Concluding observations from CERD meeting

As an update to Korea's appearance at the late-August CERD meeting I mentioned here, CERD has published "Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination" in pdf form here. One thing (out of many) that it mentions is a need for an anti-discrimination law in Korea, a point made in this Korea Times article published today.

RAS Lecture on the Earliest Sound Recordings of Korean Music

On Wednesday evening Dr. Robert Provine will be giving a lecture for the Royal Asiatic Society titled "Revolutionaries, Nursery Rhymes, and Edison Wax Cylinders: The Remarkable Tale of the Earliest Sound Recordings of Korean Music." It sounds like it should be interesting:

On 24 July 1896, three young Korean men in Washington DC were recorded on Edison wax cylinders by the famous American proto-ethnomusicologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher, as they sang traditional songs from their home country. These recordings, now stored in the Library of Congress, predate the next known recordings of Korean music, made in Japan, by eleven years. There were only a few Koreans in the United States capital at the time, most of them associated with the Korean Legation that represented the largely unknown country named Chosŏn. These musical recordings, part of the complex story of early Korean-American relations in the turbulent late nineteenth century, resulted from circumstances involving an extraordinary collection of interesting and influential people, from exceptional historical events in Korea and the United States, and from a fair dose of serendipity. The recordings form one part of a wider research project that might be described simply as Korean music in late-nineteenth-century America, the other parts being two museum collections that include Korean musical instruments and the matter of Korean musicians sent to the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.

More details can be found here. The lecture will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Residents' Lounge on the 2nd floor of the Somerset Palace in Seoul, which is north of Jogyesa Temple, and is 5,000 won for non-members and free for members.

Criminal record check loophole or slow news day in Daegu?

I'd forgotten about this, but on July 4, the Yeongnam Ilbo published the following article.

When a foreign instructor with a 'sex crime record' refuses no inquiry can be made.

Because of a lax law only parents are anxious.

It's legally mandated that hagwon instructors have sex crime record checks, but because of a lax law, the check isn't done and parents are anxious.

Last May, Canadian native speaker 'C', who has been working for three years at B taekwondo academy in Mr. A's neighbourhood (Daemyeong-dong in Daegu's Nam-gu), was asked by the Nam-gu office for a criminal record check for sex crimes against children, but as of yet they have not received one. C has been working part time on weekends since 2003, before B hagwon moved to its current location, but no particular request for a criminal record check has been made.

According to the law, the representatives of institutions involved with children or youth must get criminal record checks from all people who are hired, and if they hire people with criminal records, they are punished.

Nam-gu office said in response to Mr. A's petition/complaint that, "As a result of the on the spot investigation the foreign instructor was let go in the middle of May and plans to return to his home country immediately. The situation is that C didn't inform us of his alien registration number and we can't do a sex crime background check."

However, it's been revealed that at the end of May, C accompanied a hagwon camp. Mr. A sent photographic proof of this to the Nam-gu office and again demanded a criminal record check be done. As well, if the relevant hagwon law is violated and instructors are hired without a check, a fine is levied against the hagwon, which he demanded.

Regarding this, the Nam-gu Office questioned the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as to whether punishment was possible if 'the hagwon representative didn't ask the foreign instructor for a sex crime criminal check, but already planned to fire that instructor, and refused to check themselves.' The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family decided 'it is not punishable.' This is because the regulation punishing institutes which don't request sex crime background checks was established in 2010, and there is no legal basis to apply it retroactively.

Mr. A vented his displeasure, saying "If the law is this lax, anyone can refuse a criminal record check and greatly abuse the law by lying and saying they worked before 2010."

Regarding this, a Nam-gu office official explained, "Institute representatives can directly only request a criminal background check. If the foreign instructor refuses and the hagwon fires him, there is no basis for legal punishment."

What a bizarre story. The Canadian has been working at the Taekwondo academy for 3 years, or since 2003. No need for math skills, I suppose. And how is a Canadian working at a Taekwondo academy? I can only imagine he's on an F visa, unless he was volunteering, but the article doesn't say that. And why refuse the Criminal record check? Was there something to hide? If so, why did the academy have him along for a camp after he was supposedly let go? And why apparently lie about this to the Nam-gu Office?

Then there's the question of just who Mr. A is. At a guess, he seems to have it out for the academy, the way he keeps pushing for a CRC to be done (how did he know it hadn't been done?) and demanding the academy be punished. And then there's the office and the way it said it couldn't figure out his alien registration number (which would likely be useless for all but a Korean criminal record check), which sounds like they really didn't care.

I'm also not sure what law it is they're referring to (the amendment to the hagwon law that I know of was passed in 2011). But 'he was hired before it came into effect' seems like a weak excuse (the 2011 law made it mandatory for those foreigners already hired to hand in the necessary documents within a month of the law coming into effect. The fact that E-2 visa holders had already submitted such documents to the MOJ was ignored).

And then there's the question of why this was news (not that 'there's a loophole in the law that needs to be closed' isn't a common enough topic). It must have been a slow news day.

(Note: This was published several weeks before the discovery of Han A-ram's body in Tongyeong, which set off the current burst of concern about sex crimes against children.)

Ilyo Sisa denounces the barbarity of white men against Korean women

At the late-August CERD meeting I mentioned here, Yong Ho-seong, director of the culture and leisure policy division of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, described one of its policies:

[I]n order to prevent prejudice or distorted expressions of race and culture appearing in media that is socially influential, we are producing and distributing a brochure for producers of broadcast and media content. And through these brochures, we aim to educate creative artists and content producers from unknowingly reproducing racial prejudices.

But will it have much effect upon those who are knowingly "reproducing racial prejudices"?

On August 24 (2012) Ilyo Sisa, (who previously put out an article about ethnic Korean Chinese with the subtitle "Their 'Korean dream' has been corrupted into 'Korean killing'") published a lengthy creative writing piece article (the translation is almost 1800 words) which reaches back to the English Spectrum incident of 2005 and the 2006 English Village molestation incidents (which did not involve native speaking instructors) and combines them with more recent events to create a tale of atrocious white males on the prowl and the pitiable, victimized, promiscuous, white-worshipping Korean women who enable them.

"Tips for targeting Korean women" spread by foreign English instructor spreads quickly
Treat them as 'sex toys' and throw them away when they're finished

Reporter Kim Ji-seon

The disparaging of Korean women by foreign English instructors and foreigners living in Gangnam or Itaewon is not something that just started yesterday. White men who deliberately approach Korean women for sex or to defraud them commit all kinds of illegal acts against Korean women. Even worse, anyone can commonly hear about incidents of illegal drug taking and rape by foreigners. However, claims that the cause of these incidents is a national character which is lenient towards white people are gaining traction. We are publicizing detailed excerpts of some posts from "Anti English Spectrum," a blog which denounces the barbarity of foreigners.

English Spectrum, a website where one mainly comes into contact with foreign English instructors who live in Korea, is updated with dozens of postings denigrating Korean women on its bulletin board every day. Among these posts, "How to target Korean women," a collection of tips explaining how to meet Korean women to sleep with them was a popular topic, earning more than 2000 hits. Below is a selection of postings put up directly by American English instructors active at English Spectrum.

Korean women who are crazy for white people - Why?

First, "When going with Korean women they hate being held so you must hold their hand. If Korean women have a white boyfriend, they will become more confident and feel proud." Next, ▲when riding in a car or bus, go first. ▲Typically, Korean women will have luxury bags and wear heavy makeup like showgirls. Meet a girl from a rich family who can invest a million won in you during the first month. ▲Korean women pay for the all the date expenses and personally drive you. ▲If you (white men) just speak only in English it will end in bed. Talk in the car. Many Korean women like this gather in the Gangnam area. ▲There are many Korean women who are impatient to go to our white countries. Before they become disappointed in this dream, treat these women as sex toys to your heart's content and when you're done, throw them away. ▲Eat disgusting kimchi and street stall fish cake. If you say you like Korean food, it's even better. ▲If Japan comes up in conversation, criticize Japan unconditionally and take Korea's side. Say to Korean women that small eyes are attractive.▲If the chance to appear on the MBC show 'Surprise' presents itself, go on the show. You'll become a superstar among Korean women overnight. ▲Always tell them they're thin. They prefer thin figures. They have flat chests and butts, but instead recognize that we don't pay and get to sleep with Korean women. ▲ Constantly show that you are a gentleman. If you do this, there is no tree that won't fall after ten chops. Finally, the post says, "Toss away and give to a black colleague any beggar-like Korean girl who wants to go to the US with you."

If the above is true, foreign English instructors' main purpose in coming to Korea, more than for teaching English, is nothing more than a desire to coax Korean women into dating them. In fact, at Anti English Spectrum, they capture in detail and accuse foreign men of denigrating Korean men and women or bluntly trampling upon our country's distinct culture.

Pretend to like Kimchi, if you criticize Japan, you'll enjoy yourself more
Give their body thinking they'll learn English for free, pay for the date

Among the posts is one that says if Korean women are made to choose between a Korean man and white man, as long as you're white 100 of them would chose the white man. Though Korean men have a more outstanding financial capability than white men, Korean women absorbed in white supremacy prefer white men more and think they can learn English for free and choose white men without hesitation. Among northeast Asians (Japan, China, Korea), Korean women are considered the easiest and fastest to sleep with, and no reference was left out of how it was possible to sleep with several women in a single day with only marijuana and alcohol.

As well, they disparaged Koreans, saying, "I kissed two students (middle school students) I'm teaching now. If I want to sleep with them, what should I do? There are no women who are as easy to sleep with as Korean women, why do Korean men pay for sex?"

Their barbarity does not end there. Since there have been daily reports in the news of incidents of molestation and assault by foreign instructors and American soldiers for some time, there has been criticism of our country's English sadaejuui. A typical example is the English Village sexual assault incident. This was not reported in the news, but the incident in which a number of sleeping female students were unilaterally molested by foreign instructor caused great shock.

Attempt to molest minors

A, a female middle school student witness who was molested complained of injustice, saying, "A native speaking instructor at ---- English Village molested my friends and I one by one while we were sleeping. He fondled my breasts and thighs and all around below and when I resisted he ordered me to "GO TO BED" and moved away elsewhere. After that he fondled another friend without hesitation. The next day they accused him of molestation to the supervising teachers but instead the native speaking instructor treated the victims as if they were crazy and the school concluded it was slight physical contact and in the end it all came to nothing. There is romance about the English village, but after going through such a terrible experience, I don't want to go back there again."

An even greater shock was received regarding such sex crimes against Korean minors by foreigners through increasing molestation of elementary school students. J, a native speaking instructor at a large language hagwon in Busan, indiscriminately molested a male elementary school student bathing at bath house and was arrested by police. The problem is that foreigners who commit crimes and are disqualified from teaching can once again fake their degree and return to Korea. By exploiting loopholes in domestic investigative agencies and the immigration agency, the many crimes they have committed in their country, and especially in Korea, are wiped clean and they work with clean hands as instructors or soldiers, earning over 5 million won a month.

Recently, sarcastic videos produced by foreign instructors showing how Korea is absorbed in English sadaejuui have been popular on Youtube. In the animated videos, the Korean students do not understand the foreign English instructor at all and repeatedly scratch their heads and when foreigners see Koreans they consider them to be like fools. In particular, a foreign instructor saying to his Korean students "ME SAY, YOU LISTEN!" is reminiscent of how in the film Tarzan the person, Tarzan, speaks to monkeys. The video had more than 2000 hits and netizens from various countries appreciated it and left comments which made cynical remarks like "I sympathize with you" and "Koreans really are just like stupid yellow monkeys." Korean netizens who saw the video exploded in anger as one and after spreading it on various blogs and portal sites, took the lead in getting its maker to face extensive charges and wanted [by police].

With foreigners' barbarity intensifying day by day, the pace of attempts to determine the cause of their crime pick up, and amid this criminal psychology specialists have caused shock by pointing out that it's the characteristics of Koreans who are crazy about white people which encourage them to commit crimes.

In fact, we heard an eyewitness account of the story of a white man [or white men] in Hongdae from a man who had heard it from a Korean woman. He said, "A white man hugged a Korean woman and touched her bottom and asked for her phone number, and she liked it and was wide open to it, and once drunk he saved her number in his phone. I wanted to understand it and thought it might just be some, but I saw a full 8 people doing it." He said with disgust, "I understand 100 times over why enjoying one night stands with Korean women is so well known among foreigners, and why are there 120,000 Korean women selling sex overseas."

Foreign English instructors share guides to Itaewon and Gangnam
Attempts to kiss and touch university students and of course middle school students

B, a Korean man who worked as a KATUSA, revealed that, "I was shocked to hear talk of how white US soldiers would go to motels with Korean women for three hours. Korean men who didn't pay would be treated like beggars, would be cut down to size and be unable to do that, so why do white men get such generous treatment? Even more, they boast about having a good time with Korean women without paying a cent." "I can't understand why the sexual consciousness of Korean women is so generous to white men in particular."

Because of the open sexual consciousness Korean women have towards white men, there are countless instances of harm done to them. One woman became pregnant after a one night stand with a white man she met in a club, and after finding out contacted the white man but he had already left the country and she decided to get an abortion.

Another woman's case was even more serious. C, a university student who had dated a foreign man once, said in a media interview, "Foreigners' habitual fraud can be seen as charming. They often move in together with a girl and pretend to be her lover and then pocket the rent and deposit and leave the country, and a girl I know who dated a foreign man had a health check and was diagnosed with AIDS and sank into depression." "Most of them (white men) think of Korean woman as targets for one night stands, and there are almost none who think of having a romantic relationship with them. When something happens with a girl, they get afraid and evade responsibility by changing their phone number beforehand or by leaving the country and disappearing."

First we must change from white supremacy
A psychologist stressed that, "With the advent of the era of globalization, the influx of foreigners will gradually increase. With this trend of increasing numbers of foreigners, rather than our unconditionally open mind towards foreigners, there is a need for us to have critical thinking and seriously consider Korea's social climate."

That's quite a tale of woe. Describing Anti English Spectrum as "a blog which denounces the barbarity of foreigners" is one of the more honest descriptions of them that I've come across, but it's probably worth mentioning that hardly anything is posted there anymore (there was only a single post in August).

The description of English Spectrum as being "updated with dozens of postings denigrating Korean women on its bulletin board every day" might have been 'true' before January 2005, but the site was taken over by hiexpat.com quite awhile ago. While the English Spectrum incident continue to reverberate today, with one result being the E-2 drug and HIV testing policy implemented in December 2007, it's quite impressive to see a "news" outlet pretend that it's still going on right this minute.

As for "Toss away and give to a black colleague any beggar-like Korean girl who wants to go to the US with you," I read quite a bit of the English Spectrum material saved at AES years ago, and I don't remember this, though some of what's written in that 'guide' sounds familiar enough.

When considering the anger with white men "bluntly trampling upon our country's distinct culture," one can only assume this "distinct culture" is being equated with "ethnic homogeneity and genetic purity," though I'm still mystified how a country that's said to have been invaded so many times can have possibly maintained such 'purity.'

Reading that it is "possible to sleep with several women in a single day with only marijuana and alcohol," I'm reminded of the line from the 1985 film Queen Bee which presents a Korean view of foreign men's "dream life of Itaewon":

You can have your three essences of life here: women, liquor and joints. That’s why I like this country so much. I’m gonna make a record of having affairs with a hundred girls.

As for this - "I kissed two students (middle school students) I'm teaching now. If I want to sleep with them, what should I do?" - it seems to channel this infamous post from the English Spectrum incident.

The article engages in a tiny bit of hyperbole discussing "daily reports in the news of incidents of molestation and assault by foreign instructors and American soldiers" and then describes a previously unheard-of English village molestation incident (which was "not reported in the news" - how convenient) based on the 2006 incidents (neither of which involved native speaking teachers - see here, here, here and here for more information).

It does reference an actual molestation case (the Busan bathhouse incident) while asserting that foreign teachers try "to kiss and touch university students and of course middle school students" [of course!], but then conjures up the specter of "loopholes" (used by these filthy evildoers to return to teach in Korea once again) and exaggerates how much money they make:

By exploiting loopholes in domestic investigative agencies and the immigration agency, the many crimes they have committed in their country, and especially in Korea, are wiped clean and they work with clean hands as instructors or soldiers, earning over 5 million won a month.

Truly frightening. I also like the reference to the evil teacher fired for posting Youtube videos which supposedly denigrate Korea (causing "Korean netizens who saw the video [to] explode in anger as one" - a prime netizen pastime).

The article also refers to "criticism of our country's English sadaejuui." The aforementioned 1985 film also had a Korean man screaming, "This is Sadaejuui! Sadaejuui!!" as a foreign man drives off with the Korean girl he fancies (which had nothing with him trying to drag her into a motel). New Daily's September 2010 article about drinking at GEPIK orientations also featured this quotation: "The low quality foreign teacher problem is not simply a problem with the foreign teacher’s mind. Our country’s growing disposition towards sadaejuui is also an important reason." The above article goes on to make a similar claim:

With foreigners' barbarity intensifying day by day, the pace of attempts to determine the cause of their crime picks up, and amid this criminal psychology specialists have caused shock by pointing out that it's the characteristics of Koreans who are crazy about white people which encourage them to commit crimes.

So you see, the problem is not only with the white men, but with the treasonous misguided women who "are crazy about" them. We learn the truth about these white men - that "one woman became pregnant after a one night stand with a white man" who fled the country, while another Korean damsel had a white man move in and "pretend to be her lover and then pocket the rent and deposit and leave the country," and yet another "who dated a foreign man had a health check and was diagnosed with AIDS and sank into depression." In the end, they are faced with this truth:

"Most of them (white men) think of Korean woman as targets for one night stands, and there are almost none who think of having a romantic relationship with them.

It's interesting how these truths are quite similar to the MBC video "The Shocking Truth About Relationships with Foreigners." Note that its producer said the piece intended to portray "Korean women who are out of their sense and get involved in these kinds of affairs" and that "We need to be awakened and try to change this culture." It's good that Ilyo Sisa has also taken up this fight, and especially that it names Anti English Spectrum as a source, especially when you consider what the founder of AES said was his reason for forming the Naver cafe 7 years ago:

Anti English Spectrum cafe manager 'Bba'allyuchi,' who is leading the 'anti' movement by establishing the cafe and making the photos of the lewd party public, explained why he opened the cafe: "It's always just sad that some thoughtless women sympathize with foreigners who they don't realize have approached them with this (sexually demeaning) way of thinking about Korean women." "[This cafe] is a place where people who are worried about this and who want to make an issue of foreigners who demean Korean women as if they are all cheap whores."

The Ilyo Sisa article has lots of 'quotes' which sound like they came from such 'bitter worried people,' such as "I understand 100 times over why enjoying one night stands with Korean women is so well known among foreigners, and why are there 120,000 Korean women selling sex overseas." Or the KATUSA who says that "I was shocked to hear talk of how white US soldiers would go to motels with Korean women for three hours." [Which wouldn't be so shocking if he admitted they're prostitutes, much as the Itaewon club described in a July 2010 New Daily article (titled "Itaewon - 'a loser's paradise' where Korean women are ruined?") where Korean women throw themselves at foreigners in is actually a juicy bar.] The descriptions of white men in Hongdae picking up so many women is reminiscent of the July NoCut News article about the "night streets of Itaewon" (scroll down) (or perhaps of this 2005 article). We're eventually left with a perplexing question:

(From 'Queen Bee' - He's actually saying "This is sadaejuui!")

How to solve this problem?

A psychologist stressed that, "With the advent of the era of globalization, the influx of foreigners will gradually increase. With this trend of increasing numbers of foreigners, rather than our unconditionally open mind towards foreigners, there is a need for us to have critical thinking and seriously consider Korea's social climate."

Answer: Become more xenophobic!

So there you have it.

I couldn't help noticing that the reporter - Kim Ji-seon - is most likely female. Which begs the question: Why is it that so many of these articles are written by women?

For example, in 2006, Sin Yeon-hui used AES as a source to write 6 sensationalist articles for Breaknews:

07.24 “Low-quality foreign teachers absorbed in money, women, drugs.” [Link]
08.07 "Low quality English teachers: 'Korean women are a source of money and sex partners'" [Link]
o8.16 "Women give English teachers 'full service like a king'"[Link]
08.21 "Affairs with High School Students, Spreading Nude Photos on the Internet" [Links: English Korean]
09.12 "Foreign teachers demand mothers in substitution for tutoring fees." [Link]
09.18 "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS" [Links: English Korean]

The latter article was used in petitions to the government for HIV tests for foreign teachers, much as May 2007 Sports Chosun by Kim Yun-hui was: "From molestation to AIDS threats - Shocking perversion of some English teachers; Beware the 'Ugly White Teacher.'" [Links: English Korean]

As well, there were two articles written by Lee Mi-ji (who is mentioned on the Anti-English Spectrum site) about foreign teachers in the Donga Ilbo in May 2009, one of which quotes Lee Eun-ung and features an awesome cartoon.

One of the best known instances of such 'journalism' is the July 2009 series "Native speaking teacher frauds" by Chosun.com intern reporter Choi Hui-seon:

"The sex crimes of native speaking teachers who don't distinguish between young students and female coworkers" [English Korean]
"'[We're] Substitutes for married women's husbands...' The demeaning words of some native speaking teachers." [Links English Korean]
"Can even high school dropouts live in Korea?" [Links: English Korean]
"Foreigner with 9 crimes on his record professor at distinguished Korean university" [Links: English Korean]
"Native speaking teachers only protest articles criticizing them without reflection" [Links: English Korean]

And those are just some of the particularly sensationalist articles. While some might wonder if
they were dumped by a foreign boyfriend or whether they have fully imbibed the 'foreign predator' koolaid, I'd wonder whether they are fairly new to the game and simply have little choice but to write it up when handed the assignment by their editor. I can't help wondering if perhaps it's a way to make sure they're playing for the right team, kind of like writing out a self-criticism for their gender as a whole. Mind you, mandatory 'self-criticism' sounds rather North Korean.

"The entire world accuses the US Army of unpardonable barbarity

against south Korean women."

I guess that's a little more to the point than the 1800 word opus above...

Foreign teacher busted for meth

Yesterday Newsis published the following report:

Foreign instructor arrested and charged for smuggling drugs via international courier

On September 6, the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office announced that it had arrested and charged A (34), a British hagwon instructor, for violating the Narcotics Control Act by using an international courier to smuggle methamphetamine on several occasions.

A is suspected of smuggling meth on several occasions such as on July 31, when he had 0.37g sent from the Philippines via international courier, and smoking it at home.

A said during the prosecutor's investigation that, "I took meth that had been given to me on several occasions by my girlfriend in the Philippines."

The prosecutors had earlier been contacted by the airport which discovered drugs in the international courier shipment sent to A, and after disguising themselves as courier employees and confirming that shipment was A's, arrested and investigated him.

This is the first reported drug bust of a foreign teacher in two months. For some reason, Newsis is the only media outlet that has reported this. Perhaps the Korean media is distracted by something else?

Protests, public space in Seoul, and cyberspace - Part 5

Part 1: From the Joseon Dynasty to the 5th Republic
Part 2: Sports nationalism in 2002: Through a video screen darkly
Part 3: Funeral processions from the Joseon Dynasty to the present
Part 4: The 2002 candlelight protests: A new form of demonstration
Part 5: Anti-communist exhibitions

I've looked at how the public space in downtown Seoul - especially near city hall and Gwanghwamun - has been used by protesters since the end of the nineteenth century, but it's worth noting that the government also used the same space. While this is obvious today, with the existence of plazas created (by the city government) in front of city hall, Gwanghwamun, and Cheonggyecheon, the space in front of city hall was used by the government back in the 1960s as well, as can be seen in these photos of anti-communist exhibitions from 1964 and 1965.

(The Bando Hotel is in the background on the right)(1964)

(A captured North Korean submarine) (1965)

I've never put much effort into looking for it, but I think it would be fascinating to see South Korean anti-DPRK propaganda from the 1950s to the 1980s. School textbooks would be especially interesting, as I have a recent grade 6 통일 (Reunification) textbook, and I imagine a comparison would be pretty jarring.

Statistics on foreigners in Korea, and the ROK before the CERD

I've written two posts (here and here) about the ROK being taken to the CERD accused of racial discrimination over HIV testing of foreign English teachers.

This year the Republic of Korea submitted its "Combined fifteenth and sixteenth periodic reports of States parties due in 2010," which can be read here. The report has lots of interesting statistics, including those on naturalized citizens, foreigners, mixed race marriages and children, and refugees, some of which I'll reprint here:

The total number of naturalized citizens during the eleven years from 2000 to 2010 amounts to 98,329, which is 0.19 per cent of the 50,515,666 registered citizens. [...] Chinese immigrants take up the majority of naturalized Korean citizens, followed by those from Vietnam and the Philippines. The number of naturalized citizens from Vietnam outnumbered that from the Philippines in 2007. 16,312 persons were naturalized in the year 2010 alone, and among them 11,874 were Chinese (72.8 per cent), 2,997 were Vietnamese (18.4 per cent), 450 were Filipinos (2.8 per cent), 181 were Mongolians (1.1 per cent), and 68 were Pakistanis (0.4 per cent).

Here's a table illustrating this by year (click to enlarge):


Number of foreigners compared to Koreans by year (note that it says 'foreign residents' but those figures include tourists):


The number of documented and undocumented foreigners:

The number of married immigrants (foreigners who married a Korean citizen) is consistently increasing every year. As of December 2010, 141,654 married immigrants are residing in the country: 18,561(13.1 per cent) are males and 123,093 (86.9 per cent) are females. By nationality, there are 66,687 Chinese (including 31,664 ethnic Koreans, 47.1 per cent), 35,355 Vietnamese (25.0 per cent), 10,451 Japanese (7.4 per cent), 7,476 Filipinos (5.3 per cent), 4,195 Cambodians (3.0 per cent), 2,533 Thais (1.8 per cent), and 2,421 Mongolians (1.7 per cent).

Although no statistical data has been kept regarding children born from inter-ethnic unions at the State level, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security has been able to accumulate data on the subject by incorporating a survey on foreign residents' children (under foreign parents, foreign-Korean parents, naturalized Korean parents) with the 'Study on the Foreign Residents by Local Administration,' which has been conducted annually since 2006.[...]

As of 1 May 2011, there are 151,154 children of foreign residents residing in the Republic of Korea. Among them, there are 93,537 (61.9 per cent) children under the age of six (children not attending school) and 37,590 (24.9 per cent) between the ages of 7-12 (children attending elementary school), which accounts for 86.8 per cent of the total foreign residents‟ children in Korea. As of 1 May 2011, 76,985 (50.9 per cent) of the foreign residents‟ children are male and 74,169 (49.1 per cent) are female. 9,621 children (6.4 per cent) have two foreign parents, 126,317 (83.6 per cent) children have one foreign parent, and 15,216 (10.1 per cent) children have parents who are naturalized citizens.

Since Korea joined the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1992, a total of 2,915 persons have applied for refugee status by December 2010; 222 of them were recognized as refugees3, and 136 applicants were granted stay permits on humanitarian grounds. 258 applications were reviewed in 2010, and 424 applicants still remain on the wait-list as of December 2010. Since the establishment of the Nationality and Refugee Division in the Ministry of Justice in February 2006, the number of recognized refugees and those granted stay permits on humanitarian grounds increased significantly. The yearly statistics from 2006 to 2010 are as follows:

For more on the early years of accepting refugees, here's a post I wrote in 2005.


Now, submitting the report these statistics are taken from was only one step in a process states who are party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination undergo. For the next step, on August 22 a delegation from the Republic of Korea presented the report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, who then asked questions about the report regarding how the ROK is implementing the provisions of the Convention. The ROK then had a chance to answer some of the (many) questions which were asked.

At one point, Anastasia Crickley, the Committee Member acting as Rapporteur for the Report of the Republic of Korea, asked

I understand also that there has been a lifting or a proposed lifting of the requirement of mandatory HIV testing for all foreigners, and I would be interested to know something about this – which foreigners does it apply to, why, from where, and in which circumstances?

The ROK chose not to provide an answer to this, which is interesting, considering that the ROK has a complaint pending on that very topic before the Committee.

This isn't the first time such a question has been evaded by the ROK. In May 2008, the ROK took part in the Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council (in which the domestic human rights records of all 192 UN Member States are reviewed every four years) and were asked by the UK about HIV testing for the E-2 visa:

Some visa categories, notably ‘E-2 Teaching Foreign Languages’ ask applicants for their HIV status, and there have been reports of foreigners being deported because of their HIV status. Does the ROK Government consider this to be discrimination and, if so, what measures will it take to address this issue?

No answer was given to this question, however.

As for the CERD meeting of two weeks ago, this was but one of many topics that were brought up, and there are lots of interesting questions asked. A summary of them can be found here, while video of the nearly six hour meeting can be watched and downloaded here.

An inventive way to isolate people

Last night I was emailed and told that a friend of a friend had heard that police were warning people not to answer a call from the number 010-4878-4040 lest they be charged 250,000 won. I did a news search for the number and according to the Chosun Ilbo it's an internet folktale - not only did the police say it's not possible, but they also caught the guy who started it. Apparently the person with that number misdialed and called him and they got into an argument, so to get revenge he spread that story on the internet, hoping that people would no longer accept his or her calls. That's inventive, twisted, amusing and kind of sad all at once. You have to wonder how many people didn't answer this poor person's calls. I guess it's no longer an issue - the number is no longer in use.

More '60s and '70s Korean music

And for more music, over at the Marmot's Hole there's a link to a post about Soyol Erdene, Mongolia’s first rock band (who sound pretty cool) at Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe, which looks like a place where I could spend a lot of time. Case in point: Several posts about 1960s and 1970s Korean rock music, complete with downloadable mp3s. There are songs from the Pearl Sisters, Kim Chu-ja, He5 and the Key Boys; the Key Boys Christmas songs are actually well worth listening to.

And also, just for fun, you can download the He6's 1971 nearly instrumental psychedelic double album "Go Go Sound '71 vols. 1 & 2" here. Here they are, arguably at their best, doing a cover of Rare Earth's "Get Ready," from 1972:



I just realized from the comments at Youtube that the end of DJ Shadow's 'Number Song' from his first album (from 1996) - a section I always really liked for its breakbeat - is sampled from the above He6 song. How about that.

I also just realized the wonders of the wayback machine include preserving DJ Soulscape's site, including a radio show he did in 2006 focused on 1970s Korean funk (here; right click 'save link as').

Korean singers gain recognition in the U.S.

So, Psy's Gangnam Style has taken off like a rocket - currently the #1 music video on Youtube with 73 million hits (wasn't it just over 50 million a day or two ago?) - which has led to appearances at football games in the U.S. and interviews on U.S. television (there more links to articles at that last link) and attempts to figure out what it all means (on blogs such as here and here, or even in the Atlantic), as well as parodies (this one by foreign students in Jeonju (via Korea Beat) earned the appreciation of one Korean commenter for the 'fleshy' foreign women in it).

The song and video are huge in Korea as well, though it's not the first time Psy has scored a major hit here - in late 2002 and 2003, his song Champion was everywhere, notable for its 'Beverly Hills Cop' theme sample and catching the zeitgeist after Korea did so well in the World Cup (and perhaps after the release of the film Champion, as well).



(I bought the cd at the time and was impressed; as someone who was neither a fan of Kpop nor not much of hip-hop listener, I thought about half of the songs on the album were good, with four being great.)

To find the first Korean stars to make it big in the US, you'd have to go back over 50 years to the debut of the Kim Sisters. The trailer to an upcoming documentary about the Kim Sisters can be seen here (do go watch it). They started out performing for U.S. soldiers at U.S. bases during the Korean war and in 1959 a promoter booked them at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas, where their career took off and led to 22 performances on the Ed Sullivan Show, a story I first heard from Mark Russell.


Here's a performance from the 1960s:



As it turns out, the sisters' parents were both musicians who participated in two different variety show collectives which performed from the 1930s to the 1950s and at times entertained Japanese and U.S. troops. An in-depth look at the history of these collectives, and the early history of the Kim Sisters, can be found in Roald Maliangkay's essay "Koreans Performing for Foreign Troops: The Occidentalism of the C.P.C. and K.P.K." It also contains contemporary video of performances, and makes clear the effects of anti-communism upon the Kim Sisters' family due to their father, Kim Haesong, being made to perform for the North Koreans during the war (during which he died after having been taken north). Their mother, Lee Nan-young, is best known for the trot classic "Tears of Mokpo" (this performance by her is likely from the early 1960s):



(I first heard this song as remixed by Dalparan over the credits of the film Resurrection of the Little Match Girl, the soundtrack of which was pretty much the only good thing about the movie other than this scene))

For more information on the Kim Sisters a 1996 interview with Sook-ja Kim is here (pdf), while a more recent audio interview with her is here.

Hopefully we'll get to see the documentary about them before too long.

Game of Death at Beopjusa Temple

I was reading this list of 'top ten movies that were never made' when I came across the following video about Bruce Lee's unfinished film "Game of Death." I had no idea it was to involve Korean gangsters, feature two Korean hapkido masters (only the fight with Ji Han Jae was filmed; the fight with Hwang In-Shik was not), and be set in the five story pagoda of Beopjusa Temple. Since the video refers to Lee's drawings, I imagine the scenes we see of Beopjusa Temple were shot more recently; the temple does not appear in the 1978 version of the film which used only a few minutes of the footage Lee shot.



And while I'm thinking of it, though I posted this years ago, I had to update the video link, so here's a 1971 interview with Bruce Lee by Pierre Berton.



And just for fun (though this may be NSFW in Korea), here's a celebrity tip by Berton which aired about six weeks before he died in 2004 (hint: it involves rolling something, and it's not a fajita).

KBS: Unqualified foreign teachers in Gwangju English camps

On August 18, KBS News resurrected the scourge of the 'unqualified instructor' in this report:

A good many native speaking instructors at city and province-run English camps are unqualified.

There are a good many unqualified instructors

If you are the parent of a young child, there is a concern about overseas language study.

The problem is the cost.

So, during school vacation, free English camps run by [local] governments are popular, but it has been revealed that there are a good many unqualified native speaking instructors.

Reporter Kim Hyo-sin reports from the scene.

At an English camp run by Gwangju City, elementary school students eagerly sing along to a pop song.

However, the native speaking instructor they should be learning from is busy following the instruction of the Korean teacher.

This is because, though the teacher came from America, she is a second year university student with no English instructor qualifications.

English camp official: "When it's a Korean teacher the children concentrate more..."

At other English camps the situation is the same.

It's been revealed that, of the 108 native speaking instructors working at 11 English camps run by Gwangju city and Jeollanam-do this summer vacation, more than 80% are university students who entered the country on tourist visas.

Those wanting to work as a native speaking instructor in our country must have a university degree from one of the 6 countries that use English as their mother tongue and must receive a English conversation instructor visa or short term employment visa.

Gwangju city hall official: "As it's based mostly on playing, we don't think of those people as instructors. If you changed it to graduate students who have graduated from university it wouldn't be a problem."

Unqualified native speaking instructors are taking over, as they can be hired for one third of the pay that native speakers with English conversation instructor qualifications receive.

Average native speaker pay
Qualified native speaker: 3 million won. University student/tourist: 1 million won.

There are 2,400 elementary and middle school students, which includes low income children, taking part in free summer English camps in Gwangju and Jeollanam-do.

English camp student: "The native speaking teacher only has materials, so it's not fun."

With 1.5 billion won of the city and provincial budget put into the English camps, it seems difficult to exempt them from criticism for degenerating into shoddy camps.

I love how KBS tells us that "It's been revealed that [...] more than 80% [of English camp foreign instructors] are university students who entered the country on tourist visas," but they don't say how this was found out. Perhaps a divine messenger let them know.

As for the bit about "the native speaking instructor they should be learning from is busy following the instruction of the Korean teacher," one would expect anyone, even someone with lots of qualifications and experience, to follow the lead of the Korean teacher considering that they're likely more familiar with how a Korean summer English camp is run than someone who's brought in for a month or so and who may not have any experience with Korea.

Also, I notice the report never mentions the TaLK (Teach and Learn in Korea) program which allows university students who have completed two years of school to teach in public schools for reduced pay. For more on this program, and on the issue of 'unqualified foreign instructors' in general, do read Brian's post.

On a slightly related note, the Joongang Daily recently reported on the current plight of English Villages across Korea

The first English village was established in 2004 in Ansan, Gyeonggi, by provincial Gov. Son Hak-gyu. There are currently 32 English villages across the nation.

In 2008, there were 21 English villages and 430,000 people enrolled in programs. Even back then there were concerns that the market was too saturated, but 11 more were built. Last year, enrollment dropped to 300,000, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

Sometimes more isn't better. Thinking of the Ansan English Village, incidents of sexual assault of students there and at Seongnam English Village in the spring of 2006 led the Gyeonggi-do branch of the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union to release a statement saying some rather unkind things about foreign English instructors - such as "because the English camp sexual assaults are a structural problem brought on by unverified native speaking instructors, such incidents could potentially occur at any time," due in part to their "relatively free attitudes about sex" - despite the fact that neither of the perpetrators were native speaking instructors (see here, here, and here). Good times.

A recent ad by Samsung (translated here) poked fun at a white guy's Korean-language ability and perhaps displayed his "relatively free attitude about sex" by having the last channel he watched on his Samsung TV pop up (while his Korean girlfriend is over) be an adult channel. I guess that's one way to shift what could be a positive portrayal of a white guy-Korean woman couple slightly over in the direction of "the twisted values of some white men" "reportage."



Perhaps the billion dollar hit Samsung just took in the US might reduce the budget for such ads in the future, unless, of course, Samsung is feeling vindictive.