What the ... similarity?!?!?

It looks like Canada has something else in common with South Korea, and Japan. Compensated dating.

I recently saw a news story on CBC about Sugar Babies. II couldn't find a link to the CBC story but found one for CTV.) A website where men can find University women looking for a sugar daddy. It reminded me a lot of what I heard about compensated dating in South Korea. Except that this is for University women and not High School or Middle School girls.

This site appears to be for legal aged women/men  to find a sugar daddy/mommy, to take care of them. You can look for sugar daddies, sugar mommies, sugar babies, or male babies. It is interesting to see how much money some want (or are willing to put out ;) ) monthly.  As long as all involved are adults  more power to them. Is it a form of prostitution? Probably but I don't really care as long as all are consenting adults.

Asian Movie Website

If you are looking for Asian movies in torrent format try out Asia Torrents. They have a LOT of movies from all over Asia, recent as well as older ones. If you are like me and enjoy the old Shaw Brothers kung fu movies you will love the site. Most of the movies I got either had subtitles hard coded in the video or available as a separate download.

There are times ...

There are times when I think about doing a site that lambastes Koreans as much as the Korean Media, malcontents, and morons go after foreigners, using the same lack of logic and truth we see them using. Reading articles like this one currently on Gusts of Popular Feeling brings the urge back. Briefly.

The Korean media is taking a suicide by a foreigner who was teaching English and is turning it into yet another tirade against foreigners teaching English. Once again you see shoddy reporting, twisted statements, anonymous interviews that probably never took place and to cap it off ... a health centre in Korea giving out patient information to the media. (Which wouldn't surprise anyone who has spent time living in South Korea.) It is fucking disgusting.

It would be so easy for me to make a website to attack Koreans coming into Canada or the US. Or any other country. There are enough REAL news stories that could be used, or twisted the way the Korean media and other assholes do it. Just the Virginia Tech shooting alone would allow for a lot of material calling for all Koreans coming to the US to have psych evaluations to prove they aren't unstable. Then you have prostitution, especially in California, where Koreans are bringing women in from South Korea. Then you have the rapists and other deviants of Korean origin or descent who have appeared in the news. That lends itself to a lot of material that could paint all Korean women wanting to come to the West as potential prostitutes and Korean men and women as pimps. Korean students as being potential rapists and child molesters. It would be very easy to do what the Korean media and slime like the twats at Korea Sentry do to foreigners right back at them. But that doesn't mean it would be right.

That is the only reason I haven't done anything like that. I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it. At one time, for a lark, I seriously thought about making such a website. I started researching for news articles that would fit. I wouldn't even have had to twist much stuff. Then I thought about it some more and realized that while it would "serve" the assholes right it wouldn't be right. It would have been more hateful than funny. It would paint every Korean with a brush not all deserve. It would make me no better than the KKKunts at Korea Sentry.

I may over react when angry. I may get stuff wrong, and I hope I do apologise when I do that. I may come close to the line, and hope I haven't crossed it. In the end I don't want to be like them.

Latest "What I like about Korea"

GIKorea at ROKDrop is at 21 on his list of "What I like about Korea." The latest one is "Korean Pride".

As soon as I read that I thought yes but. Memories of all the stupid things Koreans have done and said over the years promoting Korea or trying to convince people that Korea is great. GIKorea addressed that and did a good job of it.

Koreans do have a lot to be proud of when talking about their country ... they just have a tendency to go overboard especially at perceived slights.

I may not like all of the same things GIKorea likes or agree with every reason but he is putting out a good list and isn't glossing things over.

What I Like About Korea - ROK Drop

ROK Drop is starting a new series of posts by GI Korea titled "What I Like About Korea". It will list 25 things that the author likes about South Korea, starting with #25, Jumjilbangs.

I wish I had thought of doing something like this first. It is a great idea and GI Korea's first pick is a good one. I love jimjilbangs. They are something I find myself missing at times now that I am not in Korea anymore. I liked going at times when there wouldn't be a lot of people. Sometimes I would even bring a book and soak in one of the hot pools. We have hot tubs at the local sports plex but it just isn't the same.

For the most part when I went to "Sauna's" no one bothered me. I didn't find there was much if any staring. Except for a few incidents where someone wanted to practice their English, or kids were unsupervised, no one bothered me.

Great idea GI Korea. I look forward to your next installment.

teacherkoreans.com

Since I talked about the seminar that teachkoreans.com put on for the Korean Government I figured I would take a look at them. Who are they? What do they do?

Well, it isn't a school. It is a recruiting company run by two people, one British and one Korean. Yes, the Korean government had recruiters put on a mandatory seminar to instruct foreigners on cultural differences and sexual assault. Their site LOOKS professional and polished at first glance. When you start to peruse it you notice things though.

One of the first things I noticed is that the "cultural differences" they informed current teachers about in their seminar were pretty much IGNORED on their website. Which, considering how it was crammed down our throats and some of it is actually good, seems strange.

Some of the stuff on the site seemed good. Some stuff they did mention on the website had me shaking my head. Other things made me wonder if a Korean wrote the site. Some of it made me wonder if Chris in South korea had written it.

The Good

The site does give some good basic info. They touch on some things, like a lack of planning. Or the fact most Hagwons want happy students not necessarily well educated ones. But the key word is that they touch on it. Nothing in depth. Nothing too detailed.

The Bad

They left out some important things, like the aforementioned cultural differences. Or glossed things over.

First is health care and insurance. They say Korea has NO National Healthcare system. Then what the hell is the National Health Insurance I was signed up for my last 4+ years in South Korea?

They do mention employers have to provide healthcare 50/50 but make no mention of NHS. That is a fairly important thing to leave out because if I remember correctly the law says they have to put us on the NHIC or a private 50/50 plan. If we want the NHIC that is what they are supposed to give us. Kind of an important fact to leave out.

Odds are they meant to say FREE healthcare rather than National Healthcare.

Next you have housing. They say;

"You will be provided with a single studio apartment/bachelor suit free of charge that is within walking distance to your school. You may find your place is a little smaller than you are used to but it will be comfortable nevertheless. If you arrive with a positive and realistic attitude about your housing you will be pleasantly surprised."

Or you won't be if you are put in an older, and therefore cheaper for the school, apartment. They then go on to give you an unrealistic expectation after saying you should have a realistic attitude.

"You will have your own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and washroom. The bathroom will have a toilet, sink and shower but don't expect a bathtub as they are uncommon in Korea."

That certainly doesn't set a realistic expectation for people. Your kitchen will be a nook in your entrance and is often an after thought. They would have better off saying there is a kitchen nook. Calling what you will get a kitchen is not reasonable. Also, bathrooms don't always have sinks. Your shower is part of your bathroom and not a separate stall. After saying people should have realistic attitudes it would be better to give them realistic information.

Some of the comments on the Korean language were a little strange too.

"The Korean language is called Hanguk- ugh. It is the only language in Korea and is used by 80 million Korean speakers."

Hanguk-UGH? Not to nit pick but it is not pronounced UGH. More like UH. If you are going to tell people how to say something in another language and spell it phonetically in Englishee do a better job.

The most important thing for you to know is that it is not necessary to learn the language to live and teach in Korea.

Ok, maybe that should be under The Ugly and not The Bad. That is a very stupid thing to tell people. It is true, you can get by without learning Korean, but it is a stupid thing to tell people who are coming to live in a foreign country.

The important thing to do is learn some basic words and phrases that will get you through life in Korea EVEN if you are only there for a year. Learn how to say please, thank you, hello, good bye, your welcome. Right, left, straight. Learn some of the basics. You don't have to be fluent. You don't even have to be able to string a sentence together.

Whether you NEED to know some Korean or not to get by it would be nice if you knew some basics in the language. Forget the fact that it would simply be polite to learn and use the language, it would be necessary if you deal with those Koreans who have no English.

The Ugly

Where to start? How about with one of the stupidest statements I saw on the site.

Korea has 4 distinct seasons:

When I saw that lead in to the section on weather in South Korea I thought "Oh fuck me! How stupid are these people?"

Some of the STUPIDEST things I read on their website were in the section on Korean children.

"Despite their workload they are generally well-behaved, enthusiastic and respect their teachers."

Hahahahahahaha!!!!! Yeah. Right.

Then there is this gem.

"There is virtually no bullying in Korean schools"

I don't know what drugs they are taking but only a real moron, or someone with NO idea of what goes on in Korean schools, let alone society, would EVER make a statement like that. Considering the incidents, and their severity, of bullying that make the English language news in South Korea this statement is insane. And that is without even bringing up the whole Junior-Senior BS that goes on.

The UGLIEST has to be leaving out the cultural differences that they went on about at the Seminar. If the site is supposed to be there to inform people what to expect if coming to South Korea to teach English leaving out that information is a gross error. Why not let people know that the contracts are not considered binding? That things will change at the last minute? That your boss will expect a lot more out of you?

Now that is an easy question to answer. In the end the website is part of their business. If they started telling the whole truth they would have less people interested in coming to South Korea. People just might shy away from working in a country where you legally binding document isn't. Where your conditions are subjected to the whim of your master errr Director. Not very surprising, after all their paying client is the school. Not the person looking to teach.

End of the line for the KRD Express.

The station is empty. Only the movement of leaflets blown about by the wind can be seen. You have reached the end of the line. The KRD express is no more.

Korean Rum Diary has removed the comments and seems to have shut the site down for some reason. I haven't emailed and asked because I figure if he wanted to say why he would have said it on his site.

I am going to miss his posts. Hopefully he will still be around the net.

Good luck in your future endeavours KRD!

What the ... referral?!?!?

Hey Stig we have kind of, sort of, maybe made the mainstream media back home. :)

Someone who visited What the kimchi??? was referred by what looks to be a site affiliated with Macleans magazine.

They have a listing of blog views about the "controversy" surrounding the Canadian Women's Hockey Team's celebrating the gold. Our "What the ... celebration?!?!?" post made the list.

Woo hoo! It is nice to see by the list that Canadians feel the complaints were bull shit. Party on girls!!!!!

In other news there was another interesting referral site. One person was referred by a google search for "kimchi smell soju."

Koreisbest.com now has a link to a blog site. Could it be the "creators" blog site? Who knows. But it is a funny read too. :)

Korea is Best also has a new section on ... dogs. :)

Koreaisbest

This site, if meant as a joke, is funny. Odds are it was written by a foreigner. :) The Homeless Sexual, the Aids, etc. Heh. Well done. :)