Earlier, the Marmot’s Hole, posted about a young South African woman who was raped in Korea. Korea Beat also posted another, more complete, translation of the original Korean newspaper article. Now, according to an interview with her by the Korea Herald, a lot of misinformation has been circulating around, and she wants to put the record straight.
When news broke about the assault, a leading Korean daily, allegedly quoting Brouard, stated that she was unhappy with the police response, knew of another foreign woman sexually assaulted in the Ulsan area whose perpetrators were caught but not punished, and that she was being treated differently due to being a foreigner.
Problem is, Brouard didn’t talk to the newspaper. They made up her quotes.
(emphasis mine)
Unfortunately, I’m not at all surprised. We are talking about the Korean media. This is Korea. T.I.K.
In the article, there are some notable contradictions with earlier reports. For example:
Brouard says the police handled the case very well.
“The police and detectives were at my apartment not long after the incident accord. They were very professional and drove me to the rape center. I am very pleased with the quick and professional way in which they caught the suspect,” she said.
At Ulsan’s rape and crisis center her evidence was processed. The people at the center “were understanding and kind, yet very professional. They stayed with me while I slept and even though they couldn’t speak very much English, it was very comforting to have someone there,” stated Brouard. She said the police even phoned her prior to her return to her native country in order to wish her well.
Extra! Korea 
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From the KH:
Hmm… I’d expect better from a native English speaker working for a newspaper.
Extra! Korea wrote:
I’m willing to be critical of the press in general, but there are enough good people in the press that I’m loath to make a sweeping generalization even among that band of murky men.
But what really compelled me to respond was that T.I.K. remark. Sorry, but that’s intellectual laziness that breeds bigotry and negativity. “This is Korea” is used for what? To take an incident involving a few people and generalize it to the entire country? It reminds me of “OINK” for “only in Korea,” even though it was often describing things common in other countries (including the speaker’s own) or, worse, describing a minority behavior.
What if folks were to suffix every goofy story coming out of Korea involving a foreign national with “MBAET” (must be an English teacher)? That would be just as bad.
No offense, XK, and I mean this as a compliment, but I’d expert better from you.
Comment by kushibo — August 12, 2009 @ 8:15 am
Actually, she worked as a teacher. While it’s still bad for a native English teacher to make such a mistake, I’d overlook it in light of the fact that she’s been through a lot, and we don’t know her frame of mind when she wrote this.
The first time I heard a similar expression was in the movie “Blood Diamond.” I’ve also heard, from an ex-expat of Taiwan, that a similar expression is used there. So I was making my own variation. It had a harsh tone, but it was also meant to be tongue-in-cheek, a kind of exasperated, throwing-up-of-one’s-hands-and-giving-up gesture of frustration. (Watch “Blood Diamond” if you haven’t, and maybe you can better understand what I was attempting.) In any case, your criticism is duly noted.
Comment by extrakorea — August 12, 2009 @ 2:13 pm
Well really do you think your safe in Korea. It is The Rape Capital of Asia. http://youseok.wordpress.com/2009/10/03/korea-the-rape-capital-of-asia/ And if this is one of the rape cases in Ulsan that I know of; then I think I know that person. Here is more facts!
She was raped by her Korean girlfriend’s boyfriend. She was offered an equivalent of 5,000 pounds to reduce two years of his sentence. Ulsan MOE fired her for not being able to concentrate on her work after the rape.
Comment by youseok — October 3, 2009 @ 6:32 am