… but sometimes you luck out and a couple of things that can be made work work show up. One of my students works at the library here, and she helped me by explaining that, no, visitors to the library can’t browse what’s on the shelves directly. The shelving is too narrow, and people just can’t fit in there. Now, if the computer system could output catalog lists that were easily human readable — database output that could be scanned in a single “page” instead of short titles (mostly the Korean titles) hyperlinked to summaries (and that’s where the original …
Category: KOREA
The Revenge of the…
This week in my Media English course, we’ve graduated beyond the critical discussion of advertisements to another set of categorization systems, namely, social hierarchies and stereotypes — both of which are completely inescapable in popular media, and both of which, I think, are universally present but interestingly different across lines of culture. We were supposed to have finished dealing with Chapter 10 of Derek Kirk Kim’s Same Difference, published as the bulk of his bookSame Difference and Other Stories. I’m taking the “nerd” as a kind of emblem of cultural difference, as a kind of symbol of the figure within …
Impressions
Work stuff, this is… some of my basic impressions about my new workplace. The bulk of the post is behind the splice, and it’ll take a click for the whole thing to be imposed upon your screen.
Marmot is no more…
… but luckily it’s just a name/site change. I’m looking forward to seeing it in its final, full glory. Currently Korea’s biggest blogger’s site is being called From the Nakdong to the Yalu.
Carla Bley and the Korean Prison Chef
As I live in Korea, this may amuse me more than those in North America. Or not. On what I think is the Carla Bley Band site, which is built on the theme of a musical prison — don’t ask what the heck that is all about — there’s a piece about how a deal was worked out, with Carla Bley scoring a musical residency in in Germany, and the WXW prison in America getting — you got it — a Korean prison chef. I told you it was weird. The rest of the site is bizarre, too. One more …
Too Harsh?
Is this too harsh to email to this guy? I was forced to pass him today, and he had the gall to send a thank-you email to me. Not that the twit would read it, but maybe I could get it translated. He deserves some kind of harsh response, considering the crap he pulled to get a pass in the class — rather disgusting as I’m sure you’ll agree — but I’m not sure whether what I’ve written below crosses the line. NAME, Don’t thank me. As far as I’m concerned, you don’t deserve the grade you got. NOBODY thinks …
Subterranean Doctrine? Part 1
Jodi over at The Asia Pages recently (a few months ago) wrote about the complexities of dating someone from another culture while living in that other person’s culture. Actually, she writes about it fairly often, and I can see why, because it’s a really big thing in your life, in a relationship. Occasionally my criticisms of things Korean — cultural, governmental, traditional, or what have you — have led to some pretty hard arguments with my (Korean) girlfriend. It wasn’t because I wasn’t sensitive enough, it wasn’t because I wasn’t funny enough or even because of any basic disagreement; some …
Some teachers are brilliant…
… and some are, well, not. I remember, when I was about to begin high school, how one of my teachers explained to us which courses we ought to select if we wanted to go to University. I was singularly annoyed to discover that even to get into a program like Music, it was advised that I study algebra and trigonometry. When I complained of this, Mr. Miner (or was it Minor? I’m not sure) looked at me and tilted his head to the side and asked, “What, haven’t you ever seen Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land?” He went on …
IPA fonts, anyone?
At the UCL Phonetics & Linguistics website, you can download IPA fonts. This might be of use to someone out there, so here’s the link.
Pullman on Teaching
Award-winning author Philip Pullman used to be a teacher, I discovered in this interview. And he said something very interesting about classroom dynamics: It took him a while to work out how to tame a class. ‘You mustn’t try to be the most popular. That’s not your role. The way to control a class is to get the chief girl, or chief boy, interested in what you’ve got to say. Everyone else will follow them.’ After a few years he begin to notice something. Though every child was different, each class was more or less the same, with roles to …