Buddha's Birthday...a bit of video.

The Parade in Seoul


The cutest float: Thomas, the Buddhist Tank Engine


outside Bulguksa Temple...
huh?


a kid playing ssireum with his mom in one of the parks in Gyeongju. Cute. Sweet bippy I envy Gyeongju their expanses of green stuff. (It had rained the night before, so it was extra pretty.)

Tell me how much I rock...

I showed Fatman Seoul and a few others' a nice little Ddeokbokki place Toppoki poktokpi place on Wednesday, and Fatman Seoul was kind enough to write it up. Go read it here.

I rule.

I also got what amounts to a shopping list from Robyn, a food blogger from New York (The Girl Who Ate Everything), and made her a map on Google Maps of all the places you can find the different foods she wanted to try in downtown Seoul. She's free to share it with anyone she likes, and I'm going to share it with you.

Go forth. Enjoy. Some of these are repeats from the food map I gave Brian earlier, and shared on this site in January. Some of them are new.

View Robyn's Food List in a larger map

Me likey this song.

Not a bliss-out, but I'm happy with Bill Callahan right now. His song "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" (he dreams the answer to his questions about life, and they are "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" haw haw haw). The rest of his album is soothing and spare, with just enough wit and pop to keep me happy. Imagine Nick Drake with a sense of humor and a baritone voice.

Go listen here.

I'm also happy because one of my favorite students from my last job just contacted me and wants to hang out, and I made another restaurant map for a pal, of places she should visit while in Korea, and she liked it, too. Also, I've been working out lately, and am starting to see the results, and I've recently developed the power of flight.* Yay me!

(* one of the sources of my current happiness may or may not be fallacious)

Corporal Punishment in Korea's Schools

Brian in Jeollanamdo's latest post calls bull on the education officials who claim foreign native teachers are not "ethically qualified" to teach Korea's children, when Korean teachers hit students with sticks, or humiliate them by forcing them to take off their skirts. Brian's article is rich with links to recent news stories and articles about the issue of corporal punishment, and a good place to get a quick primer on the topic.

see, sometimes stuff like this happens in Korea. (caught on cellphone camera) (warning: shocking videos of violence against children)


And this...



In response to public embarrassment over videos like this, rather than, say, re-training and firing teachers who hit their kids, teachers banned cellphone use in classrooms. ARGH!

yet the moral fiber of the native English teachers is called into question more often than the Korean teachers who do stuff like that. (read more about it at Brian) fact is, the foreigners working in Korea's schools are on a super-short choke chain leash, while the Korean teachers know that it's pretty much impossible for them to get fired, once they land that vaunted public school job.

I had a student once tell me that in Korea, the stick a parent uses to beat their child is called the "love stick," and the old trope that abusive teachers are the only ones who care enough to hit the kids still circulates from time to time.

Here's the Metropolitician's old post about his own problems with the Korean Teachers' Union.

And here's a picture of a white guy photoshopped into a picture of Anapji pond

And here's a picture of a white guy photoshopped into a picture of Anapji pond.
(to get the inside joke)

Help a mother out.

On Ireport, where people can submit their own articles on CNN's webpage, Stephannie White, the mother of Mike White, the teen-aged boy mysteriously killed in a Daegu sauna last year, has written an article about her struggle to plow through all the obstructions and foot-dragging, and get justice for her son. Link it, send it to your friends, blog it, digg it, tell people about it. If it stays at the top of the "most read" articles, it might be featured on CNN's Mother's Day program. Raising awareness and putting the story into the international press might be the thing that lights the fire under the judges and lawmakers involved in the case (given how sensitive Korea is to negative international press coverage) to get this thing resolved, and get some desperately-needed answers.

Hang in there, Stephannie.

Learn more about Mike White's death, other foreigner's deaths, and how you can help Stephannie White in her search for justice, at her website, Mightie Mike. Brian in Jeollanamdo's done a really good job of keeping on top of developments in that case.

A bit more about the weekend...

May day and the kickoff to the Hi Seoul Festival hit a snag when protestors stormed the stage. Yes, the lunatic fringe is at it again, but as far as I can tell, mostly they're just damaging their own credibility now. A year ago, they had the majority of public opinion of the beef thing, but by over-playing their hand, turning violent(er) and not knowing when to walk away, they've gone from seeming like democracy freedom fighters to public nuisances. Memo to the protestors: blocking traffic is not a good way to gain public sympathy; nor is attacking police in a place where there might be international reporters, and where there ARE lots of foreigners. If there's one thing Koreans can all agree on, it's that the country must not be made to look bad in the world's eyes. Thanks to Korea Beat, I found these videos of the protest, at JetSetZero.

Next: Tuesday's Cinquo de Mayo party in Jonggak was great, I met a bunch of cool people, and saw some old pals. Girlfriendoseyo even came out and had a nice time chatting with some of my blog pals. That makes me happy. In other news, that evening, a food blogger from New York named Robyn (site she writes for, her own blog) showed up in Seoul, and was greeted by a few of Seoul's foodies. I managed to capture this wonderful picture of what happens when you eat out with food bloggers/writers.

I met some really cool people... I hope my jokes were as funny as they sounded in my head. I suffer from the "will say anything to get a laugh" illness, which people who know me take in stride, but which is sometimes surprising to new people, when I start a sentence with "So a funny thought occured to me while watching walrus porn the other day..." or somesuch.

I'm working through my Gyeongju pictures now. Some good stuff there. Soon, readers. Soon.

Until I get my Camera Back... A Question

First: the question.

Does anyone here know of a good Korean language tutor who operates in the Dongdaemun-gu/Jongno area? I'm looking to bone up on my Korean more actively. Please either contact me through one of the channels on the sidebar, or leave a comment on this post.

Option two:
Or...if I can find two other people who want to join me and take a (cough of embarassment) low level Korean course on Saturday afternoons, we've officially reached the threshhold of three at which time Korean language schools will open a class for us. I know of one that's reasonably priced, offers a once-a-week class from 2-5, and if you join me and sign up, I'll show you one of the awesome restaurants I know in Jongno every Saturday after class. So if that sounds fun to you (I can at least guarantee the food'll be good), leave a way of contacting you in the comments.

OK. So I had a great response to the female bloggers page, and that made me happy. I'll update the list with the omissions named in the comments when I get the chance. Until then...

This weekend I went to Gyeongju for the first time. Yeah. It's embarrassing that I've been living in Korea for so long, and holding forth on Korean culture and stuff, and never made it to some of the places people visit in their first month, but in the last year, I've been filling in some of those gaps, getting my butt out to Andong, and now Gyeongju.

Next on the list: Jeju Island and Seokcho (which I've been through, on the way to Geumgang Mountain in North Korea [ha! I've been there! Have you?] but never actually stopped in to see).

That said, even if there are gaps, I try not to talk about things I don't know about, and am happy to admit when I'm wrong, so back off, huh?

Next:
I went to Seokguram Grotto on Buddha's Birthday, which is the only day of the year they open the glass barrier and let you walk in and around the Buddha, which is one of the most impressive Buddhas in all Asia. Here's a picture of it,

but as usual with superlative works of art (and this Buddha scores alongside VanGogh's Irises, and a hair ahead of Klimt's Judith as the two greatest works of art I've seen in person), seeing a picture and seeing it in person is about equal to the difference between reading the lyrics and sheet music to Bob Dylan's album Blood on the Tracks, and listening to it in a quiet room on a rainy afternoon the day after breaking up with your longtime love.

Then, I went and left my camera at Girlfriendoseyo's house yesterday, so I'll have to post pics later.

Until then, here are two pictures I filed away "to post sometime" and never got around to doing.

1. seen in a halloween costume shop in Namdaemun (stolen off a friend's facebook album)
would a mask like that fly in North America? Just wonderin'.

Next: all those people who continue to debate the appropriacy of Shin Saimdang on the Korean 50000 won note (have any of you seen these yet? What's going on? I still haven't), here's an image that clearly sends the message of female empowerment...another option, perhaps?
(more of my suggestions for the 50 000 won note here)

And another of those culturally unaware, awkward acronyms...
"Dude, I'm totally arguing with my girlfriend so much this week. She must have Pre-Medical School."

April's K-Blog Of The Month: Female K-bloggers - Updated

I put out a request for Female K-bloggers over at Roboseyo a little while ago, and got a fantastic response. You see, it was with dismay that I saw the all female metablog "Naked In The Sauna" go defunct, and I really do think that a feminine view is important, and sometimes missing on some of the big K-blogs.

Sometimes, there are questions only a female can answer about Korea (at least without sounding presumptuous), and with that in mind, I am publishing this as a list of female bloggers in Korea: if you want to be on the list, let me know, and if you know someone who deserves to be on the list, or if one of these goes dead or defunct, let me know, too. I plan on linking this source on The Hub of Sparkle's getting-better-but-still-in-progress "Community" page, which I hope will eventually become a pretty good, regularly updated, one-stop "Get the basics in one place" source.

I'll try to put these into general categories, though of course some of these blogs will fit numerous categories, and being nothing more than a mere human myself, I might get a few wrong at first. Please be kind enough to correct me politely.

OK, Brian, I'll bite. Here's some Yuna for you. 김 연아

Since I'm apparently Brian in Jeollanamdo's main source for Kim Yu-na stuff, I'll give him what he's obviously looking for.

Kim Yu-na performed at the Festa on Ice here in Korea, to entertain her rabid Korean fans and get paid. The show was playing on a television in the restaurant where I had dinner with my buddy, and it was . . . quite a show. Three of the five cheesiest songs I know came on (fortunately, "You Lift Me Up" either didn't make it onto the card, or played while I was out of the room), but the goofiest point came when Kim Yuna did her solo ice dance, wearing a short, flappy skirt, and some dumb, besmitten cameraman did some of the worst camerawork I've seen in my life.

See, when watching figure skating, the long shot is important to see the full skating motion. This one goofball cameraman started perving on Yuna with his camera, aiming way-too-close shots right at her lady bits instead of panning out to actually show what she was doing, and leading to the low point of the night, the extreme close-up of the crotch-shot jump at 1.12. (And for the really pervy of you, in slow motion at 4.20 (heh heh. 4:20). He also can't keep her face in the frame at 3:30...I'm guessing he was operating the camera with one hand, if you know what I mean.



Anyway, there you go, Brian. Hope it was good for you; I prefer the competition stuff.

My buddy Charles was visiting from Canada, and he asked me if Koreans were fans of figure skating before Yuna came along, and whether Koreans were figure skating fans or just Yuna fans. I answered as honestly as I could, and said, "Really, Koreans are Korea fans, and any Korean who's doing well will find a fanbase here, and a bunch of sudden diehard fans of the sport." I have more to say about Korean sports nationalism, and sports nationalism in general, but Korea sports nationalism isn't much different in type than other countries...though it might be different in degree. Especially now that Koreans are doing well in various arenas, I'd say that if you wanted to imagine Korean sports nationalism when living in Korea, think (if you're a baseball fan) of living in an entire country of Boston Red Sox fans. The rabidness, the "we've been through hard times" narrative, exacerbated by the smugness of "look how well we're doing now!"

But good for Yuna. At this point, she could sell her bathwater as perfume in every boutique in Apgujeong, and rabid moms would make their daughters drink it in hopes that some of her star power would rub off on them before the exam.

Roboseyo on the Seoul Podcast

So, I was on the Seoul Podcast last month, and today, in their own separate "It's In the Bag" Mailbag section, co-hosts Jennifer and Stafford have broken down the letter I wrote about Jessica Kim's article.

The post is here.

The podcast is here.

The read-up of my article is here. (It's short)

And until next time, I've decided what I'm going to do about how I feel about The Korea Times' attempt at the "Worst Week Of Journalism Ever" award from last week. It involves more than just myself, and in fact I'd like to get as many bloggers and other public-forum posters involved as possible, but I'll explain what I mean soon.

So if you're also pissed about the articles they printed last week, stay tuned and I'll explain what I mean as soon as I don't have a class to prepare for.

peace out
Roboseyo

SparkleDown III and the Lantern Festival

OK.

Soundtrack: Love Love Love by Mountain Goats: this song always comes to my mind when it rains.

So Sparkledown III started off by Anguk Station, at a tea room which most of us liked quite a bit: the tea tasted good, and the lady kept bringing free stuff by. Cool.

We decided to move on when the music went from the nice classical stuff to the nice Korean traditional stuff...and then to the compositions on instruments that could best be described as piercing, and don't easily slide into the background, along with vocalists making grunts and moans that ALSO don't easily slide into the background.

It was raining, but we walked up to a Panini place I like (I'll write it up some other time), and we had a nice time there before strolling over to Jogye Temple to see the lanterns, and collecting a couple more people.Then it was to an "India Style" wine/lounge place near what was once Piano Street (the piano keys have all been dug up... I don't know what's going on there, but it sure is dirty right now.)

Anyway, some of the people in these pictures are online personalities, and some aren't, so you might recognize a few faces. The conversation all afternoon was really pleasant, and then in the evening it got a little goofy from time to time, but I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all. We moved on to a favorite bar of mine, and bumped into a coworker of mine, and more laughs were laughed.
And that was Saturday. Thanks to everyone who came out: I appreciated seeing you, and to those who didn't come, you missed out.

Then: Buddha's birthday and the Lantern Festival in Jongno.

But first a picture of Lotte Department Store: I like silhouettes.

Then: the street festival was a proper street festival: it was colder than other years have been, but the turnout was good. The air was clear and the light was somehow balmy, and the rain held off until a few flecks in the evening.

There was calligraphy

Free Hugs (this guy really liked his)
and my buddy Charles, the high school pal who's responsible for me coming to Korea in the first place (far left) -- you can thank him in the comments


There was a yoga demonstration that probably led to about 300 men signing up for classes. And after tea and dinner at a Japanese Restaurant in Myeongdong, I pulled out my tripod and took low-light pictures that actually had still frames instead of "he can't quite hold the camera steady" blurs.
played with the light intake to get these different takes on the same place
The lamps at Chunggyecheon (I actually took this picture another day... same stuff, though)


More from tonight:


And the Buddha's Birthday parade snaked from Dongdaemun to Jogyesa, as usual. There were tons of floats, including some that seemed like weird fits for a Buddha's Birthday celebration (a pig on a motorbike with a flame thrower? That brings ME closer to the Buddha Mind, why do you ask?)

And the cartoon Buddha (who reminds me of the Buddy Jesus)



This lady had a high powered fan to keep her gown flowing. She was like a ballerina in a snow-globe.
And the real reason I took my tripod: pictures of Tapgol Park at dark.
I love this park on Buddha's Birthday.



Ya shoulda been there, readers.

Buddha's Birthday Lantern Festival

Hey there. Today's the Buddha's Birthday Lantern Festival in Jonggak.

If you live anywhere, ANYWHERE near Seoul, get your butt down to Jonggak (near Gwanghwamun) and check out the street festival. Build a Buddhist lantern, hang out with the peoples, take pictures, and all that cool stuff.

Seriously, the Lantern Festival is the best day of the year in Seoul, and casts Korea in about the most positive light you'lee ever see it. If you don't believe me, here's my glow-in-the-dark happy post from attending two years ago.

Even more: check out the parade in the evening, from Dongdaemun all the way down to Jogyesa Temple (basically the Westminster Abbey of Korean Buddhism), and after dark, poke your head into Tapgol Park, strung up with lanterns: one of the prettiest sights I've seen in Korea, and nice enough I'm actually bringing my tripod downtown to get better pictures of it this year.

Gaah! (Plus: Backhanded Compliment of the Day)

There's been so much bad writing this week about Korea and expats (mostly thanks to the Korea times) that I haven't had anything to write here, because if I touch on any of the articles that have been written, I'll go into a blithering rant. The worst two of the lot were published yesterday, one of which was an obvious prank, and one of which was by a columnist I've mentioned before, and who now deserves to be tuned out and ignored entirely.

I'm formulating a response that might involve trying to get all my readers to flood The Korea Times with either protest letters, or prank letters...but I haven't decided which yet.

I once wrote that The Korea Herald is crap...but they got nothin' on the times.

Instead, to feel better, read the next post, and come out and have tea with me.

Hang out with Roboseyo at Sparkledown the Third, this Saturday.

Hey there.

It's short notice, but if you have any free time this Saturday afternoon, it being the weekend before Buddha's birthday, and me being out of town that weekend, it's a good time to hang around Jongno, which is strung up with lanterns all over the place!

On Saturday afternoon, at 3PM, I'm going to be at a nice little traditional tea house near Changdeok Palace, with whichever friends come out, and you're welcome to join me. I really like this tea room, and after some sipping and chatting, I'm going to take a stroll around Bukcheon Hanok village, have dinner somewhere in Samchungdong (depending on the size of the group) strolling over to Jogye Temple (which will be gorgeous with glowing lamps by evening), and down to the lanterns hanging around Cheonggyecheon.

You are welcome to come along for as much or as little of that as you like, and I'd love to see you. So how do you get there?

Go to Anguk Station (line 3), and come out exit 2.

src="http://www.koreasparkle.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/dscn5001.jpg"

don't trip on the old lady: I almost did.

when you come out of exit 2, you'll have a view something like this. Go straight, and look on your right. It's less than a five minute walk, and if you reach the three-way stoplight, you've gone too far.

There's a little place with plants in the window that looks like this, called "인...in Tea Drink Culture" (whatever that means) with a nice lady running it.You'll know you're in the right place if the raspberry tea tastes exactly like fresh raspberries.

Let me know if you're coming (you can reach me at roboseyo[at]gmail[dot]com or by searching Roboseyo on facebook), or just show up.

Take it easy, folks, and hope to see you there.

High School for North Korean Defectors: Field Trip to DMZ

I got an e-mail a little while ago about this video, and forgot about it until rechecking the Hub Of Sparkle e-mail account.

This nine-minute film gives a brief sketch of the young people who have escaped from North Korea, some of whom left their parents behind.

The more you know about North Korea, and the more you know about how North Koreans live in South Korea, the more tragic this story is... for one, the faces of all the students in the video except two, are blurred out, for fear that somebody will recognize their faces and their relatives still in North Korea will be punished.

Give it a watch.

Short but sweet: When a Mommy and a Daddy Love Each Other Very Much...

Yay the internet.
I don't think this is how Dad explained it to me back when I was a kid, but if the internet says this is how to make a baby, it must be true.

Hope your weekend was good.

Just funny... Self-Evident Truths in Writing Class

In one of my Writing classes, I just gave a test, and one of the questions was "Identify the problem with this thesis statement" -- we'd spent a lot of time talking about Thesis Statements.

Some of the problems in the thesis statements were things like:
"not specific enough"
"support does not use grammatically parallel form"
"not controversial" (for example: "Exercise is good for you" is not a good thesis statement, because most people would read it and say, "DUH")
"does not take a clear position on the topic"
"uses absolute language, making the thesis difficult to prove"

The thesis statement was:

"There are three reasons all Americans love hamburgers: they are cheap, convenient, and tasty."

The correct answer was
"This thesis statement makes an absolute claim that cannot be proven" - that is, the word "all" makes the claim indefensible, and should be replaced with a word like "some" or "many" or even "most" -- leaving room for exceptions to the assertion.

About a third of my students thought the problem with the thesis statement was
"This statement is not controversial"

Turns out "All Americans love hamburgers" is a self-evident truth. They're Americans, after all.

And all you can do is smile.

North Korean film Pulgasari: Kim Jong-Il's Godzilla

Bum Economy Got You Down? SNSD, Kim Yu-na and Samsung are here to help

All K-Pop reports:
Kim Yuna, SNSD (Girls' Generation in English) have teamed up to cheer up Korea with...the Ha Ha Song. According to All K-pop,

The Ha Ha Ha Campaign is an online cultural encouragement campaign in Korea to spread hope and cheerfulness.

Now, The Ha Ha Song was a pop song that came out a few years ago, which is really fun in the noraebang. Here's the original: I like the ska tinge.


Samsung previously had the ridiculously popular Kim Yuna do it (singing her own vocals, I bet. Crossover, here we come!) and the nearly as popular, dorky DongBangShinKi (I have a story about them) do the Ha Ha Song too, but as of the 14th, the indistinguishable Girls' Generation get the next crack. They also changed the song a bit, and gave it their own style, 'cause Girls' Generation, they wanna have fun.


And indeed, there's even a separate short video for every single member of SNSD. See if THAT helps you tell them apart.


All the Ha Ha's remind me of this:


Update: Found it!
Looks like South isn't the only Korea that knows the importance of laughter (if it is North Korean as advertised):

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

after a while this one reminds me a little of the creepy game-show from Requiem for a Dream.

In other news, Hite Stout has another way for you to release some stress: by pummeling an inflatable beer flute with a wooden stick while some cleavage looks on. As with any situation involving cleavage, the always-classy Chosun Ilbo's photographers were there to document it. HT to Brian

There's a joke to be made here, but I'll leave it for someone else to make.

Speaking of Yuna Kim, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it can also be the lamest.