Korean Job Discussion Forums

ARTCC · Joined: 26 Dec 2003

Was waiting for the subway and I saw there was a front page story on one of the tabloids for sale ... I don't speak Korean but judging by the photo (anonymous white guy with scantily dressed Korea girl) and the words I could make out the story seemed to be something about English teachers ... Shocked

don't know the name of the paper but I remember their url: www.breaknews.com

tried to check out the site but couldn't find anything ... can anyone shed any light on this?

Roch · Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

Qinella · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Location: the crib

The main page won't load for me. Where can you see the picture?

Roch · Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

ARTCC · Joined: 26 Dec 2003

SuperHero · Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Superhero Hideout

is this the article?
I believe the headline is English Instructor: money, girls, and drugs (last part I don't know)

Roch · Joined: 24 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

mithridates · Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:05 pm Post subject:

Looks like that's the one. It appears to have generated a total of one comment in its five days on the site (now off the front).

PaperTiger · Joined: 31 May 2005 Location: Ulaanbataar

Picture of a white dude with a fully-clothed Korean girl. That will no doubt generate tons of righteous outrage.

wylies99 · Joined: 13 May 2006 Location: I'm one cool cat!

Funny stuff. Are you sure this isn't some sort of Korean "Mad" magazine? Laughing

wylies99 · Joined: 13 May 2006 Location: I'm one cool cat!

Oh, and the pic of a bunch of people eating some fast food stuff- does the caption read, "Get a real job, and lose some weight ,you damn hippies?" Laughing

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye

On the back cover is a picture of a korean man with his korean wife, titled "ajosshis: alcahol, infidelity and domestic abuse".

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

The guy in the English Instructor: money, girls, and drugs photo kinda looks like Swiss James, a past poster.

Anyway, I watch, read the news but take it with a grain of salt. It's funny how jounalists from newspapers of different views, politics twist around and skew happenings in daily life that noone else cares about and tranforms them into something controversial, i.e. the other thread here about the Korean Times or Herald(?) article questioning a topic read on this board, blogs, and whatnot. Its a new kind of informative writing and it's all about selling papers and gaining readership.

Satori · Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: Above it all

Maxboss · Joined: 24 May 2006 Location: Seoul

Surely this is the one you�re talking about.

From The Bo Dong Ilbo.

Foreign Teacher Still Loves His Wife!!!

John Smith is just one of thousands of foreigners over here making easy money, working in a highly esteemed institute in Seoul, one of the biggest cities in the world. But John is no ordinary instructor. His disgraceful actions have not only sent shockwaves through the ESL industry here, but have destroyed many of the bridges Koreans have built towards foreigners.

The controversy arose out of an incident last weekend. On Saturday his employers had planned to take John, his male work colleagues and some of the company�s management out for the night. John was included even though his overall student numbers are down two students in the last six months. Despite this generous offer, John rejected this polite invitation, with the excuse that he wanted to spend the evening with his Korean wife, Soo-Yeon, and his two young daughters. His colleagues were outraged. �I can�t understand it,� said one. �He said he enjoyed last night� said another, Yong-min, obviously distressed.

But it�s his bosses who are most upset. �It�s a slap in the face,� said his director, Park Ho-Gyung. �Doesn�t he know how much money we�ve laid out for this? Tonight we have eight Russian hookers and now we only have seven men. It�s such a waste of hard earned money. And what are we going to do with the extra whiskey?�

The fact that his home and family are so close to his workplace has left many here scratching their heads. �My wife is in Gangneung with the kids,� said owner Shin Nam Sang, �What the hell is his wife doing here? Why does he want to see them?� Kim Hyun Jin, who shares a desk with John in the teacher�s office added, �Last Wednesday morning I saw him out walking with his daughters. They were all smiling. On a weekday. He even went with his wife to pick out a kindergarten for his eldest daughter.�

The incident caused uproar in the local area. Lee Jee-Min, who runs the Sweet Time Motel called it, �Typical of the corrupting influence of foreigners on the people of our great Korea. Fighting.� Paunchy, respectable, fiftysomething businessman Kim Min Suk said �I accept them as a necessary evil. But if they show too much of their evil side their necessity will come into question especially in the face of such behavior.� Middle school girl Oh Yoo Mee said, �Foreigners are so stupid.� And it�s not just Koreans who are puzzled. �He has serious problem,� says Svetlana, an ex-pat living in the area.

Inexplicably, Smith is standing by his actions, saying his wife and children are the most important thing to him. The controversy is set to rumble on with no telling how it will end. It�s clear though that atmosphere in this beautiful city has been poisoned and that many people, Korean and foreign, will have to breathe it in for some time.