The Hub of Sparkle!

The Chosun Daily has a look at Korea’s birthrate, which remains the lowest in the world.  The older articles fit in with the newest one: article 4.  They’re all interesting reading when taken side by side.

Article 1: Korea’s Birthrate remains lowest in the world. (from May 22)

Article 2: US posts Record-Breaking Birthrate in 2007 (from March 20)

Article 3: How France Managed to Raise its Birthrate (from May 6, and the most interesting of the lot, in my opinion)

Article 4: More Couples face Infertility (from today)

Talk amongst yourselves.

In an aside from my usual comparative cultural commentary:

The Wondergirls opened their first show for the Jonas Brothers World Tour in Portland, on a stage-in-the-round, dancing to all four sides.  Judge crowd reaction for yourself, via these fancams:

Nobody (English) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqeGGKNRxA

Tell Me (Mostly English) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSYFZU0srL4

Via The Washington Post:

A total solar eclipse will occur over Asia and the Pacific Ocean — for 6 minutes and 39 seconds — on July 22. Eclipse expert Fred Espenak, of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, offers details.

Via Extra Korea, Yonsei University’s Kim Dong-gil is not satisfied with ONE leftist ex-president’s suicide: he won’t be satisfied until they’ve both jumped off a cliff.  He had made comments that Ex-President Roh should kill himself just days before the man actually did.

Because of the failure of the sunshine policy, Mr. Kim thinks Kim Dae-Jung should follow Roh Moo-hyun’s example and “to throw himself off from the nearest cliff”

He’s taken a lot of heat for his crass comments: his website was shut down.

I can’t wait until political discourse and commentary in Korea resembles something other than “livin’ in a powder keg and giving off sparks,” to quote the Bonnie Tyler song.  And like that song, until then, if things remain so overblown, they’ll always be ripe for mockery: yeah, folks…. like the song (watch till the end.  The last minute’s the best).

Crossposted at Chris in South Korea

From the ‘try-not-to-look-too-surprised’ column – Korean English teachers, nervous about upcoming government certification requirements, are going back to school to get their skills up to snuff. From the Korea Times (it’s not an exclusive as they claim; the Korea Herald has written briefly about it as well):

Ahead of the full implementation of English-only classes in 2012, many Korean English teachers are honing their language proficiency at private institutes.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said it has raised the budget to finance hagwon fees for 444 English primary and secondary schoolteachers in Seoul this year from about 200 in 2008.

Each teacher receives about 450,000 won ($350) in subsidy for three months. Of the 444 teachers, 204 are at elementary schools and 240 at secondary schools. Many other teachers are learning at hagwon without subsidy, and the number is expected to rise further.

Many teachers say they are feeling growing pressure to strengthen their proficiency, as they are required to conduct English-only classes by 2012 as part of government- led programs to boost English classes at public schools.

I can understand the “growing pressure to strengthen” your proficiency – especially if you’ll have to teach English in English. I doubt most teachers cheated their way through school as these Seoul National University students did, but I would be surprised if they would say their education was truly enough to prepare them to teach English. Are the blind leading the blind?

It reminds me that when foreign language teachers are hired for American public schools (and universities as well) a person is chosen for their language abilities. It might sound nice to be an English teacher in a public school (and certainly is regarded as a noble occupation) – it’s a fairly stable job with good social standing – and whether a teacher is truly ‘qualified’ to do their job is a fair question to ask.

“I can easily find other English teachers from public schools in my class (at the foreign language institute). Many English teachers are under pressure to study English, as they have to conduct English-only classes,’’ said Yoon, who has worked in education for about 25 years.

The education office will differentiate teachers according to their teaching ability by issuing a Teaching English in English (TEE) Certificate for teachers starting from the fall semester. Those who have the certificate will receive incentives in personnel management.

Overall, the education office has earmarked a budget of 5.5 billion won to train English teachers this year. It has 12 domestic and overseas English programs for 7,432 teachers, 4,772 at elementary schools and 2,710 at secondary schools.

“Incentives in personnel management”? Sounds like promotion, demotion, hiring, and firing to me. Don’t have the TEE certification? Sorry, no job for you at a public school – no matter your actual English language skills – that piece of paper may well be more important.

I should note that the Korea Herald story also mentions that a teacher’s certification status may be disclosed to the parents – fair enough, but how long will it take for over-zealous parents to try moving their kids from one class / teacher to another?

Seoul’s government has been on-record as stating the following desire: “Use all available means to cut private education costs for parents with schoolchildren and normalize public education.” Translation, in essence: run the hagwon out of business, despite a cultural urge for parents to provide the very best education possible to their little snowflakes. Public schools aren’t going to do that alone, and few parents are willing to admit that they don’t send their kid to a hagwon. The vast majority of kids (I don’t know any statistics, but anecdotally speaking I would submit between 80-95% of all elementary / middle school kids) go to at least one hagwon - not sending your kid to one or more schools is like failing to keep up with the Joneses’ (or are they the Kims’?).

I could go on, but I have other blogposts to write. While this TEE certification will have no direct effect on NET’s (Native English Teachers) in the short-term, it doesn’t bode well for our companions in teaching in the long-term.

거북이 달린다 (Running Turtle), 마더 (Mother) and 여고괴담 5 – 동반자살 (Whispering Corridors 5 – A Blood Pledge) continue entertaining the subtitled cinema going masses…

Mother is on at the Myeong-dong Cinus Theater:

Monday (29th) – 1050, 2140 and 2410
Tuesday (30th) – 1050, 2140 and 2410
Wednesday (1st) – 1050, 2140 and 2410

Running Turtle is on at the Gangnam Cinus Theater:

Monday (29th) – 0830, 1050, 1310, 1630, 1920, 2140 and 2400
Tuesday (30th) – 0830, 1050, 1310, 1630, 1920 and 2140
Wednesday (1st) – 1200, 1420, 1640, 2150 and 2410

Whispering Corridors 5 is on at the Myeong-dong Lotte Cinema:

Monday (29th) – 0930, 1120, 1310, 1505 and 2300
Tuesday (30th) – 1000, 1155, 1350, 1545 and 2310

At the Ansan Lotte Cinema:

Monday (29th) – 0840, 1300 and 1500
Tuesday (30th) – 0840, 1300 and 1500

And at the Busan Lotte Cinema:

Monday (29th) – 1010, 1210, 1620, 1820, 2240 and 2440

I’ll update screening times when they appear. All listings are correct at time of posting, but may be roasted in clay and served sizzling on a platter…

UPDATE: Running Turtle updated. Wednesday seems to lack any Whispering Corridor screenings, but this may well change.

movies

I just got word about this guy.  Ali Khan is a dude from Pakistan who’s been in prison for a few years.  According to the accounts on the blog Free Ali Khan, he was falsely accused of murder, given biased translators (friends of the victim), and tortured into confession.  It was covered in the Gwangju News a while back

Brian in Jeollanamdo has more about his situation, the Free Ali Khan blog doesn’t have too many posts: you could read the whole thing in about twenty minutes, but next month there’s a bike ride to raise awareness, and meanwhile, the latest report is that the guy’s really depressed and low, and would really benefit from regular visits.  So if you live in the Daejeon area, and want to make life a little better for a guy in a rough spot, you should think about visiting, or giving a little to help him get a retrial with better representation than he had the first time around.

From Jumping the Asymptote:

There are definite differences in the Tao of Driving between the USA and Korea. In America, the rules of the road dictate our behavior. Drivers follow most of the rules most of the time. In the USA I’m always irritated when a car changes lanes or turns without signaling first, because it doesn’t happen relatively often.  I can effectively predict the driving behavior of most of the drivers around me most of the time, and this gives me a sense of understanding and control over my environment: the car in front of me is in the outside lane, and is slowing with his signal on, so I know he’s about to turn off onto a side street. The car with the hazard lights on wants me to notice it because it’s doing something a little unusual (slowing down in the fast lane, parked in a potentially dangerous place, etc).

In contrast, Koreans do not feel compelled to follow the traffic rules (according to the law, pedestrians have the right of way at a crosswalk, but have you ever seen a driver respect that?), for a number of reasons. Their driving behavior is less predictable. Because they don’t know what the other drivers are going to do, I think Korean drivers have a greater awareness of their environment. American drivers have rules and expect the rules to protect them (nobody turns left from the right-hand lane on a multiple-lane road, right?). Korean drivers don’t rely on (or follow) rules, just what they can see (i.e. anyone may do anything at any time, so a driver must be vigilant).

I’m not saying one way is better (and I certainly was trained in the American way), just that they are different. And I’m a little afraid to drive in Korea because I think my American training may be inadequate to drive here.

At Jumping the Asymptote, a reader writes:

I also think another factor is that Korea became a country of drivers much later than the US and other western countries. The reason I think this affects people’s driving habits is because in the west developed driving infrastructure and laws over a far longer period of time, and new developments were brought in for specific reasons; speed limits when cars became fast enough to cause a lot of injuries. The seminal cheap mass-produced car, the Model T Ford, was first produced in 1908. If we take that as a starting point, the west has had a century to develop good driving habits, create and develop laws that are effective and are brought in because the general consensus is that they’re needed, and basically develop a good driving mentality. In Korea, on the other hand, they picked up the laws, infrastructure and, well, cars, all in one fell swoop in terms of the general population. So, when they first came in, they had no relevance to what people knew or had experienced, they didn’t have so much time to develop rules to match the state of the driving culture as that developed, people just suddenly were driving. I think this has to have something to do with it.

I think he’s on to something. If we think about the history of US legislation regarding traffic safety, It was about 60 years before we had a national speed limit, 10 more for a national seat belt law, and 25 more before we had strict carseat laws for kids. All of those laws came from civic groups advocating for them. Korea has the highest traffic fatality rate in the OECD, and it is likely that they’ve been driving for the least amount of time in the OECD too.

Mass Studies, internationally renowned Korean architecture firm founded by Minsuk Cho in 2003, has designed the Korean Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo 2010. They also designed the grass covered (both inside and outside) Anne Demeulemeester store (2007) in Apgujeong and the notable Boutique Monaco Tower (2008) in Kangnam. The pavilion is located between the Japan Pavilion and Saudi Arabia Pavilion along the river. The design of the building is based on the Korean alphabet. Watch the animation to get a better idea.

“the exterior surfaces of the korean pavilion are clad in 2 types of pixels: han-geul pixels and art pixels. han-geul pixels are white panels with a relief of letters in four different sizes whose combination forms the majority of the exterior, mainly the peripheral surfaces. most of the non-peripheral surfaces are composed of art pixels, which are 45cm x 45cm aluminum panels created by a korean artist, ik-joong kang, who is renowned for creating massive art
walls out of small hand-painted tiles, either self-produced or by gathering from around the world (thus being another type of convergence). about 40,000 of these panels will texture the façade, contributing a bright palette of colors, hope, and unity throughout the korean pavilion. the surfaces will project different atmospheres during the day and night, with light and shadows creating different textures. sequential lighting is installed behind the hangeul pixels to highlight the individual letters on the exterior façade at night, further animating the pavilion as a sign (like a text message) on a larger scale.”

Read more here about the ‘Korean Pavilion’ at designboom.com

It’s one thing to read about it on the news – it’s entirely another thing to be there. Don’t worry, mom, I’m safe.

While I didn’t read Andy Jackson’s take on the Marmot’s Hole until I was already home (working on another unrelated assignment), I was in the area. I didn’t stay for long, but check out the two-paragraph Yonhap article. Former President Roh’s memorial was apparently torn down by two conservative groups vigilante style, claiming that the police hadn’t done anything about it in the month it’s been there.

Of course there’s pictures, courtesy of yours truly:

Nothing there to see… WTF? The police formed their typical ‘tight’ barrier on the outside, with an inner core of riot police doing… something… They appeared to be struggling against a smaller group of sign-carriers, but I couldn’t get a decent view. A few photographers / videographers were daring enough to get closer – and had the poles / ladders to go with them. Along the side of Deoksugung, across the street from the City Hall under construction. More peaceful than the group by the street, they sang and hit thundersticks. Yes, thundersticks – those things you find at baseball / soccer games.

The main group (facing the street) didn’t have many antagonists, just watchers… This crowd wasn’t exactly a quiet one, but they tended to stay back. One woman started trying to crumple up newspaper and throw it at the po-po, but a few other people got her to stop. I noticed a few people that appeared to be gathering up stuff, including the large portrait of Roh, along with some tables and boards that were apparently part of the display.

I should point out that my personal knowledge of Korean politics is slim, though a reaction this strong by one group of politically active Koreans against another group of politically active Koreans doesn’t surprise me in the least. The Roh memorial has been a politically divisive one since it went up, since the funeral, and has had a group of people loitering around it ever since it originally went up. Presumably that’s been to protect it in some way, but who knows.

Korea, grow up. Move on. You have other, bigger, and more dangerous problems to worry about. Your neighbor to the north. Your economy. Your social standing in the world. Your overworked, underpaid salarymen. Your overworked students who grow up to be the aforementioned overworked and underpaid salarymen. I could go on, but it’s time to move on.

거북이 달린다 (Running Turtle), 마더 (Mother) and 여고괴담 5 – 동반자살 (Whispering Corridors 5 – A Blood Pledge) continue their subtitled runs. Tomorrow may bring more surprises, but seeing as Transformers 2 has taken over most of the screens in Seoul, it looks pretty unlikely…

Mother is on at the Myeong-dong Cinus Theater:

Thursday (25th) – 1100, 2140 and 2410
Friday (26th) – 1100, 2200 and 2425
Saturday (27th) – 1100
Sunday (28th) – 1100

Running Turtle is on at the Gangnam Cinus Theater:

Thursday (25th) – 0830, 1050, 1310, 1920, 2140 and 2400
Friday (26th) – 0910, 1130, 1350, 1610, 1830, 2050 and 2310
Saturday (27th) – 0910, 1335, 1555, 1815 and 2035
Sunday (28th) – 0910, 1335, 1555, 1815 and 2035

Whispering Corridors 5 is on at the Myeong-dong Lotte Cinema:

Thursday (25th) – 1240, 1440, 1640 and 2410
Friday (26th) – 1145, 1550, 2300 and 2450
Saturday (27th) – 1230, 1420, 1905, 2250 and 2440
Sunday (28th) – 0830, 1315, 1505, 2205 and 2355

At the Ansan Lotte Cinema:

Thursday (25th) – 0840, 1300 and 1500
Friday (26th) – 0940, 1140 and 2530
Saturday (27th) – 1700 and 1850
Sunday (28th) – 1700 and 1850

And at the Busan Lotte Cinema:

Thursday (25th) – 1010, 1210, 1410, 1610, 1810, 2240 and 2440
Friday (26th) – 1010, 1210, 1410, 1610, 1810, 2240 and 2440
Saturday (27th) – 1305, 1500, 1655, 1850, 2300 and 2455
Sunday (28th) – 1305, 1500, 1655, 1850, 2300 and 2455

I’ll update as screening times appear. All listings are correct at time of posting, but may be flushed down the Pope’s toilet…

UPDATE: Whispering Corridors updated, but Running Turtle seems to be a little slow…

UPDATE 2: The Turtle has come in…