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A few of my kids laughed about the killings today...
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RJjr



Joined: 17 Aug 2006
Location: Turning on a Lamp

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm the only American where I work. None of the kids mentioned the shooting at all and none of them brought guns or anything.

One kid who I've taught for six months said that he was changing his name. His new name is a Korean name, probably his real one. It made me wonder if his parents were afraid of him becoming "too Americanized" after the shooting and having him stick with his Korean name. On the other hand, the whole English name concept seems pretty silly anyway and I was probably overanalyzing things.

A Korean teacher brought up the topic of the shooting this morning in the office. She was asking if he was Korean or American and that she was concerned about Koreans being able to get student visas in the United States now. One Canadian said that he was a Korean national. The Korean asked what that was and he explained that the Korean was in America on a visa kind of like how the Canadian is in Korea on a visa. I said that, from what I had read, the shooter's family had moved to America when he was eight and the shooter was in America on a green card, but he wasn't a citizen. Another Candian teacher said that the shooter was American since he was in America for so long.
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leebumlik69



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Location: DiRectly above you. Pissing Down

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

gsxr750r wrote:
Why are non-Americans so concerned about US gun laws? I have a feeling that it goes far beyond a concern for human life. In fact, I would venture to say that caring about human lives lost takes a distant second to other agendas.


Yeah, we're trying to make sure there is less resistance when we come to free you!

I'm not American and I want to see better gun control there as I don't like to see anybody get gunned down for no good reason.
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flint



Joined: 11 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

gsxr750r wrote:
Why are non-Americans so concerned about US gun laws? I have a feeling that it goes far beyond a concern for human life. In fact, I would venture to say that caring about human lives lost takes a distant second to other agendas.


Maybe because when something like this happens in America the rest of the world is inundated with news on it and the sounds of Americans crying "Why couldn't it have been prevented?" realizing gun control might help since the lack of it sure hasn't.
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leebumlik69



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Location: DiRectly above you. Pissing Down

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jdog2050 wrote:
blaseblasphemener wrote:
I think a lot of teachers in Korea, including foreign teachers, should be thankful for Korean gun laws today.


This is truth; Korean kids (and adults for that matter) are overworked, undersexed, and underdrugged. They are violence waiting to happen, some of them...that's not even counting the whole "super-bullying" phenomenon in Korea. I can't imagine this place with guns.

That said, I have a *little* more sympathy for these kids as...to be quite honest...I personally don't feel very much connection with this event. It's awful, horrible, and yet I find that without the constant media barrage (no tv/no cable in my apartment), I really don't feel all that connected to it other than in the sense that it's my country. Percieving this event from the eyes of someone completely foreign...how many AIDS jokes do people make? Starving african jokes? Muslim jokes? On and on.


No, lack of censorship, macho BS, inequality in education, segregation, racism, drugs, paranoia, scaremongering are only SOME of the other attributes that make the US the most violent "modernized" country in the world.

So, you're mistaken. Korea would need a lot more than just guns to get anywhere close to the violence of the U.S.
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Adventurer



Joined: 28 Jan 2006

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

leebumlik69 wrote:
jdog2050 wrote:
blaseblasphemener wrote:
I think a lot of teachers in Korea, including foreign teachers, should be thankful for Korean gun laws today.


This is truth; Korean kids (and adults for that matter) are overworked, undersexed, and underdrugged. They are violence waiting to happen, some of them...that's not even counting the whole "super-bullying" phenomenon in Korea. I can't imagine this place with guns.

That said, I have a *little* more sympathy for these kids as...to be quite honest...I personally don't feel very much connection with this event. It's awful, horrible, and yet I find that without the constant media barrage (no tv/no cable in my apartment), I really don't feel all that connected to it other than in the sense that it's my country. Percieving this event from the eyes of someone completely foreign...how many AIDS jokes do people make? Starving african jokes? Muslim jokes? On and on.


No, lack of censorship, macho BS, inequality in education, segregation, racism, drugs, paranoia, scaremongering are only SOME of the other attributes that make the US the most violent "modernized" country in the world.

So, you're mistaken. Korea would need a lot more than just guns to get anywhere close to the violence of the U.S.



You don't know unless Korea adopts the same gun laws as the U.S. After all, you only need someone who is so angry at his wife leaving to kill her and maybe his in laws. That kind of murders that happened in the U.S. could easily happen in Korea if the guns were available. You really don't want to test the possibility by having the same gun laws. I think it is stupid to have so many guns out there. There are so many stupid and crazy people in the world and the last thing you want is for them to have and that is a gun and it doesn't matter if they are Chinese or German.
These kind of people exist everywhere.
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ajuma



Joined: 18 Feb 2003
Location: Anywere but Seoul!!

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

gsxr750r wrote:
Why are non-Americans so concerned about US gun laws? I have a feeling that it goes far beyond a concern for human life. In fact, I would venture to say that caring about human lives lost takes a distant second to other agendas.


Because people from at least 5 different countries (not counting the US) were killed in the shooting spree. If you were a parent, would YOU want to let your child study/visit/travel in the US??? If that's a "second agenda", then so be it!
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pdx



Joined: 19 Jan 2007

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. My kids said nothing about it today.

My co-worker had some kids bring it up, and they chatted about it for a minute, and then they moved on.
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leebumlik69



Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Location: DiRectly above you. Pissing Down

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Adventurer wrote:
leebumlik69 wrote:
jdog2050 wrote:
blaseblasphemener wrote:
I think a lot of teachers in Korea, including foreign teachers, should be thankful for Korean gun laws today.


This is truth; Korean kids (and adults for that matter) are overworked, undersexed, and underdrugged. They are violence waiting to happen, some of them...that's not even counting the whole "super-bullying" phenomenon in Korea. I can't imagine this place with guns.

That said, I have a *little* more sympathy for these kids as...to be quite honest...I personally don't feel very much connection with this event. It's awful, horrible, and yet I find that without the constant media barrage (no tv/no cable in my apartment), I really don't feel all that connected to it other than in the sense that it's my country. Percieving this event from the eyes of someone completely foreign...how many AIDS jokes do people make? Starving african jokes? Muslim jokes? On and on.


No, lack of censorship, macho BS, inequality in education, segregation, racism, drugs, paranoia, scaremongering are only SOME of the other attributes that make the US the most violent "modernized" country in the world.

So, you're mistaken. Korea would need a lot more than just guns to get anywhere close to the violence of the U.S.



You don't know unless Korea adopts the same gun laws as the U.S. After all, you only need someone who is so angry at his wife leaving to kill her and maybe his in laws. That kind of murders that happened in the U.S. could easily happen in Korea if the guns were available. You really don't want to test the possibility by having the same gun laws. I think it is stupid to have so many guns out there. There are so many stupid and crazy people in the world and the last thing you want is for them to have and that is a gun and it doesn't matter if they are Chinese or German.
These kind of people exist everywhere.


Don't get me wrong. I think guns in any country is a bad idea. I agree on that.
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Cheonmunka



Joined: 04 Jun 2004

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't worry about sending the kids to the U.S.
We now send Timmy (Tae Soo) to the Philippines where he can have a good time with English really cheaply.
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Poktanju
Mod Team
Mod Team


Joined: 15 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Please keep the VT threads and any related tangents like these, in the main thread on this issue in the CE forum:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=84534
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