Brian Deutsch, the man behind Brian in Jeollanam-do, is heading back to Migukland:
The man once dubbed the angriest blogger in Korea is hanging up his gloves.
Brian Deutsch, whose “Brian in Jeollanam-do” blog put Korea’s south-western province on the map for many “expatizens,” is moving to America this month.
He leaves behind a popular blog, which was noted for its news and insights into the southwest region, and which was occasionally quoted in mainstream Korean media.
Brian’s blog has been one of the best out there; unfortunately for Brian, he’s also taken more than his fair share of shit for it. This is pretty sound advice, too: “I wouldn’t advise against [blogging] but I would advise them to know what they are getting into. I would advise caution; you’re in a place where netizens are powerful.”
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Thanks Robert for the kind words and for the support over the years. It’s been a privilege reading your site and participating in the quote-unquote Korean blogosphere.
The article’s out a week before I planned, so no time to write anything longer yet. I’ll be blogging regularly for the next month or so, and will keep the blog open when I’m in the US, but will be doing about 5% of the posts I do now. Blogging takes up a lot of time, as you know, and it becomes harder to spend that time writing about Korea when you don’t live there anymore.
We’ll see what happens.
I, too, would advise caution. You’re in a place where netizens are gullible, narrow-sighted, knee-jerk reactionaries.
Pawikirogii – 1
World – 0
Good move Pawi, and sorry to see you were forced to close your comment section on your blog. Good luck with whatever you have going on there.
Sorry to see you leaving Brian – I always enjoyed your postings – even if I didn’t agree with them all. It seems that we are missing or will be missing a lot of the great bloggers.
Thanks Mr. Neff.
lol@ how my first comment has a +1 rating after 5 votes. A fair number of people dislike me saying “thanks” I guess.
And what’s wrong with being a reactionary exactly ?
I enjoyed reading the blog, but enjoyed the comments on it about as much as a youtube comment thread.
Brian: I read your blog from the beginning, man. Like day two, when only your family was checking it. It started out as a standard issue anti-Korean BS blog. But you did it every day, which in blog terms made it worth reading.
But you attracted the most dipshit following you could ever hope to have. The month 2 in Korea and hating people bumping into them in the subway and-noticing-that-there-is-Konglish-type-of-people.
I don’t dislike your general message and all that, but I have been turned off from your blog from day 1. Or day 2. Or whatever I said.
You are like a light that draws a bunch of retarded flies- the light itself is not a bad thing- light needs to exist to counter darkness-but the flies need to die.
That said, you don’t seem like a bad guy, and I read your blog everyday, so you must be doing something right. But it makes me feel bad reading it because everybody who comments on it is human shit. How does that make you feel?
Easy come, easy go. It’s always the way…isn’t it?
THIS is why Korea doesn’t change.
For those celebrating the blog’s closure keep in mind Brian did much to publicize tourism in his neck of the woods. Don’t see anyone else picking up the slack.
Robert- you aren’t leaving to “Migukland” any time soon, are you?
Nah… not enough pretty brick buildings in Long Island…
CMM –
It kind of makes it hard with two “Robert”s – but which one of us were you asking? I am toying with the idea.
The quasi-shuttering of Brian’s blog is a huge loss. Despite what seems like a cottage industry of expat blogs dedicated to “explaining” Korea popping up like meth labs in some red state rural community, there’s still only a dozen or so that are actually worth reading. Brian’s was most definitely one of them. More importantly, when he latched on to a story, he covered it thoroughly and thoughtfully, and returned to it with updates. That alone was remarkable, since too many bloggers seem to have ADD when it comes to following up on stories.
And if in the whole whacky blogging process Brian wound up pissing off a few people, well, it comes with the territory, and probably upped his street cred exponentially. I don’t know Brian, but I wish I did. Instead, I’ll just wish him well.
DLB
Fixed it for you. I like you and your blog, but I suspect a number of MH commenters don’t owing to frequent posts with content critical of someone or something Korean.
That generalization reflects you, not the blog. What is there to say about someone who continued reading a blog that turned him off and comments by “human shit” that made him feel bad?
Maybe I’ll see you on the plane, Mr. Neff. The original question was more for Robert the Host.
My comment that said “Everybody is being so reasonable! Let’s have a group hug!” received a few negative marks, so pretty much there you have it. Pay no mind to it.
Anyone else think Brian somewhat resembles Yie whatever from anti-English Spectrum? Their features are eerily similar.
Yes, a sad day for Korea, but a happy new era for the Punxsutawney Burger King.
your blog was just about being negative. you took korea’s hot button issues and made minced meat out of them. you shouldn’t be surprised the koreans, in turn, made minced meat out of you.
ps thanks cmm, for the support but i don’t understand your scoring.
This is unfortunate because I only found Brian’s blog about six months ago…and now it’s ending. That’s just grrr-eat. Well, I guess all I can do is laugh about it.
As for the uber-nationalist trolls, I can’t see how a blog that regularly posts on the beautiful aspects of Korea, such as photos of historical sites and the Korean landscape, can qualify the blog as anti-Korea. There are very few places where an English-speaking foreigner can receive such thorough information about the Lighting Festival in Gapyeong or the Boseong Tea Plantation Light Festival. There’s nothing wrong with throwing in an occasional critique. In fact, I think it encourages other people to “see it for themselves” especially when it involves a foreign culture.
Blogs. More of a reason to be an asshole than not, as far as comments go. Not exactly a tool for the progress of humanity.
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