I have heard of the extremely long nights in the arctic but an extremely long year?  Copied from Vladivostok Times – March 16, 2010:

Not even remotely Korea-related, but entertaining nevertheless.

Oh, come on… Mickey Rourke? Really?

I can only hope this was when he was younger.

Koreans are naturally concerned about the enormous cost (time and money) to learn English.  It has long been drummed into their heads that English is the key to success: entering a good university and  subsequently landing a great job. 

This has been true ever since the 1880s.  During the Joseon period Koreans came to associate learning English with a rise to power.  But I must admit, I would be wrong not to note that there were two Koreans in Japan in the early 1880s and one of them told the other that he was going to learn English at which point is friend threatened him with death.  He reasoned that while learning Japanese was barely acceptable, learning the barbaric language of English was not.  But there were many who did.  Yun Chi-ho(wiki) studied English in Japan in 1883 and was the first Korean secretary at the American Legation in Seoul – he later went on to hold many powerful positions in the Korean and subsequent Japanese-controlled government. 

While English is the international language – there are some places, such as Vietnam, that see Korean as the key to their success.

Shin Sung-ryong, a senior at Yeungnam University, wrote about his experience as a Korean language teacher in Vietnam (date is unsure – 2020?).  One of the first things he did was ask his students why they wanted to learn Korean.  Naturally there were the typical responses such as “I am very interested in Korean drama, movies, and music, so I decided to learn Korean at a Korean University,” but probably the most telling answer was: 

“If I graduate with a Korean major, I will get a job very easily….These days, many Korean-run factories in China are moving to Vietnam and many Koreans want to invest to Vietnam.”

But not all of these students are looking to work in Vietnam.  According to Vietnam News (March 4, 2010) about 12,500 Vietnamese (guest) workers will be sent to South Korea this year.  Since Korea began this program in 2004, more than 70,000 Vietnamese have worked in Korea thus making it the number one supplier of guest employees to Korea.  These guest employees work in  manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fisheries and are, according to Employment Permit System (EPS) Centre Viet Nam general director Lee Myung-Hee, are “highly valued” for their “skills and hard work” by their Korean employers.

But being selected to be one of these guest employees comes with a cost.  They must first pass a Korean proficiency test and the successful candidates must then pay US$700 for completion of the required documents.  The article noted that the guest employees can then ”earn a monthly $900 in South Korea.”

Mr. Shin in his article described the daily lives of Korean-language students in Vietnam as:

They usually got up at six o’clock in the morning and arrived at school at seven o’clock. Classes started at 7:30 a.m. and finished at 11:30 a.m. They were very diligent. Most of them lived in dormitories; six to a room. Most of them didn’t smoke nor drink alcohol. They studied very hard (more than Korean students do), as graduating in Vietnam is more difficult than in Korea.

What may seem somewhat ironic, especially considering the stigma of Western teachers wanting more pay was this comment:

Schools with Korean departments need Korean teachers but their salaries are very low. Consequently, Koreans don’t want to work in Vietnamese Universities; perhaps the Korean government should expedite support for Korean teachers in overseas Universities.

Gangwon Province has been sending three teachers to Vietnam every year since 2008 as part of the plan to spread the Korean wave including dramas, music, traditional art and food culture, etc, and to further improve the relationship of Vietnam and Korea.  Last year, Deagu University invited 24 Korean language professors from 12 universities that offer majors in Korean language in China, Mongol, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan, to attend a two-week training coarse.  These are not the only programs involved.  According to this article “as of 2005, a total of 735 schools in 62 countries are providing Korea-related courses, including Korean studies and language programs.”

Are there any private tutors in Vietnam?  A quick search at find my favorite teacher revealed no Korean teachers in Vietnam but they can be found in Ireland and Australia.  Apparently there is also the opinion, at least according to JDOG2050, that Koreans who can’t get a job in Korea go to Vietnam to teach Korean.

And, of course, I just naturally have to link to this ESL board (old) in which the English teachers complain about working at a Korean school in Vietnam.

Now here’s something a bit different.  Conscripted Korean recruit falls asleep at the wheel, after an all night training excerise, and crashes into and through two cars and stalls next to a Bongo truck and a couple of SUVs.  More from Edmonton Journal:

“…the South Korean army tank was returning to base after an all-night training exercise near the border with North Korea. Suddenly, reported passersby, the tank quickly accelerated and veered off the road. It crushed two cars and smashed four trucks as motorists and pedestrians scrambled for cover.

One driver escaped death by mere inches, gripping the steering wheel and staring in disbelief — the proverbial deer in the headlights phenomenon — as the tank plowed through the passenger side of his car, leaving it a mass of twisted metal.

The tank eventually came to a halt after it crashed into a storefront and the engine stalled, say police. It was only then that the driver, Yeon Lee, 32, woke up. Lee was the only casualty, sustaining injuries to his head and chest.”

Photo from Orange Personal Communications (UK)

Read about the tragedy here.

OK, she came in only 14th, but Elene Gedevanishvili deserves a medal for something, right?

(perhaps NSFW, and be sure to keep scrolling)

I’m not particularly interested in EU politics, but this is a pretty amusing rant nonetheless:

Also via FP, tweets you probably shouldn’t be making if you’re the Israeli embassy in the UK.

According to a poll of 5,000 globe-trotting Britons, Americans were the world’s most attractive people:

The United States, home to George Clooney and Jessica Simpson, came top in a poll of more than 5,000 globe-trotting Britons.

In second place was Brazil while Spain, which boasts Hollywood actress Penelope Cruz as one of its natives, was third.

About this, Toby Young — wanker he may be — writes:

I’ve spent almost 25 per cent of my adult life in America and continue to spend at least a month there every year and, frankly, this poll is complete balls. I suspect that the vast majority of the respondents have never set foot outside New York or Los Angeles. The moment you travel in the “flyover states” you encounter a race of Ork-like creatures with low foreheads, hairy hands and torsos that look as if they’ve been pumped full of custard.

Ouch!

Even the young, thin, rich Americans you encounter in New York and Los Angeles aren’t all that good-looking. They certainly present themselves well, investing a huge amount of time and money in personal grooming, but the raw material is often fairly poor. I wouldn’t dispute that there are some genuinely attractive people in both cities, but they are nearly all foreign tourists.

Double ouch!

Granted, Mr. Young doesn’t rate his own dongpo very highly, either:

Now, any Americans reading this will think, “You can talk! You come from a nation of Hobbits” and I wouldn’t dispute that. The same survey had Brits at number seven on the list, which vastly inflates our attractiveness.

True, but then again, you guys did produce Keeley Hazell (NSFW), so perhaps that inflates the numbers some.

The only non-Western nations on the 20 nation list were India (#8) and — sit down for this, dear readers — Japan, which came in at #15. The only explanation I can find for the latter is that, given the nationality of those polled, the bad teeth quite possibly reminded them of home.

Anyway, also on the not-related-to-Korea-really-but-fun-to-read front, we have the Nine Douchiest Things Ever Said by John Mayer.

Read it on your own.