Serious English Teaching? Not in Korea

:::Comes in and kicks the tires:::: Yep, it's still working.

I saw this blog post pop up on my Facebook feed: Why South Korea isn’t the Place for Serious English Teachers.

I read it and then started writing a Facebook comment that kept growing and growing, so I realized it was probably better as a blog post.

With that said, if you've taught in Korea, I think it will hit a nerve.  He's in it now as he mentions he's planning to finally leave Korea. You can identify with his frustration, and he's hitting on some very real points. What's interesting is someone I know who still lives in Korea reached out recently. I'd not been in contact since before I left and this wasn't someone who was in my inner circle. I moved back in 2009, so it's been at least seven years since I've been in contact with this person. He and I were exchanging messages, and I had to excuse myself to get back to work as I was up late. He replied that he had a class coming up soon, and I realized he's been an ESL teacher in Korea for years upon years. Nothing wrong with that, but he's pretty much going to have that "best dead end job" that the author mentions for as long as he can pull it off. 

 

I had that job too. In terms of career prospects when you're in Korea, that's close to it. I know some people including non-Koreans and foreign born Koreans who've gotten into entertainment through radio and TV. I also met other foreigners there who were with the military or were there for business. But if you want to stay on the teaching track, that's pretty much it. The top of the ladder is teaching at a Korean university or college. Beyond that there is no career track or professional development because you're supposed to do the job for a handful of years and then move on.

Teaching English in Korea has always been set up as a temporary gig and was never meant to be anything more than that just by the way it's structured because of the required yearly visa updates/renewals along with mostly yearly contracts (some schools might do more, but most don't.) One of the many reasons I chose to move home was being over having to get sign off from immigration for any project that came up. At one point I had both a student via and a teaching visa simultaneously. If you didn't, you're in violation of your visa and, trust me, a lot of people take on other projects.

 

I have some friends who've made it work or have pushed themselves onto another track by getting a PhD. I have a couple of friends there now who are professors in other topics, but they've put the work in. They're basically experts in some aspect of Korean culture or history and, of course, are fluent in Korean.

I was there for my own set of reasons:

• post law degree and trying to figure things out
• getting time to travel and see a bit more of the world, which I did
• healing and patching up my soul after losing my parents within 5 weeks of the other and reconciling that with being adopted, which also requires a certain level of healing and patching up

My almost eight and a half years there equipped me with experiences that to this day still benefit me, but that time took me off the grid in many ways. Repatriating is a hard process which took me almost five years to complete, and I've still got one or two more things to do to make it complete.

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Urban Prep: 100 percent of Englewood’s Urban Prep Academy for Young Men admitted to college - chicagotribune.com

This is just a great story that I have to share.  100% of the students at an inner-city charter school in Chicago have been accepted into four-year colleges and universities!  This is great.  It ought not be that rare in my community, but it still is.

I'm so happy to share this story of positive achievement because the media and people in general, like to focus more on the negative stories.  Well, here is a positive one for you all.

Urban Prep: 100 percent of Englewood’s Urban Prep Academy for Young Men admitted to college - chicagotribune.com

Posted using ShareThis

Here is the full article:

Every Urban Prep senior is college-bound

100 percent of first senior class at all male, all African-American Englewood academy is accepted to universities

Urban Prep Academy senior Keith Greer, along with his classmates, celebrates the news they will receive a free prom in Chicago because 100 percent of the graduating class was accepted into 4-year colleges or universities. (Tribune photo by Heather Charles / March 5, 2010)

By Duaa Eldeib, Tribune reporter

8:43 p.m. CST, March 5, 2010

Four years ago, Bryant Alexander watched his mother weep.

She stared down at a muddle of D's and F's on his eighth-grade report card and threatened to kick him out. He had barely passed elementary school, and high school wasn't even on his radar.

"Something just clicked," Alexander, now 18, said. "I knew I had to do something."

On Friday, Alexander proudly swapped his high school's red uniform tie for a striped red and gold one — the ritual at Englewood's Urban Prep Academy for Young Men that signifies a student has been accepted into college.

As the Roseland resident and 12 others tied their knots, Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges.

Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.

The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago's most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.

Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, said Tim King, the school's founder and CEO.

"There were those who told me that you can't defy the data," King said. "Black boys are killed. Black boys drop out of high school. Black boys go to jail. Black boys don't go to college. Black boys don't graduate from college.

"They were wrong," he said.

Every day, before attending advanced placement biology classes and lectures on changing the world, students must first pass through the neighborhood, then metal detectors.

"Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it," said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school's director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.

He met the students the summer before they began their freshman year during a field trip to Northwestern University, the first time many of them had ever stepped foot on a college campus. At the time, Hutchinson was Northwestern's assistant director of undergraduate admissions. Inspired by what he'd seen, he started working for Urban Prep two months later.

"I'm them," he said Friday as he fought back tears. "Being accepted to college is the first step to changing their lives and their communities."

Hutchinson plays a major role in the school, where college is omnipresent. Students are assigned college counselors from day one. To prepare students for the next level, the school offers a longer than typical day — about 170,000 minutes longer, over four years, than other city schools — and more than double the usual number of English credits, King said

Even the school's voice-mail system has a student declaring "I am college-bound" before asking callers to dial an extension.

The rigorous academic environment and strict uniform policy of black blazers, red ties and khakis isn't for everyone. The first senior class began with 150 students. Of those who left, many moved out of the area and some moved into neighborhoods that were too dangerous to cross to get to the school, King said. Fewer than 10 were expelled or dropped out, he said.

At last count, the 107 seniors gained acceptance to a total of 72 different colleges, including Northwestern University, Morehouse College, Howard University, Rutgers University and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Alexander was accepted to DePaul University.

While college acceptance is an enormous hurdle to jump, school leaders said they know their job isn't done; they want to make sure the students actually attend.

To that aim, King said, staff made sure that every student has completed the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid, lest the red tape deter them.

Later in the year, the school plans to hold a college signing day where every student is to sign a promise to go to college, he said. Staff will stay in touch through the summer and hopefully in the first years of school.

"We don't want to send them off and say, ‘Call us when you're ready to make a donation to your alma mater,' " King said. "If we fulfill our mission, that means they not only are accepted to college, but graduate from it."

For now, students are enjoying the glow of reaching their immediate goal.

Normally, it takes 18-year-old Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On the day the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decision online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him to his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he remembers screaming. His mother burst in and began crying.

That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting "I got in" on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.

"We're breaking barriers," he said. "And that feels great."

deldeib@tribune.com

Excellent story.

No, I've not fixed the code, so "read more" leads you nowhere.

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Crap That I'll Miss: Fun, Smart and Hilarious Kids

Nothing is perfect and working with children can be a challenge at times. This is particularly so in Korea due to cultural differences and very demanding parents. However, pretty much since I've arrived, I've had tons of fun working at winter or summer English camps. Maybe it's because, in some ways, I'm a kid at heart. I love clowning around with them but also getting serious and seeing them absorb information from me like sponges. Now I'll be 100% honest and also say that I love sending them home at the end of the day because it's truly exhausting too. I discovered that I liked teaching kids when I taught as a substitute teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area.

However, some camp experiences have been better or worse than others. That depends on a number of factors. The most important is the experience level of the management team because a micro-manager can make a camp hell to work at. Unfortunately, there are a lot of micro-managers in Korea. One camp I worked at has a manager so into control that he made teachers sign out for copy paper and locked their classrooms after the kids left to force all the teachers in the library to write their lesson plans and prep for the next day. That was weirdness on a level I'd never seen before and, luckily, haven't seen since. However, I can count the truly unpleasant camps on one hand, so that's not too bad if you calculate 8 years. There was maybe one or two times I elected not to do a camp, so that's around 14 or so of these. Even if the camp is a nightmare on the management side, usually, the pay is decent for a two to three week assignment if you're already in the country. I don't think I'd ever do one if I had to cover my own airfare to get here though. But people are coming here sometimes to get a feel for Korea before deciding to work here for a year or use being in the country for a camp as a way to start looking for an annual position.

The perk for me is changing the type of student I teach from college age young adults to young whip smart kids. There are behavior issues, for sure. But there are behavior issues with college students too. The kids know, just as we do, that these things are temporary and some take advantage of that. However, most of the time the kids are great. I'll miss the few weeks each summer and winter that I spend doing it. This time around it's much more of a challenge because now I'm simultaneously trying to keep up with my writing and interviews. That's truly exhausting.

I also have to say I hope it helps these kids develop a more open perspective to race and people who are different. Prior to being taught by me a lot of these kids have never had much contact, if any, with a black person. Most of these kids are children whose parents are white collar workers, so they have the means and then some. Mostly all have had interaction with foreign teachers and quite a few have lived abroad. It's just the reality is that most teachers here are white and some of them are less than subtle about their views on race.

That's still really weird for me to imagine. As a kid, I remember my first teachers being white and that was no issue. I don't recall gasps or blunt observations of differences. One reason is, probably, as minorities in a white dominated society, whites simply aren't a novelty to a black child in the inner city. I remember being in a class with both black and Hispanic children when I went to schools near my home. When I started going to more integrated schools, it took me no time to develop lasting friendships with my white classmates too. So it still boggles my mind at how Korean culture is so very "us versus them." Here, anyone who isn't northeast Asian (Korean, Chinese, or Japanese) is a novelty. I get it intellectually, but I do wonder sometimes how it feels to be inside a mind like that where everything is either just like you or in stark contrast to you.

It also points to maybe one reason why it just seems so difficult for Koreans to process an interest in and knowledge of their culture by people who aren't ethnically Korean. In conversations with my Korean friends, I point out that the Chinese actually brag about their diversity. They are also neither crestfallen or defensive when you don't like something about China. Also, both the Chinese and Japanese are experts in exporting certain dimensions of their culture. It's an interesting contrast for sure.

I've wandered off the path a bit into cultural-based musing. However, to sum it up, I'll miss the fun, smart and hilarious kids I've had the pleasure to teach while I've been here.

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Something I Like About Korea: Peasant Egalitarianism

I heard that term for the first time in my International Political Economy course last semester. Now that I've graduated and revealed that I went to Ewha Womans University's GSIS program*, I can also reveal that it was taught by MIT educated Professor Byoung-joo Kim.

That was one great thing about Ewha's GSIS program. They were able to pull in professors with not only academic but also real world experience. Now this isn't a post touting the pluses of Ewha's GSIS program, but that was the strongest one for me because, believe me, the department also has its issues.

So let's get to the topic. I chose to use the term "peasant egalitarianism" because it covers the post-Korean War South Korean mentality. The country was decimated. It was also split and families are to this day still separated. The rich were poor and the poor were also poor. In a very fundamental way, South Korea had a rebuild from nothing. What weaved its way into that was egalitarianism.

This definition on Wiki sums it up more succiently than I can manage:

Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal or level) is a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals from birth. Generally it applies to being held equal under the law, the church, and society at large. In actual practice, one may be considered an egalitarian in most areas listed above, even if not subscribing to equality in every possible area of individual difference.

Layer egalitarianism on a nation destroyed by war where everyone is poor and you've got your peasants.

On top of that South Korea, as we all know, has had the aid and support of the United States which is still here. The US shared technology, helped rebuild the infrastructure, opened its borders and schools to South Koreans and commited its military to the defense of the South Korea. Of course, the UN was here as well as other nations (so no need to comment to point that out...thanks.) I mention this aid because this is a crucial point because this is where South Korea was smart. You can easily see a society where the leaders would divert all that aid to benefit themselves. South Korea has had it's scandals but has been pretty lucky overall it seems in that respect. That money that would have otherwise been committed to its defense was spent on creating a vibrant economy. One thing that is essential to that is education and one thing that shocked and impressed me when I arrived here was the huge number of colleges and universities in small or remote areas. Koreans have an advantage when it comes to their language: hangul

Koreans call their alphabet Hangul. Like English, the letters of the Hangul alphabet represent individual sounds or phonemes. Hangul was invented by King Sejong of the Choson Dynasty, and introduced to the public in 1443 in Hun-Min-Jeong-Eum. King Sejong believed that Koreans needed an easy-to-learn system for writing their own language. Before King Sejong deigned the Hangul, Koreans had either written in the Chinese language or had written Korean using Chinese characters to represent the Korean sounds in a complex system, Idu. The alphabet originally contained 28 letters composed of 11 vowels and 17 consonants.

This means that anyone can read Korean. People don't believe me when I tell them it's easy to learn because they imagine it's like Chinese where the letter is based on a character. You know "this is a man sitting under a tree" and that means ..." Well, hangul isn't like that. It's an alphabet. It's just put together from different angles.

What that means is there is almost no illiteracy here. Mix into that a high respect for education, a society that was smart and actually channelled its resources into education and you get what I saw this morning.
I was en route to work on the subway and I got the coveted end of the row seat. In my car was a newspaper delevery man who had a hand trolley stacked full of papers to drop off to the kiosks you see on the streets here in Seoul. Clearly, taking advantage of his job perk: free papers. That man was standing there reading a paper.

A few seats away was a man dressed as if he was on his way to work was sitting down also reading a morning paper. Now I didn't stop and ask them about themselves. The man with the trolley could very well be one of the many highly trained workers that were displaced during the Asian Financial Crisis. I've met a few who are now taxi drivers or shop owners. That guy reading the paper could have been en route to yet another job interview. However, assuming I'm right about these two men. That's cool.

Of course, the big benefit to ethnically homogenious cultures is no ethnic problems. The problems that Koreans have are with other groups. Yes, there are problems within Korean society but they have an impressive sense of unity. That, along with Confucianism makes it easier for them to take one for the team. The massive economic development they've seen is definitely attributable in many ways to the group unity they have.

Now this struck me as great because there are only a few countries where I'd say education is truly accessible to all. This hits me so because my father was illiterate. The US at the time of his youth was still very much incredibly racist and economically divided not only in its beliefs but in its system and laws. In rural Georgia with a family with 12 other siblings he had to work. That's where economics factors in. I'd like to think that in the modern US a family that large would HAVE to send their children to school or home school them to the state's satisfaction. Going to school wasn't an option for my father.

I'd say race factors into it because it becomes an issue when the children not receiving an education are white but not so much when the children are black. Hence you have a poor family doing the best they can and using all they have at their disposal, including their children, to make ends meet. You can argue that the US still has tons of racial and economic issues. I'd agree, but I'm one generation from people who had it much worse than I'll ever have. To not acknowledge that would be disrespectful to them and to the people who worked so hard to make things better for me.

It also means that in a foreign culture I can see the similarities and differences from another point of view. I do think it's because I'm a minority in my home country as well as here. So certain things are the same and I know those things aren't the same for a good number of my co-workers and acquaintances here. In many ways, this is the first time ever they've dealt with being different or have faced overwhelmingly negative versus positive stereotypes. Now that's not the case for all, but I hope you get my point---it's general, there are always exceptions.

But to bring that generality home here is a story. This weekend I had a discussion with some other foreigners here over various cuts of meat. I said that the cuts of meats most definitely correlate to the struggle a group has had. Black and Koreans have had it hard. Therefore, in both soul food and Korean kitchens you've got animal intestines on the menu: chitterlings int the soul food restarants and 곱창, gobchang, in Korean ones. Now pointing out economic differences and how that factors into other aspects of life makes some people uncomfortable. It didn't surprise me when the white American woman at the table HAD to shot that down because, well, the French also eat intestines. I didn't have the energy to explain that bouchons is also working class food. Also, hello, the French Revolution was very much a class struggle! Hence the French and their motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité". The French also have their fair share of economic and class differences today. However, it was something not worth bringing up when you're faced with a white American not willing to acknowledge certain privileges. A friendly dinner is really not the time for a history lesson even when you know the person is wrong.

So, with that said, when I see these positive societal differences. I'm happy to see a nation where the blue collar workers read the paper just as the white collar workers do. Granted, South Korea has a way to go on many issues from women's rights to race and even religion, but when it comes to access to basic education it's pretty fair. For me, that's significant because if my dad knew what was in the paper it was because I or my mom read it to him.

_____________________________
*Why? Let's just say I didn't blend in when running around campus. Now that I'm no longer running around campus if you're going to stalk me, well, you have to find me. With, at least, 7 or 8 international studies programs taught in English in or near Seoul someone was going to have to their work cut out for them.

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Rodney Johnson on Background Checks of Employees in Asia

Regular readers know that I posted a few things about the academic fakery that goes on as well as recorded a podcast with Mike over at The Metropolitician on the subject: Podcast 31 - Academic Fakery. Just click on the "education" tag to find them.

I went to the McKinnney Consulting website to read some articles on Korean culture by Professor Horrace Underwood when I decided to click around and see what else was there.

Lucky me. I found an article which tells companies outright that they MUST take the steps to verify a candidate's credentials. Now this is geared to foreign companies looking to do business in Asia. However, with all the stories of people who've been caught lying about their degrees, it's something that Korean employers must do too.

The Importance of Background Checks by Rodney Johnson

Asia is constantly at war with fraud and fakes. From fake pharmaceuticals to fake purses, to food that was not meant for human consumption, counterfeit items and fraudulent claims flood the market and threaten to do serious damage to the legitimate businesses that both sell the real items and buy the fakes.

But fakes are not limited to just physical goods. The marketplace for labor is also infested with fakes - fake people. Job seekers, not limited to any job title, industry, or level, routinely falsify their resumes, and credentials. The high degree of fake resumes and fake claims of education and ability have led to countermeasures, in Asia and elsewhere, designed to lower the risks to employers.

Many Asian countries put a high value on learning that has been verified by some sort of standard, certification, or award. Certifications act as a form of verification or proof of the verity of any claimed skill or ability. As such, Asian employees are required to earn certifications and titles or various sorts in order to secure employment and advancement.

However, using certification as a countermeasure against fakes is only half the battle, and going only as far as requiring certification documents has created a situation where fraudulent claims are even easier to get away with. A fake TOEFL or TOEIC score is now attainable for a few hundred thousand won and a few days wait. The price may be high, but compared to the years of study that might be necessary to reach the higher score through legitimate means, it is a bargain. For a few million won, a fake certificate of graduation from virtually any foreign school one wishes can be produced, along with a fake transcript - though it is not likely to be needed.


The missing half of the battle is having the will to find out if the claimed credentials are, in fact, held. The reason job seekers feel free to cheat, is because they believe, with some justification, that no one will ever attempt to verify their claims. The risk/reward profile of this situation creates a strong incentive to obtain fake credentials – the job seeker has everything to gain and nothing to lose. The current situation has created an environment where it does indeed make sense to cheat.

While evaluating true ability and skills of an applicant through a resume is difficult, finding out whether the certifications and degrees an applicant claims are, in fact, real, is much easier. All that is required is the will and ability to check. The cost/benefit ratio for employers to check the backgrounds of their potential employees in Asia is very good - for the cost of a background check great risk may be averted. While checking references, and educational background, one may find out that a potential employee has a criminal record, or was fired from a previous job in the same industry for a problem that could be especially expensive if repeated in your organization.

Ask those who provide your personnel what kind of background checks they perform. Ensure they are doing all they can to weed out fake credentials and false claims on resumes. Finally, if you can't get the answers you need to feel satisfied that your workforce is the one you think you've got seek outside help.

Background checks are inexpensive and relatively painless compared to the potential problems they can help avoid. In the end, it could be the unseen lurking problems which undo all your hard work – problems that could have been avoided with a little attention paid to the personnel who handle your precious money, brand, and customers.

Johnson sums up what I've been saying all along: it's NOT difficult to check. Those that claim that's the case really need to find a new excuse. The effort required is usually a phone call, email or letter. That's not hard at all.

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Repost from Gust of Popular Feeling: Cheering on the test takers

I was going to write a post on the cheerleaders that students have when going in to write the university entrance exam, but, oh boy, someone has already done it.

Since I'm all about efficiency, I'll just repost it here. I've turned comments off because if you've got something to say, take the comment and the hit to his blog.

Good job Matt ;)

Cheering on the test takers

I thought I heard some jets flying overhead this evening, but it may have been the sound of 584,934 test takers collectively sighing in relief.

A few years ago I walked by a nearby high school on the night before the suneung, or university entrance exam, and saw several students sitting in front of the school's gate. I didn't have a camera at the time, but I found photos online which depicted the same sort of thing:


I decided to walk by that school last night to see the students at work again, but instead...


I'm not sure why this was. Perhaps the schools chosen to 'host' the test change every year? Cheering for test takers took place elsewhere, as this photo from Myeongdong shows.

There's a more enthusiastic cheering section (complete with drums) pictured in this post. The Joongang Ilbo reported on some new guidelines for test monitors:

Attoday’s national College Scholastic Ability Test, female proctors have been asked not to do anything ― or wear anything ― that might distract anxious students from the difficult task at hand, according to the Education Ministry. Test takers in the past complained that they could not fully concentrate on the crucial test due to the distracting soundof clacking high heels and the smell of thick perfume, the ministry said.

I wonder if the smoke from this presumed electrical fireat a school in Daegu was distracting? If it was just an accident, then wow, what a terrible day for it to occur. The reporters were also out
for the obligatory photos of students being escorted by the police to test sites, and of celebrity test takers (two years ago it was Moon Geun-young, this year it was two members of the Wondergirls).

One of the more worthwhile explorations of test day is the Metropolitician's video from last year.

Honestly, I think this is just great. How I wish my beloved black American community could get the same enthusiasm when our dear students sit for the PSAT and SAT exams.

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Are You SERIOUS?!!!

Thanks to my trusty LG-LB2800 DMB cell phone, I'm actually plugging into more Korean broadcasts. At home, I'm strictly a CNN International gal because cable companies are only allowed to carry one English news company (don't ask me why.) The rest of my news is gathered from the Internet. However, with my phone and my commute which consists of a 30 to 45 minute bus ride out of Seoul to Kyonggi-do, I've got time to tune in. Now I find myself firing up my phone and tuning into Korean TV or radio instead or reading or listening to music on my PDA. In fact, I got first hand confirmation that the new Korean pop group the Wonder Girls really do suck because I saw a performance, if you want to call it that.

Anyway, on Friday I was on the school bus heading back to Seoul. I was listening to Arirang radio and heard a story about officers in the Korean military who'd faked Philipino degrees to gain promotions.

What the hell?

Anyway, the reporter said that the military claimed there was no way to check this information. This is the same lame excuse used in the other degree scandals. What the hell do you mean there is no way to check?!!!

You find the school's phone number, pick up the phone, you call the school, you ask for the registrar department and you find out the process for verifying whether someone did or didn't graduate from the damn school. If you don't want to speak to someone, in this day and age you can find that information on the school's website. Again, as I've written before, no legitimate school wants people running around claiming they're graduates when they're not. It's up to employeers to verify this information, period.

Granted, it's best if people don't lie, but Korea is very much a one chance only society in some ways. If you fail the entrance exam or have a bad day when you take whatever test it is you have to take to get a job or even an interview, you're screwed. As a result of this, one strike situation, the temptation to lie is a very serious one. That's going to take Korean society changing and allowing people to move in or move up in different ways. However, that's not something I'm willing to theorize about at this point. That's up to Koreans to recognize and change.

Just don't give me this b.s. that you can't verify credentials. It's done all the time, except in Korea, it seems.

Sources:
AFP: SKorea's fake degree scandal spreads to military
Wake T-Rex: Lovely Just Lovely, Korean Military Officers Fake Filipino University Degrees

JoongAng Ilbo: Fake degree scandals hit the military

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Holes in Korean Education

This is an interesting topic. I've been watching CNN's Eye on South Korea reports this week. It's the last day and they've topped it off talking by talking about MegaStudy.

I was having dinner with another foreign friend last night who is studying here. And, believe me, foreigners have a ton of opinions on Koreans and their education system. I've got a few choice views on it myself.

However, I did point out that in spite of the fact that Koreans are still very much plugged into route learning, the fact that their leaders had the good sense to invest into creating a broad education system contributes to the successful export economy we see today. There was a lot they could have done with the funds they didn't have to put to national defense and there could have been massive corrpution beyond the cronyism that was seen during the industrial development years because there was a lot of aid coming to Korea. All in all, there wasn't and that money went to creating a society ready to learn and work to a better future. Now they've got it.

There are tons of various types of colleges and universities which train their population to move into the job market. The fact is all of my Korean classmates who wanted to work or to move on to further studies have. Small cities like Yeosu, where I started my adventures in Korea years ago, usually have 4 to 5 nearby colleges and universities. Another town I lived in had nothing more than a train station, a bus station a few blocks down the road, a few shops in between and a lot of gawking Koreans had at least 5 to 6 colleges and universities within a 30 to 45 minute radius. This has been crucial to Korean's amazing development because it's a reality that the child of working class people can get education. I've seen it and that's the background of the majority of the students I've had since I've been here.

Now these institutions are not creating scholars. What they're doing, however, is training people to become skilled workers to do the job. That's crucial for a country that lacks natural resources. You have to create your edge with your other resources. So for all the criticism that's directed in the general direction of the Korean education system it's managed to get the job done.

With that shout out, however, here comes the critique. When it comes to globalizing Koreans still have quite a ways to go. The economy is shifting from a manufacturing base to a service and research base. No education system is perfect; the US education system certainly isn't in the primary and secondary school levels, but somehow is at the top of the game when it comes to universities.

I was regaled with a story that one of my former professors had no clue where Jamaica was and thought it was somewhere in Africa. The class had to do reports on leadership in their respective countries, but the professor had no concept of the Caribbean region. Even after being corrected she continued to clump the African students with the ones from the Caribbean.

Now Koreans bristle when they're mistaken for Japanese or Chinese, so you'd think there would be the same level of sensitivity when they make the same error. However, I've found that empathy is a hard thing to find in Koreans when it comes to this issue. You'd also think that a "scholar" would have a general idea of the world's geography. Meaning you don't have to know exactly where a country is but it would be nice to think most "educated" people know the difference between the regions where Ghana and Guyana are located. If you know the positions this woman has had in the past and her specialty, the depth of her error becomes even more glaring.

That's one huge hole in the Korean system which leads to blundering errors like the one my former professor made. It's a shame because I guess even in the mind of a Korean who holds a Ph.D. from an American university and whose CV lists some interesting work, all black people except black Americans all must still live in Sub-Saharan Africa. And there is nothing wrong with living in Sub-Saharan Africa, so don't mistake my point. However, in modern times boats sail and planes fly and, believe it or not, they let black people on them from time to time.

The black disapora like the Korean one is all over the world. To not know the difference between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean is more that just humiliating for her (the story is spreading fast), but it's a clear commentary on how far the Korean education system still has to go to prepare its citizens to shift from making products shipped to foreign lands to actually dealing with foreigners face-to-face.

Maybe the folks at MegaStudy can offer a freebie class to its Korean subscribers to cover world geography and world culture. While they're at it, maybe they can create an English version for the students in the US too. I know I still have cousins who ask me how my life is in Japan, go figure.

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Koreans Can't Afford To "Think Poor"

Update 1 (Oct. 18, 2007 @ 9:26am)

Here is the Blog Action Day blog for more info.

Good show my fellow bloggers!
_____________________________________

I was happy to hear about Blog Action Day because it’s one way to show that Web 2.0 isn’t a complete waste of time and energy, and that it’s not going to be the downfall of humanity or Western culture as some are arguing these days.

The concept of having thousands upon thousands of bloggers talking about the environment is a great idea. It doesn’t matter what you write about or what you think. It's not a liberal blog action day or a conservative blog action day. You can be on the progressive or not-so-progressive side. You can be on the informed or not-so-informed side. You can be on the involved or not-so-involved side. That's great because maybe it will be a step towards people understanding that you can have varying views and still have a civil discussion.

As today approached I’d spent a fair amount of time right here: . Stuck and completely unsure of what approach to take.

I'm still not quite sure, but let's see where I end up.

As I’ve written before, in California it’s so easy to be someone who conserves. It’s easy. It’s encouraged. In Korea it’s not.

The frequent catchphrase and easy excuse is it’s a "developing country". This is said as if the concept of the environment is somehow alien or incompatible to economic development or, even worse, that Koreans are too dense or too backwards at this point in time to get it due to their level of economic development. The problem is thinking like that is going to put the commerce and development out of reach for the whole world. How many developing nations will lean on this excuse? How many incidents like the 1991 Doosan Chemical spill will have to happen in developing countries until that's no longer an excuse? How long does Seoul have to be known as having "some of the worst air pollution among developing cities"?

Traffic today around 3pm near Namdaemum Market in Seoul

That sort of reasoning is completely untrue. Of course, developing nations are special cases, but Koreans like any other nation can "get" the importance of repairing and preserving the environment and conservation. The fact is Korea is entering a completely new phase of development which is focused less on heavy industry and more on services and research and technology.

I did find a interesting webpage on the Pacific Rim Consortium on Energy, Combustion, and the Environment (PARCON) website that says that after the first oil crisis where Koreans were encouraged to “think poor” and use energy accordingly.

I started to write suggestions on how to conserve in Korea, but then I realized that I don’t want to do that. It’s real easy to get stuck on the minutia, hoist yourself up on a green soapbox, and, basically, isolate everyone around you to the point where they’re saying, “you know what? Fuck the environment!” Around a few high and mighty, environmentalists, vegans and certain hyper-aggressive members of the Green Party I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with, I've been close to feeling that way.

It’s pretty clear that human activity has made it essential that we think about our daily activities and how those activities impact our planet. It’s not about development or a lack of it. It’s about educating the population that being mindful of their daily activities can help heal the environment. In South Korea, "thinking poor" isn't the way to go anymore. With an economy that is firmly seated in the top 15 in the world, South Korea is now very far from being poor.

One tip: take mass transit. It's pretty darn good here in Korea.
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The IPCC's report is linked here along with other info: Where the Hell Am I?: On A Warming Planet.

My previous posts on the environment.

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KAIST Hires An American MIT Ph.D.

I saw this headline on the Korea Times website. It looks like the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has hired a recent PhD grad from Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Her name is Mary Kathryn Thompson and she earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.

Beyond that, the article is fairly typical as it gives a bit of information about her and her interests. I just think it's good to see more foreign females coming to Korea to teach.

She'll have a bit of adjusting to do to get used to how Korean students and Korean education works, but KAIST is a great school with some great students. They're also a Korean institution that is seriously getting research done.

Good luck Professor Thompson.

American Becomes KAIST Professor at 27

A 27-year-old researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) became the youngest professor here after being hired by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

The Korea's top technology school said yesterday it appointed Mary Kathryn Thompson as an assistant professor in its civil and environmental engineering department. She earned her Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering at MIT this year, and has received a dozen honors and awards for her academic achievements in the mechanical and material engineering field.

By becoming one of six foreign professors at KAIST, Thompson is now the youngest professor in South Korea, where age matters a lot more than in Western countries because of its Confucianism tradition. But still, she didn't break the record of becoming a professor at the youngest age, which is held by Yoon Seok-ho, who was hired by Sungkyunkwan University in 2002 at the age of 26.

Like any other young and talented foreigner who lands in South Korea, Thompson said that heading for the East was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone_ continuing her fast-forwarding academic career and experiencing foreign culture.

``Although I love to be an engineer and an educator, I also enjoy foreign languages, literature, music and art so I have always hoped to spend some of my life overseas,'' she said in a press release. ``A faculty position at KAIST offers excellent opportunities for world-class academic research, educational innovation and cultural exploration. It seems to be a perfect fit for me.''

The hiring of Thompson is the latest in a series of surprising news from the Daejeon-based university. Since Suh Nam-pyo, a former chief of MIT's mechanical engineering department, became the dean last year, the school has implemented a series of bold reform actions that have so far drawn mostly positive reactions.

Last week, the university rejected tenure requests for 15 of 35 professors for the first time in its history. It also abolished a regulation that forced professors to have at least seven years of service before applying for tenure.

Thompson hinted that Suh had some personal influence on her in deciding to come to KAIST. Having attended his lectures at MIT, Thompson said that her first plan in her new position is to adapt ``axiomatic design theory,'' which was developed by Suh himself decades ago, in dealing with civil and environmental engineering problems.

There are 436 professors at KAIST. Only six are foreigners, excluding foreign citizens with Korean origin, the university said.

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Click Over: A brief history of scapegoating English teachers in Korea

I'm all about doing nothing, which means just hanging out or relaxing, or traveling during Chuseok.

However, since I'm typing this on my computer in my apartment, guess what? It's all about hanging out and relaxing this Chuseok holiday.

I met up with ZenKimchi and a pair of other friends yesterday. We had a great meal at a new Viennese restaurant in Itaewon, Chef Meiji. At one point, the conversation went to the perception of teachers in Korea and how, in some ways, it's declined over the years and is just pretty bad.

I wouldn't know about the first part. I came here after the Asian Financial Crisis. While I have had people telling me about how great it was, my internal reaction is "so what? Things change." During that time I was completely focused on other things and, for me, it would have been a longshot to even consider teaching English here.

Things did change for me. My parents died. I was beyond sad. I realized that but for the company credit card, expense account and my field days I didn't like my corporate job. I had nothing to loose, so I quit. Also, during that time I had taken the LSAT and applied to law school. A few months later got into law school and moved to San Francisco. I realized about halfway through I didn't want to be a lawyer either. So, needless to say, things changed, as did my perspective and approach. When I finally arrived in Korea, I was full of a lot of optimism. I think that's what helped me adapt and roll with the negative aspects of being here. Living here is good if you're a cynical Pollyanna like me. That basically means I'm a realist but I'm also able to see those positive aspects of being here too. Sue me. To those who have had bad expat experiences in Korea my apologies, but sometimes I actually like it here moreso than home.

One negative aspect is how Koreans generalize to excess. It's probably because being from a society where everyone looks the same and pride themselves on having such a distinct culture that they see foreigners in the same way, as a monolith. Specifically there is a tendency to scapegoat English teachers here. Honestly, I've got a resume that most Koreans would kill for and I've yet to experience too much discrimination because I'm a teacher. Probably, that's due to the "status" of where I've taught as a university/college instructor. That's not the case for a lot of other English teachers because schools range from hagwons to private businesses to the Korean military. There are different ranks and levels of status that go with all of those positions. And, as I've written about before, there are some "interesting" types here. There are the teachers who can't get a job back home. There are those teachers who slip through the cracks because a lot of schools don't bother to verify credentials. These teachers do hurt the reputation of foreigners, but I know more good teachers who have it together than scary freaks or runaway criminals.

Anyway, here is A brief history of scapegoating English teachers in Korea from the Gusts of Popular Feeling blog. It's long and very detailed, so just click over to read it.

Now it's time for me to go shopping and pick up some dinner. Happy Chuseok everyone.

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Here is another - The Hankyoreh: Even born in Korea,‘foreigners’ feel sting of discrimination

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Korea Has Fewest Foreign Students in OECD

This is an interesting news snippet. Basically, it says that Korea has the fewest foreign students in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

This was interesting to me because I've just made it through a master's program here. For me, it was an easy decision and I felt comfortable doing it because I already had a graduate degree from the States. Thus, I felt insulated from any criticism of Korean universities being sub par in terms of the quality of instruction because I'd already earned my stripes so to speak. Also, for me, it was a way to create a niche. Now when I go to apply for PhD programs, I have specialized knowledge in a specific area. That knowledge is complemented by having lived in the country for awhile.

I've had a few people ask me if I planned to get my PhD here. I point out that if Koreans have trouble getting jobs with a PhD from a Korean university and that most go through hell and high water to get admission to foreign universities then it's not really worth my time either. Plus, honestly, I want maximum leverage and a Korean PhD would leave me with very few options.

What's even more interesting is that Korea is trying to become an international hub. Honestly, I'm still not quite sure what they mean by that. (I don't think they really know either.) Well, in order to attract foreigners you've got to have a society where not only is it easy to conduct business but it's fairly easy to live. That means accomidation, medical care, education, labor and management practices and many other things are on a par to other major foreign hubs.

Korea Has Fewest Foreign Students in OECD

The percentage of foreign students studying in Korean universities is the lowest among member states of the OECD. According to the “OECD Education at a Glance 2007” survey, Korea ranked bottom with Poland at 0.5 poercent in 2005, or 15,497 foreign students out of a total 3.2 million of the country's undergraduates and graduates. New Zealand had the highest percentage with 28.9 percent, followed by Australia with 20.6 percent, Switzerland with 18.4 percent and the UK with 17.3 percent. The OECD average was 7.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the most Koreans went abroad to study in the U.S. (57.8 percent), followed by Japan (23.4 percent), Germany (5.5 percent), Australia (4.4 percent), the U.K. (4 percent) and France (2.2 percent). Tuition was higher than the OECD average. Annual average tuition for four-year national or public universities was US$3,883, the third highest after the U.S. ($5,027) and Japan ($3,920). Korea rose from fourth place last year. The high ranking is because tuition in public universities in Europe is very low or free.

The Education Ministry in Seoul says state support has not risen in line with the growing number of universities, which explains the increasing tuition burden on students. As to private university tuition, the U.S.’ was the highest at $18,604, and Korea ranked fifth at $7,408. The number of students per teacher was 16 in high schools, 20 in middle schools and 28 in elementary schools, higher than the OECD average of 13, 13 and 16 respectively, the highest excluding Mexico. The number of students per class was 32 in elementary schools and 35 in middle schools (OECD average 21, 24), and classified as overcrowded. The annual report surveys the 36 member states comparing statistics on factors like high school graduation rate, per-capita public education cost, teacher wages and others.

I had to put together a report this summer comparing the international schools in Seoul to places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other cities. There are very few options here and it's common knowledge that within the foreign community a lot of people say that when their kids reach school age they'll have to move. Now there are a few international schools, but they really just don't compare to the range of international schools in other countries in Asia trying to attract foreign investment.

Layer on top of that the difficulty Koreans seem to have in anticipating problems, making decisions on their own and empathazing with the adjustments a foreigner has to deal with living here and you've got a problem. There are some professionals that work with helping foreigners settle here, but there are some changes that Korea itself will have to undergo to make this a place where not only single English teachers can live but where families can settle. Granted, yes, the companies and governments sponsoring these people bear responsibility too, but the infrastructure has to be there or else they'll choose a place that has the infrastructure in place. Considering the difficulties you face when living here as a foreigner and, as I said in this post, I don't see how Korea is going to achieve this goal without some significant changes.

Here is an interesting discussion on the Marmot's Hole about how foreign professors aren't even treated like equals to their Korean peers: Just Treat Us Like Equals: Foreign Professors. I know that as an English instructor on the college/university level my current job is the first job where they try to involve us.

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International Hub? Yeah, right!

Okay, this is pretty much a rant, so with that said, let me get to it.

I was on my way home this evening and decided to stop to get dinner. I got off the bus and went to the Shanghai Deli. I ordered some dim sum and fried rice, got my food and made my way back to the bus stop.

Now, as I mentioned before, I try to avoid the rush hour and also the times that school is letting out. I truly think middle school kids worldwide just need to be sent away until they mature, kind of like wine.

The good thing about middle school students in Korea is they're easy to identify because of their shiteous uniforms. The middle school kids in Banpo-dong weren't so bad. Believe me, I've seen worse. However, what just got under my skin was a pair who walked past and one shoved the other in my direction. This happened to me also when I was in Berlin when a bunch of white guys did it. I was no less pissed off then either, so don't say I'm anti-Korea. Someone will have to pay me to go back to Berlin 'cause it was shitty.

This is minor but just so irritating to me. What makes you think that you noticing me and how I'm different gives you any right to disturb me? I can understand looking. I can understand talking to your friends about the foreigner. But I don't understand why your ignorance is EVER my problem. It's just that if I'm minding my own business after a day at work and I just want to go home, relax and eat my Chinese take-out when stuff like this happens it really irks me. If I'm minding my own business I really would appreciate it if you minded yours. I know enough Korean so that I could hurl a few choice words their way, but to even have to go there is irritating.

Now I know this is nothing compared to stuff that can happen in some areas in the States. I also know that being different in places in the States can be more than irritating. It can be downright dangerous or even fatal, so don't come at me with comparisons 'cause I know.

However, I can still talk about what happens to me and feel the anger that comes with it. This is particularly because, yes, I'm well aware of the mess that goes on back home. I'm also aware that when I get home, I'll have to face certain degrees of it there too because the USA is a race-obsessed country. However, this about my commute home in Seoul today and not about comparative analysis on other societies.

What's funny is if you pay attention to the Korean media there are often press releases where the Korean government has decided it wants to be an international hub. This is because they realize they can't compete against China in manufacturing potential, so they've got to corner the market in something, so smart move. You hear the government is taking on some ambitious plan to attract foreign press and investment. However, it never seems like a lot of these plans look to educate its population beyond crappy English instructors, bozo foreigners on Korean TV or stereotypical depictions of foreigners and foreign society. (To those I know on Korean TV, you're all the exception...maybe)

When you have a society where it's pretty much certain that a foreigner is going to be greeted with gawks, stares, finger pointing, giggles, etc. and sometimes behavior that is just plan offensive, forget ever becoming appealing enough that businesses would ever consider relocating their business and employees in your country en masse. Yes, there are exceptions. But even where companies invest sometimes they're driven out due to the market patently rejecting foreign business. Walmart and Carrefour come to mind as two examples.

Now there are other issues:

* a horrible selection of international schools (I know this as I put together a report on it over the summer.)
* a society that is still very much working on the quality of its university level education system (the way Korean professors react to student cheating and, to be blunt, sometimes cheat would have them fired in the West.)
* a new selection of banking laws limiting foreigner's transactions (rather than just targeting the Korean-speaking Chinese that are doing it.)
* a general atmosphere where excuses are made rather than solutions being sought when things go wrong.
* etc.

No, most companies are going to look to Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore or other locations. Most foreigners are also going to skip straight over Korea and visit China or Japan.

Korea is steadily improving, no doubt, but it's little stuff like that which is rarer in other Asian countries that makes it a location that keeps it from being a serious contender with other Asian hubs.

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Denial Much? It's Not Just Korea...It's Everyone!

Update 2 (September 9 @ 2:15pm)

I didn't watch it, but a lot of people who did say that the KBS "exposé" on foreign teachers in Korea and their bad, bad, bad behavior was more balanced than not.

View from the fence: KBS on criminal teachers
ZenKimchi: The (Latest) KBS Anti-Foreigner Show

That's great! Really, there is no sarcasm there. It only helps to renforce the point I've expressed a few times over that, in general, Koreans appear to have a much faster learning curve on issues like prejudice because, mostly, it stems from ignorance and not mallice.

However, it still irks me they focus so much on what foreigners are doing but often turn a blind eye to what their own are doing. I mean in a country of over 40 million people where the foreign population has just now topped the 1,000,000 mark, their time would be much more effective chasing down the bad Mr. Kims out there.

This fake degree stuff would plummet with both foreigners and Koreans if Koreans simply took the time to verify credentials. People would still try to cheat, but they'd get sorted out more often than not.

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Update 1 (September 6 @ 7:04pm)

This got me so riled up that with my friend's help we opined on academic fakery and our opinions on it last night: Podcast #31 - Academic Fakery and the New Jack Hustle

Check it out and then go on to comment on how wrong, judgmental, or stereotypically American we are!

Cheers! ;-)

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Okay, I got a phone call today that was really bothersome.

My academic advisor at Ewha GSIS, who is a foreigner here, is listed on the Ewha GSIS website as having a PhD from both Trinity College in Dublin and Georgetown in the US.

Now this is through no fault of his own, but because the people entering the information at Ewha couldn't either 1) be bothered to get the information right or 2) intentionally chose to write something inaccurate he's got an overzealous reporter on his trail.

A reporter at the Korea Times called me today to ask me questions about this. He asked me if my advisor misrepresented himself. I told him that, to my knowledge, he had not. I told him that, as an Oxford, Kent, and Trinity grad, my professor would have no reason whatsoever to inflate his credentials to get a job here.

I also told him that I have a J.D., and that I've had a couple of situations where the schools I've worked for have taken it upon themselves to change my information. Instead of listing me as a J.D., I've been listed as an M.A. or even a PhD. I also have a friend, Mike aka the Metropolitician, that this has happened to also.

I told the reporter that's probably what happened with my advisor.

He then asked me who made the error. My reply was how was I to know who made the error. However, what he should do is to contact my professor and the schools to check. Since this type of mistake/exaggeration is common here, it was essentially harmless because he did attend Georgetown while he was pursuing his PhD at Trinity. That's easily confirmed.

Again, I told him he should contact my professor directly. The reporter's explaination was he feared that my advisor would "lie". That ruffled my Western feathers a bit because it shows me this fake degree stuff is turning into a witch hunt rather than a true quest for the truth.

I know leading questions when I hear them. Of course, I contacted my prof to tip him off and he replied letting me know that he'd spoken to this reporter twice today.

Since I got the call, got questions seemed to be asked to clearly steer me into a specific answer and I know the Korean media can be less than professional, I've decided to head them off at the pass. This is strictly preemptive because I've seen this way too many times. Nothing has been written or published yet, and it unless he finds evidence of clear lying, it should stay that way. Basically, he needs to find another target.

I'm all for investigating and I'm all for disclosure when it's proven that someone's intentionally misrepresented themselves. However, just as something recently took off about Daniel Henney (linked below). It's seem the same madness is being directed at my professor.

I hope that this reporter doesn't decide to publish anything suggesting my advisor lied. However, dear aggressive reporter, if you do, be warned you're definitely stretching here.

Honestly, why not write about the cultural and structural reasons why this happens so often? That would be a better story and might actually turn the tide in Korea to changing the situation rather than denial where they get to say "well, see??? Those nasty foreigers do it too." Well, some might but it doesn't go as deep as it does here and we know that too.

My feeling is that because it's hit the international press (New York Times and Associated Press) that whole "shame" thing has kicked in and now Korean reporters are scrambling to show it's not just us, you all do it too.

Reporting and fact-finding is cool. However, witch hunts aren't.

Now I've got to run off to record a podcast. I'll update this with more links later.

As stated, they even tried to string up Daniel Henney. The fact is liberties are often taken regarding academic qualifications here in Korea but the issue is if the person lied or not. If they didn't, there is no story and no amount of leading questions will generate one.

Go after the real liars, dear reporters.

Oh, speaking of Korean reporters who want to distract people. Yet another TV special about all of those depraved English teachers out there. It's so lame that you can just click over for commentary: Sex, Drugs and English Teachers. The Marmot actually saw the show. I didn't bother.
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Some articles on the education issue here in Korea (sometimes not direct research but Korea is mentioned):

Asia Times: Life and Death Exams in South Korea
Asia Pacific Education Review (2002, Vol. 3, No. 1, 125-135): The Relationship Between Students’ Perceptions of Classroom Environment and Their Academic Achievement in Korea or here
Shanghai Star: GRE computor test to be ended in China, S. Korea
The Educational Forum: Cheating in Middle School and High School

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이화여대 2006학년도 후기 학위수여식 aka Commencement: Finish-shee!

Update 1 (@4:47pm):

Yep, I was right. I got a beautiful bouquet of roses. I'd held my composure together up until then but, literally, every professor the department that I work for and our two assistants were there.

I cracked. I cried. The new M.A.C. eye makeup (color: Lovestone) I bought yesterday at Lotte Department Store is a mess.

I feel bad when I cry because I'm not crying about getting a bouquet of roses, I'm crying about something else. So I say my thanks and then I run away and hide. That's what I'm doing right now. I'll recover in a few minutes.

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Graduation is done! I held it together when facing the university's president when she was handing me my degree.

Oooops! I just remembered that I was in such a rush to get out that I forgot to pick up my award (those were in my department's office.)

I'm at work now and my department wants me to stop by the office later. I'll probably get flowers which is a nice gesture.

Here is a pic of me and Soha, a graduate student from Iraq. Below that, a picture of me and my classmate Jiyoung.


More to follow later. Now I have to get ready for my 2pm class.

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Pretty but ... ohmygod

"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory." - Paul Fix

That's a good quote to start this one off with.

This video is just burning up over at YouTube.com. I heard about this story this morning as I was getting ready for work. Honestly, I know I'm a few days behind the curve, but it's depressingly hilarious. All I have to say is thank goodness for George Hotz. We need stories like that to, at least, try to balance stories like this out.

Here is Miss South Carolina, 18 year old Lauren Upton, a contestant in this year's Miss Teen USA pageant, trying in vain to answer this: Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?



Before people rush on here saying that I'm calling her stupid, I'm not. I don't know the girl. Also, yes, people make mistakes and crack under pressure. However, whether it be merely nerves, bad public speaking skills or that she's a complete dimwit, she's the current poster child for the Dumb American.

I have to give a high-five to the US education system and that No Child Left Behind program for holding things down while I've been overseas.

I haven't laughed so loud in a long time. Too bad the laughter was at someone else's expense and tinged with some heartache.

Seriously, the educated elite (yes, the US has one even if it's not completely evident these days) is the exception, but most Americans really need to simply know more. I say this anecdotally. Sometimes just conversations I have with folks back home hurt because it's so painful what they don't know. The thing is I'm not talking about obscure, specialist topics and information. I'm talking about just everyday info, like the dismal state of education in the US. However, if this were actually common knowledge in the US then the system probably wouldn't be so dismal.

I'm not claiming by any stretch to be a walking encyclopedia, but I could have answered that question. In a contest that is supposed to judge not only beauty and charm but also poise, she should have been able to put together a coherent answer. In fact, this is one that really doesn't require facts. It's her opinion and she couldn't even articulate that. I know they teach this in just about all public speaking or interview classes: take a moment, collect your thoughts and THEN speak. Also, if the question isn't clear ask that it's repeated. Hint: this also buys you more time even if you did understand the question.

However, honestly, this flub will probably earn her more in endorsements than the winner. Not bad for coming in fourth place.

More links:
CNN.com: Miss Teen S. C. makes her mark with flub
Guardian Unlimited: Now, where is America anyway?
New York Daily News: Beauty queen: 'Americans ... don't have maps' and Beauty maps out better day
National Post: Yoni Goldstein translates for Miss Teen South Carolina
Toronto Star (TheStar.com): Miss Teen USA hopeful a superstar after flub
and in her defense, one from home - The IslandPacket: Give her a break! A few kind words for Miss Teen South Carolina

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Sappy Stuff

The master's cap and gown with those weird wing sleeve thingies. (A link to a pretty detailed hisotry of what all the patterns and colors mean.)

Update 1 (August 29, 2007 @ 10:43pm): I picked up my graduation gear from the cleaners and I still can't figure out what color that damn hood is.

Eh...whatevah.

p.s. It's now Thursday morning and, yes, it's peacock blue. There is no way it's aqua. I wonder has anyone every been vain enough to choose a major based on the hood color? I say this because music master's get to wear a pink hood. I'm jealous.

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I picked up my cap and gown today for my graduation cerimony. I have both Aqua Marine and Peacock Blue pictured as I really have no idea which color the hood is. I took the whole ensemble to the dry cleaners tonight, so I'll figure it out when I pick it up from the cleaners.

The cerimony will be this Friday for all you stalkers out there. I just figure that most of you will have a very long way to travel to stalk me so, I'm good. Plus, you'd still have to figure out the time and location ;)

I was filled with some sappy emotions trying my graduation cap and gown ensemble on. I was conversing with my department's administrative assistant. It was kind of bittersweet after all of the grief I caused for my department and, at times, this particular assistant.

My last year I realized the direct approach doesn't work quite as well as indirect here in the Land of the Morning Calm. I changed my strategy and got on much better than I did my first year. That was crucial as my first year I didn't work, but I went back to work my second year which means I didn't have time for stress. I work in Gyeonggi-do, the county surrounding Seoul. I commute about 45 minutes to an hour or more depending on traffic. When I changed jobs the commute changed but it's still around one hour. A softer touch meant a softer landing for me this year.

Graduating is cool in that I've earned some sort of award. Each department has one student getting a special award of some sort during the cerimony and my department will be with a few others in one big cerimony. Honestly, I'm still not quite sure what kind of award exactly. It seems none can really describe it in a way that I understand and I've yet to see the name of the award in Korean, so I'm at a loss to ask anyone else about it. However, from how they describe it, it seems to be the Korean equivalent of valedictorian for my department. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I've also earned best thesis for my class. Now that was one in which I definitely had an unfair advantage as I was the lone native English speaker working on one this term. I think just in terms of grammar, structure and writing style I had the best one. I have the advantage of having been published while in law school which means the one thing I can do quite well is academic writing. Plus, I'd mulled over topic and content forever and did tons of research, so it was clear I'd put a fair amount of work into it. Here in Korea I noticed that even theses are put off to the last minute, whereas I completely geeked out and pretty much lived in the library on the weekends last term.

What was sad for me was hearing that I'd earned these honors and immediately thinking about my parents. I'll write it in Korean and you can go to Bablefish or somewhere else to translate it. I started writing this earlier today and stopped here. However, in Korean I'm so focused on getting the grammar right that I can turn off the emotions.

제 부모님을 돌아가셨어요.

What that means was upon hearing the news the first people I wanted to tell I couldn't. At least, not literally. That led to some tears. What that means is there are going more tears that I won't be very comfortable explaining during the cerimony. The event itself will shield me as most will assume I'm merely sentimental and über-mopey.

From the fun point of view, I did bust out my toy lightsaber for my law school commencement. I've got to admit, if I had it here I'd probably take it again. The Koreans wouldn't be happy, but I would be walking with a mark of my geekiness and that would make me happy ;)

Anyway, a new semester of work starts for me tomorrow and I need to get some sleep, so I can be that alert and somewhat chipper instructor.

G'night.

P.S. Yeah, and no comments on this one.

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