Yes, Kimchi

Today, I was doing a conversation test with one of my classes.

One boy was sitting in front of me.

I asked him, "What does Choi Hong-man look like?"
 This is Choi Hong-man.
                                                   He is a giant Korean MMA fighter (He's like 7'1".)

Now, we had given them the questions a week ago so that they would have time to prepare.  And, I was planning to follow up the given question with an unknown question to really test their unprepared ability.  The follow-up question was this, "Do you want to meet Choi Hong-man?  Why do you want to or not want to meet him?"

So, back to the boy.  I asked him, "What does Choi Hong-man look like?"

The Boy: "Yes, Kimchi."

Me: "뭐야 (What the...)!!

And, now for something not completely different.  Choi Hong-man vs. Jose Canseco.  Yes, THAT Jose Canseco...

One more time...뭐야!

And, one more thing...if you meet a Korean person who has Choi for a family name, the name is pronounced "Chae".  It does not rhyme with Troy like the announcer did in the video.  It was a terrible Romanization that someone did a long time ago.  So, if you want to impress your Korean friends, say "Chae" instead of trying to pronounce it the way it looks like in "Choi".

On Guessing

First, a little background...

A lot of EFL students have few chances to actually ask questions in class.  Teachers are usually the ones who ask questions (which is not just a EFL problem, but whatever...).

So, anyways, I like to have a guessing game in class every once in a while to encourage the production of actual questions.  Normally, questions come across as "Teacher happy?"

The basic format of the guessing game is quite easy.  I have a picture hidden on a PPT slide.  I know what the picture is, while students don't.  They can ask any question they want (though, if they ask "how do you spell it?", I tell them I don't remember.  And, if they ask "what is it?", I answer "it is not a smart ass" :(...).  I answer the question and the first team that can say the phrase, "It is _____", gets a point.

Now that the background is out of the way...during one particular game, the teams were really competitive.  Each and every question was really important.

Here is how one question went...

Student 1:  "What color is it?"

Me:  "It's white."


Student 2:  "What shape is it?"

Me:  "Sometimes, it is a circle.  Sometimes, it is a crescent shape."  (My co-teacher explained that one in Korean.)
                     

Student:  "Where can you see it?"

Me:  "It's in space."


Now, nearly everyone in the room knew what the answer was.  Before getting to the answer, though, I should say two more rules for all of my classes.  I keep a checklist of everyone who has spoken meaningfully (given an answer or asked a good question).  And, any student that has not spoken can raise their hand and I will always call on them first (I call them "new face" in class).  New faces can be a powerful weapon in a close game.  And, since the "new faces" are generally low level students, I always let the other students in the class feed answers to anyone on their team (or on another team if they want or they are too stupid to keep their mouth shut).

Nearly every student in class:  "Moon!"

As always, I scan the room to look for new faces.

So, a really quiet low-level new face on Team 1 is wearing a big grin.  His hand pops up.  He is the last new face for his team.

The nine other students on his team:  "Moon!  Moon!  Moon!"

The boy puffs up his chest.  He is ready to hit his homerun.

New face (big smile):  "Door!"

Me (mentally):  "Doh!"

Team 1: *groan*



"Moon" (문) just happens to be the word for door in Korean.

On Classifications

So, I love the website, www.koreannewsfeeds.com.  It provides a good source of news about Korea from a variety of sources, both blogs and newspapers.

And, I love science because it provides...umm...science.

Anyways, when we combine Korea and science.  We get this from Hankyoreh (it's in English), an online newspaper:

---




A tyrannosaurus footprint found in South Gyeongsang province in 2004.

































The footprint has been concluded to have come from a new species of tyrannosaurus, so it was named Gyeongsookimi after its place of discovery.  Its restored picture was provided by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage.

---

That is one mean looking rice-eating Tyrannosaurus.

On Grammar

So, here is a tasty treat from Korea, 팟빙수 (pat-bing-su). It is shaved ice mixed with sweet red beans, almonds and rice cake. It is delicious and refreshing on a hot day.




However, what is not refreshing is what is written on the wall.

  Now, I will be the first one to say I make plenty of mistakes in Korean and my writing in English can be terrible (especially, if I don't double check it, which is quite common when I write blog posts).  However, I don't paint my bad Korean on my restaurant's wall.  And, this isn't a mom and pop store...it is a chain.

I guess I should look at this as job security.  But, somehow it just gives me a headache.

On Hope

First, I have to say that I am biased for Ron Paul.  He is my hero.  Well, if it is possible for an anarcho-capitalist to have a politician for a hero, he is it.


Now, of course, everyone knows he hasn't won any of the beauty contest for the GOP nomination for president.


That is okay, however.  Because getting delegates is the name of the game.  And, he has been succeeding in doing that.  According to thereal2012delegatecount.com, which tries to count the delegates that have been chosen at the state conventions, instead of randomly guessing what the delegate count is based on the percentage of votes in the state primaries (yeah, looking at you, moronic AP), here is the "real" delegate count (6/8/2012):


Romney: 1013
Paul: 229


1144 delegates are required for the GOP nomination on the first ballot at the national convention.  Romney still isn't there.  Even though, he "official" won when he took Texas a little more than a week ago.


Now, of course, it still doesn't look good.


But, let me just do some wishful thinking for a minute.  Imagine, that some (perhaps more) of those Romney delegates are actually a small, tireless group of the minority.  These Ron Paul supporters are dressed in wolves' clothing or even dressed in his own clothing.  


Romney supporter: "Hey, this delegate over here is a Ron Paul supporter, but, heck, he is a nice guy and wants a free ticket to Tampa in the summer.  Let the guy go as one of us.  He is, after all, bound to vote for our guy."


Imagine that this happened enough times to make the race competitive, but stealthy.  But, Ron Paul needs just a few more votes to make it more comfortable for him.


As various sources have shown (just to mention one: Doug Wead's, a Ron Paul campaign advisor, blog, http://dougwead.wordpress.com/), there have been a lot of underhanded tactics used to deny delegates to Ron Paul.


So, how do you continue to get delegates and take the enemy's guard down?  You surrender.


June 6th, 2012: As reported by USA Today, Ron Paul conceded by an email message that he doesn't have enough delegates.


June 7th, 2012: As can be seen on Youtube, Sen.Rand Paul (Ron Paul's son) endorsed Mitt Romney.


June 7th, 2012: As Politico says, "File this under signs the Ron Paul campaign is really, truly over: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul threw his support tonight to Mitt Romney."


And, here is where my wishful thinking thinks this is the greatest of political moves.  You can only pull this move once in your life (at least on a major stage).  And, I am not sure the timing was exactly right, but do you know what event begins on June 7th?


June 7th, 2012: The Texas GOP Convention begins.


How many delegates does Texas have?  155


Is it possible that 155 delegates can be won by playing possum?  No.  Not all of them.  But, is it possible that enough can be?  Maybe.

This is my blog about hope.  It is just to prove that sometimes (just sometimes) I am an optimist.

Human Rights

So, I was sitting in class when one of my co-teachers walks in and asks if her students can use the classroom. I was supposed to be doing lesson planning. So, I really didn't need the classroom. I continued to work on my lessons while students wrote about Human Rights. What about Human Rights? Anything. Most of them drew pictures (I mean comics) on their papers. One or two of the forty students in the room actually wrote an essay about Human Rights.

For forty of the forty-five minutes of class, I kept doing my lesson plans. For the last five, I decided to write my own declaration of human rights. Why? Because...

Anyways, this is what I wrote...

Human Rights

Student Name and Number: 강동원--160116

To discuss any topic of human rights, I feel it is necessary
to start with the basic tenets of my philosophy.

First, a person owns his or her own body. If we did not then the concept of human
rights, itself, is negated.

Second, a person owns the product of his or her own
work. If we did not then the concept of
ownership and, thus, the right to own the food or water we eat or drink would
be negated.

The best philosophical statements that I have found that
does not harm the first two principles is this: “everyone has the right to do
whatever they want”. In any given
situation, one must ask themselves if everyone in the given situation has done
something that they didn’t want to. If
not, then no rights have been violated.
If so, then rights have been violated.

Murder is wrong because it violates the concept of human
rights, itself.

Theft is wrong because it violates the second tenet of my
philosophy.

Theft is just the taking of something that someone did not
want to give.

However, if theft is wrong, what is taxation?

Surely, there are people who do not want to give money to
the government for some or all of the services that government presumes to
offer.

Is this not theft?

Is government somehow different because it is made of many
people? I would say no.

If a group of people doing something could make an action
correct, would not gang murder be permissible?

To me, the size or title of the person or people who do an
action makes no difference as to the justice of the action.

The only question as to the justice of a situation is
whether or not the people involved in the situation did anything that was
against their own volition.

Now, while I think that this is a good statement on Human Rights, I have to ask myself...

How dare I become involved in the forced detention of human beings for 7 hours a day?

--Matt W.

Note: Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and Walter Block have helped create this statement far more than my own mind. I just put it in my own words.

On Work and Play

For the last two months, I feel like all I have been doing is working. I technically only teach in the classroom for about 6 hours a day. That does not sound like all that much, I know. However, then you add in the 3 hours (at minimum) of preparation time that I have to spend for each day. It adds up to about 45 hours of work a week. And, that is on the weeks when I do not have intensive classes, which was the case for part of July and pretty much all of August. So, suffice it to say, it was a busy past few months. On top of all that...I have been planning a vacation that I have wanted to take for quite a long time. And, I had to make all my lesson plans for the teachers who would cover my classes during the vacation.
So, here I sit in a country I have never been to...thinking of what it would be like to teach here and comparing it to back "home" in Korea. I can't describe quite how much I actually miss Korea, but at the same time, I find this place fascinating and appealing in many ways. And, in others ways...not so much.
I miss being able to get a good meal of Nang-myeon. I tried to describe to the taxi driver why cold noodles are much better than hot noodles, but he thought I was very wrong.
I would love to have a good bottle of Soju and Coke, but it just is not common outside of Korea that I can find. When I first tasted Soju, I thought it was about as good as water-down rubbing alcohol, but now...it is a good lubricant for any political discussion.
I hate not being able to read the local language. There is some comfort in being able to see what something says for yourself. Even if it is only every few words that you understand.
But then, walking along a random street. I recognize that face. That unique pose and quirk of the lips. It is the Soju girl! I don't know her name and I don't really think it is necessary. It took me a second to make sure that I was seeing her right.
Yes, yes, it is her.
So, I walk closer to the sign on some nondescript door and taped to the door is a white piece of paper. The first words written on the paper...Anyong-ha-say-yo (in Korean, of course). What have I found? A little piece of home (or second home anyways).
When I walk in, it is just a little noodle shop, but it has one table of Koreans...a good sign. The waitress is a native, but she understands my Korean and I quickly order up some Nang-myeon, a bottle of Soju, and a Coke. Mmm...the noodles taste a little different, but they are decent and...cold. The owner (a Korean ex-pat) comes around and asks some pleasantries (probably just wondering why this non-Korean is talking to his people in Korean). I respond as best I can since it becomes quickly apparent I can only B.S. my way in Korean and then we just talk a bit in English.
This experience enlightens me as to just how much I have acclimated to life in Korea and how I have enjoyed doing so. For bringing me the enjoyment of Korea in a different country, I would like to thank the Soju makers of the world.
And, especially, to Soju girl...thank you.


For those who are interested in where I am or where I have been (depending on when you read this)...I will post something with pictures (!!) after October 5th...sometime.

--Matthew