If you’re bored of the Seoul torch relay violence stories, skip this post. If not, read on. If you’re a C-borg linking in, be forewarned: you won’t like what you’re about to read.
Chinese netizens aren’t too pleased to hear that the Korean government plans to arrest and deport violent Chinese demonstrators who [...]
The Seoul Shinmun reports that as the number of foreigners in Korea skyrockets, more and more foreigners are getting screwed legally due to language and cultural differences.
Case #1: Mr. M, a 33-year-old Canadian English teacher in Ulsan, helps a drunk bar patron who fell down the steps, applying medicine to his bleeding head and putting [...]
When you take out your garbage, be sure to use the correct bag, lest something like this happen to you.
OK, so you’re sitting in some bank in Namdaemun, a large bag of money with you.
Next to you sits a foreigner. He notes that you’ve dropped some money.
You go to pick it up, but while you’re distracted, the foreigner’s buddies comes and takes your bag of money. When you finally notice, it’s too late.
You are [...]
April 24, 2008 – 12:52 pm
Mongolians in search of the Korean Dream are learning Korean by the ger-load:
English may be the most popular foreign language in Korea, but in Mongolia more people take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) than the TOEFL. The TOPIK is a Korean language proficiency test for non-Koreans, supervised by the Korea Institute of Curriculum [...]
April 24, 2008 – 11:00 am
Northport, NY, native Alia Sabur,19, will join the faculty of Konkuk University next month after she finishes a short-term stint teaching math and physics at Southern University in New Orleans.
At Konkuk University, Sabur said she will take part in classroom instruction, but will also focus on research into developing nanotubes for use as cellular probes [...]
Like Brian — who has a full write-up/commentary on the Sexy Mong girls’ battle against evil blue-eyes and interracial relationships (or at least when they involve Korean women and foreign men) — I watched “Sexy Mong” last night. Or at least the end half of it.
But I missed “the scene.” Actually, I didn’t even know [...]
In you haven’t read it yet, check out Korea Beat’s translation of a piece of brilliant undercover reporting by the Weekly Chosun on Itaewon’s foreigner-only bars.
(HT to GI Korea)
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April 16, 2008 – 11:32 pm
I swear to God, you can’t make up stuff like this. It’s like living in an irony-free zone sometimes.
In the first episode of season 2 of CGV TV’s “Sexy Mong” series (think Korean adult comedy meets Charlie’s Angels), the Sexi Mong girls — including Djamilya and her continued oral fixation — head to that den [...]
The government has released the details of its plan to hire gyopo students and students in Korea-related majors as English teachers for rural districts.
Under the program, called Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK), led by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the government plans to hire about 500 teachers among ethnic Koreans and students [...]
And in the KT, English teacher Steve Schertzer in Busan tells English teachers — and businessmen — to stop Westernizing Koreans. Here’s some of it:
It is no secret that many of the foreign English teachers come here with an agenda.
Like the U.S. government, which unabashedly send troops to different nations to spread democracy, many native [...]
April 11, 2008 – 11:56 am
I know what you’re thinking. “Oh no, not another gyopo bitching about hagwon hiring only white folk.”
Fear not, however. This time, we have gyopo bitching about discrimination that favors Korean citizens over them.
The Busan Ilbo tells the sad tale of young Mr. Yang, a 25-year-old Korean-American who hasn’t quite finished his four-year degree from UCLA. [...]
April 11, 2008 – 11:18 am
In OhMyNews, Michael Solis, a visiting researcher at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, looks at the dilemma faced by foreigners thinking of getting tested for HIV in Korea:
If you are a foreigner residing in South Korea who has ever toyed with the idea of determining your HIV/AIDS status, then prepare yourself for an [...]
As any regular reader of the Marmot’s Hole knows, Brendon Carr doesn’t want to field inquiries from English teachers. But that’s not because he hates English teachers: It’s because they’re calling the wrong place for help. Today Korea Law Blog recommends a good quasi-lawyer professional whom English teachers should be calling for help. If [...]
Rabbi Osher and Mussia Litzman have come to Seoul to open Korea’s first Chabad House, a Jewish community center set up by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
Although it’s probably not in Rabbi Litzman’s job description, I do hope the center helps in the prevention of certain, ahem, misunderstandings that pop up from time to time.
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Former Brewers manager Jerry Royster, a journeyman hired by a struggling team, has gotten the Lotte Giants off to a good start with a new style of aggressive baseball:
Only a week ago he was known merely as Korean baseball’s first foreign manager, a journeyman hired by a lackluster team that ended next to last in [...]
First you have this little opinion piece in the KT from an English teacher upset about the media running sensational stories about “foreigners” (read: English teachers) engaging in mischief. I found this line particularly amusing:
Such generalized, judgmental stories are causing ordinary people to have unwarranted prejudicial assumptions regarding the foreign guests of Korea. Such stories [...]
The Education Ministry is pushing a plan to use overseas Korean students and “foreign” students in Korea-related majors as after-school English teachers in rural areas.
The ministry plans to implement the program, designed to help alleviate the shortage of foreign English teachers in rural areas, beginning this summer vacation.
The ministry noted, however, that it would be [...]
The Education Ministry’s National Institute for International Education Development (NIIED) wants to hold a dialogue with the newly formed Association of Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK):
National Institute for International Education Development (NIIED) President Rhee Taek-soo, 55, said that the agency will have open-minded dialogue with the fledgling Association of Teachers of English in Korea [...]
Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will begin sending foreign English teachers to a 2-month training program in Gapyeong, starting in May:
Seoul education authorities have started to train native English speaking teachers to improve on their English teaching ability. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Tuesday, a 2-month program at its English education center, [...]
