Ask a Korean! News: Super Bowl 2009

So far in AAK! history, there has been two Super Bowls, and two Super Bowl picks by the Korean. The Korean is 2-0 in those picks.

What is the big deal, you say? The big deal is that last year, when everyone, EVERYONE was picking New England, the Korean dared to pick the Giants based on the scoreboard that he saw in a dream. And the Korean was right, as he always is.

Can he keep the streak going? The Korean's pick will come in a bit, but the annual rant must come first.

Dear Commissioner Goodell,

Do you want to spread football to other countries? Then bring a goddamn franchise to Los Angeles.

Do you know how many Koreans watch MLB as Dodgers fans because Dodgers brought Chan-Ho Park? (The Korean hates him because he's an overpaid prick, but that's a different story.) Do you ever wonder why there are 1.6 billion Houston Rockets and New Jersey Nets fans? It is thanks to the very skilled guy named Yao Ming, and this scrub named Yi Jianlian. Manchester United, the world's most successful sports franchise, opened up a whole new market by signing Park, Ji-Sung. Do you see a trend?

Currently Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the teams in this year's Super Bowl, is probably the only NFL team that any Korean knows because Super Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward is half-Korean. Thanks to Hines Ward, Steelers playoffs games were showing on Korean television. Think about how amazing that is. Your league has made zero efforts to advertise in Korea, but people in that market are watching NFL, even though they know practically nothing about the sport.

A hypothetical LA team would naturally recruit heavily on Asian and Hispanic population to appeal to the local demographic. Even if it does not, it will attract Asian American and Hispanic American fans, who will naturally transmit their love of football through their frequent traffic with their homelands. Sooner or later, people in Asia and Central/South America would be watching football! It's that simple!

You somehow seem to be married to the idea of spreading football in Europe. The Korean has to ask: Why? Why obsess over that London game, when 16 years of NFL Europa plainly showed that Europeans do not care about football? Both MLB and NBA realize that Asia is the future of professional sports. Asia has an up-and-coming economy, and its people are receptive to new forms of entertainment.

The Korean will repeat: BRING A FRANCHISE TO LOS ANGELES. It will pay off in more ways than you can ever imagine. The Korean will write the same rant every year until you comply.

Sincerely,

The Korean

Ok, rant over. Now for the pick.

The Korean likes the ace receivers of each team, i.e. Hines Ward and Larry Fitzgerald. With Hines Ward goes Pittsburgh offense. Whether or not he can go 100 percent would mean a lot for the Steelers.

Fitzgerald -- the Korean is simply in awe whenever he sees Fitzgerald. He knew Fitzgerald would be good when he came out of college, but the Korean did not see that Fitzgerald will be the best receiver in the NFL. Also, Fitzgerald is smart and articulate; the Korean has a soft spot for smart and articulate athletes.

But at the end of the day, defense wins championships, unless you have Peyton Manning. (The Korean went with Colts over Bears two years ago on that theory.) The Korean simply cannot see a consistent run game coming from Cardinals against Steelers run D, and the Cards would be wise to more or less abandon it. Do you trust Warner to throw 35 times in the game without a disastrous pick or two from Polamalu? The Korean does not either. That makes this one an easy pick.

Steelers 24, Cardinals 13.

2008 pick: Giants 27, Patriots 20
2008 result: Giants 17, Patriots 14

2007 pick: Colts 24, Bears 21
2007 result: Colts 29, Bears 17

-EDIT 2/1/2009 11:32 p.m.- Steelers 27, Cardinals 23. The Korean was totally right about a pick thrown by Warner being the game-changer. But the Korean also underestimated Larry Fitzgerald's ability to single-handedly carry the team. At any rate, 3-0!

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Ask a Korean! Wiki: Visiting Korea

Dear Korean,

I will be visiting Korea in a few weeks. Are there any must see places in Seoul and the rest of the Korea in general? Is it safe? Do you have any other tips and advice in general?

Krianne

Another chance for you the readers to answer some questions. Off the top of his head, the Korean thought of the following places to visit in Seoul: The palaces (there are several), business district near Gwanghwamun, traditional district at Insadong, shopping at Apkujeong (modern, expensive) Myeongdong (modern, cheap), Dongdaemun (modern/traditional), Noryangjin (traditional/fresh seafood), theatres and galleries at Daehakro, clubs and eateries at Shinchon/HongIk University, Seoul Tower at Namsan for a sweeping view of the city.

Any tip about traveling in Korea would be much appreciated.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Racism Starts Early

The Korean meant to write about this article, but Korea Beat beat beat beat the Korean to the punch on an essentially same article from a different newspaper. That means the Korean does not have to translate the article! Below is the translation:

A study has found that five in ten elementary and middle school students think they can be friends with the children of multicultural families.

That finding is from a five-month survey of 1,725 elementary and middle school students in 23 schools in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do conducted by a governmental organization for teenagers (청소년희망재단) [TK Note: organization is called Hope Foundation for Youth] at the request of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (보건복지가족부). The students were asked about their feelings on their multicultural peers.

According to the study, 52.9% answered they could be friends with children from multicultural families. 9.3% said they could never be friends with such a child, and 37.7% were uncertain.

Of the reasons given for being unable to be friends, 40.4% answered “because of trouble communicating if they can’t speak Korean,” 33.5% answered “because I would be exhausted by nervous feelings about it,” and 32.3% answered, “because they have different thoughts and lifestyles from me.”

Other reasons included “their appearance and skin color are different,” (24.2%), “I would be embarrassed to be their friend,” (15.5%), and “I would worry about being ostracized,” (16.8%).

41.4% answered “yes” when asked if they consider children from multicultural families to be Koreans, and the remaining 58.6% were uncertain whether they could be seen as Koreans or foreigners.

The study found that girls, middle school students, and those with direct experiences with “multiculturalism” were more likely than boys, elementary students, and those without such experience, to shun children from multicultural families.

Also, the study asked the students to rate their feelings of mental distance from such children on a 5-point scale. The average response was 3.03, indicating a slight aversion.

Asked to use the same scale to rate their aversion to marrying a multicultural child the average response was 3.7, and 2.69 when asked if they would eat together with them. [TK Note: translation error here -- instead of "eat together", it's "sitting next to each other during class".]

In the article, "multicultural child" is the politically correct term in Korea for a racially mixed child. The article itself is interesting, but one must need to read between the lines to see how deeply racism is ingrained in Korea. First, this article, while describing the same study results, has a more positive spin than other articles -- for example, the article in Dong-A Ilbo or Korea Herald. That said, let us discuss each finding.

First of all, only half of the students positively think they can be friends with mixed-raced child. One in ten think they cannot be friends. That's a strong statement of racism, especially considering the reasons given for being unable to become friends with a mixed-race child. Simple difference in looks (“their appearance and skin color are different,” (24.2%)) is enough to stop Korean youngsters from being friends with a mixed-race child. (The Korean trusts the readers to reduce the Korean's statements by the applicable respective percentage points.)

Also notable is the answering students' ignorance on the issue of mixed-race children. The questionnaire was asking specifically for mixed-raced Koreans children living in Korea. Such children certainly speak Korean; for most of them, Korea is the only country and culture they have ever known. Yet these facts are not known to Korean students. Thus, they assume that mixed-race children would not be able to speak Korean (40.4% answered “because of trouble communicating if they can’t speak Korean,”) or that mixed-race children would not share Korean culture with them (32.3% answered, “because they have different thoughts and lifestyles from me.”)

Good old-fashioned peer pressure plays a role as well. Korean students appear to realize that even if they themselves are not racist, the Korean society in general is. Thus, the downgrade in status in becoming friends with a mixed-race child (“I would be embarrassed to be their friend,” (15.5%), and “I would worry about being ostracized,” (16.8%)) is a consideration becoming friends with a mixed-raced child.

The Korean identified this problem very early in the AAK! history. As a racial minority in his country of residence, the Korean is particularly attuned to the plight of other racial minorities. The second post ever on this blog was about the emerging race problem of Korea. (It was so early that it was before the Korean adopted his third person-speak.) And the Korean still stands by his conclusion that he wrote in that post: "Unless Koreans do something to radically change their attitude toward foreignors and interracial people (unlikely), wide-scale race riots a la Los Angeles or Paris in about 20 years is a virtual certainty."

The Korean is slightly relieved by the fact that at least some in Korean government see this as a problem. The Dong-A Ilbo article concludes with a quote from an official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare: "This is a survey that shows an urgent plan for multicultural children is necessary," and added "I understand each ministry is forming a plan for multicultural children." While Korean government provides no shortage of inane initiatives, when it does succeed, it succeeds spectacularly. The Korean truly hopes that would be the case for reducing racism in Korea.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Korean Last Name Series: Gyeongju Son

Dear Korean,

My mother's last name is Son and her immediate family lives in Kyeungju, Korea. I don't know which sub-clan she comes from. What is the folklore around the "very first" Son?

Okashiikanojyo


Dear Okashiikanojyo,

Because the Korean already wrote a lot on Korean last names, often the Korean would receive questions regarding specific last names such as yours. So far the Korean has been answering them privately, but it would be interesting to build an archive of Korean last name-related stories. So here it goes.

The Korean assumes that you meant to spell "Gyeongju", a city in southeastern Korea which has a great historical heritage. Although it is entirely possible that your mother is not Gyeongju Son (pronounced sohn,) it is fairly likely. Therefore, the Korean will provide the story for the first Gyeongju Son.

Gyeongju Son clan has an interesting story. Originally, the last name began when in 32 AD, the king of Shilla (one of the three kingdoms in the Korean peninsula at the time) gave the last name Son to one of the tribe leaders. At the time, the kingdom of Shilla was essentially a federation of six tribal villages, so giving a gift as lavish as a last name was a good idea for a king who must please the village leaders.

However, currently Gyeongju Son clan considers a person named Son Sun (Sohn Soon) to be the first Gyeongju Son. Son Sun was a poor man who lived with his elderly mother, wife, and a young child. The whole family barely had enough to eat, but the young child would always take Son Sun's mother's food. Seeing that, Son told his wife: "We can have another child, but we cannot have another mother. My mother must be starving because our child keeps on taking her food. We should bury the child so that my mother can eat well."

So the couple took the child into a nearby mountain and began digging a hole. But when they did, they found a strange bell made of stone. The couple hung the bell on a tree and tried ringing it, and the sound was beautiful and clear. The wife said "It must be the child's fortune to gain this strange object, so let us take the child back." Son Sun agreed, and took the child and the bell home. Son rang the bell, and the clear sound would travel all the way to the palace. The king asked about the sound of the bell, and the king's envoy learned the story and told the king. The king, moved by Son's filial piety, gave Son a house and a lot of food to honor his virtue. Son turned his previous house into a temple, and put the bell there.

Rather interesting story because it shows how seriously traditional Koreans regarded being good to your parents. Another interesting part is the surprising element of death and cruelty in the story, told in a matter-of-fact tone -- it is a familiar refrain in Korean folk tales.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Don't Let the American Bedbugs Bite

Hilarious article from today's Dong-A Ilbo:

"Bedbug Returns" -- Traced Back to America?

Larvae Found in Buildings Formerly Occupied by a Korean American

In December 2007, a Korean-American woman in her 30s visited the Foreigner Clinic at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. The woman complained of itchiness all over her body, and showed an insect that she captured at her house.

The insect appeared to be a flea or a bedbug, whose case has been unreported in Korea for the past 20 years. The medical staff, astonished, commissioned an investigation to a team led by Prof. Yong Tae-Sun of Yonsei Medical School specializing in parasitology.

The investigation confirmed that the insect was a bedbug, which led to an immediate examination of the apartment where the woman lived. Dead bedbugs and larvae were found in the woman's room and the adjacent room in the same apartment.

However, fortunately, the investigation team believes that the bedbugs were not indigenous, but were imported from the United States.

Prof. Yong, who publicized his report on Korea Journal of Parasitology in December 2008, said "Based on the fact that the woman who complained of itchiness entered Korea 9 months ago, and that the other room in which the bedbugs were found was also usually occupied by short-term foreigner or Korean-American visitors, it appears that the bedbug was imported from the U.S." Prof. Yong added "There has been reports of bedbug infestation in New York and New Jersey."

The apartments in question were later quarantined and the bedbugs were exterminated. However, the woman who visited the Severance Hospital and the occupants of the building have all moved to a different location.

Holy infestation! Failing at trying to kill all Koreans by sending in Mad Cow Disease-laden beef, clearly Americans have moved onto their next devious trick.

What is priceless, however, are the comments at the end of the article. One commenter sarcastically ribbed, "Time to hatch another candlelight protest." Another said, "Yankees also gave smallpox-laden blankets to Indians."

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: New York Times Finally Catches Up with Ask a Korean!

New York Times had an interesting article about how Americans talk about race, and how it is changing now that we will (in just four days!) have a black president.

The most interesting part of the article was the idea of "strategic colorblindness": the idea that white people "can be so uncomfortable talking about race that they think the most sensitive approach is to avoid the subject entirely[.]" According to studies, "whites, including children as young as 10, may attempt to avoid talking about race with blacks, or even acknowledging racial differences, so as not to appear prejudiced."

In other words, New York Times just figured out what the Korean figured out more than two years ago when he started the Ask a Korean! -- Americans, especially white people, have become afraid of talking about race. Thus, the Korean stated in his profile: "Interests: Giving honest answers to racial questions. The Civil Rights Movement has been so successful that people now have become completely AFRAID to ask legitimate questions concerning race. This only perpetuates misunderstanding between races. The Korean is here to fix that."

Keep it up, NYT. Maybe someday, your publication may become as successful as AAK! :)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Depression Among Koreans

Dear Korean,

What is the prevalence of depression among Koreans?

White Hispanic Chica


Dear White Hispanic Chica,

THANK YOU for asking a question that takes less than 10 minutes to find an answer for. It has been so long.

According to this article at Herald Business News, in 2007 Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (a quasi-governmental body, because Korea is miles ahead of the U.S. in providing nationalized health insurance) estimated that 2.5 percent of all Koreans (roughly around 1.2 million people) suffered from depression, and only around half of them received treatment. However, psychiatrists of Korea estimate that 10 percent of all Koreans have "depression at the level where treatment is necessary."

While the estimate sounds a little high, it is not totally unreasonable. Because many Koreans still maintain the attitude that depression is not a real illness, it is likely that depression is not fully diagnosed in Korea. Also, especially with Korean males, depression may manifest itself as alcoholism, evading diagnosis.

Recently there have been campaigns to raise awareness for depression, terming it "the cold of the mind." Such campaigns are slowly turning the public perception in Korea around, but there is still a long way to go.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.