By Michael Breen

If you check out the English language Web sites of the cities and counties of Korea vying for our attention, you'll find that they are not very good at differentiating themselves.

Take Paju, for example, the county-turned-city north of Seoul by the Demilitarized Zone. Its site is more informative than many.

It tells us, for example, that the area was first named Suliholhyun in the 5th century; that it has a city anthem (music and lyrics on the site); that the two Gs in its logo refer to ``Good City and Great Paju;'' and that its mayor is Ryoo Hwa-sun ― a former business reporter, who describes Paju as a ``self-reliant, eco-friendly ubiquitous city.''

There's more. Paju is twinned with the Australian city of Toowoomba, which is nice. Like most places, it has its three emblems: a bird (dove), a tree (gingko) and a flower (cosmos).

Ryoo's team favors all the good things, like more development and making its citizens happy. There are historic spots and local delicacies, such as the horseshoe crab.

But, you know, no offense to the good folk of Paju, but all this perfection is a bit dull. What I need to get me off my couch and visit is something that makes you special.

Otherwise yours looks like everywhere else. If it's no different from my own neighborhood, why face half a day in traffic jams to come and see you?

I think the city ― and this applies to everywhere else, too ― needs to find a little ``third party endorsement,'' something that someone else says about you that makes you stand out.

Guess what? Someone else is putting Paju on the map. Its central district of Geumchon-dong has become the subject of a rap song by three foreign teachers that is the finest and most humorously affectionate commentary to come out on Korea in a long time.

``Kickin' It in Geumchon'' is so penetratingly funny that if word gets around, it will become a phenomenon on YouTube like ``Kimchiman's Arirang (spoken-word style)'' posted in November 2006, which, after being publicized on Korean TV, reached three quarter of a million hits. (As of April 9, ``Kickin' It'' had almost 55,000 hits since being posted on March 13).

The song is so catchy that on a visit to neighboring Pocheon last weekend, as the traffic got worse and the journey longer, I found myself singing an adapted version of the chorus over and over again:

Kickin' it in Pocheon, oh, oh
Gamsa-hamnida, annyeong-haseyo

The performers ― Christian Zonts, Mike Nance, and Brian Peterson ― call themselves the EV Boyz, after their employer, the English Village in Paju. Zonts' lyrics immortalize some of the little things about life in Korea that we cease to notice after a while and which one day will be forever forgotten.

Like, the fact Koreans are not allowed to bet, practice golf nets, Popsicles in Family Mart, and Romanization. About Geumchon, for example:

Sometimes it's spelled with a G, I've seen it spelled with a K.
Sometimes it's spelled with an E, I've seen the E go away.
But regardless of spelling, pronunciation's the same.
The town's so explosive, Boomchon could be it's name.

Talking of which, this Geumchon (actually Geumchon 1-dong and 2-dong) is not to be confused with Geumcheon which is a ``gu," or district, in Seoul.

As if preparing for an appearance on MTV, the music video has its own spoof album name and record label, ``Through the Soju Glass'' released by ``Samgyeopsal Records.'' It was shot at ordinary places around the city, including the bus, in front of the railroad station, on a flat, green-painted rooftop, in the market and the street.

It features some locals as amused extras, and a nod to English spoken with a Korean accent: ``Drinkin' Cass-uh, drinkin' Hite-uh, feelin' alright-uh, drinkin' all night-uh."

For some lines, the performers sport those world-famous ajumma visors. And how about this for the best description in human history of kimchi: ``the cabbage that we ravage with the chili paste taste."

Anyway, check it out for yourself and pass it on, and see if you don't agree with me that if Mayor Ryoo doesn't make these three guys roving ambassadors for Paju, some other entrepreneurial mayor is going to make them an offer they can't refuse to put another city on the map.

Michael Breen is president of Insight Communications Consultants in Seoul. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.