Naked at a baseball game. (NSFW ;-)

[DWAEDGIMORIGUKBAP]

My first year in Korea I was outside my hogwon having a smoke.  Looked down from the second floor to see some guy (Korean) with his pants down to his ankles pulling himself.  Many students from elementary school to high school were walking by and I was screaming at him to stop.  I wasn't getting through to him, so I got another teacher (Korean) to come out and stop him or call the police.  Anyways she didn't seem to concerned, and eventually he left on his own will.  My point is should I blame all Koreans or view all Koreans in this light?    The guy was obviously mental, but the other teacher!  How could she not do anything?  Even if the police came, would he have even  went to jail?

I agree, stop thinking the actions of a few will have any effect how Koreans view YOU.  If you're a good person, Koreans like anyone else, can see that and will treat you accordingly.   


 

The problem here is that you are a level headed person who doesn't roam around in a blinkered fantasy world and you're corresponding here with SOME people that quite obvioulsy are.

[southernman]

Ye a lot of you guys who have said he is a teacher, in retrospect, you are absolutely right. If a teacher did this at home he would certainly lose his job and wouldn't be allowed to teach again. Although this absolutely DOES NOT make him a sex offender. When we become teachers we take on responsibilities that come with it.

To the person who mentioned about the family dinner on the weekend, ye this will suck for you, and suck bad. But I think it needs to be explained to Korean people that YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. There are so many employers here who would rather get some kid straight out of high school with no life experience never mind teaching experience and has never had any real responsibilities as it saves them $300 a month. Even the public schools are apparently doing this now. Well guess what? If you pay for a load of fresh high school graduates to come and live in your country this is the type of behavior you will get. And this isn't just the fault of the employers. The parents are taking and paying for their kids, as young as 3 years old to be put in absolute care of these people. I would never give my 3 year old child to someone to care for 7 hours a day unless I knew exactly what qualifications they have and experience. I imagine, I hope, this was the case here. I really hope that no experienced teacher would be that stupid.

When Koreans start employing and paying for professionals this is what they will get, and if a Korean person judges me because of this person, to me that is their problem, as I don't have time for someone who is that judgmental. Luckily, it is actually very rare that this happens.

Couldn't agree more. (although I think you mean Until instead of When in the above paragraph).  The behaviour is blatantly wrong from anyone who professes to being  a teacher.

Sadly, all the Korean moms want is a  Barbie or Ken (which they get, sometimes, with the same plastic persona  ).  These are the same moms who don't use safety seats for their children in cars so they're hardly leading the way in safety for their children.

But the standards are the same for Korean Hagwon teachers,  I believe,  all they need is a Uni degree as well.  At PS's teachers regularly drink at school for any excuse,  some get munted on staff outings and can behave badly, with little or no recourse to their professional advancement.  I'm not judging those people and I don't.  So I frankly don't think they will be judging me, especially by the actions of others.

Yes, the behaviour was shocking but we're hardly living in a bastion of moral and social superiority. Another poster said the picture was 2 years old.  Two years ago some Korean teachers were severely beating children in their classrooms, some still are.

 I just worry about my own personal behaviour and professional standards.  Those tossers aren't worth worrying about. 

 

[boanerges]

Just in my opinion if the photo is two years old then hopefully by now the individual in the photo has learned his lesson and has had an opportunity to reflect on his inappropriate actions. I know two years seems like a short time, but alot can happen in two years and regardless of a person's past, people are able to change their attitudes and outlook on life. So with that said, I don't think it is necessary to do the petitioning and all the ranting  and the whole la dee da dee da's on this anymore. I thought it was necessary at first because I assumed the photo was taken at a recent baseball game, I didn't think it was from two years ago.

If it was two years ago then my comment is that people make mistakes, some mistakes may appear to be worst than others, but that individual needs to learn from the two year old mistake and move on.

Personally, I don't think anyone would want someone else to dig up some expired trash on them from two years ago then display it on a social website and do a petition with different commentaries. We probably wouldn't have come across this during our year/years teaching in Korea if it wasn't dug up. Well, I know I wouldn't have. If the man was going to face any consequences for his actions then this should have probably been done at the time of the actual incident two years ago, but unfortunately no action was taken, so this is one of those second chances that people get in life to learn from a history and move on and not to repeat that history because next time it could lead to serious consequences especially if he did this back home.

Anyways, at least from this discussion we understand that such actions are not in the least supported so for those feeling quite adventurous on a night out, think twice before doing something inappropriate. 

[DWAEDGIMORIGUKBAP]

Really though, being an ESL teacher in Korea, a position that requires no training whatsoever, no related academic credentials other than a BA and a 'handsome smile' and living in a culture that can't and doesn't really want to relate to you and working for (lets be honest 9 out of 10 hakwans and even public school English programmes) a 'school' which (these are my actual experiences) asks you to lie about student's grades to the parents, mark wrong work as right so as not to upset the kids, 'don't worry about their learning, just love them and make them happy' and putting kids in classes that are way above their ability and thus the kid learns zilch and suffers more stress just to impress the egocentric parent and make sure their $$$$ still come in and all the other corrupt and ANTI-EDUCATION practices which go on - is hardly akin to being a real teacher in your home country and being a respected member of the community and both holding and HAVING TO EARN the respect the position merits.

Come on, come down to earth all you bashers.  If one of those guys in the pic was your brother or a friend of a friend and you were face to face over the table with him, would you really be able to look him in the eye and condemn what was essentially an ill thought out bit of drunken fun and go so far as to say he should not be allowed to teach at a hakwan and even BE DEPORTED?

If so i call you a blinkered fantasist who sees other human beings merely as ideas and that you probably have problems relating to flesh and blood others and understanding people's circumstances etc.

come, on i mean slap the guy a 100k fine and embarrass him with an hour or 2 in the police station.  Fair enough, maybe it'll make him grow up a little.  But deport him or not allow him to work in a hakwan?

Sheesh.

The stick removal company's number is 0109-3456-7891

[creeper1]

ESLers at their finest.

[adamwatch]

 A lot of posts about one  drunken Yank! We were complaining about them in the Uk back in 1917 and 1944 so what's new? Interesting that no one has blamed the "drugs" he was on!

Adam

[VizionMC]

Ha ha we are a rowdy and undisciplined lot us Yanks!!!!   I love it - very incorrigible!!!! 

As they always say "we can't take you anywhere" and "I guess this is why we can't have nice things"