Brian in Jeollanam-do - Blogging Korea and South Jeolla

Old photos of Jeollanam-do and Gwangju.

2011-12-19T00:36:00.004+09:00

Taken in front of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Office, 1941.

Sajik Park observatory in the foreground, Gwangju and Mudeungsan in the background.

Chosun University under construction, 1951.

For a while I've been collecting old photos of Jeollanam-do and Gwangju---politically part of South Jeolla province since 1986---and recently started to put them in one place. Finding pictures of what southwestern Korea used to look like is generally much harder than finding old photographs of Seoul, and even Pyeongyang. Some local governments, schools, and charitable organizations have fortunately documented and preserved the photographic history of the region.

English class in Suncheon under Japanese rule.

Suncheon Fortress's South Gate in the 1920s, at the present-day location of the entrance of the 중앙시장 in "Old Downtown".

Aerial view of Suncheon, 1960s.

About 200 more, and growing, on the Old Jeollanam-do Flickr gallery. Sources have been cited when possible, though a lot of these have circulated on numerous blogs throughout the years and it's hard to pin down dates, details, and credits. Frequently Naver bloggers will take old photos, put big watermarks across them, and disable right clicks, leading visitors to believe the best way to preserve local history is to make it inaccessible to everyone else.

뽕뽕다리 across Gwangjucheon, 1960.

Chonnam National University campus, 1959.

Cherry blossoms in Gwangju, 1955.

2011-12-10T13:40:00.004+09:00

Three generations of doing the damn thing, at Gwangju's Hotel Mudeung Park lift, 1984. A neat picture by darklunacy found while looking for other stuff.

Inefficiently-used native speaker English teachers inefficient.

2011-12-10T00:00:00.010+09:00

I would be remiss not to mention the big news among foreign English teachers in Korea: that Seoul public schools plan to phase them out.

* Gusts of Popular Feeling has a lengthy post on these recent developments and their coverage in the local Korean-language press.
* The Korea Times and JoongAng Daily have some coverage in English.
* Roboseyo has a round-up of some comments among teachers on blogs.
* I'm No Picasso has a thoughtful reply to an idiotic interview with a 24-year-old Korean that repeats a lot of the same xenophobic bias we've been reading about for years.

Really, the writing has been on the wall for years: with the hiring of Korean "lecturers" in practical English and the growth in Teaching English in English [TEE] plans, the development of the NEAT, the increased interest in Indian and robot teachers, the increase in online English classes and distance-learning, the non-renewal of public school contracts over the past few semesters, the attention to and focus on the "myth of the native speaker", and the wall-to-wall negative coverage in the local media. If anyone is surprised in 2011 it is only because there is a definite timeline for their phasing-out in place.

Unfortunately the NSET experiment in public schools was marred by poor implementation, disorganization, and disinterest, and it's no surprise that inefficiently-used native English speakers were ineffective and, well, inefficient in the classroom. Little thought went into how to use them, what the ultimate goals of their classes should be, or how to achieve those goals while working successfully with their Korean co-teachers. While papers and politicians can vomit countless anecdotes and articles about poorly-performing NSETs and "unqualified" teachers, few column inches are devoted to who has done the hiring, the rationale behind those choices, and why the goals of English education in Korea are ultimately incompatible with the strengths of thousands of young, untrained, and inexperienced foreigners.

English class in Gangjin county's St. Joseph Girls' High School, 1970.

Native speaker English teachers have been in Korean classrooms for decades, and there will presumably be places for them for years to come: young, inexperienced teachers will still find work in cram schools and English-immersion Villages, while those with experience and credentials may move to colleges, universities, teacher-training institutes like the British Council or the Jeollanam-do Educational Training Institute, or reputable hagwon.

Background reading:
* Are native speakers part of English here? Your thoughts on the 2009 GETA conference.
* A must read: account of teaching English in South Korea in the sixties. The .pdf file of a 1965 Korea Journal piece by Julian le Patourel, which details many of the same challenges NSETs continue to face 40+ years later, is available here.

Submit your Gibberlish to the Korea Tourism Organization, win prizes.

2011-12-05T00:06:00.004+09:00

Somebody should submit this.

From CNNGO.com, via Facebook friend Rob:

Looks like Engrish.com -- the snarky website showcasing error-riddled English signs in Asia -- won't be getting as many submissions from Korea.

How awesome is this? Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is offering to reward photographers who submit snaps of muddled signs at tourist spots.

The prize? A gift card of ₩50,000 (approximately US$45) that can be used at any vendor that accepts credit cards -- otherwise known as free money.

Although there are no hard-and-fast rules about what constitutes a "tourist spot," you can't go wrong with the usual foreigner hotspots of Myeong-dong and Itaewon.

But of course:

Although the event site is only displayed in Korean, foreigners are also welcome to participate in the event.

The short article has a few more details on the noble effort in the works, I'm sure, to get some foreign-language material cleaned up before the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. Thing is, Engrish.com will probably get just as many submissions from Korea as it always has: this contest won't be looking at Gibberlish on shirts, on menus, in businesses, and in K-pop.

[T]he event does not apply to mistakes on road signs, restaurant menus and guidebooks, due to the fact that these categories are overseen by other departments and this particular event is being hosted by the Tourism Service Improvement Team at KTO. The latter will then pay to have the signs fixed.

NEAT (국가영어능력평가시험) registration time through December 12th.

2011-12-03T03:00:00.011+09:00

From December 1st through 12th is the first registration period for the National English Language Test (국가영어능력평가시험), the English-language proficiency exam with the lofty goals of replacing the TOEFL, TOEIC, and other foreign exams in Korea. Registration is now for Level 1---the “adult”, Business English exam---and is limited to the first 4,000 applicants. The test will be held on December 17th, at 44 different sites around the country.

The test consists of four sections: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. It runs from 9:30 to 5, with three breaks.

Under the test information (시헙안내) tab on the test's website you’ll find a .pdf with some sample questions, like:

Good morning everyone, here's a piece of good news for our company. After years of talks the U.S. and Thailand have agreed on a double-taxation treaty that will put American companies already operating there on a more level playing field with our competitors. That means royalties paid by a Thai firm to a U.S. firm will be subject to a Thai withholding tax of zero to 5%, compared to a 15% tax for countries without a treaty. That means more profit for us.

Q: What change will the treaty bring?
a) more sports coverage
b) less tax on royalties
c) a 15% tax on royalties
d) less American investment

Click on the 시험안내 tab, then click 영역별 문항유형, then click the Adobe logo.

The FAQ page tells us what Levels 1, 2, and 3 mean:

1급은 성인을 대상으로 대학교 졸업인증제, 입사 또는 승진 등에 활용하기 위해 개발한 비즈니스형 영어시험입니다.

이에 반해 2급과 3급은 고등학교 3학년을 대상으로 대학교 입학에 활용하기 위해 개발한 실용 및 아카데믹 영어시험입니다.

This test made the news in 2008, when the government decided to

introduce a state-certified English proficiency test from 2012 to improve practical English skills of students and eventually replace TOEFL and other foreign exam material.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced this and other measures to help reduce the amount of money people spend on private cram schools and language institutes.

The new test, tentatively named the State English Aptitude Test, will be modeled on Japan's Eiken English test, which has earned international recognition.

``We believe as long as we can develop a quality test, many overseas schools will accept it,'' Education Minister Ahn Byong-man said Thursday.

The way I see it, if the test can be most effective as a replacement to the way these foreign tests are used domestically: unnecessarily-challenging English-language exams to enter domestic schools and get domestic jobs. (Here's a look at the college entrance exam given last month, and here's some discussion on the---often incorrect---English portion that tests far beyond the practical abilities of most students.)

To “eventually replace TOEFL”, an international standard, and other tests is a little too ambitious. Japan’s EIKEN, cited by the Korea Times in 2008 as an example, is accepted at only a few hundred universities worldwide, most of them not prominent enough to attract foreign students interested in brand-name universities. In Pennsylvania, for example, it’s only recognized at:

Chatham University, Chestnut Hill College, Elizabethtown College, Gannon University, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Juniata College, Keystone College, Mansfield University, Northampton Community College, Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, Slippery Rock University, Susquehanna University, University of Scranton, Wilkes University, Wilson College, York College of Pennsylvania.

As I wrote in 2009, its influence is limited, but if the NEAT just grows as big as the EIKEN, that will open up some opportunities. To borrow what I wrote two years ago, those are fine enough schools, but

the state's biggest---Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pennsylvania, Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, Grove City College, Allegheny College, Temple University, and even my alma mater---don't accept it. International students can actually get a quality education at these universities, provided they apply themselves, and are more interested in an education than a line on their resume. Students interested in attending one of those universities may take the EIKEN, or a future Korean equivalent, and not burden themselves with an unnecessarily difficult exam. However, Korean students looking to go to a school for its name-brand will be disappointed, which makes it clear that students who study English with an eye toward going abroad eventually will still need to take the TOEFL, TOEIC, or other such exams.

Gwangju subway's second line coming! In 2022.

2011-11-29T05:19:00.004+09:00

Hard to read map, via Newsis.

The Jeonnam Ilbo and Gwangju Ilbo have the latest news on the long-proposed second subway line in Gwangju (광주지하철2호선). Construction will begin after the 2015 Universiade, will proceed in three phases, and is expected to be completed by 2022. Specifics on the second line haven't been finalized yet, but the Jeonnam Ilbo shows roughly what it will look like:

도시철도 2호선의 당초 노선은 효천역~백운광장~남광주역~서방사거리~광주역~동운고가~종합터미널~시청신청사~풍암지구~백운광장이었지만 변경 고시를 통해 시청~운천역~금호지구~월드컵경기장~백운광장(~효천역)~남광주역~광주역~전남대~첨단지구~수완지구~시청 구간 확대 순환선으로 바뀌었다. 정거장 정차시간을 포함한 2호선의 속도는 38.8㎞/hr로 첨단에서 백운광장까지 약 30분이내에 도착할 수 있으며, 1호선과의 연계를 위한 환승역은 운천역과 남광주역으로 계획돼 있다.

For as long as I have been looking at Gwangju subway maps, I've read about plans for additional lines. The subway website even used to have a map showing lines two and three, but it reflected neither reality nor the plans announced in February 2010.

Line 1 opened in August 1996, and the Naver encyclopedia entry says that before the "IMF Crisis"---the Asian Financial Crisis---there were five lines planned for Gwangju, but by 2000 they whittled it down to plans for just two more. The Korean Wikipedia page tells us where those five lines would've gone:

최초 계획

* 1호선(20.60㎞) : 동구 소태동 ~ 금남로 ~ 상무신도시 ~ 광주공항 ~ 광주송정역 ~ 평동산업단지 (1996년 착공 후 2003년 개통 계획)
* 2호선(13.70㎞) : 남구 효천역 - 송암공단 - 백운광장 - 금남로 4가 - 말바우시장 - 북구 문화동 (2004년 착공 후 2009년 개통 계획)
* 3호선(24.00km) : 장성군 월정리 - 광산구 첨단지구 - 양산지구 - 국립광주박물관 - 광주문화예술회관 - 유스퀘어 - 농성 - 백운광장 - 남광주역 - 광주역
* 4호선(28.15㎞) : 광주역 - 전남대학교 - 북구 오치동 - 일곡지구 - 양산지구 - 보훈병원 - 광주시청 - 상무 - 서구 금호지구 - 월드컵경기장 - 금남로 5가 - 광주역
* 5호선(16.60㎞) : 장성군 월정리 - 하남공단 - 광산구 우산동 - 유스퀘어 - 금남로 5가

Because I love subways that would've been awesome, but excessive. And nowadays the buses do cover a lot of this ground, above-ground.

First subway in Gwangju, by 양광삼 기자.

Comparing the value of Korean and foreign English teachers.

2011-11-28T23:20:00.006+09:00

The Korea Times writes "[t]he majority of Korean parents think foreign English teachers are needed in schools despite the government’s move to gradually reduce their number," but adds:

About 53.7 percent said the most effective type of teachers was “Korean teachers who had excellent English communication skills and taught well.” Only 29.7 percent answered positively about native English teachers. This was attributable to the low interaction between students and teachers and the difficulty in understanding the foreign educators.

And in the Hankyoreh:

parents prefer capable Korean teachers of English over native speaker assistant instructors, a Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) study found.

The report released Sunday by the SMOE found 62.2% of 12,150 student parents and 53.7% of 28,761 students taking part in an online poll describing the most desirable type of English teacher as “a Korean teacher who has excellent English conversation skills and teaches effectively.” The rates were higher than the preference for native English speaker assistant instructors, which stood at 26.9% for parents and 29.7% for students.

. . .

In-depth interviews were also conducted with English teachers on the native speaker assistant instructors. Among the factors cited as strengths were the “new cultural experience” and encouragement of student curiosity and interest regarding English. But teachers also voiced negative opinions about the instructors’ individual qualifications and the cost of their employment relative to the learning benefits.

Here's a July 2010 post about native speaker English teacher evaluations, including the questionnaires then given to Korean co-teachers. Here's a lengthier post inspired by the Busan Office of Education's decision to evaluate their NSETs. And last month, Seamus of Asadal Thought shared a questionnaire going around to parents in Gyeonggi-do who were asked to evaluate the performances of their children's NSETs.

3. 원어민 영어선생님을 활용한 영어수업을 통해 귀 자녀의 의사소통능력 향상에 도움이 된다고 생각하십니까? Do you think that your children’s comprehension/understanding is helped through the English classes that utilise the native speaking English teacher?
1. 매우 도움이 된다. It helps greatly.
2. 도움이 된다. It helps.
3. 잘 모르겠다. I don’t really know.
4. 별로 도음이 되지 않는다. It doesn’t really help.
5. 전혀 도움이 되지 않는다. It doesn’t help at all.

We are in turn left to evaluate how, um, qualified parents are to judge the usefulness of their kids' foreign English teachers.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that "capable" Korean English teachers are preferred or considered more useful. The biggest reason--bigger than shared language and culture, and bigger than their significantly-greater staying power--is that they don't lead weekly or bi-monthly conversation clubs, they teach and review the exercises that appear on the all-important standardized tests. Even though the National Curriculum has nominally placed an importance on "communicative competence" for a decade, English is still overwhelmingly a subject rather than a language, a subject where limited proficiency in spoken and written English is enough to do the trick.

For more data and commentary, take a look at today's Gusts of Popular Feeling post.

“The Living Ocean and Coast” means build as much shit on it as you can.

2011-11-22T05:00:00.005+09:00

The Chosun Ilbo has some news about proposed development of some of Yeosu’s heretofore uninhabited islands.

Plans are afoot to develop parts of a sprawling archipelago in the sea near Yeosu, South Jeolla Province into tourism resources. The waters contain over 310 uninhabited islands, some featuring stunning scenery, and the provincial government aims to build up facilities at a select few to attract Chinese visitors given the recent boom in outbound tourism from the country.

. . .

Centering on some of the islands that are more accessible and easier to develop, the ministry plans to create a diverse list of tour programs including island treks, eco-friendly programs and maritime sports activities. According to the plan, yachts will shuttle visitors between the islands and the mainland free of charge.

But some critics have expressed concern about the risk of environmental damage. In response, the ministry conducted a survey on 680 of the 2,900 or so uninhabited islands in the seas off Korea and put 170 on a protected list, meaning development is prohibited in these areas to conserve the environment.

The rest have been categorized as appropriate for development, but the ministry plans to issue clear guidelines to make sure this is done in a sustainable and non-harmful manner.

“The Living Ocean and Coast” is, of course, the theme of the 2012 World Expo scheduled for May 12 through August 12, 2012, in Yeosu.

The local governments often send mixed messages on conservation versus exploitation. In 2008, the year the Ramsar Convention on wetland preservation was held in Gangwon province, the Saemangeum development project was in full swing on the west coast. From the International Herald Tribune:

[Developers] will replace natural wetlands with artificial ones and turn riverbeds into lakes. They will build a park along the road on the sea dyke and try to attract tourists with a theme park, convention center and even perhaps a casino.

And in December 2007, a few weeks after Yeosu was awarded the Expo, developers announced plans to build five or six golf courses in rural parts of the city, thereby replacing some of the city’s green with greens (here and here are two looks at the construction of one). Interestingly one of the big projects in the news now includes turning an island into a golf destination:

The Yeosu Island Golf & Resort (여수 경도 골프&리조트) will be built on Gyeongho-dong's Daegyeong Island (대경도), and will include condos, villas, and three nine-hole golf courses. Daegyeong-do is next to Dolsan-do, and is right across from the Dolsan Bridge. It isn't uninhabited, though: there's a school, a few roads, these sweet-ass floating guesthouses, and 1,345 people at the last census. Construction began in September 2010, and should be finished by 2016.

According to figures from the Korean Coast Guard, there are 1,966 islands in Jeollanam-do, 1,688 of which are uninhabited. These numbers are a little out of date, and in April 2010 the government added another 281 uninhabited islands to the province’s total.

English teacher needs help, blood donors, in Miryang.

2011-11-19T11:11:00.002+09:00

Via Waygook.org:

What would you do if you were struck by a serious illness while teaching in Korea? You are suddenly hospitalized and unable to work? You discover that your Korean National Insurance doesn’t cover your kind of major illness and you are most probably going to die here in a foreign land?
My next door neighbor, a 47-year-old Native English Teacher from New Zealand, is in the ICU right now at Busan University Hospital in Yangsan with liver failure. He is on the list for a liver transplant and the doctors say that he will not survive without one. He has a rare blood type, O negative. His brother is now en route from New Zealand and is a potential donor, assuming that $50,000 can be found for the operation.

The Facebook group is a little hard to follow, but has bank information for those interested in contributing a little something:

Nonghyup Bank (National Agricultural Cooperative Federation)
Name: 마이클 (Michael Milne)
Account - 811057 52 067773

If you are sending funds from another country to Mick's Korean account:
Bank name: National Agricultural Cooperative Federation
Name: Michael Milne
Account number: 811057 52 067773
Swift Code - NACFKRSEXXX
Address: 75, Chungjeongro 1 Ga
Jung-Gu, Seoul, Korea
Phone: 82-10-7552-1964

There have been a few loud calls for blood donations among expats in Korea over the last couple of years, one of which prompted blogger Roboseyo to summarize the procedures:

The donation eligibility form is the same at any red cross clinic worldwide:

Take a look at this document. Read it carefully.
Take a look at this document. Read it carefully.
These two documents'll help you determine your eligibility.

In this article, and this one, I was told you need to meet these requirements to donate blood in Korea:
1. You need to have an Alien Registration Card. Bring it, and be ready to present it.
2. You need to have been in Korea for a year.
3. You need to be able to answer some questions about your medical history... mostly the ones inthose two documents above... the guy at the Seoul Global Center, when I called in April, was pretty sure that you need to speak enough Korean to answer the medical history questions yourself, but when I went in person, the nurse did allow me to answer the questions through an interpreter. Some of the questions made my translator feel awkward -- "have you shared needles"? But if you can help save a guy's life, it's worth it, right?

수능 문제지와 답안지: College entrance examination questions and answers online.

2011-11-12T05:00:00.003+09:00

A few hours after the 2012 College Entrance Examination (2012 대학수학능력시험), the questions and answers are online. Naver has a list of twelve places to find them.

Part three, the English section, will probably be of most interest to readers. Finding the main idea of the passage, via the 서울신문:

[34～35] 다음 글의 주제로 가장 적절한 것을 고르시오.

34. Living things naturally return to a state of balance.
When we are disturbed by forces acting on us, our inner
machinery kicks in and returns us to a balanced state of
equilibrium. Homeostasis is the word we use to describe
the ability of an organism to maintain internal equilibrium
by adjusting its physiological processes. Most of the
systems in animal and human physiology are controlled
by homeostasis. We don’t like to be off balance. We tend
to keep things in a stable condition. This system operates
at all levels. Our blood stays the same temperature.
Except for extraordinary exceptions, when people find
ways to intervene using methods more powerful than our
tendency to equilibrium, our habits, behaviors, thoughts,
and our quality of life stay pretty much the same too.
① physical balance needed for mental equilibrium
② inner mechanisms to enhance the quality of life
③ general tendency of organisms to keep equilibrium
④ major differences in animal and human physiology
⑤ biological processes resulting from habitual behaviors

Um, I’m fine, thank you, and you?

The last section is an optional additional foreign-language section: German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese characters. Arabic is consistently the most “popular” choice.

Students say, according to the JoongAng Daily, this year's "mother of all tests" was easier than last year's. Here's last November's exam, if you'd like to compare.

Here's a post from 2009 about walking to class and watching the pre-exam festivities on test day in a Gwangju neighborhood.

Unsurprisingly, Reuters has filed its story on the country's exam preparations under "Oddly Enough", so I won't bother linking to it.

Mudeung Stadium, then and now.

2011-11-06T12:37:00.001+09:00

Here's a look at Gwangju's two stadiums in Im-dong in 1965:

And here's how the area looked in March, 2009 via Naver's map system:

According to the Gwangju city webpage, the population in 1965 was 365,611, and in 2010 it was 1,467,996. The old track stadium---opened in 1965---is being replaced with a new baseball stadium for the Kia Tigers' 2014 season.

South Korean education makes "News of the Weird".

2011-11-06T11:36:00.003+09:00

Korean kids talking with the Obama children, from the Chosun Ilbo, March 11, 2009.

Coverage of Korea in western outlets usually amounts to "news" that's lazily reported several months later, or something that fits into the "news of the weird" category that aligns with western stereotypes of Asians. I've written that before about the persistent, and untimely, reporting on Korea's English-teaching robots that turns up in "news" stories every few months. This week, the syndicated, low-brow column "News of the Weird" covers those "Inscrutable Asians" in South Korea:

Though South Korean children score among the highest in the world on standardized reading and math tests, their success comes at a price, according to an October Time magazine dispatch. They supposedly suffer "educational masochism" -- punishing themselves by overstudy, especially in high school preparing for university admissions tests (a process so competitive that even test-coaching schools are picky about accepting students). Earlier this year, to curb the "masochism," the government began enforcing a 10 p.m. curfew on coaching-school activities, and in Seoul, a six-man team conducts nightly after-hours raids on classes that run late-night sessions behind shuttered windows. (Ironically, Time acknowledged, American educational reformers want U.S. students to study harder, like Asians do, but Asian reformers want their students to relax, like American students.)

Wow, South Korean students study a lot . . . that's so weird. Here's the September 25th Time magazine article, which reports on the hardly-new phenomenon of long-studying students and the on-again, off-again efforts of the authorities to crack down on late-night cram sessions. The article leads to an important point:

The problem is not that South Korean kids aren't learning enough or working hard enough; it's that they aren't working smart. When I visited some schools, I saw classrooms in which a third of the students slept while the teacher continued lecturing, seemingly unfazed.

The spectacularly inefficient use of classroom time---with kids "studying" "year-round" but spending a month after exams watching movies in class, or attending schools on Saturdays to play soccer or go on field trips---is one problem with comparing the Korean and American school systems and their different school calendars. (See also "Continued exaggeration of President Obama's views of Korean education" from 2010.)

Related to sleeping in class, members of a prominent and . . . weird teachers' union said sleeping in class is a "human right".

The survey of 1,649 students and 1,132 teachers, conducted by the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union, came amid disputes over moves by liberal-controlled educational offices to change the way teachers treat students.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, headed by liberal superintendent Kwak No-hyun, announced measures last month to enhance students’ human rights, sparking protests from conservative groups advocating teachers’ rights.

According to the survey, 44.5 percent of the students said they were entitled to do other things than just focusing on lessons during classes ― 24 percent of teachers agreed to such rights.

Like a lot of what this union does, the survey is a publicity stunt. But it leads you to wonder how much improvement could be made in Korean schools if teachers like that weren't in charge.

November 3rd, Students' Day.

2011-11-04T04:04:00.004+09:00

Gwangju politicians at the memorial tower on the campus of Gwangju Jeil High School mark Students' Day (학생의날) , which was designated to commemorate the start of the Gwangju Students' Independence Movement (광주학생항일운동) of 1929. It was, says a now-defunct page on the Gwangju Student Independence Movement Memorial Hall website:

a typical national resistance movement against the cruel rule of Japanese colonialism. Its size, the influence it exerted and its historical significance were comparable with that of the huge "Samil Independence Movement".

Gwangju's tourism webpage said in 2009:

In 1953, the government designated Nov. 3rd as "Student Day"in commemoration of the Gwangju Students'Independence Movement and a memorial monument was established in Gwangju Seo Middle School and Il High School in 1954. The day was at one point abolished by the autocratic government before finally being named as "Students'Independence Memorial Day"and elevated to a nationwide memorial day in 2006.

From the 1954 dedication ceremony, via this site.

"Slow city" Jeung-do in transition.

2011-10-29T04:30:00.004+09:00

Naver's looking out from above Eldorado Resort.

Claire Lee in the Korea Herald looks at Shinan county's Jeung-do nearly four years after it was one of four areas in South Korea designated as "Slow Cities" in December 2007.

Being the first slow city of Asia, along with the completion of the bridge that connects the island to the peninsula ― which opened last year ― brought many changes to Jeungdo. As the number of visitors increased dramatically, the island faced more demand for accommodations and tour packages. This had both positive and negative impacts on the island, placing Jeungdo somewhere in between further development and the expected “slowness.”

For more about Jeollanam-do's "slow cities"---actually two cities and two rural counties---over the years:

* February 15, 2008: Jeollanam-do's slow cities.
* March 24, 2009: Jeollanam-do is a little slow.
* December 28, 2009: "Slow City" in Shinan working hard to stay slow.

Nearly two years ago we read of Jeung-do in the JoongAng Daily that "A rare experiment to create an island free of cigarette smoking, cars and night lights has begun in Korea’s southern region." But in this month's Herald piece we see a conflicted Jeung-do:

Lee Jong-hwa, the representative of the local tour agency Gilbeot, on the other hand, has been receiving complaints from visitors and scholars, that Jeungdo isn’t “slow” enough. One of the scholars that contacted him pointed out that most buildings on Jeungdo are modern-day residential ones, carrying no particular aesthetic values. Unlike other slow cities in Korea, such as Changpyeong of South Jeolla Province or Yesan of South Chungcheong Province, Jeungdo doesn’t have any traditional Korean houses or ancient Buddhist temples. “He said we should in fact ‘create’ traditional homes, at least just to show the visitors, to serve the purpose of being a slow city,” Lee told The Korea Herald. “But we cannot live a lie for the sake of a slow city.”

Still interested in visiting? Search the Korea Tourism Organization's webpage for a couple of articles on it. There are a couple of big---well, um, slow city big---festivals: the Slow Salt Village Festival (SLOW 소금마을 축제) from May to July at the Salt Village, and a Mud Festival ~~that hasn't yet been debauched~~ (신안 섬갯벌 축제) in July.

3D Korea International Film Festival (3D 한국국제영화제) in Gwangju, November 17th through 21st.

2011-10-26T10:04:00.001+09:00

The third annual 3D Korea International Film Festival (3D 한국국제영화제) will be held in Gwangju from November 17th through the 21st, it was announced on Wednesday. The festival's site has a list of movies and a schedule, in English and Korean.

In other local film festival news, the chronically underpromoted Gwangju International Film Festival (광주국제영화제) will run from October 27th through 31st.

아이고, fire at Suncheon's Drama Set.

2011-10-23T11:34:00.006+09:00

From No Cut News.

Earlier this month there was a fire at Suncheon's Drama Set (순천드라마세트장 or 드라마촬영장), used to film TV dramas like "Love and Ambition" (사랑과야망) and "East of Eden" (에덴의 동쪽). According to the latest update on October 7th, a few hours after the fire spread through the recreations of mid-century Korea the night before, three buildings were destroyed: one theater and two hanok houses.

I think this is the theater they're talking about, but after a good bit of time comparing the fire footage with pictures of the theaters and the "town" layouts, I can't be sure. Just one disadvantage of blogging on Suncheon from half-a-world away.

The set is located in Jorye-dong and is a fairly well-kept secret I always enjoyed visiting. Even three buildings down it's worth a trip to see the mock-up of an anachronistically-named 60s-era Suncheon-eup (Suncheon was designated a city in the 40s), a 70s-era slum, and an 80s-era Seoul. Here's a September 2008 Korea Times article about it and the then-recent activity there, here's a Flickr gallery from 2007, and here's my second-ever blog post. Walk to it from New Downtown, take city bus #777, or catch it on the Suncheon City Tour. If you're interested in these sorts of displays and artifacts there are a couple other drama sets throughout the country that cover similar time periods. There's also a Daldongnae Museum (수도국산 달동네박물관, Sudoguksan Museum of Living and Housing) in Incheon.

Hyundai to build new Gwangju baseball stadium.

2011-10-21T10:17:00.008+09:00

Artist's rendition of the new ballpark in Gwangju, from the 전남일보.

On October 20th it was announced that Hyundai Engineering & Construction will build Gwangju's new baseball stadium, home of the Kia Tigers. The site of a future "Culture Park" in Im-dong, it's expected to be done in December 2013 in time for the 2014 season. The new one will sit next to the old one, for now, but will replace and mean the end of Mudeung Stadium (무등경기장 주경기장), built in 1965.

Gwangju and Mudeung Stadium hosted the 46th annual National Sports Festival in 1965, where unfortunately 16 people died in a stampede
on opening day.

Beauty pageant contestants flee Korea alleging corruption, sexual harassment.

2011-10-20T07:52:00.008+09:00

The BBC reports on a 19-year-old model upset with her treatment at the Miss Asia Pacific World contest this month in three Korean cities.

A triple-crowned beauty queen from Bristol has claimed she had to leave a competition in South Korea because she feared for her safety.

Amy Willerton, 19, the title holder of Miss Bath, Miss Bristol and Ms Wales University competed in Miss Asia Pacific World earlier this month.

But she alleged competitors were sexually harassed and bribed and were not provided with food.

A Daily Mail article explains further:

[T]hings went wrong from the moment she stepped off the plane in Seoul on 3 October when organisers refused to pay for her £600 flight as promised.

She was then horrified to discover her hotel room did not even have a bed.

Amy, who is single, said: 'There was just a blanket on the floor. I put up with it for two nights but then complained and they moved me to another hotel.

'The next thing I knew we weren't being fed - they only gave us one meal per day. They would say things like 'we cannot give you lunch because we haven't been paid for it'.'

After three days in Seoul, the group of 50 beauties were taken to the city of Daegu for the next stage of the competition.

By this time allegations of corruption and bribery were sweeping around the models and several had complained of being sexually assaulted and harassed.

The final straw came when an optional 'talent' round was won by Miss Venezuela - who had not even entered that section of the competition.

The controversy with Miss Venezuela and the attempt by three others to leave the competition can be seen in a video uploaded by Miss Guyana on the 15th:

The discussions continue in the videos that bookend that one. The messageboard on the Miss Asia Pacific website has had a recent spike in traffic. A couple examples under the section unfortunately titled "press releases":

i am suspicous that you are korean gansters, who want to abuse the contestants sexually. 너희들 조직폭력배지? 참가자들은 성폭력하려하는... 경찰을 이놈들을 다잡아 감옥에 넣어야한다. 국가명예 손상죄로... 더러운 놈들...

and

세계인들을 불러놓고 방값두못내서 ㅉㅉ.....
모하자는 단체인지 ..결혼정보회사에서 이벤트연것이요? ㅉㅉ

Please see this post on Critical Beauty for much more information and details.

If the allegations are true, it's as much about perverted and corrupt officials as it is about organizers in way over their heads, like when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education would house its foreign English teachers at Dongdaemun Stadium. I was going to say that hotel rooms without beds, for example, are not uncommon: check out any motel or any mid-range tourist hotel, and you'll find these "Korean-style" rooms. Now I was going to simply write that looking at the "official hotels" for the pageant, Seoul's Imperial Palace does not have an ondol room, but two other of the other three on the tour---the Aqua Palace in Busan and the Hotel Inter-burgo in Daegu---do. But Amy has posted two photos (1, 2) of her first two hotels, and clearly they didn't get what's advertised. Indeed, an email by the organizer to the directors who sent contestants, as quoted on Critical Beauty says exactly that; here he is outlining how the festival "was totally destroyed":

2. Seoul Committee blocked 30 twins to Hotel Imperial Palace, but they did not pay until 1 week delegates’ arrival, disappeared, accordingly cancelled. At the same cancelled day, i called hotel, but no rooms due to peak season, i find only 10 rooms. From that day, we tried to find hotels all over Seoul, i found only suit rooms at Hotel Intercontinental, and the price per room was USD1, 000 per suite room. We could not accommodate with this price, and divided Imperial Palace and Resort that makes a lot of complaints.

3. Daegu Committee blocked 30 twins at Hotel Interbulgo for 6 nights and conducted Talent Competition jointly National Costume. They did not pay production fee, hence no rehearsal, the Show was delayed. I paid production fee, the show started after 1 hour than scheduled time. The result was terrible, mess, no judgement to award. For example, Miss Puerto Rico get award for Europe Award, Miss Venezuela was a model for Miss Estonia’s talent fashion show, she award Talent… All delegates angry and upset as they prepared a lot for Talent, that is Super Talent Competition. When the girls were check out hotel on Oct 13th, to travel Busan where world final held, i knew the Daegu Committee did not pay hotel. They promised to pay hotel until 11 AM, but delayed, delayed, the first group 35 girls departed to Busan, the other 15 girls could leave 4PM, after i paid USD30,000 for hotel and banquet dinner for Oct 11th Competition. 1 delegate went to her home country, 2 delegate called me to pay 20,000 usd each, then stay here to world final, the reason was due to lack of service and professionalism, but i could not promise the fund right away, the 2 girls went to home on Oct 13th.

Wikipedia says the Korean "winner" has resigned, and according to the email reprinted by Critical Beauty, the organizer Choi has a list of people to blame:

I will accuse on the following people

Chief Seoul Committee Mr. Lee, Jin Hwan.

Chief Daegu Committee Mr. Keum, Beop Il.

Chief Busan Committee Mr. Jung, Weon Young

I left out the addresses, cellphone numbers, and emails of those three, but Critical Beauty has them if you're interested.

Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident (여순반란사건), October 1948.

2011-10-18T10:30:00.007+09:00

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

Wednesday, October 19th, marks the anniversary of the "Yŏsu Rebellion," written in English also as the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Incident" or the "Yŏsu-Sunchŏn Rebellion," one of several bloody exchanges in Jeollanam-do last century, and one whose background serves to foreshadow the violence of the Korean War two years later. The 여순반란사건 was a crackdown against suspected communists in South Jeolla province, specifically the cities written now as Yeosu and Suncheon, that resulted in hundreds or thousands of deaths, depending on the source.

English-language information is limited, though the placards around Suncheon provide some background. From the placard that stood in front of Suncheon Station until it was razed and rebuilt in 2009:

The Yosun Incident broke out on Oct. 19, 1948, when the 14th Regiment of the National Defense Guard of South Korea refused to move to Jeju Island on a mission to put down an armed uprising protesting against the estasblishment of the government by South Korea alone. When about 2,000 soldiers marched into downtown Yeosu, the civilians,students and local leftists, who were suffering from economic distress after the establishment of the new government, joined the soldiers. The insurgent forces instantly occupied eastern areas of Jeonnam Province, i.e., Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gurye, Boseong, Goheung, and Gokseong. The government established the quell force headquarter in Gwangju and defeated the insurgent forces in Suncheon on Oct. 23 and in Yeosu on Oct. 27. During the search operation against the civilian collaborators, many innocent civilians were executed without trial. The number of victims of the Yosun Incident is estimated to be about 10,000 including policement, soldiers, and civilians, though the exact number is not known.
The Yosun Incident served as a momentum for establishing 'anti-communism' as the national idiology for South Korea and fixation of the partition of the Korean peninsula.

There is another placard tucked under 장대다리 on the east side of Dongcheon, the river that runs through Suncheon. It reads:

The Suncheon Bridge (Jangdaedari) and the bank of Dongchun Stream witnessed the first fierce combat between the police and the insurgent forces at the time of the Yosun Incident. On October 20th, the Suncheon police and right-wing youths from adjacent regions established a defensive line at Gwangyang Samguri, but failed to keep the insurgent forces from advancing to downtown Suncheon because the 4th Regiment, a support troop from Gwangju, joined the insurgents. During the combat, most of the policement escaped from the spot, some were killed, and only about 50 retreated to the Suncheon Police Station.

(Top) Facing the bridge from the north, found via this Korean-language blog but probably taken for Life magazine (Bottom) Similar view about 60 years later.

Since last year's October 19th post, a reader sent several articles from the Los Angeles Times that supplement the little information we can find in books and comtemporary magazine articles. From an October 21, 1948 article "Red-Inspired Korea Rebels Go To Hills":

Augmented by civilian sympathizers, [South Korean Prime Minister Lee Bum Suk] said the rioting troops plundered and tortured the townsmen and attacked Yosu women. He did not say how many Koreans participated in the outbreak. Figures have ranged from 600 to 800 soldiers to a police stimate of 4000 troops and followers.

The new brigade commander and 20 to 30 more Korean army officers at Yosu were killed, said Lee. The Home Ministry estimates 100 police died in Yosu, 300 others in Sunchon.

Meanwhile, in the troubled area, the Prime Minister said the rebel band had divided at Sunchon aafter moving up from Yosu, 20 miles to the south, in a commandeered train. Part of the insurgents headed toward Namwon, 30 miles north of Sunchon; part drove toward Kwangju, capital of South Cholla province.

South Korea was under martial law. Strong troop and police detachments were ordered to the scene of the revolt which flared up yesterday.

An Associated Press article from the 23rd reports on violence in Posong (know spelled Boseong):

South Korean army headquarters announced late today that rebels have captured the town of Posong but are being engaged by loyal troops.

The town in Southwest Korea is 26 miles southwest of Suncheon, which the army said was recovered Friday night [the 22nd].

After the rebels fled from Sunchon, four police stations along the route to Posong were attacked, indicating it was the Sunchon fugitives who took Posong. Their strength was not known, however.

An attempt on Yosu via Posong on October 24th, via The Spartanburg Herald.

An Associated Press report from October 22:

South Korean rebels and Loyalist troops are locked in a see-saw battle for the town of Posong, which already has changed hands twice in 24 hours, Korean army headquarters said today.

Posong, 26 miles southwest of Sunchon in the extreme southern part of the peninsula, was captured from the rebels by government troops yesterday and recaptured by the rebels again last night. The battle, with an undetermined number of well armed insurgents involved, was continuing today.
. . .
Police said that 150 police and townspeople [in Yeosu] were executed by a so-called poeple's court while the insurgents, described by the government as Communists, held Sunchon.

An excerpt from the book The Korean War 1945 to 1953, available from Google Books, reminding us there was brutality on all sides:

The civilian rebels included at least 70 teachers. The head of the Yosu's People's Committee was Song Uk, prinicipal of the Yosu Girls' Middle School---the girls were described as "redder than the inside of a watermelon" and proved it when, armed with Japanese rifles, they fought in the vain defense of the city.

In Sunchon some people were summarily executed, but others were tried by a People's Court. While some were found innocent or merely castigated, most were beaten and then executed. The police chief got the worst of it. His eyes were plucked out and he was dragged by car along the streets. Shot, his gas-drenched body was tied to a pole and set on fire. Some 900 people, among them 400 police, were killed in Sunchon by the rebels.

Here's an excerpt from a 1948 report by Carl Mydans---the man who took some of those photographs for Life---that appeared in Time magazine:

When darkness came, Communist execution squads went from house to house, shooting "rightists" in their beds or marching them to collection points where they were mowed down. In 2-3-days, 500 civilians were slaughtered. U.S. Lieuts. Stewart M. Greenbaum and Gordon Mohr, Army observers in Sunchon, narrowly escaped death. The rebel sergeant assigned to kill them was an old friend, who had drunk beer with them in their billet many times. He took the two officers into a field, fired into the ground and then led them to the Presbyterian Mission of Dr. John Curtis Crane, who was barricaded in with his wife and four other missionaries.

From one of the doctor's shirts and a few colored rags the ladies made a 16-star, eleven-stripe U.S. flag and put it up. The rebels began pounding at the compound gate, yelling: "Let's kill the Americans!" Suddenly one shouted: "No, no, not them; they are my friends." It was the lieutenants' friend, the sergeant. The rebels went away.

For the first few hours the loyal troops who retook Sunchon were as savage as the Communists had been. On the big compound of the Sunchon Agricultural and Forestry School we found what was left of the entire population of Sunchon. Women with babies on their backs watched without expression as their husbands and sons were beaten with clubs, rifle butts and steel helmets. They saw 22 of them marched away to the primary school nearby, and heard the volley of rifles which killed them.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine.

A placard on the Suncheon National University campus reads:

At the time of the Yosun Incident, the quell force, made up of police and defense guard troops, used the Suncheon Middle School of Farming and Forestry (the predecessor of the present Sunchon National University) as their camp and
headquarter when they attacked the insurgent forces in downtown Suncheon on Oct. 22th. The nearby Suncheon Northern Elementary School was the site of questioning and executing of civilians who were suspected of taking sides with the insurgents. The victims were executed without trial on the levee of a rice paddy behind the school's auditorium.

A few other posts in the "1948 Yosu-Sunchon Incident" category provide a little more information and sources. In November 2008 Life magazine opened its archives to Google Image searches, providing over 100 pictures of violence in Yeosu and Suncheon in the 1940s, and in the Jeolla provinces in the 1950s. Be warned, the photographs are understandably graphic. Since my first posts in 2007 and 2008, more contemporary AP reports have trickled out via a Google News archive search, providing at least one-sided coverage of the violence and additional information about the area. From a report by Tom Lambert available in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on October 25, 1948:

Golden rice fields, streets, and the police compound are strewn with the bodies of an estimated 600 bodies killed in last week's revolt here.

The article continues, mentioning two of the "yanks" who saw action (named in the aforementioned Time piece by Mydans as well):

Lieutenant Greenbaum said anti-American epithets were hurled at him by the rebels. Lieutenant Mohr's boot heel had a hole shot in it by police, who, he said, "were shooting at everything."

When they were through executing bound antileftists and police, the rebels armed high school aged youths with Japanese rifles. Ten of those were slaughtered yesterday when they tried to storm the postoffice, then held by loyalists.

Col. Won Yong Duk, who took part in the loyalist assault on Sunchon, said 180 rebels were captured by his forces.

When Suncheon was retaken, every man in each house was taken to the grounds of a Japanese-built school for questioning. Police kicked and clubbed them. One policeman wearing an old Japanese helmet butted the suspects he was interrogatig.

Along the road flanking the school grounds an estimated 500 women awaited the outcome of the questioning. They could see some of the suspects mauled and beaten. Only the women's eyes betrayed their anxiety.

Further down the road, at a plaza, the bodies of the 22 newly executed men were strewn. On their bodies were small squares of white canvas on which were painted in indelible ink the hammer and sickle over a pair of clasped hands.

By Carl Mydans, for Life magazine. See also here.

Bodies of the 22 executed at the school, by Carl Mydans for Life magazine.

Executions continued into the month that followed. A November 30th AP report:

Fifty-five more officers and men of the Korean army have been shot to death for participating in the Oct. 20 mutiny against the young republic.

A Korean army spokesman announced today that 55 were executed last Saturday at Taejon, 95 miles southeast of Seoul. He said about half as many others were executed earlier for participating in the Communist-inspired rebellion.

My hometown Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will close with October 21, 1948 commentary:

The American commander in Seoul has stated that the rebellion is "an internal Korean affair" and that Americans will not intervene of their own volition except to protect American property and lives. It is to be hoped that the Rhee government can handle the situation and that the United States will not be compelled to intervene militarily. Such intervention will play into the hands of the Russians, who would use it for propaganda purposes before the United Nations. They would like nothing better than an opportunity to point to their own withdrawal as evidence of good faith while citing American action as evidence that our troops remain in Korea for the sole purpose of imposing our will upon the people.

Smooth.

2011-10-18T10:29:00.001+09:00

One of my biggest weaknesses continues to be clicking on the ads on the Korea Times website. Today they led me to Flyday.co.kr and to

Only 14,000 won. Goes nicely with the G-ma$ta classic:

Yeosu Marching Band Festival (여수마칭페스티발): October 20th and 21st.

2011-10-17T01:13:00.004+09:00

The second Yeosu Marching Festival (여수마칭페스티발) will be held on October 20th and 21st.

There is a parade scheduled for 12:30 on Thursday the 20th, from Ssangbong Elementary School to Yeosu City Hall, with a performance at 6:30 at the Yeosu Indoor Gymnasium (여수실내체욕관). On Friday evening there will be another performance at Yi Sun-Shin Plaza (이순신광장). A college football pep-rally it probably won't be, but I can count the number of times I've seen a marching band in Korea on my elbow. Little background information is available, though one photographer wrote of last year's international version:

This festival is part of the celebrations for the 60th Anniversary of the Recapture of Seoul held from the 25 September to 6th October. The Republic of Korea requested musical support from several countries to assist in the celebrations[.]

It's a recent addition to my list of Jeollanam-do festivals held throughout the year, now at over 110.

On the topic of uncommonly-heard musical styles in Jeollanam-do, the Gwangju Berner Oberland Yodel Club (광주오버란드요델클럽) has several performances scheduled in October.

US announces participation in 2012 Yeosu Expo.

2011-10-15T11:27:00.001+09:00

On the 13th the US State Department officially announced its participation in the Yeosu Expo, scheduled for May 12th through August 12th, 2012.

Joining more than 108 countries and international organizations, USA Pavilion 2012 will build on the Expo’s overall theme of “The Living Ocean and Coast,” and showcase the diversity, spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation, and commitment to sustainable development of the American people. U.S. participation in Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea demonstrates U.S. commitment to deepening our friendly ties and strengthening U.S. – Republic of Korea (ROK) relations and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

I'm sorry to see the theme will incorporate my least-favorite buzzword, the s-word:

Focusing on the themes of Diversity, Wonder, and Solutions, the USA Pavilion 2012 is expected to reach millions of visitors through a host of exciting technologies and storytelling. A highlight of the USA Pavilion experience for visitors will be their interactions with Student Ambassadors. In partnership with the University of Virginia, 40 college-aged American Student Ambassadors proficient in Korean will be selected to serve as representatives of the United States, engaging directly with USA Pavilion visitors and supporting the USA Pavilion operation.

Official site of the USA pavillion here, brochure for University of Virginia Student Ambassador Program here. Canada, we learned in August, will not participate.

The International Pavilion (국제관).

Under construction in September.

Gangjin's Sunghwa College, Suncheon's Myungshin University "lousy schools", may close this fall.

2011-09-12T01:02:00.002+09:00

Last month we learned about corruption and embezzlement at two small post-secondary schools in Jeollanam-do, Sunghwa College and Myungshin University. This month we read in the Korea JoongAng Daily that they're likely to close.

In line with its no-tolerance policy for lousy schools, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ordered two universities in South Jeolla to shut down if they don’t make immediate changes the ministry has demanded.

The two schools, Myungshin University and Sunghwa College, are expected to close as both of the schools have been accused of corrupt practices such as giving grades and attendance records to thousands of students who never bothered going to classes, trying to boost their reputations.

“We expect the schools’ closings to be finished by early next year,” said Kim Dae-sung, an official at the Education Ministry.

Myungshin University has until September 27th to repay the embezzled funds, while Sunghwa College's deadline is October 1st.

The Korea Times writes that government subsidies to these 43 "lousy" schools will end "as part of a set of measures to weed out poorly-managed higher education establishments."

The government will also restrict loans for students attending 17 of the 43 schools. Loans to students at the worst four schools — Kundong University in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province; Myungshin University in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province; Holy People University in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province; and Sunghwa College in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province — will be limited to only 30 percent of tuition fees next year.

At least Sunghwa College has a neat campus.

The Korea JoongAng Daily embedded a list of the 43 "lousy" schools, typed after the jump:

The four-year colleges:

Chodang University
Chugye University for the Arts
Daebul University
Daejeon University
Far East University
Gyeongju University
Holy People University
Hyupsung University
Incheon Catholic University
International University
Joongbu University
Korea Christian University
Koshin University
Kundong University
Kwangdong University
Kyungdong University
Kyungnam University
Kyungsung University
Luther University
Mokwon University
Myungshin University
Pyeongtaek University
Sangmyung University
Seonam University
Seoul Christian University
Seowon University
Wonkwang University
Youngdong University

And the junior colleges:

Busan Arts College
Busan College of Information Technology
Byuksung College
Dongju College
Dong-U College
Jeonbuk Science College
Juseong University
Kimpo College
Kookje College
Saekyung University
Sohae College
Sorabol College
Sunghwa College
Woongji Accounting and Tax College
Yeongnam Foreign Language College

Naver gives us the list in Korean:

4년제
(28개교)

경동대학교, 대불대학교, 루터대학교, 목원대학교, 원광대학교,
추계예술대학교, 건동대학교, 명신대학교, 선교청대학교, 경남대학교,
경성대학교, 경주대학교, 고신대학교, 그리스도대학교, 극동대학교,
관동대학교, 대전대학교, 상명대학교, 서남대학교, 서울기독대학교,
서원대학교, 영동대학교, 인천가톨릭대학교, 중부대학교, 초당대학교,
평택대학교, 한국국제대학교, 협성대학교

전문대
(15개교)

동우대학, 벽성대학, 부산예술대학, 서해대학, 김포대학, 영남외국어대학,
전북과학대학, 성화대학, 국제대학, 동주대학, 부산정보대학, 서라벌대학,
세경대학, 웅지세무대학, 주성대학

Teach Korean, get white women.

2011-08-30T08:33:00.001+09:00

That's the approach Sindorim Korean School (산도림한국어학당) is taking with their advertisements on the Korea Times.

Of course news sites like the Korea Times aren't known for the subtlety or classiness of their advertisements (more here and here, for example). This particular article, "Foreigner attacks old person on a bus," is surrounded by ads for a plastic surgeon, a dating quiz, two male enhancement clinics, two online shopping sites, and a wristwatch camcorder convenient for secretly taking pictures of women on the street.

This school's ad speaks to the increasing need for qualified Korean-language teachers during the swell of the Korean Wave, and unsurprisingly uses the appeal of white women---who are often fetishized and sexualized in Korean media and ads---to do it.

I'm reminded of what I dug up a couple years ago for a post I never got around to finishing, about the big language-exchange clubs in Seoul that used flirtatious white girls as their draw (inspired in turn by material found for this post about pestering foreigners to learn English).

Take a look at the "traditional" American dress used to promote the English Conversation Club.

Hana Republic is one of the best-known of these "international party" groups, and probably the most widely-advertised on Korean-language sites, and has images like this on its site to promote its language exxxchanges:

It has, um, "evolved" to include pictures of white men hanging out with Korean women as well. But nevertheless the drunk white girl angle is somewhat notable considering the reception a language-exchange site, or a Korean-language school, would get were its main aim to hook up white guys with Korean women. There's no need to spend too long imagining.

World Roller Speed Skating Championship coming to Yeosu.

2011-08-24T22:00:00.000+09:00

The 2011 Yeosu World Roller Speed Skating Championship (2011여수세계롤러스피드스케이팅선수권대회) will be held August 29th through September 5th in Yeosu, Jeollanam-do. Information is characteristically sparse on the official website, though you can find a time-table of events for the week in English. A news article from last week estimates 700-some athletes from 50-some countries will compete.

The J-1 business: Our version of incompetent hagwon owners and unscrupulous recruiters.

2011-08-24T08:24:00.002+09:00

"Justice at Hershey for J-1 Student" (via MySanAntonio.com).

I've met quite a few young people on J-1 visas---for individuals approved to participate in work-and study-based exchange visitor programs---here in the US, both before my time in Korea and after, and learned about their experiences in western Pennsylvania: long hours in fast-food restaurants; crowded, overpriced one-room apartments; and life in isolated suburban areas that provided little opportunity for meaningful cultural experiences. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette took a look at protests going on in Hershey, Pennsylvania by workers on J-1 visas disappointed with their experience.

From an August 20th article:

The famous chocolate maker based [in Hershey] makes a lot of tasty sweets that are sold worldwide, but Natalia Niewiadomska, a 22-year-old college student from Poland, wasn't feeling sweet toward the company Friday.

She and dozens of other college students from around the world, who had worked at a sprawling Hershey packing and distribution center in neighboring Palmyra for the last two months, stopped working Wednesday, refusing to lift heavy cartons of candy or pack the treats as they moved by on a swiftly-moving conveyer belt.

The students complained they are doing much heavier work than they'd been told about, and for only $6 to $8 an hour. Having paid from $3,000 to $6,000 in airfare and fees to come to the U.S., plus each paying almost $400 a month for a four-person apartment, the students said they only make $100 to $140 a month and will likely lose money on the experience.

. . .

The program deducts students' housing costs, plus bus and drug testing fees, from their paychecks, which they said will leave them with only $100 a week, or $1,200 at the end of their three-month stay, far less than what they paid to participate.

"They promised me I would be here to work and travel. The reality is I work and sleep every day," said Li Chanjuan, 22, a Chinese student [protesting in Pittsburgh]. When students complained about the large amount of manual labor, they were threatened with the loss of their visas, he said.

"I wanted to improve my English, but I have only improved my muscle," said Feti Karademir, a student from Turkey.

See also "Companies Point Fingers as Students Protest Conditions at Chocolate Plant" in the Post-Gazette (via the New York Times) on the 19th.

The students, including many from medical and engineering graduate schools, said they were expecting a relaxing summer job and opportunities to befriend Americans. They were encouraged, they said, by the Web site of the council, which shows laughing students on a highway before a panoramic mountain landscape, promising a chance to "live your dream."

Instead, the students were dropped into the middle of a transformed American workplace, doing fast-paced production line and lifting work in round-the-clock shifts for wages of $7.25 to $8.35 an hour, under multiple layers of contractors. The students said they rarely saw American employees in their area of the plant, where they were packing Reese's, Kit-Kat and other candies.

The workers' relationship to Hershey passes through several filters, the article says:

The Hershey Company said it had contracted day-to-day operations at the packing plant to Exel, a logistics company. "The Hershey Company expects all its vendors, including Exel, to treat employees fairly and equitably," said Kirk Saville, a spokesman.

Exel contracted with a local labor supplier, SHS Staffing Solutions, to provide temporary workers, including the J-1 students, for the summer months when work is at a peak, said Lynn Anderson, a spokeswoman for Exel.

Furthermore, the placement agencies in the US often aren't the same companies that recruit applicants in other countries, creating an additional barrier between employer and employee.

See also this 2010 Huffington Post piece on J-1 visa holders put to work in strip clubs. Though not all the cases in the article are that extreme, it raises additional points:

The AP interviewed students, advocates, local authorities and social service agencies, and reviewed thousands of pages of confidential records, police reports and court cases. Among the findings:

Many foreign students pay recruiters to help find employment, then don't get work or wind up making little or no money at menial jobs. Labor recruiters charge students exorbitant rent for packing them into filthy, sparsely furnished apartments so crowded that some endure "hotbunking," where they sleep in shifts.

. . .

The State Department failed to even keep up with the number of student complaints until this year, and has consistently shifted responsibility for policing the program to the 50 or so companies that sponsor students for fees that can run up to several thousand dollars. That has left businesses to monitor their own treatment of participants.

The program generates millions for the sponsor companies and third-party labor recruiters.

Businesses that hire students can save 8 percent by using a foreign worker over an American because they don't have to pay Medicare, Social Security and unemployment taxes. The students are required to have health insurance before they arrive, another cost that employers don't have to bear.

My own personal experiences with J-1 visa holders were with coworkers at McDonald's from Thailand, Vietnam, India, Peru, and South Korea, and again weren't as extreme as others in the media. The applicants paid thousands of dollars to enter a work exchange program for periods ranging from four to twelve months, were paid just above minimum wage, and were living with two or three other workers in a one-room apartment run by a local slum lord (out of necessity because it was the only apartment complex within walking distance to the restaurant). Considering they earned just above minimum wage and had hundreds of dollars per month deducted for rent they usually didn't break even on their investment. And considering they lived in an area untouched by public transportation, their opportunities to visit the city (or leave it) during their contracts ranged from limited to non-existant. One group of Indians living four to a one-room played card games every night to determine who would get the bed and who would sleep on the floor. Another group from Vietnam was sent to western Pennsylvania after a month of living in trailers on the parking lot of a theme park in California.

Not every person who enters the US on a J-1 visa has a time as rotten as those described by the Post-Gazette and The Huffington Post, and not every foreign teacher who works at a hagwon or uses a recruiter gets screwed. But the biggest problems in both industries seem to stem from employers who put little to no thought into the treatment of their workers, and from agencies who exploit the lack of accountability in the industry to simply provide warm bodies where they're needed.

Big trouble at small Gangjin college.

2011-08-02T10:32:00.003+09:00

A good edition of "Korea Finder" might start with this:

A better edition wouldn't give it away in the title, though.

The JoongAng Daily writes of the troubles surrounding Gangjin county's Sunghwa College (성화대학), located in a small village northwest of the county seat:

Education authorities said the former president of Sunghwa College in South Jeolla embezzled billions of won from the school, explaining why the college paid just 130,000 won ($124) a month to its professors.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced yesterday that the former president and school founder, surnamed Lee, embezzled a total of 6.5 billion won since 2005, including 5.2 billion won that he transferred from the college’s coffers to a company that he owns.

. . .

According to the ministry, Lee appointed his wife, high school classmates and hometown friends to the college’s board as well as naming his 31-year-old daughter as his executive assistant.

Lee’s second daughter, 27, was appointed as the head of the accounting unit.

On a similar topic in the neighborhood, two weeks ago the JoongAng Daily also wrote that Myungshin University (명신대학교), between Boseong county and Suncheon,

was dealt a heavy blow by the educational authorities who cited it for corrupt management, including embezzling 6.5 billion won ($6.1 million).

The paper called it, in an editorial the same day,

a typical example of the mismanaged private universities that have degenerated into a profitable business by selling diplomas.

It's been a slow news year for Jeollanam-do, and the reason this story caught my eye is not simply because it talks about an untenable business model close to "home", but because I've worked in the area and visited the school a couple times. When I worked in Gangjin county I taught in Seongjeon-myeon each Friday at a small elementary school a block from the college. Basically the only post-secondary institution in the county, its campus was distinctive for a couple reasons: for the caged deer it kept across from the administration building, and for the four airplanes it kept on campus.

Satellite view from Naver Maps. The big green thing on the left is a driving range on campus.

Daum's Road View gives us a look at smaller model by the entrance:

From May 16, 2010.

Taken March 29, 2007, outside the school's main building:

From Road View:

For more pictures, click the first blog link---a bike trip from Mokpo to Seongjeon-myeon--- from this Naver search. As is often the case with Naver Cafe posts, I can't link to it directly, because for many, making entries inaccessible is just as much fun as writing them.

Smaller mud festivals in Yeonggwang, Gochang counties this July and August.

2011-07-25T00:37:00.000+09:00

If you'd like to try out a mud festival in Korea but don't want to deal with the overcrowding, the drunks, and the pervy photographers that are associated the famous one in Boryeong, there are a couple other options in the Jeolla provinces.

Yeonggwang county will be holding its 3rd annual Mud Marathon Festival (머드마라톤대회축제) on July 30th and 31st. The actual "mud runs" will take place the morning of Sunday the 31st (registration closed July 15th, but hey I gave you plenty of advance notice), though other performances and activities are scheduled, including a mud slide, mud sleds, and tug-of-war. A Korean-language program is available on the website. County buses run from the bus terminal in Yeonggwang-eup to Yeomsan-myeon and Baekbaui Beach (백바위해수욕장).

And check out Jeollabuk-do's Gochang county the next weekend for a similar set of events (전국갯벌스포츠축제). Hat tip to the Gwangju News editor for that one.

Ferry to run between Fukuoka, Yeosu during 2012 Expo.

2011-07-09T10:26:00.004+09:00

Test run from Fukuoka to Yeosu. (Yachtpia)

The Beetle Ferry, which currently operates between Busan and the Japanese city of Fukuoka, will make daily trips from Japan to Yeosu next year while the Jeollanam-do city hosts the 2012 World Expo. From the Korea Herald last week:

The state-run Korea Tourism Organization said Wednesday that it has secured a sea route linking the southern port city of Yeosu to Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, in preparation of next year’s Yeosu World Expo.

The organization, together with the South Jeolla provincial government and the Yeosu city government, has arranged for a chartered ferry service by Japan’s Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) over the route.

The high-speed ferry “Beatle” [sic] will travel once a day between Yeosu port and Fukuoka’s Hakata port during the 2012 Yeosu Expo, scheduled to run May through August next year.

Beatle is capable of accommodating 200 people and takes three hours and 45 minutes for a one-way trip, with the ferry service estimated to cost about 200,000 won ($185.36) per passenger.

Fukuoka is probably best known to foreign teachers in Korea as a nearby visa-run destination, but as I learned in late-2009 it's fine for a short vacation, too.

2011 Muju Firefly Festival (무주반딧불축제): June 3rd - 11th.

2011-06-04T15:50:00.001+09:00

Got some hits recently from people looking for information about Muju's annual firefly festival (무주반딧불축제). This year it opened on June 3rd and will run from June 11th, in Jeollabuk-do's Muju county.

Both posters taken from the official festival website, making a strong push to win the award for "Most pop-ups on a website in 2011."

I've written about it several times in the past

* June 4, 2008: 2008 Muju Firefly Festival: June 7th - June 15th.
* June 16, 2008: 2008 Muju Festival
* June 2, 2009: 2009 Muju Firefly Festival (2009 무주반딧불축제)

and said that although it's special to me because it's where I went with my wife on our first date (awww), I didn't see a single firefly. Though one obscure poet wrote that it was the Japanese who exterminated the fireflies---a poem known only because it turned up deep in the Google search results---the scarcity is actually due to climate change, as Kim Jong-Gill at the National Institute of Agricultural Science & Technology wrote in a 2002 issue of Koreana (.pdf file)

Only 20 to 30 years ago fireflies were a common sight, but now they have become a nostaligic rarity, highlighted on television shows. In recent years, their natural habitats have been increasingly destroyed and disturbed through environmental damage resulting from the modernization of rural areas and changes in agricultural methods involving excessive reliance on pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as well as street lights that interfere with the ability of fireflies to communicate with each other. Indeed, with all these challenges to its survivability, it is no wonder that firefly sightings are so infrequent nowadays.

Commenters have also written on this site that the appearances are hit-or-miss depending on the weather.

The festival is held in the county seat, Muju-eup, accessible from Jeollanam-do by buses that run to Muju by way of Namwon, Jangsu, and other smaller towns along the way. There are seven buses a day from Gwangju, with three leaving in the afternoon: 13:20, 15:00, and 17:00. One big improvement festival organizers could make, besides getting more fireflies, would be to operate shuttles between Muju-eup and neighboring cities. Going to and from the festival is a challenge without your own transportation, since the last bus leaves Muju rather early, and the few motels in town aren't enough to accommodate the thousands of visitors.

2011-06-04T15:48:00.002+09:00

Interesting discussion on Waygook.org on whether teaching in Korea gives you a false impression of the profession.

May 2011 festivals in Jeollanam-do.

2011-05-01T16:02:00.005+09:00

Spring and fall are two excellent times for travelling around Jeollanam-do because of the dozens of festivals large and small taking place in its cities, towns, and villages. Here's a brief look at some of the bigger ones; a Naver search and a look around local websites will be your friend for ~~more boring ones~~ others.

Hampyeong Butterfly Festival (함평나비대축제) in Hampyeong country through May 10th. One of the region's better-known festivals, it's essentially a nice walk through a big park, I concluded during a 2009 visit it's somewhat lacking in butterflies in a natural setting (at least for those who come from places with abundant nature). A short walk from the bus terminal in Hampyeong-eup, in turn accessible by regular buses from Gwangju. Times available from the Gwangju U-Square terminal website, in Korean.

Damyang Bamboo Festival (담양대나무축제) in Damyang county from May 3rd through May 8th. One of the province's representative sites, it's a short bus ride from Gwangju. Worth a visit anytime during the spring and summer months, the festival offers the usual, um, festivities.

Shinan Heuksan Skate Festival (산안흑산홍어축제) on May 6th and 7th. One of the two big hongeo festivals in Jeollanam-do celebrating the region's affinity for the acquired taste of fermented skate. Somewhat out of the way on Heuksan-do, one of the 1,004 islands that comprise Shinan county, those with time and an interest in seeing an even more remote part of Jeollanam-do would probably enjoy the trip.

Jeamsan Azalea Festival (제암산철쭉제) on Mt. Jeam in Jangheung county on May 8th.

Seomjin River Azalea Festival (섬진강 철길 철쭉축제) in Gokseong county on May 7th and 8th.

Boseong Green Tea Festival (보성녹차대축제) in Boseong county from May 4th through the 8th. The tea fields in Boseong have provided this blog's header for years, and the area is worth a visit for anyone living, um, in the area. It offers the usual stuff, plus green tea samgyeopsal, green tea noodles, green tea ice cream, and green tea green tea. Buses run regularly to the main field from the terminal in Boseong-eup, and there is a small entrance fee.

Suncheon Nagan Folk Culture Festival (순천낙안민속문화축제) in Suncheon's Nagan Folk Village from May 13th through the 15th. In one of my favorite places in Jeollanam-do, here are some posts and pictures from previous years: from May 2008, October 2008, and an unblogged set from May 2009. The folk village is accessible from downtown Suncheon via city buses 61 and 63 (timetable, in Korean), and when you get off at the village you'll find a timetable for buses returning to town.

2011 Yeongsanpo Skate Festival (영산포홍어축제): April 22nd - 24th.

2011-04-21T03:50:00.000+09:00

Short notice with this---an earlier search told me it was actually scheduled for last week---but the 2011 Yeongsanpo Skate Festival (영산포홍어축제) will take place in Naju from April 22nd through 24th. Skate (홍어, hongeo) is ray that when eaten raw tastes, and smells, sort of like a cleaning product, but which has a strong enough following to inspire festivals in Naju and Shinan county. You'll find a little more information on the festival from the Naju city announcement, in Korean, and you'll find buses that stop in Yeongsanpo from Gwangju, Suncheon, most towns in western Jeollanam-do, as well as from Naju itself.

A big catch a few years ago, from Naver via this post.

Naju has a lot of historical points of interest but doesen't get as much attention as Gyeongju or even Buyeo, but is worth a visit all the same. It used to be a major port city during Japanese occupation, and Yeongsanpo still has a few architectural reminders, the old lighthouse in the poster above being one of them.

2011-04-21T02:19:00.001+09:00

I'm just offended she spelled it "kimchee." This is 2011, people.

Alcohol prohibited at GEPIK orientation.

2011-04-19T01:05:00.004+09:00

Drinking or bringing alcohol to the Gyeonggi English Program in Korea [GEPIK] orientation from April 25th to 29th will get you expelled, according to the latest orientation guidelines. From the YBM website (.doc file) under "General Guidelines," via this Waygook.org thread:

10. Alcohol is strictly prohibited. This includes drinking alcohol
and/or being in possession of any alcohol.

And from the section on what will get you expelled from the orientation:

If one of the following situations should occur, you will be expelled from the orientation and your school will be notified:

1. If your attendance at the orientation is negligent.

2. If you do not adhere to the GEPIK Orientation Guidelines or the
dormitory rules.

3. If you drink alcohol and/or are caught in possession of any
alcohol.

4. If you are found gambling or engaging in any type of
violence/abuse/loose conduct and/or behavior.

5. If you do not follow the instructions required for the orientation
program.

Anecdotal evidence from blogs and forums like Dave's ESL Cafe tells us that drinking is a notorious part of the GEPIK orientation process. It even made the Korean press---always on the look out for news, rumors, or, um, anecdotal evidence of foreign teachers behaving badly) last fall in a NewsDaily article "원어민 교사들에 술판으로 한국 문화 소개?" ("Native speaker English teachers introduced to Korean culture through drinking parties?") A brief look at the article is available at this Gusts of Popular Feeling post, which looks at the misinformation and incorrect statistics that inform yellow journalism on the NSET front; an excerpt from the aforementioned article:

The article begins with the exciting phrase "A crack in the management of the Gyeonggi Education Office's adaptation program for native speaking teachers has been exposed." It then reveals that the Facebook pages and blogs of teachers who attended GEPIK orientation reveal that drinking parties were going on during orientation. Teachers are quoted from their blogs saying that orientation reminded them of university or that they wanted to die. GEPIK officials express shock and promise to get to the bottom of things, tighten up management of the program, and prevent future outrages.

From there the reporter uses another online source - a community of Korean English teachers, especially part-time English instructors working on contract in public schools. Miss Hwang (28), a member of the online community working at an elementary school in Ansan, reveals that "I've been driven to the edge by the insincere attitude towards work that the native speaking English teacher has."

While attendees are all of legal drinking age, and while alcohol is a noticable part of both Korean society and of the school experience, a ban is probably for the best. A drunken frat-party after-hours shouldn't be included in an introduction to teaching in Korea, and it sounds like at least a few teachers need that reminder. One poster from that Waygook.org thread:

Doesn't surprise me. Last year it was embarrassing to see all the garbage that people left all over the campus. Not to mention some idiots who started drinking at 8:00am. One guy in my seminar had to be removed because he started rambling incoherently in the middle of a lecture. The yearly orientation is a perfect example of why Koreans think all NETs are drunken morons.

And another:

[W]hen I went in 2009, it was nothing but three days of partying. It was rather gross seeing everybody getting sick and puking on everything. Even the staff members were plastered and had poor behavior. I think it is good to ban alcohol. It shouldn't be a big party. It needs to be oreintation. Anybody who complains about there being no booze or bars to go to are just being childish.

For programs for the upcoming orientation see this YBM post, and for other notices and information see this one. The 25th to 27th will be for elementary-school teachers, while the 27th to 29th will be for secondary-school teachers.

Upcoming marathons and runs in Jeollanam-do.

2011-04-17T22:08:00.005+09:00

The 11th 518 Marathon will be held in Gwangju on May 21st.

Marathons, half-marathons, and 10K and 5K races, as well as fun runs, are held in Jeollanam-do throughout the year, just as they are all over the country. Here are a few with looming registration deadlines. A marathon in Jangseong county is scheduled for May 1st, but the registration deadline was April 15th.

* Gwangju 518 Marathon (518마라톤). May 21st. Half, 5km, and a "518 run" that follows a 5.18km course to mark the city's commemoration of the Gwangju Massacre. Registration from February 14th through April 20th.

* Yeonggwang Marathon (굴비골영광마라톤 대회). June 5th in Yeonggwang county. Half, 10K, and 5K runs. Registration through April 30th.

* Jeongnamjin Marathon (정남진 장흥 전국 마라톤 대회). June 19th in Jangheung county. Registration through May 29th.

* Yeonggwang Mud Marathon Festival (영광갯벌마라톤축제). July 30th and 31st in Yeonggwang county, coinciding with a local mud festival. Eight- and five-kilometer courses. Registration open now.

See similar posts in January 2009 and 2010 for more comments and links. It's worth sharing here the Seoul Flyers---an expat running group in Seoul---and the Gwangju Running Club for locals who would like some inspiration, camaraderie, and practice.

Yonhap, Waygook.org on "racial preference" for white English teachers.

2011-04-17T22:00:00.003+09:00

Yonhap, the Korean wire service, has cited Waygook.org in an about how "racial preference for white English teachers" is prevalant among the Korean English education industry.

Look around on popular English teacher job Web sites like Dave's ESL Cafe or Craigslist, and you'll see that many Korean English teaching recruiters and institutes specifically advertise for "native speakers" or for foreign teachers with an E2 or F2 visa status, which are references to teachers who are of non-Korean ethnicity.

Some ads even directly state that their jobs are not for F4 visa holders or "not for gyopos," ethnic Koreans who hold overseas citizenship.

An informal poll on Waygook.org, an online English teacher forum, reveals that around 60 percent of the respondents agree that Korean schools prefer their English teachers to be Caucasian.

The poll is very informal, and was started by the writer herself in this thread asking posters "Do you think that schools want Caucasian English teachers more than other races?" While the article itself is interesting, it's hardly surprising that an online survey of anonymous English teachers would reveal that the majority of them consider Korean employers racist against non-whites, especially when many of them are new, inexperienced, and got much of their information about Korea from equally inexperienced blogs and members of Dave's ESL Cafe. Read the rest of the thread for more diverse commentary.

That's not to say there isn't an expressed preference for white teachers at public schools and hagwon, and that recruiters aren't shy about expressing their interest in white teachers, in young teachers, in blonde teachers, in ethnic Korean teachers, or in any other choice that is shaping the interpretation of "native speaker" in South Korea. Yeosu made the ~~news~~ blogs for its discrimatory hiring policy against ethnic Asian native English speakers in 2009, and there have been many infamous job ads in recent memory. My, um, favorite was an ad on WorkNPlay from Bundang Kids Club in 2007 titled "IF UR YOUNG AND WHITE UR ALRIGHT @ Bundang Kids Club!!!":

If U R YOUNG & WHITE, U R ALRIGHT @ Bundang Kids Club!!!

Wonderful kids! Salary negotiable. Excellent housing in Ori-Station area. Paid vacation. Optional medical insurance. Lunch provided at school. Year-end bonus (if you complete one year). Round-trip airfare to overseas applicants (return ticket only after one-year of employment). Beautiful, modern area. No experience necessary. Come and join the fun!

Please read the following information. Then, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to call Gina Song any time, seven days a week, at 011-9334-4303. Otherwise, to apply, simply email resume with recent, full-body color photo (videos also welcome!) and introduction to addenglish@hanmail.net. We look forward to your response!

We are looking for young (20's), cheerful (smile!) teachers who fit our image of native English-speakers/Americans. By law, you must be a college graduate. Average-weight (or thin) people are preferred. Also, please, no Australians/New Zealanders/Irish/etc. Brits may be considered under special circumstances. (Of course no non-native English speakers or ethnic minorities.) Korean citizens/Kyopos with native-like English skills may be hired temporarily, and college degree is not required of them.
One-year contract required (by law). Please note, however, that cultural differences exist with respect to contracts. Here is a quote from http://www.aacircle.com.au/teach-in-korea.htm :
"English teachers in Korea occasionally have contract disputes with their employers. In the Korean context, a contract is simply a rough working agreement, subject to change depending upon the circumstances. Most Koreans do not view deviations from a contract as a breach of contract, and few Koreans would consider taking an employer to court over a contract dispute." We don't think you will take us to court, either!

On a lighter note, our current foreign teachers are great to work with. Just ask Gina for contact info to find out first-hand what the teachers think about working at Bundang Kids Club! ^^

(Not necessarily affiliated with other institutes that also use the name, "Kids Club".)

Waygook.org is a messageboard for English teachers founded in Jeollanam-do in 2006 as a way to share lesson plans and stay in touch with other expats throughout the province. It has grown to over 11,000 members, and was cited as a source in a Korea Herald article three weeks ago about negative reaction to the GEPIK hiring freeze.

Korean school lunch.

2011-04-15T21:43:00.004+09:00

There was a period a few months ago after "Why you shouldn't teach English in Korea" came out that the freshness wore off the Xtranormal videos because the format was overdone and the original over-imitated. However, "Lunch in Korean cafeterias" is an amusing and pretty accurate depiction of how a good many conversations with co-teachers go.

Jeollanam-do public school jobs for 2011-12.

2011-04-09T15:44:00.004+09:00

I don't moonlight as a recruiter, and am not vouching for these two below, but it's worth passing along word of some openings in Jeollanam-do's public schools for the 2011-2012 school year considering a lot of what we read about public schools these days is only about deskwarming, discrimination, and hiring freezes. One posting comes from Canadian Connections via Dave's ESL Cafe and another from Julie’s Recruiting and Consulting via Waygook.org.

The former, whose job ad will likely expire soon, is from Canadian Connections, the recruiter who placed me in Gangjin county in 2006:

Schedule: Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00
Classroom Hours: 20 to 22 teaching hours per week.
Vacation: 1 month + national holidays
Salary: 2,000,000 – 2,500,000 Korean won per month
Settlement Allowance: 300,000 Won
Severance Bonus: 1 month salary
School Type: Elementary, Junior High, and High School
Housing: non-shared housing supplied, schools pay rent, teachers cover util.
Airfare: Entrance allowance of 1,300,000 Korean Won when you arrive in Korea to cover your airfare and an Exit Allowance of 1,300,000 Korean Won to cover your airfare before you leave Korea at the end of your contract.
Start dates: August 14th with a one week orientation in Gwangju
Contract Length: 1 year with option to renew at a higher salary
Locations: various cities and towns throughout the province

City Placements: Mokpo, Yeosu, Suncheon, Gwangyang, and Naju

Town Placements: Jindo, Wando, Haenam, Gangjin, Yeongwang, Yeongam, Muan, Jangheung, Boseong, Gurye, Gokseong, Hwasun, Hampyeong, Goheung

And the latter:

Employer: Jeollanamdo Office of Education (http://en.jne.go.kr/)
School Type: Elementary, Middle, and High School
Location: Jeollanamdo, South Korea (http://english.jeonnam.go.kr/)
Contract Date and Length: 1 year, August 21, 2011- August 20, 2012
Salary: 2,000,000 – 2,700,000 Korean won/month
Vacation: 32 days (24 winter, 7 summer and 1 discretionary floater day) + national holidays
Schedule: Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00
Classroom Hours: 22 teaching hours per week.
Severance: One twelfth of yearly salary upon completion of 1 year contract.
Settlement Allowance: 300,000 Won
Housing: Apartment will be provided by school and teachers cover utilities.
Airfare: Entrance Allowance of 1,300,000 Korean Won when you arrive in Korea to cover your airfare and an Exit Allowance of 1,300,000 Korean Won to cover your airfare home at the end of your contract.

An email sent to Julie's Recruiting four days ago asking for more details about the application deadline, the pay scale, and an age limit received no response.

A search on AsianTeacher.net will retrieve other positions in the area and around the country.

The Hitler Walker.

2011-04-09T15:25:00.006+09:00

From 오가게.

Home Plus has a decent selection of big-size shoes for western feet, but if you're looking for something a little more trendy for the Slow Walking Festival, consider the Hitler Walker (히틀러워커).

A variety of colors, materials, and styles for about 40,000 won. A lesser blogger would have titled this post "These boots are made for goose-steppin'."

Tulip, Slow-Walking festivals on Jeollanam-do islands this April.

2011-04-09T00:19:00.006+09:00

The Cheongsando Slow Walking Festival(청산도슬로우걷기축제) is held each year on Wando county's Cheongsan island, probably the best-known of Jeollanam-do's much-publicized "Slow Cities" (paradoxical in times like this). There's an English-language overview here, though the highlights are the views of the sea and flowery hillsides. Buses run to Wando from Seoul, Gwangju, Gangjin, and Haenam, and from the Wando bus terminal you can catch a ferry to Cheongsan island (schedule here, in Korean). Now through April 30th.

From the official site's photo gallery.

The Shinan Tulip Festival (신안튤립축제) takes place from April 15th through 24th. It's held at Daegwang Beach (대광해수욕장) on Imja-do, an island of roughly 4,000 in Shinan county, one of the three counties in Jeollanam-do comprised entirely of islands. Imja-do is accessible by ferry from the terminal in Jido-eup (점암선착장), and Jido-eup is in turn connected to the mainland. The bottom of this page has ferry times and fees, in Korean. Buses make the two-and-a-half hour trip from Gwangju's bus terminal to 점암선착장---making several stops in between---each day at 6:45, 7:45, 8:20, 9:50, 11:30, 13:20, 14:25, 16:00, and 18:55, and buses from Mokpo head to Jido nearly once an hour, though in both cases make sure you check at the ticket counter and with the driver.

Cherry blossoms in Jeollanam-do, and more flower festival cancellations.

2011-03-31T14:45:00.002+09:00

The Korea Meterological Administration says Jeollanam-do can expect cherry blossoms from April 2nd, about a week later than in 2010. There are several "spots" in Jeollanam-do regionally-known for its cherry blossoms, and though Suncheon isn't really on that list I think it belongs there because of its beauty and its visitor-friendliness.

More on cherry blossoms in Suncheon.

Several flower festivals in Jeollanam-do this April have been cancelled due to foot-and-mouth disease. These include the Yeongchuisan Azalea Festival (영취산진달래축제) in Yeosu, the Wangin Culture Festival (영암왕인문화축제) in Yeongam, the Seomjin River Cherry Blossom Festival (섬진강변 벚꽃축제) in Gurye, and the Yudalsan Flower Festival (유달산꽃축제) in Mokpo.

Like other cancelled festivals based on natural events, these blossoms won't be cancelled, just some of the accompanying festivities, so don't hesitate to go and take in the sights.

Jangseong county tops in CSAT again.

2011-03-31T14:30:00.001+09:00

From the 한국일보.

High school students in Jeollanam-do's Jangseong county received the highest average scores in the country on the 2010 CSAT. The JoongAng Daily writes:

The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation released the test results yesterday of the 450,944 high school students nationwide who took the CSAT in 2010. Among all cities and counties nationwide, students in Jangseong County scored the highest in all four subjects - 116.5 in Korean language, 113.9 in Math-Ga, 125.1 in Math-Na and 119.6 in English language. Math-Ga and Math-Na focus on different tracks of mathematics and are geared towards the sciences and the liberal arts respectively.

You'll find the top ten regions in the four subjects listed above. As the article says, the county is home to an "autonymous private high school" 장성고등학교.

Ban Sang-jin, the school principal, said since the school changed to an autonomous school in 2008, it has attracted smart students from other cities, with about half of the students coming from outside the county. It is one of four high schools in the county. The county saw a significant improvement in CSAT scores since the autonomous school opened, the analysis found.

Test results for individual schools and regions were first made public in 2009, to much fanfare. At the first release in April 2009, Jangseong county placed first in language, English, and Math-na, and third in Math-ga, according to figures from the 2008 exam. A 한국경제 article on this year's results says last year Jangseong placed third in language, second in math, and eighth in English.

According to more numbers via this chart from 쿠키뉴스, three of Gwangju's 구s placed in the top twenty in English, while Damyang county---home to another private school---placed 17th.

A November 2010 post provided links to the Korean college entrance exam questions for those interested in browsing.

GEPIK hiring and renewal freeze.

2011-03-30T13:43:00.004+09:00

It's been interesting reading about the GEPIK hiring and renewal freeze from May through August, and what it means for new and current teachers. From an email from the GEPIK coordinators, via Waygook.org:

GEPIK will not be hiring and/or renewing teachers from May 25, 2011 to August 31, 2011. At this point in time GEPIK is working to restructure the program. During this three-month period, we will be working to streamline the program so that starting September 2011 GEPIK contract dates will be aligned. We are aiming to set contract dates for September 1st and March 1st so that the GEPIK structure will be more standardized. We do realize that many of you will be affected by this change, but please understand that we found it crucial to restructure our program to improve GEPIK, not only for the program itself but for our teachers as well.

To explain this situation further, last year (2010), GEPIK reached its highest numbers of teachers. However, from the year 2011, there has been a decrease in the number of teachers in our program. At the same time, during this period of change, it is in the best interest of our program to secure as much funding as we could in order to maintain as many GEPIK teachers as possible.

Remote English classes continue for Jeollanam-do's island schools.

2011-03-24T01:32:00.004+09:00

GFN 98.7 FM writes that the Jeollanam-do Office of Education will continue remote English classes for students on rural, geographically isolated islands in the province.

The Jeollanam-do provincial Office of Education is offering remote English courses from [March 22nd] The teachers are located in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Some 2 thousand students will benefit from the program. These include those studying at sixty-six mini schools on five islands and 52 schools with less than 60 students.
The program has been offered every year since 2009. Last year about 1,300 students learned from native English teachers.
One native teacher handles five students with the assistance of one Korean sub-teacher. Classes will be offered one hour a week for a year.

This blog has done a few posts on similar programs done throughout the country that use teachers in the state of Wyoming and other rural areas to teach Korean students via videoconferencing. Elutian, a Wyoming-based company, had the bright idea to both "insource" jobs to rural America and meet the demand of reduced-cost native speaker English teachers [NESTs] in South Korea, a place turning to robot English teachers, certified Indian teachers, and domestic instructors to cut costs. It has been working with the nearby Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education since 2010, says a September 2010 article attributed to Yonhap:

GMOE disclosed Sep. 30 that, “Surprisingly, over 31,600 students are using the video class service for English conversation with U.S public school teachers.

The project began in earnest the latter part of June and by the end of August 22,300 elementary school students, 7,300 middle school students, and 2,070 high school students are engaged in the service.

Moreover, it is reported that 5,356 students from smaller schools in the farming areas, as well as Education Welfare schools, many of whom need special social consideration, are using the service.

Participating students also study English by directly conversing with the native English speaking teachers one-on-one through their school’s internet video system after school (7:00~11:00 PM).

Early this year GMOE selected 146 instructors from a pool of former and current school teachers, mostly based in Wyoming, US, [Eleutian Technology] for the service. A number of other Korean school district offices of education are now also using live native English video for regular classes, but GMOE is the first one to utilize the service for one-on-one sessions after school hours as well.

While there continues to be a large demand for native English speaking teachers in Korea, there has also been much controversy over the hiring of unqualified instructors. The ongoing GMOE project, however, is recognized as both very cost effective and effective at helping to improve the quality of instruction, as well as student results, through utilizing experienced US public school teachers.

Youtube has examples of the TV teacher in action:

The local office of education has also been operating remote teaching programs with native speaker English teachers from within the province since 2009. For information and teacher-created resources, see the Jeollanamdo Online Program board on Waygook.org.

50,000 attend first day of Jindo Sea-Parting.

2011-03-20T15:39:00.003+09:00

The 34th annual Jindo Sea-Parting Festival (or Jindo Sea Road Festival 진도 신비의 바닷길 축제) was one of several early-spring cancelled in February and March because of concerns over foot-and-mouth disease. However, 50,000 people---including 2,000 foreigners by Yonhap's estimation---participated in the twice-yearly sea-parting event between Gogumyeon's Hoedong-ri and the small island of Modo. The tide goes out and opens a 2.8-kilometer path, though on the 19th people could only walk out roughly 40 meters, according to the article.

In 2010, according to a Newsis article, 440,000 tourists attented the festival, among them 25,000 foreigners.

2011 Jindo Sea-Parting, Gwangyang International Apricot festivals cancelled.

2011-03-08T09:50:00.001+09:00

One of Jeollanam-do's best-known festivals, the Jindo Sea-Parting Festival (or Jindo Sea Road Festival, 진도 신비의 바닷길 축제) has been cancelled because of concerns over the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. The festival was scheduled to run March 19th through 21st. From the official site last month:

제34회 진도신비의바닷길축제 취소 안내문

지난 1년 동안 제34회 진도 신비의 바닷길 축제를 많은 관심과 애정으로 기다려 오신 국·내외 관광객 여러분! 그리고 진도군민 여러분!

지난해 11월부터 전국적으로 발생한 구제역으로부터 청정지역인 전라남도의 확산방지와 이로 인한 우리군 축산농가의 피해를 예방하기 위하여 고심한 끝에 3년 연속 문화체육관광부 우수 축제로 선정된 제34회 진도 신비의 바닷길 축제를 부득이 취소하게 되었음을 알려드립니다.

비록 아쉽게도 축제는 취소하게 되었지만 신비의 바닷길 현상을 보기 위해 자율적으로 방문하는 관광객들을 위해 관광안내 및 편의 제공 등 불편함이 없도록 최선을 다할 계획입니다.

그동안 진도 신비의 바닷길 축제에 많은 관심과 성원을 보내주신 모든 분들께 거듭 감사말씀 드리며, 내년 신비의 바닷길 축제는 더욱 새롭고 다양한 프로그램을 준비하여 모시도록 하겠습니다.

감사합니다.

2011. 2.

진 도 군

Starting last December dozens of festivals large and small have been cancelled because of concerns over the disease's spread during South Korea's largest FMD outbreak in years.

The Gwangyang Apricot Festival---in its 15th year and calling itself the "Gwangyang International Apricot Festival" for no real reason---has also been cancelled because of foot-and-mouth disease worries. It's annually heralded as the country's first festival of spring, and was scheduled this year to run from March 12th through March 20th.

Notice from the festival's official site.

The actual blossoms won't be cancelled, and as I mentioned in 2009 you'll still find plenty to do with a trip to Hadong county.

Worst videos from Korea's elementary school English curriculum.

2011-03-08T09:25:00.001+09:00

The Waygook Effect has collected the ten worst dialogues from Korea's elementary school English curriculum, and believe it or not this doesn't make #1:

The elementary school English textbooks have been changed for the better---for supplementary resources see Waygook.org---but for many years the flimsy books and their atrocious CD-ROMs undermined the talents and hard work of imported native English speakers and their Korean co-teachers.

GEPIK cutting 200 positions in 2011.

2011-03-02T14:11:00.005+09:00

Gyeonggi-do English Program in Korea [GEPIK] will be cutting 200 native-speaker English teacher jobs in 2011 because of budget cuts, writes the Korea Times, picking up on discussion on teacher forums and what was blogged about here on February 18th.

According to the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, the budget allocated to hire foreign English teachers fell to 22.7 billion won ($20 million) for this year from 30 billion won in 2010.

Cho Young-min, senior supervisor of the education office, said the budget cut is in line with the plan to reduce the number of foreign teachers in phases in the years to come.

``We plan to cut about 200 teachers in 2011 from this month. We will also gradually cut the overall number in the coming years,’’ the supervisor said.

But he did not specify how many jobs will be shed at its GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program in Korea.)

Arranged as a three-year project, the English program by the provincial office had hired more teachers over the past three years. In 2010, the number of teachers increased to some 2,252 in Gyeonggi, a 110 percent jump from 2008 when they first started out with some 1,000.

However, after reaching its peak last year, the number of foreign teachers is expected to slide over the next three years in the province surrounding Seoul.

Cho said the cut will be made upon requests from schools, with Korean English conversation teachers replacing them.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education will also see a budget cut, though the number of teachers will increase this year.

[SMOE] also cut its budget for the recruitment of foreign teachers to 35.9 billion won from 37.4 billion won in 2010.

But the cut will not result in the fall in the number of foreign teachers, as districts in the capital will increase their share of spending.

“As a result, 37 more teachers will be added to the total count this year,” said Yoon Ho-sang, senior supervisor at the office’s English education department. “

The article twice addressed, and dismissed, the idea that these budget cuts are due to regions providing free school lunches to students. It closes by saying that, contradictory to the reporting of that and other media outlets over the past four years, a 2009 survey found done by SMOE found that 90 percent of teachers and students, and 93% of Korean teachers "were very satisfied with the foreign teachers’ qualifications and class performance."

There has been talk of cuts for about a year, with experienced teachers being the first victims because schools are unable and unwilling to pay the salaries they'd command based on their qualifications. All while local media and hate groups bemoan the lack of "qualifications" among imported foreign English teachers.

Budget cuts put GEPIK teachers in limbo.

2011-02-18T00:06:00.006+09:00

Native speaker English teachers writing a lot on waygook.org this winter break about how GEPIK budget cuts will affect their contracts next year. Commenter xnay wrote on January 29:

I've been teaching at the same high school in Gyeonggi-do for the past 4.5 years and got the axe the other week. On December 23 a memo was sent out to schools by GPOE informing them of budget cuts for the NET program to a number of schools. I found out after returning from a holiday back home on January 17. I was set to go to immigration that day to renew my visa since my school and I had signed a new contract before my vacation. I will now complete this contract to the end of February and then I'm done as the school's budget was already made so there was no room for me without the external funding provided my GPOE.

The copy of the official Korean paper I have from GPOE states that 487 schools in Gyeonggi Province have lost funding that will affect their ability to retain a foreign teacher. 360 elementary schools, 73 middle schools, and 54 high schools have been affected.

Then from February 13:

I went to work on Wednesday and was told that the GPOE would call my school on Friday (11th) or Monday (14th) because they may now reverse their decision at my school (possibly others as well) and provide funding for a foreign teacher. My head teacher told me to wait and see what will happen rather than accept another job offer from somewhere else. From what I have heard, the funding debate is between foreign teachers and free school lunches for the students. What pops into my head is this: if they can flip-flop on this issue so easily and without considering that it's actually affecting people's lives, then what's to prevent them from doing this again on a whim?

Chelleinkorea wrote on another waygook.org thread on the 14th:

I'm surprised to see that nobody has posted anything about the recent GEPIK budget cuts and the fact several people (15 that I know personally) are now jobless.
I am one of these people. I returned on Monday after a holiday in South Africa to be told very casually that my school will not be able to honor the contract they signed with me in December last year because of GEPIK budget cuts.
I have a week and a day to find another job before my contract runs out.

Plenty more comments from teachers in both situations on the two threads. Commenter isanghan speculates

Apaprently (sic), it is coming down to the issue of NETs vs. lunches. However, parents finding out that their children's schools will have no NET is not going over as well as they had thought it would. So, they are considering reversing their decision on funding.

while patch83 brings up a point we could've made in 2009 when the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education pulled similar last-minute cuts:

What bothers me most about this, however, is that I got out of the hagwon racket after 21 months and one broken contract specifically to avoid having this sort of thing happen to me ever again!

News of these cuts came out last fall; a Dave's ESL Cafe thread about GEPIK scaling back teachers was the first public mention on the internet:

A few weeks ago I recall being at a bar when one of my friends mentioned a GEPIK coordinator gave notice that there were massive budget cuts, and all schools in Goyang with more than one teacher would lose half of their budget.

Didn't hear much about it since then, until yesterday.

Apparently they want to slash the number of NETs in Goyang down to 20 for all elementary schools, as there isn't a budget for English like there was 2/3 years ago.

For all the nay-sayers that will claim this is a bluff, that they will not 'fire' us, that isn't what they are doing. Instead they will phase us out and not renew our contracts. In doing that, they can tell the moms anything they want.

Even prior to these rumors and announcements, things were changing for public school teachers with, and applicants to, government-run programs like GEPIK, EPIK, and SMOE. In the spring of 2010 all three, and their intermediary recruiters, were avoiding hiring older, experienced foreign English teachers because they couldn't or wouldn't pay them the salaries they'd command. This while the other side of the mouth complains about the perceived lack of "qualified," competent native speaker English teachers in Korea.

Bra Day, Valentine's Day, and other fabricated consumer holidays.

2011-02-15T11:27:00.010+09:00

What better day than ~~November 11th~~ ~~October 31st~~ February 14th to look at manufactured holidays in Korea? The JoongAng Daily did just that, writing

Korean marketers have long sought to devote a calendar day to the consumption of their product, hoping to mimic the success of corporate-created holidays.

Some have been successful, such as Valentine’s Day and Pepero Day, while others seem bizarre and will come as a surprise to most readers[.]

I didn't know "Bra Day" (브라데이) was November 8th, for example. I have to admit, I like the Korean interpretation of Valentine's Day better, where

it is the woman’s responsibility to buy chocolate for their significant others.

At least we get some fair play (and some chocolate) for a change.

Add to the JoongAng Daily's list---written about here and here---Ace Day on October 31st and Garaetteok Day on November 11th, two consumer holidays created to steal thunder from more familiar ones.

As if there were any doubt Korean "Bra Day" advertisements would heavily display white women. Here's Paris Hilton for FILA.

2011-02-15T11:03:00.002+09:00

프라임경제 writes that from March students in Suncheon's elementary, middle, and high schools will receive free lunches, a controversial issue throughout the country the past few months.

2011 Gwangyang "International" Maehwa Festival and other March events in Jeollanam-do.

2011-02-11T15:55:00.006+09:00

Spring and fall are two big festival seasons in Jeollanam-do, with a good dozen festivals worth visiting. Pickings are slim in March, and may be even slimmer if festivals are cancelled this month due to foot-and-mouth disease (like they were in December and January), but there are a few big ones coming up.

The annual Gwangyang Apricot Blossom Festival (광양매화축제) will be called the Gwangyang International Apricot Blossom Festival (광양국제매화축제) for the first time in 2011, apparently for no real reason ("광양 매화축제, 이름만 '국제'" ), though domestic festivals are known to do this to sound more, well, international. It will run from March 12th through the 20th.

The Gwangyang Apricot Blossom Festival is usually the first spring festival, and marks the beginning of the season for southerners.

Both of my attempts to visit it were unsuccessful: once because I couldn't find the bus and another time because it was too damn cold. Your best bet is to take a bus to Hadong county in Gyeongsangnam-do and walk through town into Gwangyang. You'll find apricot blossoms along the river and will pass through a small market and festival area before finding the shuttle buses that will take you to the Apricot Blossom Village (매화마을). The official website hasn't been updated since last year. See this post of my half-visit in 2009 for more information.

In Gurye county the annual Sansuyu Festival (산수유꽃축제) runs from March 17th through the 20th. The official site hasn't been updated since last year, though it tells you buses run regularly from the terminal in Gurye-eup.

And, the regionally-famous Jindo Sea Road Festival (진도 신비의 바닷길 축제), known also as the Sea-Parting Festival and the Jindo Moses Miracle, will take place from March 19th through the 21st. A few times a year the tide goes out and allows people to walk the 2.8 kilometers between two small islands in Jindo county. The program on the homepage is still under construction, though you'll want to take care to visit on the day when you can actually walk between the two islands. In addition to wading into the sea there is the sort of food and performances you'll find at every Jeollanam-do festival, as well as Jindo dogs and other entertainment.

Here's a profile on the Sea-Parting Festival from the Korea Tourism Organization, and pictures from Jindo's biggest blogger, Living Life Frame by Frame, here and here. Accommodation will be scarce, so if you're from out of town I recommend you find a motel in one of the nearest transportation hubs: love motels are plentiful outside of the bus terminals in Gwangju and Suncheon, for example.

Groupon coming to Korea.

2011-02-09T16:11:00.006+09:00

Last May a reader asked if there were any websites in Korea that offered group coupons. There are, and a short article on 이티뉴스 on February 8th says Groupon, "the global social commerce market leader," is coming to South Korea in March:

Groupon . . . begins its business in Korea by founding a branch here and hiring 150 or so employees. The size is quite large and not eclipsed by the 200 or so staff of Ticket Monster, the Korean company dominating the local market. As such, a noticeable change is expected to follow in the segment that is poised to explode this year.

The branch is going to be run jointly by an executive from the headquarters and a Korean entrepreneur. Hwang Hee-seung and Yoon Shin-geun are strong candidates for the latter.

A blog post from last fall profiles the three largest social commerce sites in South Korea, though last month Ticket Monster, the biggest, bought out its closest competitor. Also from last month a JoongAng Daily article looking at complaints customers have made about local social commerce sites. Ticket Monster (티켓몬스터, and on Facebook) has group deals for Gwangju and the surrounding area, as well as for Seoul and the other large cities, in Korean. No word on whether the Korean Groupon will be easily usable by non-Koreans.

Conan brings Korean teenage girls to the masses.

2011-02-08T02:16:00.005+09:00

American talk show host Conan O'Brien talking with some Korean girls at a wax museum.

Their speaking in unison is not only awkwardly amusing but a reminder that choral drills are familiar and effective in the Korean ESL classroom as a way of dealing with the stress of speaking English alone.

Cambodian wife cuts off husband's member in Sunchang.

2011-02-08T01:30:00.000+09:00

News out of Sunchang, Jeollabuk-do, where a young Cambodian woman cut off her 52-year-old husband's penis while he was asleep. From the Korea Times:

Sunchang Police said that the 26-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed, cut the penis of her 52-year-old husband, Yang, who was sleeping after drinking, at 7:50 p.m.

The husband was transferred to a hospital and had his organ sutured, with the wound not deemed life-threatening.

Their family members and neighbors testified that the couple often quarreled since their marriage in October 2007. Some of them also said that the wife suspected Yang of having an affair.

Korean-language article from Yonhap here.

In spite of the efforts South Korea has made to be accommodating to the young foreign women it imports to repopulate its rural areas, news of unhappiness and violence aren't uncommon. It will be interesting to read the reaction to this, taking into account the increased awareness of these unhappy marriages within what's still considered a restrictive patriarchal society. In the US, at least, this sort of sexual violence against men is treated much more glibly and humorously than, say, comparable revenge against an unfaithful wife would be.

And speaking of maps, OSM is looking for contributors.

2011-01-31T10:18:00.006+09:00

My old street in Gwangju, from Daum's road view feature.

In response to a post last week about TripleFantastic.com, a reader emailed me about the Open Street Map Project, "a free editable map of the whole world." He writes:

I am sure that triplefantastic.com is splendid, but I wanted to
mention the OpenStreetMap project (OSM). Google, Daum and Naver are fine, but indeed they are not in English, and furthermore they are not free (as in speech). It's also possible that triplefantastic will fall foul of one or other of its constituent services' terms and conditions by linking them
together.

OSM (www.osm.org) is a worldwide volunteer project to make a free map of the world. Volunteers, such as myself, are drawing roads and adding POIs (points
of interest) like shops, bus stations, cafes, etc., and anyone is free to extract and use the data. There are companies such as MapQuest and CloudMade who are producing nice maps from the data, and I have also had a go with NavIt, a free SatNav driving assistant and route planner using the free OSM
data.

Oooh, it has Gangjin county covered, too.

Gangjin's "Heart Strawberries."

2011-01-29T11:10:00.009+09:00

The heart-shaped strawberries (하트딸기) they grow in Gangjin county's Gudong-myeon make the news every once in a while---and made this blog in June 2009---this time because of White Day on March 15th. You can order yours from the official Naver cafe "하트딸기카페" (http://cafe.naver.com/icigo), with a url for some reason containing the Japanese word for strawberry.

From 2009.

They call it *smack* the "Love Very," and a box of six costs 25,000 won.

People still care about Twinkies?

2011-01-29T11:05:00.003+09:00

The exchange program between sister cities Gangjin and Snoqualmie, Washington, has gotten a relatively good bit of press the past couple years. This month a Gangjin middle schooler's trip over winter break made the local paper, the SnoValley Star.

Fresh off the airplane after a grueling trip from Korea, teenager Eun Seong confessed to one big objective for his monthlong trip to Snoqualmie.

“I want to eat a Twinkie,” he said during a reception at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, sister city of Seong’s hometown of Gangjin.

Photographs by Suncheon professor on display at Drexel University.

2011-01-29T10:54:00.004+09:00

Drexel University's Rincliffe Gallery, in Philadelphia, is hosting an exhibition of photographs of traditional Korean architecture by Lee Dong-hee of Suncheon National University's School of Architecture.

“We hope that these photographs will provide a spiritually enriching experience,” said Jacqueline DeGroff, curator of the Drexel Collection.

About 20 photographs of Korean temples, shrines, palaces and private houses are featured in the exhibition. Traditional Korean architecture was created based on a deep-rooted interest in spirituality. The love the Korean people have for religion and philosophy is represented in each work. Buddhism and Confucianism were introduced to Korea very early in its history. Both religions blossomed there, and influenced the developing architectural style of the culture.

The essence of traditional Korean architecture is the harmony found between people and nature. Korean architects sought not to overwhelm their environment, but rather to complement it and to bring those using the buildings closer to it.

Also see the write-up in The Triangle. The exhibition runs through February 25th.

2011 Muju Bikini Ski Festival (2011 무주리조트 비키니 페스티벌).

2011-01-27T10:05:00.005+09:00

As if there were any doubt the promotional material would feature white women.

In keeping with the local English-language media's practice of alerting people to festivals and events after they've already taken place, Arirang has coverage of the inaugural Bikini Ski Festival (2011 무주리조트 비키니 페스티벌) held in North Jeolla province's Muju county on January 22nd. So, um, I hope you went.

(1, 2)

Plenty of pictures available via Naver news and image searches. This is 정현영, who was judged the winner somehow and won 4,000,000원.

(1, 2, and here's a different angle.)

Last February we read about the Jeollanam-do government asking citizens for ideas to boost winter tourism in the southwesternmost province, so I wonder if their neighbors came up with this for a similar reason. Stay tuned to the official Muju Resort website for any updates about a festival in 2012. An annoying tripodesque blog post I found directed those intereted to register on the website a few weeks beforehand or to contact dyshin@mujuresort.co.kr, and said those (women) who entered would be given free passes for the day.

"Stricter drug screening" for E-2 visa holders, applicants starting February 1st.

2011-01-26T08:30:00.003+09:00

So writes the Dong-a Ilbo anyway:

Foreigners who want to teach English in Korea will face stricter drug screening by the government, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry will announce a revised law on immigration control that requires those suspected of drug use to undergo two tests before employment as English teachers on the E-2 visa. The law will take effect from Feb. 1.

Under the revised law, a would-be teacher should get tested for immunity with a drug diagnosis reagent authorized by the Korea Food and Drug Administration. If the test is positive, he or she must undergo another test using a mass spectrometer.

The ministry will test for methamphetamine, cocaine, opium and marijuana. If the second test is positive, issuance or extension of a visa will be denied.

A Justice Ministry official said, “A number of English instructors took drugs while teaching, and we wanted to prevent this in advance.”

The image of foreign English teachers stoned in the classroom is a common one among xenophobes, though I suspect what gets garbled in translation is that "a number" of teachers are caught each year taking drugs while under contract, not necessarily while teaching. Drugs are bad, mmmkay, though it's still discriminatory to focus on E-2 visa holders and applicants while ignoring foreign English teachers on other visas, especially considering how relatively often it is we're reading about gyopo offenders among these drug-taking foreigners.

American teacher's organ donation saves three lives.

2011-01-26T02:52:00.005+09:00

The Korea Times reports, via Yonhap, on Linda Freel,

a teacher at the International Christian School in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, and wife of school director Rex Freel, donated her liver, kidneys, corneas and skin tissue, after she passed away Saturday.

This is the first case for a Westerner donating their organs to Koreans, according to the hospital.

``While 35 patients among 1 million donate their organs in the United States, only five out of 1 million donate in Korea. Freel’s organ donation will be an opportunity to share her noble philosophy in sharing life,’’ said Yang Cheol-woo, director of the organ transplantation department at the hospital.

From an email her husband circulated after her death:

I have been told that 5 peoples lives have been saved and that about 100 burn victims will benifit from skin graphs. The Korean people are amazed that someone would do this for them when the majority of Koreans would not think about doing this themselves. The Minister of Health stopped by to pay his respects. They Mayor of Uijongbu (Pop. 500,000) sent flowers. The Democratic Party sent flowers (My secretary assured me they were conservative :) Several hundred people stopped by to pay their respects. It was a great day. Very exhausting, but it was definitely a day of ministry.

From 연합.

Triplefantastic.com: maps in Korean and English.

2011-01-25T15:55:00.003+09:00

I'm always interested to hear from readers in Korea from southwestern Pennsylvania---I've met and exchanged emails with quite a few, actually---and a few days ago I received an email from one sharing a site he made, Triplefantastic.com. By linking to Daum, Naver, Google Korea and Google in English, allows you to pull up maps with, among other things, hotels, yoga classes, dentists, parks, and PC방 in scores of cities and neighborhoods.

Pizza in Suncheon, from Google Maps in Korean.

1,000,000th hit.

2011-01-25T15:48:00.004+09:00

Sitemeter tells me a few hours ago the blog got its 1,000,000th hit since I started keeping track on January 29, 2008. Thank you for your readership and your continued visits, and thank you for your interest in the live-burial of livestock, love motels, the cancellation of Naked News Korea and, um, a picture of the Wonder Girls, all among my most-viewed pages the past month.

Source.

FMD means Koreans urged not to travel (or travel to Jeollanam-do) for Lunar New Year.

2011-01-20T03:15:00.004+09:00

The Korea Times writes about local governments' efforts to discourage Koreans from travelling around the country this Seollal in order to prevent further spread of foot-and-mouth disease.

Many Koreans who work and live in Seoul and other urban areas were born and raised in the provinces. It is a decades-old tradition that they visit their hometowns to see their parents, relatives and friends at least twice a year ― the Lunar New Year (or Seollal) and Chuseok holidays.

But this biannual ritual may not materialize during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday from Feb. 2 to 6 as the mass migration could cause the spread of foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease and bird flu to uninfected areas.

Since the first FMD outbreak was reported in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 29, the deadly virus has spread to nearly all parts of the country, except for the southern regions ― South Gyeongsang Province, North Jeolla Province, South Jeolla Province and Jeju Island.

. . .

In a desperate attempt to stop the devastating epidemic, scores of provincial governments have launched a campaign to prevent people from traveling to other areas during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Among others, South Jeolla Province, which has seen not a single case of FMD, is asking those who plan to visit there during the five-day holiday not to do so in a bid to stop the spread of the highly infectious virus.

The provincial government has asked dozens of organizations made up of individuals born in the country’s southwestern province not to visit their hometowns.

``If we can prevent FMD from spreading to our area during the upcoming holiday, we are positive that South Jeolla Province will remain FMD-free. It is not easy to say this but we desperately need people who have family members here not to come this time,’’ said Lee Ki-ho, director of the livestock quarantine department at the South Jeolla Provincial Government.

The other 362 days out of the year you couldn't convince many Koreans, or expats for that matter, to visit Jeollanam-do, but as The Waygook Effect says given how little vacation time Koreans take it's unlikely that local officials will discourage Koreans from driving cross-country for one of its biggest holidays.

Choi Jung-hyun junk art show in Gwangju through February 27th.

2011-01-20T03:05:00.007+09:00

shared by Gwangju Blog brings us word of a real neat exhibition.

The Usquare Cultural Center---on the second floor of Gwangju's Usquare Bus Terminal---is hosting a junk art show featuring the work of Choi Jung-hyun through February 27th. Titled "반쪽이의 고물 자연사박물관," it's held in the Kumho Gallery next to the Burger King. Hours are 10:30 through 19:00, and admission is 4,000 won.

Choi's snake made from recycled computer parts made him internet famous in 2008.

Don't hit your students, make them do run or do push-ups instead.

2011-01-18T16:59:00.005+09:00

The JoongAng Daily writes about new forms of physical punishment that will replace smacking students with "love sticks."

Teachers in Seoul may no longer be able to slap misbehaving students, but they will be able to order them to do push-ups or run laps.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology yesterday released official guidelines on how teachers can discipline students now that corporal punishment has been banned in Seoul and is on its way out in other regions.

The ministry was responding to widespread complaints from teachers that students were running riot since corporal punishment was banned in Seoul in November. Teachers argued that physical punishments were widely considered an effective means of disciplining students in schools.

. . .

“To minimize confusion in classrooms after corporal punishment was banned in some regions, the ministry came up with the guidelines after collecting various opinions regarding the issue from experts,” said Education Minister Lee Ju-ho yesterday. Lee said the guideline will be enforced starting in March with the spring semester.

Under the guidelines, teachers are permitted to discipline students by ordering them to do push-ups, stand in the back of the classroom, or run or walk a few laps around the school playground. Teachers will be permitted to suspend students from school for up to ten days, with a maximum suspension of 30 days a year. Suspended students will receive counseling from education experts. If a student keeps misbehaving after 30 days of suspension, the ministry will allow teachers to summon parents to school for counseling.

I guess on the list of things most disruptive to a classroom, "making students do push-ups in the back of the class" was an acceptable distance behind "hitting students with your broom." The Korea Times has more on what is also a political issue:

The plan states that physical punishment that directly inflicts any type of pain to the body is prohibited, but indirect punishment such as running laps and push-ups, can be used as a means to discipline students.

The specific aspects of the allowable punishment methods will be decided by the schools individually, based on suggestions from students, teachers and parents, Lee said.

The latest ministry steps mean it will not accept the reform drives led by Kwak No-hyun, the progressive superintendent of the Seoul education office.

McDonald's Korea to double number of restaurants by 2015.

2011-01-18T16:21:00.004+09:00

The JoongAng Daily has information on McDonald's plans to grow in South Korea.

McDonald’s Korea announced yesterday that it will invest 500 billion won ($449 million) in the local market and double its number of restaurants here over the next five years.

The plan includes opening 243 new restaurants in Korea by 2015, most of which will be franchised locations, Sean Newton, the chief executive officer of McDonald’s local unit, said yesterday during at press conference in Myeong-dong, central Seoul. About 80 percent of the new restaurants will also feature drive-through windows, Newton added.

The move comes as the local unit of U.S.-based McDonald’s shifts from streamlining internal systems and services to expanding its footprint in Korea.

In outlining the goal of having a total of 500 restaurants in Korea by 2015, Newton stressed the importance of the local market to McDonald’s overall growth.

The article says the chain's presence in Korea is still far behind Lotteria, which has 890 stores. McDonald's Korea's CEO closes the article with

“[O]ur goal is not to be bigger than Lotteria but to develop a successful McDonald’s market . . . We will grow not by stealing market share, but by growing the market.”

The Chosun Ilbo and Korea Times have articles on this as well. In a post last week on fast food restaurants in Seoul we looked at the geographical distribution of several Western chains and the idea that more expensive menu options are favored in the city's trendier areas.

Also in the news today is the "McDonald's Grandmother" (맥도날드 할머니), a woman spending her days at a Seoul McDonald's, and the subject of a recent SBS documentary. From 깜뉴스:

맥도날드 할머니는 매일 밤 9시만 되면 패스트푸드점 맥도날드에 나타나 새벽 4시까지 새우잠을 자다 사라졌다. 마땅한 거처도 없이 하루의 대부분을 맥도날드와 교회, 스타벅스를 오가며 불편하게 보내고 있었다.

더 충격적인 사실은 할머니가 24시간 동안 한 번도 눕지 않고 커피 한 잔으로만 끼니를 때우며 10년 째 생활하고 있다는 점. 특히 그녀가 유명대학교 불문과를 졸업했으며, 외무부에서 근무한 엘리트였다는 사실이 알려져 충격과 호기심을 불러 일으켰다.

And more 신기해 still, she reads an English newspaper every day! *cough* See also this post on McRefugees in Korea.

Some readers don't care for the Chosun Ilbo's cartoons.

2011-01-18T15:48:00.003+09:00

A Dave's ESL Cafe poster started a thread with a complaint letter he sent to the Chosun Ilbo regarding a cartoon accompanying a recent article on the Chevrolet Volt.

Although I usually enjoy reading the Chosun Ilbo in English, it has a reputation among Western expats in Korea as being biased or unreliable. Generally, I don't mind, since I love the pictures of the day and I like the wide variety of news you provide. However, the cartoon accompanying the article "Volt's Car of the Year" (seen here: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/01/17/2011011700756.html) is incredibly racist and offensive. How would you feel if an American newspaper wrote an article insulting a Korean car and drew a racist cartoon of Korean people? Americans do not have noses like that - it is a racist depiction, reducing us to features that Koreans perceive as 'different' - and we are not all white with blonde hair, either, which is something Korean media seems to ignore.

The cartoon was pulled from the English-language translation but is still found on the Korean-language original.

Don't let your pipes freeze.

2011-01-18T03:40:00.000+09:00

Roboseyo reminds readers to be careful in this very cold weather lest the pipes in their apartments freeze overnight.

Until it gets a little less frigid, don't forget to run your taps for a while, and flush your toilets once or twice, at night before you go to bed, so your water pipes don't freeze and explode overnight. The older and smaller the building you live in, the more this applies to you.

If they take these precautions, though, they won't get their apartment in the newspaper, like these folks in Gwangju's Hwajeong-dong.

(1, 2)

Mandatory training class on the way for Koreans importing Asian brides.

2011-01-18T03:25:00.000+09:00

The Korea Times reports of a mandatory three-hour education class for Korean men interested in marrying and importing brides from seven Asian countries.

Those marrying foreigners, mainly from other Asian countries, will be obliged to take a mandatory three-hour class on the culture of the would-be spouses’ countries, according to the Ministry of Justice, Monday.

This is part of measures to lessen problems in interracial marriage resulting from a lack of understanding of each other’s background. Civic groups, however, say the three-hour education will not be particularly effective, calling for a more comprehensive solution.

According to the revised regulations taking effect at the end of the month or early February, Koreans who are to marry foreigners must take the class on the culture and customs of the future spouses’ countries.

The affected countries are Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Cambodia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Thailand.

. . .

If the Korean partner does not take the obligatory education, the authorities will not issue an F-2 residence visa to the immigrant spouse.

There is an exception: If a Korean stays in a foreign country for over 45 days, dates a native there and decides to marry him or her, the Korean will not have to take the program. Also, if a foreigner stays here for over 90 days, dates a Korean and decides to tie the knot, the Korean is also exempted from the mandatory education.

. . .

Civic groups for migrant women are skeptical of the program, doubting how many Korean men will take the education seriously and sincerely.

. . .

“The nation should change the interracial marriage system by monitoring matchmaking firms and cracking down on companies that commit illegal acts. The government should also come up with comprehensive measures, as even 30 hours of education is not enough,”Kim [Jun-gu at the Daejeon Migrant Women Rights Center]said.

South Korea has been using young women from poorer Southeast Asian countries to repopulate its countryside---and Arirang says the number is as high as 40% of couples in rural areas---with the resultant abuse, neglect, and unhappiness being well-documented in the media. Last March Cambodia put a halt to the bride trade with South Korea by temporarily banning marriages between Cambodian women and South Korean men. The ban was lifted a month later, though officials and ordinary people both in South Korea and overseas are obviously aware of the nefarious nature of some of these matchmaking services.

On Saturday the Dong-a Ilbo wrote of other measures that will affect international couples and their children.

Permanent resident status will go to foreign nationals married to Koreans before the former apply for Korean citizenship to prevent abuse of marriage immigration and allow such immigrants to comfortably settle in Korea.

. . .

Foreign nationals married to Koreans can apply for citizenship if they reside in Korea for two years under the F-2 spousal visa. Because two to three years of residence is required to obtain Korean citizenship after applying for naturalization, foreign nationals need four to five years to get citizenship after tying the knot with Koreans.

The Justice Ministry plans to grant permanent residency under the F-5 visa to foreign spouses instead of eliminating the F-2 residency status or reducing the period to about a year. The revision will be introduced to the National Assembly in March.

. . .

Permanent residents are entitled to the same welfare benefits as citizens but are limited in suffrage. Around 130,000 marriage immigrants live in Korea with the F-2 visa.

The government from this year will also cover all kindergarten fees for some 28,000 children from multicultural families. Assistance for living expenses and education fees will also be raised for marriage immigrants who raise young children but have yet to acquire Korean citizenship.

Marriage immigrants in farming areas will be eligible for agricultural training.

And according to a National Human Rights Commission of Korea ruling last week,

street banners advertizing marriage to women from other countries treated them as merchandise and was a violation of their human rights.

It demanded the mayor of Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, remove the banners immediately from the city-managed advertizing zone. The commission also advised it to come up with measures to prevent such advertisements from being put up in public again and give supervising civil servants courses on human rights.

In July last year, a 45-year-old man, identified only by his surname Jang, filed a petition with the commission, complaining that about 30 street banners set up by a marriage agency across the city discriminated against foreign women on grounds of gender and race.

The banner read: “Blowout sale for 9.8 million won for men wanting to marry Vietnamese women on the commemoration of Korea’s advance into the second round of the World Cup.”

“The banners contain “money-for-marriage” expressions that anyone with money can marry Vietnamese women. They imply that women with certain nationalities can be bought and sold as merchandise. This may create racial prejudice against these women in our society,” the commission said.

A sign in Jeonju saying Vietnamese women won't run away.

Browse the "International marriage" label for more links and information.

2011 Bugok Hawaii Ice Sculpture Festival through January 30th.

2011-01-17T14:19:00.001+09:00

The Bugok Hawaii (부곡하와이) resort and theme park in Gyeongsangnam-do's Changnyeong county is hosting the third annual Ice Sculpture Festival (부곡하와이 얼음나라 얼음조각축제) through January 30th.

(1, 2, 3)

A photograph from the festival, which started on December 24th, was one of the JoongAng Daily's photos of the day for January 17th. Buses run regularly from Busan, Daegu, Masan, and Gimhae, and four times a day from Seoul.

Night market for foreigners planned in Gwangju.

2011-01-17T14:16:00.001+09:00

From GFN 98.7 FM, translating a Korean-language Chosun Ilbo article:

A night bazaar allowing only foreign tourists to shop will open in Yang-dong Market this year.

According to the city, it is consulting with the market’s merchant association to have clothing and food shops in the market open during the night for foreign tourists who want to shop.

The city expects the market to receive a fervent response from Chinese tourists who have strong buying power.

In the long-term, the city is considering designating certain part of Yang-dong Market as a foreigner only shopping center.

Billings gets Korean English teacher from Gwangju.

2011-01-17T13:48:00.004+09:00

Billings, Montana has been a curious intersection for English education in South Korea and English immersion programs for its teachers for a while---see here and here---and The Billings Gazette had an article last week about the latest batch of Korean English teachers to train in the US.

On her first day in class, Ji Jeong Ha, an exchange English teacher from South Korea, was asked by a Lewis and Clark Middle School eighth-grader if they had televisions where she comes from.

"I asked them, 'How many of you have LG or Samsung cell phones?'" she said. "About two-thirds of the class raised their hands. 'We make those,' I told them."

Ha — the students call her Jenny — is one of 28 Korean teachers visiting Billings School District 2 as part of an exchange program with South Korea's Ministry of Education. The goal is to immerse the teachers in American culture to help them better learn English.

"You guys speak so fast," Ha said with a laugh.

Ha comes from Guang Ju where she teaches middle school English. She arrived in the U.S. in August, and she and her 27 counterparts joined real college English classes in Powell and Cody, Wyo.

The comment section is, um, interesting, too:

"Do you have TV's in South Korea?"

"Um...as a matter of fact, we do you. Better, ones than you have here in the US, and we manufacture them ourselves. Our broadband speed is four times faster than your tiny little backwater of a town has as well. Also, based on the underlying cultural ignorance made apparent by your ill-informed question, it's safe to assume that us South Koreans have a far better educational system too. Sorry kid, the truth hurts. South Korea is looking at the US from its rear-view mirror. We have passed you by."

lol

Conspicuous (burger) consumption in Gangnam?

2011-01-13T07:30:00.001+09:00

I don't care much about the trend the 파이낸셜뉴스, and the Korea Times in English, is trying to note, but I was interested to learn a few facts about the fastfood industry in Seoul. From the Korea Times:

Lotteria operates the largest number of franchised stores in Seoul among the home-grown and foreign fast food chains, but the U.S.-based Burger King, which offers pricier selections, has more outlets in affluent southern Seoul districts such as Seocho, Gangnam and Songpa, the Center for Freedom of Information said Wednesday.

The center said there are currently a total of 327 fast food restaurants operating across the nation’s capital, with Lotteria owning the largest number at 130, followed by McDonald’s at 62, Burger King at 60, KFC at 43 and Popeyes at 32.

The basis for the title "Pricey Burger King popular in Gangnam" comes from comparing the most-popular items on the menus of Lotteria and Burger King. Lotteria's Hanwhoo Bulgogi Burger set costs 5,100 won, while Burger King's Double Whopper Set costs 8,600. It's worth noting that Lotteria's 한우불고기"세트" is only a burger and a small drink, while Burger King's has the more familiar medium fry and medium soda.

mk뉴스 tells us how many of each fast food chain are in Gangnam, the most affluent ward of Seoul:

강남구는 버거킹 11곳, KFC 7곳, 맥도날드 6곳, 롯데리아 3곳 순이었다. 서초구도 버거킹 10곳, 맥도날드 6곳, 롯데리아 5곳 순이었고 송파구는 버거킹 9곳, KFC 8곳, 맥도날드 3곳, 롯데리아 2곳 순이었다.

While Yonhap provides this neat map showing the geographic distribution of fast food chains Lotteria (blue), McDonald's (purple), Burger King (red), KFC (yellow), and Popeye's (green) in each ward throughout the capital.

For the sake of comparison, the whole of Jeollanam-do---not including Gwangju---has 42 Lotteria, 3 McDonald's, 0 Burger King, 0 KFC, and 2 Popeye's.

Bird flu spreads throughout Jeollanam-do.

2011-01-13T06:38:00.000+09:00

Arirang reports:

A state of emergency has been declared on Tuesday here in Korea as avian influenza continues to spread.
According to the agriculture ministry, the flu is spreading rapidly throughout South Jeolla and Gyeonggi provinces.
As preventive measures, chicken and ducks within a three-kilometer radius of the affected farms will be put down, and the sale of these animals will be banned in traditional markets starting Thursday lasting until the 27th of January.

While the Dong-a Ilbo writes:

Six duck farms in Naju and Yeongam County, South Jeolla Province, were found Tuesday to be affected by highly pathogenic strains of avian influenza.

. . .

With 13 farms affected by bird flu in the province, the number of birds culled surpassed 800,000 Tuesday. A quarantine official said, “We are making every effort to prevent the virus that has already affected South Jeolla Province from spreading to other regions.”

The first case of bird flu in Jeollanam-do was reported in Yeongam county on January 6th. That's still three-and-a-half times fewer birds killed than the last time bird flu hit South Korea big, in 2008. An additional casualty then was KFC's "Zinger Burger," temporarily dropped from the menu because of the high cost of chicken at the time, making me wonder if the now-discontinued 5,000 won bucket from Lotte would have lasted very long anyway.

The robots, you're using them wrong.

2011-01-11T11:00:00.003+09:00

One benefit of the daily "breaking news! Korea to use robot English teachers!" threads on Dave's ESL Cafe is sharing the occassional new article or video, like this one from Masan's 합포초등학교:

Defeating the purpose of having an English-speaking white face in the classroom---whether from an actual foreign English teacher or drawn to cover-up the Filipino teacher's voice on the robot---is translating its conversations and directions into Korean. The video could be unrepresentative of the robot English teacher experience in that it's only a few minutes with four children---although all of the propoganda we've read about them have come after short sessions in reduced-size after-school classes---but the long adjustment period and the potential for overusing Korean reminds us of an additional drawback to replacing foreign teachers with the classrooms with these wheeled walkie-talkies.

To say nothing of the awkward, stilted English that sound as if English education just got knocked back 15 years.

Reminder: don't interfere.

2011-01-10T09:26:00.006+09:00

From the 서울신문.

Last month on a Gusts of Popular Feeling post about a video of a man on a subway groping a drunk woman sitting next to him, I wrote of the undercover cameraman:

I guess secretly snapping a picture is more useful than actually going across the aisle and putting a stop to the groping that's forcing another passenger to cower and curl up?

A story in the Korea Times today of a similar situation reminds us why it's a bad idea to interfere, physically, in a dispute in South Korea.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced a 50-year-old bus driver to six months in jail, suspended for two years, after he injured a male student who molested a female passenger and then attacked a female escort on a school bus.

Last May, a male student at a school for the disabled, started groping and sexually harassing a female student who was sitting in front of him on the bus.

When a female employee from the school told the female student to change seats, the male student got angry and attacked her, pushing her down and pressing himself on top of her.

The driver stopped the bus, and went to intervene but ended up injuring the student’s eye in the process.

“Although the injury took place while the bus driver was trying to stop the male student from making a scene, he injured him and it required six weeks of hospital treatment. Also he did not come to any settlement with the student,” the court said in a ruling.

Teachers on Dave's ESL Cafe frequently post of their desires or intentions of physically intervening in a couple's public fight, or of punching a drunk guy harassing them, but it's a bad idea especially if the other person is, or pretends to be, injured.

Gwangju man gets 17 years for killing Mongolian woman.

2011-01-10T03:21:00.004+09:00

Yonhap writes about the Gwangju man sentenced to 17 years for killing a friend of his Mongolian wife in Naju last September 14th.

A 34-year-old South Korean man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for killing his Mongolian wife's friend and injuring her husband during a quarrel, court officials said Friday.

The man, identified only by his surname Yang, stabbed the 25-year-old Mongolian woman to death and wounded her husband in September last year, when he went to their house to find his wife who had left him after months of abuse.

Bernama picks up where the pay-per-view article leaves off, and says

The incident caused a public stir at the time amid concerns over increasing reports of domestic violence and human trafficking in international marriages between South Korean men and Southeast Asian women.

That's the second murder story with a connection to Naju and a Mongolian bride. In 2009 a serial killer in Gwangju reportedly got his start after his young wife left after a brief, abusive marriage.

A longer Korean-language article from 연합 is here.

2011 marathons in Jeollanam-do.

2011-01-09T05:13:00.001+09:00

The 11th 518 Marathon will be held in Gwangju on May 21st.

A quick and early look at some of the marathons and runs coming up in Jeollanam-do, for the benefit of those who made "get into, or back into, running" one of their New Year's resolutions.

* Haenam Land's Edge Marathon (해남땅끝마라톤대회), February 13th. Full, half, 10km, and 5km runs. Registration through January 22nd.

* Jeongnamjin Jangheung Marathon (정남진장흥전국마라톤), February 27th. Full, half, 10km, and 5km runs. Registration through February 6th.

* March 1st International Marathon (3.1절국제마라톤대회), March 1st. Full, half, and 5km runs. Registration through February 7th.

* Honam International Marathon (호남국제마라톤대회), April 17th. Full, half, 10km, and 5km runs. Registration through March 18th.

* Boseong Green Tea Marathon (보성녹차밭마라톤), May 1st. Registration from February 1st through April 15th.

* 518 Marathon (518마라톤), May 21st. Half, 5km, and a "518 run" that follows a 5.18km course to mark the city's commemoration of the Gwangju Massacre. Registration from February 14th through April 20th.

Others that take place each spring in Jangseong, Hampyeong, Yeonggwang, and Naju haven't yet announced their dates.

See similar posts in January 2009 and 2010 for more comments and links. It's worth sharing here the Seoul Flyers---an expat running group in Seoul---and the Gwangju Running Club for people who would like some inspiration, camaraderie, and practice.

Korean in a Bayer commercial.

2011-01-09T04:30:00.003+09:00

Like when I saw that Britney video, when I caught the new Bayer Extra Strength commercial out of the corner of my eye, and ear, two days ago it took a little while to register that it had Korean text and a Korean-speaking actress, and that these two things are unusual for American TV. The commercial takes place aboard an airplane, where an English-speaker complains of back pain and a Korean stewardess recommends Bayer. Actress Brenda Koo writes, on the spot that started running in November:

Anytime you need aspirin, think of using BAYER ASPIRIN! I just booked a National Commercial for Bayer Aspirin. Look out for this commercial within a month running all over the United States and Canada.. I am playing a Korean Stewardess who recommends the passenger Bayer aspirin for his back pain.

"40 Years of Gangnam" at the Seoul Museum of History.

2011-01-07T12:48:00.005+09:00

An exhibition on the dramatic growth of Gangnam the past 40 years is at the Seoul Museum of History through February 27th.

Forty years have passed since radical changes began in Gangnam area. It was then called "Yeongdong", indicating the cabbage fields and pear orchards to the east of Yeongdeungpo area. This exhibition is a visual representation of the process of its creation, its profile seen from above and also on the streets. It is not only a part of our urban history but a significant part of history of our generation.

The museum is open from 9 to 9 during the week and to 6 on the weekends, and is accessible by Gwanghwamun and Seodaemun subway stations.

Ban on cell phones at school violates human rights, NHRCK says.

2011-01-06T11:01:00.003+09:00

From Yonhap, via kushibo's blog:

Banning young students from using cell phones during non-class hours, like lunch break, infringes upon their human rights, the state rights watchdog said Wednesday, disapproving moves by local schools and teachers' organizations to closely regulate students' on-campus wireless communications.

A 17-year-old girl, whose name was withheld, filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in May of last year, claiming that her boarding school's excessive cell phone restriction violates her human rights. She said her school collects phones from students and allows them access to their phones only between 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., after all regular classes end and before self-study hour begins.

"It is excessive and beyond the limit that (schools) ban cell phones for study purposes or times other than regular class hours, self-study hours and sleeping time," the NHRC said.

Story and video report in Korean via YTN.

Congratulations, Campbell 샘.

2011-01-06T10:15:00.001+09:00

The Korea Times writes of an award ceremony held last month for top native speaker English teachers in public schools.

Atlanta native Stephen Campbell has been awarded the Native Speaking English Teacher (NSET) award for 2010 by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) last December.

The short profile covers some of his approach and attitude.

Teaching English Conversation has proved to be a bit of a challenge as Campbell has confronted many obstacles, especially student interactions.

“The subject I teach is English Conversation. My classes are 36 to 40 students, which provides a challenge in itself, never mind the fact that students are quite shy about practicing their spoken English. So having a lot of open-ended conversation exercises, the kind of thing you'll find in so many resources, like ‘Discuss three current news events with your partner,’ or ‘With your partner, choose and describe three favorite foods in your country,’ ― that kind of thing is hopeless.

“So I try to use activities that are task-based, where students must use English with each other in order to accomplish some other task. Having groups compete works nicely, sometimes; but I don't give out candy to high school students! I tell them their reward is the respect and admiration of their peers; when that stops being funny, I tell them it's the satisfaction of a job well done. I do sometimes take photos of the winning teams, and post them on my bulletin board. The photo gallery is a popular feature of my classroom.”

. . .

“One week during the year, students come to class only to find it transformed into a crime scene ― there's crime scene tape and body outline in the hallway right outside. In pairs, they are a famous consulting detective and his friend, and they have to solve the crime rather like those choose-your-own-adventure books. After you get information from one station, you have to choose where to go next.”

Nice to see not only the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education recognizing the extraordinary efforts of some of its foreign English teachers, but also an article praising an award-winning one in a newspaper that frequently disparages and underminese them. I refer to the teachers in the plural because, in spite of finding no more details on the ceremony after several searches, a poster on Dave's ESL Cafe writes:

The article was a bit misleading, however, as more than fifty teachers received the exact same award from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (minimum two teachers per district with twenty-five districts).

It was nice to be acknowledged, but it's not quite as exclusive as I first thought.

Burying pigs alive to halt FMD.

2011-01-06T09:36:00.007+09:00

Images and video of pigs being buried alive in an attempt to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth disease across South Korea are now making their way around Facebook. The Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth shares a series of photos

while Korea Animal Rights Advocates repeats a list, in English, of cases of culling during foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in 2010. Here is an update from last week.

Meanwhile, the Korea Times reports on a curious phenomenon with, it says, potentially deadly consequences:

Residents of a village hit by food-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, have seen their faucets start to deliver water mixed with blood since the beginning of the New Year.

This eerie situation, first reported last Saturday, came just one day after some of nearly 1,000 pigs within a 500-meter radius of an FMD-hit livestock farm were buried alive in the village’s vicinity to prevent further spread of the deadly animal disease.

Quarantine officers claim the situation is temporary and things will soon return to normal, while many experts are skeptical, insisting that blood from the buried animals will gradually soak into the ground to eventually contaminate underground water reservoirs, a major source of drinking water for the villagers.

The authorities said the slaughtered animals were buried in a 4-5 meter-deep hole covered by two-fold vinyl to keep anything from their bodies from leaking out.

But it’s uncertain whether the vinyl would remain intact if they had been buried alive.

“It’s possible that the vinyl could be torn by animals struggling to survive,” a quarantine officer said.

It concludes with a paragraph on the decision to cull rather than vaccinate:

The government started vaccinating animals susceptible to FMD last week. But the use of vaccines is still limited for fear that wider use could put local beef dealers at a disadvantage in exporting their products.

Another debate on Korean blackface.

2011-01-06T00:00:00.000+09:00

On Waygook.org, a growing forum for teachers in South Korea, commenter wbrutus22 shares a video of a group Korean students at an outdoor festival, with two of them dressed as black performers.

On The Vanguard Element he invites readers to ask if he was offended:

Absolutely not…I was just utterly shocked and somewhat disappointed that culture and history is unfortunately not being invested in as much as the English language. It’s in the context that makes things racist—in this case, I saw the innocence in their eyes but it did feel extremely awkward to actually experience the “situation” take place. I’m fully aware of the US history behind repugnant blackface caricatures, but the children evidently weren’t. It was a weird occasion…I walked up to the kid, shocked by his appearance and he was equally shocked at my mere existence—just an amazing ironic moment. Remember, this was an English camp, where we foreign teachers were there to exchange many aspects of “culture.” My conclusion: ignorance is not bliss, its sad…for every nation.

I won't quote too much from the forum, because the four pages are worth reading, but I think I agree more with commenters like ehyunas

I think they were just playing a character and perhaps you are reading too much into it.

shelleydee

There's nothing wrong with describing someone using their colour of their skin so long as there is no negative connotation along with it. Unfortunately, North Americans have loaded words with so many connotations its impossible for us to forget that.

and adamwatch

Ithink its of more concern when foreigners abroad expect everyone to follow their own cultural"taboos”。 What right has a country like America with its poor record of human rights to reflect on what it sees as other countries "faults". After 50 years of American involvement in Korea we are now facing another "korean" war. Lets just try to put our own house in order. I don't think America can lecture anyone on race given its history of racial troubles.

For new readers, the issue of blackface in Korea has been written about for years, in a couple different contexts and from a couple different perspectives: Scribblings of the Metropolitician on, among other things, the Bubble Sisters in 2006; my site in 2007 looking at textbooks and English-Korean dictionaries; and The Grand Narrative and Monster Island looking at an LG print advertisement in 2009. And while I've been critical of Koreans adopting offensive imagery for their benign purposes, whether a KKK hood to advertise a play or a model in a Nazi uniform to advertise Coreana cosmetics,

and while I find the debate---and its tangents into depictions of foreigners and English teachers---on Korea generally interesting, I don't put a couple of kids in the same category as using Hitler to sell make-up or the KKK to promote a dance troupe, let alone the more historically offensive examples of blackface many Americans have learned to recognize.

Teacher is too violent for YouTube.

2011-01-05T11:19:00.000+09:00

Some time ago I received a message from YouTube informing me that one of the videos I uploaded has "been disabled for violation of the YouTube Community Guidelines." The message continued:

Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed in YouTube videos. And even though people do get hurt and it’s inevitable that these events may be documented on YouTube, it’s not okay to post violent or gory content that’s primarily intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful. If your video shows someone being physically hurt, attacked, or humiliated, it will be removed. If a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional educational or documentary context and information.

Your account has received one Community Guidelines warning strike, which will expire in six months. Additional violations may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to YouTube and/or the termination of your account.

What was the name of the video depicting "graphic or gratuitous violence" and "violent or gory content"?

Teacher beats elementary school students in Icheon, Korea.

I wrote about the video in July 2008, after the teacher was forced to apologize. Korea Beat translated a Korean-language article in 2009; an excerpt from the post I can no longer find:

The video shows five scenes of the teacher, A, punishing a child for fighting with over 10 blows to the buttocks and shoulders, then calling three other children to administer four blows.

The video shows the teacher repeatedly hitting the children with a broomstick while they scream in terror, leading to accusations that it is impulsive violence and not corporal punishment.

Within 24 hours the video, recorded by a child in the same class on a cameraphone and first uploaded to Daum's "Agora" cafe on the 21st by the child's mother, spread to the homepage of the Gyeonggi-do Office of Education and the homepage of the school itself.

The school took administrative action the same day, relieving A of homeroom duties.

The video was pulled from YouTube, of course, but is still widely available on the Korean internet, and is still up on the Daum site where I got it from in the first place.

Holiday Inn, Ecograd open in Jeollanam-do.

2011-01-02T17:55:00.000+09:00

From the Chosun Ilbo. A search hasn't yet brought up photographs of the hotel's exterior.

Not breaking news for people living in Suncheon, but I just read that Suncheon's classy hotel opened on December 15th. The Ecograd Hotel (에코그라드 호텔) is an 18-floor, 93-meter building in Jorye-dong with six restaurants, two bars, banquet and wedding facilities, a "Roman bath," and twelve types of suites and rooms. It was built to accommodate guests for the 2012 Yeosu Expo nearby and the 2013 World Garden Expo at Suncheon Bay.

From this Naver cafe.

Construction site, July 2009.

From a 경황신문 piece last month I learned that Gwangju opened a Holiday Inn on December 10th, giving the Honam region three first-class hotels, in the article's estimation: Gwangju's Ramada rounds out the trio.

Gwangju's Holiday Inn (홀리데이인 광주) in Chipyeong-dong, from the Chosun Ilbo.

Wando winter swim cancelled.

2011-01-02T02:24:00.003+09:00

The Wando winter swim (건강의 섬 완도 겨울바다 수영 대회) I mentioned last week has, like many other rural festivals this time of year, has been cancelled due to concerns over foot-and-mouth disease.

전남 완도군은 30일 "구제역 확산을 막기 위해 해맞이 축제를 취소한데 이어 다음 달 7일 예정된 '2011년 완도 겨울바다 돌핀 수영대회'도 취소한다"고 밝혔다.

It was scheduled for January 7th at Myeongsashimni Beach.

24th Polar Bear Swim (북극곰수영대회) at Haeundae Beach: January 23, 2011.

2011-01-01T01:05:00.001+09:00

The 24th Polar Bear Swim (북극곰수영대회) will be held at Busan's Haeundae Beach on January 23rd, with registration open from January 4th through 13th.

There is an English-language (and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) registration page, with the 20,000 won entry fee being wired to a Hana Bank account.

2011-01-01T00:45:00.003+09:00

Big snow means everyone in Gangjin pitches in. From a series of photographs from the Gangjin Ilbo after a foot of snow through the 31st.

National Human Rights Commission rules on adoptee pay at Busan English Village.

2010-12-31T20:15:00.002+09:00

From the Korea Times:

An English immersion village has been warned by the state human rights watchdog not to discriminate against Korean-American instructors in terms of payment compared to other native English speakers as long as they speak English fluently as their mother tongue.

A 30-year-old Korean-American filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) last May, claiming Busan Global Village, an English-immersion facility in Busan, paid him less than other native English speakers due to his birthplace, South Korea.

The petitioner was adopted by a family in the U.S. when he was 18 months old. He grew up there as a U.S. citizen, using English as his primary language.

He was hired by the institute last year and coerced to sign a contract that treated him like an English-speaking Korean, whose annual pay was roughly 7-10 million won ($6,100-8,700) less than those of native English speakers who were not ethnically Korean. He worked there between July 2009 and April this year.

The NHRC investigated the case and concluded the petitioner should not be differentiated from native speakers when teaching English.

Here is the release from the 국가인권위원회 in Korean.

This ruling on one English Village is not law, and I suspect some schools will continue to pay gyopo teachers, especially their non-Korean-speaking ones, less than their native speaker English teachers. It's an important, and instructive, ruling for overseas Korean adoptees returning to South Korea to teach, though the NHRCK's recommendation to the English Village and its hiring practices reminds us it's better to be aware of, and take preventative measures against, shady contracts than to try and win anything a year or two later.

The agency recommended the institute pay the difference in wages to the instructor.

Famous mystery donor returns to Jeonju this Christmas.

2010-12-30T08:25:00.007+09:00

From Yonhap.

Jeonju's Secret Santa (or angel without a face, 얼굴 없는 천사) made another visit to a Jeonju community center this year. The Hankyoreh has more in English.

The "angel" has donated money to the village at the end of every year for the past 11 years. According to Nosong area officials, a man they estimate to be in his 40s called the community center around noon on Tuesday to tell the staff where he had put his donation for this year.

. . .

The money left outside the beauty shop was stuffed inside a piggy bank and a paper box. The donation, totaling 35,840,900 won ($31,219.80), was a mixture of bills and coins in various denominations. There were 700 50,000-won bills, 1,531 500-won coins, 739 100-won coins and 21 10-won coins.

Over the past 11 years, the anonymous donor has given a total of 197,204,020 won.

From the Chosun Ilbo, with video report.

I was wondering if he'd show up this December because last year there was word that the donor had died, as the Korea Herald wrote:

Unlike in previous years, a note accompanied this year's gift indicating that the original donor had passed away. City officials believe the amount given this year included the money received at the deceased's funeral.

S.M. Entertainment Global Audition in Gwangju: February 27th, 2011.

2010-12-30T08:24:00.004+09:00

Via Gwangju Blog's readers comes news of an open audition with media juggernaut S.M. Entertainment in several South Korean cities next February. They're coming to Gwangju on February 27th. Be the next World Star like Rain and BoA! The poster says the "Audition is open without any distinction of age, gender, or nationality," but the information page says that it's open only to Asians.

So even if your dreams of becoming a 31-year-old Caucasian K-pop star who can't sing in Korean or Japanese are now thwarted, it still might be fun to check out the auditions. The location hasn't been posted yet for the auditions in Gwangju or other cities, so check the information page later for details.

Sagong Seong-dae is insightful ("they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months[.]")

2010-12-29T14:00:00.004+09:00

One of the latest articles on the English-teaching robots from the AFP closes with this gem on the additional benefits of robots over native speaker English teachers, attributed to Sagong Seong-dae of the Korea Institute of Science of Technology:

"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while."

That sounds like something from a parody on the pitfalls of teaching English in Korea, given how uppity foreign teachers *cough* are prone to "complaining" about not receiving the health insurance, sick leave, and severance pay contractually provided to them. He might have added that robot English teachers also don't have AIDS and aren't attracted to Korean women.

Poster created by The Waygook Effect.

Reminiscent of the president of the International Graduate School of English saying to Kang Shin-who of the Korea Times in 2009:

``Most of the native English speakers don't have much affection toward our children because they came here to earn money and they often cause problems,'' Park said.

a quotation that was later revealed to be fabricated by the reporter.

Anyway, we can't go too long without the western media writing some "news of the weird" story out of South Korea, and the English-teaching robots is the latest angle to fill that void. This most-recent batch of articles lend themselves to the same comment I made a month ago in a longer look at this misguided program:

If "English Fever" is as exceptionally high in South Korea as we observe and foreign correspondents note, and if communicative competence is as high a priority as the national curriculum has dictated for nearly a decade, it would behoove policy-makers to finally stop rash spending on gimmicks---like robots, expensive English-Only Zones, or inexperienced white people by the thousands---and start developing real solutions that produce results in the classroom, or at least ones that are suitable stand-ins until a generation of domestic English teachers can catch up to the roles in a communication-based English classroom for which they are currently unprepared.

In that AFP article readers with some knowledge of English education in South Korea will find plenty of objectionable lines and ideas. An official at the Daegu office of education said some robots "may be sent to remote rural areas of South Korea shunned by foreign English teachers," though over the past few years we've seen that it's not native speaker English teachers [NSETs] "shunning" rural areas, but rather rural areas unable or unwilling to hire and pay them. Many areas, including where I used to work, have long since stopped hiring NSETs for the public schools and have instead collected a few for regional "English Towns" where students collect for English immersion experiences once or twice a year.

Three paragraphs later the official is indirectly quoted saying she "stressed the experiment was not about replacing human teachers with robots," though the article---which relies a lot on "he said" and "she said," literally---closes with:

Sagong stressed that the robots, which currently cost 10 million won each, largely back up human teachers but would eventually have a bigger role.

The machines can be an efficient tool to hone language skills for many people who feel nervous about conversing with flesh-and-blood foreigners, he said.

"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while."

Hell, Time magazine started its own lazy profile off just last month with "Call it the job terminator."

It is unfortunate that education officials would rather put remote-controlled tape recorders in the classroom rather than living, breathing native English speakers. The article a few times mentions the benefits of robots for shy English students, but that leads us to a point made by commenter Walter Foreman in November:

English in Korea is already too disassociated from the people that speak it (ie. it is treated as something of a novelty rather than as a tool of expression); having children talk to cute wheeble-wobble-looking robots will only help to reinforce that disassociation!

From here.

And it's ironic that these latest models will be controlled and operated by English teachers in the Philippines

The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines -- who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.

Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.

"Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP.

who would otherwise have a difficult time ousting a pretty white face from an English classroom, regardless of their experience and education.

Foot-and-mouth disease means many sunrise and sunset festival cancellations in Jeollanam-do.

2010-12-29T01:30:00.000+09:00

Shortly after a February 2008 sunrise at Busan's Haeundae beach.

The last sunset of the year and the first of the next are events celebrated in counties and cities throughout the country. I had planned a brief overview of festivals happening in Jeollanam-do, but unfortunately the most notable ones have been cancelled over concerns of foot-and-mouth disease. These include the sunrise and sunset festivals at Haenam county's "Land's Edge" (which posted the following message on the 24th on the official webpage)

해남 땅끝마을에서 개최예정이었던
제15회 땅끝해넘이해맞이축제 및 울돌목거북배 선상해맞이 행사를
최근 구제역이 전국적으로 확산됨에 따라 부득이 취소키로 결정하였음을 알려드리오니,
이점 양지하시기 바랍니다

그동안 행사의 성공적 개최를 위해 각계각층에서 보내주신 성원에 감사드리며
내년에는 더욱 알차고 차별화된 축제로 발전시킬 것을 약속드립니다.

and the sunrise festivals at Goheung's Namyeol Beach, at Yeongam Lake, Wando, and Yeosu's Hyangiram.

Student in Ulsan dies after long gaming session.

2010-12-29T01:20:00.002+09:00

From Sportsseoul.com. This question mark clipart looks to have become obligatory in Korean articles this year.

In what is sure to spawn even more "news of the weird" articles out of South Korea, the Korea Times writes about a college student in Ulsan who died after nearly twelve hours of online gaming.

On Monday afternoon in a PC bang in the southeastern city of Ulsan, the collegian, only identified as Moon, suddenly fell to the ground and was rushed to a hospital but he was declared dead upon arrival, police said.

The 19-year-old collegian went to the PC bang at around 2 a.m., stopped by his home briefly at 10:30 a.m., to eat, and returned to the PC bang.

His families and friends told the police that he habitually played the online shooting game.

In March, after the death of a baby at two internet-addicted parents made headlines, I shared a couple other recent examples of internet use taken to extremes, as that story and others drew attention to the problem of internet addiction in South Korea. Probably the best-known example, historically, is out of Gwangju, where a young man died after 86 hours at a PC방 in 2002.

Gwangju city's blog wins award at 2010 Korea Blog Awards.

2010-12-29T01:05:00.001+09:00

To quote from GFN 98.7 FM, since I can't link directly to their news articles:

Gwangju Metropolitan City’s blog sayGJ.com has won first place in the public organizations sector of the 2010 Korea Blog Award.

The Korea Blog Business Association and the Korea Press Foundation jointly administered the award.

The evaluations considered a blog’s content, activities and communications.

The City’s blog began September 2009 and was recognized for its offerings in the areas of art and culture, tourism, food, and city news.

To this date, the blog has had over 1.8 million hits.

This Korean-language write-up lists other winners. The city has sponsored an English-language blog this year as well, Gwangju Blog.

Wando winter swim (건강의 섬 완도 겨울바다 수영 대회): January 7, 2011.

2010-12-27T15:37:00.001+09:00

Wando's Myeongsashimni Beach---arguably the best in the province---will host a winter swim on January 7th. Probably best written as a Polar Bear Swim in English, it's known in Korean as "건강의 섬 완도 겨울바다 수영 대회" to incorporate the county's slogan. Registration is open to the first 500 people through January 5th. The registration form is online here, as an .hwp file; contact 061-550-5481 for more information.

Buses head to the beach from the terminal in Wando, in turn accessible from the Gwangju U-Square terminal.