The Chosun Ilbo seems to have stooped to using the “English teacher=drug user/dealer” equation that seems to be so common in daily sports papers and on TV. As per their article “Prosecutors Concerned by Sharp Increase in New Narcotics”:
Of the 116 foreigners caught with drugs last year, 46 or 39.7 percent were Americans, making up the largest group. There were also 11 Chinese and 11 Canadians. The number of Americans increased 91.7 percent from 24 in 2005, while Chinese were down 50 percent from 22 in 2005.
(Supreme Prosecutor’s Office?) Prosecutors believe the rising number of American drug offenders correlates to a rising number of English teachers coming to Korea, prompted by the recent trend for English education.
Additionally, as per the statement that follows that tidbit of information:
Prosecutors said that Korea, which was once considered drug-free, is increasingly being used as a conduit by criminal groups for international drug trafficking.
Should we then believe that English Teachers are probably members of international crime groups!?
The problem with this sort of journalism is that it begins by discussing an increase in drugs in Korea but then suddenly shifts to the “116 foreigners caught with drugs”, (out of how many Koreans one wonders!?) and continues on the old nonsense of “foreign English teachers = drug users/criminals.
Perhaps someone writing at the Chosun Ilbo should file for a copyright on this idea and make a movie because that seems to be their true calling in life — writing fiction based upon a tiny bit of factual information.
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Once again R. Elgin you’ve outdone yourself with the photo–LMFAO. It makes me want to start a special hakwon to teach ebonics to the Korean rapper wannabes. Props fo’shizzel!
“Korea, which was once considered drug-free” another mighty Korean myth like the vaunted 5,000 years of history. Speed has been used here since the 1980s and kids have been smoking pot here since at least that time, according to a Korean friend of mine. Ir wasn’t brought here by Englishee teachers, either.
Isn’t there the Korean saying “When tigers smoked”? Well they sure weren’t smoking ESSE .0001mg!
Also, Meth (Philopon) was invented by Japan.
METH: THE OTHER COLONIALISM
It seems like the Chosun Ilbo has gone mad in recent days. They need to bring the Marmot’s storied restraint back again into their ranks.
Shizzilistic baby . . .
Perhaps I have been too critical of President Roh and his dislike of Korean media, especially since they have such a problem with quality reporting or logic.
“While the use of heroin and other opiates was rare in South Korea and the use of cocaine limited, the use of crystalline methamphetamine, or “ice,” known in South Korea as hiroppon, had become a serious problem by the late 1980s. Estimates of the number of South Korean abusers of this illegal drug (known in the United States as speed) ranged from 100,000 to 300,000 people in the late 1980s.
An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 kilograms of methamphetamine were produced within South Korea annually, much of this total destined for shipment to Taiwan, Japan, and the United States by South Korean and Japanese yakuza, or gangsters. Since the majority of users injected the drug intravenously (although smoking and snorting it were becoming popular), South Korean health officials were concerned that the drug could contribute to the spread of AIDS. In 1989 Seoul established a new antinarcotics division attached to the prosecutor general’s office and increased almost fourfold the number of drug agents.”
http://www.photius.com/countri.....tions.html
Korean journalism, what a joke.
Another problem with this sort of report is the definition of “foreigners”. The newspaper clearly intends it’s readers to feel these drug criminals are akin to the white English teacher they see on the subway or at their kids hogwons.
I would bet a lot of money that many, if not a majority, of these ‘foreigners’ were Korean faces sporting American/Canadian/Chinese passports, and that a lot of the ‘Americans’ were L.A. kyopo toughs who say ‘Yo’ a lot and mumble ebonic sentences about ‘Azn priiide boyyyyy!’ and other drivel. And yes, that description is from experience. (What is it about L.A. that seems to turn people dumb, anyways?)
The foreign population approaches 1,000,000 these days (so they say). Of that 1,000,000, a few more than a hundred were arrested for narcotics possession/importation — therefore, in a given year 0.01% of the foreign population of Korea had some interaction with the criminal-justice apparatus in relation to drug crimes. Or 10 out of every 100,000.
Now, Korea gathers and keeps all kinds of statistics. This country is great on taking statistical information — but it’s all kinds of horrible at making that information available. The National Statistical Office is not a lot of help. So I turned to NationMaster.
NationMaster relies on the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention) for its information. So the period is probably different. And we don’t know the underlying methodology. But according to this NationMaster data, for that period 1998-2000 Korea’s per-100,000 drug crime rate is… wait for it… 9.9 per 100,000.
This means horny, young male foreign English teachers may commit drug crimes at a rate 1% greater than the rest of the general Korean population. So no wonder the Chosun Ilbo is so alarmed!
Given that the appetite to catch and prosecute foreign drug criminals appears to be greater than the appetite to enforce laws in a generalized fashion, one might be reasonable to infer that the numbers may distort the actual scope of the “foreign drug crime wave”.
Just to be safe, though, I’m pulling my daughters out of hagwon classes.
Do the statistics take age into account? I doubt many Korean elementary school students or elderly Koreans are taking illegal drugs, so those groups would lower Korea’s drug-use percentage. On the other hand, many or most foreigners in Korea are probably in their 20s and 30s, which seems to be a prime age group for drug use. I wonder how Korea’s percentages would look if similar age groups were compared with the age groups of the foreigners?
By the way, in the 1970s, you could buy almost any kind of drug in Korean drug stores without a perscription. I remember many of the Korean bargirls around Camp Humpheys often being high on some kind of drug. I don’t know what they were taking, but it seems silly to say that Korea was once considered drug-free, considering that the variety of drugs were freely dispensed at Korean drug stores.
I remember having a cold one time and my Korean girlfriend bringing me what she called a “cold pack,” which was about seven or eight pills wrapped up in a piece of paper with some white powder. She told me I had to take it all at once. I don’t know what was in it, but it immobilized me and started me sweating like a racehorse. The next morning I woke up with my sheets soaked, but I did feel much better.
OK, that was funny.
Seriously, though, I was shocked at the numbers. I mean, only 11 Canadians?
Bevers’ point regarding comparison of like populations is well made. Clearly, we are dealing with an overwhelmingly adult population of non-Koreans, and it seems reasonable to compare them to the adult Korean population. At least, it would be reasonable if one were interested in obtaining a truly accurate assessment of the situation.
But, then again, perhaps that’s not the Chosun Ilbo’s aim.
Man are we foreigners corrupting their society!! We should just take all our corporations, the US military, all the money such entities generate, and bug outta this place. That way, we won’t be the leading cause of Korean societal decay! You think the Korean press would’ve learned something from the whole Va. Tech thing, but that’s too much to ask for I guess. Why don’t Koreans say, “Enough of this crap, let’s tell our pet foreigners Koreans won’t accept such behavoir anymore from our media outlets etc…” Oh yeah, I now remeber why they won’t do such a thing. Korean hypocrisy at work me thinks. That’s just a guess though, so don’t persecute me. Remember, I’m not as morally upstanding as Koreans are because I’m not Korean.
And then check out the Korea Herald for this gem of illegality……….Can anyone spell “Sanctimonious coward”?
https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/06/07/200706070069.asp
The Chosun’s really on a roll this week.
A few points:
According to the Chosun, “some 3,218 pills of new or unusual drugs were confiscated in Korea in 2006. That’s a rise of 127.1 percent compared to the 1,417 capsules that were seized in 2005.”
Naturaly, this dire trend “correlates to a rising number of English teachers coming to Korea.”
Sounds convincing, until you examine the rag’s creative use of statistics.
This article - http://72.14.235.104/search?q=.....&cd=14 - notes that “In 2000 just over 10,000 grams of methamphetamine was seized (in Korea)”
Considering 1 pill of speed (they’re usually quite small) = roughly 300mg, that means that the equivalent of roughly 30,000 pills were siezed, or ten times the number we see today.
And there were a hell of a lot fewer AID’s-weilding english teachers around.
Just goes to show what a newspaper (or editor) with an agenda can achieve when they put their minds to it.
I’d also point out that the DPRK economy leans heavily on drug manufacture and smuggling. Really, what’s more sinister, a rogue nation running state-owned meth factories (the ROK’s drug of choice) a few hundred clicks from seoul, or a handful of english teachers busted trying to get happy for a Dmitri concert?
@ Hugh, you’re on to something. Wasn’t there a story a short while ago about a group of Americans caught in a drug sting, and many had Korean surnames? Oh yes, http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/.....t-aint-so/
@ gbevers, one could by codeine cough syrup w/o a prescription at the pharmacy until the mid ’80s. An Irish acquaintance became quite a fiend. With that brogue and the codeine + booze, no one could ever understand the guy.
It’s backfiring on the greedy bastards — great.
Remember when using drugs meant the possibility of realizing your temporal and reward-based role in a society that was nothing more the product of the wishful thinking of millions of miserable people?
Maybe they’re ambassadors for the new age? I kid. But seriously folks, what an awful job to have these days. I didn’t know about all this controversy before I left my native land and I still really don’t after 15 months but thank the fates for this message board for giving outlets for misplaced rage.
Okay, so how many foreigners live in South Korea? Roughly 900 000, right? So, that’s about one foreigner caught with drugs for every 7800 foreigners. Now, based on numbers I got, there were about 7593 Korean citizens arrested for drugs last year (7709 total-116 foreigners). How many Korean citizens are there? Roughly 46 million, right? Well, with my trusty old calculator I found that there was roughly 1 Korean citizen arrested here for every 6058, in other words, Korean citizens are far more likely to be arrested than foreigners. So, once again, someone in the Korean media ignores the numbers and, as a result, paints a bleak picture of us expats.
Amazing about the reference to Korea being a drug-free country. Makes me want to go and dig up all the information I have on the early opium smokers in Korea at the turn of the 20th century. But in all fairness it should be noted that opium was clearly discussed in the treaties and was banned from being imported….but there were more than a couple Korean opium users - even some of the Korean military if I remember right……
If anyone wishes to sponsor me, I would be more than willing to monitor the activities of Chosun journalists when they are abroad, particularly in the seedier parts of the world. These scumbags deserve to have the spotlight shone right back at them.
Well, foreigners, just be glad that Korea is not Singapore, where you would be caned and then hung for possession. Nor the former Ottoman Empire in Midnight Express.
I hear that Korean prison are pretty tame and lame. They haven’t outsourced foreigner incarceration to north of the DMZ yet, and afterwards, you can write a book about the experience.
“where you would be caned and then hung for possession.”
Where are convicted drug users “hung”? From meat hooks or clothes lines?
It’s his penal/penile obsession.
I hear that Korean prison are pretty tame and lame.
‘Lame’? What - as opposed to all the ‘cool’ prisons in other countries?
Bluejives, you could have entered into the main discussion - that dealing with the media’s representation of non-Koreans - but instead you simply took aim at a target that no one here defends. What, have you no thoughts on that far more substantive topic?
“Well, foreigners, just be glad that Korea is not Singapore, where you would be caned and then hung for possession. ”
Shouldn’t you be telling that to Koreans since they are the ones who are more likely to get caught with drugs here?
I agree with other posters that the writing between the lines is that non-ethnic-Korean foreigners are the evil ones to blame for Korea’s ills, despite the fact that the article in no way differentiates between ethnic-Korean foreigners and non-ethnic-Korean (aka “whitey and blackie”) foreigners.
Further to my point, I will also agree with others who have said the Chosun Ilbo is the Fox News of Korea. In this case, neither Chosun Ilbo nor Fox News will even pause before pandering to racism and nationalism in order to sell ads and attract eyeballs.
Fox sez : “beware the evil middle-easterners !”
Chosun Ilbo sez : “beware evil whitey!”
Both organizations know that racism disguised as nationalism sells.
It’s all about the money.
“I hear that Korean prison are pretty tame and lame.”
Really? Do tell.
The Korean Herald says:
>>A total of 7,709 people including 116 foreigners were charged for trading and using illegal drugs last year. It is an 18.2 percent increase from 2005.
Sorry, the link didn’t post
https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/06/07/200706070037.asp
Could somebody remind me again why the need to differentiate between foreigners who are ethnically Korean and those who aren’t?
#30, Probably because it is felt that they are identified as “foreign” when they engage in wicked behavior such as genocide or animal molestation, and identified as “Korean” when they walk on the moon, win the Nobel Prize, or cure the common cold.
“Could somebody remind me again why the need to differentiate between foreigners who are ethnically Korean and those who aren’t?”
We should not.
“Could somebody remind
me again why the need to
differentiate between
foreigners who are
ethnically Korean and
those who aren’t?”
Foreign English teachers of Korean ethnicity need it, though they cannot speak a word Korean lanfuage, either.
Chosun Ilbo sez : “beware evil whitey!”
Both organizations know that racism disguised as nationalism sells.
that’s stretching there. you’re a temp occupation tourist in korea. your race isn’t really an issue any more than it is for mcdonald’s employees.
koreans are xenophobic and in this case they are anti esl-teacherists (and anti us military), but they are not racist in the deep, ethnic sense which the term racism is usually associated with.
try not to throw around the word lightly. also, i’d really appreciate it if others here don’t compare themselves to immigrants in america unless you’re a person who’s gone to korea with the intent of starting a new life there, raising a family or has brought a family with you, in search of the Hanguk Dream and are not just a mere esl teacher. in other words, i don’t like false analogies.
Also consider instances like this one:
Hite Told to Stop Nationalistic Ads
It seems that it is easy for newspapers in many countries and business to play the cheap and dirty “us vs. them” game. Unfortunately, the only reason the Fair Trade Commission went after Hite was because another Korean company complained and Hite was really wrong to do what they did. If it was a foreign company, nothing would have been done, however I also think that this sort of rabid nationalism is disliked by more Koreans than not.
I need to warn my wife about these English teachers. She is traveling back to Korea next week. How can they be spotted? Do they use excessive drug-dealing terminology when giving examples of infinitives and a gerunds? Should she suspect the use of a dangling participle to be code for a shipment arriving at the docks? Chilling . .
soondae, that’s old-school grammar. These days, grammar-wise, it’s acceptable to tell it like it is.
[translation]soondae, the grammed-out order is ready for pick-up at the old school. Please excuse the light load last time; this shipment is acceptably on-weight.
“that’s stretching there. you’re a temp occupation tourist in korea. your race isn’t really an issue any more than it is for mcdonald’s employees.
koreans are xenophobic and in this case they are anti esl-teacherists (and anti us military), but they are not racist in the deep, ethnic sense which the term racism is usually associated with. ”
Not all Koreans are racist, I’ll give you that. My wife and son seem to like me very much, and so do others, in spite of my appearance. I like to think that the silent majority here isn’t racist (although other expats have argued with me about that one).
It isn’t ethnic? You obviously don’t get that Korean nationalism can be described–in its most common form– as ethnic nationalism. Does 단일민족 ring a bell?
Besides, xenophobia is a form of racism. Sheesh.
“try not to throw around the word lightly. also, i’d really appreciate it if others here don’t compare themselves to immigrants in america unless you’re a person who’s gone to korea with the intent of starting a new life there, raising a family or has brought a family with you, in search of the Hanguk Dream and are not just a mere esl teacher. in other words, i don’t like false analogies.”
Ironically, you accuse others of making false assumptions about Koreans while in the same breathe you make the same mistake about us. Most of the posters here are longtime residents of Korea. Many of us posters here are in fact ‘landed immigrants’ with all the rights and privileges that comes with it (I can vote in the Korean elections. What about you?). We aren’t the backpackers you want us so dearly to be so that you can sweep us aside like the rest of the people who dare to offer constructive criticism about our home, Korea.
Umm, unless I’m completely mistaken (beer is not my forte), there are two brewers in Korea — Hite Brewery Co., Ltd. (THE HITE), and Oriental Brewery Co., Ltd. (OB). Oriental Brewery is under control (I didn’t think they owned all the shares, but the paper — and Hite — says otherwise) of the Belgian beverage conglomerate InBev. Hite has a large foreign share ownership ratio as well. Unless Hite complained about itself, it was a “foreign company” that complained to the KFTC.
SomeguyinKorea,
Xenophobia is a form of racism? I disagree. I can grant that it can be racist but that would be a conditional property and not an analytical one.
To clarify, I think xenophobia can contain racism but in itself, unlike racism, claims nothing in particular about a particular racial or ethnic group; it intends no universal propositional constructs about a group on the level of race or ethnicity (ie that all x ethnic people are y in psychological character and necessarily inferior or dangerous), and can be seen instead as an attitude between groups of people based on metrics relating to geographical and temporal considerations only. In this way, it’s possible for Koreans (in the ethnic sense) to be xenophobic to Koreans.
The writers of these articles may be anti esl-teacherists and anti-foreigner but the last time I checked “esl teacher” isn’t an ethnic or racial group, even if the vast majority are caucasian. To be clear, esl teacher is an occupation, very much like “McDonald’s employee” is an occupation. Talking smack about these groups, no matter how unfair, wouldn’t neccesarily entail or proceed from racism which is obviously different; the above article is clearly xenophobic and it’s not racist.
Wrong. I didn’t have to accuse- I merely noted and replied to what’s been posted- and I didn’t generalize but I did assume something about one particular poster. Though, yes, I happen to believe that if you comment in these blogs (not just Marmot’s), chances are you’re an ESL teacher or used to be one. Call me irrational for making this assumption about a person in a thread about ESL teachers, but understand that my criticism doesn’t hinge on this. My comment applies to anyone who doesn’t understand why comparing the situation of an esl teacher in Korea to that of an immigrant in America is fallacious. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Martian reading this page, and bake pretzels for a living in Poland.
Heavens Brendon, I checked wikidpedia and they list OB as being Inbev but not Hite, but I do not know if this is a very recent listing of assets or not. Inbev’s site seems unreachable to me at this time. Maybe Korean netizens are running a DOS attack on them — who knows. I will look later.
You’re misreading what I wrote. Hite is independent; OB is InBev. OB had to be the party that complained to KFTC, and OB is foreign-owned. Ergo, KFTC responded to a complaint from a “foreign company”.
“To clarify, I think xenophobia can contain racism but in itself, unlike racism, claims nothing in particular about a particular racial or ethnic group; it intends no universal propositional constructs about a group on the level of race or ethnicity (ie that all x ethnic people are y in psychological character and necessarily inferior or dangerous), “
But Koreans do have peculiar ideas about people of other races. For example, more than a few foreigners have heard the notion that Koreans are more evolved than whites because they have less body hair. It has also been boasted that Koreans have the biggest craniums.
If we start grasping at straws we’ll find racism anywhere, but that would be besides the point.
What I find amusing here is that whereas I usually think of racism as a transitive, propositional attitude which one group may have about another race, you and SomeguyinKorea are thinking of it more in terms of how a people define themselves. I’m inclined to believe that reveals a lot about your experiences with racism.
Believing that people of another race who have body hair are less evolved is “a transitive, propositional attitude which one group may have about another race.”
I view racism as a terribly overused term. Racism is merely one form of bigotry, no worse or better than other forms, like sexism, homophobia, or religious intolerance.
Like I said, grasping at straws. I wish all racism in the world were as incisive as “i have less body hair and am more evolved” or the contrapositive “you have more body hair and are less evolved”. So you must be joking.
Regarding this point, someone on another thread here made the observation that Korean racism tends to focus on the superiority of “our” race as opposed to the inferiority (or even subhumanity) of others. This type of racism is quaint and innocuous enough—after all, who would argue that “we can feel emotions that others can’t” is morally equivalent to “they are less than human,” etc.?
Nevertheless, whatever its genre, if racism leads to discrimination, i.e., treating people differently based on their perceived race or ethnicity, then there’s a problem. People can think however they want. But they may not use that worldview to deny or diminish their duty to treat others with the dignity due them by virtue of their humanity .
“Ironically, you accuse others of making false assumptions about Koreans while in the same breathe you make the same mistake about us. Most of the posters here are longtime residents of Korea. Many of us posters here are in fact ‘landed immigrants’ with all the rights and privileges that comes with it (I can vote in the Korean elections. What about you?). We aren’t the backpackers you want us so dearly to be so that you can sweep us aside like the rest of the people who dare to offer constructive criticism about our home, Korea.”
Exactly, someguy.
“But Koreans do have peculiar ideas about people of other races. For example, more than a few foreigners have heard the notion that Koreans are more evolved than whites because they have less body hair. It has also been boasted that Koreans have the biggest craniums.”
I’ve also heard those things over the years - more times than I could count - but at the same time many Koreans seem impressed with (or obsessively curious about) body hair, and as for having a large cranium, this does not appear to be seen as a good thing by many. Very few individual Koreans I know brag about that one, women in particular, and should they happen to have a large head tend to be a little sensitive about it.
“To be clear, esl teacher is an occupation, very much like “McDonald’s employee” is an occupation,” said abcdef.
And many McDonald’s employees save $20,000 a year with 15 weeks vacation, too.
PS: I think you’re right to distinguish between xenophobia and racism. Unfortunately, no one uses the word “racialism” which could used for some of the lighter lifting.
“Xenophobia is a form of racism? I disagree. I can grant that it can be racist but that would be a conditional property and not an analytical one.
To clarify, I think xenophobia can contain racism but”…
But in some contexts xenophobia and racism is interchangeable. So, was I a victim of xenophobia or racism when people screamed obscenities at me about the ‘IMF’ in 1998? Was I a victim of xenophobia or racism when some old bastard started insulting me, thinking I was American just because of the colour of my skin? Was my son a victim of xenophobia or racism when other old men called my wife a whore in front of him because of his obvious interracial background?
One thing for sure: xenophobia isn’t always racism, but it certainly breeds it.
“Very few individual Koreans I know brag about that one, women in particular, and should they happen to have a large head tend to be a little sensitive about it.”
Actually, it’s supposed to be the ratio of body mass to the size of the skull. Throw them a curve; ask them if that means that people under the age of 50 are dumber since their bodies have grown, thus making the head smaller in comparison…Then quickly explain to them that it’s all Eugenics BS before you get into a fight.
“I wish all racism in the world were as incisive as “i have less body hair and am more evolved” or the contrapositive “you have more body hair and are less evolved”. So you must be joking.”
I didn’t use the word “racism;” I described these notions as “peculiar ideas about people of other races” and pointed out that these peculiar ideas fit your personal definition of racism. As I said, “racism” is an overused and misused term, one I avoid.
“To be clear, esl teacher is an occupation, very much like “McDonald’s employee” is an occupation. ”
Screw you. I’ve gone through 2 years of grad school at one of the most prestigious British universities to earn my degrees in TESL.
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