Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Just Passing Through
Man, the Seoul airport is nice. On the Net without a VPN connection.
Kinzie and I took off this morning and met up with E. once we got here. I'm hoping Kinzie's meds wear off and she cries when we have to part ways. Otherwise, her goodbye's gonna feel disingenuous. We're giving her mom a rough time right now over Skype, saying we're going to get drunk in the face of her advice to stay hydrated. Ah, man, good times. Kraze Burger coma.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Since Departure/before Departure
"Have fun in Korea."
"Have fun in China."
Met and later sang, in a noraebang that looked like the planet at the beginning of Alien, with my replacement, a certified teacher who will do a good job with Pluto Class.
Was bored by grammar talk. This boredom was disappointing because I used to love talking about grammar, but such talks have become just another way of marking who's right and who's wrong. How does one teacha good an English without becoming an asshole? It's possible.
Worked on "Exeunt Omnes." Decided there's been enough ground clearing. "Do you know caveat lector? / It was a child from my songhood. Everything / needed my looking up."
Was bored by drug talk. Anymore crave sobriety.
Sat at a table in the middle of the street in front of a closed-for-the-holiday restaurant with my Scottish friends, Ruth and Walker, enjoying a couple beers. Passing parents encouraged their children to practice their English with us and then to bow. Always a teacher here.
"You're the only person here who never has any trouble understanding my accent."
Was told by my R. and W.'s just-arrived friend that only British English would be used at this table.
Walked home with Megan, who told me everything's different.
Packing. Back.
"Have fun in China."
Met and later sang, in a noraebang that looked like the planet at the beginning of Alien, with my replacement, a certified teacher who will do a good job with Pluto Class.
Was bored by grammar talk. This boredom was disappointing because I used to love talking about grammar, but such talks have become just another way of marking who's right and who's wrong. How does one teach
Worked on "Exeunt Omnes." Decided there's been enough ground clearing. "Do you know caveat lector? / It was a child from my songhood. Everything / needed my looking up."
Was bored by drug talk. Anymore crave sobriety.
Sat at a table in the middle of the street in front of a closed-for-the-holiday restaurant with my Scottish friends, Ruth and Walker, enjoying a couple beers. Passing parents encouraged their children to practice their English with us and then to bow. Always a teacher here.
"You're the only person here who never has any trouble understanding my accent."
Was told by my R. and W.'s just-arrived friend that only British English would be used at this table.
Walked home with Megan, who told me everything's different.
Packing. Back.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Again Bye
I'm once again waiting for a bus to Ssangmun. Just dropped Al off for her flight to Shanghai to visit her brother. So while she goes on to the country I now live in, I stay behind in a country where we already lived.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Gave Up on Having to Be Correct
conjunctions
그리고, "and"
지만, "but"
which are damn useful
little yellow buses with the students in them, their automatic sliding doors that play Beethoven, mostly sliding only after the buses start moving
subway system with its voices in three different languages: target audience(s)
last night, you: cricket should be played without points, just who can close everything first
this afternoon, Wallace, "E unibus pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, p. 67: "Irony, entertaining as it is, serves an almost exclusively negative function. It's critical and destructive, a ground-clearing… But irony's singularly unuseful when it comes to constructing anything to replace the hypocrisies it debunks."
thus a considered restructuring of "Exeunt Omnes"
a bit of raised sidewalk for the blind to follow, here and in Dalian
Pluto Class: "Why you Korea come?"
yesterday: a sudden revulsion toward learning Korean
ideal writing and learning environment: three tables covered with open books
the conjugation of verbs in English according to about whom one is talking
the conjugation of verbs in Korean according to to whom one is talking
the conjugation of verbs in Chinese
그리고, "and"
지만, "but"
which are damn useful
little yellow buses with the students in them, their automatic sliding doors that play Beethoven, mostly sliding only after the buses start moving
subway system with its voices in three different languages: target audience(s)
last night, you: cricket should be played without points, just who can close everything first
this afternoon, Wallace, "E unibus pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, p. 67: "Irony, entertaining as it is, serves an almost exclusively negative function. It's critical and destructive, a ground-clearing… But irony's singularly unuseful when it comes to constructing anything to replace the hypocrisies it debunks."
thus a considered restructuring of "Exeunt Omnes"
a bit of raised sidewalk for the blind to follow, here and in Dalian
Pluto Class: "Why you Korea come?"
yesterday: a sudden revulsion toward learning Korean
ideal writing and learning environment: three tables covered with open books
the conjugation of verbs in English according to about whom one is talking
the conjugation of verbs in Korean according to to whom one is talking
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Parody of Having Lived Here
Ssangmun, where I lived for a year and some, is in the northern part of Seoul, near mountains, a bit far from where we used to go, Itaewon and Hongdae. Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, is something you can learn in a few sessions of sitting down with it. The bus and the subway train are good places to practice. Do you remember the time you and I were practicing on the train, standing because there were no seats, and the person next to you read aloud over your shoulder? Now, on your near way out, your students teach you words and a few sentences. Now, after having moved to China, I'm practicing every day, going into Koreatown, which is near the school, and I'm making bigger and bigger circles through Dalian as both my Korean and Chinese improve.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I Always Say the Conjunctions in English
An attempt to tell a friend who speaks only Korean that I'm learning Korean in China and that lessons must be in three languages because the Korean Chinese teacher doesn't speak much English: "{In China, I study Korean. The teacher is Korea Chinese. The teacher English [making an X with the hands]}, so {Korean, Chinese, English.}"
She laughed—whether because she understood me, I have no idea.
Only now do I remember that I know the Korean for "I don't know," because I use it all the time (though I do not know the Korean for "I know," which I almost never say), and so instead of using my hands, I could have told her that the teacher doesn't know much English.
She laughed—whether because she understood me, I have no idea.
Only now do I remember that I know the Korean for "I don't know," because I use it all the time (though I do not know the Korean for "I know," which I almost never say), and so instead of using my hands, I could have told her that the teacher doesn't know much English.
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