Korean Experience in Brief

Alright, I decided that perhaps it is time to give an overview of how I percieved my international experience here in Korea. I'm supposed to be going home, but I ended up applying to extend my contract with TaLK after a fairly heated argument with the international coordinator at the University of Ulsan and getting removed from the Learn and Teach in Ulsan program. I was forced against a wall by him and by the TaLK program, and now I'm stuck with my decision, only 24 hours after finding out its possible. I hate the beaucracy...it sucks.

Anyway, seeing life as an exchange student and as an English teacher at a public school is not the extent of my experiences here in Korea. I have been on various “Culture Tours” provided by the Provincial office of Education, which have taken me to the Island of Jeju (Korea’s Hawaii), inside a farmers home, to traditional Korean villages, and even to various regional festivals. All of these have given me great insight into the Korean mindset and also the mindset of a foreigner experiencing them because in all of these circumstances, I was surrounded by fellow English teachers who taught not only at elementary schools, but at Middle Schools and even High Schools. Each of them had unique and even interesting experiences to discuss, and many of them also openly shared their drinking and even illicit/illegal exploits while here in Korea. I’ve seen firsthand the repercussions of a drunken brawl between a foreigner and a Korean, and I’ve heard of the complications that arise when a foreigner attempts to pick up a prostitute, only to discover that she does not service non-Koreans. On the other side, I’ve been with other foreigners while learning traditional styles of dyeing cloth, making baskets to carry eggs on a day trip, and participating in traditional dances.

On top of cultural experiences, I participated for a while in a program developing English Lesson Plans for the elementary schools in the Ulsan Municipal Educational Office. That was a 2 month project working with other foreigner teachers and Korean teachers to create a system of teaching that would allow foreign teachers to provide better lessons to the elementary school kids. These lesson plans were distributed to all the other teachers in the Ulsan area and became part of their curriculum—of course I don’t know the overall level of acceptance by the teachers, but some have expressed their resolute dislike of the system while others have discussed their whole-hearted application. It is unreasonable to assume that we could have made a perfect system, but perhaps more research would have been helpful.

However, I did undertake a 120 hours TESOL (Teaching Students of Other Languages) course, which has become useful in my daily dealings with my students and even with the other English teachers. This particular TESOL course was sponsored by the Asian EFL Journal (and certified by universities in England, Australia and the US) and was thus oriented toward teaching in Korea and other Asian countries, discussing common issues that occur when teaching English in East Asia. One such discussion was about educational reform issues, and how we as teachers might help in that process. It was an interesting program, to say the least, but was nothing compared to the 220 hour ESL training we received at the start of the TaLK program, hours appropriately named “orientation.”

I have also gone on other trips up to Seoul, experiencing true metropolitan lifestyles. Recently, I spent two nights with my Canadian-Korean friend’s cousins in their upper-middle class high rise apartment in a lower income neighborhood. I found out later that the area in which we stayed is commonly known for its high crime rate. It was interesting to see how people of Confucian ideals intermingle with others of different income levels, which was far different from what I expected. On the hand, I spent two nights in the Executive Premier Suite of an affluent hotel chain in one of the richest neighborhoods in Seoul, and the effort that the hotel made to keep me from having to mingle with the “regular” guests was staggering. I had my own VIP lounge and swimming pool. It was far different from staying with my friend’s family.

But not all my experiences in Seoul have been about economic levels. I have acquaintances there who work for the US military, and on more than one occasion, we’ve discussed the situation between US-ROK military forces. Most of my friends have expressed serious issues in US-ROK military relations, and many of them have to stem from the stereotype of being “American Soldiers”—a stereotype my friends continuously try to avoid. Other things stem from the fact that US spends more money on the military in Korea than the nation of Korea does on its overall military forces, thus giving rise to a gap between the US and ROK soldiers in terms of lifestyles. In fact, that’s the main reason for the KORUS Joint Forces initiative, which allows Korean soldiers to serve in the US military.

Many of my friends, on the other hand, are former ROK soldiers, as it is a constitutional duty of Korean men to serve in the military for a term no less than 2 years, and then continue to be in reserve for another 3 years after that. This has a significant effect on relationships, studying, traveling, etc., especially when you consider that every Korean male over the age of thirty has served in the military. This might be the cause for the differences in culture between Japan and Korea. But it really changes the relationships among college students, when the gap between ages of the males and the female students is 2 years, and when all the male students still act like wild freshmen even at the age of 22, it’s very strange.

But my particular dormitory hall is for foreign students, so I have made some fairly good friends with men from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Mongolia. One of my former roommates was Mongolian, working on his PhD in Computer Engineering, and discussing with him the difficulties of researching in another country was interesting. My friend from Sri Lanka agreed with the situations discussed by my roommate, but he added more as his doctoral research normally takes him to the city of Taejun, where he works directly with chemical engineers at some of the biggest plants in Korea. His difficulties then had the added effect that despite being surrounded by the smartest minds in South Korea, he didn’t understand what they were talking about. Language difficulties hinder the process of information evaluation and incorporation. However, my Pakistani friend didn’t have any of the issues discussed by my other friends, by he has problems finding Islam-friendly Middle-eastern food in Korea, and that has been a huge problem for him; so much so that he’s had to go far out of his way just to get a meal. That creates an impact on his overall schedule.

Here in Korea, I’ve experienced the gamut from low to high economic levels, good to bad teachers, illegal behaviors to church service projects, government funded training to privately funded training, private universities to public universities, public schools to private institutions, and industrial cities to commercial metropolises. But none of that was anything like my experiences as a volunteer church missionary in Japan.

If you wanna know more, talk to me. Otherwise,

Happy Trails people.

The Korean Wave Splashes Abroad

This time, it's 5:30am, not 4, and I just finished this week's essay for Korean Politics. I still have half an essay to finish (the one from last week) before I've completed my assignments for the class, but I also have to write a comparison essay on something between China, Japan, Korea and the US for Understanding Modern China(my professor recommends Temple construction, but I'm not certain yet). There has been a lot that has happened to me since the last post, like getting the results of my TOPIK exam, but I thought that I would dedicate this post to explaining what I know about Korean Pop culture. So, this Blog post is all for fun :P

In 1997, the Korean Drama “Star in My Heart” aired on the Chinese TV channel Phoenix TV. It was shown in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and various other Asian countries at the time, but experienced the greatest popularity in China and Taiwan, partially due to its representation of High Korean Culture and partially because the main actor, Ahn Jae-Wook, was attractive to Taiwanese and Chinese women. This small step into the global television arena started the fire that has been named Hallyu or the “Korean Wave.”

Star in My Heart aired 10 years ago, but this single incident can be traced as the source of the Korean Pop culture movement abroad. Since then, TV dramas like “Winter Sonata,” “Jewel of the Palace,” and “Boys Before Flowers” have all been added to the list of shows that experienced (or in some cases still experiencing) popularity abroad. However, even after 10 years, Hallyu remains a mostly regional phenomenon in Asia, making small by steady ripples in other markets.

Hallyu has been a niche market in Asia due mainly to the secret behind its initial success. As satellite television hit the East Asian arena, there became a demand for new and exciting dramas to fill the voids of airtime that suddenly appeared. Most Asian nations experienced a sudden lack of local entertainment when cable channels went from ten to one hundred almost overnight. This being the case, the need to import dramas and movies to fill the void they had almost accidently created, and importing western dramas and movies was an incredibly expensive endeavor. It was at this time that the already tested Japanese Pop industry stepped up and filled the TV screens, experiencing a huge boom. However, Japanese drama imports were almost as expensive as western ones, so the networks started looking for more. So, when the option to air a Korean drama appeared on the table, it naturally seemed like a good choice.

The price of airing a Korean production was significantly less than Japanese productions, so in no time at all, dramas like “Autumn Story” budded popularity in the Phillipines, while “Winter Sonata” fell on Japan and “Firework” flashed across the Taiwanese networks. Not only were these shows less expensive to broadcast, they had stories that enticed the viewers and had a centrally “Confucian” feel. Young viewers enjoyed the flashy cars, high standards of living, hairstyles and lifestyles of the Korean characters, while the older viewers enjoyed the family centric values and the lack of overt violence or sex. These same reasons for the growth of popularity in Eastern Asian countries, however, might be the same reasons that Hallyu has not had greater success in Western nations like the United States.

For the most part, Korean dramas appear in the United States on ethnic channels, finding a footing in the Asian-American population. The recent Korean drama “Boys Before Flowers” (꽃보다남자) is one such success story, however, “Boys Before Flowers” presents another aspect of Korean Pop culture entirely, that of the proliferation of outside influences on Korean Pop culture. These influences appear more in popular Korean music than in dramas or movies, but the influence in unmistakable.

The current popular Korean groups in the pop music industry are: 2AM, 2PM, Dong Bang Shin Ki, Big Bang, Shinee, SNSD (Girls Generation), Son Dambi, SS501, Super Junior, and Wonder Girls. Others include: 2ne1, After School, Chae Yeon, Davichi, Epik High, Kara, Lee Hyori, Rain, and Yoon Mi Rae. These groups/singers have at least one thing in common, aside from dominating the current pop music charts, and that is the influx into their music of outside influences. Girls Generation and Super Junior, for example, are groups made of a large quantity of members—Girls Generation having 9 members while Super Junior has 14. The record company behind these bands, SM Entertainment, got the idea of building a large group of entertainers from the Japanese band “Morning Musume.” CP Entertainment also got the rotating membership idea of After School from Morning Musume, however, After School has limited its membership, for now, to six members at a time.

Most of the other groups have aspects of American hip-hop culture in their music, or even overt R&B sounds, and so even go so far as to remix older American hit songs. Big Bang and 2ne1, for example, remixed the 1950’s song “Lollipop.” Son Dambi’s “Saturday Night” is reminiscent of the classic American disco film “Saturday Night Fever” starring John Travolta, while the Wonder Girls’s label JYP records gained inspiration for “Nobody” from the recent blockbuster American film “Dream Girls” – which isn’t a surprise since JYP himself admittedly gained inspiration for his “Honey” dance and dress style in 1998 from Michael Jackson, while the video for said song has obvious “Pulp Fiction” undertones. These are clear influences of western pop styles on current pop music, but despite all this, many of these groups are still trying to break into the US market.

Breaking into the US market, however, is not an easy task. BoA and Se7en are two prime examples of Korean artists currently trying to make it big in the US, as these two artists are, after a long period of hard work, finally starting to get recognition. BoA recently released her all English album in the US and has been lucky up until this point to have the support of the American artist Sean Garret, which has accumulated in her recent reception into the CAA family—this is the same group that promotes Brad Pitt, Will Smith, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, David Beckham, and Steven Spielberg, among others—and her performance at the MTV music awards, a giant leap for any performer in the US music scene. Se7en, on the other hand, hasn’t experienced as much popularity yet, but his music video “Girls” featuring Lil’ Kim aired on BET during primetime hours last week, so there is still more to go for him.

So far, Korean Pop artists have had to rely on established US artists to get their name in primetime spots in the US music scene, which may signify the fact that as of yet, Korean pop music lacks the necessary creative push that breaks it into the western markets. Some argue that the American market is, in fact, not readily receptive to non-American artists, but this argument does not hold true when such groups as Nickelback, U2 and Coldplay are presented, both non-American bands experiencing tremendous popularity in the US—Coldplay was even the official band of the iTouch. These bands are Western bands, however, which may then show a line drawn between Western and Eastern bands. That arguments leads to question whether the US market is hard to break into because of a lack of reception by US consumers of Eastern-style music or because of the perception of US consumers on the styles of music. Korean groups and artists, for example, are “trained” for years prior to their breakout, which is contrary to the majority of bands in the US. While some bands are put together by labels and coached, most bands establish themselves and prove their talents to the record labels by building fan bases before they are signed. These polar opposites create a distinct difference in talent level perception by US consumers.

Currently, the Wonder Girls have been brought to the US by their manager JYP, being coached in English and attempting to show their “different” Korean style music to American audiences. However, they too have used the crutch of established popular artists to spread their music to larger audiences. Currently on tour with the Jonas Brothers, the Wonder Girls are playing their innocent images to the fans of Disney’s most popular group. With the backing of Disney, the Wonder Girls are almost guaranteed to succeed in the US market, so long as they continue to drastically improve their English skills and keep themselves from scandalous behavior. However, one has to wonder about the necessity of riding the curtails of other artists in order to get air time.

Korean Films, on the other hand, are having a much greater success rate in the US market than Korean music. The movie THIRST (Bakjwi), recently received rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, showing the world that South Korea has a distinct film style that can surprise even the most veteran movie makers. On top of this, many Korean films have been remade in the US or are in the stages of being remade—discussions of remaking first have already begun behind closed doors and the movie has not even had its necessary box office debut yet. This list of remade (or soon to be remade) Korean films includes: My Sassy Girl, The Lake House, The Uninvited (Tale of Two Sisters), The Mirror, Awake, The Chaser, My Name Is Kim Sam-soon, and Old Boy. Interestingly, these movies were also readily accepted in other non-Korean markets like Hong Kong, which has had a notoriously receptive relationship with Korean films during the past 10 years of the Korean wave.

The fact that these films are being remade rather than simply released in the US does not signify a lack of necessary creative value like Korean Pop music might, as US movie makers remake almost every imported movie rather than dubbing over them in English. In fact, most US movie goers prefer to see remakes over dubbed or subtitled films, no matter what the cost. Films like “Eat, Drink, Man, Woman” from Taiwan became “Tortilla Soup,” “Shall we Dance?” “The Ring,” “The Grudge,” and “Dark Water” from Japan were remade with the same name, as well as “The Eye” from China, while movies such as “Le Femme Nikita” from France became “Point of No Return.” The US film industry is notorious for remaking foreign films into English versions, so this remake of Korean films has nothing to do with the Korean film industry, but the American film industry.

While Korean TV Dramas are receiving little popularity among mainstream US viewers, Korean music is steadily growing and Korean films have crashed on the shores. However, it appears as though US viewers do not represent the whole of western viewers, as Korean TV dramas are experience more popularity in European nations than Korean music or Korean movies. This is due mainly to the growth of youth culture. As youth in the technological age, especially those in Europe and in Southeast Asian countries, have begun to develop sufficient buying power and are in sync with global cultural trends thanks largely in part to the increase of the internet, they have become increasingly curious about new and fresh pop culture products. Businesses and media industries are continually trying to satisfy the demands of this generation, which opens opportunities for the Korean media industry to market Korean dramas and other pop culture products. In this light, Korean dramas have been able to provide alternative media to consumers with diverse preferences and tastes and who are bored with the too-familiar and too-abundant Western and Japanese pop culture with something fresh and different. This has been emphasized mostly in the Southeast Asian markets, but Korean Drama DVD sales have increased dramatically over the past few years in European markets.

Within Korean Pop culture, western influences can be felt, but Korean influences can also be felt in Western Pop culture. It is true that Pop culture has a tendency to wane quickly, replaced by the next best thing, the Hallyu Korean Wave has not only continued to hold, but also continued to grow over the past 10 years. Hallyu is not as prominent in Northeastern Asia as it used to be, suppressed mainly by anti-Korean sentiments in Japan and government fear of “foreign influence” in China, it has been growing in Southeast Asia, Europe and the US. There is a strong possibility that hallyu will become a domesticated cultural occurrence like it already has in the Philippines or as Anime has in the US, and if that happens, it will be the final show of hallyu effectiveness, as well as being the ultimate compliment to Korean culture. As Park Jung-Sun stated in her article “Korean Pop Culture Spreads Beyond Asia,” “it is premature to predict the long-term effectiveness of [market] strategies. But the fact that those are not uniquely Korean but common strategies shared by many Asian media industries indicate that the production, dissemination and consumption of pop culture in Asia will take on more regional characteristics than ever before. Also, in such a context, hallyu as a separate and unique phenomenon is likely to disappear as regional and global cultural hybridization will intensify even further.” (Insight into Korea, pg 285)

The future of hallyu is uncertain, and some even argue that the Korean Wave is slowly fading away, but since Korea is the land of miracles, it would not be surprising for the Korean Wave to sweep the world out to sea. Hallyu is important to the Asian pop culture landscape, along with Japanese Animation and Hong Kong action films. It not only provides fresh new images for the growing youth culture, but it also polishes the image of Korea to the rest of the world. The Korean Wave isn’t going anyway, and despite resistance in some markets, it will last for a while.

Happy trails people.

(PS I passed the beginner test but only made half of the necessary points to pass the 3 group on the intermediate test)

It's that time again

It must be blogging time because it's 4am. 4am is always blogging time. That TED talk about 4am being the time that "nothing good happens" is actually a load of .... It's just the time that I catch up on my blog.

Okay, so let's explain the picture first, and then I'll let you know what's popping in Ulsan.

That picture was taken in Jinhae during the flower festival. I went because some of the people in that picture invited me to go with them, which was nice since there was a nother group of people that I considered friends who specifically didn't want me to go with them. So, I went with these people, who are all 2nd generation TaLK scholars, and we went to Jinhae to check out this Cherry Blossom festival.

Well, it was nice, but somewhere in the mix I ganked my ankle. However, I didn't notice until the next day, when my ankle was hurting a little. It got worse on sunday and then on monday it was painful, and on tuesday, I couldn't think because I was in so much pain. The doctor said I sprained my ankle and that the cause was because I was overweight, so, he said, I needed to diet.

Thanks Sherlock, like I didn't know that.

Anyway, they gave me crutches and a weird half-cast split thing (which wasn't done right, so it wasn't helping) and put me into physical therapy. Thing is, the physical therapy wasn't really working, so I got off that. The pain has continued for weeks now though. Oh well.

Alright, so updating.

Well, this week ended another semester of Korean Classes, which means now I've completed Beginner 3-4 and Intermediate 1. I'm still really horrible at Korean, but in the evening classes with the POE, I'm apparently better that almost everyone in the class. Also, I was listening to my Koreanclass101.com audio files, just the dialogues, today and discovered that I understood what people were talking about. To be honest, I haven't been studying very much since the TOPIK exam, so the only thing that I can figure is that the Lord is really pouring on the blessings for some reason....

...Anyway, Marie and I have a make-up class sometime during this week break to learn how to use and conjugate passive verbs, since we both apparently suck at it, but I was praised by the teacher this week. On our final, I did well grammatically, but really horribly in the vocab department. Vocab, she said, grows no matter what, but the grammar was important. So, she said, I was doing well despite barely getting a passing grade. I think her usual gracious nature is going to step in and provide me with a B like it has the past few semesters.

..but we all know I'm at C level.

That's why I decided to stay. Oh, I don't think I mentioned that before. In July, my contract with TaLK ends and I go back to America, never to return to Korea and poised to lose all the Korean Language skillz I have acquired during my tenior here. BUT, the University of Ulsan introduced me to a new program they are starting called "Learn and Teach in Ulsan."

Wonder who they stole the name from...

Basically, I'll be tutoring english at the university for 9 hours a week, and I'll be studying here. Since PSU has been talking about how this time won't matter, how I'll lose financial aid if I go over on credits, etc. I decided that I'm just going to sign up for the Intensive Language Course, which should 1) help me to speak better Korean and 2) raise my vocabulary level.

Besides, since I'm having to study Korean around my already busy schedule, if I make my classes all about studying Korean, then I sorta streamline the process, don't I. And by streamlining, I get rid of all kinds of anxiety and stress. Basically, asides from the 9 hours a week of tutoring, the rest of my time will be dedicated to studying Korean, which means that I should be able to accomplish what I set out to accomplish during this first year here.

So, I'm sure that I can come home fluent in Korean. Which is great, because I want to work for the US Department of State in the future, and Korean is a "Critical Needs" Language, which means more bonus points for me. More bonus points bumps me up the hiring list and next thing you know, I'm off to work in an embassy.

Lot's of travel, decent pay. Sounds like the perfect job for me.

Actually, the money isn't that great, but since its like 30k more a year than I'm even used to imagining, that's not a bad deal. Besides, if I do move onto a masters (but I'll be like 31 when I finish that, so maybe not) then my pay goes up every year I work for them. And if I do aim for a masters, then I'll have some time to learn Chinese, a "Super Critical Needs" language, thereby guaranteeing my acceptance into the organization (and also seriously increasing my pay. As in, at the end of the 5 years training period, my pay will have increased about 6-7 thousand dollars. That's not a bad deal if you think about it. Maybe I will spend that extra two year...

Anyway, when I do finally finish all this work toward the career choice, then it will be like major monies for me. I don't know what I'll do with it all, but since it's all just imagining and speculation right now, I don't really want to plan for it.

Staying here does mean on thing for certain: I'll be putting off my college graduation yet another year. That's right, I may have graduated from Beaverton High in 2003, but I won't be graduating from Portland State until 2013 at the earliest. I'm not worried about that though, because when all is said and done, I'll have all kinds of experience, all kinds of knowledge, and all kinds of abilities at my fingertips.

And the only person I have to thank for all that is the Lord. He's been at the helm, and so far, it's been an amazing ride. The scriptures say that insomuch as you keep the commandments, you will prosper in the land. I've discovered that is true. The church said that if I went on a mission, I would be blessed in more ways than I could imagine. I've discovered that is true. My mission president, the church authorities, and many other people told me during my mission that if I gave up control and let the Lord fly the plane, I would never regret it. I've discovered that is true.

All these things are true, and when I finally do finish school, with my Bachelor's Degree in Japanese and my Bachelor's Degree in East Asian Studies, minors in Economics and Korean, and, IF I do make it all the way through a Master's program (the one that I've sorta set my sights for is the Double Masters in Diplomacy and Asian Pacific Policy at SETON HILL in Jersey), Masters Degrees in Asian Pacific Policy (which assumes that I will be learning Chinese) and Diplomacy, then I will show up on the door step of the State Department, tired after 12 years of College, speaking 4 languages, having over 16 years experience with Asian thought, culture, and history, being one of the few Korean Specialists that exist in the US anymore, and then I will turn to the Lord and say, "You were right, it was all worth it."

Because, at that point, I will have secured my future, my families future, my childrens future, and the honor of both the UHLS and LEWKOWITZ families. I will also set the bar for successive generations, something for them to look to and say, "Holy Crap, I gotta get to work!"

Well, that's the update. It was full of nice dreams and delusional thoughts, but there it is.

Happy Trails people

Is it blogtime again??

Why is that 4am is the time that I'm up blogging? Maybe it because I have nothing else to do at 4 am. Maybe it's because it's that time of night that is supposedly evil (I referrence TED talks). Maybe its because at 4am, I'm not sleeping, but my roommate is, so all my lights are off and I need something to entertain my mind....

...or maybe it's because I'm lazy and at 4am I've already run through all my options :P

Alright, so the test. It went like this: Beginner test, relatively easy. Intermediate test, sunken chest wound difficult. It was so hard that I gave up. I had to give up because it was taking me 5 minutes to read the paragraph to answer the two questions, but since I was only given 45 minutes for 30 questions, that is way too long per question. I was going to run out of time anyway.

Yeah, I know. Loser.

I figured it out while I was there though. It works like this: intermediate learners take the beginner test, advanced learners take the intermediate test and the fluent speakers take the advanced test. See, the test tells you what level you've completed, which is them used to judge which level you are on. That would mean that if I passed the intermediate test, then I was pretty damn near fluent levels...which I'm not, so it makes sense that I failed the test. I shouldn't have even been there in the first place.

But I'm pretty sure I did decently on the beginner. I'm a little worried that my spelling errors may have cost me, so I might only pass level 1, which would blow, because level one is like really basic stuff. Sigh, but since my vocab sucks, maybe I deserve that.

Anyway, my new goal is to study tons of vocabulary...if I can get myself to study. I've been so busy the past few days that I haven't, and then I'm tired when I can, or hungry or something, and I end up wasting the time away napping eating or the like.

So, that's it. I got my kids to calm down with new punishment measures. Looks like the 5th graders are trying to test me though. Seo Dae-sung still thinks I'm kidding. At least Lee Jeon-Geon believes me. Controlling him actually lowers the level of volume in the class a whole decible. Also, he was attacked by one of the other boys after school the other day and I defended him. It doesn't look like he appreciated it, or that he even cared, but I ended up reinjuring my ankle because of it, looking at another two weeks of recovery. Sigh. The things I do for my kids.

Well, I have to tutor Sera in English tomorrow, so I should get some sleep. We're doing one hour of self-introduction work for job interviews and then 1 hour of business english study. She's hoping that she can get a job at another company soon. I hope she can too.

OH, before I go, I ran into Rookie the other day. He's my ex-roommate from the first semester here. I agreed to speak only in english in our room because he wanted to get a job at Hyundai Heavy Industries, and they require excellent english skills for that. Well, turns out that he got the job and was really grateful for my help. I'm glad I could help him. Speaking of which, I should email him before i forget his email address.

Anyway, happy trails people

appologies

And I would like to appologize quickly for my comments that might have been offensive to some people. Like I said, these people who don't speak korean are not worthless, they have great worth, are good people, good teachers, and good friends. They are wonderful people who just don't speak Korean.

And I didn't mean to include anyone in my rant who may not be able to learn korean for whatever reason. No, I was targeting those people who would rather spend their time in drunken hazes that lead to mornings of confusion then learning how to communicate with Koreans. And if I still have offended you, well, perhaps I need to rethink my thinking. But then, maybe you need to rethink yours...

1 day...

Alright, now that it is officially Saturday where I am, I am down to one day before my exams. Yes, Exams. I'm not just taking one exam, but two exams. I will be taking the TOPIK beginner exam from 9am to noon-thirty and then I take the Intermediate exam from 2pm to five-thirty. The idea behind this is that I'm sure I can pass the Beginner test, but if I fail the intermediate test, then I get nothing. They don't say, "Oh, well, he did good enough to know Korean." No, they just give me nothing. So, in case I fail, I decided that I should take the Beginner test too.

I'm not ready for that either.

But I'm pretty sure that I will be able to squeak my way through that one. Not because I'm all full of myself, but because I'm in the University of Ulsan's intermediate class and I'm in the POE's "Advanced" class, so either scale would agree that I've got enough of an understanding to squeek through the beginner level.

Doesn't mean I'm not stressed.

Anyway, I just wanted to write in this blog to de-stress. I was thinking of writting an hourly update on my progress toward the TOPIK exam, but then I thought "Since when did my blog become my twitter account?" so I decided against that. Basically, I'm just studying at 2:30am 'cause I slept through most of yesterday (I'm fasting so I didn't have dinner, which meant that I fell asleep at 5, right after I got back, and just slept until midnight). The idea is that I will study until I get tired again and then sleep, and then wake up and get stuff done and then fall asleep again, and basically completely mess up my sleep schedule that way I don't know if I'm coming or going during the test. That should increase my success, right???

Yeah, sure. And monkeys like to watch the NY Stock Exchange.

No, I'm sick. I woke up this morning (and by that I mean Friday morning) to find that I was more sick then before. Is it stress? Maybe. Is it my body trying to let me in on something? Most likely. But I don't have time to talk to it. After the TOPIK, I can sit, relax, and let myself recover. In fact, coming up around Golden Week time, it's Buddha's birthday and Childrens day, so I'll actually be able to sleep. After that, I want to take a trip to Singapore or Hong Kong, because they're so close and I would be incredibly dumb not to take advantage of that.

But right now, I gotta worry about passing my TOPIK exam. You know, 'cause I really want to be justified in my patronization of the Foreigners who have been here longer and know less Korean than me. Of course, the fact that I'm fasting and asking for the gift of tongues is balanced out by my desire to call my brother Racca. Dang. I really need to get back into congruency. I mean, how mean is my desire? How much of a jerk am I?

But seriously though, I was thinking about it today and was thinking that there's no excuse really. See, even if I started working for a company and they sent me out to the most remote part of the world for whatever reason, I think that I would still not be like these people I keep referring to. Consider than these people have been in Korea for 10+ years and still don't have a basic foundation. Or, consider the fact that there are people who arrived the same time I did, and this not being Thomas but being like the people in my "Advanced Korean" class with the POE, and they still miss pronounce many words...

..of course, there's a few things that I need to consider here if I'm going to break these people down. 1) I should not be judging them in the first place, lest I be judged with the same judgement that I judge upon them, 2) perhaps I'm not the best judge anyway, as I seem to be divinely gifted for this particular subject, thus changing my perspective, and 3) they likely have other qualities which I do not posses that make things different in their particular circumstances.

For example, one of these said people may, in fact, be a way better english teacher than I am (which I totally believe is highly likely situation). Or, perhaps these people have been spending their time developing highly fulfilling relationships.

BUT, I can't say that is the case for all of these people, because I KNOW that some of them are actually just wasting their time, as they have told me about their situations in detail. That still doesn't mean that I'm not just more blessed then they are, but let's remove the possible outliers and look directly at some of the people who I know I can talk about with some certainty (assuming of course that they have other qualities that still make them good people, but I'm examining their language abilities, not their worth as a person. I know that these people have great worth, especially in the eyes of the Lord).

Two acquaintences of mine have been in Korean for 15+ years. These gentleman have Korean wives and jobs here in Korea. One is part of a small business trying to promote new works in the Tech field, and the other owns a foreigner bar and has been part of several small business endavours such as this. But both of these men have been held back by their lack of language skills. In my mind, if they are married to someone who speaks another language fluently (and in the case of one of them, has a couple of children who speak Korean as their native language but English as their nearly native second solely based on him being their father) and has been married to this person for years, they should have been able to learn a significant amount just from attempting to create dialogues with their spouse. Also, if they have been busy with business in this country, and they've been hindered by language, why haven't they tried to rectify this situation?

For clarification purposes, one of these men has been trying, but seems to have a complete inability to perform basic pronunciation exercises. Strangely enough, this same person speaks at least 2 other languages as well, being a part-time professor of French at the Uni.

I blame this kind of situation on lifestyle choices. They could have but they didn't. This brings me to some other aquaintences who also seem to have a problem with the Korean language. These aquaintences haven't been in Korea much longer than myself but don't seem to have any understanding of tense or grammar. Why? The answer can only be found when you look at their lifestyle. This group generally spends their time after teaching communicating with each other or going out for drinks. Most of these people go to foreigner bars, where they can order in english. They drink, they might go to a Karaoke place (which always has songs in english), and sometimes inter-date. This means that their lifestyle is much the same as living in the US, with the added benefit of less bills and thus more spending money. But, their life is almost completely in english. These people are the ones that make it hard for me to ride in Taxis or meet new people, because they help develop the belief that all foreigners are here to get drunk and try to pick up korean chicks. Thanks guys.

Now, considering my own complaints about trying to learn Korean, I'm sure there are many ways to justify these people's behavior, but I think that it's more of a situation of laziness than of actual inability. It's a question of application. Many of this latter group have just finished school (college) and are still in that transitional period before entering the "real world." Some people would call this an admirable move of maintaining ones youth as long as possible, and such "youth maintainence" actions are good things, but when you completely forget about learning because you "are bored with it," well, you don't get any sympathy from me.

I say again that I would not be like them if I were put in some far reaching place in the world. They leave work eventually, right? I mean, they drink and have fun often with their foreigner friends, so they obviously have free time. Why don't they use some of that free time to study? Some of these people are always trying to pick up girls at the bars and clubs. Why don't they try talking to these girls in their own language?

See, now you can go ahead and throw these questions back at me, but I actually can respond. I do study with my free time, and I do attempt to talk to people in Korean. However, more than I few times have I said something in Korean, thinking it was the correct sentense, only to have it thrown back at me with the question, "What the hell are you talking about?" That's really disheartening. But you can ask Eun-mi or Taseol, or anyone that gets a text from me these days, I try to use korean with people who I know understand it. I would do the same thing if I was in Nepal, Norway, Argentina or the Phillipines. If you are in the nation, it is really dumb to waste the opportunity and not get to know the people. And how can you get to know the people if you don't understand what they are talking about?

Well, now that I've ranted about something that's been bothering me for a while, it's time to get back to TOPIK studying.

Happy Trails people

2 Days...

I bet you're wondering, "What happens in two days?" The answer is: in two days I will be sitting in a room at Busan University with a bunch of other foreigners trying to show that I've got the skills to pass the TOPIK (Test Of Proficiency In Korean) beginner and intermediate tests.

I am not ready.

You see, the test is very vocabulary-oriented. I am not a very vocabulary-oriented guy. I'm grammar oriented, so in the end...I'm screwed. But hopefully I can squeak by. What do I get if I pass? I get this neat little certified that authentizes my Korean abilities and basically gives me justification for being a douche to all the foreingers who have been here for 10+ years and still can't speak Korean (like the dude in my class at the University who's been here for 16 years). It also becomes something I can put on my resume to make it look like I went through some intensive course (apparently learning Korean in one year is impressive to most people), and I can argue for credit back at PSU (whatever).

Why do I want to accomplish this? I don't know. I don't actually know why I want to say I did it. Maybe it's because Japanese was relatively easy for me. Okay, it was really hard, but compared to trying to learn Korean, it was really easy. I'm not sure if that's the nature of Korean or if because I've been learning Japanese for almost 10 years now. Of course, I learned the most in the 2 years I was there, but that was preceeded by 4 years of study, which probably did a good job setting the base. In the case of Korean, I had one year and then WAM! thrown into the deep end and told to survive.

But it seems like survive I might. Hopefully.

Am I stressed? Ninja duh!

So, wish me luck. I only hope my jacked up ankle doesn't flare up in the middle of the test and make it hard to focus. I'm gonna be praying like crazy tomorrow and Saturday that I might be worthy enough for the gift of tongues. If they Lord's will is that I use the Korean language in the future, then 1) I will learn it and 2) I will do well on the test. I have faith, the only question is: Am I worthy?....

ouch.

Happy trails people