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random thought...
15 years ago
3/19/09
3/17/09
3/16/09
3/12/09
The Best Stories You Will Ever Read
I had my sophomore classes do my version of the Story Chain activity and these are the utterly strange results. And, since most of these stories do reference Korean culture so I'll try to footnote the most interesting/important ones.
Class M's Story:
In New Caledonia, Shrek is so sexy.[yes as in the green ogre from the movie] Gu Jun Pyo* was kissing Fiona. They are sleeping. They have a baby. She divorces Shrek and is alone with the donkey. Gu Jun Pyo killed the donkey. "Um," said F4,"no, no, no Jun Pyo." Then Gu Jun Pyo said "Gee, gee, gee."** Finally F4 goes crazy and goes to a club. Suddenly, surprisingly, F4 sees Jessica*** and begins hunting her. So then Jessica and F4 go on a honeymoon. Fiona goes to Manhatten with her daughter, Gandhi [yes, that Ghandi]. Ghandi is a pretty girl. Ghandi learns cooking and cooks a dog for Fiona. F4 is playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!" with Jessica and Gu Jun Pyo wins. Jessica lost so she must leave the F4. Ghandi is a genius at cooking and goes to Mississippi for a cooking contest. Shrek looks for Fiona and Jessica meets Ghandi in Mississippi and the fall in love and get married and they go to Sydney. The F4, still on the honeymoon, meet another beautiful girl named Tiffany****. For the night Tiffany wears a dress. This is the legend of New Caledonia, said Paris Hilton.
I couldn't make this up if I tried. Best part? The students realizing too late that they had made Jessica and Ghandi a lesbian couple but I said to them "why not? women can love each other too." They still seemed slightly distressed. Let's just say many Koreans seem to not yet be comfortable with the idea that they may actually know people who are gay or lesbian. It seems acceptable as long as it's a character in a movie or someone they don't know (a recently popular movie here was about gay bakery shop workers).
Handy References:
*Gun Jun Pyo= leader of the oh-so-stylish F4 in the drama "Boys Over Flowers" (꽃보다 남자), a sort of rich gang who control the rich high they attend. They're also the most desirable men in Korea and Gu Jun Pyo the most desirable because he is the richest. (He's also tall and handsome which can't hurt either). He's also a total jerk on the outside but is all sensitive on the inside (sound familiar?). For a pretty good summary of the story of the drama and the characters, go here. Also, New Caledonia is one of the places the F4 go to in the drama for a vacay.
**"Gee, Gee, Gee" was the hottest single by Korean girls pop group, Girls' Generation for a long while (still kinda popular now but slowly dying out, thank God). Yes there really are 9 members. Lord knows why since none of them are particularly talented.
***Jessica is one of the members of Girls' Generation. Also, according to my students, in Korean it's common to say a guy is "hunting" or chasing a girl so while it sounds kind of terrible in English they don't mean it in a violent way.
****Tiffany is also another member of Girls' Generation.
I'll update with more stories later.
Class M's Story:
In New Caledonia, Shrek is so sexy.[yes as in the green ogre from the movie] Gu Jun Pyo* was kissing Fiona. They are sleeping. They have a baby. She divorces Shrek and is alone with the donkey. Gu Jun Pyo killed the donkey. "Um," said F4,"no, no, no Jun Pyo." Then Gu Jun Pyo said "Gee, gee, gee."** Finally F4 goes crazy and goes to a club. Suddenly, surprisingly, F4 sees Jessica*** and begins hunting her. So then Jessica and F4 go on a honeymoon. Fiona goes to Manhatten with her daughter, Gandhi [yes, that Ghandi]. Ghandi is a pretty girl. Ghandi learns cooking and cooks a dog for Fiona. F4 is playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!" with Jessica and Gu Jun Pyo wins. Jessica lost so she must leave the F4. Ghandi is a genius at cooking and goes to Mississippi for a cooking contest. Shrek looks for Fiona and Jessica meets Ghandi in Mississippi and the fall in love and get married and they go to Sydney. The F4, still on the honeymoon, meet another beautiful girl named Tiffany****. For the night Tiffany wears a dress. This is the legend of New Caledonia, said Paris Hilton.
I couldn't make this up if I tried. Best part? The students realizing too late that they had made Jessica and Ghandi a lesbian couple but I said to them "why not? women can love each other too." They still seemed slightly distressed. Let's just say many Koreans seem to not yet be comfortable with the idea that they may actually know people who are gay or lesbian. It seems acceptable as long as it's a character in a movie or someone they don't know (a recently popular movie here was about gay bakery shop workers).
Handy References:
*Gun Jun Pyo= leader of the oh-so-stylish F4 in the drama "Boys Over Flowers" (꽃보다 남자), a sort of rich gang who control the rich high they attend. They're also the most desirable men in Korea and Gu Jun Pyo the most desirable because he is the richest. (He's also tall and handsome which can't hurt either). He's also a total jerk on the outside but is all sensitive on the inside (sound familiar?). For a pretty good summary of the story of the drama and the characters, go here. Also, New Caledonia is one of the places the F4 go to in the drama for a vacay.
**"Gee, Gee, Gee" was the hottest single by Korean girls pop group, Girls' Generation for a long while (still kinda popular now but slowly dying out, thank God). Yes there really are 9 members. Lord knows why since none of them are particularly talented.
***Jessica is one of the members of Girls' Generation. Also, according to my students, in Korean it's common to say a guy is "hunting" or chasing a girl so while it sounds kind of terrible in English they don't mean it in a violent way.
****Tiffany is also another member of Girls' Generation.
I'll update with more stories later.
3/2/09
The Invisible (Wo)man
So today was my first day back to work and since the Korean school year is different from the States, it was also the first day of the new school year. They had this grand opening ceremony to welcome the freshmen, though, as with most ceremonies, it was all rather pointless. And as usual, everything was chaotic and disorganized as no one ever bothers to plan ahead (at least no one at my school). I didn't even get my teaching schedule until last night and for most of today, I wasn't even sure if I'd be officially teaching or not.
It almost feels like I never had that 2-month-long vacation. And what I could never really pinpoint before, about what I really hate about living in Korea and working at this particular high school, is that I simply feel invisible most of the time. I thought things would be better after I went on this teacher's retreat a few weeks ago where the teachers seemed much more open to talking with me. But today it was back to normal. It's even worse now, though, than before because at least before I was in a satellite gyomoshil (teacher's office area) that was small and isolated but now that I'm in the main one, I really feel out of place.
For one, there's this swirl of activity that's always happening right near my desk (which is right next to the copier and printer) with teachers talking and sometimes leaning on my cubicle to talk with each other. Meanwhile, I feel completely left out on several different levels-mainly, linguistically and culturally. While a few teachers did talk to me, most ignored me. I know it's (mostly) not a mean-sprited thing, and part of it is my fault--I'm hardly the most friendly or gregarious person--but still, it'd be nice if there could even be the slightest acknowledgement that I am a fellow teacher, not just some random foreigner crashing at the school for awhile. I also thought letting them know I speak Korean would help but it doesn't seem to matter. To them I'm foreign and therefore "other."
But in a weird way, I also feel like it's not just that I'm invisible but that I'm also under constant and intense scrutiny. What I do, how I act, what I say all represent "American" for the Koreans around me and so I feel like I have to always be on my absolute best behavior. At school and at my homestay I feel like I always have to have my guard up, I can't just relax and be myself fully. And especially at school I always feel a little tense and awkward sitting at my desk, never feeling like I fully belong, like I'm some imposter. I feel like I constantly have to put on this act that shows that Americans aren't always loud and obnoxious, that they're not rude and culturally clueless. It's a burden certainly, but an even heavier one to carry when you feel like no one's paying attention to you most of the time anyway.
So even as I feel the familiar dread of going back to school tomorrow creep over me, I'm also weirdly optimistic that it'll be different this time around. But part of me knows nothing's gonna change and certainly not anytime soon...
It almost feels like I never had that 2-month-long vacation. And what I could never really pinpoint before, about what I really hate about living in Korea and working at this particular high school, is that I simply feel invisible most of the time. I thought things would be better after I went on this teacher's retreat a few weeks ago where the teachers seemed much more open to talking with me. But today it was back to normal. It's even worse now, though, than before because at least before I was in a satellite gyomoshil (teacher's office area) that was small and isolated but now that I'm in the main one, I really feel out of place.
For one, there's this swirl of activity that's always happening right near my desk (which is right next to the copier and printer) with teachers talking and sometimes leaning on my cubicle to talk with each other. Meanwhile, I feel completely left out on several different levels-mainly, linguistically and culturally. While a few teachers did talk to me, most ignored me. I know it's (mostly) not a mean-sprited thing, and part of it is my fault--I'm hardly the most friendly or gregarious person--but still, it'd be nice if there could even be the slightest acknowledgement that I am a fellow teacher, not just some random foreigner crashing at the school for awhile. I also thought letting them know I speak Korean would help but it doesn't seem to matter. To them I'm foreign and therefore "other."
But in a weird way, I also feel like it's not just that I'm invisible but that I'm also under constant and intense scrutiny. What I do, how I act, what I say all represent "American" for the Koreans around me and so I feel like I have to always be on my absolute best behavior. At school and at my homestay I feel like I always have to have my guard up, I can't just relax and be myself fully. And especially at school I always feel a little tense and awkward sitting at my desk, never feeling like I fully belong, like I'm some imposter. I feel like I constantly have to put on this act that shows that Americans aren't always loud and obnoxious, that they're not rude and culturally clueless. It's a burden certainly, but an even heavier one to carry when you feel like no one's paying attention to you most of the time anyway.
So even as I feel the familiar dread of going back to school tomorrow creep over me, I'm also weirdly optimistic that it'll be different this time around. But part of me knows nothing's gonna change and certainly not anytime soon...
2/8/09
Holding Cell
The thing about being in a long distance relationship is that more than missing the person all the time, more than feeling like every visit with the other person mustn't be wasted--not even one second, more than feeling like you're sometimes in some sort of weird phantom relationship, is that it just feels like your relationship has been placed on hold. It's really the best way to describe it, at least for my situation.
When K and I agreed to keep our relationship going after college, we knew it'd have to be long distance. We'd both agreed that it'd be best not to make huge future plans based on each other. I think we both wanted to be realistic about the situation--neither of us wanted to make decisions that we'd regret and might blame the other person for that decision. Things change. People change. Feelings change. At the end of the day you need to make decisions that are best for you, not someone else, because ultimately you're the person who has to live with those decisions. And the last thing I'd want is for K to make a decision based around me and then end up severely regretting it. Even if he never actually admitted to feeling this way, I think a small part of him would (I mean anyone would, wouldn't they?). And I wouldn't want it the other way around either, where I might end up resenting K for a decision that really I made myself. I do have a tendency (a very bad tendency) to blame others.
Things kind of worked out in the end although I suppose not really because we're still doing the long distance thing. But it hasn't been as terrible as I thought. It's been hard, sure, but maybe we're both in denial or something but we're making it work. We do our best to talk everyday via Skype (God, I love Skype). We keep up with each other's lives--our annoying co-workers, workplace blunders, our daily routine, etc. etc. We also don't do the "it's ok to hook up with people thing" because I just don't see the point. In my opinion, once you reach that stage in the relationship, you might as well end it. If you want to hook up with other people so badly, just do it, but don't hold on to a relationship while doing it. Because you're just screwing yourself in the end. You can't have both.
The one thing I miss, besides being able to actually hug K and see him everyday, is that we can't have deep converstions anymore. It's too hard trying to do serious talks on Skype or over the phone. It just doesn't work. Which is why we keep our conversations on the lighter side of things. It sucks because that's how you really get to know a person and how a relationship develops. But I'd rather be in this holding cell with K than have no relationship with him at all.
When K and I agreed to keep our relationship going after college, we knew it'd have to be long distance. We'd both agreed that it'd be best not to make huge future plans based on each other. I think we both wanted to be realistic about the situation--neither of us wanted to make decisions that we'd regret and might blame the other person for that decision. Things change. People change. Feelings change. At the end of the day you need to make decisions that are best for you, not someone else, because ultimately you're the person who has to live with those decisions. And the last thing I'd want is for K to make a decision based around me and then end up severely regretting it. Even if he never actually admitted to feeling this way, I think a small part of him would (I mean anyone would, wouldn't they?). And I wouldn't want it the other way around either, where I might end up resenting K for a decision that really I made myself. I do have a tendency (a very bad tendency) to blame others.
Things kind of worked out in the end although I suppose not really because we're still doing the long distance thing. But it hasn't been as terrible as I thought. It's been hard, sure, but maybe we're both in denial or something but we're making it work. We do our best to talk everyday via Skype (God, I love Skype). We keep up with each other's lives--our annoying co-workers, workplace blunders, our daily routine, etc. etc. We also don't do the "it's ok to hook up with people thing" because I just don't see the point. In my opinion, once you reach that stage in the relationship, you might as well end it. If you want to hook up with other people so badly, just do it, but don't hold on to a relationship while doing it. Because you're just screwing yourself in the end. You can't have both.
The one thing I miss, besides being able to actually hug K and see him everyday, is that we can't have deep converstions anymore. It's too hard trying to do serious talks on Skype or over the phone. It just doesn't work. Which is why we keep our conversations on the lighter side of things. It sucks because that's how you really get to know a person and how a relationship develops. But I'd rather be in this holding cell with K than have no relationship with him at all.
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