竹島問題の歴史

18.6.09

Foreign English Teachers Used for Dokdo Propaganda

"Brian in Jeollanam-do" has posted an article entitled, "Teachers back from Dokdo," which talks about a program in the Korean province of North Gyeongsang that takes foreign English teachers to Ulleungdo and Dokdo and teaches them the Korean version of Dokdo history, while taking pictures of them to be used for Dokdo propaganda. The group this year set sail on June 7th and returned on the 9th.

The following is part of what one of the foreign teachers wrote about the trip (LINK):
On a side note I feel that I should mention that many of us did question the lecturers about how Korea acts towards Dokdo and how it basically presents itslef. They took our criticisms and answered our questions to the best they could. One of the speakers presented us with a booklet about the debate and was terribly biased. He argued that Japan's aspiration for Dokdo is to reconquer the Korean Peninsula. He didn't answer my question when I asked for empirical evidence.
"Japan's aspiration for Dokdo is to reconquer the Korean peninsula"? What a stupid thing to say! Such ridiculous claims may work on rabid, anti-Japanese Koreans, but it does not work on the average foreigner. I would have thought that Koreans would be worldly enough to know that by now, but I guess not.

By the way, below is a link to a very funny account of last year's disasterous attempt to take foreign English teachers to Dokdo. The weather was so bad that they had to turn back after the trip turned into a vomit fest. They tried to go in November, which from what I understand, is one of the worst months of the year to go, weather-wise. Anyway, here is part of what one of the foreign English teachers wrote about the very beginning of the trip.

After claiming our spots and mingling in the hallway while a few were interviewed on camera (What do you think about Dok-do island? Do you think you will have a good visit to Dok-do? Do you feel Dok-do is an important issue?) we were called on deck for the funniest part of the trip…little did I know it was to be one of the last times we’d smile on board this ship. They gave us name tags with the now famous motto: Dok-do is Korean territory, and a picture of our flag so we could all see what country we were from, and then we were rounded up in front of the giant Dok-do banner (it travels) and instructed to wave our flags and say, in Korean, that Dok-do is Korean territory. Are you picking up on the theme? They were going to air this footage on t.v and we were all reasonably sure that we would be forever banned from entering the country of Japan after this little display went public.


Here is the link: "Dok-do, wait...Dok-DON'T island"

5 comments:

  1. I didn't know that they are doing such a stupid thing...
    BTW, didn't they invite you Gerry?

    ReplyDelete
  2. At least, the teachers knew this is a propaganda.

    The most intriguing part of his post is this.

    "(On Ulleungdo,) The food was really good and the Dae-a resort where we stayed was just awesome. Ocean view and the rooms were pretty good too (bathrooms need to be cvleaned better)."

    "Dae-a resort" sounds nice. Is it expensive to stay?

    ReplyDelete
  3. By the way they don't know Pepero(Lotte Korea) is imitation , copied from Pocky (Ezaki-Grico)???
    http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Busan/blog-344699.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. > we would be forever banned from entering the country of Japan after this little display went public.

    I'm sure this will never happen. If you do opposite, it may happen though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ROFTLMAO. While I'm not very knowledgeable on this Dokdo-Takeshima stuff (though this site is convincing), the basics of good propaganda is to know your audience and how far you can push them in your direction in one session. Obviously, the Koreans don't even know this basic rule.

    ReplyDelete

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