20 years...

The other day The Simpsons celebrated its 20th anniversary with a TV special, which looked at its influence in America and around the world. Here's a photo of a door I took in Hongdae (closer to Hapjeong Station) in 2002.

In private foreign language classes, there are a lot of ‘fraud teachers’

The French foreign language teacher scandal of 1984

Prelude 1: The 1983 Law "Limiting Aliens' Residence Period" and banning "unqualified" foreigners from working.

Part 1: Le Monde and what came before
Part 2: Korea is "Ali Baba's" Cave
Part 3: Seoul Should not be a Workplace for Parisians
Part 4: In private foreign language classes, there are a lot of ‘fraud teachers’
Part 5: Jibberish
Part 6: 'I Want to Strike it Rich in Seoul Too' - Continuous Job Inquiries by the French
Part 7: Foreigners Enjoy Better Life With Mother Tongues
Part 8: Foreigners and Foreign Languages
Part 9: Sickening Face
Part 10: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Part 11: The First Sanctions on Foreigners Working Illegally
Part 12: All Private Lessons by Foreigners Prohibited
Part 13: Institutes Asked to Hire Eligible Foreign Teachers
Part 14: "Seoul Wind"
Part 15: Foreign Language Teacher Shortage
Part 16: Troublemaking vagabond foreigner story finally airs

Part 4: In private foreign language classes, there are a lot of ‘fraud teachers’

I've jumped ahead to part 4 for a particular reason. The Joongang Ilbo not only broke the story of the Le Monde article in Korea (on Independence Day, no less), five days later it carried things a step further, reporting on the problems of foreign language education and foreign teachers in Korea. The reason for skipping the third (chronological) installment (a Kyunghyang Shinmun article) is that today is the fifth anniversary of the Joongang Ilbo - then the largest online paper - reporting on Korean netizens' anger at a site called 'English Spectrum,' which preceded a great deal of negative media attention being paid to womanizing and Korea-denigrating foreign English teachers, as well as the formation of Anti-English Spectrum.

In the Joongang Ilbo on August 20, 1984, on page 6 under 'education' was the following article by reporter Yang Jae-bong. Many thanks to Song Joosub, David Carruth and Benjamin Wagner for help with the translation.

In private foreign language classes, there are a lot of ‘fraud teachers’
If they’re foreign, even ‘Gypsies’ are employed.
“Irresponsibility of those unqualified” …
Conversation education reverses

Photo caption:
In some private foreign language schools the employment of unqualified foreign teachers is turning conversation education into an educational ill. (The photo is not related to anything specific in the article.)
___

Recently, riding the foreign language boom, some private foreign language schools have employed transient foreign teachers, and irresponsible conversation education has become a serious problem in education.

Unqualified foreign teachers - their (stated) purpose of entry is not education, as they enter the country without visas as either tourists or family of the U.S. 8th Army, and also as wandering drifters and are simply "people who speak a particular language as their native language (Native Speaker)" and are posing as foreign language teachers.

Whether in the name of respectable employment at private schools or private tutoring, people teaching without an Educational Visa (Teaching Visa 7-12) are creating the educational ill of irresponsible conversation education.

In Seoul there are around 70 foreign language official institutes, and over 500 private foreign language schools. This present situation of the foreign language craze and especially the rapidly-multiplying foreign language institutes is due to a change in the existing unlicensed school report system in 1980, which led to a sudden increase in the number of schools.

Seoul’s Jongno and Sejongno areas have become concentrated on so-called "American Conversation", which appears on the signs of private schools. Most are less than ten pyeong (33 square meters) and fit an office and classrooms into that narrow space. These private schools are reported to be ignoring private hagwon regulations that should be followed for direct lessons, and are hiring wandering unqualified foreign teachers as they please. One private school participant said, "If they’re a foreigner with a clean cut face, then they’re hired."

The vagabond foreign teacher’s main place of lodging has become the yeogwan (inn). Mr. Kim (45), who has owned ‘D Yeogwan’ (Seoul, Naesu-dong), which wandering foreigners have found and enjoyed, for seven years, said, “If foreigners here are low on rent money, they go out and make money by gathering university students and teaching them conversation.

K, an American who has come to South Korea twice, said, "Koreans are unconditionally kind to foreigners. There are many people like me who make money from teaching conversation, "he said. The average monthly salary is about 1 million won.

English conversation learner Lee (21, K University 2nd year) is "suspicious of their professional or academic background, and as they teach living English we’re dragged back and forth to places like bars to learn for a few days and then it’s cut off.” Among university students, those who learn so-called "Living English" and "American conversation" pay over ₩ 50,000 per month to take expensive classes and students even study in foreign apartments.

In Seoul’s Itaewon, Hannam-dong and Namsan areas in foreign apartments some US army servicemen with permission for off base housing openly have English conversation lessons.

In some cases, those with a single-minded focus on learning conversation have gone astray. Mr. Park (30), an office worker who studied English conversation at ‘E’ institute in Jongno said, "There were widespread rumors that the English instructor had only a high school education and was notorious as a playboy," and "There were always female students around him.”

In international information-oriented society, the great excitement for foreign language is desirable. But to disregard national pride simply for the purpose of learning a foreign language goes too far.

Education must be open to all those who want it but the qualifications of teachers must be strictly regulated. Just as every Korean person cannot teach Korean, not every foreigner can work as a foreign language instructor.

Education officials are pushing for measures to tackle the unhealthy obsession with foreign language conversation classes, which is dragging foreign language education in the wrong direction. It is their position that indiscriminate interest in foreign languages should be dampened and the rapidly-multiplying private institutes should be protected and fostered as an important link in the chain of social education.

Obviously, this article was a bit ahead of its time...

Reactions to the lifting of the HIV travel ban

In the Korea Herald, Adam Walsh and Matthew Lamers have an interesting article examining how the lifting of the HIV travel ban will affect people working in Korea who are already submitting HIV tests.

In an interview with Expat Living, Ministry of Justice spokesperson Ahn Gyu-seok said there have been no changes to the rules for testing foreigners for HIV that already reside within the country.

"Originally, we deported foreigners who tested positive for HIV. And they were not allowed to visit Korea again. But in light of the Jan. 1 announcement, the rule is just getting more flexible, meaning that the rule is not changed," the spokesperson said.

Oh, I see then. So what the Korean government said it's doing it's not really doing.

"If foreigners who work here test positive, we would not immediately deport them. ... If foreigners who test positive could be treated in Korea, we will let them stay. But as for foreigners who are judged by medical centers as highly dangerous, we will impose restrictions on them."

As for how someone who is HIV positive gets judged "dangerous," Ahn said that after the Ministry of Justice is informed of an individual's status, it is then up to the Ministry of Health to designate whether or not they are deemed a health threat, or "dangerous."

In other words, he passed the buck:

When reached for clarification, Park Il-hoon of the Ministry of Health said that a non-Korean could be deemed to be negatively influencing public health if he or she was found to be having sexual relations within Korea, which would open up the possibility of deportation and a ban from reentering Korea.

"If foreigners who test positive for HIV negatively influence public health, we will restrict them from revisiting Korea. For example, in the case of HIV-positive foreigners having sexual relationships within Korea is one example of when we would restrict someone," said Park. "If those foreigners do not influence public health, we, the Ministry of Health, will let them be treated with medication in Korea."

But how does one find out if someone is sexually active? Perhaps this is a niche Anti-English Spectrum could expand into. Instead of just making a passing comment speculating on someone's sex life after finding a used condom in their garbage, perhaps they could start collecting used condoms. [Note to self: If ever meet AES's manager Lee, don't shake hands.]

It seems that the lifting of the HIV travel ban will not effect Bill 3356, or so the national assembly representative who drafted it hopes:

Bill 3356 is scheduled to be debated in the Assembly in February. The bill, written by Assemblyman Lee Sang-jun, if passed, will mandate HIV/AIDS testing of all foreigners applying for work visas in Korea.

"It's good that the government is becoming more tolerant towards foreigners ... but we think that the government should prioritize the safety of our citizens before any other matters, so we think it was wrong for the Ministry of Justice to alleviate their regulations on allowing HIV positive foreigners to enter Korea," Lee's spokesperson Seo Bo-kun told The Korea Herald.

Seo further explained that part of the bill's intent is to ensure the safety of children taught by foreign English teachers. "I think this is rather a global trend. For instance, in the United States when schools are recruiting teachers the qualifications are stricter than other companies. They are especially cautious of their physical and health conditions."

So if the number of public school teachers is around 550,000 and the number of hagwon instructors and gwa-oe tutors is equal to that (I'd imagine it's much more), and if there were one million educators of all sorts, the 25,000 or so foreign English teachers (including an estimate of the number of F visa teachers) would come out to about 2.5% of all teachers. Is there really any reason to believe that testing only this small percentage of teachers who have a low crime rate (though the opposite is portrayed by the government, politicians, and the media) will really make children so much safer?

Benjamin Wagner, a professor of law at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, said the apparent removal of HIV-entry restrictions is more of a PR move for Korea. And since being chosen as the host for the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Korea had come under criticism from non-government organizations due to the irony of hosting an international HIV conference while at the same time banning the entry of HIV-positive people.

"Korea's removal of the travel ban on foreigners with HIV is purely a symbolic gesture for the international community. In Korea nothing has changed," said Wagner. "In fact, the past year has seen an increase in mandatory in-country testing of foreign residents, with even foreign spouses of Korean nationals subject to compulsory tests in some cases. Migrant workers continue to be tested."

It's interesting that Wagner has argued in his report to the NHRCK that the instituting of HIV tests upon E2 visa holders was a symbolic measure to quell citizens' fears of foreign English teachers stirred up by irresponsible press reports (over the past five years, but especially in the wake of the Christopher Paul Neil case), and that now a symbolic gesture has supposedly removed the HIV travel ban, this time to put a stop to international criticism. I'm sure this is symbolic of something, but I don't feel the need to elaborate on what that is, since such clarification would just be a symbolic gesture anyways...

Why the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a good thing

The Korea Herald looks at the results of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's investigation into Chun Doo-hwan's military group's assault on the media in 1980, and "confirmed that the military rulers illegally forced the industry shakeup to control critical media and smooth its way to power."

"Chun Doo-hwan and his new Army elite were directly involved in the media closure and consolidation incident with an aim to take over power," the commission said.[...]

"The state is required to recognize the responsibility for the forceful infringement on the freedom of media and apologize to the victims," the commission said. The panel also recommended that the government restore the honor of the victims and take appropriate measures to compensate them.

The junta consolidated a total of 64 media outlets into 18 - 28 newspapers into 14, 29 broadcasters into three, and seven wire news services into one.

On Nov. 12, 1980, the media owners were summoned to the Defense Security Command. Agents armed with guns and knives coerced them to give up management control. They threatened tax probes and audits to defiant executives, according to the inquiry report.

Beginning in July of that year, the government forced media firms to dismiss more than 1,000 journalists and banned them from seeking employment in the industry. A total of 172 periodicals were also summarily abolished the same month.

The unprecedented oppression was part of a "cleanup campaign" aimed at consolidating Chun's power base.[...]

[In December, 1980] the Chun government enacted the notorious Basic Press Act, putting news media under strict state censorship and banning cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcasting networks.

The truth commission began the investigation on Nov. 20, 2007, and examined about 45,000 pages of documents and interviewed 152 people including then-Defense Security Command investigators, it said.

One wonders about the long-term effect of stifling so many media voices.

The Joongang Ilbo reports that moves are being undertaken - by members of the GNP, which is a name change or two away from being the ruling party when Chun was president - to compensate those who suffered because of the Basic Press Act. It also notes the history of similar compensation:

In recent years, the Chun regime’s oppressive actions have been investigated, and the state has compensated victims after the legislature established special laws on restitution.

One key example was the government’s handling of victims of the Samcheong Training Camp, a sort of concentration camp operated by the Chun regime to discipline people it considered harmful to society.

The regime established the camp inside a military unit, and 39,742 civilians, including journalists who lost their jobs during the media restructuring, were forced to undergo corrective programs. More than 50 inmates died and many suffered physical and mental trauma.

In March 2003, the National Human Rights Commission urged the National Assembly speaker and the defense minister to pass a special law to lay bare the truth about the camp and compensate victims. The National Assembly approved the law in December 2004, and 3,000 victims and their families were compensated.

I've posted about such investigations of the past before, such as revoking medals for actions during the 12.12 coup and the Kwangju Uprising, the Nokhwa Program, and two posts about the Silmido Incident. While some of these investigations into the past have been politically motivated, ones such as those just mentioned have served the purpose of shedding light on the state's past human rights violations and have led to the rehabilitation of and compensation for the victims or their families.

A friend of mine sent me the instructions to go to google.com, enter "find Chuck Norris," and click on 'I'm feeling lucky.' The result is just one of many facts about Chuck Norris, and an article exploring the page, its creator, and the world of Chuck Norris facts explains this about him:

In 1997, Norris achieved another milestone in his life by being the first man ever in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded an eighth-degree Black Belt Grand Master recognition in the Tae Kwon Do system. This was a first in 4,500 years of tradition.

Since 4004 BC, if I remember correctly.

On the topic of humor, Scott Burgeson sent me a link to this site. I'm not sure who's behind it, but I do like the graphics.

Speaking of graphics, this may be my favorite rendering of a skeleton ever.

Korea is "Ali Baba's" Cave

The French foreign language teacher scandal of 1984

Prelude 1: The 1983 Law "Limiting Aliens' Residence Period" and banning "unqualified" foreigners from working.

Part 1: Le Monde and what came before
Part 2: Korea is "Ali Baba's" Cave
Part 3: Seoul Should not be a Workplace for Parisians
Part 4: In private foreign language classes, there are a lot of ‘fraud teachers’
Part 5: Jibberish
Part 6: 'I Want to Strike it Rich in Seoul Too' - Continuous Job Inquiries by the French
Part 7: Foreigners Enjoy Better Life With Mother Tongues
Part 8: Foreigners and Foreign Languages
Part 9: Sickening Face
Part 10: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Part 11: The First Sanctions on Foreigners Working Illegally
Part 12: All Private Lessons by Foreigners Prohibited
Part 13: Institutes Asked to Hire Eligible Foreign Teachers
Part 14: "Seoul Wind"
Part 15: Foreign Language Teacher Shortage
Part 16: Troublemaking vagabond foreigner story finally airs

Part 2: Korea is "Ali Baba's" Cave


As I reported in part one, on August 12, 1984, Le Monde published an article about the job opportunities available to young French men teaching or translating French in Seoul. Three days later, on August 15, the Joongang Ilbo's special correspondent in Paris reported on the Le Monde article. Many thanks to Song Joosub, David Carruth and Benjamin Wagner for help with the translation.

Joongang Ilbo August 15, 1984, pg 3

News Coverage Journal
Reporter Ju Won-sang

‘Korea is “Ali Baba’s” Cave’
Every foreigner can work as a foreign language teacher

Recently, the French newspaper Le Monde had a lengthy report from Seoul titled ‘Making Won in Seoul.’

To summarize the article, hoping to expand trade with France and ahead of the 88 Seoul Olympics in Korea, there are many employment opportunities in French language study and translation, and for French people who speak English well, Korea is a land where they can make money.

First we will introduce several passages from the article.

“A young French man named ‘Luc’ could not find steady employment in France, wandered about Southeast Asia and came to Seoul penniless. After a few months, because of his ability to speak French, he was able to rent a comfortable apartment and go on swanky vacations twice a year in Southeast Asia.”

“One young French man met an official from a Korean broadcaster by chance on a street in Seoul and, because he could speak French, was offered a well-paying job at the broadcaster after only this single meeting. He also married a Korean woman from a good family, and now enjoys a miraculous life like that in a movie.”

In Le Monde it was reported that the children of high ranking Koreans register in French language institutes and that “The land of the Morning calm is experiencing a hunger for our language (French).” It also said that in Korea one can shovel dollars like in 'Ali Baba's Cave,' a metaphor for "a rich mine", and there was no worry over the threat of the '40 thieves.’

Considering that I keep hearing through word of mouth and newspaper reports in Seoul about the huge foreign language boom in Korea, and especially how much the English and French fever has heated up recently, this kind of article is of course nothing new for a reporter.

As years go by, the international community contracts and the need for foreign language gradually increases; and on the one hand, as far as this goes, the fact that the foreign language fever is growing is a desirable situation and should be encouraged.

There is no one who can be blamed for Korea’s foreign language obsession but chauvinists. However, it is indeed disturbing if this kind of foreign language craze leads people to place too much importance on the superficial knowledge of foreign languages and neglect what they really need, or results in them forgetting what they have in pursuit of what others have.

Furthermore, something we should be on the alert for is that, as Koreans cannot all become Korean teachers, foreigners cannot all work as foreign language teachers. One wonders if French people presently in Korea who are teaching French or who are entrusted with interpretation or translation have proper qualifications.

That this kind of treatment toward them is appropriate is questionable. It’s possible this treatment of foreigners is unreasonably kind.

Le Monde introduced one French person who makes 9000 francs (about 900,000 won) for 9 hours of lectures, and at one company a French person is paid 10,000 francs (about 1,000,000) won for 30 minutes to one hour’s interpretation or recording in French. In France even a graduate of a distinguished university with a good job at a company cannot make 10,000 francs per month.

The newspaper also brought to light generous payment by Korean government offices and other organizations, and the attractiveness of personal tutor fees. According to this report it is no mistake that for French people Korea is “Ali Baba’s” cave.

Nevertheless, it is ironic that the French people who enjoy a “dream life” in Korea keep saying “I want to go to Japan.”

[Paris special correspondent]

A few notes:

First of all, those quotations from the Le Monde article are most certainly not direct "quotations," as they combine different parts of the article together and make creative additions like "a miraculous life like that in a movie." Luc does take two vacations a year, but only one is to southeast Asia. Still, the basic facts are correct, except near the end where he writes that "Le Monde introduced one French person who makes 9000 francs (about 900,000 won) for 9 hours of lectures" - he made 9000 francs a month for 9 hours of lectures every week. As to whether the currency conversion rate is correct, or if it's true that these people were making more in Korea than they would in France working a good job, I don't know.

Towards the end of what is clearly an opinion article, we enter familiar territory. While it's a fair enough point that merely knowing a language does not make one a teacher, the story being told is that these foreign teachers are treated very well - perhaps too well, perhaps we're too kind to them - and are they even qualified? Then the final sentence brings it all home: 'French people who enjoy a “dream life” in Korea keep saying “I want to go to Japan.”' So we have foreign teachers who Koreans treat far too well, despite their being unqualified, and they have the gall to be so ungrateful as to want to slap Korea in the face by going to Japan instead! If you think that last sentence may be blowing things out of proportion, it might be worthwhile to remember the date this article was published: August 15, the 39th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan.

Other newspapers would respond to the Le Monde article (or to the Joongang Ilbo's coverage of it), beginning the next day with the Kyunghyang Shinmun article "Seoul Should Not Be a Workplace for Parisians."

Korea lifts HIV travel restrictions

Benjamin Wagner just sent me this press release from UNAIDS:

GENEVA, WASHINGTON DC, 4 January 2010 – UNAIDS strongly welcomes the elimination of travel restrictions based on HIV status by the Republic of Korea, effective 1 January 2010. It also commends the United States for full implementation of the final rule that removes entry restrictions which means that travellers living with HIV can freely enter the United States of America as of today.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated President Lee Myung-bak on the Republic of Korea’s decision. “I applaud President Lee for his country’s leadership in ending restrictions towards people living with HIV that have no public health benefit,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“I repeat my call to all other countries with such discriminatory restrictions to take steps to remove them at the earliest.”

The Secretary-General also congratulated President Barack Obama when the US policy change was announced in October 2009. Today’s removal of HIV-related entry, stay and residence restrictions, or "travel ban" as it was known, in the United States overturns a policy that had been in place since 1987.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé also hailed the United States and the Republic of Korea for ending entry restrictions towards people living with HIV, calling the policy changes "a victory for human rights on two sides of the globe."

"I call for global freedom of movement for people living with HIV in 2010, the year when countries have committed to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé.

"Let no country obstruct someone because of their HIV status. Such discrimination has no place in today's highly mobile world," Mr Sidibé continued.

Some 57 countries, territories and areas have some form of HIV-specific restriction on entry, stay and residence that is based on HIV status. These include those that completely ban entry of HIV positive people for any reason or length of stay; and/or are applied to visa applications for very short stays (e.g. tourist visas); and/or are applied to visa applications for longer stays (visas for residency, immigration, asylum or resettlement, study, international employment, and consular service). Such restrictions, strongly opposed by UNAIDS, are discriminatory and do not protect public health.

It was announced in September that some travel restrictions on people who are HIV positive would be lifted. The general travel ban has now been lifted, but HIV tests remain for those on E-2, E-6, and E-9 visas. As noted in September, it's up to the Labor Ministry to make decisions about keeping or lifting HIV restrictions on E-9 (migrant worker) visa holders, the E-6 ('entertainer') restrictions will remain, and testing for E-2 visa holders may be lifted depending on the outcome of Andrea Vandom's constitutional court case. One wonders how much the constitutional court case, the NHRCK petitions by English teachers and migrant workers, and the fact that the 10th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific will be held in Busan in 2011 influenced the decision to lift the travel ban.


[Update: Newsis covers this here.]

An unexpected suprise from overseas

The Donga Ilbo reported the other day that a girl who went overseas for language study came home and not long after was often vomiting in the mornings. When she went to the hospital it turned out she came home from overseas with a little surprise for her parents – a pregnancy. The reason this case stands out is that she’s an 11 year-old fifth grader. At the camp last summer, due to ‘curiosity’ she had a relationship with a middle school boy.

The parents tried to get her an abortion, but they were refused. The chairman of the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology said that abortions are only for worst cases, and though there is more of a risk for minors, the fact that she wasn’t raped and her life isn’t endangered makes her ineligible for an abortion; the very young age of the mother is not a good reason to allow an abortion.

Her mother will raise the girl’s baby as a family relation. The family moved away from their neighborhood to avoid prying eyes. The girl quit school and is staying home to prepare for the birth. Out of fear of possible rumors they have cut off contact with the boy’s family.

Every school vacation more than 200,000 people leave the country for short-term language courses. Students typically stay in ‘resorts,’ dorms or local home stays. For those living in dorms or resorts, 24 hour monitoring by teachers is possible, but it’s difficult at home stays. One official noted that based on the type of accommodation and having one teacher supervising 10-15 students, various incidents may be reduced.

As Korea Beat reports, this made the top ten most read naver articles of last week.

There are several things that could be brought up here. It's interesting, considering how common abortion is in Korea - despite it being illegal - that the girl would be turned down. Or, that anyone would be turned down. I'd tend to think that 11 years old is physically rather young to be having a child, and don't really see why it wouldn't be considered risky. I'd imagine she'd have a C-section. At any rate, another good reason to start sex education early. Or to start sex education, period. There's been hand-wringing going on over teaching it for 15 years, especially since a middle school girl gave birth in school after a secret pregnancy in 1996.

It's also interesting the lengths the family is going to to avoid people around them knowing that their daughter is pregnant. Needless to say, if the education system (and the 'must have an impossibly high TOEFL score to get a promotion' system of many companies) didn't encourage, as the article says, 200,000 people to leave the country every year, this wouldn't have happened.

(Hat tip to Benjamin Wagner)

Korea from above

I took these from a plane New Years 2002. When you take off from Toronto on the morning of December 31st and arrive at Incheon on the afternoon of January 1st, it's hard to tell when the new year actually begins...

If I remember correctly the first photo was taken on the east coast just north of Pohang and the others proceed inland from there.




I'm sure I have more from the flight home the next year as well. I hope everyone is enjoying the new year so far...

Christmas in Costaguana

I've made mention of James Wade's book One Man's Korea before, and yesterday I was reading it and came across a timely piece of short fiction in it titled "Christmas in Costaguana," which is from his series 'Chronicles of Costaguana,' tales of foreigners and their interaction with the Spanish-speaking natives (and each other) and a land called Costaguana (the name is from a Joseph Conrad novel, as is the name of the capital city, Sulaco (also the name of the ship in Aliens)), which may resemble another familiar country...

Old and new

These are photos of the second wedding I went to in Korea, in early 2002 (both were of co-workers I didn't know well). While the first wedding I went to mixed the western form of a wedding with things like confetti spray cans, this one was a traditional Korean wedding.


There were samulnori performers in traditional garb, a hen (which had its feet tied, but which fell over on two occasions and started squawking) and traditional architecture, but also the kind of photographer with his flash running around taking photos and guy with a video camera with a huge spotlight (which is visible below) that you see at more western style weddings.


Oh, and it was at Lotte World’s folk village.

Pictured below is the sedan chair that the bride got into and which I got chosen to help carry.


Whoever designed that chair obviously never had to lift one, since the handles were square in shape, and not rounded, and with the weight of the thing, the edges quickly dug into my hand. Hopefully the sedan chairs of old had more rounded handles…

Are you sure you're not talking about North Korea?

“…the Korean people have a hard time; but among the inscriptions in Chinese ideographs over the shops of Korean merchants in Seoul I observed and copied the following:

“The People Enjoy Peace and Pleasure,” “We are Successors to the Work of Shinno and Save the People,” “Heaven and Earth are Comprised in this Residence,” “The Spring Light is Clear and Beautiful,” “Thousands of Treasures Gather Together in the Morning,” “Ten Thousand Pounds of Pure Gold,” “Distribute Liberally and Save the Populace,” “The House of Happiness and Virtue,” “Benevolence, Righteousness, Courtesy, Wisdom, Fidelity, and Filial Obedience.” These inscriptions would certainly lead a newcomer to suppose that in Korea he had found at last a land of virtue, prosperity, and happiness; but the mental jolt that he would get when he came to investigate the palace would probably dislocate all his facilities and reduce him to a state of imbecility!

The activities and operations of the existing Korean Government may briefly be summed up as follows: It takes from the people, directly and indirectly, everything that they earn over and above a bare subsistence, and gives them in return practically nothing. It affords no adequate protection to life or property; it provides no educational facilities that deserve notice; it builds no roads; it does not improve its harbors; it does not light its coasts; it pays no attention whatever to street-cleaning or sanitation; it takes no measures to prevent or check epidemics; it does not attempt to foster trade or industry; it encourages the lowest forms of primitive superstition; and it corrupts and demoralizes its subjects by setting them examples of untruthfulness, dishonesty, treachery, cruelty, and a cynical brutality in dealing with human rights that is almost without parallel in modern times."

- George Kennan, describing Korea in a 1905 article entitled, "Korea: A Degenerate State."