Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Geckoman]

Korea Times Rocked by Plagiarism Scandal!

Turns out a Korea Times columnist plagiarized an article word-for-word from an article published in the Jakarta Post.

The Korea Times columnist�s article:
http://209.85.173.132/search?hl=en&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.koreatimes.co.kr%2Fwww%2Fnews%2Fspecial%2F2008%2F12%2F206_35527.html

The Jakarta Post article:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/11/11/from-rubble-modernization-choosing-our-own-paths-progress.html

Shame on this plagiarizer and on the Korea Times!

This is just another case to add to Korea�s already existing worldwide reputation as the land of plagiarism and fraud.

[victorology]

How did you find this?

That's pretty blatant plagiarism right there.

[spyro25]

so who is reporting the scandal, or did you just find this out for yourself?

if this is true - its not surprising giving the country we are in

[sarbonn]

You know, I read this article when it was printed, and I kept thinking to myself, "what a snot of a kid who thinks she's some kind of brilliant philosopher". I am SO GLAD to find out she plagiarized this thing because it allowed me to realize that she personally has no idea what she's talking about, AND it shows exactly what kind of university freshmen they have here, as this was the first in a series of articles the paper was printing from young college students.

Talk about totally messing up a constant column the Korea Times intended to publish.


By the way, she's not a regular columnist. This was a guest column and part of a series the Korea Times was just starting.

[Jeweltone]

I am personally willing to report the plagiarism to the original writer if no one else does (his email is listed at the bottom of the original article). Plagiarism is one of my pet peeves (how lazy can you get?). I have slaved over enough research papers and reports to know that if my work was borrowed without at least my permission (the economic part bothers me less), I would be seriously pissed off!

As a matter of fact, we are having an "epidemic" at my current college in the USA (do they think we are stupid?), and I am working on a presentation addressing how to deal with it from an instructor's point of view (I have just joined the MLA as well). I am in the research stages for my presentation (international copyright laws...fascinating...yawn) at the moment; it is a more complicated issue than it seems.

P.S. Modern students (US and Korean) do not generally give a shit about the moral issues of plagiarizing material; they do, however, perk up when the penalties and punishments for violating international copyright law are laid out for them. It is a felony, not a misdemeanor, btw.

I refused (subtly of course) to publish at one of my university gigs in Korea because I was concerned that my work would be plagiarized or borrowed from by certain other faculty members (Korean)...I have proofread enough junior faculty member papers to realize how widespread the problem is!

SO, anyone with me on reporting the "crime"?

[okokok]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=141136

[BillSmithinDaegu]

I found this plagiarism also on Thursday when I did a simple Google search for a random piece of the text. I was quite sure a 20-year old first-year university student couldn't have put together such a well-argued, well-supported (with diverse historical examples), grammatically correct essay on such a deep topic IN A LANGUAGE WHICH IS NOT HER MOTHER TONGUE!

I can't understand how the Korea Times could not have picked up on this.

By the way, I got a Korean co-worker of mine to report this to the Korea times (and they asked him how we discovered this!), and now it seems that the Korea times has taken this article offline. Additionally, I emailed the girl and told her what she did was illegal and she's probably gonna get kicked out of her university for this (not that I have any proof that that will actually happen) ... so she's probably pretty scared right about now.

The irony is the article is printed right under an article praising universities in Korea for their world status....

Cheers,

[Smee]

I'll probably fire off some angry emails to her and to her university next week when I get some time.

But let's just remember that nothing will probalby be "rocked." Plagiarism scandal is an oxymoron in Korea. The article has been removed and it will be business as usual.

[Jane]

[RACETRAITOR]

The writer of the original article found out and sent her an e-mail, according to the other thread.

[wylies99]

Makes you wonder how many other times it happened and they got away with it.

[Smee]

Well, the KT has a track record of running letters to the editor by writers with pseudonyms:

http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2008/10/another-fake-letter-in-korea-times.html


As I think I said on the other thread, somebody needs to write this up for another newspaper, and get it published in Korean if possible . Maybe via OhMyNews or something. Not to necessariily shame the girl to death (oops!) but to teach people stealing is wrong. Again this wasn't some podunk university or a village newsletter, this is supposed to be among the finest universities in Korea. If the public doesn't give her a grounding in journalism, who will?

Perhaps the best part of all this is that the girl did an internship at the paper she plagiarized from.

[Whistleblower]

I have already sent out an email to all those involved. Let's wait for a response shall we.

[RACETRAITOR]

[wylies99]

Wanna bet the Koreans simply close ranks to protect a fellow Korean against "foreigners"?