Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kiwiduncan]

Where is a good website where we can get things off our chest about life in Korea and be able to discuss things directly with Koreans?

The majority of the members here are foreigners with the occasional Korean reader. When I am slagging off President-Elect Lee Myung Bak, I'd like to say directly to Koreans "Your new President is a untrustworthy, backwards, Bible-bashing eco-vandal, and his policies will make Korea an international laughing stock". However, ranting on about him at Daves alone is pretty much like preaching to the already converted.

Also, people say some really nasty, cynical, spiteful crap on this website that they wouldn't dream of saying to a Korean's face. I've got some pretty harsh criticisms of Korea too (and my own country I might add) but if I am in direct communication with Korean readers I'll tone down my rhetoric, try to be more diplomatic and won't box all Koreans into the same stereotypes.

Any sites to recommend? My Korean is not that good but writing up my opinions in Korean would be good practice.

Cheers,

Duncan

[Captain Corea]

[RACETRAITOR]

The only sites Koreans post and communicate on are locked off from foreigners, and if you want to get on, you can either steal/borrow someone's ID who isn't using that particular site, or you can go through an extensive registration process where they'll ask for everything from your birthdate and your passport to your fingerprints and when your grandmother met your grandfather. You'd have to find a "cafe" yourself, which shouldn't be hard after you're registered. It would take Korean reading skills to find a good place, but you could probably get away with posting in English.

[Captain Corea]

I have to ask Duncan.. how's your Korean?

I'm hoping you're able to write enough that you could actually communicate on a site if you found it.

[billybrobby]

There are forums and clubs in naver and daum and other portals. But I doubt you'll have much of a discussion on them (even assuming you're fluent in Korean). First, people will probably dismiss you for speaking in English, thinking you're some Korean high school kid pretending to be a foreigner. The same would apply if you used poor Korean. Second, I haven't found too many places that have long discussions like the ones that occur here. Usually its more like the comments section on a Youtube video i.e. a lot of people writing one or two sentence opinions about the subject at hand and not really responding to each other other than to make insults. Third, if you think the people on here are warped and bitter, wait to you encounter the creature known as the Korean netizen. Any Korean will tell you that there's just a lot of silly douchebags on the Korean interent.

I don't mean to discourage you, but I had pretty the same idea and never got anywhere with it. Although, to be honest, I do wonder about your motivation. I think it's a good idea to get away from the insular, self-reinforcing conventional wisdom of Dave's and to engage with Korean directly. But I fear you'll take some high-handed approach of enlightening the natives with your eco-friendly kiwi views.

[twg]

[GoldMember]

Public opinion is very much moulded by 1. What is taught in schools 2. The media.

1. You have textbooks that at times distort the truth and resort to typecasts.

2. The media here is very unprofessional and nationalisistic.
Just take a look at MBC, virtually not a day goes by when they don't show a replay of a Korean winning a medal. A few days ago they were even replaying stuff from 1988.

The only way you could possibly get a point of view across is if you owned a TV station or newspaper. Not being Korean that's not possible. Such media laws are common around the world.

[kiwiduncan]

There's been a lot of discussion of accusations of corruption against Lee Myung Park on this board so I'll focus on the bible-bashing, eco-vandal, backwards dinosaur issues for the moment.

There's been a lot in the news about Park being a devout Christian who once dedicated the Cheonggyechon restoration to god. Even some Korean Christians are getting pissed off with him using their god's name for political motivations.

"이명박이는 하나님의 이름을 더럽히고 욕먹이게 하기 위해서
하나님의 이름을 팔아먹는 것이다." http://hantoma.hani.co.kr/board/view.html?board_id=ht_culture:001034&uid=124748

He very recently claimed god loves the Grand National Party (한나라당 이명박 대통령 후보가 19일 "하나님이 한나라당을 사랑하는 것 같다", "대선 결과는 하나님이 만들어주시는 것"이라며 자신의 종교적 관점에서 한국 정치 상황을 설명했다.)

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2007/09/20/2007092000002.html

His environmental policies are awful. The Saemangeum reclamation began about 20 years ago, initially with the intention of turning the precious mudflats and wetlands (which support migratory birds from around the world) into rice paddies. That plan later changed to developing an industrial area and, when critics pointed out the flaws in that plan the idea was to develop a combined agricultural, industrial, leisure complex, with one key feature being the world's biggest golf course. Now, of course most of this happened before Park got into politics, but Korean wildlife experts believe there is still time to save Saemangeum and let the waters back in. The project was in fact briefly halted about 2 years ago, until Korean judges decided to allow the completion of the project as by that time the construction of the dykes was 90% complete. This is akin to saying to a criminal "well, you've almost killed this guy... so you might as well finish him off".

Now, in complete disregard of international concerns about the ecological impact of the reclamation, Park has decided to press on with plans to make Saemangeum "The Dubai of the Northeast". What a complete joke.

새만금은 '동북아의 두바이'로 키워 '대(大)삼각 광역경제권'을 축으로 호남을 개발하겠다"고 다짐했다. 또 "새만금 개발 면적의 70%를 농경지로 사용하는 기존의 계획을 전면 재검토하겠다"며 "산업 자유단지, 국제물류.국제관광레저 단지, 친환경 유기농단지 등 2020년까지 글로벌 개념을 도입한 세계 경제자유기지로 새만금을 개발하겠다"고 공약했다 http://article.joins.com/article/article.asp?total_id=2966822

He intends to reexamine initial plans to have 70% of the area used for agriculture, as he intends to focus on free trade areas, international logistics and international tourist leisure area (the afore mentioned world's biggest golfcourse I guess). The most ridiculous thing is probably the plan to include an "eco-friendly organic agriculture" area in the midst of this all. It's like clear-felling the Amazon rainforest then planting a few pretty daisies.

Interestingly, the only international investors interested in this project are from the Middle-East. I'll wager that's because European and North American companies would not touch it with a bargepole. In this day and age most major western companies stay well clear of such environmentally destructive projects as it's very bad for business.

If Koreans think they will attract thousands of admiring international visitors with yet another free trade zone coupled with some cheesy amusement parks and an oversized golfcourse, I think they will be sadly mistaken. Given the chance even most Korean golfers would opt for flying down to the Philipines for a weekend of golf, beaches and prostitutes rather than flying to Saemangeum for a weekend of golf and not much else.

Koreans are super-sensitive about their international reputation, yet allow dinosaurs like Lee Myung Park to put forward plans that will only result in further international derision.

그리고 캐프턴 코리아의 요점을 제대로 파악했어요. 사실은 제가 5년동안 한국에서 살아도 내 한국어 실력이 별로 높지 않아요. 여러분은 보다시피 저의 한국어로 쓴 문장이 너무 어색하고 틀린 부분이 많아요. 때때로 수필을 쓰면서 한국인 친구들한테서 도움을 부탁하는데 주로 혼자힘으로 해야 해요. 그래서 시간이 걸리고 전자사전도 자주 봐야 해요. 아마도 제가 한국인 넷이존들이랑 이런 복잡한 문제들을 토론하려면 너무 어려울 거예요. 그래도 흥미롭고 보람있는 얘기를 예의바르게 나눌 수 있으면 좋겠어요.

[billybrobby]

[Captain Corea]

[kiwiduncan]

[kiwiduncan]

[skeeterses]

People, let's try to answer Kiwi's original question, which is 'What are some Internet Forums where Koreans chat with each other about politics?' He's not interested in using this thread to argue with other English teachers about Korean politics. He's interested in taking it straight to the Koreans.

[bjonothan]

When you do that, expect some people to take offence. Some Koreans get real upset when you say anything bad about their country. It could be interesting to see what they all have to say. I think it will depend on the kind of response you get at the start. If it starts bad, it will probably end bad. Good luck with it mate.

Please post a link for us to check out how you go. Some might like to help you.