tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post8703813586652816824..comments2023-10-11T05:10:59.975-07:00Comments on kimchi-icecream: South Korea - Swine Flu will close all schools and pretty much shut the country down for 10 days--and give foreign teachers another 10 day quarantineJasonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-82938226459113022762009-09-21T23:26:00.654-07:002009-09-21T23:26:00.654-07:00No second quarantine in Jeollanamdo either.No second quarantine in Jeollanamdo either.Zachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12961284707083131767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-66283226609330681182009-09-09T17:02:20.420-07:002009-09-09T17:02:20.420-07:00Hi Laura,
If you didn't leave the country it&...Hi Laura,<br /><br />If you didn't leave the country it's likely that you probably never heard about this at all from whoever is in charge of you. If you did leave on vacation and came back without being asked to stay away from the school for a week then someone at your school dropped the ball. <br /><br />Private universities, hogwans, public schools, and national univerisities of education have (from everything I've heard and read) been asking their foreign teachers to stay away for a week if they went out of country during the summer, or are new to the country and just flew in.<br /><br />The supervisor who spoke to the 460 foreign teachers I was with in the orientation at the end of August was from the Seoul education office . . . <br /><br />Who knows . . . policies are often implemented in whatever way each school's principal sees fit.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-27482949689830565242009-09-09T16:16:50.138-07:002009-09-09T16:16:50.138-07:00I am a teacher in Seoul at an International School...I am a teacher in Seoul at an International School and I have yet to be quarantined at all. I come in contact with my Korean students everyday so I don't think this is a Seoul government requirement.Laura Dihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06509200639119606653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-8066224087865967032009-09-03T00:25:38.479-07:002009-09-03T00:25:38.479-07:00I don't think signs in the bathrooms on how to...I don't think signs in the bathrooms on how to wash your hands properly is silly at all, adults or otherwise.<br /><br />The bugger is how do you change a lifetime of habit in adults? Not fast enough I fear.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-25336965363286925472009-09-03T00:22:50.733-07:002009-09-03T00:22:50.733-07:00Quarantine 1: I left the country for vacation and...Quarantine 1: I left the country for vacation and was not quarantined or told to quarantine myself upon re-entry.<br />Quarantine 2: I have contact with my Korean students.<br /><br />The nurse has posted laminated signs in all the bathrooms on how to wash hands. This may seem silly, but in the US the same signs were posted in the bathrooms years ago. For adults. In the workplace.Debbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15317922947352765721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-52048172742774391932009-09-02T05:20:42.150-07:002009-09-02T05:20:42.150-07:00This whole business sounds just like a repeat of l...This whole business sounds just like a repeat of late May. I am so glad I already had the damned H1N1. The Koreans will never be a top economic power simply because this attitude is representative of all that is defective in the collective psyche. Although that could change with the new generation. The K-medical system was ranked around 112 in the last WHO survey (granted that was in 2000.) Some of that is due to simple ignorance and old-wives tales that continue to permeate even the so-called "educated" medical classes. The proverbial Kimchi Kure is the problem. The interesting thing is their own deep-seated racism is causing more problems than it's solving. Racism has put their country at risk for an epidemic of all sorts of diseases. Worrying about mad-cow, for instance, yet food sanitation standards are some of the lowest in the developed world. Hell bent on recycling, yet they individually package everything. The contradictions are almost funny. Sharing everything (food, bars of soap and towels in public restrooms, grooming products in love hotels) is a great way to transmit H1N1, yet you'll not see that practice adjusted, because it's "cultural." Slavery was cultural too, but that doesn't make it rational. I'm about to move to China and I expect it'll be exceptionally worse there.Brian Dearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09245669219787782042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-91675855060836193672009-09-02T05:03:03.012-07:002009-09-02T05:03:03.012-07:00Hi livefrommasan,
I bet if you quizzed your prin...Hi livefrommasan, <br /><br />I bet if you quizzed your principal through a translator that he/she wouldn't know the basics about transmission of H1N1--that being said at least he/she gets that Koreans can get it.<br /><br />It's kind of sad that it seems like there's this myth out there that sanitizer is better than soap--and then add to the mix that the kids don't know how to use it properly . . .<br /><br />Good luck down there.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-73816103944178470792009-09-02T02:03:44.765-07:002009-09-02T02:03:44.765-07:00"Quarantine 2: on right now--foreign teachers..."Quarantine 2: on right now--foreign teachers are not allowed to have contact with Korean students. I THINK this is a national policy but it may just be a Seoul education office thing (but what Seoul does so doth the rest of the country, right?)."<br /><br />Not so down here in Gyeongsangnam-do, it's business as usual. I did notice more hand sanitizers, though, one on every teacher's desk, and they're in the bathroom. I don't think the kids know how to use them, they treat it like it's soap. Instead of rubbing it in, it gets rinsed off.<br /><br />Teachers who were away for vacation do have to stay home for a week, still. My co-teacher was forbidden to go to Europe, so my principal knows that Koreans can get H1N1, too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-66395269817667286822009-09-02T00:46:07.280-07:002009-09-02T00:46:07.280-07:00Quarantine 1: if you went out of country during yo...Quarantine 1: if you went out of country during your vacation this summer you had to do a self-imposed quarantine in your apartment.<br /><br />Quarantine 2: on right now--foreign teachers are not allowed to have contact with Korean students. I THINK this is a national policy but it may just be a Seoul education office thing (but what Seoul does so doth the rest of the country, right?).<br /><br />Quarantine 3: if numbers hit a high enough level we'll all be out of our schools while they shut down and probably told to stay home in our apartments for the duration, and to not congregate with other foreigners in large groups . . .<br /><br />Oh yeah, the word 'quarantine' here is being used extremely liberally because the in-practice aspect of it is . . . ahem, cough cough, not what it should be.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-90278037086648723782009-09-01T23:13:34.942-07:002009-09-01T23:13:34.942-07:00Why again will there be a "third" quaran...Why again will there be a "third" quarantine...that I don't get...help?JIWhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14828166111322700393noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-2321758139676884072009-09-01T22:08:11.341-07:002009-09-01T22:08:11.341-07:00Very funny.
And very tempting!
LOL!Very funny.<br /><br />And very tempting!<br /><br />LOL!Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-48577005374321874912009-09-01T19:07:50.232-07:002009-09-01T19:07:50.232-07:00Step 1: find a mask.
Step 2: Write 'I DO NOT H...Step 1: find a mask.<br />Step 2: Write 'I DO NOT HAVE THE SWINE FLU' on the front.<br />Step 3: Write it in Korean if you can.<br />Step 4: Observe people's reactions.Chris in South Koreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07114300133329984235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-18808449982033274302009-09-01T15:01:45.385-07:002009-09-01T15:01:45.385-07:00Hi Brian,
Either I get it while teaching from stu...Hi Brian,<br /><br />Either I get it while teaching from students, or I'll get it from being put into a quarantine like you were and it not being run properly.<br /><br />Either way I fully expect to get it . .. <br /><br />Here's hoping things don't become more hysterical than they already are.Jasonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14403839433187045342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-53811052996819299822009-09-01T09:07:35.136-07:002009-09-01T09:07:35.136-07:00Hello there.
I think you make some valid points he...Hello there.<br />I think you make some valid points here. I home your predictions are wrong though, for obvious reasons.<br /><br />As someone who has been an English teacher here in Korea for over 3 1/2 years I am still disturbed at the lack of hygiene these kids exhibit. I am still disgusted at the high percentage of kids who don't wash their hands when they go to the bathroom. At times some of the hygiene amongst some Koreans is third world standard.<br /><br />Some students are learning about some of 'the facts' of H1N1 so maybe just maybe, hygiene will improve. Just today one of my kids started coughing without covering her mouth and one girl went ballistic at her and told her why she shouldn't do that and informed her what she should do when she needs to cough. Perhaps this attitude will catch on with others. We shall see.<br /><br />Before/after Chuseok should be eventful indeed... Hysteria here we come.Talking to myselfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05350096644138337427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6357026555577605135.post-25364243183248533272009-09-01T07:56:23.876-07:002009-09-01T07:56:23.876-07:00They're still pushing that foreigner vector cr...They're still pushing that foreigner vector crap. This is a load of smelly horse shit. I carry my little "I had swine flu" certificate in my bag nearly everywhere I go these days. I don't want to be swept up in some stupid quarantine (again.) Let's not forget the fact that I caught the g'damned disease whilst IN quarantine. There needs to be a serious push towards personal hygiene, but unfortunately the Kimchi Kure seems to be the prevalent theme.Brian Dearhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09245669219787782042noreply@blogger.com