tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post8683738429761172351..comments2024-02-23T23:53:54.842+09:00Comments on Gusts Of Popular Feeling: Another journalistic classicmatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10296009437690229938noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-66098181671452377352010-04-07T19:24:28.329+09:002010-04-07T19:24:28.329+09:00I agree that sometimes foreigners are portrayed in...I agree that sometimes foreigners are portrayed in a negative way, very often out of misunderstanding. Probably the best way to combat this 'bad press' is to act the opposite of what Koreans may expect you to behave. Act with compassion and politeness, respect the culture you have entered into (as you would expect foreigners in your country to) and just generally surprise the local people, pleasantly.<br />They will tell other Koreans about the 'good foreigner' and eventually the majority will come to expect this behaviour rather then being suspicious. <br />Put simply, be a constant good example to your students, colleagues and even the people in the streets. And try to be oblivious to the obvious drivel and anti-foreign sentiment that is actually the exception rather than the norm- they're just more vocal.Coffeewriterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03652700332104947845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-86089881180308245712010-04-04T08:47:33.644+09:002010-04-04T08:47:33.644+09:00Matt,
You are correct to wonder just how influent...Matt,<br /><br />You are correct to wonder just how influential these tabloid articles are. But to make an American analogy, how many people get their news and have their opinions shaped by FOX News and their commentators like Sean Hannity and Glen Beck? I don't want to be an alarmist but I take articles like these seriously. Furthermore, it's not elitist to realize that most of the population is ignorant, illogical and essentially stupid, especially when dealing with a literal foreign presence in their society, whether its in Korea or anywhere else in the world. Articles like this reflect and inform a world view of and for people either unwilling or unable to the intellectual legwork for themselves.Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11625452538115548605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-6821801460776766142010-04-03T17:21:46.155+09:002010-04-03T17:21:46.155+09:00Matt, I'm with the others here: Thanks for you...Matt, I'm with the others here: Thanks for your research (and occasional translation duties) here. I've lived in Korea for almost four years, but I've encountered a lot of relatively new info on this blog since discovering it a few weeks ago.<br /><br />Also interesting comments from the above posters, especially louve.<br /><br />Some of you may have seen the recent post from "Ask a Korean" about AES and anti-foreign teacher sentiment. The following quote is applicable: <br /><br />"So what can the existence of AES tell us about the state of ESL teachers in Korea? Right now, Koreans are feeling deeply uneasy about their new reality--that there are many in Korea who do not look like them, affecting them in a way that they do not necessarily like. This uneasiness feeds into the tension between Koreans and ESL teachers. This tension right now is still mostly under the surface, because most Koreans are reasonable enough not to express that tension like AES does. However, there is always a chance that the underlying tension could blow up, sparked by a certain event. Therefore, it would be important to understand the factors that feed into the tension, and neutralize them in any manner we can."<br /><br />You can read the whole post here:<br /><br />http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-state-of-esl-teachers-in-korea.html<br /><br />Thanks again, Matt...hope it's OK for me to post a link like this.Marc Hogihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10778867844683941083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-57754412406666296212010-04-02T02:38:19.885+09:002010-04-02T02:38:19.885+09:00When I read anything in a Korean "newspaper&q...When I read anything in a Korean "newspaper" I find it makes much more sense if I put myself in the same mindset as when I read or watch Korean speculative fiction. The plot structures are essentially identical. <br /><br />Korean speculative fiction stories usually go like this: Good Korean culture is functioning in pristine Neo-Confucian harmony. All moral dogmas are perfect, absolute, and unquestionable. They follow the relational order of the <i>Sam-Kang-Oh-Ryun</i>:<br /> <br />The king is the mainstay of the state [<i>Kun-Yi-Shin-Kang</i>]<br />The father is mainstay of the son [<i>Bu-Yi-Ja-Kang]</i><br />The husband is the mainstay of the wife [<i>Bu-Yi-Bu-Kang</i>]<br />Between father and son it requires friendship [<i>chin</i>]<br />Between king and courtier, righteousness [<i>eui</i>]<br />Between husband and wife, deference [<i>pyul</i>]<br /> Between old and young, degree [<i>saw</i>]<br />Between friends, faith [<i>shin</i>]<br /><br />The design of these vertical relationships is to preserve a patriarchal family infrastructure that is recalcitrant to accepting change. That way the Korean society is insulated from any evil occurring from the inside the family and bad things can only come from the outside. <br /><br />That is, until somehow the big, ugly, non-Korean gets around the <i>petito principi</i> "We're Korean, so we must be good because we're Korean." Thus, mucking up the Neo-Confucian order with "foreign" ideas like logic. (At this point I think I should reiterate that Korean "newspapers" really are just speculative fiction. The editor tells the writer what he wants to see in his paper so he can sell add space, and telling the editor, "But, it didn't happen that way" just doesn't meld well with top-down, do as I say because I'm the boss mentality.)<br /><br />Next, once the "foreign" element is unleashed in the Neo-Confucian Eden of Korea, all hell breaks loose. You have either lecherous big-nosed demons / aliens that steal all the Korean women and eat the children; shadow governments that control the hapless Korean population, forcing them to give up their culture; and, if, on the off chance, a Korean is the bad guy, it is because they were tainted by some external source. You know, like a Western education that functions like mind control (Damn Western logic, again!).<br /><br />Anyway, to make a tedious story short, the Korean hero is successful at fending off the would-be attackers. Although, it is only after some horrible incident occurs taking the life of an innocent woman or child who is wearing white (the white outfit is so that they can be personified as <i>baeksŏng</i>, a metaphor for poor, innocent Korea and the cathartic purging of <i>han</i>). After the evil, Neo-Confucian harmony disrupting, "foreign" evil-other disturbance is expelled, the entire nation cries out in unison, "<i>TAE HAN MINGUK</i>!!!" and goes out for <i>samgyupsal</i> and <i>soju</i>. <br /><br />In my opinion, I think if everyone just looked at Korean “newspaper” fear-mongering in this fashion --like it is a badly produced “B” horror film-- the non-Korean population wouldn’t feel so bad about being typecast as the villains. We could just write it off as a half-cooked plot and bad directing.louve9https://www.blogger.com/profile/00970433846166352959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-7519626487287656652010-04-01T22:11:45.258+09:002010-04-01T22:11:45.258+09:00Glad you liked it. I'm not really sure how imp...Glad you liked it. I'm not really sure how <em>important</em> this kind of tabloid trash is (it's certainly entertaining in its own way), but it's A) creepy to see just how much stuff can be made up and attributed to foreign English teachers (as they're an easy target), and B) it's worth remembering that equally trashy articles in Breaknews owe their existence to AES, who then cited them as proof that there were problems with foreign English teachers and AIDS (among other things) when sending petitions to the Justice Ministry.<br /><br />And yeah, that nose <em>is</em> huge. Love the smile though.matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10296009437690229938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-71912088759611020162010-04-01T21:46:50.271+09:002010-04-01T21:46:50.271+09:00oh, and that first cartoon seems to sport a pretty...oh, and that first cartoon seems to sport a pretty big nose for a Korean-American 'gangster teacher', doesn't it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12946845.post-25699719928871733692010-04-01T20:07:13.758+09:002010-04-01T20:07:13.758+09:00Thanks very much for your diligence in catching th...Thanks very much for your diligence in catching these important articles, bringing them to our attention (including often translating them!) and documenting them. I'm sure it gets tedious but its important work and we appreciate it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com