Sunday, March 14, 2010

Equal time

Some people think I only write shiny, happy stories about people in Korea holding hands, that I ignore all that bad stuff because I'm trying so hard to protect Korea's image, whatever that means.

Well, on the off chance they're right — and they might be, if you ignore all the critical stuff I write — I thought I would print, without editorial input, the following comment from another blog:
Um, could you comment on the story that Brian's blog had about the murders of young Koreans in Russia?

I have a feeling that you're going to have my response -sad as that is, how about the greater number of foreigners who have died or been assaulted/raped in Korea by Koreans?

Take the young teacher in Jeollanam about a year and a half ago who was minding her friends' dogs in a room. A hateful, drunk Korean threw his cigarette on a sofa outside the door of the room.

Coincidence that he knew a foreigner lived there? The woman opened the door of the room and was burned so badly she died a few weeks later.

What about the poor teenager (American) who was found dead in the Korean sauna? Those of us who went to them once but were turned off by 'straight' Korean men trying to harass us think there is more to that death than meets the eye.

What about the guy who had medication forced on him and died? Supposedly he was 'crazy' but he was about to go home for good.

How about the 3 cases I've heard about of rapes of female English teachers?

I'm sure there are more and your readers can help. These cases are probably the tip of the iceberg.

And I don't care what anybody says - I've seen Koreans in foreign countries and behave very much like ignorant assholes who are begging to be at least punched in the face.

It wouldn't surprise me if those dead Koreans in Russia did their usual staring and laughing at those who attacked them fatally. Or pushed their way past Russians. You can't do that with such dangerous people as skins.
There, Tiredofdoublestandards. I've just increased your audience by at least twenty-four.

14 comments:

  1. I think you dont understand why koreans do that...why?
    for example, if a South Korean made friends with a Japanese...
    and The Japanese invited him to the house. in Japanese society, it keeps" You shouldn't talk like that to anyone. It doesn't matter how close you might be. There's a reason they say that there's etiquette in even the closest friendship"

    however, the korean is different.
    "What you may do if it is a friend."
    The South Korean opens the refrigerator without taking permission.

    I think Such a trifling thing rolls the South Korean in the trouble.

    I hope you should write their true nature by tradition, not phenomena

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't mean this to be mean, but hoihoi51, you need to have someone edit your comments before you make them. I get no specifics from your comment, only a vague "Korean bad" message.

    ReplyDelete
  3. it is interesting
    http://www.geocities.jp/bxninjin2004/index.htm

    Japanese culture and Korean culturehttp://keepthepassion.at.webry.info/200605/article_12.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. hoihoi51, where have I ever brought up kŏmdo? What does it have to do with the post at hand?

    If you keep up this kind of thing, I will have no choice but to delete your off-topic comments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. >hoihoi51, where have I ever brought up kŏmdo? What does it have to do with the post at hand?

    sorry..
    I told the korean makes bad image themselves because of nafatuve mind of ubconscious
    and others feel it.
    it is dificult for you to defend them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Defend who?

    If you're going to take obnoxious people online and say the whole country is like that (or most of the people are like that) then you're the one who needs to defend such a remark.

    Judging by the things you've written in the past, you think that the worst South Korean netizens represent all of South Korea.

    What if someone were to apply the same thing to Japanese?

    ReplyDelete
  7. She analyzes the comparison between Japan and Korea. Her point of view is really particular and an analysis was so interesting.

    I’d like to introduce a part of the book….

    A washabi (Japanese horseradish) and a red pepper.
    Both spices represent each Japan and Korea. The effect by these two spices toward the human body can express clearly each national character.
    Eating a wasabi, the circulation of blood concentrate to a heart. Therefore, it works as a natural tranquilizer. It caused people to be calm and presence of mind.
    Besides, eating a red pepper, compare to a wasabi, the circulation of blood tends to concentrate to the head area and stimulates the nerves. It makes the circulation of blood much more active and gets people excited.

    “A quiet Japanese and hot tempered Korean”
    “Japanese like calm atmosphere and Korean like excitement”

    A wasabi and a red pepper, both are same hot taste. But there is a big different character among both of them.
    A wasabi’s hot is like….soaking into the inside body. And a red pepper’s hot is like….giving vent from the top of a head. Their images are just like “absorption” and “emission”.
    The image that a person are bearing the hot taste of wasabi is like that a man closes the eyes firmly with tears and hang down his head. Moaning “uuuuu” as closing his mouth tightly.
    Besides, image a red pepper. Their eyes and mouth are opened as sticking out his tongue and huffed and puffed up.
    A wasabi works inside the body and a red pepper works outside the body. It means a wasabi images passiveness and a red pepper images active. In fact, the Japanese tend to want to put ourselves at the passive position and the Korean have a tendency to put themselves at the active position. So it is completely opposite, isn’t it?

    One more! A wasabi is even very hot but it will be disappeared soon. On the other hand, a red pepper’s hot will lingers on in a mouth and keep breaking out a sweat. These cases also express each national characters. “candid and simple personality, Japanese” and “tenacious and staying powered, Korean”

    After reading the book, I felt admired “a wasabi culture and a red pepper culture” It was really interesting.




    We are apt to have an illusion that both of two cultures are quite similar each other. However, they are completely different and are the exact reverse. There are so many different things between Korean and Japanese. It is undoubtedly reality, but we are tend to think the culture of between two countries are almost same.

    Without recognizing this clear fact, we may forget the consideration toward of each culture or custom. And sometimes it may lead a misunderstanding or distrust when we encounter at every occasions feeling a kind of different sense of values or the way of thinking.

    First, we should recognize that there are so many differences between us. Even when we feel something different, we should try to find why caused some problems to happen by learning about each history, culture, custom and each sense of value. We may need such effort to know about the other country earnestly and calmly…
    I do hope it will be the route to the mutual trust and understanding for two countries.
    http://keepthepassion.at.webry.info/200605/article_12.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's an overly simplistic way of looking at things, which basically means you're looking at everyone in South Korea through prejudiced eyes.

    Why does red pepper represent South Korea when Korea didn't have red pepper before the Hideyoshi invasions of the 1590s?

    Why doesn't kyŏja represent Korea? Why should any food represent Korean personality? Or Japanese personality?

    It's clear you have anger and prejudice toward Koreans and you're here on my blog to try to air them. Sorry, but it's irrelevant, so no more.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's an overly simplistic way of looking at things, which basically means you're looking at everyone in South Korea through prejudiced eyes.

    Why does red pepper represent South Korea when Korea didn't have red pepper before the Hideyoshi invasions of the 1590s?

    Why doesn't kyŏja represent Korea? Why should any food represent Korean personality? Or Japanese personality?

    It's clear you have anger and prejudice toward Koreans and you're here on my blog to try to air them. Sorry, but it's irrelevant, so no more



    it is an aeticle of a korean who naturalized japanese, O seonhwa
    http://www.google.co.jp/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=ja&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSJH_jaJP352JP352&q=o+seonhwa

    Japan once annexed with korea and Taiwan.. it means same country
    It doesn't go well without the prejudice if it doesn't know them

    there are many Japanology "Nihonjinron" books like
    Ruth Benedict
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Benedict

    I dont think it is a prejudice

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nihonjinron

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Benedict

    i think westerner should know about korean one.
    then you understand why korean gives bad image...

    ReplyDelete
  11. nihonjinron

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron

    as for korean, our " a word of promise' is different from korean promise
    our 'word of equal" is fifferent from korean meanung of equal

    korean "equal" or equivalent" meaning are also different from western and Japanese one

    ReplyDelete
  12. Maybe this is the wrong thread to write something coherent, but you'd have to expect a certain number of crimes for a population of about 20,000 people, which is the number of English teachers in Korea. Korea's homicide rate is about 2 per 100,000.

    From this, you can expect one English teacher in Korea to be murdered every 5 years. The victimization rate is probably much higher for a population that consists entirely of people in their 20s and 30s, but I'm not sure.

    The majority of blogs by English teachers in Korea are apeshit crazy. I don't understand why that is.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Personally speaking, I don't read your blog because it's pro-Korea or anti-Korea or in-between. I read it because you're a solid writer with no shortage of opinions on issues I'm interested in.

    Don't get caught up in the Kimcheerleader vs. Ex-hatetriate. BS.

    Also, you don't come off as an insufferable prick. I can think of at least two popular K-bloggers that complete and utter assbags. Myself not included.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Matt, in trying to pinpoint when "kimcheerleader" was coined, I came back to this year-old post. And I just wanted to say I like "ex-hateriate." I shall do my best to promote its currency, along with "kvetchpat."

    ReplyDelete

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