“I did some research. And I found out that it was Korea who discovered it (Dokdo) first. But it’s difficult to determine which country does Dokdo belong to. The first country to discover it was Korea while Japan was the first to give it a name.”
Clearly I'm being facetious by calling the comments "inflammatory." The Liancourt Rocks are considered disputed territory by most of the world, but in Korea both they and the Sea of Japan are considered unquestionably Korean, and expressing any opinion to the contrary will anger netizens and normal people alike. Yes, even "it’s difficult to determine which country does Dokdo belong to" can cause so much trouble. Japanese people in Korea, especially celebrities, need to learn how dangerous expressing their opinions can be, and need to recognize when questions are asked to stir up trouble. Foreign English teachers can dodge the issue by saying something like "It's not important to me" or even "I don't know," but Japanese will likely not get away so easily. Allkpop includes a quotation from another Japanese panelist Tokiwa Fusako:
“Whenever the Dokdo issue gets escalated in the media, I would get scolded when I walk on the streets.”
In the headline I write "another" scandal because it seems netizens like nothing more than getting bent out of shape over what gets said on that program. In August, German panelist Vera Hohleiter angered netizens with a book she had written which criticized some aspects of Korean culture. According to the Korea Times, in turn quoting another paper which was using a Korean student in Germany as its source, Hohleiter wrote:
According to the Korean student, Hohleiter wrote in her book: “As a well-mannered and well-educated person from Europe, I put in a great deal of effort to appreciate the Korean society, but everyday I counter something that makes me fail to do so.”
For example, Hohleiter wrote: “Korean girls are obsessed with keeping up with the popular trend of time and therefore they predominantly wear mini-skirts. But then, when they walk up the stairways in the subway station, they make every possible pretentious effort to hide their exposed bodies. I don’t understand why they even wear mini-skirts from the start.”
The 29-year-old German also said, “Koreans have a bad taste for gossiping about foreigners. When they spot them in a public place such as in the subway, they delve into a very detailed criticism of their appearance and do it in a loud voice.”
She also said the show was scripted. The biggest scandal happened last fall, when a Korean student on the show called short guys "losers," prompting weeks of headlines and months of backlash.
9 comments:
When my wife arrived to teach Japanese in Korea, one of the first things her Japanese co-workers advised was never to discuss Dokdo. She had never heard of it before.
If the show is indeed scripted, this makes perfect sense.
Every good show needs a good villain.
Her comments on Dokdo are actually quite strange. She did some research and all she could come up with is "Koreans discovered it first but the Japanese named it"? Seriously?
Perhaps she should have gone with the less inflammatory and more accurate, "Who the fuck cares?"
let me be honest with you, it's not those naive people who were somehow lured to speak the opinions and thereby receives undeserved attention from the public but it's precisely people like you who keeps so-called blog and keeps bashing korea, who deserve criticisms from the koreans.
so long, deutsch, you won't be missed.
Let me be honest with you, VASA, go fuck yourself you worthless piece of shit. How does that sound?
well.. for what Dokdo is worth, its 11.5842 trillion won. It's got natural gas and minerals. Also, it gives the fisherman's more fishing area. So why wouldnt Japan and Korea fight over it? If Dokdo was as Korean island up till the early 1900's when Japan took over, then it was the property of Korea. So when Japan was forced to leave Korea the way it was, wouldnt Dokdo island be Korea's property? In my very honest opinion, I don't know why so many Koreans still have so much grudge against Japan regardless of all of this fuss between two countries. It's like, if something happens they blame it on Japan.
Bob, I'm not sure you know what you're talking about, especially with the Korea/South Korea vs. Japan issue. Let me explain using Germany vs. the world as an example.
There isn't much fuss against Germany these days; the world has pretty much forgiven their wrongdoings during the World Wars. Germans accept and are taught of the atrocities their ancestors (as Nazis) have commited. There are also museums dedicated to educate this kind of *embarassing* history.
However this is not the case for Japan. They are too proud to admit their fault. The Japanese education system is rather whitewashing their history, and so there's little/no knowledge of the crimes that they have commited against their neighbour. They're trying to forget. Also, it doesn't help but adds salt to the wounds when Japanese leaders visit the shrines that honour deceased Japanese war criminals.
Honestly I do want Japan and South Korea to be much more friendier etc. but I don't think it's possible while Japan fails to accept responsibility.
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