Wednesday, May 14, 2008

for all the alienated weiguks living in Korea: Hail Nathan, defender of English Teachers!

I found this on Foreign/er, a random find from the Korean blog list, and found it very interesting to watch.



them cultural lines just keep blurring everywhere.

I really liked the part where, even though you can still hear the hurt in her voice when she talks about the discrimination she experienced when she came to America, she still explains how she doesn't see a racist in the old man shouting at immigrants in his neighbourhood; she sees a man having an identity crisis as the America he knew for sixty years suddenly changes completely. What an amazingly compassionate way to think of these people, kicking powerlessly against a changing world that just won't stop rolling, no matter what they do, and all that remains for them is to slowly watch themselves become irrelevant in the new society that sprouts up around them.

They must feel kind of like this guy:


Also: (cackle of glee) JoongAng Daily gets theirs:
Hail to Nathan Van, who stuck it to them for their sloppy write-up of the American pedophiles, which I mentioned in my rant here.

[LETTERS to the editor]Wrong example
May 12, 2008
Ser Myo-ja's May 9 front page article, "American pedophiles banned by authorities," should raise concerns among Americans, fact-checkers, and anyone else at all concerned with the truth. Ser Myo-ja reports on the Ministry of Justice's ban on convicted American pedophiles from entering Korea.
Ser Myo-ja goes on to mention Christopher Paul Neil [who was arrested in Thailand as a suspected pedophile who preyed on young Asian victims] as if he were American. He's not. He's Canadian. Why wouldn't the article mention that?
The Ministry's ban doesn't affect Canadians.
You should get your facts straight lest you add to the miseducation of Korean citizens, poisoning the minds of a society already tainted by isolationist ignorance and prejudgment.
Your misleading article poorly informs Koreans.

Nathan Van, Seoul


Once again, I raise my glass to Nathan Van from Seoul.

We'll see if my letter to the Korea Herald gets printed. . . it was a little longer than his, and used words like "shame" "racist" "irresponsible" and "duty to the truth". . . even if it doesn't get in the paper, they read it, and it'll go up on this blog, regardless.

2 comments:

JIW said...

Hi,
Thanks for cross referencing my website. I am glad to see someone else take interest in this video. I too found her compassion to be very humbling considering everything.

~Joy

Roboseyo said...

no problem, Joy. You're also on my "Friends of blogoseyo" list.

Gordsellar is really helping you out on your comment board. . . did you know he's kind of a K-blogging star? One of my favourites, at least. Not least because he's a published author, something I want to be.