Month: December 2011

Caveat: Como una pintura nos iremos borrando

Español Aleatorio (Random Spanish) / Language & Linguistics / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Not My Poetry / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

Poesía náhuatl (azteca).

Nezahualcóyotl era poeta y príncipe del estado azteca, de etnia Acolhua, del siglo 15 – murió antes de la invasión cortesiana, pero le conocemos por su poesía y las memorias de sus descendientes. Su pensamiento parece bastante espiritual.

Moyocoyatzin es un nombre (más bien un epiteto) de un “diós” o poder espiritual, que significa “el que se crea a sí mismo.”

Canto de Moyocoyatzin

Nezahualcóyotl
Romance de los Señores de la Nueva España

Zan nik kaki itopyo ipetlacayo
X. Ah in tepilwan:
ma tiyoke timikini
ti mazewaltin nawi nawi
in timochi tonyazke
timochi tonalkizke  Owaya Owaya
in tlaltikpak.
XI. Ayak chalchiwitl
ayak teokuitlatl mokuepaz
in tlaltikpak tlatielo
timochiotonyazke
in canin ye yuhkan: ayak mokawaz zan zen tlapupuliwiz
ti yawi ye yuhkan […] ichan
Owaya Owaya.
XII. Zan yahki tlakuilolli  Aya
ah tonpupuliwi
Zan yuhki xochitl  Aya
in zan tonkuetlawi
ya in tlaltikpak  Owaya
ya ketzalli ya zakuan
xiuhkecholli itlakechwan
tonpupuliwi tiyawi in […] ichan Owaya Owaya.
XIII. Oaziko ye nikan
ye ololo  Ayyawe
a in tlaokol Aya
ye in itek on nemi
ma men chkililo
in kuauta ozelotl   Owaya
nikan zan tipopuliwizke
ayak mokawaz    Iyyo.
XIV. Xik yokoyakan in antepilwan
kuauht amozelo
ma nel chalchiwitl
ma nel teokuitlatl
no ye ompa yazke
onkan on Ximowa   yewaya
zan tipupuliwizke
ayak mokawaz    Iyyo.		 X. Percibo su secreto,
oh vosotros, príncipes:
De igual modo somos, somos mortales,
los hombres, cuatro a cuatro, […]
todos nos iremos,
todos moriremos en la tierra.
XI. Nadie esmeralda
nadie oro se volverá
ni será en la tierra algo que se guarda:
todos nos iremos
hacia allá igualmente:
nadie quedará, todos han de desaparecer:
de modo igual iremos a su casa.
XII. Como una pintura
nos iremos borrando.
Como flor
hemos de secarnos
sobre la tierra.
Cual ropaje de plumas
del quetzal, del zacuan,
del azulejo, iremos pereciendo.
Iremos a su casa.
XIII. Llegó hasta acá,
anda ondulando la tristeza
de los que viven ya en el interior de ella…
No se les llore en vano
a águilas y tigres…
¡Aquí iremos desapareciendo:
nadie ha de quedar!
XIV. Príncipes, pensadlo,
oh águilas y tigres:
pudiera ser jade,
pudiera ser oro
también allá irán
donde están los descorporizados.
Iremos desapareciendo:
nadie ha de quedar!

Me interesa mucho el idioma y cultura nahuatl, desde hace mucho. Ya que me he visto frustrado tanto en mis esfuerzos para aprender el coreano, he estado pasando tiempo estudiando otros idiomas (de forma no muy enfocada).

(imagen: el rey-poeta Nezahualcóyotl)

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Caveat: What happened…

Banalities & Journaling

…to 2011? It's almost over.

Since leaving the infinitely unpredictable Hongnong experience and returning to comfortable, easy Ilsan, time has been flying along. I feel like I just got here, and my contract is more than half over. Unless something unexpected happens, I intend to renew with Karma. But what is happening to time, lately? What am I doing?

Blah.

Caveat: v12

Found Online / Science & SciFi

pictureHaving worked as a truck mechanic, and having grown up in the household I did, I have a strong interest in (and fascination for) engines, although I never developed the level of passion for vehicle mechanicking that seems to have been my birthright (by which I mean my father, grandfather and great-grandfather were/are all passionate auto-mechanic hobbyists).

Some guy in Spain makes miniature engines that actually run. Here’s a video of him putting together and testing a V12 engine. I think it’s really interesting.

Slightly related to the above (in the aspect of “hand-made” industrial devices), I also ran across a story about a guy who tried to make a toaster “from scratch” – I mean really from scratch. I think it was meant as a sort of performance art. It’s intriguing.

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Caveat: Gravestones cheer the living

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

Sometimes I cook things completely off program.

Sometimes it even works out.

Yesterday I went to the foreign grocery store across the street, mostly to resupply myself with the Brazilian brand of instant coffee that I like (“Iguaçu”), and I saw a giant bottle of dill spice. It seemed too big, but it was the only size they had, and I’ve never seen dill spice before in Korea. I decided to buy it – it was only 8 bucks.

So I got home thinking, gee, I have a lifetime’s supply of dill spice, what should I make? The main thing I have used dill spice for, in the past, is borsht – but I still haven’t found any beets (admittedly I haven’t looked that hard).

I had some nice tomatoes, and I had my pea soup. What could I make? I made fried tomatoes, with a breading that included corn flour, dill spice, nutmeg, black pepper. I literally invented the recipe from my crazy imagination – I had no plan or idea beforehand. Then I ate them with my pea soup and some toast. They were delicious.

What I’m listening to right now.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, “Buy for me the rain.”

The video is very interesting – it’s a cheesy anti-war-themed music video from the 1960’s! I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I found it when finding a youtube of the song [UPDATE: old video link rotted, new video link is just the soundtrack – so the video is lost].

I grew up with this music – it’s very nostalgic, for me. Here are the lyrics.

Buy for me the rain, my darling, buy for me the rain;
Buy for me the crystal pools that fall upon the plain.
And I’ll buy for you a rainbow and a million pots of gold.
Buy it for me now, babe, before I am too old.

Buy for me the sun, my darling, buy for me the sun;
Buy for me the light that falls when day has just begun.
And I’ll buy for you a shadow to protect you from the day.
Buy it for me now, babe, before I go away.

Buy for me the robin, darling, buy for me the wing;
Buy for me a sparrow, almost any flying thing.
And I’ll buy for you a tree, my love, where a robin’s nest may grow.
Buy it for me now, babe, the years all hurry so.

I cannot buy you happiness, I cannot buy you years;
I cannot buy you happiness, in place of all the tears.
But I can buy for you a gravestone, to lay behind your head.
Gravestones cheer the living, dear, they’re no use to the dead.

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Caveat: Immigration Debate

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

I'm finally getting around to posting a video of my last major debate test with the middle schoolers, which was at the end of October (no debate test for November because of the special test prep schedule, which doesn't have a debate class).

The video is kind of long – I strung together the Monday and Tuesday cohorts into one long video because the topic and proposition were exactly the same. One student's speech and part of another's were lost because of a camera problem, but other than that, it's all the students who participated.

As usual, I haven't put a lot of energy into the minutiae of editing – I cut out the various short exchanges between me and the students in which I provide quick feedback or directions – so it's only their voices.

Sometimes, they are very hard to hear – the sound pick-up on the camera didn't seem to work that well, and there's a lot of ambient noise (especially during the Monday group's debate) that makes hearing them harder, too.

Most of them are clearly not comfortable with public speaking yet, but a few show some progress if you compare them to earlier speeches. A few are more natural with public speaking – they will be the ones who are easier to understand, but keep in mind that they aren't, in fact, the ones with the highest competency in English, necessarily – they're just more at ease with the format.

The topic was challenging, and I think they did pretty well. I gave some guidance but I tried very hard not to let them merely bounce back ideas that I suggested (for both sides) but to forge their own.

The proposition was: "Immigration to South Korea should be encouraged." It's a topical, meaningful, "real" debate proposition, as it's something I bet has been debated in South Korea's legislature in recent years quite a bit. I've written and reflected on South Korea's relationship to the potential of redefining itself as an immigrant-welcoming society in other places on this blog – I won't go into it here, and I was careful not to be too transparent on my own biases and opinions with the kids.

Please don't judge the kids or their quality of presentation or English too harshly – remember they are 7th and 8th grade students who for the most part have never travelled to an English-speaking country. Nor have they had any experience with public speaking – even in their native Korean language. Considering that, they do pretty well..

Caveat: 코딱지!

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / The Wonders of Work

Yesterday, in my youngest Phonics class, made up of mostly 1st graders, Yunho announced he had a booger.
He was speaking Korean (“코딱지!” [kottakji = booger]), and I had a weird moment when I reflected on my strange plateau of Korean language knowledge. It can’t be normal for someone to understand a child’s discourse on boogers but not be able to understand an adult’s request for a suggestion (which also occured yesterday).
Yunho wasn’t finished with his booger. He grabbed scotch tape out of my basket of classroom supplies and taped his booger to his finger. The other boys in the class thought this was the grandest achievement in recent human  memory, and promptly set out to replicate it. I had to confiscate the tape and forcefully insist that everything end up in the trash.
The one girl in the class (who is also a year or two older) shook her head and clucked her tongue disapprovingly at the whole proceeding. Understandably.

Caveat: Issitoq

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream / My Drawings & Paintings / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

Issitoq is an Inuit deity of surveillance and stern warnings. He is a giant eye that makes sure you don’t break the rules, like some kind of proto-Foucauldian panopticon-creature.

I was thinking about Issitoq as I drifted to sleep, the night before last. And so I had a short but vivid dream about Issitoq. It wasn’t really scary, but it was eerie. He was zooming down out of a stormy, sunsetty sky over a strangely colorful but desolate plain, like some kind of disneyfied Sauron.

I drew this picture yesterday, based on that dream.

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Caveat: Up from the muck

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

pictureEvolution.

I had homemade split pea soup (to which I added tons of carrots and some wasabi paste… very nice).

I’ve been reading Jameson on Marxism (in Valances of the Dialectic, previously mentioned). My question: so what’s with China? The implicit answer is obvious… in the 70’s, the central committee recognized that the revolution couldn’t be a truly Marxist one, because they weren’t an industrialized country. So… logically, they opted for capitalism. Not repudiating Marxism, but because they were true Marxists. Hmm. Just thinking. More on this later… maybe.

What I’m listening to right now.

Marc Romboy & Gui Boratto, “Eurasia.”

What’s with me and techno, anyway? Who’da thunk?

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Caveat: Workahol

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Alcoholism involves overconsuming alcohol, so workaholism obviously involves the excessive consumption of workahol, right?

Well, I'm not really working all that much – but given that we're supposedly in a test-prep period, when I should have a reduced schedule, I'm working more than expected.  Curt's given me some extra jobs, and I'm sufficiently unhappy with the rest of my life, that I've taken them.

I've been working on making a "best of student work" bulletin board for our lobby. I've been doing "phone teaching" – which involves having students call me and try to have really basic conversations. The levels of success varies.

I've been working on prepping my next chapters in my self-made debate textbook. And I'm still doing the "CC" classes – basically, "noraebang 101." And because of this last… 

What I'm listening to right now.

Blue, "All Rise."  The kids seem to like this song, but it's hard to sing.

And also… 

Bon Jovi, "It's My Life." I think mainly they like the video for this, but they do well with the chorus, too.

 

Caveat: Rats

Banalities & Journaling / Life is a Dream

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Rats can be made to laugh, apparently. They like to be tickled, according to this article.

I had a pet rat, once. I found a rat to be a surprisingly affectionate and comforting pet. I remember that he would “purr” when he was curled up and I was petting him. My rat was named “Fnugus” – which was some strange, unpronounceable whim of my adolescent mind. I ran across a picture of my long-ago pet rat, recently, in my collection. It’s not a great photo, but it made me nostalgic.

Fnugus RIP – 1979~1982.

Nostalgic for a rat. Rats!

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