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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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desultude
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf
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 Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| dogbert wrote: |
| Speaking of the ignorance inculcated in Koreans in school and through their media, check this out. |
Yes, as indiercj pointed out, reading some history (and hangul is not necessary for that, as there are many books available in English) helps put things like this in perspective. But that takes work too, just as learning Hangul takes work.
Prejudice and ignorance are the qualities of lazy people- and lazy people exist everywhere, as we can well see on this board and this thread. People teaching their children to hate is a bad thing, to be sure, not understanding the context and the history is also.
By the way, you can still hear people in the U.S. trashing "krauts" and "japs", as well as "gooks". I have heard children in the midwest of the U.S. refer to Muslims and Arabs as "sandni**ers" and "towel heads". Laziness and ignorance abound throughout the world, unfortunately.
Freezer Burn, I hope you do find a highly enlightened country in which to live. I suspect that you would benefit from this in many ways. |
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Freezer Burn
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:53 pm Post subject: |
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I hope so Desult, I have the advantage of youth on my side, I dont eat galbi BB, and I dont think Korea is the bottom of the pack, havent been to India yet 
Its not really a bad school either,, I just have trouble finding the positives here, you have to really look, maybe I should open my eyes more. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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| dogbert wrote: |
| Speaking of the ignorance inculcated in Koreans in school and through their media, check this out. |
Those Koreans who made positive comments about Kim Jong Il are shockingly ignorant. One of them even suggested that Kim Jong Il is working hard for the reunification of the country! Hell, someone tell me how that can possiby be true. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Freezer Burn wrote: |
I hope so Desult, I have the advantage of youth on my side, I dont eat galbi BB, and I dont think Korea is the bottom of the pack, havent been to India yet
Its not really a bad school either,, I just have trouble finding the positives here, you have to really look, maybe I should open my eyes more. |
Gawddamnit, you go and say something redeeming and now I have to rescind my Jackass of the week award. Cripes, next thing you know Pyongshin Sangja will turn out to be an okay guy from Vancouver or something. |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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Listen, I ain't no moron and you might actually be surprised by how much Korean I do speak. No, I ain't gonna write in it to give you the satisfaction
You are taking my words out of context. Perhaps us learning Korean would help to combat racism, maybe Koreans would understand us better and fear us less. However, Korea's views towards the outside world are often in the depths of the abyss.
Sure, I could learn my colours, numbers, days of the week, polite requests, suggestions, maybe even discuss a few abstract concepts. Would that individual act stop Koreans from referring to us as shipal waegooknom, doong duaegi, kojengi, Miguknom and so on? Not in my lifetime.
I'm changing my story a little bit, but Koreans like Indiercj need to realise that despite their huffing and puffing the Korean language is not widely seen as something that should be studied. English is. Choke on it.
Hangul is not useless, it's just not well-known and aggressive attitudes toward foreigners don't make Korea or Hangul any more attractive.
Koreans are inculcated in the "oneness of the Korean race" from a very early age. How many women on this board come on and whine about how their Korean boyfriend's parents disapprove of them? How many times do you have to hear about what a great guy Kim Jong Il is? How many times do you have to teach English to rude, unco-operative, aggressive resentful students before you realise that you are just a pawn in a game of racism?
It's not your fault for not being able to speak Hangul after a year or two here, hell Koreans "study" English for ten years and can't even say their address in English, it's Korea's fault for being insular, blinkered and naive.
Last edited by Pyongshin Sangja on Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:24 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
One of them even suggested that Kim Jong Il is working hard for the reunification of the country! Hell, someone tell me how that can possiby be true.
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He's trying to free the South from foreign occupation and dominance from the puppets in Seoul (not this president, though...the previous ones). |
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indiercj
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 10:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Pyongshin Sangja wrote: |
Listen, I ain't no moron and you might actually be surprised by how much Korean I do speak. No, I ain't gonna write in it to give you the satisfaction
You are taking my words out of context. Perhaps us learning Korean would help to combat racism, maybe Koreans would understand us better and fear us less. However, Korea's views towards the outside world are often in the depths of the abyss.
Sure, I could learn my colours, numbers, days of the week, polite requests, suggestions, maybe even discuss a few abstract concepts. Would that individual act stop Koreans from referring to us as shipal waegooknom, doong duaegi, kojengi, Miguknom and so on? Not in my lifetime.
I'm changing my story a little bit, but Koreans like Indiercj need to realise that despite their huffing and puffing the Korean language is not widely seen as something that should be studied. English is. Choke on it.
Hangul is not useless, it's just not well-known and aggressive attitudes toward foreigners don't make Korea or Hangul any more attractive.
Koreans are inculcated in the "oneness of the Korean race" from a very early age. How many women on this board come on and whine about how their Korean boyfriend's parents disapprove of them? How many times do you have to hear about what a great guy Kim Jong Il is? How many times do you have to teach English to rude, unco-operative, aggressive resentful students before you realise that you are just a pawn in a game of racism?
It's not your fault for not being able to speak Hangul after a year or two here, hell Koreans "study" English for ten years and can't even say their address in English, it's Korea's fault for being insular, blinkered and naive. |
What the hell are you talking about? Where did I say Korean is or should be more widely studied compaired to English?
The only thing I said is that learning the Korean language would help you or anyone who want to know about Korea and Koreans. Are you suggesting that learning English would serve you with better information on Korea than learning Korean? Is that what you are trying to say? |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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| indiercj wrote: |
| Are you suggesting that learning English would serve you with better information on Korea than learning Korean? Is that what you are trying to say? |
A study of Korean history would not be significantly enhanced through a knowledge of the Korean language because Korea often lies about its history anyway. However, Korean is very useful for making Korean friends and attempting to understand the Korean psyche, and what makes these people tick. Learning Korean shouldn't be a prerequisite for gaining respect from Koreans but unfortunately that is often the case with foreigners based in the country. I can speak Korean at a lower intermediate level, and my vocabulary is probably above that. As a result I have found that Koreans often give me a lot more respect on an intellectual level than they otherwise would have done. Further, I strongly disagree with any implication that Korean isn't an important language. As an Englishman if I was able to speak the language of the world's eleventh largest economy fluently it would certainly give me a huge edge in the job market back home compared to other graduates. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| He's trying to free the South from foreign occupation and dominance from the puppets in Seoul (not this president, though...the previous ones). |
My sarcasm radar is flashing like mad right now. Please tell me it wasn't faulty. |
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Pyongshin Sangja
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: I love baby!
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 1:02 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Further, I strongly disagree with any implication that Korean isn't an important language. |
I didn't say Korean is unimportant, I said it is not widely seen as important. Whether or not I think it's important remains unsaid. Outside of Korea, how well known is Hangul?
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| The only thing I said is that learning the Korean language would help you or anyone who want to know about Korea and Koreans. |
Indeed it would. It does. Sort of. It's a double edged sword because it also lets me understand some of the terrible things Koreans say about foreigners. In the face of Korean racism, sometimes ignorance is bliss.
| Quote: |
| Are you suggesting that learning English would serve you with better information on Korea than learning Korean? Is that what you are trying to say? |
Actually, sadly, yes. Koreans would do well to read accounts of their own country by outsiders. It might give them some perspective. I know I've read European history written by Americans and vice versa, why are you suggesting that only Koreans can write about Korea? |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:12 am Post subject: |
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Korean does help, but you need hanja as well. Old documents don't lie like textbooks do. Chinese and Japanese would be the other two to know, and trips to places like Tsushima (�븶��) are invaluable.
Gwangjuboy, a country that writes distorted textbooks tells just as much about its national character as any other, as long as you have other languages / textbooks from other countries to compare it to. You can't see it in this image but this jolly boy is carrying the complete works of Kim Ilsung.
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| indiercj wrote: |
| And ByongShin, I'm not sure why a racist punk in US or elsewhere would make me stop learning English. After all learning their language would only help me understand what the historical and social backgrounds for these phenomena really are. |
What a dumb-ass idea. If somebody is an a-hole to you, that's going to inspire you to learn about their culture, history, and society? If somebody treats you like dirt you're going to feel motivated to spend a lot of time and energy to understand them? You must be a masochist or something... life is too short to waste it on jerks. |
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Jacobbm
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
Location: Location, Location...
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:46 am Post subject: |
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| Not to break up the nice thread, but going back to the OP, I also saw the video of the blind man falling/being pushed. Anyone know where this video can be found online? |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:11 am Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| indiercj wrote: |
| And ByongShin, I'm not sure why a racist punk in US or elsewhere would make me stop learning English. After all learning their language would only help me understand what the historical and social backgrounds for these phenomena really are. |
What a dumb-ass idea. If somebody is an a-hole to you, that's going to inspire you to learn about their culture, history, and society? If somebody treats you like dirt you're going to feel motivated to spend a lot of time and energy to understand them? You must be a masochist or something... life is too short to waste it on jerks. |
Yeah, that's why we don't need Arabic translators in the FBI! We only need intelligence about people we like. |
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indiercj
Joined: 30 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:33 am Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| indiercj wrote: |
| And ByongShin, I'm not sure why a racist punk in US or elsewhere would make me stop learning English. After all learning their language would only help me understand what the historical and social backgrounds for these phenomena really are. |
What a dumb-ass idea. If somebody is an a-hole to you, that's going to inspire you to learn about their culture, history, and society? If somebody treats you like dirt you're going to feel motivated to spend a lot of time and energy to understand them? You must be a masochist or something... life is too short to waste it on jerks. |
I am really sad to hear that. You are from a culture that invented the wonderfull word of "interraction". Yet, you don't seem to realize that it is actually a two-ways affair. Quelle Dommage. |
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