Gentleman, Or: PSY Trolls Everyone

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:

젠틀맨

알랑가몰라 왜 화끈해야 하는건지

 알랑가몰라 왜 말끔해야 하는건지

 알랑가몰라 아리까리하면 까리해

 알랑가몰라 We Like We We We Like Party 해 ~

 있잖아 말이야

 이사람으로 말씀드리자면 말이야

 용기 패기 똘끼 멋쟁이 말이야

 너가 듣고픈말 하고픈게 난데 말이야

 Damn! Girl! You so freakin sexy!

 Ah Ah Ah Ah~ I’m a…

 Ah Ah Ah Ah~ I’m a…

 Ah Ah Ah Ah~ I’m a mother father gentleman

 I’m a…

 Ah I’m a

 I'm a mother father gentleman

 I’m a…

 Ah I’m a

 I’m a mother father gentleman

 알랑가몰라 왜 미끈해야하는건지

 알랑가몰라 왜 쌔끈해야하는건지

 알랑가몰라 달링 빨리와서 난리해

 알랑가몰라 난리난리 났어 빨리해

 있잖아 말이야

 너의 머리 허리 다리 종아리 말이야

 Good! feeling feeling? Good! 부드럽게 말이야

 아주 그냥 헉소리나게 악소리 나게 말이야

 Damn! Girl! I’m a party mafia!

 Ah Ah Ah Ah~ I’m a…

 Ah Ah Ah Ah~ I’m a…

 Ah Ah Ah Ah~ I’m a mother father gentleman

 I’m a…

 Ah I’m a

 I’m a mother father gentleman

 I’m a…

 Ah I’m a

 I’m a mother father gentleman

 Gonna make you sweat.

 Gonna make you wet.

 You know who I am~ Wet PSY!

 Gonna make you sweat.

 Gonna make you wet.

 You know who I am~ Wet PSY!

Wet PSY! Wet PSY! Wet PSY! PSY! PSY! PSY!

 Ah I’m a mother father gentleman

 I’m a…

 Ah I’m a

 I’m a mother father gentleman

 I’m a…

 Ah I’m a

 I’m a mother father gentleman

 Mother father gentleman

 Mother father gentleman

Satire: Korea, Ben Folds, and Asian Americans

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.

On Saying Goodbyes: Foreign vs Korean

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.

Glorious Vacation: Day 1

I realized I should probably document my glorious vacation as well as I can, for posterity and all that jazz. So: a belated account of my first day in Gwangju!

After an afternoon to rest up and dry off in my motel room, Day 1 of the Glorious Vacation was spent on a museum binge. The Gwangju Museum of Art, The Gwangju Folk Museum, and the Gwangju Biennale (some kind of international art exhibit; apparently there are Biennales in other cities but Gwangju is the first I've ever heard of one) are all next to each other, so I hit all three in one go!

The first one was the Gwangju Museum of Art, which I think I accidentally snuck in without paying the 500 won entrance fee. My bad! The three main exhibits were: a variety of Chinese artists ranging from standard to kind of modern/avant garde; three kinda weirder Chinese artists; a Zainichi (Japanese of Korean descent) artist named Lee Ufan who is THE MOST BORING ARTIST WHO EVER ARTED. I still don't get modern art, you guys.



A whole gallery full of that. I just...what? It would be neat wallpaper or fabric, but framed art? Seriously?

The best part of that exhibit was the little biographical placque about the fellow who donated most of these incredibly boring pieces of art. The highlight: "Hopefully, his honorable and admirable spirit everlastingly continues to radiate."

I LOVE KONGLISH, YOU GUYS. I love how dramatic and pseudo-poetic this sounds in English because I can pretty much guarantee this is a word-for-word translation, with only word order changed (for the sake of grammar). Occasionally when Jong-min translates snippets of Korean subtitles in American news stories back into English, they sound more or less like the above—and it's not because Jong-min speaks weirdo quasi-archaic English.

There were some really cool art pieces too, that appealed to my more conservative, representationlist tastes. I really liked one that included a link to their  blog right in the painting. How Andy Warhol of them!

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to get a Chinese-speaking friend to translate it for me.

Here's the painting in particular that I liked:



Someone can earn all of the gold stars by telling me what the character in the painting means/represents!

Alas, finding anything else online seems to tax the limits of Google Image Search. They will just have to stay burned in my memory forever! (Because I forgot to put my memory card in my camera, d'oh!)

I wandered outside the art museum and followed the signs to the Gwangju Folk Museum. I love the Folk Museums in Korea, they're kind of tacky (and frightening, if you include some of the badly-stuffed animals....somehow weasels get the worst of it) but they're still pretty neat. I love old school museum dioramas and a Folk Museum is always, basically, a giant diorama. The best part was a display of all the different traditional Jeolla dishes, which was adorable and also kind of redundant. If I had to summarize the provincial cuisine in four words, those words would be: PICKLE ALL THE THINGS.

Also (and I'm glad I still had my notebook with me wherein I noted the most hilarious/interesting/appalling things) there was a mat made from human hair. I can't imagine reclining on a cushion lined with hair from my own  head, but then people shed SO MUCH it would be a waste not to use it for something "back in the day."

I still had plenty of time to kill before typical museum closing time, so I decided to cough up the 14,000 won (expensive, considering the last two museums were 500 won each) for the Biennale. It was a mix between really cool concepts and a bunch of hyper-academic nonsense. There were two installations in particular that I really liked.

The first was by a Mexican artist named Pedro Reyes, called "Imagine." I guess it would qualify as performance art? He collected like 1,200 unused weapons and, working with a whole team of people, turned them into musical instruments, The installation had a couple of the instruments on display, as well as a couple movies running simultaneously: one being the construction of the instruments and the other being performances on the instruments. They did a pretty cool version of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and, of course, "Imagine." Here's the guys just jamming out:


pedro reyes: imagine - musical performance from designboom on Vimeo.

The other one was called "The Shoes Diary: Adidas Tragedy Series" by Agung Kurniawan, from Indonesia. He did a small series of reconstructing Adidas shoes (there's a pretty big Adidas factory in Indonesia, apparently?) to make them really uncomfortable (in addition to painting designs) and had people wear them. The discomfort was to remind the wearer of all the trials and tribulations that political/civil rights activists go through.  He expanded it for the Biennale; his whole space was set up to look like a shoe store, and a TV in the corner played a video of his original demonstration of the piece back in whenever. There were a few different violent political activism incidents made into a different shoe (Gwangju, of course, was one of them; Libya, China, Egypt, and Cambodia were included as well). Both the shoes and their box were altered, ie the Chinese  sneakers had the outline of a tank.



I GUESS I LIKE THE COMMODIZATION OF TRAGEDY AS WELL AS A CLEVER WAY TO REMIND US COMFORTABLE RICH PEOPLE WHAT THE COST OF OUR CHEAP DISPOSABLE GOODS IS. Or something.

There were four massive galleries in all, so by the time I left it was near closing time and also definitely very dark. After a long, uncomfortable bus ride back to my motel, I scrubbed off in a jjimjilbang and had some ramen. Back at the motel, I had the worst time falling asleep because OMG ELECTION NIGHT OMG OMG, it was like going to bed on Christmas Eve except that you might end up with a whole truck full of coal instead of any presents. But hurrah, my anxiety was unfounded!

The Last Multimedia Monday (On Friday): Singin' in the Rain

I finish my job at the end of this month, which means I'll no longer be on the hunt for supplementary videos to show. (I've peeked ahead in the textbook: not very video-friendly topics.)

So I leave you with this, instead.

My lowest level classes have been watching Robots. There's a scene that is most obviously a nod to the Golden Age of Hollywood classic (and one of my all-time favorite movies), Singin' in the Rain.

That's the only footage I could find, sorry.

Anyway, I found the scene from Singin' in the Rain and downloaded it, unsure if I would show it in class or not. In two classes so far I've decided to screen it. Before that, I asked the students if they remembered the scene and what happened. Once I got an answer to the effect of "Fender sings!" or "Fender dances!" or whatever, I rolled the Gene Kelly video.

All of my kids picked up on it as soon as they heard the musical cue, and also thoroughly enjoyed Gene Kelly's goofy antics (and masterful dancing) in the water. (Though one boy did complain: "Ugh! So dirty!") They don't make 'em like Gene anymore.

I could see using the song in a present prefect versus present simple lesson, or just showing the video to kill some time. Either way, let Gene Kelly play out your Friday evening:

Or for a lesson on comparisons, you could also show the Volkswagen Golf commercial from a few years ago:

More Weird Pop Culture Appropriations in Korean Fashion

You all recall the 5,000 won tank top I bought because it had the Reel Big Fish lyrics, right? Of course you do.

A few days ago I spent 28,000 won on this shirt and I regret nothing:

"You know The Magic School Bus? What if we combined that with The 27 Club?"
"GENIUS!"

The cartoon renditions leave me a bit puzzled. I can pick out Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain, but everyone else I can only place by virtue of knowing who's in The 27 Club.

Is that supposed to be Morrison and Hendrix with Janis? If so, why is Hendrix white?! Or is the blond one supposed to be Brian Jones?

Kurt Cobain is driving, but I can't figure out who's supposed to be sitting shotgun. Is that Amy Winehouse? Why is she blonde? At first I thought it was Marilyn Monroe, but she died at age 36.

Also no comment on the "Foreven" destination, or "Too Young Too Die," or "Fan Sweat."

Multimedia Monday: Bollywood

The topic this week is Bollywood.

Yeah, I can't even.



Bonus points for English subtitles with the Hindi singing.

Multimedia Monday (On Tuesday): North Korea's Moranbong Band

The topic in my book this week is "favorites," which is pretty useless.

Instead, have this video that popped up on my Facebook news feed. It's a North Korean pops orchestra (in the tradition of Trans-Siberian Orchestra) performing "Gonna Fly Now:"

The Best Engrish Moment Ever

Spotting and collecting awful English slogans—often just strings of related words in a grammatical relationship best described as "vague"—from clothing and apparel is one of the anglophone foreigner's favorite past times. I was guilty of it myself during my first few months, though now I mostly don't give a hoot.

Mostly.

I was pawing through shirts outside a boutique in Bundang when I came across this:

Sorry for the typical Ebay clothing shot. I didn't
feel up to modeling it.

At first blush, it's unremarkable, really. A random image with some bedazzled bits and random English text: par for the course as far as Korean fashion goes. Yes, it is indeed way ~girlier~ than anything else in my wardrobe, for those of you playing along at home. Not only that, but it is not the most flattering of fits or colors for me.

Why did I buy it, then?

Because while I was processing the English text, I realized: This is familiar. I could a hear a man's voice singing these words in my memory, and after another ten seconds to let the song play out to the chorus, I had it pinned.

Alternative, Baby

Reel Big Fish

Well, I see you up on stage and I
don't know just what you're sayin',
But you're my hero.
Whoa, oh oh.
But a guy just kicked me in the head,
a little girl just passed out dead,
I'm in between a big jock and a sweaty skinhead,
but I love you.
Whatever that means.

But I don't wanna talk to you,
'cause I know I'd just say something stupid and
I know you've got
better things to do.

Hey, little alternative girl,
so don't you wanna be my friend?
You know I'm singin' all my songs to you.
It's all right if you don't understand.

Well, maybe I shouldn't be so serious, 

Tellin' you that everything sucks, 'cause I don't wanna 

bring you down.

But it never never works out right. 

I'm gonna lose, give up the fight. I won't get what I want,

won't get anything, but I love you.

Whatever that means.

And they don't wanna talk to me 'cause they know what I'll turn out to be.

 I said I was cool,

but I can't lie to you. 

Hey, little alternative girl, don't you wanna be my friend?

You know I'm singin' all my songs to you.

It's all right if you don't understand.

And I don't wanna start again

'cause I know it'll be the same in the end.

I didn't like it the first time anyway.

Hey, little alternative girl, so don't you wanna be my friend?

You know I'm singin' all my songs to you.

It's all right if you don't understand.

If you aren't familiar with Reel Big Fish, it makes it even more hilarious to realize that this is an amped-up poppy ska song from their 1996 album Turn the Radio Off. Have some YouTube. And don't worry: despite the parental advisory warning, this song is perfectly inoffensive.

Listen to that, and then go back and look at the first picture.

You see why I had to buy it, then.

Multimedia Monday: You've Got a Friend in Me

The first topic in the new textbook is "Friendship." And is there a better song about friendship than Brian Wilson singing Randy Newman? No. No there is not. And I really like using these typography videos in class, so bonus points for that.

I'm doing a simple gap fill with the lyrics beforehand, though listening again I realized it's really needlessly repetitive at the end. What the heck, Brian? Usually you're a masterful arranger but why did you add a whole bunch of nothing to the end? Randy Newman ain't no slouch, son.

Of course, I would be remiss in my Internet geekiness if I didn't also include a choice clip from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but I think it's a mediocre show so I can't be bothered to sort through the awful fanvids and brony nonsense on YouTube to find something for class. Remiss I shall be!

If you were interested, though, someone has subbed most of the episodes in Korean. I give you: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (and Korean).

Check out the other Multimedia Monday entries for short lesson ideas; you can use YouTubeDownloaderHD to save them to your computer.

Multimedia Monday (On Wednesday): Ben Folds

Here it's Wednesday (for those of you playing along in Korea, anyway), and I'm just now posting Multimedia Monday.

Truth be told, I was having a hard time for this week. The book topic is "in pursuit of perfection" which does not lend itself easily to videos.

Then, I got the idea to find songs with my students' English names. Just, you know, for fun.

I have two girls named Annie, one new and quiet and one old and chatty. It was the older, chatty one I had in mind when I decided to bring in Ben Folds' "Annie Waits:"



Lyrics:

And so
Annie waits, Annie waits, Annie waits
for a call
from a friend.
The same,
it's the same, was it always the same?
Annie waits for the last time. 

The clock
Never stops, never stops, never waits.
She's growing old,
it's getting late.
And so
he forgot, he forgot!
Maybe not.
Maybe he's been seriously hurt.
Would that be worse? 

Headlights crest the hill.
Shadows pass her by and out of sight.
Annie sees her dreams:
Friday bingo, pigeons in the park.

Annie waits for the last time.
Just the same as the last time.
Annie says,
“You see
this is why I'd rather be
alone."

And so
Annie waits, Annie waits, Annie waits
for a call
from a friend.
The same.
It's the same, was it always the same? 

Annie waits as the last
headlights crest the hill.
Who will be the one for ever more?
Annie, I could be,
if we're both still lonely when we're old. 

Annie waits for the last time.
Just the same as the last time.
Annie waits for the last time.
Just the same as the last time. 

Annie waits,
but not for me.

Which then got me to thinking: Ben Folds' lyrics are really good for ESL, aren't they?


He's a songwriter I admire for not only excellent musicianship (though, let's be honest, his singing is kind of eh) but genius lyricism. Despite linguistic simplicity and straightforwardness—as if you couldn't guess, I'm not a big fan of grandiose-sounding poetic nonsense in either my reading or my listening—he accomplishes a lot: biting satire to profound loss to everything in between. The only complaint I have is that he swears about as much as I do, so many of my favorite songs are in no way appropriate for a hagwon classroom. Here are a couple gems that are totally appropriate, though.

Learn to Live With What You Are

I know that you're in there,

I can see you.

You're saying you're okay.

I don't believe you. 

And now that the gig is off,

the spell is broken.

The fat lady sung,

The president has spoken.

These days that you were waiting for

will come and go

like any day.

Just another day. 

There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you

while the world is watching.

All you need is the thing you forgotten,

and that's to learn to live with what you are. 

So freak out if you wanna

and I'll still be here.

Don't call me for years and when you do,

yeah, I'll still be here. 

I'm not saying the effort is a waste of time,

but I

just love you for the things you couldn't change,

though you've tried.

These hours of confusion, they will soon expire,

like everything

does. 

There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you

while the world is watching.

All you need is the thing you've forgotten,

and that's to learn to live with what you are. 

Sometimes,

everything you've ever wanted

floats above.

He's sticking out his tongue and laughing,

while everything

anyone can ever need

is down below,

waiting for you

to know this. 

There's never gonna be a moment of truth for you

while the world is watching.

All you need is the thing you've forgotten,

and that's to learn to live with what you are. 

You got to learn to live with what you are.

Rockin' the Suburbs (the clean version from Over the Hedge)

Let me tell y'all what it's like,

watching "Idol" on a Friday night

in a house built safe and sound

on Indian burial grounds.

Sham on! 

We drive our cars every day

to and from work both ways,

so we make just enough to pay

to drive our cars to work each day.

Hey, hey! 

We're rockin' the suburbs,

around the block just one more time.

We're rockin' the suburbs,

'cause I can't tell which house is mine.

We're rockin' the suburbs,

we part the shades and face the facts:

they've got better lookin' fescue

right across the cul-de-sac. 

Hot real estate, rising stars,

"get rich quick" seminars,

soap opera magazines

40 thousand watt nativity scenes.

Don't freak about the smoke alarm,

Mom left the TV dinner on. 

We're rockin' the suburbs,

from Family Feud to Chevy Chase.

We're rockin' the suburbs,

numb the muscles in our face.

We're rockin' the suburbs

We feed the dog and mow the lawn,

watching Mommy bounce the checks

while Daddy juggles credit cards.

We're rockin' the suburbs,

everything we need is here.

We're rockin' the suburbs,

But it wasn't here last year.

We're rockin' the suburbs,

You'll never know when we are gone

because the timer lights the front

and turns the cricket noises on

each night. 

Yeah, yeah.

We're rockin' the suburbs.

Arguably these don't lend themselves to a clear-cut grammar objective the way some other songs I've posted do, but they would make nice low-key "reward" classes. The very prose-like nature of his lyrics (check it out, most everything is a complete and grammatically correct sentence) makes it pretty straightforward for English learners to follow. Not only that, I think each song presents a pretty clear theme/picture/element: a chain of unrequited love; advice to a friend; social commentary.

Beyond that, I think it's worth it to take time out from teach teach teach to present confidence-building exercises in proper context. Or whatever. By which I mean: my favorite method of language study is to pick pop songs and disassemble the lyrics, mostly because it's incredibly rewarding when I "get it." Barring that, whenever I hear a new song in a target language and immediately understand any of it, I also feel pretty good about myself.

Part of me also just wants to indoctrinate my students with my musical preferences, too. Not gonna lie.

A Korean Primer

Do you suck at Korean? Do you want to suck less at Korean? Me too.

1. 2000 Essential Words for Korean Beginners

It's not a textbook, it's a pure vocabulary book. I've finished three chapters so far, which hasn't necessarily worked miracles for my Korean, but it does give one that glow of satisfaction and accomplishment. You can find it at Kyobo books (about $10 cheaper than ordering it from that website). It has tables of irregular verb conjugations, it has an index in the back so you can easily look up words you don't know, each word has a sample sentence to demonstrate its usage as well as synonyms and antonyms, there are neat sections that teach Korean through Chinese characters (fascinating for a word nerd like me), and there's a comprehensive appendix with loads of useful tables and extras. My only complaint is that I wish the sample sentences were given English/Chinese/Japanese translations  as well, but I guess that's how you learn. Really worth the price.

2. Talk To Me In Korean

For the grammar and phrases to round out your vocabulary from the above book. Totally free, and available in either podcast form or PDF form.

3. Start Liking K-Pop

One of my favorite things to do, in terms of language acquisition/practice, is to translate song lyrics. If K-Pop isn't your thing, find a K-something. Try out Busker Busker:



Or Neon Bunny (야광토끼):



Or (last one) No Brain:



4. Find A Good Online Dictionary

And bookmark it.

What else do you do to improve your Korean?

Multimedia Monday: Korean Hip-hop Edition

This was the last weekend of the International Music Festival up here in Uijeongbu. Because I'm a cheap clueless git, I didn't see any of the performances except the guy playing the piano on an old-timey penny farthing bicycle:

Don't ask me to explain, because I can't.

This past Sunday night was the finale concert at the Uijeongbu Arts Center (a very posh place, by the way). The big deal was that Tiger JK, a Korean-American rapper of some renown, was giving a free concert with his wife Yoon Mirae. Since this was the festival's grand finale concert, it was stupendously well-attended. Not surprising, since Tiger JK was born up here in Uijeongbu and lived here until his family moved to America when he was twelve. Definitely some regional pride involved.

It was a good time; I wasn't blown away musically, but that's to be expected. Hip-hop is a genre I've only recently begun to appreciate. Plus, with rapping, a lot of the enjoyment comes from knowing the language and appreciating turns of phrases and word play. My Korean is just not up to par for that. That said, Yoon Mirae has great stage presence. I loved her.

It was also cool to see a pop concert that was obviously about showcasing talent and not just being a pretty face on a hot bod. Before Tiger JK and his wife took the stage, there were of course some opening acts of a similar ilk, whose talents seemed far more focused on singing and rapping than on choreography. The gorgeous weather and ambiance of the venue was just the cherry on top: not too humid, comfortable temperature, clear skies, families laughing, old guys selling goofy flying light-up toys or ice cream on the outskirts of the audience.

My mind wasn't really properly blown until after the concert, when I looked up Tiger JK on YouTube and found this:  the multicultural hip-hop group "Sun Zoo," featuring Tiger JK, Yoon Mirae, and Roscoe Umali, produced by Illmind. Don't worry if your Korean is as bad as mine, it's in English. It's very NSFW, so plug in your headphones; Mom and Mom-mom should probably just skip this one entirely.

Yoon Mirae has the second verse and Tiger JK has the last verse. I'm going to be listening to this on repeat for the next few days.

What I want to see happen (or what I want to find out about if it has happened) is a K-pop/Korean hip-hop star from Uijeongbu sampling "Suicide is Painless." That would make my life.

Multimedia Monday (On Tuesday) (Again): DJ DOC

The material in the book this week isn't particularly video-friendly (hey guys, let's watch videos of women in yoga pants stretch for twelve minutes), so have some K-pop that I really like:

Multimedia Monday: Bieber Fieber

The topic in my advanced classes' book this week is "The Power of YouTube." And who is YouTube's #1 celebrity? Justin Bieber, of course.

Thank God he didn't take down all of his original videos. Having the students guess the singer is kind of fun.

Multimedia Monday: Mick Jagger

This post is straight-up useless, but for me this is particularly relevant.

The latest fad at my hagwon is Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger." I've mentioned before that a lot of the curriculum with lower-level students at my school is based on English language pop music. Even with the advanced students, we (both myself and the Korean teachers) will play a song or two to kill some extra time in class. "Moves Like Jagger" is one that's been popular lately.

"What's Jagger? What is that? Who is that?"

"Dancer!" one girl suggested. Which, I mean really, is not that far off the mark.

"Ehh, almost."

"Singer?" she tried again.

"You got it."

I tested the waters to see if they knew which band, but no. I told them it was a band from England and the only answer I got was The Beatles. Cue my School of Rock inner fantasy.

Just to provide them some amount of context for the song, we're watching this montage of young Mick Jagger. Not the whole thing, mind you, I think the first thirty seconds ought to do the trick.

I already showed this to one class because they had been singing "Moves Like Jagger" when I came in. Since we finished early, I decided to be lazy and see how they'd react to this. We had the same discussion I just quoted above, more or less, and then I opened the file.

"This is Mick Jagger," I explained.

The revulsion was palpable. "Teacher, stop!" the most vocal student pleaded. I obliged.

"You don't like it?"

"No, it's very old. I like Green Day, like Basket Case. And American Idiot. And Holiday."

Multimedia Monday: New York, New York

The first chapter in my advanced classes' new textbook is on New York city. Unfortunately, The Daily Show's 2009 clip about "the douchiest sports fans" isn't entirely appropriate for a classroom setting—much as that impotent, forgotten-middle-child rage that is peculiar to natives from the Philly metro might have tempted me otherwise. Instead, I decided to go with Ol' Blue Eyes.

(I considered a scene from On the Town, because more than anything else I love Gene Kelly, but unfortunately there's none of his trademark choreography during "New York New York.")

My eldest and most cynical, burnt-out class hated it. Enough that I'm rethinking doing anything with it in my other two classes, but they're so much more open-minded and mellow than this particular class that I'll probably push ahead with it anyway.

Sometimes English teachers here are accused of having agendas and of overreaching their purview as teachers: as far as our work is concerned, we're not here in Korea to address social issues or "fix" whatever we may think is "wrong," our job is to teach English. Some teachers forget that, the argument goes, and they spend too much time thinking about how to address beauty or gender roles instead of infinitives and gerunds. 

Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. You could accuse me of the same, I suppose: why should I expect Korean pre-teens to go wild over Frank Sinatra? Why is it at all important to their language acquisition? The honest answer is that I can't really justify it pedagogically. I like music, and I like listening to music, and I like sharing music with other people, so whenever I have the chance, I use pop music in class. Same goes with movies. There's a whole academic debate over whether learning a language necessitates learning the culture, or the pop culture, but I just do it because I like to. It's fun for me. 

I'd like to think that at least one of my students, years from now, will hear this song at a bar when some asshole New Yorker expat requests it, and they'll think: "I know this! One of my English teachers at my hagwon used it in class!" If it hasn't been replaced by Empire State of Mind by that point.

The other thing about this song, and older songs in general, is that the lyrics are really great for language instruction, as they tend to be written in complete, grammatically correct sentences and what not. You could totally do a lesson with this song comparing simple future to present continuous verb tenses, for example: hand out the lyrics and have students underline actions happening in the present, circle actions happening in the future. Or helping verbs ("going to" and "want to"). Or personification ("city that never sleeps," "these vagabond shoes are longing to stray").  Or the difference between spoken and written English (how we write "going to" but often say "gonna"). Or idiomatic expressions ("make it" in the sense of being successful, or "king of the hill" and "top of the heap").

Beyond the words, there's the option for really high level conversation about cities and their personalities and meanings to people. New York has a certain aura of mystique around it, hence why we keep writing songs and making movies about it. What about Korea, what cities are very popular? What characteristics does Seoul/Uijeongbu/Kimhae have?

For other videos I've shown in class (and their various rates of success), check out the Multimedia Monday tag. If you want to use YouTube videos but don't have Internet in your classroom, I recommend using YouTube Downloader HD to save any videos you want to show.

Multimedia Monday: "Careless Whispers" Interpretative Dance

To download this and other clips off of YouTube, I recommend, as always, the YouTube Downloader HD program. For other videos I've used and the skeletal lesson/activity plans I've built around them, check out the Multimedia Monday tag.

David Armand is one of the funniest comedians I've seen in a while. He's done a whole bunch of "interpretative dances," and while they're all hilarious, unfortunately only this one is unequivocally appropriate for a young class. (The others either have references to sex, genitalia, or both.) Any time I have a chance to show something in class that I like watching? Everyone wins.

You can print out the lyrics before, if you want—that's probably helpful for lower-level classes. With more advanced students, you could easily make this a game. It'll take a bit of advanced planning, though. Write "I'm never gonna dance again" on the board, cue the video up to the chorus (with sound), and hit play. In this video, it's at about 40 seconds in. It helps if you point along to the words: once I did that, my kids sussed out right away what Armand was trying to convey.

Then, back to the beginning, and kill the sound. Maybe watch it twice. Have the students write what they think the lyrics are based on Armand's mime routine, and then pass out the lyrics so they can see how close they got it. (I admit, I haven't done this part yet, as I don't really have the time for it in my advanced classes. But I've got it ready, just in case I ever do.) If you have the time, you can play the video one more time with the lyrics so they can try to match the mimes to the real words—have students circle the words at parts where they didn't understand the mime, and so forth. Considering how damn popular George Michael's Last Christmas is in Korea, I'm sure Korean students will take to Careless Whispers fairly readily.

Multimedia Monday: Annie Get Your Gun

Shamelessly repeating an old post from my CELTA days.  This time it has the benefit of hindsight: I actually did use this song in a lesson, and it worked very well—it was actually the first (and only) "Above Standard" I got on the whole course. The instructor just went bananas over it and the students liked it, too— though this wasn't the entirety of the lesson, it was the closing activity and, everyone agreed, the best part.

Before I started the song or even handed out the lyrics sheet, I put some assorted tasks from the lyrics (and some other random ones) on the board and asked the students to sort them by "what can men do well" and "what can women do well." If you have the time, it can be a fun debate.

Then I handed out the lyrics with the comparatives all blanked out.  They filled those in as best they could, then we listened to the song to check answers. Most of them found it pretty easy. The second time, we listened to see which things the girl could do better and vice versa, as well as which ones neither singer talked about.

The hip thing to do among younger teachers is to break out the Daft Punk when they get to comparatives, but I think this one works much better. (Maybe use the Daft Punk for filler if the class catches on supremely quickly, but not for the bulk of the lesson.)

You can find other videos I've used (or considered using) at the Multimedia Monday tag; use the YouTube Downloader if your classroom computer is offline but you want to use videos from YouTube.

Multimedia Monday: Cat Stevens

Another lesson courtesy of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. One scene features this song by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens), and I decided it would be a good change of pace to do a listening activity.

The lyrics are very straightforward, with relatively simple language.  I had my students work on a fill-in-the-blank activity with the lyrics beforehand, then we watched/listened to see if they got it correct.  I imagine you could easily play a memory game or have a writing activity after the video, as it has a rather cohesive narrative.  For my students, though, it would have been redundant.

The song went over surprisingly well with the younger intensive course.  I wasn't really expecting Yusuf Islam's mellow acoustic stylings to be at all popular, but we ended up listening to this song three times in class.   By the third time, they had the song pretty much figured out, and cheerfully sang along.

Again, if you ever want to use this or other videos on YouTube in an Internet-less classroom, YouTube Downloader HD always works very nicely for me.  Other videos and activities I've used can be found via the Multimedia Monday tag.