The specter of “losing your English” is something that haunts TEFL teachers living abroad. I’m not sure if it haunts mommies or kindergarten teachers in the same way, but I’ve heard TEFL teachers tyalk about it since I first arrived in Korea, and I, yes, indeed, have even experienced it a little bit too. The idea is, well, simply put, with language, use it or lose it. We know this is true since we see it in our students. Those who speak English seldom loose it, even when they pratice for an hour a day in a class. When not …
Month: March 2010
Random Snippets
If I ever were to write an autobiographical account of my life in Korea, or a chapter on the same in a bigger autobiographical text (other than this blog), I would want to have all of the humor of the first twelve pages or so of Peter Mayne’s A Year in Marrakesh. That’s all I’ve read, but I’m sure the rest is funny too. Other Westerners I know have much better first-day-in-Korea stories than I do. One guy I know ended up on the bus to a totally different city, but, if I remember it right, didn’t know he was …
Shutter Island
This post won’t make any sense to you unless you’ve seen it. So… it’s hidden for those who would just be baffled. I think it’s sorta worth seeing, though it disappointed me in the end.
Says South Korea’s Minister of National Defense: “In Africa, Only Ig’nunt Negros(*) Are Running Around!”
UPDATE 2: Thanks to the comment by Sonagi, here’s the video of his remarks. He does indeed stumble on what sounds like the first syllable of the word “깜둥이” which, indeed, is the infamous N-word. (Note added: Actually, as Sonagi notes in the comments, it’s 껌둥이, but this is just a variant pronunciation of (as far as either of us know) equivalent meaning.) Also, the video seems not to be loading on my Firefox, but in case it works in IE I;’ve leave it embedded here. Here’s a link for those who cannot view it.) And as per Sonagi’s comment, …
Don’t Ask Why…
… it might be a felony. At least, in the “land of the free.” Er, not so much. I haven’t been following this, though I heard about the original incident, mostly because those two months with barely any internet meant I haven’t been following anything. But it seems that Dr. Peter Watts, a Canadian scientist and author, has been found guilty of, well, disobeying an order. That is, if asking, “What is the problem?” is disobeying an order. He’s also been slammed in the media, with accusations of violence and worse, all of which he notes have been discarded by …