Day: March 26, 2013

Caveat: 부전자전 (父傳子傳)

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

부전자전 (父傳子傳)
father-transmission-son-transmission
… transmission from father to son.

“Like father like son.” This is another one of those “actually it’s Chinese-not-Korean” proverbs I’ve been running across. A Chinese proverb nativized into Korean in toto. Just like Latin fossils persist in English, e.g. “in toto.” This one, according to the dictionary, can even be made into a verb: just put the good ol’ -하다 on the whole thing, and it’s a verb meaning to transmit from father to son. I like that.

I’m more like my father than I prefer. I’m a bit of a flake – not very reliable. Further, I tend to not reach out or communicate with people. This is clearly a trait of both my parents, but more my father than my mother in style and mode.

Caveat: Dunes

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling

What I'm listening to right now.

PldunesCat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), "Lilywhite."

This song makes me remember my years living at my then-stepfather's on the edge the Arcata bottomland, in the late 1970's when I was young adolescent. The property backed onto the Lanphere-Christensen Dunes preserve (which is his half-namesake). I would explore the dunes on my own on rainy days when no one else wanted to be out there. I would sit in my room and read Ursula LeGuin novels, listening to the rain on the metal roof and playing Cat Stevens.

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