below is the formal letter of complaint that I just sent the editor at the Korea Times. This will hopefully result in a printed retraction or at least clarification.
Dear Ms. Oh:
This is a formal letter of complaint regarding the article, 'SNU Professors Face Cultural Shock,' that appeared in the Korea Times, Tuesday, 13 October 2009. I have written directly to the reporter who interviewed me, Mr. Shin-who Kang, regarding my dissatisfaction with the article, and, because neither Mr. Kang nor the Korea Times have taken any corrective action, I am writing you directly.
The interview that was conducted by Mr. Kang was to explicitly pertain to the introduction of a new framework for the successful integration of foreign faculty to Korean universities developed by myself and Professor Lynn Ilon, both of Seoul National University's College of Education. The purpose was to introduce a positive effort being undertaken by foreign professors at a Korean university for Korean universities.
I specifically and repeatedly informed Mr. Kang that our work and resulting article was in no way connected with anything at SNU. At great length, I took the time to describe our framework and its potential contribution to the overall competitiveness of Korean students, faculty (both foreign and Korean), and universities. I outlined the student, faculty, and administrational considerations presented in our article, along with a number of general policy recommendations.
As I carefully explained to Mr. Kang at length, our article discusses the following considerations with relation to the successful integration of foreign faculty into Korean universities:
STUDENT CONSIDERATIONS:
1) Attitudes and Perceptions
2) Differing English Ability Levels
3) Academic Ethics
FACUTLY CONSIDERATIONS:
1) Teaching
2) Grading
3) Research
ORGANIZATIONAL/ADMINISTRATIVE CONSIDERATIONS:
1) Recruitment of foreign faculty
2) Support
3) Retention and Promotion
However, Mr. Kang's article largely misrepresented the intent and content of our interview, and my input was grossly quoted out of context. Mr. Kang specifically tied the work done by Professor Ilon and myself to his perception of events that have allegedly occurred at SNU. That was negligent, and the result was unacceptable.
Below, please find the original article and my complaints (in bold font) regarding specific portions of the article written by Mr. Kang.
_____________________________
A number of foreign professors have packed up and flown home after failing to adapt to the Korean school system.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the intent or content of my interview with Mr. Kang. In fact, I specifically informed him that our interview had nothing to do with any alleged recent events at SNU or any other Korean university. The opening to the article is therefore extremely misleading and completely out of context.
Two foreign professors at Seoul National University (SNU), which has around 60 full-time professors from overseas, observed that the problem derives from a lack of orientation. In other words, the school was more concerned with adding a foreign presence to their faculty, but neglected the professors when they arrived.
At no time did I tell Mr. Kang that any alleged problem at SNU was derived from a lack of orientation, and I never told him that 'the school' (SNU) was primarily concerned with adding foreign professors but then neglecting them. I mentioned an organizational policy suggestion made by Professor Ilon and myself regarding the value of orientation for both Korean students and faculty. That was one recommendation that I mentioned, but Mr. Kang used this completely out of context. Again, nothing in our work specifically relates to SNU, and I made this perfectly clear to Mr. Kang during the interview.
(Continued from previous post)
Douglas R. Gress, assistant professor of geography, and Lynn Ilon, associate professor of education, published this observation in a thesis.
First, I am assistant professor of economic geography (not geography). Second, Professor Ilon and I never published any such observation. In fact, I told Mr. Kang more than once that our article has not yet been published. It has been accepted by an internationally rated academic journal and is currently in the review process. Mr. Kang fully knew this based on our interview yet chose to write the above statement. The statement is incorrect.
In an interview with The Korea Times, Monday, at the SNU campus, Prof. Gress, the main author of the paper, suggested that Korean universities should introduce orientation programs for foreign faculty members so that the invited professors could understand the cross cultural and organizational differences between Korean and foreign systems.
This is correct, but unfortunately only addresses one of many recommendations that we make in our research article.
He also pointed out the prevailing seniority system in which professors get promoted in accordance with experience, is in contrast with the merit-based promotion system overseas.
This is correct, but I specifically told Mr. Kang that this was just an example of an organizational cultural difference. Why was this fact highlighted in article given the substantial amount of more important information supplied to Mr. Kang? Again, this misleads your readership with regard to the intent and content of my interview with Mr. Kang and the Korea Times.
"Korean universities are competing for foreign faculty in an era of global expansion in higher education," said Gress, who has studied and taught students in Korea for eight years, adding that this clips a potential contribution by foreign teachers and deprives the students of a chance to learn from them.
First, I told Mr. Kang that I have 8 years of university teaching experience. I have been a resident of Korea since 1993 and received my MBA from a Korean university's Graduate School of International Studies.
Second, I never added, "...that this clips a potential contribution by foreign teachers and deprives the students of a chance to learn from them." This makes no sense. I only told Mr. Kang that Korean universities are competing for foreign faculty globally. I told him that our recommended framework would help to enhance the effective integration of foreign professors into Korean universities, and could therefore help to improve the competitiveness of Korean students and universities. Mr. Kang therefore took my input completely out of context.
"We need to simultaneously focus on student, faculty and administrative considerations with the goal of not only increasing the effectiveness of foreign faculty recruitment and retention, but also the overall productivity of all participants in the process," he added, noting that he personally has had no problems.
This is true, but it was taken directly from the article abstract written by myself and Professor Ilion. I sent Mr. Kang the abstract. If he quoted from the abstract, that should be made known to the reader.
Foreign faculty members and international students have complained about the insufficient means of communication with the administrative staff.
Again, this has nothing to do with the intent or content of my interview. As such, my input above is all taken out of context. If Mr. Kang and/or the Korea Times have an agenda concerning SNU, this should have been made known to me.
SNU had a tenured foreign professor quit during the semester without giving prior notice. Speculation is rife that she departed for alleged unfair treatment and the 'dismal' future of the state-run university.
This is old news, and I have no knowledge that 'speculation is rife' concerning one professor's departure. Also, I informed Mr. Kang that SNU has recently joined the ranks of the top-50 universities in the world. He was aware of this. How, then, is the 'future of the state-run university' 'dismal'? This is sensationalist and misleading reporting, and goes against the actual facts reported to Mr. Kang.
SNU hasn't commented on the two professors' recommendations.
Of course SNU hasn't commented on our recommendations. SNU doesn't know about our recommendations! As I told Mr. Kang during the interview, the paper has not yet been published.
It has so far ignored complaints and requests by foreign students about their needs ranging from more classes in English to a prayer room for Muslim students. Chung Min-ho, spokesman of the university, told The Korea Times, Monday that SNU was unaware of any problems with foreigner students or professors at the school.
Again, this is in no way contextually relevant to the intent and content of the interview I underwent with Mr. Kang.
I formally and strongly request that the Korea Times immediately print a clarification concerning the above article based on my accompanying comments. You also have my permission to print the body of this e-mail as a ‘Letter to the Editor’ if you should feel that this is a more expedient way of addressing this problem. Of course, an apology from the Korea Times and from Mr. Kang personally is in order.
Regards,
Doug Gress
Douglas R. Gress, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Economic Geography
Dear Mike:
Kang Shin-who works for the Korea Times, not the Korea Herald.
Right on Matt... easy mistake. Thanks!
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