Never forget!

This would appear to be an apt soundtrack for this post...



A few weeks ago I heard banging in the hallway during class and realized that the 'airport-themed enclosure' near the English rooms was being torn down (by hand, using hammers and chisels).

 You'll never guess what replaced it:

That's right - a display about those islets and a TV with a live feed showing one of the islets - complete with the sound of the sea and wind (but not the sound of the police stationed there saying, "Golly, I'm so glad to be stationed here!").

It's kind of insidious really... a constant reminder of something that really isn't important in the larger scheme of things. Why not a live feed of Seoul Station plaza, and a reminder of the homelessness problem? Or a live feed of the empty area behind Yongsan Station, allowing students to question the hubris of developers and the folly of mega-development plans? Because that would be silly, and might cause people to start thinking about the wrong things. So hey, kids - don't ask what those islets can do for you; ask what you can do for those islets. Oh, and raise your middle finger to Japan while you're at it. Mansei!

Korea Herald article on HIV testing of foreign English teachers

A Korea Herald article by John Power published Monday asks "Is HIV testing of foreign teachers here to stay?" Here are some excerpts:

But, amid a pending U.N. committee ruling on whether the policy constitutes racial discrimination, an unclear picture of the current status and future of testing has emerged across government and educational bodies.

A press officer at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Thursday told The Korea Herald that all local education offices had scrapped retesting for contract renewal as of this year.

“Because of problems of fairness between Korean and foreign teachers and discrimination that arose, some education offices did not require testing for contract renewal,” said Kwak Yoon-cheol. “Accordingly, this year all education offices decided to end testing for contract renewal.”

He said, however, that foreign teachers were still required by immigration to submit test results after their initial entry into Korea. The Korea Herald communicated with several native English teachers who said they had been retested recently, in some cases just weeks previously. [...]

A Justice Ministry spokesman confirmed on Monday that one-time testing for immigration purposes was still in place, after earlier claiming the ministry had no such requirement.

An official with Korea Immigration Service, a division of the Justice Ministry, however, also said there had been no change in policy.

“We have not changed any of our policies on HIV testing,” Lee You-jin, a member of the residence and visa division of KIS, said via email on Nov. 19. [...]

In the past, the Justice and Education Ministries have taken different positions on the issue, specifically on the need for in-country retesting.

An official at the National Institute for International Education, the division of the Education Ministry that runs the EPIK NET program, told The Korea Herald in 2010 that it supported enshrining retesting as official policy. At the time the organization cited parental concerns and the results of two surveys showing strong public support for testing as rationale for its stance. It is not clear whether those surveys referred to one-time or multiple testing.

But an NIIED official, speaking on condition of anonymity, last week declined to confirm if this was still the organization’s position.

“We let each educational office know about the current regulations of the Ministry of Justice,” said the official. “So when we have annual meetings, if there are questions or issues we just give them information about current regulations and they are the ones who should decide, considering the regulations and other factors in their areas.”

Do read the entire thing. It's nice to get some confirmation that re-testing is being scrapped in some locales, and it's certainly interesting that immigration wrote that HIV testing "was still in place, after earlier claiming the ministry had no such requirement." I guess the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. Earlier confusion over re-testing was reported on in this 2010 Korea Herald article.

Since we're mentioning the Ministry of Education, I guess I'll toss in this interview with the minister of Education sent to me a few weeks ago.

Presentation for KOTESOL Daejeon Chapter's Thanksgiving Symposium next Saturday

At 11:00am on November 30 I'll be giving a presentation at the 2013 KOTESOL DCC Chapter Thanksgiving Symposium and Turkey Dinner being held at Woosong University in Daejeon. Here's the description:

"Patience, sir": 200 years of foreigners teaching English in Korea

From the first-recorded English lesson in 1816 to Lee Myung-bak's promises of a "native speaker in every school," English has played many different roles in Korea's history, from its use in Korean attempts to preserve its sovereignty and Japanese efforts to present Korea as a 'failed state' at the turn of the last century to the radical expansion of the study of English as a foreign language over the past twenty years. This presentation will look at the experiences of those teaching the language, including missionaries, Peace Corps Volunteers, 'beeper cowboys' and even World War II prisoners of war. At the same time, while the Korean government has perceived mastery of English as necessary for Korea to compete in a globalized world, it has also shown distrust of the culture attached to the language, a wariness which stretches back to the days of the Joseon Dynasty, and manifestations of both the desire to learn the language and the distrust of the accompanying culture - and the teachers who embody it - will also be examined.

Anyone can attend the symposium, with pre-registration costing 10,000 won for members and 15,000 won for non-members, and on-site registration costing 15,000 won for members and 20,000 won for non-members. The turkey dinner costs 25,000 and everyone must pre-register for it.

The registration link can be found here. I look forward to meeting anyone who can make it out!

Denial of service, then and now

A bit late with this, I know (sorry for such light posting lately), but in the news last week was the tale of businesses in Bali banning entry to Korean customers:

Hotels, retailers and restaurants on the resort island of Bali are rejecting Korean customers due to some who flout regulations to make the most of their stay, according to South Korean TV network SBS.

Korean tourists are reportedly finding new and creative methods of vacationing on the cheap at the Indonesian vacation destination, which is frustrating local business owners to no end.

There's a discussion thread about it here that was pointed out to me (read it if you dare; it consists of lots of 'Koreans deserve it because they do it in Korea too' kinds of comments). This isn't the only place that has shown annoyance with Korean tourists, as Scott Burgeson noted in Fukuoka a few years ago; on a similar topic, he posted a chat with a woman who worked as a receptionist at a Korean-run karaoke club in Jakarta almost 9 years ago.


Upon hearing of what had happened in Bali, I couldn't help but be reminded of a passage in Jo Yoong-hee's article "The Relationship between Joseon Envoys and Western Missionaries in Beijing in the Early 18th Century: Focusing on Lee Gi-ji's Iramyeon-gi."*

In it, he describes Lee Gi-ji's visit to Beijing as part of a diplomatic mission in 1720, and notes the friendly relations between the missionaries and Koreans. Forty years later, however, Hong Dae-yong wrote about his visit to Beijing in 1765 as part of a mission and described how the hospitality of the missionaries towards Koreans had changed:

Since the Emperor Kangxi (r. 1662-1722), Joseon's diplomats used to visit the Catholic churches in Beijing and to be welcomed by the missionaries. The missionaries used to show exotic paintings, icons and other objects in the churches and even give the visitors presents brought from Europe. Joseon diplomats year by year wanted more exotic goods and experiences at the churches, so visiting Catholic churches in Beijing became the diplomats' conventional practice. Our country's custom seemed like arrogance, exaggeration and maliciousness, and the diplomats from Joseon often neither behaved politely nor paid back for the presents they received. Moreover, their followers were often uneducated, smoked and spat inside the churches, and touched things without allowance, which made the missionaries, who liked cleanliness, angry.

Recently, the Western missionaries became to dislike visitors from Joseon more than before. The missionaries refused to do the Joseon visitors a favor. They did not treat the visitors with heart.

The article goes on to describe how things had changed over 40 years: "Whereas Lee Gi-ji was welcomed by the missionaries without any advance notice of his visit, the visitors from Joseon in Hong's days were not allowed to enter the church even when they asked to see the church."

I guess you have to hate it when a bunch of idiots ruin things for everyone.


*일암연기 / 一菴燕記, in Hangeul / hanja, for the curious.

(Hat tip to Kelly.)

Photos of Colonial-era Korean cities

A few years ago I posted a zip file of photos of colonial-era Korean cities which has disappeared from hosting sites repeatedly - hopefully this link (to a 80mb or so zip file) will be a little more permanent. The collection features over 300 photos taken of cities all over Korea between the 1910s and 1940s.

Renewing or about to renew a public school teaching contract?

As I noted in this post last week, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is no longer requiring HIV and drug tests for teachers renewing their contracts. Commenters also noted that Daegu and Chungcheongbuk-do have lifted the requirements. John Power at the Korea Herald is looking into this topic and would like to talk to teachers who recently renewed or are about to renew their contracts. Any readers who would like to talk to him can reach him at johnpowermedia@gmail.com.

An interesting development regarding HIV tests for SMOE teachers

The renewal requirements for native speaking teachers working for the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education include this rather interesting requirement at the bottom of the page (click to enlarge):

I'd be curious to know the exact reasoning for the removal of HIV and drug tests from the health check. I have no idea if word of the CERD case has trickled down (perhaps the government is trying to justify its assertion to the CERD committee that it stopped requiring HIV tests for renewing teachers in 2010?) or if it's for some other reason. Have any readers heard of the testing requirements (for renewal) being dropped by other education offices?

"I don’t know if it’s appropriate for a foreigner to judge"

The Korea Times reported the other day that a foreign pastor was protesting homophobic textbooks:

Rev. Daniel Payne of Open Doors Community Church near Itaewon said they would deliver letters on Monday to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology as well as relevant lawmakers, after the ministry recommended that two publishing companies — Kyohak Printing and Publishing and Chunjae Education — rewrite material teaching that homosexuals should not be discriminated against.

The move was made after an Oct. 4 meeting between the ministry and 20 Christian lawmakers and religious leaders who oppose same-sex marriage. They argue that the references are an affront to those who believe homosexuality is a sin.

Lee Seung-pyo, the education ministry’s senior supervisor of textbook planning, said the companies will likely be ordered to make the changes if they do not accept the recommendation. The Education Minister holds the authority to revoke the approval of these books for use at schools if publishers refuse to follow the ministry’s direction.

Those Christian lawmakers and religious leaders sure put the 'fun' in 'fundamentalist.' The government response is rather amusing, however.

But Lee of the education ministry wondered if Payne should be involving himself in the issue.[...]

“Every country has its own set of laws in evaluating and approving the education material for books. I don’t know if it’s appropriate for a foreigner to judge how we manage our education. You won’t see us commenting how other countries teach at schools.”

Right, like the ROK hasn't lodged, what, hundreds of protests against Japanese textbooks?

Makgeolli!

Someone - a farmer? - having makgeolli with Park Chung-hee, presumably in the 1960s. I found this on my computer the other day and don't know where it came from. I couldn't help noting that he's pouring with two hands.

I wondered if it might be someone like his father, but no, his father, Park Seong-bin, who was born in 1871 and took part in the Donghak Uprising, died in 1938. That link does reveal that Park Geun-hye's first cousin once removed was in the 90s band
Sechs Kies. The things you find out through Wikipedia. At any rate, one hopes that his drinking partner didn't imbibe too much, say something dumb, and get himself arrested.

Joongang Daily hopes Japan will "turn more proactive in banning racial discrimination"

So two weeks ago a Japanese court ordered the anti-Korean group Zaitoku-kai ["an association of citizens who do not tolerate privileges for Korean residents in Japan"] to stop a "hate speech" campaign and awarded damages in the case. As Agence France-Presse continues,

A civil court in Kyoto also ordered the group and its activists to pay some 12 million yen ($120,000) in damages to the elementary school run by affiliates of the pro-North Korean General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

The Joongang Daily offered its suggestion to Japan in an editorial titled "Japan must act against hate."

A Japanese local court for the first time recognized hate speech as a crime, ordering an association of ultra-nationalist civilian groups campaigning against non-Japanese residents to pay damages to a school run by pro-North Korea residents in Japan. The court said the rallies and language used by Zaitokukai and its supporters, held near the school, were illegal because they go against an international treaty that bans racial discrimination. It is the first such case in Japanese judiciary history and will likely rein in activities that menace Korean residents in Japan as people can now file suit against hate speech and activities by anti-Korean groups.

Zaitokukai has recently been more blunt and aggressive in its protests and propaganda against non-Japanese residents, thanks to a passive response by the conservative government. Japan is a member of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and yet does not punish racial discrimination. The latest court ruling was a civil case, not criminal. It remains unclear if the Japanese government and legislature could revise the law in order to create the legal grounds to punish racial discrimination. Tokyo rebuffed advice by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in May to draw up an anti-discrimination law, saying it does not have any bigotry that demands a law.

The Seoul government issued a statement that it strongly wished the ruling would help stop racial discrimination and other activities against ethnic Koreans.[...]

We hope Japanese society will turn more proactive in banning racial discrimination and hate speech. The government must also act to rein in the improper activities of Zaitokukai and other similar groups. [Emphasis added.]

I'm not entirely sure why the Joongang Daily pointed out that "Japan is a member of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and yet does not punish racial discrimination," because Korea is also a member of CERD -  and  has done even less in regard to racial discrimination, particularly in regard to citing to CERD, and also lacks an anti-discrimination law.

This may be the first use of CERD in Japan to punish hate speech, but it certainly isn't the first use of CERD to punish racial discrimination. It was in fact a case in 1999 - Bortz v. Suzuki - which first cited to CERD. In the case, a Brazilian woman who was told to leave a jewelry store sued the owner and eventually won damages of 1.5 million yen ($12,500). As this translated opinion points out, Asians in Japan are more likely to "experience subtler, perhaps more deeply-rooted, forms of discrimination," while non-Asian foreigners are more likely to "experience more overt forms of discrimination" such as "ejection from a store, denial of entrance into a store, rejection on a housing application, being shooed away."

These acts clash with notions of fundamental fairness that westerners expect in society. For the westerner, the lawsuit is the preferred method of restoring persons injured by such behavior. The challenge for Bortz was where to find relevant law. The Japanese Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, but only for its own citizens. Bortz’s lawyer had the vision to invoke the U.N. Convention to End All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which Japan signed in 1996. Judge Soh Tetsuro likewise exhibited creativity in applying international law domestically, via tort law, to fashion a modest, but unprecedented, remedy for Bortz.

While the ROK has been a party to the ICERD since 1978 (18 years longer than Japan) and has declared that the treaty "has the same authority of domestic law and does not necessitate additional legislation," no court in Korea has ever cited to CERD, even when it has been brought to its attention (such as in this case). Japan, on the other hand, has had a handful of successful suits seeking damage for racial discrimination.

In addition, while Japan never signed the optional protocol which allows individuals to bring a case against the state itself, Korea did, but - again - it had never been used until the case of a foreign English teacher who lost her job for refusing to do an HIV test for contract renewal was accepted by the CERD committee last July. Not many people in Korea would know about this, of course since no media outlet - Joongang Ilbo included - reported on the case. And again, Korea responded to this case 9 months later - 6 months after the deadline. And as was noted here, in its reply

[t]he government neither denied that foreign teachers face mandatory HIV tests nor claimed the tests were necessary for public health reasons. In fact, it said nothing about the testing of foreign teachers upon entry, and countered that Education Ministry guidelines no longer require re-testing upon renewal of annual contracts.

Which is, to put it gently, completely untrue. But yeah, get your act together, Japan!


As Agence France-Presse notes,

In handing down the ruling, presiding judge Hitoshi Hashizume said the group’s actions "constituted racial discrimination as defined by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination."

"The actions are deemed intended to arouse a sense of discrimination among the public toward Korean residents in Japan," he said.

Hate speech, per se, is not illegal in Japan. The civil court’s ruling turns on the racial element of the outbursts.

In the case of the teacher who lost her job for refusing HIV testing prior to bringing the case to the CERD committee, the CERD was cited in her complaint to the National Human Rights Commission and the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, but was ignored by both. So, there is no way to appeal directly to the CERD Committee in Japan but courts will cite to it, whereas in Korea you can appeal to the Committee (and wait a long time for a response) but courts have never cited to it.

All of which makes the Joongang Daily urging "Japanese society [to] turn more proactive in banning racial discrimination and hate speech" rather hypocritical, to say the least, especially it makes very clear just whose 'human rights' it's concerned with:

It is the first such case in Japanese judiciary history and will likely rein in activities that menace Korean residents in Japan as people can now file suit against hate speech and activities by anti-Korean groups.

It might be more honest to say the paper - in very correct ethno-nationalist manner - is trying to promote 'Korean rights.'

Now, on the one hand, it could be argued that carrying out protests near a school where participants rant about wanting to kill all Koreans is more serious than passing discriminatory laws requiring drug and HIV testing, and it's certainly more threatening. The thing is, though, if xenophobes and racists get invited to contribute to immigration policy - as they have in Korea - why would they ever need to hold a vocal protest?

Back in early 2011, Anti-English Spectrum - which I will make clear no longer exists after its leader Lee Eun-ung left the website - posted a new introductory message at the top of their (or 'his,' really) site:

These are the goals of the Citizens for Upright English Education:

To realize English education completely taught by Korean English teachers.
The best method is to keep our children away from overheated private English education and throw out unfit native speaking instructors.

To realize a public education system in which the English teachers are all Korean, we must make an effort to compile a budget for Korean English teachers from the more than 300 trillion won of the English education budget wasted on keeping native speaking assistant teachers.

The way public education is now with native speaking instructors simply using their native tongue must disappear.

Also, to provide safe English education for our children, continual monitoring of unfit native speaking instructors should be implemented.

We will inform citizens of misunderstandings caused by native speaking instructors who create distortions, and will also inform about the existence of honest, hard working native speaking instructors.

Moving from depicting foreign teachers as AIDS-infected, drug-addicted, morally unfit child molesters in order to justify demands for ever-stricter health and criminal record checks (which were ultimately granted), by early 2011 they wanted "only domestic English teachers" in public schools, to "keep our children away" from foreign instructors in English hagwons ("overheated private English education"), and to "throw out unfit native speaking instructors" (ie. all of them), thereby ethnically cleansing the sphere of English education in Korea. You can't say they were being unclear about what they wanted, or that they were unambitious.

And if it seemed like they were thinking big, well, why not? They had already accomplished all of their other goals, like continued (and ever stricter) drug and AIDS tests for foreign teachers, demonization of foreign teachers by the media and politicians, and their influence of public opinion in regard to foreign teachers. They complained about 'drinking parties' at GEPIK orientations, got New Daily to report on it, and GEPIK changed its policy. By the end of 2011, the budget issue had already gained traction with enough provincial or city council politicians for GEPIK to dramatically slash its native speaking teacher budget and for Seoul to plan to do the same. So when Lee Eun-ung left the group in 2011, he could do so rest assured that the had accomplished most of his goals, and that to that point attempts to undo them had failed.

I have to wonder how many similar groups in Japan would be able to say that.

[Hat tip to Benjamin Wagner.]

[On a similar topic, Michael Hurt reminded me of this on Facebook last week.]

A “Cash” Transaction in Korea

Foreign correspondents in Korea during the Russo-Japanese War 

Part 1: From Japan to Korea
Part 2: In Seoul and Chemulpo
Part 3: Along the coast of Korea
Part 4: R.L. Dunn: Jack London knows not fear

I hope to return to this at some point - discovering that Collier's Magazine can be read online has lead me to find several new articles, especially those by the photographer R.L. Dunn, who accompanied Jack London and Frederick McKenzie as the first foreign correspondents in Seoul in 1904. Below is one of the more interesting photos and stories associated with Robert Dunn from that time, as published in the June 4, 1904 issue of Colliers.

A “Cash” Transaction in Korea

R. L. Dunn, Collier's special war photographer in Korea, wrestled with many hardships and obstacles in his march from Seoul to Ping-Yang. Some of them he expected and tried to forestall. Others he met as they befell. He had not reckoned with having too much money as one of the troubles of campaigning in Korea or anywhere else. The photograph, which shows Mr. Dunn in the middle background, does not explain itself, because it conveys the impression that he is examining a huge heap of sausage, possibly procured as an addition to his field commissary.

As a matter of fact, however, the photographer helplessly surveying a mountain of money three feet high and sixty feet around the base. It is Korean currency, copper coins, in strings of a thousand each, the kind of disk, with a square hole punched out of the middle, which was first used in China, and a few hundred or thousand years later borrowed for the fiscal system of the Hermit Kingdom. From fifteen to thirty of these "cash" are required to equal the value of an American cent. A string of a thousand will weigh several pounds, a dollar's worth will make a load for a strong man.

Mr. Dunn had no intention of stripping Seoul of its small change when he gave the fatal order to Kurita, his interpreter. He was making ready his outfit for the advance, and it occurred to him that a supply of native money would be indispensable, inasmuch as a good deal of forage and other supplies must be obtained along the way. In addition, Kurita assured his master that many necessaries on their list could be had only in districts further north, and that "plenty of money" must be packed along. “Plenty of money” meant at least two or three hundred dollars to the American bound on a campaign of weeks. But he told Kurita to go out and find change for one hundred and fifty dollars, and be quick about it.

The forenoon passed and no Kurita returned. He was needed for a dozen urgent errands, and the afternoon was nearly spent, before Mr. Dunn became uneasy, impatient, then alarmed. The interpreter must have absconded, and all the foreign correspondents in sight were rounded up as a searching party. It was useless to notify the native police, and the photographer and his friends did not delay for official justice to be awakened from its slumbers. Just as the expedition was starting forth, one of the hotel boys came running up the street, beckoning to Mr. Dunn, shouting breathlessly: "Come, look, see, master. Kurita no can do. Have got, but no can do."

The boy led the way to a courtyard in the rear of the hotel, where the hapless Kurita yelled for joy as he sighted the party:

"Plenty money, got him cheap," was the interpreter’s greeting. "What you wanchee me do now?"

In the words of Mr. Dunn, as he wrote about it in a letter to the office:

"It took me only an instant to realize that I was the proud owner of what looked like a whole city block of real money-money enough to sink a ship, money piled in heaps and heaps, money enough, you would think, to last a spendthrift a million years."

Kurita had filled the order, and the coolies had been staggering under their burdens of “cash” from every corner of Seoul to the courtyard since morning, while the native money changers had put up their shutters until they could renew their stock.
“I had the money all right,” says Mr. Dunn, “but what could I do with it? I could not carry it, and nothing short of an army could move it. We paced around the edge of the heap and measured sixty-odd feet of circumference, while the average height was at least three feet. Kurita insisted that twenty men were needed to guard my wealth, night and day, until I should be ready to move it.”

Mr. Dunn was ready and eager to take the field, so nothing else could be done than to take a few strings of “cash” for immediate wants, and leave the mountain where it lay until its owner should come again to Seoul. Kurita was authorized to employ a guard of worthy and brave men, of strictest integrity, and a score of them, standing watches in relays, hovered around the concentrated opulence when collier’s photographer and his interpreter hurried away to the front.

They returned two weeks later, to find that many strings of “cash” had evaporated, although the guards swore by a million-odd saints and devils of the Korean mythology that not one copper coin was lacking. However, when it came to paying the wages of the guards for two weeks, on top of the singular depreciation noted, the mountain of cash had melted almost to nothing. It was a fact that the heap of money had eaten itself up, and the only beneficiaries were the sentinels, who shuffled away, doubled over with the weight of installments of their wages, and later came back with carts to collect the remainder.

Robert Capa Exhibition

I was reminded the other day that the Robert Capa exhibition is still on at the Sejong Cultural Center near Gwanghwamun and continues until October 28. The exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of Capa's birth and displays original prints of his war photography. More information can be found here (and in Korean here).

Here's a good documentary about his life:



I should note, though, that there's a continuity glitch in the video on youtube. At 29:50 (the sudden 'gambler' speech) you need to jump to 44:50 and watch until 59:50, at which point you need to jump back to 29:50 and watch to 44:50, and then jump to 59:50. Not really that confusing - jump 15 minutes ahead, watch for 15 minutes, jump 30 minutes back, watch for 15, and jump 15 minutes ahead. Or maybe it is confusing. Anyways, it's worth watching, even with a bit of myth making added in (though Capa himself cultivated his own myth throughout his life).