The past couple of weekends our school has held their Cherry Blossom Festival and Sports Day on the campus. I’m in the process of compiling and editing video that I shot of the two events. Last Saturday was a beautiful day weather-wise, so I drove up to the school to take some photos and video of the cherry blossoms to include in my project. Here is a (very) small sampling:
Nothing ever changes in the English-language Korea-related blogging world.
I woke up this morning, turned on my computer, and read the news that the Virginia Tech killer was a South Korean national. Unfortunately for me, my first thought was of the blogs. I thought, “Oh boy, this is going to get ugly.” Sure enough, the usual suspects showed up at The Marmot’s Hole comments section readied with - depending on which side of the fence they’ve placed themselves - either their accusations or their rationalizations. You see, it doesn’t matter what sort of Korea-related news comes down the pipe, it’s all just fuel for the engines of two sides that, though they can’t admit it to themselves, would rather hate than debate. On one side you have those who are eager to flaunt anything that comes their way to flog what they perceive as deficiencies in Korean culture and/or mindset. On the other you have those who receive the slightest criticism of Korea as a personal afront and/or an example of cultural imperialism and proceed to pull out the “yeah, buts”. Actually, both sides are pretty good at the “yeah, buts”. And both sides are perfectly aware that they are not going to change the other’s mind, but that is not the point nor the desire. It’s an angry place filled with angry people partaking in mental masturbation. And now here I am with my two strokes.
Bottom line: thirty-two people who didn’t deserve to die have lost their lives to a sick and deranged human being. That, and only that, is what matters. Any attempt to extrapolate from that to bolster tired arguments that were here yesterday and will be here tomorrow is pretty damn sad, because the victims from Virginia Tech will not be here tomorrow.
7 CommentsSometimes it pays to be able to speak and understand Korean. In this case, it may have prevented me from being fired (and thrown into jail).
A little background:
I’m currently teaching at a foreign language high school in Anyang, but I also teach three hours a week at the girls’ high school adjacent to our school.
This morning in the girls’ class the theme was clothing and accessories, and I decided to combine it with a lesson on the simple present vs. the present continuous tense. I walked around the class asking the girls various forms of “Do you…?” and “Are you -ing…?” questions in order to point out the difference. For example: Do you wear glasses? Yes, I do. Are you wearing glasses? No, I’m not.
I approached one girl wearing the typical school uniform of jacket, blouse, and skirt and asked her,
“Do you wear pants?”
“Yes, I do,” she replied.
Alright, she seemed to get it. Next question,
“Are you wearing pants?”
“Yes, I am,” she said.
“Hmm,” I thought, “maybe she’s not catching on,” so feigning surprise I inquired again,
“You’re wearing pants?” - hoping she would pick up on the clue.
“Yes, I am,” she said again matter-of-factly. So I switched over to Korean and asked her again if she was wearing pants.
“Ohhhhhh. No, I’m not,” she answered, then, giggling, turned to her classmates and said (in Korean),
“I thought he asked me if I was wearing panties.”
Rare is the occassion when I blush, but I felt the blood rush to my cheeks upon hearing that. I asked her in Korean, “Do you think I would ask you that???” It turned into a good laugh for everyone, but I shudder to imagine the conversations that would have taken place throughout the day had I not clarified myself in Korean. Also, I was surprised by how calmly she provided an answer to the question she thought I was asking. Whew!
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