Possible move to tumblr?

I've created a tumblr account, and have been posting some stuff on that. I find the layout and usage a lot more cleaner and easier than here in Blogger. Sure, Blogger can do more stuff (like comments ^^ hehe), but tumblr has a design factor that I love. Anyway, I'll be posting random stuff on my tumblelog that doesn't really need a full post to go here.

andyoppa.tumblr.com
Check it out ^^

I had GEPIK orientation from Monday to Wednesday this week. Overall, it wasn't too bad. Too many young, arrogant people there for my liking. No life experience, with the idea that coming overseas to "teach" would be a walk in the park, and then having a whinge and a cry when things in Korea are different and not what they expected and not trying to understand what's going on, and then telling Koreans that they have to be open-minded because they come from a different place.

As Anrie said in Kindergarten Cop (I think):

You're in my world now!

I'd often have Korean friends tell me that parents who said their kids to hagwons and other English learning places that have a foreign English teacher, that they're worried about the foreign teacher not being qualified, and only just being there for show/to make more money. After being in a room with 250 other "teachers", I finally understood what my friends were talking about. Don't get me wrong, I met some awesome people there, who are trying their best to teach, without a background in teaching - they have their students' learning and well-being in consideration at all times. But a lot of others I met (mainly young ones who just got out of college, who didn't study either English or Education) are the ones I was talking about in the above paragraph.

They're also the ones that kept me up at night, until 2 or 3am, with noisy drinking - only making that bad stereotype about young foreign english teachers in Korea stronger.

Make a t-shirt... I dare ya!

Simple, yet effective! *^^*


For those who know, but don't care (obviously)! *^^*

If you're gonna fuck up...

...do it with class!


The Korean article about it, is here

Korea has had this coming for a long time. Yep, English does have a "long E" vowel sound, and now you know it, don't you! ㅋㅋㅋ

But, let's just treat this as a learning curve. Sure, there is a time for teasing and making fun of something or someone, and once we get past that, we can learn from it.

Here's how.

In the image below, it is just a simple translation, with the English and Korean words.


But the question I have for Lotte (or anyone else out there for that matter) is: How far you wanna take it? How far should the envelope be pushed? Well, I've come up with a solution for that too.

Here at andyinsk, options are always a good thing. So, here's five options (thanks to the help of a Korean friend) depending on how much you wish to insult your customers (who can actually read and understand English, and more specifically, read and understand the word "bitch").

If you're not a fan of foul language, I suggest that you don't click the image below.
욕이 싫으면, 아래 이미지를 클릭하지 마세요



* I've been advised that 악녀 is more of the "written voca" kind, but an equivalent of 악녀, in a spoken form, is 계집년. But, because it has a fairly weak meaning, it's not really an insult.

DISCLAIMER / 단서
** This just a bit of fun, by the way. Nothing serious. If you're Korean (or anyone else who knows the Korean language), and insulted by bad language, well, I did warn you before clicking it. If you clicked it, and you're pissed off, you've only got yourself to blame.

** 당신는 이미지를 주의 읽은후에 크릭하고 모욕되면 andyinsk의 저자가 책임이 없어요.

Surprises

Lately, the weather had been all sunny, except for a few rainy spots. Today was a nice cloudy day, with a bit of sunshine.

Going to Fukuoka is not going to happen on the days off. Getting there on the 11th is no problem, but getting back on the 12th is a bit difficult. When I say a bit difficult, i mean, there are no seats available on the ferry back to Busan, and I'm not a good swimmer. Will go another time.

I got a nice parcel in the mail today. Some late Easter chocolate, a few bags of lollies and two bottles of deodorant. It was a nice surprise. I shared some of the chocolate and lollies with the students. The Racing cars were a big hit. But, the bag of Chicos had a "free songs at the iTunes store", so I sorted that out when I got home. Nothing wrong with a free track from iTunes.

Speaking of Music, one class of mine were up to the "chant" section of the book. And for some reason, with the structure of it, it got me thinking about how cool it would sound if it was done in the style of the B-52's, with the girls chanting "Socks! Socks!" and the guy doing the other part. Maybe its because I have been listening to the latest B-52's album, and their single "Funplex".

Funplex



Also found this in my search, which was kinda cool:

Toxic Love Shack: The B-52's vs Britney



Here is an example of some of the English study that Korean Middle School students do. Notice at how FUN it is!

Barbarian = Foreigner?

According to English dictionaries, barbarian normally has one or two defintions. This is what the dictionary on my Mac has to say:

barbarian |bärˈbe(ə)rēən|
noun
(in ancient times) a member of a community or tribe not belonging to one of the great civilizations (Greek, Roman, Christian).
• an uncultured or brutish person.
adjective
of or relating to ancient barbarians : barbarian invasions | barbarian peoples.
• uncultured; brutish.

Fair Enough.

Lets check out what the Korean/English dictionary says:



Yep, that's what it says... A foreigner is a barbarian! Now, I checked two other dictionaries as well (a computer dictionary that came with my old Samsung computer in early 2006, and my diciontary on my mobile phone) and they said the same thing.

To get an idea about where the word came from, lets turn to our good ol' friend, Wikipedia:

The Greeks used the term as they encountered scores of different foreign cultures, including the Thracians, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Celts, Germans, Phoenicians, Etruscans, Romans, and Carthaginians. However in certain occasions, the term was also used by Greeks to deride other Greek tribes and states in a pejorative and politically motivated manner.

So, we're talking medievil times. Korea, this is the 21st century. Get with the program. Some people could say that Koreans are barbarians, with the way that they treat/kill dogs for food.

Makes you really think and wonder, doesn't it?

But, after checking some sites, like Korean's Naver and Nate sites (Korean search engines), I have found that the word "외국인" has been removed:

bar・bar・i・an〔〕 n.
1 야만인, 미개인;야만스러운[야비한] 사람
2 교양없는 사람, 속물(cf. PHILISTINE 2)
3 이방인

━ a.
1 미개인의, 야만스러운;교양없는
2 이방의

Okay, so, 외국인 has been removed... but have a look at the word 이방인. Now, 이방 in Korean, means "foreign country"... so, does that mean that 이방인, means "foreigner"?