Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gwangjuboy]

I'll say it again. Every time a Korean asks probes me about the accident, I tell them a story about one of my students. I used to each kindergarten students on a Wednesday afternoon, and one afternoon when the students were going home, a little 5 year old girl was run over by the school bus, and flattened like a pancake. Jesus, the gingerbread man looked more human. Still, this wasn't even reported in the local rag. Other than the fact the drivers of that tank were American, I am still unsure why the death of those two middle school students was any different. I am yet to come accross a Korean with a response to this.

[Rhoddri]

Regardless of my opinions, I'll give you a few examples of the goings on in the hagwon where i work during the time of the aquittal of the soldiers and the presidential election.

Where I work there are two computers next to each other, for staff to work and surf the net (msn their friends on). One day I was using one of these computers, my boss went on the other computer. He accessed a web site and turned the volume up on a song called "F*ckin USA", then he laughed and read to me what one of the netizens had just commented on on one of the message boards he was reading: "haha one of these people say hey what about BinLaden? did he make a mistake when aiming the planes at the world trade center? It was an accident huh?" (maybe hinting at the idea that the tank was aimed at the school girls)

At least 5-7 students would constantly around the corridoors between and after class singing "OHHHH Osama bin laden..OHHHH Osama bin laden OHHHH Osama bin laden Oh oo Oh oo ooo" (accompanied to the tune of OHH pillsung Korea...etc -probably the most memorable Korean anthems during the world cup).

My students also said "ohh PSY jjang!". This was refering to the korean rapper PSY who appeared on stage to sing a song during an awards ceremony. He ended the song by smashing up a toy tank on stage (the crowd went wild)....."Ahh teacher PSY good USA kill.."

I'm not going to give my opinion, the original post asked for things that people here experienced during that time. I experienced quite a bit, but I've limited my experiences to my work place.

[nolin nae]

rhoddri, i could actually feel my blood pressure rising while reading your post. it's really hard to believe how stupid and insensitive some people can be. how did you manage to tolerate that working environment?

[Rhoddri]

Although I'm a critic of US foriegn policy etc blah blah..... During the anti-american wave in Korea, I actually found myself becoming anti-anti american. I mean it's very healthy to protest and criticse, IF it's within a rational spectrum. Needless to say I found some of these comments far from rational and just plain right stupid.

Luckily at the time of all this I was also working with another western teacher. We just used to sigh and nod our heads...I mean it's one of those situations when ...well what can you do?

[Toby]