Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

Every old-timer on this forum has seen Koreaphiles (those who love Korea) and Koreamysists (those who hate Korea) slinging mud at each other.

But to what end? No one has fallen on his knees and said, "Please forgive me! I'll say anything you want! Just stop slinging mud at me!" It is unlikely that either party will wipe out the other party any time in the forseeable future.

How, then, should we relate to each other?
I have a few ideas:

recognize that we all differ in heredity and environment

I'll go first. I am as autistic as all get out. I lost very little by becoming a stranger in this culture because I was a stranger in my own culture.

That makes it easy for me to operate for long periods of time without getting homesick. It's probably not so easy for psychoneurologically normal people, and I try to recognize that.

On the other hand, it is impossible for me to become psychoneurologically normal. I ask the Koreamysists to recognize that.

empathize with the other person's feelings first and save the brainwork for later

The Koreaphiles' favorite slogan seems to be "love it or leave it." But no Koreamysist is going to listen to us if we don't first recognize their feelings. Most Koreamysists are probably going through troubled times, and they need compassion more than they need instruction in logic.

The Koreamysists' favorite slogan seems to be "you can't judge a book by its cover." Yes, I know, the President of South Korea is a very congenial-looking fellow, and that's probably why he got elected. And yes, I've seen the headlines recently, and I realize that his congeniality doesn't run as deep as some people figured.

But none of this has anything to do with the Korean language, which I find intriguing, or Korean music, which I find intriguing, or Korean children's books, which I find intriguing.

If you want to tell me about crooked business and crooked politics in Korea, save it for a time when I'm not enraptured.

view this conflict from the evolutionary standpoint

We all feel the need for an enemy. For better or for worse, this is a trait which has been handed down to us from prehistoric times. Koreaphiles don't see the Koreans as an enemy, so they pick on the Koreamysists. We need to be conscious of this.

Koreamysists probably see the Koreans as an enemy, so they see Koreaphiles as an ally. They need to be conscious of this.

We cannot wipe out atavisms overnight, but we can deal with them intelligently.

recognize that Koreaphilia and Koreamysy are matters of degree

I don't like corn as a pizza topping either. And I certainly think that foreign language education in Korea is less than ideal. So this would be a perfect chance for a Koreamysist to say, "Ha! So you don't think Korea is perfect either! So why don't you pack up your bags!"

In order to prevent such a retort, I try not to tell Koreamysists to pack up their bags.

[wylde]

[VanIslander]

"Koreamysists" has to be the ugliest word I've ever seen at Dave's and I can't seem to get past it.

I dislike that word more than I dislike it when people dislike Korea.

Tomato, I prefer your old loser-whiner distinction for its realistic, (though antagonistic) mutually subjective, name calling.

And there was a great thread on apologists, where "apologist" was discussed.

BTW, the other term "Koreaphiles" is misleading because "phile" has to do with having knowledge of a subject, not a pro-attitude, so it suggests that lifers could be Koreaphiles as well as negative-minded about Korea.

[shakuhachi]

Lets remember that many of the people here that get labeled anti-Korean do not consider themselves to be such. Some people here seem to think that any bad thing that a foreigner says about Korea or Koreans means they are anti-Korean, whether what they are saying is true or not.

I was labeled anti-Korean for my thread on the Japanese Occupation of Korea. I presented some facts that might seem unfavorable to Korea (but only if you have an anti-Japanese axe to grind). What followed a couple of weeks later was another thread by a kyopo, "gyopoboy", who couldnt handle the truth. He posted a link to a Korean site full of supposed "Japanese atrocities". I showed conclusively that many of the photo's were unreliable and a number of them outright fakes. Check out the thread and see for your self.

I guess what I am trying to get at is that I am put into the anti-Korean box for pointing out blatant falsehoods. The truth is anti-nothing, just the truth. I guess gyopoboy and the likes still thinks im anti-Korean. He certainly didnt comment on the faked photo's after going to all the trouble of starting a thread where he would "prove" the Japs are bad.

Oddly enough, everyone outside this forum considers me a Koreaphile.

[seoulmon]

Hmmmmmmm....I really think you spend too much time thinking Tomatoe.

But my two cents: I think some people have a reason to hate Korea (I don't but I can understand).

Korea is a stream: your either on the boat and going in the right direction OR your off the boat, in the muddy water trying to swim upstream.

Where are you? Are you on the boat or off?

[coolsage]

That's an ugly-looking word that you've attempted to coin, and hopefully it will never gain any currency. Clearly you're not familiar with etymology. Or linguistics. But you pass yourself off as a teacher of English. Grab a dictionary, and get real.

[jajdude]

Well an unnecessary word perhaps, and not a pretty one. But then don't slag someone about being a teacher if you have never actually met him... he may be brilliant at his job.

[scarneck]

So, what would be the proper words for what he's trying to express?

[Ghostinthemachine]

[Zed]

How about a game of British Bulldog?