Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EFLtrainer]

May I point out, not to diminish the lack of educational rectitude one finds in Korea, that Stephen Jones was forced out at BYU for his 911 research and opinions?

[The Great Toad]

It's a mad place where a Puffed Up Pride Filled Fat Rude American Clown can make 3 grand a month and sit on his poor students
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=754733419
-and be asked to please stay or return another year while an intelligent thoughtful non-conformist is asked not to renew.

[three-legged dog]

[mindmetoo]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Mashimaro]

http://www.occidentalism.org/?p=443

For those who are interested, I was informed by E-mail on December 23rd that my university, where I have worked for the past six years, would not be rehiring me as an English instructor. I may have more to say about his later, but for now I will just post the letter that I received from my department head:

게리 선생님께

어제 교무처장에게 다시 전화해서 선생님과의 계약문제를 빨리 결정해달라고 재촉했습니다. 오늘 아침 총장, 처장들이 참석하는 회의에서 선생님과의 계약문제를 의논한 결과 다시 계약하지 않는 것으로 결정을 냈다고 합니다. 제가 교무처장으로부터 연락을 받은 것이 오전 11시 쯤인데, 그때 제가 학회참석 때문에 대전행 기차안에 있어서 바로 연락 못드렸습니다. 조금 전에야 집에 도착해서 연락드립니다. 제 생각에는 아무래도 독도 문제로 인해 학교에서 이런 결정을 내린 것 같습니다. 이런 소식 전하게 되어서 저도 마음이 좋지 않습니다.

Teacher Gerry,

Yesterday, I called again to the Dean of Academic Affairs and urged him to quickly make a decision on your contract problem. This morning, at a meeting attended by the president and the deans of the school, your contract problem was discussed, and it was decided that your contract would not be renewed. I was informed by the Dean of Academic Affairs at about 11 a.m. At the time I was on a train to Daejeon to attend an academic meeting, so I could not contact you right away. I am contacting you now after having arrived home just a little while ago. I think there is little doubt that the school made this decision because of the Dokdo problem. It also hurts me to have to relay this news.

[Hollywoodaction]

Someone posted at the Marmot's Hole that according to Korean law, an employer cannot refuse to resign the contract of an employee when they have established a working relationship that has spanned over years unless the employee has commited a major infraction. Writing you opinions on a blog does not cut it.

[sumfunu]

Gerry has lots of courage, but he is in the land of small dicks and narrow minds( I hope that markhan is reading this ). It`s okay to slag donw the U.S. or slag down " Zapan " or openly make fun of " foreigners ", but try to present a logical, fact based argument that does not go along with the " same-same all " thinking of Koreans and the nutbars come out of the woodwork. Most of the Korean netizens are cheese-dick kids who have been force-fed distorted, self-serving " history ", but wait, what am I saying ,only " Zapan " distorts history...yeah right .

[skindleshanks]

Just another reminder why, if my kids ever decide to attend a Korean university, they will not get a penny of support from me. Also why uni gigs are overrated, imho.

[slow_life]

[Mashimaro]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Pesonally I really wish that Japan would just relinquish all claims on Dok-do as a sign of good will, but hearing about things like the above case sure doesn't make me keen on supporting Korea's cause.

[Adventurer]

I do have a problem with some of the self-censorship that goes on in the U.S. media. Many stories are killed by the media. For example, Tom Fenton had stories about Binladin long before 9/11 but his network wasn't interested because of foreign stories cost money. This restricts access to information. That is very different from what happened to this professor, but get the same result. And, of course, someone brought up Bill Maher. He was basically taken off the air over pressure from some ad execs.
Professors get pressured if they have opinions different from jingoistic circles. Professor Finkelstein used to teach at NYU, but he kept getting harassed for his views that didn't fit the views of some in his community.
There was also an Islamic professor who was a Swiss citizen who was invited to speak at a university, and wasn't even allowed in. Some high school student was questioned by the FBI in Cali because he wrote the words PLO some years back and his parents weren't even present.
Korea is a very nationalistic country sometimes in a scary right wing way, but it happens in our neck of the woods as well, but it is not as bad.

[ed4444]

The university probably decided that if the guy was stupid enough to post using his real name on a website constantly monitored by the netizens, he could be stupid enough to embarass them in a wholy myriad of ways.

Clearly his teaching wasn't of a high enough standard to warrant keeping him when he was obviously a liability. If he was an excellent teacher they would have been satisfied after warning him that he wasn't going to embarass them again.

The netizens are fickle and would have moved on to another target soon.

[Vancouver]