February 25th, 2013 at 6:30 pm » Comments (9)

It seems to me that discussing a touchy subject such as racism in Japan while working as a foreign English teacher is not a wise thing to do: Miki Dezaki, who first arrived in Japan on a teacher exchange program in 2007, wanted to learn about the nation that his parents had once called home. He taught English, explored the country and affectionately chronicled his cross-cultural adventures on social media, most recently on YouTube, where he gained a small following for videos like “Hitchhiking Okinawa” and the truly cringe-worthy “What
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February 24th, 2013 at 6:37 pm » Comments (33)

Kangaji translated some rules for foreigners in Korea from the Ilbe website. Here is a sample of some of the rules: 5 RULES OF LIVING FOR FOREIGNERS AND ILLEGALS LIVING IN KOREA. 1. Thou shalt pretend to be poor/pitiful. Everyone will pity you. 2. When things don’t go in your favor thou shalt use English or your mother tongue The police will take your side out of pity. 3. Thou shalt get close to Korean females. You can thoroughly enjoy yourself as you steal your way to citizenship and get
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July 18th, 2012 at 5:37 am » Comments (44)

A recent article posted over at 3WM that tends to continue the recent trend at criticizing the behavior of foreigners in Korea.  I can understand the major premise of the article which is foreigners need to behave better in Korea, but some of his comparisons with Koreans I found just odd: The reason for the proliferation of acting stupidly and irresponsibly when drunk is entirely cultural. In Korea, if a person acts in a socially unacceptable way when drunk, they will feel shame for it because of the attitude of
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June 9th, 2012 at 8:33 am » Comments (6)

I have been following the whole MBC Foreigner-gate controversy over at the Marmot’s Hole and it is pretty much playing out as I expected with the MBC producer claiming no wrong doing and in fact claiming they were doing foreigners a favor with the demeaning segment.  I think Robert Koehler summed this all up pretty well with this conclusion: I guess he might understand the anger better if somebody like FOX or the Daily Mail ran a similarly produced piece about “The Shocking Truth about Korean Students Who Shoot Up
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August 23rd, 2011 at 1:26 am » Comments (7)

Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this news that the foreigner crime wave often reported in the Korean English language media is mostly hype: An often-heard gripe in South Korea’s expat community is that South Korean media pay outsized attention to crimes by foreigners, especially those by English-language teachers in schools and hagwons (after-school tutor centers). While there’s been no study done about news-media reporting habits and bias, the Justice Ministry has released data that shows foreigners are charged with fewer crimes on average than South Koreans. In 2010, the data
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May 23rd, 2011 at 5:58 pm » Comments (40)

That is how the Chosun Ilbo sums up this article: A police crackdown that ended early this month led to the arrest of 1,249 foreigners and 79 indictments. Most cases involved extortion and violence. And the foreign gangs are seeking to join hands with organized Korean crime. It is only a matter of time before they expand their reach into Korean society. The country needs to think twice about welcoming foreigners without proper screening. There has to be a system of background checks and records of visitors. Without it, Korea
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February 1st, 2011 at 1:00 pm » Comments (6)

Foreign exchange students take part in traditional Korean games at a special event at Ewha Womans University in Seoul yesterday, which was held for foreign students ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

October 26th, 2010 at 1:04 pm » Comments (22)

Via KBS Global.

July 28th, 2010 at 1:00 pm » Comments (8)

April 28th, 2010 at 3:40 am » Comments (27)

This Korea Times article makes a claim that foreigner crime is rising dramatically in Korea: FOREIGNERS’ CRIMES RISE SIGNIFICANTLY The number of foreign nationals caught for crimes in Korea is on the rise with the increase rate in felonies particularly notable. The National Police Agency (NPA) said Wednesday a total of 7,812 foreigners were arrested last year for involvement in the five major crimes – homicide, robbery, burglary, rape and physical assault. – an increase of nearly 18 percent from 6,615 in 2008. Police said a total of 260 foreigners
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