Kushibo pontificates

I've been quoted in the Joongang Daily, along with The Marmot and Oranckay. About fifteen or twenty minutes of by-phone discussion with Niels Footman, a real good guy by the way, was distilled down to this nine-word quote:

...and that's a limitation of the English-language blogosphere here: It is predominantly the domain of American men. Why? For one thing, there are more Americans here than natives of other English-speaking countries, and men may just more interested in computers and politics than women. "Kushibo," another American blogger, has another explanation: "We're just quicker to express our opinions, I guess."

Well, at least I did say that, and unlike a certain reporter from a certain world-reknowned newspaper, he managed not to quote me out of context. The full quote, though, was less a dig at other Anglophones for being slow and more a dig at some of my fellow American citizens for being a whiny and opinionated lot, especially about things that aren't here the way they think they are or should be back in the States.

Ah, you can see what fun I must be at parties.

To be fair, that's not all I said about why Americans (to include kyopo and non-kyopo Americans in Korea) tend to dominate the blogs. I think Americans as a whole tend to be more established in non-hagwon jobs (which is the case with Oranckay, Space Nakji, The Marmot, Jodi at Asia Pages, The Flying Yangban, Lost Nomad, and me) than other English-speaking nationalities, not just because of the relative population numbers but because of the length (and depth) of the post-war US-ROK relationship. I guess I could include extra-territorial bloggers such as Plunge in that list. The hagwon experience, as I understand it, lends little time and opportunity for blogging on Korea's social and political issues, and also tends to concentrate on-line efforts on places like English Spectrum and Dave's ESL Café. (Of course, there are exceptions).

I think Mr Footman makes a good point about the dearth of women's blogs in the Korea-related blogosphere. There are very few and not many of them tackle the kinds of issues that Marmot's Hole does.