UPDATE: According to Gusts of Popular Feeling, News Daily seems to have attributed to AES founder Lee quotes that were, in fact, from a former member. From Lee himself:
New Daily article… Who is the person impersonating a cafe manager?
Don’t believe it!A few months ago at a meeting of ranking members we discussed the fear that someone might impersonate m2. Now this has really happened. It’s a shock.
Jeon Gyeong-ung and New Daily have made a mistake.
The manager in the article is not m2.
None of our cafe managers have TESOL certification or are English teachers.
This is a lie.Currently our cafe does not comment on activities related to foreigners’ dating and entertainment activities or foreign crime and club culture.
ORIGINAL POST: In a feature, minor Internet media News Daily points a flashlight at the den of vice and evil that is Itaewon, a “Paradise for losers where Korean women are ruined.”
It’s a long piece, and while it’s so good — and by good, I mean sensationalist and racist — that I almost want to translate it, I’ll just give you a money quote and summarize the salient points.
First, the money quote:
To write a contribution to the Wolgan Chosun in early October 2005, I covered crime by illegal immigrants. The founder and members of Anti-English Spectrum, who I got to know during the process, thoroughly conveyed the dark side of Itaewon that they’d seen.
The AES officials explained the reality of the clubs that dot Itaewon, the real nationalities of the foreigners that prowl about Itaewon and their attitudes.
Mr. Lee (40), the administrator who made AES, was an English teacher who got a TESOL degree in Canada. Through two days of interviews, he explained in detail the truth of Itaewon. When I called him up for the first time in a long time and asked about the situation in Itaewon, he answered, “Still the same.”
“Most of the foreigners prowling about Itaewon are ‘losers’ with no proper social life in their own countries. These XXX are toying with our country standing on ‘English.’”
Emphasis mine. And in the original Korean:
“이태원에 어슬렁거리는 외국인들은 자기 나라에서는 사회생활조차 제대로 할 수 없는 루저(Looser)들이 거의 대부분입니다. 그런 X들이 ‘영어’를 내세워 우리나라를 농락 중이죠.”
It’s OK — I get “lose” and “loose” confused all the time, too.
Ooo, this part was cool:
But Lee, who looked around the clubs, noticed the foreigners’ intonation, way of speaking and level of vocabulary was strange. When he talked with them, most of them were from underdeveloped former British colonies in Africa and Southwest Asia, or running away after committing crimes in their own countries, or social misfits who were not properly educated. Lee says they told him to his face that “Korean Pussy is Best!” “Best” was a sarcastic way of saying “easy.” Seeing this, Lee said he founded the group to inform people about native English speaking teachers and the seriousness of the English flunkyism raging in our society.
“We must see that of the foreigners going to Itaewon clubs, there are almost no normal foreigners. In particular, blacks and Southwest Asians hide their nationalities and approach women saying they’ll teach them English. They want one thing — sex with Korean women. And that, too, is perverted sex.”
Stuff I learned from the story:
- There are lots of Nigerians in Itaewon who act like they own the place. The Nigeria Alley behind Itaewon Police Box is dangerous and a base for Nigerian gangsters, and at any rate, Nigeria is a poor country with a low life expectancy and a high AIDS infection rate. They can come to Korea easily and try to hook up with Korean women to acquire Korean citizenship so they can more easily travel to other countries. Oh, and a big Nigerian drug lord seduced several women into becoming drug mules. Don’t forget about the subhead: “검은 무리는 섹스만 노린다”
- Southwest Asians also prey on Korean women to get Korean citizenship, also so they can travel more easily. Most of the men who enter Korea to do this come from Pakistan and Bangladesh. In 2003, the Korean embassy in Pakistan posted a warning to Korean women marrying Pakistani men, including a list of things to watch out for (including Pakistani men being allowed to have up to four wives, Pakistani laborers being poorly educated, etc.).
- Because the media isn’t reporting how dangerous Itaewon is, there’s lots of Korean women loitering about Itaewon on a Friday or Saturday night looking to hook up with foreign dudes. Government bodies and civic groups pushing multiculturalism and foreign tourism were blowing off the danger as racist rumor mongering, while journalists — by necessity socially critical — take a sympathetic view of foreigners and deny that any of the nonsense is going on.
- Ignoring Itaewon’s problems, women’s media were describing Itaewon’s clubs, bars and restraunts as places where young, attractive women can show off their youth with topics like “brunch,” “places to enjoy the exotic atmosphere” and “how to get a foreign boyfriend in line with recent fads.”
The story concludes, however, by warning, “Even at this moment, with the media and government ministries ignoring the problems of Itaewon like so, ‘sub-standard foreigners’ who want to turn Korean women into ‘sexual playthings’ are prowling Itaewon, preying [on Korean women].”
I’m going to barricade the door now.
{ 56 comments… read them below or add one }
Itaewon is the best place on Earth.
When I see items like this posted by the Marmot, frankly speaking, I can’t tell who the real “losers” are in all this. The writers who go out to cover stories like this, the actual subjects of said stories, the bloggers who write up posts about such stories, or the commentators who come out of the wood works to display their (by now) perfunctory, old-hat, largely rehearsed ire.
yup this is little bit racist… but it is telling the truth.
Itaewon is seedy and an eyesore, to be sure. But it’s rather tame and lame compared to Bangkok, Tokyo and even Beijing.
Is there a way to check whether Mr. Lee did receive a TESOL degree in Canada or not? Wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that he bought it or just lied about it?
I wonder how Mr. Lee and AES would categorize me. I must be scum too, because I did date a few Korea girls while I was in Korea. Heck, I even wanted to marry the last one, although my aim wasn’t to acquire Korean citizenship!
It seems like there’s idiotic, sensationalist media in every country…sigh
Not that I ever go to Itaewon – I probably go there once a year for a couple of hours if I need to purchase something there that I cannot get in other parts of Seoul.
I think Mr Lee’s tape measure was faulty. How could he call all the guys in Itaewon “Losers”. I am sure most of them are 180cm tall (well maybe not the south west Asians).
Mr Lee studied “TESOL” in Canada? He must have been rejected by every girl in Canada, to come back to Korea with a hatred to spend the rest of his life calling any foreigner here who dates a Korean girl a Loser and Criminal.
I wonder if Mr Lee is 180cm+ – someone should tell him who the real loser is.
i love itaewon…the hamilton hotel side. i’ve had nigerian guys come up and grab my female friends and dragged them to the UN club before. but having said that, i’ve had more encounters with drunk foreign “losers” in hongdae than in itaewon.
Wouldn’t it be great if reporters didn’t take things drunk people say in bars as representative of an entire ethnicity? Just saying.
If you can somehow get the NSETs to take what people with adolescent students say in broken English as representative of an entire ethnicity, you have a deal.
Now that’s not very nice.
The quality of nightlife establishments and clientele in Itaewon, particularly the street behind the Hamilton as seoulmilk points out, has gotten much better over the years. Hongdae, however, has suffered.
Put another way – GIs are stinking up Hongdae more and Itaewon less. The gradual influx of more Koreans over the years has helped too I think.
This guy is being painted as an authority on education and foreigners because he supposedly got a TESOL certificate in Canada? You gotta be kidding me.
What I did on my summer vacation:
One weekend I went to brunch with my girlfriend. After running out on the bill, I impressed her by showing off my fake degrees and using big English words I learned from watching illegal pornography. So impressed she was, we made quite an inappropriate scene in the middle of the street. I of course berated all of the puritanical older Koreans who told us we were out of line. Then I worked with a Nigerian gang to steal cars and sell drugs to babies. Jaywalking across the street I whistled at pure Korean women who I later sold to dirty Southeast Asian men with lots of AIDS. Finally, I went to a seedy night club where Korean women and white men were dancing lasciviously. I joined in and found several women who wanted me to tutor them in English illegally in return for sex.
Of the six years I’ve been fouling up Korea’s air, that was the best summer ever.
The only oddness is the dated style of the article. It reminds me of a period article from the late 19th Century in America or Britain about the “dregs of society”.
What a rag.
Whose byline is this — Mel Gibson?
P.S. Why doesn’t the “Newdaily” write about the sheets of wood, stacked up on the sidewalk around Hongdae which are commonly put down on the sidewalk for the drunks to sleep on — North Korean style.
So is this Hannara guy just some NET doing some trolling, is he Lee Eun-Ung, or is he Koreasentry’s sock?
BTW, Is not Eun-ung (은엉 I assume?) about the worst sounding name possible to the ear of an anglophone?
I’ve always disliked Itaewon; I think it and this Mr. Lee deserve each other.
Itaewon – Cheap suits, Good eats, and Fast girls.
The place has really gone downhill since the days of the 5000 won BJ ended.
On the upside you can still buy an ’88 Seoul Olympics t-shirt there.
Nostalgia.
A-hem lads, about face.
It’s always a little strange to see news abot AES, as that’s the company I work for, and we’re not anti-Engrish in the least.
(1) Most of the foreigners he “talked to” were from Africa or Southwest Asia, so therefore native English speaking teachers are bad. Got it.
(2) Not that it surprises me with the amount of lies that come out of his mouth as it is, but can’t he even tell the truth about the formation of AES? AES was not formed because of any imaginary encounters he had in Itaewon. For fuck sakes, the reason for the formation of the group is IN THE NAME of the group: Anti-English Spectrum! Yes, yes, that’s no longer the name of the group, but it WAS the name of the group in the very beginning. And if he did have problems with foreigners getting with Korean ladies, it wasn’t in Itaewon… it was the Mary Jane bar (in Hongdae?) and the photos of the wet- t-shirt contest that had his head explode.
How does he know this? People are not usually forthcoming with this type of information, especially with a stranger, especially especially with a stranger who is also a citizen of the country you are in; I guess it went something like this: “Oh, hello, Mr. Korean man I don’t know. Why yes, I do love Korea and kimchi. No, I can’t go back to my own country because I am a criminal and have no education. Korea–well, okay, Itaewon–is the land of MILF and honey, mostly because I have no proper social life in my own country!”
It’s good only for the obvious nickname of Lee Eung-ga. Fitting, too.
#24: Whoa, we’ve all seen this logic before:
Phase 1: Collect Underpants
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit
In this case:
Phase 1: Interview Nigerians and Pakistanis
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Form organization to stalk white English teachers
I love the double standard. Each year hundreds of thousands of Korean men marry women from poorer developing countries like Vietnam and the Philippines. But if a handful of Korean women marry men from S. Asia or Africa – these men are ‘substandard’ or ‘losers.’ Marriage and dating is a personal choice – none of this guy’s business. If he’s so jealous he should take one of those marriage trips to Vietnam.
That being said, I am curious as to what some of the Africans are up to in Itaewon, and Tokyo, too. On a recent trip to Tokyo’s Roppongi district, African guys were standing all along the street – I guess trying to attract customers for something.
That is a good question that I’ve often wondered about… what are the Nigerians and other Africans doing in Korea? I don’t see them outside of Itaewon, ever.
“They want one thing — sex with Korean women. And that, too, is perverted sex.” Mr. Lee went on to explain, “I’ve seen this perverted sex. I went deep undercover to find out that the sex happening in Itaewon is beyond missionary position. Sometimes oral sex is involved, and women are often brought to climax.”
@cmm: import/export or textiles is the answer given.
I know other Africans who avoid Nigerians like the plague.
why would africans want to live in korea?
Pawi,
Amongst the few that I met in my time there were factory workers, traders, refugees, missionaries, football players, business owners, students and families of diplomats. In short I would say they were looking for work/educational opportunities, to expand their business, to flee political persecution, to spread religion or to accompany family during a posting. Can I ask the same question you did then substituting your lot for African and the two western countries of which I am a citizen for Korea?
Pawii, I got your question, or at least I think I did when I assumed it was intended to be purely rhetorical.
america and australia are lands of immigrants. korea is not.
cmm, i just don’t get why people who would have no chance of fitting in would ever want to live in korea. for some reason that i don’t understand, i don’t have that question when it comes to whites. i don’t know why.
@ pawikirogii #33
guess what: it soon will be.
Question: is that a bad thing?
pawii, I completely understood your question. we are on the same page there.
no, as long as the immigrants can fit in. that means fellow asians (excluding the chinese). i also have no problem with white people who want to live in korea.
#26 – On a recent trip to Fukuoka I found that many of the bars catering to the expat crowd are owned by Africans. It made for a very cool (if a bit surreal) atmosphere.
Pawi,
What chance did first generation Koreans have of fitting in with white anglo American or Australian society? You take your examples mostly from English teachers, who are hardly indicative of anything, but could be seen in a way as first-generation migrants as they continue to retain their own language and culture and live in concentrations. Do you think the second, third or fourth generation descendants of them or Africans would continue as their parents did, or adopt more Korean ways. On the subject of Korean ways, though, I did notice a great deal of change in the time I spent there (2003-2008), if only due to the fact that more Koreans are spending more time overseas and being exposed to international phenomena. I think you might find that as much as immigrants would be changed by Korea, Korea would also be changed by them. Asking who would fit in then would not be so simple.
Just out of curiosity: In the title for the original version in Korean, they include Chinese characters that read ‘Itaewon.’ However, these are not the characters that are used in subway maps, etc.; despite the characters still reading ‘Itaewon.’ Is this just a case of there being more than one set of characters for the neighborhood? Or, is the writer/media outlet trying to make some kind of commentary (the first character they use usually stands for different, not sure what the second one is though)?
Thanks.
Mr. Lee once again shows the blatant racism that lies behind his stalking of foreign teachers. Do you really have to hit the Korean media over the head to get them to notice it? Its right there- stunning caricatures of foreigners, based entirely on “race” (an out-moded and misunderstood concept to begin with). While I don’t question there are some freaky goings-on in Itaewon, need I point out the plethora of love hotels and red-light districts that abound in almost every Korean town and village? Or, the Korean kiddy-diddlers that remain in teaching positions in the public schools? (Korean or not, the pedophiles should be punished.)
Apparently, Mr. Lee’s definition of a “qualified” foreign teacher is one that does not engage in any relationships with Korean women. In every article, he focuses on that again and again. The rest of it (drugs, drinking, etc.) is just filling in the details on his stereotypical, racist images of foreigners. What’s next? Is he going to go after the gays, too?
Mr. Lee is an unemployed, single Korean ajjushi. A case of envy and blue balls has managed to turn him into a racist hate-monger.
I think we have the right to form our own group- to follow (remember, its not stalking, just following) Mr. Lee, take photos of him, go through his trash, and keep tabs on his whereabouts. How about it? Anyone else up for it? We can set up a portal, and maybe a twitter account. I’m serious, folks.
This is quite embarrassing, this won’t happened if these Korean whores didn’t open their legs to anyone looking foreign. Most well-known Asian cities are sex heaven for foreigners anyway. Asian girls have very low standard when looking at foreign men.
Oi, chum. You’re the flippin’ sentry of Korea. If you ain’t patrolling the ville keeping the tarts’ legs together, then who is?
Quite so.
I mean, few of us are as studly as AES’s hunky Mr. Lee.
harryangstrom asks
The answer is in the article. To conceive/child/foetus is the second one. It’s saying it’s where the women go and conceive foreigner’s babies.
Given the choice between “low standard” foreign men and racist fuckholes like you, well, let’s just say you make it easy for them to choose us.
Having said that, I apologize for stealing your gf. Look on the bright side. I could have been Chinese and given you even more “reason” to hate them.
I must be in the spam trap. Could someone spring the last of my triple post about Itaewon’s hanja history? Thanks.
This thread is a classic example of the topic I am trying to gather info on. Comparing expat views in Korea and Japan. Would apprecaite it if you took a look at my last blog post at japonymous.com and leave your 2 cents. Thanks.
During my recent stay in Korea, I ventured into Itaewon because I had heard rumors that a certain white guy who wears a hanbok inhabited this neighborhood. Alas, I did not encounter this fabled creature.
NetKim,
You should have emailed this fabled creature and asked for a lunch or tea meeting. Lure him in by offering to discuss your new Nikon camera…
While the ratings system is still down, I’ll take the liberty of welcoming NK back to the Hole.
Thank you, Sonagi. You are a kind and generous soul whose magnanimity of heart is sufficient to heap burning coals upon the head of even the most die-hard curmudgeon.
Mr. who earned his TESOL degree in Canada has his testimony diverging quite a lot from my experience and observation. In my experience, 유창한 한국어 made it a lot easier for me to approach Korean girls than my English did. Many times English had a vice versa feedback in that it made the girls more apprehensive. But I don’t lurk in Itaewon nor the entrance to Hongik University often, so maybe the girl’s attitude is more area-specific.
“running away after committing crimes in their own countries”
Like the Korean-Canadian kid who murdered someone in Canada in order to steal his drugs, then had no trouble getting a teaching job at a hagwon in Seoul?
Granted that Itaewon has gone down hill since the early 90s (when it seemed more fun and less gay), it is not the only place in town where people are swapping body fluids and STDs.
I’m thinking it’s a case of someone at kimsoft.com figuring out how to recycle the SOS…
Itaewon’s actually gotten much better in recent years. It’s gentrifying, and many more Koreans seem to be visiting.
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