Caveat: 강사 평가 기록표

In a staff meeting yesterday, I was handed the below form. It’s called “강사 평가 기록표” which means something like “teacher evaluation worksheet.”

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I think it’s a good thing we’re doing teacher evaluations. It’s actually something I suggested we do, a long, long time ago. I asked what I was supposed to do with it, though, given that it was in dense and jargony Korean. Someone said, “You can figure it out.”
On the one hand, I welcome the opportunity to work on my Korean. But on the other hand, I somewhat resent when it’s made obligatory by my work environment.
I’ve noticed something recently: as my listening and comprehension skills with the Korean language have improved, my coworkers actually tell me less than they used to. They just assume I know what’s going on, because sometimes (but only sometimes), I actually do just know what’s going on. But they inform me directly much less than they used to, and furthermore, when I ask, “what’s going on?” I am often downright ignored. What’s with the attitude change? Do they think they’re helping me learn Korean? Mostly they’re just making me feel annoyed, because I have no idea what’s going on at work.

So… what’s going on? With that, I mean.
Crickets.

Caveat: Mirror-Lake

I went on a long walk around the lake after work. The lake was perfectly still, and it reflected the Ilsan skyline and the overcast orange of the sky with eerie, mirror-like fidelity.

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This picture above shows the MBC television studios complex on the right and the area around the We-Dom Mall on the left, approaching huge plaza at Jeongbalsan subway station. Below is a another picture, from along the western end of the lake closer to where I live. The views in both pictures looking roughly northeast from the south side of the lake.

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Caveat: By Karma

"The foolish are trapped by karma, while the wise are liberated through karma." – I don't know who said this. I found the quote attributed to someone (or something) called stonepeace, but I don't know what stonepeace is.

Regardless, it's a quote worth contemplating. I'm playing with words and meanings, of course: the irony (or deliberate predicament) that results from the fact that my place of employment is called "Karma."

Am I foolish, that I feel trapped by my work (by Karma) right now? Have I become foolish, in that a year ago I felt less trapped and more liberated in my work? What's changed?

Caveat: War Makes the Commute to Gaeseong Inconvenient

I wasn't really intending to post more on this topic, but this video at BBC is absolutely the point I was trying to make in my previous post. Watch it (please), and marvel: despite North Korea's rhetoric, 30 minutes north of where I live people are still commuting back and forth across the NK border. That's the kind of war anyone can live with, and I'm inclined to agree with the reporter's citation: unless and until this border crossing closes, I'm going to take the bellicose rhetoric with a few grains of salt.

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