TV Drama “Tamra the Island” to be Shortened to 16 Episodes

You might recall the TV drama “Tamra the Island.” (Watch it here with English sub-titles.) Unfortunately, not only will its intended run of 20 episodes not be extended, but it will be shortened to 16 episodes. If it’s true that most of the drama has already been filmed, then that means that the shortening will be done with hasty editing that could lead to an incongruous story. MBC has been receiving numerous online complaints, but it remains to be seen if anything will change. Something is very wrong with the world when the idiotic “Boys over Flowers” becomes a monster hit, but an ambitious, high-quality drama isn’t even allowed to fulfill its full run.

Journalist’s writing proof of no knowledge about teaching. What a surprise

In today’s Korea Times is an article about some of the foreign English teachers who were hired by EPIK (English Program In Korea) and have just arrived in Korea. In the text is proof that the writer has no clue about teaching.

Unlike in private English-teaching institutions, teachers at EPIK are not required to stick to a rigid curriculum, but must work in a more proactive setting and provide ideas.

Teachers in hogwons (private institutes) have to stick to a rigid curriculum?! Bwa ha ha ha ha!* And by the way, what’s wrong with having a curriculum and sticking to it? Many people, including a lot of so-called “teachers” seem to think that the only purpose of a curriculum is to be an unnecessary inconvenience. They are, among other things, to help plan lessons, prepare students, and have teachers be accountable.

* I refuse to use the irredeemably idiotic “Lol.”

Filipinas are good enough for sex, but not good enough to have children with?

Thanks to this translation from Korea Beat, we have the Quote of the Week:

23-year old Rose, a Filipina who married [a Korean man] one year ago, was thrown out of her husband’s home after becoming pregnant at the beginning of this year because he does not like people from The Phillippines.

She revealed her pregnancy and asked for help, but her husband assaulted her and she received a cold reception from her in-laws.

[Rose (pseudonym)/marriage immigrant: I cried a lot. I want to go to The Pillippines. My baby with no father....]

(emphasis mine)

Did I read that right? He married a Filipina, but doesn’t like people from the Philippines? Why did he marry her? To just have sex? That seems to be the explanation, since he threw her out after she got pregnant.

It’s too barbaric to describe in words.

Drunk high-school teachers have a fistfight … in front of their students

Two apparently drunk high-school teachers had a fistfight … in front of their school’s gates, in full view of their shocked students. According to the article, the fight started over an argument over marking final exams. The two will, allegedly, face disciplinary measures. Let’s wait and see what kind of slap on the wrist they receive.

The teachers were Korean, so expect Anti-English Spectrum to pretend this never happened.

Don’t you just hate it when you accidentally kill the wrong manager?

A man was paid 3 million won instead of the promised 5 million by his manager, leading to an argument and a scuffle. The man left, but later returned. His manager wasn’t there, so what did he do? He “accidentally” stabbed to death another manager who worked in the same office.

He told the police that he suddenly got upset and stabbed the team manager in a fit of anger. He also said the absent executive always looked down on him, which caused his frustration to grow over a long period of time.

“My job is very stressful. I was upset. You must understand me.”

I wonder if that would work if I killed my ex-hogwon boss. Probably not.

The police requested the prosecution file for an arrest warrant.

They didn’t arrest him?!

Would you want these students to become your doctor or pharmacist?

Korea Beat has reported that a group of pharmacology students at Seoul National University were caught cheating on an exam, and that this follows a similar incident last year in which pre-med students were also caught cheating. Their punishment? The medical students were given “various punishments including demotion,” whatever that means. A Korea Herald article on the same topic stated that, “The school only issued warnings to the students.” Either way, it’s clear that the students received extremely light punishment, especially in light of the fact that, in the future, they will be making life-or-death decisions based upon their “knowledge.” Certainly, something harsher was merited.
And the pharmacology students?

The cheating was brought to light after a student posted an article on the SNU Intranet that some pharmacy college students cheated in exams.

In their reply to the article, some cheaters responded, “So what?”

That’s a nice attitude to have, since faulty knowledge on a pharmacist’s part could lead to a patient’s death. And their punishment?

“We will look into the case and those who were involved will get zero scores,” said Seo Young-geo, dean of the college.

What a joke. Anyone who teaches at a Korean university knows that the only way to fail is through excessive absences. A score of zero is still a pass, albeit a grade of D. But students can always take the course over again, and the old mark is expunged from their record as if it had never existed.

This is one reason why Korea is not a good place to get sick or injured in. You can never be sure that a doctor or pharmacist legitimately passed their medical exams. If you can, get a second opinion, but be surreptitious about it. Korean doctors become offended if they learn that you’re gotten a second opinion, seeing it as an affront on their authority. The way I see it, if they don’t want their competence challenged, they they should pass their medical exams fair-and-square, and lobby their universities to adhere to strict standards. Every cheater is an albatross around the neck of every alumni.

By the way, cheating on tests is referred to in Korea as “cunning,” and is only seen as negative if you are caught. It’s negative because you were stupid enough to get caught, not because what you did was morally or ethically wrong. If you successfully cheat, then it’s actually seen as positive, because it demonstrates how clever you are (thus, “cunning”).

Pervert cameraman violates Son Dam-bi

If Roboseyo thought that there was some pervy camerawork in this video (I didn’t), then he should see this video (Hat Tip to All K Pop). At the 2:35 mark, the cameraman approaches Son Dam-bi from the front, his camera well below the hem of her miniskirt. But then at 2:40, he sneaks up behind her, puts the lens right between her legs, points it upward, then scurries off like the weasel he is. What a pervert.
Here is the “professional” video of the same event. Notice how they didn’t use the latter footage. I guess it’s for the cameraman’s own private “Saturday Night” with Son Dam-bi.

Two caught helping others cheat on TOEIC via wireless devices

According to the Korea Herald and Korea Times, two people have been caught helping others to cheat on the TOEIC test.
One of the two had lived in America for 27 years. He took the test, and transmitted his answers to his partner as he did so. They then sold the answers to people for two-to-three million won per person. Said people went, score-wise, from 500 to 900 points, arousing suspicion.
Now get this: One of the guys had been arrested, and sent to jail, for this kind of cheating before. The two met while in prison.
What I don’t understand is how one guy could send out the answers on a wireless set throughout the entire test without anyone seeing? When my students take one of my tests, they’re allowed pens, pencils, erasers, and correction tape/fluid (and they get away with nothing under my hawk vision*). Isn’t it the same with these tests?

* Thanks to my contact lenses.

Edit/Update:

The Joongang Daily has more information.

In which parallel universe is the Hankyoreh reporting from?

As in many other countries, some newspapers in Korea are lean towards the political left, and others, to the right. South Korea’s left wing is known for, among other things, being sympathetic to North Korea. The Hankyoreh, a South Korean newspaper, is sometimes astounding in the creativity it displays in weaving excuses for the North’s behavior. When a South Korean tourist was murdered on North Korea’s Mount Geumgang, it was almost an entire day before it put the news on its web-site.
As you are probably already aware, two American journalists were sentenced by North Korea to twelve years in prison. While many other Korean newspapers reported the news online almost as soon as it broke, the Hankyoreh took its sweet time, taking at least half-a-day to post the news. And when they finally did, it was with this headline: “N. Korea’s sentencing of two U.S. journalists may signal the possibility of talks.” The Hankyoreh has really outdone itself with the apologetic gymnastics they’ve displayed here. What’s next?
“Yodok Prison offers families the chance to be together”?
“Widespread famines mean that next year’s crops will probably be better”?
“Mass starvation helps solve the problem of overpopulation”?

Hwang Woo-suk given award, but couldn’t receive it because he was in court

You can’t make this stuff up. Despite being disgraced for two fraudulent studies, Hwang Woo-suk was given an award. Even the Korea Times had to admit that this was an embarrassment that made zero sense.

Disgraced gene scientist Hwang Woo-suk has been a pariah in the science world since his landmark studies on cloned human stem cells were exposed as fraudulent.

So it’s hard to say what the organizers of the Jang Young Shil Award of Science, Technology and Culture were thinking when they decided that Hwang was the most deserving candidate for this year’s plaque.

But wait, it get even better. Hwang couldn’t pick up the award because he was due in court, to face charges of embezzling government money intended for research and for violating Korea’s bioethics law.

You just can’t make up things like this and this.