The KT ran a piece on the Korea Blogosphere today, and yes, I am quoted in it (much to the chagrin of at least one individual who should probably turn his “permanent links” option on):
Robert Koehler, whose one year- old blog Marmot Hole is listed on both sites under Koreans living in Korea, said one problem facing the Korean blogging community, much like the communities in the physical world, is language barrier.
“The Korean-language blogging community is large, and it could be a tremendous source of material and interaction for English language bloggers if we put in a better effort to establish some contacts,” Koehler said. “Reading an expat blog might be interesting, but it’s not a Korean perspective, and I think those who read blogs might be keen to get views and opinions from locals themselves.”
Actually, I’m listed under Foreigners Living in Korea on one, and (why, I don’t know) Koreans living in Korea on the other. And yes, I actually said that (wrote it, actually, as I communicated with the reporter through e-mail). For those wishing to take me to task, my comments section if open.
15 Comments
Then again, if the “contributions” here from the lux bearers and shin jong ils are representative of the Netizen world, Korea’s image will suffer if more people are exposed to such childishness, ignorance and bigotry.
Hey Marmot, I just got an e-mail saying they are running the article tomorrow? Was there a mention in today’s paper about my blog? I had to ask a bunch of questions on e-mail. The e-mail I got today said they’re using a shot of my blog for the main artwork? I subscribe to the Herald and am too far to get a Times copy. What’s up? Maybe it’s another piece tomorrow.
The only way I would ever say anything to the Korea Lies, or subscribe to it or even fork out the fifty cents it costs, for that matter, if were Korea Klux Klan Grand Master Benjamine Oh were do dance at my garage sale in an orange tutu while blowing my neighbour’s donkey.
More than just a blog..one with attitude!
http://kimchipig.tblog.com/
God damned it Marmot. Why do you have to be blessed by living in a country that actually has a free enough press to do something like this? /sarcasm
But yeah, I agree with you on the permalinks, and the language issue. If a blog’s perms don’t work, I almost always pass on liking to them. And the language barrier is so there even though we have a lot of bloggers very fluent in the language. It just takes too much time to go over all of them. Did you see Flyingchair’s mainland list? Good god, I don’t even know where to start.
OK, I saw the article online. Do they run paper online the night before the actualy paper comes out? That article was pretty boring, I thought. I almost fell asleep during the first two paragraphs.
Then again, if the “contributions” here from the lux bearers and shin jong ils are representative of the Netizen world, Korea’s image will suffer if more people are exposed to such childishness, ignorance and bigotry.
C’mon now there are plenty of individual idiots on the Internet in the U.S. The press, government, corporate leaders are fair game because these people are supposed to be professionals but idiotic anonymous Internet posters are found in plenty of places outside of the Korean peninsula …
like this one?
http://www.trenchcoatjedi.com/.....tml#000160
September 30, 2003
Solidarity Through Matching Clothes
Wearing matching clothes in Korea is popular. When the Korean soccor team was in the world cup, everyone wore red to support the team. Siblings often wear identical outfits. You can be damn sure that the identical twins I teach are always dressed the same (unfortunately they’re boys, otherwise that would have great fetish value) But the best thing of all is that it is not uncommon for couples to wear identical outfits. You can bet that when I find a girl to go steady with, we’ll be dressing the same. In fact, I’ll see to it that we wear conjoined clothes. If she has a problem with it, I’ll just tell her it’s an American custom. And she’ll probably believe me too, as that’s only marginally stupider than most Korean customs.
Posted by rick at 12:15 AM
hmmmm, this guy’s an honor to the united states
or how about this?
http://www.torgodevil.com/premise.htm
::Premise::
A little about me….
I am a recent Miami university graduate. After looking for work for 2 months after graduation, I was unable to find anything remotely in my field and was on the verge of being kicked out the house were I stayed the last 2 years during college.
Having seen the tech sector go bust, I decided that any job that came along needed some serious consideration on my part, because the cash flow from Subway was not going to pay the bills to much longer. Plus, that job was degrading and hellish.
Just when things looked the bleakest, hope was given to me from the most unlikely of sources, my mom. Through her I got in contact with a school looking to hire people. This school didn’t require a teaching certificate. This school didn’t require me to know how to teach. It would pay for my room and board, and two meals a day. Hamburger University? No, actually, something much more than an opportunity to study the ways of Ronald McDonald.
I decided to become an English language teacher in the Rawoori private school in south Korea. I will be teaching basic English to children in grade school. This will be my first experience teaching, and this is also my first exposure to Korean culture. I know little more about Korea than what I have read out of a few books on the culture.
This website will be the chronicle of my adventures in Korea. Through this site you will have a chance to experience Korea through the eyes of someone that is arriving there for the first big adventure of their life. My opinions about both Korean and American cultures will be shared. I hope to have some fun, entertain some people, and learn from my mistakes.
Interests and Hobbies:
Video Games:
Favorite game: Final Fantasy Tatics (PSX)
Systems owned:
SNES, PS2, Game Boy Advance
SNES:
Zelda: Link to the Past
PS2:
Darkstalkers (PSX), Final Fantasy Tatics (PSX), Hot Shots Golf (PSX), Metal Gear Solid (PSX), Time Splitters (PS2), Toney hawl Pro Skater (PSX), Twisted Metal 2 (PSX), Twisted Metal: Black (PS2)
Game Boy Advance:
Castlevania: Circle of the moon (GBA), Kiby’s Dreamland 2 (GB), Tony Hawk Pro Skater (GBA), Pokemon Trading Card Game (GBC), Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (GBC), Wario Land (GB), Zelda: Link’s awakening (GB)
Television:
Current Favorite Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Favorite shows:
Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Daily Show, Junkyard Wars, Family Guy, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Simpsons, South Park, That 70’s show.
Movies:
Current Favorite movie: Memento
DVDs owned:
Brazil, Chicken Run, Fight Club, GhostBusters, Groundhog Day, Life is Beautiful, Monty Python and the Holy Grail,Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, The Princess Bride
Music:
Current Favorite band: Radiohead
Favorite Bands:
Aphex Twin, Air, The Beatles, BT, Creeper Lagoon, The Dandy Warhols, Dido, Dj Rap, Dust Brothers,Fatboy Slim, Fiona Apple, Gorillaz, Jurassic 5, Moby, Radiohead, Soul Coughing, Toadies.
::home::
can’t get a job in america? go to Korea
this is especially true these days when most american jobs are shipped to india
the time will come when to be able to stay in america, one has to have the pedigree of a rockefeller, holy shit!, we’ll be awash with white ddong!
Ok, I’m glad those other posters droned out the spelling and grammar mistakes of my post.
Ok, I’m glad those other posters droned out the spelling and grammar mistakes of my post.
Posted by: shawn at January 13, 2004 03:10 AM
huh? droned????
maybe you meant “drowned”?
hopeless, really hopeless
lux,
you should really drop the lux part on your name. if you had any brains you would be adding to the commentary here not distracting from it.
Lux bearer pretty much proved my point. I’ll of course concede there is a lot of idiocy and hatred on the U.S. web — check out democratic underground or most of the pro-Howard Dean sites, for starters. But it’s hard to top the Korean netizens for server crashing, distress-inducing hatred campaigns (think Salt Lake city IOC, Brigette Bardot, the current island dispute with Japan….). The nexus of the world’s highest concentration of broad-band connections and, arguably, the world’s lowest collective emotional IQ is a dangerous place.
The internet is certainly full of retards. The net is place where guys with no social skills can say their bit without the risk of getting a wedgie. However, Korean web retards have the be the world’s champs. Perhaps it is because Korea’s schools churn out millions of drones who have exacatly the same opinion of everything who have no reasoning skills. Hence, because they lack the ability to present a point, they go of on immaute tirades that make Korea look like a nation of retards.
Where’s Shilly Shally to make fun of your collective manhood here?
Dan Roberts - I have my problems with Korea’s university system, having actually attended one, but to say that it turns out millions of drones without reasoning skills is simply not the case, even if Hanchongnyon protests might give one that impression. Korea is not one big hive, after all.