i apple

here's a fun fact about korean.

first, i will say that there are numberless amounts of korean words that come from english, and therefore, they sound like the english. here's an example of a word that was more cleverly adapted from english into korean:


the korean word 사과하다 (sah gwah hah dah) means "to apologize"

the noun form of this word is 사과 (sah gwah), meaning "apology" or "apple"

also, notice the strong resemblance between the english words "apology" to "apple"

so, in the same way that "apology" and "apple" sound similar in english, they sound (and are spelled) exactly the same in korean! so in a strange way, the korean "to apologize" literally means "to apple" or "to do apple."

now, it is certainly plausible to say that this is coincidence. however, given the face-saving, non-apologizing culture of korea, i would say it's more likely they didn't already have the exact word "apology" before english broke out in korea.

of course, they do have a word for "sorry," like any language, but i think "apology" and its verbal counterpart are often used in slightly different contexts than just "sorry".

so, maybe koreans felt they needed to add a word to their language, but didn't want it to sound like our word. some clever people probably thought, "oh, that english word sounds like apple! i'm gonna use korean's word for "apple," too!"

so, the next time i have to apologize to a korean, i'm gonna bring an apple along :)

to rice with love

i believe i've found one of korea's future celebrities...right in my own classroom! his name is dan and he's in grade 6. he has a rare and uncanny comic ability. he makes me laugh every single class just through his mannerisms, smooth wit, natural presence, and unflinching confidence in english despite his mistakes.

his masterpiece came through this week when he handed me an assignment. the assignment was to write a pretend letter to the author of a book they had read during class. however, dan misunderstood this, and so he wrote the pretend letter to the main character of the book....which happened to be rice!

click on the photo and read the assignment, it's hilarious.



or, read the transcription:

Dear rice,
Hello rice!! My name is Dan. I'm a humans in Asia. I always take you very yummy. You are so watery and yummy. I think you are friends with korean national food kimchi. I will defense you from the fastfood!!. Sometimes, I think, you are just an normal food. But, at last I noticed it. It is very important to we. It gives we a nutrient!! It is very good. If I want to have a diet, I eat you!! Because you are not colastroles!!! Oh~I love you so much. Hey!! I want to stop eat, because sometimes, my friend said to me 'hey pig'!!. So, I say 'why crazy madcine?'. If they said to me pig, I'm very angry. Rice, please make me diet!! good bye rice, see you later.

Yours sincerely,
Dan

medical wonder

the medical system in korea has quite an unorthodox modus. it even stretches to the animal kingdom, where veterinary clinics can be found on almost every street corner. vets are highly esteemed and can be commonly seen wearing doctor's scrubs walking around in their clinics.

hospitals are also boundless. however, most of these infirmaries are more like mini-hospitals. wherever you see these facilities, you're almost bound to see at least one in-care patient out for a casual stroll to the corner store to buy a pack of smokes. their identity as hospital patients is firmly given away by their adorned hospital gowns. or, you might see two patients, wielding their i.v. stands, standing outside on the sidewalk making idle chat.

so, to top it all off, i encountered this group of youngsters tonight outside a convenience store. notice the guy on the left. he's sporting a gown, a sling, an i.v...and a beer! why not?

(click to enlarge)


and why all the i.v. bags?

ouch

a couple days ago i was doing my usual skateboarding routine, and i had an unfortunate event. somehow, in trying to land a new trick, my right big toe became the object of attack from the edge of my skateboard. apparently my other foot was in collusion with the skateboard, because it gave it the extra strength to collapse onto my big toe and cause some...distress.
here is a picture i took after i arrived back at my apartment that night.

seokchon celebration

tonight i went out shooting with my new nikon d80. i took the bike around the path at seokchon lake, a gorgeous little man-made lake with an amusement park called 'lotte world' in the middle. it's only a few minutes walk from my house, and it's a great place to go for a jog and enjoy the beauty.

now, koreans are very patriotic, so when the korean baseball team is playing the u.s. at the olympics, everybody is listening to the broadcast on their cell phones. i learned this while i was at seokchon lake. while i was riding along, all of a sudden i hear loud cheers from several different places on the lake. one man in front of me burst into cheers with his girlfriend, and i could see his earphones plugged in to his phone. it was so funny hearing this random cheer and then connecting the dots to the olympic baseball team. korea had just won the ball game against the u.s. at the olympics.

here are some pics of seokchon lake.

thank you discovery

i've never seen more discovery channel than i have in the past two months. i've always liked the channel, but it's the only all english channel i have on television in korea. there are about six other channels that have lots of english programming, but definitely not 24/7 like discovery. even though they have repeats like crazy, it's still become a comfort to me.

i love this commercial.

life in the kim

a student of one of our other teachers discovers this.

clearly the student isn't trying, however...

...it may make you laugh



(click to make it bigger)