NCC-1492 and The Good Ship Daehan

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Who's Complaining in Korea

This is part three in a series. You may wish to read the above links. If you don’t: Part 1 discussed reasons why so many expatriates complain about Korea. Part 2 seemed to rush off onto a tangent mostly focused on Iksan, a small city where I lived for a couple of years when I first arrived in Korea, and the unevenness of its development. I ended discussing a landfill crisis there, and describing how young locals were all dressed in their usual stunning finery, promenading serenely past barricades of trash bags blocking the sidewalk. Then, with promises to return …

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PiFan Book Fair: SF/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller novels and Magazines… in Korean!

This entry is part 6 of 72 in the series SF in South Korea

Well, I was told I could pick up my tickets at the ticket booth today, but of course, I couldn’t. Somehow, though, I ended up at City Hall and noticed a huge display of books and magazines near the ticket booth. It turned out to be the biggest collection of Korean SF, thriller, suspense, and horror novels I’ve ever seen. I had already picked up some of the books, but I still managed to grab the following titles (in translation) for Lime: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (in hardback) Odd John by …

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Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind by Gerald Graff

This is, basically, an excellent book. Make a gift of it to those you know who are decision makers in departments. Read it if you want to help make things better for your students. More for those who want details, as well as my reflections on a few of the things I learned reading it, but for most of you who are teaching in departments (in Korea) where students actually have enough English to learn, you know, academic stuff, or for those teaching in the mother tongue of their students: trust me! Order it! Go! Now! University EFL teachers in …

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Montreal Fever Dreams, and More Recent Weirdnesses

This oldish post at Acephalous reminded me of some of my more unusual dreams in years past. (And, SEK, if you’re reading this, the dream you reminded me of most was the Malatesta one, later on in this post.) I really do sometimes wish that I was more capable of remembering dreams, or maybe I just wish I had better sleep schedule so I would wake naturally and remember my dreams more often. When I do recall them, these days, it’s very unusual. But I have a few good ones I remember… Perhaps the weirdest dreams I’ve ever had were …

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The Iri Yeok Explosion, and the Iksan Landfill Crisis

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Who's Complaining in Korea

As you can see from the links above, this is the second in a pair of posts responding to the question posed by Roboseyo and The Korean. If you haven’t read part 1, go check it out before reading this. If you’re not inclined to check it out, here’s the nutshell: To complain is human. I Whinge, Thefore I Am. To complain online is even more common. We’d be reading whining blogs from 1380 is blogs had then existed. Expats probably complain a lot because of a few specific reasons: Many expats are English teachers, a relatively stressful (and in …

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