About
About the Blog
Focusing on the negative?
Like the title header says, the Grand Narrative is primarily a look at Korean social issues, ”irreverent” because I refuse to accept many Korean sacred cows, for instance its victim mentality that justifies xenophobia, the notion that Korean women are all virgins before marriage, and that Korea has fully democratized. That maybe leaves me open to the charge that I focus on the negative, and it’s certainly true that I can rant a lot on the blog, but then consider this point of Michael Breen’s:
This passionate mix of contradictions can be difficult for the more ordered western mind to handle. As I have suggested, foreigners often find themselves responding in contradictory ways. They criticise Koreans a lot and yet they cannot tear themselves away from them. They might declare there is nothing good in the country, except of course their Korean spouse, who is the most important person in their life. (The Koreans: Who they are, what they want, where their future lies (1998), p. 7)
I really identified with that paragraph, and felt much the same way about life in Korea well before I married my wife Jeong Gun-Hye/정근혜 in 2004. On the left below is our daughter Alice Jeong Turnbull, born in June 2006, and we plan to have another child in 2008. I’m not for an instant suggesting that only those married to and/or related to Koreans are “qualified” to critique Korean society, and for more on that consider Michael Hurt’s excellent post on his blog here, but please do bear in mind my family circumstances, and my decision to live here for the last 8 years, before accusing me of being a typical “Korea Basher.”
Recurring Themes
Because of my circumstances, I occasionally blog about Korean-Western relationship issues, and am particularly interested in what is involved in raising a mixed-race child in Korea (for want of a better term); as my daughter becomes a toddler, I’m sure I’ll blog about them much more. In the meantime, even before my daughter was born I already had a strong academic interest in Korea’s extremely low birthrate, symptomatic of the low position women have in Korean society, and believe that the urgency of those issues, combined with what I see as an impending crisis in Korea’s manufacturing industry, makes Korea a simply fascinating place to study. Even if readers disagree with my political leanings and some of my conclusions, Korean society is changing very rapidly and so is interesting to study just for its own sake, and I hope to convey some of my passion for the place to readers.
Learning Korean
Given the last point, printed English sources on Korea can quickly become outdated, and because Japan tends to overshadow its neighbour then the vast majority of those discuss Korean economic and/or security issues: there still isn’t a good quality English work on Korean sociology comparable to Yoshio Sugimoto’s on Japan for instance. For those reasons, I think that fluency in Korean is much more important for an understanding of the country than for somewhere like, say, Japan or France, and while I’m not fluent yet I’m definitely a strong intermediate learner, and many posts include my translations of (short) Korean sources on the subjects being discussed.
Because I’m a learner of Korean many posts discuss, well, learning Korean, and there are many posts here that beginners might find useful, especially the 2nd half of this one on learning vocabulary, my definitive guide™ to the Korean song 오빠/Oppa, and the fact that attractive Korean women are a much better study tool for learning Korean than what the authors of Korean textbooks seem to come up with. But I’m not a beginner, and have different study concerns to beginners, especially as there’s now a plethora of quality study material for them available but that available for intermediate level and above is still very limited. For beginners I recommend some of the links in the “Korean” section of my blogroll instead.
Who is the blog aimed at?
So, hopefully my blog will be useful to Korea Studies students and academics, expats in Korea (especially those with children), and for those studying Korean. While I think it will help to make a lot of things about Korea to make sense for someone new to Korea, it isn’t a newbie’s guide, and for that I recommend Galbijim. Also, while I will often discuss items in the news, this also isn’t a blog to keep up with current events in Korea; for that, I recommend you use The Marmot’s Hole and ROK Drop instead. I’ll usually only be posting 2 or 3 times a week from now on, at least aiming (if not always succeeding) to produce posts that step back and try to place trends and events in Korean society into a bigger picture. Regular readers will probably find that description of my blog amusing, with some justification, but those really are my goals for the blog in 2008. I’ll also be trying, if not always succeeding, to keep posts down to roughly 1500 words, a more than welcome policy I’m sure, and will try to improve the standard of my writing to a level that would allow posts, with just a few tweaks here and there, to not look out of place in a zine or newsmagazine. To get paid to do something just like that is my ultimate goal after all, however distant.
About Me
(Innocent and naive, this was the photo I sent in April 2000 to get my first job in Korea)
(June, 2006)
Aside from having a wife and daughter that are Korean, which certainly help but which weren’t very difficult to get considering about 15 million Korean guys have them as well (my daughter was especially easy, at least for me), then hopefully my 8 years here and undergraduate degree in History and Political Studies give me some qualifications to write a blog that I claim academics will find interesting and useful to read. Until very recently, I had been doing an MA in Asia-Pacific Studies too, but I relucantly decided to give it up because of the huge expense and the dismissive attitude of Koreans to it once they discovered I was doing it online, and that was well before the recent scandals about fake degrees. I did also actually learn a few things for my now wasted money though, and can provide both some of my A-grade postgrad essays if anyone’s interested. Finally, it also helps that I’m a complete geek, which if the photo above and posts like this don’t convince you of, then I can provide lots of photos of my chess trophies from New Zealand and the bookcases full of academic books and journals on Asia if you like…hell, I’ve even read some of them (only fiction in the photo of me above, sorry).
I’m aiming to get out of the ESL industry in Korea and hopefully into something where I actually use my brain can put all my knowledge about Korea into some use, but unfortunately there are seemingly no jobs like that in Busan where I live, and with being the sole income provider for 3, soon to be 4 people I can only move to Seoul, where all the jobs like those are, unless I have one waiting for me (although I’d be there in a flash!). Hence 8 months ago I started this blog to make a name for myself and network, and I’m glad that I did, but recently I’ve realised I need to be more proactive, so last month I became a guest blogger for the much much more popular site ZR5 Asian News, writing about Korean celebrities, and I still have a lot of free time so will happily beg for still consider any offers to become a guest blogger for any other sites. Finally, after I return from my trip over Christmas and New Years in January, I aim to become a *published author* by submitting articles to as many magazines and academic journals as I can find, and hopefully there’ll be at least one desperate enough to accept my work.
Other than that, I’m 31, live in Busan, and when I’m not working, exercising, or trying to make sure my daughter is getting enough exposure to English, I’m writing for this blog and should be am studying Korean to attain fluency as quickly as possible. I do have other hobbies of course, but feel guilty about enjoying them have little time for them these days. I should also mention where I’m from exactly, because otherwise readers might find some of my posts rather confusing, and my miserable and lonely unique travels as a teenager have had quite a big impact on how I view Korea today. First up, here’s my visited countries map:
And here’s the short version:
- 1976-1987. Born in South England, but my family is from, and most of my childhood was spent in, the Newcastle/Gateshead area and Northumberland Country in the extreme North of England, on the border with Scotland. My father insists that I still sound like I’m from there.
- 1987-1989. Family, which includes my younger sister, emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand
- 1989-1990. Family emigrated to Melbourne Australia, and we lived for 6 months in Kununarra too, a very small town in the desert at the top of Western Australia
- 1990-1992. Family moved to Durham County in England, just South of Northumberland
- 1992-2000. Auckland again. Graduated high school, parents got divorced, left home, went to university, graduated. Me that is, not my parents.
- 2000-2003. Jinju, South Korea. Met my future wife.
- 2003-present. Busan. Got married in 2004, had a daughter in 2006, and plan to have another child in 2008. Will move to Seoul at the drop of a hat if someone offers me a non-ESL job there.
I could go on and on (and on) about all the identity issues that all that meant I’ve had to deal with…6 high schools in 3 countries in 3 years…sheesh…but I’m sure that it’ll come up more than enough in posts, so I’ll spare you here. But hopefully it’ll it make them a bit more understandable.
(Last updated 11 February 2008. For a discussion of my plans for the blog in the first few months of 2008, see here)
Ok it’s a little late so I haven’t actually read your new intro. But may I remark, what a charming picture of you…~
Thanks Anne, I do try…
Am on the MA you jumped ship from.
Must admit I am pissed off with the last teacher.
But will keep on with it given the investment.
I agree^ raising half kids in Asia is tough as owd boots.
Av 2 of um in Japan
You cna take me out of Bolton, but Bolton won’t wash out.
Aha! I got a bit of a shock during the last exam when someone googled one of the exam questions and came across the blog!
I didn’t have any problems with any of the lecturers (although some were clearly better than others), much more with the expense and format of the MA. In particular, the “virtual seminars” were very tedious, and I’m sure there are better alternatives to testing your ability to work under pressure than 4 day exams…even a journalist couldn’t demonstrate all of his or her knowledge and understanding of the topic with only 1000 words for each question to express them.
Having said all that, good luck with it!
Hiya, great to at last find a blog that deals with issues such as the dual nationality children issues and the ever nagging: ‘Why am I still here?’.
I was in Chinju too! once from 99-2000, again 2001-2002 when I was on the EPIK program.
I’ll be popping in often from now on^^.
Hi, Martina, and thanks. Small world…I wonder if we met while you were there? I was in Jinju from May 2000, but I met my now wife in December, and it was a coooool winter, so I became pretty anti-social from then unfortunately!
Man, you gotta clean up your desk! :) Great blog.
Thanks, and right back at you! But as for the desk, that photo is quite old, and was taken shortly after my daughter was born. Nowadays, it is the epitome of minimalist perfection…if only to stop her from grabbing everything off it.
Good on you, mate. The Korean glass, after all, is more than half empty.
Er, thanks…I think. But remember, I actually like Korea.
Are most ESL teachers in Korea ExPatriots?
Or are there any ESL teachers of Korean heritage. Just wondering.
Oh, I forgot to add that you have a great blog here =)
I enjoyed reading about your opinion/analysis on the Korean population shortage. In truth I never realized how much of an issue this was becoming until now.
It also makes sense, there are so many problems in Korea that will sooner or later bring about drastic change to the economy.
Thank you very much! But I’m not sure what you mean by “expatriots” sorry. Do you mean “expatriates”? Anway, there are plently of ethnic-Korean teachers here, back from the US mostly, but they make much less money here because parents and students want blond-haired, blue-eyed caucasians as teachers, regardless of their teaching ability.
Lol, sorry I meant Expatriates.
Thats quite interesting you say that. I always thought it was the other way around.
Anyways, I only asked because I heard it was a huge business in Korea.
It would be interesting if you could perhaps write about the nightlife in Korea too. I always wondered about the different activities available and in a place where sleep is virtually non-existent, I would have thought Korean Nightlife would be much more vibrant then up here in Canada.
I was also shocked that you actually liked listening to Korean Pop music. I’m not making any judgments here but you have to admit, most of their stuff comes straight from the US. There may be a few songs that they can genuinely call their own but most of K Pop I believe was “ripped off” from American artists. The annual law suits that are raised up each year prove it too.
Besides, you must be familiar to Oasis, the Verve, the Beatles and such. In my opinion, thats real music. Really gets you thinking. But hey, everyone has their own tastes right?
I thought so sorry, but I thought there was a chance you were talking about patriotism or something.
I’m not the right person to write about Korean nightlife though. With one baby already and another on the way, it’s very very rare that I so much as go to the cinema these days. And when I do go out with friends, it’s always to the same bar.
Well, #16 was in response to #14, and #15 came up as I typed it, so this will be in response to that.
I completely agree that most Korean pop music is unoriginal and derivative. But there are some gems out there, some of which I mention on the blog, although they’ll never be as popular as the sugar-pop bands that dominate Korean music.
Congratulations on the second.
You seem like a great teacher. Have you always wanted to be a teacher Mr. Turnbull?
You said you Majored in Economics, and something in Politics. How did you end up becoming a teacher?
Thanks. I doubt I’m a great teacher though. I find it very difficult to get motivated when I’m paid merely for being white.
I didn’t major in economics, I majored in History and Political Studies.
Like most teachers here, I just fell into it. Not being able to find jobs with decent salaries in New Zealand after graduating, naturally I jumped at the chance to not only make a very good salary, but also have free accomodation and a free return ticket to Korea.
Must get back to studying Korean now sorry. But thanks for the comments.
In truth I actually am Korean. But I was born in Canada and as a result, I can barely speak my own language.
And judging by the small population of Koreans that have immigrated to Canada, I must admit I was kind of embarrassed to be a Korean. I much rather would have wanted to be Jewish for some random reason.
Anyways, your blog helped me out a lot about my culture and such, I guess I’m not ashamed of being a Korean anymore since I understand a lot more about their culture now thanks to your blog once again.
I’ve always wondered if this was in issue faced by most people that lived in different countries. I have friends here who are half Korean, and half Caucasian by the way, and they tend to have conflicts between their backgrounds. They can never truly determine whether their ethnic, or their Caucasian. In the end however most of them chose to adopt a Caucasian style of living because it was more socially accepted and was not as strict.
Seems to be a common topic among Asian/Caucasians.
Hello again.
I’m glad the blog helped you. I’m sure that immigrant children the world over face similar problems, although of course it depends on the person and circumstances. My sister is only 1.5 years younger than me, but was much more social as soon as we arrived in NZ the first time, and now no-one would ever describe her or her accent as British. I’m the complete opposite, and stand out amongst Kiwis as soon as I open my mouth. And of course, I stand out 24/7 here.
So I’m not surprised identity issues would be a common topic amongst mixed-race people…it was bad enough just for me! But at least you have a much larger and more readily accesible group of people in a similar situation to connect with I think, whereas I’ve always felt quite isolated. Not to belittle your experience though!
You must have watched Please Teach Me English…
What do ya think?
Eh? Sure, I did once, years ago. But why do you ask?
For what it’s worth, I recall thinking that the movie had very very little to do with the reality of the ESL industry, and that the teacher would have been pretty hopeless in real life. But that’s all I can remember.
Hi James, I have been reading some of your posts recently and through some comments was lead to look at your profile, which I saw we had more in common and then a fragment of memory popped up that we had actually met many years ago; not a significant event but a surprise to connect you with the posts I have been reading.
After finishing at Auckland Uni, I also drifted and unintentionally ended up doing a stint of teaching in South Korea from 2000; this lasted 2 years before continuing with more of the same back in Auckland then Malaysia and China.
I believe at Auckland uni we teamed up in the rec center for an introduction to the rock climbing wall; I was not cut out for this at this time and after spotting me on a couple of occasions, we thought it best that we move onto new climbing partners who more matched our skill level. Maybe this memory is incorrect but our paths were crossing at the time, so it does seem possible.
So, I am glad you found a good thing in South Korea and have managed a good veterans stint; enjoying reading your blog posts and if you ever end up back in Auckland trying to establish yourself like I have been doing for the last 2 years, please get in touch and I would hope to extend a hand in any way I possibly could.
Cheers
Hi Martin,
you must have a very good memory, because that must have been about ten years ago!
I recall that I’d been doing weight-training for about 2 years, and was getting a little bored with it and wondered what else I could do with all the muscles so to speak. I tried both roller-blading and rock-climbing, but soon gave up on the latter, partially because my funds were limited, but primarily because I lacked the patience to learn. Like most guys, I really enjoyed the first few times because my strong arms made everything easy, but when I had to make the transition to using my legs more, I’d find that my waifish female friends could learn how to handle the harder courses but I simply physically couldn’t.
If I wasn’t roller-blading I probably would have stuck to it though. Years later I tried to find something similar for my wife (then girlfriend) and I to use here in Busan, but in the entire city of 3.5 million there was nothing even remotely like the climbing wall at the rec centre.
I confess, I can’t recall you without seeing a picture sorry…is there one of you in your Flickr collection that I missed? Where did you teach in Korea? What was your major? Regardless, thanks for your comment, and it’s always good to hear from someone from Auckland Uni.
Hey James, I wouldn’t think you would recall me, never took the chance to meet apart from a couple of times pairing up on the climbing wall in the rec centre and then being embarrassed that I did not have any upper body strength in relation to my frame and weight; I also recall shaking violently with fear when I got a couple of metres off the ground; after these events I probably slinked away in shame.
I just added an earlier Korean pic on my photo stream, I don’t think this will enlighten you much, but a talking point regardless.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taaleem/2436934495/in/photostream/