For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Conclusions I’ve already traced how I think these influence interactions among expats, and between expats and Koreans, as well as generally what I think the causes and consequences are. As for what to do about these fallacies — and others, which, if you think of any, I’d appreciate you point out in the comments! — I think that, as with the …
Category: KOREA
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 5
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy #5: Separate But Equal This is one of those subtle fallacies that leads to a very off-putting dynamic in many expat gatherings. It is gendered, though maybe it expresses itself in other ways I’ve not seen. I don’t tend to join in on foreigner-gatherings, but when I do, it almost never fails. You see a table surrounded not …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 4
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy#4: It’s My Right (Sung to the tune of Bon Jovi’s “It’s my life.” Heck, I’ll even throw in the video for you to listen to as you read the rest of this.) I once heard a British woman speaking in loud, slow English to a Laotian waitress, with a very thick accent. So thick it was hard for …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 3
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy #3: Everyone’s Got Standards Not to be confused with the Korean Social Fallacy of the “Good Expat” versus the “Low Quality Expat” (one that has also started to creep into expat discussions and thinking, mind you), this is the social fallacy wherein certain expatriates see the role of the expatriate in Korea, at least, as sharply delinated in …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 2
For those just joining us, this post is part of a series. I recommend that you skip this post for the moment, and check out the menu at the bottom of the post to start reading these in order. Expat Social Fallacy #2: He/She Isn’t the Problem, Korea Is… … and that’s why, for example, he/she bitches all the time. This second Expat Social Fallacy isn’t restricted to bitching and complaining, of course. The “difficulty” of living in Korea becomes an excuse for all kinds of behaviours: illegal, stupid, antisocial, boring, and otherwise. But the case of bitching is a …
Expat Social Fallacies, Part 1
For those who don’t know of the thing I’m riffing on, well, you should go and give a gander to The Five Geek Social Fallacies. It’s a list of five fallacious beliefs that many geeks seem to take for granted, and which all too often (and too-annoyingly) govern social interactions among geeks, along with some psychological analysis of why this is the case. It seems to me that there are also some Expat Social Fallacies, some analogous to the Geek Social Fallacies, and probably for comparable reasons. Over the next five days or so, I’ll be trying to identify some …
Indonesians Avenge the Mangling of English on Korean Notebooks by Mangling Hangeul on 대어 오ㅜㄴ 노트보ㅗㅋ
Often, expats in Korea like to share some of the crazy English that they see on things like the covers of notebooks, on T-shirts, and so on. I myself included one example–taken from a T-shirt I got at the Jeonju International Film Festival several years ago–in a story titled “Country of the Young,” where a carry-bag has the enigmatic phrase, “And Of Course Carrot!” which, if you know enough Korean, is not at all enigmatic. Basically, it’s a transliteration of a pun. As far as I understand it, in Korean, 당연 (dang-yeon) means “naturally, of course, certainly”, and a similar-sounding–but …
What Is and Isn’t Fun About a Sigmoid Endscopy
Don’t worry, I won’t give you the gory details, but: WHAT’S NOT FUN ABOUT A SIGMOID ENDOSCOPY… Er, well, there’s the obvious. Like, those alien abduction reportees? They picked a doozy of a procedure for their imaginary aliens to perform on them. (1) Various other minor side effects afterward, like, er, well, scentless flatulence (2) and mild discomfort from being pumped full of air. WHAT CAN BE FUN ABOUT A SIGMOID ENDOSCOPY… Cheap, legal narcotics. I was flyin’, folks. Well, until the procedure began. Then I was just dizzy, but, hey, whatever. It didn’t hurt, at least. Seeing your insides. …
Addendum: The Gorbals Vampire & More
This is an addendum to a previous post. I recommend you go read that first, and then follow the link at the end of the post to read this one. However, if you’ve already checked that out, then have at:
Online Gaming Kills Baby (A Korean Media Fairytale)
UPDATE: I’ve added an addendum to this article. The link is, appropriately, at the end. ORIGINAL POST: Here’s something on the ongoing theme of gaming, since I’ve been writing about that. A few weeks ago, my friend Marc Laidlaw (who barely blogs, but here you go), who is not only a speculative fiction writer but also a game designer over at Valve, sent me a link reporting the case of a child who starved to death in Korea while its parents were raising a virtual baby in an online game. The article (and most of the others I’ve seen on …