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PANELIST
Jean Francois-Marcoux

MAIN TOPIC

Working in Korea during the 1990s IMF crisis

Green Tea Ham

NEWS AND STUFF

Reading Material for Amnesty International (Marmot)

Referring to Scott Burgeson’s personal experiences and observations at the protests.Unfortunately, his site seems to be broken right now.

Anti-American ‘Beef’ Protests Continue (Gypsy Scholar)

Candlelight Vigils to Greet Bush Visit (KB)

Korean Government Spends Fortune Promoting US Beef (KB)

Good example of how the Korean media depends on only one source for all its information and reports it as fact.

Unfortunate Protest Sign of the Day (KB)


Poor Safety Norms Taint Lotte, Dongwon

average Korean worker’s hygiene awareness is about one-third of those in advanced countries.

Fraudulent North Korean Defectors to be Expelled From UK (KB)

Three Kidnapped in Mexico Actually Korean-Chinese (Marmot)

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO WHAA?

Why are Koreans Hypersensitive to Criticisms from Non-Koreans? (Roboseyo)

Why are Koreans Hyper-Sensitive to Criticisms from Non-Koreans? (And How Can I be a Good Critic?) (The Korean)

::A Geek in Korea:: » Blog Archive » Chilling effect

How the concept of “nunchi” can affect the online community.

The example in class was about a blog hosted on Korean service providers sites like Naver or Cyworld. On these sites, people can post their opinions on topics in publicly hosted blogs. The question was about Korean websites policies to remove posts when someone in the comments complain about how the comment was insulting, or hurt their feelings in some way.

As a long time blogger, I reacted with shock to discovering this. “Naver pulls the blog post if you complain in the comments? Seriously?”

Several students said that they thought this was a good idea. “If someone says something that hurts me, I can get it removed. People can’t say bad things I don’t like, so that’s good.”

Translation and Comments on Lonely Planet Criticism (Marmot)

Dog Meat Market Protested (KB)


South Korean Suicide Rate Double OECD Average (KB)

Abusive elementary school teacher apologizes. (B in J)

Corporal Punishment Video Gets Teacher Fired (KB)

Daebu Boot Camp

Sent in by our friend Otto Silver


EXPAT COMMUNITY

Rowan Hall – 2,500 public school jobs for foreigners in March 2009

Brian in Jeollanam-do: “Incheon, I-cheon! I’ve just started work in the wrong city!”

Made the top 100 blogs

EFL-Geek is #16 in top 100 language blogs.

11 reasons to avoid TEFL (EFL Geek and Notes From The TEFL Graveyard)

·You will receive a starting salary well below that of fellow undergraduates and it will remain largely unchanged for the rest of the century. Your Gran’s earnings will easily outpace your own;

·You will be expected to be witty, bouncy and enthusiastic at all times, even if your house has just been repossessed or a favourite pet maimed in a freak glass blowing accident;

·You will start seeing caravaning as an economic holidaying alternative;

·You will find yourself joining calls for more bicycle lanes;

·You will be expected to relentlessly suffer gibbering incognates very gladly indeed;

·You will be expected to ditch all opinions that may be construed as individual or offensive to the arms dealers and/or corporate fanatics you are tutoring;

·To have any chance of professional progress, you will be expected to fork out large sums of your hard-earned salary on cash cow qualifications that few seem to pass first time;

·You will escape to foreign climes only to find that, while, if you’re lucky, you’re marginally better off financially, the job is exactly the same, only with all the complications that come from living abroad;

·Every time you take a day off sick, an effigy of you will be burned by both the teacher who had to replace you and/or the Director of Studies/school owner, who will feel vindicated in their belief that you are a recovering alcoholic who has plunged from the wagon;

·You will develop a passion for overwhelmingly desirable and impossibly complicated foreigners, and pine away into an emotional sack thing when they inevitably leave you for somebody real;

·You will spend your days feeling like a hamster on a wheel. A hamster on a wheel of a heavy goods vehicle.

PLUS (From EFL-Geek)

  • Locals think you are here, because you are a loser and couldn’t make it back home
  • There is absolutely no job security – you can easily be replaced by another native speaker who is younger and better looking than you. Even if they are completely incompetent cheaper is better.

SEOUL Caps – pretty cool

NEW Midnight Runner podcast

PLUGS
**Donations**
Ex-Pat Living (The Korea Herald)
SEOUL Magazine
ZenKimchi.com
KOTESOL

NEXT TIME
First week of September
Topic: Annalog
Panelists: Anna Ho (Annalog)

Also planned…

Robert Ouwehand from Roboseyo

Stand-up comedian Roger Fusselman

Daniel Gray from Seoul Eats

BONUS

Enjoying the cigars from John.

MUSIC CREDITS
Dokdo Ad —  “Myst Theme” – Robyn Miller
Main Theme and Teaching Tips — Ben McPherson – “2wksnyc”
News — satya – “Silk Route Album Mix”
Things That Make You Go Whaa? — cjacks – “Candyland”
ExPat Community — Deyo – “Retro90210fun”
Adam Schmitt
Anomie Enemy
Blue Valentine
Circle in a Square
Conconquidore Truidore
Shannon Richardson
William Romero
Musicos Unidos de Latino America
REGGAE FAR EAST
Kaveh
KlassicK Productions
Platinum Life Productions
Robin Stine
Victor Stellar
The Eternal
Devin Anderson