Plagiarism and copying continue to plague South Korea

By: C.J. Buskey
Produced and edited by: Molly Nocheck

As the Republic of Korea’s elections enter the final stretch, presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-Soo has some ground to make up, as he trails New Frontier Party nominee Park Geun-hye by nearly 10 points, according to a recent poll conducted by Realmeter and JTBC.

Yet, Soo may have other issues to worry about, including recent accusations that he plagiarized some of his research papers at Seoul National University. Ahn graduated from Seoul University’s medical school in 1991, but his work in question is research published two years later, which was suspected to copy a work by The Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Soo is just one of the more prominent examples of the deeper problem of copying and plagiarism in South Korea, a problem that hasn’t been getting much attention.

“My Korean partner says that it's a big problem,” says Seoul resident Joe McPherson, who runs the Korean food blog Zenkimchi. “Those types of ethics aren't taught at all in the schools. It's funny that the Korean word for cheating on a test is ‘cunning.’” Plagiarism has not only affected students in South Korea, but also has been practiced by some of its professors. Two professors from Seoul National University were investigated for plagiarizing stem cell research earlier this year, the same University that saw Professor Hwang Woo-Suk fired for fabricating much of his cloning research in 2007.

While South Koreans are taught not to plagiarize during schooling, Seoul patent attorney Kim Yun Mi says she thinks it isn’t taken too seriously.

“In middle and high school, I was taught ‘not to plagiarize’ in several of my classes, but I was never told how serious of a problem plagiarism is,” she said. “It’s become very serious problem and before the past couple of years, it was considered a usual thing.”

Steve Herman, President of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club, goes even further in theorizing where the roots of South Korea’s plagiarism problems begin.

“It’s obvious that the approach towards academic plagiarism is more lax in South Korea than in the United States,” said Herman. “Based on discussions with students and academics I’ve had, the problem seems to be endemic and systemic.”

One theory that McPherson proposes is the concept of “Rote memorization”, which is a theory of learning strictly by repetition.

“Rote memorization is the dominant education model rather than critical thinking. This comes from the old Confucian scholar system that has been embedded in the culture for centuries,” he said.

South Korea’s plagiarism problem extends far beyond its academic institutions, however. Many of South Korea’s businesses have been caught copying foreign products, including the most recent example of Samsung v. Apple. Copying also affects other aspects of Korean life, such as the K-Pop music industry and even the cars they drive. “Automotive design nowadays is much better than it was in the past, but in the past, most automotive design copy the Japanese,” said Will Kim, who spent 26 years in Seoul before moving to New York.

Japanese products aren’t the only ones being copied either. Devon Weber, an English teacher in Seoul, says he sees copied American products almost everywhere, with multiple brands copying the same product. “The North Face, for instance, has a rip off brand here called ‘The Cools Place’. They also have brands called ‘The Red Face’ and ‘The Black Wind’, all of which are blatant rip offs,” he said.

Products like the North Face have come under intense scrutiny from the South Korean government, largely because the country fears influence from foreign brands. Korean officials seem to only want South Korean businesses to be successful to help promote nationalism. McPherson has seen this in action first-hand.

“A Canadian friend of mine runs a great burger joint, and he does it on his own,” McPherson said, “he recently ran into obstacles in renewing his investor's visa. During the process, an immigration official said, ‘Why don't you get a Korean partner to make this easier?’”

Fortunately, however, plagiarism and copying is beginning to attract more attention than ever before in South Korea.

“The number of lectures about copying/plagiarism has definitely been increasing,” said Mi. “And the legal cases about copying/plagiarism have also increased. I think the consciousness of copying is changing.”

With plagiarism continuing to make international headlines, such as in the case of Cheol-Soo, it also serves as a black eye for a country that has been trying to separate itself academically from other economic superpowers, such as the U.S. and Japan.

The United Nations Index rated South Korea 7th out of 176 countries for its education system earlier this year. If South Korea hopes to maintain this ranking, weeding out plagiarism in its universities will be essential.

“I would expect as South Korea endeavors to bring its high education system up to a global standard and there are greater exchanges of academics and students between this country and the West, then awareness will grow and the standard will gradually improve here,” said Herman.

As for Soo, the investigations into his alleged plagiarism have come to a halt for the moment, as Seoul National University announced last week that they had found the papers in question “OK.”

Park-Geun-hye Vies to Become Next Female World Leader in South Korea

By: CJ Buskey

Produced and edited by: Kaylyn Hlavaty

Out of the 196 countries that span the globe, only 20 of them have elected a woman as its leader. By the end of the year, another country might add itself to this list.

South Korea will hold its Presidential election this December and one of the country’s leading candidates is a woman.

The candidate, Park Geun-hye, is running under the nomination of the ruling party, the conservative Saenuri Party, where she has been credited as one of the main reasons why the party has gained a ruling majority of 152 seats on the City Council.

“Park Geun-hye is definitely the leading candidate for this election, because she is the most qualified,” says Gwangju resident Rodney Kang.

“When she was in the Blue house, Cheongwadae, as the daughter of a former president, Park Junghee, she picked up politics and learned how to control power. She was actually trained to be his successor.”

Park Geun-hye announces her plan to run for president

    Courtesy of Ahn Young-joon- AP  Academic Fair use

Yet, South Korea, which has acted as a Democracy since 1948, has yet to see a woman seriously challenge for the Presidency until Park’s current campaign. Many South Koreans, however, don’t see Park’s gender as any reason to change their opinion of her.

“I don't care whether a President is a woman or not,” says Kim Hyeon Kyung, a female art teacher in Seoul, “but in Asian societies, being a woman can be a obstacle on her way.”

But Seoul resident and student Lee Sung Jin says he thinks that South Korea may be the exception to this belief.

“Nowadays, South Korea has become a culture that is open to change. I don’t believe that we have sexual discrimination here and it doesn’t matter to me what [Park’s] gender is. However, there are still a few groups that share this old type of thinking.”

One of these old beliefs that could affect Park negatively is the fact that Park is single.

“Most of the older generation thinks that if someone didn't raise children of their own and didn't support a family, they can't understand an average person’s real life,” says Kang, “they think that no family means no life, so how can she do well with national affairs.”

Another issue that concerns South Korean voters has nothing to do with Park as person, but with her family’s history.

Park is the daughter of former South Korea President Park Jung-Hee, who ruled the country for a span of nearly 20 years, until he was assassinated in 1979. Park’s father, despite helping South Korea’s economy to substantial growth, was viewed by many South Koreans as a dictator because of his authoritarian approach as well as curtailing constitutional freedoms during his regime.

“Most people don’t know her history,” says Lee, “but we know her father’s history. Park Jung-hee was a dictator. It’s really hot issue now.”

Recently, Park came under fire from other South Koreans for her attitude towards her father’s history. When asked in an interview in early September on what her feelings were on one of her father’s execution of several People’s Revolution Party activists in 1970, she replied “We’ve had two court rulings on that.” Park apologized two weeks later for her comments and has since denounced her father’s actions.

Former South Korea's President Park Chung Hee
Courtesy of NNDB mapper Academic Fair Use

“Whatever apologies she made, her conservative supporters would try to accept her apology, but her opponents, liberals, would not accept them,” says Changsup Lee, the Executive Managing Editor of the Korea Times. “The bottom line is not to alienate the undecided voters.”

Fortunately for Park, many of South Korea’s younger voters seem not to care as much about her father or gender.

“Even if her father was a dictator, I don't care. That and the fact she is a woman doesn’t affect me, even though I’m a woman,” says 29-year-old Song Kyoung Eun of Daejeon.

Oh Seung Hoon, a 28 year-old art teacher in Seoul, shares similar sentiments with Song.

“Maybe the old in here can be influenced with her father's history and her gender, but that's not effective to me and other younger people,” says Oh, “the first woman President of South Korea will be fabulous, even though I’m not sure it will be her.”

Park is trying to join the small minority of leaders across the worlds that are women, and some of them are already making an impact in office.

Germany’s Chancellor Anglea Merkel, for instance, has gained international recognition already for leading the discussions to help solve the ongoing Eurozone crisis.

Torsten Schwenke, who works out of Munich as a freelancer, says he believes that Merkel’s gender actually helps her favorability ratings.

“I like the fact that she is a woman, and I think that most Germans do as well. She is often considered as ‘The Mother’ and who doesn’t like his mother?”

Dilma Rousseff, the President of Brazil, has also gained international recognition, especially after being named one of Forbe’s most powerful people in the world.

Park, however, still needs to be elected before she can begin to have aspirations of what Merkel has been able to accomplish as a female leader.

Kang says that the results of the U.S. election may in fact affect Park’s chances at getting elected.

“The worst-case scenario would be a win for [Mitt] Romney and Park Geun-hye. Because both are conservatives, they would likely increase the regional conflict with North Korea,” says Kang.

With two months to go until election, Park will have her work cut out for her. According to the most recent poll conducted by Research Plus, Park trails Ahn Cheol-soo 52-42 and Moon-Jae-in 48-46.

Korean tradition challenged as mixed marriages soar

By Phil Barnes
Copy edited and produced by Laura Straub


Every morning, after boarding Seoul’s bustling subway on her way to work, Lara Tosh casually waited for a stranger to ask the question. She never had to wait long. 

“Uh, excuse me Miss, are you a Russian prostitute?”

Thirteen years later, Tosh (who is actually Canadian-born) laughs at the old routine. “The question” isn’t asked much anymore – Tosh is now in her 40s and thinks that old age may have something to do with it. But she is quick to point out another, more prevalent reason: South Korea’s homogeneous culture is quickly becoming more colored.

Increasing diversity in South Korea
According to the Korean National Statistics Office, foreigners living in South Korea totaled 390,000 in 1997 -- two years before Tosh’s arrival. In 2009, there were over 1 million expatriates in the country (120,000 from the United States). 

Year after year, the number keeps climbing.

Dr. Jinseng Park recently opened the doors of his Seoul-based psychotherapy clinic to foreigners in order to compensate for their rapid population growth. 

“Korean society has been the same for 5000 years,” he says. “Many of us aren’t used to seeing any color. When I visited the U.S., I was confused because there were so many people of different ethnicities. But it’s certainly changing here.”

And with diversity comes acceptance…slowly but surely. 

Increasing multicultural families

Multi cultural couple Yvon Malenfant and his wife Jae-Sook

Over the last five years, Dr. Park has been seeing more and more multicultural couples in his clinic. Expatriates, whether from China, Vietnam, Canada, or the U.S., are becoming part of the family, and a once strict adherence to "minjok" (pure blood lineage) is losing its grip. 

There were 35,098 marriages between foreigners and Koreans in 2010, a sharp increase from a mere 12,300 reported ten years prior. 

Six years ago, Lara Tosh married Y.B. Ahn (a Korean man). He is from a conservative family, and initially, Tosh’s relations with his parents were shaky to say the least.

“When I met with my future husband’s in laws, there was 20 minutes of non-stop screaming and crying,” Tosh says. “At first they didn’t want their son, especially their eldest, to marry me…a foreigner.”

Tosh’s relationship with her in laws has improved drastically over time, (she describes her connection with Ahn’s mother as “totally awesome”) but Korean culture still shocks her occasionally. Ahn’s age gives him priority due to his family’s traditional, hierarchical structure, and Tosh often finds herself baffled over resulting responsibilities. 

“I actually had to name my newborn nephew,” she says. “It was very strange -- but its stuff like this that makes it fun and interesting to be married to a man of another culture. I definitely see more couples like me now, too. It’s on the rise.”


Yvon Malenfant, a private inter-faith pastoral counselor, is another foreigner who found love in Korea. He has been married to his wife, Jae-Sook, for 13 years. 

“My wife and I were both 36 when we decided to get engaged. Her parents thought she would grow into an old maid and were just happy she found somebody.” 

When they first married, Jae-sook was called a “Yankee wife” by her neighbors. But not so much anymore. 


Diminishing Discrimination
“Foreigners are more tolerated now than ever before,” says Dr. Park. “Parents are accepting them into their family and culture. It’s all about awareness. Once the shock factor fades away, so does discrimination.”

With the bulk of expatriates hailing from China, Park notes that prejudice still exists throughout Korea, but it varies depending on a foreigner’s background. 

“Women or men that come here from other Asian countries are considered by many to be poor and stupid, based on the economical status of their country compared to Korea,” he says. “We consider Americans and westerners to be intelligent based on the success of their countries, but there is still a bit of uneasiness towards them, because they don’t look the same.”

“But this is changing.”

Men living in rural areas of South Korea often marry “mail order brides” from Vietnam, Cambodia, or China because native women tend to gravitate toward wealthier, urban areas. In bigger cities, such as Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, westerner / Korean couples are much more prominent. 

But as multicultural couples have kids in both urban and rural sectors, a new crisis is emerging.

Bullying aimed at the multicultural community
“Bullying and racism in schools are already big problems,” says Malenfant. “And they are bound to increase drastically as more foreigner / Korean couples give birth to children of mixed ethnicity.”

Andrew Eungi Kim, a professor and intercultural specialist at Korea University, predicts that bi-ethnic/bi-racial enrollment will rise to 16 percent in 2018 and to more than 870,000 (26 percent) in 2050. If this proves to be the case, Koreans’ progression of accepting other ethnicities will be put into overdrive.


A new social order
Dr. Park knows that the social order is transforming – that more cultures are becoming accepted. But, Korean society may be changing too fast. Tradition is tough to break. It takes awhile...years, even decades. 

While holding hands with her husband in public, Lara Tosh’s eyes still meet the suspicious gaze of older Koreans. She doesn’t let it affect her though. In fact, she implements her own family rules at home, many of which differ from the traditional Korean hierarchy.

“Even though my husband is twenty days older than me, I’m still the boss of the house. What I say goes.”

Tosh may very well be a contributor to a South Korean cultural renaissance in the near future, but it won’t come easy. Change never comes easy.