There’s a meme that’s floating about in Korea that “low quality English teachers” or “unqualified foreign English teachers” are multitude here. Well, and indeed, depending on what you consider a language teacher, and what you think the qualifications ought to be, they could be argued to be legion… but in Korea, “unqualified” or “low quality” is an ethical judgment: unqualified is often misused by Koreans discussing foreign teachers in English, as Matt points out here, and then misunderstood to mean something more like “dangerous” or “criminal” or “bad.” Of course, the facts of life in Korean society include a degree …
Month: December 2010
Call for Papers: Korean Cinema Challenges and the Transformation of ‘Planet Hallyuwood’
UPDATE (28 Dec. 2010): The date was extended, so if you want in, you have a good chunk of time now! ORIGINAL POST: I just got this from Brian Yecies, and figured I’d share in case someone out there has anything appropriate on the boil: Call for Papers 2011 Special Issue for Acta Koreana (http://www.actakoreana.org) Korean Cinema Challenges and the Transformation of ‘Planet Hallyuwood’ Guest Editors: Brian Yecies, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Wollongong and Ae-Gyung Shim, School of English, Media and Performing Arts, University of New South Wales After the government eliminated film censorship in 1996, South Korea …
Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying
In the metaphysical sense, I am, anyway: Everyone knows, you shouldn’t just a book by its cover… but sometimes I think you can judge a city by its cabbies.
The Land of the Morning Neologism
Yeah, I’m talking about Korea. John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar–one of the most neologism-heavy SF novels I’ve ever read–comes to mind quite often as I hear the new neologisms spinning out, month after month. If you’ve never read Brunner’s novel, then I suppose I’ll have to give you a few examples. 된장녀 (Dwenjang Nyeo) One, of course, was the 된장녀 (dwenjang nyeo), a truly nasty word that translates literally as “soybean paste girl.” Soybean paste, while the basis of a number of Korean dishes (like dwenjang jjigae), is basically a brown stinky fermented bean paste. It’s not all that complimentary, …
A “Knockout”
My friend Tinatsu mentioned coming across a mention of my work in an article by Paul Di Fillippo, in an article of Salon. It’s a very flattering mention, indeed, as it’s mentioned in connection not just to the Shine Anthology, but also Di Fillippo’s take on the perennial question, “Is Science Fiction Dying?” He seems to suggest both the Shine anthology and my story is evidence that it is not, or something like that: One of the best anthologies of recent vintage is Jetse de Vries’ “Shine.” Its virtues are easy to enumerate. It offers a clear-eyed theme and unique remit: …