Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Maxboss]

Bo Dong Il Bo

August 3, 2006

More Teachers More Offended

Recent negative portrayals of foreign teachers in Korean newspapers have resulted in more teachers becoming more offended and depressed than ever before. A Seoul Daily News survey of foreign teachers found that 65 % thought Koreans were racist, 64 % were offended and 66% were depressed. Stories on foreign teachers� lack of teaching qualifications, drinking feats and amazing sex drives have featured regularly in many Korean newspapers. It has been the worst run of articles since the notorious �Han River Boink� incident in 1997.

Kiwi Kimberly from New Zealand says, �I�ve never felt so offended in all my life and I�ve been alive 31 years. It gets me so down. I do a private in Gangnam at 50,000 an hour 3 mornings a week with two businessmen. They hadn�t read any of the stories and knew nothing about them. It was so depressing. I expect them to read English language newspapers to supplement what we do in class. They hadn�t done it. So I had to bring in the articles to the class myself.�

�I have a PhD in Shakespeare. In Shakespeare!!!� says Professor Jim Smith from England, although he wouldn�t say from which university. �How am I supposed to stand up in front of a class when all the students are thinking about is these stories? I have lost credibility. The antics of a few teachers get blown out of proportion and we all get a bad name.�

However, not all foreign teachers feel so down in the mouth. �Whatever,� says Sasha from Newfoundland. �I don�t know what they�re talking about,� says James Smith from Ireland. �I can speak English good, can�t guy? But I�m not offended. Loose drink and cheap women; I love this country.�

Others are unimpressed by the lack of virulence amongst the Koreans. Calvin, from England, says, �At home we have racists who are really racist. They get in fights with foreigners, beat them to a pulp and knife �em. We have gangs. What do Koreans do? Stare, point at us, turn us out of some nightclubs and write newspaper articles. It�s pathetic, a bad imitation of what we do back �ome. Typical. �

Such spirit is demonstrated by foreigners like Ken from the USA who says, �I�ve made a point of banging into Koreans in subway stations and stores as a way of getting my own back. They also do it to us, of course. When in Rome.� As probably all Koreans know, even students, Rome is in Italy. There�s also one in the USA, so it�s hard to know what he�s talking about. He may have been badly hungover, or simply not know where he is. There�s a good chance that he never learned about Rome in school. He was also nursing a black eye. �I pushed two young guys out of my way in a subway station. They were Korean-American marines. They followed me home and beat me up. There was nothing I could do. There were two of them. I�ll stick to adjuma from now on.�

The Seoul Daily News rejects any charge of racism and feels no responsibility for foreigners being offended. �We�re journalists. We report the news. They�re trying to turn us into the story. It�s not us. All we do is report what happens. They�re the ones at fault,� said a spokesman. What about tarring all foreigners with the same brush? �We never say �all foreigners�. We say �a foreigner�, �some foreigners� or �foreigners� did this or that, be it good or bad.� As for foreigners who feel depressed as a result of the articles, he suggested, �They need to get over it. Failing that, they can take some drugs, something they do very often.�

[SuperFly]

It's times like these I'm glad to be a black dog.

[LL Moonmanhead]

Very good!! Must have taken you a while to have thought of that. More well thought through WUmery is needed on this forum.

[seoulsista]

OP I'm not sure I understand the point of your article. It's a fine premise if you had real quantative information that would help to support it but I'm assuming those statistics are made up. Am I wrong?

From the third paragraph on it seems facetious in tone. Are you mocking the idea that people are offended or are you trying to explore it. I'm not flaming you I just don't get it.

[LL Moonmanhead]

[passport220]

[RACETRAITOR]

Gotta be satire.

[seoulsista]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[cwemory]

Submit it to The Yangpa.

[blaseblasphemener]

My God, I hope this people are being facetious (sic) in response to his facetiousness (sic2). If not, did you recently or at any time in your life vote for George W. Bush?

[Privateer]

[lastat06513]

That's quite ironic....I go to Koreatown in New York and sputter off in Korean and they seem to think I am some kind of genius (well* it did boost my ego alittle).
But the point is they get treated fairly well in the U.S. and if something was to go wrong or if they do face some kind of racism, there are mechanisms in the system to help them get justice.
While in Korea, no such thing exists because everyone wants to follow the herd and if one person steps out of line by expressing a different opinion (let's say, that someone thinks not all foreigners are bad) then he or she will be chastised for it.
I saw it time and time again.
Another irony is that you will never see a particular group hemmed up in the media like Koreans do to foreigners. If a newspaper ever reported like that in the U.S. or anywhere in the western world then the paper should be ready to get sued for an obscene amount of money.

But hey, this is in Korea...
Like the dude said "When in Rome......piss in the aquaducts"

[cj1976]

I like Calvin from England. He sounds like he learned how to speak English at the Dick Van Dyke School of Elocution. Cor blimey, Guvnor!

[jacl]

They don't pay us enough to be here.

When I go to a noraebang with my Korean friend, he makes me wait outside while he negotiates a price. And he supposedly has an open mind.

It's pitiful and they need to be told how pitiful they are.

My boss thought that he could pay me on the 7th because the 5th was a Saturday. Wrong thought. My boss thinks it's perfectly ok to give me a kitchen chair. Wrong thought.

Bad people.