Day: October 10, 2012

Caveat: I woke up and was actually cold

Banalities & Journaling

The fall is finally arriving – I went to sleep with my windows open, and when I woke up, the air was chilly. Maybe 5 C or so.

I'm glad that Fall is arriving. I like summer in Korea because it is green and rainy for much of it – but I like the heat and humidity, less so.

I feel a bit frustrated with work. I sense implosional tendencies in the staffroom dynamic. These are making me uncomfortable. Meanwhile, I'm back to teaching the regular middle-schoolers. They can be frustrating sometimes, with their (externally) affectless approach to reality: I sometimes can't figure out if I'm getting through to them at all. And lately, there is a lot of talk of making the elementary side "harder" (or "hardcore") – which is exactly the direction I'm least happy in taking it, though I understand the rationale behind it, market-wise.

The big players in the hagwon biz are beginning a kind of price-war. They are thus undercutting the tuition of smaller players like Karma. Consequently, we have to differentiate in the market, and one option is to try to present ourselves as more "hardcore." Right? Personally, I think there's better options – e.g. become more "innovative" – but to be innovative, one needs to… er, um… innovate.

Caveat: corazón de vidrio

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Español Aleatorio (Random Spanish) / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

004985_0252_sMuy extraña experiencia:

Estaba caminando de regreso a casa y salió en mi mp3player la canción "Heart of Glass" de Blondie. Pues, me puso a pensar en el cuento "El licenciado vidriera" de Cervantes – por el "corazón de vidrio," por supuesto. "El licenciado vidriera" es el cuento cervantino que más me interesa – sin duda es el gérmen del Quijote.

El hombre, por un hechizo, contrae una locura:

… loco dela mas estraña locura, que entre las locuras hasta entonces se auia visto. Imaginose el desdichado, que era todo hecho de vidrio, y con esta imaginacion, quando alguno se llegaua a el, daua terribles vozes, pidiendo, y suplicando con palabras, y razones concertadas, que no se le acercassen, porque le quebrarian, que real, y verdaderamente el no era como los otros hombres, que todo era de vidrio de pies a cabeça. Para sacarle desta estraña imaginacion, muchos, sin atender a sus vozes, y rogatiuas arremetieron a el, y le abraçaron, diziendole, que aduirtiesse, y mirasse, como no se quebraua. Pero lo que se grangeaua en esto era, que el pobre se echaua en el suelo, dando mil gritos, y luego le tomaua vn desmayo, del qual no boluia en si en quatro horas: y quando boluia, era renouando las plegarias, y rogatiuas, de que otra vez no le llegassen. – Miguel de Cervantes, "El licenciado vidriera," (1613).

Así la conexión entre la literatura española del siglo de oro y la música "disco" de los 1980.

P116

Lo que estoy escuchando en este momento.

Blondie, "Heart of Glass."

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