Busan-based English teacher Steve Schertzer apparently doesn’t like Pusanweb:
Thank God most Koreans don’t understand English. Thank God that the majority of Korean students can’t read English beyond an elementary level. Thank God that most Koreans, while technologically savvy, don’t peruse native English teacher Web sites like www.pusanweb.com here in Korea. If Koreans did possess an above-average ability to understand and appreciate written English, they would be treated to the biggest bunch of losers, failures, whiners, freaks, dead-enders, degenerates, and social misfits to ever congregate on Korean soil since the Mongol invasions of the 13th century.
Hold on there, buddy. As the husband of a Mongolian, I’m deeply offended that you’d dare liken Kublai Khan’s horde to the bottom stratum of Korea’s English teacher community. The Mongols left behind soju, after all. And those cute little ponies horses on Jeju-do.
This Web site is a cyber freak show, an endless procession of human filth where any religious fruitcake, social misfit, and educational buffoon can proudly parade themselves and post their garbage ad infinitum under an alias. Many of these people, who have the audacity to call themselves English teachers, seem to take a perverse pleasure in glorifying their own stupidity and social depravity.
Don’t equivocate, Mr. Schertzer. Tell us what you really think.
If it makes you feel any better, I thank God every day that most Americans can’t read Korean. If people Stateside could ever read what gets said in much of Korean cyberspace, the Korea-U.S. alliance would be truly and utterly fucked.
Read the rest of Mr. Schertzer’s opinion piece in the Korea Times on your own. I haven’t really read Pusanweb for a while, although I recall it used to be a pretty good site. I’m sure its forums can get a bit weird, but that seems to be the case in a lot of online forums, including the comment section of this blog. There are exceptions, of course, but many if not most website administrators lack the time, patience and inclination to police their forums sufficiently to ensure that discussions stay civil and freak-free.
And besides, flame wars and online absurdity can make for entertaining reading.
15 Comments
If the generals could read what KATUSAs write on Daum cafes, there would no longer be a KATUSA program.
I nominate him for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Dumbassery.
What a silly tirade. I wish there were a Marmot-style blog just for Busan, but Pusanweb serves its purpose just fine. I read it for a couple months before I came to Busan and it was very helpful. This article reads like it was written by someone with no sexual or creative outlet.
Personally, I take offense to him evoking “God” repeatedly in the introduction and then railing on bible thumpers (which I have never come across on Pusanweb). At least the bible thumpers use a forum, and not a daily newspaper, to proselytize.
You know, a silly tirade it may have been, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the best-written tirade I’ve read in a long term.
Regardless, I’m not quite sure what the point is in writing into a paper to blast a website for a perceived lack of quality content. If you don’t like it, tell the website directly, stop reading it, or start a blog and heckle them there. Maybe even build a competing website. No need to submit a column to your local English daily saying offendingwebsite.com is full of retards.
“…Thank God that most Koreans, while technologically savvy…”
yeah and most know Kung Fu too!
Does anyone think that the majority of Pusanweb readers head to the site to talk/read about language testing, curriculum development, textbooks, teaching methodologies, linguistics, etc? As the Marmot suggests, why doesn’t Steve start his own Busan TESL/TEFL-intensive, filth-free site? One, in all probability, that wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as Pusanweb.
Anyway, another reminder of why to spend the extra W 600 on the IHT instead of the Korea Times, with Friday’s Michael Breen column being an exception.
Anybody see the way they “run the ponies” in Cheju? They race those native, and literal, ponies. I swear some of the jockeys are bigger than the horses.
“yeah and most know Kung Fu too!”
and they’re all incredibly kind and wise and have great respect for teachers…:)
I’m Canadian, that means I must be a lumberjack that lives in an igloo, eh? I probably also think that anyone who isn’t Canadian is a ‘hoser’.
My dad is a Mountie. Never drove a car in his life. He has a dog sled.
The Mongols produced many half-breeds. These new invaders would produce many mixed bloods as well? Blue-eyed and blond Koreans?
Comments freak representn’!
Wow. This makes me want to check out pusanweb.
Not to mention, they weren’t exactly the whiny losers on that deal…
Baduk:
Korea needs to be mongrelised. It would definitely be an improvement. I can’t wait. Again, I AM a mongrel sooooo….