Tuesday, April 03, 2012

The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters


Perhaps the post should be titled "The 2003 post that was used to tar foreign English teachers as child molesters by Anti English Spectrum and the Korean media." But that's kind of long, right? At any rate, this series began with a look at the site English Spectrum before the incident began, and this post will look at one other key piece of the puzzle.

The 12th post (ever) at Anti English Spectrum (which can still be read today here (first result)), was posted at about 9am on January 13, 2005, and is titled "Some English instructor bastard's guide to hitting on Korean children - found by chance." It lists two links (now dead):

English: http://www.koreanesl.com/forumdsp.asp?ser=10259
Translation: http://www.koreanesl.com/forumdsp.asp?ser=10287

Here is the English version of the post (click photo to read - or open in it a new tab if Firefox automatically opens it in a photo viewer):

2003/07/11 (No. 10259)



To be clear, that was originally posted on July 11, 2003. The translation was widely passed around Korean cyberspace, and hundreds of Koreans left angry messages at the site. What was never translated were the messages left in response to the original by (presumably) other foreign teachers in July 2003. I dug through the hundreds of messages back in 2007 and saved those original responses:
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10260)
Soon - how to get caught

Think you're so clever. Try to cover tracks with IP's. Post the innards of your sick brain so child protection can see just how twisted you are. Someone identifies you. You're watched. There's a knock at the door. You're busted! Not so smart anymore.
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10261)
Lucky Guy - I think not!

I'm at a PC Bang in Itaewon. So many whities here. Could be anyone. Go fuck yourself self-righteous prick.
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10263)
they'll get you - just keep goin'

I can't wait to be a fly on the wall when they bust you. You'll be cryin' like a baby. Can only get it off with little girls and boys huh? What a man.
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10265)
Lucky Guy - Um OK buddy

More of a man then you'll ever be. At least I have the balls to be honest you sick fucking pedophile pretending to be all bent-nosed when you actually want to sink your dick into a tight litle pussy.
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10272)
the big house - you're going to

Sexual misconduct with minors for starters, followed by at least 4 other charges for sexual assault. Don't bother with your details, they have them already.
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10276)
Lucky Guy - What Do you Think?

Prove I did any of this stuff.

How do you know it's all just one big lie?
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10273)
Citizen - school

Moderator! Please post some information!
Could you at least post the geographical location this predator is posting from? Pedophiles are a threat to the business, if ethical considerations are not deemed important by you. thank you
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10277)
Webmaster web - Thank you for your useful information!

This'll be a really useful information for parents to protect their children from child abusive crime by someone like you.

I bet shortly I'll translate your message into Korean and list up on the 'Webmaster's Selection' for parents, employers and children.

Good luck(?) to you....

-Webmaster
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10287)
Lucky Guy - 삭제 하였습니다...(내용무)
[The Webmaster above kept his word - what followed was, indeed, a translation into Korean - the same one linked to by Anti English Spectrum a year and a half almost to the day later. It had since been deleted.]
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10304)
Pissed Off Guy - idiots [Note: This is 'Lucky Guy']

Well this is a bit lengthy and perhaps a bit of a test to see how censored this board is. If this gets censored, I'll know for sure how serious this website is about censorship.

Let's read the first fucking two sentences before we all start looking for a boogy man that doesnt even exist!

I didnt even write this piece of shit. I copy/pasted it you lynch mob morons!
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10299)
Tom Sawyer - You were sucessful in your quest for attention!! Try taking Ridilin...

Whomever this is,

I congratulate you...I am very impressed with your attempts at causing people to be disgusted with your posting. I however don't care either way...I know Korea and I understand Koreans. My guess is that you are full of shit...If it was real then you would have been caught for sure...One word from a child to a mother and ohhh yes they do tell everything and you would not have had the time to write this posting. You would be somebody's Biaaatch in prison..But if you get off on this then hey what can we do...Good luck I pity you though...Having to look over my shoulder every time I see a police officer must be a stressful thing..
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10305)
Lucky Guy - haha
having to look over my shoulder?

I committed no crime so bugger off buddy!
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10300)
Bruce - Webmaster -- What are you thinking?

I know that you want to keep this form unmoderated, but sometimes you need to make an exception. How you could leave a thread like this up is beyond me, let alone appear on the index page of your site.

If I were an employer, I would never advertise here again after seeing some of the junk that appears on this page. Thank goodness, I am getting out of this country in 2 weeks. I won't ever have to be associated with these kind of lowlifes again.

Dave's might be moderated, but at least it keeps out most of the medically deranged.
_________________________________________

2003/07/11 (No. 10308)
Lucky Guy - thanks bruce

Bruce says it all. And that is the whole point of my post. Censorship needs to be applied in certain circumstances. Let's read the very first sentence of the post again shall we?

Sheesh. Another poster was right. If anyone did something as disgustingly described here they'd be behind iron bars in no short time.

Go find the real pervs and stop wasting your time running around tracing IP's. I would have used a anonymous proxy had the intent of it was really to provide some sick guide.

Common sense folks.
_________________________________________

2003/07/12 (No. 10316)
Vicky - STUDENTS

You sound like a really clever guy. I wish I could meet a guy like you, you sound so amusing, kind, generous and honest.
_________________________________________

2003/07/12 (No. 10335)
gang ah jee - word

Hahahhahahahahahha wow

you must be doing your phd in psychology or something. pretty amazing, seems like you know the exact buttons to push - how did you gain such amazing insight into the human condition? nice one, however you figured it out. You definitely managed to show that people find paedophilia disgusting, against all people's expectations. Can i be part of your next study?!!!

keep backpedalling pervert...
_________________________________________

2003/07/13 (No. 10375)
Lucky Guy - I'm not backpeddling

Back peddling?

like i said read first line you moron.

There is no back peddling when something was already writen.
_________________________________________

2003/08/07 (No. 10766)
a 15-year-old Korean - bastard
Wish I was your student - would pretend to fall for you and then cut your balls off at the moment you think you got it
_________________________________________

2005/01/13 (No. 16182)
heavy dick - one sick mufuckers...
E-mail Address mufuckerusa#fuckus.com

shut ur fucking mouth and go to hell..

or... i'll get you and whoop your ass...

you aint gonna be able to stay here.... nigg...

i hate all of ya.. so disgusting...

you fucking bastards
_________________________________________

2005/01/13 (No. 16199)
fuck this site - Your site is going down

This is so fucking sick Your site and you 'lucky guy' your going down cuz I'm disclosing all this shit on other portals

fuck you white trash

凸^0^凸
_________________________________________

One question that could be asked is whether 'lucky guy' did or did not write that post, and whether he was actually just testing the no censorship policy of the Korean ESL site. While westerners can do dumb things here (like, say, mail yourself a kilo of hash) because they think the rules don't apply to them (or for many other reasons), I think I'd tend to agree with this 2005 assessment of the post:
[I]t was initially surprising to me that so many Koreans would believe that this was a real how-to from a child molester. Disgusting as it was, it reads like something someone would write in order to be purposefully inflammatory...those engaging in real discussions of illegal activities tend to be a lot more subtle in their language.
At any rate, regarding the final posting from January 13, 2005 ("Your site is going down"), seeing this - 凸^0^凸 - we would have no reason to doubt that this was a netizen who meant business. To be sure, he followed through on his threat, and by 9am that day the post was copied at Anti English Spectrum, after sitting translated but unnoticed for a year and a half at Korean ESL. The next day [January 14, 2005], the negative things associated with foreign English teachers would expand from 'comments denigrating Korean women' [January 11] and 'photos of a secret sex party with Korean women' [January 13] to 'child molesters.'

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great series, Matt.

You've outdone yourself going through all these old posts.