What disturbs me about this article Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) is the mater-of-factness by which the whole “buy-a-bride-in-Vietnam” thing is handled. This guy picks a couple of possibles from a room full of women, all there basically to sell themselves off as brides in the hope of living in, as one girl describes, a “concrete house”. He all but admits to the women he interviews that he needs someone to take care of his mom, and then, after an AIDS test and a quick Vietnamese ceremony, they’re married. And it’s only then that he realizes body language isn’t going to …
Tag: KOREA
The Asia Pages: In Defense of the White Boy
Jodi’s recent banning from some kind of alleged racist message board is discussed at great length in her post (and the comments appended to it) titled In Defense of the White Boy. I’m not going to get into my opinions of the specific case, but just say that I’ve been frustrated with the kind of thinking that runs behind this. Young guys, mostly, who like to think themselves political, strong, militant, and so they get all vocal about racial issues without thinking, without reasoning, without seeing that what they themselves have adopted is racism. I think people have a right …
Wondering what it’s like to be a minority
If you are, go read this post over at I Have Seoul. [The blogger is, I think, from Saskatchewan just like I am, by the way!] It’s not always like this for me in Korea, but it’s like this just enough to develop a bad attitude, if you don’t watch yourself. I notice it at least once every time I go sit down on the subway. I’m starting not to care anymore, but, you know, you still notice, and still sort-of care. And don’t forget, white people have it relatively good as far as minorities in Korea. But I still …
Who’s Your Worst Enemy?
Reading the title of this post at Mingi Hyun’s page, S. Koreans Say China is the Greatest Threat in the Future, it feels like seeing Luke Skywalker eyeing Boba Fett and saying, “You know, that guy, he’s the one I’m worried about, guys.” And this, with Darth Vader standing in the background, lightsaber at the ready. sigh
The Dog Poop Girl Story
Well, I live in Korea, but this is news to me. Maybe I just haven’t been keeping up on my Korea-related blogs. In fact, that’s probably why I haven’t heard about Dog Poop Girl. This is one of those inconsiderate idiots I rant about from time to time, the kind of person who walks around as if nobody else in the world even exists. She took her dog onto the subway and when I crapped on the floor, she didn’t make a move to clean it up; instead, she apparently acted as if nothing was amiss. Annoyed passengers gawked, and …
With Tech, Festina Lente
This Chosun Ilbo report describes how Korea is in a hurry “to turn what sounds like science fiction into everyday life.” To me, as someone who knows SF pretty well, this is a little bit of a scary proposition, especially considering other elements of Korean culture. For one thing, Korean netizens came out shockingly in favour of censorship during the blog ban a few summers ago, despite the fact that censorship violates a civil right that people only a generation before were fighting to wrest from the country’s dictators; personal security doesn’t seem to have been enough of a concern …
It’s Getting a Bit Ridiculous, and I’m Getting a Bit Used to It
I hate to be one of those typical annoyed foreigners who bitches and bitches about his inability to get a credit card in Korea, but good grief. A couple of places told me no right when I tried to apply, because I’m a foreigner. Okay, fine… Then I was allowed to apply at another place, and told I would be getting a card, and then I was told at the last minute that, oh, no, sorry, we can’t give you one and we can’t tell you why either. But then a friend of mine told me I could get one …
Ubuntu in Korea, with Ramblings on Piracy, Free Culture, Bollywood, and The Long Tail
I’m just geeking out about Ubuntu Linux here, which branch out to piracy, free culture, Bollywood, and alternative distribution systems using the Internet. I already didn’t know much about what I was going on about at the point of Linux, so this al might be a load of bull puckey. Or there might be some gems mixed in with the bull turds, you never know. But if you demand people only to write about things they know really well, go read something else. If, on the other hand, you want to help disabuse me of my mistaken notions and help …
Gaaaaaaaaaah, more horrid amusements
Four Asian-American guys training up to do a rap on MacBeth for extra credit. It’s a hilarious send-up of life in a home where, even if you got A or A+ in everything else, a B+ in English just won’t do. They embrace the stereotypes, and the geekery is TOTALLY hilarious. Especially brilliant is Earl, the Filipino who is, uh “all ghetto” and stuff. And from the comment section of the post where I got the above, this one is sorta funny too. I can’t speak for dating culture in North America, but most of the interiracial couples in Korea …
Not the Purpose of the Sender Line
A surprisingly large number of students I have dealt with in Korea apparently do not understand the purpose of the “Sender” line in an email. Thus they don’t enter their names in the email system, but rather input all kinds of other things: brief quotes in Korean from books they like, or random English words like “nicelips”, or “misty”, or “lovely”, or “nicegirl”. Okay, a majority of them also have the good graces to begin their email with, “Hi teacher, this is ________,” at this point, inserting some randomly-determined romanized form of their names. But still, I imagine it would …