I found a web site called Connect Korea that has lots of links to various news articles from English newspapers and bloggers in Korea. Their mission:
Welcome to Connect Korea. An online Korean media source connecting foreigners to Korea. We hope our community and media will keep Koreans and foreigners up to date about Korean culture and issues.
An email recently sent out by the American Embassy about danger in Seoul:
Subject: Potential Threat to US Citizens in University Areas
The U.S. Embassy is transmitting the following information through the
Embassy's warden system as a public service to all U.S. citizens in the
Republic of Korea. Please disseminate this message to U.S. citizens in
your organizations.
Recently, inflammatory sexual content was posted to a website for
English language teachers in Korea. That posting together with subsequent
postings were taken by some to demean Korean women. We have noted
recently, strong reaction in the form of web postings threatening attacks in
the vicinity of Hongik University and the Sinchon area against
Americans and other foreigners who speak English. All Americans and their
families (especially young adults) are encouraged to exercise prudence and
caution when visiting these neighborhoods. The Embassy advises that
inappropriate social behavior in public may be seen as provocative by
Korean nationals.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul will continue to keep the U.S. community
informed of any changes in the overall security situation. The Embassy
encourages all U.S. citizens to register their presence in Korea with the
American Citizens Services (ACS) office at the U.S. Embassy or via the
Internet at http://travel.state.gov/travel/abroad_registration.html or
http://www.asktheconsul.org/.
American Citizen Services
U.S. Embassy Seoul
32, Sejongno, Jongno-gu
Seoul 110-710, Korea
Tel: 02-397-4114
Fax: 02-397-4101
DSN: 721-4114
http://www.asktheconsul.org/ (English)
http://www.usavisas.org/ (Korean)
e-mail: seoul_acs@state.gov
I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on my new navigation/coloschme on the ESL go forums? Eventually I'll get this new scheme on every page in the site, but it may take some time...
Thanks to some negative somments about Korean women, one English forum for teachers in Korea is temporarily offline:
As a result of negative newspaper reports depicting but a small percentage of user opinions, we at English Spectrum have decided to pull the offensive forum and are taking steps to re-organize how these forums are operated and monitored.
Yours truly just completed an interview with daum.net about this and other issues regarding English teachers in Korea. The interesting thing is that I just returned from a vacation in America last night and this is the first I've heard of the issue.
Comments about the issue would certainly be welcome as I suppose this is something I should know more about.
One of the most stressful things in life for me is the job hunt. I don't enjoy wrtiting cover letters and going to interviews. One of the books I got for Christmas, Purple Cow by Seth Godin, has some advice for making your job hunt easier:
Be remarkable. Do an outrageous job. Work on high-profile projects.
Think about Dave Sperling of Dave's ESL Cafe fame. His teaching qualifications are pretty standard but he gets more speaking invitations than me. He did something remarkable.
I do a lot of academic things; I make presentations, publish papers, faciliatate the KOTESOL CALL SIG, have a Masters. I used to think that made me special, but that's what professors are supposed to do. It's expected.
Maybe what I really need is for ESL go to take off. Or this blog of course...
When I started this blog I got some interesting comments like the ones on teaching reading from a while back.
But now all the comments seem to be coming from spammers. Most are about poker or worse. If anyone here will be offended if I remove comments from this blog, please leave a comment here.