Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Never, Ever Work for Racist and Reactionary "Avalon English" (아발론교육) Hagwon

Brian informs us that this hagwon chain -- Avalon English -- is the worst of the worst in terms of overreacting to the swine flu outbreak, and seems to be under the impression that only foreigners coming into Korea are the main vectors for its spread, and we are somehow a direct threat to the people and their children.

It just adds to my argument that in fact, according to the terms and conditions of most hagwon contracts, you are a 21st-century indentured servant. You have nearly no legal rights in this country in reality, little recourse in case of contractual or work-related disputes, and now, the media is even saying you are a threat to society's well-being, even as they desperately ship in more of you.

I'm NOT being facetious -- that's what you ARE. Check out a standard copy of a term of indenture on the previous link, then compare it to the terms under which you came here.

And now, some hagwons, namely Avalon English, are doing what evil hagwons in the 1990's used to do, which is "require" you to relinquish your passports to them, effectively taking away your right to freedom of movement. Or for daily health checks to make sure you're in prime work condition; and then, they wash down the classroom after you leave it, as if you were ACTUALLY a member of the swine family, as opposed to the human race.

You'd never voluntarily work for a hagwon that turns you effectively into a SLAVE, would you?

If you'd like to tell these Avalon people just what you think, call them at 031-717-0047 and/or [email protected].

And even AFTER they cave and change their policies, or this blows over -- if you've found this page by Googling 아발론교육 or Avalon Enlglish, along with possible keyword string searches such as "teach English in Korea" or "English language institutes in Korea", you know you'd never want to work for an employer like this, would you? One that actually TREATS you like the foreign animal, the walking dictionary that most other places may assume you to be, but would never dare cross that line of actually treating you as such?

This must be one of the worst places to work as a foreigner in Korea, if their reaction to the slight swine flu problem is the racist scapegoating of foreigners. Whoever made this policy sounds like one of the most ignorant, uneducated, misinformed, incompetent, and racist idiot who ever popped a placenta on the Korean peninsula. I say "one of the most" because there is a sizable contingent of company when it comes to certain stupid ideas or practices on the Korean peninsula, so it's not that tough to join the club. Most of the ninnies and simpletons at Immigration or the Tourism board would also make the list.

But since this is the private sector, hit 'em where it hurts: post about Avalon English, create content for Google to track, and make sure that this bullshit comes up whenever some poor kid looking for a job after college does a search for their company name, or even a general search for English-teaching positions.

Hurt them, take food off their plate, starve out the stupid. Let the market work it out by spreading the news.

At Avalon English, you're not just an indentured servant, but a semi-slave not even possessed of the right to travel as one pleases, as a carrier of dread diseases.

Work there at your peril.

Slave.

The Racist, Sensationalist Korean Yellow Media's Time is Coming

Whew -- some major shit going down over here on the peninsula.

Let me just weigh in on a few of these issues before I go off to my next appointment -- I've been pretty busy these days and not able to write much as of late.

One thing I'm really happy about is the publication of the National Human Rights Commission complaint/report entitled "Discrimination Against Non-Citizens in the Republic of Korea in the Context of the E-2 Foreign Language Teaching Visa" -- it proves, once and for all and in a condensed, official summary, that the media construction of foreign English teachers as drug abusers, sex offenders, or somehow otherwise a threat to Korean youth is total and utter bullshit. And the increased scrutiny of foreign English teachers at immigration through strict and sometimes ridiculous requirements are by definition wrong and discriminatory, because they are based on false and discriminatory media bias.

Nhrck Report 2

Using the government's own statistics -- which have always been available to the Korean press, by the way, and have been used by responsible expat bloggers here -- it shows that not only is the average RATE of crimes committed by foreigners in EVERY category far, far lower than in the overall Korean population, the actual raw numbers are so small that the media frenzy we see today is almost shameful.

Out of nearly 20,000 E-2 visa holders last year, guess how many were convicted of ANY drug crime? 13. And 12 were for pot, with the numbers being pretty much split by the US and Canada. THIRTEEN?! The Korean media would have you think -- and they have already made the Korean population thinking this way -- that this is a rampant problem in Korea. There aren't enough E-2 visa holders to fill 4 taxis. Or a subway car. Or my fucking living room.

The same is true of sex offenders -- as I have said before and as the many cases appearing in the newspaper make clear -- if you're worried about having your kid molested or raped by a teacher in Korea, it is almost statistically certain that it will be done by a Korean national. There are NO cases of convictions of foreigners for molestation of a minor, and in the "sex crime" category in GENERAL, only 39 cases at all -- and this category includes everything from sexual harassment to assault to molestation. Not saying that rape or sexual harrassment is alright, but the point here is that foreigners are being made out to be some kind of child molesters, with the funny thing being that there has never been a single conviction. And even in this category, the rate of "sex crime" is 4 times lower per foreign capita than for Korean nationals.

And the same seemed true for the fake degree issue: once the light was taken off the relatively few bozos over here teaching on fake documents and shined in the Korean direction, yep! Of course there were so many cases of major Korean stars, actors, directors, and other intelligentsia with fakes degrees that suddenly, there was no point in looking at foreigners anymore. And it got quite uncomfortable.

I and others have been saying it for YEARS. Armed with more official reports and better PR organization, we're going to have to use the power of public humiliation to bring this issue to light. This is the only way to change things in Korea.

Next is a report on how these media constructions have led to increased harassment of foreigners, and even increased cases of physical violence. Most Koreans have a hard time believing the reality of life for foreigners here in Korea, but then again, most Koreans don't have to live in foreign skin. This is one true shame of Korea these days: in the 90's, seeing drunk ajussis or having an occasional weird incident happened, but nowadays, I think every foreigner has either the experience or knows someone who has been seriously verbally or physically attacked. FOR BEING A FOREIGNER. And I know for a fact that a LOT of those living in Korea these days leave the country cursing its name.

This doesn't bode well for the good "branding" of Korea.

Which is going to go further? Some television commercials or brochures about how "Sparkling" Korea is, or thousands of former English teachers going back to their home countries with nothing other than negative things to say about Korea? Korea's potentially best ambassadors have instead become its worst enemies. And can I say I blame them? And say what one will about being mugged or the victim of a violent attack in other countries -- the point is that this is resulting from a clear pattern of media targeting of foreigners that results in the actual physical targeting of foreigners on the streets.

And this phenomenon is recent, concrete, and has a concrete cause -- and irresponsible media and a populace willing to believe ANYTHING that is said about a non-Korean.

The Korean media's day of reckoning is coming. We're getting organized, collecting data, and filing reports. Just wait until a NYT article comes out on the subject, or CNN does a little story on it. Would be fun to watch that fur fly.

Come Watch Me Talk Our Book, Photography, and "Nation Branding" -- in Korean!

On this Friday, May 22nd at 7pm, watch me roll out our book to the Korean media -- IN KOREAN! I'm planning to talk about not just the Korean fashion scene and photography, but also about Korea's nation branding efforts from the point-of-view of a member sitting on President's Council on Nation Branding. This book is not just the culmination of years of work that represents a whole new look at "Korea," but is an example of literally putting one's money where one's mouth is. This is a representation of a Korea that is fresh, young, and hip -- not the dry, sanitized, and tourism board-approved fare that defines most visual representation of Korea produced IN Korea. In that sense, this is something very, very different. Come see HOW different for yourself.

The talk is going to be a conversation, and a slide presentation showing many images from the book.

Friday's the time to ask questions, make comments, and even buy a copy!

The Platoon Kunsthalle in Cheongdam-dong is hosting the presentation and afterparty, so it will be informative, intellectual, and fun! Come support some of Seoul's hardworking and independent artists!

Check out the poster, as well as our Facebook page for more information. Click here for contact information and directions.

The Murders of Foreigners in Korea

Gusts of Popular Feeling is doing a great job of researching and pinning down the stories I'd heard of foreigners being murdered by Koreans FOR being a foreigner. Yes, it has happened, on several occasions, but most of us don't do the do-diligence and research. Often, there seems to be a bare minimum of reporting around these incidents because, basically, the Korean news media doesn't like reporting such things.

Another thing to look into -- and there would be more records on the US military side -- is the murder of an African-American Army doctor in Itaewon around the same time; he was a victim of multiple stab wounds by an attacker that the paper said was assumed to have been mentally ill. From what I remember reading, it was broad daylight, he had been with companions, and the Korean man simply jumped him from out of the blue. I never saw a followup to the story, nor any information about the attacker.

Another point to pin down is the Army captain who was assaulted by 3 attackers in 2002 and stabbed, I believe, 17 times by 3 attackers on his way home from night duty. This was reported in both the US Embassy warnings being issued at the time as well as on 60 Minutes. He was clearly attacked, completely unprovoked, and the doctor said it was amazing that he was alive.

And two reports that DID make it into the Korean media but were grossly distorted to the point of near-falsity was the tattoo-covered GI pictured in the "Shinchon Stabbing Incident", in which, as reported to the Korean public, 2 American GI's just went crazy in Shinchon for no apparent reason, trying to stab people. As stories like this go, it's instantly suspicious -- where's the motive? It makes sense to a Korean-media-based logic, that GI's just go on rampages against Koreans for no reason, but that doesn't happen in reality. When you look below the surface in the public stories related to rampaging GI's rampaging without apparent motive, you see a very different picture. Like in this case, the fact that it was 2 GI's and a Korean KATUSA who went to Shinchon, were attacked by 5 drunk Korean males with no words exchanged, and it was when one attacker was atop the knife assailant's buddy with hands around his neck, THAT is when he removed a knife in his pack and stabbed him multiple times in the neck.

None of these facts are in dispute, and are in the official trial transcript. The only question in this case was whether the stabbing was done in self-defense. That they had been jumped, that there had been 5 attackers, that they had been drunk -- none of those facts are in dispute. Regardless of what one thinks of the decision to use a knife, it wasn't rampaging GI's, but 5 against 2 (the KATUSA had run off) and a raving crowd behind them that had obviously joined in. Had it been me, I'd have been scared out of my mind; would a knife have helped? According to the testimony, and the fact that YES, GI's DO know that there have been incidents in which GI have been violently attacked or even murdered in civilian areas for no apparent reason other than the fact that they were a GI, something that seemed to be happening to them at that very instant, I can't say it wasn't a case of self-defense. But you know what? It wasn't a case of the "rampaging GI."

The other major case of the "rampaging GI" comes from 1995, when a GI supposedly came onto a subway in the middle of a weekday, started feeling on a girl's ass, and refused to stop when confronted. Huh? Now, that just didn't make sense to me. I've seen GI's be assholes before, or be drunk, and yes, sometimes on the subway (remember, at that time the number 5 and 6 lines were still under construction and did not exist, so there WAS no Itaewon stop and the nearest was Samgakchi, which was generally NEVER taken by anyone other than the more explorative and curious GI on the weekend for trips around the city, but far, far out of the range of any drunk GI's concentrated in Itaewon; and no matter how much one assumes GI's are crazy drunkards, not generally in the middle of a weekday), but even the biggest of dicks don't generally behave that way.

Turns out, my hunch was right -- the "attacker" was the woman's HUSBAND, and when some drunk ajussis (I've seen far, far more drunk ajussis midday on a workday than any GI's, who generally keep to the base area, anyway -- and how many uniformed GI's do you see in Seoul on a given weekday even TODAY?) started harassing his wife, cursing at her loudly, and getting pretty belligerent, the guy punched one who had come close enough to do so. Well, as they said in the old South, "when the nigger starts to when, then we all jump in" -- when a foreigner is in the midst of a brawl, it's always the foreigners' fault, right? Especially when it's usually 4 or 8 against 1 or 2 dudes?

Yeah, that makes sense, too. Because I always like to start fights in which I'm outnumbered, right?

Even the BLUE HOUSE issued a press release to stop reporting such a blatantly false incident on the news, which apparently was being done just to worsen Korean-American relations, and was being completely distorted beyond anything resembling the truth. Here's a former minister's interview from the Monthly Chosun:

2002년 06월 >> "인물과 인터뷰"

[특별인터뷰] 孔魯明 (前 외무부 장관)의 통렬한 金大中 외교노선 비판

『일부 美軍 범죄가 국민감정에 좋지 않은 영향을 미칠 수 있겠지요. 그러나 3만7000명의 美軍이 주둔하고 있는데 범죄가 없을 수 없다는 것을 생각해야 합니다.

개중에는 과장되는 면도 있는 것 같아요. 제가 정부에 있을 때 지하철에서 美軍이 한국 여성을 性추행한 사건이 TV에 크게 보도된 적이 있습니다. 당시 美軍 측이 우리에게 알려 온 바로는 美軍이 性추행했다는 한국 여성이 바로 자기 부인이었다는 겁니다. 지하철 안에서 엉덩이를 만지고 한 것이 문제가 된 것인데 이것은 문화적인 차이 때문에 생긴 것입니다. 한국적인 문화에서는 자기 부인이라고 해서 남이 보는 데서는 그렇지 않잖아요. 그런 것을 모르고 TV에서 「美軍 性추행사건」이라고 대대적으로 보도한 것입니다. TV뿐 아니라 신문에 그러한 사실을 알려줘도 전혀 訂正 보도를 해 주지 않더군요』

No Korean ever believes me until I send them this overwhelming proof that the story is quite nearly a blatant fabrication.

And that's the point: the majority of "incidents" that your average Korean "knows" about, either through media or associated rumors, are actually NOT. Ask your average Korean over 30 about the subway groping, or most people about the Shinchon stabbing incident, or even about GI's fighting with a taxi driver, or for a time, even getting into a VERBAL ARGUMENT with a taxi driver was grounds for getting into an international newspaper. Add a couple truly tragically true incidents like the decade-old murder of a prostitute, or the more recent rape of grandmother in Hongdae by a GI, and you get a pattern.

Not an inevitable side-effect of the fact that yes, if you have 30-60,000 young soldiers stationed here, there are bound to be incidents, but mostly that fall within the bell curve of most crimes -- lots of petty crimes as in scuffles and assaults, many related to alcohol and being young and stupid, some rapes, and even a few murders. But does it occur at the high rate that the Korean media thinks it does? Or even above the rate of the Korean population?

No, and no.

And given the fact that the majority of incidents constituting what Koreans "know" about GI crime, or foreigners being drug dealers, or child molesters -- are either blatantly false or gross distortions of readily-available facts, or in the case of child molestation, there exist no incidents and are complete creations of the Korean media -- one can't chalk these stereotypes to anything other than the Korean public extreme proneness to believe any wild tales told about foreigners, even as there is criticism and suspicion about the media in other areas, such as politics or Korean domestic issues.

But if there's a foreigner involved, those critical faculties are turned off.

Koreans are not stupid, but there is a tendency to believe, in the absence of a media or often even a physical presence in the average Korean person's world of a foreigner at all, anything. And if it confirms a pre-conceived notion or Hollywood stereotype -- for example, that "foreigners" have no sexual mores or that we are wild bar crawlers or what-have-you -- this "makes sense," since that is all that many Koreans "know" about foreigners.

And if you speak Korean -- thereby having access to Koreans who haven't inevitably spoken, worked, and made both professional and personal ties with actual foreigners -- you'd be surprised at the level of "knowing" that exists about "us." And in a culture in which I can go on a nice first date with a Korean woman, sit down to dinner, and she warns me, "I don't sleep on the first date like American girls do," before the salad comes, I wonder what other Hollywood notions of me she has. And when people say, with a completely straight face and with no intention of causing harm or inkling of why it might be offensive, that we should go to karaoke because "all blacks are good singers" or are surprised to see I can't play basketball for the obvious reason of my skin color, or "foreigners naturally like to have more sex" than Koreans, or any of the ridiculous things that are surprisingly simplisitic and often dehumanizing -- it's no surprise that people buy these newspaper whoppers hook, line, and sinker.

We have a yellow journalistic system reporting only along the lines of what Koreans "know" about foreigners, and upon reading these mostly exaggerated, often false, and very occasionally true tales in the media, these beliefs are confirmed. And the cycle just gets stronger and stronger, to the point of near-ridiculousness: YTN declared Hongdae a Mad Max-style warzone, with foreigners running around assaulting and groping people in the streets, as too dangerous to walk alone, with the police running scared. Now, no matter what you think of the matter of media distortions of GI's in Korea, we all know that Hongdae isn't a post-apocolyptic nightmare. And then, the very next week, YTN does a followup report showing that Hongdae was like a pastoral haven, after the US military declared the area off-limits -- which it has done numerous times before. From Mad Max to Freedomland in an week. Riiight. This is the same YTN that reported Bill Gates had been murdered in his sleep. Oops! Stop reading the Onion, YTN!

And this goes without even talking about the multiple serious assaults and rapes perpetrated on both foreign civilians and American GI's -- yes, there are female GI's, remember? And there seem to be as many cases of American soldiers being raped by Korean civilians as the other way around. Perhaps even more, given how bad things have gotten with violent assaults and rape attempts against women in general these days.

In the case I most recently remember, the taxi driver who took the GI straight from her cab at Incheon and deceived her into a motel and then raped her -- he didn't even get a jail sentence. It's not rape if you don't resist, and if it's not violent enough, right?

All my fellow American lefties and feminists, ya feel me? Where's the outrage?

It's funny, though, how many lefties (I consider myself one) come to Korea and buy the Korean left's obviously biased and often racist bullshit without a critical neuron being fired. From vilifying the US military in the 2002 incident over a traffic accident in which apologies and compensation were offered from the git-go (but the Korean media out-and-out lied and said weren't offered), to the multiple assaults and rapes that go on here (remember how no one believed Winter when she was reporting it through the blogosphere, but it was only when she brought it up on national television that the Korean public very, very reluctantly did?), and the obvious race-baiting that goes on in the media here -- it's disappointing that so many American lefties wanting so hard to be accepted by Korean lefties who generally dislike the USA, give up their own critical thinking skills when it comes to the deep-rooted racists and sexist stereotypes held by so many Koreans.

I guess it's part of their American guilt-complex. Sure, the US has been a neo-colonial force here in Korea, and blah, blah, blah about all the other stuff we surely already agree on -- but turn on your fucking thinking caps when it's the other way around, please.

"Photo Classes for Expats"

[Shot by Alii Higham for the Korea Herald]

Thanks for the write-up, KH! For those coming in from that story, please refer to a few links to get you oriented. Registration for May classes is underway, and you can prepare for the classes and get some good photo info from my "Photography in Korea" series:

"Photography in Korea, Part 1: Buying a Digital Camera"

"Photography in Korea, Part 2: Basic Photo Knowledge"

"Photography in Korea, Part 3: The Photo Essay"

For more information and registration, drop an email through the link at the upper right corner of this page, get ready to transfer 175,000 for the one-month session, and bring your camera on Saturday! Remember, the Basic Photo I class is Saturdays from 10-1, and we are gathering a Wednesday evening class as well, although the Saturday is the more popular and preferred one.

More About Nation Branding in the LA Times

The LA Times just wrote an article about this whole nation branding business, with a quote from moi to boot. Take a read.

A New Brand Image for Korea

And all for absolutely free.

For successful "nation branding", I think one has to eliminate the idea that very idea itself, as if it were possible. This can be done to some extent, but the extent to which it was done was blinded by the same thing that blinds most Koreans when it comes to promoting Korea:

-- excess national pride in the form of bragging, ranking, and comparison

-- campaigns and imagery that appear excessively commercial and/or "slick"

-- too much focus on what KOREANS want foreigners to see, instead of thinking about what FOREIGNERS might want to see

In addition, the "Korea, Sparkling" slogan was simply off the mark. It doesn't instinctively feel like it describes Korea, nor could it -- no matter what marketing/PR mumbo-jumbo you can come up with that use the words "repositioning" or "leveraging" or what-have-you. It's a bad slogan, and I don't need market research or encounter sessions or word-association exercises to back up that claim. The slogan fails the "gut check" and foreigners familiar with Korea knew it sucked from the beginning (see my post here, and my podcast at the official launch here), even as Koreans refused to listen. After all, the sticker price for that slogan was expensive -- they just bought the car, so it can be hard to admit it was a mistake.

So, as a member of the Presidential Commission on Nation Branding, long-time producer of content about Korea, and as a person with a pretty good "gut," let me offer a campaign slogan that would have and can still work better than "Korea, Sparkling." Wait for it...wait for it...

"Korea -- Pulse of Asia."

OK, sounds a bit corny, but here's what it does: it sets up Korea (vis a vis Seoul) as a hip place to be in Asia, emphasizing more abstract elements of the culture, rather than traditional places, practices, and events. It will not rely on brochure-style imagery, but be street-slick and fast-edited. There can be different versions, especially with TV spots, but images of a city with a fast-moving working and commercial life will then change into images of street culture, street food, dance clubs, fashion runway shots, people in upscale lounges and looking good in fashionable clothes, eating kalbi outside and clinking soju and beer glasses, etc.

The imagery does not have to include hanboks, hanok houses, palaces, or cheesy attempts at showing culture "fusion", e.g. breakdancers spinning to drum beats laid over a kayageum.

THAT DOESN'T TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT KOREA, AND MAKES A CONFUSING POINT.

SHOWING ME 'RAIN' IN A COMMERCIAL IS SILLY IF I DON'T ALREADY KNOW WHO HE IS. OR THE KOREAN PRESIDENT HIMSELF.

One has to ask oneself why people with disposable incomes would want to come here. To see palaces or architecture or traditional dances? REALLY? Let's be frank: I think either Japan or China do those better. From my ignorant, uninformed perspective as an outsider, YES, Japanese/Chinese palaces look bigger and are prettier, and I can't tell the difference between a kimono or a hanbok (and even if I can, I don't really care), and Malaysian/Indonesian/Indian dances and rituals are pretty colorful, too.

My point is not to say that Korea's traditional places and dances aren't interesting or valuable -- they ARE. But from an outsider's perspective, they are NOT A UNIQUE ENOUGH DRAW to come to Korea. In that respect, trips to Korea will usually be tacked on as an additional destination on a trip to either Japan or China. That's the way it IS.

But if you show Korea's truly unique and endearing charms -- say, a hustling and bustling city of controlled chaos by day, and a culture of equally controlled-chaotic play at night, I think that is MUCH closer to the mark of WHY many first-timers come to Seoul and love it, often much to our own chagrin. The work hard, play hard lifestyle in all its specific and peculiar manifestations is also why people STAY.

And yeah, it has to do with liquor and attractive women. It also has to do with non-stop nightlife in general, with a food culture that never stops, never surrenders to the logic of culinary restraint; it is singing in public, fast-forged comraderies, the smell of food at 5 in the morning, walking along the Han River -- it's a million specific things that are metonyms for the overall greatness of Korean culture itself.

Maybe it doesn't take a degree in marketing or PR, but someone who actually knows the culture and is a smartypants in another way. Sure, maybe Simon Anholt has done all kinds of nation branding for all sort of clients; but maybe Korea is a tougher nut to crack, a more difficult thing to represent, than other places, too.

Especially with China and Japan looming over it, Korea has its work cut out for it in distinguishing itself from its two much bigger brothers, even as it has to explain its inherent inferiority as a purely tourist destination -- at least in terms of places to go, world-reknowned tourism sites, or a national history with which other people in the world are familar.

Korea has to go a special route, and it ain't "sparkling." Anyone who knows this place KNOWS that in the gut.

Korea may be, if spun right, a fast-running "pulse" or even "Asia on speed." I know the suits would never go for the latter, but something connoting speed, controlled chaos, and basically being a culture in which everything is done BALLS TO THE WALLS or not at all -- that's the way to go.

And you don't have to pay me thousands of dollars for this recommendation.

To the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as the Seoul Metropolitan Government -- you're welcome.

Do You Know about Pizza School?!

I have made an important personal discovery.

It is PIzza School.

Do you have one in your neighborhood? I bet you do. They're found only in the "동네", or in the 'hood, so to speak. You probably won't find one in a high-rent district, because of the nature of this particular beast.

Cheese, combination, or pepperoni pizza? 5,000.
More complex ones? From 6-9,000.

And they're about the size of a frozen pizza you'd get back in the US, but thinner crust and freshly-baked.

Do the math! Last night I had an impromptu DVD party that had about 8 people in attendance. We ordered 6 assorted Pizza School pizzas with a few drinks and extras.

Came to around 4,000 won a person, mang!

Do yourself a favor. Pizza School, tonight.