Deo Geu-rae-ee-tuh Get-chu-bee Project and KoreanGov

OK. So over on Twitter, there's this great tweeter called koreangov, who writes hilarious 140 character send-ups of Korean promotions and news. S/He was also the first person I know of who mentioned the ifriendly website that caught so much flack a couple weeks ago. It's like Dokdo Is Ours, but more condensed.

Now, Koreangov has started a blog as well, where you can enjoy his style of satire, stretched out into longer passages. I particularly enjoyed the "new driving test" post. The blog has had a good start so far, and has the advantage of an already-built-in audience.

Moreover, my hat is off to Koreangov's amazing skill at writing English as if it were a Korean trying to write English. We've exchanged a few e-mails, and I can assure you it's a ruse, and s/he writes English perfectly fluently, but s/he is just hilarious.

It reminds me of this book I once randomly picked up:


It's a hilariously ridiculous book that obviously never passed through the hands of a single native speaker on its torturous journey from being written, obviously, in Korean first, and then translated into English with the help of a Korean-English dictionary and a grammar class. But only one or two grammar classes.

Go ahead and read it: it's right exactly on the line between clumsy, hilarious, frustrating, and sad.
Here are some examples of the train-wrecky text:




So why am I writing about this?

Because old favorite comedy blog Dokdo Is Ours just rolled out a really funny idea: The Great Gatsby Project, where contributors can take a page out of the NORMAL book "The Great Gatsby" and translate it into "This was obviously written first in Korean, and then translated into English, and never edited or read by a Native speaker at any point in the process" It's called Deo Geureat Kechupi Ploject.

I think this is a great idea which might have hilarious results, and I might contribute a few pages for fun. If any of you have regular proofreading, editing, or writing marking duties, this might be a fun way to blow off some of that frustration. So go check out the project proposal, and the new blog DIO started for the project, and maybe claim a page or two for your own.

General Safety Bulletin and call for help

If a bunch of people invite you to take a ride in a limousine, don't get in. Even if they offer you candy.

Seriously, though, sometimes they don't offer candy: sometimes four guys force you into their car and try to rape you. And then word spreads on facebook, and bloggers send out requests asking if anybody who might have been witness to the incident, in Itaewon at 3:30 AM, or who has some info about it, could get in touch and help us track down the kinds of creeps and scuzzmuffins who would do something disgusting like that.

More at this facebook page. If anybody knows more about this, there's contact info on the page.

Been forgetting to take my camera

OK, first: As Good As It Gets is playing while I'm writing this, and I'd forgotten what a charming film it is. My new favorite part of Jack Nicholson movies is the part where other actors impersonate Jack Nicholson's character, because of course, everyone in Hollywood knows how to do Jack (pun intended). They did it in A Few Good Men, they do it in this movie. Anybody know another movie where somebody does their Jack Nicholson? All I want to see is a movie where somebody does their Al Pacino, or their Robert Deniro. You know there are dozens of spot-on Pacinos and Deniros in Hollywood, just waiting to make it on screen.

Anyway, I've been forgetting to take my camera out when I go meet my friends and stuff, but I'm generally having a good time. Found some nice spiced wine near Gyungbokgung, went back to my favorite tea place by Anguk, 2S2 was a success, and at my buddy Evan's birthday party, I ate so much brazilian steak that I was full for two days.

Here are some pictures from that day.
It was my buddy Evan's birthday party. Here's him and his buddy Jonathan making pirate faces (my idea... I should totally be a portrait photographer)


I'm gonna be sad when nobody remembers Zoolander, and Magnum.


And my friend Kelly NameChangedForPrivacy was also there: she looks good in a hat, but then, I haven't yet met a woman who doesn't look hot in a fedora, and a newsboy cap. I'd almost say every woman should own one of each, but then it would be less special.

she wouldn't do magnum for me.


I like hanging out with Kelly and Evan, because even though they met randomly in Korea, I'm buds with both of them. Even more unusual is this connection: both Evan's mother and Kelly's mother were best friends to my mother, at different times in my mom's life. That's cool.

I also had a spaghetti party, and my friend came: she used to be a coworker, and she's a nice lady. She's also a funny one, because she's a very pretty lady, yet whatever the opposite of photogenic is, she's it: in photos, she rarely more than 45% as pretty as she is in real life, but in this photo, she's all the way up to 70%, and I'm proud of that, so I'll take it.



things have changed from the "no gays in Korea" days.


Honestly, I think there are some memes involved in the ways bloggers and expats perceive Korean culture, that need to be retired. One of them is the "no gays in Korea" thing -- it gets passed around a lot, but fact is, it's been about four years since I've heard somebody tell me there are no gays in Korea, and I think that it's time to let that one die.

Another one is the one blood myth: maybe among the older generation it's sticking around a bit, but I think that the myth that ALL Koreans are pure-blood obsessed is losing its iron grip. I'm not ready to say it should be retired, because genealogy and blood heritage does still sometimes play a role in how some people think about the world, but I think it needs to be destabilized, and taken as a possibility rather than a given. So yeah, let's take the blood myth a little more on a case-by-case basis, rather than as if it were across the board. That monolithic FrankenKorean that gets stitched together from stories passed around, and examples of extreme cases, and ridiculous news stories illustrating further extreme cases, ought to be reexamined from time to time, in order to make sure we're not being just as flip and dismissive in our view of that diverse culture on the other side of the language barrier, as the worst of them are of us.

back to photos:
this cute couple was stuck in the crosswalk by insadong.


I got this picture shopping for halloween gifts... now I'm not sure if this is some celebrity...



maybe OJ?

or if the costume shop just wanted me to be able to dress as a spook for Hallowe'en. (Yes, I know that's an offensive word. The mask offended me.)

anybody here can read the Japanese? Leave a translation in the comments. I'm interested to know what it says.


They also had a sweet Barack Obama mask, but it was 40 000 won - a bit too much for me to pick it up. The ears were appropriately ginormous.

More later, dear readers.

Rubber Seoul and World AIDS Day

OK, everybody. World AIDS day is coming up, and my buddy, Tom Rainey-Smith contacted me, and wanted me to pass on word about an event called Rubber Seoul in Hongdae.

On December 5th, an event will be held to raise money to support AIDS, as well as to encourage people to practice safe sex. According to the press release, this is especially important in Korea because over here, 99% of new HIV/AIDS cases are transmitted sexually. The event will give you access to Janes Groove, FF, and DGBD, and all the bands playing in each of those places, all for just 10 000 won, plus you get a souvenir made by AIDS-affected South African women to take home.

Last year was a monster event, with 12 million won raised, which figures into... um... a whole lot of South African women's lives. This year, to top that, we'll need your help. If you blog, tell your blog pals about this one: it's a durn good cause and deserves a boost. Check out their facebook page or the Rubber Seoul blog for more info.

The Holiday Season Has Officially Begun: Flash Mob Magic

Sweet Elf flash mob in New York City. Bonus points for using moves from Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" (which still won't allow embedding)... and I'm pretty sure I spotted a few actual little people.