The video for PSY's new single is hilarious, and the song is damn catchy. It definitely made me a bit homesick for the sketchy bar districts in Seoul, even if I have decided I'm officially too old for that shit.
For those of you who want the Korean lyrics to this new earworm, here they are (courtesy of jumpersjump). It took me longer than it should have to find proper Hangul lyrics instead of awful romanized crap, so I'm doing my part to signal boost:
American news reporting on North Korea continues to astound me, and I mean that in the least generous way possible. Maybe in another life I would have been an international correspondent or writer covering the situation on the Korean peninsula, but—oh well. Despite the fact that I am probably preaching to the choir, I am still irritated enough that I feel compelled to provide you, dear faithful blog reader/Internet searcher who has stumbled across my blog/family member, with the means to educate yourselves if you so please! Here are Internet things dealing with the Koreas that I like:
Ask A Korean! - This is the best English language blog on South Korea, for fairly obvious reasons. (Those reasons are: it's written by a Korean who writes well.) If you are an expat blogger you probably follow him already (and if you don't, you should). While The Korean currently resides in California, he keeps abreast of news and I see stories on his blog that I don't see anywhere else in English. He's also written a few well-researched and extensive series on assorted issues in South Korea: the presidents, the suicide rate, the financial crisis, etc.
The downside is that The Korean is a lawyer, so he can get called away from blogging for long periods of time. He also is a bit of a food and language snob, so once in a while there are rants about the purity of Korean food or language or whatever that makes me roll my eyes, but he seems to know that he's being irrational.
For those of you that care, The Korean also does not apologize or care about being flamingly, staunchly liberal.
If you are at all curious about Korea, this is the blog to add to your feed.
NK News - I don't follow this one but I read it occasionally. Any article here will certainly provide more depth and insight than most American news programs.
Daily NK - What makes this news site exceptional is that it's run by North Korean defectors who still have ties back home. The result is not only real information instead of meaningless echo chamber speculation, but a more nuanced look into the country beyond the international image of one crazy (or corrupt, or both) leader and a vague notion of hungry citizens. If you follow nothing else from this list, follow this one. The link here is to their English page; they publish in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese as well.
Justice for North Korea - The Facebook page for the charity my friend Breda works at. She's a grad student in international relations at Korea University, with a focus on North Korea and reunification, so Breda is not a stupid ignorant American when it comes to the issues. She (and maybe some of the other JFNK volunteers) maintain the Facebook page and regularly post links to assorted articles that are usually insightful and nuanced interpretations of events. (I say "usually" only because I will skim past articles now and then and not read them, so I can't vouch for EVERY SINGLE THING posted.) It's always in English, no worries.
Despite recent shenanigans with Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters (I'm still undecided on if that was good, bad, both, or neither), VICE magazine has a few (mostly) good series on North Korea:
Sometimes it kind of becomes more of a "check out this insane country" rubber-necking spectacle than actual journalism, but not so bad it's distracting or obnoxious or whatever.
Also there are some books that are good. Here are ones that I like:
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader - It is definitely a bit outdated (last updated in 2010), but holy shit this tome on North Korea is fairly exhaustive and great and I will definitely be re-reading it in the near future to re-absorb things I missed the first time.
Korea's Place in the Sun - Bruce Cumings is basically the senior White Expat Expert on Korea, though not without controversy. This book was banned in South Korea for a while (I think by Chun Doo-hwan?) and at least one other Korean specialist has accused him of being a North Korean apologist, so there you go. I haven't read this one, but I did read his history of the Korean war, which I felt was very thorough and as impartial as possible.
This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood - This one is a short, easy read that sometimes suffers from language clunkiness (translated from Korean to French to English, as I recall) but is invaluable as a firsthand account of living in North Korea written by a North Korean. It's not Escape From Camp 14 which I can't bring myself to read, despite my interest in North Korea, because I KNOW it'll be depressing. If you feel the same way, this one is a good substitute.
Happy Pi Day! And to my friends still in Korea, happy white day!
My boyfriend just made me aware of this very cute open source animated short. I regret that he didn't show me earlier because I'm sure my kids would have loved it! So I'm sharing it now, in case it may be useful for my teacher friends who are still teaching.
You could use it for so much! Season vocabulary (since it's obviously springtime), animals, simple past, sequencing, and descriptions, just to name a few.
For other videos I've found, check the Multimedia Monday tag. If you don't have Internet access in your classroom (but you DO have a computer), I recommend using YouTubeDownloaderHD to save the movies to a thumb drive.
Oh hey, I'm still here. I've been meaning to do some student profiles, before they slip out of my memory (I had so many good kids at my last hagwon), but I guess I can't bring myself to do it.
What I CAN bring myself to do, though, is bitter, incompetent parody. I started working on this—a parody of Rockin' the Suburbs changed to reflect some of the worst foreigners I ever met in Korea—a couple years ago and, inspired by Douglas Kim's "I'm Asian American," decided to finish it today. First, enjoy Kim's version, because it's great:
That said, here's my own Rockin' the Suburbs parody. It'd be my dream if someone recorded this. Maybe I'll record it myself when I have the time. (Hah! Fat chance.)
Rockin' Korea (White Whine Anthem) With apologies to Ben Folds
Let me tell y'all what it's like
Being male, middle class, and white.
Despite my privileges I still believe
I'm an oppressed minority.
Sham on!
I got shit posted on my blog
It's so hip, please follow along
While I drink in Itaewon
And sing Journey in the noraebang.
I'm rockin' Korea,
Just like Doug MacArthur did.
I'm rockin' Korea;
Only care when it's me that's exploited.
I'm rockin' Korea!
Cash the checks and drink the booze.
After all, I'm not Korean, why should I follow all their rules?
I'm pissed off, it's because I'm white
That people push on the subway line.
Ajosshis, you make me so uptight
Gonna rant in the bar tonight.
All I do is piss and moan
But never, ever go back home.
I'm rockin' in Korea,
Just like Bella Bishop did.
I'm rockin' Korea;
Only care when it's me that's exploited.
I'm rockin' Korea!
Cash the check and drink the booze.
After all, I'm not Korean, why should I follow all their rules?
In a haze today,
What the fuck did I do last night?
I can feel that something's not right
I can feel that someone's next to me
in bed! I'm dead,
I don't want a K-girlfriend!
'Cause all the guys who post on Dave's place
Have well assured me that Korean girls are cray.
It wasn't my idea,
It wasn't my idea,
It never was my idea.
I just went to Hongdae
For some soju stress relief.
Ya'll don't know what it's like
Being male, middle class and white.
Y'all don't know what it's like,
being male, middle class, and white.
Y'all don't know what it's like,
being male, middle class and white.
Y'all don't know what it's like,
being male, middle class, and white.
It gets me real pissed off and it makes me wanna say
It gets me real pissed off and it makes me wanna say
It gets me real pissed off and it makes me wanna say
씨 발~~~~!
Just like Alan Alda did.
I'm rockin' Korea;
Only care when it's me that's exploited.
I'm rockin' Korea,
Cash the checks and drink the booze.
After all, I'm not Korean, why should I follow all their rules?
Fuck this place~
Yeah, yeah!
I'm rockin' Korea,
yeah, yeah!
I'm rockin' Korea,
yeah, yeah!
You better watch out, because I'm gonna say 씨 발.
You better watch out, because I'm gonna say 씨 발.
You better watch out, because I'm gonna say 씨 발.
You better watch out, because I'm gonna say 씨 발.
For posterity, allow me to document my experience with the Uijeongbu Pension Office.
It went about as smoothly as the Internet would indicate; however, either there's been a slight rules change or the official I talked to was a jerk. When I went, the clerk refused to take any of my bank information (SWFT code, address, account number) from me. She would only take it from a receipt from the bank...even though the bank receipt would be based on the same information she wouldn't accept from me. Uh, what?
She also refused to just let me cash it out; I could either wire it home, wire it to a Korean account, or set up a new bank account in the bank downstairs and transfer it there.
So I just sucked it up, went to the bank to send my money home, and came back with the bank receipt, and it was all good.
And icing on the bad service cake: despite working at the FOR FOREIGNERS desk, seeing my American passport, and hearing me fail miserably at Korean (stress + my crappy Korean = crappier Korean), she didn't use English with me at all until I broke down and gave a sad, "I don't know, I just need to send this money home," in English. And then perfectly fluent English. What.
It was not a pleasant experience at all, but I suspect it was mostly due to this particular government worker being kind of a bitch.
WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE UIJEONGBU PENSION OFFICE
(as of 11/2012)
Passport
ARC
Proof of leaving (printed flight itinerary works just fine)
Receipt from a wire transfer at your bank with: SWFT code, bank name, bank address, account number, and bank branch number
HOW TO FIND THE UIJEONGBU PENSION OFFICE
From the new Uijeongbu Station/Shinsegae department store, take exit 2, towards City Hall. Go past the building with the THC 9 theater. Cross the street; "Wedding Palace" will be on your left. The Uijeongbu Pension Office is in the next building, "Samseong Sang Myeong." (NB: The name is only in Hangul: 삼성생명 or something similar.) Don't make any turns at all once you leave the station, just make a beeline out of exit 2. The Pension Office is on the second floor; you can take the elevators dead ahead or take the curving staircase to your left.
As I leave the country on Friday(!!), I've been saying goodbye to a lot of people. I've never been very good at goodbyes, in that I am kind of resistant to any kind huge change at all ever, so it's been rough (but I'm glad I took a month off to do it). There is definitely a different attitude, on my end, between saying goodbye to my other foreign friends and to my Korean friends.
My foreign friends here are all ~*~free spirits~*~, as in they put stock in traveling and seeing the world and so forth. They know there's a couch in Stockholm for them; it's not goodbye, it's see you later, as the saying goes.
My Korean friends, though, are mostly of an age where that traveling is more or less behind them. They have already traveled and done all of that and now it's time to find a career. Either that or they're of the aggressive and ambitious type who intend to get into a career as soon as they can; forget taking time off to travel. Those goodbyes are goodbyes. They sting. And while I intend to come back to Korea, who knows if I will. Who knows if time won't diminish our friendships.
I've been singing a lot of this recently. It definitely makes it on to my "Korea: Round Two" soundtrack. It keeps me sane to insist to myself that we will meet again.
The views expressed herein are entirely my own and are in no way reflective of my employers, who shall remain nameless in the spirit of good common sense.
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