This video of trampoline acrobats has been going viral in Korea - wifeoseyo just showed it to me after being sent a link by a friend.
It's awesome: watch what happens when the second guy gets called up.
one expat's life in Korea
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
R16 World B-Boy Masters Championship
I was offered free admission to this event, if I would promote it on my blog.
I won't be able to go, but B-boy is an interesting part of Korean culture (get on it! I KNOW you have Unesco on speed dial, Lee Charm), which offers a totally different look at Korea than you get from the tourist brochure.
So I can't but you should go. It's at Olympic Park.
I won't be able to go, but B-boy is an interesting part of Korean culture (get on it! I KNOW you have Unesco on speed dial, Lee Charm), which offers a totally different look at Korea than you get from the tourist brochure.
So I can't but you should go. It's at Olympic Park.
click on the poster to enlarge.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Nobody Owns Arirang
So China is ruffling some feathers by claiming "Arirang" as part of Chinese cultural heritage.
Arirang mass games.
And while it's true that some people in China sing Arirang (after all, there are TONS of ethnic Koreans in Northeast China), others suggest this is part of China's "northeast project" of co-opting Korean culture and history as their own, probably in order to legitimize land claims in the region.
A few things just to throw into the discussion:
Jang Sa-ik's Arirang. (which of these is the 'correct' use of Arirang? Who gets to say?)
1. Retroactively assigning Korean-ness to things that happened in the past is always problematic, as is a group of people associated with a nation-state self-appointing themselves as the final arbiters of what is and isn't Korean, according to the current priorities, values and practices of their nation state. Too often, such claims are made for fishy motivations relating more to current national politics than honest historical reckoning.
2. The idea of the nation state only came about in its modern form less than 200 years ago. Retroactively claiming that certain practices, foods, songs, dramatic forms, or whatever, belong to one, but not another group of (long-dead) people, according to border lines that were drawn LONG after the origins of those practices, foods, etc., doesn't make much sense.
Guy gets his grandparents to sing arirang.
3. As I argued in that seventy-five piece series that took me a year to complete: Nobody Owns A Culture. Culture is something people do, or practice, not own. UNESCO might be more useful at recording and preserving world heritage if it began finding different, more flexible ways of identifying origins of cultural elements, so that all this crap about "national cultures" don't have to get mixed up in cultural heritages that predate said nations. It annoys me when something like UNESCO, which is trying to do a good thing, becomes a battleground for national historical claims.
If Pumashock sings SNSD songs, she doesn't BECOME Korean, nor does SNSD cease to be Korean because an American sang it.
This is also Arirang. There are tons of different Arirang melodies and versions.
4. China is a huge, amazingly diverse nation, and that diversity includes cultural elements that are not shared with the entire nation. Saying that "This is a song/set of folk songs popular with Korean Chinese in Manchuria" doesn't automatically mean that your average Han Chinese in Bejing, or Joe Chinese in Kunming will thenceforward stand up when he hears that melody, and say "That's MY culture," any more than Oregonians would say "This music defines me" about Dixieland jazz.
Jeongseon Arirang
5. Arirang has been sung in so many different ways, in so many different eras, by so many different groups, with different themes, that it's more of a form than a song. One could almost say it's more of a genre than anything else. (one of the first things I learned in trying to find out the history of Arirang, is that it was one of the most popular songs in Japan during the first half of last century... though that might have been for similar reasons to why Gilbert and Sullivan set their musicals in the far east - as an aspect of the colonizing gaze.)
Haeju Arirang... you get the point.
All this stuff about essentializing culture, and retroactively assigning it to nation-state regions that hadn't been defined as such at the time of origin, and then getting up in arms when others also say that they used it, in that region, is just a little specious.
So...
can we at least be honest enough to acknowledge that this isn't about whether or not Manchurian Koreans sing or sang Arirang, but about anxiety over the "Northeast Project" and China's attempts to co-opt Korean culture into China's matrix, and then talk openly about that, instead of making fusses about non-issues like this?
Thanks.
Oh shit! The New York Philharmonic played Arirang on instruments invented by Europeans. It's American culture now. Damn you Americans! First you stole the Stanley Cup from Canada, and now this! Curse you all! (bit of sarcasm there)
Wait...
There's a video of a Korean baby singing a British song that was a hit worldwide, popular on an American website. So, Hey Jude is now a Korean cultural heritage. China can have Arirang if they want.
Arirang mass games.
And while it's true that some people in China sing Arirang (after all, there are TONS of ethnic Koreans in Northeast China), others suggest this is part of China's "northeast project" of co-opting Korean culture and history as their own, probably in order to legitimize land claims in the region.
A few things just to throw into the discussion:
Jang Sa-ik's Arirang. (which of these is the 'correct' use of Arirang? Who gets to say?)
1. Retroactively assigning Korean-ness to things that happened in the past is always problematic, as is a group of people associated with a nation-state self-appointing themselves as the final arbiters of what is and isn't Korean, according to the current priorities, values and practices of their nation state. Too often, such claims are made for fishy motivations relating more to current national politics than honest historical reckoning.
2. The idea of the nation state only came about in its modern form less than 200 years ago. Retroactively claiming that certain practices, foods, songs, dramatic forms, or whatever, belong to one, but not another group of (long-dead) people, according to border lines that were drawn LONG after the origins of those practices, foods, etc., doesn't make much sense.
Guy gets his grandparents to sing arirang.
3. As I argued in that seventy-five piece series that took me a year to complete: Nobody Owns A Culture. Culture is something people do, or practice, not own. UNESCO might be more useful at recording and preserving world heritage if it began finding different, more flexible ways of identifying origins of cultural elements, so that all this crap about "national cultures" don't have to get mixed up in cultural heritages that predate said nations. It annoys me when something like UNESCO, which is trying to do a good thing, becomes a battleground for national historical claims.
If Pumashock sings SNSD songs, she doesn't BECOME Korean, nor does SNSD cease to be Korean because an American sang it.
This is also Arirang. There are tons of different Arirang melodies and versions.
4. China is a huge, amazingly diverse nation, and that diversity includes cultural elements that are not shared with the entire nation. Saying that "This is a song/set of folk songs popular with Korean Chinese in Manchuria" doesn't automatically mean that your average Han Chinese in Bejing, or Joe Chinese in Kunming will thenceforward stand up when he hears that melody, and say "That's MY culture," any more than Oregonians would say "This music defines me" about Dixieland jazz.
Jeongseon Arirang
5. Arirang has been sung in so many different ways, in so many different eras, by so many different groups, with different themes, that it's more of a form than a song. One could almost say it's more of a genre than anything else. (one of the first things I learned in trying to find out the history of Arirang, is that it was one of the most popular songs in Japan during the first half of last century... though that might have been for similar reasons to why Gilbert and Sullivan set their musicals in the far east - as an aspect of the colonizing gaze.)
Haeju Arirang... you get the point.
All this stuff about essentializing culture, and retroactively assigning it to nation-state regions that hadn't been defined as such at the time of origin, and then getting up in arms when others also say that they used it, in that region, is just a little specious.
So...
can we at least be honest enough to acknowledge that this isn't about whether or not Manchurian Koreans sing or sang Arirang, but about anxiety over the "Northeast Project" and China's attempts to co-opt Korean culture into China's matrix, and then talk openly about that, instead of making fusses about non-issues like this?
Thanks.
Oh shit! The New York Philharmonic played Arirang on instruments invented by Europeans. It's American culture now. Damn you Americans! First you stole the Stanley Cup from Canada, and now this! Curse you all! (bit of sarcasm there)
Wait...
There's a video of a Korean baby singing a British song that was a hit worldwide, popular on an American website. So, Hey Jude is now a Korean cultural heritage. China can have Arirang if they want.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Had to take a picture of this
clearing off a camera memory card (tons of stuff I have yet to post here... sorry folks. You don't get to be part of EVERYTHING I do)...
but I had to show you this one.
A little more than once a month, on average, Wifeoseyo's mom, Mominlawoseyo (see I don't like that: it's too much of a mouthful), comes over, and fills our fridge up with wonderful Korean foods.
Awesome.
It happens frequently enough, that a while ago, when I actually uncovered the back wall of our fridge, I had to commemorate it with a photo, which I'd like to share with you.
Sweet. Do you see it there? In the middle shelf, beside the huge tub of (really good) kimchi and behind the small jar of salad dressing?
Wrote my last final yesterday. Drank beer at lunchtime, and had a hangover by evening. So that sucked. But beer was nice. I've been a bit of a teetotaler for the semester.
And maybe I'll put something of what I wrote for my papers up on the blog. Maybe.
The problem with studying academic-y stuff?
Reading your blog friends posts and expecting the rigor you've been reading in research for your papers. And if you're not reading one or two particular K-blogs, you're probably not getting that.
anyway... more later readers. bye for now.
but I had to show you this one.
A little more than once a month, on average, Wifeoseyo's mom, Mominlawoseyo (see I don't like that: it's too much of a mouthful), comes over, and fills our fridge up with wonderful Korean foods.
Awesome.
It happens frequently enough, that a while ago, when I actually uncovered the back wall of our fridge, I had to commemorate it with a photo, which I'd like to share with you.
Sweet. Do you see it there? In the middle shelf, beside the huge tub of (really good) kimchi and behind the small jar of salad dressing?
also:
there's something wrong with the color scheme of this New York Yankees cap.
Wrote my last final yesterday. Drank beer at lunchtime, and had a hangover by evening. So that sucked. But beer was nice. I've been a bit of a teetotaler for the semester.
And maybe I'll put something of what I wrote for my papers up on the blog. Maybe.
The problem with studying academic-y stuff?
Reading your blog friends posts and expecting the rigor you've been reading in research for your papers. And if you're not reading one or two particular K-blogs, you're probably not getting that.
anyway... more later readers. bye for now.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Canucks vs. Bruins. Game seven debriefing from a disappointed fan, and some Chris Pronger hate
I'm writing this while I still have the gross taste of tequila in my mouth: the barkeep at Yaletown gave free tequila shots to Vancouver fans after the team went down with barely a whimper, 4-0 in game 4.
I consider myself lucky: I moved out of the Southern Ontario region when I was 14. One or two more years there, and I would have formed a lifelong bond of loyalty with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and if you know anything about their history since NHL expansion, that's like putting your hand into the grab-bag of "hobbies for life" and pulling out "putting tabasco sauce in your eyes."
So compared to that, being a Vancouver Canucks fan ain't half bad.
And Vancouver fans are lucky, too: no matter how much heartbreak they go through as sports fans, they still live in Vancouver, for the most part, so they've got that going for them. They can go work out their frustration with a long walk along the seawall, or on a bike trail, or this winter at Whistler, or by taking a drive up and down Vancouver Island. Or chill out by smoking some of the best weed in the world... decriminalized. It's not a hard life. Better than being an Edmonton fan if the Oilers are sucking, when the only thing to do is ride your dogsled team down refinery lane. (That's an exaggeration.) And let's not even get started on places like Detroit or Cleveland.
I'm a Vancouver Canucks fan. Definitely. Been rooting for them, hard, all through these playoffs.
So here are a few thoughts:
1. Boston has had a friggin' INCREDIBLE sports decade: they've had a championship in all 4 major sports. If I were a 15 year-old Bostonian, somebody would have to pull me aside and warn me, "It's not always going to be like this."
2. Boston has lost five consecutive Stanley Cup finals heading into this one: running into a dynasty, a juggernaut or a transcendent player who would not be denied, each time: The Broad Street Bullies, the '70s Canadiens, the Gretzky and then Messier Oilers were their last opponents. The only Hockey team that's been snakebitten more are the Philadelphia Flyers.
3. It hurts me to say it, but Vancouver did not deserve to win this year's Stanley Cup. Not the way they played in Boston. Not with a goalie who got pulled twice in the finals. Not with the Sedins and Ryan Kesler all going silent during the finals. Not with all the biting, barking, and gamesmanship they partook in. Not after taking Boston's top goal-scorer out of the series. This series was a lesson in class and sports karma. Sorry to say it, Vancouver. Comport yourselves better next year, and try again.
4. Tim Thomas deserved to win. I don't know about the rest of the Bruins, but Tim Thomas did something incredible these playoffs, and my hat's off to him. Did he have a single weak game? He also gave Vancouver and Roberto Luongo respect in his postgame interview (though not in the pre-game shootaround). He is officially in my good books, and I'll root for him any time he's not up against Team Canada, the Canucks, or a Canadian team. The most memorable moment of these finals was probably when he bodychecked a Sedin in front of the net. He owned, pure and simple.
5. Even if Vancouver HAD won, Luongo and the Sedins still would have faced question marks, given the way they played in the finals. If your superheroes don't step up, what did you think was going to happen?
6. I can never feel TOO bad when an Original Six hockey team wins a championship. That's good for hockey's heritage in the long run.
My hockey rooting hierarchy goes like this:
A. Canucks
B. Other Canadian Teams (in this order: Calgary [until Iginla retires/moves; then they'll move back into a tie with...] Edmonton, Leafs/Canadiens [tie] Senators/Winnipugs)
C. Original Six Teams (Red Wings, Blackhawks, Bruins, Rangers, in that order)
E. The U.S. Teams my favorite Canadian players are playing on [Crosby's Penguins, Sakic's Avalanche and Yzerman's Red Wings as examples].
F. U.S. teams playing an interesting, exciting style of hockey, and whose existence predates 1990s expansion, and who have cool, knowledgeable fans.
And the teams I actively root against:
G. Sun belt teams. Hockey doesn't belong in Nashville, Atlanta, or Florida. California deserves one team, not three. Maybe two, if the fans are loyal and knowledgeable. I was SO choked when a Florida team took the cup from Calgary, and then a Carolina team took it from Edmonton, and then a California team took it from Ottawa, three finals in a row. I get conflicted when Canadian players dominate on sun-belt teams (Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks, and Carolina Hurricanes' cup wins were cases of this; currently, the San Jose Sharks stir up mixed feelings in me) - why can't those boys bring their talents (and the cup) back home? At least Vancouver lost to an original six team, and not to the Phoenix Coyotes, who stole their team from Winnipeg, or the Orlando WhyDoWeHaveATeamHere's, or the Mexico City Chinchillas.
H. Teams that stole their franchises from Canada. Now that Sakic's not with the Avalanche, I wish them nothing but ill for stealing a team from Quebec City. Wayne Gretzky is diminished in my mind for taking part in Phoenix, a team stolen from Winnipeg. To a lesser degree, this also goes for the Dallas Stars, who stole their team from Minnesota, a state that deserves hockey. This one is mitigated by the fact Minnesota has a team again; I MIGHT forgive Phoenix if Winnipeg gets another team... but probably not Gretzky.
and most of all...
I. Whichever team Chris Pronger is playing for. I hate that guy, and I want to see his team lose. Every time I see him in a game (except when he's on Team Canada) I root for him to get injured in the most embarrassing way possible - to tear an ACL because his skate hits a groove in the ice, or to lose a fight to somebody half his size and break his cheekbone, or to break his hip while scoring an own goal - I friggin' hate that guy. Ever since he sold Edmonton out the offseason after they reached the finals, moved to California, and helped beat the Senators for the cup the next season, with his defection sending the Oilers (always a team I've liked) on a spiral from which they haven't yet recovered.
7. Canadian teams are now on a 5 finals losing streak: Since the Canadiens won in 1993, it's been Vancouver '94, Flames '04, Oilers '06, Senators '07 and Canucks '11. This is unfriggingbelievable. Next thing you know the Leafs are going to make the finals just so they can get their stomachs punched, too.
8. Vancouver's fans stayed in the arena to cheer for the champs after the game. Classy of them. Especially compared to Miami's fans, who were filing out of the arena with five minutes left in game six of the Heat/Mavericks final.
9. WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO THE RESILIENT TEAM THAT BEAT NASHVILLE AND SAN JOSE? Weren't, like, all the games in the second and third round come from behind wins? How did the team become so mentally brittle once they made the finals? Can't come from behind? Can't play a good road game? WTF, Vancouver?
10. I hope the Bruins have an escape route planned, that takes them directly from the arena to the airport. Sounds like things are getting a little rowdy in Vancouver.
It was a good season, and a great run. It's too bad things shook out how they did, and Vancouver embarrassed themselves in the finals, both on the ice, and in the press conferences. If I were Vancouver's coach, I'd demand all my players do a Mark Cuban next playoffs. I'm sad Vancouver lost, but I'm glad they didn't win like this, and I hope they can pull something even better (and classier) together next season, before their window closes...
OK. I'm finished. I feel (a little) better now.
Great run. Here's to next season.
I consider myself lucky: I moved out of the Southern Ontario region when I was 14. One or two more years there, and I would have formed a lifelong bond of loyalty with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and if you know anything about their history since NHL expansion, that's like putting your hand into the grab-bag of "hobbies for life" and pulling out "putting tabasco sauce in your eyes."
So compared to that, being a Vancouver Canucks fan ain't half bad.
And Vancouver fans are lucky, too: no matter how much heartbreak they go through as sports fans, they still live in Vancouver, for the most part, so they've got that going for them. They can go work out their frustration with a long walk along the seawall, or on a bike trail, or this winter at Whistler, or by taking a drive up and down Vancouver Island. Or chill out by smoking some of the best weed in the world... decriminalized. It's not a hard life. Better than being an Edmonton fan if the Oilers are sucking, when the only thing to do is ride your dogsled team down refinery lane. (That's an exaggeration.) And let's not even get started on places like Detroit or Cleveland.
I'm a Vancouver Canucks fan. Definitely. Been rooting for them, hard, all through these playoffs.
So here are a few thoughts:
1. Boston has had a friggin' INCREDIBLE sports decade: they've had a championship in all 4 major sports. If I were a 15 year-old Bostonian, somebody would have to pull me aside and warn me, "It's not always going to be like this."
2. Boston has lost five consecutive Stanley Cup finals heading into this one: running into a dynasty, a juggernaut or a transcendent player who would not be denied, each time: The Broad Street Bullies, the '70s Canadiens, the Gretzky and then Messier Oilers were their last opponents. The only Hockey team that's been snakebitten more are the Philadelphia Flyers.
3. It hurts me to say it, but Vancouver did not deserve to win this year's Stanley Cup. Not the way they played in Boston. Not with a goalie who got pulled twice in the finals. Not with the Sedins and Ryan Kesler all going silent during the finals. Not with all the biting, barking, and gamesmanship they partook in. Not after taking Boston's top goal-scorer out of the series. This series was a lesson in class and sports karma. Sorry to say it, Vancouver. Comport yourselves better next year, and try again.
4. Tim Thomas deserved to win. I don't know about the rest of the Bruins, but Tim Thomas did something incredible these playoffs, and my hat's off to him. Did he have a single weak game? He also gave Vancouver and Roberto Luongo respect in his postgame interview (though not in the pre-game shootaround). He is officially in my good books, and I'll root for him any time he's not up against Team Canada, the Canucks, or a Canadian team. The most memorable moment of these finals was probably when he bodychecked a Sedin in front of the net. He owned, pure and simple.
5. Even if Vancouver HAD won, Luongo and the Sedins still would have faced question marks, given the way they played in the finals. If your superheroes don't step up, what did you think was going to happen?
6. I can never feel TOO bad when an Original Six hockey team wins a championship. That's good for hockey's heritage in the long run.
My hockey rooting hierarchy goes like this:
A. Canucks
B. Other Canadian Teams (in this order: Calgary [until Iginla retires/moves; then they'll move back into a tie with...] Edmonton, Leafs/Canadiens [tie] Senators/Winnipugs)
C. Original Six Teams (Red Wings, Blackhawks, Bruins, Rangers, in that order)
D. Hard luck teams that have earned some success by going through a lot of heartbreak [Flyers, San Jose Sharks, with the caveat below]; also: great players who have never won the cup can fit in here. I rooted for Ray Bourque... though not every player who jumps to a contender gets this free pass: sometimes they're front-runners and I root against them [see also: James, LeBron].)
E. The U.S. Teams my favorite Canadian players are playing on [Crosby's Penguins, Sakic's Avalanche and Yzerman's Red Wings as examples].
F. U.S. teams playing an interesting, exciting style of hockey, and whose existence predates 1990s expansion, and who have cool, knowledgeable fans.
And the teams I actively root against:
G. Sun belt teams. Hockey doesn't belong in Nashville, Atlanta, or Florida. California deserves one team, not three. Maybe two, if the fans are loyal and knowledgeable. I was SO choked when a Florida team took the cup from Calgary, and then a Carolina team took it from Edmonton, and then a California team took it from Ottawa, three finals in a row. I get conflicted when Canadian players dominate on sun-belt teams (Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks, and Carolina Hurricanes' cup wins were cases of this; currently, the San Jose Sharks stir up mixed feelings in me) - why can't those boys bring their talents (and the cup) back home? At least Vancouver lost to an original six team, and not to the Phoenix Coyotes, who stole their team from Winnipeg, or the Orlando WhyDoWeHaveATeamHere's, or the Mexico City Chinchillas.
H. Teams that stole their franchises from Canada. Now that Sakic's not with the Avalanche, I wish them nothing but ill for stealing a team from Quebec City. Wayne Gretzky is diminished in my mind for taking part in Phoenix, a team stolen from Winnipeg. To a lesser degree, this also goes for the Dallas Stars, who stole their team from Minnesota, a state that deserves hockey. This one is mitigated by the fact Minnesota has a team again; I MIGHT forgive Phoenix if Winnipeg gets another team... but probably not Gretzky.
and most of all...
I. Whichever team Chris Pronger is playing for. I hate that guy, and I want to see his team lose. Every time I see him in a game (except when he's on Team Canada) I root for him to get injured in the most embarrassing way possible - to tear an ACL because his skate hits a groove in the ice, or to lose a fight to somebody half his size and break his cheekbone, or to break his hip while scoring an own goal - I friggin' hate that guy. Ever since he sold Edmonton out the offseason after they reached the finals, moved to California, and helped beat the Senators for the cup the next season, with his defection sending the Oilers (always a team I've liked) on a spiral from which they haven't yet recovered.
7. Canadian teams are now on a 5 finals losing streak: Since the Canadiens won in 1993, it's been Vancouver '94, Flames '04, Oilers '06, Senators '07 and Canucks '11. This is unfriggingbelievable. Next thing you know the Leafs are going to make the finals just so they can get their stomachs punched, too.
8. Vancouver's fans stayed in the arena to cheer for the champs after the game. Classy of them. Especially compared to Miami's fans, who were filing out of the arena with five minutes left in game six of the Heat/Mavericks final.
9. WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO THE RESILIENT TEAM THAT BEAT NASHVILLE AND SAN JOSE? Weren't, like, all the games in the second and third round come from behind wins? How did the team become so mentally brittle once they made the finals? Can't come from behind? Can't play a good road game? WTF, Vancouver?
10. I hope the Bruins have an escape route planned, that takes them directly from the arena to the airport. Sounds like things are getting a little rowdy in Vancouver.
It was a good season, and a great run. It's too bad things shook out how they did, and Vancouver embarrassed themselves in the finals, both on the ice, and in the press conferences. If I were Vancouver's coach, I'd demand all my players do a Mark Cuban next playoffs. I'm sad Vancouver lost, but I'm glad they didn't win like this, and I hope they can pull something even better (and classier) together next season, before their window closes...
OK. I'm finished. I feel (a little) better now.
Great run. Here's to next season.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Fermentation Celebration on Saturday
A friend of mine named Jason loves beer. He showed me the place that sells the best beer I've ever drank, and he makes home-brews that are quite good. But you shouldn't become his friend, because then he has more people to share his beer with, and less for me.
Anyway, a few months ago, at Craftworks Taphouse and Bistro, Jason got a bunch of his friends and connections together, who had been doing home brewing and the like, to hold a "Fermentation Celebration" - I went down with a mutual friend, and the place was so packed I couldn't even approach the tables and displays, and talk to the brewers.
Here's a video from that event:
Fermentation Celebration @ Craftworks from Scoby Cha on Vimeo.
Driven by that success, Fermentation Celebration II is spread out across several locales in Gyeongnidan and Haebangchon, so that it won't be shoulder-to-shoulder, the way the last one was. It's this Saturday.
Fermented tea, beer, wine, makkeolli, yogurt, kimchi, cheese, pickles: all manner of fermented consumables will be there, and if you like food, you should be there, too.
The event map is here.
The Facebook page is here.
You can read about it in The Korea Herald here.
And here's the poster.
It's 20 000 won for the passport that gives you access to the entire event.
I love that events like this are happening, because I love seeing and hearing about, and meeting people who are trying to do something excellent, or become excellent at something, and they deserve your support, if you're in Seoul.
Disclosure: I'm writing this because I like Jason, but I haven't received any offer of compensation from him or the event sponsors. Maybe he'll put a thank you note on my facebook wall, or a link to the page of an excellent band I should know about, though.
Anyway, a few months ago, at Craftworks Taphouse and Bistro, Jason got a bunch of his friends and connections together, who had been doing home brewing and the like, to hold a "Fermentation Celebration" - I went down with a mutual friend, and the place was so packed I couldn't even approach the tables and displays, and talk to the brewers.
Here's a video from that event:
Fermentation Celebration @ Craftworks from Scoby Cha on Vimeo.
Driven by that success, Fermentation Celebration II is spread out across several locales in Gyeongnidan and Haebangchon, so that it won't be shoulder-to-shoulder, the way the last one was. It's this Saturday.
Fermented tea, beer, wine, makkeolli, yogurt, kimchi, cheese, pickles: all manner of fermented consumables will be there, and if you like food, you should be there, too.
The event map is here.
The Facebook page is here.
You can read about it in The Korea Herald here.
And here's the poster.
I love that events like this are happening, because I love seeing and hearing about, and meeting people who are trying to do something excellent, or become excellent at something, and they deserve your support, if you're in Seoul.
Disclosure: I'm writing this because I like Jason, but I haven't received any offer of compensation from him or the event sponsors. Maybe he'll put a thank you note on my facebook wall, or a link to the page of an excellent band I should know about, though.
Friday, June 10, 2011
I have this running through my head. So you will, too.
I mean... if you press play.
The Olympics are fascinating
"Hand in Hand" - the Official Olympic Theme Song of the 1988 Games.
one of my dogs has an ear infection she keeps scratching. So we put her in one of those cone things that would totally get her teased by the other dogs at the playground. Poor thing.
The Olympics are fascinating
"Hand in Hand" - the Official Olympic Theme Song of the 1988 Games.
one of my dogs has an ear infection she keeps scratching. So we put her in one of those cone things that would totally get her teased by the other dogs at the playground. Poor thing.
Also funny:
after the Olympic video finished, this video ("Hand" was in the title) was queued up as next.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Slideshow of Panels at Olympic Museum in Olympic Park, Jamsil, Seoul
Academic writing is way different than blogging, readers. It's like the difference between building something out of clay, and carving blocks out of wood in order to build it.
Here's a slideshow of the pictures I took of the text panels at the Olympic Museum, in Olympic Park, Jamsil. As I've mentioned, I'm writing about representation in the Olympic games, and how a country tells the story of an event... this makes these kinds of text panels very interesting to me.
Here's a slideshow of the pictures I took of the text panels at the Olympic Museum, in Olympic Park, Jamsil. As I've mentioned, I'm writing about representation in the Olympic games, and how a country tells the story of an event... this makes these kinds of text panels very interesting to me.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
To Native Teacher or Not To Native Teacher? And tests.
So... the old question is getting asked again, at Asian Correspondent about whether Native Teachers are actually needed or not (this time in the context of Hong Kong and Singapore). A YonHap news editorial from a few days ago discusses a new English test being developed by the Korean Education Ministry.
It fails to answer the question, "How will this test not be subject to the same phenomenon other English tests experience, where hagwons teaching that test appear, and drive up the price of education?"
Yet the motivation for creating this test is to make it so that students don't feel compelled to go to hagwons that teach to the test: "The new test is judged to be desirable as it aims to reduce students' financial burdens for private tutoring and it will have writing and speaking tests."
The editorial suggests making the test easier, or even pass-fail, to help ease the competition and pressure...
rendering the test useless as a measure of English ability.
In point form, then, because I'm tired of this conversation, and avoid it when I can. I could talk for twenty minutes on each of these, but instead I'm just going to throw them out there as food for thought:
Native teachers:
Good teachers are more important than native or non-native teachers.
Native or not native teachers is a false dichotomy: different types are better in different situations, different types of classes, and especially for different ages.
Materials designed to be used by the least-qualified sector of the English teaching population are insulting to the good teachers, as are other manifestations of such low expectations.
People tend to live down to low expectations, if that's all you offer them, after a while, don't they?
It's all in how they're used, not in their skin color... but we all know that, too, don't we?
A "native accent" is only something people should be concerned about at medium levels and up.
Idioms and idiom usage are overrated English skills, and in and of themselves, not worth the extra cost and stress of bringing in and dealing with native teachers. Idiom and Idiom usage should be quite low on the list of priorities for things to be taught.
Koreans should be exposed to a variety of English speakers' accents to improve their listening (bring in some Egyptian English teachers, I say)
Non-Koreans who speak English well are great at teaching some aspects of English, because they had to go through the learning process themselves. Any good English training program should see significant contributions from native and non-native speakers.
Good native teachers. Lots of native teachers. Native teachers at the low end of the pay scale. Choose two of those three.
There are highly qualified native English teachers in Nigeria, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and other places, who would be excellent teachers in Korea. Many of them probably take much lower salaries than first world (usually white) Native English teachers. The idea has been toyed with... if those teachers are not acceptable to parents, then there are other issues at work than just the desire for a "qualified native" teacher, and that discourse is a smokescreen for what's really going on.
If having white faces on the poster is what it's about, then we're dealing with issues of prestige. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, so long as we're calling a spade a spade, and in the same way you can't convince that gal that she's just as qualified for the job with or without a nose job, and that her handbag is no better or worse than another custom made handbag without the Louis Vuitton logo on it, you'll never convince her that the school with white people pressing play and pause isn't actually any better than the school with Korean people pressing play and pause. And if that's the case, the cheapest white face (unqualified? You can't tell that from a photo... until the hongdae paparazzi put some shit on the internet) will do, just like a low-end rolex is still a rolex.
My clue that it IS about prestige and aspiration, more than practical considerations: If it were about practical considerations, there would be almost as many Japanese and Chinese hagwons as English hagwons, and there would also be Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, and German hagwons here and there.
What many Koreans get wrong about English education, or how many of my Korean students seem to want their English classes to work:
English is not like a driver's license, where you get your license and you don't have to worry about it again... but too many Koreans treat it that way. It's more like fitness, where you can go to the gym and get in shape, but once you achieve that sixpack, if you repsond by reverting to couch-potato ways, you'll go back to your couch-potato build. Koreans who stop studying and using English once they hit 900 will never speak English well. .... and they don't want to. English is a 'spec' for them.
('spec' - Konglish for credentials and qualifications of the kind that are listed on a resume - kind of like the 'specs' you check on the box of the computer you're thinking of buying, to check out its speed, storage, power, etc.. The fact the Konglish word is 'specs' is telling, if you ask me.)
[Update: oh by the way] If English is a spec, all that high-minded stuff about language as access to a different culture, and a different way of thinking, is moot. Just get your English teaching robot and heave away.
English is also not like other subjects in school, where you can close the book and shut off that part of your brain until the beginning of the next class, but too many Koreans treat it that way, and avoid English (other than the delightful nonsense of Kpop lyrics and advertising catch-phrases) as much as possible until it's time to open the textbook again. This will never work for learning a language. If a language is segmented and segregated from the rest of one's life, it won't "take."
The advice I give to people who ask:
If you go overseas, avoid hanging out with other Koreans in your class, and stay the hell out of Koreatown.
Speak English at home with your family. Start with an hour once a week, and as you get used to that, expand.
Turn off the subtitles. (Also: you absorb more English from watching one episode of a show ten times, than from watching ten different episodes.)
Read books a little below your actual reading level, instead of above: reading above your actual reading level is slow and frustrating. Reading a little below your level is fast, fun, and confidence-building.
It fails to answer the question, "How will this test not be subject to the same phenomenon other English tests experience, where hagwons teaching that test appear, and drive up the price of education?"
Yet the motivation for creating this test is to make it so that students don't feel compelled to go to hagwons that teach to the test: "The new test is judged to be desirable as it aims to reduce students' financial burdens for private tutoring and it will have writing and speaking tests."
The editorial suggests making the test easier, or even pass-fail, to help ease the competition and pressure...
rendering the test useless as a measure of English ability.
In point form, then, because I'm tired of this conversation, and avoid it when I can. I could talk for twenty minutes on each of these, but instead I'm just going to throw them out there as food for thought:
Native teachers:
Good teachers are more important than native or non-native teachers.
Native or not native teachers is a false dichotomy: different types are better in different situations, different types of classes, and especially for different ages.
Materials designed to be used by the least-qualified sector of the English teaching population are insulting to the good teachers, as are other manifestations of such low expectations.
People tend to live down to low expectations, if that's all you offer them, after a while, don't they?
It's all in how they're used, not in their skin color... but we all know that, too, don't we?
A "native accent" is only something people should be concerned about at medium levels and up.
Idioms and idiom usage are overrated English skills, and in and of themselves, not worth the extra cost and stress of bringing in and dealing with native teachers. Idiom and Idiom usage should be quite low on the list of priorities for things to be taught.
Koreans should be exposed to a variety of English speakers' accents to improve their listening (bring in some Egyptian English teachers, I say)
Non-Koreans who speak English well are great at teaching some aspects of English, because they had to go through the learning process themselves. Any good English training program should see significant contributions from native and non-native speakers.
Good native teachers. Lots of native teachers. Native teachers at the low end of the pay scale. Choose two of those three.
There are highly qualified native English teachers in Nigeria, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and other places, who would be excellent teachers in Korea. Many of them probably take much lower salaries than first world (usually white) Native English teachers. The idea has been toyed with... if those teachers are not acceptable to parents, then there are other issues at work than just the desire for a "qualified native" teacher, and that discourse is a smokescreen for what's really going on.
If having white faces on the poster is what it's about, then we're dealing with issues of prestige. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, so long as we're calling a spade a spade, and in the same way you can't convince that gal that she's just as qualified for the job with or without a nose job, and that her handbag is no better or worse than another custom made handbag without the Louis Vuitton logo on it, you'll never convince her that the school with white people pressing play and pause isn't actually any better than the school with Korean people pressing play and pause. And if that's the case, the cheapest white face (unqualified? You can't tell that from a photo... until the hongdae paparazzi put some shit on the internet) will do, just like a low-end rolex is still a rolex.
My clue that it IS about prestige and aspiration, more than practical considerations: If it were about practical considerations, there would be almost as many Japanese and Chinese hagwons as English hagwons, and there would also be Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, and German hagwons here and there.
What many Koreans get wrong about English education, or how many of my Korean students seem to want their English classes to work:
English is not like a driver's license, where you get your license and you don't have to worry about it again... but too many Koreans treat it that way. It's more like fitness, where you can go to the gym and get in shape, but once you achieve that sixpack, if you repsond by reverting to couch-potato ways, you'll go back to your couch-potato build. Koreans who stop studying and using English once they hit 900 will never speak English well. .... and they don't want to. English is a 'spec' for them.
('spec' - Konglish for credentials and qualifications of the kind that are listed on a resume - kind of like the 'specs' you check on the box of the computer you're thinking of buying, to check out its speed, storage, power, etc.. The fact the Konglish word is 'specs' is telling, if you ask me.)
[Update: oh by the way] If English is a spec, all that high-minded stuff about language as access to a different culture, and a different way of thinking, is moot. Just get your English teaching robot and heave away.
English is also not like other subjects in school, where you can close the book and shut off that part of your brain until the beginning of the next class, but too many Koreans treat it that way, and avoid English (other than the delightful nonsense of Kpop lyrics and advertising catch-phrases) as much as possible until it's time to open the textbook again. This will never work for learning a language. If a language is segmented and segregated from the rest of one's life, it won't "take."
The advice I give to people who ask:
If you go overseas, avoid hanging out with other Koreans in your class, and stay the hell out of Koreatown.
Speak English at home with your family. Start with an hour once a week, and as you get used to that, expand.
Turn off the subtitles. (Also: you absorb more English from watching one episode of a show ten times, than from watching ten different episodes.)
Read books a little below your actual reading level, instead of above: reading above your actual reading level is slow and frustrating. Reading a little below your level is fast, fun, and confidence-building.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
I Am A Singer 나는 가수다 Has Won Me Over
A while ago I asked whether that show, "I am a Singer" is a ghastly spectacle, trotting out great old singers and making a spectacle of them competing in a "survivor" type show.
Some people argued that it wasn't like that at all: more of a celebration of music.
Well... I'm convinced. I've been converted, I've jumped the bandwagon, and I'm on board with both feet. The show is not only topping the ratings charts since it came back from a one-month break, but my wife's been watching it in the other room while I study, and at least once per episode, I've overheard a song I've liked quite a lot.
Here's Yoon Do-hyeon (윤도현) (famous for singing the 2002 World Cup Song) doing an AWESOME version of SNSD's most melodic song:
Thanks to copyright claims, this is the best video I can embed of the song:
And if other videos on this post get taken down... go to Google or Naver.com and search them. Keeping up with videos pulled by Korean network copyright claims is like a game of whack-a-mole, and if the networks don't want me giving their show and artists free publicity, I guess I won't.
임재범 (Lim Jae-Beom) - 빈잔 Binjan - he went straight to the hospital after singing this song, because he was so sick when he sang... but not before delivering an inside-the-park homerun.
(Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering about the musicianship of these guys, have a listen to the original song: these singers are really bringing it.)
This show is, sez Wifeoseyo, giving us a look at these artists, and these songs, that we've never seen before... I saw an 이소라 (Lee Sora) concert a while ago (review coming, if I can bear to write about something so lovely).. and she spent the whole time seated, which is usually how she does things. But in today's episode, she actually danced! (if somebody has a link to that video, I haven't been able to find it yet: just drop it in the comments, thanks).
It's also really satisfying to hear these songs - these celebrations of song - in coffee shops, and other public places, where one used to be able to count on hearing bubblegum pop songs from interchangable girl or boy-bands.
Here's another one. The original song: "Number One" by Boa - a perfectly good song.
By the amazingly-voiced Lee Sora: --it's like Neko Case taking a song by Wilson Philips and breaking your heart.
Some people argued that it wasn't like that at all: more of a celebration of music.
Well... I'm convinced. I've been converted, I've jumped the bandwagon, and I'm on board with both feet. The show is not only topping the ratings charts since it came back from a one-month break, but my wife's been watching it in the other room while I study, and at least once per episode, I've overheard a song I've liked quite a lot.
Here's Yoon Do-hyeon (윤도현) (famous for singing the 2002 World Cup Song) doing an AWESOME version of SNSD's most melodic song:
Thanks to copyright claims, this is the best video I can embed of the song:
And if other videos on this post get taken down... go to Google or Naver.com and search them. Keeping up with videos pulled by Korean network copyright claims is like a game of whack-a-mole, and if the networks don't want me giving their show and artists free publicity, I guess I won't.
임재범 (Lim Jae-Beom) - 빈잔 Binjan - he went straight to the hospital after singing this song, because he was so sick when he sang... but not before delivering an inside-the-park homerun.
(Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering about the musicianship of these guys, have a listen to the original song: these singers are really bringing it.)
This show is, sez Wifeoseyo, giving us a look at these artists, and these songs, that we've never seen before... I saw an 이소라 (Lee Sora) concert a while ago (review coming, if I can bear to write about something so lovely).. and she spent the whole time seated, which is usually how she does things. But in today's episode, she actually danced! (if somebody has a link to that video, I haven't been able to find it yet: just drop it in the comments, thanks).
It's also really satisfying to hear these songs - these celebrations of song - in coffee shops, and other public places, where one used to be able to count on hearing bubblegum pop songs from interchangable girl or boy-bands.
Here's another one. The original song: "Number One" by Boa - a perfectly good song.
By the amazingly-voiced Lee Sora: --it's like Neko Case taking a song by Wilson Philips and breaking your heart.
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