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The Great Korean ESL Novel
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robbie_davies



Joined: 16 Jun 2013

PostPosted: Wed Feb 17, 2016 1:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

World Traveler wrote:
Most prolific writer on the subject: Expat Hell blogger
http://www.expathell.com/?p=5947
I'd place my bets on him.


There is blogging and there is writing a book. Making a book from a blog can turn it into an episodic disaster, the breakthrough novel is going to have to be more than a book based on a blog, in my humble opinion. Not to say Expat Hell blogger can't write, because, he can.
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northway



Joined: 05 Jul 2010

PostPosted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What about David Tz's wonderful account of his time in the Land of the Morning Calm?

http://www.lulu.com/shop/david-tz/pens-available-on-thursday-paper-available-next-tuesday/ebook/product-21102874.html
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catman



Joined: 18 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm waiting for the porn to come out first.
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yodanole



Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: La Florida

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

catman wrote:
I'm waiting for the porn to come out first.


You know what you have to do. The onus is upon you. Twisted Evil
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yodanole



Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: La Florida

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 11:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's not really by any stretch of the imagination an ESL novel, but I enjoyed "The Guards". The author however, so it seems, is an experienced, long-term ESL teacher. "Jack Taylor", the protagonist, is a former Garda Síochána turned "finder' in Galway, in the province of Connacht. He is a devoted alcoholic, so perhaps it has a ESL flavor after all. Noir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Bruen
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Stain



Joined: 08 Jan 2014

PostPosted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books would be a perfect template for writing a book about experiences in Korea. There are so many options here when trying to make a decision.
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chellovek



Joined: 29 Feb 2008

PostPosted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the points about esl and Korea not being particularly interesting are spot on. Also I don't think there being liberal arts graduates here has much to do with anything when it comes to producing a novel. If they're like any of the US undergrads I have at work (middling US university), they are not especially bright, just young adults doing their thing. You also see with your own eyes in Korea that the average esl teacher is also not especially bright. With these things, there's not much to write a novel about- esl, Korea, and a seeming preponderance [or so it seemed?] of sheltered NA small-town boys and girls (aged 22-25) on their one year adventure abroad (with accompanying boring blog to detail every last bit of the inanity). A lot of the potential protagonists are not really plugged-in with regards their surroundings due to not speaking the language and the aforementioned shelteredness. Maybe such a novel could be full of scintillating descriptions of the protagonist complaining on Skype to mom and dad back in WI that somebody bumped into them on the subway, people at E-Mart clog up the aisles by leaving their carts all over the place, and that the ajoshi at the repair shop across the street gives him/her the stink eye (and he spits in the street!)

As someone else pointed out, esl and Korea would probably have to be somewhat incidental to the plot.... but if you want to read a good novel set in Korea, why not read a novel by a Korean? There are some good translations, the protagonists are interesting and the description provides you with insight into the environment in which events happen, in a way that an esl teacher is unlikely to achieve. If you want to read a novel set in esl, why not read one set somewhere more interesting than Korea?

I'm being a bit facetious and exaggerating in this post to press a point, of course. I also met some really smart and interesting esl people of all ages and stations in Korea, but they were definitely a minority. If they wrote something I would certainly buy it and read it
Wink
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edwardcatflap



Joined: 22 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What modern Korean novel would you recommend? The only one I've tried is the one with the missing mother/grandmother? and I couldn't get into it.
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slothrop



Joined: 03 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 4:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

changing the location of a novel(from korea) or the job of your protagonist(from esl teacher) doesn't make a bad(boring) novel more interesting.
and what the writer studied in college, whether undergrad, mA or PHD, has no connection to how good a writer's novel is either. anyone who thinks it does is transfering their shallow preconceptions about peoples resumes(which is temporal) onto their art(which is eternal).

case in point. if ESL teachers are too dumb, then try giving the protagonist 2 phds(astro physics, quantum mechanics).
now change the location from a small shithole uni in korea to stanford university in california. is that "smart" and impressive enough for the sheeple? will the collective mind, dumbed down by CNN, fox news and monday night football be able to hero worship the proptagonist at the appropriate level? maybe we can even change the protagonist's race from north american caucasion to indian(from india)(that way your masterpeice might escape being classified as white european male propaganda), and it's still an expat novel.

now we have a genius, indian, physicist whose hobby is working on a theory of everything, and teaches graduate students at stanford. would people want to read about his job then? NOPE! still BORING!
and what if when he's not at work all the protagnist does is comment on the local cuisine? but instead of kimchi and soju... "everywhere people are eating fish tacos and drinking coronas with lime! highly unusal!" still BORING! there's a reason why in the davinci code, dan brown doesn't spend several chapters telling about langdon's class schedule being changed, department meetings, and contract renewals. instead he jumps right into the conspiracy, thriller mode. if you want to write a novel about a indian physicist teaching at stanford, then he'd better find a worm hole or some kind of portal to another dimension in the closet of his new on campus housing by chapter 2.

on the other hand, take almost any great novel and change the location and the protagonist's job to english teacher in korea and it will still be a great novel. because those novels are about something eternal. they aren't blog posts with resumes superimposed over them, interspersed with inane dialogue..." how ya doin' mate?", "goodonya!". if ever i read those two phrases i immediately stop reading, delete from my kindle and make a note never to read that author again.
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Fox



Joined: 04 Mar 2009

PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 4:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

slothrop wrote:

on the other hand, take almost any great novel and change the location and the protagonist's job to english teacher in korea and it will still be a great novel. because those novels are about something eternal.


Right. And actually, I don't see any why an English teacher working in Korea is a bad set up for a novel, at least in principle. Like Chellovek suggested, English education would probably be a matter of setting rather than something central to the plot; an excuse for transplanting a western individual into Korean society, at which point one could use that situation, assuming one was a competent writer of fiction, to engage in the exploration of some potentially interesting ideas. Fiction would be the way to go here, not memoir, with themes of alienation, miscommunication, absurdity, one-way loyalty, and inversion of justice. It's a good setting for something a bit dark and existential, which I say with some irony given my own experiences here have been largely positive.

If someone does go ahead and do this, they should feel obliged to include at least one scene set in a 홍어회 restaurant. There is something about a group of men sitting down and paying good money to eat a food which all of them dislike so much that they must roll it in kimchi, slather it in sauce, and then try to swallow it without tasting it in order to consume it at all that really says something about humanity. A subsection of it, anyway.
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Stain



Joined: 08 Jan 2014

PostPosted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 7:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Fiction is fiction. If a writer can make a great novel with Korea as it's setting, then it has more to do with the writer than it does with Korea. I would say the same goes for non-fiction. Again, it's the writer. Korea can offer a writer things to work with, but ultimately, like any work of art, it comes down to the creator.
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not sure if I'll try to do a novel or a collection of autobiographical short stories based on my Korean experiences over the eight years I was there...

(Hmm, maybe I'll add a musical theme, which will lend itself more readily for a feature film production ...)

This song was featured in the soundtrack for Horrible Bosses - which will probably also be a theme for my Korean stories ...

http://www.singsnap.com/karaoke/r/c3b177d75
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outathere



Joined: 29 Oct 2008

PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just finished "Sad Peninsula" by Mark Sampson. It is a slightly different take on both ESL teaching and the Comfort Women. The story line is predictable but it is still an interesting read.
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World Traveler



Joined: 29 May 2009

PostPosted: Sun May 15, 2016 5:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Recently released.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692674004/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_09cnxb1WKFQZM
No reviews yet. Anyone read it?
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FMPJ



Joined: 03 Jun 2008

PostPosted: Thu May 19, 2016 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"released" in this case means self-published. Nobody's going to read it.
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