Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement

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
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children        
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'  
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave! 
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor'at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place 
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner 
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise" 
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here


Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement

On January 23, 2005, the founder of the Anti English Spectrum cafe posted this message on the main page of the site, where it sat for several weeks:

Members of Anti English Spectrum:

First of all, I think you have been wounded by some recent media reports and for this, as the operator and representative, I keenly feel responsible and convey my apologies, and once again I feel very regretful about the way the broadcasts have come out against my will.

Let me say that the condemnation, despite their good intentions, [of those who joined ] in the beginning due to their original sin of conjecture over the the problematic photos should not extend to those who joined later.

First, this cafe is absolutely not an 'anti-Korean girl' site.
This is a group of people who have gathered to stop further harm by publicizing the problem of not being able to stop the unkind and lewd treatment of many healthy and upright Korean women by some demented foreigners.

Second, this cafe is absolutely not an anti-foreigner site. We do not consider foreign culture to all be low quality culture. We do not reject all foreigners. We do not want the majority of healthy foreigners to suffer due to the minority of problematic foreigners. We inform you that it is absolutely not the basic policy of this cafe to post messages wanting to inflict terror on foreigners by some members who have gotten carried away.

Third, this cafe is absolutely not an anti-club culture site. In the beginning, club day was formed with wholesome intentions and various cultures coexisted and were exchanged, and most members including myself express support for this. However, we oppose some problematic vulgar culture taking over the streets of Hongdae, a place which represents University culture.

This cafe's management, including myself, the operator, will say this once again:

This cafe will in the future continue to make efforts to persuade and convey the truth to those with misunderstandings and who caused a small number of victims pain. As well, we made efforts to solve the misunderstandings of some people who suffered pain due to some problematic foreigners who thoughtlessly posted photos and will make more efforts in the future as well. We judge that the problem with the current [system of] foreign language education through native speakers is that our country has no educational, diplomatic or work system in place, and we will discuss and make suggestions as to the methods or alternatives needed to fix this problem.

As well, regarding the behavior of some media who have reported in a way that superficially tied together methods of reporting for the sake of arousing interest or reports on the celebrity x-file, which see the majority of members including myself and the management, who provide a forum for healthy debate, as criminals or other such things, we can't help but be angry and won't stand by any further and will use all legal methods to mobilize so all citizens including netizens will have proper awareness of this cafe.

Once again, regarding our wholesome members who had their hearts wounded, as this cafe's representative, I express sincere regret and promise that from this day forward, we will make more efforts to communicate the truth of this cafe.

January 23, 2005
[Anti] English Spectrum Cafe manager representative Bbaallyuchi

Cafe manager : 빠알류치(calpis)

Much like this post, it was obvious that, a week later, the poor, "wholesome [AES] members who had their hearts wounded" by KBS's fairly balanced report on the English Spectrum incident were still smarting from a report that dared to suggest that they had victimized the women in the photos.

How nice that the cafe's founder refers to their "good intentions," and the fact that "some members who [got] carried away" posting "messages wanting to inflict terror on foreigners" did not reflect the cafe's policy, much as posts calling the Korean women in the photos sluts, 'western princesses,' 'western toilets,' or 'foreigner's cumrags' were to be disregarded because the cafe was "absolutely not an 'anti-Korean girl' site." The issue for AES is with the "problematic foreigners who thoughtlessly posted photos," not the netizens - many of whom were AES members - who maliciously reposted the photos of the women and left comments denigrating them, as well as sent them vicious emails, text messages, and phone calls.

To be sure, he does give a clear description of Anti-English Spectrum's mandate, describing the site as a "group of people who have gathered to stop further harm by publicizing the problem of not being able to stop the unkind and lewd treatment of many healthy and upright Korean women by some demented foreigners." Emphasized in that sentence is the fact that "not being able to stop... demented foreigners" is part of a problem related to sovereignty, due in part to the fact that "our country has no educational, diplomatic or work system in place" regarding foreign instructors. The other important part of that sentence is their perceived need to "publiciz[e] the problem," which in part explains the fury they directed at KBS for not doing its duty as a public broadcaster to point out the nature of this foreign threat (though we should keep in mind that the "cafe is absolutely not an anti-foreigner site").

It's nice that he ends by commenting on the "behavior of some media who have reported in a way" which portrays the cafe members "as criminals" and threatening that they "will use all legal methods to mobilize so all citizens including netizens will have proper awareness of this cafe," especially considering that an AES member would later take action which saw a foreign journalist who criticized Anti English Spectrum get deported from Korea. In the future, media reports - such as an MBC news program which followed this AES post by a week - would portray AES as they wished and would portray any foreign media criticism of them as "attacks."