The Korean does not think logically
- Maarten Meijer (Dutch writer and critic)

From Chosun Ilbo (2005/09/22)

“Korean is very hasty. So they can not think calmly and carefully. To analyze something and think logically is a hobby of the Korean who likes Westerner and is not looked straight very much in Korea.”

Maarten Meijer (47) was born in Netherlands and has been living in Korea for many years. He has many things to say about Korea. He is literally “a cosmopolitan” who walked around about 40 countries including Ireland, Spain and Russia.

He got the master’s degree of Department of Science in State University of New York and the doctor’s degree of Literature in Moscow University with study of Tolstoy. He teaches English in Seoul Women’s University now. His wife is an American.

He published “What’s So Good About Korea, Maarten?”(Hyeonamsa), the peculiar book about Korea and the Korean.

He said, “I came to like Korea very much and want to know it more, and I looked in the various aspects of Korea. I framed my idea while having various talks with Koreans and I wrote this book.”

There are a lot of books written by foreigners who looked and experienced many things in Korea, but it is “frank advice” for the Koreans to stand out in his book at the very beginning.

“The level of Seoul University that is said to be the Korean best university is inferior to that of ordinary American State Universities. … You can not expect study achievements and intellectual ability of the professors and the teaching quality. It is surprising that middle-ranking professors to work at Korean universities are from the same university and they think in same way.”

After he observed the scenery of the subway, he said cynically, “It is sad the Koreans do not read books so much. …The passengers of the Korean subway doze off or stare at the floor or read ‘the sports newspaper’ that is notorious for gossip. The young generation enjoys games with cell-phones.”

However, he said that he had written this book not to disparage the bad points of Koreans, but to highlight the good points of them.

“I want you to understand my intention that I wrote this book well. Any nation of any country has ‘blind spot’ that it does not understand itself. The book has much quantity to talk about not only the blind spot, but also the Korean excellent potence.”




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