Category: Korea-General Topics

This editorial in the Korea Herald explains why Koreans have such a hard time speaking and understanding English despite the amount of time and money they spend to learn the language:

When I first went to the United States to study in the summer of 1998, every trip to fast food joints was full of stress. I managed to submit my order, but had difficulty understanding what the clerks said to me. Only after several repetitions and after my face had reddened did they make themselves understood. Spending almost 20 years studying English at that point including experience at an English-related workplace did not save me from embarrassment. Indeed, for many of us here, the struggle with the English language is a never-ending story. After conferences and meetings, we hear many of our colleagues saying “if only it had been done in Korean.”

Koreans spend a lot of time and money studying English, as the term “English-fever” would indicate. English is first taught at kindergarten. Tremendous efforts are then poured into learning the language through elementary, middle and high school. The efforts continue in college to get good scores on standardized English tests such as TOEFL and TOEIC, so as to impress potential employers in the job market. Even office workers flock to morning and evening sessions of private teaching institutions so as not to be left behind.

And yet, Koreans’ English proficiency does not match the resources mobilized. In terms of English ability, Korea’s global ranking falls roughly in the middle, basically in the same group as countries where English is not so relentlessly taught as in Seoul. If the so-called principle of “10,000 hours” holds true, by the time students graduate from elementary school in Seoul, English should not be a problem. And by the time they graduate from high school, they should speak like BBC anchors. What then explains this meager outcome after all the time and effort? [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but the editorial goes on to explain how the focus on written tests is why Koreans do not put any effort into listening and speaking.  The Korean government has even recognized this folly and decided to make the standardized test’s English section easier so parents do not have to spend so much money on English classes for their kids.

I would not want to be the taste tester for this job:

Grasshopper croquette served with mealworm coffee sherbet, beetle powder-crusted fried chicken, and sweet pumpkin porridge topped with dried cricket, pickled larva and assorted vegetables.

These are some of the recipes submitted to a government-hosted insect cooking contest late last month as South Korea experiments with the culinary potential of six-legged creatures.

The event was the latest of Seoul’s efforts to foster the insect industry as it searches for new sources of livestock and ways to help cash-strapped farms find new profit makers.

In 2010, the government announced the legislation of a special law aimed at fostering the insect industry, valued at 168 billion won (US$151 million) in 2011 and forecast to reach 298 billion won next year. (Yonhap)

You can read more at the link, but that sure is a lot of money being project to get people to eat bugs.

An unfortunate accident has killed three workers at a nuclear power plant in Ulsan that was about to go online:

The labor ministry has ordered two nuclear reactors under construction to be shut down to look into the cause of a toxic gas leak that killed three workers, a local branch said Saturday.

Three workers died Friday apparently after inhaling toxic gas at the construction site of a nuclear reactor in Ulsan, about 410 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

The state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. earlier said it suspected nitrogen gas leaked from an underground cable caused the deaths.

The ministry said it will cooperate with the occupational safety agency, the emergency management agency and police to conduct a joint probe into the site and summon officials at the state nuclear power company and contractors.

“We will promptly conduct an investigation and hold accountable those who are responsible (in the incident) if any irregularities are discovered,” Yoo Han-bong, who leads the labor ministry’s Ulsan branch, said.

The New Gori No. 3 reactor with a rated capacity of 1,400 megawatts was 99 percent complete for full operation scheduled for next June, and was undergoing a test run since last month to receive approval from the state nuclear watchdog. The New Gori No. 4 reactor was 98 percent complete, with commercial operation slated for 2016.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if the investigation shows any sloppy safety practices led to this tragedy.  Also of interest in the article is that Korea’s nuclear power plants have also been facing cyber attacks and of course the IP address for the attacks was coming out of China.  North Korea is the suspected culprit, but the fact that China continues to allow them use IP addresses in their country shows how they are complicit in letting them conduct these cyberattacks.

This is a start at least to these two countries learning to play nice with each other:

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will sign a trilateral information-sharing arrangement on Monday to better handle the evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Friday.

The arrangement is expected to strengthen the three-way security cooperation that has been lackluster due to historical and territorial feuds between Seoul and Tokyo, and Seoul’s push for a deepened strategic partnership with Beijing.

South Korea’s Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Japan’s Vice Defense Minister Masanori Nishi will sign the arrangement separately in their respective countries on Monday.

Under the deal, South Korea and Japan will not directly share their military information, but they will share it via the U.S. upon their consent, Seoul officials explained. Such an indirect method has been devised apparently in consideration of the public sentiment in the South against any military collaboration with its onetime colonizer.

“If South Korea offers information to the U.S., the U.S. would provide it to Japan upon South Korea’s consent. On the other hand, if Japan offers information to the U.S., the U.S. would give it to the South upon Japan’s consent,” a senior official at the Defense Ministry told reporters, declining to be named.

“The sharing will be limited to information about North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. The country that has produced a particular piece of information will determine to what extent it will share its information.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but an example of how this would work is if the Japanese received intelligence of an imminent nuclear test they would give that intelligence to the US to give to South Korea instead of directly.  The whole setup seems juvenile, but President Park remembers what happened to President Lee Myung-bak when he tried to pass this deal a few years ago and it caused a public outcry and he had to cancel the deal.  It was so bad he had to fly to Dokdo to prove he was not a Japanese traitor.  Park is being smarter about this intelligence sharing deal with this indirect approach and noticed when she is having the deal signed; right in the middle of the holidays when few people are paying attention.

Bad news for native English teachers in Korea if this comes into law because it would reduce the number of English teaching jobs available in Korea:

Some 100 owners of private English institutes across Korea gathered in Seoul, Tuesday, to protest the government’s plan to ban native teachers from working at so-called English language kindergartens.

This comes after the Ministry of Education announced the plan last week as part of its efforts to help households reduce spending on private education.

Such institutes for children are often called English kindergartens, although they are not registered as under the law. With intensive English programs, they usually charge about double the cost of other kindergartens.

The ministry is now collecting opinions about the plan before making a final decision.

Members of the Korea Association of Hagwon said that the new policy not only hurts children’s ability to improve their English, but also violates parents’ right to choose the way they educate their children.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the plan to ban native English teachers is supposed to reduce the costs of sending children to English hagwons.

Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this Wall Street Journal article from a Korean lawyer that gives you all the information you need to know in regards to South Korea’s highly criticized defamation laws:

A separate category of criminal defamation is criminal insult. This provides punishment up to one year in prison or 2 million won in fines. Unlike criminal defamation, criminal insult involves no statement of fact, but simply generalized epithets. To establish criminal insult, the insult needs to be: (1) made publicly (i.e. the same “publicity” requirement as criminal defamation); (2) directed to a specific individual, and; (3) objectively damaging to the social reputation of the insulted individual.

Further, even an insult that would in fact damage the reputation does not rise to a criminal level if, in the context of overall situation in which the insult was made, the statement is not outside of the bounds of social norms. For example, the Supreme Court in 2008 held that a golf caddy who complained about her boss on the Internet by calling him “pitiable” and “pathetic,” was not guilty of criminal insult. Among other reasons, the ruling was given because the level of her insult was quite light and it was made in the context of complaining about workplace conditions—both of which were within the social norms.

All in all, the full contour of Korea’s criminal defamation laws shows that it to be less outrageous than one may think. The law is hardly a license to punish every nick and cut caused by everyday speech. Although horror stories on the Internet regale in claiming that “truth is not a defense” in Korean criminal defamation, the truth had better be actually defamatory before any punishment is meted out.

One can easily think of many circumstances in which even a true fact about a person can lower social esteem, in a way that does not impinge on the public interest. If, for example, Person A has an embarrassing venereal disease, what would justify the actions of Person B who, intending to harm Person A’s reputation, widely publicizes that true fact?

Because the standards for criminal defamation are fairly strict, Korea’s prosecutors frequently decline to indict after receiving the criminal complaint. Even if the prosecutors do indict and the case moves forward, more than 90% of  cases are dismissed or result in the prosecution’s defeat. (The author’s opinion is that the Korean government’s case against the Sankei’s Mr. Kato will fail as well because of the “public purpose” defense.)  [Wall Street Journal]

I highly recommend reading the rest at the link, for those interested in this topic.

I wonder if the crackdown on illegal taxi practices will include the high fares that some of these taxi drivers try and charge US military servicemembers instead of running the meter?:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday it would clamp down on illegal business practices of taxi drivers for the rest of the month.

Working with Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the city government deployed 120 officials, 277 police officers and four patrol cars equipped with surveillance cameras to prevent taxi drivers from turning down certain passengers in violation of regulations.

Taxis are required to accept customers regardless of their destination, but the practice of taxi drivers handpicking passengers or speeding away from them for various reasons is rampant in Seoul and elsewhere.

Seoul City officials will patrol the 24 busiest districts in Seoul including Jongno-gu, Guro-gu and Gangnam-gu until Dec. 31.

Officials will impose a fine of 200,000 won ($180) on taxi drivers who refuse passengers. The city also plans to clamp down weekly on taxis from other areas such as Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, which are barred from transporting customers within Seoul.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

There is just so much wrong with this whole incident:

Police said on Sunday a teenager has been arrested on charges of detonating a homemade acid bomb at a recent public talk, whose two co-hosts face questioning for apparently making pro-North Korean comments.

Authorities here in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, about 250 kilometers south of Seoul, said they’ve arrested an 18-year-old high school senior named Oh for possession and detonation of an illegal explosive device and property damage, among other counts.

Iksan police said Oh attended a talk hosted last Wednesday by Shin Eun-mi, a Korean-American who’s written books on North Korea, and Hwang Sun, the former deputy spokeswoman of the now-defunct Democratic Labor Party. They alleged that the teenager snuck in his sulfuric acid bomb with the intent to disrupt the talk, which was held at Shindong Cathedral in Iksan, and also destroyed windows and flooring of the venue.

According to police, Oh has been a member of a popular, right-leaning online community called “Ilbe” since last summer, and purchased his chemicals for the homemade bomb online in July.

Separately, Shin and Hwang are under investigation for allegedly making pro-North Korean remarks during their talks. Local conservative civic groups filed a complaint against the two with the police. Seoul’s National Security Law prohibits any “anti-state” activities attempting to praise, encourage or propagandize North Korean political ideals.  [Yonhap]

First of all this teenager should be prosecuted for whatever crimes can be linked to this homemade explosive device.  Shin may be a North Korean apologist, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to have an explosive device detonated by her.  Secondly why is an American in South Korea taking part in political activity, especially sensitive political activity that involves North Korea?  The Korean government does not allow foreign visa holders to conduct political activity in South Korea:

Scope of activities and employment for foreigners staying in Korea

• Foreigners are granted rights to any activities granted by their visa, and may stay as long as their given period of stay. They are not, however, allowed to participate in any political activities except when specifically allowed by law.

So did Shin have approval from the Korean government to conduct political activity with her visa?  I doubt it.  Instead of bringing up the controversial National Security Law, the Korean authorities should instead prosecute her for violating her visa status.

Why ‘nut rage’ is such a big deal in South Korea http://t.co/QKb9hsc5lu via @washingtonpost

— Victor Cha (@vcgiants) December 14, 2014

The Korean authorities should have stopped these people at the gate of the airport and sent them home because it is illegal for foreigners to conduct political activity while visiting South Korea:

The Rev. Bill Bichsel, an 86-year-old Tacoma priest known for his acts of civil disobedience, has returned from a trip to South Korea to protest construction of a naval base there.

Just three months ago, Bichsel was seriously ill and in the hospital in Tacoma. But his health —while still frail due to a heart condition—improved to the point he was able to make the trip using a wheelchair.

He said his doctors didn’t try to stop him from traveling.

“They just shake their heads,” Bichsel said. “They know I’m going so they don’t make a big fuss.”

For nearly 40 years, the Jesuit priest known as “Bix” has protested against U.S. military programs and weapons. He’s been arrested dozens of times for trespassing during protests and jailed more than a half-dozen times.

He wasn’t arrested in South Korea, but he realized the 12-day trip could set his health back.

“I know I could go anytime,” Bichsel said.

He was weak upon returning Nov. 20, but has gotten stronger since then. And he was inspired by the trip.

Bichsel and nine other people —nearly all from the Puget Sound area—traveled to Jeju Island to commits acts of civil resistance against construction of a base by the South Korean Navy. The base has been under construction on the island off the southern tip of Korea for eight years.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but what gets me about the whole Cheju Naval Base issue is that the leftists complain about the base provoking China when the Chinese is busy making claims against Korean territory and the territory of other countries in the region and have constructed an aircraft carrier to help enforce those claims.  If the Chinese were not making aggressive territorial claims this base would have never been built in the first place and the leftists have the nerve to condemn the ROK government for provoking China?