Seoul-inspired Simpsons opening?

I caught the latest Simpsons episode, and it has a rather interesting opening, which was created by street artist Banksy (also here):



I love the final image - the producers having creative control must annoy the hell out 20th Century Fox sometimes. I couldn't help but remember the last time the Simpsons referred to Asian sweatshops (an obvious reference to the show being animated in Korea), but figured the panda seen in this opening pointed to China. According to this article, however, China may not have been the inspiration:

Banksy is said to have been inspired by reports that Simpsons characters are animated in Seoul, South Korea.

Despite the presence of Gangnam, Seoul isn't that bad - perhaps he read one of these textbooks (or one like this).

Sources for English articles about "6 month part-timers"

ATEK has released a statement about the reports of teachers breaking their contracts.

I was also asked about which Korean language articles influenced which English language articles, so I thought I'd post that reply.

The source of the story was a Yonhap article published at noon on September 29 which used incorrect statistics titled "Half of native speaking English teachers are '6 month part-time workers,'" which stated that

The percentage of native speaking English teachers not fulfilling their contract term (one year) and breaking their contract after six months steeply increased every year, from 46% in 2008, to 57.6% in 2009, to 66.1% in 2010 (to the end of July) [... T]he average rate of breaking a contract halfway through (after 6 months) over the last three years is 56.4% (950 people).

It was this article (above) that the Hankyoreh's English site used as a source for its news brief (Sept. 30, 12pm) saying that 66% of native teachers left after six months this year up to July:

"The report submitted by the MEST to the ruling Grand National Party lawmakers showed that as of July 2010, 66.1 percent of native English teachers ended their contract in six months, without completing their one-year contract period. The number of teachers leaving their job halfway through a contract has increased rapidly from 46 percent in 2008 and 57.6 percent in 2009. The average rate over last three years is 56.4 percent, which means one of two native teachers left school before the contract’s expiration."

Four hours after its first article, Yonhap posted an article with the new title "Severe regional disparity in procurement of native speaking English teachers (composite)," which sported some changes to the information:

950 native speaking teachers quit halfway through their contract over the last three years (4.7% of the total) and among those [who quit], the percentage who quit after six months steeply increased every year, from 46% in 2008, to 57.6% in 2009, to 66.1% in 2010 (to the end of July).[Emphasis added.]

The "4.7% of the total" comes from average percentage of those who quit over the past three years (5.53% in 2008, 5.57% in 2009, and 2.92% so far this year). This new paragraph makes clear that only 4.7% on average quit early, and of those 46% in 2008, 57.6% in 2009, and 66.1% in 2010 (to the end of July) quit at the 6 month mark.

Then, four hours after that article, Yonhap posted another amended article with the title "Severe regional disparity in procurement of native speaking English teachers (composite 2)," which changed the percentages of those who quit at or after 6 months:

950 native speaking teachers failed to fulfill their one year contract over the last three years (4.7% of the total) and among those who quit, the percentage who quit after six months totaled 34% in 2008, to 42.4% in 2009, and 34% in 2010 (to the end of July).

Suddenly the figures change completely, and since the hard numbers are not available, it's impossible to know why. The Korea Herald (Sept. 30, 6pm) used the final article as its source, including the term "part-time job," which all three versions of the Yonhap articles contained, despite the latter two containing statistics which disproved this:

"Some 950 teachers, or 4.7 percent, cancelled their employment contract in mid-semester within the first year and 34 percent among them (as of this July) quit during their first six months, according to the survey. About 28.3 percent of them resigned upon being admitted to a school or getting their desired job, indicating that English teaching is largely considered among native speakers as an easily accessible part-time job."

For some reason, other articles used the percentages of teachers who quit at the six month mark from the final Yonhap article, but did not include the fact that only an average of 4.7% had quit overall over the last two and a half years. Yonhap English (Sept. 29, 10pm) stated that

The report submitted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to the parliament showed 42.4 percent of native instructors ended their contract after six months last year, up from 34 percent in 2008. The rate again fell to 34 percent as of the end of July of this year.

The Joongang Daily's article (October 1) also omitted the 4.7% figure:

The report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology showed 42.4 percent of native instructors last year ended their contract after six months, up from 34 percent in 2008. The rate again fell to 34 percent as of the end of July of this year.

Why that figure is missing from the latter two articles I have no idea. I can understand how the translators at the Hankyoreh missed the later two Yonhap articles with the corrections and used the stats from the first, but find it harder to figure out how the final Yonhap article could be used as a source and the 4.7% figure could be omitted.

Hangeul Day

Today is Hangeul Day, and it's being celebrated in various ways. Google has altered its insignia to incorporate Hangeul (a more pleasant unloading of han onto Google than complaints about the naming of the East Sea and Dokdo on Google Maps):


The National Korean Language Institute is in Banghwa-dong, and offers this banner:

'Thank you Hangeul'

Even the US embassy is celebrating the day.


Naver tells us that this is the 564th Hangeul Day, though according to Wikipedia it started in 1945 (which makes little sense, as there was no Korean government until 1948). It also mentions that North Korea celebrates it in January.

Everything you need, all the time

From the first page of the December 6, 1990 Maeil Gyeongje:


"LG 25 is Born!
Now you can purchase all the things you need in life 24 hours a day."

According to the ad, the first store opened near Kyunghee University in Seoul.

As I mentioned here, the first convenience store in Korea was a 7-Eleven, which opened in May 1989. LG 25 has been GS 25 for five or six years now.

One thing I've noticed is that many stores come and go, but convenience stores tend to stay (though they may change franchise names). In Banghwa-dong I can only think of one (a Family Mart) that closed, but that was likely because there was a Buy the Way 15 meters away, and a 7-11 about 40 meters away.

Music and money, government approved

Came across this image last week. Despite the 'I couldn't decide what to wear so I put on everything I own' look, you do get a sort of punk-ish, 80's vibe by the looks of them. If you were expecting some edgy electro-punk, however, you'd be disappointed:

At an event hosted by the Ministry of Justice on Tuesday to launch a volunteer group for the G20 Summit in November, the band announced a campaign song to encourage people to abide by the law.

"We'll try to set examples by obeying rules, even minor ones, as citizens ourselves and work to raise awareness about problems with writing malicious comments on the Internet and illegal downloading," 2NE1 said.

As Bill Hicks put it, "Government approved rock and roll - now we're partying!" I read somewhere yesterday that the government was thinking of using girl groups as part of psychological warfare against the North. How cruel. So much for the "We are all one race" line (though using celebrities in propaganda has gone on for some time).

I came across an article from 1975 as the government started banning rock music, like Shin Jung-hyun (below, from his days playing on U.S. military bases).


What's interesting is that the 'group sound committee' decided to organize a concert with several rock groups to promote 'wholesome music' and promised to play Saemaeul songs. Obviously, despite the repression, they wanted to keep making a living and playing music, so they made concessions (had they done this under a previous administration, they would be called 'pro Japanese traitors'). Those were repressive times, however, so one can understand why they would take a 'wholesome' stance. I doubt the music 'artists' of today have such pressure on them, however (though the under-18s may soon have to stop wearing hot pants, which will make the Chosun Ilbo cry, as it will use any excuse to post pictures of them).

By 1976 many musicians and entertainers would be arrested (for smoking marijuana, which up to that point had been illegal in the way that prostitution and abortion are illegal) and banned from performing or having their songs on the radio or tv, and so the late 1970s, as Shin Jung-hyun describes it in Mark Russell's book Pop Goes Korea (excerpted here),

was the start of the bubblegum pop and syrupy ballads that have ruled Korea ever since. “It was all, ‘Let’s work hard,’ and ‘Let’s be happy’ kind of stuff,” Shin says, with a soft, matter-of-fact bitterness. “It was completely physical, with no spirit, no mentality, no humanity. That trend has carried over all the way to today, so people are deaf to real music. They don’t know because they are never exposed to it.”

There's lots of good indie rock, pop, folk, and electronic music being made in Korea, but as Shin puts it, few are exposed to it. Here's an ad for Shin's last group before he was arrested, the yeopjeons (coins, or 'copper cash'):


I hadn't known that's what those Joseon dynasty era coins were called. Here's a photo of correspondent Robert Dunn standing on the massive pile of them that he received when he changed over $100 US dollars at the start of the Russo Japanese War in 1904


It was handy that I learned the word, as a few days later someone asked me about the coins saying she wanted to track some down in Insa-dong, and I was able to give her the name of them. A few days after that I came across this discussion at Dave's ESL Cafe about the oldest Korean coins people have come across, and while most talked about coins from the 1970s or perhaps 1960s, a few posters described the yeopjeons they had found. It's an interesting discussion, and worth a read.

The anti-American Americans

James Wade writes about the different groups of Americans living in Korea in the mid 1960s, and how they felt about each other. Wade wrote about the interactions of different groups of foreigners in Korea in both non-fiction, such as the article below, and in fiction (such as in the series to which this article belongs). This article was written a year before Peace Corps volunteers first arrived in Korea, adding another group of Americans to the mix. As I had to look it up, I'll note that USOM stands for United States Operations Mission, which is briefly mentioned here.

Literary links

The Joongang Ilbo has an article on modernist writer Yi Sang, which is worth reading. I first read this translation of his signature story 'The Wings' years ago, and it can be found easily enough at bookstores downtown. Translations of his poetry by Brother Anthony can be found here.

I missed this lecture by Bruce Fulton, but hadn't realized “There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories by Ch’oe Yun” had been published. I've linked to the translation before, but it would be nice to have it in book form. An interview with translators Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton can be found here, and a description of the awards ceremony for their translation and a meeting with Ch'oe Yun can be found here. I've linked to an interview with her before (links to the online translations of her work are there as well). Two of her stories under the title "The Last of Hanako" can be found at in the English section of bookstores downtown as well.

Another book the Fultons translated was "The Dwarf," which I first read a few years ago, and which I read again recently - it's well worth reading.

A justifiable subway assault?

Update: Added another video. Also, it's pretty clear this editorial is against the girl, seeing how it messes up the chronology of what can be seen in the video to make her look worse.]

[Update - the youtube video I embedded was taken down before I even finished the post! The one below has the sound out of synch.]

Awhile ago, I posted about elderly people telling off pregnant women for being in "their seats" (the seating reserved for the elderly, handicapped, and pregnant), and oddly enough, it was just an hour ago that I re-read Gord Sellar's thoughtful response titled "Subways and culture"(and if you haven't read it yet, do). And then, I came across one of the big stories getting netizen attention today (which is, of course, followed by media attention - 80 stories so far) about a video clip of an elderly woman 'tussling' with a teenage girl on the subway:





I'm sure the video will disappear at some point, so here are photos:


According to the article, this happened yesterday on Line 2, and we can hear that the train is coming into a station what has a transfer to line 6. As Hongdae and Sinchon get mentioned later, I'll assume it's at Hapjeong Station. It also provides a partial description of what's being said:

Grandmother: "I'm an old person? Rude? What?"
Girl: "What do you want from me?"
Grandmother: "Right, I was born in 1934. Why? [Pushes the girl] I was born in 1934. [Push] Why? [Pulls the girls hair, drags her around]"
Girl: [Gets her phone back, crying] "Dad, I really hate Korea! I really hate Korea! I really hate Korea."
The last thing the girl screams, after noticing the person videoing the proceedings, is, "Put it on Youtube!"

While some articles have looked more at how netizens were picking sides ("the woman started it"; "the girl was rude and speaking banmal to the woman"), the one I linked above has compiled comments by netizens who say they were present at the scene. Apparently it started when the girl, who had dirt on her shoes, crossed her legs and got some dirt on the old woman's clothes, so she told the girl to move her foot. The girl politely apologized twice but the woman swore at her and constantly rebuked her until the girl lost her temper and shouted at her in banmal, which is where the video begins.

There were several commenters who said that they recognized the woman, and that she often provokes arguments with passengers and tries to force people to give up their seats. Another commenter said she as "famous" on line 2, but that she never directs any of this behavior at men.

What I find interesting are the people who side with the woman, who apparently think that the girl speaking banmal justifies her being physically assaulted. Also interesting, though not surprising for anyone who's lived here for some time, is the fact that everyone just sat and watched the girl get assaulted.

A friend of mine was on the subway one night in the late 90s and saw a middle aged man harassing a teenage girl while the rest of the passengers ignored it. He stepped in and put a stop to it, and afterward a man complimented him for having done so. When the man found out my friend was a student, however, he asked him, "Why did you speak to that [older] man in that way?"

Incorrect statistics depict foreign English teachers as "part time workers" harming regional English education

On September 30, the Korea Times posted an article titled "More native English teachers quit":

More native English teachers are breaching agreed working terms in contracts made with public schools and are leaving Korea.

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the number of foreign teachers who failed to complete their working contracts last year rose to 425 from 283 a year ago. This year as well, 252 native English speakers have already left schools as of July, according to Rep. Kim Se-yeon of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) who asked the ministry to submit the statistics to the National Assembly.[...]

The number of language assistant teachers at elementary and secondary schools increased to 8,473 this year from 7,631 in 2009 and 5,115 in 2008, meaning about 80 percent of schools nationwide have foreign teachers this year, a sharp surge compared with 48 percent in 2007.

Particularly, nearly 30 percent of the foreign teachers who ended their contract worked for less than six months. Some 22 percent of them quit to study or transferred to other jobs, while about 15 percent left without prior notice and others for various reasons including difficulties in adapting to their schools, illness, and being involved in crimes.

The dropout rate also varied according to regions Rep. Kim Sun-dong of the GNP said. Busan topped the list, followed by Incheon, Seoul and Jeju Island.

“Many Koreans have to get through very hard training if they want to be a teacher. It is a kind of privilege for native English speakers to be invited here as teachers. So I earnestly ask them to be more responsible in their jobs,” said Oh Seok-hwan, a director at the ministry.

I had to laugh when I did the simple math. looking at the number of teachers quitting early, going from 283 to 425 in 2008 and 2009, we see a 33.4% increase. Of course, if you look at those numbers as a percentage of the total number of teachers hired, you get different results.

283 out of 5,115 is 5.53% and 425 out of 7,631 is 5.57%. Therefore, the rate of teachers quitting early rose from 5.53% in 2008 to 5.57% in 2009 - an increase of 0.04%. Well, that was certainly worth a headline, and deserving of a sanctimonious request for teachers to "be more responsible in their jobs."

As it turns out, however, the Korea Times' article is arguably the fairest of the several articles written about this, especially since, unlike the other articles, it provides all the figures needed to do the calculations I just did above.

As Brian notes, the Korea Herald, Joongang Ilbo, Yonhap and Hankyoreh issued reports, with the latter stating that "around two thirds of native-speaking English teachers in South Korea quit after six months on the job," while Yonhap reported that "more than a third" quit early, and the Herald stated that "4.7 percent" quit early. Confused yet?

It seems it all begins with Yonhap, who have been responsible before for articles which have highlighted a few bad apples in order to tar all foreign English teachers, or which have glossed over the arrest of over thirty Thais for drugs in order to focus on 2 English teachers (just two examples among many).

In this case, the very beginning is more innocuous. A September 28 Yonhap article titled “The native speaking assistant teacher placement rate in Korea is 81%” quoted Rep. Kim Sun-dong (GNP), about placement rates since 2007 and student – teacher ratios. Rep. Kim got the statistics from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The same day, Yonhap also posted an article looking at student – teacher ratios Daejeon and Chungcheongnam-do, pointing out that in Daejeon 209 native speaking teachers teach 244,576 students (a ration of 1:1170), which is three times lower than Chungcheongnam-do, where 409 teachers teach 196,375 students (a ratio of 1:409). Nationally, the average is 1:931, up from 1:1147 last year.

This chart (from here) shows the number of students per teacher (left) and the percentage of schools with native English teachers (right).


This Hankyoreh article points to where some of the growing numbers of native speaking teachers were placed, as the number of teachers in Daegu increased from 132 last year to 247 this year (making the teacher to student ratio drop from 1:3021 to 1:1559), while the number of teachers in Gyeongsangbuk-do increased from 261 to 589 (causing the teacher to student ration to drop from 1:1435 to 1:614).

The first Yonhap article above was used in part for the Korea Times and other articles, but it was this Yonhap article, published at noon on the 29th, which is where the negative slant of the English language articles came from:

Half of native speaking English teachers are “6 month part-time workers”
This year 66% broke their contract halfway through... regional polarization is increasing

It has been revealed that most of the native speaking English teachers teaching in Korea break their contracts after six months, causing the disruption of school conversation classes.

Especially outside the Seoul metropolitan area, the rate of native speaking teachers quitting halfway through their contract reaches 70-80%, and is a key factor intensifying regional disparities in English education.

According to data analyzed by National Assembly Education, Science and Technology Committee members Kim Se-yeon and Park Young-a (GNP), the percentage of native speaking English teachers not fulfilling their contract term (one year) and breaking their contract after six months has steeply increased every year, from 46% in 2008, to 57.6% in 2009, to 66.1% in 2010 (to the end of July).

As the average rate of breaking a contract halfway through (after 6 months) over the last three years is 56.4% (950 people), one out of two native speaking teachers fail to fulfill their promised stay and leave their schools.

The main reason given for breaking the contract was to study or to get a new job (22.7%), and the average rate for those who left without notice over the last three years was 15.4%.

In particular, the rate of those quitting to study or get a new job saw a large increase from 18.5% in 2008 to 22.1% in 2009 to 28.3% in 2010. Foreigners living in Korea are realizing that the native speaking assistant teacher system is a “path to a part time job” and the trend is growing stronger.

The crime rate for native speaking English teachers was 0% in 2008, 0.5% in 2009, and 1.6% in 2010, showing an increasing tendency despite the insignificant level.

Also, there is a great difference between cities and provinces in rates of native speaking English teachers quitting, as well as a disparity between rates of native speaker recruitment and of those teachers possessing qualifications, leading to concerns that this will increase the polarization of English education levels between the cities and provinces.

The places where rates of native speaking English teachers breaking their contracts after six months were the highest include Ulsan, at 90%, Jeollanam-do at 84.6%, Daejeon at 83.3%, Chungcheongbuk-do at 75%, and Daegu at 72.2%. Alternately, rates in the capital area are lower than the average, with Seoul at 57.8%, Gyeonggi-do at 49.8%, and Incheon at 60.4%.

[Considering the 83.3% attrition rate in Daejeon, it's likely half the teachers in this photo had fled the country by the end of the day.] The article then lists ratios of native speaking teachers to students showing the gap between high levels (1:778 in Seoul, 1:804 in Busan, 1:799 in Gyeonggi-do) and low levels (1:1552 in Daegu, 1 :1298 in Gwangju, 1:1316 in Chungcheongbuk-do)

It also notes the gap in rates of teachers who have qualifications (either teaching, TESOL, or TEFL certificates) between the two areas with the highest rates (Kwangju, 74%, and Seoul, 70%) and the areas with the lowest rates (Ulsan, 29%, and Gyeongsanbuk-do, 30%). Over the last three years in Gyeonggi-do and Gyeongsangnam-do, the number of native speaking teachers has sharply increased, but the percentage of them with qualifications has actually dropped. It ends with this quote:

Rep. Park Yeong-a urged that reforms be prepared: “As the university entrance exam English test will become conversation-oriented, the importance of native speaking teachers will expand. Considering the reality that it is also difficult to find English hagwons in areas outside of the capital region and large cities, if the system [continues to be] operated as it is now, the regional English education gap cannot help but expand.”

We see above that "the percentage of native speaking English teachers not fulfilling their contract term (one year) and breaking their contract after six months steeply increased every year, from 46% in 2008, to 57.6% in 2009, to 66.1% in 2010 (to the end of July)" and "the average rate of breaking a contract halfway through (after 6 months) over the last three years is 56.4% (950 people)". Therefore, divide 950 people who quit early by 3 years and multiply the result by 2 to get the approximate number of teachers hired (if 56% were quitting early) and you end up with... a total of around 600 teachers? It should have been clear something was wrong with those figures. (It should also be noted that it's irresponsible to offer percentages for 2010, as the year isn't finished yet).

There clearly was a problem, because four hours later, Yonhap posted an article with the new title "Severe regional disparity in procurement of native speaking English teachers (composite)," which sported some changes to the information:

950 native speaking teachers quit halfway through their contract over the last three years (4.7% of the total) and among those who quit, the percentage who quit after six months steeply increased every year, from 46% in 2008, to 57.6% in 2009, to 66.1% in 2010 (to the end of July).[Emphasis added.]

Clearly, that makes more sense. The "4.7% of the total" comes from average percentage of those who quit over the past three years (5.53% in 2008, 5.57% in 2009, and 2.92% so far this year).

However, four hours after that article, Yonhap posted another amended article with the title "Severe regional disparity in procurement of native speaking English teachers (composite 2)":

950 native speaking teachers failed to fulfill their one year contract over the last three years (4.7% of the total) and among those who quit, the percentage who quit after six months totaled 34% in 2008, to 42.4% in 2009, and 34% in 2010 (to the end of July).

Suddenly the percentages over the past three years change from 46%, 57.6%, and 66.1% to 34%, 42.4%, and 34%. Clearly, someone was not doing the math correctly, and the question is whether the fault lies with the National Assembly Education, Science and Technology Committee or with Yonhap reporter Lee Jun-sam.

Seeing how it was pointed out to Rep. Choi Young-hee's office that she had used the wrong immigration statistics to paint 22,000 E-2 visa holders as being 'missing' and no correction was ever issued, I have reason to doubt that the National Assembly Committee suddenly noticed a mistake on their part and quickly corrected it. It's not impossible, however. Still, it seems more likely that Yonhap made the mistake (having had to post two corrected articles), and the tale of foreigners living in Korea taking advantage of the native speaking English teacher system to be "6 month part time workers" was concocted from the incorrect statistics (and no one said the jobs or studies they left their teaching jobs to pursue were in Korea). There are some pretty wild claims in the original article:

- most of the native speaking English teachers teaching in Korea break their contracts after six months, causing the disruption of school conversation classes.

- outside the Seoul metropolitan area, the rate of native speaking teachers quitting halfway through their contract reaches 70-80%, and is a key factor intensifying regional disparities in English education. [...]

- Foreigners living in Korea are realizing that the native speaking assistant teacher system is a “path to a part time job” and the trend is growing stronger.

Most of the direct quotes from the National Assembly members focus on the regional disparities and the need to check qualifications of teachers, and earlier articles focused only on the regional disparities. Then along comes a Yonhap article shifting blame from the Ministry of Education to the 50% of foreign teachers who take advantage of the Korean education system to be "six month part time workers" whose disruption of English classes is "a key factor intensifying regional disparities in English education." It seems like someone has an axe to grind.

Also interesting is the "insignificant" but "increasing" crime rate for native speaking English teachers (0% in 2008, 0.5% in 2009, and 1.6% in 2010). If you take the average percentage of those who quit early to start a new job or study (22%) and apply it to the 4.7% of all English teachers who quit early, you end up with about 1% of all teachers over the last three years quitting to study or start new jobs, a figure lower than the "insignificant" 1.6% 2010 crime rate.

And yet the Korea Herald, cribbing from Yonhap, writes that, "English teaching is largely considered among native speakers as an easily accessible part-time job." Yes, all 1% of them. Add that to the 0.04% increase in rates of teachers quitting early between 2008 and 2009, and you have a complete and utter non-story, but one which has now repeated in several places (even after Yonhap made corrections and changed the title, they kept the "6 month part time worker" description in their articles).

In addition to the three Yonhap stories about this, there were reprints of the first Yonhap 'part time worker' story in both the Chosun Ilbo and Joongang Ilbo, as well as unflattering summaries of the Yonhap article in the Maeil Gyeongje and Focus News Network, which reported that:

It has been revealed that most of the native speaking English teachers teaching English in Korea think of their school classes as a "6 month part time job" and easily break their contracts, causing the disruption of school conversation classes.

Papers like the Segye Ilbo, on the other hand, cribbed from the original 'part time worker' Yonhap article but left out the broken contract section entirely.

In the Korean language articles which dealt with the broken contract non-story, they only mentioned that some teachers quit to find a new job or study, or fled the country, but otherwise said nothing about why around 5% of teachers were dissatisfied with "privileged" teaching jobs.

That there might actually be reasons for them wanting to leave is not looked at very closely, but given the chance to blame them for "disrupting" conversation classes and being a "key factor" in regional disparities in English education, off the reporter goes. Not that we should leave the government out of this, as politicians have described foreign teacher crime as serious, despite using statistics that revealed the opposite, have used incorrect statistics to claim there were 22,000 teachers missing in Korea, and have used the occasion of a Korean man brutally raping a Korean child to state that foreign teachers are "especially potential child molesters" and that their sex crime rate is higher than what is recorded because of "undisclosed crimes."

To be sure, things are rarely looked at from the foreign teachers' points of view. The closest reporters might actually get is to glance at the blogs or Facebook pages of teachers. Internet sources provided much of the meat in this article from two weeks ago about the "GEPIK orientation's introduction to Korean culture through drinking parties." Needless to say, the internet writings of foreign teachers are used to make them look bad, and the internet writings of Korean teachers are... also used to make foreign teachers look bad.

The article begins with the exciting phrase "A crack in the management of the Gyeonggi Education Office's adaptation program for native speaking teachers has been exposed." It then reveals that the Facebook pages and blogs of teachers who attended GEPIK orientation reveal that drinking parties were going on during orientation. Teachers are quoted from their blogs saying that orientation reminded them of university or that they wanted to die. GEPIK officials express shock and promise to get to the bottom of things, tighten up management of the program, and prevent future outrages.

From there the reporter uses another online source - a community of Korean English teachers, especially part-time English instructors working on contract in public schools. Miss Hwang (28), a member of the online community working at an elementary school in Ansan, reveals that "I've been driven to the edge by the insincere attitude towards work that the native speaking English teacher has."

From there she talks about insincere foreign teachers, their low English skills, the way other staff in the school bow down to them, and how she and others vent ("I'm fed up!" "I'm worn out by this sadaejuui (toadyism)") because the foreigners are paid more than them. The article ends with this paragraph:

As the GEPIK orientation drinking problem and attitude of the schools which bow down to native speaking teachers become known, it has led the English education related online community to the opinion that “The low quality foreign teacher problem is not simply a problem with the foreign teacher’s mind. Our country’s growing disposition towards sadaejuui (toadyism) is also an important reason.”

As AES's Lee Eun-ung once put it, "Ah, the eternal subject - the low quality foreign English teacher."

I'll leave a closer look at the new foreign English teacher crime statistics released two weeks ago for another day.

More about Francis Schofield

The Korea Herald had an article about Francis Schofield, the "34th patriot" involved in the Samil movement, and a conference being held on the 40th anniversary of his death. It was nice to see a photo of him, as I'd only seen one or two smaller ones before:


What's interesting about the photo is that it appears to be a still from a film - I'd be curious to see that. In looking for some more information about him, I stumbled onto this very worthwhile essay about his time in Korea, which sifts through the letters between him and members of the Canadian Presbyterian mission board and sheds new light on his recall in 1920. It also has several interesting photos, most of which I'd seen (and posted about) before, but one which I had not, showing him with an interpreter (which one assumes is early on during his stay - he is later described as having an "exceptional facility in the language"):


In December 1919 the Governor-General of Korea stated “that Christian missionaries are behind the disturbances in Korea is an undeniable fact and a man named Schofield, belonging to the Severance Hospital at Seoul, is one of the most pronounced type of these agitators.” He went on to describe him as an “arch agitator” and “a most dangerous man, assiduously carrying on the independence agitation in Korea… even among the missionaries there are many who look askance at his vehement methods”.

One of the reasons for this was because of his often public stance against the Japanese treatment of Koreans during the Samil uprising, which involved both direct action (such as photographing the protests and their suppression, and intervening in arrests declaring the person to be arrested was his servant) and writing articles which both revealed Japanese atrocities and mocked the Japanese at the same time. One example would be a letter he wrote to the Seoul Press (which I've posted before here) after an article praising Seodaemun Prison was published there:

Dear Editor of the Seoul Press: I am very grateful to you for your article on the Sudaemoon Sanatorium (or the Sudaemoon Vocational School). A truly ignorant, mean person must have called it a prison.

In any case, we foreigners were very glad to read such a cheerful and beautiful picture of the prison, because we have always thought that there were many prisoners jammed into a small room, bitten by parasites, starved and in rags.

Contrary to our misconceptions, our Korean friends are said to have technical lessons, a cheerful atmosphere, and frequent baths.What a wonderful piece of news! But, may I make a small suggestion? Why don’t you translate the article into Korean and print it? Then, the families and friends of the prisoners will be so relieved of their worries.

An article in the Japan Advertiser in August 1919 saw him making comparisons which made him few friends at the British foreign office:

“It is to Japan’s interests to be magnanimous with Korea, for if Korea has to pay as heavily for all her reforms as she is paying for the present ones Korea will always be the deadly enemy of Japan, and a serious menace whether ‘assimilated’ or independent…. England some day will have to satisfy Ireland in most of her demands. It would have been a much wiser policy to have granted Ireland her demands earlier, and in so doing have retained the friendship of Ireland.”

A November 1919 letter to the Japan Advertiser read in part:

“Until the damnable policy of assimilation is changed, there will always be bayonets and bullets ready to silence the cry of Mansai, and pepper tea ready for the nostrils of the young patriot who defies the laws and publishes an Independence newspaper. Is there any morality in a policy which makes 17 millions of people hopeless, and at the best offers exile or jail for Korea’s noblest men and women?”

The article about Schofield goes on to describe the reaction to this:

According to historian Dae-Yeol Ku, it was his ‘damnation’ of Japan’s assimilation policy that sparked Governor-General Saito’s accusations against Schofield in December. Even the British Foreign Office viewed the statement as ‘very offensive’ and “admitted that the Japanese could hardly be expected to feel kindly towards Schofield”. Shortly after this, the British Foreign Office issued him a warning. His refusal to conform after this warning was likely the factor contributing to his abrupt recall in 1920.

While some Korean accounts incorrectly describe him as being expelled by the Japanese, and others had focused on his mentally ill wife, the essay details some of the debate going on within the Presbyterian mission which makes clear it was his refusal to stay 'politically neutral' which led to his recall (and which barred him from returning in the early 1920s). It wouldn't be until 1958 that he would return to Korea, where he would die in 1970, the only foreigner to be buried in the National Cemetery.

This website dedicated to Schofield has lots of information about him, including a chronology of his life and a great deal of other information, including the fact that Stephen Harper visited Schofield's grave at the National Cemetery on his visit here last December.

There are also videos on youtube about Schofield. This one in English is about as exciting as watching paint dry, but this one is interesting for the footage of his funeral (at 1:19). I hadn't thought about the fact that being buried in the National Cemetery would (of course) entail a state public funeral (as noted here, it was attended by the Prime Minister).



I'll have to visit his grave one of these days.

It was nice to see a profile of Henny Savenije, his wife An Young-jin and their children in the Korea Times today. I know of him through his contributions to the Korea Studies Discussion List and his website on the history of foreign interaction with Korea (with a focus on Hamel), which is full of old maps and photos, and which was very useful when I wrote this post. An also talks about the challenges multicultural families face in Korea.

Which is the Korean race's biggest holiday?

Old news, I guess, but I was just looking through this article and came across this statistic about the rainfall last Tuesday:

The Gangseo region in southwestern Seoul and Gangnam area in the southern part saw 293 mm of rainfall[.]

I live in Gangseo, and had had no idea how bad it really was until later. I woke up to the wild sound of the wind and rain and went back to sleep, opting to stay in until it had mostly stopped. I'd noticed that the ground floor of my building was quite wet, and figured water must have gotten in (it's on an incline, where you need to go down two steps to the back door, and up four or five steps to the front). There didn't seem to be any sign of flood or water damage in the area, however (including a nearby basement supermarket).

A few days later, a friend of mine showed me his cell phone photos of his trip back to Banghwa-dong from Bucheon that day, which revealed streets that resembled rivers, and shots taken from the rear door windows of the wake of the taxi in this river.

I decided to look around and found this article which has quite a few photos of the effect of the rain on the Gwanghwamun area, Gwanghwamun subway station, and Kyobo bookstore, as well as Cheonggyecheon.



I believe the last time it looked like this was during the flooding in 2006, when the Han River overflowed its banks.

One thing that got my attention was this caption on almost all of the photos in the Ohmynews article: "민족 최대 명절인 추석 연휴 첫날인 21일 오후..." As an introduction to the photo, it reads, "On the afternoon of the 21st, the first day of [our] race's biggest holiday..." Okay, I guess minjok could also be translated as 'nation,' (as it may be here, where "the nation's biggest holiday" is used) but it seems to be an example of how overused the word minjok can be. I can understand a description like that being in English-language articles, as there might be an expectation that the fifteen or so foreign tourists who read the KT, KH, and Joongang (combined) might not know much about Chuseok, but it seems rather odd to use it for Korean readers, though a Naver search reveals that it is widely used.

That it might be little more than a rhetorical flourish, however, is revealed in a cafe post (first result here) where the poster says that last Lunar New Years, an announcer on TV clearly said that Seollal is the minjok's biggest holiday, only for announcers to say last week that Chuseok is the minjok's biggest holiday. He asked, "So which one is it?" and then complained that he'd fought with his wife for two hours due to this broadcast and the question it raised. There was no complaint about the use of the term minjok itself, of course, but it does seem that there's awareness that some media outlets overuse superlatives attached to the term.