Some weekend pics from Korea. Sometimes even with captions.
This is not a television station or anywhere near one. Some genius at Lotteria, purveyor of questionable burgers, came up with this.
Ulsan Station - The characters remind me of Japan
O1 Steak Sauce
I think they meant A1 Steak Sauce. Tribute or plagiarism? And Outback’s steaks are awesome because Daniel Henney will cook it for you.
Punctuation is pretty important
This is for a hospital in Seoul. The slogan below reads “A new paradigm in health checks” and the other side is the name of the hospital.
In Gangnam
I don’t think metrosexual means what they think it means, though I may be wrong judging by the way the men dress here.
The Korean team in 1966 (yes with a K because it is not a Japanese plot to have Japan appear before Korea in the English alphabet) was the North Korean team. Obscure geography moment: South Korea has a territorial dispute with China over the northern side of Mt Baekdu. North Korea has recognised the northern side of that mountain as Chinese territory since 1962.
I’m currently reading The Koreans: Who they are, what they want, where their future lies by Michael Breen. I think one of his children contributes to the local rag for how many Breens could there be in Korea. Though it’s a little dated; over ten years old now; a lot of the things he talks about are still relevant. I even learnt a few extra things about our founder which have for obvious reasons been scrubbed from our company’s history.
Thankfully this week is fairly slow, so I’m nearly finished with book. I’ve also been reading the international newspapers; part of my job; and the Korea-based English/Korean ones for the sheer enjoyment. Joongang Daily ran a story about an SAT instructor claiming he was kidnapped and beaten when he tried to quit his hagwon. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this were true. I’m fairly lucky that the Joongang Daily comes as a supplement in the International Herald Tribune, the international version of the New York Times. We also get the rag Korea Times delivered to our office. One of my most cherished clips from that rag is the “US Teens Experience Korean Culture” which has some teenagers writing on shoes.
Korea is already preparing for the G-20 in November. Choi Jung-hwa from CICI feels this is a golden opportunity to boost Korea’s national brand because 80 of 115 foreign opinion leaders told her it is a golden opportunity for Korea to boost its national brand.
That’s right, it’s a bitter experience when foreigners in their own countries mistake you for Chinese, Japanese or horror of all horrors Vietnamese. Here’s some news for you CICI: Just like Koreans assume all white people in Korea are Americans we assume all Asian people are Chinese. Why do we do this? I do this because it is a simple fact that there are far more Chinese in Australia than there are Koreans. Why do people here assume I’m American? Because there are simply more Americans here than other white people. Therefore we are both more likely to be correct if we guess the nationality which we perceive to be the most numerous.
Expat teachers of English, be afraid. You’re jobs in paradise are about to be taken over by robots. Only teachers of English need worry because everyone knows Koreans only ever learn English. There are no schools of other languages in Korea. Though if you are an English teacher from India with a teaching qualification your low-paying job should be secure as the robots seem to only be able to replace the predominantly white teachers from Australia, Canada, USA and UK. I’m tempted to class this as an Anti-English Spectrum wet dream, but consider this; not only will the robots not require payment or ever complain about anything Korean, there is no way for the robots to date Korean women (yet). How the issue of English robots dating Dodeok robots (도덕, morality class taught in Korean elementary schools) was not discussed. I hope the robots look like Taekyon V so they not only teach you English but can also breakdance and raise Dodko so the (primitive) Japanese robot and his wooden navy can’t take it. You know, Japan used to show Chinese and Koreans as technologically and culturally backward thus justifying their occupation.
In a rebuttal of sorts, Breen the younger seems to have adopted Korea Times style of ‘Us vs the myriad others’ with the zeal you’d expect from a hungry fat kid and his first cookie. That was too hyperbolic Mr Dalby’s comments, especially those buried in the middle of the article, are telling. Though I’m not sure if he is referring to robots or the students when he says
Speaking of Pavlovian responses, try asking a Korean student the question “Hi, how are you?” and see if you get a response other than “I’m fine, and you?” You win a cookie if your interlocutor catches themselves mid-sentence when they realise what you’re doing.
Korea is somehow suited to teaching by robots? Yes. Anything would be better than the current situation of sit down, be quiet, don’t ask questions, you may be randomly punished by the teacher with their fake sword (swords were issued to teachers during the occupation as symbols of authority), the most important thing in class is to change into your slippers and put your shoes away.
***Frankly speaking (hehe), the first article should have been about the advances in robotics as Korea is fairly well regarded in this industry. But where’s the fun in that eh?***
It’s only Tuesday so only one issue this time. Though this week promises to be a lot more interesting now that Korea Times is running a series on illegal private English tutoring.
It’s ‘heaven’ because there is such a huge demand from Koreans to learn English. Address the demand problem; albeit much more difficult than blaming outside sources for society’s ills (yes, it’s a social problem when 13-year-olds aren’t happy with the way their life is going because they go to private classes for everything until 10pm six days a week); and your ‘illegally teaching because random people approach you on the street to teach them English as in this Confucian society English is regarded as a status symbol and education is the surest way to raise your station’ problem disappears.
Reading this hit piece one would think that teachers of other languages don’t do private lessons. An E-2 is a language teaching visa, not just an English teaching visa.
Some schools also have a clause in their contracts with the teacher that allows the teacher to teach privately if they get permission from the employer. Sometimes the employer will set up private classes for you. The teachers mentioned in the article could have been legally teaching. Did Mr Kang examine the contracts to verify the legality of their work? The main reason these schools have that clause in the contract is so they can send you to a different location to teach. Without that clause, it is illegal for the school to employ you at a location different to the one listed on your visa. Of course, they need permission from the immigration authorities but that is only a formality. My former school insisted on sending me to Japan to get a new visa three months after my old one had expired. At the Immigration desk on the way out the Korean coworker simply said ‘We didn’t know’ and all was well.
Notice how no solutions are offered, only a slight jab at the government’s education policy. If Mr Kang were serious in addressing this problem he would focus on the employers rather than the employees. Think of it like the drug issue. You may catch a few drug users but surely it’s better to catch the actual drug dealers. However, these usually unqualified hagwon owners have a fairly vocal lobby vehemently opposed to any regulation of their dubious activities. There was talk a few months back about enforcing curfews for private classes and limiting fees. These stories seem to have been buried in favour of softer targets. To attract qualified teachers, there needs to be regulation.
Speaking of drugs, foreigners caught with drugs are usually deported. Hence, we don’t hear about the penalties imposed.
Of course there is no mention of Koreans doing any of these illegal activities (refer to hagwon bosses above) because Koreans never do any illegal activities. Actually, gyopos and mixed-bloods sometimes do, but they’re not Korean. Though if a gyopo or mixed-blood does something good, they are Korean.
Here’s the LA Times story on the Anti-English Spectrum’s chief follower. Here’s a definition of the word spectrum. I like the example sentence given, almost as if they were talking about AES. And a picture in case you run into him. Can anyone identify where this photo was taken? I would rule out Gangnam straight away; the footpath is too flat.
Single male, 40 years old, obsessed with 'protecting' children, follows strangers around as a hobby.
I hope this Hallyu wave of nationalism is just a phase any maturing country goes through. We all know what happens when nationalism gets out of hand. Just look at Europe. Fact is, Korea is now one of the rich countries (and boy will they let you know it, unless you mention something negative then it’s the same old “we’re a poor country” excuse) and will attract non-Koreans who want to live here. Though the media will never refer to you as a Korean even if you have been a citizen for yonks.
With the new boss settling in to his role; he now comes in late when before he was promoted he would be first in the office and almost always last to leave; we now have our television on all the time. The perks of this are that I don’t have to listen to the Orwellian chaebol channel and the channel we watch is usually CNN. My coworkers prefer CNN to Korean broadcasters because it isn’t controlled by the Korean government. I didn’t realise they had so many Australian presenters.
Each grape is tenderly cared for by a Shinto monk who prays to the local deity, ensuring you only ever eat the best heaven has to offer.
Japanese Fresh Fish
No mention of whaling here. Confused about why they went with the elevator music.
Japanese Cuisine
Wagyu, Japanese Beef
Beats Hanwoo beef any day. Notice that he said shabu shabu, which is exactly the same word Koreans use. Yet they write it as 샤브샤브. Because I’m a simpleton I pronounce it sha-be sha-be and then I’m told to say it the Japanese way.
They also have some very peaceful music playing during this clip. Maybe I’m strange, but when I see carcasses hanging like that I usually hear bandsaws in the background. Almost as if the cattle walk up the plank all to happy to happy to show you how wonderful the beef is (and it truly is wonderful; would you expect anything less for $100 and a cow that has been fed beer and been massaged all its life)
Well, Korea. That is what you’re up against. Good luck. I hope the folks at KTO were paying attention. Here are two google seraches, one for Washoku (Japanese food in Japanese, literally means harmonious food) and Hansik (means Korean food). It doesn’t help that some clowns at KTO call it Hanshik.
This reminded me too much of the janissaries, the first stage at least.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8490515.stm
Just when you thought the superfluously membered boy group market had been saturated, along comes ZE:A with their new song Mazeltov. It sure beats the days of the week song we used to teach the kids at school. Though the first few lines could allude to what they think a Saturday night on the prowl and foreplay should be like.
Almost like someone decided that the Korean Wave needs to tap into the Jewish love for kpop.
I was having a lively debate with one of my coworkers today about naming foods. I have to edit the cafeteria menu once a month and sometimes we have these issues pop up. With things like bibimbap or kimchi I leave them as they are. Others like the myriad fish soups I change to ‘fish soup’ for who cares what kind of fish was mushed up to be in the soup.
Today’s debate was about twigim 튀김 and tempura. According to this dictionary.com entry, tempura is seafood or vegetables dipped in batter and deep-fried. Exactly the same as twigim. However, who knows what twigim is? Thinking I would be doing a service to the expats who dine at the cafeteria (really only myself and sometimes a few of the Indian guys) I changed the obscure twigim to the better-known tempura vegetables. My coworker was not impressed. She insisted we keep it as twigim which helps no-one trying to understand what the food is. Her original translation for twigim was ‘fried vegetables’. The full explanation should be ‘vegetables dipped in batter then deep-fried’ but we don’t have space for that. I tried explaining to her that calling them tempura vegetables doesn’t mean the Japanese stole Korean food anymore than saying french fries are French.
Her response? Pretty much “Fuck’em! Foreigners are in Korea they can learn Korean”. We are trying to refer to foreigners as expatriates since that word is fairly neutral. I’d like to change the word Koreans use 외국인 but who am I to dictate what words Koreans use in Korean.
As an aside, in Japanese it’s usually ‘o kyaku sama’ instead ‘gaijin’ when they are talking about you in front of you. In Korean it could be 고객님 or 손님 but it’s not up to me.
Her job (her position title in Korean contains the words 고객) is to assist the expatriates working here when they have a problem adjusting to life in Korea. Most expats stay here for at least one year (production takes that long or longer) and even simple things like how to tell the difference between detergents and softeners can be daunting. Don’t even bother calling the office if you’re Indian. Never mind that you brought you’re whole family here to build something that brings in millions of export dollars for Korea.
She then dropped the D-bomb. Yes, she compared calling twigim tempura with Japan claiming Korean territory. If foreigners (I used non-Koreans instead) started calling Dokdo by the Japanese name should Koreans do the same? Why not, they copy everything else anyone more powerful than them does. I reminded her that only Japan calls it Takeshima and that the word tempura was in the English language because it accurately describes the food preparation process. It doesn’t mean that it’s exclusively used for Japanese food. Really, how unique is it to dip something in batter and then deep-fry it?
This ended with her saying I’m unreasonable and there’s no point in continuing the discussion.
I was reminded me of the silliness with the freedom fries a few years back.
I also noticed this week that our map of China, Korea and Japan features Dokdo (it is Korean territory) but someone hasa erased the name ‘Sea of Japan’. They had not put East Sea there yet. Now, I’m all for Koreans defending their territorial sovereignty re: Dokdo but calling the Sea of Japan ‘East Sea’ is exactly the kind of behaviour Korea complains about from Japan. In Korean it’s called 동해. In Korean it could be called Moonbase 32 for all I care. In English it’s called Sea of Japan because if Japan weren’t there (stroking the nationalist wet dream here) it would be called ‘Pacific Ocean’.
You don’t see Americans freaking out about Mexico “owning” the Gulf of Mexico.
But you’ll never win if arguing with an idiot; they have much more experience at it than you do.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they started downsizing my department since all our foreign clients (ie, ALL our clients) should learn Korean.
On a lighter note, these guys are great. They are CNBLUE, one of the few pop bands in Korea. Yeah, a band is a group that actually PLAYS instruments. I like their Beatles-esque get-up. Better call the plagiarism police.
The title means ‘I’m a loner” or “I’m the odd one out”. They also say how much they’re in pain and that nobody knows, except the people listening to the song of course.
Here is a story about Vinashin (Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group) in Vietnam trying to build a steel mill to feed it’s growing shipbuilding industry.
Of course there are detractors, like there were when Korea tried this exact thing in the 1960s. In Korea’s case, main exports at the time were fish and tungsten but some bright sparks realised that without a strong manufacturing industry Korea would always remain poor. I imagine it was a huge risk considering Korea has neither the iron ore or coal required for processing steel. Oddly enough, Korea’s first and (now) biggest steelmaker POSCO was founded with assistance from the Japanese government.
My coworkers, both Kim Daeri, address each other as such. I can’t imagine meeting someone with my name and repeating the name every time I talked to them.
Korea Times continues to misinform. Some commentators suggest Korea Times is perfectly suited to represent Korea to the English speaking world. Brash, ill-informed, poor ethics, and illusions of grandeur are just some of the qualities it showcases to an adoring world that is just begging for cultural enrichment from Korea. And don’t forget the constant promotion of Korean food. When food becomes internationalised the locals add their own twist to it (look at any contemporary Australian restaurant with it’s European and Asian influences). Methinks cheerleaders of Korean food would be none too pleased if people starting using basmati rice instead of Hanshik/Hansik approved Korean rice in their bibimbap. I don’t even want to mention what I’ve heard some people say about kimchi made in China or Japan. Ranging from a condescending view of it’s readers, to the kind of mistakes you’d expect from an elementary school paper, to quoting it’s own staff on how awesome it is (Chad Meyer and his Korean offsider contribute to the Learn Korean section almost daily. This was a frontpage story). Seriously Kang Shin-who?, it’s lingua franca not fracas lingua. Sure, Chinese is noisy but not any more so than any other language.
In another article on Korea Univeristy, the university’s president talks about Lee Myungbak and how his leadership qualities are closely tied to makgeolli. Seems odd for a university president to be highlighting the drinking culture of the campus. On the other hand, Korea University is one of the SKY univeristies parents would kill to have their son attend (daughters should satay at home and raise a family, more later). SKY because once you enter the sky’s the limit. Unlike most globally ranked universities, Korean universities are known for their lack of emphasis on academic work. You just spent 12 years of your life studying 16 hours a day. Now that you’ve made it to SKY all you need to do is graduate and lean on the old boys club to get yourself through life.
Hmmm, Korea to be a bridge in the G-20 talks. People walk on bridges to get somewhere else. Trolls live under bridges. I hope this will cause people to stop using the defense “Korea is a poor country so it’s OK for us to __________”. Read the last couple of paragraphs on how Korea Times is on par with the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. One must question the strength of Korea’s stockmarket if some articles from these papers led to foreigners pulling out. There you go, it’s not Korea’s fault the economy tanked, it’s those dastardly foreigners who seized on the chance to once again destroy Korea.
What worries me is not that Korea Times views itself as Korea’s window to the world but that it sees itself as the best way for Koreans to study English.
I’ll leave you with this opinion piece from last week. This guy’s wife is perfect. Though his email address suggests otherwise.
I donated blood yesterday. Actually I donated plasma yesterday and I’ll explain why further down. My work had the big blood drive and we got 11 expats to try and donate blood. In the end only myself (Australian) and two Thais donated because in Korea you cannot donate blood if you are:
1. Indian from an area below 2000m (malaria issues)
2. Turkish from most areas of Turkey (have you heard the wacky Korean theory of how Turks are actually Koreans?)
3. From most areas of Thailand (malaria again)
4. From the UK, France or anywhere else in Europe or have lived/been there any time since 1980.
You can imagine the looks of disgust from these guys who are all regular donors in their own countries. Another clue that Korea doesn’t want non-Korean blood? The form is only in Korean. My coworker was translating the form for us but he wasn’t explaining everything on it, for example he would translate one out three conditions. One was about liver disease which would probably rule out most middle-aged male office workers.
The strangest question was about sexual activity. The first one was simply “Have you had homosexual intercourse?”, followed by a sheepish giggle from my mid-40s male coworker. The question right after that was “Have you spent more than three days in prison?”. No questions about heterosexual intercourse.
There were questions on drugs too, which are odd since you are likely to be deported even if caught with something as innocuous as marijuana.
Now, why did we donate plasma when we thought we were donating blood? Because there is a felt need to keep Korean blood pure and without taint. Either that or expats cannot donate blood because of the risks of spreading disease.
So which one is it? Korean blood is pure and superior to other blood (your overt racism if you will) OR foreigners are dirty and spread disease wherever they go (but we’ll tolerate you because you have money to spend).
Here’s a thought experiment: If an expat needs a blood transfusion and the only blood available is from a Korean donor, not that one can tell the race of the donor by just looking at the blood, then does the expat get the Korean blood? Is the expat now half-Korean?
The blood purity idea is called danil minjok. For more information on this you can read these posts over at the metropolitician
Hines Ward – Nail on the Head Hines Ward’s mother is Korean, his father is African-american. There was a big hoopla when his team won the Super Bowl and he was ‘claimed’ by Korea.
Been about a week since I last posted. We’ve been pretty busy at work from making our new slogans to moving our office furmiture. One of my bosses was promoted while the incumbent is basically made to hang around until he retires. You don’t get sacked in a chaebol, they usually put you out to pasture. We also have a new guy sent from the Culture Department (what they call the Domestic Public Relations Department whicvh adds to the overall 1984-ness of this place) who this morning still had no idea what his job was. His position in the company is 과장 which is director. His position is director of corporate relations. It says so on his name tag. 과장 ‘gwa jang’ can also mean exaggeration.
In our office I’m a 요원 which kinda means special agent. This also means that I’m out of the regular promotion circuit but also out of the usual office politics too. The lowest position is 사원. This is your shit-kicker position. Wnat a coffee? Want someone to clean up your post hangover vomit? Yell out the ’sa won’s’ name.
Next up the ladder in our office is 대리 ‘daeri’. This they call associate. It sounds very mafia to me. Recently one of my coworkers was promoted to this position so now my office has two Kim Daeris and they both reply when the boss calls out their name. In a Korean company one usually says the family name followed by the title, except for the sawons. They get called ’ssi’.
After that we have the 과장.These guys are usually middle-aged men who it seems try to keep as low a profile as possible, probably because in the weekly meetings they usually have nothing to report for what they did or what they will do this week.
Above them we have the 차장 ‘cha jang’. This is something like assistant general manager. Also means conductor or guard on a train. These people are usually the busiest in my office as they are concerned with the welfare of the expats working here or organising the exhibition booths.
Highest post in the office is 부장 ‘bu jang’. This is your general manager, usually the head of their own department.
Yesterday when we were moving our desks around (I now have the biggest desk in the office) I cut myself and I asked my coworker for a bandaid.
Me: Do you have a bandaid?
She: What happened?
Me: yeah, I cut myself. Have you got a bandaid.
She: Oh no. Put this on first.
Me: What is it?
She: Come Come.
IMMD! It turns out it was an ointment to promote healing.
With greater desk space comes greater responsibility. One of my new roles os to give a weekly global economic update to my department. Not to say that my job of editing the Konglish in our product manuals, explaining why anti-Japanese sentiment/assumption of Korean racial superiority are not the global image we want to project and refining our press releases is complete. But because I’m an expat I’m magical. For example, on a few ocassions as a teacher my instructions were “Teach them English” but no materials were provided. They won’t learn English just by being in my presence (though I wish that were true for Korean). Another favourite was “Do you need a text book?” Of course I need a book!
Here’s Larry Wilmore on the magic of race. From 2m 39s
In other news, the big boss walked into our office to approve the new furniture arrangement. Our new bujang who was already bujang rank but not the boss because the old bujang was older arranged the desks so that he is in the centre of the room. A portent of his management style? We’ll see. Anyway, the big boss asked me if I’ll donate blood today. I said yes but once he left the new bujang said I don’t have to if I don’t want to. We want at least 10 expats to donate and so far we have more than that. More on this tomorrow.
