Palin’s Disdain for English Teachers and Russia
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In her reply to why she got her passport last year, she stated mockingly that she wasn’t like so many kids whose parents gave them a passport and a backpack to go travel the world, because she “worked all her life.” Was that a swipe at English teachers in Korea? I don’t remember my parents giving me my passport and, what, in a matching Jansport bag? I never knew traveling outside the country was like the prom.
BTW: Here’s a comedic clip to the most talked about part of Katie Couric’s interview with vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin. Being dubbed as the Russia Question.
BTW 2: Compare Palin’s foreign policy experience with any teacher here, and I think you’d have confidence enough to say you have more. Look at this English teacher who’s done the U.S. proud, none other than the new U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Kathleen Stephens. According to Palin’s logic, I guess she didn’t work all her life.
She might want to reconsider that passport after all. She’ll be out of a job soon. Such a shame to see someone so naive and inexperienced being so exposed ‘out there’ in the media. My wager is she will go out there and do some good in life, once she realizes what an ass she made of herself this election.
Maybe we can expect her to come to Korea and teach after November? Any takers? Looking at you, Avalon.
UPDATE: Here is the cover for this week’s New Yorker, going further into Palin’s experience. Hilarious! I would totally have respected her more if she had just said, “Of course, I don’t have foreign policy experience, dummy! I’m from Alaska!”
–The Seoul Satirist
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ha, she wouldn’t be able to find Korea on a map and she probably has no clue about teaching English abroad–that there even is such a plethora of jobs in that realm. not that she would care to improve communications with other countries….
love the advert on FB
Is she for real? Is she implying that books supply you with enough information to form the foreign policies of the most powerful and meddlesome country in the world? And did she actually just refer to Israel and Iran as ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’? oh dear. Mybe she should have gone backpacking, it might have actually given her some ‘perspective’….
“Was that a swipe at English teachers in Korea?”
Wow. Way to take her words and interpret them as something COMPLETELY unrelated. I think it’s ridiculous that McCain and Co. would choose someone who’d almost never traveled to be a VP candidate….don’t get me wrong. But in the interview, she was saying that she wasn’t a child of privilege who got to spend her parent’s money bumming around Europe. That’s not at all what we English teachers are doing, so that comment had nothing to do with us.
Again: McCain made a terrible decision in choosing Palin. Yes. And her excuse for not having a passport until last year is ridiculous–there are obviously other kinds of travel besides the priveleged-vagabond kind. But to take that comment as a personal attack is just nonsense.
1. She didn’t mention Korea at all.
2. I doubt she knows that waygooks even teach in Korea (she does have a good chance to find it on the map if you give her China and Japan as freebies though).
3. She did mention a ton of my college buddies (yours too) who got mommy and daddy to fund their summer Amersterdam trip.
4. No, she probably can’t spell Korea either.
5. Get McCain and Obama to do paper, rock, and scissors instead.
6. Winner takes the 700 Billion to Vegas and puts it all down on red.
7. Vote “Jay” VP election 2008.
I agree that it is terrible logic to conclude that she has anything against teaching english abroad by her statements. I do however think Mrs. Palin is actually the niave one, because she has never seen the world. If she had traveled more maybe she would realize how people feel about America and that it’s not Americas duty to restore anyone’s government.
Personally I think we need to mind our own business and fix the education system, (with some Federal intervention), provide free health care for all, and have a much better program for AIDS, STD, teen pregnancy, and mental health resources available to everyone and that includes education.
I think i should be president. wink. no really i can’t stand republicans.
I have seen this interview several times and I agree that it’s absolutely insane to try to draw any kind of conclusion to Korea or people traveling abroad. First of all, WE HAVE JOBS…none of us that are teaching here are doing it for FREE so…it’s just silly. I think the comment is just meant to generate conversation (good job, even I fell for it) but other than that it’s just silly.
As far as her and the passport issue…if she was some Joe/Jane blow American (rich, poor or otherwise) she wouldn’t be chastised for being among the reported 70-80% of Americans who DON’T have a passport*. Those of us who travel might be a bit slighted in our view (because having a passport is standard survival fare these days)…remember…unless you were born a traveler (and even a MILITARY ID doesn’t count) there was a time when you were living in America (or Canada or wherever else) honestly unconcerned about whether or not you had a passport. Digging on her just because she got her’s last year takes away from all the other “gems” she leaves you to crack wise about. Honestly, don’t go for the low ball when there’s quality stuff like “Let me get back to you on that one”.
Lastly, I never really thought much about McCain…I mean policy aside, he’s some old guy that might not even make it the 4 years he’d be in office. However, I think he pulled the “woman” card ‘cuz the “black” card was getting too much attention. Can’t blame the old guy for trying…however…it makes me sad to say that the one time I’d be waiting for an old guy to die so women could make advances in the world…I’d rather him stay alive and protect us from the “progress” he’s trying to force on us.
She wasn’t making a swipe at English teachers in Korea, she never mentioned it. There are English teachers all over the world who go abroad after graduating from College, but she was specifically releasing her frustration and animosity towards those who “didn’t have as hard a life as she thought she had.” She’s just another spoiled brat comlaining about how other kids got to play sports, go to social events and basically enjoy life while she wasted her youth believing that she needed to explore the depths of the local library.
I am deeply concerned about Sarah Palin as the Republican VP choice, and with good reason. I agree, she did not mention English teachers, in Korea or anywhere else, but it did seem that she was making a dig at people who have decided, for whatever reason, to get out and travel. People who have decicded, to broaden their horizons, loose some of their ignorance, and do some good while they are at it.
Her naivity is closely related to the fact that she did not obtain her passport until last year. This also relates to her idea of her Foreign Policy experience - what Foreign Policy experience??? Living in Alaska??? This is absurd! Perhaps if she had been out of the country and seen some of the conditions that people are living in and spoke with people, ordinary people, she may realise what the predominant world view of American really is, and this may better inform her foreign policy.
My last comment is what on earth is she on about in terms of the potential Israeli attack on Iran. Is she really saying that the world will not sit back and watch a second holocaust? Does she not realise what is going on in some African countries on a daily basis? Rwanda???? Didn’t we sit back and watch there too? How many people died in that Genocide?? Perhaps Gov. Palin needs to seriously examine her idea of Foreign Policy.
It is true to say that the woman is a fool. I do think drawing a parallel from her comments to English teachers in Korea is slightly delusional. However, mocking the ‘privileged’ people, or anyone else for that matter who wish to broaden their horizons by travelling shows Palin clearly lacks empathy. She is clearly not about to win the hearts of the intelligent electorate.
I have yet to see a Palin interview where she actually gives even a ’sensible’ answer I think she is completely unable to give an intelligent answer to anything. All I hear her say is ‘the people of America want…’ and then providing a school girl answer to every question! The way she responds to questions reminds me of the spoof movie ’spies like us’ Palin being the Chevy Chase character Emmett Fitz-Hume, someone please send her on the road to Dushanbe!
There wasn’t just Rwanda, there was also the three-way genocide in the Balkan states. At present there’s also Darfur. Cynics say that it’s about oil, and there is either none or not enough in these areas to make it worth the US’s while.
As for the passport issue, the message the rest of the world hears is “not very interested in us. Will not therefore take our concerns seriously.” We’re already very concerned that the US is reputedly responsible for 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases, with a population of only 300 million, and yet your leaders refuse to sign up Kyoto. Palin doesn’t look like anyone who’d want to change that position. We’re worried, especially if elections can be hijacked like the 2000 one seemed to be.
[...] Now, I could point up the extreme irony of claiming to “understand the world” while declining to go out and see any of it. I could mention the undesirability of parading one’s provincial ignorance as a virtue, let alone a desirable quality for leadership of a global superpower. I could add (in fact I will) that all of my fellow English teachers here are taking this remark as an insult. [...]
This is a joke! if you dont like palin or mccain just say it! dont invent reasons. Many americans havent had the privelege of or even desire to travel and neither have many koreans. The over analysis of her credntials is laugable considering so much of it can be applied to obama and biden. Biden, if you didnt see his interview with couric, suggested that FDR was president in 1929 and that TV’s existed during that time. The sad thing was couric didnt even blink. Ignorance exists in all people to some extend. Obama once said of pennsylvanians that they “cling to God and guns” completely insulting an entire segment of society I wish we could all experience as much as possible but lets stop pretending that certain politicians are stupid or naive just because they utter an ignorant or seemingly intolerant comment from time to time. This is an historic election on many fronts, lets not cheapen it
palin is cheap. good word for her, thomas. thank you. palin is cheap.
certain politicians are stupid. Bush is stupid. Palin is stupid. McCain is not stupid. I just disagree with about all of his policy positions, but NO he is not stupid. So, you’re correct all politicians aren’t stupid.
palin is not stupid; she is naive and in way above her head. so, she is–in addition to being cheap–foolish.
she does explicitly state that one need only read books to learn enough to form foreign policy decisions and implied that people who travel do not work as hard as she has had to work, which is an extremely absurd claim. or simply cheap.
you pick, thomas.
Re: Israel - Second Holocaust what??? McCain mentioned that in the debate too, and I still find it ridiculous. Someone attacking Israel would not become a ’second Holocaust’. It would just be a war, and a war is different from protracted programs of genocide.
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