Gwanghwamun uncovered... almost

From Yonhap and the Donga Ilbo:


After three and a half years of work (which involved uncovering old foundations), Gwanghwamun was uncovered yesterday, but won't be officially opened until Independence Day. Interesting that they're enclosing the area behind the gate - I guess they're trying to make it as historically accurate as possible, insofar as it resembles the palace's reconstruction from the 1860s (and not the pile of rubble it was from the 1590s to the 1860s).

Itaewon: Mr. Lee's Neighborhood

[Note: The 'Lee' in this article turned out not to be Lee Eun-ung, but former member 'jasminhyang,' and corrections to the original article have been made. That article is now also missing the"loser's paradise" subtitles seen below. That the Lee in this article was Lee Eun-ung has now been incorrectly reported in Time magazine.]


On the 23rd, the New Daily posted an article - a long article - by reporter Jeon Gyeong-ung purporting to tell the truth about Itaewon. Robert already posted about it at the Marmot's Hole today, but as I translated the first third or so of it, I thought I'd post it here.
_____

The Republic of Korea's hidden center, Yongsan's Itaewon

Itaewon - 'a loser's paradise' where Korean women are ruined?
A pack of black people looking only for sex
Fantastic clubs? Frequent crimes of drugs, fraud, perverted marriage
Government, media glorify 'Multiculturalism' ahead of purification


Until now, only Itaewon's spectacular side and its unexposed great power have been closely examined. However tall mountains always have deep valleys. That the national media and government ignore this for reasons such as policy is a serious problem.

Spectacular Temptation vs. the Clubs' Reality

In late October 2005, I contributed to the Monthly Chosun and covered the truth about crime by illegal immigrants. In the process, I became aware of “Anti-English Spectrum (the Citizen’s Movement to Expel Illegal Teachers of Foreign Languages) and from the group's manager and members was told in detail about Itaewon's dark nature. The representatives of this group explained such things as the truth about the clubs scattered around Itaewon, and about the true nationalities and attitudes of the foreigners who wandered about.

The founder of the "citizen's group", Mr. Lee (40) is an English teacher who received a TESOL certificate/diploma in Canada. During a two day interview he explained in detail the truth about Itaewon. Contacting him after a long time, I asked him what the situation was like in Itaewon, and he answered, "Still the same."

"Most of the foreigners you see wandering around in Itaewon are 'losers' who can't even maintain a social life in their home countries. These XXXXs use “English” to cajole their way around our country."

Living in Itaewon for over 30 years, Lee dreamed of being an English teacher. Having TESOL certification and other specialized English education qualifications, one would think it would be easy to get a job in Korea, but after actually returning home, he realized that Korea’s English craze did not involve learning how to fit harmoniously into international society, but instead was an illusion, a vague yearning for white people using English. Lee tried to understand this, but he could not understand at all how people who had faked their degrees and backgrounds could make so much money in Korea, how they could treat Korean women from children to housewives as ‘comfort women’ [yes, he went there, he used ‘위안부’] or ‘sex toys,’ or how Korean society left native-speaking English teachers alone as they committed misdeeds throughout society.

To confirm the truth about low quality foreign teachers, Lee sought out Itaewon clubs. Clubs would not even allow Korean men in, but speaking English fluently like a Korean American allowed him to enter easily. After entering the club he could scarcely believe his eyes. Ordinary-looking Korean women wandered around the club topless, starting conversations with the first foreign men they saw and within only minutes would be in their arms, playing at seduction and giving themselves to them.

Among the things a friend of his said he had observed was this: The first foreigner a Korean woman saw was holding a drink with drugs added to it, and without hesitation she drank it. After she lost her senses the foreigners pulled her over to another group of men and had group sex in front of them.

But looking back on those clubs, Lee noticed that the foreigners’ intonation, way of speaking and the level of their vocabulary were strange. Looking back on the stories they approached him with, most were from underdeveloped former British colonies in Africa or Southwest Asia, or were poorly educated social misfits or had fled their home countries after committing crimes there. They said mockingly in front of Lee, “Korean pussy is best!” “Best” in this case is a sarcastic expression meaning they’re ‘easy’. Seeing this, Lee decided to make people aware of native speakers and of the seriousness of our society’s surging sycophancy towards English, and formed the group.

“Among foreigners in Itaewon clubs, you’ll see that there are almost no decent ones there. Black people or southwest Asians especially like to lie about their nationality and approach women saying they’ll teach them English. The only thing they want is to have sex with Korean women. Also, it’s perverted sex.

He created an internet cafe at a portal and people concerned about the seriousness of the problem of low quality foreign teachers and illegal immigrants slowly began to gather there. Most of the members pointed out the adult entertainment areas and especially the “foreigner only clubs” in the Hongdae and Itaewon areas as problems. Lee and the others collected examples of the various problems revolving around Itaewon area clubs and personally confirmed the behavior of foreigners.

After that the group expanded offline and, working both alone and in tandem with others groups formed to stop crime by low quality native-speaking teachers and illegal immigrants such as the “Foreign Worker Countermeasures Citizen’s Solidarity,” spread into other various activities. As a result of this, over the past five years the group has initiated such measures as getting native speaking teachers with sex crimes in their pasts banned from re-entering Korea, strengthening the native-speaking teacher visa, maintaining the AIDS test for native-speaking teachers, and fingerprinting native-speaking teachers.

However, the group’s members are still worried about the way the Korean media (especially women-oriented media) excessively glamorize Itaewon. The reason for this is that foreign lechers are now targeting university students and even youth who know little of the ways of the world.

_____


From there the article goes on to list every possible negative thing the reporter could find on the internet about people from Pakistan and Nigeria. Robert summarizes some of what is said in that section, and translates most of the article's conclusion as well, so go there to read the rest.

Now, as for what I think of the article, well, hey Lee Eun-ung, stop holding back - why don't you tell us what you really think of foreigners? "Most of the foreigners you see wandering around in Itaewon are 'losers' who can't even maintain a social life in their home countries" and "Among foreigners in Itaewon clubs, you’ll see that there are almost no decent ones there," indeed. Oh, and foreigners treat Korean women like "comfort women." Lovely.

But what I found interesting was that we're given a background on Lee. Growing up in Itaewon, dreaming of teaching English, getting TESOL certification in Canada, coming home and not being able to find a job, seeing foreigners who can get jobs easily at their worst in Itaewon. It basically wraps Lee and his motivations up in a neat little package - that is, if it's all true.

My reason for saying that is because, in this interview, Lee has once again altered the story of how AES came to be. For years, Lee has told and retold the story of the English Spectrum incident, such as in the Seoul Sinmun in 2008:

In 2005 photos and writings which degraded Korean women were posted on a community site for native English speakers teach English here. I confirmed that these native speakers had a corrupted perspective on Korea and carried on sexual relationships with minors and married women and realized that we could not entrust our children to such people and the movement was begun. We want a system to improve English education while stopping the harm that these native speakers do to Korea.

A few months later he wrote an article for the Kyunghyang Sinmun:

The opportunity to create the “Citizens Movement to Expel Illegal English Teachers” was a January 2005 post at an online foreign teacher community. Many people were outraged not only at the lewd clubs in front of Hongik University that degraded Korean women, but also sexual assaults by foreign teachers on middle school girls. We voluntarily formed our group so that at least our children would not be exposed to such unqualified teachers.

Of course, these versions of what happened at that time leave out the fact that the women "degraded" in those photos became victims of an internet witch hunt by the very people who started AES. As the owner of the bar the photos were taken in revealed in an interview with Ohmynews:

"Some online articles and the Anti-English Spectrum cafe said we were prostitutes, western princesses [yang gongju, a derogatory term for women who went with U.S. soldiers], and brothel keepers." The women said, "Because of the media's selective reporting and the netizen's collective madness we are suffering incredible mental anguish and a person is receiving psychiatric treatment."

This part of the story has always been omitted from Lee's retelling of the incident. And now we're told, "He created an internet cafe at a portal and people concerned about the seriousness of the problem of low quality foreign teachers and illegal immigrants slowly began to gather there." Translated literally it's "people in ones and twos began to gather there," which is absolutely not the case - AES had 1000 posts on it within a week or two of being formed. Perhaps Lee is changing his story for a different audience (there's much more of a focus on illegal immigrants in this article, something he's never really brought up before), but it's clear with him that the truth is always expendable - or perhaps, "expandable.".

The Joongang Ilbo has an interesting article about 'priority seating' on subways and how misperception of who should be allowed to sit there has led to some rather anti-social behavior by elderly people who believe they alone are entitled to sit there - as well as a backlash against such behavior.

Does anyone know if the Kim Ki-young retrospective described here (see here as well, and see here for the screening schedule) will have English subtitles? The schedule makes no mention of them, but it would be odd (though not unthinkable, of course) for the Korea Herald to have an article about the retrospective if there were none.

Why good teachers get busted for drugs

According to the Busan Ilbo, Maeil Gyeongje and NoCut News (no surprise with that last one), on the 20th, police revealed that a week earlier they'd arrested R, a 26 year old American middle school teacher, for ordering 28 grams of JWH-018 ("skunk") over the internet and having it mailed to himself. This came after he ordered a gram in May to try. Police, as always, suspect other teachers may be involved and are expanding the investigation. NoCut News (of course!) has this quote:

A Busan Office of Education representative said that "R had absolutely no criminal record, but after coming to Korea he encountered drugs while socializing with other native speaking teachers."

Well, you know what they say: "Native-speaking teachers corrupt absolutely."

The landscapes of Danyang

The other day I posted about the caves I visited in Danyang. I thought I'd follow up by posting about the rest of the trip.


Above is a view of the town itself. The water wasn't high enough to take the boat to Chungju, but perhaps later in the summer it will be. The bus station where I arrived at is along the water front at the far right. The photo above was taken from this bridge:


At the far end of the bridge is the tourist office and just beyond that, Gosu Cave. There's lots of good restaurants along the street in town that continues across the bridge. Danyang is known for its garlic, so garlic galbi and other such dishes are to be found there. I randomly chose Doljib Sikdang, as the maneul ssam jeongsik sounded interesting.


It was amazing, actually. Bossam, make-your-own bibimbap, loads of side dishes, etc. These little roast garlic cloves were tasty, and none of the garlic was particularly strong tasting.


As it turned out, I'd chosen wisely. The restaurant is well known, and another customer told me he'd driven with his family for an hour from Gangwon-do just to eat there.

The next day I headed across the bridge to the cave.



Typically, the restaurants in front of Gosu cave, which is a popular tourist spot, all served the exact same food, so after visiting Cheondong cave, I headed back into town to eat. One thing worth noting is that if you see a bus stop on only one side of the road, it means you can catch a bus going in the other direction there as well (simply wait on the other side of the road). In town you can generally just say the name of the place you want to go and the bus driver will either welcome you aboard or tell you to wait across the street for one going in the other direction.

At any rate, I ate lunch at the Danyang Jeontong Sundubu, which had the best dotori-muk I'd ever tasted. Too bad I didn't stay in town longer; I would have loved to have ordered a full dish of it.


A short bus ride to the north of town is the Doddam Sambong, or three peaks, which have been written about since the Joseon dynasty, lauded by Toegye Yi Hwang and painted Kim Hong-do.


With crowds milling about, speedboats zipping around, and music from the speedboat 'terminal' blaring, it wasn't exactly peaceful. Seongmun, or 'stone gate,' supposedly the largest stone arch in Asia, was worth short but steep hike up the adjacent hill.


Those previous two sites are part of the Danyang Palgyeong, or 'eight views of Danyang.' Five of them are reachable by bus, but three others are for those who have their own wheels. Two can be seen by taking a half hour bus ride to Janghoe ferry where you can take an hour-long cruise along Chungju Lake (made by damming up the Namhangang in the 80s). (It's also possible to go all the way to Chungju sometimes - it's best to check with the tourist office.) Due to the spectacular scenery, it's well worth the trip (even if the boats threaten to become floating noraebangs). It's also nice to be on a boat again, especially considering I grew up on a lake.




Here's Oksunbong, one of the eight views, which Toegye Yi Hwang (he of the 1000 won bill) described as the gate of Danyang when he was a magistrate there:


Gudambong is said to look like a turtle's shell when reflected in the water:


I didn't get to see any of the other eight views, but a man I chatted with on the boat (who was working for KBS installing digital TV transmitters on the tops of mountains, and who was nice enough to give me a ride back to Danyang) just sent me this photo of Sainam (it should be clear he had a much nicer camera than mine).


He also visited Dodam Sambong at a time which was much more conducive to taking photos:


Danyang is well worth visiting if you get the chance, both for its natural beauty and the food. There are lots of motels along the waterfront in town, and buses run hourly on the hour from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (near Gangbyeong station on line 2).

SBS radio interviews AES's Lee Eun-ung

On July 9, 2010, Anti English Spectrum's Lee Eun-ung was interviewed on the SBS morning radio show‘서두원의 SBS 전망대, or "Seo Du-won's SBS Viewpoint." I've translated the transcript which was put up on their site later that day (see the first search result here):
----
Anchor Seo Du-won:
Last year (a) native speaking teacher posted nude pictures of (his) students on the internet causing a large problem and now not long ago a native speaking teacher who molested students at an elementary school in Daegu fled abroad. With unqualified native speaking teachers openly teaching children in schools and hagwons and causing problems such as sex crimes, we are in a situation where urgent measures are needed immediately. Why authorities are unable to block such native speaking teachers from entering the country is not understood. Lee Eun-ung, a spokesperson for the Citizen’s Movement to Expel Illegal Teachers of Foreign Languages is on the phone, and will talk about the present situation and measures to deal with it. Good morning Mr. Lee.

Lee Eun-ung:
Good morning.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
Just how serious is the present situation of native speaking teacher sex crime?

Lee Eun-ung:
I’ve looked into the seriousness of the native speaking teacher sex crime situation. There are a wide range of issues. The places where they commit sex crimes have included most places of education but also have not been well exposed. Also, the approach they take to committing sex crimes is to disguise its form as being educational, and the reason they can commit sex crimes is that the minors don’t easily feel it to be a sex crime. And when it comes to targets of sex crime, they don’t distinguish between preschoolers, male or female school students. For example, one native speaking teacher played a game where the students touched his genitals. It’s quite dangerous.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
Native speaking teachers don’t just teach children but also adults, and come into contact with a broad range of people. Are there many cases of crime targeting children?

Lee Eun-ung:
There are many sex crimes involving children, and we should be concerned about the fact that sex crimes against children are not exposed until they are uncovered. This is because unqualified native speaking teachers get a child to come to a closed off place or blind spot to commit their sex crime but as I said before the reason the sex crime occurs is because they use an educational method. So they are not easily uncovered. As I pointed out before there are a great many affected by this issue, but those who are victimized come from a variety of social strata. The professions of the people who have reported incidents of children suffered sex crimes have included people from various social strata such as teachers and public servants, and when you understand the number of reports we get of children suffering sex crimes at the hands of unqualified native speaking teachers, you can realize just how widespread crimes against children are.


Anchor Seo Du-won:
Just now you mentioned unqualified native speaking teachers. You’ve said that people who are just foreigners who speak English generally well can become a teacher, and if they are to be employed, qualified people should be chosen. How many unqualified native speaking teachers have come to Korea?

Lee Eun-ung:
In truth there are no accurate national statistics, but if we just look at statistics and include legal teachers, we can estimate there are 50,000. There are 21,000 people on E-2 visas. In addition, if we exclude F2 and F4 teachers, we realize that the rest add up to at least ten or twenty thousand illegal teachers, though we don’t have accurate statistics.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
So many native speaking teachers are young?

Lee Eun-ung:
Yes, according to a job report about native speaking teachers most of the English teachers in Korea are in their 20s. Those in their 20s and 30s make up 90% of the total.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
How is it that native speaking teachers without qualifications come to Korea. Don't they need a visa?

Lee Eun-ung:
That's right. There are qualifications to become an English teacher. Have you studied for 4 years at a university in an English-speaking country? With that simple qualification, many unqualified teachers have had the opportunity to come to Korea. Also, in Korea because of English education and the rage for English anyone who is foreign and can speak English can reap the benefits of this and receive many favors and pleasures, and for this reason many problems have occurred.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
Yes, I’ve been told that in order to be issued the conversation instruction visa, the E-2 visa, only those who have a 4 year degree from a university in an English speaking country can receive them.

Lee Eun-ung:
That's right.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
However, the Ministry of Justice has for three years required a visa screening for the purpose of language education including a criminal record check, but it seems this hasn’t been effective?

Lee Eun-ung:
It does have an effect, only, as a safety net, it’s not 100% effective. Of the foreign teachers we have uncovered, sex crimes have been committed by teachers who are working here legally. Especially in one case, a professor at a university in Daejeon had an FBI criminal record check and the government’s safety net did not filter him out. Rather, we received a tip and reported him and he was able to be removed. Also, a foreign teacher had a document for his E-2 visa that included a health and drug check. One teacher who considered this in itself to be a violation of human rights turned out to have been stripped of qualifications in his home country due to a sexual problem. To this extent it’s serious.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
So a teacher’s criminal record should be accurately confirmed before [deciding] one is qualified enough to be a teacher.

Lee Eun-ung:
Yes. Also with criminal records, the problem is that instead of a federal criminal record, a record from a state or county can be submitted . For example, if teacher A commits a crime in state A and moves to state B, a criminal record for state B can be submitted which will not contain the crime, and the teacher can come to Korea. Also, a problem with the system is that if someone changes their name then crimes cannot be verified and for this reason it’s not possible to have a 100% effective safety net.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
So I think it’s not easy to catch unqualified teachers. Spokesperson Lee Eun-ung’s site, “The Citizen’s Movement to Expel Illegal Teachers of Foreign Languages” is the only one to be seen.

Lee Eun-ung:
Yes, we’re the only one, and we specialize in this.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
How involved are you in such activities?

Lee Eun-ung:
We have 20,000 members. Through the National Assembly and media organizations we inform people of the seriousness of the situation and make many legal efforts to push for native speaker verification system legislation.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
As of this year you’ve been at this for 6 years. In that time how many native speaking teachers have you caused to be expelled?

Lee Eun-ung:
Our work has resulted in the expulsion, arrests, deportation or fining of 120 people. In regards to systemic and legal problems, we have made great efforts to have health, drug and crime checks done for the native speaking teacher visa.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
So how do you discover unqualified teachers? If you receive many complaints, do you enter into an investigation like a private detective?

Lee Eun-ung:
First, when we receive a tip, our role is to follow up on the tip and confirm the existence of the relevant hagwon and the teacher’s identity. As for the rest, if I or our group’s members can’t speak directly with the institution I will look to the other members for assistance, and with their cooperation we will come to the truth.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
I have heard that you once caught a native speaking teacher for drugs after a 150-day stakeout. How was that possible?

Lee Eun-ung:
As I just told you before, when we receive a tip, we first request assistance from our members. Most informers are reluctant to meet with members directly. So in this process, to first make contact I receive a tip and confirm that the tip is credible and from there we cooperate with members. Actually, the reason the person’s face and residence were known to us was absolutely because of this process requiring cooperation, which took about 150 days to catch the drug teacher.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
Really incredible. So of course when it comes time to catch the unqualified native speaking teacher, you receive help from the police?

Lee Eun-ung:
Of course. We cannot infringe on the police’s jurisdiction because we should obey social and legal norms. Our part in the arrest process and such is only to cooperate.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
Those who are caught are not all deported. What about that?

Lee Eun-ung:
That is extremely difficult. For example, suppose the person who was caught in Daegu was not married. If Koreans didn’t want him deported, he would not be deported. To give an actual example, one person who committed a sex crime against a minor and uttered death threats in Canada could not be deported because he was on an F-2 Visa.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
What’s an F2 visa?

Lee Eun-ung:
People who have married Koreans and become the spouse of a citizen. If you look at such cases, it’s extremely difficult to punish and deport such people.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
So in such a case, those who are arrested can in the end only be fined.

Lee Eun-ung:
Yes.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
This problem requires more continued attention so as to diligently devise a way to solve it. Thank you for talking with us today.

Lee Eun-ung:
Yes, thank you.

Anchor Seo Du-won:
This has been Lee Eun-ung, spokesperson for The Citizen’s Movement to Expel Illegal Teachers of Foreign Languages.

___

Isn't it great that the media has someone to turn to when they want to talk about foreign English teachers? Or uncritically accept the statements of someone on a soapbox, I mean?

I enjoyed the fact that the statement that there are "at least ten or twenty thousand illegal teachers, though we don’t have accurate statistics" didn't set off any bullshit detectors.

For some odd reason, Lee left out 'pawing through people's garbage' as part of the AES foreign English teacher 'detection and expulsion' process.

A few notes:
Regarding, "Last year (a) native speaking teacher posted nude pictures of (his) students on the internet," no such case made headlines last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that. 2006, on the other hand, did have the case described here and here about a teacher who unwisely posted his name, photo, and place of work as well as photos of co-workers and nudes of women that he said he slept with. Unless that quotation was referring to the original English Spectrum incident, which occurred in 2005.

As for "one native speaking teacher played a game where the students touched his genitals," while that could have happened, it also sounds a lot like the advice given in the 2003 "How to Mollest[sic] your students" at Korean ESL (which was discovered by Korean netizens in 2005 during the English Spectrum incident) where the writer suggested playing games for nefarious purposes.

Regarding "one person who committed a sex crime against a minor and uttered death threats in Canada could not be deported because he was on an F-2 Visa," it may refer to this 2006 case, or it may not. I have read a story like that in the media somewhere, which I think was an actual case.

Invasion of the body snatchers

Update:

Robert Neff has posted more photos of his trip to the site at the Marmot's Hole.

Original Post:

In the Korea Times yesterday was an article by Robert Neff about one of the stranger tales of foreigners visiting Korea - the tale of Ernest Oppert:

Oppert was not the only foreigner in Shanghai interested in opening Korea. In the early spring of 1868, Oppert met Father Stanislas Feron. Feron was one of three French priests who managed to get out of Korea alive during the religious persecution in 1866 — the same persecution that resulted in a short war between France and Korea.

Feron told Oppert that he had a plan to open Korea to the West. According to Feron, the average Korean desired relations with the West, but it was Daewongun, the regent, who was violently anti-foreigners. If Daewongun could be removed or coerced, Korea could then be opened up.[...]

Feron stressed the reverence Koreans held for their ancestors before he proposed something that was completely unacceptable to Westerners and Koreans alike — to dig up the bones of Daewongun’s father and hold them hostage.[...]

Once Daewongun agreed to open Korea the bones would be immediately returned. He also indicated that it was the Korean Christians who had devised the plan.

Things didn't quite go according to plan (they never do). For more information about this trip, a good place to look is Oppert's own book A Forbidden Land: Voyages to the Corea, which was translated into English in 1880 and is available here.

I have to say, though, that I'm not sure if the article was as well placed as it could have been on the Korea Times' webpage today:


Perhaps they have a different idea of "diverse foreign students" than I do...

The cavescapes of Danyang

The weekend before last I visited Danyang, in the northeast of Chungcheongbuk-do. Situated on a curve of the Namhangang and, when the water's high enough, considered a part of Chungju Lake, there's a lot of natural beauty in the area. Some of it is underground, as there are 4 well known caves in the area. I visited two, the first being Gosu Cave, which is very close to town (on the other side of the Gosu Bridge, just past the tourist information office). It was first explored in the early 1970s, and was found to have been a shelter for humans in the Paleolithic era. It's now home to some pretty spectacular rock formations.







One wonders how much H.R. Giger explored caves; I often felt like I was on the set of an Alien movie.


This photo should give some idea as to how tall the cave gets at points:


Needless to say, those suffering from claustrophobia and fear of heights might want to gove this a pass (as might those with a large belt size - the walkways get very narrow at points).


Four kilometers down the road from Gosu Cave is Cheondong Cave, which was first discovered in the 1970s.






The warnings that apply to Gosu Cave apply even more to Cheondong Cave, as the passageways at times force you to almost crawl, or to descend stairs backwards. Here's a view of the largest room in the cave:


All in all, a fun way to spend 5,000 won. I'll post more about the rest of the trip in a day or so.

The long history of fusion food in Korea

The first chapter of Robert Neff's book Korea Through Western Eyes tells the story of how Paul Georg von Mollendorff first came to Korea in December 1882 on board the steamship Hingshing. Upon arriving at Chemulpo, it anchored out in the harbor, where the passengers were greeted by different sets of visitors:

Later that evening, the steamship was again visited, this time by the local magistrate who came to pay his respects to the Korean officials. After a private dinner and a meeting with the Korean officials, it was determined that it was impossible for him to return to shore. The winds had increased in force and the strong current prevented boats from approaching the steamer.

For four days the magistrate and his entourage were all confined to the steamer. One observer noted that the Koreans were in no hurry to leave the ship and “in fact they enjoyed heartily our fare, and disposed of beefsteaks, mutton-chops, plum pudding, beer, claret, champagne and coffee with as much relish as any foreigner.” The crew feared running short of mustard because the Koreans ate it on everything.

I had what I thought was not sweet potato pizza but which turned out to indeed be sweet potato pizza the other day (the sweet potato was well hidden under the cheese) and got another nasty surprise: there was an unseen coating of mustard on the pizza. Another time in a hof I ordered nachos and they arrived dripping with mustard.

I think one of the best ways to explain the yuck factor involved in those examples to Korean friends is to whip out a packet or two of ketchup and suggest drizzling it over the kimchi.

More statistics on foreigners in Korea

Those wanting recent (from the last two years or so) immigration statistics should make their way here, as it is the place to find them (hat tip to David Carruth). This page features a file which presents us with this graphic, something I've wanted for a long time - reliable statistics on the number of foreigners in Korea over the years:


Here, are the numbers, with a few more added from other sources:

1980 - 40,519*
1990 - 100,000**
1995 - 269,000**
1997 - 386,972
1998 - 308,339
1999 - 381,116
2000 - 491,324
2001 - 566,835
2002 - 629,006
2003 - 678,687
2004 - 750,873
2005 - 747,476
2006 - 910,149
2007 - 1,066,273
2008 - 1,158,866
2009 - 1,168,477
2010 - 1,261,415
2011 - 1,395,077
2012 - 1,445,103

(*From here. It's said to be only residents (not tourists) and I would guess the figure includes USFK. Korea did not open diplomatic relations with China (from where half of Korea's foreign residents hail from today) until 1992.)
(**From here)

The second-most recent figure, from 2009, comes from here (download the zip file to get excel files - you may night to rename the file to "_.zip."). 2008 stats can be found here (scroll down and wait until the download button appears at bottom left).

While I was looking into this, I decided to dig up E-2 visa statistics as well:

2000 - 6,414
2002 - 10,864
2004 - 11,344
2005 - 12,439
2006 - 15,001
2007 - 17,721
2008 - 19,771
2009 - 22,642
2010.6 - 23,600

(from KIS stats, and from here, here, and here.)

I imagine by the end of 2010, the number of E-2 visa-holders will be near 24,000, meaning they will have increased by 12,000 - and doubled - in 5 years. It's interesting to look at the changes in the last year or so:




In the last year, the number of teachers from the U.S. increased by 2,400, rising from 9,381 to 11,762. Canadians, on the other hand, decreased from 5,017 to 4,815, or from 25.4% to 21.3%. Australia also saw a decrease, while the other countries saw slight increases. The other interesting thing to note is that while most countries have far more males teaching in Korea than females, the reverse is true about South Africa, which had 749 female teachers teaching in Korea at the end of 2009, compared to 529 male teachers.

North Korea releases Cheonan poster

From the Chosun Ilbo:

North Korea has been distributing a propaganda poster apparently boasting about its sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday. The U.S.-funded radio station based the claim on a poster it obtained from a Chinese businessman just back from a trip to the North.

The poster shows a North Korean soldier's fist smashing the ship into two pieces, accompanied by a slogan saying, "We'll take it down with a single blow if it attacks!"

It's certainly striking, as most North Korean posters are. If reunification happens, one wonders what will happen to those posters. I can imagine a great many people in the south (and likely the north as well) would want nothing more than to burn them at the first opportunity.

On a somewhat-related note, I really wish there was a way to automatically generate text in the font seen on that poster.