Kpop is fun and digestible.
but Korean film has always deserved to be the foundation on which the Korean Wave is built.
This sequence from Nowhere To Hide stands with any lovely bit of visual storytelling you can conjure.
The hallway fight scene in Oldboy is regularly namechecked on lists of great cinema fight scenes, I'm pretty sure I've seen it be the only non-American film to make the list.
It was even referenced for a viral video about anger over the 2008 US finance meltdown,
one expat's life in Korea
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Discussion of Women and Clothings
Inspired by
1. Slutwalk Korea
2. Women wearing bikinis in the Cheonggyecheon and shocking the world (or something)...
I've been invited to speak on TBS radio tomorrow on the morning show about it. And we'd love to have people calling in.
Now, the last time I tackled women's issues on TBS radio, back in February when I did "The Bigger Picture" on the evening show, I remember wishing more females called in... so this time, if you have something to say about the "short skirt" defense for sexual assault, or the burka philosophy (since we can't expect men to control themselves, pigs and animals that we are, we should just make women dress in burkas/wear longer skirts/hide away in women's subway cars/change their behavior so as not to bring sexual assault upon themselves [sarcasm]... I'd love to have you call in. Or send a tweet. Or at least tune in and listen. Contact information (and host Mike's handsome face) is here. -
It's a little early in the AM, but at about 8:05am, on Thursday, on 101.3, I'll be talking about the topic with Mike, and somebody named Eva John.
1. Slutwalk Korea
2. Women wearing bikinis in the Cheonggyecheon and shocking the world (or something)...
I've been invited to speak on TBS radio tomorrow on the morning show about it. And we'd love to have people calling in.
Now, the last time I tackled women's issues on TBS radio, back in February when I did "The Bigger Picture" on the evening show, I remember wishing more females called in... so this time, if you have something to say about the "short skirt" defense for sexual assault, or the burka philosophy (since we can't expect men to control themselves, pigs and animals that we are, we should just make women dress in burkas/wear longer skirts/hide away in women's subway cars/change their behavior so as not to bring sexual assault upon themselves [sarcasm]... I'd love to have you call in. Or send a tweet. Or at least tune in and listen. Contact information (and host Mike's handsome face) is here. -
It's a little early in the AM, but at about 8:05am, on Thursday, on 101.3, I'll be talking about the topic with Mike, and somebody named Eva John.
So... anybody in Korea anger Yahweh?
One
So did the president of Korea put shrines to Samsung products on the peaks of Korea's mountains or something? Because this latest rain smackdown looks like something straight out of the old testament. Dozens of people have died, and entire regions of Korea's richest area are literally flooded.
Fortunately, the place I've been teaching summer courses, and my home, are on high ground, and I can drive from one to the other without going through any of the floody low-ground.
Knock on wood.
More, including picture links, at the Marmot's Hole. ONE TWO
And Zenkimchi Joe's radio show was stopped midway when EBS got flooded and had to be evacuated. More here. Or here.
and youtube is FULL of these kinds of videos.
Two
The guy who massacred so, so, so many people in Norway mentioned Korea and Japan as model countries that avoided multiculturalism.
Read more here.
This has spurred discussion of Xenophobic groups in Korea.
More at The Marmot's Hole here.
And The Artist Formerly Known as Korea Beat reports the difficulties foreign students have in Korean universities.
So did the president of Korea put shrines to Samsung products on the peaks of Korea's mountains or something? Because this latest rain smackdown looks like something straight out of the old testament. Dozens of people have died, and entire regions of Korea's richest area are literally flooded.
Fortunately, the place I've been teaching summer courses, and my home, are on high ground, and I can drive from one to the other without going through any of the floody low-ground.
Knock on wood.
More, including picture links, at the Marmot's Hole. ONE TWO
And Zenkimchi Joe's radio show was stopped midway when EBS got flooded and had to be evacuated. More here. Or here.
and youtube is FULL of these kinds of videos.
Two
The guy who massacred so, so, so many people in Norway mentioned Korea and Japan as model countries that avoided multiculturalism.
Read more here.
This has spurred discussion of Xenophobic groups in Korea.
More at The Marmot's Hole here.
And The Artist Formerly Known as Korea Beat reports the difficulties foreign students have in Korean universities.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
tee hee... this makes me think of fight club
Got some real posts in the works... to tide you over...
Monday, July 18, 2011
SlutWalk Seoul 2011
A police officer in Toronto said that women should protect themselves from rape by avoiding dressing like sluts. Toronto's feminist community called bullshit on victim-blaming, an all-too-prevalent attitude in assault safety discussions, and organized a response called "SlutWalk" -- a group of women dressed like "sluts" and walked through the streets of Toronto carrying signs, to raise awareness that those attitudes are really not cool, and possibly to reclaim the word "slut."
Since then, SlutWalk has spread to other cities, and it appeared in Seoul last Saturday, July 16, 2011.
I attended in solidarity, because I strongly believe that the idea needs to be introduced, championed, and spread, that it doesn't matter what a woman wears: nothing even remotely justifies sexual assault, and focusing on what a woman should do to avoid the attack implicitly acquits men (and other would-be attackers) of their responsibility to not be rapists, which is where every discourse about sexual assault should begin and end: with better education of what rape is, and what the consequences are, until the slogan "No means no" jumps to the lips of 20-year olds as quickly as other slogans, like "don't drink and drive."
The proceedings for Slutwalk Seoul started at 2pm. I joined up near Gwanghwamun at 4 - demonstrations aren't allowed in Gwanghwamun Square proper - during a welcome pause in the intermittent downpours in Seoul that day. There were speeches, some songs, a non-verbal performance, and then a march down to Deoksugung palace, in front of which there was a dance, and then a return to Gwanghwamun.
The SlutWalk crew moved on to Hongdae, where I was a little too wet and cold to catch up with them, though I met with a few of my feminist and/or supportive friends, including The Grand Narrative (from whom I found out about SlutWalk Korea) and Popular Gusts, for some burgers and drinks afterwards.
signs were carried, slogans were shouted.
At the event, there were almost as many cameras as demonstrators, and rain concerns may have caused the "costumes" or "slut" outfits to be less extreme than they might have been at other slutwalks; however, the crowd was enthusiastic, and people were generally OK with the different people who'd come - including males with cameras.
They ran out of the red ribbons which indicated a person didn't want to be photographed, so I can only publish pictures I took where no faces show... in that respect, the rain and face-obscuring umbrellas turned out to be a boon... and even if it hadn't rained, the point of going wasn't to take lots of pictures of women dressed like "sluts" anyway -- that'd kind of be missing part of the point of the event, that self- objectification for the male/appraising gaze is not the reason for the event, nor the reason women dress the way they do when they go out.
Here's a link that includes a video made by the Hankyoreh.
body-paint was used to interesting effect.
Why did I especially like this event? Two main reasons:
1. Because it was planned and promoted by Koreans for Koreans - the blog and the twitter account and the poster were all Korean only, and I think it's awesome that Korean women are speaking with their own voice.
2. Because when sexual assault comes up in Korea, even in my classes (I like bringing a lesson based on this article into my discussion classes), the discourses I've heard have overwhelmingly focused on the victim's side -- "she shouldn't wear short skirts" "she should not drink too much" "she should use the buddy system" -- what the woman did to bring her attack on -- and barely brought the attacker's side into it (things like stiffer punishments or public awareness campaigns). Overwhelmingly skewing the discourse toward the victim's responsibilities eventually results in an atmosphere of complicity and maybe even enabling, for would-be attackers, in which they figure they can get away with it, if she's drunk enough, or dressed sexy enough, because that's what they always hear when sex attacks are in the news anyway.
Blaming a rape on a short skirt is like blaming a pedestrian hit by a drunk driver for using the crosswalk. Especially in Korea, where short skirts are just about the norm.
I'm strongly of the opinion that for every time somebody says "she shouldn't dress that way" somebody should say "she has the right to dress how she likes and not be attacked for it" and "it's on the attacker's head" twice, and for every dollar spent promoting the former idea, two should be spent on the latter, and so forth. So that no sex attack ever happens again because somebody simply didn't understand, or hadn't had it impressed strongly enough upon them during that one class during high school, where the law draws the line.
It reads something kind of like this: "Sorry my body's not beautiful. Ha ha ha. -From an unsexy slut"
SlutWalk has, predictably, been controversial in many places where it's occurred, and I'd like to touch on a few of those controversies.
1. Maybe SlutWalk makes sense in Canada, where it was invented, but it's not culturally appropriate for Korea.
A journalist asked me if I thought this was an appropriate kind of demonstration for Korean culture, which (by asking it of a foreigner) turned into a kind of loaded question, given that the event was planned by Koreans: I think Korean women should be free to express themselves however they want. Cultural appropriacy doesn't come into it when a. people raised in this culture made the choice to express themselves this way, b. cultures change all the time, and c. some cultures systematically suppress women's rights, and ignore women's voices.
Deoksugung gate. Note the boys dressed as sluts.
2. Isn't this a pretty shocking and outrageous way of starting discussion about this issue?
Maybe it is... but sometimes controversy gets people talking in a way that doesn't happen when one minds their p's and q's, and sometimes something a little brash is needed to capture public attention. A hundred women walking past city hall in lingerie counts as such.
And especially in women's issues, where part of the problem is that women are programmed that being loud, and demanding their rights is unladylike, imprudent, or not "demure" the way a good filial daughter and dutiful wife should be, I'm all for women getting angry, and loud, until middle-aged, male middle-managers feel ashamed to say "well I think women's rights have come far enough in Korea because women have taken over every entry-level position in my district office, and I can't find a single man at the entry-level to promote into division manager," and until women feel empowered enough to confront them on actually believing Korea's come far enough when Korea's Gender Empowerment Measure was woefully low in the last year it was measured (61st of 109 in 2009 - shockingly low when compared to its very HIGH Human development index (26th in the world).) (for the record, yes, Korea does better when you include women's access to quality healthcare and education here)
Sometimes a vanguard comes along with a pretty strident message, and acts as the shock troops for an important idea. After they've put the idea out there, it becomes OK to talk about it, where before people just changed the subject. Once it becomes OK to talk about it, very smart, less brazen voices (hopefully) appear to present the idea in a way that is palatable to those who feel accused and attacked by the stridency of the vanguard. Over time, idea enters the mainstream. I'm OK with that process taking place. I'm OK with there being a noisy vanguard for important ideas. I'm OK with some screeching about important ideas, especially because marginalized populations are marginalized because people don't listen to them: clearing their throat and raising their hand and saying please hasn't worked.
I liked this boy's sign.
3. But isn't it true that women who dress that way are dressing that way because they want men to look at them? Why would a woman dress like that if she wasn't looking for sex?
Hmm. Something I've learned: despite how I like to think the world is aligned, it's not always about men.
There are any number of reasons a woman might dress up nicely/sexy (and let's not forget that what's sexy to one person may be absolutely modest to another):
1. To pick up other women
2. To impress other women
3. To make their friends jealous
4. To make their boyfriends jealous
5. To display status
6. For their own damn selves
7. To feel more confident
8. To enjoy being admired by other women
9. To enjoy being admired (and only admired) by men
10. To balance feeling bad by looking good
11. To show off those bitchin' new heels she just bought, the sixteen pounds she finally lost, the hairstyle she's been waiting to try, or the great (name accessory) she got as a gift
12. To live out a Sex And The City, or similar, fantasy she has
13. Because of a bet she won or lost
14. Because going out and flirting with boys or girls helps her forget something that's bothering her
15. Because most women dress that way at the place where she's going
16. Because she was raised to believe looks were the only important thing
17. Because she was taught that sexual attractiveness is the best way for women to gain power over men
18. Because she grew up in a culture where people judge women who don't dress up and look good as "lazy" (I've had a man say that in class)
19. To attract the attention of men, because she wants to talk to men
20. Because she likes getting free drinks when she goes out (jeez. I'd dress in a tube top and high heeled boots if it meant I drank for free every Friday night. Wouldn't you?)
21. To turn on the boyfriend/boyfriend prospect who came out with her that night
22. To advertise she's looking to make whoopie with some guy she meets that night
That's twenty-two I thought of just now, and I'm not even a woman, and only one of them invites a proposition from a stranger who was ogling her across the room.
I wasn't catching every word, but the point of the event wasn't man-hating, as far as I could tell. I had an interesting conversation with a journalist about it, and the fact is, this is a really complex issue with a lot of variables...
1. There are any number of ways women can dress and behave, for any number of reasons (see above)
2. There are any number of ways that dress and behavior can be interpreted by the (usually male) observer (though too many automatically assume reason 22, and act accordingly)
3. There are any number of ways a male can act on their interpretation of a woman's dress and behavior
4. There are any number of ways that male's behavior can be interpreted by the woman he approaches
And clearly some things are out of line from the start, but there are others - certain types of compliments, certain types of eye (or not-eye) contact, and other kinds of movement and attention, that can be easily misinterpreted, on either side, at numerous points in the interaction... and it's unfortunate that the amount of alcohol flowing increases the chance signals will be misread.
But in the end, it'd be great if responsibility for those misreadings and misunderstandings were blamed equally on the dudes thinking with their one-eyed trouser-snakes (that's penises, y'all), as on the ladies who supposedly "brought it on themselves." And until responsibility for those misreadings and misunderstandings is shared by both sides, and moreover, until it is recognized that men are capable of better than acting on every sexual urge that comes along, and thus share more responsibility, women have a reason to hold slutwalks, and whatever other demonstrations bring these issues back to the forefront, where people have to be confronted by them**, and think about them, and hear ideas they don't necessarily agree with, that might force them to change some of their ideas.
And that's the point of SlutWalk, to me.
**I'm lucky, as a man, because for me, these issues are things that I can touch on from time to time, read about at my leisure, and comment on when it suits me. It's not something that confronts me every time I dress up to go out, or get leered at in a bar; it's not something that casts a bit of suspicion and even fear on every night out, or every up-and-down I get from a stranger. I'm lucky to be able to approach the topic so academically, because I've never in my life felt like I'm three, or two, or even one decision from being raped. And the fact I haven't, and many males in these conversations haven't, means (I think) that some of us wildly misjudge what's at stake for others taking part in the conversation, because they, or someone they love, was. Because I'm not confronted by these issues every Friday night, I'm still learning about them. Somewhere stewing in me is a post, or maybe a series, about why these discussions get so fraught, and dramatic, and (frankly) ugly, when people go beyond preaching to the choir... but for now, suffice it to say I know I'm in a lucky spot, to be approaching the topic so casually. That bears on everything I write about it.
Comment moderation is on. I don't like deleting comments, but I also don't like trolls, flames, misogyny, misanthropy (that'd be man-hating) and general disrespectfulness of either the host (me), women, men, or other commenters.
And by the way: If you're about to go into the comments and say that "Yes, well, it's still true that women should be careful etc. etc."
To save you some time, I know. I never said otherwise. Everybody in the presence of strangers should use their smarts. Public awareness campaigns can help people who don't understand their choices, or who wrongly think their justifications are enough, but they won't stop pure predators. I know that, and I'm not saying parents and teachers should stop teaching would-be victims to get reckless... I AM saying that message should be a distant second to "Don't sexually assault people" in emphasis, but right now I don't think it is.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Random bit: Do You Know Shakira
So in my class, we read about Shakira, who (according to what I learned in the article) richly deserves to be a world star. (and frankly, who deserves to replace Britney Spears as the shorthand name-check to reference a top sexy female popstar - from now on, she's Korea's Shakira, not Korea's Britney Spears.) Among other things, she sang the theme song for the 2010 World Cup, the video of which probably set a record for star power that won't be topped until world cup 2014 (sorry, We Are The World. you're number 2 now). It's a pretty good video all around, too...
However... I couldn't help but laugh in my sleeve, because Shakira, doing a few African dances, made me think of "Aldous Snow" (the fictional rockstar character played by Russell Brand), and the video which ruined his fictional career somewhere between his show-stealing performance in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and the movie "Get Him To The Greek," in which he was the central character.
Well-meant, but completely racist and wrong-minded... how NOT to approach the Other, the best satire of dumb rockstars getting it wrong since "Christmas Is All Around," and maybe longer.
If I have time, I'll write up my thoughts on Sohn Hak Kyu's idea of including North Korea in hosting the Olympics this weekend. But as a good starting point, I agree almost completely with this great write-up from One Free Korea. Any group or organization that sidesteps or ignores North Korea's human rights situation has thrown any and all of its moral authority right out the window.
Later!
However... I couldn't help but laugh in my sleeve, because Shakira, doing a few African dances, made me think of "Aldous Snow" (the fictional rockstar character played by Russell Brand), and the video which ruined his fictional career somewhere between his show-stealing performance in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and the movie "Get Him To The Greek," in which he was the central character.
Well-meant, but completely racist and wrong-minded... how NOT to approach the Other, the best satire of dumb rockstars getting it wrong since "Christmas Is All Around," and maybe longer.
If I have time, I'll write up my thoughts on Sohn Hak Kyu's idea of including North Korea in hosting the Olympics this weekend. But as a good starting point, I agree almost completely with this great write-up from One Free Korea. Any group or organization that sidesteps or ignores North Korea's human rights situation has thrown any and all of its moral authority right out the window.
Later!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Pyongchang Olympics Predictions and Perspective in Question and Answer Format
Well, it's very convenient that Pyongchang was awarded the 2018 Olympics just now, as I just finished reading over 600 pages worth of books and articles on the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, so I have lots to say...
In Question and Answer Format, then:
1. People in Korea are, like, REALLY excited about this. Why?
Almost every Korean you talk to wants Korea to be recognized as a world-class nation. Whatever that means*. Every Korean you ever meet wants foreigners to think well of Korea, and in order for MORE foreigners to think well of Korea, Korea needs to attract their attention. Big events like the Olympics are a great opportunity to do this. Koreans like to see Korean-related things high on lists comparing countries, and get distressed when Korea's position on such comparative lists are low. Here's a list Korea now belongs to:
Countries that will (by 2018) have hosted a Summer Olympics, a Winter Olympics, and a FIFA World Cup:
France, Germany, Italy, USA, Russia, Japan... and South Korea. That's more exclusive than the G20!
Not only is Korea now on a very very exclusive list (absent: famously "highly advanced" nations like Sweden, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, and even the United friggin' Kingdom!), but Korea gets to show that anything Japan can do, they can do, too. Which is important to some people here.
*Usually, what "world-class nation" means is a nation that resembles nations universally recognized as "highly advanced" - usually in terms of technology, economic and military power, and cultural influence. These nations tend to be "Western" nations like the USA and European nations. And Japan.
2. That's a lot of talk about prestige and status, Roboseyo. But The Olympics are about peace and harmony through sport, aren't they?
Actually... whether the Olympics are successful at bringing peace and harmony and cultural understanding to the world is debatable -- during the 60s and 70s, the Olympics were extremely politicized, with major boycotts to the 1976, 1980 and 1984 games, a political hostage situation at the 1972 games (Munich), and a massacre of protestors just days before the opening of the 1968 games (Mexico City). There are also constant rumors of corruption in the International Olympic Committee, and the IOC is known for turning a blind eye on some horrific stuff: the Seoul Games were awarded to Korea only a year after the horrific Gwangju Massacres in 1980, and the IOC very nearly gave the 2000 Summer Games to Beijing, only four years after the Tiananmen Square massacre: a bid which China submitted after being actively encouraged to bid by IOC leaders.
Meanwhile, though Olympics bring lots of nations together, it's debatable whether one sees an increase in international understanding during the Olympics, or whether one simply sees nations gathering to root for their own tribe. Pride gets involved. Winning at all costs becomes more important than fair play and excellence.* The Olympics and similar events warm over old national rivalries, and when things don't go the way one or another nation wants, especially when one of those old rivalries is in play, it can lead to an international incident (see also: Ohno, Apolo).
(For the record, FIFA has generally, but not always, been less political, but especially recently, even more corrupt and unaccountable.)
The one thing the Olympics are SURE to bring is not peace and harmony, but a jump in international visibility, which acts as a blank canvas on which the host (and anyone else with some media savvy) can paint their messages. Beijing 2008 used the Olympics to make some bold declarations about China's rise. The 1988 Seoul Games, the 1968 Mexico City games, and the 1964 Tokyo games did likewise. After World War II, the Olympics were held in a series of former Axis nations, to show their return to normalized relations with the world (Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, Munich 1972). The Olympics are also a great opportunity to do a little national swaggering, as in the 1936 Berlin "Nazi" Olympics, the cold war Olympics (Moscow 1980 and LA 1984 - which featured Sam the Eagle, the most nationalist mascot ever), and some might argue, the 1948 "Who just won a world war?" London Olympics.
(Sam the eagle: 1984 LA's mascot. A bit flag-wavey, no?)
*Lest I be accused of finger pointing, Canada is also guilty of focusing on winning. Canada's "Own the podium" project missed the point of the Olympics, if it really IS about understanding, harmony, excellence and fair play.
3. But fair play and excellence comes into it, right?
Somewhere in there... but with few exceptions, the medal counts have become more a reflection of who puts money into their Olympic program than anything else. And why do governments and corporations think it's worth it to support Olympic programs? Swagger, not sport. Look at the change in China's medal counts that have happened since the 1980s, leading up to China's 2008 gold frenzy - directly connected to national "glory" and prestige. If medals weren't a way of building national prestige, why would countries strategically focus funding on less popular, high medal-count events (swimming, diving, rowing, and skating events) in order to pad their totals?
4. But the 1988 Olympics were really good for Seoul, and Korea in general. Why wouldn't these Olympics be equally good for Korea?
A few reasons.
First, in 1981, all anybody knew about Korea was the War, and MASH, and Western news coverage on Korea at that time focused on North Korea, civil unrest in South Korea, and visits to Korea by heads of state. That's about it. There was nowhere for Korea's national image to go but up, and by putting on a helluva good show, Korea's national image DID go up.
Were the Seoul Games the "foundation for an Advanced Nation" advertised in the 1988 Olympic Museum (Olympic Park)?
Hard to say. A lot of other things were going on at the time. The games were a convergence point for forces that had been gathering speed in Korea for a long time, towards democratization and internationalization and a new stage of economic development, but those forces existed before the Olympics, and would have had their effect on the national trajectory without them, though in different ways and with different timing. The Olympics definitely gave Koreans a better story to tell themselves about Korea's rise in status, acting as a tidy turning point in the national narrative being constructed.
The 2002 World Cup also provided a nice turning point in the narrative of Korea's recovery from the 1997 financial crisis... but that was a constructed narrative, too. Not necessarily an objective truth. Often, that's what big sports events are best for - national storytelling.
5. So why wouldn't the same happen to Korea this time?
Well...
Now, Korea already is a prominent nation. You don't see Mongolian TV dramas sweeping their time-slots in Taiwan, you don't see Laotian pop bands hitting top ten charts all across Asia, and you don't see Burkina-Faso's top popstars getting headlining roles in crappy Hollywood movies, do you? Park Jisung even has his own chant from Manchester United fans, which, while as crass as any other soccer chant, is at least aware enough of Korean culture to choose the correct ugly stereotype.
Korea has much less to gain this time, and much more to lose if the games go poorly, or if something embarrassing happens, like the 2008 Beijing Torch Relay fustercluck, or closer to home, the Byun Jong il boxing brouhaha, during which a Korean security guard hit a boxing official. (More on that) ... do you know how close they came to canceling the rest of the Olympic boxing tournament in 1988?
6. So what do you think is going to happen during the 2018 Pyeongchang games?
I think they will be a successful games, but not enough to be considered among the best ever.
Predictions will wildly overestimate the number of tourists and dollars the Olympics will attract. But that's true of literally EVERY Olympics.
I think Koreans have overestimated the Winter Olympics - they're nowhere near the importance, length or scale of the Summer Games. They have much fewer events, and they only appeal to nations with winter sports.
It will raise Korea's profile, but not as much as expected, and not only in the ways hoped for: that visibility gives EVERYBODY a platform, not just the official party line, and protesters and dissenting voices WILL be a part of these Olympics.
If this article is on base, the region has its work cut out for it, to develop a venue area that will impress people from winter sport regions, rather than just Koreans who can't afford to travel to Whistler.
I think there will be a lot of talk, but the Olympics will not help improve North/South Korea relations. Nobody will win the Nobel Peace Prize because of these games.
I think North Korea will do some big stunt a few months before the games, to get attention and try to piss on the Olympic party, but be relatively quiet during the games. I don't know whether they'll send a team (they didn't in '88)... too many variables in play, particularly in terms of succession.
I think negotiations to send a unified Korean team to the Olympics won't work out, and both sides will blame the other. As usual. This one might hinge on whether the president at the time is lefty or righty (politically).
I think the facilities will be completed ahead of time, but over budget. Either that, or early and under budget, with problems in workmanship cropping up close to the opening day. This would be very embarrassing to the nation, especially if it was discovered that construction funds were funneled elsewhere. However, due to TV revenues, etc., the games will pretty much break even.
Then, I think Pyeongchang will not know what to do with the extra facilities, and mad surplus of hotel accommodations no longer needed after the games, and maybe tear down things like the bobsled track, once all the Olympic jobs evaporate and public funds have to go into maintaining mostly unused facilities. Best case scenario? Pyeongchang becomes an Olympic training complex for future Olympians. Pyeongchang's nearby ski resorts will become WAY overpriced and overcrowded.
I think it will be run better than that F1 Racing event (racing events remain a mess), because the President will see to it that extremely capable people will be involved in the olympic project.
7. What are some pitfalls that you think should get some media play during games preparations, so that Korea doesn't end up in a media standoff like they did with NBC during the 1988 Olympics?
Here's the thing:
I'm sure the planning and execution of the games will go well. And I'm sure the "official version" of Korean culture will be well represented during the opening ceremonies and such.
But...
There will be some bad calls during the games. Some of those bad calls will go against Korean athletes.
Some journalist will do a piece on the nearest dog meat market to Pyeongchang.
Another will report on the gender empowerment gap, and the prostitution industry here. And maybe even the intellectual crime (pirated DVDs and such) or the continuing corruption of the high-and-mighty elites. Or the mistreatment of migrant workers. If people try to suppress these stories, there will be instead a series of stories about how Korea is not ready to take criticism the way a truly developed nation should (as happened to China when they lashed out at BBC). Western media likes to position non-western nations as "Other" and somewhat "inferior."
People will talk about North Korea more than South Koreans would like.
A few Koreans will act like hypernationalist asses, and it will get a little play in the international news, like the "USA" chanters at the Atlanta summer games.
If North Korea sends a team, they'll send a squad of beautiful cheerleaders who attract a lot of media attention.
Some athletes or guests will act like asses, and get into some kind of scuffle with locals or local police.
Some protestors will jump in front of cameras and talk about the Korean issue of the day: the 2018 equivalent of the 4 rivers project, or the US Agent Orange dumping.
Some Koreans will dislike the style of foreign nations' reporting on Korea, and try to stir up a nationalist outrage like the one that led NBC to advise its reporters to hide the peacock logo during the 1988 games.
Somebody's going to write a cheeky article about Korean culture that seems mocking to a reader without enough English skill to pick out nuances of tone, or write some stuff that's overwhelmingly positive, but has a few critical lines in it. (see also: Hohleiter, Vera)
How the Korean internet, and media, respond to these things, will demonstrate Korea's true level of advancement as a nation either confident in its status as a major player, or still insecure about whether EVERY person likes EVERYTHING about Korea - an impossible goal for a high profile country. Will the media and public response be different than it was in 1988 (exactly 30 years earlier)? That'll be a test of whether Korea's truly comfortable in its own skin as a player on the world stage.
8. So how can Korea prepare for those kinds of unexpected things?
With a preemptive series of media discussions about why it's unsporting, and makes Korea look bad, to crash the websites of countries, athletes, or sport governing bodies, that are party to decisions that go against Korean athletes or say bad things about Korea, or to threaten the lives of, well, anyone, over something as inconsequential as sports, and a series of media discussions about the fact people coming to Korea will be behaving by different norms than Koreans behave, which doesn't mean they're bad, inferior, immoral, or trying to insult their hosts: it just means they're not from around here.
9. Do you think that'll happen?
I don't know. But it'd be refreshing if it did. We saw during the 2008 Beijing Games, as well as the 1988 Seoul Games, that host nations do not have complete control over the messages conveyed about their countries during such global events. Responding by taking it on the chin, with a "Yeah, maybe that's true. Everybody hosting the Olympics this year raise your hands!" instead of with prickly defensiveness, would demonstrate a kind of confidence Korea hasn't always demnostrated, and didn't in 1988. The point of big event hosting is swagger... so swagger! Korea would do well to bear this in mind while preparing for the games, and to aim for a populace ready for this inevitability, come games time.
In Question and Answer Format, then:
1. People in Korea are, like, REALLY excited about this. Why?
Almost every Korean you talk to wants Korea to be recognized as a world-class nation. Whatever that means*. Every Korean you ever meet wants foreigners to think well of Korea, and in order for MORE foreigners to think well of Korea, Korea needs to attract their attention. Big events like the Olympics are a great opportunity to do this. Koreans like to see Korean-related things high on lists comparing countries, and get distressed when Korea's position on such comparative lists are low. Here's a list Korea now belongs to:
Countries that will (by 2018) have hosted a Summer Olympics, a Winter Olympics, and a FIFA World Cup:
France, Germany, Italy, USA, Russia, Japan... and South Korea. That's more exclusive than the G20!
Not only is Korea now on a very very exclusive list (absent: famously "highly advanced" nations like Sweden, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, and even the United friggin' Kingdom!), but Korea gets to show that anything Japan can do, they can do, too. Which is important to some people here.
*Usually, what "world-class nation" means is a nation that resembles nations universally recognized as "highly advanced" - usually in terms of technology, economic and military power, and cultural influence. These nations tend to be "Western" nations like the USA and European nations. And Japan.
2. That's a lot of talk about prestige and status, Roboseyo. But The Olympics are about peace and harmony through sport, aren't they?
Actually... whether the Olympics are successful at bringing peace and harmony and cultural understanding to the world is debatable -- during the 60s and 70s, the Olympics were extremely politicized, with major boycotts to the 1976, 1980 and 1984 games, a political hostage situation at the 1972 games (Munich), and a massacre of protestors just days before the opening of the 1968 games (Mexico City). There are also constant rumors of corruption in the International Olympic Committee, and the IOC is known for turning a blind eye on some horrific stuff: the Seoul Games were awarded to Korea only a year after the horrific Gwangju Massacres in 1980, and the IOC very nearly gave the 2000 Summer Games to Beijing, only four years after the Tiananmen Square massacre: a bid which China submitted after being actively encouraged to bid by IOC leaders.
Meanwhile, though Olympics bring lots of nations together, it's debatable whether one sees an increase in international understanding during the Olympics, or whether one simply sees nations gathering to root for their own tribe. Pride gets involved. Winning at all costs becomes more important than fair play and excellence.* The Olympics and similar events warm over old national rivalries, and when things don't go the way one or another nation wants, especially when one of those old rivalries is in play, it can lead to an international incident (see also: Ohno, Apolo).
(For the record, FIFA has generally, but not always, been less political, but especially recently, even more corrupt and unaccountable.)
The one thing the Olympics are SURE to bring is not peace and harmony, but a jump in international visibility, which acts as a blank canvas on which the host (and anyone else with some media savvy) can paint their messages. Beijing 2008 used the Olympics to make some bold declarations about China's rise. The 1988 Seoul Games, the 1968 Mexico City games, and the 1964 Tokyo games did likewise. After World War II, the Olympics were held in a series of former Axis nations, to show their return to normalized relations with the world (Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, Munich 1972). The Olympics are also a great opportunity to do a little national swaggering, as in the 1936 Berlin "Nazi" Olympics, the cold war Olympics (Moscow 1980 and LA 1984 - which featured Sam the Eagle, the most nationalist mascot ever), and some might argue, the 1948 "Who just won a world war?" London Olympics.
(Sam the eagle: 1984 LA's mascot. A bit flag-wavey, no?)
*Lest I be accused of finger pointing, Canada is also guilty of focusing on winning. Canada's "Own the podium" project missed the point of the Olympics, if it really IS about understanding, harmony, excellence and fair play.
3. But fair play and excellence comes into it, right?
Somewhere in there... but with few exceptions, the medal counts have become more a reflection of who puts money into their Olympic program than anything else. And why do governments and corporations think it's worth it to support Olympic programs? Swagger, not sport. Look at the change in China's medal counts that have happened since the 1980s, leading up to China's 2008 gold frenzy - directly connected to national "glory" and prestige. If medals weren't a way of building national prestige, why would countries strategically focus funding on less popular, high medal-count events (swimming, diving, rowing, and skating events) in order to pad their totals?
4. But the 1988 Olympics were really good for Seoul, and Korea in general. Why wouldn't these Olympics be equally good for Korea?
A few reasons.
First, in 1981, all anybody knew about Korea was the War, and MASH, and Western news coverage on Korea at that time focused on North Korea, civil unrest in South Korea, and visits to Korea by heads of state. That's about it. There was nowhere for Korea's national image to go but up, and by putting on a helluva good show, Korea's national image DID go up.
Were the Seoul Games the "foundation for an Advanced Nation" advertised in the 1988 Olympic Museum (Olympic Park)?
Hard to say. A lot of other things were going on at the time. The games were a convergence point for forces that had been gathering speed in Korea for a long time, towards democratization and internationalization and a new stage of economic development, but those forces existed before the Olympics, and would have had their effect on the national trajectory without them, though in different ways and with different timing. The Olympics definitely gave Koreans a better story to tell themselves about Korea's rise in status, acting as a tidy turning point in the national narrative being constructed.
The 2002 World Cup also provided a nice turning point in the narrative of Korea's recovery from the 1997 financial crisis... but that was a constructed narrative, too. Not necessarily an objective truth. Often, that's what big sports events are best for - national storytelling.
5. So why wouldn't the same happen to Korea this time?
Well...
Now, Korea already is a prominent nation. You don't see Mongolian TV dramas sweeping their time-slots in Taiwan, you don't see Laotian pop bands hitting top ten charts all across Asia, and you don't see Burkina-Faso's top popstars getting headlining roles in crappy Hollywood movies, do you? Park Jisung even has his own chant from Manchester United fans, which, while as crass as any other soccer chant, is at least aware enough of Korean culture to choose the correct ugly stereotype.
Korea has much less to gain this time, and much more to lose if the games go poorly, or if something embarrassing happens, like the 2008 Beijing Torch Relay fustercluck, or closer to home, the Byun Jong il boxing brouhaha, during which a Korean security guard hit a boxing official. (More on that) ... do you know how close they came to canceling the rest of the Olympic boxing tournament in 1988?
6. So what do you think is going to happen during the 2018 Pyeongchang games?
I think they will be a successful games, but not enough to be considered among the best ever.
Predictions will wildly overestimate the number of tourists and dollars the Olympics will attract. But that's true of literally EVERY Olympics.
I think Koreans have overestimated the Winter Olympics - they're nowhere near the importance, length or scale of the Summer Games. They have much fewer events, and they only appeal to nations with winter sports.
It will raise Korea's profile, but not as much as expected, and not only in the ways hoped for: that visibility gives EVERYBODY a platform, not just the official party line, and protesters and dissenting voices WILL be a part of these Olympics.
If this article is on base, the region has its work cut out for it, to develop a venue area that will impress people from winter sport regions, rather than just Koreans who can't afford to travel to Whistler.
I think there will be a lot of talk, but the Olympics will not help improve North/South Korea relations. Nobody will win the Nobel Peace Prize because of these games.
I think North Korea will do some big stunt a few months before the games, to get attention and try to piss on the Olympic party, but be relatively quiet during the games. I don't know whether they'll send a team (they didn't in '88)... too many variables in play, particularly in terms of succession.
I think negotiations to send a unified Korean team to the Olympics won't work out, and both sides will blame the other. As usual. This one might hinge on whether the president at the time is lefty or righty (politically).
I think the facilities will be completed ahead of time, but over budget. Either that, or early and under budget, with problems in workmanship cropping up close to the opening day. This would be very embarrassing to the nation, especially if it was discovered that construction funds were funneled elsewhere. However, due to TV revenues, etc., the games will pretty much break even.
Then, I think Pyeongchang will not know what to do with the extra facilities, and mad surplus of hotel accommodations no longer needed after the games, and maybe tear down things like the bobsled track, once all the Olympic jobs evaporate and public funds have to go into maintaining mostly unused facilities. Best case scenario? Pyeongchang becomes an Olympic training complex for future Olympians. Pyeongchang's nearby ski resorts will become WAY overpriced and overcrowded.
I think it will be run better than that F1 Racing event (racing events remain a mess), because the President will see to it that extremely capable people will be involved in the olympic project.
7. What are some pitfalls that you think should get some media play during games preparations, so that Korea doesn't end up in a media standoff like they did with NBC during the 1988 Olympics?
Here's the thing:
I'm sure the planning and execution of the games will go well. And I'm sure the "official version" of Korean culture will be well represented during the opening ceremonies and such.
But...
There will be some bad calls during the games. Some of those bad calls will go against Korean athletes.
Some journalist will do a piece on the nearest dog meat market to Pyeongchang.
Another will report on the gender empowerment gap, and the prostitution industry here. And maybe even the intellectual crime (pirated DVDs and such) or the continuing corruption of the high-and-mighty elites. Or the mistreatment of migrant workers. If people try to suppress these stories, there will be instead a series of stories about how Korea is not ready to take criticism the way a truly developed nation should (as happened to China when they lashed out at BBC). Western media likes to position non-western nations as "Other" and somewhat "inferior."
People will talk about North Korea more than South Koreans would like.
A few Koreans will act like hypernationalist asses, and it will get a little play in the international news, like the "USA" chanters at the Atlanta summer games.
If North Korea sends a team, they'll send a squad of beautiful cheerleaders who attract a lot of media attention.
Some athletes or guests will act like asses, and get into some kind of scuffle with locals or local police.
Some protestors will jump in front of cameras and talk about the Korean issue of the day: the 2018 equivalent of the 4 rivers project, or the US Agent Orange dumping.
Some Koreans will dislike the style of foreign nations' reporting on Korea, and try to stir up a nationalist outrage like the one that led NBC to advise its reporters to hide the peacock logo during the 1988 games.
Somebody's going to write a cheeky article about Korean culture that seems mocking to a reader without enough English skill to pick out nuances of tone, or write some stuff that's overwhelmingly positive, but has a few critical lines in it. (see also: Hohleiter, Vera)
How the Korean internet, and media, respond to these things, will demonstrate Korea's true level of advancement as a nation either confident in its status as a major player, or still insecure about whether EVERY person likes EVERYTHING about Korea - an impossible goal for a high profile country. Will the media and public response be different than it was in 1988 (exactly 30 years earlier)? That'll be a test of whether Korea's truly comfortable in its own skin as a player on the world stage.
8. So how can Korea prepare for those kinds of unexpected things?
With a preemptive series of media discussions about why it's unsporting, and makes Korea look bad, to crash the websites of countries, athletes, or sport governing bodies, that are party to decisions that go against Korean athletes or say bad things about Korea, or to threaten the lives of, well, anyone, over something as inconsequential as sports, and a series of media discussions about the fact people coming to Korea will be behaving by different norms than Koreans behave, which doesn't mean they're bad, inferior, immoral, or trying to insult their hosts: it just means they're not from around here.
9. Do you think that'll happen?
I don't know. But it'd be refreshing if it did. We saw during the 2008 Beijing Games, as well as the 1988 Seoul Games, that host nations do not have complete control over the messages conveyed about their countries during such global events. Responding by taking it on the chin, with a "Yeah, maybe that's true. Everybody hosting the Olympics this year raise your hands!" instead of with prickly defensiveness, would demonstrate a kind of confidence Korea hasn't always demnostrated, and didn't in 1988. The point of big event hosting is swagger... so swagger! Korea would do well to bear this in mind while preparing for the games, and to aim for a populace ready for this inevitability, come games time.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
One Week Vacation
Got back from my anniversary trip to Canada.
It was great... I don't particularly like telling the entire internet when I'm going to be away from home for a week, but now that my locked doors are once again attended, I'll tell you I had a great time.
And something about the Olympics? Did any of you pick up on that?
I'll have something to say about that, too.
Later.
It was great... I don't particularly like telling the entire internet when I'm going to be away from home for a week, but now that my locked doors are once again attended, I'll tell you I had a great time.
And something about the Olympics? Did any of you pick up on that?
I'll have something to say about that, too.
Later.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Everland Tumbling: Viral Video; can't win for losing
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.
It's awesome: watch what happens when the second guy gets called up.
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.
So... if you see it while you're channel surfing, check out what's good about Korean pop music. 나는가수다 means "I am a singer" and if you search it on Naver.com's front page, you'll get a bunch of video results as well. Most of which aren't embeddable (grumble grumble).
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.
So... if you see it while you're channel surfing, check out what's good about Korean pop music. 나는가수다 means "I am a singer" and if you search it on Naver.com's front page, you'll get a bunch of video results as well. Most of which aren't embeddable (grumble grumble).
Friday, May 27, 2011
How To Avoid Getting Forced To Drink, Without Becoming a Social Pariah With Your Korean Friends
After taking issue with "12 Rules for Expats," and disagreeing with the assertion that you NEED to drink like a fish to survive in Korea, I've been asked in the comments to specify: what ARE the strategies that can be used to avoid drinking like a fish, without ending up socially stunted?
Good question. I've put the question out on Twitter, Facebook, and at AFEK, and as answers come in, I'll add them to the post here.
If you have a good strategy, let me know in the comments, or by e-mail roboseyo at gmail.
Background:
(image)
A. Drinking culture in Korea is, like every other part of the culture, constantly changing, and it's starting to become a little easier to decline, or say no, than it used to be. It's still easy to find anecdotes and articles saying that things are really bad... but (anecdotally, I once heard) it used to be impossible, back in the '80s, to decline if your boss said "I'm gonna buy a girl for you tonight!" whereas now, it's socially awkward to decline another shot. Group coercion is getting easier.
B. If you're not born and raised Korean, you have the golden ticket: the foreigner card. It's SO much easier for you if you haven't grown up pickled in Korea-juice, to utilize one of these escape-routes. Be grateful for it.
C. While I do like getting a bit tipsy from time to time, I'm not crazy about getting bombed. The day-after cost has steadily increased for me as I get farther from my 24-year-old prime. That's life.
D. Going along with it and getting bombed with everyone else, if you don't mind the hangover, IS a valid option, and it'll get you a rep as a fun one to be around. Even as I ask around about this one, some peoples' response is "Don't be a baby. Just enjoy the ride." On the other hand, if Bad Things happen when you get drunk, be they medical, vomit or hangover-related, or bad decision-related, or if you just don't feel safe when you're out of control, it's time to explore other options.
So. Here are the strategies I use, or have seen used, to avoid getting overly drunk in social, and office dinner settings. If I'm off base, tell me in the comments. If you have better advice than I've given here, let me know, and I'll thank you and add it to the list.
Roboseyo's Tips:
(image source)
1. Be up-front. For all of the tips that follow, if you level with your colleagues or friends and explain to them honestly that you are susceptible to really bad hangovers, or that you don't like getting drunk, that you're not a strong drinker, or that your husband/wife hates it when you come home drunk, if your friends respect you, they'll respect that. For the most part.
Good question. I've put the question out on Twitter, Facebook, and at AFEK, and as answers come in, I'll add them to the post here.
If you have a good strategy, let me know in the comments, or by e-mail roboseyo at gmail.
Background:
A. Drinking culture in Korea is, like every other part of the culture, constantly changing, and it's starting to become a little easier to decline, or say no, than it used to be. It's still easy to find anecdotes and articles saying that things are really bad... but (anecdotally, I once heard) it used to be impossible, back in the '80s, to decline if your boss said "I'm gonna buy a girl for you tonight!" whereas now, it's socially awkward to decline another shot. Group coercion is getting easier.
B. If you're not born and raised Korean, you have the golden ticket: the foreigner card. It's SO much easier for you if you haven't grown up pickled in Korea-juice, to utilize one of these escape-routes. Be grateful for it.
C. While I do like getting a bit tipsy from time to time, I'm not crazy about getting bombed. The day-after cost has steadily increased for me as I get farther from my 24-year-old prime. That's life.
D. Going along with it and getting bombed with everyone else, if you don't mind the hangover, IS a valid option, and it'll get you a rep as a fun one to be around. Even as I ask around about this one, some peoples' response is "Don't be a baby. Just enjoy the ride." On the other hand, if Bad Things happen when you get drunk, be they medical, vomit or hangover-related, or bad decision-related, or if you just don't feel safe when you're out of control, it's time to explore other options.
So. Here are the strategies I use, or have seen used, to avoid getting overly drunk in social, and office dinner settings. If I'm off base, tell me in the comments. If you have better advice than I've given here, let me know, and I'll thank you and add it to the list.
The best tip I've seen so far, which I'm giving pole position, is this one, from Twitter:
Be proactive, and be the "drink giver" pouring drinks for everyone else, and people won't notice you aren't drinking yourself. (follow @Jurimyoo)
For all of these: learn, and practice, expressing yourself with tact and grace. Avoid making it into a "thing" or a scene if you can.
Also: All of these strategies will be easier to execute in a group that has mixed males and females, mixed Koreans and non-Koreans, than a group that is all-Korean and all-male. I can't speak for an all-female group. Duh. Also, the bigger the age gap between you and the person telling you to drink (if they're older), the harder it is to pull these off. An all-male group where the ringleader is much older than you (and old-school) is your worst possible situation. If the group is moving to the "next place" and you see that all the females and/or all the other non-Koreans are going home, bear in mind the kind of hard-drinking situation you're probably heading into.
Links:
Korean drinking manners. More. Further reading. Article from 2002. Yes, it's a problem.
Also: All of these strategies will be easier to execute in a group that has mixed males and females, mixed Koreans and non-Koreans, than a group that is all-Korean and all-male. I can't speak for an all-female group. Duh. Also, the bigger the age gap between you and the person telling you to drink (if they're older), the harder it is to pull these off. An all-male group where the ringleader is much older than you (and old-school) is your worst possible situation. If the group is moving to the "next place" and you see that all the females and/or all the other non-Koreans are going home, bear in mind the kind of hard-drinking situation you're probably heading into.
Links:
Korean drinking manners. More. Further reading. Article from 2002. Yes, it's a problem.
1. Be up-front. For all of the tips that follow, if you level with your colleagues or friends and explain to them honestly that you are susceptible to really bad hangovers, or that you don't like getting drunk, that you're not a strong drinker, or that your husband/wife hates it when you come home drunk, if your friends respect you, they'll respect that. For the most part.
You might catch a little ribbing for it (after all, you're hanging out with drunk people) but you're man/woman enough not to take that bait, aren't you?
3. Respect their choice to drink. Don't make them feel judged for choosing to tipple.
(image source)
For tips from others, I've bolded the ones I think are particularly helpful.
Funniest suggestion from AFEK goes first:
"Event 1: Drink as much as you can until you puke - on the table, preferably. Be sure to insult a few people, challenge the boss to a wrestling match, ogle women shamelessly. Talk about the joys of interracial sex.
Event 2: Don't worry about it at all because no one will be pressuring you to drink this time."
11. These are good, but I don't like the cider-under-the-table. That has the potential for being extremely embarrassing. Honesty is just the best policy all around. People might kid around at you not drinking but if you are being social they won't care. If you try to "pull a fast one" on people, they WILL care.
12. Gain some weight... being a giant helps me hold my own against any Korean dude.... Honestly though, drink water between shots.
13. Play up being 'Western,' take a shot of soju and then stick with beer.
14. Slosh some out of your glass when you set it down, and only take shots when you're directly toasted.
15. Eat a lot while you drink, and chug some gatorade if you've drunk too much.
16. Establish your out in advance - "I have to get home by __ because of __." -it's easier to cancel an 'out' because you want to stay longer, than to create one on the fly.
17. Say you're on antibiotics, or stick with beer. It's weak as vicar's piss, anyway.
From Twitter:
or conversely:
2. Lie through your teeth. Tell them you have an allergy to alcohol (it happens), that you're driving home, or that you get red-face, or that you projectile vomit uncontrollably when you drink, or that you are very religious and that your religion forbids any alcohol consumption. Be aware that this means you can NEVER drink with these people, and you have to keep your lie straight. Religions that do not allow drinking: (from wikipedia) some Hindus, some Buddhists, Islam, Jainism, Rastafari, Baha'i, some Methodists, most Latter-day Saints, and Seventh Day Adventists. Be able to answer three or four basic questions about the faith if it's your reason not to drink.
Or just lie that your tolerance is way lower than it actually is. Or that you're on medication, or that you have an early appointment the next day, or that you need to take the subway home.
If you've said you can't drink, don't be a wet blanket, though. Participate in the fun, sing some songs at the noraebang, do a toast, play the games (drinking cider) and be ready to help carry some people to their taxis if need be. You can also watch the restaurant owners and count the soju bottles, to make sure your bill doesn't get overcharged, as some restauranteurs have been known to do, once everyone at the table is sloshed.
3. Respect their choice to drink. Don't make them feel judged for choosing to tipple.
4. Drink something different than everybody else. This is where the foreigner card comes in handy. Explain politely that you can't drink boilermakers, or somec, or soju, and ask to just drink beer.
5. Don't finish your glass. Somebody will refill it. That's the custom in Korea. Once it gets less than a third full, people will start wanting to refill your glass, so nurse your drink.
6. Alternate alcohol with cider or cola. You need to have something in your glass to partake in the toasts, but it doesn't necessarily NEED to be alcoholic, as long as you're clinking your glass with everyone else.
7. Pretend (or just let it be known) that you REALLY hate mixed drinks. (this is my most common strategy, because I do) - make a big deal out of somebody trying to put a little soju or whiskey in your beer, or in your cider, because you prefer it straight. This gives you a little more control of what you're consuming.
8. When it's time to go home, go while everybody's moving between places - don't leave in the middle of the proceedings at one watering hole, because then (thanks to the group feeling thing), everybody will feel like it's time to go. Part of the reason Koreans go to a second and third and fourth place when they drink is so that people have a time when they can leave the party without wrecking the vibe.
9. Plan an escape route - set your phone alarm for 10:30, pretend it's a phone call and you have to go. Say you have to take the subway home before it closes. Say you have an early appointment.
10. Even if YOU don't drink, know a thing or two about Korean drinking customs, so that you know when to fill people's glasses, how to pour a drink, how full to fill a beer mug, what to say during a toast, and things like that, and basically how to fit in, even if you aren't imbibing. Fitting in with the group is important in Korea, even if you aren't participating in the one-shot showdown.
For tips from others, I've bolded the ones I think are particularly helpful.
Funniest suggestion from AFEK goes first:
"Event 1: Drink as much as you can until you puke - on the table, preferably. Be sure to insult a few people, challenge the boss to a wrestling match, ogle women shamelessly. Talk about the joys of interracial sex.
Event 2: Don't worry about it at all because no one will be pressuring you to drink this time."
More advice from the long-term and lifers on AFEK (where you can ask your own questions on the open board):
1. buy your own drinks.
2. excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, and disappear into the night.
3. if it's not family, I hide a bottle of cider and fill my glass under the table. My family understands that I don't drink much.
4. If you think the beer is crap here, just say "I don't like beer"... but be warned that you might then get pushed to drink soju.
5. My wife says some Korean women use (hide behind) the fact they're Christians to get out of drinking at work gatherings. I used to try to sit with the non-drinking Ajumma teachers at school dinners.
6. I kept a small package of b-complex to consume before I started drinking. It kept my body flushed with vitamins and water during the beer/soju ordeal.
7. As a non-drinker (recovering, dry for XX years), I tell the truth to those I trust, and with those I don't, I pretend to be Mormon. My mormon co-worker gives me tips on how to appear Mormon (don't drink coffee at work, etc). Convoluted? Yes. Effective? Undoubtedly.
8. I usually do a few one-shots at the beginning, and then slow down to sipping. When I feel it go to my head, I revert to pretend-sipping, and let it slosh out of my glass so that they refill me from time to time. Usually everybody's too wasted to notice.
9. I'd also drink a liter or two of water while at the table to help stay hydrated.
10. Tell them alcoholism is in my family, so I avoid it to be safe.
12. Gain some weight... being a giant helps me hold my own against any Korean dude.... Honestly though, drink water between shots.
13. Play up being 'Western,' take a shot of soju and then stick with beer.
14. Slosh some out of your glass when you set it down, and only take shots when you're directly toasted.
15. Eat a lot while you drink, and chug some gatorade if you've drunk too much.
16. Establish your out in advance - "I have to get home by __ because of __." -it's easier to cancel an 'out' because you want to stay longer, than to create one on the fly.
17. Say you're on antibiotics, or stick with beer. It's weak as vicar's piss, anyway.
image source
"Best way is to be a proactive "drink giver" - move around seats to keep giving drinks to people"
"I rely on weekly 'build your tolerance' binge sessions to keep my cool at 희식."
"I'm going back to work after this."
"My condition is bad."
"I have 몸살" (I'm sick.)
Stealthily pour the makkeolli back into the bowl.
Keep a bottle of water in your bag.
Excuse yourself to make a phone-call to replenish your water supply if need be.
Avoid hoe-shik. Don't drink soju.
(btw: you should totally follow @soniassi, @DTZ247, @HubofErik and @ChrisinSeoulSK on Twitter)
From Facebook:
Don't finish the glass.
Tell them I'm pregnant.
I'm taking medicine.
I have an allergy to drinking.
Bring a dongsaeng (younger friend) to drink for you.
Most effective is claiming the genetic condition which leads to flushed skin and is common for Asians (aka Redface). It's actually dangerous for them to drink because their bodies literally can't process alcohol. Lawsuits have been known to work as well.
With students/friends I just say I don't like getting drunk. It ruins the following day. With a boss, I would frame it as being for religious/spiritual reasons.
Have a partner-in-crime at the table who can, upon receiving the secret signal, distract the goup while you pour your drink out/on the ground/back into the pitcher/into someone else's glass/somewhere.
Sit near a potted plant and dump your soju there (don't worry: the plant's probably used to it)...refill your glass with water, and make a big show of downing it in one shot.
Be an optimist: leave your cup half full.
Always go out with a friend who knows your feelings about over-drinking, and will have your back when you need to activate one of these strategies.
Finally:
If none of these strategies work, and they're your friends...
reconsider your choice of friends, if they're so thoughtless that they don't care about how you feel, or if getting you drunk is their way of exercising social power over you.
If they're your coworkers...I'm sorry. People have won lawsuits where their boss forced them to drink... but then you've clearly made yourself the office social pariah. Better to dodge before that headbutt comes along.
Thanks to everyone who contributed on Facebook, at AFEK, and on Twitter.
(btw: you should totally follow @soniassi, @DTZ247, @HubofErik and @ChrisinSeoulSK on Twitter)
From Facebook:
Don't finish the glass.
Tell them I'm pregnant.
I'm taking medicine.
I have an allergy to drinking.
Bring a dongsaeng (younger friend) to drink for you.
Most effective is claiming the genetic condition which leads to flushed skin and is common for Asians (aka Redface). It's actually dangerous for them to drink because their bodies literally can't process alcohol. Lawsuits have been known to work as well.
With students/friends I just say I don't like getting drunk. It ruins the following day. With a boss, I would frame it as being for religious/spiritual reasons.
Have a partner-in-crime at the table who can, upon receiving the secret signal, distract the goup while you pour your drink out/on the ground/back into the pitcher/into someone else's glass/somewhere.
Sit near a potted plant and dump your soju there (don't worry: the plant's probably used to it)...refill your glass with water, and make a big show of downing it in one shot.
Be an optimist: leave your cup half full.
Always go out with a friend who knows your feelings about over-drinking, and will have your back when you need to activate one of these strategies.
Finally:
If none of these strategies work, and they're your friends...
reconsider your choice of friends, if they're so thoughtless that they don't care about how you feel, or if getting you drunk is their way of exercising social power over you.
If they're your coworkers...I'm sorry. People have won lawsuits where their boss forced them to drink... but then you've clearly made yourself the office social pariah. Better to dodge before that headbutt comes along.
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