Monday, March 18, 2013

A new message from Anti English Spectrum

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

Part 1: English Spectrum and 'Ask The Playboy'
Part 2: The Kimchiland where it’s easy to sleep with women and make money
Part 3: English Spectrum shuts down as Anti-English Spectrum is created
Part 4: How to hunt foreign women
Part 5: Did the foreigners who denigrated Korean women throw a secret party?
Part 6: The 'Ask The Playboy' sexy costume party
Part 7: Stir over ‘lewd party’ involving foreigners and Korean women
Part 8: The 2003 post that tarred foreign English teachers as child molesters
Part 9: Netizens shocked by foreign instructor site introducing how to harass Korean children
Part 10: 'Recruit a Yankee strike force!'
Part 11: The Daum signature campaign: 'Let's kick out low quality foreign instructors!'
Part 12: Movement to expel foreign teachers who denigrated Korean women
Part 13: "Middle school girls will do anything"
Part 14: Netizens propose 'Yankee counter strike force'
Part 15: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 1
Part 16: Segye Ilbo interview with the women from the party, part 2
Part 17: Web messages draw Koreans’ wrath
Part 18: Thai female laborers and white English instructors
Part 19: KBS Morning Newstime: 'I can also suffer from the two faces of the internet'
Part 20: AES: Grandfather Dangun is wailing in his grave!
Part 21: 'Regret' over the scandal caused by confessions of foreign instructors
Part 22: "Korean men have no excuse"
Part 23: "Unfit foreign instructors should be a 'social issue'"
Part 24: Growing dispute over foreign English instructor qualifications
Part 25: 'Clamor' at foreigner English education site
Part 26: Foreign instructor: "I want to apologize"
Part 27: No putting brakes on 'Internet human rights violations'
Part 28: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 1
Part 29: "They branded us as whores, yanggongju and pimps," part 2
Part 30: Don't Imagine
Part 31: Anti-English Spectrum founder's statement
Part 32: 'Foreign instructor' takes third place
Part 33: Art From Outsider's Point of View
Part 34: U.S. Embassy warns Americans of threats near colleges
Part 35: Internet real name system debated
Part 36: Dirty Korean women who have brought shame to the country?
Part 37: Invasion of Privacy Degrades Korean Women Twice Over
Part 38: 60 unqualified native speaking instructors hired for English instruction
Part 39: The rising tide of unqualified foreign instructors
Part 40: Warrant for Canadian English instructor who molested hagwon owner
Part 41: MBC Sisa Magazine 2580: "Korea is a paradise"
Part 42: Foreign instructor: "In two years I slept with 20 Korean women."
Part 43: Viewers shocked by shameless acts of unqualified foreign instructors.
Part 44: Warrant for the arrest of a man in his 30s for breaking into home of foreign instructors
Part 45: [Cultural criticism] Hongdae club day lewd party incident
Part 46: Unqualified English instructors seen as major problem here
Part 47: Investigation of the realities of 'foreign instructors' methods for luring Korean women'
Part 48: Broadcast announcement: 'For foreign instructors, is Korea a paradise for women?'
Part 49: To white English instructors, the Republic of Korea is a paradise
Part 50: "If they're white, it's okay?" Lots of English instructor frauds...
 

Part 51: A new message from Anti English Spectrum

In the first month of its existence, Anti English Spectrum's cafe header changed several times:

(From top to bottom, screen shots of Anti English Spectrum's header from January 13, January 14 (am), 
January 14, 2005 (pm), and February 15, 2005. Click to enlarge.)

By early February the header had changed to the latter one, and included a new message and a changing gif image:


The message was shown in the SBS broadcast of February 19:


 Here is a translation of the message above, signed by the new cafe manager, 너나우리 (You me we):
This is the [Anti] English Spectrum cafe.

[Anti] English Spectrum's announcement:

Should you just sit idly by as these problematic foreigners teach your children?

With the distorted aspects of some, for how long should the majority of our healthy citizens give foreigners such ridiculous treatment? We should not be silent anymore.

It's a misunderstanding to think that through this harm will be brought to all foreign instructors. Rather, this is a chance for qualified and eligible foreign instructors to be treated properly.

A word to the the owners of Hongdae area clubs: We believe it is important to take this opportunity to establish proper club culture among our youth.

Report immigration crimes such as the employment of unqualified illegal foreign English instructors: 1588-7191

National Intelligence Service: 111

Internet report email: seouljosa1@korea.com
I imagine the NIS must have appreciated any calls it got. In late February the same message still stood on the site, but with links to the following shows listed:

MBC "Sisa Magazine 2580" (January 30, 2005) [Korea is a paradise]
SBS "I want to know that" (February 19, 2005) [Blonde hair, blue eyes, report on the realities of foreign instructors]
MBC "News Today" (February 24, 2005) [On the scene]*

It was also signed by a new cafe manager, 돌쇠(rightenglish) ('You me we' didn't seem to last very long). Original founder Bbaallyuchi would return as manager in early March of that year, but would be replaced again by 돌쇠(rightenglish) by May of 2005 (and who is currently the manager of the (pretty much defunct) cafe, having taken over after M2 (Lee Eun-ung)'s reign of 2006-2011).

The gif on the front page shows these images:


"Expel vulgar foreign culture and low quality instructors"
"All members: Let's participate and cooperate"

I guess the image without any writing is supposed to say 'No scary white-facers.' The line "Expel vulgar foreign culture and low quality instructors" is reminiscent of both Park Chung-hee's mid-1970s attacks on foreign (read: American) decadent culture and the nationalist left's attacks on 'low-quality American culture' and AIDS-infected GIs at the time of the 1988 Olympics. Needless to say, Anti-English Spectrum's xenophobic outlook didn't come out of nowhere.

* I hadn't heard of the MBC 'News Today" show; unfortunately, the archives for this show only go back to 2007.

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