It’s been a busy day and I have miles more to go before I sleep… miles of grading to do, that is. Tomorrow, I’ll be making an attempt at sauerkraut, inspired by The Mad Fermentationist’s attempt (making, bottling), but for today, I’ll be digging into student work. Thursday night is the session of the Presentation Contest that I and a colleague will be judging, but tomorrow I’m off. More grading, some mazering (yes indeedy, that means meadmaking) and sauerkraut-making, and a trivia contest with some friends. Might as well get as much fun in as I can prior to the …
Category: KOREA
Like Magic
I had a student in my office last week who said something rather saddening. She was, of course, one of an endless parade of students who don’t know how to formulate a thesis, don’t know how to ask a fundamentally interesting question about the world, or rather, who haven’t been taught how one does so, but is now being required to demonstrate such skills… or so I thought. And I thought, it’s not their fault, but it does make me wonder and worry about how useful what we’re teaching them. We’re, in the collective sense. How coherent our curriculum and …
Did You Think About It?
Believe it or not, the title of this post is not a reference to the hordes of students who’ve been asking me to create a thesis for them for their Graduation Requirement Presentation. (Though it could have been. The last month or so has become a stream of one-on-one tutoring sessions for people who apparently were not trained in formulating a thesis and supporting arguments. Which… well, frankly, if you’re going to test people on a skill, you ought to be making sure they’re learning it first, or it seems unfair. And the real kicker is: the students need to …
Islamophobia in Korea, and the Story of Tablo
Those of us who have lived in Korea know that regardless of what most people think here–for I think a lot of Koreans, especially younger ones, are relatively open-minded by comparison–the bigots and morons get pretty loud, and they don’t seem to get challenged on it. (Maybe that’s normal in the USA or other places: I’m not sure. It sure wasn’t so normal in the part of Canada in which I grew up. We had bigots, of course, and there was a degree of ignorance about race, multiculturalism, and difference; my best friend in high school had experiences of going …
Mosquito Change?
By the way, the fact that there are still mosquitos flying around is what it is, but I’m wondering: has anyone noticed how different the mosquitoes of October are looking? They’re paler, and they have more prominent striping on their abdomens. I’m wondering if this is just a feature of Korean mosquitoes I never noticed before, or whether they’re young mosquitoes (though they’re kinda big, really), or perhaps this is some other species that’s spread North. And, of course, should the latter be the case, I’m curious about the different pathogenic profile of this new type of mosquito. Not to …
Momo: What Really Fresh-Roasted Coffee Tastes Like
If you haven’t had it, and want to know the bitterness-free, rich, gorgeous taste of actually fresh-roasted coffee, there are probably a few places in Seoul to pick up some beans roasted recently. The place I know is called Momo, and it’s a coffee shop (not a Himalayan dumpling shop, much as I may long for one of those) near Shindorim station. The beans aren’t cheap, but they’re also good, so I’d say it’s worth it. To get to Momo (or it might be called Momo’s, I can’t quite recall) go out the front of the Technomart building. Turn right …
Dear Mr. Shocked Subway Rider
Look, man… you get to pick two of the following three. Two maximum. You can… … stand right in the middle of the space through which people need to pass to get into and out of the subway car, in a way that explicitly blocks the exit to the subway car, and don’t look around to see if someone behind you needs to get out (or even position yourself such that you’ve considered the fact someone might want to get on or off the train). … act shocked when the force of someone trying to push through the rest of …
What Are We Fighting For?
Joanna Russ, the feminist critic and SF author, penned a book titled the same thing as this post. Complete the sequence: 20th… 21st… 22nd… Anyone whose English is reasonable–to the point where they are in a position to be holding forth on how to teach English–ought to be able to complete that sequence. Say, the organizers for a conference on new techniques in TEFL? When I see “Oct. 23th” as the date given on the webpage for such a conference, I pause and say to myself, “What are we fighting for?” On the bright side, I’m on at 5:00pm, so …
Abjuration
The wailing, the howling at every doorway, At every face seen, “Oh, sallow-cheeked bastard, Obeisances, now, I demand of you!” and amid Hundreds of books, all read, you deign to lecture Me thus? That I may do this, that I oughtn’t to say That? That you have decided this defect of my blood– In the narrow, empty chamber of your head–means I do not care, I could not ever understand? You dare To tell me what words I may and must not speak? You moron, piss-stain down the front of your pants At the slightest hint of disagreement; you are …
Whose Fault Is It?
Chris in South Korea calls Korea’s English education system psychotic, and his post here ends with some very sensible ideas on what needs to happen for it to become not-psychotic: Make English tests related to actual speaking and comprehension ability, not the ‘ability’ to pass a test. These are the hardest things to test, admittedly, but there are ways to test via a neutral third-party. Someone with no connection to either student or school – perhaps a third-party test center that connects to a call-center of trained native English proctors / testers. Indeed, a real step forward would be to …