The best speech I saw at the KOTESOL conference this weekend was one that a lot of people seemed to skip, one that a friend said he wasn’t all that interested in, but which I found fascinating and explanatory of a lot of things I’ve seen in Korea. It was Language Policy and the Construction of National Cultural Identity, delivered by Amy B. M. Tsui, from University of Hong Kong. Professor Tsui discussed the history of English study — encompassing English as a foreign-language subject of study, as well as English as a MOI — that is, as a medium …
Month: October 2005
Sordello
Okay, six pages in, I think I know why Robert Browning’s Sordello was such a massive, career-destroying failure, and why it was so important for Ezra Pound that he mentioned it in his second Canto.
If You See “Gord”
A bit later today, I’ll be heading off to Seoul for my first KOTESOL conference, which starts tomorrow and runs till Sunday. If you see a “Gord” walking around looking confused, amused, or starved for online access, it’s probably me. Walk up and say hi.
Poetry Reading in Jeonju
Lime called me this afternoon with some news. A co-worker, Jason, and I had asked her about whether poetry readings of the sort we’re familiar with back in the West happen in Korea. She said she didn’t know of any such venues or regular readings, but said she’d keep her eyes open for us. As part of the local traditional culture festival, there was a reading held at the top of a hill. It featured, according to Lime, some of the major voices in contemporary Korean poetry, all people from Jeollabuk-do. And before I give my honest impressions, I want …
Bum Suck and The Alternative
EFL Geek posted relatively recently (a few months back) about English Nicknames in Korea. Me, I despise them. I basically ignore any English name offered to me by someone who wasn’t born with it. I have managed to create French- and Korean-language identities for myself just fine without a new, fake name that isn’t really mine. I also think that the self-imposition of an English name is silly, since it reinforces the notion that Koreanness is incompatible with English-speaking, a ridiculous notion. I understand some people do it for fun, and sometimes in class I make an effort to acknowledge …