I think it was the Marmot (linked in the last post, I’m feeling too lazy to dig up the link again) who recommended this worthwhile blog, titled Scribblings of the Metropolitician. The link I’ve provided is actually to an article on a topic I’ve posted about a few times, and which is important to me: the way prostitution in Korean society reflects and shapes the role of women here. Worth a read. Me, I’m adding this guy to my RSS feed and hoping I’m someday lucky enough to have a beer with ‘im… Oh, and another cool link from Marmot …
Tag: KOREA
Korea a Century Back: Historico-Photobloggery
Anyone curious about what Korea looked like a century ago might wish to look through this post by the Marmot before stopping in and checking out these photos. Marmot translates a lot, providing context. It’s fascinating and coming in handy for me, as I plod on trying to get this ghost story to smell, feel, and taste more like old, old Korea… in parts, anyway. Marmot’s posting it is a great, wonderful thing.
Korean Culture, Old and New: Starcraft Pansori
One of the things I talked about last night with Sang Joon was Seoul. He was telling me about his experiences there, and I was asking about what the cultural scene is like, trying to see how valid my own views are. He said the area around Hong Ik University is really different from anywhere else, and described all kinds of things he’d experienced while living there for a few months. One of the most interesting things he described was one day seeing a pair of women in kisaeng outfits (the Korean form of the geisha, a kisaeng is), dancing …
Marmot’s Sex Trade Articles
Over at Marmot’s Hole is a semi-recent series of posts about the sex trade, to one of which — Prostitutes need to eat, too! And where have all the Japanese gone? Canada? — I have posted a lengthy comment on what I think (yes, as a foreigner) can be and should be done regarding the sex trade and the status of women in Korea. And GI Korea also has some good thoughts about prostitution and, well, GIs in Korea.
On Korea’s Pin-Up Girl Culture and One Artist’s Take On It
Of all the works of art I saw at the Kwangju Biennale, and all the names of artists and works that I scribbled into my notebook, only one has come up at all on my internet searching: a work called “The Pin-up Girl Project”, or, in Korean, “Pin-up girl 되기” (Becoming a Pin-up girl”. I’m feeding these photos from a news article on Naver.com because, seeing as this is a work of art by someone who assumably cares what is done with her images, I’m not going to copy them and provide them on my own page. (Unless Naver asks …
Child Protective Services? Does It Exist In Korea?
Dealing with cultural differences in the classroom full of children can be bewildering, as Beth (at My Edited Journal) describes in her recent post, titled Death’s Door. In that class today I also got asked one of those “did the student really just ask that” questions. This one was worse than the others because I wasn’t sure if I needed to take any action on it or not. Luby asked if I ever thought about what it would be like to die. Do you mean what it’s like after death or the actual moment that I die? “The moment that …
Do students want foreign teachers?
Found at Simon’s ever-worthwhile Asia By Blog roundup: Scott Sommers has written an article about his perception that Taiwanese students don’t particularly want foreign teachers. There are some points in the comments section relating to the parallels in Korea, especially posts by our famous Blinger. I disagree with some of what Blinger says, such as the terribly superficial judgment on how real professors and teachers ought to dress, and I can say from experience that it seems to me professor who wear ties can, at least in some places, expect just as much ridiculous treatment from the Korean administration as …
Korean Weather Page With JEONJU In It!
Often it seems like you can’t get a forecast in English for Jeonju, the town where I live. A lot of online stuff uses only American military feeds, and the closest one here is in Kunsan, an hour away. But a few days ago I found this site, which offers weather information for Jeonju as well as several other major cities. I like how it breaks each day down into smaller periods and tells the chances of precipitation. Only problem is that for some reason the subpage for each city doesn’t seem to load in Firefox, so I have to …
An SF Image Realized
According to the Choson Ilbo, video phones are on their way in Korea. Not a very surprising report, but it’s nice to see at least one thing from the world of SF movies and novels making its way into reality. Though I doubt it’s because it was written about in SF novels. Hmm.
Something You Just Shouldn’t Do
There’s some good advice over at Goldbrick in Seoul about not doing drugs while you in Korea: Don’t do drugs. If you do them, don’t come to Korea and do drugs here. Wait until you’re back in Canada, or the Netherlands, San Francisco, Seattle, or wherever it is that trained you to think there are no consequences to violating drug laws. Combating drugs is a big deal to the Korean government, and picking on relatively defenseless and isolated potsmoking teachers is a lot easier than catching violent criminals. We understand that college campuses, dance clubs and gay bathhouses (not that …