Congrats to the hand full of K-bloggers who had the opportunity to meet Korean President Lee Myung-bak during their attendance at a World Friends Korea event at the Blue House:
Michael Hurt took a number of pictures of the event that can be viewed here. More about this event can be read over at the Marmot’s Hole and Roboseyo as well.
I have done the Blue House tour before and it really is quite a nice facility to visit and definitely a place fitting for a head of state. Information to reserve a group tour of the Blue House is available at this link.
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10:31 pm on May 27th, 2011 1
I must say, they are some fortunate bloggers…
…and to think it coincided with Crazy Hat Day.
Some people have all the luck.
2:09 am on May 28th, 2011 2
Did Hurt know of this event prior to going on his critiquing society sabbatical so he wouldn’t have or receive any ill feelings? Get back to what you do best Michael, not that the pics aren’t good.
5:35 pm on May 28th, 2011 3
I’ve been invited to a similar event to the Blue House, but was abroad when it was held.
11:18 pm on May 28th, 2011 4
#1- It’s more than just “luck.” It’s crumbs off the table. Kiss enough butt and sugarcoat things, and you, too, can get invited to things like this. Give all positive reviews and you can make money off of your restaurant blog. Use your blog to promote K-Pop and you can make money, too.
11:31 pm on May 28th, 2011 5
At least ROKDrop, Marmot Hole, and, yes, Kushibo (from time-to-time) are willing to “crack some eggs to make an omelet”, if you know what I mean. Marmot and Kushibo are wrong about some things and I do tell them when they are wrong, but at least they are willing to cover some stories from both sides. The only other blogger worth reading, QiRanger, is a tour guide but at least he does his homework. Plus he covers places and things no one else bothers to cover.
Some of the others who blog about tourism in Korea sound like they’re paraphrasing the KTO website.
11:47 pm on May 28th, 2011 6
Must have been in conjunction with “Banana Splits Day”.
/I wonder if the First Lady was wearing the (in)famous adjima welding mask hat as well?
1:53 am on May 29th, 2011 7
nice hat
11:50 am on May 30th, 2011 8
ArchieB wrote:
ArchieB, they invited Metropolitician. Have you ever read his blog, because I don’t think it fits that description at all, but he was invited.
My guess is that the people who invited him did not read his blog, but only knew of his bio.
7:43 pm on May 30th, 2011 9
And thanks for taking note that I do crack a few eggs from time to time. There are actually quite a lot of things I’ve criticized in the several thousand posts I’ve written, but they just don’t become the dominant theme. I think some people look at the posts where I take people to task for knee-jerk, mindless, unfair, uninformed, or inaccurate Korea bashing and assume I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Urinara. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The funny thing is that a lot of SoKos look at my blog and assume I’m overly critical or whatever. (Many assume the title of my blog itself if an unfair dig at Korea and it makes people assume I am one of the mindless Korea bashers, go figure. That might be why I didn’t get invited. Plus Metro and Rob hate me.
)
7:32 am on June 1st, 2011 10
#4,
Dude, it’s really not that big of a deal. They throw informal receptions quite regularly, and based on the dress code this was a very informal one.
Hell, a few years back I also passed up on the opportunity to take a private tour of the Blue House (Yes, I’m well connected).
7:40 am on June 1st, 2011 11
#8,
The guy sure has come up with a convoluted way to meet women. Heck, he’s got not just one blog dedicated to it, but two.
7:55 am on June 1st, 2011 12
I decided I’m very hurt and angry about all this.
I should have been invited to a presidential function.
I think they are just jealous that only I will be able to compare a Presidential Meeting to Your Filipina Juicy.
e.g.
One is young… the other is Young-sam.
One will give you the Blue House… the other will give you blue balls.
One is as dumb as a pile of rocks… the other jumps off them.
etc.
3:29 pm on June 1st, 2011 13
The expat bloggers who blog that every restaurant is 5 stars will cause you to waste time and money at some bad places. The expat bloggers who claim to be teachers and then post about how everything in Korea is “perfect” do more damage because they present the image that there are no problems with the ESL industry in Korea. The message they send is-”I’m a foreign teacher in Korea and everything here is wonderful.”
At Brian in J. told the truth about teaching in Korea.
4:44 pm on June 1st, 2011 14
I have written many times that much of the problem lies with Immigration, with the parents, and especially with the schools and the hagwons. But when I get labeled as “anti-English teacher” by people who selectively read what I write is when I write that the English-teaching community also bears some responsibility for the problem by the fact that there are folks like these among their ranks.
There is considerable rot in the English-teaching community, but many of the bloggers and commenters fail to or don’t want to address that. In response, we get finger-pointing and other things. In fact, one of the classic responses is to blame Koreans for hiring such slackers. Un-frickin’-believable.
4:46 pm on June 1st, 2011 15
And I wholeheartedly agree with you, archieB, that anyone who paints Korea as strawberries and roses is doing a major disservice.
Sometimes I disagree on what the actual problems are and how to deal with them, but there most certainly are problems whenever one group goes to a place that is culturally quite different from where they’re from, where another language is spoken, and where social and workplace expectations are different.