So, as the light to nil posting by Roboseyo this month might have indicated, I’m on vacation and away for a while. Been enjoying Canada, and only touching in on the K-blogs briefly and at sparse intervals. Yeah, I do have some things to say about Chosun and Choi’s racist rampage against English teachers, but I’ll wait until I’m done my vacation before I get to it.
Until then, I’d like to draw your attention to this post.
Dong Chim, a site I highlighted earlier this year as an up-and-coming comedy blog, has weighed in on the Anti-English Spectrum vs. Dave’s ESL Cafe online game of one-up-personship, each trying to out-hate the other, and how it reflects on both Korean society and Expat English Teachers in Korea. And manages to tell Jon Huer to STFU in the same 600 words.
In what might be the best bit of analysis I’ve read so far in the “douchebag blowhards make us all look bad” category, here’s the money shot:
What is important for us, the people who are not idiots, to remember is that these idiots do, in fact, represent us. Every time some New Jersey frat boy makes his way to Seoul and posts some question about the best ways to “bang Korean chicks” he represents all of us, and makes us look like idiots. And for you, our educated Korean readers, every time some closed minded Korean man, desperate not to have his innocent Han flowers plucked, plucked, passed by the foreign devil, writes detailed baseless lies, he represents you, and makes you look like an idiot.
so, go read the rest at dongchim. And until next time, remember: narrow-minded judgementalism, and extrapolation of isolated cases into generalities, goes both ways, and if smart people are silent, the idiots get to represent us.
21/07/2009 at 9:57 pm Permalink
Very good article!
It sums things up perfectly. I will say one thing: we only control one side of the story here…our side as foreigners.
To that extent we as a group shoot ourself in the foot with both barrels very often, as the frat boy from NJ reference shows. This is but one example of how acts by some westerners splash over all westerners in Korea.
The fault is largely in how Korea selects its teachers: a B.A. in anything from the 7 approved countries and a strong preference for younger applicants. This means the frat boys and girls can flood into the enclosure. Then, they land here and see they have rent-free accomodation and typically heaps of disposable income. That is a recipe for frat mentality on roids. Add to that the immaturity of many people who come to teach in Korea and their reasons for coming and wham you have that frat boy from NJ, Toronto or somewhere else blogging about banging k-chicks and puking all over Korea, Korean culture and Koreans while boasting he plays bingo all day at his hakwon while teaching in shorts, beach sandals and a che T-shirt.
Then people wonder why many westerners get a bad image….
The other part of the equation here is the ignorant Korean journalist or Korean citizen who needs no excuse to bash foreigners because heck its an easy target. But when are people going to realize that we do not help our image as westerners with our actions and that this gives that more fuel to these bigots.
Daves ESL is far from alone in this. Check out expatsinkorea and other boards. Check out some of the blogs. Then ask yourself if you are happy to be associated with what is being said. What some of the idiot Korean journalists say is bad. What many of our fellow westerners say is just as bad and sometimes far worse. Koreans have the excuse of being a homogenous and somewhat recluse society that just recently opened to the world. Whats our excuse as westerners from so-called open societies built on multi-culturalism and openess?
I found that openess is fine when its theoretical and we live in a country where we are the majority. when living abroad and in the minority this high minded openess and talk of acceptance most often melts away and is replaced with intolerance or cultural arrogance.
Some thing to think about before the next round of K-bashing begins….
21/07/2009 at 10:37 pm Permalink
Stereotypes and perceptions. They’re the same thing(s) you deal with no matter where you go. Coming to Korea might be the first time you’ve ever been treated differently based on your nationality / skin color / gender – but that doesn’t mean they didn’t affect things before you arrived. The ‘frat boy from Jersey’ does not represent the group of expats / foreigners. They may assist to perpetuate the stereotypes that their predecessors have created, or they may fight the stereotype / perception in a manner they see fit.
Let’s remember that stereotypes and perceptions come in all shapes, sizes, flavors, and from all perspectives. We all have them; how we treat someone as a result is what’s in question here. Let the Anti-English Spectrum vs. Dave’s ESL Cafe continue for the same reason we allow redneck jokes and Jerry Springer – freedom of speech. You, of course, as a smart reader, have the same ability to change the perception in your own way.
21/07/2009 at 10:56 pm Permalink
The perception I was refering to was not the one you or I may have. It was more about the image that the frat mentality projects and the way it can be used by some of the less conciencous media in Korea.
Good debate anyway.
22/07/2009 at 12:16 am Permalink
As a further point…a quick perusal of Daves ESL and ExpatsinKorea shows some repulsive and pretty shameful threads, filled to the gills with like-minded comments that seek to denigrate Koreans, Korea, Korean culture, Korean food and on and on.
This has been going on for YEARS online and while some may argue that these people are a minority, they are by default the most audible and visible face of expats online. Koreans who read English can see these threads and judge for themselves. The netizens on the look out for dirt about foreigners feed off such threads and boards (English spectrum for example or the deceased Kimchi Pot). There are positive or balanced blogs out there (this one being a good example) but these are sometimes flooded under the sea of manure that pollutes the networld.
Those with a stronger voice also sometimes give expats a bad image, mostly accidentlaly or through attempts at what they consider humour.
22/07/2009 at 8:48 am Permalink
IMO Korea would do itself a favor by simply raising the minimum age for foreign teachers to 28 or so. They should also put performance-based raises in place to award good teachers, but this would pretty much go against the fly-by-night hagwon model they decided would be best for their country (hint: it’s not).
That said, and this is tangential to this discussion, has ATEK held their elections yet?
22/07/2009 at 9:35 pm Permalink
That said, and this is tangential to this discussion, has ATEK held their elections yet?
They held elections for the national council a while back but did not fill all the seats and had extremely low voter turn out.
They held elections for some regional chapters and in some cases people were elected on 10 votes.