Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

Today I was a bit pissed. My co-teacher (who I happen to like and get along with well) came into class and told the students the story of the Polish guy in Vancouver.

Whatever you think about this case is beside the point. She was telling an incorrect story. Her story was that he waited beside the baggage claim for 10 hours, then tried to leave. As he was trying to leave, someone shouted 'freeze' at him, but he thought they were saying 'please', so he continued. Then they shot him with a gun and he died. No mention of his tempter tantrum, incoherent shouting, throwing of chairs, etc. It made him out to be a totally innocent soul killed by the big bad wasterners.

I quickly corrected her. Then I found the cause of her misconception. The local Korean free newspaper, AM 7. I read the article and it was the same as her story. Except for the gun part, which she made the mistake.

I now have the article and I am considering writing a somewhat nasty letter to the newspaper. This is exactly why misconceptions happen.

[GoldMember]

Newspapers lie everywhere. However here it's way way beyond the average. Personally what I find offensive is that the lies are so blatantly obvious, it's like saying to me, "Hey we think that you are sooo stupid, that you'll even be fooled by poorly construed lies". We get offended. Koreans don't.
The lies are so pathetic that it only takes a small amount of critical thinking to determine if what is reported is a lie.
It's hard to explain but in the Korean mindset there are very few lies. Blatant lies are not regarded as lies, it's not the truth, but it's not a lie.
Figure that one out! It's not the truth, but it's not a lie. To call it a lie is to offend the liar, and in Korea we must not offend liars, cheats, etc.

Korea is not a different country. It's a different planet. Different mindset, always has been always wiil be.

[Octavius Hite]

Good luck with the letter. I recently wrote a letter admonishing the editor for saying that "5,000 Koreans now have AIDS". Total bollocks and improper use of the language. Their response: silence. Good luck.

[Ilsanman]

The real reason for the letter is to let them know that some foreigners who can speak Korean read their newspapers. They are accountable to report the news properly.

I don't expect any kind of reply or correction. But then again, miracles have occured.

[Ilsanman]

I finished writing it in Korean. Here is a translation:

To Mr Editor,

I read your article entitled 'Polish man's death' in the October 30th version of your paper. I am quite disappointed in your paper due to incorrect and lack there of information relating to this article.

After reading the article, it seems the RCMP were tyrants who killed an innocent man in cold blood. But that is not entirely true.

First of all, he did not wait by the baggage claim. He attempted to clear customs. After being detained and questioned, he was very tired and frustrated that no one could understand him. After many hours, he threw a fit, starting yelling incoherently, pounding on the glass, and throwing chairs. The RCMP were called, and after failing to calm him down, used the tasers, as they were trained to do. Why was this information not included in this article?

In the future, if I read your paper again, can I expect to see irresponsible journalism like this again? I want you to know that in Korea, there are foreigners who can read and speak Korean to this level and you have a responsibility to report the truth. When untruths like this are printed, it causes misconceptions and xenophobia.

If you disagree with my opinions, then think of this: In a foreign country, negative yet incorrect articles could be printed about Korean people. How would you feel then?

I hope you will print a retraction and include the full truth this time.

Sincerely,

Ilsanman

[whatever]

Hmmm... wore my nifty Virginia Tech sweatshirt today. Wonder if anybody noticed?

[Ilsanman]

I wasn't justifying the issue in Vancouver. The fine details are in dispute. Hard to determine really.

I am disputing the poor reporting and misreporting of facts in a Korean newspaper. Also, like 2 weeks after the fact. Did they just find out now?

[Octavius Hite]

Good luck Ilsanman, the newspapers here are run as well as the police, the hogwons, the education board and the traffic signals but I hope you hear something. If you get a response please post it for us to see, I'm still holding my breath for a response to their lazy and improper use of AIDS instead of HIV. Starting to turn blue though, lol.

[komerican]

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

Never mind the Korean newspapers - will someone please tell Matt Lamers of the Korea Herald that his photos are crap, and so is the graphic he provided fro the Nova story in today's edition. And including his email address as part of the graphic was completely unnecessary and thoroughly self-important.

[Ilsanman]

Sure, it's controversial, but the newspaper has to print the truth before people can make a fair opinion of this situation.

The paper made it sound like the guy did nothing, he tried to leave and got zapped for no reason at all.

[Thunndarr]

[excitinghead]

I'm an MA student in Asia-Pacific studies and a bit of a geek, so I'm really interested in finding out if some Korean issues that are readily apparent to foreign commentators about Korean issues are well-known to and discussed by ordinary Koreans as well.

I have my Korean friends to ask of course, but short of stopping people on the street and demanding they tell me what they think of Korea's low birth rate or uncompetitive manufacturing industry, then I have to use the Korean media to gauge people's knowledge of them and see how seriously they're taken.

I want to use Korean broadsheets for this of course, but I've got better things to do then spend an hour translating a medium-sized article before I can start analysing it, mostly because of the academic vocabularly. So I just looove using the the free dailies like 7am, Metro, and Focus to find Korean articles for my blog instead...because they're so short, and I translate them so often these days, I can do most of them in 5-10 minutes. And on other pages there's lots of pictures of goregeous Korean women in revealing clothes too if I get bored, especially in 7am. It helps with motivation.

But I'm going to have to stop using them, because about 2 in 5 suck just so badly that I think I could have written better ones when I was 10. In an average 5-paragraph article, the first almost always basically repeats the title almost word-for-word, and as for the rest, they keep missing out basic facts. Like when reporting the results of a survey, they might say 20% of respondents said X, 23% said Y...and that's that. But the title will be "Many Koreans think Y" , and as for the other 57%, they're not even mentioned.

I've also noticed that if an article like that is in all 3 dailies, then it'll probably be in English in the Korea Herald or Times or Jeoseon Ilbo the next day too, and virtually the same. So I don't bother to translate them of course, but also no longer give much credence short articles in those newspapers either.

Seriously, you would not believe how much padding, misleading information, but also complete lack of what you'd think are required facts you can produce in a 5(!) paragraph article. And those are just the articles I check out myself. I think they're good for seeing what's in the news, but Koreans would have to use more serious newspapers to find out what's going on (sure, you can say the same about Western countries, although I think even the Sun would be better than the Korean 7am). Hopefully when my Korean's good enough to use them myself, I'll find that they have better journalistic standards.

[komerican]

[Scotticus]

I <3 Komerican. He's always quick with the "but, but, America..." comments. Reminds me of the "but Clinton" people in the US; always quick to try and point out something Clinton did to somehow justify the stupidity Bush is currently perpetrating.