Caveat: Obamistic Pursuits

Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

Ever since the popularization of the Rev. Wright "problem" (and note that it is merely a "popularization," not a revelation, as Wright's views have been public and even well-documented, all along), I have been having some concerns about the Obama campaign – in how it's handled the "scandal," in the statements he's made (especially his speech last Tuesday, which I, uniquely among people of my political stripe, found weak-kneed and slightly vacuous), and in general, in a sort of indeterminate discomfort I've had with the quality and level of the "pro-Obama" discourse.   But I couldn't put my finger on what was bothering me, exactly.

And today, surfing the news and blog sites, I finally found a fabulously articulate and cogent summary of all my concerns about this issue, in the form a column by a sports commentator for the Kansas City Star, Jason Whitlock.  Go figure.  Thanks, Jason.  And no thanks to all you other political bloggers and opinion-makers out there.

Yet on the flip side, my personal favorite guy in the race, Bill Richardson, turned around and endorsed Obama later the same week.  I wonder if some kind of secret deal is in the offing – did Obama promise Richardson the number two spot, if he wins the nomination?  And, is that based, in part, on Hillary's implied promise of the number two to Mr Obama if she gets it?  What's certain is that although I find a Clinton-Obama ticket plausible, an Obama-Clinton ticket is patently impossible (because Hillary doesn't want to go from First Lady to VP – that's like going from supporting actress to… supporting actress).

And frankly, an Obama-Richardson ticket would be formidable, as Obama's weakest demographic, latinos, would be perfectly complemented by Richardson's obvious super-strength in exactly that area – Richardson's chilangosity is rarely commented upon, but it's a well-known fact among the Mexican-American population that despite his American birth, he grew up in Mexico City. Additionally, Obama, perceived as weak on both foreign policy and executive-branch experience, would be tucking a former ambassador to the U.N. and current popular state governor into his belt.  Such a ticket would definitely remove any lingering doubts I had about Obama. So… we shall see.

Caveat: “그놈은 멋있었다”

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

"그놈은 멋있었다" is the title of a 2004 movie that I recently downloaded and watched.  Roughly, the name geunomeun meoshiteotda translates as "He was cool" or "That guy was cool."  It was a teen comedy-romance.

But I enjoyed it, as I spend most of my working days immersed in the world of Korean teenagerdom, and thus, although the movie is hyperbolic and romantic fantasy, it is also, at another level, a somewhat realistic portrayal of contemporary Korean teen culture. So, despite its genre limitations, I recommend it.  It's available on youtube in about 14 segments, with subtitles, if you can't find it in your video store or are unable to find a good subtitled download of it (I found mine on silentregrets.com [update: silentregrets no longer exists – presumeably shut down by the copyright police])

I learned a wonderful and useful phrase from the movie:  정말?  jeongmal = "really?"

The lead actress in this movie, 정다빈 (Jeong Da-Bin – a screen name), committed suicide in 2007, suffering from depression.  A quote associated with her is: "I'm complicated and I feel like I'm going to die…I have lost my identity."

Caveat: Oh Hay Lite

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Language & Linguistics / Quotable

LOLCat is a sort of name for that weird dialect of internetchatese that is only semiliterate, is full of acronyms (such as LOL = laughing out loud) and contains lots of both deliberate and accidental "cute" misspellings.  And, just as someone, somewhere, is translating the Bible into Klingon, so it is the case, I have discovered, that someone is working hard to translate that same document into LOLCat.

Here are the first three verses of John:

1 In teh beginz is teh cat macro, and teh cat macro sez "Oh hai Ceiling Cat" and teh cat macro iz teh Ceiling Cat.2 Teh cat macro an teh Ceiling Cat iz teh bests frenz in teh begins. 3 Him maeks alls teh cookies; no cookies iz maed wifout him.4 Him haz teh liefs, an becuz ov teh liefs teh doodz sez "Oh hay lite."5 Teh lite iz pwns teh darks, but teh darks iz liek "Wtf."

More internet wackiness:  Check out Happy Tree Friends – but don't bring your children, these things are quite violent.

Caveat: The Mexican Space Program

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs / Science & SciFi

Both chambers of the Mexican congress have approved initial versions of a law which will create, for the second time in history, a Mexican space program, under the title Agencia Espacial Mexicana (with the unintuitive acronym AEXA – probably chosen more because it looks cool than because it makes any sense at all).  I say "second time in history" because few people realize that the Mexicans actually had a space program in the mid-sixties, including rocket launches and collaboration with work by NASA during the same period, that was actually at least mildly significant. 

I don't know why I find this fascinating.  Part of the reason is that, as part of a running joke about "good names for rock bands" with some friends many years ago, one of the most popular ideas for a name for a rock band was "The Mexican Space Program" – perhaps because it goes against cultural stereotypes, and inevitably conjures images of some vato-ized low-rider space shuttle or maybe a burro in a space suit and a meal of freeze-dried tacos.

But I've also been fascinated because Mexico, as the one of the most "developed" of the developing-world nations, and as a significantly sized nation in terms of GDP and population, deserves one, and it has been one of the few mid-wealth nations in the world not to have one in recent times (compare Brazil or India – or Korea, for that matter – all of which have space programs, if not terribly ambitious ones).

Other thoughts…

Sometimes I feel as if I'm getting to be a first-hand witness of a major generational shift here in Korea.  Without exception, my students come from basically middle-class, suburban families cast in a "1950's America" mold:  father works, mom stays home, 2.1 children.

Yet as I interview my students and ask them about their interests and ambitions, I get some startling answers:  boys who want to be sushi chefs, graphic artists and lounge singers rather than the typical businessmen or engineers, and girls who energetically discuss their plans to be police officers, chemical engineers, politicians, dentists and even one who told me confidently that she intended to be a world-traveling "free spirit" (not quite sure where she picked up that phrase, though I suspect I must have given it to them at some point). 

The young of any generation exhibit more ambition than they ever live up to, of course.  That's human nature.  But I find it fascinating that I am getting to participate in my very tiny way in what will be the first generation of Koreans who are growing up in a world where men and women are no longer so constrained to traditional roles, and where anything if possible, at least in their dreams.

Caveat: 미국인?

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Teaching & Methodology / The Wonders of Work

I was surprised to overhear someone I passed on the street uttering 미국인 (migugin – American) in reference to me.  How can they tell? Do people just assume I'm an American? There are many foreigners in Ilsan, but I have come to believe Americans are not the most common sort: there are Canadians, Brits, Ozzies and Kiwis, Indians, Vietnamese, and others.  So does 미국인 stand for any kind of westerner?  It very specifically means "U.S.A.-person."

In other news… RingGuAPoReomEoHagWon's administrators are showing their inexperience. The curriculum is adrift, as complaints from parents, frustrations with student satisfaction, etc., drive them to experiment and change things around.  It's quite frustrating to have to be on the "receiving end" of this – it seems like not a week goes by when there isn't some change in what text I should use, or what method I should use, or even what group I should teach or what I should focus on.  There is still a consensus that they seem to want to use me for the "speaking skills" teacher (as opposed to e.g. writing, reading, listening skills).

But now I'm looking at this book they want me to use that seems only marginally connected with actual communicative speaking ability, and I just don't know how to explain any more clearly than I already have that if we use this book, we won't be improving speaking skills – it's all about grammar, parts of speech, periphrastic verbs and vocabulary building.  Speaking skills grow only through practice, practice, practice. You can know all the grammar in the world, but you won't speak well without that.

Caveat: Spokesoegugin

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

The last two days, we've been having a sort of parent-teacher conference thing, in the hours before school (1-4 roughly).  So, extra hours, as a consequence.  And, of course, anytime the parents wanted to talk to me, it ends up having to be translated.  Yesterday, only one parent wanted to talk to me, and I felt like I was just a token Foreign Teacher to sit there and look useful.  Today, Keith was my translator, and I actually talked with quite a few mothers – it's all mothers, as the Korean family is still much more traditional than in North America.

It was entertaining to try to guess who was whose mother – I didn't always get it right.  But now I feel very tired.

Caveat: … furiously

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / Quotable / The Wonders of Work

I continue to struggle with my alleged boringness. It's a common enough criticism that I cannot dismiss it. How do I become a less boring teacher? A less boring person. There were many things I didn't want to become, in life… and boring was one of them.

Mientras tanto, some (boring) quotes:

"We don't want to be swayed by superficial eloquence, by emotion and so on." – Noam Chomsky

"It can only be the thought of verdure to come, which prompts us in the autumn to buy these dormant white lumps of vegetable matter covered by a brown papery skin, and lovingly to plant them and care for them. It is a marvel to me that under this cover they are labouring unseen at such a rate within to give us the sudden awesome beauty of spring flowering bulbs. While winter reigns the earth reposes but these colourless green ideas sleep furiously." – C.M. Street

Caveat: Price-placebo effect

Banalities & Journaling / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

Recent publications by psychologists and/or economists have been discussing amazing neurological evidence to support what's called the price-placebo effect: that we actually derive more REAL efficacy from things we pay more for.  More pleasure from higher-priced wine, more boost from higher-priced energy drinks, etc. And it's been raised recently in the sordid context of the Spitzer scandal.

But I started thinking:  in light of this, I wonder whether it's really in our national interest to work hard to lower the cost of prescription drugs and medical care? Perhaps the high price of drugs and medical care in America is directly linked to their efficacy?

Caveat: SpongeBob Lumberjack

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online

I just learned that Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob Squarepants, is an alum of Humboldt State University – which, broadly speaking, is a sort of "first university" for me – though only by the broadest definition am I an actual alum, I do have credits from there, and I grew up practically on campus, as a child.  Somehow it seems rather explanatory, that SpongeBob has roots – in a sense – in Humboldt.

Caveat: I Love Alligator

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

This was something a student told me today: "I love alligator."

"Alligator" is a toy that I bought – Grace had bought one before, and I thought it was such a great idea, so I got my own. For 4 dollars, I got a plastic alligator: you open the mouth, and press down on his teeth one-by-one, and some random tooth causes the beast's mouth to close.  Each time, the specific tooth that causes the mouth to close is a different one.  It's useful in moments when you need to choose a "who goes first" person in class, for giving speeches or reciting memorizations or whatever – you pass the alligator around and the person whose finger gets chomped is the one who has to speak. 

I should post a picture of it. Maybe I'll take one tomorrow.

Caveat: Investing Adventures

Banalities & Journaling

Well, the recent situation with the stockmarket has made me grateful that I decided to live off my savings last year – last summer I drew down my equities positions substantially, and, in a move that was pure luck, parked a chunk of what was left in gold (thinking in terms of risk-reduction since I was looking ahead to such a huge drop in income).  This turns out to have been exactly the right time to do that.  The rest is in cash, and with the start of January, I also liquidated all of Jeffrey's trust fund and transferred the cash to him for his 21st birthday.

The net result is that the recent massive downturn of the stockmarkets worldwide has hit me far less than it would have last year at this time.  I still have unpleasant positions in things like Oracle, Starbucks, Microsoft, Nissan… not to mention the ugly scene involving my money in index funds based markets in Japan, India, Russia and Chile, where the dollar isn't depreciating fast enough to make the losses in those markets look any less painful.  But… it's all paper losses, and the positions are all quite modest.

I certainly will not  make claim to any great foresight – it was pure luck – but on paper, my drawdown over the last 6 months looks like the work of an investing genius.  I'm feeling very self-satisfied about it.  And, not only that, but just by virtue of the fact that I'm spending my U.S. cash while I save my Korean salary means that I've been in effect transferring my cash reserves from dollars (sinking) into Korean won (stable) – although the caveat there is that in the last month or two the won and dollar have been eerily in sync, unlike any other major world currencies, which are all generally appreciating against the dollar.

Of course, there's going to be some overhead in moving this Korean cash back into the U.S. at the end of my stay here – but lately , having reached the halfway mark of my contract – I've been considering whether I intend to stay another year or move on to something else.   On the one hand, I'm frustrated with my failure to have found any good friends here, and disappointed with the limits on time off with which to travel.  On the other hand, I've really enjoyed the teaching (despite the various moments of annoyance) and I still feel a desire to get more inside the language and culture, which is of course a very slow project, even slower because of my bouts with lack-of-motivation. 

Caveat: 김치볶음밥

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

One typical Korean food that I have often enjoyed here is 김치볶음밥 (kimchibokkeumbap = Kimchi fried rice).  Well, today, I got adventurous, and actually made my own.  I chopped up some onion and browned it in some oil with garlic powder, added chopped up kimchi and a can of tunafish (and some extra hot pepper paste), and got this nice and hot.  I added my pre-cooked rice and let this all brown for a while, broke in two eggs and turned down the heat.  10 minutes later, I stirred it all up, turning up a nice crusty bottom and hacking up the fried eggs into it.  Delicious.  Probably I like it because it's so clearly unhealthy.

Caveat: Kids Bouncing Off Walls

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

Yes.  Literally, they were bouncing off the walls.  Some walls were damaged.  Some kids were damaged.  The younger ones in all classes were wackier than troop of crack-smoking monkeys today.  I think it had to do with the warm weather – at least 15C, breezy and springy.  I'm not sure how much English they learned today – I focused on synonyms of "crazy."

Sophia tried to sell me some "magic shampoo" that would make me "look younger" – I'm wondering if this was some kind of hint regarding my appearance.  She said it was $400 per bottle, but said it would also cause me to grow a handsome beard instantly.  I told her it sounded kind of dangerous, and asked what sort of chemicals were in it.  She didn't know about the chemicals, but said it was perfectly safe.  I decided not to make an immediate purchase.

Caveat: 한국말을 공부 안해요

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I played hooky from my Korean Language school yesterday again – third weekend in a row.  I think this means I have dropped the course, at least for now.  I've been having a difficult time motivating to get into the south end of the city to the hagwon on a timely basis on Saturday mornings.  I have a lead on a possible Korean language program that might offer some kind of classes more locally here in Ilsan, which I may try pursuing.  Meanwhile, I try to keep studying my lists of vocabulary.

On Friday night, I had my first experience with a dishonest business transaction since coming to Korea.  I took a taxi home, because I intended to overshoot my apartment building and run some errands at the Homever store.  The taxi ride was 2700 won, and I gave the driver a 10000 won bill.  I got three bills and some coins back, and because it was dark, I assumed I was getting back two 1000's and a 5000.  But when I opened my wallet later, I had three 1000's.  So, the cab driver shortchanged me.  I hate it when stuff like that happens.  I dwell on my stupidity on not catching it, all that.  The fact is, it was about 5 bucks, I shouldn't worry about it.  It's just annoying.

I spent part of yesterday evening poking around YouTube videos, looking up and listening to popular Korean girl-pop groups like Wonder Girls and 소녀시대 (so-nyeo-shi-dae: "Girls Generation").   These names have come up repeatedly in my classes when I ask topical questions such as "What is your favorite music?" and I was curious as to what the music was like.   I also ended up checking out some Korean hip-hop (they write it phonetically:  "힙합") and rap.  And it caused me to ponder:  if Korean pop genre is called KPOP, does that mean Korean rap genre is KRAP? 

Caveat: Trolleyology

Internet & Blogging / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

A brand new word, with two widely variant meanings.

On the one hand, Word Spy (a website for "new" words) describes trolleyology as the practice of a sort of amateur anthropology in which people judge other people based on the contents of their shopping trolleys (shopping carts), especially to provide a means of evaluating potential love interests.

On the other hand, I have seen a reference in The Economist magazine (Feb 23rd, 2008), as well as googled sites such as ZhurnalyWiki or the mckimmy ethics blog where trolleyology is defined as the study of a collection of hypothetical ethics problems au courant in philosophy writing, in which people have to make decisions about switching the routes of runaway trolleys (streetcars) based on variant numbers of lives being at risk.  I have run across this practice in my readings in philosophy before, but had never seen it called trolleyology.

It's a good word:  so young, yet already deliciously ambiguous!  I can already visualize a comedic skit involving people making ethics decisions involving runnaway shopping carts and potential love interests at risk, where the contents of the carts informs the decisions made.  Lends a whole new potential meaning to the idea of a "streetcar named desire."

And for some reason I have this vivid image of a trolebus (Spanish for trolley car) in a poem by the neosurrealist poet Miguel Labordeta, but I can't recall the name of the poem or find it using google.  But it was a poem definitely linked to mortality and love.  So in the spirit of this, I'll quote another poem by Labordeta, "La voz del poeta": 

  Acariciándolo todo, destruyéndolo todo,
  hundiendo su cabeza de espada en el pasmo del Ser
  sabiendo de antemano que nada es la respuesta.
  En lo alto del Faro.
  La voz del poeta.
  Incansable holocausto.

Caveat: The Smart Kids

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

My students in my ER1T cohort were messing around with their cell phones today, and taking my picture, and I was mugging for them and acting goofy, and decided that turnabout was fair and so we did a class portrait.
Normally I’m reluctant about asking to take pictures of people – I guess it’s a weird sort of expression of my shyness or something, but in the mood of the moment, it seemed like good fun.  The result is that for the first time, I will share with my readers a portrait of some of my students.
This is a picture of the ER1T cohort (mostly 5th and 6th graders, ages 12-13 – these are the young ones, but the really SMART young ones, and my absolute favorite class as far as level of fun and motivation).
picture
Rear row: Taylor, Gloria, Jane and Harry.  Front row:  Maria, Ellen, Edward and Will.
picture

Caveat: I’d Like to Buy 100 Robot Bees, Please

Banalities & Journaling / Kids / Life in Korea / The Wonders of Work

I have this thing I’m doing, where I have the students call me on the telephone (or pretend to), and try to sell me something. You know, training the world’s future telemarketers, and all that.
So my student Lainy just tried to sell me a robot bee, which was conveniently (and temptingly) named Jared-bee. I immediately placed an order for 100, since they were only 80 cents a piece.  I did this, despite the fact that the operation and/or functionality of the robot bee was not entirely clear… although honey definitely played into it somehow – useful for sweetening rice cakes, she said.
The weather has definitely warmed up a bit, and there are occasionally puffy clouds with cobalt-colored undersides that float around.  Still below freezing at night, however.  But spring seems to be getting ready to spring.
At this moment, I’ve prepared some ramyeon with added vegetables – cabbage, tomatoes and broccoli, and with an egg poached into it, for dinner.  And I’m watching tv, where I just saw a bearded man reach into his pants and pull out a piece of pizza.  Isn’t television amazing?
Here is a picture I took about a week ago on my cell phone, of a snowy street I about 2/3 of the way to work, walking from my home.
picture
picture

Caveat: Ontology Recapitulates Phylogeny

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

How is it I ended up spending 20 minutes trying to explain the above phrase to my Princess Mafia?  We got on the topic because I fell for the temptation of revisiting the chicken and egg question that Jung had raised the other day.  I'm not sure if I succeeded in explaining it, and what I took for looks of fascination could very well have been a simple hope that I would become so obsessed with trying to explain evolution and biogenetics that I would forget to conduct a "regular" class with them.

One lesson I've been learning lately: I have to be careful differentiating between deference and interest, here. 

Caveat: Dropping Like Flies

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

With the turnover to a new month, RingGuAPoReomEoHagWon has lost some students, and everyone (meaning Curt and Pete, really) seems to be in a dead panic over the loss of population.

On the one hand, I feel that we should have expected some losses as the school adopted its new management, policies and curricula – it's a big change from what the School of Tomorrow was, and I'm sure some of the students and/or parents were disappointed. 

On the other hand, I have my paranoia that I'm personally doing something wrong.  My insecurities.  There was a bit of a scandal around the PF class last week, involving the crisis I alluded to the other day – when they complained about how boring I was.  The class has other issues, I remain convinced – but as of today, I'm no longer teaching them – so we shall see, I guess. 

Caveat: Debucklified

Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

William F. Buckley died the other day.  I used to idolize that guy.  Not sure quite why… he was an arrogant ass, for the most part, although he had a pretty good command of language.

I have a vivid memory of watching a videotape of him and Reagan debating the idea of the return of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government for my debate class in high school, and thinking they were about as intellectually mismatched as two men could be.  Yet they shared a great deal, in terms of political philosophy. 

Caveat: Dust and Silence

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Life is a Dream / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc) / My Poetry & Fiction / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism

"The sweeping waste, hydroptic and coldly secular.  The silence."  This is the ending of a paragraph near the end of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which I just finished.  In some ways, a very typical bit of postapocalyptic fare.  In other ways, more spare and unprogrammed, maybe.  A gloomy, depressing book, though.

Oddly congruent with the current fall of yellow Mongolian dust – a seasonal visitation not uncommon in Korea, but rendered more worrisome now that it comes laden with the unquantifiable atmospheric  toxicities of Northeast China's vast industrial effluence.  All the cars were covered with a fine spattering of rain-patterned pale dirt, as the yellow dust had come accompanied by rain.  All the piles of snow have melted.  The cold, damp air tasted like sand.  It was easy to imagine McCarthy's world, as I read while riding the subway into Seoul to buy my Sunday installment of English-language magazines.

The last time I was so profoundly affected by a post-apocalyptic story was perhaps James White's Second Ending novella, which sometimes still haunts my dreams even though it's been thirty years since I read it (and I had to spend 30 minutes with google to figure out the title of it).  But overall I have always felt James White to be a vastly underrated sci-fi author. 

And speaking of underrated, I found myself thinking of Alasdair Gray's Axletree for some reason, recently too – the tale of  those men who build a babel-like tower to heaven, only to damage the surface of the sky and bring the deluge down upon Earth when it shatters. 

Then there's John Lucian Jones' story of the Protagonist – a robot-sentience from a machine civilization called in to solve the mystery of an extinct primitive civilization that seems to have stopped in its tracks just as these robot-people from a distant star were about to make contact.  We gradually learn that the extinct civilization in question is none other than Earth, as the Protagonist obsesses Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius-style over the ruins and artifacts. The stunning truth is that the robots themselves have inadvertently destroyed everything on the planet due to sheer ignorance of the possibility of carbon-based life.

Caveat: Excuses and Psephology

Banalities & Journaling / Found Online / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

"If he wins… Black people, we gonna have to come up with another excuse." – Comedian Wanda Sykes.  This is one of those jokes that only a black person – such as Wanda – is allowed to say. 

Indeed, I may be treading on the edge of offensiveness merely by quoting it.  But I'll give it a try, because it seemed funny to me, at the time I heard it.

I learned a new word this evening:  psephology – the statistical study of elections.  I rather like this word, for some reason.  Not as much as mereological, though.  I wonder, what would it mean to practice mereological psephology?  I'll do some research.

Caveat: Egg. Chicken.

Banalities & Journaling / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / The Wonders of Work

Some of my students had the assignment to "interview me" but I hadn't given them any kind of guidance as to what sort of questions they should ask.  I got a lot of interesting and different sorts of questions, but the funnest one was from a girl named Jung, who asked me "Which came first, the chicken or the egg, in your opinion?"  I hardly needed to hesitate:  the egg, of course – it's a matter of genetics, right?   I'm not sure she really understood my explanation. 

Caveat: No Love

Banalities & Journaling / Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Quotable

"Love is not for the faint-hearted, or for the self-possessed" – I think Rumi (Persian poet) said this.  Since I am both faint-hearted and not terribly self-possessed, I suppose this means that love is not for me.

Actually, it can be surprising the number times I get the question, "why aren't you married?" or its variants (such as why I'm not in a relationship, etc.).  And a number of people, both Koreans and non-Koreans, seem to jump to the conclusion that I must be "looking" for a relationship, and that my coming to Korea may even have something to do with this – given the commonplace that Westerners will have "better luck" finding a significant other in Asian countries (which I definitely don't actually think is necessarily true, either).

But the facts are more complex, and the net is – I'm really NOT looking for a relationship.  In fact, part of what lead me to make the decision to go off into an alien culture and go looking for new experiences was because I had reached a firm decision, last year, that I am meant to remain single.  With the idea of a relationship basically ruled out, it made it easier to let go of things like "career" and "place" and just go off drifting again. 

And so.  "But don't you get lonely?"  Of course I do.  Still… I'm happier with loneliness than I have ever been in a relationship – at least over the longer term.  So, it's for the best.

Caveat: 우우우우… 외국인!

Banalities & Journaling / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

When I walked out of my building yesterday morning, there were some children playing just at the doorway.  They froze in mid-roughhouse when they saw me, and one girl said, in a very loud stage whisper, "우우우우… 외국인!" ("oooooo… oegugin!" "oooh… a foreigner!").

I think the main reason I derived such an immense amount of pleasure from hearing this was due to the simple fact that I'd understood it. 

Caveat: Is Obamism a Sin?

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / Life in Korea

I just finished reading Obama's book, Dreams from My Father.   It is an extremely well-written book, and eerily inconclusive, considering it's written by a politician.  I was really quite impressed – it's the first time I've been that riveted by an autobiography in a long time.

So, does that mean I'm ready to come out and endorse him?  Well… not that far – not yet.  If only because I always resist, at a visceral level, the most popular option – and he's definitely flirting with "most popular" lately.  I'll maybe write some more about my thoughts about this situation later.

Meanwhile, the snow piled up on bushes and trees; it was lovely this morning.  And it got colder, unlike it normally does after a snowfall, so the white glittery may be sticking around for a while, this time.  Things felt all crisp and Minnesotaey this evening as I walked home from work.

Caveat: But… Do I Cough Boringly?

Banalities & Journaling / The Wonders of Work

On the one hand, I seem to have suddenly gotten sick again.  Similar symptoms to what made all of December miserable for me, with an added bonus of nausea.  On the other hand, after a heartfelt chat with the PF cohort, Pete (fellow teacher and nominal boss, now that Danny is gone) reported to me that they all said I was boring.  Now… I take this, to some extent, with a grain of salt – teenagers will report that any adult is is "boring" given the right context and question.  And their dissatisfaction with me is never far from sight – these are the same kids that used to be my notorious T2 group back when we were the Tomorrow School.  Still… it's unhappy news. A downer sort of day.

Despite this, or to spite me – or both – it started snowing when I was walking to work, and was still snowing 9 hours later when I was walking home.  Not heavy snow, but very sparkly, and the sidewalks were slippery, though only an inch or two appeared to have accumulated as far as I could tell.

So.  I know – objectively – I'm not a universally "boring teacher."  But with select groups, I definitely seem to receive more than my fair share of criticism in that direction.  Mostly intermediate kids.  With the most advanced kids, ability-wise or age-wise, I seem to do OK.  And I really have fun with the 13-and-under ("elementary," here), and for the most part they seem to have fun with me.  My absolute favorite class right now is my ER1 group from the Tuesday schedule (the second most advanced of the elementary students) – they take such joy in participating, learning, trying things out.

Where is this leading?  I have been saying that part of what this whole "go to Korea and teach English" thing is about is my trying to find out if I want to reconsider teaching as a career.  And despite the discouragement I have been receiving, I haven't given up the idea yet.  But I find myself considering a never-before-seriously-considered option:  that I might be best suited to going into teaching at the elementary level.  I mean, as a career – not just as a way to goof around for a few years.  This is a downright weird idea to me.  But I guess you never know.

Caveat: 민주주의의 의의

Banalities & Journaling / Language & Linguistics / 한국말을 배움 (Failing to Learn Korean)

The phrase of the day is:  "  민주주의의 의의."  Not primarily because of its meaning (roughly, "the significance of democracy") but because it's my latest addition to a reluctantly expanding collection of "impossible to pronounce" phrases.

Note that the syllable "의" is repeated four times.  This hangul's official romanization is either "ui" or "wi", but neither of these capture two complicating factors.  First of all, neither romanization indicates much about the real sound.  I would describe it as something similar to a cross between a French "u" and a Russian "ы", but more diphthongized.  But the additional problem is that it's one of those phonemes that shifts around allophonically depending on both word-position and grammatical role, with the consequence that the same symbol repeated four times receives three distinct pronunciations:  in the phrase above, transcribed, roughly, "min-ju-ju-i-e-ui-i". 

So, perhaps unfortunately, you won't find me discussing democracy's significance – in Korean – anytime soon.

Caveat: My Chemical Doppelganger

Background Noise / Banalities & Journaling

I have occasionally been surprised at the extent of my apparent ungoogleability – meaning that if you try to google me by my name, you find lots of things, but not me.  There are many factors which contribute to this, but the two primary ones are as follows.

First, there's  the coincidence of my last name with a common noun used in street addresses, and my having a first name wildly popular in vaguely Mormonesque intermountain subdivisions as a street name.  Hence there are thousands of webpages that will return with the names and addresses of random people who live in places like Idaho and Colorado, with residences on e.g. 1234 Jared Way, Lovely Mountain Estates, CO.

The other reason is a bit more peculiar, and certainly more distinctly the consequence of the ephemerality (or not) of the internet.  There is a very popular alternative rock personality by the name of Gerard Way, who apparently has a large number of slightly illiterate fans.  These devotees post unending declarations of love and fandom for Jared Way (thus misspelling his first name).  Gerard and his brother Mikey Way are from Belleville, New Jersey, and front a band called My Chemical Romance, whose song "Helena," for one, I rather like.

I got some poetic spam today:

Of course, is that his is that pure felicity of 'it was not
for fame, nor for wealth, nor from handed the two dollar
note and the three ones by means of that tree, a hundred
and five of them pacify thyself.' having said this, o lord
of men, nearly human. Through the underbrush the trunk tell
him that aswatthaman has been slain in battle.' form. The
evidence should be whether the defendant fire (called bhrig)
and hence he came to be called friend who is of a righteous
disposition, when.

I followed some random links around and found out that Murray Gell-Mann (a physicist who brought us the word "quark," a neologism which he lifted from Joyce's Finnagans Wake) has the same birthday I do, and is also left-handed.  Then I drifted a bit further, and ended up watching a Ziggy Marley video on Youtube:  "Love Is My Religion."  I've never had much of a thing for reggae, but I found I liked it.

What I'm listening to right now.

[youtube embeds added in 2011 as part of background noise.]

Caveat: Proof that James Joyce was Drunk

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea / Media (Texts/Music/Movies etc)

What do Hans Blix, Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson and Will Ferrell have in common?

They are all recipients of something called the James Joyce Award.  Can you even imagine that these characters have anything else at all that ties them together?

The day was springy.  I worked fewer hours today – a slightly shorter schedule.  I wrote a page-long document about some of my concerns about the "debate program" curriculum that I'm struggling with.  I came home and ate a pre-made sandwich I'd bought at the Orange store downstairs, and drank some grapefruit drink and watched Jay Leno.

And then Craig Ferguson came on:  the Late Late Show (these things are delayed telecast on the military channel that I manage to receive, here).  I've decided I can definitely get on board with a late night television host who can mention both Kierkegaard and Karl Marx during his monologue, which also included dog farts.

Caveat: Programmable Universe

Banalities & Journaling / My Photos / The Wonders of Work

I finished some books over the last several days.  I generally have 4-6 books “in progress” at any given time, and for some reason this weekend and this morning I wrapped up two books in succession:  Programming the Universe by Seth Lloyd, and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
Why was yesterday a horrible day?  Things happening at work, annoying me.  I don’t think I feel like going into it right now, but suffice to say that hearing third-hand complaints (student to parent to “homeroom” teacher to me) about how my favorite class is “boring” kind of has me feeling depressed.  I thought things were going well.
I don’t have much to say, I guess, other than that.  I’ve been working 10 hour days, Monday and today – grading papers, trying to come up with some way to make classes more challenging and interesting, within the boundaries of the curriculum.   And meanwhile, trying memorize my lists of Korean vocabulary.
A few days back I mentioned seeing a “basket selling” truck, and that I snapped a picture of it with my cell phone – but I failed to post picture.  So here it is – right on the corner of the major intersection where the school is:
picture
picture

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