Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shoeboy]

Anyone read the article on Daves today in the Korean Herald? This is the second time in a week that there has been an editorial on English teacher web pages that bash Korea. Todays mentioned Daves by name and quoted an "article" on here. Hope English teachers arent starting to get a worse rep here because of this.

[eamo]

[Guri Guy]

It is the view by some on this board that it doesn't matter what the average Korean thinks of us foreigners. It certainly bothers me though. This trashy journalism just makes it harder to live here. Is there a link for the article?

[laogaiguk]

Oh screw them. You ever read any of the Korean, or worse, half-Korean (Kyopo) ones. Talk about racism against even whities, let alone other races. I don't read them that often, but you can sometimes find good info about studying a language. Asiasfinest.com is one absolutely wonderful example, though most people on this board got banned once people realized they weren't half crazed wackos. Anyways, this board is tame compared to a lot of the net (on any subject).

[tzechuk]

Link, please?

[jeffusensei]

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/archives/result_contents.asp?id=200607260013&query=dave's

hope that link works...

Authored by Sebastian Harrison...sounds like a waygoogin.

Harrison's article might be a bit over the top but some of the stuff I see on Dave's is the most racist tripe I've ever laid eyes on. On the other hand, it's also one of the most informative and useful websites for living in Korea. C'est la vie.

[Hater Depot]

laogai, I don't know what your experience was there, but AsiaFinest is hardly some cesspool of racism. And I don't know of any English teacher being banned there.

[Guri Guy]

Yeah. I checked out Asianfinest or whatever. That is a truly crazy website. Asians tearing into each other and everyone in between. Koreans, Japanese and Chinese bashing each other repeatedly. This forum is very tame in comparision.

[Guri Guy]

Here is the story.

The seven deadly sins



Envy. Wrath. Sloth. Greed. Gluttony. Lust. And pride, the root of all sins. Dante Alighieri, the author of the three epic poems, "Inferno," "Purgatorio," and "Paradiso," defined excessive pride as "love of self, perverted to hatred and contempt for one's neighbor."

According to an article on Dave's ESL cafe, the fact that Koreans take pride in their 5,000 year history is "amazing." Listing every American contribution to Korean society in painstaking detail, the author pours scorn onto Korean achievement, even trying to argue that anti-Americanism is incomprehensible in light of such incredible American advancements.

As I read this ridiculously biased article, a quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came instantly to mind: "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius." Restricted by his own pride and obviously his location (surely a larger city) - the author's own limitations bind his understanding of Korea. Is it so sinful for another country outside of America to possess a fierce sense of national pride?

If the author was to have investigated Korea's history thoroughly he would surely, if he craved balance and understanding, not think that Korea's pride is so sorely misplaced and believe that "since Korea invented diddly over the years, everything one sees about them on a daily basis is a Western import."

Did he stop to consider that Koreans laid the foundations of the world's first printing press? During the Goryeo Dynasty, amid rich cultural developments, and more than 200 years before the invention of printing types by Gutenberg of Germany, Korean craftsmen succeeded in molding metal types for the first time in world history.

The last Korean dynasty, Joseon, (1392-1910) produced many advancements: the first Asian sundial, the world's first water-powered clock and the world's first rain gauge to name a few.

Of course America has contributed an incredible amount of intellectual and scientific advancements that are not restricted to the Korean Peninsula. And some Koreans also have an inflated sense of pride. Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, the global stem-cell pioneer, was revered with an almost god-like status. His fall and subsequent disgrace laid Korean pride bare for all to see. Yet excessive pride, the root of all sins, is not characteristic of all Koreans as the article implies. In my experience here in Gimcheon, humility is surely more apt a description for Korean society - the virtue to oppose the vice.

The article is not an isolated incident. There is no sweeping generalization being made here. It embodies what this page has been trying to expose in recent weeks. On unregulated message boards littering the internet, dangerous opinions spread uninhibited and unchecked.

Of course freedom of speech must be protected - yet the English teaching profession is suffering from the irresponsible actions of a few. Selecting an article to question was one of the easiest tasks I have ever undertaken, and one of the most disheartening. Of course it is easy to criticize and difficult to be correct as Disraeli rightly observed, but we are playing a dangerous game that may well undermine everything that we fight for: cultural understanding on a common ground, a mutual education and exchange.

Articles such as the one looked at here dig the grave of English teaching here in Korea. Biased, ill-judged, arrogant, unsustainable and ultimately farcical, the article argues that Korean pride is misplaced. It is the author's pride that is misplaced.

([email protected])

By Sebastian Harrison

no

2006.07.26

[Homer]

Just read the article.

Overall it is a poorly written piece. But the author makes a few valid points such as: Of course freedom of speech must be protected - yet the English teaching profession is suffering from the irresponsible actions of a few. .

These few are both Foreign teachers and Korean journalists out to hit a ratings homerun because sensationalism sells...thats just a fact.

Now, some of these online discussion boards to let people voice a load of crap at Korea that would never fly in other forums of discussions. All of this in the name of freedom of speech. No one can deny that some people write the most horrid and detrimental crap about Korea, Koreans and whatever Korea topic they can find. Would you not react were your people called retarded, idiotic, or some similar insult?

Just read the regular threads that pop up on this very discussion board about Korean men, Korean women, Korean teachers, Korean kids, Korean food, Korean this or that. Some of these threads pose valid discussion points, many quicky sink into base bash fests. No wonder some netizens who read the boards get angry.

The two TV shows mentioned in this thread were bad media in its purest essence: real but isolated events applied to a whole group of people.

No one can deny that some of us give the rest of us a real bad name through actions and deeds. The fact that the media takes this and runs with it is sad and pathetic. But then again...this is the media we are talking about....

[rhys01]

[Homer]

rhys...that is certainly true and I think thats the point being made about discussion boards in general.


I don't think anyone is trying to say one group of people is worse or better than another when it comes to unregulated online forums.

It is a case, in my opinion, of bad and bad.

[Qinella]

I like how this jackass poses like he's doing all this to help the ESL community recognizes our wrongdoings. What a farcical sack of shit. His main criticism of the 5,000 year history thread focuses on the OP's lack of balance. Um... what about the numerous posts in that thread which BROUGHT BALANCE to the issue? What about his own hypocritical lack of balance in his article?

It's hard to imagine a person with such low ethical standards that they'd write the kind of tripe he pawns off on unsuspecting Korean readers.

I'm going to write an email to him and his editor to explain my opinion that he's damaging the ESL community more than any post on Dave's ever could by giving the threads more exposure and treating them unfairly. AND by generalizing with single posts.

In the meantime, we should make as many threads critical of Korea as possible, because it's obvious it makes this guy lose a lot of sleep, and we should torture him for being the underhanded testicle lump he is.

Q.

[flotsam]

Edited for unconstructive silliness.

Remaining transcript follows:

[Homer]

It is, by all accounts, a poorly written piece with some accidental good points being made.

I am sure the author did not intend to make those points...in fact..he does not seem to have a real point or argumentative track...