Foreigners, including more than teachers, need to band together to battle this evil that is the Korean mindset. This place creates a ‘me first’ mentality among us. We need to organize in the same way (but with real reason) that Koreans do against Korean beef, or for Dokdo. It isn’t just sitting on our asses. It’s sending out letters to all newspapers, hometown, and national, to apprise everyone of the lack of any protection that we see daily. Even those who haven’t faced problems, know exactly what is going on here. It isn’t about culture. It’s about dumping the bullshit and education the masses.

Mike

I’ll try and get something about this posted later today.

Joe, or Stafford or Jen, or anyone else, what about writing something up for the Herald about these deaths, these unanswered questions, what they mean for other expatriates, etc.?

I am Billy’s cousin. Judy Kapoun is my godmother, Billy will always be remembered for who he was, thank you for all the wonderful people that helped out our family. Thank you for all the people that knew Billy.

I didn’t know about Bill’s story before (I heard the other one), and I can’t imagine how horrifying that must have been for all involved, especially since there is still such a mystery connected to it.

However, I wanted to comment on something Stephanie said, about how we should not be here and we’re not safe. No one is absolutely safe anywhere. There is safer, but even in your home country (US, Canada, England, NZ), you’re not safe. I don’t think the solution is “stay out of Korea”. That, to me, is like saying “just stay home. Don’t leave your home state/province, don’t take risks.”

Denise,

Yes, it is technically true that we are not 100% safe anywhere in the world.

But it is also true that we are no where near 100% safe here. yes, EMT do exist here… did you know their highest level of certification is CPR and they will be reluctant to do it for a foreigner?

Did you know that if you are in an accident/victim of a crime, your visa sponsor has no legal responsibility to help you unless the impact of your situation prevents you from teaching. And if it does prevent you from teaching, they can choose to release you from your contract/visa instead of helping you? And there’s no legal recourse for you.

All I ment by that statement on the show, was that there are LOTS of hidden ‘hotspots’ in Korea and there’s not a lot of help if you fall into one. In that sense, no, Korea is not the safest choice that can be made for an ESL career and it’s important for expats to know the odds before coming here… rather than be fed a bunch of sugarcoated “Korea sparkling” lies.

Billy’s landlord even walked away with his security deposit. Seems so inconsequential now, but just one more slap.

Make sure all of you there – that your family members hold their own valid passports. One never thinks about a trip, on a moment’s notice – like we had to make. It complicated things TREMENDOUSLY that Dan’s passport had expired.

I came to Korea in 2002 and less than a month later I was lying in a hospital bed fighting for my life. My disease at that time was unknown and a precurser to SARS. My contract stated that medical insurance would be provided by the school but because of the quick nature of my illness, the school had not had an opportunity to get coverage yet. Unfortunately they did not tell me that coverage would commence about 1 month into my contract. However my school was fantastic about doing anything they could for me or my brother who travelled to Korea to be at my bedside or as the Canadian embassy warned him, take the body home. Fortunately for me, the doctors who much like many Canadian doctors didn’t speak a foreign language were able to save my life. The hospital did everything possible to reduce my bill to allow me to pay it. After 24 days in ICU, I took an ambulance to Incheon airport and with medical teams on standby at every stop, I was able to return to Canada. After a few days in hospital in canada, I was released and slowly regained the massive weight loss that i had incurred from a month in hospital. Eighteen months later I returned to Korea with the same school. Unlike some others experiences, I have nothing but good things to say about the people involved in this horrific ordeal. Six months later the SARS epidemic broke out in Canada. When travelling to a foreign country remember, emergency medical. Especially if you a travelling to the USA. It is one of the hardest countries to get medical treatment if you are not insured. I am still in Korea, In Jeonju, a city in the North Jeolla province. I work at a university now. Our community here has been well linked for years. We had a fundraiser for the victims of the Tsunami years ago and raise money annually for three children who have no parents. Seoul, like any big city has its share of problems but like everything we have to take responsibility for our own actions. Ask the right questions and verity the answers. Remember we are guests in their country, respect their culture, and their laws. We wouldn’t let guests in our country tell us how to do things or learn Polish so our Polish guests dont have to learn English. I am very saddened by this story and my heart goes out to Bill’s family and friends. May God bless.

For me, I do feel safer in Korea than back home. And I know about all the dangers, all the underreported crimes in English, and all the distortions that feed the myth of safety, but nonetheless I feel free to walk through any neighborhood at any time of day.

However, the problem is should anything happen to you, you have nowhere to go, no recourse. Should you be assaulted or something, there’s nothing you can do. I think the rape case out of Ulsan, with the cooperative cops, is an extreme exception, because for the most part you can’t go to them, you can’t expect them to do anything, and you certainly can’t expect any sort of justice.

Stephanie, I did not know that about EMT. My experiences with the hospital here have been mostly okay – I broke a bone in my hand, had to have surgery twice. Of course with that, I was still able to get myself to a hospital and I had some Korean people helping me out.

I know there are some really crappy, appalling things about this place. I’m sometimes scared to be here.

Thoreau – I’m not “bitching and moaning”. My son is DEAD.
He wasn’t afraid – didn’t know the meaning of the word. But he was the victim of a hate crime and deliberate cover up. It is my duty to spread the word.

That girl DJ is ridiculous. Have you ever heard a more affected person ever? ESL teachers are the intelligentsia?! sure right after the Texas Hold Em tourney.

It should be noted that quite a few  – not generalizing – shady Koreans live around Itaewon and Haebangchon.  Its’s possible Bill’s girlfriend is from this kind of “shady” family. It’s well-known many Korean gangsters run nightclubs such as ones in Itaewon, and of course, it’s an area for prostitution. In fact, that’s how many other Koreans view that area – full of Korean gangsters, club owners, prostitutes and pimps etc. They wouldn’t live there because of the stigma (I’m talking middle-class or in fact many working class Koreans as well).

It’s also speculation but if Bill’s girlfriend is from say, a family involved with gangsters or in trouble with them, owes money etc – she could well be the one that someone would want to hurt or scare, not Bill. Remember that she died as well. Atually, most Korean families would highly disapprove of a daughter (said to be young, in the podcast) living with a man – and in this case, a foreigner – in an area with a very bad reputation amongst many Koreans. But of course, if their family was involved in gangster-type activities, they wouldn’t be concerned about that stuff. That seems to indicate something about the girl’s family. If this DID involve some gangsters, perhaps that was the reason for the lack of police interest in vigorously investigating the incident, and not because a Westerner was ONE of the 2 victims.

Also why didn’t any of Bill’s friends bring someone to interpret? They’ve been living and working in Korea and yet they can’t get a single Korean or even non-Korean friend who could adequately interpret Korean to English? It is often the case that many hospitals in Korea do not have doctors/staff who speak English well. They are not responsible for having such staff just as the Western country in which I lived does not have a duty to have stafff that speak other languages besides English.

Good point raised however that foreigners should be aware of differences in laws and customs in Korea. For example, the “blood money” thing is how many cases involving Koreans are settlled. It’s a culturally accepted thing, possibly in other Asian countries as well.

Also there are comments about how Westerners are given sugar-coated lies about working in Korea – yet Bill was persuaded by another Westerner who had lived in Korea to come here. In fact, I’ve personally heard how many Westerners were first introduced to the idea of coming here by their friends, aquaintaces in college etc. to get the “easy jobs, good pay for easy work, lots of vacation ” etc. Their own (Western) friends etc did not warn them of the pitfalls, even though they’d experienced living and working in Korea. One can not only  blame recruites (ie Koreans) for the misinformation and unrealistic promises. Actually I’ve met lots of people who’ve stayed over a year, or several years, and yes, have expreienced problems with employers etc – yet they continue to renew contracts or go search for jobs with better conditions, year after year after year. Why? Priobably because their home countries fail to provide them with attractive enough jobs for their levels of qualitfications and job skills, even though these people consider the working conditions, rights, legal rights etc better in their home countries. That is the failure of these Western countries, not Korea.

Korea – and other countries but particularly Asian ones such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan – provide handy valves for Western countires especially America with its economy being hammered the way it is, to relieve job competition and pressure among young people. Many unemployed yet educated (have univ. degrees) young people unhappy about no jobs or low-paid jobs in say, America would lead to some unrest – not to mention higher jobless rate- which govts do not want. They are more than pleased to have these graduates go off to another country. Perhaps there are secret policies for embassies to do nothing lest they get in bad with the host (job -providing) countries. You can bet it’s much worse in China – and that’s why Korea is the preferred destination for EFL. I don’t know whether the American embassy does much for Americans in China – but I doubt they do. So many foreigners seem to have so many grievances/complaints about Korea and yet, the number of them coming here is surging, and many of them stay here quite a few years. Nobody points out how their own country has failed to give them job opportunities and the kind of high savings that allow them to pay off student debt. Instead there’s a lot of blaming Korea and criticizing Koreans.

It’s sad that Bill’s mother feels it is her duty to go about saying”spreading the word” that Bill was the victim of a hate crime. She has shown no evidence ofthis supposed hate crime and it is not even clear that is was NOT some kind of accident. No witnesses it would seem, and the fact that no attept appears to have been made to extinguish the fire means little. Fires within a typical home could produce plenty of highly toxic vapors which could overcome a person in a matter os seconds. In fact, most people die of inhalation of smoke (and poisons) which disables them first. 

It would be better if she simply highlighted the kinds of accidents or dangers that can befall a person working in another country and get more people to be aware of the need to check their insurance etc.