Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Update on the 'wanted teacher' case

On Friday it was announced that an American wanted for sexual assaulting a minor several times in the US had been working in Korea as a native speaking instructor in places like elementary schools for eight years (or nine years, or ten years, according to the Seoul Sinmun). A news search at Naver now turns up over 60 articles or news reports on this case.

Over at ROK Drop, someone claiming to know the teacher who was arrested left several comments about the case. The first is here, and a second (and and following) comment is here. The commenter claims that the suspect was involved in a bitter divorce and his ex-wife accused him of abusing their three year old daughter. He also wrote that he contacted the teacher's wife and she said he'd already been deported. Being the internet, who knows if it's true, but it makes for interesting reading.

TV Chosun did a report on this case, and in it the teacher is interviewed by police and he says, "I was accused, and they dropped the case. I didn’t know that there was a case. I did not know there was a warrant." 

TV Chosun also provides some helpful images:




It doesn't quite compare to the Munhwa Ilbo's cartoon, though:


Just for fun, here are some more shadow images of Americans - in this case from a 1990 North Korean comic book titled "Sick and Rotten World" (which depicts the world outside of North Korea to be a scary, scary place. This is part of the "NamJoseon (South Korea), Death Zone" section which portrays the dangers of US soldiers:


I love how their hats make them appear to have horns, especially in the last panel. This is similar to WWII era Japanese depictions of Anglo-Americans.


Here's an evil American having his way with a Korean woman:

'Their true, foul, beastly nature'

Note the similarities with this image (again):


"The entire world accuses the US Army of unpardonable barbarity
against south Korean women."

And back to this again:


Golly, that would make a great T-shirt. Or perhaps putting it on large banners to hang in the arrival lounge at Incheon airport would be better?

2 comments:

The Sanity Inspector said...

How prevalent are these attitudes towards foreign English teachers these days? In ROK I mean; of course the Norks are still hostile.

matt said...

They're not very prevalent these days at all. There was a case a couple years ago of a teacher chatting with teenage girls and getting nude photos or video from them, and hardly any media touched it. We did have this article from Yonhap about foreign teachers during the Itaewon Covid outbreak in 2020, though, so perhaps these attitudes are just dormant.