Welcome, all. I am the Angma's Advocate.
What the hell's an angma, you say? It's the Korean word for 'devil', which seems less impressive when romanised as it does in its original hangeul scripture. But I would like to remain accessible to those who aren't familiar with hangeul, so I'm sticking with the romanisation.
I originally planned a long spiel about my motivations for starting this blog, but I realised I was just sounding preachy. Therefore, I'll try to keep things simple. The purpose of this blog is, as the name suggests, to play the devil's advocate in regards to the plethora of issues that are raised concerning Korean society, culture and people. There are hundreds of K-blogs out there, of which I only read a handful. The ones which I read are generally, in some way, concerned with commentary on Korean society. Now, I only read blogs which I think try to be impartial and non-judemental to some degree, but sometimes I feel that these blogs are overly critical. I don't mean to do the Korean Tourism Industry's job for them (although they could certainly do with the help) but sometimes I think the ex-pat community is a little harsh on our generous hosts. Yes, Korea is not a perfect society and yes, many ex-pats are merely letting off steam and/or dishing out a bit of tough love. But sometimes, just sometimes, I think a less-critical perspective would be nice.
Perhaps the kimchi has warped my brain, but I often fail to see the 'big deal' over some of the events and occurences here that seem to get the ex-pat community so riled-up. I also wonder, given the comments along the lines of, 'Well, can you imagine in if they tried that back in (X Western nation)??' if some of these people aren't forgetting that it's not all peaches and cream back home either.
What I hope to do, if I can be motivated enough (unlikely) to do it, is to at least provoke some degree of thought about many of the issues that seem to cast Korea in a negative light. I also have a beef with some of thedouchebags unfair critics who froth at the mouth about how Koreans are ungrateful, racist, misogynistic, conformist pricks if they so much as spill their chocolate milk.
Unlike many of my peers, I don't have the time, nor the effort, nor the energy, nor the motivation to do the staggering amounts of research, translation and general hard-work that they do. I don't have access to historical Korean texts or Korean legal documents and quite frankly, I don't care. Everything I say on this blog will, unless stated otherwise, be based purely on anecdotal evidence and good old-fashioned common sense. I very much welcome constructive criticism and thoughtful debate. Please indulge me.
What the hell's an angma, you say? It's the Korean word for 'devil', which seems less impressive when romanised as it does in its original hangeul scripture. But I would like to remain accessible to those who aren't familiar with hangeul, so I'm sticking with the romanisation.
I originally planned a long spiel about my motivations for starting this blog, but I realised I was just sounding preachy. Therefore, I'll try to keep things simple. The purpose of this blog is, as the name suggests, to play the devil's advocate in regards to the plethora of issues that are raised concerning Korean society, culture and people. There are hundreds of K-blogs out there, of which I only read a handful. The ones which I read are generally, in some way, concerned with commentary on Korean society. Now, I only read blogs which I think try to be impartial and non-judemental to some degree, but sometimes I feel that these blogs are overly critical. I don't mean to do the Korean Tourism Industry's job for them (although they could certainly do with the help) but sometimes I think the ex-pat community is a little harsh on our generous hosts. Yes, Korea is not a perfect society and yes, many ex-pats are merely letting off steam and/or dishing out a bit of tough love. But sometimes, just sometimes, I think a less-critical perspective would be nice.
Perhaps the kimchi has warped my brain, but I often fail to see the 'big deal' over some of the events and occurences here that seem to get the ex-pat community so riled-up. I also wonder, given the comments along the lines of, 'Well, can you imagine in if they tried that back in (X Western nation)??' if some of these people aren't forgetting that it's not all peaches and cream back home either.
What I hope to do, if I can be motivated enough (unlikely) to do it, is to at least provoke some degree of thought about many of the issues that seem to cast Korea in a negative light. I also have a beef with some of the
Unlike many of my peers, I don't have the time, nor the effort, nor the energy, nor the motivation to do the staggering amounts of research, translation and general hard-work that they do. I don't have access to historical Korean texts or Korean legal documents and quite frankly, I don't care. Everything I say on this blog will, unless stated otherwise, be based purely on anecdotal evidence and good old-fashioned common sense. I very much welcome constructive criticism and thoughtful debate. Please indulge me.
