Month: April 2012

Caveat: Such Is Sunday

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I'm really so very anti-social, these days. And I'm trying to not spend so much time online, during my weekend time. I had a pretty positive, relaxing day, but it wasn't what you would view as objectively productive. I studied Korean for a while. I read some books. Not whole books – parts of various books, including finally finished the first volume of the three volume history of Korea I'm working through. I wrote a little bit, and I cleaned my apartment's floor. I stayed off the internet for most of the day – which is a pretty major accomplishment, actually. Such is Sunday.

What I'm listening to right now.

미쓰에이 [Miss A], "터치[Touch]." 가사:

Album: 닫힌 내 가슴은 누구도 사랑할 수가 없다
그렇게 믿었는데 어느새 내 가슴이 열리고 있어
굳은 내 가슴은 다시는 설레일 수가 없다
그렇게 믿었는데 너를 볼 때마다 내 가슴이 뛰어
You touch my heart baby (touch touch)
You touch my heart baby (touch touch)
부드러운 손길로 내 마음을 어루만져 (touch)
You touch my heart baby (touch touch)
You touch my heart baby (touch touch)
내 마음을 모두 다 다 다 가져 갔어 (touch)

상처를 주기도 받기도 이제는 정말 싫다
그렇게 믿었는데 너와는 왜 그런 일이 없을 것 같니
가슴에 상처가 나으려면 한참이 걸릴 거다
그렇게 믿었는데 어느새 내가 너의 품에 안겨있어
얼음처럼 차가워진 내 가슴 어느샌가 살며시 빼앗은
너는 따스하게 비치는 햇살 내 상처에 다시 나는 새 살
나도 모르게 어느새 너에게 기대
하늘이 다시 한 번 내게 기회를
준 걸지도 모른다는 생각이 내 마음에 들어 baby

Caveat: there is a social side to defensive vomiting

Found Online / Science & SciFi

This article is so bizarre, Imagesnot because I doubt its scientific authenticity, but just because of the material it covers. Really, it's just caterpillars. I think the title to the article would make a good title for a pseudo-autobiographical novel: Caterpillars are more likely to vomit alone. I will begin an outline immediately.

Extended quote:

This new study shows that there is a social side to defensive vomiting. The researchers found that whether a caterpillar is willing to regurgitate — and to what extent — depends on the size of its social group.

Caveat: Um… Korean Reggae? Really?

Background Noise / Life in Korea / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

I'm not sure if that's really what this is. Does Korean have reggae? But I saw the term applied to this singer. I kind of like it, actually, despite not being a big reggae fan, normally. The genre assignation doesn't seem exactly right, either, though.

Maybe it's just this song.

What I'm listening to right now.

하하 [Haha], "그래 나 노래 못해 [geurae na norae mothae = so I can't sing]." Haha. Funny.

가사 [lyrics]:

Haha_html_m716f15a9그래 나 노래 못해
그래도 난 노래해
내 Soul과 My Feel로
그래 나 노래 못해
그래도 난 노래해
내 Soul과 My Feel로
예에헤
뒤에서 다들 그래
난 노래 하지말래
웃기고 앉아있네
노래할래
여러분 나 병에 걸렸어
이놈의 병 때문에
암것도 못해
성대결절에
내가 들어도 듣기 싫은
이 목소리에
노래 노래
그놈의 노래라는 병에
걸려버렸어
상처는 덮어두면
더 깊어지는 법
그래 나 노래 못해
그래 나 노래 못해
그래도 난 노래해
내 Soul과 My Feel로
예에헤
뒤에서 다들 그래
난 노래 하지말래
웃기고 앉아있네
노래할래 이렇게
라 라라라라라
라라라라 라라라
아버지가 말씀하셨어
신께선 모두 다
주시지 않는다고
그래서 세상은
공평하다고 인정했어
맘은 안 그래도
어린날 때론
세상에 주먹질과 욕도
맘껏 해봤어
잘못된 길의 지도를
만들었던 것
그래 나 노래 못해
그래 나 노래 못해
그래도 난 노래해
내 Soul과 My Feel로
예에헤
뒤에서 다들 그래
난 노래 하지말래
웃기고 앉아있네
노래할래
(몹쓸병에 걸려 누워있는)
(병실에도 흘러나오길)
(오늘도 살기위해)
(야근하고 있는)
(회사에도 흘러나오길)
(어둠과 꿈을 위해)
(펜을 잡고 있는)
(학교에도 흘러나오길)
(지친 영혼을 일으켜)
(세울수 있는)
(노래가 되길)
(더 크게 더 크게)
(더 크게 이렇게)
그래 나 노래 못해
그래도 나 노래해
내 Soul과 My Feel로
오~ 예
뒤에선 다들 그래
난 노래 하지말래
웃기고 앉아있네
노래할래
그래 넌 잘될거야
미친듯 잘될거야
세상이 몰라줘도
잘될거야
그래 난 잘될거야
죽어도 잘될거야
세상이 몰라줘도
노래할래

Caveat: 어물전 망신은 꼴뚜기가 시킨다

한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean) / 한국어 속담 (Aphorisms & Proverbs)

어물전       망신은    꼴뚜기가             시킨다
fish-store dishonor small-octopus-SUBJ causes
A small octopus causes a fish-store['s] dishonor.

A single small member of a large organization can ruin it for everybody. That's what this seems to mean. "One bad apple ruins the barrel" might be an English equivalent.

Caveat: Rabbits Eating Basketballs

Banalities & Journaling / My Drawings & Paintings / The Wonders of Work

Rabbit 002It was supposed to be "Rabbits eating vegetables." But the latter word wasn't familiar to my low level elementary students, whereas they all knew the word "basketball." So when we recited the little dialog in chapter 9, that's how it came out.

I tried to explain that rabbits don't eat basketballs, but rather, vegetables. And I drew a picture on the blackboard, to explain why. I don't have that picture – a student who found it disturbing erased it too quickly. But I have a reproduction that I drew just now – see picture at right.

Caveat: Ghosts in Electoral Maps

Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Electoral maps have always fascinated me. It's interesting, for example, that when looking at modern US electoral maps, you can sometimes make out the "ghost" the Confederacy, 150 years gone.

I have no idea whether this is coincidence or whether there's some cultural/historical reality to it – I consider myself too ill-informed to judge – but in South Korea's recent electoral maps, I feel like I can make out the "ghost" of something much, much older than the Confederacy in North America. Specifically, something about the modern map of Korea harkens back to the so-called "three kingdom" period (i.e. before around 700 AD).

Seriously. This is not just a recent fluke. Throughout the post-WWII history of South Korea, there seems to be a clear tendency for the southwest of the country to go for the liberals ("red Jeolla" and all that) while the east of the peninsula goes for the nationalists (typically called conservatives but I'm not comfortable calling them that).

In the elections on Wednesday of this week, the same pattern continues. Take a look at this map (from the wikithing). Yellow and pink are the liberals, entirely in the southwest with some pockets at major urban areas, e.g. Seoul in the northwest and a few districts at Busan in the southeast. The rest of the country is solidly nationalist.

422px-South_Korean_Legislative_Election_2012_districts(ko).svg

Now take a look at this map of the three kingdoms period, ca. 575 AD (also from the wikithing). If you pretend that the Goguryeo kingdom became North Korea, then modern Silla is the nationalist stronghold, and modern Baekje is the liberal stronghold. The match-up isn't perfect – but neither are those confederacy ghosts seen in US maps.

437px-History_of_Korea-576

Caveat: la poesía de todos (love, coupled with immense pride)

Background Noise / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Quotable

RoquedaltonCOMO TÚ

Yo como tú
amo el amor,
la vida,
el dulce encanto de las cosas
el paisaje celeste de los días de enero.

También mi sangre bulle
y río por los ojos
que han conocido el brote de las lágrimas.
Creo que el mundo es bello,
que la poesía es como el pan,
de todos.

Y que mis venas no terminan en mí,
sino en la sangre unánime
de los que luchan por la vida,
el amor,
las cosas,
el paisaje y el pan,
la poesía de todos.

– Roque Daltón (poeta salvadoreño).

Lo que estoy escuchando en este momento.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood, "War (Long Version)."

Escúchenla, y lean su letra:

Oh no, there's got to be a better way
Say it again, there's got to be a better way
Yeah, what is it good for? (War)

Man has a sense for the discovery of beauty
How rich is the world for one who makes use of it to show
Beauty must have power over man (war)
After the end of the war I went to devote myself
To my thoughts for five to ten years and to writing them down
War has caused unrest among the younger generation

Induction then destruction, who wants to die?
Wars come and go what remains are only the values of culture

Then of course there is revolutionary love
Love of comrades fighting for the people and love of people
Not an abstract people but people one meets and works with
When Che Guevara taught of love being
At the center of revolutionary endeavor, he meant both

For people like Che or George Jackson or Malcolm X
Love was the prime mover of their struggle
That love cost them their lives…
love… coupled with immense pride
love… coupled with immense pride

(Give it to you on top, now)

War, I despise 'cos it means destruction of innocent lives
War, means tears to thousands of mothers how
When their sons go off to fight and lose their lives

I said, war, good god, now, what is it good for?
Absolutely, nothing
Say it again, war, what is it good for?
Absolutely, nothing, listen to me
War, it ain't nothing but a heart breaker
War, friend only to the undertaker, war

War, war, war, war
War, what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Say it, war, good god now, what is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it, war

Oh no, there's got to be a better way
Say it again, there's got to be a better way
Yeah, what is it good for?
War, what is it good for?

 

Caveat: Schemanarrative

Background Noise / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Science & SciFi

Remindme_html_59aa9560Schematic? Narrative?

Regardless, it gave me a sort of a chill, watching this video: a sort of schematic narration of the overwhelming complexity of our world, its interdependencies, the way we exist embedded in multifold schemas that we don't understand and are barely aware of. And in a very short story-line, there's also an actual character created, which seems to possess the rudiments of personality and internal life – perhaps a la Sims. For some reason, I was thinking of Joyce's Ulysses as I watched this. That might seem strange, but I believe some might see that there's a sort of logic to it. "A day in the life…" and all that.

What I'm listening to right now.

[UPDATE 2018-02-03: Video replaced due to having noticed link-rot (old video taken down?).]

Röyksopp, "Remind Me."

Plus, I like Röyksopp.

Now, tangentially – or perhaps in the mode of a constructive, philosophical supplement (and please don't be alarmed if you don't see the connection to the above, as I'm writing here largely for my own future's perusal, because my reading happened to coincide with my discovery of the "schemanarrative") – I will offer an extended quote from Fredric Jameson's Valences of the Dialectic, on the topic of his "utopian hermeneutic" (the chapter is entitled "Utopia as Replication"; the "genealogy" he's referencing is Nietzsche's):

There is so far no term as useful for the construction of the future as "genealogy" is for such a construction of the past; it is certainly not to be called "futurology," while "utopology" will never mean much, I fear. The operation itself, however, consists in a prodigious effort to change the valances on phenomena which so far exist only in our present; and experimentally to declare positive things which are clearly negative in our own world, to affirm that dystopia is in reality Utopia if examined more closely, to isolate specific features in our empirical present so as to read them as components of a different system. This is in fact what we have seen Virno doing when he borrows an enumeration of what in Heidegger are clearly enough meant to be negative and highly critical features of modern society or modern actuality, staging each of these alleged symptoms of degradation as an occasion for celebration and as a promise of what he does not – but what we may – call an alternate Utopian future. [p. 434]

I would only add that perhaps we have to remember that dystopias and utopias, both, are reliant on narratives that are essentially the same, and which may or may not be historical, just like Nietzsche's genealogies (or even marxian dialectics of various flavors). Not historical, and not ahistorical – maybe a good word would be "pseudohistorical" – but why not just call it "narrative"?

Caveat: Election Day in Korea

Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Election-Sign-250x180Today is election day in South Korea. The sign at right reads 투표소 ["polling place"].

My bilingual coworker summed up her attitude to these elections.

"I've made my decision!" she announced.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm not voting."

I'm not sure what the turnout will be today – I'm going to guess it will be low. These are national parliamentary elections, but don't include a vote for the president, which will happen in the fall – the legislative and presidential calendars are out of sync, here. The two main parties recently rebranded themselves, but they are the same as always: a roughly right wing ruling party of nationalists, now called 새누리당 ["New Frontier Party"] and a roughly left wing opposition party of liberals, now called 통합민주당 ["Unified Democrat Party"]. The current president, Lee Myung-bak, isn't very popular, but his nationalist party remains so – that may have something to do with their recent rebranding. Both parties are currently led by women (picture below), which is striking in Korea's historically ultra-patriarchal political system.

I predict that the left leaning democrats will gain seats in the legislature – currently they only hold 89 out of 300 – but not an outright majority. There are minor parties and if they get enough, the liberals might be able to block some of the nationalists' efforts, in coalition. But the president holds huge power – so the really meaningful election will be in the fall.

10220225

Caveat: Dubyacare

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I am a political news junkie, but I tend to avoid commenting too often on it. I have been following the US media coverage of Obamacare's sojourn in the Supreme Court avidly, but most of the commentary seems to not get one fundamental aspect – there is nothing innately conservative about the idea of the Court striking down the law. It's just how the cards fell: the individual mandate started life as a conservative initiative, that the Dems took over because it seemed like a good solution. And yet if GW Bush had passed something resembling Obamacare, the Court would likely be divided exactly opposite to its current division. So…

Well, I found a great piece online this morning that captures this paradox quite clearly and brilliantly. If you're interested in this topic, I suggest you read it.

Caveat: It’s Like a Vacation

The Wonders of Work

I saw a seventh grade student named Sumin in the lobby. "How are you?" I asked.

"I'm excellent," she answered, in confident English.

"Oh, that's good. Why are you excellent?"

"시험대비 is like a vacation!" She held out her hand, thumb's up, and grinned. [시험대비 means "test prep" – our hagwon closes down the regular middle school classes and offers special test-prep classes for middle schoolers for their upcoming very important public school English tests].

The background is that Sumin is a relatively new student at Karma, and I don't think she's been through the 시험대비 before. And she happens to be a straight-A, 100% average type student – so I suspect the public school English curriculum isn't challenging for her. Therefore the test-prep for this is likely to feel like a vacation.

Caveat: Dreaming in SQL

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

— I awoke from a dream this morning muttering,
— "Well, I better to get to work
— on that data warehouse."
—
— The dream was one of those SQL coding dreams I used
— to have a lot, when I was working as an SQL coder.
— Screens filled with half-written SQL queries written
— against the infamous ARAMARK datawarehouse (or my
— surreptitious 2 terabyte copy of it that was running
— on the "National Accounts Stealth Server" that I'd
— constructed under my desk), in which I'd denormalized
— the database to speed up pivot table queries of
— various kinds. Dreams filled with feelings of anxiety
— and urgency and frustration. I almost never have
— those dreams, anymore – I haven't done a single
— line of programming in almost 5 years, now. I'm a
— happier and more balanced person, because of
— it (though not perfect, oh no, I know).
—
— But sometimes dreams do weird things, and this
— early dawn, as my cold medicine wore off (I'm combatting
— an unpleasant flu currently), I was plunged
— into a vivid relapse of my database-hacking days. And I
— awoke with a sense that I was behind on some ill-defined
— but very important project, some report due
— that day and the queries were running too slow, some
— effort to find some ineluctable fragment of
— information or some anomalous, dangerous data point
— that the sales people insisted shouldn't exist and
— would embarrass us in front of the customer, but
— lo and behold, there it was glaring up from the
— spreadsheet.
—
— I made some of my Brazilian instant coffee, and
— ate toast and an apple for breakfast.
—
— Below is a dummy query from a SQL educational
— website. Just to give a flavor or my dreaming.
DECLARE @PivotColumnHeaders VARCHAR(MAX)
SELECT @PivotColumnHeaders =
 COALESCE(
  @PivotColumnHeaders + ',[' + [MonthName] + ']',
  '[' + [MonthName] + ']'
 )
FROM dummy.dbo.ListMonthNames()
ORDER BY monthid

DECLARE @PivotTableSQL NVARCHAR(MAX)
SET @PivotTableSQL = N'
 SELECT *
 FROM (
  SELECT
   YEAR(OrderDate) [Year],
   DATENAME(MONTH, OrderDate) as [Month],
   SubTotal
  FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
 ) TableDate
 PIVOT (
  SUM(SubTotal)
  FOR [Month] IN (
   ' + @PivotColumnHeaders + '
  )
 ) PivotTable
'
EXECUTE(@PivotTableSQL)
— What I'm listening to, right now.
— Kray Van Kirk, "You to me." There's no youtube or other
— online video for this song. So… find your own copy – his
— music is free from his website (I wonder… I should make my
— own youtube. I wonder if he would object?

Caveat: Free-Will Inspection

Banalities & Journaling

Koreans (like most Asians) often wear T-shirts with incomprehensible English on them. It's like the clothing companies have hired unemployed Nigerian spamists to write their T-shirt slogans. I wish I took a picture of the phrase I saw today. I was walking to work earlier and saw one of those modern Korean dads – pushing the baby stroller, talking on his cell phone, dressed super-casually in jeans and T-shirt.

But then, in large maroon letters on the back of his shirt, it said, "Free-Will Inspection." I didn't get to see the front.

But I wonder what "Free-Will Inspection" is supposed to be. How does it work? If I decided to undergo Free-Will Inspection, would I get a positive result? If I flunk my Free-Will Inspection, does that mean I have a free will or don't have a free will? Which is the preferable outcome?

Caveat: Holy Crap, Spring.

Banalities & Journaling

It's 21 C (that's 70 F, approximately). First time even close to that temperature, since last Fall, I think. Well, time goes on. Spring is my least favorite season in Korea – it's often smoggy around Seoul, and that's when the Yellow Dust (from Mongolia, laden with Chinese characteristics) is worst. But it often has beautiful individual days, and seeing the flowers and trees bloom is often beautiful, too.

Caveat: 개구리 올챙이 적 생각도 못 한다

한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean) / 한국어 속담 (Aphorisms & Proverbs)

개구리 올챙이    적     생각도               못 한다
frog  tadpole enemy consider-to-be–too cannot
A frog cannot consider a tadpole to be an enemy.

Don't make enemies of those coming up the ranks, below you. This is perhaps relevant to the teaching profession (note this is a gross understatement). This sentence is devoid of the typical case-markings of Korean (which are always optional in any event, making it a bit harder to sort out – I also didn't realize that 생각하다 could be a "ditransitive" verb (as the linguists might call it): I decided it must mean something like "consider X to be Y" in this context, and based on the putative proverbial meaning of the phrase. The word 적 is a problem because it has so many possible meanings, including a number of uses as a particle in derived noun phrases – I only got "enemy" because it was there in the translation.

Caveat: Karma’s a Bitch

Found Online / Quotable

No… I don't mean my place of employment. I'm referring to this funny meme-image I recently ran across.

Karmasabitch

Er, um. Hahaha. [Dear Icebergs, Sorry to hear about the global warming. Karma's a bitch. Sincerely, The Titanic]

I don't really give a damn about the Titanic. But I have some passing concern about global warming, and karma is always worth contemplating.

(Hattip, sullyblog).

Caveat: Atomic Graffiti

Found Online

Some artist snuck into Chernobyl and painted grafitti. Check out the picture he did:

ComboChernobylSimpsons

The Simpsons having a picnic in front of the nuclear power plant.

Ah… shades of Yeonggwang.

Caveat: The Moral Education of Students

The Wonders of Work

On the blackboard in the staffroom, these last few days, was the following reminder from the boss.

Scene 005

I felt particularly proud of the fact that I didn't really need a translation. I didn't understand every word, but I got the gist of it easily enough – partly it's driven by being familiar with the context. A transcription of the boss's challenging handwriting:

학생정신교육강조
1. 수업시간에 나가지 않기
2. 교실에 쓰레기 처리
3. 핸드폰 전자기기 전원오프
4. 쉬는시간 준수

Using the googletranslate, with some tweaks, we get:

Emphasize the moral education students
1. Do not let [students] out during class time
2. Pick up trash in the classroom
3. Mobile phones and electronic devices powered off
4. Comply with the break schedule

I find it interesting that a bunch of low-key rules are referred to as "moral education" – but that's how Koreans conceptualize these things – I don't think it's an inaccurate translation.

Karma Academy goes through these cycles, about 2 months in length. We crack down on rules, then they gradually relax, and then finally we crack down again. Partly, during the test-prep time, which started just now for the middle-schoolers, Curt tries to run a more "serious" environment, whereas he lets things relax and be more fun during the other parts of the academic schedule. I have no problem with these rules, for the most part, except that I'm actually pretty comfortable with my students having their cellphones in class. All but a few of them, even of the elementary age students, are quite adept, now, at using them appropriately, in my experience, and my feeling is that they're so ubiquitous that removing them is like asking students to give up book bags or something. Plus, because that's where the dictionaries live, and I'm not an opponent of dictionary use, I allow them for that reason, too. Some of my younger students do seem to have nasty trash-leaving habits, but this is nearly universal with children, and is best dealt with by nagging.

Caveat: Cretan

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable

ImagesThis is incredibly funny. I must quote it at length.

Rush Limbaugh, modern Epimenides?

Wikipedia tells me that Limbaugh lives in West Palm Beach, FL. Yet for years now he has been telling listeners something different:

    Now, look, folks, as I’ve told you countless times, I live in Literalville.    [Transcript, 10.9.2010]

It’s an outright lie, and I know this because Rush doesn’t do metaphor. In fact, that’s what he means by claiming Literalville residency:

    If you tell me something, I take it literally. I believe that you mean it. I don’t dance around edges trying to figure out what you really meant. If you say it, I believe it. I live in Literalville […].    [Transcript, 10.9.2010]

There are only two possibilities here:

1.    Limbaugh literally lives in Literalville, FL.
2.   Limbaugh metaphorically inhabits a place devoid of metaphorical meaning or implication, which he describes figuratively as Literalville.

The first possibility is empirically false. There is no Literalville in FL, or in any other state. I checked (and no, Google, I did not mean Littleville, AL).

The second possibility can only be true if it is false. You can only live in Literalville in the metaphorical sense if you move away for a time (the time it takes to say, figuratively, that you live in Literalville), during which time you’re not a Literalville resident. It’s a neat version of the Cretan paradox: the Cretan says, ‘all Cretans are liars’. Neat, because it shares the element of local belonging as a logical class, but also because it shifts the dichotomy from Truth-Lie to Literal-Figurative. And because that shift, equating Truth to Literal and Lie to Figurative, is one that only makes sense if you live in Literalville. Note that this isn’t the same as the use of vacuous ‘literally‘ as a sort of intensifier in a metaphorical context (‘I was literally going to explode’) though maybe it’s related. Limbaugh is actually using figurative language to deny that he understands figurative language.

Caveat: 너무 분하다

Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

In my Phonics class (lowest level, 1st or 2nd graders) I have a second-grader named Yedam. Yedam is pretty smart, but she doesn't deal well with stress – so when we have a spelling test, she loses her cool, and never does very well. And then, almost inevitably, after the quiz is over, and she sees her low score, she cries. I try to just help her to understand it's not such a big deal – when it's not a test, she often does just fine.

Yesterday, she didn't cry at the end of the test. Instead, she wrote, boldly, across the top of her quiz paper, "너무 분하다." My coworkers all told me it means she's angry, and seemed alarmed: "Why is she angry?" But the dictionary conveys a more subtle meaning, that I think is closer to what she intended: 분하다 can mean "chagrined" or "vexed." So what she meant, I think, is "I am very chagrined."

I took a picture of her test paper.

Scene 004

Ultimately, despite her score of "2," I viewed it as a sign of huge progress that instead of crying, she expressed her feelings verbally. Note that the word "alligator" is always the last word on a "Jared quiz." – so everyone knows it despite its multisyllabicity.

Caveat: Fragmented. Exiled.

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

I've commented before that I don't read books "normally." I do read a great deal, but I have a short attention span, I skip around. I'm almost always non-linear in my approach. Many people complain about this – not about that I'm doing it, but that it seems to be a common affliction, these days. People like to blame the internet, and blogs, and e-readers, and things like that. I don't think I have such an excuse – I was reading books via what I termed my "random access method" long before the internet even existed. I read non-fiction non-linearly even when I was in high school, in the early 1980's. I would pick up an interesting history book, and I would read a page here, and a page there. At the next sitting, I would do the same thing. If I recognized a page, I would read some other page. The book was considered "done" at the point in time when I recognzied all the pages I tried. More or less.

With novels, I still at least try to read linearly. But since I rarely use book-marks or other current-page-recording methods (e.g. the turned-down page corner, which I view as wanton and profoundly anti-book, from the standpoint of books-as-physical-objects), I often end up re-reading pages or even chapters of novels as well, or, on the other hand, missing chapters, too, as I flail about trying to find where I'd left off.

I do read a great deal online, lately. I can count on one hand the books which I've "finished" – such as it is, by my odd methods – in the last year or so.

1_copySo I've been feeling extremely "retro" in that I'm about 80% finished with a book that I've been pursuing in essentially linear, front-to-back fashion. I can't even say why I've managed it. It's just working out that way. The book is A Review of Korean History, Vol. 1: Ancient / Goryeo Era. It's badly translated, and there are parts where the nationalist "Korea-can-do-no-wrong" subtext is annoying, but I think that's part of why I like it, too – the Konglishy syntax and "view-from-inside" perspective means the book reads like a particularly ambitious essay from one of my sincere-yet-naive middle-schoolers.

Anyway, I'm mentioning it because of a passage that, unexpectedly, made me laugh. I'll quote: "Cheok Jungyeong abruptly changed sides and banded with other subjects such as Kim Hyang, Yi Gongsu, and Jeong Jisang to arrest Yi Jagyeom and send him off to exile in Yeonggwang in 1127. This proved to be the end of the Inju Yi clan that had been at the center of power for some seven  generations."

I laughed, of course, because of the phrase I put in bold, above. I had a year of exile in Yeonggwang, myself. It seems that even 1000 years ago, Yeonggwang was a backwater, exile kind of place. That seemed funny, to me. I could just imagine poor Yi Jagyeom, former prime minister to the Goryeo king, coping with a dumpy Yeonggwang apartment and being forced to eat Gulbi every day and growing tired of it. I mean, I'm sure it wasn't like that – but that's what I visualized. And it makes me think it might make for a funny episode in my never-to-be-completed (erm, always-in-fact-barely-started) novelization of my year in Yeonggwang.

Caveat: 공자 앞에서 문자 쓴다

한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean) / 한국어 속담 (Aphorisms & Proverbs)

공자       앞에서      문자              쓴다
Confucius front-LOC letter[character] write
[…Like] writing in front of Confucius.

This is a proverb that expresses the ridiculousness of trying to teach a master. "…Trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs" is the equivalent classic English language proverb, but it's one that so far out of date as to be incomprehensible to modern speakers.

Caveat: un submarino particular en la playa

Español Aleatorio (Random Spanish) / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Quotable

Fidel Castro escribió un ensayo entitulado "El mundo maravilloso del capitalismo" que parece ser un chiste estilo "primer día de abril." Se presta de el conjunto de imágenes del movimiento "Occupy…" pero con la retórica hiperbólica típica del líder cubano. Lo chistoso: "¡Verdad compatriotas que el capitalismo es cosa maravillosa! Quizás nosotros seamos culpables de que cada ciudadano no tenga un submarino particular en la playa."

Caveat: Thoughts

Found Online / Science & SciFi

A Japanese company is making cute cat ears controlled by your thoughts. Really.

And they say Japan is in permanent recession… if this is what a society in permanent recession comes up with, well, then… bring it on. I seem to vaguely recall reading about something like this in William Gibson's novel, Count Zero, way back in the late 1980's.

Meanwhile, this blogging at Scientific American reveals the gaps in current neuroscience, despite achievements like the nekomimi above: "Neuroscientists: We don't really know what we are talking about, either." Ehrm… for the gullible, please note the April 1st dateline on the posting.

Caveat: 잘가친구

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

KevinEveryone knows my plastic alligators. I had Kevin the large plastic alligator and a recent acquisition, Baby Kevin 2.0, in my EP2 classroom earlier today. I was letting the students "hold" Kevin, during class (portrait of Kevin at left). But unfortunately, one boy was having trouble not playing with Kevin as we were trying to listen to a CD of some listening dialogues. So finally, I had to take Kevin back.

"Hojae-ya," I said. "Give me Kevin." The boy made a sad face. "He can sit over here," I explained, sympathetically. I placed him on the podium at the front of the class.

Hojae gazed at the plastic alligator longingly. "잘가 친구 [chal-ga chin-gu]," he said, mournfully. That means "farewell, friend."

It was like the tragic ending of a sad movie.

What I'm listening to right now.

Punch Brothers, "This is the Song." The rain was falling steadily as I walked home, but the air was chilly. It reminded me of the winter I spent in Valdivia, Chile (August-October, 1994). It rained for 4 months. Without stopping.

Caveat: I’m just ordinary student

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

My debate class students have been writing speeches for an imaginary chance to address the UN (see also [broken link! FIXME] earlier post). Here is another student of mine, on the topic of South Korea's high incidence of student suicides. It's not super well-written and it was a little short for the assignment, but I think she actually demonstrates some excellent rhetorical instincts – note her effective use of repetition and the exhortation at the end. My guess is that she is a stunningly good writer in her own language. As usual, I reproduce without corrections, with typos and all mistakes intact.

Hello. I am Kim Chae Yeon from South Korea. I'm just ordinary student you can meet anywhere. I think you wonder why I came here. I'm just ordinary student, but I think I have to say this in UN. Do you think all of the world students are happy? If you think all of the world students are happy, your thinking is wrong.
Especially, South Korea students life is all the same. School and Academy, School and Academy, Again and again and again…. Do you know how many students killed themselves in a day because of the education system? Only in South Korea, almost 42 students killed themselves in a day because of the education system. Do you think this education system is really correct? This education system takes the student's happiness and life. I am not speaking only of student's prospect. This is the biggest problem now.
The most serious problem is in front of your eye, buy why you only see the far from away like war or weapon?

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