Category: Ex-pat Files

I can understand the bank’s perspective on this if someone cannot prove they are going to be employed longer than a year. I think even a Korean citizen would have a hard time being approved for a loan under these circumstances:

For Lonnie, a 45-year old Canadian working as a professional English instructor in Seoul, buying his own house in the city has been near the top of his bucket list.

But his plan for a dream house has been let down by local banks rejecting his applications for a credit loan. Despite his status as a full-time instructor at the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies for more than eight years, the banks have not been accommodating.

“For the first time in almost 18 years after I came here, I applied for a credit loan offered by Woori Bank last year to raise money to purchase an affordable starter home,” he said. “However, a bank clerk said I don’t qualify for the lending as my contract at HUFS was only for a year, saying foreigners could run away if they only had a one-year contract.“

His contract is renewed on a yearly basis, but he is classified as regular worker subject to the state’s employment insurance coverage. He earns an annual income of around 80 million won ($69,300). 

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The Korea Times has an article about two British expats in Seoul who have a very successful Youtube channel where they conduct short documentary like interviews of random Korean people:

His understanding of Korea and Korean culture is reflected in the roughly 150 videos uploaded to his YouTube channel. Teaming up with his business partner Joel Bennet, they explore Korea to shoot mukbang, have casual discussions about Korea-related topics and create short documentary-style videos. Those videos aim to show the real Korea, starring Bright’s neighbors and other ordinary people he meets. As of Thursday, “Dan and Joel” has some 272,000 subscribers. 

Korea Times

You can read much more at the link, but I started browsing through their videos today. One of the videos I watched that was featured with the article was of them interviewing one of Korea’s ubiquitous cardboard collecting ladies. Definitely a tough life for the elderly people doing that job.

5 Non-Teaching Jobs for Foreigners in Korea https://t.co/otkQEv3lIr #korealife #southkorea #seoul #iseoulu

— 10 Magazine Korea (@10_Magazine) December 27, 2017

Number of US citizens living in South Korea rises 30 percent in 10 years http://t.co/qBv5a5IVan #liveinkorea pic.twitter.com/pjFG5o2Y0Z

— The Korea Times (@koreatimes) July 2, 2015

What the bar owner says about what expat patrons have been doing in his bar sounds pretty bad, but you can’t tell me that Korean customers haven’t done the same thing before?:

Fiesta pub, near Korea University in Anam, Seoul, has been denying entry to foreigners for three years due to promiscuous and irresponsible behavior, the bar owner said.

“We no longer accept foreigners because we had many issues with them. I had many bad experiences three years ago when I ran this place almost like a ‘foreigner only’ bar,” the owner Baek said.

“I even had to pick up used condoms while cleaning the bathroom. Our bar is not a motel. Sometimes we could hear customers moaning in the bathroom.”

Baek said he found a condom in the bathroom twice.

He stressed he could not tolerate the lewd behavior of foreigners anymore and that he was very upset with a female customer who took a shower in the bathroom after sex and some male customers who would sexually molest intoxicated female customers.

An expat recently visited Fiesta but was denied service even though the bar was empty.  [Korea Observer]

You can read the rest at the link.

Favored South Korean Presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak has a plan to improve English language proficiency and it appears the plan may not be a good thing for English hagwon owners:

Lee, 65, said that if he is elected president he will implement measures to cut household spending on private education by half of the current level through strengthening English education at public schools.

“English education accounts for half of the household spending on private education,” he said.

The former Seoul mayor proposes introducing English immersion programs and an English teacher certificate to help teachers improve language proficiency. About 3,000 teachers will be cultivated so that they can conduct classes in English. He also pledged to give universities full freedom in picking freshmen.

Experts said that Koreans spend an estimated 30 trillion won on private education per year. About 15 trillion won is spent for private English lessons annually. 

The presidential nominee plans to cut private spending by upgrading the quality of public school programs.  [Kang Hyun-kyung – Korea Times]

The one thing I hear Koreans complain the most about is not North Korea, corruption, pollution, or other issues; it is the cost of education.  Koreans dedication to educating their children is incredible with the amount of money they pour into the private hagwon schools.  Anyone that can reduce the cost of education without reducing quality in Korea will definitely have popular approval. 

UPDATE: The Marmot has even more about these banners.

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These photos on EFL Geek just goes to show how bad xenophobia in Korea can be:

Apparently these racist banners have to do with farmers being pushed off their land due to a massive development happening on Yong-yu and Moo-eui islands. Yong-yu and Moo-eui islands are now connected to the new Incheon International Airport by a land bridge and are being quickly developed with hotels and businesses that cater to the airport. This development in question is being spearheaded by a German company called Kempinski.

I have to assume that “Jewish white bastard” in question Jack Rosen is probably the Kempinski man in charge of the development. The “May Anh” on the third banner is actually Mayor Ahn of Incheon who is one of the “traitors working for rich white bastards”. What I find interesting about this is that when the Korean government made farmers relocate to expand Camp Humphreys, massive protests and violent confrontations instigated by NGOs ensued. Big business comes and forcibly relocates farmers off of two whole islands and the NGOs could care less. Just imagine if it was a USFK base being put on these islands what the reaction would be? Where’s the priest when you need him?

Anyway if you are going to the airport any time soon and you are a “white bastard” especially a “Jewish white bastard” you might want to avoid the Yong-yu and Moo-eui areas.

HT: Gangwon Notes

The above title is not something you will see headlining a Korean newspaper anytime soon, however when you compile the statistics it is true:

Five types of serious crimes _ murder, robbery, rape, theft and assault _ are on a steady rise in South Korea, while the ratio of arrests to those crimes is on a decline, the Korean National Police Agency said Monday.

The total number of those crimes committed nationwide rose from 455,840 in 2004 to 487,847 in 2005 and 489,575 in 2006, said the agency. [Korea Times]

After reading this article about rising Korean crime rates I decided to crunch the numbers and compare the ratio of total serious criminal offenses committed by Koreans to the ratio of total serious crime committed by foreigners in Korea. When a total population of 49 million South Korean citizens is divided by the total number of serious crimes of 489,575 the ratio is one crime per every 100 Korean people. Below is the raw statistics provided by the Korean National Police Agency:

Korean Crime Data 2006
Murder – 1,074
Robbery – 4,832
Rape – 8,759
Larceny – 192,808
Violence – 282,102
Total – 489,575

Now let’s compare this number to the foreign crime statistics for 2006. In 2006 there was a total of 3,701 total serious foreigner crimes. Recent headlines show that the foreigner population in Korea has exceeded 1 million for the first time ever for a grand total of 1,000,254 foreigners. The ratio of serious crime for foreigners in Korea comes to 1 crime out of every 270 foreigners. Below is the raw statistics for foreigner crime once again provided by the Korean National Police Agency:

Foreigner Crime in Korea 2006
Murder – 72
Robbery – 107
Rape – 68
Larceny – 971
Violence – 2483
Total – 3,701

Let’s look at these numbers again. For every 100 Koreans walking around in Korea there is at least one serious criminal while for every 270 foreigners walking around there is one serious criminal. The average person walking down the street in Korea is nearly three times more likely to have a serious crime committed against them by a fellow Korean than a foreigner.

Let’s break down the numbers even further by sub-categories.

The ratio for murders for Koreans is one murder for every 45,623 Koreans. The same murder ratio for foreigners comes out to one murder for every 13,892 foreigners. This murder ratio is much higher than the Korean murder ratio. Before any Korean citizens reading this begins to fear their kid’s hagwon teacher or the next GI they see walking down the street is going to murder them, keep in mind that in 2006 no Koreans were murdered by either a US soldier or a foreign English teacher. None. In fact a Korean has more recently murdered a GI than the other way around when Major David Berry was murdered in Itaewon by a crazed Korean man. I can’t even recall the last time a foreign English teacher murdered anyone. The murders that I have seen in the Korean news by foreigners against Koreans are coming from Chinese and third country national workers. Just for clarity once again I repeat that in 2006 not one English teacher or GI murdered a Korean. The kids can stay in the hagwon and the next GI you see walking down the street will not murder you.

Now let’s look at the robbery numbers. The ratio for robberies is one robber for every 10,140 Koreans. For foreigners the ratio comes out to 9,348. So you are slightly more likely to be robbed by a foreigner in Korea than by a Korean though once again this number is probably inflated by the 3D workers.

Here are the ratios for rape. There is one rapist for every 5,594 Koreans while there one rapist for every 14,709 foreigners. So the possibility of being raped by a Korean man is nearly three times greater than being raped by a foreigner.

Here are the ratios for larceny. Larceny is one person out of every 254 Koreans while for foreigners it is one person out of every 1,030 foreigners. So basically you are four times more likely to be ripped off by a Korean than by a foreigner. This shouldn’t be surprising at all considering the number of shady characters that have tried to rip me off in Korea before and this doesn’t even include the shady taxi drivers. I can only imagine what this number would be if they actually cracked down on the taxi drivers.

Finally let’s look at the violence ratio. There is one person committing an act of violence for every 173 Koreans. For foreigners it is one person committing an act of violence for every 402 foreigners. Koreans are about two and half times more likely to commit an act of violence than a foreigner.

So to summarize the average person walking down the street in Korea is per capita three times more likely to have a crime committed against them by a Korean, more likely to be murdered by a foreigner even though as I pointed out it wouldn’t be by a English teacher or a GI, slightly more likely to be robbed by a foreigner than a Korean, three times more likely to be raped by a Korean, four times more likely to be frauded by a Korean, and two and half times more likely to be assaulted by a Korean. Despite the wide spread media attention condemning foreigner crime in Korea it is quite clear foreigners are not a criminal problem in Korea outside of the murders being committed by 3D workers and a few thiefs. Statistically speaking if you live in Korea it is safer to hang out with those bastard GIs and the low quality foreign English teachers than the native Koreans. Who would have thought it?

I wonder if there will be a KBS2 special on this any time soon?

The KBS2 expose’ of “dope smoking, low quality, foreign English teachers” lived up to the usual standards of Korean journalism. Truth be told I have known very few English teachers in Korea, but I do not think such statements as this can be substantiated with facts:

Police claim that S would even smoke marijuana into the early morning and then go to school and teach the students. Police explained that not only S but most foreign English teachers teach English by day and smoke marijuana by night. […]

The source also said, the majority of them find it easy to seduce Korean women and do drugs with them. Foreign English teachers see Korea not only as a land of opportunity but also as a perverted heaven. [translated by Korea Beat]

I seriously doubt “most” foreign English teachers smoke pot or the “majority” of them do drugs to seduce Korean women. As far as Korea being a “perverted heaven” that I can’t argue with, but it is not because of foreigners.

Michael Hurt has a good write up about the show with some quite humorous and colorful language along with a follow up posting and podcast about how the Korean media is trying to go after foreigners in regards to the fake degree scandal. He pretty much sums up the issue quite well and I encourage everyone to check it out.

Like I have always said, these things come in cycles. USFK has been very quiet so the Korean media turns its attention towards foreign English teachers. Once the Korean media gets tired of bashing English teachers they will move on to bashing 3D workers. Then after that there will probably be a few GI incidents which the Korean media can then turn their attention to again. After that the cycle just continues to repeat itself and the media usually just recycles the same old storylines over and over again. This is typical journalism in Korea.

UPDATE: As suspected the KBS2 special will have an angle about how the “low quality foreign English teachers” are taking advantage of poor innocent Korean women.  Of course the Marmot has the scoop on this.

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With the fake degree scandal rocking Korea’s elite what better way to change the subject than to once again go after foreigners.