The Chosun Ilbo (English) contributed a true classic today, citing Korea Foreign Teacher Recruiting Association (KFTRA ) estimates that some 10 percent of the 20,000-30,000 foreign instructors in Korea have been canned for either “sexual improprieties” or because they refused to teach.
No word from the association on how many have been canned in the last month of their contract so the hagwon owners could avoid paying their severance bonuses.
The Chosun — no doubt for reasons of journalistic integrity — included this cautionary tale:
It cites the case of a Korean woman identified as Kim who says she met an English instructor from Australia at a friend’s birthday party. Kim went out with him for several months. When she broke up with him, the Australian sent her an e-mail in February saying he had had sex with two prostitutes in the Philippines without using condoms in 2006 and Kim had been his next date. He said he was so afraid that he could not tell her about it, and had not had an HIV test. The instructor said Kim “deserved” to get AIDS considering what she did to him.
Lovely. The KFTRA added that the instructor in question has been added to its blacklist of foreign teachers. Whether he sues the KFTRA for defamation and violation of labor laws, however, has yet to be seen.
One American teacher, meanwhile, reportedly accomplished the difficult feat of simultaneously violating Korea’s drug taboos and hurting national pride by teaching his students how to smoke pot and claiming that Japanese women were “the best.”
Interestingly, the headline of the Korean piece reads, “White English Teacher Threatens Korean Woman with AIDS.” Great. Remember this should said paper start complaining about US headlines.
The story apparently started in the Chosun Ilbo’s tabloid paper, the Sports Chosun, whose piece ran the very helpful subheader, “Beware the ‘Ugly White Teacher’” (as opposed to “Beware the Ugly White Magazine Editor,” which would be me). Informatively, it quotes one 28-year-old Korean female English teacher in Busan, who claims that white teachers have a tendency to believe that they can easily bag Korean women who approach them to learn English. The story also includes other tales of whitey teacher behaving badly, including one 43-year-old teacher in Andong — of all places — who had the gall of writing on the profile of a chatting site that the most precious thing to him was looking at the glistening sweat on the curves of a woman’s breasts, thighs and ass (The horror! The horror!). He also counted sex as one of the things he likes to do during his free time. Hey, it’s better than masturbation. Or blogging.
This is all very humorous since right next to the piece (this is the online edition of the Sports Chosun, after all) are links to the headlines of Orange, the Chosun Ilbo’s adult content site — today’s edition apparently includes such morally uplifting topics as the wonders of mesh stockings with a hole in the crotch, a guide to cheating with your ex, a piece on women who like it doggy-style and a guide to camping sex. Thankfully, however, the articles are all in Korean, and presumably none of them were written by white English teachers.
UPDATE: And in a related note, one of the bigger online stories today involves school parents outraged at elementary school teachers at a school in Gwanak-gu who signed a petition pleading for leniency for a fellow teacher found guilty of molesting two female sixth grade students. The court’s decision wasn’t exactly draconian — the teacher, who was accused of sitting two students on his knee while he touched their chest, was sentenced to fines since, according to the court decision, the incidents took place in the open and the defendant was “sufficiently aware” of his mistakes. And even this was after the the prosecutors decided not to charge him with violations of child sex laws and settled for violations of child welfare laws. The guy has been relieved of his position, but he still attended at outdoor school function (supposedly in a private capacity) earlier this month. In a telephone conversation with the Munhwa Ilbo (unlike foreign English teachers, I guess Korean teachers accused of kiddie molestation get to present their side of the story), the teacher said he can’t accept the court’s original decision (claiming he sexually abused the children), so he’s going to appeal. So much for being “sufficiently aware” of your mistakes.
62 Comments
I read garbage like that, then I think of all the Asian Americans who were offended by the fact that Seung-hui Cho was written “Cho Seung-hui” and I wonder.
Asian Americans aren’t responsible for the Chosun Ilbo’s headline policy.
On the recognition that the Chosun Ilbo may not print my letter to the editor, I’d like it to appear here. With a tiny bit of close reading, I think that I’ve unmasked the Korean ex-girlfriend as the true culprit:
Dear Editor,
I am writing to lodge a vigorous protest against your recent article “Australian English Teacher Blacklisted for AIDS Threat” (May 28, 2007).
The article is equally erroneous and unfair. In fact, it is constructed entirely upon a transparent lie.
A quick reading of the email supposedly sent by the English teacher in question reveals that it was unmistakably NOT written by a native speaker of English. Within just five lines of text, the writer omits essential articles (”the,” “a”) in three places. In fact, upon rereading, it appears that the email does not contain even one article: in every single place where an English-speaker would unfailingly use one, the writer omits to do so. It’s a very simple deduction that the true author of the inflammatory email is in fact the estranged girlfriend–not the English teacher.
Having demonstrated that your article, based entirely upon a fraud, is erroneous in its entirety, I wish also to address its patent unfairness. Not content to expose this one English teacher to public humiliation, you generalize, in your opening line, about “allegations of improper conduct against expatriate English instructors in Korea.” This is the journalistic equivalent of examining the Cho Seung-Hui case under a heading of “Korean criminality.” It is grossly and transparently wrong.
Further, your choice to black out the name of the Korean “recipient” while leaving unblacked the name of the foreign “sender” indicates a desire to protect members of your own race while exposing others to harm. Worse, your exposure of the teacher’s name in such a public way–without making allowance for his possible innocence–can only, at best, be taken as bad journalistic practice.
But the astonishing, overriding irony at work here is that you at the Chosun Ilbo, together with the KFTRA and the unnamed woman in question, while all conspiring to make foreigners look bad, have only shown yourselves to be idiots and bad actors. So far from demonstrating that Koreans are victims of foreign misconduct, you unknowingly, unintentionally prove the exact opposite in this case.
I demand that you retract this article and issue a public apology to the English teacher in question.
A false accusation of this sort, however, is not simply a breach of good conduct; it is also a criminal matter. The Chosun Ilbo, together with the other guilty parties in this affair, stand to face criminal charges for slander. If the foreign teacher you have sought to harm does not himself prosecute, expect that others may, on his behalf.
Yours sincerely,
For“sexual improprieties” substitute “pissed off a Korean chica enough that she want to: a) SBS’s tabloid show; b) the hagwon owner; or c)Immigration” and you’ll get some idea of what’s happening here.
I realize that.
I’m saying, if the New York Times consistently ran race-baiting stories like that, _then_ Asian Americans would have a real gripe.
Dogbert Plant
Funny thing about the image used — the Chosun felt OK with leaving the “Aussie”’s name and email for all to see (in the email body, anyway), while blotting out the Korean’s email address. Amazing, really.
If I were this guy, I would sue. That’s the most effective way to stop trash newspapers from printing libelous crap, hit them where it hurts the most, in the bank account.
I guess there’s no precendent of a foreigner availing himself of the libel laws here and the Chosun knows it. Mr. Y, if you are reading this, it’s time to throw the book at these assclowns.
Also, #3–you make a lot of good points. However, I wouldn’t assume a native speaker wouldn’t write an e-mail that way.
But that’s a prank e-mail, come on. That’s not real.
In a related story, 100% of Korean faculty let go from their positions so far this year have been so either for having wanked off in the nude for the Chosun’s ‘Orange’ site, or for violations of either their employment agreement or Korean law.
Marmot,
you are starting to sound more and more like the party pooper every day. I had to check the tag line to make sure you didn’t add another guest blogger.
Wait, what’s this about mesh stockings with a hole in the crotch? Presumably we’re talking “pantyhose” — aren’t stockings, by definition, without a crotch?
There are legal issues here too:
See Labor Standards Act, Art. 39 (Prohibition on Interference with Employment):
“No person shall prepare and use secret signs or lists, or have communications, for the purpose of interfering with employment of a worker.”
Gee, it’s the very definition of a blacklist!
What’s the criminal punishment for doing this? See Art. 110:
“Any person who has violated Article 6, 7, 8, 30 para. (1) and (2), or 39 shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five (5) years or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won.”
The place to swear out this complaint is the local District Labor Office of the National Labor Relations Commission for labor tribunal proceedings, or, alternatively in the case that the NLRC claims no jurisdiction over the KFTRA because it’s not an “employer” (but note that LSA Art. 39 says “no person”, not “no employer”) your local police station. Probably it would be a good idea to start a civil lawsuit too — seeking an order to close the KFTRA blacklist. Someone with an appreciation for heartbreak ought to lodge a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission; I’d wager a significant amount of money this organization would find a way to beg off of classifying foreigner English teachers as human.
This kind of threat makes the writer look foolish. Only the defamed person has standing to make a criminal defamation complaint, or civil lawsuit — you can’t report this crime against someone else, and can’t sue because someone else was defamed.
Carr:
How exactly, outside a courtroom and without counsel, does ignorance of the niceties of the law make one “look foolish”?
It’s been donkey’s years now that you’ve played the smart-ass lawyer shtick; how about joining the human race?
Your continued failure to do so makes you look . . .
macdonaldduck
Carr’s “smart-ass lawyer schtick” is generally amusing and a worthy addition to this space. He gets on his high horse now and then, but that hardly makes him inimitable here. If he were to join the human race, would we better off for it?
“Niceties of the law”? How about basic logic? You can’t sue for damage done to someone else.
Point well made, peninsular aborigine. Each of us has our faults, and our virtues. Let’s all try to remember the latter, and not get too hung up on the former.
FWIW, macdonaldduck, it didn’t seem to me that he was really attacking you as simply pointing something out which could expand this blog’s readers’ knowledge about legal proceedings. Bear in mind that, of all you wrote, he only commented on that one part, saying that it was foolish. Well, sorry, but he’s right - empty threats are foolish.
duck’s main point was spot-on - the letter is fake.
“Last year when I went to Maldives I was really drunk and I fucked 2 hookers without condom”
What native speaker doesn’t use “the”, even in abbreviated letters? Anyone who has spent time here can recognise this as a classic Korean gramatical error, stemming from the fact that the Korean language doesn’t use pronouns.
I googled his name and found that a teacher with the same name does exist (or has done) in Korea. I’d therefore blame a scorned and particularly vicious ex-girlfriend.
BTW I’d encourage everyone to email
englishnews@chosun.com
and point out the mistakes outlined above.
OK. Frothing at the mouth of many of the articles.. but realizing that trying to do anything about it would be a lot like pissing in the wind. Sure.. even if I could do anything… it might feel refreshing.. but it only makes a mess of me in the end.
I have to add though that ‘어글리’ (Ugly) in the Sports Chosun Bi-line is often a Konglish word with a modified definition.
From my studies, I have been informed that ‘Ugly’ means a “stupid person overseas who does stupid things” and that ‘Ugly’ has been used frequently as an adjective to explain stupid things Koreans do overseas as well.
I have a book called “Ugly Koreans/Ugly Americans” that explains the mistakes the stupid people do overseas… whatever.. two cents.
As an Australian this is particularly galling to me. I guess I’l have to explain this one to my students like I did when my friend got so severly bashed by a gang of koreans he had a brain hoemorage - and the local rag published an article about a foreign teacher “assaulting” innocent koreans, without mention of his injuries, the fact the koreans had started it, or the numerous witnesses who saw the guys kicking him repeatedly in the head.
Nice.
Yes, the term “ugly” here means “poorly behaved,” as in “the Ugly American Abroad.” If anyone thought it meant “ugly” as in “not handsome/pretty,” I apologize — I forget sometimes that these things aren’t obvious to everyone.
hoju_saram: I guess this is what you guys get for inventing Vegemite…
PS: Screw sending your mail to englishnews@chosun.com — all they did is translate it. Take your complaints to the actual reporter, Son Jin-seok at aura@chosun.com Or Kim Yun-hee at uni@sportschosun.com
‘Yes, the term “ugly” here means “poorly behaved,” as in “the Ugly American Abroad.” If anyone thought it meant “ugly” as in “not handsome/pretty,” I apologize — I forget sometimes that these things aren’t obvious to everyone.’
And what does ‘백인’ mean?
Robert, I’m not trying to flame you, but isn’t it reprehensible to say that there is a racial motivator for this? It is, after all, also part of the subheader.
It would explain my Korean co-workers cold treatment towards me today. I wondered why they were surly towards me, but I guess it’s because of my shared nationality with Mr. Y.
I wonder when the locals will finally realise that you can’t vilify an entire nation on the acts of one person.
I was just trying to clear up the meaning of the “Konglish” term “ugly,” and only because ihaveseoul’s comment suggested it might be necessary to explain.
Of course, the piece is highly racial in nature. Not only does the bi-line make that clear, but the article itself (through the Busan teacher’s quote) even goes as far as to say the white teachers have a tendency to prey on Korean women. Heck, here’s a translation of the Sports Chosun’s intro:
Funny thing is, my expectations have become so low that I was simply grateful that the Sports Chosun used the qualifier “some.”
ElCanguro — I don’t believe the story was all that big on the Korean side. I doubt your coworkers even read it. The story in the update — involving the Korean teacher convicted of molesting his students — was much bigger.
My guess is Angus Yates is the victim of a fake e-mail authored in his name by a Konglishee-speaker. I’m also made suspicious by the “went to Philippines” usage — a native English speaker would use “the Philippines”, “the Maldives”, or “the Ukraine”.
There is a “Cyber Terror Response Center” of the Korea National Police. That’d be one place for Mr. Yates to file his complaint. And when the Korean police are on their game, they’re pretty good at getting to the bottom of on-line shenanigans.
Aye. The same division that was sicced upon the hapless ZenKimchi by his witch of a 원장, if memory serves.
And the comment of the day is….
The answer to your question is NEVER. You would hope that Koreans would have acquired a hint of wisdom from the recent events in America involving mass murder Cho Seung-Hui. Did Americans vilify the Korean American community for the acts of one individual? No.
My family and friends considered the fact that he was Korean American mostly irrelevant. However, the fact remains that Koreans will continue to vilify every white person at each available opportunity. Why?
For the same simple minded reason they give for everything they do from urinating in public to sneezing on the back of your head on the subway…”it is a part of our culture and we are not changing it for you.”
27 - HAHAHA! I made a similar attempt on the other thread, but that one tears mine limb from limb.
“I guess there’s no precendent of a foreigner availing himself of the libel laws here and the Chosun knows it.”
Actually…I remember reading a while ago of the story of a guy whose visa run in Japan didn’t turn out the way he had planned. While he was waiting for his visa application to be processed, he went to take a walk on the beach. A Korean TV crew was there. The producer was carrying a hidden camera while trying to pick-up Japanese girls at the beach. He wanted to prove that Japanese women were easy. When that didn’t turn out the way they had hoped, they decided that they would paint the beach as a meeting place for homosexuals. The producer approached the unsuspecting English teacher, started chatting with him. The conversation was pretty inoffensive (”It’s a beautiful place.” “Yeah, I’ve been here once before.”). When they aired the interview, though, it was translated so that it would support the story. They probably would have gotten away…but they forgot to consider that the guy might have a girlfriend who watched the show regularly. The TV station and the TV producer got sued and had a considerable amount of money in settlement.
gotten away with it…sorry
PS. Let’s assume that it’s the foreigners real email address; don’t email the newspaper or the reporter, email the teacher to let him know why he’s getting tons of hate mail and make sure you include a link the website “Cyber Terror Response Center” of the Korea National Police” (the one that Brendon posted above).
Yeah, the e-mail is definitely fake.
1. The use of “u” for “you” is common among native speakers on the Internet, but many native speakers don’t use this. Koreans learning English are often too eager to use this shortened form because they think it’s more natural in e-mails with people you know. In and of itself, however, this is nowhere near enough to tell who wrote it.
2. While using shorthand “u,” the author is careful to capitalize the beginning of sentences, the word “I,” and country names. Not impossible, but a little strange.
3. The omission of “the” and “a” in places native English speakers would never, even in the most informal contexts, omit. They are:
…went to Phillipines [sic] => went to the Philippines
…without condom => without a condom / without wearing (or using) a condom
…I didn’t take test either => I didn’t take a test either (moreover, this expression is usually used for school tests. More likely, we would say, “I didn’t get tested for AIDS/I didn’t get an AIDS test.”)
4. Beginning a sentence with “and” in a situation where a native speaker wouldn’t (but where Korean speakers do because the erroneously equate the rules for using “and” to 그리고.)
…I felt really bad about it. And that made me f****d up. => …bad about it, and that …
(*Note, the sentence beginning with “But” could have been written by a native speaker.)
5. It may just be the poor picture quality, but I can’t see any commas. Not proof in and of itself, but…
6. The use of the letter “o” six times in “so” (”I would be soooooo guilty.”) While teenage girls enjoy doing this, I have yet to meet a grown man who writes so with extra o’s.
7. The use of the adjective “Lucky” when the adverb “Luckily” should be used. In this case, it wouldn’t be proof alone (a native speaker might make a mistake like this), but it definitely adds to the proof that a native speaker did not write this.
“Lucky they have cheap aids tests in Bangkok.” => Luckily…
8. Absence of “one” in the sentence “I f***d you without.” => …without one.
In all, point number 3 itself is enough to prove that a native speaker didn’t write this. The other points simply add weight to the already shut case.
@ permalink, You’re soooooo right.
You know, the wonderful thing about living and teaching in Vancouver is you can still make bags of money teaching Koreans. Sure, you have to put up with their nonsense and antics, but when you walk out the door, you’re in Canada.
But why single out only the Aussies?
Admittedly, I’m torn.
On the one hand, no group of foreigners in Korea deserves a comeuppance like those sneaky, promiscuous, faux-surfer-dude Aussies…with their collective cocks hanging out, spraying AIDS every which way willy nilly like it’s Xmas at a bath house. Korea was a queen-free land of purity, chastity, and no STD’s until the Australian invasion occurred. Now it’s like Times Square in the 70’s.
On the other hand, I’d rather the perpetrators of that comeuppance not be the Korean Media. A group so cluelees, incompetent, malicious, and laughably unprofessional that they study old issues of Pravda for inspiration. Instead of receiving a journalism diploma, they just line up at graduation and get their mandated skirt, pom-poms, and taeguki to wrap themselves tightly with. A collective shit-bomb of an industry where Dan Rather is the rule rather than the exception.
Would it be wrong to hope for a protracted war between the two sides that ends in the mutual destruction of both?
I don’t get what the big deal is really.
The fact is that Australians have a higher rate of AIDS than Koreans. These are the facts, guys and you gotta see em as they are.
It’s unfortunate that all whites have to suffer the consequences of a few. I guess I’d say that they need to start policing their own community. When cases of white English teachers breaking the law goes down, so will their bad reputation.
Don’t mean to hurt any feelings, guys. But the truth must be told.
Define ‘bags of money’ and how one would go about getting some, kimchipig
korean journalists are jokes
you can replace the word jounalist with just about anything else and it still rings true across the board in korea
Great post Mr. Marmot, you had me laughing all the way through.
Mmm, I wanted to say something about “yellow journalism” but, uhh, nevermind.
The Australian guy should tear a live shrimp apart in in front of the Korean Embassy as a protest. And then barbecue it.
I don’t agree the email was fake, though it did cross my mind. I mean, I myself have been guilty of dumbing-down my language to simplify what I’m saying/writing for the sake of communicating.
What seems more likely to me is that the guy wrote a spiteful email trying to get back at a girlfriend that screwed him over. He just wanted to make her feel bad for whatever reason, though it does seem rather immature. (again, not like I haven’t done immature things in relationships…)
Either way the article is still absolutely ridiculous and shameful (for the newspaper). I showed it to a (Korean) friend of mine and her response was “Oh, poor Korean girl.” I was shocked at how hard it was for her to see all the bias in the article and had to go through it line by line to get her to concede anything…
Suggest this teacher contact the Korean Law Blog to see if he can get any good advice.
http://www.ahnse.blogspot.com/
“When cases of white English teachers breaking the law goes down, so will their bad reputation.”
The problem here is that this is nothing more than a sensationalist smear job. The letter is an obvious fake not written by a native speaker. And I disagree that he might have dumbed it down for her. When natives write shorthand, they don’t make the kinds of mistakes seen here.
And BBalls, hilarious as ever.
The suggestion that we all run around “policing” each other is ridiculous. What do you propose? We take turns peeking in each others windows and checking the expiration dates on each others’condoms?
I am not in any way responsible for the actions of every fool that comes to Korea to do whatever they are here to do. Nor do I have any intention of pretending to feel otherwise to appease Koreans.
For Koreans that are too simple minded to comprehend the concept of personal accountability, they will just have to learn to live with the hostility that is increasingly developing between themselves and the foreign community.
This entire debacle makes me want to protest.
Anyone know where one can find live baby pigs?
You know, even non-native speakers don’t make lazy shortcuts and grammatical mistakes like that unconsciously. Even if we did (I’m a Filipino) use shortcuts akin to sending SMS messages, we’d still have our sentences read out without sounding Konglish.
I read that letter, and have no doubts the Aussie couldn’t have written it. After working for more than 4 years in this country, with most of my time spent editing my colleagues’ and supervisors’ emails and written correspondences in English, I’d say 99 out of 100 it was written by a local.
Absolutely repulsive and disgusting if the letter was indeed faked by the jealous and rageful ex-GF of Angus. What kind of people actually stoop to such utterly low levels of behavior and common courtesy? It really makes my blood boil.
Also, the story told in post 30 by SomeguyinKorea is absolutely shocking. I seriously cannot believe that any nation’s people would resort to such sly and dirty tactics as to actively go out and try to engage in an otherwise common behavior for normal males to make the women of another nation seem bad. That is totally sickening.
“Define ‘bags of money’ and how one would go about getting some, kimchipig”
Well, ‘bags of money’ is more than I ever made in Korea. Half the population doesn’t speak English and a third of the students in the local schools are ESL.
Getting students? Takes a bit of time. Work for a tutoring company for a while. If you are good, you will have more work than you can handle in a year or so. Then you ditch the agent.
No visa runs, nobody ratting you out for doing “illegal” privates because they aren’t illegal. You get to write off part of your home, the lease payment and isurance on your car and all the gas and maintainence.
The best part is your’re in Vancouver, not Korea.
I’m pretty sure that “Ukraine” is the standard usage these days.
That’s what Ukraine says, in yet another attempt by nosey foreigners to control our English language. In English it’s the Ukraine. I’m sure in Ukrainian it’s something else altogether, as is their rendering of American placenames. (For example, there’s no “K” in “St. Louis” when we say it in English.) But seeing how I don’t poke my nose into their use of their own language, I’d appreciate a little peace about my use of my own language.
And this is why I wish Koreans would leave us the hell alone about the “East Sea”.
“in yet another attempt by nosey foreigners to control our English language”
I take it you aren’t sold on spelling ‘Korea’ with a ‘C’ instead of a ‘K’.
I cannot see any way that the email is legit.
Not only is that e-mail a hose job, I might venture to guess that there isn’t even a girl. This journalist, (snicker), might just have a beef with the teacher in question. He of course didn’t disclose anything about her. Maybe there is a girl and she dumped the author for the Aussie.
I don’t usually delve in speculation but this fish-rap hack deserves all the bilge that backs up into his fecally rich world.
I only wish more Koreans recognized a pack-job when it’s foisted on them.
I don’t live in Seoul, so my opinion is probably not valid, but I have never met any real opposition being an English teacher in Korea. Admittedly, I have been reluctant to concede that I am employed at a hagwon (thank you, this blog) but even still I see sensationalism on every side.
This I don’t attribute to any people or economic system but rather a human tendency to get mad at things so that they can forget about their bills or that they have corpses decaying in their basements.
I am going to be a lifer in Korea, because my reason has taken a vacation and I feel pretty good?
I think the purpose of the article was to bash some Korean girls, and the article was a response to a recent Jungang-ilbo article regarding a debate on a bulletin board of joins.com.
From the Economist style guide:
I was also getting suckered by Ukraine, but now I realize that this is just more revisionist garbage. The Ukraine it is. Stay the course.
Yeah, I guess if those wacky drooling tree-huggers at the Economist recomment leaving out the “the”, it must be revisionist garbage.
Or maybe they are just moving on.
“recommend”
They got to The Economist, but I am a traditionalist.
The Economist? That’s print. Big difference. Nobody speaks like that. What native speaker says “I went to Ukraine.”
or “I’m going to Ukraine.”? Not in Canada, they don’t.
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[...] for his side of the story, I emailed the Australian English teacher whose purported email was recently printed in the Chosun Ilbo. Of course, in the age of the Internet, it’s hard to know whether people are who they [...]