If you don't like feminist rants, avoid this post.

There's something that's been burning away in my mind for ages now, and I think if I don't write about it I'll soon explode. There's been a lot of talk lately in the Korean expat blogosphere about the popular Korean TV show "Chatting with the Beauties". In this show, foreign women from all over the world converse in Korean with Korean men. They tend to talk about cultural differences between foreigners and Koreans and what it's like being a foreigner in Korea.

One episode in particular, where the girls were talking about their opinions of the way foreign men in Korea behave, has been blogged about by some male expats in Korea, who have complained about the unfairness of their accusations and the stereotypical views people have of foreign men living in Korea.

Some of the girls made comments referring to how men who aren't especially popular back home come to Korea and, suddenly being surrounded by beautiful Korean women, act like they're cock of the walk. Another few women discussed how tall foreign men, in Korea, were equivalent to gods in the eyes of Korean women.

Perhaps this is due to my feminist inclinations, and perhaps I'm just sad that the foreign expat blogoshpere in Korea in generally male dominated, but, while I don't necessarily feel that the women on this show need backing up, I do have a few things to say on the matter.

1. People have this view of foriegn men for a reason. It doesn't matter if you're the nicest guy in the world, or if you treat your Korean girlfriend like you would any girlfriend in your home country. The fact of the matter is, your predecessors (and a large portion of your peers) are the reason this stereotype exists, no matter how unfair you feel it is. I understand that the media has had a large hand in creating this stereotype. All I can say to this is, welcome to a woman's world. And buck up.

2. I know (not speculating- I know these people and hear them talk) so many guys who date Korean women like it's a sport. Guys think that Western women may simply be "jealous" that men from their own countries go for Korean women, but in general we simply feel bad for them. I have a great boyfriend. He's supportive and smart. I'm not jealous of a Korean woman who, usually unkowingly (either because of cultural differences or because they haven't- and won't- be dating for long), is dating a complete asshole. Again, this DOES NOT AT ALL MEAN that I think all Western men behave this way. I know plenty amazing guys who I've become close with- some of them have great Korean girlfriends or wives, some are single and some are dating other foreigners.

3. I think some men believe that they treat women equally, but just don't realize that they are still stereotyping women and generalizing them in the same way that they are complaining about being generalized themselves. It's very easy to say "I treat my girlfriend with respect" and "I treat my girlfriend much better than a Korean guy would", but even that doesn't change the fact that you're STILL grouping all Korean women (and all Western women, if you're listening to the likes of "Chatting with the Beauties") together.

4. In complete truth, I've experienced every stereotype that these women talked about on TV. They were asked for their opinion, and they gave it. Maybe my own answers wouldn't have been very different. Some of the blog posts I've read have been very hypocritical in the respect that they said very similar things about Western women when critiquing the episode. In truth, it all sounded chauvnistic to me.

5. Get over it, guys. It's no walk in the park being a foriegn woman in Korea, either. When you start getting asked if you're a Russian prostitute every time you get in a cab, or get dragged to a love motel by a Korean man you were chatting with at a club (because, to many Korean men, no really means yes), or you have dealt with rape or being assaulted (as several of my female friends were last year) then maybe I'll take your complaints seriously.

I know this is a touchy subject, but you brought it up first. Let's keep the criticisms tasteful, ok? My Mom reads this blog.

Love, Janine

A Sunny Day During Monsoon Season

And a field trip to boot!

Well... more like a camp for "1st Graders" (10th graders if you're a canuck). A few days ago the head of the language department at school asked me to prepare an hour long presentation for the girls about Canada. The only problem is, I have been teaching these girls for over a week now and they already know everything about Canada (what? they're fast learners). So what do I write about?

Well, ever since I started teaching here I have never been more aware of the differences between Canada and Korea. In a hagwon, you are slowly transitioned into Korean culture and mannerisms- it's almost like you don't even notice you're becoming acclimatized. In my new school, many of the students have never met a foreinger before. They're curious about what is normal in Canada- normal fashion, normal passtimes, normal behaviour... and the more I think about it, the more polar opposite the two countries appear! So strange how these things creep up on you.

Anyway, I made up a *very long* slide show describing the differences between Canada and Korea. Like Canada, Korea is automatically compared to the bigger countries surrounding it (Japan, China) by Westerners. Likewise, Canada is often considered the same as the US by Asians. It's been a great learning experience these past few weeks, let me tell you.

Here are a few of the materials I'm using in my presentation:





Korea's capital city- vibrant, crazy, awesome Seoul.



Laid back, chilled out, and, compared to Seoul, very tiny: Ottawa



Considered by many (but not by me) to be a national hero: Wayne Gretsky



Every girl in Korea looks up to figure skating champion Kim Yu Na. She's in a lot of commercials here. Like, all of them.



Korea's not-so-loveable president: Lee Myung Bak



Canada's not-so-loveable Prime Minister: Stevo Harper



Canada's "funny guy": Jim Carrey



Korea's "funny guy": No Hong Cheol (he's on every TV show known to man)



Canada's favourite (?) food: Poutine! Yum!



Korea's national food: Kimchi, obviously! Yum. Yummmmmmmm.



The Rockies in Canada...



And Bekdusan in Korea (note: although every Korean person considers Bekdusan the most beautiful and famous mountain in Korea, it is actually located in North Korea- therefore, the South Koreans cannot climb it. Although they would very much like to. Oh! Also, this is the famed mountain that the trickster himself, Kim Jong Il, told the people of North Korea he was born on. And there was an iceberg in the lake. And the night he was born, a bolt of lightning struck the iceberg and broke it in two. And that's why he's god. And the poor people of North Korea know better, but they have to agree with him. Gah!)



Ugh- we have Avril...



And Korea has Rain (비). Hey Korea... wanna switch? I love Rain.



Finally! Korea's badass national animal!




...And then there's Canada's beaver. *Cough, cough*

Getting Screwed Over? Need Legal Help? Don't Worry, It Happens to the Best of Us

Sure, I probably have the most ideal working and living situation in Korea. I like my bosses, I love my kids, I like my neighbourhood, I live in a nice apartment- much bigger than the average English teacher's apartment and I make a good chunk of cash every month, thanks to resigning with my school and getting a raise. I've made a great bunch of close friends and I have a pretty cool boyfriend and although I have been upset with Korea at times, it never lasts very long and I'm still having a good time after a year and two months in the country.

Yes, my situation is great, and yours probably will be too. This just isn't to say that everyone is going to have a magical time in Korea. Bosses will fire you a month before your contract ends, your school might close down (as is what happened to Patrick) and your boss will continue to owe you thousands of dollars after 8 months, you might end up being unlawfully evicted from your apartment, or maybe someone around your neighbourhood has been making unwanted sexual advances toward you. Who knows. Korea is totally safe but there is an exception to every rule.

Sufficiently freaked out? Good! Now here's the better part- there are people in Korea to help you bust the bad guys (or gals) who might make your experience less-than-ideal. It's called the "Suwon Migrant Community Service" and they offer everything from Korean lessons to free legal advice to medical check ups. Got in a barfight with a Korean? In jail? Call these guys and maybe they'll be your only hope (just kidding... or am I? Lesson: don't get into barfights with Koreans... not that I know this from personal experience or anything...). Getting harassed by your employer? Is your employer not holding up their end of the deal? These guys will help you get what your contract says you signed on to get.

Here's Their Website: http://www.suwonmcs.com/

Here's Their Phone Number: 031-223-0075

You are not alone in the world. That is all.


* Please note: if you are being a douche and just hate your life in Korea and hate your boss for making you get off your lazy ass and actually work for once, do not call these guys. Get a life.

Afternoon Stroll in Paldalmun

This big, gothic church really sticks out in the middle of Suwon, huh? It's actually a good reference point to use because it's so massive. "Meet you two streets over from the massive, gothic church", and so on. Actually, I never go to that part of town so I've never used it as a reference point, but don't you think it would make a good one anyway?

We got off the fortress trail and walked along the food market street. It smelled so delicious, like ginseng and garlic and sandalwood...

Back home people are used to sanitized, grocery store produce that generally tastes bland and looks dull. I have never enjoyed grapes, oranges, persimmons or tomatoes as much as I have enjoyed them in Korea. They're so sweet and just ripe enough and so, so fresh. Just pick 'em right from the ground!

The zucchinis here look different from the ones at home, but they actually taste the same. They're just a little brighter in hue.

Mom is afraid to go across the stepping stones, but now she has to in order to save face. Come on, if your kids can do it, you can do it.

Typical, run down but extremely interesting street in Paldalmun. This is the old part of Suwon, surrounded by the fortress walls. I have heard a rumour that the government is going to eventually make all of the buildings exact replicas of how they were in the 1700's when the fortress was built. That would be difficult, I think, since Koreans generally build up these days (ie: high rise housing, businesses not always on ground level, etc.). How would they accomodate everyone?

I like to think that the owner is a fan... but what kind of fan mispells the name of the band. Really.

Korean War Museum

Just three subways stops away from Itaewon, the Korean War Museum was easily accessed when we stayed in Seoul a few weeks ago. I read a lot of Korean expat blogs, and honestly, I think everyone has done a post on the war museum over the last few weeks. It's like, the in thing to do right now. So of course I had to follow suit.

Actually I really just wanted to go to Insadong, but was overruled on this particular day. Luckily, I had read other blogs discussing the fact that, although it was super cool that the Dead Sea Scrolls were at the museum for a limited time, there was no English translation provided. I thought I would probably need a translation as did my friends, so we did not pay extra to go see that exhibit. We still really enjoyed ourselves, though. One could spend days at this museum- it's huge, and since Korea has such an extensive history of war and occupation, it is chock full of artifacts, recreations, maps and correspondance. I kept thinking that my Dad and brothers would have loved it, so I took lots of pictures for them. For you, faithful readers, I have posted only five, because I don't want to a) bore you, or b) ruin any surprises for when you go there yourself!


Just outside the museum there are several large statues, as well as old planes and a massive monument in the centre of the courtyard. This particular statue is much larger than what you see, and I thought it was interesting because at the front there were soldiers clearly being very brave and going into battle, but when you get toward the end of the statue you see women and children crying, clearly not wanting their men to go to war. Very touching.



They had all kinds of cool artifacts like these old fashioned bombs! One could also see the evolution of the sword from the very beginning of Korean history to the most recent. Oh, also a mean invention: spikes that were put in the ground so that horse would step on them and fall over. It's not the horse's damn fault you made it go to war!




This was my favourite part of the museum: the Korean War floor which had all of the information and correspondence between the United Nations and Korea in the days leading up to the war. It also had an area that showed what life was like in Korea during the war, and had information on all other foreign involvement.




There is one spot dedicated to Canada. After the US and Britain, we sent the largest amount of military support during the war. Actually, per capita we probably sent more. I'm not sure. But it was nice to see this little shout out.



This was part of the display showing the viewer what daily life was like for civilians during the war. This particular set shows the grief of a mother and daughter at the news of the father's death.

We spent hours at the museum and still, I don't think I managed to see everything. It definitely gives me a new perspective on Korean culture and the affect that war and occupation has had on Koreans, even now. I always knew that the war and, specifically, the Japanese occupation is still a soft spot and one generally shouldn't mention either to a Korean they do not know well (inquiries can sometimes be taken the wrong way, that's all- I can talk about these things with my close Korean friends), but now I have a much better understanding of the issues associated with Korean history.

You should go check it out too! Then post your experience on your blog. Come on. Jump on the bandwagon.

And the winner is...

Lee Myung Bak! Called it.

Now, I should tell all of you that although I did not necessarily want this Conversative to win the presidency, he DID come up with a sizable majority of the votes at around 48%! This is impressive, and it is also the largest majority won in the 20 year democratic history of Korea, so maybe I shouldn't gripe too much. Also, since the campaigns of all of the candidates were based more around bashing their opponents than promoting a platform (sound familiar CANADA?), he hasn't lied a lot so not much will be expected from him, aside of course to continue to be "at war" with North Korea.

Oh, and I saw him the day before the election! Kerri and I went to Paldalmun Market after school, which is a neat market near Hwaseong Fortress, and we went to see what the commotion was about up the street. There were all these storm troopers (?) holding hands and forming a barricade in the street, and in the middle of the street there were a lot of handsome men in business suits, and THEN a campaign bus bearing our new president came slowly down the road. Of course, being white, Ker and I stuck out like sore thumbs and he gave us a big smile and wave, being the savvy politician he is (also the fact that I was standing on something and waving crazily and smiling like an idiot might have made him notice us... it went to my head, just like the time I asked Paul Martin to hug me).

Well Korea, there ya go. Don't come crying to me when corruption occurs... and it will, mark my words!

PS: I'm sorry and I'm really going to work on being less of a cynic.

It's Crunch Time

These very long posters are now everywhere I go. Frankly, there are too many people running for president... I couldn't even get the entire poster in the picture! There are 12 potentials, I believe, but about 9 or 10 of them don't matter anyway- it's still pretty much down to Chung and Lee. From a non-partisan perspective, my money's on Lee. Just watch him win the election. I would still love to be proved wrong, he's too much of a righty for my taste.

Anyways, I would just like to rant a little bit about how the Korean people are royally screwed over by having too many political parties and too many guys running for president. Yeah, everyone has their favourite, yeah, everyone's going to vote for the one they like the most, yeah, democracy is great, yadda yadda yadda. The point of the matter is, there won't be a true majority winner because everyone's votes will be scattered all over the place and while maybe 20% of the population wants one guy to win, there's another 80% that does not want that guy to win. It doesn't seem fair. I know there's the same deal in Canada, but it's on a smaller scale- a larger percentage is guaranteed (not that I'm giving Canadadian political parties a pat on the back; I dislike all of them). Anyway, we'll see what happens in a week when the people go to the polls. At least Lee's name has been cleared (conveniently) in the fraud scandal he was involved in. Sigh. I shouldn't care so much.

Lunch in Super-Cool Hongdae

Last Sunday, while shopping around for Kim's wedding dress, we failed to find a place to eat near the Wedding Street (although we found out later that if we had walked a mere block towards the university we would have found a really cool neighbourhood with TONS of places to eat). Since we were only two subway stops away we thought we would go to Hongdae where we were certain we would find whatever we were looking for food-wise.

Hongdae, as I'm sure I have mentioned before, is definitely one of my favourite places in Seoul. If you're young and you like to go out on the weekends, Hongdae is the place to see and be seen. Countless clubs, bars, restaurants, and excellent shopping abound and everything has a very young and hip feel to it. If you feel like having a party outside, there's a park where people gather just to drink (there are vendor's around the park that sell beer and soju). If you feel like dancing, there are about a zillion danceclubs on the same street. If you just feel like chillin' there are other more relaxed establishments. I guess what I'm saying is, I love Hongdae.

Oh, and there's Honguk University, too.

But back to Sunday. We went to a sweet pasta place near the Hunguk University stop and enjoyed our lunch thoroughly (even if they put mustard on their garlic bread).

Imagine five young women sitting at the same table, waiting for their food, and taking pictures of themselves to pass the time. We all had our cameras out and we went a little flash crazy. Very lame? I think so.





A shot of Kerri checking out our waitor as he brought our drinks to the table.

Everyone, minus moi (someone had to take the picture).

Rachel and Amy

My lovely pasta, swimming in sauce. Just the way I like it.

Did I mention there are a lot of young adults in Hongdae? I really wish I had gotten a video of this, but I was afraid of being singled out. These young men and women were dancing like crazy, and were dressed like idiots. Do you see the Adjima's in the background? They're all wearing Grand National Party tee shirts and are there in support of Lee Myung Bak in his presidential campaign. The dancers are a chunk of the young voting population who enjoy their wealth and lifestyle too much to let someone too "liberal" run the country, and they ferverently support Lee. To make him look more appealling to the young population these kids danced in this crazy getup and there were anime versions of Lee everywhere to make him look cutesy and cartoonish.

Who would YOU vote for?

It's election season in Korea! I thought I'd escaped all of this when I left Canada, but this has proven to be a really interesting election! First of all, none of the candidates for the presidency seem, to me (and some Korean friends have backed me up on this point), to be... well... honest. I guess that's nothing new, but I've never experienced an election where all of the possible presidents have been accused of corruption. Politics are dirty everywhere you go, but I find them especially dirty here. One woman who wanted the presidency got attacked by a man on the street and was slashed in the face with a knife and then she was criticized by the opposition for coming back to work the day after the attack- I totally understand why she did it; she probably would have been replaced within a day. Anyway, she was the only woman in the race and she lost in her party's primary. Now, it's pretty much down to these two guys: don't let their clean cut, fresh faced appearance fool you: they're really, really old. Koreans age exceptionally well.



Lee Myung bak comes from a poor family and worked his way to the top (by means some could only describe as "questionable"). As a teenager he would work at his family's vendor all day and then go to high school at night. He made it through university and got a cushy job with Hyundai, eventually becoming a multi millionaire. He wrote a book called Mother, and says his mother was the inspiration. Duh.

He's a total hardliner on the North Korea issue and is economically conservative. He's running for the GNP, or the Grand National Party which is most comparable to the Progressive Conservatives in Canada or the Republican Party in the US. He was born in Osaka where his dad was a cattle hand, and then his family moved back to Korea after the occupation in the 1940's. Sad story though, the boat they were on sank and they lost everything they owned, which is why Lee had to work his way up the ladder.

There are some bad things about him: he's been suspected of corruption during his term as the Mayor of Seoul, there have been bribery charges laid on some of his people involved with one of his restoration projects, again while he was Mayor. But I think he's currently at the front of the race.



Chung Dong-young is running for the United New Democratic Party, which can best be compared to the Liberals in Canada or the Democrats in the US (with a slightly more pronounced stance on environmentalism). He was the Unification Minister from 2004-2005, and was a TV news journalist before getting involved in politics. He's a huge supporter of the "Sunshine Policy", which is a more diplomatic and liberal approach to North-South relations. People who support this policy want to see reconciliation and eventual reunification between North and South Korea, and certainly support a peaceful means of reunification.

Unlike Lee, he doesn't really have a sob story. He graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in history and went on to complete his master's in Wales. He certainly does not seem to have been brought up in a poor household.

Some bad things about Chung: He is often questioned on how he has been able to send his children to private school on his supposed income of just 100,000 USD a year, leading to assumptions that his dealings may not be completely legit. He's also been known to shoot off his mouth; in the past he has directed ciriticisms at members of the opposition, to students with a poor background, and to the elderly (who, in Korea, are more likely to vote for the GNP). Also, when he was minister of Korean Unification, he was criticized for his position on North Korea and his anti-American sentiments.

Soooo there are the options! Well, two of them. Korea has a multiparty system and there are others running, but these two (I'm thinking) are the only ones you'll need to worry about for the rest of the presidential election. We'll find out who wins in a month (ish). Are there any other candidates you think might have a chance? Let's keep in mind that I don't think Lee Hoi-chang has a chance (he's just left the GNP to run as an independent, saying he questions Lee Myung-bak's "integrity").