Any Ace Day parties?

Ace Day display at Suncheon grocery store.

October 31st is "Ace Day" (에이스데이) in South Korea, a relatively minor consumer holiday for giving, receiving, and eating Ace brand crackers. I learned about this, and celebrated it, exclusively at school, and with it falling on a weekend it remains to be seen how much of a celebration there'll really be this year.

Chrysanthemum festivals in Hampyeong, Yeongam counties open today.

From Newsis.

The 2010 Hampyeong Chrysanthemum Festival (2010 대한민국 국향대전) opens today, October 29th, and runs through November 14th at the Hampyeong Expo Park, the site of the annual Butterfly Festival. It's a short walk from the local bus terminal, in turn accessible via one of the 19 buses that make the 45-kilometer trip from Gwangju each day.


After a November 2008 snowfall.

It's one of 21 chrysanthemum festivals in the country, including one in Yeongam county.



The Yeongam Wangin Chrysanthemum Festival (왕인국화축제) is one of several items in the county making a connection between the region and Wani,

a semi-legendary scholar dispatched by the Kingdom of Baekje in southwestern Korea to the Japanese Islands during the reign of Emperor Ōjin, bringing with him the knowledge of Confucianism and the Chinese writing system.

Perhaps an inappropriate connection, at least as far as Wikipedia is concerned.

A new myth about Wangin was publicized in South Korea in 1970s. In 1972 the social activist Kim Changsu reported a series of essays titled "Korean spirit embodied in Japan," which appealed to South Koreans who felt oppressed by the legacy of Japanese colonization. In this framework, Wani was regarded as Korean without doubt. Upon being informed by a reader from Yeongam, Kim issued a statement identifying Yeongam as the birthplace of Wani in the next year. In spite of the weakness of the evidence, Wani's "relic site" was designated as Cultural Asset No. 20 of South Jeolla Province in 1976.

The development of Wani's "historical sites" was led by the governments of South Jeolla Province and Yeongam Country. The construction was carried out from 1985 to 1987, "restoring" the "birthplace", schools where Wani allegedly studied, and others. Yeongam Country started to fully exploit the old-looking new theme park as a tourist attraction because the introduction of local autonomy of 1990 forced the local government to look for its own source of revenue. For example, Youngam County began to host the annual "Wangin Culture Festival" in 1997 that was previously organized by local people under the name of "Cherry blossom festival".

2nd annual Tour de Korea rolls through Suncheon tomorrow.

The 2nd annual Tour de Korea (대한민국 자전거 축전) has been riding through the country since October 22nd, and will be coming to a close on Saturday, October 30th in Suncheon. The final leg starts at Suncheon Jeil College (순천제일대학) at 1:00 pm and ends 27.2 kilometers later at Palma Stadium (팔마경기장).



Course information, and that picture, from the official site.

Meanwhile, the 2010 Green Gwangju and Jeonnam Bike Festival (2010 Green 광주&전남 자전거 축제 대회) will take place on October 31st. It's a 46-km road race held around Gwangju, from Honam University counter-clockwise to City Hall.

Foreign English teachers still subject to HIV testing; prostitutes and entertainers to have regulations eased.

The Korea Times, via The Marmot's Hole, writes that "HIV test rules for foreigners [will] be eased": just not for E-2 visa-holding native speaker English teachers.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it will scrap compulsory human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tests for foreigners seeking to acquire an entertainer’s E-6 visa, and workers renewing their E-9 visas here.

However, the tests will still be required of those seeking E-2 language teaching visas.

. . .

[T]he latest move is likely to spark more disputes over the continued testing requirement for E-2 visa applicants and holders.

“Education is considered a very intimate relationship. According to an unofficial survey by the Prime Minister’s Office, the majority of parents wanted solid evidence of their children’s teachers’ HIV status,” said an official of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The article goes on to name law professor Benjamin Wagner as a foreign teacher who has objected to these regulations, and you can read more information compiled by him on the topic of discriminatory HIV tests for foreign English teachers---and the ignorance and misinformation that prompted them---in a report compiled for the Human Rights Commission of Korea on the media bias against E-2 visa-holding English teachers.

Nhrck Report 2

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Uncategorizable-Unca Business-Branding

Discussion of foreign English teachers and AIDS begins on page 24. An excerpt from page 25:

Given the Korean public’s serious misunderstanding of how HIV is transmitted

As you'll see on page 24 of the report and in the October 25th Korea Times article in which a Ministry of Health and Welfare official is quoted saying “We’ve decided to ease the rules as HIV is not transmitted through air or water but through human contact most of the time."

Given the Korean public’s serious misunderstanding of how HIV is transmitteda nd the public’s strong fear of infection in the school setting, it is no surprise that many Koreans find the idea of a foreign teacher with HIV terrifying. Instead of correcting the public’s misperception through educational efforts, however, the government has decided to perpetuate this misperception and give the public a false sense of security by implementing symbolic HIV testing of foreign English teachers. Yet this move by the government only reinforces the misunderstanding of how the disease is spread, heightens the stigma and discrimination surrounding PLWHA, and promotes the false idea that only foreigners are in danger of infection.

The points about ignorance of the disease and the activity of the Anti-English Spectrum to spread misinformation about teachers were briefly summarized by Wagner in a June 2009 Korea Herald column calling for a stop to discriminatory HIV testing of teachers.

Kang Shin-who somehow wins another "Journalist of the Month" award.

Kang Shin-who has won another "Journalist of the Month" award from the Journalist Association of Korea (한국기자협회) and the Korea Press Foundation, writes the Korea Times.

Kang Shin-who, a Korea Times city desk reporter, has been named “Journalist of the Month” for his series of investigative articles on irregularities involving foreign schools.

The Journalist Association of Korea (JAK) and the Korea Press Foundation announced Tuesday Kang's selection for his series of in-depth reports starting on Sept 8.
Kang has long written about ill practices at foreign schools and his report last year that Kang Sung-jong of the main opposition Democratic Party embezzled a large amount of money from the Indianhead International School (IIS), led to the arrest of the lawmaker. It was the first time the National Assembly has approved the arrest of a legislator in 15 years.

Impressive indeed, especially in a domestic foreign-language press that rarely if ever breaks news and investigates stories in the Korean-language world. This is his third such award in the past year, if I'm not mistaken (1, 2, 3). I'm just happy this preoccupation with foreign schools, foreign tests, and "unqualified" foreign students has kept him off the native speaker English teacher beat, where over the course of a couple years he became known in some circles---like this one---as the worst reporter in Korea's English-language press for his history, and agenda, of bias and distortion that includes repeatedly and consistently fabricating quotations and statistics, admitting to printing information known to be false, giving considerable attention to the hate-group Anti-English Spectrum (of which he is a member), and degrading foreign teachers with numerous articles calling us "unqualified" or insisting there is a social problem with undocumented and criminal teachers. He also increased his profile by instigating an immigration investigation of me following several blog posts critical of his reporting.

While he may have won a few fans among domestic educators for his reporting on foreign schools and their students, he's a "journalist" foreign English teachers will need to give a wide berth. He emailed me earlier in the year to tell me not to reprint his picture here, so I won't; you can find it on several other posts and articles, and suffice it to say if you see that face asking you questions, on the record or off, go the other way.

A lot of "speed bumps," writes JoongAng Daily of Yeongam Grand Prix.

The paper that recently renamed itself Korea JoongAng Daily has an article on the, by many accounts, disappointing effort at holding and organizing the inaugural F1 race in South Korea this past weekend.

After the conclusion of the Formula One race in Yeongam, South Jeolla, local officials were patting themselves on the back - while also admitting to some embarrassing screw-ups.

“I would like to thank the people of South Jeolla, the government, event personnel and volunteers for all the support,” said Governor Park Joon-yung.

“We have successfully held the F1 event by building one of the finest circuits in the world in South Jeolla, which is one of the most underdeveloped areas in Korea,” he said. “Although everything didn’t go as planned, I want you to think of this as a long term investment for the future.

One man they profiled---and pictured jump-kicking a sign---complained of not getting the tickets he reserved, while others complained that the organizers gave out thousands of free tickets only to not honor them at the gate.

Entrepreneur Park Min-young, 28, traveled all the way from Busan to see the race, and he had a representative experience.

“I waited for the shuttle at the station starting at 1 p.m.,” he said. “But the shuttle, which was supposed to come every 5 to 10 minutes, did not come until 2:30. When I came to the circuit at 2:50 and tried to get in, I was denied access and not one person knew where I should ask to get answers.

“I bought two tickets over 300,000 won each and people next to me with a baby bought four Silver tickets over 1 million won each,” Park said.

“Nobody from KAVO [event organizer Korea Auto Valley Operation] came to the entrance or explained anything to us, and I couldn’t believe the fact that there was nowhere to get information or vent my frustrations.”

. . .

Another problem with tickets was that the local government gave thousands of free passes to university students to make sure the stands were filled. The local government also required its officials to sell tickets to their family and friends.

“Since the event is fairly unknown in Korea, I did ask for some cooperation in terms of tickets, and I am truly sorry for all the inconveniences that have been caused,” said Governor Park. “Also, there were some confusion and dissonance as the organizing committee was run simultaneously with us and KAVO. We will look into all wrong procedures and improve on these matters.”

Both Reuters and blogger The Chosun Bimbo have entries on the free ticket fiasco. The JoongAng Daily airs complaints about the facilities as well:

The spectators stands were rickety, like those at a high school sports field, and KAVO was forced to close certain sections while continuing construction on stands during the three days of practices and races.

Most of the parking areas and pedestrian walks were unpaved, creating huge amounts of dust for the first two days and large mud puddles on the day that it rained during the Grand Prix. After sunset, most circuit areas had no lighting, leaving pedestrians in the pitch black.

Volunteers who were supposed to help visitors rarely knew the answers to questions. Very few spoke any language other than Korean, and few knew where certain places at the event were.

Long-time Dave's ESL Cafe poster diver has an amusing point-counterpoint to the article, poking holes in the characteristic bombast of local politicians and spokesmen.

Quote:
“Since the event is fairly unknown in Korea...

Yeah...because YOU didn't promote it properly. Idiot.

. . .

Quote:
“This circuit was a great accomplishment for us, as what would usually take about five years in Europe took us just over three years to accomplish,” said Kim Jae-ho, the general manager of KAVO’s marketing department.

But KAVO didn't accomplish the same thing. Europeans run successful races. KAVO ran...well...not that.If the Europeans wanted to screw up a race as badly as KAVO, they could've done it in less than three years.

The thread has a collection of reviews from the event.

Anyway, according to the oldest article on it I could find, the Grand Prix was planned, or "planned," for Yeongam in October 2006.

KAVO was founded as a joint venture between the provincial government of Jeolla Nam-do and the official Formula One promoter, M-Bridge Holdings. Following the contract signing, construction of the circuit in Yeongam will begin in July 2007 and is expected to be finished by the end of 2009.

JETI is hiring.

In spite of Korean schools trending away from older, qualified and expensive native speaker English teachers, the stagnant salaries at public and private schools, and an increasingly-rough Korean EFL job market, there are some well-paying jobs available for qualified, credentialed instructors. A Dave's ESL Cafe poster recently asked "Is it really that hard to get 3.0 million a month?" and while salaries generally haven't increased all that much, if at all, in the past decade, the Jeollanam-do Educational Training Institute (전라남도교육연수원) in Damyang county offers a little more than the average public school or hagwon position. Via Dave's ESL Cafe:

Highly Paid Government Positions in Jeollanamdo

Posted By: Jeollanamdo Educational Training Institute
Date: Friday, 15 October 2010, at 10:38 a.m.

The Jeollanamdo Educational Training Institute (JETI) is an in-service training institute for Korean teachers supported by the Jeollanamdo Educational Office in Korea. Teach small groups of motivated Korean English teachers in our new, state of the art training center in a beautiful setting 25 minutes from Gwangju. Suitable candidates are those with previous teaching experience in Korea, particularly at the middle and high school level. Salary is above average and depends on qualifications and experience.

Job specifications
1. Starting Date: December, 2010
2. Employment Period: One year with an opportunity for contract renewal
3. Starting Salary: 2,700,000 ~ 3,000,000 K/Won (Depending on qualifications)

Requirements
- Native English speaker
- BA/BS (3-4 year program) degree, (TESOL certificate, MA TESOL English Education degree preferred)
- Teaching experience in Korea necessary (Please do not apply unless you have extensive ESL experience teaching within Korea or abroad)
- Enthusiasm for teaching and working with adults
- Experience developing ESL curriculum

Working Conditions
- Five-day work week (Monday through Friday) 09:00 am ~ 17:00 pm, no work on Korean National Holidays
- 20 class hours per week (class hour 50min)
- Overtime is available at 30,000 won per hour
- 1-3 evening classes per week (considered overtime)
- Development and implementation of curriculum and evaluations
- Trainee age ranges from 25-55 years old
- Working in a team of 9 experienced native English instructors

Benefits
- E-2 visa
- Airfare: a one-way ticket and a return home one-way ticket are provided at the end of contract.
- Medical insurance (Under Korean law)
- Severance Pay (equivalent to one month¡¯s salary) upon completion of a-year contract
- 7 weeks paid vacation (dependent on the training schedule)
- Fully-furnished (unshared) one-room apartment in Gwangju with TV, air-conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine, bed, table, chair, couch etc
- Dorm room at institute also available for instructors during training periods. (It is not necessary to stay at the institute but the option is available.)

If you are interested in one of those positions above, please send your resume and recent photo, and copies of your degree and passport to hyungnamlee@yahoo.com

If you have any questions regarding the position, feel free to contact the coordinating native instructor Phil Griffith by e-mail: philgriffith123@gmail.com

I've written about JETI a few times: it's where Korean English teachers in Jeollanam-do public schools go for training sessions throughout the school year for a few weeks or a month at a time. In a post about teacher-training sessions in Korea and abroad I wrote:

[O]bservational and anecdotal evidence, together with what Korean English teachers have told me, indicates that these programs for secondary school teachers are probably not the best investment. In spite of these TEE certificates and the experience abroad---which, remember, supplements a lifetime of exposure to the language, decades of study, and four years of training in university---they are still placed back into schools that teach English entirely for standardized grammar tests which make spoken English a sideshow at best and a hindrance to comprehending the subject at worst. Teachers who have attended month-long intensive English programs at the Jeollanam-do Educational Training Institute (전라남도교육연수원) in Damyang county told me they generally had fun and learned a lot, but can't apply any of these skills because:

1) Their students aren't interested in speaking English.
2) Their students' English levels aren't good enough to understand spoken English.
3) The activities they learned in Damyang can't be applied to large class sizes like those in public schools.
4) Teachers must follow and complete the textbooks and teach toward standardized tests, and don't have time to waste on speaking English.

In spite of that review, however, I do think that teacher-training programs are one area where native English speakers will be able to find long-term employment as teachers in South Korea, as younger Korean English teachers eventually take an interest in a communicative approach to teaching, and as NSETs are generally phased out of the public schools as being too expensive, too impractical, or simply too much trouble.

They just wanna what?

A long-time reader sent me this video last week. Somewhere, some class of 9th graders is practicing a dance to this for their winter festival:



If you need to search for it, it's "투망," by G-Ma$ta, as YouTube will probably eventually delete it again.

F1 accommodation in the news.

Accommodation in Mokpo, from My Daily Sports.

The Korea Times---in what has been common over the past year---has an unattributed, poorly-written "English" translation on their site, based off a Yonhap translation of an Italian article, about accommodation in Jeollanam-do during the Grand Prix in Yeongam county.

Italia’s largest-selling newspaper launched a harsh criticism on South Korea’s overall lack of preparations as the host to the Formula 1 Korean Grand Prix, including not enough adequate lodgings for participants, but enough love motels in the vicinity they found inadequate to stay.

Corriere della Sera, a Milan-based daily, on Friday, ran an article, titled “F1 teams tumble down to sex motels.”

It also cited blogger Grrr Traveler's June 2010 post "Finding love in the Korean Love Motel":

The “ubiquity” of love motels in South Korea are often cited in web blogs of foreign travelers to the nation. For example, Christine Ka'aloa, who runs a blog, “Grrrl Traveler,” said: “Love motels are primarily geared for couples wanting private loving away from the stern eyes of their parents … maybe even wives!”

The overall gist of the article, if there even is one, is to point out what's perceived as lack of preparations. The article concludes, awkwardly:

Although the Italian newspaper gave a high mark for Yeongam in South Jeolla Province for its scenery, yet as the venue for the event, it gave a rather discrediting remark.

“The reason this site was chosen as the venue for F1 when the facilities were completed just days before the actual event, was likely due to the sponsorship of South Korean conglomerate companies,” it said, according to Yonhap.

Problems with accommodation aren't new---they were reported in the Korean press up to the event---and aren't unique to the Grand Prix. The same worries accompany preparations for the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, and led to many love motels being renamed "World Inns" to deal with the lack of decent accommodation in Korea prior to the 2002 World Cup. But these problems are something that probably should have been anticipated in the four-year run-up to the event: regional population centers like Mokpo and Gwangju lack world-class accommodation, to say nothing of a rural county an hour away from both.


Statue of Liberty atop the Jasmine Motel in Gwangju, from the Kwangju Ilbo.

Koreans can be sensitive about love motel talk in the press. Last year a foreign Gwangju News writer collected pictures of distinctive motel facades in the city and wrote

In Gwangju, the neon lights of a love motel are never far from view. Young couples use love motels to enjoy a romantic night away from parental scrutiny. Love motels are also a rendezvous point for extramarital affairs. Like beauty pageant contestants, love motels decked out in exotic attire vie for attention along the Gwangjucheon waterfront.

She was criticized in the Korean-language Jeonnam Ilbo for spreading misinformation about Korea among the English-language magazine's foreign readers:

해당 기사를 작성한 사람은 미국인 밀리암 호씨. 하지만 그는 광주에 온지 두 달밖에 안 된 것으로 알려졌다. 한국문화에 대해 제대로 이해하지 못한 외국인의 눈에 비친 광주가 아무런 여과 없이 광주를 소개하는 영문 잡지에 실린 것이다.

Criticism of this sort hits on two levels: pointing out that "love motels" exist, and demonstrating an understanding of what they're often used for.

The "forced to stay in brothels" theme is still circulating among English-language articles. From the Express:

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was sympathetic. He said: “What the authorities could probably finish in the future is the hotel situation for teams and you journalists. I’ve heard a few stories.”

Those “few stories”? Many prostitutes have been shooed away from this city but some remain and even vending machines lurk in hotel corridors, offering more than a sweet treat.

From a Yahoo! Sport story "F1 teams forced to stay in brothels":

Formula One teams have been forced to stay in brothels due to a lack of hotel rooms at the Korean Grand Prix.

Hotels around the Yeongam track, which is some 350 miles away from South Korean capital Seoul, have been overwhelmed by demand.

And while drivers and team bosses have found normal rooms, many staff and pit crew have been forced into £150-a-night 'love hotels' where they have reported finding unsanitary conditions - and even piles of used condoms beneath the beds.

"One of the Sauber mechanics was asked if he also wanted a girl for the week," one F1 insider told The Sun.

"And one of the hospitality girls is convinced her room was 'let out' for a few hours while she was away."

And the Jalopnik blog entry taken to task on this site on Saturday:

Formula 1 booked journalists and even teams into Korea's famous "love hotel" rooms for this weekend's Korean Grand Prix. Some are complaining of used condoms under their beds and dildo-vending machines.

A shortage of rooms for the already dicey Korean Grand Prix has forced teams to stay in brothels — dubbed "love hotels" — for the week. Apparently, the staff is so used to people only staying for an hour that they're still letting out rooms to Johns (or Jungs, maybe?).

No, morons, a love hotel is not a brothel.

In news sort of out of Yeongam county, the article "Brothels Used As Hotels For Korean Grand Prix" has been going around Facebook the last couple hours, with the blog Jalopnik citing the account of a foreign photographer housed in Mokpo for the weekend event.

Because of my affinity for love motels, I'm sensitive to what's unsurprisingly a lazy post that gets it wrong---and looks quick to jump on the "news of the weird" theme that runs through so much international news out of Asia in western sources---starting with the photograph that accompanied it.


Korean love hotel? From Gawker.

It's of a storefront you'll find in redlight districts throughout the country, sometimes but rarely attached to a motel.

Love hotels (or love motels, the terms are interchangable) are pretty much the best accommodation options for domestic and international tourists in South Korea, as I've written about on this site and in the Korean Herald.

Though they're primarily used as a place to share an intimate moment, people are starting to realize they're not only about sex. A Yonhap News piece in August looked at the ways motels have changed to attract not only clients looking for a few hours to get away, but people who want to relax in other ways. Competition has pushed motels to offer more, and, the piece says, "more and more motels are transforming their guest rooms into private entertainment places equipped with wide-screen TVs and other high-tech gadgets as a means of attracting clients."

Large televisions, computers, big beds, and bathtubs are standard in the newer rooms, and some of the more stylish ones offer jacuzzis, Nintendo and PlayStation consoles, motorcycles in the room, and even telescopes on upstairs verandas, all for between 50,000 won and 100,000 won a night. The kitch of multicolored mood lights and swanky interior is a fun, welcome change from drab apartment rooms or ordinary faded beige of older tourist hotels.

From that piece in Yonhap, the Korean wire service, last year:

[I]n the face of a steep increase in competition, motel owners are transforming their guest rooms into private entertainment complexes, renovating once spartan furnishings into lavish accommodations.

Couples can now find rooms in some of the country's leading motels equipped with a swimming pool, a sauna or jacuzzi, and flat-screen displays. Popular game consoles like Play Station or Wii, as well as karaoke machines, multiple PCs and a tastefully decorated bed are all part of the package.

They often have the best amenities, are found in convenient locations all over the country, and are a fraction of the cost of "tourist hotels," which are often the only option for foreign travelers because they are the only ones that show up on English-language searches. Yes, motels rent out rooms in two-hour blocks and not because South Koreans don't sleep much. At their worst they can be dingy and dirty, home to one-night stands, gambling sessions, suicides, and deaths by smoke inhilation.

But at their best they are basically what's known as boutique hotels elsewhere.







A "brothel" is, according to dictionary.com:

a house or other place where men pay to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes

and, says Naver:

매매춘을 하는 집

and you can bet that Koreans, sensitive as they are about foreigners knowing about love motels, won't be happy about this mistake, which portrays Koreans more than just oversexed, but as poor hosts.

Much more on accommodation in Korea in the "Motels and Hotels" category.

ATEK Blood Bank Registrar.

From The Jeonju Hub I learned of the Blood Bank Registrar organized by the Association for Teachers of English in Korea [ATEK].

Please register for the ATEK National Blood Bank. You will receive monthly reminders to donate blood regularly and how to do so in your area. In the case that someone needs your blood type, we will email everyone on file nationally with your blood type. We are requesting the first person to respond to make that emergency donation. This seems to happen twice a year.

Had I paid closer attention to a post and call to action on Roboseyo last month I would have learned about it sooner.

Ladies and gentlemen, Korea is an increasingly multicultural country, and it's ludicrous that non-Koreans are running into so freaking many roadblocks just to donate blood, especially when we have many of the blood types that are uncommon in Korea. You'd think that Korean hospitals would be opening their doors and donation chairs to welcome our rare, exotic bloods, and instead we're getting the runaround, "Korean Only" signs and occasional bullshit explanations that "Oh, you can't mix foreign blood with Korean blood. Didn't you know that?" (anecdotally, that's been told to SEVERAL of my contacts when they tried to donate).

This registrar is particularly helpful development for expats in South Korea with blood types especially rare among Asians, and is an important tool for staying connected in future blood drives. As Roboseyo has mentioned several times, there are restrictions in place on who is permitted to donate, most notably regarding travel or residence abroad and sexual activity. Please refer to the Donation Interview and Restricted Countries documents for more specific information, and to the Facebook group "Blood Connections: Giving and Receiving in Korea" for potential updates.

October 19th, anniversary of the Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident (여순반란사건).

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

Tuesday, October 19th, marks the anniversary of the "Yŏsu Rebellion," written in English also as the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident" or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Rebellion," one of several bloody exchanges in Jeollanam-do last century, and one whose background serves to foreshadow the violence of the Korean War two years later. The 여순반란사건 was a crackdown against suspected communists in South Jeolla province, specifically the cities written now as Yeosu and Suncheon, that resulted in hundreds or thousands of deaths, depending on the source.

English-language information is limited, though the placards around Suncheon provide some background. From the placard that stood in front of Suncheon Station until it was razed and rebuilt in 2009:

The Yosun Incident broke out on Oct. 19, 1948, when the 14th Regiment of the National Defense Guard of South Korea refused to move to Jeju Island on a mission to put down an armed uprising protesting against the estasblishment of the government by South Korea alone. When about 2,000 soldiers marched into downtown Yeosu, the civilians,students and local leftists, who were suffering from economic distress after the establishment of the new government, joined the soldiers. The insurgent forces instantly occupied eastern areas of Jeonnam Province, i.e., Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gurye, Boseong, Goheung, and Gokseong. The government established the quell force headquarter in Gwangju and defeated the insurgent forces in Suncheon on Oct. 23 and in Yeosu on Oct. 27. During the search operation against the civilian collaborators, many innocent civilians were executed without trial. The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policement, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.
The Yosun Incident served as a momentum for establishing 'anti-communism' as the national idiology for South Korea and fixation of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

An excerpt from the book The Korean War 1945 to 1953, available from Google Books, reminding us there was brutality on all sides:

The civilian rebels included at least 70 teachers. The head of the Yosu's People's Committee was Song Uk, prinicipal of the Yosu Girls' Middle School---the girls were described as "redder than the inside of a watermelon" and proved it when, armed with Japanese rifles, they fought in the vain defense of the city.

In Sunchon some people were summarily executed, but others were tried by a People's Court. While some were found innocent or merely castigated, most were beaten and then executed. The police chief got the worst of it. His eyes were plucked out and he was dragged by car along the streets. Shot, his gas-drenched body was tied to a pole and set on fire. Some 900 people, among them 400 police, were killed in Sunchon by the rebels.

Here's an excerpt from a 1948 report by Carl Mydans---the man who took some of those photographs for Life---that appeared in Time magazine:

When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

A placard on the Suncheon National University campus reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and
headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

A few other posts in the "1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident" category provide a little more information and sources. In November 2008 Life magazine opened its archives to Google Image searches, providing over 100 pictures of violence in Yeosu and Suncheon in the 1940s, and in the Jeolla provinces in the 1950s. Be warned, the photographs are understandably graphic. Since my first posts in 2007 and 2008, more contemporary AP reports have trickled out via a Google News archive search, providing at least one-sided coverage of the violence and additional information about the area. From a report by Tom Lambert available in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on October 25, 1948:

Golden rice fields, streets, and the police compound are strewn with the bodies of an estimated 600 bodies killed in last week's revolt here.

The article continues, mentioning two of the "yanks" who saw action (named in the aforementioned Time piece by Mydans as well):

Lieutenant Greenbaum said anti-American epithets were hurled at him by the rebels. Lieutenant Mohr's boot heel had a hole shot in it by police, who, he said, "were shooting at everything."

When they were through executing bound antileftists and police, the rebels armed high school aged youths with Japanese rifles. Ten of those were slaughtered yesterday when they tried to storm the postoffice, then held by loyalists.

Col. Won Yong Duk, who took part in the loyalist assault on Sunchon, said 180 rebels were captured by his forces.

When Suncheon was retaken, every man in each house was taken to the grounds of a Japanese-built school for questioning. Police kicked and clubbed them. One policeman wearing an old Japanese helmet butted the suspects he was interrogatig.

Along the road flanking the school grounds an estimated 500 women awaited the outcome of the questioning. They could see some of the suspects mauled and beaten. Only the women's eyes betrayed their anxiety.

Further down the road, at a plaza, the bodies of the 22 newly executed men were strewn. On their bodies were small squares of white canvas on which were painted in indelible ink the hammer and sickle over a pair of clasped hands.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine. See also here.


Bodies of the 22 executed at the school, by Carl Mydans for Life magazine.

Acorns off limits to park visitors.

As someone who steps over hundreds if not thousands of acorns when walking around my Pittsburgh neighborhood---way more than even the ubiquitous 다람쥐 can put away---I can appreciate the spirit of conservation that drives some Koreans to collect them. But the Korea Times tells us of new penalties that await those that do.

The Korea National Park Service (KNPS) said Thursday it will impose a ban on picking from trees things such as acorns, nuts and berries in public places to protect wild animals.

Acorns are a food source for wild animals living in the parks such as squirrels, wild boars and Manchurian black bears in the autumn. It is also a part of the ecological system as insects, including rice weevils, spawn in the nut.

“The amount of acorns decreased this year and we have to protect the supply for the wild animals to feed on,” a KNPS official said.

Under the regulations, those caught collecting acorns at the scene will face up to three years in prison or a maximum 30 million won ($27,000) fine, depending on the amount. Even those caught with a handful of acorns will be fined 100,000 won.

“Some visitors pick up a handful of acorns without any sense of guilt. We ask them to stop doing so since even just one is connected to the ecosystem of the park,” he said. Last year, 61 people were caught collecting acorns and other plants, down from 89 the previous year.

Reminds me of a visit to Nagan Folk Village last spring:

Monday morning.

A little experiment in compiling a brief link list every Monday of things that I couldn't work into posts of their own. My apologies for the continued twitterization of the blogosphere.

* Go! Overseas presents 10 Don'ts for Teaching Abroad in South Korea.

* "Farmers in South Jeolla Province collected 100 tons of rice to help North Korea struggling from food shortages and contribute to the reunification," said a farmer in an NTDTV video report.

* A university student was found stripped and strangled in Mokpo.

* Roboseyo reiterates his complaints about lousy customer service at "western" restaurants in South Korea, a complaint I fully endorse.

* But, I still think the customer experience in South Korea is much better than what you'll find in the US, where customer service is considered beneath everyone's dignity and where standing at a counter usually involves dealing with somebody else's bullshit and personal problems. ThingsComeAround talks about that on Dave's ESL Cafe.

* Korea Beat translates an article about a teachers' union branch in Gangwon-do sticking up for sex offender teachers.

On October 11 National Assembly Representative Kim Se-yeon (Grand National Party), a member of the comittee on education, science, and technology, said of the collective bargaining demands, which his office has received, that the union is demanding the elimination of indefinite transference of educational workers punished for offenses, including embezzlement, grade adjustment, and sex offenses, that have no relationship to their schools or work duties.

* GRRR Traveler writes about E-2 visa renewal headaches.

* The number of 'john school attendees' is increasing, writes the Korea Herald on the mandatory classes for those arrested for soliciting prostitutes. I posted on them in October 2008 following a Hankyoreh undercover report with this amusing sequence:

We are told that in the morning there will be classes on the criminality and harmfulness of sex crimes and testimonials from women victimized by prostitution, followed in the afternoon by classes on AIDS education and sociodramas to improve sexual awareness.

Finally, it is lunchtime.

Reader questions: Gangnam public schools, English-speaking real estate agents, and Gangjin Foreign Language Town.

From time to time I get questions on topics such as conditions at a certain school, visa procedures, or Korean internet issues, and really unless the questions have to do with regional tourism it can be quite difficult to track down answers halfway across the world. It's easier to turn the questions over to readers and assemble a collection of answers via comments. Today there are a few questions from two readers: about finding housing while working for a Gangnam public school, and about taking a job with the Gangjin Foreign Language Town.

The first question comes via email regarding public school positions in Gangnam, inspired by a post last fall "More bullshit from Seoul public schools: Gangnam changes contract, won't provide housing anymore":

I just applied for a public middle school teaching job in Gangnam, and the academic coordinator is interested in my application. For the longest time I've thought Gangnam is the place to teach/ live. But after reading about this on your blog and the Chosun Bimbo, I've been second guessing its hype, especially since they don't offer housing anymore. I want to take this job, but I really don't have the Key money to put down on an apt.

I'm wondering:
Does the Gangnam DOE offer Key money?

And, I read here: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2009/10/more-bullshit-from-seoul-public-schools.html that you had some info on real estate agents. Could you fill me in on English speaking real estate agents?

Searching through the post I don't see any information about English-speaking real estate agents, but will offer Seoul's Craigslist as one possible solution.

The second question comes as a comment to a March 2008 post, "Gangjin Foreign Language Town will finally open." I had written about it a few times since I signed a contract to work there but was platooned in a local elementary school for a month, then two months, then finally for a whole year as the opening was delayed for 18 months. emcat writes:

so i was just offered this job for March 2011. I live in Gwangju at the moment. I am just wondering if you know of how that school is progressing as of now. This post scares me a little, I will be honest.

let me know.
yoemcat@gmail.com

I don't have many updates on the Town or the post, other than to report that there's finally an official website for the 강진외국어타운. The three foreign instructors listed can be Facebooked for contact information.

You can judge for yourselves how scary the post is, and can discuss---as we did a little here---the wisdom of these rural English islands that aim to provide more "practical" and situational English instruction (see the dialogues and scenarios previewed here) in lieu of weekly or biweekly meetings with NSETs, but the lack of planning isn't unusual. I will say that since 2007, and since March 2008, there have been a couple of changes in the area to which emcat might be able to attest. The first is that a bunch more English-speakers have passed through the area to live and work, exposing not only more students to native speaker English teachers, but collecting more information on the region for potential signees. As I mentioned many times before, before I moved to Gangjin I never saw a picture of it and didn't know a thing about it. Like I just said you can browse Facebook and contact teachers currently or formerly with the school, a luxury not available to people who passed through rural Jeollanam-do just a couple of years ago.

Secondly, the local expatriate community in Jeollanam-do is more connected and more active, so that while a contract in rural Gangjin could be extremely lonely a few years ago, there are more options available for teachers who want to interact not only with other English-speaking teachers, but with foreigners from different countries and local Korean residents. Facebook is full of local groups and meet-ups, and the Gwangju International Center is bigger and more active than ever before. Those things won't account for the shitty planning you'll find at English programs throughout the country, but they'll make rural Korea a more pleasant and satisfying experience.

Please add any answers or updates you have as a comment.

The JoongAng Daily takes a quick look at fermented skate (hongeo, 홍어), a regional specialty on Shinan county's Heuksan-do.

“Hongtak is really addictive,” said Lee Jong-seok, a 56-year-old taxi driver. “People can’t stand the odor at first but if you eat it more than three times, you will eventually get addicted to it. And I heard that the gelatin from fermented fish is good for the cartilage and rheumatism.”

I actually don't mind the taste.

Unfortunately the profile comes a month after Heuksan-do's annual hongeo festival (흑산홍어축제), so you'll have to wait until the Yeongsanpo Skate Festival (영산포홍어축제) in Naju next spring.

Big 홍어 couple springs ago, from Naver via this post.

Hankyoreh issues correction and apology for "Over half of native English teachers quit job after six months."

As mentioned on Gusts of Popular Feeling earlier in the week, the Hankyoreh issued a correction and apology for their article "Over half of native English teachers quit job after six months," which read in part:

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) has claimed that around two thirds of native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months on the job because of employment or studies, through a report on Sept. 29.

The report submitted by the MEST to the ruling Grand National Party lawmakers showed that as of July 2010, 66.1 percent of native English teachers ended their contract in six months, without completing their one-year contract period. The number of teachers leaving their job halfway through a contract has increased rapidly from 46 percent in 2008 and 57.6 percent in 2009. The average rate over last three years is 56.4 percent, which means one of two native teachers left school before the contract’s expiration.

As blogged on this site, it was one of several articles that spread false information regarding native speaker English teacher retention rates that claimed that many---and in the Hankyoreh's case two-thirds---of NSETs quit their contracts early. Dated October 13th, the correction titled "Less than 5 pct. of native English teachers quit job halfway" reads in part:

Due to both a misinterpretation of the both data and source of the report, the article erroneously stated that up to 66 percent of native English teachers in public schools, while the number of teachers quitting is in fact less than 5 percent.

. . .

We would like to issue an apology for our mistake and our late correction, and look forward to more active responses, comments and participation of readers of the Hankyoreh’s English Online Edition.

Commenter Roboseyo---Rob Ouwehand, blogger and Communications Officer for the Association for Teachers of English in Korea [ATEK]---has written on Gusts of Popular Feeling and Extra! Korea that

ATEK was in touch with the Hankyoreh about this article, and the reporter who reached out to us seemed quite concerned with getting the story right, once it became obvious that there were sharp discrepancies in the reported statistics.

Excellent work by Ouwehand and others for the "active responses, comments and participation of readers of the Hankyoreh’s English Online Edition," and excellent work by Gusts of Popular Feeling for informing the ATEK press release and for providing the in-depth look at the numbers the news outlets did not. I hope that other parties to this latest misinformation---the Korea Herald, JoongAng Daily, and Yonhap---are next in their corrections and apologies.

Viewing colorful fall foliage in and around Jeollanam-do.

You don't have to be a dull, pretentious fortysomething to enjoy fall foliage, and if you can tolerate crowds, a trip viewing South Korea's makes for a nice October weekend. The official government tourism website has estimated the peak viewing times on mountains around the country, including Haenam's Duryunsan, Gwangju's Mudeungsan, Gurye's Jirisan, and Jeollabuk-do's Naejangsan, with peak times for the southwestern corner ranging from October 29th to November 11th. To help you around the province, here's a modification of last October's post on fall foliage in Jeollanam-do.



Baekyangsa temple (백양사). Located on Baekyangsan mountain in Jangseong county, one of the most popular local destinations for looking at 단풍. If you were in the same orientation group as me in 2006, you'll remember we visited this spot. The Jangseong county tourism page says the 2010 단풍축제 will take place on November 5th and 6th. Here are some pictures from Naver; this is my favorite one. Buses run to Baekyangsa eleven times a day from the Gwangju Bus Terminal: 6:35, 7:30, 8:40, 10:05, 11:20, 12:45, 14:15, 15:20, 16:50, 18:15, and 19:50.


Daewonsa temple (대원사). Located in Boseong county, this is one place I'd really like to visit. It's especially beautiful in the springtime, though, and has a Tibetan Museum. Some pictures available here from Naver. This is the official site, which says buses go to the temple from Beolgyo-eup three times a day: 8:30, 1:20, and 4:30.


Gangcheon mountain (강천산) and Gangcheonsa temple (강천사). Located in Sunchang county, Jeollabuk-do, on Gangcheonsan (강천산). Buses make the ninety-minute trip to the temple from Gwangju terminal ten times a day: 8:10, 8:50, 9:50, 10:30, 11:25, 13:30, 14:10, 14:50, 15:30, 16:10. Here are some pictures from Naver, and here are some pictures from my very pleasant trip last Halloween:













Mudeungsan (무등산). In Mudeungsan Provincial Park, the largest mountain in Gwangju and one of the largest in Jeollanam-do. There are a number of local buses that go there: one way to do it is take a bus to Jungshimsa, walk up the mountain for thirty minutes until you come to a paved road lined with maple trees, and follow this road to another temple, Wonhyosa. I'd be interested to hear of some other routes from people familiar with the mountain. Some pictures from Naver, and here is a nice gallery from a blog.


Naejangsan (내장산). Located in Naejangsan National Park in Jeollabuk-do, this is one of the most popular, and thus most crowded, spots in the country to see colorful maple leaves. The pictures from Naver look absolutely gorgeous, though, especially this one. Buses run to Naejangsa temple five times a day: 8:15 10:25 12:20 13:40 15:05. The park's official site says to take a bus to Jeong-eup, and then take local buses 171 or 171-1 to Naejang terminal.


Piagol Valley (지리산피아골계곡). Located in Jirisan National Park in Gurye county. Buses run regularly from Gwangju and Suncheon to Gurye, from whence you can take a bus to Yongoksa temple. I visited the area in October, 2007, and it was a much more leisurely hike than I was expecting. I walked a few kilometers to the first rest area, then turned around.






There was a festival scheduled last year, but it was one of many Jeollanam-do ones cancelled because of swine flu. There's no further information on the Gurye county tourism website fot this year other than it's scheduled for October.


Samseonggung (삼성국) and Cheonghakdong (청학동). In Hadong county, Gyeongsangnam-do. Hands down the most beautiful and striking place I've ever been in Korea. This post I did in 2008 has some more information, and below are some pictures:











To get there, take a bus or train to Hadong-eup. Then, take one of the five buses a day from the terminal to Cheonghak-dong: 8:30, 11:00, 13:00, 15:30, and 19:00. When you get off the bus, walk up the hill to mosey around Cheonghak-dong, then go all the way back down the hill and over to Samseong-gung. I'd recommend getting one of the earlier buses to Cheonghak-dong, because you'll want to give yourself plenty of time to see both sites.

"I dream about a world in which all people are forced to use Hangul."

As I've noted before---here and here and here---the JoongAng Daily's opinion page is a useful reference for noting the differences between Korean and English-language writing styles, often by way of rambling, nonsensical editorials. In honor of Hangul Day, the holiday celebrating the Korean alphabet, JoongAng Sunday business editor Yi Jung-jae gives us another. He starts:

Her name was Sandy. She was a bit chubby and had a good sense of humor. “What do you call people who are fluent in three languages?” asked Sandy, who was a teacher in an English language class. Her students, however, were silent. “Trilingual,” she said.

“How about the people fluent in two?” she asked, and the students said “Bilingual!” Then, Sandy asked her final question. “How about just one?” The classroom was silent, once again. She then said, “The answer is an American.” We all laughed.

It was a moment from my class during a fellowship in the United States a few years ago. At the time, Sandy said Americans should be embarrassed, but she showed no sign of embarrassment even though she only spoke English.

I am a narrow-minded person, and her attitude made me think: She was showing off the power of English because English-speakers did not need to learn another language. And I thought Americans would never understand the hard life of Koreans who had to learn English, Chinese and Japanese to be successful.

And ends:

There should be more items powered by Hangul’s competitiveness in the future. That’s the path for Korea’s intellectual survival and the path for Hangul’s survival.

When my dream of such a world is realized, I really want to do one thing. I want to invite Americans, Europeans and Chinese people and teach them Hangul.

And I really want to make the joke, “What do you call people who only speak one language?” The answer, of course, is “Koreans.”

Um . . . with few exceptions, that's pretty much the case now.

Busy weekend for festivals in southwestern Korea, October 9th and 10th.

Lanterns on and along the river for the 91st Jinju Lantern Festival, from Yonhap.

Gwangju Blog reminds us it's a very busy weekend for festivals in and around Jeollanam-do. Highlights include, basically in order of appeal:

* the must-see Jinju Lantern Festival (진주남강유등축제), along with the the Jinju Silk Fair (진주실크박람회), the Gaecheon Art Festival (개천예술제), and a drama festival nearby.
* the Gwangju Chungjangro Festival (추억의 7080 충장축제)
* the beginning of the Suncheon Bay Reeds Festival (순천만갈대축제)
* the Gwangju International Community Day (광주국제교류의 날) on Saturday the 9th
* the Rejoice in the Slaughter Thousands of Dirty Japanese Festival (명량대첩축제)
* the Gwangyang Bulgogi Festival (광양전통숯불구이축제)
* and the Gwangju International Food Show (광주국제식품전)

Holy fucking shit, look at that shirt.

Or, "Friends don't let friends go with 'nigger frog faggot wop limey dyke honkie mick kike chink spic beaner'." From Kelly in Korea comes the most awesomely bad t-shirt I've ever seen in Korea.



Originally found by Morgan Dale this past summer, though it turns up on a few earlier Korean blog entries, including this and this.



"Here is a perfect, real-life example," Kelly in Korea writes,

of why you shouldn’t wear clothing emblazoned with words you don’t understand. This is more common than you’d think and almost never done out of irony.

To that I'd also add---as I've said about Gibberlish and nonsense, vulgar English---that what amounts simply to symbols and decoration for Koreans often has actual meaning for a good many people and extends beyond a domestic context, a possibility that needs to be taken into account when using English publically or deciding a t-shirt with an extensive rundown of ethnic and gender slurs is a good idea for the train station.

See also: how Korean-English dictionaries aren't helping.

And on the "unqualified journalists" front . . .

A few days ago South Korea's English-language papers all carried stories about how an alarming number of native speaker English teachers were quitting before their contracts were up. Among other headlines , "More English teachers quit" wrote the Korea Times, and "Over half of native English teachers quit job after six months" said the Hankyoreh. The statistics offered in the papers on the 30th and October 1st were all quite different from one another, and didn't realy point to that alarming a trend. Gusts of Popular Feeling has done even more math, research and analysis on this news item, and reminds us it isn't just hate groups like Anti-English Spectrum who damage the reputations of foreign English teachers.

Every damn native speaker English teacher breaks contract and leaves job early, reports Ministry of Education.

Well, just about. A few hours ago I wrote, based on a Korea Times article, that 5% of native speaker English teachers in Korean public schools were leaving before their one-year contracts ended. From the Times:

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the number of foreign teachers who failed to complete their working contracts last year rose to 425 from 283 a year ago. This year as well, 252 native English speakers have already left schools as of July, according to Rep. Kim Se-yeon of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) who asked the ministry to submit the statistics to the National Assembly.

. . .

Particularly, nearly 30 percent of the foreign teachers who ended their contract worked for less than six months. Some 22 percent of them quit to study or transferred to other jobs, while about 15 percent left without prior notice and others for various reasons including difficulties in adapting to their schools, illness, and being involved in crimes.

The contents of the report were, um, reported elsewhere, but while the Times put the number at roughly 5%, other sources have it as much as 13 times higher. From Yonhap, the Korean wire service:

More than a third of the native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months or so on the job, challenging the effectiveness of language immersion programs installed nationwide, a report said Wednesday.

The report submitted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to the parliament showed 42.4 percent of native instructors ended their contract after six months last year, up from 34 percent in 2008. The rate again fell to 34 percent as of the end of July of this year.

From the Korea Herald, which has different figures than the Times:

Some 950 teachers, or 4.7 percent, cancelled their employment contract in mid-semester within the first year and 34 percent among them (as of this July) quit during their first six months, according to the survey.

From the JoongAng Daily on the "English teacher dropout rates" on October 1st:

More than a third of native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months or so on the job, challenging the effectiveness of language immersion programs installed nationwide, a report said Wednesday.

The report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology showed 42.4 percent of native instructors last year ended their contract after six months, up from 34 percent in 2008.

And now the Hankyoreh, which reports in an article "Over half of native English teachers quit job after six months" that the number is over 66%:

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology(MEST) has claimed that around two thirds of native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months on the job because of employment or studies, through a report on Sept. 29.

The report submitted by the MEST to the ruling Grand National Party lawmakers showed that as of July 2010, 66.1 percent of native English teachers ended their contract in six months, without completing their one-year contract period. The number of teachers leaving their job halfway through a contract has increased rapidly from 46 percent in 2008 and 57.6 percent in 2009. The average rate over last three years is 56.4 percent, which means one of two native teachers left school before the contract’s expiration.

The JoongAng Daily goes on to give another unfathomable number, that

The dropout rate was highest in the southern industrial city of Ulsan at 90 percent[.]

Given Kang Shin-who's track record of distortion over the past two years I'm wary of trusting his figures, but we might want to look at a crucial part of his Times piece to help make sense of the numbers, particularly the misinformation on the messageboards that one-third of NSETs are quitting before the six-month mark:

Particularly, nearly 30 percent of the foreign teachers who ended their contract worked for less than six months.

The crucial information seems to be, to reiterate a point made a few hours ago, that it's nearly one-third of the NSETs who ended their contracts early did so before the six-month mark.

The JoongAng Daily also includes a quotation from an official at the Ministry of Education,:

“The government will more thoroughly examine English teacher candidates’ vocational enthusiasm and intention for long-term service."

an item that goes into the topic of an earlier post today about NSET evaluations and that schools not only don't know what to do with teachers with "intention for long-term service" but that schools---and their recruiters---aren't hiring older, experieced teachers because they don't want to pay them.