A one Mr. Ronald H. Hogg — or perhaps Ron Jeremy, judging from the email — offers some constructive, sensitively expressed criticism of Canadian expats in Korea:
As someone who has tutored a lot in Itaewon, Seoul, and worked with a lot of Koreans over my illustrious career, one thing distresses me to no end when I’m working in Korea: Canadian flags.
They’re everywhere. They’re sewn onto the backpacks of numerous drunken Canadians staggering in and out of nightclubs. They’re being waved by loud Canadians in the bars in Itaewon.
They’re on the clothing of Canadians selling marijuana. They’re all over the place, kind of like Canadian English teachers with fake diplomas.
Read the rest on your own.
The Korea Times Opinion Page: More Entertaining than Jerry Springer.
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s official, they’ll print anything in the op-ed section, even obvious scams.
If the KT will print anything, I think it’s time I tried my hand at fiction and see how far I can take it.
Hell, I was thinking of sending them something put together by a random word generator.
my money is on a troll especially given the email to show how stupid the korea times is printing anything anti-foreign
if so i bet the guy is laughing his ass off somewhere and having a few cold ones. if so i tip my hat to you
if its not a troll then it really makes me miss steve schertzer’s drivel
gotta be a scam to test what they will print
they really will print anything!
Let’s stop endorsing the continuation of KT crap editorial opinions by not adding links to the articles, or discussing them in perpetuity.
Most commenters agree that the offending contributors generally are complaining and negatively stereotyping certain types of foreigners or least of all Korean nationals, their hosts.
This s**t is becoming all too frequent, and less amusing, and if it weren’t for resourceful bloggers posting links, it might just go away or be justifiably marginalized. Like, I mean, who routinely browses the KT or KH back pages for sadistic laughs anyways?
Let’s not encourage the KT , and do continue some more worthwhile discourse here. Speaking of which, no ‘NSFW’ posts of late…..
I thought the letter was damn funny.
#4,
It’s obviously a joke.
#4,
The author might be one of the trolls who posts in the comments section at the bottom of the articles.
For someone who, I assume, is educated you sure do sound like an bigot. To generalize an entire people/country based on one overheard conversation and perhaps a few run ins with Canadians is a terrible way to make an assumption. While I admit most Canadians sew a flag on their backpack, we do so in order distance ourselves from you…from Americans.
Your complaints are about some people who get drunk, talk about women and are arrogant, while wearing the flag of their country,
I might complain about your people, who throw down 2000lbs of radioactive waste on a country. Depleted uranium outlawed by the UN with a half life of 2.5 billion years. Or the 300,000+ innocent civilians dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. I could hold you guilty of those sins against humanity…but I don’t. I don’t because to generalize an entire populace based on the policies of some retarded politicians would be erroneous.
Since you are in Itaewon lots, I will assume you are aware of the American Army presence that persists. You will also be aware that drunken 18-19 year old soldiers tend not to be on their best behavior, especially toward women.
So, I say again. We North Americans look a lot alike, some even act alike…but the reason we use the Canadian flags is to distinguish ourselves from the Americans. And people like you.
ok people stop going after the guy, its a troll and we all know it
Gumi_teacher, whom are you addressing? Do you understand how the internet works?
Gumi_teacher:”For someone who, I assume, is educated you sure do sound like an bigot. To generalize an entire people/country based on one overheard conversation and perhaps a few run ins with Canadians is a terrible way to make an assumption.”
So now you know how Americans feel when they are unfairly stereotyped by Canadians. Those who throw errant stones ougt to accept the ricochet.
Awesome. I would almost classify this letter as an Epic Troll, except that the KT is such a ridiculously-easy rag in which to get anything published.
THe letter doesn’t really sound all that serious.
Could be a prank that the KT editors didn’t get.
That letter was pretty sweet for a 5-minute effort. He covered: pot, K-Girls worshipping foreigners, foreigner disrespect of Koreans, fake diplomas – and he made a reference to “Sparkling.” No wonder they printed it.
I’d give it an 8.5-out-of-10. With some sober effort, someone could cover more ground.
I say we start a little competition to see who can get the most absurd and outrageous letter to the editor published in the KT.
“I’d give it an 8.5-out-of-10. With some sober effort, someone could cover more ground.”
Did you say that the author was not “sober”? Just as I suspected, he was a Canadian after all.
dokdoforever: bang on. I think getting a foreigner-hating editorial published in the KT is the Korea expat equivalent to those Yale boys trying to get their letters published in Ann Landers…except way, way easier.
What do you mean “could” be a joke. This guy obviously wrote this tongue in cheek, or maybe just cheeked.
This is the best writing I’ve read in an English Korean newspaper in months. Months!
Does the KT not have any native English speaking copy editors like the KH? I can’t see Matt Lamers falling for something so obvious and letting it into print.
I think it’s more similar to the equivalent of getting your letter published in Penthouse forum. All the KT letters are kinda like “I never really believed all those other editorials until one day…”
T-song and I are in agreement on this one.
Ah, the KT editors were suckered. Hehehehe . . . what a rag.
15. “The letter doesn’t really sound all that serious.
Could be a prank that the KT editors didn’t get.”
Satire is a foreign word in Konglish.
We supplied the bait, and you went for it. Hook, Line and Sinker. Keep ‘em coming!!!
I wonder what would be the best fake identity to use should you anonymously write a KT letter to the editor:
1) Canadian teacher who actually LIKES his American co-workers, sending a photo of the sewn USA flag patch on his backpack. Uses the word “dude” 7 times in 500-word masterpiece.
2) Native Korean female, late 30s and single, who reveals she frequents Itaewon yet admits she hates all foreigners. Story ends with: Go back to where you came from, you foreigners–that’s right, you heard me. You don’t belong here! You’re on the wrong side of the ocean!
3) Western Caucasian male who speaks flawless Korean but unlike any other Westerners who constantly brag that they know more than 5 words of 한국어, admits he pretends to not understand the Korean spoken around him.
4) Korean wife of Australian banker (who doubles as an English teacher on the weekends, ya know to pay for 학원비) rips off naieve 1,700-word rant, condiscendingly bragging about how her husband isn’t like the traditional “Australian” men she grew up watching in movies like Crocodile Dundee or what she imagined them as from eating at Outback. “I thought we’d be eating more kiangaroo, and I was grossly disappointed when my Chuseok offering of TomToms to him was unappreciated.”
5) Incredibly narcissitic and self-loating gyopo opining on his conflicted Korean-American existence in Korea, by relaying a recent anecdote with the ajumma with a purple shimmery pama whose spoiled brat son he does 100,000W/hr 과외. The gyopo lays out how he was deeply saddened when, after stumbling to answer with perfect Korean pronunciation the first wave of questions from the ajumma (age, girlfriend? married? why are you so fat?) gets asked by the elderly Korean woman: Where are you from? The gyopo answers his Korean home: 강남, to which the ajumma says: “No, really, where are you really from? Where are, like, your parents or ancestors from?”
In 8,000 word expose which later gets edited to 150 words, the gyopo, trying to understate the story’s morale, by writing: My choking tears of irony went unnoticed by Miss Purple Pama. Despite my 5,000,000W/month Apgu apartment, I am a man without a home.
Oh, sorry I blasted out the above post–I am really not a FOB, I just play one on the Internet. Sorry for my many misspellings, dangling modifiers and rambling incoherence.
Granfalloon (#12), I think that Gumi Teacher (#10) is actually Ron Jeremy and has a really big thing for the internet, with an intimate understanding of how it works . . . even if he does sort of gum it up occasionally.
Jeffery Hodges
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True story – I once met several American men in Itaewon with Canadian flags on their jackets. It turns out they were soldiers avoiding the midnight curfew. When the MPs came around to round up the boys before curfew they’d simply overlook the ones with maple leaves.
#12 Granfalloon
I am addressing the author of the opinion article…sorry I copy pasted an email I sent directly to him.
#13 Mizar5
If you had read my entire comment instead of the first 4 lines you would have read this…
“I might complain about your people, who throw down 2000lbs of radioactive waste on a country. Depleted uranium outlawed by the UN with a half life of 2.5 billion years. Or the 300,000+ innocent civilians dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. I could hold you guilty of those sins against humanity…but I don’t. I don’t because to generalize an entire populace based on the policies of some retarded politicians would be erroneous.”
Well, I don’t know about that, but isn’t it already common knowledge that Ron Jeremy has a ‘big thing’ for the internet, and has an intimate understanding of how it works?
@#10. You really need to get over yourself. Canadian righteous indignation is beyond boring. You need to take a joke for what its worth. Oh, and by the way, we have been victim to your pollution that has been dumped off Vancouver and has floated down into the Puget Sound. The little dick syndrome you guys suffer is pathological. Don’t worry; we will still protect you from the world’s bad people. Creep!
t_song: awesome.
You know, for awhile now I’ve been thinking of trying to start an internet rumor. My idea is that the USA chose the red white and blue colors of their flag for the sole reason of driving up global ink prices and making it more difficult for Korea to produce Korean flags. Maybe the KT would be a better platform for my foray into trolling.
Mr. gbnhj (#32), I don’t know either — not for a fact, anyway — but since Ron Jeremy’s words in the Korea Times were so obviously a parody, Gumi Teacher couldn’t have missed the humor except by pretending to be tone deaf, but who would want to do that? . . . unless Gumi Teacher is actually Ron Jeremy (aka Mr. Ronald H. Hogg). QED.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
This is so funny and obviously fake. My friend and I used to send random messages into the classified sections of some of the papers here, just to see if they actually read any of them. Here are a few gems:
LOST & FOUND
“Found: quiet corner. Now leave me alone.”
FOR SALE:
“6 tables and 1 chair. Misordered.”
WOMEN SEEKING MEN
“Successful, attractive, wealthy woman looking for an ugly, opinionated man for arguements that I WILL win.”
I think the odds are good this was written by a Canadian. I know many Canucks who are embarrassed by the flag-on-the-backpack types. As they should be.
Didn’t mean to sound disagreeable, jefferyhodges, so apologies if it came off that way. I was just playing off of what you wrote about Ron Jeremy’s ‘big thing’.
On the subject of Canadians and maple leafs, this video is pretty funny. It’s been out for a while, but I don’t know why the blogs and whatnot haven’t picked up on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzPLXxx2tkI
(sorry, don’t know how to make a link)
Mr. gbnhj (#37), I didn’t take your comment as disagreeable. I was trying (a bit subtly) to draw out Gumi Teacher, just to see if he’d confess that his ‘serious’ and ‘offended’ comment was itself a parody.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Ah hah hah, keep up the good work Funkoffan.
Oh….I get it. It is a satire. My first gut reaction was to be offended. I am not familiar with Ron Jeremy, but now that I have looked him up on youtube ,google and other new fangled internet devices, I understand.
It is a satire. Since Mr. Jeremy is a pornstar, it is doubtful that he would be an English teacher too.
That isn’t quite true. Remember the Korean English teacher who was a porn star in Canada and was outed by one of her students who found her on the net while looking at porn (will let someone else find the link).
More from the British gestapo state. Think you should be allowed to take care of your elderly mother? Think again.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1173325/I-numb-I-Daughter-blasts-Gestapo-social-services-bundle-mother-86-family-home.html
Gumi Teacher, your most recent satire is the best of all. Especially this:
“Since Mr. Jeremy is a pornstar, it is doubtful that he would be an English teacher too.”
We know — because the Korean media constantly tells us — that this is not doubtful at all! All English teachers are wannabe porn stars.
I, of course, teach Amerikanisch.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
And Gumi_teacher, if you had read all of my comment instead of just the first 4 lines (ok so my comment WAS only 4 lines), you would not have read this:
“So now you know how Americans feel when they are unfairly stereotyped by Canadians.” Canadians, that is – not you. Certainly you are far too sober to be a real Canadian.
Someone really should try and write something that would push the boundaries of absurdity, and see if it gets published.
Ron Jeremy, the real one, has a master’s degree in education.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Jeremy
Someone already has, and gets published regularly. Look up the name “Rick Ruffin” and read some of that mess.
My theory is that the KT has a disgruntled copy editor on staff who simply lets this shite ride in secret revenge.
A certain columnist of initials [cough] M.B. [\cough] had a good one a year or two back in which he discussed the origins of the F-Word, and used said uncensored word a number of times. He did it to see if they’d print anything he submitted without editing it, and guess what?
Quite narrow minded in my opinion. I think his fatal flaw is making reference to ITAEWON. I’ve traveled through 5 continents and some of the sketchiest people I’ve ever met were in that specific part of Seoul. Of course you’re going to encounter arrogant Canadians there. I am Canadian myself and I do get annoyed by fellow Canucks thinking the Leaf gives them a free pass to act like clowns in public. But limiting this perspective to Itaewon is like rating the 1980′s Edmonton Oilers in a game where Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Fuhr, Anderson, Lowe etc. were injured.
I live in Korea now and I know a countless amount of Canadians who don’t condone that kind of behavior.
And the small Canadian Leaf joke at the end???? He makes himself sound like a Junior High student who has just seen his first episode of South Park.
#15
Could be a prank that the KT editors didn’t get.”
Satire is a foreign word in Konglish.
This “satire” would only make sense if
A. You’re a Waeguk.
B. You’re a Waeguk who has been mind-warped by the Department of White Boys as an Oppressed and Marginalized Minority in Korea Studies which is the Expat blogosphere and who thinks that publishing a Canuck-bashing article in the Korea Times, which is read only by foreigners, is somehow a clever act of one-upping The Man and not a self-PWNage.
I really don’t see how the average Korean can be expected to pick up on the subtle double-entendre. I mean come on now, a mustachioed Jew named “Hogg” pretending to be a “well endowed pornstar”? The irony seems to be escaping the attention of many here as well.
Dude, come on.
You’re right on A. You pretty much have to be a waeguk to get it. But that’s the point. All this is is either 1) an American making fun of some of his Canadian friends. If this is the case, he probably showed the printed version to said Canucks and they all laughed about it. Or 2) a Canadian making fun of other Canadians, of Americans, and of the general US-Canada rivalry as played out in Korea.
Your desire to bash expats is getting in the way of you appreciating (or not) some simple expat-on-expat humor. Dat’s it.
And I’d also like to point out that Ron Jeremy is indeed a Jew.
“And I’d also like to point out that Ron Jeremy is indeed a Jew.”
You know what happens when a Jew with an erection walks into a wall, right?
.
.
.
.
.
.
He breaks his nose.
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