Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Stacy]

Aren't they more afraid they will OD on Starcraft? Has any Koreans died from mad cow disease? Every essay I get from students always talk about Mad Cow Disease. Are they aware of any other social issue? All the Korean kids talk about how Koreans can get mad cow disease from U.S. beef but Americans cannot.

I have only recieved one insightful paper on this issue by one student.

Here:

[mikekim]

No sh!t. This entire country is going to have rampant lung cancer and they are worried about a disease that no Kroean has ever died of.

[CentralCali]

Because they being told to be afraid of it. The issue is who's doing the telling. Their hidden agenda isn't even cleverly hidden: they're the very ones against the US trade pact. There is no credible science backing their assertions.

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, Penn & Teller's take on MCD.

[beast]

It's just because US beef is cheaper and therefore Korean farmers will either have to lower their prices or raise the quality. So they make this mad cow thing into a frenzy so that people will be scared to buy the US beef. They make up complete lies on Naver about mad cow. One article said that a Korean guy went to L.A. twelve years ago and ate the beef and then he came back to Korea and died of mad cow. Complete lies!! but people believe it. Next thing you'll hear is that US beef causes bird flu.

[rhinocharge64]

For every 10 essays I get on mad cow disease, I got 1 on bird flu!! Apparently in the U.k. we have mad cow disease, I explained that was 20 yrs a go. They said they didn't believe me, I said fair doos. Also, we import blood because us Brits are scared that our fellow Anglo Saxon does have bird flu. Yep, we are all just waiting to die. Oh, and you Yanks will kill millions of the locals with your mad cow disease, because they even put American beef in ramyon and the capsules on tablets even have American beef on them. It's all true unfortunately and they don't seem to give a monkeys about bird flu. Oh, and these are adults, educated to a very high level. The mind boggles!!

[rhinocharge64]

Sorry we Brits don't have Bird flu we have mad cow disease, that is why we import blood for transfusions.

[ryouga013]

They were lied to by the same media that has brainwashed them into believing in fan death.

[big_fella1]

They are afraid of MAD COW disease because it is foreign!!!!

There may also be some anti FTA action in this!

[seoulsucker]

It's an emotional issue because historically, Korea has been a farming nation. Rapid industrialization has only left a single generation between the plow and the cubicle, so any political issue regarding agriculture is going to hit a soft spot.

What worries me is how far people are willing to go to stop US beef from being sold here.

All it takes is one disgruntled (or well paid-off) beef industry worker pouring in a capfull of God knows what into a vat of ground beef and all the fears will come into fruition.

Here's how I see this playing out. Someone does the dirty deed, thousands of people get sick, a few die. The investigation traces the source of contamination to a Korean industry worker. Despite no problems with the original product, US beef will be banned again.

[Drew345]

I had a Korean friend try to tell me about mad cow disease in broken English, but he didn't know the word for "mad cow disease" so he just used a lot of gestures like falling over.
I just said I have no idea what he is talking about because I don't watch Korean news. So that kind of left it like it was a Korean thing which really irritated him.

[Tjames426]

I am more concerned about getting the bird flu from Korean chicken.

[SOOHWA101]

I am now very reserved on this topic. I hold back quite a bit.

One thing that is right on the tip of my tongue when I get a little heated though. I just can't seem to tell them that I had to get "shots" just to come here.

[Stacy]

I asked one of my students how many people have died of mad cow disease and he said, "none yet." I wish a lightbulb went off in his head but I saw nothing.

I gave them an essay question, If you could meet the to the Korean President what would you say or ask? - all of them started talking about mad cow disease and were upset about importing US beef. For the other class I told them they couldn't talk about mad cow disease or else they would get an F. They just sat there not knowing what to say. Finally one said he would ask the President about computer games. I think these Koreans have an unhealthy obsession about fitting in on every social issue and even hobbies. None could come up with their own social issue they wanted to solve without support from their peers and that is just sad.

I tried to help them out by telling them they could talk about crime, healthcare, dokdo (island),

[jajdude]

[chriswylson]

whereas you, jajdude, certinaly don't unthinkingly gobble up what CNN and MTV tell you. Not at all.