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Monday, May 16, 2011

Promoting a "correct understanding" of the islets beyond Ulleungdo

On May 13, Yonhap published the following story from Daegu:
"Dokdo is Korean land"...Native speaking teachers to visit Dokdo

It was announced on the 13th that from the 16th to the 18th, 55 native speaking teachers living in Gyeongsangbuk-do will have a history and culture tour of Ulleungdo and Dokdo.

The aim of the trip is to give foreign teachers a correct understanding of Dokdo's past and present, and to promote the mysterious island of Ulleungdo.

Out of 460 native speaker teachers responsible for English classes in the province's elementary, middle, and high schools, 239 applied to go, and out of these, 55 were chosen.

The foreign teachers are from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia and South Africa.

During this tour, Inha University law professor Lee Seok-u and Handong University international law school professor Lee Hui-eon will give lectures on, respectively, "The international legal debate over the San Francisco Peace Treaty" and "The importance of Dokdo and globalization."

Kim Jong-hak, head of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Dokdo Protection said, "We offered the chance to visit Dokdo to foreign teachers to expand the promotion of Dokdo beyond Korea to foreigners and foreign countries."
Hopefully they don't have to submit essays after they've finished, as was described here. While I doubt I would go, knowing how the teachers are to be used as propaganda tools (see previous link), I can imagine others would endure the (thrilling, I'm sure) lectures to get a free trip to Ulleungdo. As I've mentioned before, I went there in 2002:




(Yes, those are thousands of squid drying.)









It's probably the most beautiful place I've been to in Korea, and is well worth visiting.

3 comments:

  1. I really want to go to Ulleungdo... but do not want to go to dokdo at all, or be on the receiving end of any literature, promotions, or rhetoric about it, during my Ulleungdo trip. I've heard nothing but good about Ulleungdo, other than the fact it's hard to get there, and the ferries are unreliable.

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  2. Those are some amazing peaks. Great photos.

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  3. I would cross rivers to avoid the nationalistic harping on Dokdo involved in such a trip. It makes me uncomfortable that an entire nation of people can get so hot and bothered about a pile of rocks. It reeks of soma, honestly. No, more like the Ministry of Love from 1984

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