On Ugly English Teachers and Racist Korean Journalists - Intro

On Ugly English Teachers and Racist Korean Journalists:
Let's not all crap our pants now. The intro.


My summer vacation was great, thanks very much, but it means that I didn't get the chance to write anything timely about Choi Hui-seon's string of racist smears on foreign English teachers; however, this is something that's been the subject of a bunch of blogs for a while now, particularly since Ben Wagner's report to the NHRCK drew renewed attention on the way English teachers have been scapegoated and stereotyped by Korea's media for years now, leading to a group of proposed laws that have no basis other than stereotypes and fear-mongering, as well as a number of somewhat connected comment-thread bloodbaths. That was a long sentence.

It's the kind of topic that gets everybody's hackles up, for sure, so I've subtitled the series "Let's not all crap our pants now" just to remind us all to step, not dive, into this thing with cool heads, because the last thing we need is another hate-thread where it devolves into expat vs. Korean, old-timer vs. new-timer, or whatever.

And because my sister asked me not to use bad words in blog post titles, now that my nephew and niece are old to read my post titles over her shoulder. I've wanted to write about this topic for a while now, but as I started brainstorming, it snowballed, and I realized just how much there is to say about it, so this is going to be a series instead of a single post. I'll publish them as I have time to write them up properly, and I'm sure I'll intersperse with my usual unfocused goofiness (aren't y'all glad I never committed to a single focus for this blog?). You know Blogoseyo well enough by now to know that I can't talk about God, culture, the science of catching bananas at optimum ripeness, or anything serious for too long before tossing in something about zombies (which ARE serious, too, if it turns out they're real), cats falling down stairs, or which Korean-made vehicle would transform into the scariest Decepticon.

So over the next little while (and isn't blogging great, because I don't have deadlines or word counts) I'll be approaching this topic from a few different angles, in an attempt to blow my whole stack, and say everything I have to say about ugly English Teachers and Racist Korean Journalists at once. So stay tuned to see what I've got! Some of it will be repeating or repackaging what you've heard before; hopefully at least a few of my points will be new, and hopefully most of it will make sense.

As I go, I'll put links to the different parts here.
On Ugly English Teachers and Racist English Teachers: Let's not all Crap our Pants Now: Intro
Part 1: But You're TEACHERS!
An Open Letter to new English Teachers in Korea
Part 2: Why, Yes, Korea DOES have a Batshit Media! Why do you ask?
Part 3: Yeah, Some Self-Reflection Is Called For, but not From You, Ms. Choi
Part 4: Racism, Culture-shock, Acclimation and Integration in Minjokland
Part 5: The PR Campaign: 'Seyo's Marching Orders