EBS native speaker broadcasts drunk, is not so handsome teacher, say listeners.

The Korea Times' Kang Shin-who reports that a host on an Education Broadcasting System [EBS] radio program "Morning Special" gave a drunk broadcast on the 25th, according to some listeners.

Last Wednesday morning, Aug 25, Walsh was heard reading the news in English, speaking gibberish and becoming tongue-tied during the live program. Multiple listeners posted critical comments on the EBS website.

As he had difficulty reading the script smoothly, another native English speaker took over and completed the program. All this was also shown on Internet TV.

Dozens of listeners have posted comments criticizing Walsh for the alleged “drunk broadcast.”

“I was so angry while listening to the program. It seems Adam was not able to read the news. He should not have appeared on the program,” a listener Lee posted on the show’s website. “What makes me angrier is that EBS finished the program as if nothing happened.”

Another netizen, who watched the program via Internet TV, complained that she felt like she was ridiculed by the program and infuriated by the program’s staffers’ “cowardly” excuses made later without a “sincere apology.”

Walsh, for his part, blames illness, and what I'm getting at in the title with the cliched complaint against foreign teachers is that I suspect few listeners---and viewers---would be discerning enough to judge a native speaker's English as alcohol-impaired. In a message left on the EBS messageboard he writes:

Dear listeners

I have been under the weather since Monday but i did not think it would affect my work. On Wednesday morning 25th of August, I woke up and though I felt ill, I thought I would be able to perform on the radio. I took some cough medication that I had purchased and some aspirin because I had a mild fever. When I got to the studio I chatted and prepared for the show as I always do. When the show started I felt cold sweats and extreme dizziness. This affected my ability to read the news. This is when Steve and Nemo realized something was wrong and helped me. Had I known I was as sick as I was, I would have called in and said I was ill. It was not my intention to embarrass the radio station or myself. I take my work very seriously and feel very saddened by the situation.


This will never happen again and I sincerely apologize for putting the radio station and my colleagues in such a predicament. I also want to apologize to the listeners of EBS who have shown me great support since I started with the radio station.

The letter, under which several Korean listeners and readers expressed their support for Walsh, can be retrieved by finding on EBS.co.kr and searching through the show's "free board" (자유게시판) for "Adam." He is probably better known for contributing articles and columns important to the local teaching community to the Korea Herald---for example on the hate-group Anti-English Spectrum---at least until he was relieved of his duties following the August 24th piece "Views differ on HIV testing of foreigners." That's a timely development the group and reporter Kang---an AES member with the Herald's competition---will surely appreciate.

Updates to urgent need for B- blood in Gwangju.

By now news of Michael Simning has probably reached you on Facebook. Mike---owner of Gwangju's Underground Grocers and The First Alleyway, host on GFN 98.7 FM, a "beacon of Gwangju's foreign community," husband, father, and all-around great guy---was diagnosed with leukemia and is in urgent need of B- blood, a type especially rare among Asians. Reaching out to South Korea's diverse expatriate communities to find matches is of utmost importance.

There are restrictions imposed by the Korean Red Cross on who can donate blood---impositions found throughout the world---something learned earlier in the year during another blood drive in the expat community, and written about by Roboseyo in an important post in April and summarized again last week.

The donation eligibility form is the same at any red cross clinic worldwide:

Take a look at this document. Read it carefully.
Take a look at this document. Read it carefully.
These two documents'll help you determine your eligibility.

In this article, and this one, I was told you need to meet these requirements to donate blood in Korea:
1. You need to have an Alien Registration Card. Bring it, and be ready to present it.
2. You need to have been in Korea for a year.
3. You need to be able to answer some questions about your medical history... mostly the ones inthose two documents above... the guy at the Seoul Global Center, when I called in April, was pretty sure that you need to speak enough Korean to answer the medical history questions yourself, but when I went in person, the nurse did allow me to answer the questions through an interpreter. Some of the questions made my translator feel awkward -- "have you shared needles"? But if you can help save a guy's life, it's worth it, right?

Michael's friend Hughie Samson has collected information via Facebook and sent out an update, including information about how to find out your blood type, what to say in Korean at the clinic or hospital, and what else you can do to help:

A few days ago Michael Simning - an expat in Gwangju - visited the hospital because he wasn't feeling very well.

He discovered that he has leukemia, was admitted into the hospital immediately (where he will stay for at least a month), and has started to undergo chemotherapy treatments.

As part of his treatment Michael needs to receive several blood transfusions.

Michael's blood type is B-, which is very rare, and so he, his family, and his friends are trying to find people in Korea who can donate blood to him immediately as well as periodically throughout the next couple of weeks. (O- blood won’t work in this case.)

If your blood type is B-, and you are able and willing to donate, please consider contacting Tim Whitman at 011.9600.6378 or tugrocers@gmail.com. Tim will pass your name and phone number along to Michael and his family.

You can also help by passing this message along to friends of yours here in Korea too.

Many people -- unfortunately -- don't know their blood type. You can find out yours -- and at the same time find out if you can help Michael -- by visiting a hospital in your area.

The procedure is relatively painless and should only take a few minutes.

In case you’re worried about communicating with the staff, you can print out and show them the following information, which explains to them why you’re there and why you need this information:

친구가 백혈병에 걸려서 도움이 필요합니다.
제 친구는 Rh-B 형 입니다.
제 혈액형 검사받고 하고 싶습니다. Rh-/Rh+ 인지까지 정확히 검사 받고싶습니다.

Once you find out your blood type, and if it is B-, you can do the same as those who already know theirs: contact Tim Whitman at 011.9600.6378 or tugrocers@gmail.com.

In the meantime Michael’s immune system is very weak so he isn’t able to receive any visitors. He is able to communicate using the internet and telephone, however, and many friends have been wishing him well using Facebook.

And as a side note from me, a friend: Mike’s sickness and rehabilitation may cause a lot of financial strain to him and his wife and daughter, so if you are in Gwangju, please consider supporting him in a very direct manner by shopping at the Underground Grocers and by eating at the First Alleyway, both of which will remain open in his absence.

Underground Grocers is open on Wednesday from 11 to 7, on Thursday and Friday from 1 to 7, and on Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 7; the First Alleway is open Wednesday to Saturday from 5 to 10ish and on Sunday from 11 to 5 for an all day breakfast.

For people eager ot know what else they can do to help, mutual friend Jessica---in another Facebook message---reiterates that people in the area continue to shop at the Underground Grocers and The First Alleyway. People staying away because they mistakenly think the two are closed can raise more money for Michael and his family by their continued patronage.

B- blood urgently needed in Gwangju for transfusion.

The Gwangju International Center and a few people in Gwangju passed this along today regarding a friend and notable member of the local expatriate community:

Long-time friend of GIC is now feeling sick and need blood transfusions.

His blood type is Rh-B (Type: B, RH -) and he needs several transfusions.
If you can help out please call 011.9943.8066 or if you can speak Korean call 061-379-7963(Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital).

You can also go the Red Cross downtown near the police station and they can do tests if you don't already know what type you are.

Kindly pass along this message to your friends/ contacts in and around Gwangju.
Any kind of help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Sincerely,
Gwangju International Center

Please contribute, if possible.

Gwangju fights against big discount chains.

The JoongAng Daily writes about the new Gwangju mayor and his fight against the multiplication of large department stores.

The city of Gwangju in southwestern Korea recently announced plans to enact a regulation to control or restrict the expansion of chains such as E-Mart, Samsung Tesco Homeplus and Lotte Mart. The city office announced on Monday that Mayor Kang Un-tae had pledged to enact a new ordinance to protect local stores after small business owners complained that Homeplus was trying to escape scrutiny of its plans for new branches by registering them under a different company name.

“Gwangju’s gross regional domestic product is lower than that of other cities and provinces, and large discount stores opening up in the area will affect local store owners, raising more concerns,” Kang said in a meeting on Aug. 20, according to the city office. “The conglomerates and small and midsize stores must coexist.”

Gwangju does not yet have any legal restrictions on expansion by retail conglomerates, a situation Kang said he would change.

“This does not mean that we are completely shutting out conglomerates entering Gwanju,” said a city official. “We will simply be enforcing stricter standards to enter the region in order to prevent any negative side effects such as small stores struggling.”

The new regulations are expected to include the establishment of “traditional business preservation districts” within 500 meters (1,640.4 feet) to 700 meters of older markets and stores, strengthening registration standards for large discount stores exceeding 3,000 square meters in size and conducting assessments of the potential effects that each large discount store would have on the surrounding neighborhood.

The article goes on to talk about Daegu, where such changes have been made, and Daejeon, where such changes are planned.

The influence of the E-Marts, Lotte Marts, and Home Pluses notwithstanding---Gwangju has relatively few of them, compared to other cities---what's interesting is that Gwangju's shopping districts, and indeed nearly every street corner, look identical to every other one in the city and throughout the country because of the overwhelming ubiquity of franchises and chains. When I reflect on Gwangju's existing big-boxes---an E-Mart behind the bus terminal, a Lotte Mart in Sangmu, a Lotte Department Store behind the red-light district, among others---I don't find their influence anything but positive in that it gives ordinary people reason to visit those otherwise dull and nondescript neighborhoods for something other than a massage or used auto parts.

대리운전 comes to Pittsburgh.

Post-Gazette front page, from Newseum.

I chuckled when I saw front-page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning, with news that a 대리운전 service has come to Pittsburgh.

BeMyDD (Be My Designated Driver) started operations in Pittsburgh this week after launching in three Ohio cities earlier this year, he said.
"BeMyDD is a new twist on a transportation service which gives people an affordable alternative to the usual limo or taxi. The premise is that 'We drive YOUR car, so you don't have to,' " Mr. Simanovsky said.
The company offers two services: A customer can reserve a driver ahead of time who will meet them at a location of their choice, chauffeur them around in their own car, wait for them and take them home, for $12.50 an hour.
For those who are already out and in no condition to drive, the company will dispatch two drivers to take them and their car home. That costs $25 plus $2.95 a mile for the first 10 miles and $1.50 per mile thereafter.

The service is quite common in South Korea, a nation of heavy drinkers and mandatory after-hours functions. A Naver search turns up 387 대리운전 numbers for Gwangju alone, and signs around town and cards strewn on street corners may yield a few more.


Lined up in Gangnam, from Sisa Channel.

The New York Times took a look at Korea's professional designated drivers in 2007.

Their work has become such an essential part of life in Seoul and other major cities of South Korea that the national statistical office last year began monitoring the price of replacement driver services as an element in calculating the benchmark consumer price index. An estimated 100,000 replacement drivers handle 700,000 customers a day across the country, the number increasing by 30 percent on Fridays, according to the Korea Service Driver Society, a lobby for replacement drivers.

All we need now is cheap internet, efficient public transportation, decent health care, and table-top bingbongs and Pittsburgh'll be all caught up.

Employees at Naju Office of Education busted for gambling.

Five men who work at the Naju Office of Education were busted, the Korea Times says, "for gambling in the office during work hours."

An officer said the police received a tip that several education office workers habitually gambled in the workplace during office hours. They followed the lead and raided the gambling scene at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.

The manager Sohn was serving as an acting head of the education office as the superintendent was on summer vacation.

According to the police, the five workers played go-stop three to four times a week since late June.

Here's a short video report in Korean from YTN.

Gwangju World Music Festival (광주월드뮤직페스티벌), August 27th - 29th.

10 Magazine has information about the Gwangju World Music Festival (광주월드뮤직페스티벌) next weekend, the 27th through the 29th, as does the festival's official site.



Map, from the official site.

New York Times on international schools, "Jeju Global Education City."

Choe Sang-hun in the New York Times today looks at foreign schools opening in Jeju and what that means for English education and goose families for the wealthy in South Korea.

What is happening in South Korea is part of the global expansion of Western schools — a complex trend fueled by parents in Asia and elsewhere who want to be able to keep their families together while giving their children a more global and English-language curriculum beginning with elementary school, and by governments hoping for economic rewards from making their countries more attractive to foreigners with money to invest.

Though not mentioned by name, the "Global Education City" has been the topic of numerous articles in the domestic English-language newspapers like the Korea Times and JoongAng Daily, and has been covered by local blogger Lost on Jeju the past year (here, here, and here for instance). Given the high numbers of Korean students who attend other domestic international schools, the lengths some Korean families go to obtain foreign citizenship for their children for education purposes, and the potential for limited international involvement in the Korean project, it remains to see how "international" these programs in/on Jeju will remain, and thus how authentic and beneficial they will be to Koreans and expatriates alike.

After two months on the run, former Yeosu mayor turns himself in.

Oh Hyun-seop, mayor of Yeosu from 2006 to early-2010, turned himself into police on Wednesday, writes the JoongAng Daily, after two months on the run from charges of corruption leading up to the 2012 Yeosu Expo.

After 58 days as a runaway, the former Yeosu mayor, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued on charges of receiving bribes since June 18, voluntarily turned himself in to police in Seoul yesterday.

Oh Hyun-seop, 60, the former mayor of Yeosu, South Jeolla, was suspected of receiving bribes from subcontractors during his term (2006-2010) in conjunction with preparation for the EXPO 2012 Yeosu Korea. Oh is being questioned by a special investigation team of the National Police Agency in Seodaemun District, Seoul, and was questioned about the bribery charges yesterday.

Rain wrecks Seomjingang Train Village bridge.

From Yonhap.

Heavy rain damaged Duga Bridge (두가교) in Gokseong county's Seomjingang Train Village on Tuesday.


From Newsis.

Gwangju, in the center of Jeollanam-do, received 87 millimeters of rain on the 17th according to the Korean Meteorological Association (기상청). According to KMA stats Yeonggwang county, northwest of Gwangju, was hit the hardest in the province, getting 99 millimeters on the 17th and 109mm on Monday. Jangheung county recorded the highest number this month, getting 120.5 mm of rain on the 10th from Typhoon Dianmu.


In better times, from Naver encyclopedia.

Additionally, here are a few pictures I took of heavy rain in Gwangju in July 2009 and in Suncheon during Typhoon Nari in 2007.

Question about tuberculosis test for foreign teachers.

First in a comment and then in an email, reader mat_g00d asked on Sunday:

Could you tell me about the tuberculosis test? I can't seem to find an exact answer on Korea message boards. Are the Koreans only testing for active TB? Would they deport someone who has inactive, latent TB (likely born with it, took medication to make it even more dormant)?

The comment is on a 2009 post regarding challenges to the drug and TB tests required of E-2 visa applicants. He, and I, are looking to readers for answers, specifically regarding the test. As I said in an email to him, I have no recollection how I was tested for TB or even when I was tested for it, and thus can't speak to whether they're testing for latent as well as active TB, or whether they're testing for TB at all as a prerequisite to obtaining an E-2.

More chatter about schools unwilling to hire older, experienced, more expensive NSETs.

In April I posted about Korean public schools and their recruiters wary of hiring older, experienced native speaker English teachers [NSETs] because of an unwillingness to pay them what the payscale would dictate, and in May I wrote that this tendency will not siphon from the surplus of "qualified" un- and under-employed teachers in the United States. A reader passed along last week a conversation from Dave's ESL Cafe with perhaps further evidence that public schools aren't hiring experienced NSETs. On a thread considering it a myth that there are still lots of jobs to be had teaching English in South Korea, long-time poster "Junior" writes:

[I] have been told by recruiters that they can't place me precisely because i am well qualified. Government schools have been sent an advisory to only employ inexperienced teachers in the bottom pay grade. Because they don't want to pay anyone in the top pay-bracket.

Experienced poster "sojusucks" replies in the following post:

Junior is right. SMOE, EPIK, and GEPIK have sent out notice to schools that they should hire inexperienced teachers because of pliability and lower salaries. In case you didn't know it, SMOE, EPIK, and GEPIK send out [memos] all of the time dealing with foreign teachers, and almost all of these memos deal with something negative for foreign teachers. They even send small books to schools and tell them how to "deal with foreign teachers" so that foreign teachers get the short end of the stick. You don't believe me? Ask your school about the "book" that they have for dealing with foreign teachers. Go ahead. You'll see. SMOE, EPIK, and GEPIK are not on your side.

Being out of the country for six months and taking some time off from full-time blogging means I'm partially out of the loop regarding policies for NSETs---and angering a few recruiters and whitey wranglers NSET coordinators means teachers have been advised against passing information along to me---so I unfortunately cannot speak with any certainty to these memos and their contents, nor can I share these "deal with foreign teacher" books with readers. That the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education [SMOE], English Program in Korea [EPIK], and Gyeonggi English Program in Korea [GEPIK] are "not on your side," though, isn't really news, and we've been reading throughout the year that older teachers are having trouble finding work in South Korea. It's not just older, more expensive teachers being turned away: applicants of all types are facing challenges as well, according to another recent Dave's thread. From one poster:

It's been about 8 weeks since I started this process, and I've come up totally empty. Not one offer.

And another:

I was trying for roughly 7 months and I finally got a public school gig which starts in September.

And another:

I couldn't find a job in Korea, and I tried 4 or 5 recruiters.

Recruiter Number 1 Flat out told me if you don't have an English or education degree even if you have TEFL your probably S.O.L but you can go into their "pool" until the public school hiring in Sept/Oct for Epik February

Recruiter Number 2 wanted me to send them my original degree, glad I didn't send it because when I said I would send a notarized and Korean consulate stamped copy I never heard from them again.

Recruiter Number 3 I applied to a few public positions with them, but right at the end of the intake and I didn't get interviewed. After that I got an email from them saying I was being transferred to their private school job pool and "don't call us we'll call you"

Recruiter Number 4 Phoned me at 1am, which was fine, I was up. I told him my preference was a coastal location in the south of medium size. He sent me a contract and an application for a rural city of 10,000 right on the DMZ through GEPIK. With the standard line "Seoul is only 1 hour by train" According to most recruiters every part of Korea is only 1 hour by train to Seoul...

Recruiter Number 5 Never called me back.

And another, commenting on the EPIK payscale, on which Level 1 is the highest:

Seems that EPIK and some of the other education offices are not wanting any level 1 applicants who get their level 1 salary status by having just 2 years of teaching in Korea in Hagwons. They are only interested in hiring a level 1 person if they are a trained teacher or have overseas teaching experience or an English TESOL diploma etc.
Quite a few cities now only prepared to pay for hiring level 2 maximum now. I guess this means that many of the long termers in Korea who would be level 1 trying to get into a public school won't get in.

And another:

just be patient, after i got my CELTA it took me 4 months to find a job.

An interesting experiment would be for me to apply to a few recruiters and see what sort of response I get. It would work best if they didn't recognize my name but instead just looked at my experience in Korea, which includes a CELTA, three years in public schools and one in a hagwon. I know in 2005, after graduation and when I first contacted recruiters, I'd send out a few emails at night and wake up to several offers in the morning.

South Korean police raid Google offices over privacy concerns.

Two former English teachers in South Korea passed this news along this afternoon, news of South Korean police raiding Google offices in Seoul and seizing computers. An excerpt from the BBC:

A police statement said they suspected Google has been collecting and storing data on "unspecified internet users from wi-fi networks".

The firm recently admitted that its Street View cars had been collecting information over unencrypted wi-fi networks, calling it "a mistake".

Google is currently under investigation in a number of countries to see if it broke data protection or privacy laws.

"[We] have been investigating Google Korea on suspicion of unauthorised collection and storage of data on unspecified Internet users from wi-fi networks," the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) said in a statement.

Korean media reported that 19 KNPA agents raided the office, seizing hard drives and related documents.

The Korea Times and JoongAng Daily are the two domestic English-language outlets with the story early Wednesday morning Seoul time.

Another remarkable building design for the 2012 Yeosu Expo.

With the 2012 Expo (2012 여수세계박람회) less than two years away, I wonder how much progress is being made on some of these concepts. Here's a new one, from Unsangdong Architects via ArchDaily. It is, ArchDaily writes,

[a]n ‘Ocean Gate’ [that] takes the culture of the sea shore and shifts it vertically. This move creates a dynamic visual that is a constant reminder to the viewers of nature’s different environments.

See also:

+ Yeosu's Water Cube, and other cool buildings for the 2012 Expo. (March 1, 2010)
+ Another futuristic building planned for 2012 Yeosu Expo. (May 15, 2010)

2010 Gangjin Celadon Culture Festival (강진청자문화축제): August 7th - 15th.

Gangjin county's most famous product has a festival each year---the Gangjin Celadon Culture Festival (강진청자문화축제) with 2010's being from August 7th through the 15th.


White people looking at lanterns in Gangjin. From Newsis.

The fesival received small mention in the Korea Herald earlier, in a piece called "Promoting Korea everyone's responsibility," a tiresome focus on branding to a global audience an interesting but nonetheless small corner of the country.

A lot could be said about Gangjin, all good of course, but one important feature that is missing is a brand that will propel the city into the hearts and minds of locals and international tourists alike.

Sure Gangjin is famous for its celadon, sure they make great tea, sure they have beaches, delicious seafood and interesting museums, but that one branding image for the area is missing.

Without going overboard, though, and without having to look too hard through the archives here, it's possible to find a number of things to do to make a weekend in Gangjin county worthwhile:

+ Visit Maryang-myeon, the scenic coastal township at the southern tip of the county.

+ Stop at two unique temples: Nammireuksa, with the biggest Buddha in Korea; and Omcheonsa, which has thousands of loose-stone pagodas.




+ See what carries the awkward English name "Byeongyeong Sacred Site," or Byeongyeong Fortress, the barracks---and now museum---where Dutch explorer Hendrick Hamel was held captive for years in the 17th century.

+ Hike Mandeoksan between Baekryeonsa---one of the better-known temples in the county---and Dasan Chodang, a site made famous when yet another outsider was exiled to Gangjin.



+ Get the best view of the county seat atop Boeunsan, a fairly short hike from the bus terminal in Gangjin-eup.



+ Just spend time wandering around rural South Korea, likely a truly foreign experience for many expatriates and Koreans.

Chan-ho Park now a Pittsburgh Pirate.

The Pittsburgh Pirates claimed pitcher Chan-ho Park off waivers from the New York Yankees on Wednesday. Park (박찬호, Park Chan-ho), the first Korean to make the Major Leagues, will join the worst team in baseball and a team that hasn't had a winning season since 1992.

If Park pitches in a game he'll be the first Korean to play for Pittsburgh in the regular season. Prior to the 2008 season pitcher Byung-hyun Kim signed with Pittsburgh but didn't make the team out of training camp.

Two other Asians have played on the Pirates but haven't done too well. Infielder Aki Iwamura was acquired before the 2010 season but was, in spite of his past success, one of the worst players on one of the worst line-ups in Pittsburgh history, hitting .182 in 54 games before being demoted. The first Japanese, and Asian, player was pitcher Masumi Kuwata, well-known in Japan but signed by the Pirates well after his prime, who appeared in 19 games in 2007.

Hines Ward is the strongest connection between Pittsburgh and South Korea, where he's seen as a national hero and a role model for biracial Korean children. But the other signings have raised some awareness overseas of the city, a year after the troublesome G-20 summit and a generation after the steel left. After all, my Japanese fiancee and several acquaintances, for better or worse, know of Pittsburgh because of Kuwata's brief stay.