Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yaya]

To those who work at public schools, have you encountered teachers who blame South Korea for the sinking of the Cheonan and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island?

A survey has found that 43 percent of public school students in Seoul did not know that North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong Island or believed it was started by a South Korean military drill. Thirty-six percent were unaware that the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan was perpetrated by the North. On the Korean War, 26 percent did not know that the North invaded the South. These are what a survey found about 1,240 students at seven schools in Seoul Nov. 29-30, a week after the shelling of Yeonpyeong, conducted by the (South) Korean Federation of Teachers� Associations.

Thirty to forty percent of public school students do not know about Pyongyang�s provocation and 16 percent said on the shelling of Yeonpyeong, �We caused the shelling because our military conducted an unnecessary exercise,� or �(South) Korea attacked first.�

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2010120731428

[jdog2050]

[eamo]

It's not just teachers!

A lot of Koreans from all walks of life believe the truth about the Cheonan has not been revealed.

My two neighbors, 40-something guys who buy me dinner and practice their English, both don't believe SK's version of events. They say lots of Koreans don't buy the SK navy's story and that a common suspicion is that the other SK ship which, at first, was reported to have fired at a 'target' in a northerly direction was actually responsible for hitting the Cheonan.

Me? I dunno...not enough info......but don't believe that it's just lefty teachers who think this way.

[b-class rambler]

Not to say that there aren't any teachers who hold such views, but this is scaremongering garbage from a government supporting newspaper.

I'm fluent enough to understand all of what people are saying around me and I've encountered no teacher at all in my school expressing what could even be described as remotely NK sympathetic views over the incident.

Something else that any PS teacher will know is that lots of kids don't pay a massive amount of attention in class, or to current affairs and the world around them, even very close to them. So 43% saying they didn't know about it doesn't necessarily mean at all that they been indoctrinated with a view opposite to the one the Donga Ilbo wants them to have. With many kids, they could've had even the new defence minister going into class and lecturing them for an hour and you'd still get a decent percentage claiming not to have known about things he had said.

[b-class rambler]

[northway]

My ex was convinced that the US sank the Cheonan.

[nathanrutledge]

[Slowmotion]

I swear the north has propaganda running in this country as well. People hate Lee Myoung Bak and don't even know why when I ask them. Or they say he's not peaceful and all this recent violence happened because of him and that this stuff didn't happen with the two previous presidents, then I show them this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_border_incidents_involving_North_Korea

[discostu333]

80% of my co-teachers don't know how to speak English, keep discipline in class, or even tell the time, let alone have any informed opinion on current events.

[sulperman]

I liked it better back when I thought Americans (of which I am one) were exceptionally stupid. Somehow that was better than knowing every country has such a large share of blind/bizarrely biased/incapable of rational or logical thought/incapable of understanding the world around them in any meaningful way monkey people.

[b-class rambler]

[Capo]

I have some co workers who don't believe the choenan attack was NK, one such co worker has also recomended I read Karl Marx in the past - I was shocked.

However, I haven't heard anyone doubting NK started the latest incident...

[eamo]

[northway]

[Steelrails]