Or so says the Herald Gyeongje.
Some 24 forth and fifth generation Mexican-Koreans stepped foot on Dokdo yesterday, supposedly the first foreigners to do so.
I’m not even sure if that’s true — I seem to recall exchange students and foreign journalists going, too. But I’m way too lazy to check.
Anyway, the Mexican-Koreans were descendants of 1031 Koreans who arrived in Merida, Mexico on May 15, 1905 as contract workers to toil on the region’s henequen plantations. In 1921, about 300 of them moved on to Cuba in search of a better life. The blog From Stranger to Kin has more about the Henequen Koreans here.
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Really interesting. The link to the Henequen Koreans in Cuba more so than the Mexican-Koreans visiting the rocks.
Foreign journo’s and students have been there…but not sure if they have stepped foot on Dokdo…can anyone confirm?
Wouldn’t they technically be Korean-Mexicans?
How do you say “a tool” in Korean? As in, “Foreigners who are given tours of Dokdo are just tools.” I would really like to learn such a slang word in Korean.
I’d consider them basically Mexicans who have a curiosity of their Korean heritage.
#4:
I just learned “호구”, which in context we wanted to translate as “pawn”. I’m still not sure how it matches up with “sucker”, “stooge”, “pushover”. I hink the metaphor is supposed to be of a “softball” pitch, i.e. one that should be really easy to hit. Really not sure.
There have most certainly been foreigners on Dokdo before. One photo I saw taken there was of a group of foreign students (including one K-blogger).
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Considering Dokdo is part of Japan, plenty of foreigners have been there in the form of Koreans.
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Too funny red sparrow
Now you best run and hide for a bit
Seems to me I watched a youtube video showing some western tourists ( English teachers) on Dokdo Island a year or so ago. I’ll see if I can hunt it down.
I went to Ulleungdo with Adventure Korea back in 2005. We tried to go to Dokdo on a day excursion but the seas were too rough to land. We had to settle for a lap around the island instead. Am pretty sure there have been subsequent trips from AK and other tour agencies since then. Some of them must have successfully set foot on Dokdo.
There have most certainly been foreigners on Dokdo before. One photo I saw taken there was of a group of foreign students (including one K-blogger).
How could the Herald Gyeongje not know these were NOT the first but so many Marmot’s Hole commenters know there were others before?
The answer is that even though MH commenters make fun of Koreans’ obsession about Dokdo it is the MH commenters led by Marmot who are obsessed with Dokdo but for most Koreans it’s barely registered on their personal interest radar. What was that story about someone who couldn’t find Dokdo shirts in Dongdaemun but was told to look in Itaewon?
#4 whitey
#6 JG29A
호구(虎口) is originally a Baduk term: it means tiger’s mouth. It is used to describe the situation where a stone is surrounded by three enemy stones, and it is soon to be terminated by the opponents next move. Since the lone stone is surely to be terminated it can be compared to being in a tiger’s mouth. In present day it has become a common term meaning easy prey, or someone that is easy to fool or trick.
User-81: what makes you qualified to know whether or not it has appeared on “most Koreans’ radar”?
Didn’t the Japanese plant a big ugly flag on Dokdo while they were occupying Korea. I mean fucking Korea.
OP: “fourth” not “forth”
Has no one done the math? Fourth and Fifth generation Mexicans? Since 1905? And we’ll assume the first generation was born in the same year their parents stepped off the boat… did they all get knocked up at 20 years old, or what?
Has no one done the math? Fourth and Fifth generation Mexicans? Since 1905? And we’ll assume the first generation was born in the same year their parents stepped off the boat… did they all get knocked up at 20 years old, or what?
I have done the math. Even if the first arrivals delayed kids for a few years and then later generations started having kids at 25 they would soon be up to the sixth generation (there might be sixth or even seventh generation Koreans already). Unless I doubled the margin of error.
1905 first generation arrives in Mexico.
1910 second generation Koreans born in Mexico.
1935 third generation Koreans born in Mexico.
1960 fourth generation Koreans born in Mexico.
1985 fifth generation Koreans born in Mexico.
2010 sixth generation Koreans born in Mexico.
User-81: what makes you qualified to know whether or not it has appeared on “most Koreans’ radar”?
Nothing qualifies me. My comment was just a speculation I’ve began to have lately when I noticed how every bit of Dokdo news ends up here but Korean news reporters like the Herald Gyeongje don’t even follow it closely enough to remember foreigners already went to Dokdo (but people here know).
And I didn’t say “appear” on radar I said “register” on their radar. Of course any Dokdo news is on their computer when they open up Naver or Yonhap but I think most people’s eyes spend little time on it. But if Naver or Yonhap didn’t have that news then VANK would try to destroy them.
It’s just a speculation. Mainly I’m saying I think Dokdo news is a higher portion of stories at Marmot’s Hole than in Korean news media and Dokdo stories seem to get a lot of comments here.
It’s not that the Herald Kyongje may have gotten the “first foreigners on Dokdo” fact wrong, it’s the fact that that paper considers it a newsworthy item, which indicates that the paper believes its Korean readership would consider it interesting/newsworthy.
I think it’s useless to compare Korean mass media to the Marmot’s Hole, for obvious reasons.
But if you do, I would say only that by far the most interest in Dokdo on this site comes from three inexplicably Dokdo-obsessed people: Gerry Bevers, Steve Barber, and Mark Lovmo, none of whom I personally consider representative of anything.
@12,
Yea, I would say “sucker” is a more correct translation for hogu in its contemporary usage. Do you play baduk? I really want to play a real game, not online.
@17, 18,
You guys are both right. Like dogbertt said, Korean newspapers do think those dumb Dokdo stories are newsworthy — but newsworthy like, for example, Britney Spears flipping out and shaving her head is newsworthy. Like U-81 said, that type of news barely registers with the general public.
On that note, I would say singling out those three fine gentlemen about Dokdo is a mischaracterization. They definitely spill the most ink (or type the most words) talking about the topic, but MH’s general tone about Dokdo (not to mention that of, say, 80% of its commenters,) is: “Look how stupid Korean people are!” sort of tone. It’s neither fair nor accurate.
20. thekorean
I don’t play baduk, it just seems a little too complicated. I’m more into chess. But not lately, been busy gaming.
Have you played Crysis? I’m mentioning this because the enemy are North Koreans!!!!! It feels weird when I am killing my kinsfolk, who are cursing at me in Korean: “Die damn Yankee!”
The banner says “Dokdo is a particular territory of our race and the Republic of Korea”.
Strictly speaking Koreans had never lived on Dokdo nor had much to do with it, so it is funny it could be a source of racial unity between Koreans and their co-ethnics overseas. It is not traditionally part of their nationhood like Kosovo is to the Serb people (Kosovo is where the Serbs originate AFAIK).
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