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(Untitled)
For those of you with the ability to read it, this post is a rehash (more or less) of the Korean below. I originally only wrote in Korean because, given the subject matter, it is something that seems more significant in Korean/Korea and also because it affects the people who read this in Korea more than those who read it from afar (since it ( Read more... ) -
할아버지
토요일에 우리 어머니가 전화 했어요. 우리 할아버지는 죽었어요. 마지막 할아버지이라 지금부터 할아버지과 할머니 없어요. 또 우리 할아버지과 할머니 중에 그는 재일 좋아하는 분 였어요. 그래서 감자기 미국에 돌아가야 돼요. 크리스트마스 때문에 불편한 비행기 어렵게 찾았고 3일동안 미국에 남을 수밖에 없어요. 지난 번 미국에 떠나갈때 혹시 할아버지를 다시 안볼 것을 생각하고 그렇게 됐어요. 우리 할아버지를 사랑하는데 거의 90 살이라 건강이 좋지 않았어서 완전히 나쁘지않아요. 좋은 분 였고 너무 아쉬울거 예요.
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"Bye-bye"
It is always amazing how certain phrases can, despite all the contextual clues to the contrary, carry white-hot jolts of sensation. Living overseas exaggerates this because non-native speakers are apt to use language with an understandable ignorance of the emotional/cultural histories that are associated with words; if two words overlap ( Read more... ) -
Final Testing, Part 2
One of the questions on my final test was “What country is directly south of the United States?” For some of you, this may seem either easy or difficult but most will agree it is irrelevant for an English conversation class. Well, you are half right. The question came from a geography quiz that we do in the computer lab. It is actually a great ( Read more... ) -
Final Testing
I just gave a final test to some of my worst students in my worst class. As part of the test they have to have a "free-talk" about a topic that I choose. The topic was sports. The conversation was entirely, "do you like X sport ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
I am in the editing haze again and I simply have not been able to make time for this. When I am in the editing hazeI lose track of time and generally avoid things (which means that even if i wanted to write here, "I was editing today," gets real boring, real quick.) The sad fact is that writing here is the last thing on my daily list of things to ( Read more... ) -
Flotsam
I have a new most hated phrase: "I'm Okay." How can I hate such an eminently agreeable phrase? A phrase that has been designed to carry only the semantic value of happy, fuzzy compliance? The phrase to which was added its second person conjugation form to become the title of a book that ushered in the feel-good movement of the 70's? Surely, that ( Read more... ) -
The Soundtrack of Korea for the Next Few Months
If anybody wants to hear the song I am going to be hearing everytime I walk in front of a clothing store, everytime a phone rings, every time a preview for a movie or a show comes on, everytime I do anything or go anywhere, in other words, if any wants to hear the song that will haunt me like a psychotic ex-girlfriend for the next 3-5 months, here ( Read more... ) -
Chapter 26: In Which our Hero Returns to the Site of a Previous Adventure
PS. I had to rush off and catch my bus so the following has not been either spell checked or even cursorily proofread. Read at your own risk. spelling and grammatical 'abnormalities' abound!
I am currently in 야탑, just South of Seoul, 3 subway stops and within wlking distance of where I used to live. I arrived Friday and met up with ㅈ and her ( Read more... ) -
책은 너무 멋지다!
참, 오랫동안 아무것도 안써서 제생간에 혹시 현제 한국말로 쓰면 좋겠다. 요즘 기끔 작은 모험 되는데 모른 이유때문에 이 블록에서 모험에대해 설명 안하다. 그럼에도 불구하고 사실은 요즘 한국말을 더 편안히 하고있다. 말할때 생각 없이 맞은 말 보통 하다. 당연히 제 한국어의 문법 과 방범이 이상하게 들는데 대부분의 한국인들이 제 말을 이해할 수 있다. 이렇게 천천히 능력이 좋아지고있다. 여기서 한국오로 안쓰는데 매일 한국말로 여기서 쓰길 생각하고 영어를 가르치면서 생각속에서 "그 영어 된 문장을 한국어로 쓸 수 있어?" 생각해요. 구리고 자꾸 할수 있는군요!
또 다른 여기서 안쓴 이유 있어: 요즘 한국어를 많이 ( Read more... )