There’s been a lot of buzz lately in the Korean press, expat discussion boards, blogosphere, and now Western media over the Anti-English Spectrum group who have actively since 2005 been campaigning to protect Korean children and citizens from ‘rouge’ native English teachers. While on the surface this may sound like a noble enough quest, a quick look under the surface discovers their true modus operandi.
The group was set up largely as a result of a former ex-pat English teacher discussion board, English Spectrum, which by all accounts was very loosely moderated – to their detriment – and included a mock post on how to molest students, posts on sexual encounters with Korean women, and pictures of young ex-pats drinking and fondling consenting young Korean women at parties. These individuals posted enough highly provocative posts and pictures that it eventually (and inevitably) caught the attention of concerned Korean citizens and Anti-English Spectrum was born. The group’s profile and activities grew exponentially following the arrest of convicted pedophile, Christopher Paul Neil, in 2008 who had taught in Korea though had not committed any offences there.
Rundown on what the 'friendly' folks at Anti-English Spectrum believe lies within a Western English teacher's brain
From that point on, Anti-English Spectrum under its devoted leader, Lee Eun-ung, went into overdrive ‘protecting’ the Korean masses, in particular Korean children and women, from heavy drinking, sex offending, drug abusing, Korean women fondling, no-good Western dropouts who couldn’t find a job elsewhere – apparently the vast majority of native English teachers fit that bill according to the folks at Anti-English Spectrum. Their activities have including stalking native English teachers for months at a time until ‘finding’ an offense to take to the police, posting malicious, false and discriminating posts, having an audience with Government officials on one occasion, and having one member(/s) post death threats to a prominent expat union. Many ex-pats argue that Anti-English Spectrum have largely influenced public opinion of and laws pertaining to native English teachers through their efforts in liaison with the media, police and Government officials. Whereby they have often cited either misleading, incorrect, incomplete or downright false and inflammatory accounts of native English teachers to further their agenda feeding on age-old latent xenophobia still existing in modern South Korean society.
Korean women who hang out with Western males are also targets of Anti-English Spectrum
A more complete coverage and rundown of Anti-English Spectrum, their history, actions and motives can be found at Andrea Vandom’s excellent, detailed study of the group along with; The Marmot’s Hole, Brian in Jeollanam-do, Gusts of Popular Feeling, three Korea-based ex-pat blogs along with that have extensively followed the Anti-English Spectrum group, their history and activities.
I arrived in Jeonju, South Korea in April 2003, less than one year after the fateful tank accident involving a US military tank and two Korean teenage girls and around the same time as the beginning of the Iraq War. There still was latent anger present at that time towards individuals appearing to be American – pretty much any Westerner - though these feelings were largely dissipated once people found out your nationality, provided of course you weren’t American, it was a tough time to be American in South Korea.
At the time being wide-eyed and open to new experiences although I felt some tension, even animosity, at my presence from time to time and although many locals were extremely nervous and anxious around my presence during these times as sometimes you truly were the first foreigner locals had ever interacted with, the vast majority of the time I was treated with goodwill, kindness, sincerity and an eagerness to show me the best face Korea had to offer.
Since this time, I have inevitably gone through the peaks and troughs of living abroad in a culture that is vastly different to my home country and the resultant anxiety, alienation, isolation and anger that can result from such, particularly when the host culture is one of the most ethnically homogeneous on Earth with a documented history of xenophobia and mistrust of foreigners – often for purely valid reasons. Most foreigners who landed on Korean shores before mid-last century were not friendly neighbours but more conquerors, mercenaries and invaders.
As time has gone on I have changed and Korea has changed alongside with me. The change and development within Korea in the short time I have been here has been truly remarkable though some thing take longer to change than others. Korea, in my mind, is now more familiar with Westerners and while many may be more comfortable with our presence, this is not entirely true for all individuals. Whereas, when I first came to Korea I was often the source of constant astonishment, curiosity and interest this is not so much the case these days as most people have seen plenty of people who look similar to me for a number of years now.
Unfortunately, what has sometimes followed in its place is a feeling of jadedness, insecurity and in some individuals, even animosity and hate, to what I am and what I appear to stand for and represent. Whilst, by no means most individuals feel threatened, uncomfortable or even angry at my presence, it is there and has been something that hasn’t – nor probably will – leave Korean society, though the same is true of every society on Earth, there will always be those who dislike the different, the ‘outsiders’, the foreigners.
Learning a bit of the language and being able to understand a reasonable amount of what is being said in my presence – as any Korean learner in Korea can attest – can be a blessing and a curse for often locals with use their language as a cloak of fraternity and partnership among each other – essentially closing in the wagons and will often freely express their true feelings under this cloak – believing the foreigner does not understand – whilst often saying or appearing to say something different.
Whilst, Korea’s experiences are by no means unique and a clearly sign of a once homogeneous country coming to terms with a sudden, rapid influx of foreign nationals on its shores – something which all Western nations themselves have gone through to one degree or another. I often likened Korea to 1950s Australia, when all of a sudden the majority Anglo-Celtic population – who in 1947 comprised a whooping 90% of the Australian population – had to come to terms with the rapid influx of thousands and thousands of displaced Europeans (and in later waves from the 70s onwards Asians, people from the Middle East, Oceania and Africa) seeking a new life and more often than not coming with a different appearance, different tongue, different palate, different customs and different culture. In many ways, Australia itself – despite being one of the most multicultural Western democracies – still has a long way yet to go until there is true equality amongst all ethnic groups living in the country.
I believe Korea will grow from these growing pains of being a newly open, modern society and will move on to become more inclusive and accepting of individuals who may not look, act or speak like the local populace. Though, it will take time and it will take honest discussions and discourse on just what direction Korea wants to take, otherwise there’s the potential of a growing disenfranchised, maligned or disadvantaged subset of the local population creating problems for social harmony and integration of ethnically non-Koreans in Korean society.
Time will tell and sometimes I wonder I have the patience to stick around and see whether Korea can become the truly great, integrated society it has the potential to become. It does have a lot going for it.
I’m interested in your thoughts on modern Korean society and its race relations and xenophobia. What it was like in the past, what is it like now and what do you believe it will be like in the future?
Posted by elcanguro76 
