So I had to miss the Korea/Argentina game because of something more important: Koreabridge's discussion on workplace unions in Korea - worthwhile if you're an English teacher; check it out.
But the upshot is, I'm glad Korea made it to the round of 16, so that I get to go watch Korea play in the knockout round, and yeah, I'll wear my red horns, and yeah, I'll be mixing it up with the masses in City Hall. It's an experience unlike anything you've ever had before. What would it take to get 600 000 or 1 000 000 Canadians gathered in one place? I can't think of anything, except a broom the size of Saskatchewan.
BTW I'm still looking for a few people who can help with English to Korean translations.
A few other thoughts about soccer (as we North Ameracaners call it)
1. It will always be the world's most popular sport, because any poor kid can take four rocks (goal posts) and something resembling a ball, and play a game of it. The only other sports even CLOSE to requiring so little equipment are basketball and track and field.
2. It will NEVER be popular in North America, the way it is in the rest of the world, until players get penalized, I mean, really penalized, for falling at the slightest contact. I like the rule suggested by an (american) sports columnist: if play has to be stopped because a player goes down, he has to sit out for ten minutes, no questions asked. Substitution can be allowed, but he has to be off the field for ten minutes: if you're actually hurt, you need the ten minutes. If you're not, you get up and suck it up. As long as jokes like this (see video) are made about soccer, it won't gain traction in the continent of ice hockey, lacrosse, and 'Mercan Football.
3. It also will never be popular in North America because there are too many draws, and too many 1-0 games.
4. It doesn't need to be popular in North America.
5. In international competitions, I root against the USA, not because of the Canadian inferiority thing (that only kicks in when it's Canada vs. USA), but because if Brazil wins the world cup, it's a month-long party in Brazil. If France, England, Argentina, etc. win it, it'll make that country's sports half-decade. USA has SO many sports things going on, they don't NEED the world cup, too. If US wins the world cup, most Americans will go "Yeah! Awesome! Is Nascar on?" (or whatever their favorite sport is) and forget the world cup next time a baseball pitcher takes a perfect game into the 8th inning, or A-rod takes his shirt off in Central Park, or Terrell Owens comes out of the closet.
6. In the same way that bad horror movies are more watchable than bad movies of any other genre, blowouts are more watchable in soccer than any other sport I've seen. Spain dismantling Honduras, Portugal spanking North Korea, Germany handing Australia their jockstraps: a superb team in total control is actually fun to watch in Soccer (as long as they aren't slowing down the game). In Hockey, the closer the game is, the better it is, and the more evenly matched the teams are, the more fun it is to watch, and blowouts are boring. Most other sports, too. In soccer, some of the evenly matched games were actually more boring, because each team just moved up and down the middle, and then took turns failing to penetrate the other side's defense.
Plus, the fact that a two goal game can count as a blowout, means that every once in a while, a team might dominate the ball, but concede a fluke goal or two that ends in a wacky result. Mistakes are REALLY costly in soccer - it's the anti-tennis (tennis, where you can make dozens of unforced errors and still win). That it all comes down to one game, and goals are so hard to come by, means that anything can happen. (Go New Zealand!)
7. It's amazing how, even with a dozen players on the pitch per side, the stars somehow manage to assert themselves. Somehow BECAUSE there are so many players on the field, they find ways to shine, which seems counterintuitive - you'd think they'd get lost in the crowd.
8. FC Barcelona have the best jerseys of any sports team I've ever seen. Messi's fun to watch, but those jerseys are exactly my colors. I want one. I'll wear it to the new Manchester United bar in Jongno.
If you see me at the next game in City Hall, say hi.
My fiance's father will do a short speech on the day of the wedding, and my father will do wedding vows in English with me and Hyangju, during the wedding ceremony on Sunday, July 4. Because we'll have some guests who can't speak Korean, and some guests who can't speak English, I'd really like to hand out a program with an English translation of Hyangju's father's speech, and a Korean translation of my father's wedding vows and speech.
I'm sending this out to a bunch of my bilingual friends, because it's if I can find a bunch of people to help, I can just send one or two paragraphs to each person, and it won't be a big burden on anyone. After I've gathered the parts back up, girlfriendoseyo and I will put them back together.
The translation doesn't have to be 100% accurate - it's a wedding, not an academic essay, so a "quick and dirty" translation will do - and I'll take the English translations and work them together so that they have a style that flows nicely, and Girlfriendoseyo will take the Korean translation of the English parts, and edit them so that they have smooth style as well.
If you help us, Girlfriendoseyo and I will take you out for dinner sometime and we'll eat something really nice, our treat of course, in appreciation. Or I'll totally pimp your website, or tell my readers to buy what you're selling, or whatever.
If you're willing to donate a bit of your time in exchange for my gratitude, a bit of fame, and maybe a pint or two at wolfhound's, or some other delicious place, please e-mail me as quickly as possible at Roboseyo@gmail.com
It's hella hot, and hella hot makes me hella tired, because I don't have an air conditioner. Meanwhile, I have about 300 emails to write in preparation for my wedding, which is mere weeks away. Some important hurdles were cleared this week, and we got some big stuff out of the way... but there's always something else.
Anyway, my buddy Abhi asked me to remind you of the fundraising event for two Non-Profit Organizations - the facebook event is here, and it's a battle of the bands on June 26, so not only can you help out some orphans, but you get to go see some sweet live music. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=126367257393094
Plus, on the facebook event page, I looked through the list of people who said they're attending, and most of them are very, dazzlingly good-looking.
Nope, it's not about Korea, but Collegehumor made a video a while ago called "Web Site Story" that's all about our favorite websites. (Warning: if you're not an internet nerd, you might miss some of the jokes). Nerdy, but great -- West Side Story happens to be, along with "Singin' In The Rain," my favorite musical (yes, I have a favorite musical. Deal with it.) If you want to increase your nerd rating, you can also go through this list of the 100 most iconic viral videos. You can find out your nerdity rating by counting how many of these videos you've already seen, plus half a point for each video you stop to watch while you go through the list. My score is embarrassingly high.
