Skip to main content

French tourists are the worst--Koreans surprised?

"French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant, according to a survey of 4,500 hotel owners across the world."

According to the same survey:
"The Japanese ranked top of the Best Tourist survey, with the British and the Germans judged the best of the Europeans."

CJL comments:

The Korean government periodically cracks down on Korean tourists for being unruly. During the 1990s when I was last here, the Korean government launched an anti-overconsumption campaign. As I wrote in the Korea Times at that time:

"At least citizens receive something they want for the six trillion won they are projected to voluntarily spend overseas this year. The same can't be said for government services, complete with faulty air-raid alarms and crumbling infrastructure at the non-negotiable price of only 56 trillion won in taxes. It is suspicious that politicians focus on the voluntary spending habits of Korean travelers although the government wastes in a day more than planeloads of crazed Korean tourists ever could. According to a Times staff editorial earlier this year, the introduction of numerous government programs has resulted in the size of Kim Young-sam's government increasing faster than the growth of the general population.

"Some might even label the greedy, reckless spending of public officials as wasteful, stupid, of, shall we say, overconsumption. My, my, I guess there is something to this overconsumption theory after all. The addiction might be even worse than claimed by busybody overconsumption theorists. "

CJL

Popular posts from this blog

Breen's column that outraged Samsung

“What People Got for Christmas” Michael Breen The Korea Times December 25, 2009 At this time of year when Seoul’s bare winter trees are wrapped in beckoning lights ― blue and white are the in colors ― and Merry Xmas signs at hotels and department stores are really saying come-hither-gentle-reveler-and-empty-your-purse, and when expensive restaurants belch noisy year-end office party groups onto every street and the karaoke rooms are full, it is tempting to declare that Christmas has lost its soul. But that would be a mistake. Christmas is a time for giving, and, before they can be given, gifts have to be bought. Commerce is good. Here, as proof, is a round up of some of the gifts given and received today by people in the news. Samsung, the world’s largest conglomerate and the rock upon which the Korean economy rests, sent traditional year-end cards offering best wishes for 2010 to the country’s politicians, prosecutors and journalists, along with 50 million w...

Park Jin welcoming remarks to FSI (and Casey Lartigue)

  National Assembly member Park Jin makes the welcoming remarks at FSI's conference featuring North Korean diplomats. Park Jin | Greeting message to FSI and Casey Lartigue mention - YouTube

Obama debating Keyes, 2004, education excerpt

PONCE : Thank you. Let's move to the question of education. Mr. Obama, you've said that you consider education as the most important civil rights issue facing America today. Currently, your children are in private schools. If you're elected to the Senate, will you send them to public schools? OBAMA: Well, my children currently go to the lab school at the University of Chicago where I teach, and my wife works, and we get a good deal for it. But, so - - (laughter, applause) OBAMA: - -it depends on whether we move or not. And that, obviously, hinges on the election and what's gonna happen. We're gonna choose the best possible education for our children, as I suspect all parents are gonna try to do. And that's part of the reason why, consistently when I've been in the state legislature, I've tried to promote those kinds of reforms that would improve what I think is an inadequate performance by too many public schools, all across the state. PONCE : But yo...

Rating the 10 Magazine speakers

I attended another 10 Magazine speech organized by Barry Welsh. Here are my unofficial grades for the speakers I have heard so far: 1) Shin Dong Hyuk (A+) : The audience was captivated. A few ladies were in tears as he discussed his escape from North Korea, his adjustment to living in South Korea, his difficulty at enjoying life. I first met Shin shortly before the best-selling book (Escape from Camp 14) in America about him was published, and was a bit surprised when he recognized me at an event and struck up a conversation with me even though he is so shy. Even though I was already familiar with his story, it was still great to hear it first hand in an informal setting. I threw a curveball at him, mentioning that that some people have doubted the veracity of his story. He took it in stride. After escaping from a prison camp in North Korea, I guess that there aren't many things that could rattle him. Shin, Lartigue 2) Michael Breen (A): An outstanding mix of humo...

Still writing (Korea Times, 2023-12-19)

Still writing by Casey Lartigue Jr. The Korea Times December 19, 2023 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/12/626_365284.html