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The Jajeungna English Academy. Our teachers are everywhere! Just walk up to a random foreigner for a FREE English lesson. They’re there for your convenience and nothing else.
PANELIST Daniel Gray (Seoul Eats, TBS eFM)
MAIN TOPIC
Can English radio survive in Korea?
NEWS AND STUFF
대보름 Madness . . . Four people die during traditional mountaintop grass-burning ceremony.
김연아 – Kim Yu-na, Just Set A World Record. Plus, she rocks.
National Police Agency classifies candlelight protest groups as ‘violent’ : National : Home
Coyner’s Comment: It would take the patience of Job, the wisdom of Salomon, or the impudence of Coyner to properly sort this out. What I can say from my observations, most of the folks associated with these demonstrations are not at all violent. However, there are genuine troublemakers out to make themselves and/or others martyrs at the hands of so_called police brutality, often employing tactics that seem more appropriate to a Monty Python sketch than political strategy. But if one can look pass the charade of this street political theatre, there are some fundamental problems that serve as a solemn base for much of these demonstrations. That is, even in better times, there has been a growing economic disparity between the wealthy and the rest of society, with many young middle class families becoming increasingly insecure as to their chances of hanging on to a middle class standard of living. In these times, the problems have become exasperated, of course, and many nonviolent or
Taiwan, South Korea muzzle pessimistic brokers | Bye bye sell | The Economist
Cautiously optimistic about the KRW
Going down to 1,180 this year?
Won-dollar Swap to Be Extended to Oct.
Madagascar in Turmoil
I don’t want to say I told you so…
The JMS Cult: Jeong Myeong-seok & the Jesus Morning Star Cult Rapist Cult Leader Appealing Conviction Appeals Court Hands Cult Leader Four More Years
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO WHAA?
“Fan Cafe” Supports Gunpo Serial Killer’s Rights
If You Fail Once, Try, Try 770 Times More
Be careful on those subway platforms, Drunk Man
(Not) Helping the Tourists
You Wouldn’t Have Understood a Word They Were Saying, Anyway Don’t interrupt the foreigners when they’re eating, k thx. This Headline Reminds Me Of A Story – Roboseyo’s guidelines for Koreans wanting free English practice from random strangers
Picture of the Day: Japan SDF’s Namdaemun Ice Sculpture
Get a New Cartoonist Already! For a Second Time, Could Someone PLEASE Sack the KT’s Editorial Cartoonist? | The Marmot’s Hole http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/14efd34c-8d3a-4c2e-9794-e1fbd8ec15d7.html
English Interview Tips for Koreans
EXPAT COMMUNITY
Public Service Announcement – Bubbly on sale at E-Mart
The Golden Klogs: Results are In!
English Teachers File Complaint with Human Rights Commission National Human Rights Commission of Korea agrees with ATEK. E-2 regulations are discriminatory.
For Tokyo!, directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho teamed up, each creating a segment on the subject of the famed Japanese city
Using Mozilla Firefox in Korea
And add-on to make Korean sites work
Punk Legend Johnny Rotten Credited for Uptick in Sales of British Country Life Butter
Posh Nosh PLUGS Buy Us a Beer
The Supplier (those who have given us swag)
John Kim
Life of the Party (those who have donated at least $20) Aaron Shearin Naomi Neckoway Chae An
Drinking Buddies (those who have bought us beers) Naomi Neckoway Chae An Aaron Shearin Mimi Snider Elton Fry Therese MacSeain
Toast to Absent Friends Michael White Matthew Sellers David Gearson And others
GoToMyPC Ex-Pat Living (The Korea Herald) ESL Planet Recruiting Twitter SEOUL Magazine ZenKimchi.com KOTESOL
NEXT WEEK Mark Russell (Korea Pop Wars, Korea Gig Guide, Pop Goes Korea)
MUSIC Main Theme — Ben McPherson – “2wksnyc” News — satya – “Silk Route Album Mix” Things That Make You Go Whaa? — cjacks – “Candyland” ExPat Community — Deyo – “Retro90210fun” Time Wasters of the Week — EV Boyz – “Kickin’ It in Geumchon” Jeremiah Fleming Robin Stine Jacques Grant hairclub fo men midliFeCrisis DJWikidDJdUnity Evil Twin Kaveh Deyo Han Madang Kim Il-gu Devin Anderson
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The Christian Bale English Hagwon — “English Done Professionally”
PANELISTS Bart Schaneman (The Korea Herald) Robert Koehler (The Marmot’s Hole) “Skinny” Steve Ward (Seoul Steves) Stafford Lumsden (The Chosun Bimbo)
MAIN TOPIC
Is the English language media relevant?
For Cinco de Mayo – SeouLoco
NEWS AND STUFF
Police: Gunpo Student Killer Is Serial Murderer
Should Killers’ Faces Be Revealed?
Protestor Sets Fire to Police Jacket
Minerva Claims Telecom Law Unconstitutional
In addition, Park’s defendants said that his post wasn’t false as it had been confirmed that government officials did indeed request institutions to refrain from buying dollars.
Cambodian Woman Stabs Korean Husband
Mystery Deaths Haunt Hankook Tire
Korea to Build Ultra-Broadband Internet by 2012
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO WHAA?
Hankyoreh Columnist: “Why Not Just Fire Pervert Teachers?”
First Evaluation of Seoul Judges Published
Oh, Those Mysterious Koreans
Korean Tourism Organization Offers Tenure to Sociologist After His Article in the Korea Times Calls Korea “Unique”
SNU Hires First Foreign Professor of Korean Studies
Osan Airman Arrested After Leaving Base with Loaded Gun
TIME WASTERS OF THE WEEK
Interesting Menu Item
Hyundai Ad Hurts American Pride: Chosun
What studying English for seven years will do.
Photoshop of Korean protester makes the FAIL Blog
Making tracks on a luxury train – INSIDE JoongAng Daily
PLUGS Buy Us a Beer
The Supplier (those who have given us swag)
John Kim
Life of the Party (those who have donated at least $20) Kevin R. Aaron Shearin Naomi Neckoway Chae An
Drinking Buddies (those who have bought us beers) Naomi Neckoway Chae An Aaron Shearin Mimi Snider Elton Fry Therese MacSeain
GoToMyPC Ex-Pat Living (The Korea Herald) ESL Planet Recruiting Twitter SEOUL Magazine ZenKimchi.com KOTESOL
NEXT WEEK Topic: Can expat radio really work? Panelists: Daniel Gray (Seoul Eats, TBS eFM)
MUSIC Main Theme — Ben McPherson – “2wksnyc” News — satya – “Silk Route Album Mix” Things That Make You Go Whaa? — cjacks – “Candyland” ExPat Community — Deyo – “Retro90210fun” Time Wasters of the Week — EV Boyz – “Kickin’ It in Geumchon” The Suicide Denial megaphone Joe Sibol Fortune for Tune Tea Leaves Sundown Caffeine The Moot Tyson Emanuel Vincent Leeds Namgyal Lhamo Deyo Naomi Yohani Chong Jae-guk Kang Jung-suk High Alert Status Byron Scullin Brolax Bones Kathy Reynolds Stian
NOTE: This show was recorded live at 4 p.m. Seoul Time on Sunday, February 1st, 2009. It runs approximately 2 hours and 47 minutes. That is a bit long for some listeners. I still suggest you listen to the entire show. It’s the most powerful show we’ve ever released.
Thank you for joining us on a special SeoulPodcast. On this episode we stray from the usual format to discuss a serious issue that has been off the radar of the Korean media. The year 2008 was wrought with news of expat deaths, from three D workers to English teachers. That year was not significant because of an increase in tragedies. It was significant because more spotlights shined on a handful of cases.
Nonetheless, there is an extraordinary number of mysterious unsolved deaths in the history of expatriates on the peninsula. This stems from a lack of professionalism in police, hospitals and government and from a media that is more obsessed with national image than reality. With us today are three survivors whose loved ones have passed on but have never received answers and can never find closure.
Diane Blower comes to us from Great Britain. Her brother David Gearson had reportedly died by jumping off a bridge a few years ago. Written off as a suicide, there was little evidence to support such an assumption.
Lee Ramsey comes to us from Alabama. Her brother Matthew Sellers had lived and taught in Korea for a period of about ten years after completing his military duty. In mid April 2003, he ran into problems with a gang of Korean thugs and asked the U.S. Embassy for help retrieving his passport following a labor dispute. Their reaction was to just take a statement and file a report. Less than a week later, the Embassy got a call from a Korean police office saying that Matthew had been arrested and appeared to be homeless and confused. The police requested the Embassy send someone to assist him. The Embassy told the police to “deal with him.” The police took him to a mental hospital, where he was given drugs to calm him down. About 24 hours later, Matthew started experiencing breathing problems. Subsequent conflicting statements reported Matthew dying in the hospital or en route to a medical hospital. A mandatory preliminary autopsy was performed by the Seoul National Institute of Scientific Investigation listing his cause of death listed as “Not Clear.” When the family had a stateside pathologist perform a second autopsy at the funeral home, it indicated Matthew’s vital organs were not returned with his remains, preventing any possible determination of a solid cause of death.
Stephanie White comes to us from Daegu. Last year her son Michael White died in a sauna through what looks like a combination of foul play and medical incompetence. She has gone through multiple agencies, the U.S. Embassy and had even gotten the attention of former presidential candidate John McCain. She is currently fighting the Korean government in court to prevent her tragedy from happening to anyone else, Korean or not.
Their stories are chilling and a reminder that no one can stand by and allow this to continue.
More information:
Mightie Mike homepage Murder in Room 103, Chapter One: The Dead American on Courttv.com Brian in Jeollanam-do: Matthew Sellers and Bill Kapoun: Almost, kind of, a strange coincidence. Death of U.S. Citizens Abroad
U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 7 – Consular Affairs (PDF)
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Minerva Investment Group. We’re always right, so we’re in jail. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
PANELISTS Tony Hellman (Association for Teachers of English in Korea), Stafford Lumsden (The Chosun Bimbo)
MAIN TOPIC
Can foreign English teachers seriously organize and counter the hagwon associations to balance the market?
Introduction to the Severance Payment Under Korean Labor Law
NEWS AND STUFF
As Economy Worsens, Gambling Soars in Korea
The Chosun Does It Again
Gruesome death porn
Suspect Arrested in Murder of Gunpo College Student
Will the Real Minerva Please Stand Up?
Prosecutors say Mr. Park used his home computer. But experts say that since he was not a person engaged in internet commerce and paying considerable sums for a static IP address he would have been using a dynamic IP. That is one reason for doubt that Mr. Park is the true Minerva and that his IP address could have been manipulated.
South Korea Loan-Deposit Ratio not 100 Percent
New 50,000-Won Notes
50,000-Won Banknote to Be Issued in May
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO WHAA?
A time for family.
Interesting take on how Korean families try to find ways to avoid reunions
Under Valued? Fairly Valued?
What’s the biggest problem in Korea? The branding, of course!
We’re way past regular bole and into hyperbole.
Disabled Koreans Using Internet to Find Sexual Comfort, Creepy Guys
Adult Friend Finder blocked in South Korea
Dropout Teens Imprison Friend, Force Her to Do Tricks
Biracial Children Accepted, Shunned by Classmates
Ask a Korean! News: Racism Starts Early
Korean top celebrity’s cell phone gets hacked
G.O.D.’s Friend Managed by the Devil
War Breaks Out Amongst Korean Pop Fans, Casualties Not Out of the Question
K-pop anti-fans and other hyphenated-words
‘Restricted Screening’ Ruled Unconstitutional, Korean Films to Get Racier
Lee Mi-yeong Secretly Married, Divorced American Professor
Donation angel Moon Geun-young strikes again
Hangeul books for Korean children? Another communist plot?
Korean Blogger’s Take on Korean TV Dramas
[Double Take] Goo Hye-sun is a hamburger
Notes for Korean TV Production: (Gord Sellar)
Brown-skinned people are either poor children with hearts of gold or scary witch-doctor/fortune-teller types, which is natural since brown-skinned people are all poor and have inborn magical abilities.
No other brown-skinned local people besides poor children and scary witch-doctor/fortune-teller types should be included in shots. If they absolutely must do so, have them appear for no more than one second at a time, and in the background.
Have your Korean characters talk to the few local brown-skinned people who appear onscreen in English only when they apparently cannot speak English; have the same characters speak primarily in long, fast Korean phrases when they meet a brown-skinned local who can speak English. Don’t worry, since brown-skinned people are magical they can (somehow) understand much of what is being said in Korean.
Make sure to include some white chicks, and dress them in bikinis whenever possible, even if everyone else is fully dressed in long pants/skirts and long-sleeved flowery shirts.
Include some Korean boys, and dress them in outfits that look like a cross between Korean girls’ clothing, disco and early 80s singers’ outfits, and the clothing of Joey Jeremiah circa 1990 (pic here, but your eyes will bleed). Make sure they look bored on holiday in [unspecified warm country full of brown-skinned people], just as Joey did in school.
Include some Korean girls, and dress the most sympathetic character as a cross between Strawberry Shortcake and your average agashi (ie. single girl). (Contrary to popular expat belief, there are some differences between the two. Strawberry Shortcake never wore high heels, for example.)
Include plenty of stock footage of random islands and stuff because tourism is what the young people like these days.
Poisonous Fish Testicles Send 7 Japanese Diners to Hospital
Japanese Diner’s Catastrophe Leads to Important Scientific Discovery About Squid Reproduction
NOTE: Don’t let an octopus come in your mouth. Not until he buys you dinner first.
Life of the Party (those who have donated at least $20) Aaron Shearin Naomi Neckoway Chae An
Drinking Buddies (those who have bought us beers) Naomi Neckoway Chae An Aaron Shearin Mimi Snider Elton Fry Therese MacSeain
GoToMyPC Ex-Pat Living (The Korea Herald) ESL Planet Recruiting Twitter SEOUL Magazine ZenKimchi.com KOTESOL
NEXT WEEK **LIVE SPECIAL** Sunday, February 1st at 4 p.m. Panelists: Stephanie White and more Topic: The Dark Side of Korea–Expat Tragedies and Cover Ups
**LIVE** Wednesday, February 4th at 10 p.m. Panelists: Robert Koehler (The Marmot’s Hole), Bart Schaneman (The Korea Herald), “Skinny” Steve Ward (Seoul Steves)
MUSIC Main Theme — Ben McPherson – “2wksnyc” News — satya – “Silk Route Album Mix” Things That Make You Go Whaa? — cjacks – “Candyland” Job of the Week — Bit Rationale – “Orthodox Pleasure” ExPat Community — Deyo – “Retro90210fun” Time Wasters of the Week — EV Boyz – “Kickin’ It in Geumchon” JayB Productions Fractal Garden Byron Scullin Tripudio Outside Uma Floresta Adam Schmitt Everyday Jones Shannon Richardson WeakLazyLiar
Sites, in Korea, that are good sources for finding restaurants-if you can read Korean
PLUGS Buy Us a Beer
Life of the Party (those who have donated at least $20) Aaron Shearin Naomi Neckoway Chae An
Drinking Buddies (those who have bought us beers) Naomi Neckoway Chae An Aaron Shearin Mimi Snider Elton Fry Therese MacSeain
GoToMyPC Ex-Pat Living (The Korea Herald) ESL Planet Recruiting Twitter SEOUL Magazine ZenKimchi.com KOTESOL
SPECIAL *LIVE* SHOW SUNDAY, February 1st @ 4 p.m. Topic: Update on the Michael White case and other expat tragedies you should know Panelist: Stephanie White
NEXT WEEK Topic: Can foreign English teachers really start a union? Panelists: Tony Hellman (ATEK)
MUSIC Main Theme — Ben McPherson – “2wksnyc” News — satya – “Silk Route Album Mix” Things That Make You Go Whaa? — cjacks – “Candyland” ExPat Community — Deyo – “Retro90210fun” Time Wasters of the Week — EV Boyz – “Kickin’ It in Geumchon” daveski hairclub fo men Jacques Grant Rewired midliFeCrisis Robin Stine Michael Slubczynski Jeremiah Fleming Little Red King Han Madang Kim Il-gu Kim Mu-gil Elena Rose Tanya Witt Uma Floresta Pempi Stian Bit Rationale
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This is Seoul (Stafford Lumsden)
PANELISTS Rachel Hui Stafford Lumsden (The Chosun Bimbo)
MAIN TOPIC
Hong Kong vs. South Korea
NEWS AND STUFF
Breaking News: Minerva Arrested
Unemployed man arrested for ‘Minerva’ postings – INSIDE JoongAng Daily Korean Blogger Arrested for… Being Right? Foreigners Puzzled Over Minerva’s Arrest Foreign Reaction to Minerva Arrest
CNN Reports North Korea to Hold Elections
Hyundai Genesis North American Car of the Year
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO WHAA?
Kang Gi-gap Still Off His Rocker
Korean Students More Prejudiced Than Foreign Students
South Korean University Students Found to Hold Prejudice Against Foreigners
The Weasel: Gucci vs Chanel – the shopper’s test | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET
Thanks Ian! That mysterious Engrish t-shirt from show #36 was the instructions for an inflatable sex doll.
Flickr: The Far side Reenactments Pool
An Updated Marie Antoinette – Claudia Schiffer’s Breast-Shaped Bowl
In Videos: Stacking One Hundred Hamburgers on a Random Dude, Japanese Game Show Parody
I Watch Stuff – ‘Machine Girl’ Number Two
Machine gun out of the butt! Betcha won’t see that in Transformers 2.
Heavy Metal Band Names Flowchart
Good to see Canada keeping a specific art niche alive.
PLUGS
Buy Us a Beer
The Supplier John Kim
Life of the Party (those who have donated at least $20) Aaron Shearin Naomi Neckoway Chae An
Drinking Buddies (those who have bought us beers) Naomi Neckoway Chae An Aaron Shearin Mimi Snider Elton Fry Therese MacSeain
GoToMyPC Ex-Pat Living (The Korea Herald) ESL Planet Recruiting Twitter SEOUL Magazine ZenKimchi.com KOTESOL
NEXT WEEK Topic: Korea’s Beat
Panelists: Craig White (daegupockets.com, Galbi Jim), Stafford Lumsden
MUSIC Main Theme — Ben McPherson – “2wksnyc” News — satya – “Silk Route Album Mix” Things That Make You Go Whaa? — cjacks – “Candyland” ExPat Community — Deyo – “Retro90210fun” Time Wasters of the Week — EV Boyz – “Kickin’ It in Geumchon” Michael Stephens Darryl Sharif Digital Grey Orchestra Tripudio Namgyal Lhamo DjWikidDjDUnity Fractal Garden cjacks Jim Tetlow mat rapid The Eternal Stian Mike Burgess