Mystery donor comes to Jeonju again.

Photograph from Yonhap.

Jeonju's Secret Santa (or angel without a face, 얼굴 없는 천사) visited the Nosong-dong Community Center (노송동 주민센터) in Wangsan-gu on the 28th.



데일리안 writes that he or she brought 80,265,920 won (USD 69,120) this time:

박스 안에는 5만원권 100장이 묶여진 돈다발 10개(5천만원)와 만원권 100장이 묶여진 다발 30개(3천만원), 그리고 잔돈이 들어있는 돼지저금통, 결식아동돕기용으로 제작된 사랑의 빵저금통 각 1개씩에 들어있던 26만5천9백2십원(500원짜리 20만1천5백원, 100원짜리 6만천8백원, 50원짜리 천7백5십원, 10원짜리 8백70원) 등을 포함해 총 8천26만5천9백20원이 들어 있었다.

From the Korea Times on the 29th:

The center believes the donor is a man as the caller has been male since 2002, though the ages of the callers sound different.

In 2000, the money was delivered by an elementary school student and in 2001 by a man in his 20s. Since 2002, the donor has made donations by calling the center to inform them where he has put the money.

"The voices have not been the same. Sometime it was thought to be a man in his 60s and other times it sounds like someone between 30 and 50," another center official said.

Still, Han and other officials believe the donor is the same man and he has some link to Nosong-dong.

"We have been waiting for the call for days and are so relieved that he made it," Han said. "I believe he has close links to our village. He could be from this town or might be a resident."

The money has been deposited with the account of the charity organization Community Chest of Korea and will be spent to help poor residents in the village with the population of 16,900.

"In Nosong-dong, there are 631 poor households receiving government subsidies and 218 seniors living alone," the center chief said. "As he donated a large amount of money, more households will be able to receive aid."

Han said his village has become famous thanks to the faceless angel. "I hope his covert charity will become a small impetus for people to care for their needy neighbors."

Last year the Times wrote that the donor left instructions:

``We are glad that such a warmhearted person lives here. As the Santa wants, we will distribute the 20 million won to 100 households with child breadwinners in the area,'' Park Myeong-hee, head of the residents' center, said.

The Herald says the original donor may be dead:

Unlike in previous years, a note accompanied this year's gift indicating that the original donor had passed away. City officials believe the amount given this year included the money received at the deceased's funeral.

Korean government to create blacklist of "incompetent" native speaker English teachers.

Kang Shin-who writes this evening in the Korea Times:

Elementary and secondary schools plan to create a black list of ``incompetent'' native English speakers and to ask immigration not to reissue English-teaching or E-2 visas to them.

Also, the schools will share individual assessments of foreign teachers among themselves. About 23,000 instructors are working in Korea, among them 8,000 are at the schools.

. . .

The National Institute for International Education (NIIED) will team up with the association to evaluate their performance. But it has not yet made public what objective criteria will be used in concluding whether they are competent or not.

Indeed, it will be vitally important to learn what the criteria are and whether they're "objective." As I've written nearly every time NSETs come up, no planning or support goes into using native speaker English teachers in school. If there is no plan in place for using these teachers, there can also not be a system for evaluating them. You can't evaluate teachers on certain standards when they were not held to them throughout the contract.

Furthermore, when schools aren't prepared to use native speaker English teachers, it's also likely that schools and teachers aren't familiar with the teaching styles used by them (and, vice versa, native speaker English teachers aren't familiar with the methods used among Koreans). Will a teacher get marked down for having students move around and talk to one another? Those are certainly foreign techniques to the Korean classroom, but ones that might fit in well when teaching how to communicate in English. I anticipate a lot of evaluations that say "Brian is good teacher. He is handsom guy^^" or "mr. Brian is not good. He is not smile and his class is not funny." Do Korean teachers and administrators, most of whom learned English from other Koreans with even worse English then them, really have the faintest idea how to evaluate native speaker English teachers?

When I looked at another Times article "12% of Native English Teachers Dismissed at Schools in Ulsan"---which took that angle in spite of some 88% of teachers apparently doing just fine---I brought up other reasons for teachers not to have their contracts renewed. Here's what the article had to say:

The office [of education] said that it has not renewed their contracts after judging their methods to be inappropriate for teaching students in English.

A written survey was conducted to determine how many acted decently, how faithful they were to their duty, how well they guided students and how well they taught English.

. . .

Among the dismissed were those who often yelled at students, argued with Korean teachers assisting them and wore indecent clothes. Some had to visit hospital too often for weight problems and some refused to teach after school, according to the survey.

There are of course bad teachers, unprofessional teachers, lazy teachers, and teachers who for whatever reason just don't fit in Korea. But there are also good teachers who find themselves at bad schools, or who find themselves paired with rotten co-teachers. There are teachers who want to try another school, another level, or another city. And, in keeping in line with those comments in the Times piece, there are teachers who dislike having to teach all kinds of afterschool classes and workshops, which are in fact not mandatory. You can bet a teacher who chooses not to re-sign because of a bad co-teacher, an unsatisfactory apartment, or unpaid overtime won't be given a fair hearing.

It's interesting to note, too, that native speaker English teachers aren't given the opportunity to evaluate the Korean English teachers at the school. At the end of each year NSETs are given a questionnaire where they answer a few questions about their school, their apartment, their coworkers, and so on, but it's not confidential and can be, and probably is, seen by the other English teachers at the school. Many NSETs do have legitimate complaints about their co-teachers---teachers who do not come to class, teachers who do not come to the mandatory workshops, teachers who do not participate in class, teachers who sleep in class, teachers who are violent with students, teachers who can neither understand nor use English, or teachers who are just not very good---yet nobody learns about it. Instead it's the NSET who pays for bad relationships and bad classes, it's the NSET who isn't re-signed, and it's the NSET, if this plan goes into place, who will be blacklisted.

Today's article continues:

NIIED, which runs the English Program in Korea, or EPIK, will play a central role in operating training programs for the foreigners.

The government also plans to mandate new native teachers to participate in training programs for 10 days or more. During the programs, they can learn about skills used in teaching and managing classes along with Korean culture.

I've been reading about these evaluation programs on Facebook, on forums, and on other blogs. I wrote about these mandatory training programs on this site and in the Korea Herald, saying

[W]hat's "practical," what's vital for native-speaker English teachers, is an understanding of the Korean classroom and how they fit into it. I've written numerous times that most of the challenges that accompany NSETs are due to the lack of planning and support they receive and to the ambiguous role they fill in the system, and any new training session needs to address these concerns.

A new teacher doesn't need a lecture about kimchi -- he'll get it often enough at mealtime -- but would benefit from presentations on lesson planning for a class of 40. A foreign teacher doesn't need a lesson on how to pour drinks Korean-style -- she'll get one from her friends later -- but will need to learn how to fit into the teachers' office. An orientation doesn't need a mundane lecture on Hangeul---teachers take the initiative to learn on their own -- but NSETs should be given the opportunity to take Korean classes while here. Teachers -- some of whom have never taught before -- need to be acclimated to the Korean classroom as quickly as possible through practical lessons from experienced NSETs, not from teachers or bureaucrats who don't understand the NSET experience.

Training sessions need to focus on the classroom and how English is taught, and thus need to include Korean English teachers. It's been several years since NSETs have been introduced, yet schools are still unclear about how they're to be used. With some co-teachers, NSETs work as pronunciation guides, with others they split time, and in some cases the co-teacher doesn't show up for class or workshops at all.

I'd like to bring it back to the article about those 12% of teachers in Ulsan; here's what the article said:

The office [of education] said that it has not renewed their contracts after judging their methods to be inappropriate for teaching students in English.

A written survey was conducted to determine how many acted decently, how faithful they were to their duty, how well they guided students and how well they taught English.

The key there is "methods to be inappropriate for teaching students in English." But what exactly are appropriate methods? I've seen co-teachers walk around the room with bamboo sticks, scaring students shitless and preventing any communication from going on at all. I've seen co-teachers sleep during our class, I've seen co-teachers leaf through newspapers when they should be helping, and I've seen co-teachers conduct English classes entirely in Korean. Don't put words in my mouth and act like I think all teachers do this, but I've seen enough classes to ask why there's so much attention paid to NSET methodology when plenty of bad Korean teachers are permitted to stay (they're not evaluated by us, the witnesses, as I've already said). I wrote about it in the Korea Herald in May, asking if English classes in Korean or classes controlled by violence follow appropriate methodology:

We recently read that 12 percent of native speaker English teachers in Ulsan were "expelled" from their jobs. The report said that the teachers were let go because they had "methods ... inappropriate for teaching students in English." It is certainly the district's or the school's prerogative to hire or fire whomever they please, and there is no doubt some that deserve to go. However, the information and the way it was reported reveal two big problems frequently seen in media coverage of teachers. It is consistent with a trend to portray foreign English teachers in an unfairly negative way, and it begs the question why Korean teachers' methods are, as a whole, not under similar scrutiny.

To put a less cynical spin on it, it leads us to ask what exactly is expected of us, what ought to be done when the way NSETs exist in the popular imagination contrast with the reality of the English classroom here. Otherwise, a bad teacher is simply a product of a bad system: either the system that couldn't accommodate him, or one that hired him without scrutiny in the first place.

Instead of announcing schools will evaluate native speaker English teachers and blacklist bad ones, and instead of announcing with much fanfare that there will now be mandatory training programs to address deficiencies, why not first come up with a plan for NSETs and see it through, and why not first offer training programs that address the problems NSETs face. By creating more ways to make bad teachers, they're simply moving closer to not having any NSETs in the classrooms at all. Hey, wait a minute . . .

Viewing the last sunset of 2009, first sunrise of 2010 in Jeollanam-do.

A little late posting this, but for the sake of anyone interested here are a few places in and around Jeollanam-do to take in the last sunrise of 2009 and the first sunrise of 2010. I'll preface the list by saying that it was damn cold last year in Busan and it'll be damn cold this year wherever you decide to go.

This year the Korea Herald profiled some spots throughout the country and mentioned Namyeol Beach (남열해수욕장) in Goheung county.

Namyeol beach in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, offers a breathtaking view of the archipelago of the southern sea. The beach is covered in smooth white sand that provides the ultimate romantic spot to watch the sunrise.

After watching the sunrise, a visit to Mount Palyeong, and the thousand-year-old temple of Neunggasa is recommended. The town is also home to Naro Space Center, where Korea's first satellite was launched.

Goheung's official page has information about the festivities, which are expected to draw 5,000 people the morning of the 1st.



Last year, on December 12th, the Joongang Ilbo looked at three spots down south: Namhae's Boriam, Suncheon's Songgwangsa, and Yeosu's Hyangiram.

Last year I supplemented that article with a few more spots, including Suncheon's Hwapo (화포). It's across Suncheon Bay from . . . Suncheon Bay, and is considered the best spot in the city to see sunrises throughout the year. Here are some pictures collected via a Naver search. City buses 81 and 82 go to Hwapo.

Looks like there will also be a festival in Wando---they built a 76-meter-high tower there in 2008 for the purpose of watching sunrises and sunsets---but they've already had a drawing to see who's been awarded a spot.

In Yeongam county there's a festival (2010년영암호해맞이축제) to watch the sunrise over Yeongam Lake (영암호), and to wish for good luck ahead the "Korean Grand Prix" F1 race in October. The sun rise is expected at 7:42.

In Haenam, at Ddangkkeut (땅끝, or "Land's End"), the southernmost point on the Korean peninsula, there are festivities to mark the last sunset of 2009 and the first sunrise of 2010. There's a program online, but I'll cut to the chase and let you know the b-boys will be performing from 20:00 to 22:00 on the 31st.

There will be festivities marking the sunset and sunrise in several places in Jindo county.

Yeonggwang county faces west, so there's no sunrise festival, but there will be festivities for the final sunset of 2009, along the 백수해안도로. The Dong-a Ilbo contrasts this spot with the noisier festival sites in the province:

조용하게 해를 보내고 맞이하는 장소도 많다. 영광군 백수해안에서 목포까지의 드라이브코스는 서해안 일몰 감상의 최적지로 꼽힌다. 백수해안도로 동백마을에서 칠산 앞바다로 지는 해를 볼 수 있고 함평 돌머리에서는 해제반도로 지는 해넘이를, 무안 도리포에서는 일출과 일몰을 한자리에서 볼 수 있다. 신안군 지도와 증도 방축리 해안에서 서해로 지는 해는 국내에서 가장 장엄한 해넘이로 꼽힌다. 목포에서는 유달산 일등바위에 올라 고하도와 외달도 사이 바다를 황금빛으로 물들이는 일몰을 감상할 수 있다.

It also mentions Mokpo's Yudalsan and Muan's Dori-po as places to watch the sun doing what it does, and puts Shinan county's Ji-do and Jeung-do islands as among the best for watching it set into the Yellow Sea.

Perhaps the most notable spot in the county to see sunrises is the Hyangiram Sunrise Festival (향일암일출제) at Yeosu's Hyangiram hermitage, set on Geumosan, 291 steps above Impo Village, but it burned down in an untimely fire on the 20th. The sunrise festival is to go on as planned, though.

Japanese ramen in Gwangju?

The Kwangju Ilbo took a look at 라멘만땅, a chain with that opened a location in Bongseon-dong in September, 2008. 광주드림 did an article in March:



Those of you in Suncheon might be interested in Tomo (map here), in Geumdang, which opened over the summer.



My fiancee and I were excited about the self-proclaimed "Japanese style cafeteria," but were disappointed with the westernish interior---faux brick, leather chairs, and black and white pictures of old white people on the walls---and the limited menu. Walking by a couple days ago, though, I see they're advertising 일본라멘 and 일본우동. But having had a lot of ramen in Hakata and a lot of Udong in Kagawa, I'm not optimistic about how Suncheon'll stack up.

"Slow city" island in Shinan working hard to stay slow.

The Joongang Ilbo often has really interesting features, and comees through with another one this morning about Jeung-do island in Shinan county, Jeollanam-do. A few excerpts:

A rare experiment to create an island free of cigarette smoking, cars and night lights has begun in Korea’s southern region.

Aiming to provide its people with a nostalgic rest while protecting its natural environment, Jeung Island of Sinan County, South Jeolla province, is challenging itself to become the “Slow City” where there is no pollution.

The island was designated in December 2007 by the International Slow Food Movement as a slow city.

. . .

In order to transform itself further to meet the definition of a slow city, the island has been campaigning to prohibit smoking.

There were only about 150 smokers on the island. However, 35 of them had already quit with the help from the public health care staff who have been running clinics in 11 villages.

Unfortunately I don't know much about these anti-smoking initiatives, but I do recall similar measures in Gangjin county, where I used to live.

The article continues to say visitors will need to leave their cars at a parking lot on the edge of the island---residents may drive their cars at certain times a day---and get around the island by bike, oxcart, or electric car. And,

[t]he island officially joined the International Dark-Sky Association last April. “We hope to make the night sky dark and stars easily visible and remove environment disruption created by the artificial lighting,” explains Park Kwan-ho, representing the Culture and Tourism department of Sinan County.

KBS World did a profile on Shinan county in September---one I admittedly don't understand---that says:

Visitors who smoke should check their cigarette packs at the checkroom and retrieve them when they leave the island. We are working hard to offer some other means of transportation such as a rail motor, bicycles, cow-pulled carts and more for those who come by car and park here.

The article and accompanying video goes on to talk a lot about the salt fields, a regional specialty of Shinan. There's a far more readable profile on the island and its attractions on the Korea Tourism Organization site. I've mentioned Jeung-do a few times on this site, once in connection with the annual mud festival, heretofore largely free from the frat boys, tri-delts, and gawking Korean photographers that gather at the more famous one in Boryeong.

Although it's not a city, Jeung-do is one of the five designated "slow cities" in South Korea, and one of the four in Jeollanam-do. I've written about them a couple times:

* February 15, 2008: "Jeollanam-do's slow cities."
* March 24, 2009: "Jeollanam-do is a little slow."

And found some pretty pictures from Cheongsan-do in April:

* April 10, 2009: "Pretty flowers in Jangheung, Wando."

In the entry from March I wondered whether these slow counties were actually trying to be slow, were actively rejecting elements of "fast" life like chain stores and fastfood restaurants, or were simply slow by default because all the young people are leaving. It's not like there was ever any prospect of a McDonald's or E-Mart---or even lesser versions like Popeye's or Big Store---coming to Jeung-do, Cheongsan-do, or to the countless villages not even big enough to be considered "slow." Earlier this year I wrote:

In many of Jeollanam-do's rural communities, it's not like they're preserving slowness and tradition for slowness's and tradition's sake: there are simply no young people and few prospects of modern amenities. Saying that, for example, Jeung-do in Shinan county is a deliberately slow city is like celebrating an obese man for bucking the trend of unrealistic body images in magazines.

Well, it looks like Shinan is actively trying to become more slow, and I think that's a good thing. But it does bring up another point: how long will slow cities be slow, how long will rural towns be rural, if they attract a ton of tourists to them? This year, according to today's Joongang Ilbo piece, 250,000 tourists visited the island of 1,900.

In another post from March, 2009, I looked at how rural Korea is as foreign to most Koreans these days as it is to actual foreigners, and I first quoted this . . . quotation from a Joongang Ilbo column about "self-centered tourism" and the overwhelming response to the film "Old Partner":

I understand that people harbor longings for their hometowns, miss old memories, and thirst for a spiritual experience in the countryside. However, do they really all have to flock to the latest famous spot and leave their disorderly footprints all over? These are the sort of people who engrave “I was here” graffiti on rocks. The ecology of the west coast has already been destroyed by so-called “ecological tourism” which is designed to provide a chance for city dwellers to enjoy the experience of catching shellfish. It is not an ecological experience; it is a plundering experience. The mountain girl Lee Young-ja grew exhausted from such visitors. She could barely find a place of comfort.

Why can’t we leave pure and unspoiled places as they are? Why can’t we be satisfied with just enjoying beautiful scenes in films without visiting their location to cut the barks of trees with “I was here” messages? If North Gyeongsang’s plan goes ahead, the villages of Hanul-li in and Bonghwa-gun will suffer irreversible damage.

Rural Korea is different enough from Seoul and for Koreans in Seoul to be rendered exotic, and indeed one of the biggest television shows of the past year-and-a-half, 패밀리가 떴다 or "Family Outing," has been centered on the "fish out of water" element of celebrities spending a couple days down on the farm. And if my anecdotal evidence is to be trusted, the Korean teachers I've encountered in Jeollanam-do have been far less pleased about living and working in rural Korea than the foreign English teachers.

Because Korea got built up so quickly over the past generation, I think there's some embarrassment about how rural Korea looks and acts. I recall a dissertation written by a Korean student at my alma mater which brought how South Korea is depicted in Western books.

In fact, while reading many books related to Korean history and culture, working on this study, I found many books about Korea written in English are out of date and depend on old information. For example, the Culture and Customs of Korea (Clark, 2000) uses old pictures taken in 1960s or 1970s in order to introduce Korean culture such as the 'traditional costume' (p. 109) or 'middle school students transplating rice seedlings in rows' (p. 122) which are so obsolete. No one can find those scenes today. In spite of the fact that this book was written relatively recently, I wonder why the author depended on stale information. This tendency is not limited to just a few books, but many about Korea written in English. That's why most teachers in the U.S. are stuck on old or inappropriate information of Korea. I think that for Westerners, the image of South Korea stops at the Korean War in 1950, and they don't want to see the current South Korea.

I'd encourage you to read the rest of that post for some context and some commentary on Koreans dictating to foreigners what they ought to think about Korea and what's "or inappropriate information." But it's false to write "No one can find those scenes today." On the contrary, any trip outside Seoul will show you students farming, old people wearing hanbok, women carrying bags on their heads, mothers shopping at markets, and all sorts of things that seem embarrassing and crude to people who spend their time taking pictures of themselves in a coffee shop and pretending their grandparents aren't farmers. Though the author speaks of "Korea" as if it's a unified identity or idea, there's certainly a lot of classism and regionalism here, such that in a country smaller than Pennsylvania the people of Jeollanam-do seem a million miles---and two generations---away from Seoul.

Just as it's unusual to create slow cities as a way to encourage tourism, I'll bet it also seems unusual for tourists willing to pay to try the work people do out of necessity (especially in places not fast enough to be designated "slow"). The way Korea is growing, and the way the population of rural Korea is declining, I wonder how much of it will be left in a decade or two. Designating slow cities, and taking steps to protect them will preserve a way of life that is unusual to many Koreans. I've been to a couple folk museums and folk villages here, and they've been scenic but there hasn't been anything to do, so perhaps tourist spots in "slow cities" will offer something different. I've seen plenty of diorama of tug-of-war, lots of pottery kilns, and many replicas of Joseon-era houses, but having the chance to harvest salt or transplant rice would---to foreigners and city-slicker Koreans alike---would be something to remember and appreciate.

Anyway, I knew Jeung-do sounded familiar, and I remembered that my fiancee had to go a couple times with her school. The Shinan county homepage, predictably, doesn't make it sound like anything special

The first thing that will catch your eyes when you step off Beoji Dock to Jeung-do will be Taepyeong Salt Farm. This is the biggest mono salt farm in Korea.
It produces 16,000 ton, 6% sun-dried salt of Korea. It was built half-century ago.
In 1953, a slat farm was built by making a bank between front and rear Jeung-do where Korean War refugees walked through when water was drained.
The traces of such time are seen in worn rakes used by old salt baker and old boards in roughly built salt storehouses.

but she had a good time, and it looks like a neat place to visit, experience island life, and try something new.




If you go when the weather warms up and are interested in staying somewhere nice, she recommends the El Dorado Resort (엘도라도리조트). Rooms for two will start at 206,000 won per night in-season---full pricelist here---while larger ones will cost you about a quarter of your monthly salary. On the plus side, it's about the only place in the province where you can spend that kind of money.


The Super Suite Room in the 롱비치빌라 costs 592,000 per night.

Do you know Christmas tree? It is kind of traditional Korean plant. Do you have Christmas tree in your country?

So this was in the Korea Times on Christmas. The original title of the article was, believe it or not, "'Christmas Tree Originated From Korea.'" And an alternate title to this post might be "The Korean Grinch that Stole Christmas," as a guy from the National Institute of Biological Resources is trying to claim that the Christmas trees people use in the west originated from Korea, and is trying to get a slice of profits made from selling Christmas trees around the world.

What contribution have Christmas-unenthusiastic Koreans made to the Western tradition of celebrations on the day when Jesus was allegedly born?

For those who have given up guessing, here is a tip ― check your Christmas tree.

According to Korea's National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR), it is a Korean fir tree, which he says is one of the most popular trees used for this special occasion, although most Western Christmas enthusiasts may be unaware of this.

The institute is working hard to have its claim officially recognized, as it may enable Korea, as a place of origin, to claim a slice of the profits from their commercial use.

According to the institute, the Korean fir is an indigenous evergreen, which grows on the slopes of Mt. Halla, Mt. Jiri and Mt. Deokyu.

The ``type specimen'' of the Korean fir tree currently belongs to the Smithsonian Institution in the U.S. A European botanist took the specimen out of Korea in 1904 and donated it to the institute.

``It is lucky that there is a type specimen ― even in an overseas location ― to prove the origin of the plant or animal is Korea. There are many more species of our indigenous creatures being used without recognition,'' Kil Hyun-jong of the NIBR said. ``That is why a type specimen is so important as it is proof of origin.''

The NIBR currently houses approximately 1.6 million specimens and expects the number to increase to 5 million by 2030.

The institute estimates at least 20,000 type specimens were taken out of the country and some 280 of those are being used commercially.

Korea plans to insist on a ``recovery of rights'' at the Convention on Biological Diversity next year.

Kil said there will be discussions regarding the right to trade plants and animals. ``We will try to restore our rights for original Korean fauna and flora,'' he added.

Though the tree originated from, and is now growing in Korea, companies in the West recognized the value of the tree first and made profits from it, Kil said.

Other than Korean fir, the Netherlands has type specimen rights to the Korean lily, Hungary has stonefly type specimens and the U.S. has those of the dark sleeper and northern loaches, both fresh-water fish indigenous to Korea, he added.

This was also blogged by What the Kimchi??? You'll find a story here, in Korean with video, from YTN. The oft-cringeworthy Arirang TV did a segment on this called "The Lost Right of the Christmas Tree" for its December 25th edition; an excerpt:

An interesting fact about Christmas tree.
Most people may not be aware of this... but Korea's National Institute of Biological Resources says... it's a Korean fir tree... that is one of the most popular trees used for Christmas.
The Korean fir is an indigenous evergreen... that grows on the slopes of major mountains in the country.
Eoh Jin-joo has more.
The Korean fir is a tree that is commonly known as a Christmas tree in the United States and Europe.
The clear, triangle shape and its conspicuous green color is just right for the Christmas atmosphere.
However, not many people know that the tree was an indigenous plant found only in Korea.

Wikipedia has more on the Abies koreana, the "Korean fir." I'm certainly no expert on Christmas trees or Christmas tree cultivation, but a quick look shows that these Korean firs are not even listed among the trees commonly grown for use at Christmas, let alone "one of the most popular trees used for this special occasion." The Times story is characteristically vague, not mentioning the scientific name of the fir, the man who introduced it to the west, where it is believed to enjoy popularity, or how that popularity is calculated. But it does succeed in conveying the arrogance and the crassness of the NIBR man who, after suggesting that Korea might have a small role in a celebration associated with one of the biggest holidays in the world---one Korea does not really celebrate in any traditional sense---shows he's most interested in getting paid and in avenging what is perceived as Korea's loss.

As an aside, I graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, located in a county that calls itself "The Christmas Tree Capital of the World." The Indiana County Christmas Tree Growers website, if that's any authority, doesn't list it as among the most popular tree types grown there.

Yellow Christmas in Korea.

Because of the arrival of yellow sand from China, they're calling this a "yellow Christmas" (옐로 크리스마스). Sadly, it wasn't a White Christmas in Jeollanam-do, and we missed it by a few days. Nonetheless we did at least have a White December for a little bit; here's a look at the bamboo forest in Damyang from the Chosun Ilbo:

Video from the Lighting Festival at the Garden of Morning Calm.

Thanks to seomoonho for posting, and for commenter An Acorn in the Dog's Food for sharing this video taken at the Lighting Festival at the Garden of Morning Calm.



On that post from December 16th, commenter Jim writes:

I went there yesterday, pretty amazing but was the coldest day of the year so bad timing on my part. My 3 year old absolutely loved it and I was impressed with the work that must have gone into it.

And Mr Rocky Top:

I went there last year the day after Christmas. The traffic wasn't bad, and there weren't that many people there. I would definitely recommend it as something Christmasy to experience.

I'd also like to repost a picture from a shoot last Christmas Eve, I think some of the coolest pictures I've seen in Korea:




Those were taken at the Sea World in Seoul's 63 Building. More available via a Naver news search.

Help John Yost, teacher in Gangwon-do with broken back.

To take a break from the "spirited" Christmas talk---pun pretty much intended---on yesterday's post about hats and cake, and also because it's Christmas, here's something from Footprints Recruiting via Kimchi Icecream:

John Yost, a Footprints teacher in a public school in Gangwondo Province, recently broke his back while paragliding. He needs to raise roughly USD 5,000 in order to pay his hospital bills. Please consider a donation of 5 or 10 dollars to help out a fellow Footprints teacher in need – you can read more about John’s situation and donate here: http://www.jcyost.net/

From the page "Info on John's Surgery":

About three weeks ago, on December 6, I had a paragliding accident and broke my back. It was totally my fault and I was an idiot.

What happened was that a paraglider pilot crashed into the trees in front of me. And they crashed where no one but me knew where they were.

So, I circled around them, got a GPS bearing on their location, told them to wait (like they had a choice as they hung in the trees), and tried to get down fast to get help.

Well, to lose altitude quickly I did wingovers, which are acrobatic maneuvers. I’ve done hundreds of them, but never so low, and I came out of my last one too low. My glider pitched up, I fell outof the sky from about 30 feet (10 meters), and landed on my butt.

. . .

We got to the hospital and took X-rays. The doctors said there were no problems at all, and I could just stay at their clinic taking pain killers and if I didn’t get better in a few days, they’d send me to a bigger hospital at that time. Thank God my friends didn’t believe it.

Instead we took another ambulance ride to a bigger hospital where they had better equipment and I assume more experienced doctors. They took X-rays there too, except this time they found a compression fracture in my first lumbar vertebrae and wanted to do an MRI the next day to see how much damage there was to my soft tissue.

Then, depending on the MRI, I might have to have surgery.

Read both posts for more details. Currently the "Info on John's Surgery" page accommodates PayPal payments, but not transfers from domestic bank accounts. If there are any updates regarding this, I'll pass them along.

'Tis the season for hats and cake.

Christmas can be tough to take in Korea. Say what you will about the secularization and commercialization of the holiday back home, wherever that is, in Korea it's divorced from any context and meaning and is celebrated as simply another romantic holiday. That Korea has adopted and created so many couples' holidays---Valentine's Day, White Day, Pepero Day, the 14th days---owes I think to how stressful and depressing the traditional holidays can be, what with the preparation, the bad traffic jams, the in-laws, and the graves. It's a time for bad interpretations of Christmas music (why why why?)





and wearing outrageous hats, and several chains offer them each year. Last year the most gay-ass one was Baskin Robbins' snowman hat:



As the accompanying commercial says, there's an icecream cake so now it's really Christmas!



Yeah, whatever. Paris Baguette rolled out a Smurf hat:



Extra! Korea previewed the 2009 offerings from Paris Baguette and Baskin Robbins. Here's Kim Tae-hee and Girls' Generation modeling a badger hat, or something:



Baskin Robbins hits you with a penguin hat:




Dunkin Donuts came strong with this bear-ear hat:



Tous Les Jours doesn't understand Christmas:



And Crown Bakery used the most irritating pop group in Korea, Kara, to advertise its Christmas gear:



Of course the other "tradition" of Christmas here is the Christmas cake. You have to reserve them in advance, so if you are interested in buying one you probably already did. I didn't, but if I were going to I'd go for one with an interesting shape. Here are a few from Paris Baguette:





Baskin Robbins has ice cream cakes, including:






Dunkin Donuts has a couple but I'm not sure how to get to the pictures. Tous Les Jours has them as well, though you can't see them close-up; here's one page:



Crown Bakery has a wide selection, ranging from 17,000 won to 35,000 won. Here are a few of the most interesting-looking:





And Krispy Kreme has seasonal donuts for Christmas, just as they did for Halloween:



And just so I don't leave you thinking---and thinking that I think---that all Christmas music coming out of Korea is absolute shit---empty, meaningless shit---here's something from the Festival Handbell Ensemble (페스티벌핸드벨앙상블):



And here's something from back home: a couple choral arrangements of two of my favorite Christmas songs.



They do Christmas right:



Here's Roboseyo talking more about Christmas music, about five people who should make holiday albums and three who definitely shouldn't. He forgot to include the Koreans in my first three clips.

Don't worry so much about what President Obama said about Korea's education system.

The Korea Herald writes that President Lee Myung-bak is "dissatisfied" with his country's education system, and with an earlier headline saying he "regrets" President Barack Obama's praise of it, most recently on November 19th.

President Lee Myung-bak yesterday called for more efforts to improve education as disputes are rising over elite high schools and university admission.
He also said he felt sorry to hear U.S. President Barack Obama praise Korea's educational system after their meeting last month.

"I felt sorry ... I am very dissatisfied (with our education)," Lee said during a policy report from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

"There have been many changes but the changes have yet to be stabilized, causing much concern for the people."

The paper makes a very loose connection between the presidents: one is "dissatisfied" with South Korea's education sytsem, the other praised it. But as I wrote twice---on March 11th and March 22nd---after the first time Obama spoke kindly of Korean education, don't make too much of it. The local papers certainly went crazy over his comments in March, but if you take a look at them you'll see he only mentions Korea twice:

Now, even as we foster innovation in where our children are learning, let's also foster innovation in when our children are learning. We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed for when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day. That calendar may have once made sense, but today it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children -- listen to this -- our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea -- every year. That's no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy. That's why I'm calling for us not only to expand effective after-school programs, but to rethink the school day to incorporate more time -– whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it. (Applause.)

Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas. (Laughter.) Not with Malia and Sasha -- (laughter) -- not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom. If they can do that in South Korea, we can do it right here in the United States of America.

If you really think about that excerpt, you get the idea that he's not so much selecting South Korea for praise as he is saying "if a country most of you think is war-torn and backwards can produce smart kids, hell, so can we." However local media ran with headlines like "Obama Lauds Korea's Education of Children" and "Obama Cites Korea for Educational Excellence." One columnist read a lot into those two short mentions:

The Korean school system has all kinds of problems. Many Korean people are ashamed of their schools. Many students feel that their schools are ``hell'' even today.

However, President Obama admires South Korea's schools and their products, educated manpower. He praised the Korean students who are competitive among students in advanced nations.

Korean students' performance is known to be superb, especially in the fields of mathematics and science. American teachers are amazed at Korean students' math and science scores. Obama's recent statement is just a reflection of the American people's admiration of Korean schools.

Indeed it looked like some in the media---a media that is quite hard on Korea's education system---put words in Obama's mouth simply to discredit them for the sake of argument.


That's a Chosun Ilbo cartoon from March 12th, in which the Korean kids are telling Obama children not to believe their father's hype. Well, though he talked about spending more time in school, I don't think he even came close to suggesting American students spend twelve hours in a classroom, see their families not but on weekends, and live their young lives only for standardized tests. These suggestions would be quite foreign, actually, and probably wouldn't even occur to most Americans. There are postive aspects of Korean education, things that ought to be above politics and bad journalism.

From tonight's Herald article again:

When Obama asked about the strength of Korean education, Lee said parents' strong aspirations had made it possible for Korean children to receive good education. As a result the nation was able to develop its economy and pull out of poverty, he told Obama.

Lee also told the U.S. leaders that all Koreans want to learn English and thousands of young Americans teach the language here.

Since the conversation, Obama has mentioned Korean parents' strong educational zeal on three official occasions.

Here's what CNN.com said about it:

A conversation last week with South Korea's president apparently showed President Obama the stark difference between how Asian nations and the United States value education.

Obama said Monday that the U.S. needs to restore the nation's leadership in educating children in math and science to meet future challenges, and he announced a new Educate to Innovate Campaign.

He told how President Lee Myung-bak explained that demanding parents are South Korea's biggest education problem.

"Even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best education," Obama recalled the conversation, sounding almost whimsical in describing Lee's biggest education problem as parents wanting excellent schools for their children.

In the U.S., a major challenge is to revive the interest, opportunities and abilities of students in math and science, Obama said.

Nothing in the president's comments in March or November indicate that he's remotely close to adopting some of the nastier things that go along with "zeal"---expensive cram schools, broken families, intense pressure to succeed---and unless you read his comments in March cynically, everything he's said so far about South Korean education has been positive and should be a source of pride.

Kimchi Icecream's reaction to the first day of SMOE workshop.

Jason of Kimchi Icecream has blogged his reaction to the first day of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education high school teachers' workshop for native speaker English teachers. Guess how it went. The lowlights include having a middle school teacher give a presentation to high school teachers, said presenter using material intended for an audience of Korean English teachers, and having a two-hour "reflection session"---which culminated in group presentations---without any guidance or direction. Here's part of what he has to say about the first session on "Practical Coteaching":

Under the first “Case Study: Monsters,” in the Approach section (a kind of ‘what to do’ section) one of the recommendations is, “Be firm and take control early. Help your native teacher to establish boundaries and routines” . . . wait a second, did that just say “Help your native teacher” . . . ? And the second example is found under “Less-than-enthused” Korean Co-teacher” in the Signs section (a ‘what to watch for’ section), “You are always “too busy” to help your Native Teacher or to come to English meetings” and “You feel frustrated because you have to always speak English with your NEST,” “You feel you have to explain everything to your NEST,” and “Your NEST is constantly confused” . . .

YES, I am confused–isn’t this presentation supposed to be for native English teachers???! Why is the presenter using materials OBVIOUSLY DESIGNED FOR KOREAN teachers?!

I like this part, too, about the reflection session:

And what was the ONE THING our facilitator actually took time to comment on and explain? One of the presenters had talked about a Korean children’s game where one student stands against a wall, and other students line up and put their heads between the student in front of them’s legs, and then another team of students run and jump to land on the tops of the bent over students’ backs . . .

Instead of commenting on the classroom issues, co-teaching issues, and cross-cultural issues that came up time and again, over and over and over . . . instead of commenting on these things she chose to comment on a children’s game–nice.

LiteraryHero gave his thoughts on his blog; an excerpt:

Every high school teacher working for SMOE had the delightful chance to go to Korea University today for a coteaching seminar. Well, I say we had the chance, but in actuality, it was mandatory. The beautiful thing about this seminar is that it is not only exactly the same as every other seminar we have attended, we are also learning about coteaching without our coteachers. Effective, that. So we hear all the same stuff that we have always heard about how to be effective, how to bridge the coteacher gap, and how to survive in Korea. This last is funny, because I would guess that half of the people in attendance were part of the first batch of high school teachers who joined with me back a year and a half ago. If they haven't figured out how to survive in Korea by now, well...they need more help than a simple seminar can offer.

He goes on to say:

[E]ven if I wanted to express my issues with my situation, when we got together to do our mini presentations, there was no one there to listen to us! The entire thing was pointless, and I would have had a better time urinating on an electrical socket.

The blogger Teaching English in South Korea shared her thoughts on a district-wide seminar this month as well, though Tongue-Tied in Youngtong had a better experience at the GEPIK workshop.

I blogged about the prospect of these mandatory workshops, and wrote a piece in the Korea Herald about it on December 2nd. The main ideas being---and they're not only my ideas but shared by many teachers we've heard from---that teachers want practical advice, hate sitting through mandatory workshops on things they've already learned, and hate seminars that were clearly thrown together with little to no preparation or thought. Well, looking at Jason's reaction to the first day of the SMOE workshop, it sounds like the planners have gone and given teachers an introduction to Korean culture, as if they needed it: lots of stuff at school is last-minute and half-assed.

Regarding co-teaching, if that is indeed a topic they want discussed, I'll share what I wrote for the Herald on the 2nd:

Training sessions need to focus on the classroom and how English is taught, and thus need to include Korean English teachers. It's been several years since NSETs have been introduced, yet schools are still unclear about how they're to be used. With some co-teachers, NSETs work as pronunciation guides, with others they split time, and in some cases the co-teacher doesn't show up for class or workshops at all.

If co-teachers aren't at these sessions, and if there isn't an honest look at how co-teaching is done in schools---if it's done at all---then there's really no point. Native speaker English teachers are the assistants, after all, with the Korean teachers calling the shots, and a roomful of foreigners and administrative assistants aren't going to get anything done.

Buyeo (it's a county, not an exclamation)

Regardless of what you might think, that line never gets old with me. I spent December 12th and 13th in Buyeo county, Chungcheongnam-do, and visited a few of the local historic sites. Unfortunately looking through my pictures now I see that most of them suck. Nevertheless, here are a few, with more in my Flickr gallery.

As Wikipedia says, Buyeo was the capital of the Baekje Kingdom from 538 to 660, under the name of Sabi. Baekje existed in the southwest of the peninsula, with Kaya to the southeast, Silla to the east, and Goguryeo to the north. Here's what a placard at the Buyeo National Museum has to say about "Planned City, International City The Royal City Sabi":

Buyeo, then known as Sabi, was a planned city. Work on the city was executed from the late 5th century through the transfer of the capital here in 538 by King Seong. It served as a gauge in the consolidation of the state and in the reformation and projection of power as the center of royal authority. The north and south were bounded by rivers and protected by city wall on the east. Mountain fortresses were placed to the north and the royal palaces and government offices were protected by nearby mountain fotresses. Scholars are able to conjecture on the orderly structure of the streets and markets of Sabi through remaining vestiges of the road structure. Trade and diplomatic relations were promoted in a lively manner through waterborne traffic made possible by the rivers connecting Sabi to the sea. Sabi developed as a international city with visitors coming and going from Silla, China, and Japan. Through engraved tiles and stone beacons we can catch a glimpse of the fortresses in the city and provincial areas.

Yeah, anyway, the county's English webpage isn't helpful at all, but you can glean more information about the county from this 2007 article by Robert Koehler on Tour2Korea. Here's a bit of what he had to say:

Because both cities were capitals of their respective realms during the Three Kingdoms Period, Buyeo is often compared to Gyeongju. The comparisons, however, only go so far. While both towns have more than their fair share of historical remains, Gyeongju is far larger and has historically been the recipient of much more government largesse. Although it enjoys more tourism than most counties of its size, Buyeo is still a sleepy market town[.]

. . .

That being said, Buyeo’s sleepy nature is part of its attraction. If Gyeongju is characterized by triumphalism, Buyeo is touched by the sweet sadness of a defeated capital. Its ruins remain, for the most part, just that — ruins. Its most renowned tourist site is where several thousand court ladies committed mass suicide (at least according to legend). The former royal garden Gungnamji Pond is a microcosm of the town’s esprit de corps — you could happily spend the day there with a bottle of milky-white makgeolli rice wine, watching the willow trees and contemplating the city’s former greatness.

You may also remember me mentioning Buyeo a couple times because of the lotus festival and the Baekje Culture festivals held there each year. Both the Baekje festival and the World Samulnori Festival---how the hell can you have a World Samulnori Festival?---were cancelled this year because of swine flu.

One of the main attractions are royal tombs a few minutes outside of Buyeo-eup. These seven are set on a hill in Neungsan-ri:




Buses from Buyeo bound for Nonsan will stop near the tombs, or you can take a short cab ride. Interesting to note the light stripes that circle each mound.



If you're looking at these pictures, and are thinking that it'd be awesome to sledride down this hill, you weren't alone. In line with turning Christmas into another couple's holiday in Korea, one that isn't complete without ridiculous hats and ice cream cake, perhaps other countries could adopt Seollal to help break up the monotony of February, and could set up burial mounds to have a little fun. Upon further investigation, though, I found they're simply too steep.



A lot of the historical sites are still being built. Across from those royal tombs a temple is being reconstructed.



The sign outside of it calls it "temple site in Neungsan-ri," but doesn't say when it was destroyed and when it will be rebuilt. It will look like this when it's done:



Work was also being done at Jeonglimsa, a temple right in the middle of town.



That five-storied stone pagoda is designated National Treasure No. 9. The temple is located next to Buyeo National Museum, a very nice museum as far as they go. It holds a very recognizable piece of Baekje-era art, the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje, also designated a National Treasure. There are also deer on the grounds.



The museum and this temple are a few minutes' walk from the bus terminal. About a ten-minute walk in the other direction from the terminal is is Busosanseong (부소산성), the remnants of the old mountain fortress. As with the one in Gangjin-eup, where I used to live, the gates are gone and you can just barely make out the wall as you wander up the hill.




There are several shrines and pavillions in the area.



You'll have a nice view of the town, weather permitting, from a pavillion further up the hill:



And don't look now, here's somebody being intentionally ironic:



On a temple nearby was another warning against graffiti:



On one of the temple's paintings the faces are scratched off; not sure if it's students or earlier vandals:



Here's another painting:



It tells the legend, perhaps apocryphal, associated with Nakhwaam, a rock at the northwest corner overlooking the Baengma river. It's said that when Baekje was overrun some 3,000 court ladies jumped to their deaths from the rock into the river. As Robert Koehler's article says, the name means "Falling Flower Rock" because

their fluttering robes resembl[ed] falling flower petals as they crashed into the waves of the Baengma River below.

There's a pavillion on the rock now.



Probably the nicest place was the one that, unfortunately, didn't photograph well: Seodong Park's Gungnamji Pond (궁남지). It's a . . ., um, pond with a small pavillion built onto an island in the middle, is illuminated at night, and is where the lotus festival is held each summer. I'll just direct you to these Naver search results.

We stayed at the Crystal Motel, across the street from the entrance to Busosangseong and next to one of the restaurants we ate at, 백제의집. Rooms were 35,000, and weren't that bad. A little old, but comfortable.




As the woman there told us, it's listed on Good Stay, the site affiliated with the Korea Tourism Organization. Doesn't show up on the English-language page, though.

Before we left I Navered around for restaurant recommendations, and ended up trying 백제의집 and catfish soup at 백마강식당 (which is on the other side of town from the river). I'd recommend 하늘채, a buffet---with shabu shabu---a short walk up the road from the museum (map here, in Korean).

In conclusion, Buyeo is a nice area and is worth the visit if you're interested in historical sites. I think it would be especially nice during one of the two large festivals held there each year. When you arrive at the bus terminal---from Gwangju you'll first need to go to Nonsan, then to Buyeo---pick up a map, or do it at the tourist information center in front of Busosanseong. Thank you for reading my essay.

But I will add in closing that although I've had my Samsung point-and-shoot for nearly a year, I just learned that Sunday that it has "vivid" and "forest" settings. Here's a comparison:





Up until that point I had just been using the regular mode---seen in the first picture---set to "landscape" when shooting landscapes. Quite a noticable difference in the different settings, and I played around with that when I was in Japan (I hope to get those pictures posted in a few days). Interesting, but I dunno, isn't that like cheating?