Not being one of the “enlightened progressive population” of the Bay Area (see comments), I have no fucking clue what any of this KT column means, but the man does have soul:
(HT to Hamel)
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English Books on Korea... and More!
Enlightened Bay Area Man Writes KT, Plays ‘People Get Ready’
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on June 4, 2008 at 4:47 pm, filed under Ministry of Barbarian Affairs. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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27 Comments
Anyone want to parse the Op/Ed piece for me?
He lost me at Chinese not invading China, and Western neo-colonialists/the UN splitting Korea in 1948, and the Koreans fighting back.
Holy cow!
Does he teach writing at Kukmin?
He grades ‘em on clarity. If there’s too much of it, the kids get an F.
Damn . . . wow . . . I mean that article reads like a opium dream; I think he has been licking toads or smoking something.
Umm…huh? Both video and article.
Let that be a lesson. Never hit the send button until after you come down off your high.
when i read that i thought it was steve schertzer’s sock
proof positive immigration need to drug check the foreign teachers
Todd Saed - live, from the streets of Santa Cruz to your son or daughter’s classroom.
(Note: Possible limited engagement only. Synaptic connectivity not guaranteed).
the KT lets any dipshit send an opinion and prints it
i mean look at his picture for gods sake
Yeah, it does kinda discredit KT that they would run a piece that’s basically two steps away from stream-of-consciousness. There’s more to good writing than being grammatically correct, and I don’t mean being eloquent. I mean just getting your point across, which Mr. Saed didn’t, not with me (and it’s my job to take poorly written articles and figure out what they’re about!).
But, as a fellow failed-musician-turned-English teacher, I have sympathy for the guy. Maybe he’s just off his meds. Get ‘em next time!
The KT has a long history of giving column inches to nutbar English teachers and English-challenged Korean writers. I remember one in the mid-90s where a Canuck blamed U.S. culture on increasing levels of violence in Korea (actually, come to think of it, that diatribe was somewhat sane compared to this clown’s scribblings).
And then they print quality stuff like Lankov and Breen (although the SOBs dropped Neff). Go figure.
“The meta-point is Korea is not the strongest power in the world ruling most of the economies as the U.S. does, so it is good for her to be nationalistic, and cultivate Korean traditions, while modernizing at the same time, the best of both worlds.”
That is truly interesting syntax. Is it the apotheosis of a vortice? But this:
“Thomas Szasz has books like the Myth of Mental Illness, where he shows that so-called mental illness is a recent diagnosis, and represents, as Wilhelm Reich would also explain, projection and repression, in other words those who call others crazy are themselves crazy. No need to say anything bad about anybody, we are all in the same horse herd they say, not crazy.”
is crack.
From what I could gather there seems to be references to US beef. Seems the KT tried to dredge up any non Korean they could find to support uri nara. Its reminiscent of 2002 when you had all of these fictious sounding letters to the editors suggesting strong support from Americans for the Korean point of view on the accidental death of the school girls. Its just one more sad chapter in that sad so called newspaper. One wonders if its not time for an Oh my news online type newspaper for expats in Korea. Daves general discussion does something like this, but in the imagined version, we would have more first hand accounts. KT with apologies to Andy, is not a good paper. It has a couple of decent writers, but nothing like English language papers in Hong Kong or Thailand.
“Frankenstein never scared me.” “Marsupials do…. ’cause they’re fast!”
#9:
You went way to far with you comparison. To compare this article with stream-of-consciousness writing is a little far fetched, and it is also a grave injustice to stream-of-consciousness writers. I’ve read prose written in SOC that is Pulitzer material next to this.
“Gibberish” is more appropriate in my opinion.
Did the KT actually spend money to print this in actually paper, or did it just appear online?
Wow.. that was painful.
Perfect example for a writing class - in the negative sense.
I read it a couple of times and still don’t know what it means. I do, however, feel somewhat dumber for having done so.
That guy Saed is a real idiot… I feel sorry for his family, friends, and the parents of the children he
mentally abuses, er,molests, um, I mean teaches…What you wanna bet he is the guy your mom warned you about?
Live from the shared teachers’s office of Kookmin University!
“I got the Mad Cow blues!
I got the Mad Cow blues!
Don’t eat that beef Chul-su
cuz what it did to me boy
you know, it’ll do to you!!
Everybody!
I got the mad cow blues!
I got the mad cow blues!”
Yes, it is never, ever a good thing when Gertrude Stein seems to make sense in comparison to the editorial page of the Korea Times.
I pity the students who study under him.
Also, perhaps Immigrations Officials might want to check that his drug tests are up to date.
“Mr. Saed, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this blog is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
-with thanks to Adam Sandler
damn, KT website crashed
My opinion of Kookmin Daehakyo (admiration for having Lankov on staff) has changed. How could a univ. hire a teacher who writes like that and keep him more than a few days after they discovered the thinking problem? This guy is a total Froot Loop!
#23 He ain’t the only loony tune working at a Korean university. Trust me. Sometimes, I think every Korean university has to fill a quota or something.
In all fairness, though, he could be a perfectly well-adjusted guy who simply can’t write for beans.
Watched the video. Won’t read the article. Even if it’s better, it’ll still be bad.
That’s uncharitable. I thought the video had its merits. And Todd should be happy - his views on youtube have quintupled since the posting!
Marmot is right - the man does have Seoul!
#26- perhaps you’re right… I listened again… he’s pretty good. I was just annoyed that he dropped 1/4 beat every time he switched between the harp and singing. He’s probably much better with a band.