Man Beaten to Death for Refusing to Drink

Shit...this brings the whole concept of Korea's "drinking culture" and "culture of conformity" to a ridiculous new high!!!

Man Beaten to Death for Refusing to Drink

Police arrested two construction workers on suspicion of beating their coworker to death for refusing to drink.

Gwanak Police in southern Seoul said Tuesday that the two offenders, identified only as Lee (42) and Chung (52), beat their colleague Chang (47) to death at another coworker's house in Shillim-dong, Seoul, Saturday.

The two beat the man because Chang refused to go out drinking with them, police officials said. They said their crime was unintentional.

According to the police, the two had beaten Chang habitually, who was mentally challenged. His ill health could have contributed to his death. See original...


Here's a very interesting read from the Marmot's Hole!
How Fucked Up is Korea’s English Teaching Racket?

This is fucked up — meet Mark Thomas, a Briton who next month will graduate from the English education department of Hanguk University of Foreign Studies. The Hankyoreh reports that Thomas — who has completed his practicals and will become the first foreigner to graduate from a Korean teaching program — spotted an ad on the Seoul Department of Education homepage last December looking for native speaking English teachers. He applied, even taking an interview.

For Christmas, he returned to Britain full of hope. Then came the news. Seoul Department of Education told him he fulfilled the requirements to become a teacher, but — sit down for this — the Immigration Bureau would NOT give him a visa.

Why, you ask?

Because current E-2 regulations state that you must have graduated from a university in an English-speaking nation to be eligible for a visa. Poor Mr. Thomas, however, attended university in Korea.

As Thomas rightly pointed out, had he attended university overseas, he could have obtained an E-2 visa regardless of his major, but since he studied in Korea, he could not get a visa, despite majoring in English education.

Thomas came to Korea in 2002 after meeting some Korean exchange students at his church in southern England. He studied Korean at HUFS’ Korean program for two years, and then entered the university proper in 2004. He’s currently in Korea, or at least until the end of February, when his visa expires. He said he’d get another job in Korea for now, but he’d continue to work to achieve his goal of becoming a teacher.
See original story...


Immigration Office Plans to Ease Visa Rule
A top visa policymaker said Tuesday that Seoul plans to give English teaching or E-2 visas to foreigners whose countries adopt English as an official language.

``We’ve already decided to expand the recipients (of E-2 visas),’’ Choo Kyu-ho, commissioner of Korea Immigration Service, told The Korea Times, Tuesday. ``I think the supply of (foreign English teachers) should increase to meet growing demand in a reasonable way.’’

Choo said that he can’t specify when non-native English speakers will be allowed the visa because the change requires approval of related government offices.

He plans to discuss the issue at a meeting with related ministries before June.Read More...


Here's a recent letter to the editor in the Korea Times about the same subject. I have to admit that I agree with those who think that non-native English speakers with solid solid English language abilities should be allowed to teach Esl. Obviously, English being their second language as well, they understand the process of learning and teaching more than most young, newly university graduated native speakers.
Asian English Teachers



I have to admit that I just found this story a little odd...

Japan wants to fly paper plane from International Space Station to earth
KASHIWA, Chiba -- An experiment to test whether a paper plane thrown from space could reach earth was successfully carried out at the University of Tokyo's Kashiwa campus on Thursday.

A special paper plane modeled on the Space Shuttle and designed to withstand high temperatures was found to be able to endure a mach 7 high-velocity air stream for 10 seconds.

The test was jointly carried out by the University of Tokyo and the Japan folded paper plane association. Participants are aiming to launch a flight of the paper plane from the International Space Station in November this year. Read More...


Firms urged to do more to help foreigners adapt to Japanese society
NAGOYA -- Local governments in central Honshu unveiled a charter on Monday urging companies to help foreign workers adapt to Japanese society, officials said.

The Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectural governments as well as the Nagoya Municipal Government have worked out the charter in cooperation with local business organizations including the Chubu Economic Federation.

The six-point charter urges companies in the region to improve working conditions for foreign workers, provide them with opportunities to deepen their understanding of Japanese culture and customs and help them and their families to integrate themselves into regional communities. Read More...