The Chosun Bimbo

There have only been 6 working days in the last 2 weeks. This week feels like I have managed to cram about 5 days worth of work into four! Thus the lack of anything substantive.
It is Teacher's day, and I was happy to receive a couple of cards and some flowers from among the 800 odd students I teach. Not like the old Hakwon days though aye!? With the chocolate cakes and expensive ties and Lotte Mart gift certificates. (Not to mention the always appreciated gift sets of SPAM!)
Which brings me to the sad realisation that Korea really does have it's educational priorities outta whack. I took exception to one of 5th Grade classes on Wednesday because out of 30 odd students only 5 turned in their homework. So I told them that I would come back at one o'clock and we could spend 20 minutes finishing the task. No issue - and in fact most of them did the task during lunch, handed it in and were sent on their merry way. One little darling though, had the temerity to storm into my office and tell me he had to go to his Hakwon and 3pm and wanted to be let off. I replied no, only to have the child burst into a screaming fit and stomp out again, slamming the door behind him.
All I have to say to that is...Not in my day son, not in my day.
Elsewhere it has been a very social week, catching up with SK last night for a bit of Izakaya and a few rounds of the sake. We realised that we hadn't in fact seen each other since New Years! So it was a good catch up, and we have promised not to let another 4 months pass before seeing each other again. To night I had a 6pm appointment with Chosun Bimbo new comer, Facebook Girl which stretched on to just after 8, and tomorrow its a late dinner and a few rounds with The Deskbuddy! Saturday will see me attend my very first KOTESOL workshop on Bottom-up processing in reading. (Stooooopid Masters studying!)
And Y'all thought I only sat at home on the Internet and didn't have any friends!
Next weekend it's off to the Antoine Bourdelle exhibition with Translator Girl but not before some serious shit at work - The monthly Wednesday workshop (This month's theme: Special needs), The first (of no doubt many more to come) Summer camp meetings at Poi Elementary for a summer camp that I probably won't be attending, and then Friday sees me under the microscope having one of my classes invaded observed. Just to make sure I am actually teaching the chil'ens somefink and not filling their pretty little heads with nonsense.
Nice.
In other news thanks to all for the positive comments and questions about Boseong, Green Tea, and the trip to Gyeongju. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, so much so that a start-up newspaper in England, The East, has asked to reprint some of the photos. You'll notice a couple of Korean blogs are mentioned on their (still being constructed) homepage, including Friend of The Bimbo Dangerous Dave in Daegu, or is that Dave in Dangerous Daegu? The PDF of their May Issue is here, and is worth a read.

It's always a joy to receive an email from the New Zealand Embassy in Seoul especially when it contains things like this:

After making my way back to Gyeongju proper from Bulguksa I decided I wanted to take in some of Gyeongju's historic sights. David mentioned "The Monuds" - and since I'm always keen for a bit of mound, that's where I started:

Hee hee! Mounds look like boobies!

The mounds are actually burial chambers. The one above contained all manner of kingly goodness including a saddle with flying horses on it, thus giving the burial chamber it's name: Cheonmachong - Heavenly Horse Tomb.



Imhaejeon was essentially a big banquet hall where the kings of the Shilla dynasty would entertain their guests.

It was built in parts and eventually looked like this model:




Across the road from Imhaejeon is the Gyeongju National Museum. Unlike many museums around the world, you are permitted to use your camera without a flash.



Not quite Ajax and Achilles playing a game not unlike backgammon.





Showing off my macro photography skills - all of these figures are only about 3cm tall.

Thus concluded the great southern rail journey. After taking a nap under a tree in the grounds of the national museum for about half an hour I got home finally at about half past 12 Tuesday morning via Dong-daegu, Daejeon and finally Seoul Station.
A good little excursion, and well overdue - I have been harping on about going to the Tea festival for positively ages! Bulguksa was a highlight as was Cheomseongdae which is a bit of a Korean icon if you will. It would be interesting to see the contrast brought about by Autumn in a number of these places and so another little excursion might be on the cards later in the year. But the next trip might be to the north east, being that I have never been to Gangwon-do. Recommendations?

I missed my train by about half an hour (a running theme throughout the excursion) but made it to Gyeongju at around 10am. From the station I jumped on a bus to Bulguksa:


The clouds were rolling off the mountains to reveal a gorgeous sunny day. As you see in the subsequent photos this played havoc on my camera and I have the feeling that a lot of these shots are a tad over exposed. (Then again it could just be the compression on Picasa?)

The Walk up to Bulguksa. Being Children's day there were lots of people about. I would like to come back in winter when it is a bit more quiet.

Seeing as this coming Monday is the Buddha's birthday there were lots of lanterns strung up. (And that also means another long weekend! Assah!)
Construction on Bulguksa began in AD751. It was burnt to the ground by the Japanese in the 14th century. While aspects of the complex were reconstructed and used since then it wasn't until the late 1960s that Bulguksa was first excavated and fully restored. It was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995.

I arrived in Boseong at about 6:30 on Saturday evening after a 90 minute bus ride from Kwangju. It's a tiny little village - even smaller than dirty ol' Nonsan town. But for a small place like Boseong I couldn't believe the number of Pharmacies and old style Korean Coffee shops (Da Bang). And no wi-fi to speak of, well except the open router on the corner in front of a pharmacy where I spent a good twenty minutes checking my email on my iPod and endured the stares of many a perplexed local.
I managed to find a room at one of Boseong's 2 hotels, just in time too methinks as I bumbed into a couple of foreigners who were shit out of luck in finding a place to stay the night.
I decided to fore go Boseong's happenin' night life and, notwithstanding the Steven Segal marathon on OCN, went to bed for an early start on Sunday.
Boseong, despite a much popular festival, doesn't seem too visitor-friendly. I guess the Green Tea festival is only once a year. It was pretty easy to get to Daehan Dawon however. It's a fifteen or so minute bus ride from the bus terminal and costs W1000. A big thank you to Paul from Seattle for paying my fare.

I arrived at half past seven expecting only a few people climbing amongst the tea, but even at that hour there were quite a few people avoiding the heat. The plantation is at the end of a stand of trees that are apparently quite famous themselves with a number of advertisements filmed there.


The plantation itself is quite beautiful, and the gray-ish skies gave a nice contrast to the bright green of the tea plants:








I tried to make it appear in my photos that (almost) no one was around, but that wasn't the case. Even early in the morning the place was packed.


More photos of Boseong and the Daehan Dawon green tea plantation can be found here.
After climbing down from amidst the tea I took a little rest at the bottom of the hill. I couldn't quite stomach green tea ice cream at that time of the morning so I had a drink. Green Tea? I hear you ask. No. Double Latte. I'm such a heathen!
Returning to Boseong I had to contemplate the next step of my journey - Daegu, literally across on the other side of the country. My hatred of bus travel led me to the conclusion that it would be both more comfortable and quicker to take the KTX from Kwangju, to Daejeon and then onto Dong-Daegu. Which I did.
Daegu wasn't just a stop. It was a chance to catch up with Dave and his girlfriend Em and a couple of his work mates for a bit of dinner and drunken sake-fueled revelry.
Goodtimes.
Another evening, another dodgy love hotel. Ladies and gentlemen I thoroughly recommend the "Time" hotel near Dong-daegu station, and not just for it's sex toy vending machine in the lobby.
I settled in to a clean and quiet room hoping that I would wake up in time for my train to Gyeongju..

Coming to you live and hurtling toward Seoul at 300Km/h! I love Korea! I have had a fantastic day in Gyeongju and am thoroughly knackered. I have two more days off so there will be plenty of time for me to put up some of the 500 odd photos I managed to take over the weekend. Stay tuned.

In the meantime: Your, and my, favourite Cranky Geek, John C. Dvorak is in Korea. I am trying to organise a meet up / Q&A, possibly have a few beverages while he is in Seoul. Stay tuned.... Comments and suggestions through the usual channels.

Woke up at the time my train was departing Yongsan. Thank you Alarm clock. I managed to get to Yongsan and am now on the Lunch time KTX to Kwangju - should get to Boseong late afternoon which may provide some interesting lighting in terms of photography. I am told the setting sun provides a dramatic backdrop to the tea plantations in Boseong. We'll see.

In the rush to get out the door I left my phone at home meaning no on the move Twitter updates on the move, But I do have my Kohjinsha UMPC from which I am posting now.

To add insult to injury Starbux at Yongsan doesn't open until 10am! But I can thoroughly recommend Doughnut Planet New York in the iPark Mall, just down from Starbux - passable coffee and nice stodgy doughnuts the way I like.

My second assignment as submitted this morning. Frankly I'm not as impressed with it as I was the first assignment, but it'll do the job. (It's also a tad bit shorter than the first one.)
--

This paper will look at a group of Korean learners. A pronunciation priority will be justified as being important for this group. The approach taken by their teacher in addressing this priority will be discussed. Finally, drawing on relevant literature, learning and teaching strategies will be identified and justified, that address gaps in these approaches.

Pronunciation covers a broad group of oral skill sets learners must master. The English sound system includes the articulation of individual sounds, voiced and aspirated sounds, stress and intonation, blending of sounds, and conversely the omission of some sounds all fall under the term ”°pronunciation”±, and all have an effect on intelligibility. (Pennington and Richards : 1986)

”°Having a good pronunciation of the language can help in normal communication, particularly intelligibility.”± (Derwing and Munro 2005 in Nation and Newton : 2008 : 5 : 1) While pronunciation is key to intelligibility, it has effects on other aspects of language learning. Development of a stable pronunciation is important for committing language items to long-term memory. (Ellis and Beaton 1993 et al in ibid.)

There are a number of factors preventing learners from attaining an intelligible pronunciation. Jenkins (2002) promotes an English as an International Language (EIL) model with pronunciation that seeks to promote intelligibility between Non-Native Speakers, as opposed to a Native Speaker-like Anglo-american pronunciation. On this point it is necessary to point out that our group of Korean learners is seeking to emulate a (NS) pronunciation.

There are five factors that cause difficulties for students learning a second language (L2) sound system: A learner's Age and the sound system of their first language (L1) both have an influence on second and subsequent languages. (Nation and Newton : 2008 : 5 : 3~4) In addition, as a learner grows more proficient in a language, so his or her accent and pronunciation changes. (ibid.) The fourth factor centers on the learner's own experiences and attitudes. Pronunciation can be affected by things outside the classroom while things like the length of time someone has learnt a second language, their motivations, introversion or motivation also contribute to a learner's ability to produce an intelligible pronunciation. (Purcell and Suter : 1980 in Nation and Newton : 2008 : 5 : 5) Finally the ways in which the sound system is taught and learned can have effects on pronunciation. (ibid.)

It is difficult to outline a single pronunciation priority for our group of Korean students. A priority might be an amalgamation of a number of Gilbert's (2000) six pronunciation priorities. The Korean language does not allow final consonants, and in addition each consonant must be accompanied by a vowel sound. Thus Korean students are prone to inserting unnecessary vowel sounds in their pronunciation. As Gilbert notes: This can damage intelligibility. (Ibid.) In addition Korean learners find certain consonants difficult to produce.

To address this priority our learners and their teacher have taken a traditional approach toward pronunciation. Included in this approach are the use of techniques that Celce-Murcia et al call Visual and Auditory Reinforcement. (2004 : 295) Specifically, imagery is used extensively though Power point presentations, flash cards, charts and diagrams in an attempt to associate pronunciation with a visual representation. For ecxample Celce-Murcia's et al image of a bee to relate the pronunciation of /z/ (Ibid.).

In addition there is a strong emphasis on auditory reinforcement. While Korean students are familiar and comfortable with drilling pronunciation, and it is used (sparingly) with the group in question, other auditory techniques are also applied. The use of a memory peg (Firth : 1992a in Celce-Murcia et al : 2004 : 295) is particularly useful such as a catch phrase like ”°That thumb there!”± used to distinguish between /„č/ and /©£/.
While this approach works well in teaching the pronunciation of sounds without unnecessarily attaching vowel sounds, it is limited in addressing the rhythmic aspect of the priority. To reinforce this the teacher could adopt a kinesthetic reinforcement approach where students produce some sort of movement in addition to sound production. This could involve hand movements such as those suggested by Chan. (2000 in Celce-Murcia et al 2004 : 297) As Acton (1984) points out students can ”°remember”± [sic] a physical sensation, and then apply the more intelligible pronunciation as a result of their remembering. This could come in the form of clapping while counting the number of syllables in a word. Or the teacher could say a sentence but stop at a word giving the students difficulty and tap out the syllable stress instead of saying it. The learners would have to guess the word from both the context, and the syllable / stress pattern. (Nation and Newton : 2008 : 5 : 13)

Furthermore the teacher could take a tactile approach. This could be very valuable as Korean has a tactile approach to the forming of consonant sounds. Indeed at it's inception Consonants in the Korean alphabet were schematic drawings of the human speech organs in the process of articulating sounds. (Ledyard : 1966) (See Appendix 1) The Tactile Reinforcement approach outlined by Celce-Murcia et al (2004 : 296) is one familiar to the learners in terms of ”°feeling”± their speech organs but seldom utilized by the teacher. It would be considerably useful for teaching the distinction between the /r/ and /l/ consonants that Korean learners in particular find difficult to produce accurately. Furthermore it is easily implemented by the teacher with the use of common items such as popsicle sticks and straws as suggested by Celce-Murcia et al (Ibid.)

Although, at this stage it is probably not necessary to go as far as introducing dental moulds to the classroom as suggested by Gilbert (1991 in Celce-Murcia et al Ibid.)

To conclude, this paper has outlined what constitutes pronunciation and the difficulties facing second language learners of English. The production of words without the insertion of extra syllables and the production of certain consonant sounds have been identified as pronunciation priorities for a group of Korean learners. At present their teacher takes a somewhat traditional approach to teaching pronunciation. While this is merited, it could be augmented by taking a kinesthetic approach and a tactile approach to the teaching of pronunciation. In particular the tactile approach has the advantage of being a system familiar to the learners and is a technique analogous to that in their first language.

I have a 5 day weekend this weekend, with Children's Day on Monday, My school's birthday Tuesday and a random Day off on Wednesday.
As such I have decided to take advantage of the good weather and head to the South West of the peninsula - ground I haven't covered in the 4 or so years I have been in Korea. I will be catching the KTX down to Kwangju from where I will head to the Annual Green Tea festival in Boseong on Saturday.
Sunday will see me cross over to the East where I will head to Daegu to catch up with Dave and his bunny for a few beverages. (Do rabbits drink?) On Monday I'm planning on going to Gyeongju (Another place I have yet to visit) and take a look at Bulguksa, amongst other things.
I'm heading back to Seoul late Monday night and should arrive back home early Tuesday morning.
I should get some blogging in while I'm on the road, but if not you can follow me on Twitter. (If it's working)
Stay tuned for a bucket load of photos.
Also, on that subject, does anyone have a premium Picasa Web Albums Account? How much is it? What do you think? Is it better than a Flickr Premium Account? And is Google ripping you off by going from 6.5GB Mail storage and 1GB photo storage to a combined 10GB for USD$20.00??

My old work ripping off my photos without proper attribution to promote their Children's Day Gala this year. Grrrr!

Today I had to have a full physical examination. Such is the requirement of all teachers, foreign or domestic, in The Republic. Either the authorities are concerned that teachers don't spread infectous diseases to the promising youngsters in their classes, or they are worried the grubby little mites will infect said teachers. No points for guessing which side of the argument I fall on.
I cannot overstate how much I was NOT looking forward to the whole ordeal. Notwithstanding the trek halfway across town (OK Gangnam) in rush-hour to be at the clinic at 8:20am I knew there would be a few other things I would have to deal with.
Case in point: Hospital gowns. When I am airlifted to a hospital, unconscious and gravely injured and you need to cut the clothes from my convulsing body to tend to my wounds...hey, no problem. I'll wear a hospital gown. When I am with my coworkers, tired and grumpy? No! No I will not! Especially not gay looking powder blue pajama-like hospital gowns.
Then there is my general distrust of Korean Medicine in general. Don't get me wrong. I know Korea excels at this kind of thing. I can see the best hospital in Asia from my apartment (Samsung Hospital is Awesome - you should go and just have a look.) And the doctors and nurses are generally nice. But it's the little things...like disposable needles. In New Zealand you wouldn't think twice about reusing a needle - YOU JUST DON'T. Every time you are jabbed it's with a fresh needle straight from its little clear wrapper.
Now I am aware that things like needles can be sterilised quickly and excellently with absolutely ZERO chance of spreading infection, and I'm sure that there was nothing wrong with the needle that ended up in my arm this morning...but can you really be sure? REALLY? Points off too for the nurse who, knowing my arm better than me, ignored me and missed the vein twice. Only on the third attempt did she actually listen to me and draw blood. (I have a long history with needles - all legal mind you! Hence my treatise here.)
Another of my favourite moments this morning - all my coworkers crowding around to see my Body Mass Index which (although pleasingly less than I would have thought) was absolutely horrendous.
And there's the rub. In New Zealand trips to the doctor, for what ever reason, are treated as personal. You go toe to toe with Medical Science, if you can walk away unscathed all is well, but by God man, you face it alone. Here, you sit around in your pajamas with the people you work with. What bothers me the most is someone I work with will see my results. OK If I'm healthy it's all good. (And I dare say I am.) But what if, just what if, I had something like Syphilis - a pretty common and treatable ailment but one which comes with all manner of negative connotations, and not something I would like my Liaison teacher (The one I go to if I need something) to know about me.
I would like to take this opportunity to categorically state that I do NOT have Syphilis. (That I know of - I got tested this morning.)

Anyway it's all a bit of a moot point. In the middle of our tests we all got evacuated from the building because there was a fire in the basement. So It looks like I will have to go and complete the battery of tests in about 2 weeks time after my 5 day weekend coming up at the end of this week.





No images of lashing flames and billowing smoke, but images of the "fire" nevertheless.

[Update:] I just spoke to Translator Girl, who was in the Gwanhwamun Area this afternoon protesting the rights of Tibetans etc etc, and apparently she got kicked by a bunch of Chinamen who were only lazily stopped by the police.
Seems I missed all the good stuff. More here (Via The Marmot) and here. (via NYT)

A sea of red greeted me as I reached the precinct around Seoul City Hall this evening to have a look at the Olympic Torch. A vast amount of police were also on hand. I didn't see any pro-Tibet protesters, indeed I think the crowd was mostly made up of Chinese Students, who seem a pleasant enough bunch despite something of a nationalistic streak. There was one scuffle which I got near - if my Mandarin is correct they were all calling out "One China", which, as we know has more to do with Taiwan than it does Tibet.
Don't ask me who the athletes involved in The Seoul portion of the Olympic Torch relay are, I have no idea, but in amongst the photos below you will find a quick video of the moment the final torch was lit before the run up to City Hall. (Apologies for the janky nature of the footage.)

I fairly unproductive Saturday taken up by a trek down to Jeongwang (about 2 hours each way) to see my friend Matt's play before he (and his play) go to Edinburgh for it's festival. I should clarify, Matt's play doesn't fall into the unproductive category, indeed it was really good. (Can't remember the last time I saw live acting type stuff.) Of course waking up at 12 also prevents productivity, as do video games....
So, with that in mind I have a (reasonably short) list of things to do tomorrow, in no particular order:
1) Hang out laundry - it has been sitting in the washing machine for 2 days noe, I'm sure it's clean enough.
2) Write assignment on teaching pronunciation, cite sources correctly.
3) Play some more Call of Duty 4
4) Either, protest Chinese belligerence vis-a-vis Tibet at 10am at Olympic Park (It is reasonably near to where I live) or at City Hall at 7pm. Also see Olympic Torch.
5) Vacuum apartment.
Hmmm... I could probably tackle that first one now....

Ok, So I know I said no more videos, but this one blends two of my interests quite nicely:

Heehee

So it's official - The Wii will launch in Korea this Saturday - 26 April. (Despite the fact that it has been available in Yongsan pretty much since the day it launched in Japan, AND at the same price it is launching at). Here's an ad:

I don't like the rubberized case that seems to be attached to the Wiimote, but it might say something about either a) Korean children and there tendency to through there toys, or b) the uncoordinated inability of Koreans to hold on to there Wiis (Hahahahahhahahahhaha!)
Nor do I like the dude in his pajamas playing Wii. That hits a little close to home if anything.
There are more videos available on the Korean Wii site (Usual Flash-intensive Korean site, so be prepared for it not to render properly and / or be slow).
Will I get one? Well not at W220,000, (Only a third of the cost of my fully backwards compatible 40GB PS3 - means it can only be one third as good blah blah fanboy blah) but I will willingly participate in the Wii - larity if anyone who does get one wants to invite me 'round for a game of tennis or some such.
(Via Mongdori)

Having lived in Korea and New Zealand, and once having spent an eternity in a Turkish bank (Large denominations - low value, much like Korea but worse) I can say that I have experienced at least 3 of these styles:

Via Robin In Seoul