Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tomato]

The Wegukin Delusion, recently published by the Miriam Ferguson Society Press, is an anthology of essays dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of a very serious psychological malady. The term refers to the mistaken belief, often carried by an English-speaking foreigner, that English-speaking foreigners are capable of learning a second language. The essays in this book analyze the problem from many different viewpoints.

In the first chapter, 스키너 gives us the behaviorist viewpoint, which advocates
positive reinforcement. In 스키너's opinion, a behavioral therapist should laugh nervously and shakes his head if a wegukin speaks Korean, but should react warmly if a wegukin speaks English.

In the second chapter, 라저스 introduces us to client-centered therapy, in which the client is treated with "unconditional positive regard." He presents a case study of Tomato.

In their first session, Tomato beat 라저스's door off the hinges and stamped into the office. "Damn that drugstore clerk! She showed me the price on the calculator, so I shoved the calculator down her throat!" 라저스 calmly said, "Damn that drugstore clerk. She showed you the price on the calculator, so you shoved the calculator down her throat."

Tomato kept ranting. "Some shit ass at the train station grabbed me by the shoulder at the train station and said, '캔 아이 헬프 유.� I let him have it with a round house to his left ear!" Without batting an eye, 라저스 said, "Some shit ass at the train station grabbed you by the shoulder at the train station and said, '캔 아이 헬프 유.� You let him have it with a round house to his left ear."

Tomato pounded his fist on the desk. �If I had my way, I'd line up all the Miriam Ferguson Society members and shoot them!" Without moving a muscle, 라저스 responded, �If you had your way, you'd line up all the Miriam Ferguson Society members and shoot us--I mean them."

And so the session continued. After breaking 라저스's desk lamp, cushioned chair, and coffee table, the client returned on a weekly basis. 라저스 reports a marked improvement in the client's behavior. Now, instead of hitting and kicking Fergusians, the client is content merely to scream and cuss at them.

프로읻 analyzes the wegukin delusion as an Oedipal fixation. He recalls the story of 웅녀, the bear who changed into a woman and gave birth to 단군, the first human king of Korea. 프로읻 calls attention to the male cartoon bears in wegukin society, such as Yogi Bear, the Care Bears, and Winnie the Pooh. In his opinion, the creators of these cartoon bears wish to identify with 단군 and gain possession of 웅녀.

In the chapter on evolutionary psychology, 진화론 contrasts the complex Asian lifestyle with that of the simple wegukin. The Japanese people have 4 levels of politeness while the wegukin people merely shout "Hey, you!" The Korean people have 100 flavors of kimchi while the wegukins are satisfied with their soggy hot dogs and hamburgers. The Chinese people have over 80,000 ideographs while the wegukin children have to learn only 26 crude scribbles.

에런벡 examines the problem from the point of view of cognitive therapy. He explains the terms selective abstraction, or "taking a detail out of context and ignoring the context," and arbitrary inference, or "quickly drawing a conclusion."

에런벡 applies this terminology to the present case. If the client understands 안녕 하세요 and 감사합니다, he may think that he could learn hundreds of other words as well. He may see Koreans displaying knowledge of thousands of English words, expressions, and grammatical points, and think that he can eventually do as well. The client should be reminded that a well-trained dog can understand a few words, such as "heel," "shake," and "roll over." The client must realize that his own level of intelligence is closer to that of a dog than that of a Korean.

Last is an essay by 엘리스, explaining the rational-emotive point of view. Here, the client is seen as suffering from Jehovian dictates, or "psychological dictates on themselves and on others." In this particular case, the client tries to pose as a student of the Korean language and wishes others to regard him as a student of the Korean language.

It is long past time to stand up and fight the wegukin delusion. While we slept, greedy capitalists have established proficiency tests, Korean language classes, and numerous other attempts to take unfair advantage of the wegukin delusion.

As we see from the foregoing examples, there are many sectarian differences which come to the fore when the wegukin delusion is discussed. However, mental health professionals, semi-professionals, and volunteers must compromise these differences before the deadly menace grows any worse.

[cdninkorea]

Tomato, you're my hero; I love reading your posts. And yeah, I get annoyed when Koreans speak English to me too.

[misher]

This only pisses me off when the Korean in question's English ability is absolutely horrendous and is looking to practice. I'm at a lower intermediate level now in Korean so I can communicate ok in most situations. Therefore with MOST Koreans I encounter, Korean is the better choice if we are to have a conversation. This doesn't sit well with many of them for some reason.

Therefore, I started to lie. A few weeks ago a drunk guy in a restaurant asked where I was from. I screwed my face up and put on the thickest German accent I could. When he went further I just shook my head and replied in Korean that my English wasn't very good because high school was so long ago and if you can speak French or German that would be better. He kept persisting with his broken and barely comprehensible English but the conversation wasn't going anywhere. He then reverted to Korean and things were much better. I've just started to lie. It may not be honest but I'm here to learn Korean and I'm not getting trapped in that English practice crap.

[tomato]

I've wanted to try that trick.
I've wanted to pretend that I was a Venezuelan loyal to their anti-American president.
Then I would stand up and angrily ask them if they thought I was from the United States.

But I've never had the courage to pull that off.

[PatrickGHBusan]

wow....just...wow

[tomato]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100307/ap_on_re_us/us_arizona_bus_crash

Koreans would have us believe that when we ask for a little time spent practicing Korean, we are thinking only of ourselves.
They would have us believe that if we succeed in learning Korean, that would benefit only ourselves.

But has it ever occurred to the Koreans that a wegukin might someday find himself in scene like this one?

[Street Magic]

Who is this Miriam Ferguson you keep mentioning? Did the first female governor of Texas have some sort of connection to Korea that I'm unaware of?

[tomato]

She vetoed a bill requiring second language study in the high school curriculum.
Legend has it that she held up a copy of the King James Bible and said,
"If it's good enough for Jesus and the Disciples, it's good enough for the children of Texas."

Because of her opposition to second language learning on the part of English speaking people, the Miriam Ferguson Society chose her for a namesake

[tomato]

My present employer thinks I'm an abject imbecile.
When we first met, he was concerned about how I was going to move to my new apartment because I'm too stupid to give directions to the movers.
He didn't think I could attend Japanese class or Korean sign language class because I'm too stupid to understand the Korean-speaking teacher.
More recently, he informed me about Chuseok because I'm too stupid to know about Chuseok after living through 10 Chuseoks in 10 years.

The middle school students are currently preparing for an exam.
The director printed out a booklet which involves translating from one language to the other.
Of course, I shouldn't trouble my tender little brain with a task like that, so the director and the Korean teacher are using the booklet without my help.
I got curious about what sort of task I was supposedly capable of.
So I hunted through the trash can next to the copy machine and found some pages.
I tested myself on those pages and sent the following message to the director:

[postfundie]

good on you for taking the time to do that homework. You are right to do it because your school asks the students to do the same thing.

let us know if it gets you fired