Caveat: Kimchee Rockets

Hiking & Travel / Life in Korea / My Photos

Korea has no donkeys, mules or horses. I don’t know if this is characteristically Asian, or if it is more specific to Korea, as a legacy of the total destruction that occurred during the Korean War. But it’s one way in which that makes rural Korea different from other poor or developing countries I’ve visited – mostly these have been in Latin America, where there are strong traditions of using equine beasts of burden, but I also remember seeing a lot of rural animals pulling things in Morocco.

Anyway, rural Koreans use these small, two-wheeled tractors instead. They can pull carts to and from town, they can work in the fields… they are general-purpose, internal combustion beasts of burden – although you can’t eat one if things get rough. Back when I was in Korea with the US Army, the soldiers had a slightly insulting name for these tractors: kimchee rockets. For whatever reason, that term has stuck with my mental vocabulary – it’s difficult for me to think of them as anything else.

We were constantly having to dodge kimchee rockets when we (my support battalion) drove rural highways in northern Gyeonggi province (near the DMZ) back in 1991. There’re a lot of expressways and much more development up there now, so the kimchee rockets are rare on major highways. But there are still a lot around in Korea – especially down in the significantly backward part of Korea that I’m in now.

Here is a picture of a farmer driving his kimchee rocket towing a low-tech, ad hoc trailer, into town on the road in front of my apartment here in Yeonggwang. I took the picture yesterday morning as I watched the fog lift, while waiting for my carpool to arrive.

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Caveat: Dawn over dumptrucks

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I would say most mornings here lately are thickly overcast if not foggy.  Unless it's raining.  In fog aspect, the summer here is a bit like in California.  But the rain is what makes it different.  A lot of rain, this weekend – yesterday was just sheets and sheets of it in the morning.

Despite not sleeping well last night, I woke up at dawn, which seems to be becoming my habit.  I had a sore neck – sleeping on it wrong or something.   There was fog out my window… but when I looked up, the sky was pale blue, and streaked with gold and pink.  The forested hills are deep green, and there are shreds of mist across the peaks.   It's like a postcard.  Except for the three dumptrucks arrayed at the gas station in the foreground.

As you might guess from the title of this blog, however, I feel OK about dumptrucks – Korea's national vehicle. 

Caveat: Miscellaneous Quotes

Quotable

"A Freudian slip is when we say one thing, and we mean a mother."–Rob Long

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."–Winston Churchill

"…doors open to anyone with the will and heart to get here."–Ronald Reagan, on immigration

Caveat: What?

Banalities & Journaling / My Poetry & Fiction

I often tell people that one of my hobbies is writing.  I do write, obviously.  I write things on my blog.  And I often write blog entries that I never post, because they're either uninteresting (even to me), or because they feel too personal, or too ambitious, or something like that.  But I haven't made any forward progress on any of my stories or poetry or "novels" in a long time.   I've been feeling annoyed by this.  And yesterday, I was talking with two of my Korean colleagues, in a homebound carpool, and they wanted to know details.  What was my novel about?  What kind of novel was it?  And I realized I really didn't like what I have.  I certainly wouldn't share it, the way I share these random bloggiations.  Why?  That's hard to understand.  

Caveat: Monkey Meme

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology

pictureThe monkey meme continues to spread like wildfire through the fifth grade. Yesterday I had students announcing to me:

  • 1) “I’m a crazy monkey girl!”;
  • 2) “I’m a zombie monkey! Uh! Ohhh!”;
  • 3) “I’m a lovely [by which I think she meant loving or kind] monkey!”;
  • 4) “I’m a happy monkey!”

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Caveat: Very Important Subject

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

My morning carpool (riding with two Korean teachers who happen to live in Yeonggwang, most mornings) is sort of an impromptu Korean Language lesson, many times.  But yesterday morning I was unable to grasp on to what they were talking about, and I just sort of zoned out.

As we pulled off the expressway and slowed at the traffic light in Beopseongpo, Cheorho (whose English is pretty good) turned to me and asked, "Do you understand what we've been talking about?"

"No, sorry," I answer, truthfully.

"Alcohol.  술," he explained.  "Beer and soju, which is better."

I respond, laughing slightly, "I think that's a very common topic in Korea."

"Very important subject," he nodded, gravely.

"네," chimed in Hyeongyeon.

Caveat: Hongnong Skyline

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / My Photos

The view from the new, probably temporary English-teachers’ staff room, taken last Friday when it was rainy and steamy-hot, right after the chaotic move.

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Note that even a town as small as Hongnong has some high-rises, the cookie-cutter 20-storey apartment buildings that are ubiquitous in Korea. The overall population of the town is probably about 15,000, I would estimate. Not big enough for a traffic light, by Korea standards. But they have a 7-11. And about a dozen churches.

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Caveat: Crazy Monkey Boys

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / My Photos

One of my favorite movies is “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.” It’s a weird movie, and funny. There’s a line in there in which John Lithgow’s character, Dr Lizardo (AKA John Whorfin, the evil Lectroid from Planet 10), says “Laugh while you can, monkey boy.” And the term “monkey boy” arises at other points in the movie, too.

I was hanging out with some rather hyperactive and English-deficient 5th grade boys during a recess period, recently, and started aping some of the Lithgow lines from the movie, using Dr Lizardo’s over-the-top fake Italian accent. The concept of “monkey boy” was something these boys were able to wrap their minds around, and so it became a bit of an out-of-control meme. I added the prefix “crazy” to it, and in that form it became a form of address, as in, “what are you doing, crazy monkey boy?”

The boys love it. And now, anytime they see me, they say, in good English (if somewhat Italianesque-sounding, a la Dr Lizardo), “I’m a crazy monkey boy!” I think the other English teachers are annoyed with this. But my thinking is: at least one of these boys may never have uttered a coherent sentence in English before this meme took off, and in that sense, I’ve taught some English.

It’s funny to imagine this will be something they always remember. I can imagine a scenario in which one of these boys, someday grown up and in his 20’s or something, is in some setting where he meets a foreigner, and decides to say the only thing he knows in English: “Laugh while you can, monkey boy!”

Here are two pictures of some of these boys, monkeying around in the hall (I’m pretty sure they’re miming some kind of pregnancy and birth scenario – note that the one has his head up under the shirt of the other!):

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Caveat: 스님

Banalities & Journaling / Kids

스님 (seunim) means Buddhist monk.  It’s an honorific form of address used in talking to monks, too.
Over the weekend, I cut my hair.  When I cut my hair, I tend to get it very short, because I’m lazy and by cutting it super short that makes it possible to avoid a haircut for a long time, afterward.  So my hair has become very short – military “basic training” style.
Most of my students noticed the haircut.  They would say, “Teacher!  Hair?”  or the less linguistically confident would just  point at their heads and say “머리?” (meori = head or hairstyle).
One student, who goes by the English name of Angelina, came up to me very gravely as my afterschool class was starting.  The tiny 3rd grader put her palms together and bowed.  “스님,” she said.  It was a very clever joke, and funny.  Even though my hair really wasn’t short enough to be a monk.

Caveat: forgot-the-world

Banalities & Journaling

I went on a long walk on Saturday.  It was a spontaneous, random thing, but I forgot my camera and my phone.  I was just out wandering.  I really like Korea.  And this rural part that I'm in, nowadays, is stunningly verdant.

But I've been pretty down, lately, for more personal reasons.  And yesterday (Sunday) I felt kind of sick.  Maybe inhaling too many allergens on Saturday, or not eating very healthily, lately, or just summer blues overtaken by too many kid-germs.  I don't know.

I played a game on my computer – something I generally avoid falling into, because I know I have some addictive tendencies in that direction.  And suddenly the day was past – I forgot to go shopping, forgot to do any writing, forgot the world.

I'm having plain rice and coffee for breakfast.  Weird hybrid breakfast.

Caveat: This Is Happening

Banalities & Journaling / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

Yes.

I recently downloaded the latest album by dance-punk outfit LCD Soundsystem. It’s really good. I’ve collected a few of their tracks prior to this, and thought they were snappy and clever, but not like “great art” in the field of contemporary pop music.

pictureBut this album crosses over to that status, for me.  There are snippets and tastes of some of my favorite groups’ styles: Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Magnetic Fields, even weird old progressive rock stuff like King Crimson. Not just one or two good tracks – I think I could move 5 or 6 of them over to my “top rated” list for heavy rotation on the mp3 gadgets.

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Caveat: Bernie-the-cat was a good cat

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream / My Photos

I learned, in an email from my father, that my cat (well, ex-cat?  ex mine, anyway) was put down. She was 15 years old, and had been sick for a long time.

Bernie was a good cat. We got her as a tiny kitten in February, 1995, in St Paul, Minnesota. Here is a picture of her, from 1997, in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, where Michelle and I lived at that time. She was a well-traveled cat, having lived in 5 states and driven across parts of the country at least twice.

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I get to harbor guilt feelings about this death, too. People and animals, whom I leave behind, and then they die. Michelle and Bernie had a link – I would call it a “dysfunctional relationship with Jared” link. So it’s a fitting time for Bernie to go, I suppose – today is very close to the exact 10-year anniversary of Michelle’s suicide.

Another awesome pic, from a drive across Texas/New Mexico in 2007. Note that she was a very good “car cat” – she would just sit and look out the windows for hours on end.

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Caveat: Korea… contingent chaos, constant quasi catastrophe

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / The Wonders of Work

Today was one of those chaotic days.  Yet I feel OK about it.  It's weird how some things affect me, and other things, that seem to so profoundly affect others around me, slide over me with barely an impact.  Some types of chaos I can handle, others I can't.

Today they decided to announce that they were going to start remodeling the language classrooms – immediately.  That meant we had to move to a different place, a kind of supplementary staff room, and teach our after-school classes in a who-knows-where location. 

I wish I had taken pictures of the parade of children helping move all the stuff from the language classrooms.  It all seemed very communitarian. 

Well anyway.  Such is Korea.  Sometimes, given how institutions and groups make and execute decisions, it's puzzling to me how they've been so successful

Caveat: Iranians speaking Korean

Language & Linguistics / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

I'm fascinated by the weird connections, cultural and economic, that seem to exist between Korea and Central Asia.  These are largely Stalin's legacy:  in the 1930's, millions of ethnic Koreans were relocated from the area around Primorsky in the Russian Far East (and neighboring the Korean Peninsula) into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and southern Russia.  Even today, Koreans are one of the larger ethnic minorities in Uzbekistan, and South Korea has cleverly leveraged these ethnic connections into economic ones, in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Back in Soviet times, however, many Korean-Central Asians had fled the region, and, in the years when Iran was reliably in the Western camp (i.e. before 1979), some Koreans had settled in Iran.  The consequence of this is that there were Koreans in Iran, too. 

I was reminded of this because I was watching a documentary on Korean television this evening, about the strong economic ties that currently exist between Iran and South Korea (which of course underscores the fact that Korea, for one, has no interest in sanctions and blockades).  But what really struck was that the documentary film crew were strolling around Tehran, and randomly ran into a group of Iranians who spoke excellent Korean.  These were ethnic Iranians – not Korean-Iranians.  But they explained to the film crew that they'd lived and worked in Korea for a number of years, which of course jives with my observations regarding the way certain parts of the Itaewon area, in Seoul, seem to resemble a "little Middle-East," these days.

Anyway, I don't really have a major point, here, except that it was very cool to see a group of Iranians talking to Korean reporters using the Korean language, in Tehran, with bustling crowds of women with head-coverings and big signs in Farsi in the background.

Caveat: Soul mate

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream / Quotable

Tuesday was the 10th anniversary of my estranged wife’s suicide. That sounds strange: “estranged.” I feel there would be something dishonest to simply write: “my wife’s suicide” – because if she hadn’t died, we’d be divorced by now – I have no doubt. It’s only on technical grounds that I’m a widower and not a run-of-the-mill divorced guy.

pictureBut the imperfection between us was not a perfect imperfection. Which is to say, there were important, significant, good things between us. And I miss those, sometimes. We had agreed, early on, that we were not “soul mates.” Which was something we both, nevertheless, believed in. Which meant that we knew that ours was an imperfect match. But we were friends – even best friends, for a long time. We could talk about stuff. Or argue about stuff.

Some time back, surfing around the internet, I ran across the following quote, embedded in someone’s blog:

“People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down the walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

This is a definition of “soul mate” that I find challenging. And interesting. Yet… by that definition, there is no doubt that Michelle was, in fact, my soul mate.

[Shown above, one of my favorite pictures of Michelle, with her son (my stepson), Jeffrey, at her University of Minnesota graduation. She had become a chemical engineer, earlier that day.]

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Caveat: Riding down, riding up, riding along…

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Life is a Dream

It was a very up-and-down day.  Or down-and-up day.  Or something like that.  Great mood!  Terrible mood.  Great mood!  Terrible mood!  Great mood.  Like that.

First, I was in a good mood.  I had really good classes with the preschoolers.  I could tell they liked me.  I could tell the Korean teachers over there like me.  I thought we had fun with the kids, too.  We did monkeys jumping on the bed.  We read a story about drawing rainbows, and then we drew rainbows.  We talked about colors.

Then I was in a bad mood.  We were testing the kids, today, for the 4th graders.  It was kind of a last-minute thing.  Maybe not for everyone, but for me, since I'd only heard about it yesterday.  Communication (and lack thereof) works that way, in Korean workplaces.  And my coteacher for the 4th graders changed how she wanted me to do the "speaking part" of the test at literally the very last minute.  So I felt like I was testing the kids without much of a footing.  But I tried my best.  I kind of know where these kids stand, ability-wise, at this point, anyway.  So, as usual, some of that subjectivity came into play.

Then I was in a good mood.  Lunch was tasty, and at least a dozen kids said, "teacher teacher!"  and I said, "what?" and they said, "hi!"  

And then I was in a terrible mood.  Haewon said that lesson plans for the month of July for the afterschool program were due today.  I doubted this (and, retrospectively, I was right – no one said a thing about lesson plans today – they WOULD normally have been due today, but today was staff volleyball day, and volleyball trumps minor administrative things like monthly lesson plans).  I had been planning to work on my lesson plans and finish them tomorrow, since I have an easy schedule on Thursdays.  But grumblingly, I set to work on my plans in my one free period of the day, after lunch.  And I finished them up, roughly.  And printed them out.

And then it was staff volleyball day, and Beopseongpo Elementary came to Hongnong for inter-school staff competition.

And I was in a good mood, because I saw my colleague Donna, who works there at Beopseongpo and who I had gotten to know during training back in April.  Donna's cool.  Very clear headed.  Kind.

And then Mr Kim (the PE teacher, and exactly like PE teachers anywhere, in any culture – he requires no further description) asked me to join the team, during game number three among the men staff.  I was thinking that because it was inter-school play, the game was too important for such a bad volleyball player as myself to be included.  But I took it as a friendly gesture that he was inviting me to join.  But too much was on the line:  it was one game to each school, and Hongnong was losing.  So after about a third of the game, he was making disgusted facial expressions and he switched me out.  I mean… I understand, from a "gotta win" perspective – I don't belong on the volleyball court.  I know this.  But it feels just as humiliating now as it did in highschool PE in 1981.  I'm better at "solitary" sports: running, hiking, etc.  I'm terribly uncoordinated.

And I was in a terrible mood.  I was walking to catch a bus home to Yeonggwang, feeling dejected and grumpy.

And then one of the preschool teachers, with three hyperactive preschoolers bouncing good-naturedly in the back of her car, pulls to a stop beside me on the streets of Hongnong and asks me where I'm going.  In Korean.  And I answer.  And she offers me a ride.  She's going that way – one of these kids isn't hers, and she's got to deliver him to his mom.  So I get in and  I ride with this frazzled mom/teacher and three very happy, excited (because the English foreigner teacher is riding in their car!), loud children down the expressway to Yeonggwang.  

I'm in a great mood.  The mom is talking to me in a sort of gentle Korean monologue of which I understand more than I expect but less than I need, punctuated with entirely comprehensible, repeated reminders to the kids to sit still, stop kicking the seat, don't throw things please, etc., etc.  The life of moms and preschool teachers, anywhere.

And she drops the kid with the kid's mom at the main intersection in Yeonggwang, where's she waiting with her car.  And she drops me off at the traffic circle, a block south closer to my apartment, and goes zooming off, reminding the kids to stop bouncing in the back, but smiling kindly.

And I realize I've left my cellphone on the seat of her car.  Which is bad enough.  But if it was just that, I'd have lived without a cellphone until I could chase her down tomorrow at work.  But my apartment key is dangling on a bauble attached to my cellphone.  I can't get into my apartment.  And I can't call anyone to say that I can't get into my apartment. 

So I'm in a terrible mood.  Trying to think of what I should do.  Stay in a motel for the night?  At least I have my wallet.  Find a pay phone… and call someone who can call someone else to find out this woman's number so I can call her and get my cellphone and apartment key?  What to do, what to do?

And then  I recognize the other mom, driving by.  The one we just left the little boy with, at the other intersection.  I flag her down.  And in my halting Korean, I explain I've left my phone in the other woman's car.  She grins, and scoops up her own cellphone and speed-dials her friend, the woman I'd just had a ride with.  Explains that I'd forgotten my cellphone, and tells me she'll zoom back to the traffic circle shortly.

Did I mention it was raining?

I wait in the rain for 4 minutes, and the white Hyundai zooms back up with the frazzled, friendly mom-slash-coworker, and she rolls down the window and the little boy in the back hands me my cell phone.  "아주 고마워요," I bow gratefully.

I'm in a great mood, as I walk back home to the distant rumbling of thunder.  

Caveat: Knees, Toes and Monkeys

Found Online / Teaching & Methodology

I have been discovering how much fun the younger students have with “TPR songs” – “TPR” is an acronym for “total physical response” which is a rather grandiosely-named language-teaching methodology which basically means “have kids move around because it activates their learning.”  I’ve always been a believer in this – although I was always personally a very visual learner, I know there are kids who learn better when material is connected to movement (kinesthetic learners).  So TPR songs just means songs where there are physical actions that the kids can do. 

I’ve been going out into youtubeland and finding good videos to show the kids.  Some are more successful than others.  Here are two that have been by far the two most popular so far.  I have that CJ version of “5 little monkeys” stuck in my head, and the every time I see a first grader now, she or he will say “teacher!  knees and toes!”

Caveat: Handwriting

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Life in Korea / Teaching & Methodology

I was having a problem, when I started out, with my first graders “lying” about who they were. They would switch names with each other when I was calling attendance. I was generally able to sort things out… but it often would eat up 10 to 15 minutes of class time, and would tend to put them in a rowdy mood.

For that, however, I discovered a fairly elegant solution. I have them write their names on little slips of paper that I hand to them as they enter the classroom. For whatever reason, they don’t seem as comfortable making stuff up in writing – partly, at that age, it’s pride in being able to put their own names in writing. Also, I think part of the fun in name-switching is that it’s a performance for their peers, which having them write mostly eliminates. I insist that they write their Korean names – “English names” are too fluid and their level of ownership of them is weak at best.

But this has the consequence that I have to decipher a bunch of 7 year-olds’ hangeul handwriting. So far, I’ve always managed fine, except in an instance where the kid only put down a family name (이 = Lee) – which, given how Korean family names work, managed to narrow it down to 7 possibilities! Here is a picture 4 examples of hangeul handwriting that I feel particularly proud of having been able to decipher.

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Caveat: Gray overcast days

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Summer has arrived in Korea:  humid, warm weather, with clouds and constant promises of rain.   I'm using my weekend-time very efficiently.  Not.

Having had a difficult day on Friday left me carrying around some negativity about my work – or, more specifically, feelings of negativity about my compentency at my work.  I refuse to scapegoat my shortcomings as a foreign English teacher in a Korean school on perceived inadequacies in how Koreans have opted to run their education system, which is the easy course that so many of my colleagues teaching in Korea seem to have taken.  Then again, the most unappealing thing I could pursue here in this blog is to carry on in a negative way about other people's negativity. 

Sigh.

Caveat: Heard on the radio

Quotable

Listening to NPR, Sunday morning (well, that's Saturday afternoon in NPRland).  "American Routes."

Interviewer:  "What drew you to country music?"

Musician:  "I'm a white man."

Caveat: 10 years

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

This week is the 10th anniversary of Michelle's suicide.

I was trying to write some long sort of reflection on it all.  But instead…  I just feel kind of desolate.

We had separated, but neither of us had moved to actually divorce.  I was in L.A.   She was in Philadelphia.  We were talking on the phone about once every 2 weeks.  I knew she was in a bad situation.

She asked me, during a phone call in early June, 2000:  "Do you think we could ever be back together, again?"

"No.  I don't think it's possible," I said.

In late June, she called again.  We talked for a long time.  Almost like friends.  But there was a lot of sadness.  "I think there's a better place for me," she said.

I knew what this meant.  I'd already booked a ticket to fly out to Philly when I got the call from her mom that she had died.

Caveat: 쭈쭈!

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Teaching & Methodology / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

I’m sorry if that title offends anyone.  Learning a language is fraught with difficulties – and one of them is that people are reluctant to talk about “bad words,” but somehow we must nevertheless learn them.
I had an unfortunate day, today.  Specifically, my afterschool first grade class (difficult to manage even on regular days), was just too wild.  I had one kid throwing things.  I mean, REALLY throwing things.  He nailed me on the head with rather hefty crayon – THWACK!
So I took him aside and yelled at him a bit.  These are little kids.  How do you manage this, when you don’t have a co-teacher who can speak Korean, nearby?  My Korean Language skill isn’t adequate to express my feelings about this kind of behavior in a convincing way to the kids.
And then there was the kid drawing pornography.  I mean, seriously… he’s what, seven (or at most 8 or 9, if you want to count in the Korean style which gives people extra years)?  I suppose kids will be be kids, and draw weird stuff, sometimes.  But he was drawing anatomically correct, adult-looking women and even coloring between the lines!
And that wasn’t enough.  The clincher is that he was then running around the room, yelling “쭈쭈!  쭈쭈!”   And all the kids thought this was hilarious.
This gem of vocabulary isn’t in any dictionary, nor online.  And it’s not something I could figure out by typing “쭈쭈 meaning english” into google, either.  Nevertheless, somewhat eerily, Korean language spellcheckers don’t flag it as wrong, either.  It’s a “secret” word?
My best guess, based on the child’s illustrations, combined with some weird dance moves two of the other boys started doing, is that it means “tits.”  Charming.  If any of my better-at-Korean-than-I readers want to provide me with some reassurance that my reading isn’t too far off, I’d appreciate it, but I realize it may be a bit awkward.
I couldn’t find a Korean teacher anywhere in my wing, when I finally got fed up and decided to try to find someone to talk to the boy in Korean.  I ended up hauling him down to the staff room, but that was a bit awkward, since I walked in saying “쭈쭈” myself, among other things, but I found the principal and vice principal in there, in some kind of high-level-looking meeting.   Ah well, I left the boy with my colleague.  Hopefully things will sort out on Monday.

Caveat: Anosognosia

Banalities & Journaling / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / The Wonders of Work

Thinking about Rumsfeldian unknown unknowns.  What are they?  I was contriving a paradox:  the epistemologist who didn't know he was one.

I'm still weirdly obsessed with the McChrystal drama.  By accepting his resignation, has Obama created a MacArther-type monster, that will be a martyr and icon for the tea partiers?  Isn't that dangerous?  Or… has a back-room deal been cut, that will grant McChrystal some new role after an appropriate cooling-off period?  I understand the chain-of-command / civilian-control argument that said "McChrystal must go," but I think this was a very risky move for Obama politically.  Was there a better solution, though? 

Yesterday, the staff volleyball game wasn't played – most of the teachers were all working hard preparing for some sort of inspection / observation / review that seems to be coming up.  I'm not clear on the details of this.   On the one hand, staff volleyball stresses me out, because I'm really very bad at volleyball, and it's mildly humiliating.  On the other hand, I look forward to it because I actually understand that it is valuable in building a sense of colleague-ship and community with the Korean teachers, which is what it's "for," obviously.

As a foreign teacher, it's so easy to feel isolated and cut-off from everyone, and one thing I find myself shocked to be missing about LBridge is the "staff room" – I used to dread the staff room!  But it did give me a chance to sort of gauge the "mood" of everyone, over time, whereas here, because I have my own classroom to lurk in, I'm quite isolated.

Caveat: Exit Strategy, Squared

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Now Obama has to worry not just about an exit strategy for Afghanistan, but he also has to worry about an exit strategy for his relationship with Gen. McChrystal – and it's looking like that "exit" has very few "success scenarios," too.  He can't just fire McChrystal – since that would leave a martyred loose cannon, a la MacArther v. Truman, 1951.  He can't just pat him on the head and say get back to work, since that would leave Obama looking weakened by an insubordinate military man, which is exactly the sort of grist the loony right craves.

The only way I can see Obama getting out of this relatively painlessly is to emerge from some extended head-butting with McChrystal as new best-buddies – perhaps even with a promotion for McChrystal, at least in terms of authority or responsibility, if not outright title.  Which may be exactly what McChrystal was hoping for, when he loosed his tongue for the record.

Perhaps this just goes to confirm something I've long suspected about life in the world:  the truly ambitious can often effectively advance their careers by means of a well-placed insubordination.  McChrystal is someone accustomed to taking risks.  This may all have been a very calculated, manipulative, and inconveniently but necessarily very public request for a heart-to-heart meeting with the boss, and not the gaffe everyone insists on calling it.

Caveat: 또 심심해?

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Less Banal Than Usual / Life in Korea / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

Yesterday at lunchtime, after I finished eating at the cafeteria, I was sitting in my classroom doing some last-minute changes to my lesson plans for my afternoon classes (which I teach on my own). Normally, a tribe of sixth-grade girls comes in and watch music videos on the computer during this stretch of time, but since I was monopolizing the computer, they quickly found something else to do and somewhere else to be, except for the two girls who were formally tasked with lunch-period cleanup duty for my classroom.

Then a first-grade girl appeared beside my desk. It was the same girl who had spent a good 30 minutes loitering in my classroom last Friday – she’s one of the enrollees in my first-grade afterschool class, but since the first-graders get out after lunch (they have no fifth period), these kids often have nothing to do while they wait for fifth period to end so their class can start.

Anyway, this girl has ZERO English. She doesn’t even know the alphabet thoroughly. But she’s clearly quite smart, in my opinion, and very earnest, too. I appreciate that she’s managed to figure out that I actually am able to understand her, if she takes the time to slow down her Korean and repeat herself to me with patience. That’s rare (or nigh impossible) to find in even adult Koreans, to be honest.

She appeared beside my desk.

[The following reported Korean is from memory, and any errors in the grammar or vocabulary on the girl’s part are the result of my poor Korean Language skills combined with my bad memory, rather than things the girl might have said in that way. On the other hand, reported poor Korean Language on my part is probably exactly what I said.]

The student: “뭐이예?” Staring intently at my screen, and hopping up and down slightly.

Jared: “Lesson plan.”

The student: “이멜?”

Jared: “No. Work.”

The student: “오오…” Heavy, dramatic sigh. “또 심심할 것 같아…”

Jared: “Bored, again?” She made wide eyes, so I added, “오늘 다시 심심해?” She had complained of boredom on Friday, too.

The student, giggling: “예. 또 심심해.”

Jared: “Don’t be bored! 심심하기금지!”

The student frowned.

Jared: “뭘 하기 좋겠어?”

The student shrugged. She looks around the classroom speculatively.

Jared, realizing he needs to print something in the staff room: “C’mon. Let’s go.”

The student says something I don’t understand, looking puzzled as I pop out my USB drive from the computer and move out the classroom door. So I add, “가자,” and gesture her to follow me.

The student: “어디 [something something]?”

Jared: “Office. Printer.” She doesn’t understand. Emphasizing the slightly different Korean pronunciation of “printer,” I add, “프린터 피료해.”

The student: “아아… 교실에서 프린터 없으니까…”

Jared: “예, 마자. You’re my assistant.”

The student looked very pleased.

We arrived at the office, and I inserted my USB drive and printed my two pages. I point her to the printer, and she went over and collected them. She carried them right in front of her, looking down at them proudly as if they were her own achievement. She walked all the way back to my classroom that way, as if carrying a religious chalice.

When we got back to the classroom, she raced to my desk and placed them squarely on the corner, ceremoniously, and looked up at me grinning.

Jared: “My assistant. Good job! Thank you.”

Sixth-grade girls, in unison: “Oh. Cute!

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Caveat: Becoming Ajeossi

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel / Life in Korea / Life is a Dream

In many spiritual traditions, there is an experience that involves going out into the wilderness (either psychologically or physically at some level) and "becoming" some kind of animal or creature or spirit. You can think of stories like Carlos Castaneda's "Teachings of Don Juan," for example. The French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari riff on the idea a great deal in their amazing masterpiece, "Mille Plateaux," too. 

Well, this past weekend, I experienced this, in a weird way. In the densely populated wilds of Mudeung Mountain park, in eastern Gwangju City, I had my own weird "becoming." What unexpected creature did I become? The common Korean Ajeossi. What is an ajeossi (아저씨)? It's a term that basically means, "mister" or "middle-aged man," and it's very widely used as a form of address to strangers, of affection for older male friends, or even of disrespect when talking about obnoxious middle-aged male behavior.

I went hiking, or "mountain climbing" as the Koreans insist on calling it in English (due to the semantic field working a bit differently in the Korean language, where 등산하다 covers both activities). My friend Byeongbae took me, along with two of his friends. I realized that Byeongbae is more than just 5 years older than me – he's somewhere around 60 and nearing retirement – both his friends are already retirees. I guess he wears his age pretty well, since I thought he was in his early 50's. Then again, maybe I should just take up the Korean habit of more bluntly inquiring people's ages – but I still have a hard time bringing myself to do that.

We parked in this area at the southwest corner of Mudeungsan park, that was swarming with Sunday-outing hikers. Hiking is predominantly an old-persons' activity in Korea, in my experience – at least the kind of day-hiking that occurs in large parks near urban areas. And it's a high-density affair, too. It is, of course, critical to have the right "equipment" – fancy boots are universal, as are these rather ridiculous-seeming (to Western eyes) aluminum walking-sticks. 

After milling with the crowds for half an hour, waiting to all be together and on the same page, so to speak, we finally set out at about 10 AM. The climb was relatively steep, and being with locals, we took a much less densely populated trail than I've seen before in such settings. Nevertheless, we passed many groups along the way.

I think the reason why I felt I was "becoming" an ajeossi had to do with the fact that the three older men I was with were not treating me like the sideshow attraction one gets used to experiencing as a foreigner hanging out with Korean friends. They mostly ignored me, just as they would a taciturn fellow Korean, which, given my level of fluency, is about right. I understood enough of what they were saying that they didn't have to stop and invent some English to let me know what was going on, which is often a stressful proposition for Koreans. Thus I was managing to avoid being the stress-inducing "foreigner" and they were able to relax and just be themselves.

"Hiking" in Korea seems to invoke the following recipe: take 1 part actual hiking, combined with 1 part "resting," 2 parts eating, and 1 part drinking makkeolli or soju; season liberally with off-color jokes, friendly conversations and exchanges of shots of soju with random strangers met along the trail, and garnish with at least one heated argument about the relative merits of different brands of aluminum walking sticks.

So mostly, I just kind of followed along, occassionally shocking the other groups of Koreans met on the trail with fragments of Korean. There was one moment in particular that I was pleased with: some intensely athletic, youthful mountain bikers passed through an encampment of a dozen ajeossis and paused to rest and bullshit for a bit. The conversation turned to the stunningly high prices of some of the mountain-bikes (up to ten million won = $9000), and I actually added my own brief comment to the effect of "yes they can be very expensive." A dozen faces snapped in my direction, as everyone realized I was actually following the conversation. I felt very proud of my limited ability at that moment, and for once was not bothered by being the center of attention.

I was struggling with the fact that we were eating much more than hiking. I try very hard not to overeat, which is a hard thing to do under most circumstances in Korea. I really am puzzled at the fact that, relatively speaking, Koreans aren't that overweight, although it's a growing problem. If I ate as much as the Koreans around me urge me too, I would balloon back up to my erstwhile 250 pounds quite quickly.

I hope I didn't make my Korean friend uncomfortable by my refusals to eat so much. I did drink some makkeolli, which made the trail a little more challenging. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to work?

At one point, I even laughed at a joke at the right moment. That was a cool feeling of linguistic accomplishment, too. It was a very simple joke, involving a mis-use of vocabulary: two of the guys said to their friend, "come over and eat." He was away to the side, smoking a cigarette. "담배먹고," he replied: "I'm eating my cigarette." One shouldn't use that verb with that activity, but he was making a sort of pun.

We didn't go that far up the mountain, and we came back down through a very peaceful and stunning grove of cypress trees that resembled a sort of scaled-down redwood forest. I'll add some pictures later. At last, around 12:30, we re-emerged at the entrance area after rounding a lovely little reservoir, and the guys were ready for "lunch." I think they found my incomprehension that it was time for lunch amusing.

Overall, I enjoyed my morning of ajeossiness. Ajeossinosity? Something like that.

Caveat: Happylooking Dog

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos

I’m back “home” in Yeonggwang after my weekend adventure(s). I’ll write more later – lots to write about, I suppose, if I really wanted to. But for now, here’s an awesome picture I snapped yesterday evening.

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I’ve always loved taking pictures of random dogs when I travel… or of any animal, really.

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Caveat: 원효사

Banalities & Journaling / Buddhism & Zen / Hiking & Travel / Life in Korea / My Photos

My friend (and colleague at work) Byeongbae took me to his home, where I met his wife. He lives in a very modern and nice apartment in a modern development in the southeast part of Gwangju – the area reminded me a lot of Ilsan, actually. Here is a view from his apartment.

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After that, he said every Saturday he goes to a bathhouse. He invited me to accompany him. I’ve always thought the Korean bathhouse tradition was cool, but I admit I often feel uncomfortable as a “foreigner” going to them – so it was nice to go with someone as a “guest.” It was actually very relaxing. After that, he and his wife and I drove out the eastern flank of the city, in Mudeung Mountain Park (actually near the hotel where I stayed during my orientation). We visited a temple there called 원효사 (Wonhyosa). I took some pictures.

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His wife joined some friends at maintaining a vegetable garden that is in the woods near the temple.

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Here is my friend, hamming it up a little bit beside his car, while we waited for his wife and their friends to get back out of the woods.

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[this is a “back-post” added 2010-06-21]

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Caveat: Friends in Failure

Banalities & Journaling / Hiking & Travel

I'm going to spend a night with a coworker who invited me to his house in Gwangju, and we're going hiking tomorrow.  He's an older teacher, maybe a half a decade ahead of me, but I think the main reason we've connected is because our respective ability levels in each other's languages are almost identical – we both completely suck:  I suck at Korean, and he sucks at English.  This gives us both lots of opportunity for improvement.  So I'm off for an overnight of communicative inefficacy!

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