A ride-along with an OPP boat patrol

Below is a not-completely-linear account of a ride-along my wife and I did with an Ontario Provincial Police boat patrol. You may recall that my wife is a member of the Korean Coast Guard or Maritime Police so we felt it would be interesting to see what and how things are done here. My father was an OPP officer so we have a few contacts and before we arrived, mom had arranged for us to do a ride-along.

Below is an excerpt from what I emailed my wife about our experiences. She wanted me to write an account to compare with hers. Eventually, something may be posted in the Korean Coast Guard monthly newsletter.

We signed a waiver agreeing not to sue if things went bad but there was no confidentiality request or anything. Still, one of the officers is a friend and general blogging ettiquette is to be cautious with names so I removed them and made some other slight changes... Nothing underhanded occurred but you will not see the boat-owners of the boats that were inspected, for example.
I also added a bit about locks as I think there are none in Korea (until Seoul Mayor and presidential candidate Lee Myoung-bak has his way and makes a rediculous canal connecting the Han and Nakdong).

We started at Couchiching Narrows, a narrow point between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe, at 12 noon. We crossed Couchiching and entered the Severn waterway and travelled about two kilometres to Lock 42. Further information can be found here:

On the way to the Severn waterway, we stopped one boat. At the lock, Constable Dave handed out T-shirts to a boatload of children wearing their lifejackets. On the waterway we crossed under a very low (nine feet or just under 3metres) railway bridge.

Returning to Lake Couchiching, we stopped four boats for equipment inspections. The first held a family and was well-prepared for water travel. The second held a group of university students and they were missing batteries for their flashlight. The police were concerned they might have damaged the student's boat as it was mishandled approaching the police boat and caught under some metal part of the police boat stern (it may have a nautical name and I am a fairly nautical guy, but I don't know it- the student's boat was NOT under the police boat- naturally).

The third boat was also well prepared but the officers had expected to find problems as it was a pontoon boat or "party barge"- the sort of boat where alcohol is often found.
The fourth boat attracted their attention as it had a kid up front without a lifejacket. Upon inspection is was found to be missing several items. The fines would have totalled over three hundred dollars but the man was very cooperative so they reduced the fine to one hundred and twenty-five. He passed the all-important "attitude test".

The officers told us they had "zero tolerance for lifejacket and alcohol violations" but minor problems in other areas might get merely a warning.








Yesterday was a sad day for members of the Kwandong family. My wife and her second cousin (the girl on the right, below) went home to Korea, while the little guy and I will remain in paradise for most of July.

Photos from home (1)

I'll post more later but I'm worried that people will forget about me if I don't post here frequently enough.

I wrote earlier about the flies and mosquitoes here in their millions. In fact, my wifes-cousin's-daughter, who is traveling with us, stratched a mosquito bite on the sole of her foot and it became infected, requiring a trip to a walk-in clinic. I guess that gives her a chance to learn about Canada's health care system - good enough for residents but painfully slow for everyone.

There was a bloom of damselflies when I arrived and soon millions of them died and the wind pushed them into shore. Here they are, as deep as two inches and in a band about two feet thick (that's 5 cm and 60 cm for civilized folk) across our beach and much of the western shoreline.

Little GeorgianBayAlex likes the little pool we have in the backyard but doesn't really care for the lake. it's still a little cold.

Here's the best wife in the world, GeorgianBayYoungnam!

things I had forgotten about home

The last summer I was home was 2003, I think. Here are a few things that have surprised me or caught my attention.

The wonderfully clear horizons. Recently, I posted a picture of Ulsan Bowi, a cliff face seen from Sokcho. The mountain is clear and details are apparent. During the previous three months, the mountains were visible but obscured by a veil of haze.

Here, there is no haze and distance objects are clear. It's not a big deal, I guess, but the everyday sightlines here are matched only after the occassional overnight rain in Korea.

Bugs are everywhere. mosquitoes cut short a hike I had started this morning. I would have pushed on, but we were worried about our baby son and so turned back. Damselflies are practically coating some walls and exterior surfaces and the water has many insect corpses floating on it.

There's more, but it is a reasonable time to sleep so I will try. This afternooon, I slept for four hours and could have slept longer but for Alex waking me.

Bound for Canada

In a few hours I will leave Sokcho for a vacation with my family.

I'm looking forward to being in Canada but not really excited about getting there. KwandongAlex turns one year old today - he's walking and that's great, but I still can't explain to him why we need to stay in one seat for four hours on the first bus, an hour on the second bus and 13 hours on the plane.

Expect to find posts comparing Canadian culture with Korean, particularly about tourist culture as I live in tourist areas in Korea and my mother also does in Canada. I will credit these posts to "GeorgianBayBrian". I will also follow some Korean news through the online papers and may have comments on events here as well.

Have a great summer!

Falcon Chicks

In the previous post, I wrote about a falcon's nest in a neighboring apartment verandah. Today, I nervously went to the apartment and knocked on the door. The resident, a cheerful ajummah, welcomed me as soon as the word, "Seh" (bird) left my mouth. She guided me to the verandah and told me about the birds as I watched them and took pictures.

Don't worry the pictures below are much clearer and less obscured - I just put this one in as a teaser.
She said the birds were "hwang JoRongHe" and I am uncertain how to write that in Korean and find the english name. I may have the name wrong - I am sure of the first three syllables but I may be off with the 'he'. Babelfish tells me I just typed "hwang bird cage" and I hope that is not what the lady told me. There were six chicks and three flew off. I thought there were only two on the verandah...

...but then I looked around the planters and found a third (the left hand bird in both pictures is the same bird). The one on the verandah deck looks to be the youngest.

I was surprised to hear about six (or possible five- the smallest chick may not be in a good way) healthy offspring. Falcons, and most birds, typically have clutches perhaps as large as six but with the expectation that many will die, leaving one or two to reach adulthood.

From CBC's Quirks and Quarks (click the link to hear an interview on the subject):

Parents often produce too many young to raise and, as a result, the natural world is rife with infanticide. Mothers will ignore some offspring and prefer others.

On the other hand, if the stress of close human activity is not too much, a verandah is a great place to be. The birds are safe from predators and from falling off the 'cliff'. Also, the ajummah supplies some food to the chicks.

Human activity nearby is a serious problem for many birds so I probably will not return to the apartment to take more photos. I may upload a short video but my computer is reaching the end of it's useful lifespan and I am concerned about downloading the Videoegg software here. Perhaps I will do that on my office computer.

I don't know why the falcons chose that apartment to make a nest. Well, I do know that it is one of the few without an outer layer of glass doors so it is easily accessable but I don't know if the woman somehow encouraged the birds or what. As I wrote earlier, the chicks can be darn loud and not everyone would be pleased to have them so close.

Falcon

There is a falcon's nest in a neighboring apartment building's verandah. The young cry out loudly enough for me to hear them in my apartment so they must be really annoying for the residents of that apartment. Here are two terrible shots of a parent.

Perhaps I didn't need to circle the bird.


I have visited the apartment and knocked on the door but no one was inside. The young seem to be active and large and I am going away for the weekend; I am not sure if they will still be there on Monday. If I see them then, expect updates and (possibly better) photos.

A beautiful day -finally

Today, the mountains were so close and clear, they seemed to loom over the city. The sun was out and my classes finished yesterday. It was a great day in Sokcho!

In the afternoon I got some swimming in. The water was cold at first but I acclimated and tried to bodysurf. The waves were coming to shore at an angle and the surfing was almost impossible. The waves bouncing off shore met the incoming ones at nearly right angles and in the chaos of moving water, I was tossed around like a 2oo pound toothpick. This evening, I had no need for salt in my food.

I guess there's no special message in this post; I hope everyone had a good day, too.

Forums (mostly focusing on Korea)

This post can be reached (or has been reached) by the 'Forums' link on my sidebar. For information about this post, read below the links. I expect the links to be the reason people read this post so they are on top. I will comment on the links (and erase this sentence) at some future date.

Life in Korea

usfkforums

usfkclassifieds

Longly planet Thorntree Korea -northeast Asia forum

Dave's ESL

Galbijim

ESL/EFL

EFLgeek forums

EFLgeek wiki

English spectrum (just kidding - this is too hot for me)

Dave's ESL



The other day I recieved an email from a forum site asking me to link to it. I checked out the site and although I am uninterested in the US military in Korea (uninterested in their daily activities and recreation - damn happy they're here) it is a very slick and professional site with content for non-military folk.

Still, I've never asked to be linked to and it feels strange, like fishing for compliments, to ask for linkage. Wait, maybe I asked Melvin ("Pack the el Camino" on my blogroll) to link to me. He gave me a strange look -like I'd crossed an ettiquette line and that's what I feel here.

One of the reasons I began reading blogs was to learn about the Korea that is not covered in the Herald or the Times. That's a large subject area, by the way. That's part of the reason I began blogging myself; I think I have something to offer to others. For this reason, I feel listing local forums to be a worthy part of this site.

I have thought about increasing the number of links on the sidebar but I don't want a blogroll longer than my arm. As a consequence, on the sidebar should be a link titled simply, "forums" that will bring you to this post. This post will grow and change and I will try to comment on the forums themselves rather than simply listing them

My New Diploma

I'm so proud to be recognised by the Economist. I'm not sure what I did to merit such praise but I'm a sucker for flattery.



I'm so proud that I have no plans to ever take it out of the wrapping. I've put it on the wall of my office -I always wanted a "brag wall" full of commendations and accreditations and now it is started.
I wanted a goofy pose here and it is definitely goofy but not in the cool way the Hominid manages in his self-portraits. Does he spend a lot of time in front of the mirror practicing his facial expressions?

Congrats to the Korean Goldfish!

Melissa and Dong-jin (? -I mean to say Melissa and her husband - I'm not sure that this is his name - but I am sure he is the father!) just became parents.

They currently live in the wonderful town I met my wife in, Masan.

I admire Melissa for the vaguely Shakespearian description of her "Most perfectest baby".

Congrats and best wishes for the family!

A new one for me

Students have tried to sleep in class but never during an exam, before.
Sleep in class, get posted on the web.

Kwandong, don't go!

2006 is the last year the Yangyang campus of Kwandong University will offer classes. This is a transition year, with many classes already being held at the much-larger Gangneung campus. For me, personally, the closing of the Yangyang campus is annoying; we moved to Sokcho to be closer to my wife's workplace and that is even further from the Gangneung campus.

For the people of Yangyang, the economic effects are more significant. The loss of students and faculty is one thing but also the housing market bucket is about to get a hole in the bottom.
Below is a banner (click to enlarge) from Yangyang District office, asking the university to stay. Aside from exclamation points, I don't know if the district is offering anything in return.
I am not a good longterm planner myself but I have to shake my head when I recall that although the Gangneung campus is more than fifty years old, the Yangyang campus is only six or seven years old. Also, the foreign staff are housed in new apartments built by Myoungji Construction (Myoungji also funded the university) five years ago. Myoungji may now have trouble filling it's own apartments.

Well, I prefer the Gangneung campus myself and I hope the move will help the engineering students (Yangyang is the engineering campus) stop feeling like second class members of the university.

Yes, the closing of the campus is a big deal - yet I didn't hear or see anything about it in the last election. Did nobody care one week ago?

Oh, the last I heard, the campus may be converted to a 'silvertown' - silver as in 'hair'. It may become a home for senior citizens.

While I sympathize with Yangyang district, their choice of placement for the sign makes me think there is good reason to get out of town.

For those who don't see my objection (and they would comprise all the banner making and hanging organizations in Korea), it completely blocks the crosswalk. It's between the sidewalk and the crosswalk. Perhaps this best displays the value some Koreans hold for crosswalks.

Painting a watermelon is expensive!

I saw these watermelons at the local E-mart. The first says something like, "Keep the dream alive" and both refer to 2006 World Cup. Perhaps selling these watermelon is how the players get paid. If you click to enlarge, you will see that the price tag is for 59,800won or about $60.00!

Voting for foreigners

Skindleshanks might, or might not, be able to vote tomorrow. Many foreigners will, in fact be able to.

This brings to mind Twain's comment that many people complain about the weather but no one ever does anything about it. Well, Korea's political-scene bloggers may soon be able to do more than just complain.
Well, I can't do justice to Skindleshanks' post.

Flowers in the field are so lovely

I don't normally comment on the funny english I see here in Korea. I once told students that I saw many 'am' (암) on the weekend. They very kindly explained that 'am' meant cancer and they had no idea what I was talking about (I had meant hermitage or 'attached temple' - I think I was talking about the hermitages near haeinsa in particular). Make a few mistakes like that and you learn to forgive other's mistakes.

Besides, there is nothing really wrong with this package. Maybe it is only dirty old men or childish men (is there a difference?) who would wonder where you should apply 'Booby Band' to on your body and if men should use it at all.


My plan for the rest of the month is to use 'Flowers in the fields are so lovely' as a euphemism describing the sight of low cut dresses and the like. After all, Spring is Booby season.
The bear does seem to in on some kind of joke. I don't think he'll be upset.

Skindleshanks has his own comments on the brandname.

The Seoul Hero gets a new job title: Father

Congrats go out to Nathan and his family, including the newest member. I have linked to his may 2006 archive as the birth occured near the end of the month and over the course of Friday morning he has managed to write several posts on the subject.

I don't think I am that capable of being profound but Nathan's blog title of Seoul Hero made me consider that only the strongest heros can take on the perils of fatherhood.

All the best to the three of them.

Is North Korea evil?

I don't normally delve into politics and although I have opinions about American politics, they don't really fit the nature of this blog so I have kept them to myself. In general, I find myself against the Bush administration but I like to think I am an open-minded person.

Recently, I found an interesting quote by Condoleezza Rice. From Yonhap:
Rice said there is no other term for North Korea and former Iraq but "evil," despite the incendiary nature of the word. Actually, I guess I am quoting the paper paraphrasing her, but I am certain they captured the spirit of her words quite clearly.

Now, I don't know about Iraq. I read the papers and watch CNN but I haven't paid careful attention. I have absorbed enough news about North Korea to have a strong opinion that is based on the evidence. I won't be joining any national think-tank nor publishing any books on the subject but, as with most people living within a hundred kilometres of the border, I have a hobbyist's enthusiasm for the subject.

And I agree completely with Rice.

I am not giving up my views on other politcal hot-potatoes, but perhaps I will look at them again. If we agree on this subject, perhaps I am wrong on others.

It's a struggle keeping an open mind, but i'm trying.

Choosing to be Korean, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I interviewed a coworker, Marcus, regarding his reasons for choosing to take Korean citizenship.

Today, I interviewed another coworker who has also chosen to be Korean. Tammy has been here for almost thirty years and has been Korean for about twenty years. Although Marcus' decision was based on logic, Tammy's was based more on emotion. She simply feels at home here.

This is my third podcast and I find recording them interesting. Odeo offers a great service but for each of the three recordings, the first time through didn't save properly and I had to do the interviews a second time. Such repetition might have made my delivery smoother but I also find that I reference the previous (and erased) podcast in the current one. I hope this isn't too distracting.

I am satisfied with the interview but I found myself at least once concentrating on the mechanics of recording (volume level, elapsed time,...) too much and giving a sort of meaningless grunt when she stopped talking. Interviewing people requires real skills!

You can download the mp3 here.

Or, listen to it below.



powered by ODEO

Korean as a second language podcast

Intro: This is the first of who-knows-how-many podcasts about learning Korean. At this point, I can't say that much about what future podcasts will cover but I expect they will include a sample conversation, possibly a vocabulary list, and a pronunciation guide. Naturally, the pronuncation segment will cover problems I know I have; there are likely to other problems I am unaware of. The first few 'casts will be a review of lessons a have already completed - I don't want to sound too terrible right away.

My expectation for these casts is that listeners review the shownotes while listening the first (or first few)time(s). Then, they will be able to listen again for review purposes anywhere. That's if all goes well. A more modest or reasonable expectation is that listeners will turn off and delete the podcast a minute after the intro.

After a few 'casts, I will reorder the 'casts each time a new one is made. In other words, if a future cast seems simpler in content than this one, it will be listed first.

I have some desire and even a need to learn Korean but a limited motivation. I own several Korean Language books and have completed a few units of each. The first few 'casts, including this one, will be based on a unit from one of these books. Today's cast is based on lesson 12 from 'Korean through English, book one' from Seoul National University. The title of the lesson is, "where are you going?" I will not repeat the complete unit here and I will only use one or possibly two units from any one book so I don't think I am running afoul of copyright infringement. If anything, perhaps I will encourage you to buy the book.

With me today is a student of mine, Bak Ji-min. She will read the conversation, we will repeat it and then work on alternatives. Then she will help me with the pronunciation. Today's pronunciation exercise involves pronouncing and recognizing some Korean vowel sounds. The modern transliteration of hangeul to english would spell these vowels as "a", "eo" and "eu". The closest English comparison would be "a" as in 'bat, 'o' as in dot and 'u' as in but. Again, the Korean sounds are not exact matches with the English letters they are represented by. For example, Koreans spell the english word "cop" - police officer - an 'a'.

In my translation of the conversation, I left out the subject a few times as Koreans typically don't use the subject if it is already clear.

If you do choose to listen more than once, the Korean starts at around 3:20

Where are you going?

A: 어디가세요? --Where are you going?
B: 학교에 가요. --going to school.
Alternatives:힉원, 운동장

A: 수업이 있어요? --Do you have a class?
B: 네, 수업이 있어요. --Yes, I have a class.

A: 몇 시에 시작해요? --When does your class start?
B: 열시에 시작해요. --Starts at 10.

A: 벌써 아홉시 반이에요. -- It's already 9:30.
빨리 가세요. -- Should hurry

Pronunciation

a.................... eo............................ eu
'아' .................'어'............................'으'
감........................검......................................금
Persimmon.......sword................................gold

사.......................서
temple suffix...west

차........................처
Tea....................Wife

가........................거......................................그
Go.......................'big' -Chinese...................He

상........................성......................................승
'Leaf' -Chinese...Castle..............................Buddhist monk




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Find the MP3 here.

A slow news day?

As Kent Brockman once said, "I guess you could say... this barely qualifies as news."

I am sure Penman is a good guy (he lives in coastal Gangwondo so he has good taste, anyway) and I don't really blame him for his article. The Herald, after all, chose to run it.

He spent some time in China and then moved to Korea. Korea was a surprise. A pleasant surprise. The end.

As the Herald closes it's archives after a week, I'll post the section the Herald must have loved here:

...Koreans keep their sense of a truly unique national identity. I think this rubs off into the psyche of the people, as most Koreans are modest and polite. This, coupled with Korea's geographical position in Asia and, up until very recently, a troubled relationship with their true brothers, North Korea, makes South Korea an exciting and interesting place to live! I can't yet offer a subjective comparative to Japan, unfortunately, because, simply, I've never been, but it's hard to imagine them being too far ahead! Admittedly, I, like most Western people my age, didn't have to many ideas about Korea, but it is safe to assume, if I had made many negative ones they might have been dispelled quickly. So far, I'm lovin' it!

At first read, this sounds pretty naive but, then, I have to agree that most Koreans are modest and polite. It is only the loud ones who are very loud that alter my perception. Perhaps I owe Penman some thanks for reminding me.

Low birthrates, pro and con

Note: I mispelled a name. My apologies.

I just read Rick Ruffin's article about birthrates and the previous article he was commenting on. Korea has an amazingly low birthrate and the two articles discuss whether this is good or bad. The first article makes the case that Korea is reaching a dangerously lopsided ratio of employed population to total population. The few of employable age will need to pay greater and greater taxes to maintain the elderly.

The most outstanding problem with low birthrates is it increases the ratio of old people to young people. It spawns an awesome situation of a shrinking labor force. The reduction in the number of taxpayers is set to cause the collapse of various welfare funds on which a growing number of elderly rely. The situation is serious enough to threaten existence of the nation itself.

Ruffin's reply is that reducing the population by having fewer children is the best way to reduce overcrowding, pollution, farm-field exhaustion and other problems.

Almost every environmental problem- and most social and political problems throughout the world today- are because of human population increase. Pollution, famine, pestilence, over-development and war can all be attributed to high concentrations of humans. And you are encouraging everyone to have more kids! You are concerned that there will not be enough people paying into the "system" to support the increasing aging population. Well I say the money saved from not having to deal with pollution and waste created by too many people can more than make up for the money needed to support all the grandmothers and grandfathers soon to appear on the scene.

Reducing the population through reducing the number of children per family does sound like one of the most benign ways to protect the environment but it all comes down to numbers.

Some numbers can be found in a pdf at 'weforum'. There, I found, "Korea will need to figure out how to support a growing inactive population with fewer workers. As shown in the figure above, if Korea maintains its current activity rates between 2000 and 2030, the ratio of workers to retirees is expected to plummet from nearly 7.1 to 2.7."

Click on the picture for a larger view of the population pyramid.

I have no basis for comparison to the ratio of nearly three workers to one retiree but the ratio for children is absent. Naturally, there will still be some children even with the small birthrate and they will also need care.

Korea of 2030 may continue to be viable with these ratios but it will have even less breathing room. There will be less surplus and a big surplus is needed considering our neighbor to the north. Should reunification happen, caring for the North Koreans will be difficult now; in the near future, it will be all but impossible.

There is another way to look at the decreasing birthrate. There will be fewer 'pureblooded' Koreans. I do not feel this is bad in itself and I don't want to belittle my own son's racial mixture but the broader perspective is that the world is 'samifying'. The world culture is already becoming western and the world's people are losing their distinctiveness. Koreans and Indians choose to wear western suits rather than hanboks or saris. McDonalds is everywhere...
Anyway, there is a book describing how the world's cultures are becoming more similar. I have only listened to the interview but the book can be found here.

I do agree that if the world's population can be kept stable, or preferably, drop slightly but steadily for a few generations, the world will be a better place. It just seems to me that Korea is experiencing a precipitious drop rather than the gentle one that would allow greater longterm stability.

I don't know if this next article, in the Times the same day as Raffin's article, has any relevance but it is ironic to find the two together.
The article describes a Kyongsang family with 12 children. An excerpt:

A church pastor and his wife living in Kumi, North Kyongsang Province, gave birth to their 12th child Sunday, adding another member to their already large family. Rev. Kim Suk-tae, 47, and his wife Um Kye-suk, 42, a couple married for 20 years, will now shepherd the country's largest single family.

Here is one couple that should be well-taken-care-of when they retire!

Cycling: broken teeth, bears and a mild rant

Actually my two stories are not connected at all - well, bikes are in both stories.

My teeth are fine but apparently my bike gears have some serious tooth decay. During this riding season, I found that when I really made a powerful stroke, the chain would skip and sometimes fall loose. At the bike shop, the owner brought to my attention the sad state of my middle ring- the one connected to the peddles. Several teeth are broken and many are unnaturally sharp. While the smaller and larger rings are in better shape, they too show the effects of grinding.

I left the shop with my bike and the need to consider what to do. I think I need to replace the three rings, but do I also need to replace the chain? A friend in Canada, Barry Faulkner, showed me how to measure the chain. Apparently, 12 links should be 12 inches. I have not yet measured it, by the way. He told me that chains stretch a little and should be replaced every 15,000km or so ( or was it miles - all errors in this post are my own). At the time, it didn't seem all that important; a long ride was 50km and most were commuting-type rides of under 5km. 15,000km would take years.

Well, I've had my bike for about 13 years now and have cycled across most of Canada (Yes, I am so damn proud of that that I try to fit into every bike post. Sorry to annoy you). I've also covered fair ground here in Korea. I guess I probably am at or above 15,000 by now.

If I didn't mention it before, a stretched chain doesn't fit the gear properly anymore and so grinds them. I suppose other things can grind gears, like not shifting far enough to allow the chain to fit tightly to the gear.

The bike shop owner has given me good service in the past but this is a major overhaul and likely to be exensive. His shop caters to mountain bikes - as all shops in Korea seem to - and I worry about his ordering the right parts. I guess I should start investigating the situation - the gears have the Shimano brandname and a number and such so product matching should be simple - instead of writing about it.

By before I go, a story about a Canadian cyclist -in Canada- who was attacked by a black bear.

A mountain biker in Alberta was apparently chased down and attacked. He is in the hospital but will be okay, he has a few broken bones and such but the article suggested that he would recover more or less completely.

Firstly, I feel for the guy. If he saw the bear approaching, I guess he would try to pedal away. The article didn't have a lot of details but he could have been climbing a hill or just finished climbing a hill and unable to race away. Or maybe it was simple, level ground; bears are much faster than they look. Once the bear got him, it had him for hours. Other cyclists found him and the bear, left to get help and then rescued him. I can't imagine hearing or seeing help so close leaving again.

Back to my trip across Canada (fit it in again. Woo-hoo!). On my trip I saw one grizzly at a distance and a black bear cub near road on two occassions. Seeing the grizzly was cool and I would have missed it except that I first saw and questioned the student standing on the roadside beside her car and waving a big antennae array. She pointed to the grey mass several hundred meters away. This opportunity for a close connection with the location is why I love cycling.

Seeing the cubs was much scarier. The first time, I was on level ground and the cub was in some brush very near the highway's shoulder. I began to edge into traffic as I approached and the horn of a surprised driver scared the bear away. I am sure that I upset the driver (who was oblivious to the bear) but I am glad he sounded his horn. The second time, I had just finished a fair climb, there were no cars nearby and I was tired. As I passed the bear I 1)tried to take a picture holding the camera sideways and hoping it was in the frame 2) looked anxiously for it's mother and 3) struggled to come up with any reasonable speed to pull away from a possibly dangerous situation.

Yeah, I feel for the guy and wish him a fast recovery.

On the other hand, he was wearing headphones when he was attacked. Now, they may have had nothing to do with his injuries. It's completley possible that listening to whatever was not a factor in being attacked or in not being able to escape. I just hate the idea of listening to music or podcasts or non-natural sounds when exercising in natural surroundings. This is probably material for a separate post so I'll be brief here. I wear headphones in the gym and find they help fill in the time spent on the exercise bike but I would never use them while riding outside. I listen to podcasts while walking downtown but would never listen while hiking.

Part of the reason is concentration. I have already implied that the cyclist attacked by the bear might not have been concentrating because of what he was listening too. Road cycling is concentration intensive and I think headphones are illegal while cycling or even driving a car. I'm not sure about the illegal part, but it is known to be a bad idea.

I do find background music helps me concentrate when I study or do a variety of other tasks (marking papers and other school work but also wood carving), however . Odd, that.

The main reason I disapprove of listening to music and the like in natural settings is that I respect the settings too much - unlike some students, I wouldn't listen to my MP3 player in class or at meetings or at church and I feel forests deserve the same treatment. I am of the view that hiking, canoeing and other outdoor sports cannot be fully enjoyed without really immersing yourself in the situation.

This view may bring me back to the concentration issue. I do not want to immerse myself in cycling when I am at the gym because it is pretty monotonous but I do want to immerse myself in cycling on a quiet back-country road because it is peaceful.

Anyway, I hope the guy will soon be well and, regardless of their responsibility in his injuries, I also hope he leaves his headphones at home or, well, not on his head, when he next goes riding.

Tour de/da/ Korea

It hasn't been a great Tour De Korea. I was working throughout the races so I was unable to watch any of them but I did see these signs. Is 'Da' an Italianized version (brought to mind by the 'Da Vinci Code' publicity)? The two signs faced one another - I cut'n'pasted the top one in.

Seoul bloggers have been commenting on the good weather but here it has been miserable. I've gone back to wearing a jacket and carrying a new umbrella - my old one was bent up in the wind. Man, rain and wind; those cyclists must be loving the race.

The organizers can't be too happy with the weather either. I saw one pace car in the ditch; I guess because of slippery driving conditions. Perhaps the riders look on the bright side by thinking, "At least there are no fires and water reserves are back up to where they should be."

Children's day Coast Guard Tour

I had a chance to to ride on a Coast Guard boat on Children's Day. I love being on the water and had a good time. Our little guy didn't care for the rocking though and was pretty sick. He was sick while he was inside the galley cabin and a little time in the fresh air fixed him up. We finally found the perfect location; in the doorway where we could be warm enough yet still have some moving air.
Below, a 250 ton Coast Guard ship.

KwandongAlex and I in front of the 50 ton ship we toured in.
I had wanted to see Naksan from this vantage for years and finally got the chance.

Fun at E-mart

He seems to be having fun. A good thing, too. I had to hunt around to find a cart. Actually, at ten months old, him riding in the cart was probably more important to me than to him.

Tour De Korea

I saw a sign in Yangyang that this year's Tour De Korea is about to start. The race starts in Seoul and takes two days to reach Yangyang, then they have some time trials and circuit racing.

I could find no information about this year's race but here are some links from last year's.

Oranckay was all over it last year. Recently he had some connectivity problems but he is the best source for the tour.

I also found a website forum with a discussion about the race.

The Tour of Korea is a fairly hard race. Mike Carter, a friend and racer who got 2nd there last year and 8th this year, told me a little bit about who is elligible to get in the race and what it's like when I saw him while he was here doing it this June.Basically, elite-level racers and professionals are the only racers allowed in. That means that the people who do the race have all been racing for at least a few years. Because there is no road racing for people to partake in to learn to race in South Korea, the 'local' riders consist mostly of racers who compete in track events, and a few who
comprise a road team that travels to different Asian countries to race during
the summer. According to Mike, the track riders have alot of trouble even
finishing each stage, let alone being a factor in the race. Apparently, and to
the behest of the riders who were finishing the stages, the officials were
allowing these local riders to drop out half way through some of the stages and
still start the next-day's stage -- a definite violation of UCI (International
governing organization of cycling) rules. But, being as the race is "the Tour of
Korea," they wanted to be able to say that at least some Koreans finished the
race.

Sorry that I'm still in 'quote mode'. I don't know how to get out. Anyway, I also rode about last year's race but I just rehashed what others said. If you like, check the archive for May 2005.

An interesting place to park illegally

My father was a police officer and we lived near the station. I would often see the brakelights of cars come on as the drivers realized a police station was ahead. If they thought about it, they would realize that police stations are not (or weren't, I don't know about nowadays) armored fortresses with cameras and people guarding the roads nearby. They don't particlularly care if you're speeding. I guess that the locals aren't that fussy about what happens just outside their stations either, but it does look bad.

Audio is working in post below.

It took some effort to make the player in the post below work and I found that once it worked, every time I went back to add this update, it stopped working. It took a lot of work to get that player going - you had better LOVE it!

Oh, the problem mostly went away when I used 'Firefox' browser instead of Explorer.

Choosing to be Korean

Update: I am trying to get the audio to work on my site. You can still follow the link to ODEO and listen there.

Today I interviewed Marcus, or Masuro, about his decision to be a Korean citizen. It is a subject I am very curious about because being Canadian is important to me; it's a emotional issue. For Marcus, however, it seems to be the practical choice.

This is not my first time playing with audioblogging but I am a novice - one manifestation of my lack of experience is the low volume of the audio. Crank it up. The conversation is just under eleven minutes.

To listen to the audio as an MP3, visit Odeo.

Naksansa, a year later

NOTE: I had written a different opening that I decided was pretty stupid so if you visited on Saturday night, this post now has a new title.

I had the opportunity to meet two Seoul bloggers today (Saturday). We met at Naksan Beach Hotel and I tried to show them around the temple.

Nathan, the Seoul Hero, seems like a great guy and I had a good morning chatting and looking at how Naksan Temple has begun to rebuild after last year's fire. His friend, Joe, the Seoul man, was also a friendly sort and I enjoyed a good but too-short talk with the two of them.

Nathan has also blogged about his experience with many compliments to me - so thank you very much! Joe blooged about it as well, and, as well, had blogger problems putting many photos into one post. As it is the end of the month, I will link to his archive for April '06 and his three (!) posts should be at the top. (If anyone cares, I have a solution that dates back to the Picasa -Hello days: Post as many pics as you can in one post, set blogger to 'Edit html', copy the html into Wordpad or something, do that as often as you want, then paste the whole bundle into one post (again, set to 'Edit html') and delete all the previous posts used solely to upload pictures. Simple stuff, hey? Near the end of the month, as now, it's easier to link to the archive for that month.)

We spent Saturday morning wandering around Naksan Temple looking at what damage remains from last year's fire (Check the archives for April '05 for my several posts and eye witness accounts of the fire).

Here are Nathan and I at the giant Bodisatva of Mercy. Although the statue is fine, some of the stone around the base has heat fractures.



The temple just below the statue sustained some burns on it's floor.
The ancient bell that had been at the temple for, well, a long time, melted in the fire. It had crystallized with age and use so it was not in use in recent times. Here is the bell used in early '05. I hadn't realized they had just left the bell in the wreckage of its platform.


As perhaps a sign of the old and new, here is a burnt-out cherry tree and new temple resident rabbit.
Blogger has trouble allowing me to place more than four or five photos in one post so this photos are continued in the next post.

Naksansa, a year later

Again, Blogger has trouble allowing me more than four pictures in a single post.

Sometime before Arbor Day, I expressed a wish to help with treeplanting on Nak Mountain's denuded slopes. I thought that the planting would resemble the work I did one spring back in Canada in my university days. I imagined carrying a bag with perhaps a hundred little trees and a shovel; pacing off two metres and planting another one.

I had seen the reality a few weeks ago but was only in a position to take a picture today. An ajummah army planted the trees and placed the stakes. No one can compete with them.

Nathan was a good guy but seemed to have a fascination with ants. This is a pose he took about ten times during our hike.

Dock-do

I'm torn over whether or not this is a good idea.

I like any excuse to spend a little extra time studying women's bathingsuit, but mis-spelling the name makes the suit seem a little silly.

Alright. The proper spelling in in Hangeul, so, in english maybe it's not mis-spelled. Still, I am comfortable, most media outlets are comfortable, with 'dok' rhyming with 'Coke'. 'Dock' doesn't.

Of animals endangered and ubiquitous

The Times has an article about 44 species that are either considered on the edge of extinction or on the wrong side of that edge have been spotted (They don't say when, -odd that) in rural areas.

Four critically endangered species, such as flying squirrels, hobbies and wildcats, which were formerly thought to have disappeared, were found in Hoengsung and Hongchon, Kangwon Province.

First, what is a hobbie?

In a previous post, I wrote about train station workers clearing the tracks of dead animals, including wildcats. I hope that's not how they count them.

This is what confused me in the article:
The ministry has also been studying genetic profiles of 113 endangered species, including Siberian tigers and wolves, to better increase their numbers.

Increase? I guess it is a increase from zero to more than zero. I would have chosen the word re-introduce'. Am I wrong here? Are there wild tigers loose in South Korea?

And who wants more? I am excited about seeing wildlife and would love to more, in general. I think the farmers around Chilisan would be the first (after me, actually) to point out that reintroduced animals, bears, in their case, don't stay in the park or reserves they are placed in. Tigers would have trouble hiding in the mountains of major cities but wolves might do okay....

Certainly boar appear to love the cities. Another article in The Times describes a boar boom on Bukhansan and other mountains in and around Seoul.

One boar, about the size of two Korean burst into a bar in Amsa-dong, escaped and was eventually killed somewhere nearby. I don't even know what mountains are near Amsa-dong; in my visits, it seemed pretty flat and developed.

A hunting ban is blamed but the reason for the ban - nobody wants rifle fire downtown - seems sound. Perhaps wolves are the answer. To my knowledge, coyotes do well in urban environments.

Are there any other reasons for the increase in the boar population?

But experts are divided over why the boars increasingly come out into city streets. Some say that the invaders have been driven away from food and territory in the mountains after fights, but others questioned that reasoning.
"In normal conditions, a wild boar does not go into a noisy, polluted city to find food," said Kim Won-myong of the National Institute of Environmental Research.
He said the boars probably head for the city only when they get lost or are flushed out of their domain by mountain climbers or dogs.

In a country whose people can be terrified of a loose lapdog, I think the boar, very smart animals, can quickly learn that cities are relatively safe places to live.

The economics of caring about cheating.

Midterm exams have just finished and I fairly zealously watched over my students to prevent cheating at the beginning of the week but somewhat less so at the end of the week.

My reasoning reminded me of some animal behavior classes I took at university and an explanation for Real Estate agent's behavior in setting housing prices (from Freakonomics). I will start by describing my two examples.

When a caregiving animal has young, there is a mismatched struggle for resources. The caregiver wants all the young to have the same amount of food, while each infant wants more for itself, even at the expense of the other infants. It requires some effort for the caregiver to try to spread the food around; effort that does not have a great value for the caregiver itself. It also requires effort for the infant to try to take more than its share of the food but there is great value when it succeeds.

In Real Estate, you should be able toget a better price if you sell the house yourself for similar reasons. To the agent, selling your house for $150,000 or $155,000 does not make a big difference in his/her commission, but it is a significant difference for the homeowner.

Now, back to me. In a cynical sense, how much value does cheating or catching cheaters have for me?

So long as the cheating does not go beyond a certain level (in this case, does not screw up my grading curve), it does not really affect class itself. Also, cheaters, and others, typically sit with their friends; It is uncommon for a cheater to deliberately place him/herself next to a stronger student of English. Most exam cheating does not significantly effect the cheater's score much nor my all-important grading curve.

To the cheater, there is potential for greater value. Most of the times I have seen known cheater's test papers, they have terrible answers. They may have misread the answer they tried to copy or looked at the wrong answer; I don't know. Still, if a student already knows they will fail the test, cheating can have great value and little downside. If the student is caught, there is little change in the end result and if they get away with cheating, they might pass the exam.

As the week progressed, I thought about this more and maybe began to care a little less. I certainly started marking previous class's exams while invigilating (my vocabulary is fading - I copied this word from Seoul Hero) another set of exams. On the other hand, when I did see someone cheating, it was with pleasure I marked his paper with a red marker to determine its fate later. Again, the score was already so poor that I chose to deduct only the marks on the question he has been cheating on (he lost 2 out of a possible 8 marks).

I have to conclude by saying that although catching cheaters does not have a strong tangible value, it does have a wonderful satisfaction value!

Trapped

Yesterday was the last day of exams and this particular exam had a written and an oral component. This class might be my worst in study habits and english ability and I didn't think very highly of them. I was unsurprised when they had trouble opening the door to the classroom; that's how slow they are. I actually showed several of them, individually, how to open the door after they were reduced to knocking and asking to be let in.

Anyway, the students had finished the written component and were waiting in another classroom and coming to see me one at a time for their oral exam. Again, I had to open the door for a few of them and I was just about to wedge some paper in the doorway so it wouldn't close all the way, when I heard a student on the other side twisting left and right and not getting anywhere.

With a quiet curse, I went to open the door to find I couldn't. The knob just floated left and right, with no feeling of moving anything inside the mechanism.

I have to give the students credit. They stayed with me -on the other side - and tried to help me get out, or the next student in. Finally, I told the students we would finish the oral exam next week if the door wouldn't open in the next five minutes. The time went by and they stayed until, thirty minutes later, I got out.

Before I told them that, I phoned my department's office and a secretary came to try to help me. She couldn't but called maintenance.

I got tired of waiting and had started working on the screws holding the bars in place over the ventilation window leading into the hallway when a professor asked me to stop and wait for assistance.

The maintenance man came and worked on the door with no luck and eventually a student and I returned to removing the bars so I could climb out and not miss my bus home.

My opinion of the students improved a great deal during my imprisonment. If they had broken the lock (accidentally), would that make my feelings an example of the Stockholm Syndrome?

The office staff were apologetic as though it might be their fault and I might be angry. I played on that a little and told them I wouldn't come to work on Wednesday (today). So, here I am at home, relaxing.

Today is Founder's day at our university; there are no classes.

Gangwondo: the alpha and omega of Boilermakers

The Times has an article about boktanju (little bombs or boilermakers). Gangwondo is featured twice.

Mr. Shim, who is currently writing a book about Korea’s drinking culture, said that people here have drunk poktanju as early as the Three Kingdoms period, which ended in 668 AD. But according to urban legend, the current style of poktanju ― beer with a shot of whisky ― made its Korean debut in the early 1980s, at a meeting between prosecutors, policemen and journalists in Chuncheon, Gangwon province. The concoction quickly spread across the country.

Recently, Choi Yoon-hee, a Gangwon lawmaker who became too touchy-feelie after drinking, has probably ended the popularity of the practice.

The “bombshot,” however, has recently come under heavy fire. Leading the charge is Park Jin, a lawmaker in the Grand National Party, who took a hammer to poktanju glasses at the National Assembly to demonstrate his determination to end Korea’s love for poktanju. The stunt was done in reaction to a scandal involving Choi Yeon-hee, a former GNP member, who sexually harassed a woman after downing a number of glasses. Mr. Choi leads a movement to eradicate Korea’s “bombshot culture.”

Still, if you want to sample this part of Gangwon culture, the article inlcudes tips:

A glimpse of how to make boilermakers

1. “The Atomic”A whisky shot is plunked into a glass filled with beer. Foam then puffs up like a mushroom cloud, hence its name. This is the basic boilermaker.
2. “Taekwondo” Fill a glass to the brim with beer, place two chopsticks on top (slightly spread apart), then place whisky shot on top of the chopsticks. Punch the chopsticks to let the whisky drop into the glass.
3. “Golfshot” Place two chopsticks on top of the glass of beer and then the whisky shot glass on top. “Putt” the whisky shot into the beer using another chopstick or a spoon.
4. “The Tornado” Make a basic “Atomic” shot. Cover the glass with a napkin, hold on to the top and then flick it, while extending your arm. The beer will spin around like a tornado. This shot is said to have the smoothest mix. Before downing the contents of the glass, hurl the drenched napkin against a wall or ceiling to hear that satisfying “thwack!”
5. “Sperm” Pour beer into a glass and place a whisky shot inside. Cover the glass with a paper napkin. Shake it lightly ― the napkin should tear very slightly. Pour a little milk in through the hole. One look and you’ll see how it got its name.

Diplomatic Tennis Championship

Picture found here.

I wonder how you play diplomatic tennis. I imagine the games go like this:
"Oh, that was a great shot! I was just lucky to be in the right place."

I have never been very diplomatic or tactful myself, so I would probably do poorly at the game. This seems fitting as I also do poorly at regular tennis.

I made a similar connection between the wrong words when reading about Moslems being upset with Danish cartoonists. Everytime I read, "...cartoon battle" and the like, I pictured the Peanuts gang fighting Spiderman or something.

Two Surprises

First, it rained today and when I looked out the window as the rain ended, the cars were sparkling clean. I'd forgotten that rain can do that. From now on, I hope that a cloudy sky only means clouds, and not yellow dust.
UPDATE: I was wrong. More dust due today, dam' it!

Second, on Arirang TV, I saw a documentary about Korean Water Deer. The show claimed that these deer are the only ones that are attracted to water; I thought moose were a kind of deer. I guess it's how you define deer.
Anyway, the surprise came in seeing these deer. I would have named them, "saber-toothed deer". I found these photos online.
From Deer-UK:



And this one from evolutionnyc:

This isn't an April Fool's joke - or, if it is, it's a pretty pervasive one.

Two recent articles in the Joongang Ilbo discuss travel and Gangwondo.

The first I treat with scepticism. Yet another airline (or possibly the same airline but with yet another date for starting) is planning to offer flights to and from Yangyang Airport. Jeju Air, a discount airline will offer flights starting in July to Gimpo and Gimhae.

The second just makes me sad. It is the story of three miserable train station attendents at the highest altitude station in Korea; Chojeon, near Taebaek. Chujeon was a thriving community until the local coal ran out. Now, no passenger trains stop here.

The article claims the temperature is so cold at that altitude that the staff run their brickette heater twenty-four hours a day eleven months of the year. Before coming to Korea, I was pretty skeptical of people who complained of the bitter cold on mountains. I have since become a believer but the highest peak of Seoraksan, Daechungbong, doesn't seem as cold as Chujeon and is twice the altitude.

I do sympathize that there is nothing to do but record which trains pass by and when, but on the other hand, I love the outdoors: I might be very happy to be posted in a location with deer and lynx.

This short quote shows how the staff don't even seem to be trying to enjoy themselves:

Mr. Kim said the place is so dark at night everything outside the door is inky black. In line with an energy conservation campaign, the Korea Railway recommended that the station leave only two lights lit during the nighttime.

“It’s only about 15 steps to the restroom outside, but walking in the dark, and hearing the strange howls from the woods, believe me, you get the creeps,” he said. His body actually visibly shuddered. “I try to run to the bathroom as fast as I can and turn on the lights in there as fast as possible, but it’ll scare you every time.”

Look around, for crying out loud. Enjoy being away from light pollution. Your situation is almost unique in Korea, get satisfaction from that.

The article also lists other rail stations that don't see many people; the station above Samcheok sounds like an interesting trip.

Muskoka in The Onion (America's Finest News-source)

If you don't know or care about smalltown Ontario, the district of Muskoka in particular, read one of my other, very interesting, entries.

This week, my home district, Muskoka was mentioned in the Onion. Who-hoo! Apparently, a beaver in Huntsville (Ontario, not Texas) is having trouble settling on a dam design plan. The village of Baysville is mentioned and a dam nearby but not the Lincoln Lodge, which is the best place to eat by a damsite!

Completely off subject, I have Octopussy on in the background. When Bond flies to India he takes a helicopter past the Taj Mahal and lands near the ghats in Varenasi - that's a long helicopter flight!

April 20 - a late snowfall

Click for a larger image.

From wild drinking binges to reenactments of the Great Leap Forward

MT or Membership Training has come a long way, although it still seems no actual training takes place.

I have never been sure how to translate the konglish term, "Membership Training". Class Retreat? Orientation and welcome? I may be having problems due to my declining English skills (see April 19th post) or maybe it is a Korean activity that one should not translate, just as one normally doesn't translate food names. 'Samgyetang' is fine; one can add an English description but there is no need to change the name to 'Boiled whole stuffed chicken with ginseng'.

An article in the Times describes how MT is becoming less popular and also changing in focus. MT was a chance (and mostly still is) to drink without needing (or, with peer pressure, being able to) stop until every soju, makkoli, dongdongju, beer and cough medicine bottle was empty in a place far from home so someone else could clean up the resulting, reeking mess.

According to the article, some students are more eager to spend time in the library and prepare for an uncertain future. Only in Korea would that be considered noteworthy; university students studying rather than drinking. Well, that was true at my university, too; the main difference was of scale.

Other classes are going on MTs where the focus is volunteer work or training in other fields. One such group

... helped reconstruct farms badly ravaged by heavy snows last winter, ahead of the farming season. They stayed in abandoned elementary schools, which had been shut down, to reduce accommodation costs. They held a ``makkoli party,'' (makkoli is a Korean traditional unrefined rice wine), along with a pork barbeque which they shared with residents.

The students gave massages to the elderly and farmers, using what they learned from university, and held a basketball class for children living in the remote area. ``At first, students felt strange when they went on the volunteer trip in the region instead of their previous training which involved drinking binges,'' Kim Sang-chon, professor of the university, said.

Quoting another group:

``However, that kind of membership training is far from spiritual and academic training for freshmen. So we've decided to transform the membership training as a whole by inducing students to participate in the farmer's school,'' a school official said. Students are not allowed to consume alcohol nor enjoy ``karaoke,'' or dancing at the school. Their meal consisted mainly of vegetables harvested in the region without any meat. Under the theme of ``working, volunteerism and sacrifice'', students woke up at 5 a.m. and sang the Korean national anthem.

In the morning, they took a walk along a four-kilometer course and attended a lecture named ``successful careers.'' A 20-year-old student, identified as Kim, said that it was a great opportunity for him to understand the life and a spirit of farmers to harvest crops with their own sweat and labors.

Mao would be proud to see university students working in the fields. Alright, that's pretty sarcastic. I, too, would be happy to see students putting in a few days on farm work. I certainly wish I were available to help my father-in-law on his farm more often...well, a little more often; the right amount to make myself feel good without making myself too tired.

One final comment on students doing farm work: how does that affect FTAs? Is sending students to do free labor a kind of subsidy?

treatment of pets and how to help - in Korea - those poor American dogs are still suffering

A few weeks ago, I posted about Chindo Dogs in The US being killed and how terrible the Americans were. Alright, that was what the newspaper article I referenced said; I said the article was crap.

Today, the Herald had an article about mistreated dogs here.

You would be hard pressed to walk down a residential block in Seoul without noticing a chained up dog outside on a leash just a few feet long. They may be provided with the basics of food, water and a dog house, but many are not. Are these dogs given walks? Are these dogs given medical care? Are these dogs given any love or attention?

Take the example of a scruffy pup in my neighborhood whose water was a block of ice and the blanket in his dog house was frozen stiff in winter. He was fed table scraps. At only a few months old, he looked mangy and thin. How harmful is this for a dog?

Foreigners here in Korea, David and Catherine Peacock, started an organization to help protect these animals. It seems to be in it's beginning stages with many things planned. There is a fundraiser at Bar Nana in Itaewon on April 29. you can learn more here.

Losing my, ... word-bank in head thing

I have a coworker, Travis, who has been awing us with his large vocabulary.

I, on the other hand, felt it was too much trouble writing "Scribblings of the metropolitician" on my blogroll, shortened it to "the scribbler" and then misspelled that (fixed today - if you read this, Michael, sorry 'bout that).

I may have an excuse. Travis is a new guy - to my university anyway, while I have seniority - and that seniority may be doing me in.

From the Korea Herald:

English teachers who spend their days repeating slow, exaggerated and simplified speech risk losing their native language skills the longer they stay in Korea.

Eventually it might seem that CNN newscasters speak too fast, or when trying to find the perfect word to explain something... the word just doesn't come.
...
The loss of vocabulary and fluency is inevitable when there is a lack of educated native speakers around. Dickey lives in a small city where there are a handful of English native speakers, "so when I meet a native speaker of English, I sometimes trip over my own tongue in excitement and find myself without words. Both vocabulary and grammar seem to atrophy," he said.

Dickey suspects that a similar process happens to stay-at-home mothers, primary school teachers, and he said that he has also lost the specialized vocabulary of two professions - management and law - that he has passed through.
...
Outside of the classroom though, the simplicity can spill over into everyday conversation. Friends may find themselves subject to a lecture-style explanation with exaggerated facial expressions and hand gestures that replace complex sentence structure.

One of my friends made a short trip home to the US and was teased mercilessly after he said, "I have to go to a store and buy a [big shaving motions, slow and with his face leaned forward and to one side] razor."

I know this is pretty obvious but I had hoped it would not be that bad. I actually find that I benefit from speaking more slowly; I used to stutter when I got excited and spoke too fast. Now, my pronunciation and speaking are much clearer.

Great work, Laurie!

Gangwon Kotesol participant and acquaintance of mine, Laurie Malcolmson was featured in an editon of last week's Korea Times. Although he looks fit, he is a quiet guy and I had no idea he's the real deal when it comes to athletics. I hope I didn't brag about my own (now long-past) prowess in front of him.
Here is an exerpt:

Laurie Malcolmson has been running for as long as he can remember. When asked why he started running, he replies, ``I dunno. I grew
up on a farm, and I just started running. I guess it was the natural thing to do.’’He set the New Zealand record for the 100-meter dash, an amazing 10.4 seconds, more than 30 years ago. It has only barely been broken to this day, and at the ripe age of 56 he is still one of the fastest _ at least in his age category _ men alive, clocking the 100_meter dash in a hair under 12 seconds.

The blond, blue-eyed, soft-spoken Kiwi who lives and teaches English in Donghae, Kangwon Province, has raced against the best in track and field competitions all over the world. He recently returned from his native New Zealand, where he placed first in an international masters’ decathlon event entailing a 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400-meter dash on the first day, followed by 110-meter hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500-meter run on the second day.

Hans Island Rider(s?)

I have been inspired by the Dokdo Riders. I will be a Hans Island Rider and travel across Korea (or, at least, part of Gangwondo) telling people about how Denmark is trying to steal our island, Hans Island, away from us wonderful Canadians. I will ask Koreans whether Hans Island is marked on their maps as Canadian territory or erroneously as Danish Territory.

I need to make some flyers explaining the value of our claim. I hope the flag and the banner don't slow my cycling down too much.

To learn more about Hans Island, listen to their radio broadcasts.

Who will join me? No Bernard Carleton, please. Canadians welcome.

I will even lobby back in Canada for support for Danish Cartoonists if they give up on Canada's Island.
...
Well, Hell. It looks like some accommodation has already been made. There is a joint Canadian-Danish expedition mapping the Arctic Ocean floor in the vicinity.

Hmmm. Can I settle for a compromise? I will settle only when Korea and Japan agree to have one island each (East Island for Japan, West Island for Korea).

Sorry about the short but link-heavy post. I had planned to actually hang a flag and sign off the back of my bike and bother some Koreans with flyers but I turned out to be too lazy. Oh, and I already do support the Danes in their troubles over cartoons.

I'm so envious!

This post has nothing to do with Korea - although I guess I could work in some comparison with the Dok-do riders and a pair of real adventurers.

Two men from my hometown rode through Mexico and Central America for the winter. They apparently covered about 9,000km on their bikes during the trip.

Barrie Faulkner was the one who really encouraged me to ride and taught me that distance riding is as simple as just getting on the bike and putting time in. You don't have to be a super-hero or Lance Armstrong to cover vast distances, you just have to be patient. I coached his son Nat in swimming nearly twenty years ago.

I have pasted large portions of the Bracebridge Examiner story as their archived articles disappear after three weeks.

Bracebridge resident Barrie Faulkner, 58, lost about 15 pounds, carried more than 100 pounds of supplies and rode across 9,400 km of Central America and Mexico on his bicycle this winter.

He returned home March 12 with a tan, a smile and hundreds of stories to tell.

Faulkner and his son Nat, 27, started their three-month trek in San Diego, California on December 19. They finished in Panama City March 10 after travelling at a pace of about 120 km a day through the Mayan ruins and third world countries.
...

"I don’t think I could take a single day and not write a chapter in a book people would want to read," Faulkner said. "You wake up in the morning and don’t know what kind of adventure you’re going to have."

To finish the trip, Faulkner rode from the Pacific Ocean, to the Atlantic Ocean and back in a day, a 170-km ride across Panama with 8,000 feet of uphill climbing.

The father and son were chased by thousands of wild dogs and surrounded by vehicles of armed men — who turned out to be escorts worried about their safety — but were never harmed.

"We had armed men in a vehicle in front of us and armed men behind us travelling six kilometres an hour up a mountain for about two hours. I said we’re either really safe right now or really up a creek," Faulkner said. "When we started we were told we’d get mugged 10 times and stabbed. I never felt in danger. Everyone’s just overcautious. If we dropped a coin, somebody would point at it and let us know. Go. Ignore all the people telling you all this stuff. Just don’t be stupid and wear jewellery and try to pick up the local girls who belong to somebody else."

Everywhere along the ride, Faulkner said he gathered stories about people who worked hard, had little, but kept smiling, including one stop where townspeople led him to the central well and suggested he camp there. He gave four pieces of candy to a group of children, who later showed up with fried tortillas, blankets and an offer to use their showers. The boys also tried to draw a copy of Faulkner’s Canadian flag.

Was Edison from Eastern Europe?

They spell the name, "Tomas" rather than "Thomas" in the old country, don't they?
Edison was a remarkable man and using his name to promote a hagwon seems like a good idea, but I would have done some basic research on the name (okay, now is the time to report all my spelling errors on this blog).

Loose nets

Last summer, Yankabroad complained about nets that have come loose and drifted into shore. I've never noticed any around the beaches but perhaps the nets aren't emplaced near beaches. This rocky shore has collected it's share.

English spelling is inconsistent

I found a site that is dedicated to simplifying English spelling. Of note to edutainers like myself are the poems that highlight crazy English pronunciation and spelling.

Poems showing the absurdities of English spelling.

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead - For goodness sake
don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

Here are some of the spelling changes they suggest be adopted.

1. SR1/short E - use E always as in: eny, meny, frend, hed.
2. PH - replace
by F as in: foto, telefone.
3. augh - either delete the GH as in caut,
dauter, nauty or replace UGH with F as in laf, draft.
4. ough - either
(a) drop the GH as in bou, drout, plou, or
(b) change to AU as in baut,
thaut, saut, or
(c) change to OF or UF as in cof, trof; enuf, tuf; or
(d) cut to O as in tho, altho, or
(e) cut to U as in thru.
5. DUE -
as in hav, giv, negativ, opposit.

From the hills overlooking Sokcho

Sokcho, this morning, was cool and we stayed in, only venturing out around two pm. As we shopped the skies cleared and the late afternoon became wonderful.

KwandongAlex and I went for a hike. Just above our apartment, is a set of low mountain that I had never explored. KwandongYoungnam was pregnant last spring so we didn't hike much.

Wow, look what we missed.

The Azaleas are just beginning to bloom.


This pic is out of order. I took it as we left the mountain. I had hiked until Alex fell asleep, then turned back.

At our highest point, this was our view. Below is our apartment and a million others and Lake Cheongcho.