I'm not sure how I'm feeling about work. On the one hand, it's mostly pretty unstressful. On the other hand, I'm not having as much interaction with kids as I did at Hongnong nor even at LBridge: because Karma combines "test prep" with regular English curriculum, during this midterms cycle the kids get pulled out for special test prep courses, which is great if the stress of giving classes gets to me, but it is annoying if hanging out with kids in class is the highlight of my work day. At least at Hongnong, although I often had no classes to teach, I still got to interact with kids around the school and at lunch, etc. There's no deskwarming at Karma, though. Mostly I'm filling my time with curriculum development work – I'm writing a textbook, supposedly (which is really hard, actually), and doing iBT (TOEFL) prep tutoring with a really smart 9th grader.
I really meant to enroll in a Korean language course for the mornings, but I've been unable to summon the gumption. It's not the idea of 12 hours a week of language class that's putting me off (that's what most of the courses I've looked at offer), it's the additional 12 hours a week of commuting time that it would entail – none of the courses are closer than Hongdae or Jongno, both of which would involve more-than-an-hour-each-way commutes. I hate commuting.
I've been looking into trying to find a tutor who I could pay for one-on-one classes, out here in Ilsan. But I'm kind of picky about who I'm willing to pay as a tutor – most Koreans don't know squat about their own language, from a linguistics standpoint, and I find it very frustrating trying to learn from them. Unpaid hanging-out style efforts at conversation is fine – I can approach it like a field linguist doing research. That's what many of my Korean friends are for.
But if I'm going to pay someone, I want them to know their language's phonological inventory (and know how it differs from that of English, for example), and I'd appreciate if they could recognize the difference between an auxialiary verb and an example of verb seriality, etc., and have them subsequently be able to try to explain these things to me – you know, like actually teach me.
I suppose my complaint about the people I've paid to teach me Korean, in the past, is the flipside of the same, utterly legitimate complaint lodged against so many of the English speakers hired to teach English in Korea – the fact that they can't tell a modal verb or English prosodic vowel reduction from a hole in their posterior means that Korean students aren't really getting much bang for their won, in teaching terms.
What I'm listening to right now.
I jogged my 5km route last night, dodging drizzle and rain drops. I listened to this track on my mp3. I'm becoming incredibly annoyed with the fact that I've gotten back to a 4 or 5 night-a-week jogging habit, and I'm still not losing weight.
This morning, I'm listening to it again. It's raining hard against my windows, and the sky is the thick gray that makes it feel like the sun didn't quite finish rising.
It's been raining a lot – yesterday there was a respite, but aside from that it's been raining almost continuously for approaching a week now. Yey summer in Korea.
The lyrics.
Pour Me Another (Another Poor Me)
From the album "You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having"V:1
And all she wanted was a little bit of solid,
Feels like love, it doesnt matter what you call it,
Heal those cuts, or hide em underneath the polish,
Break another promise,
And take me as a hostage,
Hold your job down,
And let the zombies crowd around,
Thankin mommys god, but its a cops town,
Keep it safe for me,
While I chase a fantasy,
Swerving through the galaxy,
Searching for a family,
Happily surrounded by planets and stars,
She was stuck uptown, you was landed on mars,
Its all fucked up now, caught your hand in the jar,
Another small step back, for that man at the bar,
Spill a little bit of blood on the street,
For love that goes to those who know,
That they drink too much,
And hold your own glass,
Up to the heavens,
Take the little time to try and count the seconds,
It goes[Pour me another,
So I can forget you now,
Pour me another,
So I can come let you down,
Pour me another,
So I can remember how,
True that I am to this addiction of you,]
x2V:2
Drink it all away, numb it down to the none,
Stay awake tonight and wait for the sun,
You say you hate your life, you aint the only one,
Let your frustration out the gate and watch the pony run,
One double for the hunger and the struggle,
Two for the fool tryna pull apart the puzzle,
Three now I smile while I wait for your rebuttal,
By the forth shot, Im just another child in a bubble,
Tryna play with the passion and the placement,
Just to see what these people let him get away with,
Still tryna climb a mountain for you,
Hammer in my hand, still pounding on a screw,
She no listen, so he dont speak no more,
Nobodys winning, cause neither is keeping score,
Dont wanna think no more, just let me drink some more,
Pour me another, cause I can still see the floor,[Pour me another,
So I can forget you now,
Pour me another,
So I can come let you down,
Pour me another,
So I can remember how,
True that I am to this addiction of you,]
x2V:3
Live life tipsy, stiff if it dont fit right with me,
Kiss my whiskey; lift my lips press to my angel,
Swallow it and leave her empty bottle on the table,
Let the past fall,
Making faces at that clock on the back wall,
Countdown to last call,
Ask all of these people that make sounds,
How long does it take for the pace to break down?
Another lonely little trophy,
If only I can walk a straight line, Id make it home free,
And everybody in this bar thinks that they know me,
And my story,
Like poor me,
I could count the days till you come back,
Or I could follow them sunrays down to the train tracks,
I can stumble drunk, over hope and love,
Or I can just keep drinking till I sober up[Pour me another,
So I can forget you now,
Pour me another,
So I can come let you down,
Pour me another,
So I can remember how,
True that I am to this addiction of you,]
x2Bottles, pints, shots, cans,
Couches, and floors, and drunk best friends,
Models, and whores, and tattooed hands,
Cities, and secrets, and cats, and vans,
Good times, laughter, bad decisions,
Strippers, and actors, and average musicians,
Mornings after, and walks of shame,
This bartender knows me by my real name