Category: Korea-General Topics

I don’t advocate for people to commit suicide, but here is a power tip for those that can’t be deterred from doing so, make sure you don’t kill someone else during your attempt.  This is just a horrible story that someone minding his own business, returning home with his family is killed like this:

A depressed college student jumped to his death from the 20th floor of an apartment building in Gokseong County, South Jeolla, and fell on a lauded civil servant, killing him.

The 39-year-old civil servant was walking home from a bus stop with his wife and their 6-year-old boy, police said. The wife was eight months pregnant.

The college student died immediately from a fractured skull, while the victim was transported to a nearby hospital but died about three hours later.

Police identified the student as a 25-year-old college senior who attended school in Gwangju and lived in a different apartment complex nearby. He reportedly jumped from the highest floor of a 20-floor apartment building around 9:50 p.m. Tuesday and left behind his cell phone, backpack and shoes.

In his backpack was a two-page note, part of which read, “I’m a lump of inferiority. My life is trash.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

It appears that another incident involving safety has claimed more lives in South Korea:

Four workers were killed and 10 others were injured Wednesday, when a subway construction site near Seoul collapsed due to what is believed to be an explosion of an oxygen cylinder, police said.

The victims, who were trapped under debris 15 meters underground, were transported to nearby hospitals for treatment, according to authorities.

The accident, which occurred in the city of Namyangju, east of Seoul, around 7:20 a.m., took place when a total of 17 workers were doing welding work.

A witness said there was a huge blast, but the police said they believe explosives were not being used at the time of the collapse.

The number of deaths could increase as some of the injured are in critical condition, the police said.

Police and firefighters said they are investigating the exact cause of the accident.  [Yonhap]

This does seem like a really young age to begin studying a foreign language:

Korean mothers have their children start learning English before they turn five on average, an age some admit is probably too early, a survey showed Tuesday.

Yoon’s English School, a company that runs a chain of English language schools across the country, asked 466 members of an online mothers’ community between May 25-29 and found that their children started learning English at an average age of 4.8.

The survey said 24.9 percent started at age 6, 21.7 percent at age 5 and 14.8 percent at age 4. It also said 5.8 percent of the mothers started teaching English to their children, when they were still in the womb.

When asked if the chosen age was appropriate, 68.5 percent said it was, but 28.1 percent thought it was too early. The survey found that the largest group of 21.7 percent said about 8 years old, the age children normally start primary school, is the right time to start English education. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Maybe this is the sign that the English language learning fervor in South Korea is beginning to decrease a bit:

Gyeonggi English Village, the first residential English camp in Korea located at Paju and Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi, is closing down after a decade of operation.

Gyeonggi English Village, which opened in April 2006, was created to give the public a place to experience English-speaking culture and learn the language in the context of everyday life.

The village has struggled with low attendance. Last year, approximately 22,000 people visited the English Village, or about 610 visitors per day. The village lent out ten of its 17 buildings to other organizations to augment its revenues. With the boom in private language academies and more students travelling abroad for language study, demand for the village’s more carefree classes was undercut.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/736135386162860033

Rapeseed flowers everywhere in the countryside of Korea. Not the best name but definitely beautiful flowers! pic.twitter.com/LT2TATN76o

— KTO Los Angeles (@koreatourism) May 24, 2016

iPhone snap of terraced rice paddies at sunrise, Myodo, Yeosu. Photo by Robert Koehler of SEOUL. https://t.co/8KwvZTA0Tb

— Seoul Selection (@SeoulSelection) May 14, 2016

Here is something to think about for anyone thinking of living long term and raising a family in South Korea:

The number of South Korean babies with birth defects has increased significantly since the early 1990s, likely due to traffic-related air pollutants and endocrine disruptors, a study showed Monday.  The report, by Inha University’s Social and Preventive Medicine department, researched the national health insurance data of 403,250 infants aged 0-1 living in Korea’s seven metropolitan areas between 2009 and 2010. It found that 5.5 percent of all infants researched during the period had birth defects, an increase from the 3.3 percent of those born between 1993 and 1994.

Among all birth defects reported in the period of 2009-2010, hypospadias — a birth defect of the urethra where the urinary opening is not on the head of the male genital — had the highest increase rate of all birth defects from 1993-2010. The prevalence rate of the abnormality increased from 0.7 per 10,000 in 1993-1994 to 9.9 per 10,000 in 2009-2010. Meanwhile, the number of cases of cryptorchidism, the absence of one or both testes from the scrotum, also increased significantly from 2.6 per 10,000 to 29.1 per 10,000.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but I always wondered what long term exposure to the yellow dust polluted with heavy metals from China would do to people over the long term.

I would have to think that alcohol probably had something to do with this tragic accident:

A couple fell to their death while kissing on a rooftop in Itaewon on Sunday.

According to the Yongsan police, at around 2 a.m., a 31-year-old man from the United States and a 26-year-old woman from South Africa accidentally fell from a three-story building while kissing precariously close to the banister.

Witnesses have reported that the woman fell first and the man, while attempting to catch her, fell after her.

The two were taken to the hospital but did not survive due to head injuries.  [Korea Herald]

Shouldn’t a Chinatown have Chinese that live and work in it?  This sounds more like a Chinese themed shopping district than a Chinatown:

South Korea will build a new Chinatown near Seoul to serve as an international shopping and tourism hub, the operator of a free economic zone said Wednesday.

 

The Chinatown, expected to be over 2.3 million square meters in size, will be built in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the Yellow Sea Free Economic Zone (YSFEZ) authority.  The YSFEZ is one the country’s several free economic zones (FEZs) located near the capital area.   The project, proposed by a special purpose company (SPC) established with major investment from Chinese firm Legions Group, has been reviewed by the related bodies as of March and is waiting official approval from the authorities.

 

The company, capitalized at 50 billion won (US$43 million), is 50-percent owned by Legions, 20 percent by Chinese individuals and 20 percent by South Korean private investors.  The plan is to build hotels, recreation and convention centers, as well as large-scale shopping facilities with duty-free shops in the newly envisioned town, named China Castle. The company said it will also establish medical centers, an international school and apartments in the area.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.