From 2006: 'Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees'

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

Part 1: Foreign instructors earn money, are 'absorbed in decadence,' women and drugs
Part 2: Low-quality native speaking instructors: 'Korean women give us money and are sex partners'
Part 3: English Instructors 'Treated like kings and get full service including women’
Part 4: Affairs with high school students, spreading nude photos on the internet
Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees.
Part 6: Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS
Part 7: There is a 'killer' native speaking English instructor in Korea!

Part 5: Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees

On September 12, 2006 BreakNews continued rifling through every corner of the internet to find material with which to demonize foreign English teachers shed light on the 'realities of foreign English teachers' and the threat they pose to the good, upstanding, patriotic citizens of South Korea. One wonders just how much the article is based on tips by Anti-English Spectrum (whose leader provides the only interview in the story) and how much the reporter found herself.

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Foreign instructors ask for mothers rather than tutoring fees

[Exclusive report] Out of 5 women a Canadian foreign instructor was dating, 3 were housewives!!

Reporter Shin Yeon-hui

'Native speaker blacklist,' illegal, low-grade foreign instructor scandal part 5

Over the last month this paper has carried four in-depth articles on the realities of English Spectrum and illegal and low-grade foreign English instructors. In particular, readers could not repress their astonishment and shock at the repulsiveness of some foreign instructors who see Korean women as sex toys and habitually molest or rape them.

After 'Inside Story' released its exclusive report "Native speaking instructor blacklist," it made a huge impact. On the basis of this news report, local and international broadcasters and media have reported one after the other on the realities of illegal and low quality foreign instructors.

As a result, we have learned that an inspection agency is making efforts to study the realities of native speaking instructors in Korea. It was confirmed that the investigation was started by the prosecution after the article "Foreign instructor spread naked photos of female students on the internet" was published in issue 434 of our paper.

A reporter confirmed that foreign instructor A is currently on the run. Meanwhile, another tip related to illegal and low quality foreign instructors was received by this paper on September 1. The informant revealed the shocking news that there is an online café for Korean women who have foreigners as lovers and that housewives were having affairs with foreign English instructors who taught their children.

Tracing the internet cafe for lovers of foreigners ... which outwardly appears a healthy space

Actual writing posted on the site is full of complaints of victimization like rape and abortion

Following up on the tip, this reporter tracked down the Internet café for women with foreign lovers. The informant explained that among the foreigners whom date, many are English instructors.

The two cafes in question were registered on a portal site. These cafes look like healthy spaces where women share their love stories, but if you read the actual postings at the site, they are not like that at all.

Many of the group's female members complained of pregnancies and abortions, as well as things like unreasonable sexual demands. Most of the postings vent their frustration and pain, saying things such as "I'm four weeks pregnant...", "I'm going to the hospital to have an abortion tomorrow," or "Foreigners are like that. He didn't care that what he was demanding was painful." Beside these, there are also a lot of postings about foreign instructors' shocking romantic / sexual behavior with Korean women.

A female member disclosed the perverted and degenerate behavior of her foreign boyfriend in a posting titled 'My boyfriend now scares me.'

"These days I am worried because of my (foreign) boyfriend who makes more and more demands in our relationship. When we are together, we argue but also fool around and have fun. But when I contact him when we're apart, my boyfriend says a lot of sexual things, like talking about his fantasies. I want to make a video with you. I want to have sex in public. I want to make out with you and other women together and see you do naughty things. And he even talked about bondage ... I like to have sex and tend to enjoy it, but not perverted stuff. So my boyfriend and I have never really complained to each other about sex. Last time we had sex I took photos just for fun. I erased them later, but since then my boyfriend has wanted to do such perverted things that I've gotten really stressed. He is the second boyfriend I've had and it's been almost a year now and we're serious about each other, but he's asking too much. I've lived with people cursing foreign men, saying I should totally ignore them and that they are all really perverts, but now the more I meet him the more I see him changing into a pervert, so it's hard.

Another female member attracted attention by uploading a post denouncing a secret meeting of foreign instructors in Itaewon.

"Not long ago I heard something shocking from a friend. I also once met that person (foreign instructor Mr. C). He is from Italy, but went to school in the US and now lives near Samgakji. On weekends, he usually tries to find girls at clubs or on chat sites, and if she seems easy he sleeps with her a few times and then passes her on to his friends. A while ago I met Mr. C via chatting and he was good looking and didn't seem perverted, but after I had a drink he followed me to the bathroom and suddenly kissed me like it wasn't a spectacle. That many women have suffered this makes me even more angry."

There are many more articles posted on this cafe complaining of the women members' suffering and victimization, but as only a few have been excerpted only a few have been made public.

Regarding this, informant L worried, saying "Women who join this group are complaining of common suffering. Though they share it, there are cases where they do not realize that they are becoming victims."

In being lured, housewives are no exception.

It is now closed, but [there was once a] foreign instructor job search site called 'English Spectrum' where foreign instructors posted and shared articles such as "How to molest Korean elementary school students", and "how to extort money." Informant L saved a post that was uploaded there in 2005 and gave it to this reporter, and its contents are shocking.

"(Foreign instructor) XX [could] really go to jail ... really! In Korea, adultery is still a big crime (remember this is a Confucian country). When he goes to jail, he will suffer a lot. XX may not be the only one going to jail, (Korean woman) 00, who he slept with, might go to jail too. It could happen because her husband found out. That's why I pay a lot of money, to not go to jail. XX could rot for two years in a cell, or be deported. My advice: prostitutes are easy to find in Korea, so it's better to go there. Next time, take your money and have fun with the prostitutes."

This is a comment in response to the original post by a friend of a foreign instructor who told the story of how his friend was sleeping with a housewife and this was discovered [by the husband].

XX, who was in trouble due to adultery, was an English tutor. He demanded that the mother of the student he taught have sex with him instead of paying tuition, and after that this he was found out. A psychiatric counselor who is friends with this reporter told of a Canadian English instructor who bragged, "I've had five Korean women as lovers, three of whom were housewives."

Mr. K, who launched a movement to expel illegal and low-quality foreign language instructors, said, "We have filed civil complaints with the police, received reports from female victims, and have continued to take action to help them, but among problematic foreign instructors there are still many who are not even aware that they've done wrong." "This issue should be steadily publicized so that it does not just get temporary attention and die down. It is urgent that we create an environment in which we can improve laws and the [employment] system so that unqualified foreigners can't be hired as instructors anymore."

"The most tragic event in Korea’s modern history"

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Park Chung-hee's coup in 1961, which I've looked at before here and here. According to this interview with Kim Jong-pil, one of the coup's architects, the coup was inspired by Nasser's. The Korea Times had an article looking at the legacy of Park's rule and the nostalgia some feel for him.

Professor Rhee Young-hoon of the Department of Economics at Seoul National University said in an interview with Yonhap that the “current political leadership that lacks the capability to resolve social divisions” caused the eruption of so-called Park Chung-hee nostalgia.

“The May 16 event was basically all about a military coup. But the coup became a milestone event that initiated the nation’s modernization,” the conservative economist said.

Liberals’ interpretation of the May 16 coup is very different.

Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition Democratic Party called it the most tragic event in Korea’s modern history, saying the coup paved the way for 36 years of military rule in the nation.

The DP lawmaker also played down the late President’s role in industrialization.

According to Yonhap, Park said that Chang Myon's democratic government formed after 4.19 had already established a 5 year plan, and Park borrowed the idea. And focusing on the "36 years of military rule" (though it could be argued that the period from 1963-71 was not military rule) helps to ignore the 13 year-long thugocracy run by Syngman Rhee, whose election rigging, torture and firing on students led to his overthrow. And to be sure, when I think of "the most tragic event in Korea’s modern history," I tend to think of this:



Apparently the Korean War rates below Park's coup in terms of tragic events, at least when you're the head of the Democratic Party. One imagines he's also taking potshots at Park Geun-hye, who is discussed in connection with her father here.

Just for fun, here's a Korea Herald article about Park Geun-hye's first press conference (she'd become acting first lady after her mother's death), from December 16, 1975:

"Too much democracy" leads women to a "mistaken impression of equality with men"

I was looking through 1940s-era Stars and Stripes and found some interesting articles from the time of the American military occupation (from 1945 to 1949, which I've written about before here and here) which point to concerns - on both sides - about the effects of American influence on Korean women.

First, this article from February 5, 1949:

Army Relaxes Ban
Korean Girls invited to Soldier 'Shindig'

By WILLIAM MOORE
SEOUL," Feb. 5 (AP)—If everything works out right there will be 150 Korean girls to dance with American soldiers at their Hourglass Club Feb. 13.

Brig. Gen. William L. Roberts, Redlands, Calif., who took over command here last month said Friday the plan of inviting Koreans to a soldier's dance was tried successfully last Saturday night at a Quartermaster depot at Ascom City, 20 miles west of here.

The Army had not permitted that sort of thing in Korea since late 1947 when a Korean operated dancehall was put off limits for soldiers.

Girls from Seoul colleges and daughters of good families are being invited, Roberts told the Associated Press.

He said the guests will come and leave in Army buses and during the dance there will be no strolling from the Hourglass Club.[...]

I'd certainly be interested in learning more about the dance hall which was put off limits. While this photo taken in late 1945 shows an off-limits red light district in Seoul, it's not as if it wasn't possible for "fraternization" to take place. As described in Katharine Moon's Sex Among Allies,

The women who sold sex to U.S. occupation forces from 1945 to 1949, who like other camp followers in other lands at other times, followed or greeted troops with a willingness to wash laundry, run errands, and provide sex for some form of remuneration - money, food, cigarettes. Prostitution took place in U.S. military barracks in the early years of the U.S. military occupation (1945-46) and in shabby makeshift dwellings called panjatjip (literally, houses made of boards). By the late occupation period (1947-49), simple inns or hotels... also became the loci of sexual exchange.

When the planned dance took place, however, there was to be none of this kind of fraternization, as this March 5, 1949 article describes it:

Social Experiment Held By U.S. Army In Korea

SEOUL, March 5 (INS)—American Army officials completed a relatively new "social experiment" in Seoul where American soldiers were permitted to dance with Korean girls for the first time in nearly two years.

The "experiment" was conducted in the Army's Hour Glass Club which attracted so many American soldiers that Korean dancing girls were outnumbered 17 to one.

Irene Karl, Army hostess and director of the club, said the whole affair was conducted under strict Army supervision which included special guards assigned to club exits to prevent "strolling."

Also, she said invitations to the dance were carefully screened and sent to the daughters of "good Korean families" living in Seoul.

During the dance, she said, a total of 2,868 American soldiers arrived at the club while only 150 Korean girls, were able to attend.'

"About 30 girls," she said, "had to get permission from, their husbands."

At the same time, she said some soldiers traveled 35 miles to reach the club from the 38th parallel where Army service clubs do not exist.

Actually, the tremendous attendance by American soldiers was partly attributed to the Army's fraternization ban which virtually prohibits American troops from associating with Koreans.

Interesting that married women were attending. As for the fraternization ban, this article, from February 22, 1948, makes one wonder how effective it was:

Korean Brides Called Advanced Phenomena

SEOUL, Feb. 21 (UP)—In the eyes of at least one authority, Korean women who marry foreigners are, for lack of a mere earthly definition, to be considered an
"advanced phenomenon."

According to the right-wing Cha Yoo Shih Mun[자유신문], this is the view of Ann Chai-hong[안재홍], who holds the post of Civil Administrator, the highest official position in the South Korean governmental stratum.

In answer to a question by a reporter of the newspaper, Ahn said "the fact that there are too many Korean women married to foreigners shows their adoration of the foreigners." Ahn then obliquely suggested, according to the newspaper, that these women "had better keep their self-respect since we cannot prohibit their marriages."

Somehow I doubt he went on to criticize Syngman Rhee for his self-hating adoration of his foreign wife (though Ahn did go on to run against Syngman Rhee as an independent in the 1948 presidential election). As I've pointed out before, this attitude was shared by others, as described in Donald Clark's Living Dangerously in Korea:

[T]he young, educated women who worked in USAMGIK offices were often approached for dates. The women, their families, and Korean society in general misunderstood these overtures, and they put the women in a difficult position. For example, one morning an American officer found that his Korean receptionist was very upset by a leaflet that a man had handed her on the way to work. He ordered up a rough translation and found that it said:

"WE COULD NOT OVERLOOK YOU, WOMANHOOD, when you fool around with Westerners in just showing your vanity and worldly devices, which is nothing but scandalous, while you should put all your strength on establishing the state of new Korea. From now on any one of you who shows the following scandalous actions beware that you will be insulted right in front of public.

1. Those women who are quite animated in riding automobile with Westerners.
2. Those women who wink at Westerners in saying “Hello gum” and “My home” and such short words.
3. Those women who chew gum and stroll all over town.
4. Those women who are whispering to the Westerners in the night.
5. Those women who go into the dance hall just because they are crazy about coffee and chocolate."

Number 5 has another mention of "the dance hall." While it's hard to know if the marriages Ahn was complaining about(which could not be prohibited) referred to US soldiers, they would seem to be the most likely candidates. It's interesting to see that not only guys on the streets handing out fliers, but even someone in the "highest official position" who ran for president also made such statements.

As it turns out, it seems that others had worries about Korean women being exposed to American culture, as this January 19, 1949 article reveals:

Movie Cut May Aid S. Korean Husbands

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (UP)—A government spokesman told the United Press U.S. movies imported into American-backed South Korea will be severely cut down because Korean authorities consider some of the movies "degenerating" from the standpoint of Korean morals and culture.

An official in the Motion Picture Section of the Korean Department of Public Information said imported American movies for Korean audiences will be cut to 17 per year from the current 40 because they are considered demoralizing.

The official said American movies tend to give Korean women a "mistaken impression of the equality with men." He added the Korean Government plans to produce a dozen movies of its own each year.

This reduction in the number of American films may have been too little, too late, however. It seems the men complaining about women getting "mistaken impression[s] of the equality with men" may have had reasons for feeling this way, considering the contents of this July 29, 1949 story:

Keeping of Concubines Assailed
Korean Women Call For Officials' Purge

SEOUL, July 29 (UP)—Three thousand embittered Korean women marched on the capitol to present a resolution demanding the "purge" of all government officials who keep concubines.

The reaction of the men as the line of determined females passed was, as one bearded Korean said, "There is getting to be too much democracy in this country'."

The women presented the resolution to the National Assembly which last week rejected a move that would have purged officials with "second and third wives." The ladies worked themselves up to a heated fighting rage before fearlessly heading for the Assembly chambers which, incidentally, were heavily guarded. At a rally in the city hall theater, the girls, representing all women's organizations, demanded quick action on their resolution.

It included the following points:
1) The whole concubine question shocks Korean women extremely.
2) To use the question of women as a political tool is an insult to womanhood.
3) The constitution guarantees equality of sex. (The wording of the third point hinted that the women might consider exercising their constitutional rights and try matching men if men keep on with this number two and number three wife business.)

One imagines the men who read the last point (if it did indeed hint in that direction) must have thought the world was turning upside down. This concern with the effect on Korean society of western culture - and those who carry it - has ebbed and flowed throughout Korea's postwar history. While its most recent (and not so recent) manifestation is something I've looked into a great deal, over the next few months I'll be focusing on the events of the early 1970s, when Park Chung-hee declared war on Korea's western-influenced youth culture.

Peace, quiet and safety

I hope everyone enjoyed the peace and quiet yesterday. I certainly did. I was getting a little tired of the noise - and sight - pollution.


Not everyone agrees, I guess:

As I entered a subway station on my way to work yesterday morning, I witnessed the local elections being treated with contempt. As I stepped down the stairways, I saw hundreds of candidate name cards had been thrown on the floor. Campaigners started giving these cards to voters at the station early in the morning, but apparently no one bothered to look at them. The voters don’t care to think about the elections. Inside the station and on the platform, it was easy to spot “election materials” receiving disdainful treatment. It was a scene I’m sure was repeated across the nation, and it simply depicts a pitiful portrait of the June 2 local elections.

Uh, do you think that 'contempt' was because those people had already received the same cards eleven times over the past few weeks? This article doesn't exactly make it clear what the hours were supposed to be for broadcasting speeches and jingles from trucks and vans:

According to the National Election Commission (NEC), candidates running for mayors, provincial governors, district chiefs and city or province council members can use only one speaker. They can make speeches from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with car speakers and from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. with portable speakers. "For recorded songs or speeches, we reduced the hours to 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. starting in 2010 to mitigate inconveniences," an NEC official said.

I'm surprised to see the DP did so well. It's nice to see LMB get a bit of a kick in the pants (I've never been a fan).

Moving from speakers to CCTV, I'm sure everyone's seen these posters telling citizens that if they're worried about crime happening to kids on the way to school, they should tell them which streets have CCTV cameras installed. [Correction made]

Seoul is good!

I guess the CCTV cameras will help police identify killers and kidnappers... after their victims are already dead or missing.

Speaking of safety, has anyone else noticed police in subway stations lately?


I've never noticed police at local stations before, but now I see them every day. I wonder if their presence is related to this:

Oh found out Kim was a spy in June 2007, but continued to supply her with information including contact information for officials working at Seoul Metro’s main command and control center and at the control center for subway line No. 1, which cuts through the heart of the Korean capital. Oh also allowed Kim to access reports filed by late-shift workers. Authorities here feared that such information could be used to plan terrorist attacks on the Seoul subway.

On a more light-hearted note, I took this photo in Express Bus Terminal's Line 9 station:


How exactly did they get two cars down into the station?

Oh, and it seems 'The Housemaid' is no longer being shown with English subtitles. And in mentioning that, I can segue into this article about Seo Woo.