Verbeek’s Megaton Stress

Pity the poor manager of the Korean national soccer team. Though a run of good fortune can make you a national hero, as one did for 2004 World Cup manager Guus Hiddink, at other times you’ll be blamed for everything. Naturally in sports when a team does poorly the manager or coaches catch the first blame, but in Korea a foreign coach catches much more than his share.

It must be particularly vexing that while the Korean pro teams have never gotten along with the managers of the national team, often squabbling with them and refusing to let players go to international competition, they don’t get the same blame. The Sports Chosun gives us a good example.

Manager Verbeek is fretting as he watches the calendar and reckons with the weather.

At the Asian Cup, which opens on the 7th of next month, Korea will participate in Group D against Saudi Arabia on the 11th, Bahrain on the 15th, and Indonesia on the 18th. With just 20 days left until the first game, manager Verbeek is feeling intense headaches.

One is the situation of pro players turning away from the team, and the other is the increasing stress of preparing step by step for the rapidly approaching tournament with the countries competing in group D.

Verbeek will select 23 names in Saturday’s ceremony for entry into the Asian Cup. There has been stuff opposition from professional players due to there being 7 games scheduled on the same day. Even though the players can quickly leave for the games, the teams say that the national team selection can be sent to the tournament in a day. Even so Verbeek insists that selection must be made 14 days before the tournament.

Relations with the tournament are awkward. Though he took over the position as manager while understanding Korea’s strongest point, its strong nationalism, he has actually given rise to the most serious discord between the manager and local soccer players out of all the foreign managers before him.

The news of injured players falling like dominoes has also inflamed Verbeek’s thoughts. Park Ji-sung, Lee Yeong-pyo and Seol Gi-hyeon have had surgery and recently even midfielder Kim Nam-il will be having it as well. Lee Dong-guk announced “If my knee doesn’t recovers will have to give up participating in the Asian Cup”, dashing Verbeek’s hopes.

On the other hand the other competing nations are busily preparing and organizing.

From the beginning of this month Saudi Arabia has had tryouts for selection and this week the UAE, Singapore, Oman, and North Korea are planning to scout in Singapore. It’s already been two weeks since Bahrain selected and began organizing its national team. And even Indonesia, classified as the weakest team, has been preparing for the past 8 weeks.

Foreign Ballplayers in Korea

In my travels I’ve found that two of the most fun places to spot differences among cultures are movie theatres and sports events. Spending a few hours at the ballpark in Korea is very different from anywhere else — cheerleaders (male and female), boisterous fans banging drums, squid instead of hot dogs, and the whole stadium divided lengthwise into fans of the home and road teams. I’m not big on the cheerleaders, drums, or squid, but that last one could avoid some incidents like the one at Yankee Stadium a few years ago where a Padres fan’s hat was set on fire.

Having casually followed Korean baseball the last few years I’ve often wondered how good they are. Compared to Japan, of course, not that many Korean players have made it in the US, though they shocked everyone with their very strong performance in the World Baseball Classic. The Sports Chosun decided to ask the foreigners playing in the KBO — every team is allowed to have two — what they think of the quality of Korean baseball.

                    

What is the quality of Korean pro baseball as reflected in the eyes of foreign players? We went straight to the horse’s mouth.

The most common answer was that it’s between MLB and triple-A. Out of 15 players asked (except those on the Samsung Browns), 6 answered that way. Hanhwa outfielder Jacob Cruise made his estimation by saying “It’s a little better than triple-A. About 60% of players are better than triple-A but 20-30% aren’t quite good enough.” Doosan pitcher Matt Randall also said “There are a few teams better than triple-A”, adding “I don’t think it’s less than Japan. Japanese hitters focus on precision while Korean hitters focus on power.” Lotte pitcher Jose Cabrera said “The pitchers are close to triple-A. Hitters on the other hand are close to the majors. Like major leaguers, after two strikes Korean hitters bat differently.” Those who said it was the same as triple-A numbered 5. Lotte infielder Edward Rios  answered “If you combine the hitters and pitchers it’s the same level as triple-A but a few players are good enough to be in MLB.”

There were also answers emphasizing the diference in styles. SK pitcher Kenny Lavin, who experienced playing baseball in Taiwan, explained that “Hitters’ power is similar to the International League in triple-A. Korean hitters also swing hard with two strikes. Each team has one or two guys who can carry the team and get the big hit like major leaguers. Lotte’s Lee Dae-hu and Kia’s Jang Seong-ho are like that. Korea’s different from Japan and Taiwan and close to American baseball.”

Last to make his appraisal, LG pitcher Tim Halikala said “If you look at the starting lineups, one or two guys could be in the big leagues and three to four would be at triple-A. Another three or four would be double-A. If a Korean team played a season in triple-A they’d be in the lower ranks.”

New tattoo trend…?

Tattoos are not popular in Korea, partly because they’re associated with gangsters and partly because there just isn’t any cultural history of them. Foreigners who come here with tattoos often say they may draw some odd looks or resort to covering them up somehow. The Chosun Ilbo, however, reports here about one foreigner who shouldn’t have any trouble having his tat accepted.

In America tattoos are popular. Men and women, young and old, people want to write things on their bodies. There are so many kinds of tattoos it boggles the imagination.

A few years ago tattoos in Chinese were in vogue. There were plenty of Americans who got tattoos in Chinese without even knowing their meaning. For example there was even a store employee who had the phrase “hard times” (不景氣) embossed on his arm.

But one Major League athlete is being talked about for having gotten a tattoo on his throat — in Korean.

It’s Milwaukee Brewers star hitter Prince Fielder. Fielder proudly got a tattoo on his neck of the Korean meaning of his name ‘Prince’. When Fielder steps into the batter’s box the word 왕자 is clearly visible on the left side of his neck. Korean fans who watch him on TV wondered about it.

According to Fielder the story of the tattoo is like this.

About 2 or 3 years ago he went into a market in Florida and talked with a Korean working there as a clerk, and learned that his name means 왕자 in Korean. He took a paper with 왕자 written on it and went straight to a tattoo parlor.

Though he doesn’t have any special connection to Korea, Fielder lives with Korean daily and says “I used to know how to pronounce it but now I forgot.”

In the current powerful season of the Milwaukee Brewers Fielder is hitting .277 with 18 home runs and 34 RBI. Fielder is the son of former Detroit Tigers slugger Cecil Fielder.

For the record, 왕자 is pronounced wangja, with two long a’s. For more stories of people who don’t understand their tattoos, head over to Hanzi Smatter.

Cameron Diaz says… what!?

We all expect that when a big star goes to another country they’ll have only nice things to say about their hosts. So when Cameron Diaz came a few days ago to promote Shrek 3, she was practically obligated to praise the good looks of Korean men. But she’s quoted in this article as calling them 바람기 which could be translated as something like amorous or studly, or in a more negative sense of being slutty or temperamentally unfaithful — literally blowing around everywhere like the wind. Well, I’m just glad she said it and not me…

“Korean men are so handsome, and so amorous.”

Top Hollywood star Cameron Diaz says Korean men are handsome. She came on the morning of the 30th to a press conference for ‘Shrek 3′ at the Shilla Hotel. The press conference was attended by Dreamworks representative Jeffrey Katzenberg, star Cameron Diaz, producer Aaron Warner, and director Chris Miller.

The press conference was attended by 100 cameramen looking to record top Hollywood star Cameron Diaz’s appearance and 100 reporters looking for a story.

The heroine of the day, Cameron Diaz, greeted everyone through broken Korean with “hello” before saying “I can’t even speak English well, let alone Korean”, showing off her sense of humor.

Asked if she has a boyfriend in ‘Shrek 3′, Diaz circuitously answered “I don’t have a boyfriend now” by saying “you seem to be indirectly asking me if I have a boyfriend, but as I don’t have one now I can’t answer”.

As it was Diaz’s first time to see Korean men close-up she said “they’re handsome” and lauded them.

“It’s my first time to see Korean men up close and they seem handsome. Plus, Korean men seem to be really amorous.”

Diaz, who filled the press conference with laughter through her lively sense of humor, debuted in 1994’s ‘The Mask’ and after that was in ‘My Boyfriend’s Wedding’, ‘There’s Something About Mary’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’, and ‘The Holiday’, securing plenty of fans here.

The third film in the hugely entertaining ‘Shrek’ series, ‘Shrek 3′, last weekend beat out the American-produced ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ for the top spot at the box office.

Too many foreign models

When you look at advertising in Korea you may be struck by the prevalence of white faces hawking all manner of products, especially makeup and clothing.  Underwear models in particular are nearly always white. Are South Koreans truly dazzled by whiteness, trapped in a colonial mindset? Do they just enjoy making whites work for them for a change? Is this all good or bad, ultimately? One reader of the Munhwa Ilbo made her voice heard, and we bring you the translation.

In the pamphlets and other promotional materials for department stores and every kind of credit card, almost every model is a foreigner. The same for child models. It might not matter for the brands that originate from overseas, but the products manufactured in our country are also all using foreign models.

The fliers for advertising sales are also bursting with foreign models. This leads to an extravagant waste of foreign currency and is the reason that the numbers of our own models are cut short.

These are the things we wear and eat, so shouldn’t we have them adapted to our way of life? They’re not being exported to other countries, and even our traditional cultural products are having foreign models appearing for them. When I see these kinds of advertisements and fliers it hurts my pride.

Recently I heard that a lot of Russian women are coming to our country and that their modeling fees are cheap. Of course from the perspective of the person selling things hiring thin and low-paid foreign beauties is a good strategy to cut costs.

Even so, when you take the long view the result could be to gain something small and lose something great. This is said to be a competitive society, but how about deciding on a fixed ceiling above which no more foreign models can be used in advertisements and so on?