Category: Banalities & Journaling

Caveat: I forgot what I was gonna say

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

My students, at ALL levels, have a very common habit of simply answering "No" when asked "What?" by a teacher.

For example, the student will raise her hand, and the teacher will say, "Yes, Gayeong?" and the student will simply reply "No." This is just a direct translation of how Koreans express the concept expressed more colloquially in English with responses like "Nevermind" or "Nothing" or "I forgot what I was gonna say."

I try very hard to convince the students that just saying "No" in English in this pragmatic context doesn't work. It comes across as incoherent at best and rude at worst. I don't know why this is – it's just the way English pragmatics works, I guess.

So I felt a huge victory last night when Gayeong raised her hand and yelled out, "Teacher!" as students do, in Korea (another mismatch on pragmatics, but that's a different battle). I said to her, "What?" and without missing a beat, and with perfect intonation and grammar, she said, "Oh. I forgot what I was gonna say."

I was so impressed. It's been at least a year with that class, since I first said, please don't just say "No" when you don't want to answer my question "What?"

[daily log: what? no. walking, 7.5km]

Caveat: Paskong Pinoy Sa Korea

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos

Saturday, after work, I took the subway into the Myeongdong neighborhood in Seoul. My former coworker Razel (a naturalized Korean of Philippine origin) had invited me to a Philippine-Korean community Christmas event. It was quite interesting, from a cultural perspective. A well-integrated immigrant community, with diverse admixtures of Koreans and other foreigners, too. And a kind of mirror image of a US-style immigrant community: in the US, the adults speak whatever language they brought from their country-of-origin, and all the kids speak English; here, all the adults were speaking English (the Philippine lingua franca, after all) and Tagalog, while the kids were all speaking Korean.

There were activities, games for kids, some karaoke and Christmas carol singing (I even participated – go figure). There was an interesting "secret Santa" gift exchange, which I didn't participate because I was too disorganized to have brought a gift for the pool.

Although I never studied it, I find Tagalog weirdly "on the edge of understandable" because of its substantial English and Spanish borrowings in terms of vocabulary.

picture

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: I would like to live in a cave

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

In my HS1-M cohort, the other day, we were practicing TOEFL speaking prompts for type 1 questions. These are just personal opinions. During practice, I let the students write out their intended responses, before speaking, so that they feel more in control of their grammar and vocabulary and don't "freeze" in trying to speak.

The prompt was:

In which kind of natural environment (mountains, sea, desert, etc.) would you like to live? Please include specific examples and details in your explanation.

Jiwon, a shy girl who occasionally surprises me, wrote (and then said, more or less effectively), the following (transcribed with grammar and spelling, etc., sic):

I would like to live in a cave. because cave is cool and cover from the light. If I live in a cave, I can greet bears and bats. Sometimes I can meet people. On the other hand, I would like to live in the desert. because In winter, cave is too cold. So I want to build in the desert. Finally, I would like to live in a cave in summer and I would like to live in the desert in winter.

I asked if she was a tropical vampire, or some kind of wild animal.

She grinned, and shrugged. With a mysterious tone, she said, "Maybe."

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: I know I’ll be alive

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry

Normally, I try not to post the same type of blog post two days in a row. And yesterday, I did one of my "what I'm listening to right now" posts, which is for when I'm lacking anything more interesting to say and happen to notice I'm listening to something worth posting. 

Well, but I had a pretty braindead weekend. And I've got to go to work and I've got nothing to say. And I happen to be listening to this song I like. So apologies for the unimaginative repetition of post style.

What I'm listening to right now.

Cake, "I Will Survive." This is a cover of the song originally written by Perren and Fekaris, and made famous in the disco hit by Gloria Gaynor in the 1970s. To be honest, I like this version better – I probably like the Gen X cynicism of its tone.

Lyrics.

At first I was afraid.
I was petrified.
I kept thinking I could never live
Without you by my side.
But then I spent so many nights
Just thinking how you'd done me wrong.
I grew strong.
I learned how to get along.
And so you're back from outer space.
I just walked in to find you here
Without that look upon your face.
I should have changed my fucking lock.
I would have made you leave your key
If I'd have known for just one second
You'd be back to bother me.

Oh now go.
Walk out the door.
Just turn around now.
You're not welcome anymore.
Weren't you the one
Who tried to break me with desire?
Did you think I'd crumble?
Did you think I'd lay down and die?
Oh not I.

I will survive.
As long as I know how to love
I know I'll be alive.
I've got all my life to live.
I've got all my love to give.
I will survive.
I will survive.

It took all the strength I had
Just not to fall apart.
I'm trying hard to mend
The pieces of my broken heart.
And I spent oh so many nights
Just feeling sorry for myself.
I used to cry.
But now I hold my head up high.

And you'll see me with somebody new.
I'm not that stupid little person
Still in love with you.
And so you thought you'd just drop by,
And you expect me to be free.
But now I'm saving all my lovin'
For someone who's lovin' me.

Oh now go.
Walk out the door.
Just turn around now.
You're not welcome anymore.
Weren't you the one
Who tried to break me with desire?
Did you think I'd crumble?
Did you think I'd lay down and die?
Oh not I.

I will survive.
As long as I know how to love
I know I'll be alive.
I've got all my life to live.
I've got all my love to give.
I will survive.
I will survive.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Panoptigator

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

My students in my youngest EB1-M cohort drew this picture. It started out during the break time, when I often let them play with markers on the whiteboard, but I was so impressed with their idea, we turned it into an impromptu class project. Emma and Michelle did most of the actual drawing, but the other students made comments, and there were repeated "edits" until each student was satisfied with their portrait. 

picture

I just stood there like a blockhead. Go figure.

I really like it. But I wonder about the all-seeing alligator above. What's that about?

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Bde Maka Ska, Bdeota

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

I used to live about a block from Lake Calhoun, in Minneapolis. I associate my time living there with my huge (or anti-huge?) weight-loss project, in 2006-2007. I lost almost 60 pounds that year – and mostly, I kept it off, losing another bit after coming to Korea, and then a lot when I had cancer, and then gaining some of that last bit back. I've been pretty stable at 80 kilos since the bounceback from the cancer.

Part of that process was my daily jogging. I would go out and run around the lake. I made a fixed habit of it. So you could say that I lost my pounds to the lake. And anyway, I have strong associative memories of the lake, my time living there, those daily runs, and the feeling of taking control back of my life.

I recently learned that there has been a movement to rename the lake. I think that's maybe a good idea – it's named for that famous, pre-Civil War justifier of slavery. This has now started the approval process.

The new name is Bde Maka Ska ("White Earth Lake"). I think this is a wonderful new name. Having studied the Dakota language (if only a little bit), I was pleased to recognize two of the three words in this name. It's especially nice in the city of Bdeota (which is, afterall, Minneapolis' Dakota name, and means simply "Place of Lakes"). 

Most countries in the world frequently rename things, and I think it's generally interesting, if sometimes overly trendy to whatever is currently going on politically in a place. But this change I can support unequivocally.

Here is a picture I took in 2009, during a brief visit to the old neighborhood, retracing my jogging route around the lake.

picture

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Dawn Deluge (Writ Small)

Banalities & Journaling

pictureI don’t know what it is about me and water problems when I first wake up. There was the event, last year, when I flooded my apartment by making the mistake of trying to do my dishes while not yet fully awake. And this morning, well, I made a much smaller but rather odd flood.
I got up, and the first thing I do, with my perpetually dry mouth (lacking the salivary capacity that normal mouths have), is get some water to drink. I pulled down a clean glass tumbler from my cabinet, put some water in it, and went over to my desk. And I didn’t notice the glass was leaking. A lot.
It emptied itself like an incontinent automaton at my desk, and I didn’t notice until it had finished its task. I was puzzled how the water had escaped my glass and appeared on my desk and was now waterfalling into my lap.
pictureIt took me another run, after wiping up the flood with a towel and refilling my glass, to figure out what was going on. My glass had a remarkable hole in the bottom. I have no idea how that happened. Possibly the last time I washed it, and I just didn’t notice until now.
picture[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Waar Wacht Je Op?

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Food & Drink / Kids / Language & Linguistics / The Wonders of Work

Last night in my PM1-M cohort CC class (cloze listening of pop songs), I felt like I was living in some kind of Lord of the Flies rendition of hagwon life.

You see, this one boy, Eric, was opening a packet of snack ramen. The kids eat the dried ramen noodles dry, sort like potato chips, with the flavor packets opened and sprinkled over the broken up noodles. What they do is they open the packet enough to get out the flavor packet, which they extract and add into the noodle package. Then they hold the noodle package closed and mash up the noodles inside, so they're all tiny fragments and the flavor granules are distributed. It's like do-it-yourself Doritos, maybe.

So Eric had done this work. And then he tore open his now mashed up and flavored pack of dried noodles eagerly, with a plan to eat his snack. Normally I'm pretty tolerant of kids eating snacks in my class, despite an official rule against it, because I know the whole business of attending night class for elementary age students means sometimes they are hungry and haven't eaten since an after-school snack or something.

The other boys (the cohort is currently all boys, just by luck of the draw) were eyeing his snack jealously and hungrily. Unfortunately, Eric opened his packet too aggressively. The noodle fragments, stained orange by the spicy flavor granules, flew all over the room, landing on desks, chairs, floor, and even in Eric's hair. The boy sat with a stunned and despondant look on his face.

But the worst was when the other boys, seeing their chance, swooped in and began grabbing up all the scattered noodle fragments. They didn't seem to care that the bits were on the floor, chairs and desks. They ate them. In less than a minute, most of the bits were gone. Even the ones in Eric's hair. While Eric still just sat, looking stunned.

I said, "Really? Really? You guys are eating off the floor? It's like a pack of dogs!"

In fact, I wasn't that scandalized – I could barely contain my laughing. But given my in loco parentis role (more loco than parentis, perhaps), I felt obligated to be upset by the performance.

Anyway, we got it cleaned up. It took up about half the class time, though. I guess the boys were not annoyed by this.

Quite unrelatedly, what I'm listening to right now.

Sticks & Big2, "Waar Wacht Je Op?!" Don't ask me why. I just listen to weird things, sometimes. Why not a little bit of Dutch hiphop?

Lyrics.

[Intro: Sticks]
Waar wacht je op?
Waar wacht je op?
Waar wacht je op?
Sticky Steez!

[Intro: Big2]
Hé Sticks, go get 'em!

[Verse 1: Sticks]
Je krijgt deez nuts, Dries van Noten
Breek het open, pistachenoten
Een piece of mind en een piece van mij
Voor de fun en fuck de police d'r bij
Nou als ik niet beweeg, breng ik niets te weeg
En wat zijn mijn woorden waard als ik ze niet meer weeg?
Ik deel mijn lief en leed, en het gaat fucking flex
Maar men ziet liever leed en beef-dvd's
Ik ga next-level, van rap battles naar HMH
Ga aan de kant Jett Rebel en Chef's Special
En Kensington en Go Back To The Zoo
En hoe lauwer de beat, hoe gekker je doet
Ambitie maakt dat ik move met m'n shit
Ambitie maakt dat jij grooved op die shit
'T is hard werken om je vrijheid te behouden
Maar de up-side: het kan allemaal van jou zijn
Nou waar wacht je op?

[Chorus: Sticks & Big2]
Get loose met je poes, als ik dit niet doe zijn we helemaal floes
(Waar wacht je op?)
En iedereen doet mee, met de Sticky Steez en de Biggie 2
(Waar wacht je op?)
Geen plan, gewoon gaan, de leeuw laat je echt niet in zijn hempie staan (Waar wacht je op?)
En de beat goes on (Lachen toch?) En de beat goes, on
(Waar wacht je op?)
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt, het is aan jou…
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt, het is aan jou…
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt

[Verse 2: Sticks]
Nou als het moet, bos ik op bam bam ritmes
Chaka Demus & en de Pliers in een 5-0-1 levi's
Met een witte Air Max, met een pipi' achter mijn oor
Geeft niks, het is the latest greatest
Nadenken is de vijand van vrijheid
Check deze Twan, volgens mij zijn we highlights
Daar moest je bij zijn, anderen willen dat me zijn maar zijn te klein als Royce da 5'9
Voor de clubs ben ik te nuchter, lever de track af, breek de tent af
Zoek rust midden in de drukte
Heel het leven is een trip beter stap je in (Waar wacht je op?)
Record wat, breng het uit de dag erop
Deel de hele taart uit, zet er slagroom op
Er is genoeg voor ieder, er is genoeg voor ieder
Waar wacht je op?

[Chorus: Sticks & Big2]
Get loose met je poes, als ik dit niet doe zijn we helemaal floes
(Waar wacht je op?)
En iedereen doet mee, met de Sticky Steez en de Biggie 2
(Waar wacht je op?)
Geen plan, gewoon gaan, de leeuw laat je echt niet in zijn hempie staan (Waar wacht je op?)
En de beat goes on (Lachen toch?) En de beat goes, on
(Waar wacht je op?)
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt, het is aan jou…
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt
Het maakt niet uit wie wat zegt, het is aan jou…

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: The Alligary

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

My second grade student Michelle, who seems to be some kind of cartoonist prodigy, drew this character on my whiteboard the other day. She told me it was the Alligary. Now we have another student, who's English name is Gary. And frankly, in its minimalistic way, this drawing is an excellent caricature: the bowl-shaped haircut, the disgruntaled half-frown. I certainly would have recognized it as being him, if she'd only hinted that it was a student in our class.

picture

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: No thanks…

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos / The Wonders of Work

That's how I was feeling last night. It's Thanksgiving in the US, but it's just a regular day of work, here. And it was a particularly awful day at work. 

I was feeling incompetent as a teacher, and yet also frustrated with idiotic parents who complain about what I like to hope are good, research-supported teaching methods.

It was one of those fortunately rare days when I walk home daydreaming about quitting my job. I used to suffer that a lot. When I worked in those computer jobs, I literally spent every day daydreaming such things. In general, I stick with this teaching thing because I don't suffer those kinds of days so often.

So last night, I was thinking, "No thanks…"

This morning, there was a dusting of snow in my neighborhood. You can kind of see it on Jeongbal Hill, in the background, and on the trees in front of the maternity hospital in the foreground.

picture

So for that, thanks.

[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Aesthetica in vivo

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Not My Poetry / Quotable / Science & SciFi

What I’m listening to right now.

A Capella Science, “Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody).” This song is truly awesome. It’s evolutionary biology. It’s poetry. It’s music. It’s all in a package, like the miracle of life, itself. For the prototype of which this song is a “parody,” see here.
Lyrics.

EVO-DEVO
Huxley
B. Mac.
Oh Carroll, Carroll
Gould, Stephen Jay yeah
D-D-D-D-Davidson and Peter

See
One cell divide and decide on a thousand fates
Did you ever figure how they know?
B. Mac.
We
Are built of modules combined in a planned out way
Each new piece must be told where to go
Oh

Now there’s a science helping us to understand
How our cells encode this architectural plan
Signalling each other with genetic tools oh
Oh yeah

Wow
Phenotype the interface for mouse and man
Genotype the files and the subprograms
What then are the switches, circuit boards and boot code?

Evo-Devo
Looking at the logic in the ways that we grow
Every gene directed by a signal key code
Proteins that can activate, enhance or veto
Evo-Devo
Signals are controlled by other genes that signal
Calculating in a network labyrinthal
Where the heart and liver and the hands and feet go

Signal mapping tells each region what it ought to be yo
With circuits so deeply built upon
They’re older than the Paleo
The Paleozoic Era baby
In a crucial pathway changes tend to get torpedoed
Where they go calamity goes
As this cyclopic sheep knows..

See down they cascade like a domino
Like you and I drosophila
The path that makes us optical
Was laid a long long time ago
Back before we blew up the cambrian like a bomb bomb
Now my eye protein can make you see out of your bom bom
And Hedgehog and its relatives like Indian and Sonic
Set up set up in a gradient on segments embryonic
Split forebrains and asymmetric parts depend upon it
Flipping on genetic switches and logic
From devo to evo
Adult and embryo
Mostly don’t evolve in the genes of the genome
Safer the mutation aimed at regulation
Keep the building blocks and swap their activation
From devo to evo
Parts have alter egos
Homologs evolved from repeats in the schema
Switch a couple bases in the proper places
You’ll be watching flies grow legs out of their faces oh yeah

Evo-Devo
Stick around for Modern Synthesis the sequel
Only by combining can a new theory grow
Evolution and development amigos
Evo-Devo
Signals trigger patterns of complexity so
Switching up the switches of a signalling node
Gives a modular and simple way to evolve

Look at how our spinal segments generate a neat row
Built on a molecular clock
One cycle, one vertebra
One vertebra one vertebra baby
Speeding up its rate is snakes’ developmental cheat code
That and where a lizard’s feet grow
They turn off distal aminos

Evo-Devo
This is how we go from single cells to people
Every generation and in life primeval
Life in variations endless and beautiful

Badaboom

From devo to evo
Larva to mosquito
Patterns are resolved as the signals proceed yo
Map out a gene with a glow tag
Kill it with a morpholino
Short oligo morpholino baby

From devo to evo
Voyage of the Beagle
Body plans evolve when proteins steer the genome
In this manner life’s beauty grows
Aesthetica in vivo

Evo-Devo

picture[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: reindeergator

Banalities & Journaling / My Drawings & Paintings / Teaching & Methodology

I don't have much to say. Recently we started our Christmas-themed role-play with my youngest, lowest-level cohort. It might seem early, but with only one 45 minute practice period per week, it's really not too early.

So we are learning some Christmas songs. And I drew this on the whiteboard. We were drawing reindeer characters from the story. I added my own.

picture

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: packrat confessions

Banalities & Journaling

The one-room apartment where I live has become somewhat cluttered, I guess.

My attention was drawn to this because recently the apartment's owner (not my boss Curt – he merely holds a long-term lease, which in turn is sublet to me as part of my work compensation) decided to sell the apartment. Curt's long-term lease remains binding, as I understand it – it's not that I would lose my apartment. It's just some new "investor" (presumably) is planning on owning this particular one-room condo. Most apartments in Korea, I think, exist in this kind of situation. There's a condo owner who is most likely not the resident. Who any particular "owner" is, is not clear: investors or speculators or real-estate agencies of various sorts, I expect. It's not like these investors end up with a lot of responsibilities: the maintenance of the apartment is either the lease-holder's or the building management's. Anyway, it's complicated, but typical.

So having someone "selling" my apartment means I have to be prepared for occasional unexpected visitors, who would be prospective buyers. And that made me self-conscious of how cluttered I've allowed it to become. 

I suspect I have some "pack-rat" tendencies, which my frequent moves during my life have perhaps served to keep under control. This one-room in the Urim Bobo Building in Ilsan is the longest I've lived in a single place since, I think, childhood. 

I've been trying to de-clutter, a bit. But I don't enjoy doing that. It annoys me to have to make decisions about whether I really need something. It feels stressful. 

That's my life. Right now.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: 거기 이상해요

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Curt said, “What do you think of the new lights in the hall?”
I answered, “Those? Actually, I think they’re a little bit weird.” They had these odd LED blue stripes for some reason, giving a slightly eerie feel. I wasn’t sure what the point of that was. Just an effort to make for a unique lighting effect?
A bit huffily, as if I had impugned his interior-decorating skills, Curt replied, “What do you mean, ‘weird’?”
In that very instant, a third grade student, Gloria, emerged from the hall in question. I’m certain she hadn’t been overhearing the exchange between Curt and me, nor could she have necessarily even understood it, since she is not a high-level student.
Gloria said, in her typically assertive manner, “선생님, 거기 이상해요. [Teacher. It’s weird over there.]”
Needless to say, in that moment, I felt profoundly vindicated.
[daily log: walking, 6.5km]

Caveat: Ah, the Fall, when the redwoods turn color and shed their leaves…- Wait, wut?

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos

Below are some Ilsan redwoods (yellow-orange color, right-of-center) – in fact, they are planted instantiations of the Chinese "dawn redwood" (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), which shed their needles for the winter. Yet they have that redwood smell of the California coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) of my childhood, and that familiar texture of bark and shape of needles. It's just exotic enough to remind me of what a long way I am from home, yet familiar enough to remind me of home. They are abundant in Korean suburbs.

picture

[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: his that enjoys it

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / Not My Poetry / Quotable / Teaching & Methodology

"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it." – Benjamin Franklin.

So there's that.

What I'm listening to right now.

Kelly Clarkson, "Stronger." This is one of the songs we've done for the "CC" class (lyrics listening / dictation). I like this song, because it's empowering for girls, in a fairly innocuous, pop-culture way. And girls need that kind of thing. Yesterday, I had a rather serious discussion about ambition and lowered self-expectation with one of the girls from my painfully unambitious but talented HS1-T cohort (because she was the only one that showed up for class). After explaining the idiom, I kept asking her, "Why do you sell yourself short?" Of course, these things don't have a clean resolution, in real life, but I hope what I said made sense.

Lyrics.

You know the bed feels warmer
Sleeping here alone
You know I dream in colour
And do the things I want

You think you got the best of me
Think you've had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone
Think you left me broken down
Think that I'd come running back
Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

You heard that I was starting over with someone new
They told you I was moving on over you

You didn't think that I'd come back
I'd come back swinging
You try to break me, but you see

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

Thanks to you I got a new thing started
Thanks to you I'm not the broken-hearted
Thanks to you I'm finally thinking about me
You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning
In the end…

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone

[2x]
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone

(When I'm alone)

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Centennial

Banalities & Journaling / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

Today is the centennial of the October Revolution – so named based on the old Russian calendar, despite the November 7th anniversary date on the Gregorian Calendar. 

When I was growing up, the Soviet Union seemed eternal, and if not triumphant, certainly persistent. The notion that now, in my own middle age, the Soviet Union fell and disappeared more than a quarter century ago remains a stunning bit of history. In terms of impact on human history I believe that – in the modern era at least – the Bolshevik Revolution has been basically unparalleled, despite its unqualified long-term failure. Nor do I mean to necessarily praise it in saying that – it let loose demons that are still abroad in the world, if perhaps we could charitably grant that its "heart was in the right place," in the distorted view of its protagonists.

What I'm listening to right now.

Prokofiev, "Alexander Nevsky" op. 78.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Steep Going

Banalities & Journaling

If anything, this post-Halloween-party week will be harder than last. We have some month-end tests. We have student comments. I have several new one-on-one students for special tutoring projects (a one-on-one student-hour takes just as much work to prepare as a class of 10 – so it's not the most efficient use of my time, but I understand the need for these – it's part of the Karma "brand" I guess). So my work load is steep right now. It should ramp down a bit next week when the 내신 starts. 

And the week started a bit bitterly: we all went to a funeral Monday night, after work (yes, Koreans go to funerals at 11 PM – it's entirely normal, as they are on-going affairs with people coming and going, rather than something like a church service with a specific start and stop time – maybe more like a "wake" than a funeral). My coworker's sister finally died of her cancer, which I've perhaps mentioned a few times. This is especially dark and hard for me – "there but for the grace of god go I" and all that.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

 

Caveat: Random Poem #155

A Daily Poem / Banalities & Journaling / Book 1 / Life in Korea / My Poetry & Fiction

(Poem #456 on new numbering scheme)
신의 은총이 없었다면 저도 저렇게 되었을 것이다.

My coworker was sad. Her sister died.
The cancer had declared its wish at last.
The funeral was all the way across
vast Seoul. These Koreans mourn the dead
as they live - with kimchi and alcohol.
The grace of god descended, so we kept
our silences while poking rice with spoons
and fetching bits of food with chopstick-thrusts.
Of course my own unlikely failed demise
was apropos - but felt indulgent too.
I spoke about it with reluctance till
at last we drove back down the Han to home.
The night was cold. It carved heavenly paths;
expressways sought to give us maps of hope.

Caveat: Solving Supernatural Problems

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Not My Poetry / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

As I said I would do a few days ago, here are revisions of my ED1M cohort's Halloween stories. These are entirely the students' writing, but I have made sometimes rather substantial revisions of grammar or vocabulary to make them more "native sounding" – I don't want the students memorizing speeches with bad grammar, as it only serves to reinforce or "fossilize" bad habits. I have not altered the plots as created by the students, although in a few cases I had to fill in some elisions with guesses as to the writer's intent. These plots are mostly quite a bit "darker" than the one I created. This is pretty developmentally appropriate for 4th-5th graders, I think. Death and gore are abstractions, but compelling ones from a story-telling standpoint.

Lucy

One day, there was a lonely ghost, named Nina. The ghost had died with a lot of tension, so Nina wanted to meet other ghost friends and she wanted to try to resolve her depression. Nina was reading a book about a call. Finally a friend called Nina and she was so excited to meet the new friend. This friend's name was Lum. Lum said, "I want to meet you." Nina said, "Sure, let's meet at the playground. Okay?" Lum said, "Okay. Good idea." Nina went to the playground and met Lum. Nina said, "Hello. I'm Nina. Let's be friends!" Lum said, "Good, I want to be your friend too." Then Nina said, "What should we do?" Lum said, "Let's go play with the other living people. It'll be fun to meet living people and they'll be happy to meet us. Let's go down to the ground." Nina said, "Sure, I want to meet these living people too. Let's go!" Nina and Lum floated down to the ground, and went to a school, and saw the students studying. When the bell rang, Nina and Lum met a girl named Sarah. She was very embarrassed to meet a ghost. Sarah could only be friends if she became a ghost. The next day Lum said, "I want to kill Sarah. Will you help me?" "Sure," Nina said. "I want to take Sarah." Thus Nina and Lum killed Sarah with an invisible sword.

Julia

One day, there was a lonely zombie. He wanted some friends, so he went to an amusement park. There were so many people there. He saw he could make many friends. First, he met a doctor, and killed her. She became a zombie. They became friends. The two zombies now wanted many friends. They walked across the street and met many people, all of whom became zombies too. The government gave a public warning: "In the amusement park, there are zombies! Please escape as soon as possible. Hurry!" Then, night fell. The zombies became angry. "Why are there not so many people, now?" The zombies went downtown. There were people shopping. playing, and then screaming. They killed and made friends with so many. The zombies had come quickly, but were dispersed when the government made a vaccine and gave it to people. The vaccine was great, but the zombies didn't want to normal people again. The zombies went to a market. They were hungry and wanted to eat fresh brains. There were many people. "Let's eat and make friends," they said. But one zombie had the vaccine."I can be a good person. I want to take the vaccine." She took the medicine and ran away from the other zombies. She said to the people, "Zombies! Run away!" The zombies were angry. One of the zombies ate her brain and she became a zombie again. She thought, "I don't have to be a good person. Let's find fresh brains." This earth became a zombie world.

Gina

One day, there was a lonely skeleton. This skeleton woke up only on Halloween. The skeleton waits until a child says, "Trick or treat?" Then it grabs the child and eats it. So one day, a child came and said, "Treat or trick?" The skeleton did not hear, because the skeleton could only hear "Trick or treat?" The child had said it backwards. Regrettably, then the child said again, "Trick or Treat?" The skeleton heard that, of course, and chased after him. The boy saw the skeleton and ran. The boy ran to his home and put a human doll in front of the door. The skeleton saw the doll and attacked it and ate it. The next day, the boy saw the skeleton was gone. He was shocked. He went to the hospital. There he dreamed about the skeleton. In the dream, the skeleton came and started eating his head. Then his mom came, and the skeleton hid. After his mom went out, the skeleton started eating his brain. Next the skeleton ate his foot, and his stomach. The boy woke up and was surprised to see he didn't have part of his brain and he didn't have part of his foot or stomach either. For five minutes he did nothing, he was so tired, and he slept again. In a dream, the skeleton returned and at his arm and one of his ears. The boy woke up again, and he was missing an arm and an ear. He looked around and saw the skeleton one more time. The skeleton ate the rest of the boy's body.

Amy

One day, there was a lonely mummy. That night, the mummy wanted to eat some people. Then a woman discovered the mummy, and she was not afraid. The mummy wanted to be friends with her, and she wanted to, too. So she and the mummy became friends. However, she left the mummy finally, because they didn't get along. She hated the mummy. So then the mummy was sad again. She was angry. The mummy started eating people. She ate many people. People tried avoiding the mummies. But the lone mummy got worse. People tried to kill the lone mummy that ate people, but it was not easy. This was because the mummy was eating the police, too. The people still didn't give up. Finally, the police injured the mummy. Unfortunately, because the zombie had been eating them, the police became zombies. Then the police ate people, too. This was terrible. As a result, the village gradually changed into a zombie community. It was a zombie village where only zombies lived. The zombies in the zombie village went to another village, and another. The zombies spread, causing the entire country to be overtaken by the zombie virus. The world was full of zombies, then. After a few more years, it was full of mummies too. In the end, it was full of ghosts. The world has changed strangely.

Luna

One day, there was a lonely devil. The devil liked to play. So the devil would take children's shoes. One day a girl named Elizabeth was crying. She had lost her shoes. That was what the devil had done. All of the kids were crying, and the devil was so happy. The devil also ate people's blood. "Today," Elizabeth said, "I will get my shoes!" That night she didn't sleep. She just hid in the tree. She said, "I'm sleepy, now." She decided nothing would happen, so she went to her room. At that time the devil came to Elizabeth's house. Elizabeth saw the devil, and said, "You are taking my shoes!" The devil was so surprised. The Devil ran away. He said, "I will take children's clothes and things." Elizabeth thought that finally the devil would not take children's shoes. But then one day the kids were crying again. Elizabeth knew this was the devil's work. So she said to all of the kids, "Now let's catch that bad devil." They waited for the devil. At that time, the devil came. Elizabeth said, "One, two, three, catch him!" So they caught the bad devil. The devil said, "What is going on? Hey! Hey! What are you doing to such as fantastic devil as me?" Elizabeth said, "Give us our shoes and clothes!" The devil was so scared, so he said, "Yes! Yes, I will do it." Elizabeth and her friends said, "This devil is so bad. They clapped and said, "Yeah! We caught that devil." Now they were happy.

Sean

One day, there was a lonely werewolf, named WW. WW wanted to eat guts. WW went to the mountains to hunt animals. He ate a lot of animals, but he was still very hungry. The police came and tried to catch WW, so he ran away. Finally WW was caught and put in jail. After 10 years, WW wanted to get revenge. He went to a village and killed all the people and ate their guts. The police came to the village to fight against WW. The fight lasted two years and the police shot many guns. The werewolf was badly hurt but killed all of the police. Finally WW became a kind of werewolf ghost that eats children's guts. The children screamed, "Ahhh!"

A saint came and hit the werewolf ghost, cutting through his body. WW was angry and this, and became a zombie. He was hungry, then, and ate many people's brains. He went to the city and many people became zombies. They ate each other's brains and even ate each other's bodies. Obama saw this problem and sent some soldiers to come and kill the zombies. But the werewolf-ghost-zombie WW couldn't be killed, so Obama himself came and fought WW. It was Obama versus WW. Obama shot the legs on the creature so he couldn't walk. Then Obama sent a missile and destroyed the earth. This solved the problem.

 

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: The Tissue-Paper Mummy Tradition

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / My Photos / The Wonders of Work

Every year, Karma English Academy has a Halloween party. The tradition has become that I run an activity room at the party, where visiting cohorts of students compete to make the best tissue paper mummy.

This year, this past Friday, some students in one class insisted that I should be the mummy. I allowed them, and two boys named Alex and Daho mummified me quite well. Daho took a picture of Alex taking a selfie with the mummy-teacher.

picture

Of all the student mummies produced, I believe Lucy was the best, as mummified by her friend Julia and Amy.

picture

Lucy was unusual of the student mummies, in that she didn't complain at all about being mummified. She seemed to enjoy it. She stayed perfectly still. This made her easier to mummify. One has to have a certain tolerance for claustrophobic feelings.

[daily log: walking, 1.5km]

Caveat: The Lonely Black Cat vs Alligator Zombie

Banalities & Journaling / My Poetry & Fiction / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I gave my ED1-M cohort a task to write a Halloween story. I gave them a prompt paper with a phrase like, "One day, there was a lonely {halloween creature: zombie, vampire, witch, black cat, etc.}." 

Most of them made very interesting stories. I'll post a selection of those, with corrections, soon. But meanwhile, I had several students who failed to make their own stories. Since the next step in the exercise is to memorize their stories for presentation to the class for their month-end test, I had to provide these students with a story to prepare for presentation. So I imitated my students' style and created my own story. Here it is.

One day there was a lonely black cat, named Cat. Cat had no friends, because everyone believed she worked for the town witch, Puckle MacBeth. That wasn't true. Cat only visited the witch because sometimes the witch gave her something to eat. Every day, Cat sat outside the town, wishing someone would be her friend. But that day, everything changed. You see, a giant zombie alligator came to the town. The zombie alligator was very terrible, with big teeth and no brain. It bit the people in the town, and started eating them. Even the other cats in the town were running and hiding, and the witch, Puckle, flew away on her broom. Cat was scared, but she knew she had to do something. She knew alligators liked to eat monkeys. She found a rainbow monkey doll and she put some poison inside the monkey doll. She put the monkey doll out by the road. The zombie alligator came by and saw the monkey. It ate the monkey doll without even slowing down. It went into the town to eat some children. But the poison from the monkey doll was very strong. Soon the zombie alligator was weaving and getting sleepy. It grabbed a small child with its giant mouth and started to chew. But the poison made the alligator stop chewing. Finally, it fell down in the street. It died. Everyone the town was very happy. They were thankful for Cat's smart thinking. The child who the alligator had been about to eat was very grateful. The child became Cat's best friend.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Crunchtime with Skeletons and Cancer Dreams

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

The weeks leading up to Halloween are, for me, always some of the hardest in the year at Karma Academy – because of our tradition of having a Halloween Event for the elementary students, combined with the the rhythms of the Korean academic calendar, which leads to a full schedule of classes for middle schoolers and also having to prepare tests for the elementary kids.

So…. Very busy.

I had a horrible nightmare last night. Unrelated to the current intensity of work, but perhaps merely brought out by the incidence of stress. 

I dreamed I was back at the Cancer Center. They'd found another tumor. I was going through it all again. It was just a "replay of stressful experience" dream, but with full consciousness, within the dream, that it was a replay. 

I woke up feeling quite discouraged about life.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Something wonderful happens when you attach a banana to a drone

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / Teaching & Methodology

There is apparently a rule of capitalization that I never learned. The rule is that after a colon (":"), the initial letter of the item should be capitalized if and only if that item could stand as itself as an independent clause.

  • Here is an example: This is a sentence.
  • Here is another example: just an isolated item.

The rule is clear enough, but I swear I never was taught this in any class, from middle school English all the way through college composition, and certainly not in any linguistics class, which, contrary to popular understanding, has nothing to do with such prescriptivist poppycock.

Anyway, although I believe these types of rules to be merely "prescriptivist poppycock," I nevertheless work hard to understand them and even enforce them with my students, because I am teaching them to write English mostly with the intent to get good scores on exams written by people who worship unerringly at the altar of prescriptivism. "Know your audience."

I enjoyed this humorous example of the rule, below (credit to linguistics blogger Geoffrey Pullum, writing at Chronicle of Higher Education's Linguafranca blog).

  • There’s one species we can keep in the lab without the animal rights activists getting upset: fruit flies.
  • Something wonderful happens when you attach a banana to a drone: Fruit flies.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Teaching English to Cats

Banalities & Journaling / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

Despite being broadly satisfied with my job and chosen career, nevertheless I have days when I end up deeply pessimistic about my abilities as a teacher, and that always sends me off on a kind of spiral of self-doubt and fruitless, fantastical ideation about alternate career paths.

Yesterday was such a day. My difficult middle school HS1-T cohort persisted in being difficult. How can such smart kids be so completely uninterested? Not only uninterested in learning, but even deeply uninterested in the social contract we call a cohesive classroom. They just do whatever the hell they want.

It's like teaching English to cats. The cats just move around and do their own thing, and look on at the teacher, somewhat amusedly, from their utterly inhuman viewpoint. Meanwhile if the thought crosses their mind, they will play or attack one of their peers. Or open a window. Or get up and leave the classroom. Yelling and screaming feels like at best an utterly temporary fix: it can get the cats to sit still and feign detached attentiveness for maybe 30 seconds or 2 minutes, but soon enough a new whim will take one or more off on their secret tangent again. And yet bear in mind: this collection of students has the highest average score on English proficiency of any class at Karma.

I've never had a class quite like it. Normally, collections of high-scoring students are also well-behaved and fairly engaged learners. I don't know how to control these kids in any kind of positive way. I can only flail and yell and produce reactions of reluctant, very brief compliance. My gut feeling is that the classroom dynamic is driven more by the social interaction among the students than their individual personalities. It's a kind of toxic combination of teenage competitiveness and camaraderie. They're each trying to outdo or impress their peers in acts of passive-aggressive rebellion. My instinct in moments of highest frustration is to try to separate them into individual workers, and cut off social interaction – but that's almost impossible, and produces seething waves of angry resentment. And anyway, doing so doesn't make sense in a class where I'm supposed to be focused on the communicative, speaking function of language.

Argh. 

[daily log: walking, 7km]

 

 

Caveat: Fictional Victorian Doppelgängers for Famous Men

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / 아동 도서 (Children's Books)

picture

There is a category of things that could be called "Fictional Victorian Doppelgängers for Famous Men." It has at least one member: Wilhelm Heinrich Sebastian Von Troomp. You can read about it at Politco Magazine. These works of childrens' literature by author Ingersoll Lockwood seem very bizarre, but not that different in genre from the subsequent Oz books, really, though apparently of lower quality. But the name of the protagonist is discomfiting.

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: 너 보단 내가 더 커

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

The middle-school girls in my HS1-T cohort seem to have this song memorized (below). They were performing a fairly plausible rendition, spontaneously, in class last Saturday. I complained that since we were in English class, they should be doing a song in English. They pointed out there were some English words in the song – which is true, there are few snippets anyway. But every Korean pop song has a few snippets of English – it’s almost a genre requirement as far as I can figure out. Anyway their performance was sufficiently well-done that I got the song earwormed into my head and I subsequently googled it.
The catchphrase is “너 보단 내가 더 커” [neo boda naega deo keo], which is repeated so many times, means, “I am bigger than you.” The song is basically about rivalry with respect to height among girls. It’s quite petty, but satirically so, with a classic, very westernized ironic tone.
What I’m listening to right now.

마마무, “1cm의 자존심.”
가사.

여기 나보다 큰 사람 있어
없으면 됐어
마마무 마마무 마마무
너 보단 내가 더 커
넌 160 난 1
마마무 마마무 마마무
우리 끼리끼리끼리
딱 1cm 차이
뭔 헛소리
일단 휘인인 먼 나라 얘기
Ok 베프지만
키 앞에선 장사 없지
Small 휘인
어줍자니 일센치 가지고
언니들 이러기
우리 쿨하게 좀 가자
나만 힐 신기
너와 나의 차이 1cm
언닌 두상이 좀 커
그냥 받아들여 난쟁이
그냥 받아들여
달라질 건 없어 인생
뭐라카노
Do you know What I’m saying
아이고 우리 언니가
어디 번데기 앞에서
주름을 잡을까요
이봐요 올라오려면 멀었네
여기 높은 곳까지
거기 아랫 공기는 어때
많이 탁하지
난 거기 못 가 입장불가
고만고만해 그만그만해
이럴 시간 있음
다른 거나 고민해
Oh 우리 휘인이 손이 안 닿니
내가 꺼내줄께
언니가 이 구역에 장신
마마무 마마무 마마무
너 보단 내가 더 커
넌 160 난 1
마마무 마마무 마마무
우리 끼리끼리끼리
딱 1cm 차이
A-YO 반올림해도 작아요
나보다 더
깔창을 깔아봐요 소용없나요
힐을 신어도 티가 나고
운동화를 신어도 티가 나
키 순서가 도레미파
너와 나의 차이 1cm
1.8
누가 봐도 이건 Same Same
둘 다 두상이 좀 커
여긴 우물 안의 전쟁
You know What I’m talking about
거기 문스타
아주 그냥 물 만나셨어
어허 인정해
여유 넘치는 게
장신인척 난리
우월한 척 난리
최홍만 인 척 난리
그래 봤자 도토리
맷돌손잡이가 빠졌어
맷돌손잡이가 빠졌어
지나가는 조태오가 웃어
지금 내 기분이 그래
어이가 없네
마마무 마마무 마마무
너 보단 내가 더 커
넌 160 난 1
마마무 마마무 마마무
우리 끼리끼리끼리
딱 1cm 차이
여기 나보다 큰사람 있어
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 너 보단
내가 더 커
잘 들어 난쟁이들아
내가 이 바닥에서
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 내가 더 커
너 보단 너 보단 너 보단
내가 더 커

 [daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Paperclips

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Science & SciFi

I did something yesterday that I haven't done in a long time: I became immersed in a rather mind-numbingly stupid game. 

In fact, I was led to this game from a philosophical discussion of the AI Paperclip Maximizer problem, in a blog I often read. I suggest you read that, first (it's short).

picture

The game is called, naturally, "Universal Paperclips." It's in the genre of what are called "clicker" games – basically, just webpages with a few clickable controls that allow one to manipulate a kind of limited universe.

The object of the game is to fill the universe with paperclips. You start making one paperclip at a time. Click. Click. Click.

After some time, you develop automation, and then an artificial intelligence to do work for you. And then space exploring-drones, matter-to-paperclip conversion technology, paperclip-to-drone conversion technology. Etcetera. It's entirely text-based. And I spent 10 hours yesterday, filling the universe with paperclips. I believe the specific number of paperclips I produced was on the order of 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (30 septendecillion = 3 x 10^54). Perhaps that's current best guess as to the mass of the universe, in grams (and maybe each paperclip weighs about a gram, right?).

But then the game told me I had run out of matter. So I had to stop. Fortunately, it was bedtime.

It was addictive, but it was mostly a one-shot experience, I think – once you've filled the universe with paperclips, you feel satisfied but there is little incentive to keep repeating the experience. That means I don't feel bad recommending the experience to others.

[daily log: paperclips, 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000]

 

Caveat: New Evidence of Dialectal Divergence in Korean

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

 

Some linguists have speculated that the divergence of dialects between South Korea and North Korea has become substantial. The vast infusion of foreign vocabulary to the "standard Korean" of the South over the last 7 decades has been largely bypassed by the North. Some South Koreans have told me they have a hard time understanding the snippets of North Korean broadcasts they sometimes see. 

Last night my student James gave me new evidence.

I have a rule in my classes: "only English." I'm a speaking skills teacher, after all. I want them trying to speak English if at all possible. But sometimes, I get in trouble, because I often phrase the rule during enforcement as "no Korean" as opposed to "only English." I've had students either pretend, or, if talented, actually using snippets of Japanese or Chinese they know, for example. 

So I overheard Jae-yeon speaking Korean.

"James. Were you speaking Korean? What about our 'no Korean' rule?"

There was a long pause. "Oh no, teacher. I was speaking North Korean." He grinned at his own cleverness.

"Is that a different language?" I asked, laughing.

"Oh yes. Very different!" He asserted. His friend agreed, nodding vigorously.

In fact, this was so funny, I didn't take away a point as I normally do when I catch kids speaking Korean while that rule is in effect.

For the future, I have to remember to keep the focus on "only English." 

[daily log: walking, 7km]

Caveat: Karma Guy

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / My Photos / The Wonders of Work

picture

My student who goes by Michelle is a pretty talented caricaturist for a 2nd-grader. She drew this picture on the white board and told me it was me. I was impressed. I look like that dad character from the TV animated series "Family Guy."

[daily log: walking, 7km]

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