'Staycation' - Are you eff'in Serious BBC?

Have you ever had strong feelings of dislike towards a 'word'? By 'word' I mean one of those awful awkward portmanteaus created by some bumbling idiot somewhere on this planet and then subsequently picked up by the media, who treat it as if it is a rock-star of a buzzword. Now I don't particularly mind them when they are used on internet forums. Forums are not supposed to be taken seriously, nor are they supposed to be a beacon of journalistic competence. The BBC on the other-hand....

I came across this little gem from the BBC this morning:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23397289

Headline: 

France ministers told by Hollande to 'choose staycation'

What the hell did I just read?

For some reason, unbeknownst to humanity, The BBC has utterly fallen head over heels in love with 'staycation' - quite possibly the dumbest portmanteau ever created. Maybe they are trying to show that they are hip and cool by using a word that sounds "new" and "edgy," but I see this as a shining example of the way the BBC's journalistic standards(and credibility!) have gone down the toilet these days.

I mean seriously, they did a report on the French president, using this abomination of a 'word'. We know for a fact that that's not what Hollande actually said anyway, because 'staycation' is not a French word and French politicians tend to strongly resist using English buzzwords. Its mind boggling to think that the BBC tried to pass that article off as serious reporting. Where do they get their journalists from these days? I would expect this kind of crap from dirty rags like the Sun or Daily Mail, but not the bloody BBC. Standards, please!

Lets break it down for a minute and go back to the original word, vacation.
To go on vacation just means to have a break from work or duties, regardless of where you actually go. You could go to China, go to space, or just stay home, kick back and sleep all week. That is all vacation means. To have an extended break. If we take 'staycation' to mean to have a vacation in your home country, Its completely and utterly redundant because vacation already covers that. Its still a vacation (If not, then we suddenly have to retcon most of those travellers before the era of flight as 'staycationers' as we must be consistent here!).

All aboard the staycation express! Circa 1880  -_-

Another interpretation I have heard is that during a 'staycation' you stay at home and do work or duties during your vacation period. Sorry to say though, if that is the case you are just sugarcoating the fact that you are working(and perhaps being exploited!) during your vacation time. Work is work. Are we really that infantile as a species that we need to sugarcoat everything bad with a word that makes it sound 'nicer'?

Hint: If you do any sort of work, its not a vacation, or any kind of -cation

In closing, can we kill this 'word' with fire? Lots and lots of fire.

Now, a question for my readers. Is there any particular word(that has recently become mainstream) that you have a strong dislike for? Reply below!

B

The Shocking Video - The plot thickens!

In my last post I discussed a short but shocking video of 2 men abusing a woman at a Korean club, and how it reflects on society in general. The video, fake or real, highlighted something that generally happens in one way or another across the world, and the responses from commentators on that Facebook page highlighted the age old problem of victim blaming that is still alive and well today.

 As of today, there are now allegations floating around that the video was staged in 2011 and all 3 of the individuals involved in it were paid actors. More information can be found in the comments section of the following article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/15/koreas-web-community-roiled-by-shocking-video-of-western-men-tormenting-a-local-woman/

"This is a video made in Bedlam bar in Itaewon in January 2011. All the people were paid actors / actresses. The director is Korean and wanted to get famous for doing some edgy viral videos. This is one of them. He tried to release this over 2 years ago and nothing happened all the websites took it down for its graphic content. I know all this because I am one of the men in this video. I do not condone the actions that I did. But this was a paid acting job no one was hurt. The actress was wearing fake gums to make her teeth look bad and everyone left the shoot smiling and shaking hands. I have passed on this webpage to the director asking him to come forward. It is up to him if he wants to reveal himself. 2 and a half years ago he wanted this kind of fame I do not know if it will do his current career any good."

 This does seem to fill in many of the blanks in the video, though it does raise questions over just what exactly possessed the Irish man, American man and Korean woman to take part in this video in the first place. Surely the must have realized that this video plays right into the hands of the people who dislike foreigners and want to restrict the rights of women, no? I guess money trumps reason every time.

One for each of the trio of actors, if true.

 As I said before in my previous blog post, the video may very well have been staged (and sounds like it with this new claim), but it does unintentionally serve another purpose as it, and the controversy surrounding it are more or less a reflection on the way many men behave around women, as well as the victim blaming that those women face when incidents like the said video go viral on the internet.

That's just my thoughts on this issue.


 B


Edit: And it has now been confirmed, the video was indeed staged.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130716001008

A Plague on All Our Houses - The Mistreatment of Women in Society

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction." - Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals

The above is one of the strongest beliefs I hold. It is the first formulation of the categorical imperative by Kant and basically states that you should never do something that you wouldn't want other people to do to you, if the shoes were on the other foot. I shouldn't kill others because I wouldn't want it done to me. I shouldn't steal because I wouldn't want it done to me.

This forms a bedrock for my actions. Something that I reference my behavior from. I'm human, and I want to be respected as a human by others, so its only right that I show everyone else on this planet the same courtesies that I would like shown to me. Not everyone holds this belief and I can accept that. But when I see videos like the one that has been doing the rounds on the Korean corner of Facebook lately, and I see the sheer level of disrespect shown by some men towards women in this day and age, it truly makes my blood boil.

Now, here is the video. Be warned though, this video is deeply disturbing. I would strongly recommend that you do not watch it, especially if you have ever suffered mistreatment at the hands of a sleazy prat like the fellows in the video. If you would rather skip the video, read below for a quick overview of what happens.

BE WARNED. DISTURBING SCENES:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=159783374204781

A drunken Korean girl is sitting down looking rather dazed. An American films her and makes lewd comments about her body. Sitting beside her is an Irishman who begins to touch her inappropriately. From the video, I can't make out if she even knows them or not, but I assume not as she doesn't seem to understand their English. The man beside her decides that its an awesome idea to put his finger up her nose(disgusting freak of a man!) and then proceeded to make her eat the contents while he and his mate laughed. What kind of sick fetishist does that? The man touching her then notices her teeth and says shouts many explicates about them (Oh the irony! People on the eastern side of the Atlantic are not known for their good teeth!) The American proceeds to join in with the abuse hurling and both men say many derogatory things about Korean women.

That old stereotype about Irish and British teeth. Oddly relevant here

Now, where to begin... There is a lot of heat going around the Korean sphere of the internet right now. That heat is directed at both the guys in the video, and the poor girl who was abused by the guys (Can you say victim blaming?). I want to talk about the fires raging in both directions.
First, with regards to the men in the video, many of the angry commentators are brushing them off as just Yankee scum(not quite true, unless Ireland is the 51st State). I feel that is quite a dangerous line of thinking though, as it will merely promote more baseless hatred and distrust towards all western foreigners, regardless of disposition. This is after all the kind of think that groups like the Anti-English Spectrum thrive on. No, I do not think this is just a "western men" thing. You would have to be born yesterday to think such foolish things. This is a "Men in general" thing. This is not because of race, or any specific culture. This is a systematic failure of men across the board. No matter what culture we come from, many of us fail to show women the respect that they deserve by virtue of being human. Many of us treat women like objects, or animals and that, quite frankly, is appalling.


There are many examples of this, but let me focus on the whole club culture thing for a bit. As we saw in the video, this took place at a club (probably in itaewon)

Itaewon, a hive of villainy at night.

Now, as you all know, clubs can often feel like an ocean of people and for some reason, that ocean of people always seems to bring out the predatory shark in a number of guys. This happens in Seoul. This happens in Glasgow, This happens in Boston. This happens all over the world. Its not a "Foreigner thing" or a "Korean thing". Go into a club, and you are bound to find a school of sharkmen circling around any girl who has been cut off from her friends(usually by the said sharkmen). They won't strike up eye contact and try to talk to the girl, rather, they will sneak up behind her like a ninja and begin thrusting away/grinding. In their defense, they will claim that she was asking for it just by virtue of being there, or wearing a short dress, ignoring the fact that she may have just came to party WITH HER FRIENDS. These sharks go around looking for the most vulnerable girl in the club, and then jump on her. I've seen foreign guys do it. I've seen Korean guys do it. Usually the girl is so drunk that she can't fight him off, not while he holds her tight anyway. Sometimes it gets really bad...and well you can guess what happens. Its disgusting. 

Wanna dance?

Now on the other side, some naysayers might say that it's the girls fault for getting drunk, or the girls fault for putting herself in that position, or the girls fault for wearing a dress so skimpy that guys get the wrong impression about her.  To this, I say BULLSHIT. That is blatant victim blaming. This is not only offensive to women, because you are basically demeaning them to mere sex objects that should have less freedoms than we do(and ergo, inferior by that line of thought), but it's also offensive to men because you are demeaning us by casting us all as hungry lust filled beasts that can't control ourselves when we see a little skin. I'm not like that, and I'm sure that if you are reading this, you are not either. Part of being human is being able to control your base impulses, it's what separates us from lower living organisms like mice and cockroaches. It's called self control. It's called willpower.  Why should women bear the blame when a man is deficient in willpower? 

We need to stop casting blame on women in these situations. The girl may have made a mistake by drinking too much, but its just that. A mistake.  If a guy drank too much and got into this state, no one would bat an eyelid. No one would call him nasty names such as 'gigalo' or 'rent boy'. No one would make derogatory comments about him other than "haha lightweight!" Why must it be seen as such an evil sin if a girl does the same? The Korean commentators on the original video referred to her at various times as 'a prostitute', 'whore' and 'pathetic woman'. These are baseless judgments from idiots.  What basis are they making these claims on? Because she was drunk? Because there were 2 guys filming her? That's a mighty double standard there.
What right do we men have to talk down to women about the dangers of drinking in public, and then publicly disparage them as careless *insert explicative here*, when we refuse to do the same to men, or worse, pat ourselves on the back for drinking each other under the table.  What right do we have to be condescending bastards about something women have known for a very long time, when we in fact should be teaching our sons and grandsons that it's NOT okay to act like wild animals, that it's NOT okay to show women less respect than you would show a man, regardless of the situation.

Now, getting back onto the video, she may have made a mistake, but she is blameless from the moment the men started to abuse her.

The men in the video, quite rightly, deserve the full blame for this incident. They filmed her. They touched her, they hurled abuse at her. They acted like wild animals. That is not how we men are supposed to act. This video should be a lesson and a reminder, not for foreigners in Korea or Korean women, as the media here will try to no doubt paint it as, but for men in general. We need to teach our sons to be gentlemen, not rampant, uncontrollable wildebeest that cause trouble and respect no one.

Gimme your man-card punk!

Now, I am fully aware that this video may not be all that it seems. All mentions of it lead back to one source, which is a shock jockey Facebook page. All videos on the page are only there for the purpose of shocking the viewer. I have tried to find this video on Youtube and Naver to no avail. It does raise some suspicions, but I digress, there is currently no evidence out there that it is anything other than real.
Even if its not all that it seems, it still raises a number of questions about the way women are treated by men in society.. It might not be real, but we all know fine well that scenes like the above are constantly happening across the world.

Anyway, Peace out.

B

So you wanna teach in Asia?

I left Scotland in 2010 to teach English in South Korea. My original plan was to stay only for a year, but 3 years later, I'm still going strong. I'm not a veteran by any means. I know westerners who have been here for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, etc. I also know a few who just drift between countries in Asia on a yearly basis, living the life, so to speak. My experience pales in comparison to theirs, but still I wish to add my views regardless, in the hope that it might help someone out.

Now, there are a huuuuuge number of options out here for budding English teachers. I'm not going to go into a great deal of detail, but I will reveal the fruits of my investigations from the past.

The first option is of course my choice: The Republic of Korea.
It's not that difficult to land a teaching job out here in Korea. Most people can get away with just a  BA in Harry Potter studies. The BA part is important, the rest...less so. Still the degree doesn't reflect the qualities of the potential teacher. I know many people with just a BA in something who are wonderful people and really devoted teachers. It IS possible in theory to land a gig here with an Associates degree, provided you go through the government  sponsored TaLK programme, but you are more likely to loose out to people who are still in their studies(as the programme is all about catering to that specific demographic!)

Provided you do actually want to teach in Korea, there are two avenues you can go down. Public and Private. Public is the safe option, you work at government funded schools along side Korean teachers. A word of warning though. Many of these positions are being slowly phased out. Getting jobs in the cities these days is becoming more and more difficult. Still, it should be easy enough if you don't mind living out in the middle of nowhere.

The other option is that you go Private. Private jobs at Hagwons (private academies) are numerous but quality can be extremely variable. Some are amazing, some are terrible. Its a crapshoot, but as long as you do your research and ask questions you should* be OK.

*Disclaimer: I bear no responsibility for any shitstorm that occurs should you happen to sign a contract with a nasty evil hagwon (they do exist sadly)

For teaching in Korea I suggest that you look at the following websites:
http://www.eslcafe.com/
http://www.waygook.org/

Esl cafe does have a very lively job board that is packed with positions. Both websites have forums that have many helpful topics. ESL cafe was a huge help for me when I took my first steps on the path to working here. I actually found my very first job in Uiryeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do though that website.

If you do decide to teach in Korea, there are many hoops that you have to jump through, but they will become apparent as soon as you begin to look into it


The second option is The Republic of China (Taiwan)
Before I came to Korea, my original plan actually was to work in Taiwan. As a result, I did quite a bit of research on this topic. I learned that Jobs in Taiwan come in 3 tiers depending on your qualification

Associates Degree + TESOL certificate
Bachelors Degree
Bachelors Degree + Teaching Certificate from your home country

If you have an Associates degree, you can get a job at a private academy (much like the Korean Hagwon), but you will get paid much less than you would if you had a BA. No biggie though right? Work is work.
If you have a Bachelors degree, then you can work the same jobs, but you should get paid more.
Now, if you happen to have the lucky holy grail that is a Teaching Certificate, then you can teach at public schools in Taiwan. Congratulations, you lucky boy/girl!

I'm not an expert on this by any means, I haven't worked in Taiwan, only researched it so I'm not sure what hoops one has to jump though these days to teach there. You can find out more information at the ESL cafe international job forums.
http://www.eslcafe.com/

A better resource though would be to look at Forumosa, the website for the western expat community in Taiwan
http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/
Compared to ESL cafe, that place is an absolute treasure trove of information.

Website I remember from the past: A standard English private school chain
http://www.hess.com.tw/en/ (They also have opportunities for Native French Speakers

A recruiter for public schools in Taiwan
http://www.esldewey.com.tw/joblisting.php (They have privates on their website too, but you will find public jobs here)

From what I heard, pay is similar to that of Korea, but unlike in Korea, you will have to pay for your own flights and accommodation.

Another popular option these days is the Peoples Republic of China
Admittedly I haven't done a great deal of research on this topic, only a brief few days of investigating. I do remember quite clearly though there are two big kinds of jobs in China. Universities and Private schools.
At Universities, your pay will be low, but you will get lots of vacation, short work hours and the cool title of professor. All this can be yours with just a BA degree.
Privates from what I understand are fairly similar to what you can expect in the rest of Asia. Again I am no expert on this, and would love for someone to correct me if I am wrong.

Again, ESL cafe might be your friend if you want to work in China. Use the International job forum for advice, and the China job board to find jobs.
http://www.eslcafe.com/

Another website I remember that had many University positions back in 2010
http://www.anesl.com/schools/index.asp

There are a huge amount of recruiters these days for jobs in China, so finding one shouldn't be too hard, Just remember the golden rule for working abroad. ASK QUESTIONS and READ THE CONTRACT before you sign anything :P

Of course, there is the granddaddy of all the ESL gigs, teaching in Japan
The only research I have done on this topic that is still relevant is with regards to the JET programme. A bunch of private schools I researched back in 2010 have all collapsed now. For the JET programme, I believe they have a once yearly intake. Its a long process from what I gather, and has many steps, but if you pass each stage,  you will get assigned a public school in Japan. There is also another programme called INTERAC which I don't know a great deal about, but apparently it places you at public schools too (though I have heard terrible reviews about it, but it depends on the person I guess)

http://www.jetprogramme.org/
http://www.interacnetwork.com/recruit/

Now, if you happen to be British, you can get a working holiday Visa and work a few short term, part time jobs in Japan(if I recall correctly), which means you can bypass the larger programmes. You might want to look at the following website for jobs and advice:
http://www.gaijinpot.com/

Finally, there are options available in Thailand and Vietnam too, but I haven't done any research on those options at all, so would feel deeply uncomfortable giving any suggestions. If you want to work there, I suggest you ask about those countries on the ESL cafe.

Anyway, I hope this post is of use to anyone who is thinking about teaching abroad, but doesn't really have the faintest clue about where to look. Enjoy!


B

Attempt number 2 at a blog. Can I maintain it this time? hoho

Welcome to my new corner of the interwebs.

Well, this is my second attempt at making a blog. My last attempt in 2011 was pretty much a failure as I lost interest a month later. Lets hope this one lasts longer!

In my last attempt I was going to just talk about my experiences in Korea, but then I realised.....I'm only doing what every other expat here is doing. That's not creative at all. That is precisely why I quickly got bored.

A few months ago, I was asked to start up a blog again, after giving a roundhouse defense of some issues on a friends facebook profile. I thought long and hard about it. Could I keep myself interested in writing? Or would it just have a few weeks of life, before going off to die in a small corner of the interwebs like my last blog. Ultimately, I decided that I might as well give it a try(as you can see by this blog existing). This time though, I'll greatly expand the topics I will talk about. Experiences in Korea, will occasionally be mentioned, but I actually want to talk more about the world in general. Everything is fair game in my view really... Human rights, the perilous state of the UK,  the Scottish independence debate and many more topics.

In time I also hope to maybe even have a restaurant review, given I run a dining meetup group over here in Korea.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Signing out!

B