Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JongnoGuru]

... is alive and kicking down in South Gyeongsang Province, judging by this:

Ex-U.S. citizens offered an ��American Village��

August 01, 2005 �� The government of Namhae county in South Gyeongsang province announced yesterday that it will build an ��American Village�� for Korean citizens who have given up U.S. citizenship. The county already has a German Village, which opened in 2003.

The county hopes the project will attract affluent ethnic Koreans who have lived in the United States for a long time, and who would like to come back to Korea while maintaining an American lifestyle. To own property in the American Village, residents must be South Korean nationals who have given up U.S. citizenship.

The village is to consist of 45 homes on a tract of 30,000 pyeong (24.5 acres). The county plans to spend 7.6 billion won ($ 7.4 million) to build the houses. County officials say infrastructure may be paid for by the national government.

The American Village project was the brainchild of Korean-Americans who had heard about the German Village. Since last March, the county has received inquiries from Korean-Americans in large American cities.
Ha Young-je, magistrate of the county, visited Los Angeles last Thursday to introduce the county��s plan to Korean-Americans there and hear their suggestions. Upon returning, Mr. Ha plans to request funding from Korea��s Finance Ministry.

In the German Village, 19 of the 29 houses are occupied, and the village is currently holding a German-language camp for the summer. The county plans to encourage residents of the American Village to run bed-and-breakfasts and English-language education camps.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200507/31/200507312247013109900090409041.html

"Residents must be South Korean nationals"... Okay, only ex-U.S. citizens who are South Korean nationals are accepted. Got it. Does this apply to the entire household? Both spouses? Not that I'd expect many would want to move to this uri-minjok wet dream of "small-town America" in southern South Korea, but where does this restriction leave families of mixed ethnicity? A Korean wife with a white husband? A Korean husband and his Hispanic or Chinese or any-ethnic-group-other-than-Korean wife? No room for the non-Korean spouse (and their mixed-ethnicity children) at the Inn?

These Korean-American returnees are probably just looking to live out their final days (I'm guessing it's retirement-age "silver town" idea) in the motherland, but ... you know, without the mad motorists, the building hazards, the sewer stink, the 6am loudspeaker-enhanced fruit vendors, the noisome internal plumbing, etc., etc., that the other 48 million of us have to put up with. Sweet deal. But just to make sure they remember where they are, the county government is going to "encourage" (prod, cajole, hector) them into running English camps and taking in lodgers. Too damn funny!!

[Ya-ta Boy]

This one is truly odd.

Anyone figure out the thinking behind it?

[JongnoGuru]