Someone in my Facebook friendslist (whatever it’s called there) posted a thing about acupuncture and how it actually works, at least as an analgesic. And, well, yeah. Done right, it can work as an analgesic. It can work as advertised. Unless of course the practitioner is a total quack asshole who advertises that acupuncture (or other oil-of-smoke medications) will cure cancer. Somewhere on the Korean internet is a web forum where doctors hang out and chat, something like Dave’s ESL Cafe, and one of the long-running topics of complaint is how often patients show up at the conventional doctor’s office, …
Tag: KOREA
GBH and Unknown Famous Koreans
Be warned: this tune is slightly addictive. Not because Kylie Minogue is prancing about in a space-kimono getup, which is amusing the first time through, but because it has one hell of a groove. Not bad for 20th century music (of a relatively obscure sort — it has a poor release history, this track does). So is Towa Tei well known in Korea? Is it widely known that he’s a Zainichi Korean, or do most Koreans who hear of him assume (as does most of the West, I guess, and understandably) that he’s Japanese? It fascinates me which Koreans outside Korea …
My Name in Korea[n]
A few responses have come in for my post about Names That Ain’t Workin’ so I figured I’d add something about my name, the use of “foreign” names, and more. First, the last issue. I don’t really see the point in taking on a foreign name. Sure, it would give Koreans something to call me that would be easy for them to pronounce, and avoid them mangling my real name. (Which they sometimes do.) But I like to think human beings, languages, and cultures are flexible things. I like to think I could live in another culture and keep my …
Cosplay’d
Bizarre photo, I know. Miss Jiwaku suggested I pose with these two, probably because she found it amusing to see Koreans dressed this way; we were both quite surprised to see a costume like the woman on the left is wearing being used at all in Seoul, much less for a commercial property,on a Friday afternoon, in a mall. Cosplay is not a common thing in Korea — at least, not if you mean cosplay as in the costumes associated with manga or other superhero/SF/fantasy stuff. I’ve only seen it a couple of times, and this, the second time, it …
Coming Up: Beer Festival, June 12th
So Rob at homebrewkorea.com has organized a homebrewing SMaSH-off festival. If you’re not a homebrewer, you likely have no idea what SMaSH means, but it’s simple: Single Malt and Single Hop It’s a special kind of challenge that homebrewers take upon themselves, to keep things simple, and focus on their brewing techniques, instead of mucking about adding extra grains or other stuff for effects. Anyway, there are two parts to the event: the first half is for the brewers, who will sample one anothers’ beer and and talk shop.That’s already booked solid, but for most readers, unless you’re a homebrewer …
Names That Ain’t Workin’
When I first arrived in Korea and ran across one of those names (I think it was Beom Seok (read: Bum Suck) and mentioned it to other teachers, I was horrified by the story I heard of some kid in a hakwon class whose teacher giggled at his name, which indeed was something that sounded like “Bum Suck”; push came to shove and finally, when the parents found out that the name brought, to English speakers, images of someone sucking on a bum, they changed their kid’s name. I mean, talk about trauma. This isn’t an urban legend, as far …
There Are People They Shouldn’t Let Out in Public…
… and in Korea, many of them drive taxis. Monday evening, we met an extra special case of this, and it ruined a chunk of our evening. I wonder if it’s just the part of the city I’m in? I never have these sorts of problems outside of a stretch of city from Yongsan (where a random older bastard drunk tried to pick a fight with me for not saying “Hello!” to him with a hakwon teacher smile) to Yeokgok (where scumbag scooter drivers shout things like “slut!” at Korean women who happen to be beside a foreign man, and …
Why I Think Korea’s “Not Really Confucian” (And That Saying It Is Doesn’t Help Things…)
UPDATE (20 min after posting): Okay, the title of this post is probably a cheat for something much more complex I’m trying to say. This is a blog. Sue me. ORIGINAL POST: Today a student dropped by my office to discuss an academic project she’s working on, and we got into a discussion of whether we can lay blame for various patriarchal ills in modern Korea at the feet of Confucianism. During this discussion, I confessed that I don’t think we can. Or, rather, that I think blaming Confucianism is, like blaming Christianity, simply a lazy shorthand. This is not …
Stuff of Interest (From Papers I’m Grading)
While grading essays, I always encounter things that are interesting. I’ve decided to make note of a few of them, for a record if nothing else. In my English & American Popular Culture course, we’ve been focused on early-20th century American pop culture, but the students have written essays about late-20th century pop culture. (This is a way of giving them a chance to attack issues we haven’t discussed, as well as a way of giving them more time to research what they want to discuss in their final papers.) Anyway, some of the interesting moments, ideas, and thoughts that …
“Jazz? Yes Please… As Long as There’s No Actual Jazz or Colored Folks!”
UPDATE (17 April 2010): I feel I ought to clarify one thing, but if I put it here, it won’t make sense, so I’m adding it to the end of the post. ORIGINAL POST: There’s isn’t quite a sign up at the Incheon Airport saying that, but there might as well be. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I was talking with a student I know about this. He was scrambling for a topic to do with Korea reception of Western popular culture (past and present) and I asked him who the most famous American rapper is in Korea. Who is it? …