Fantastic weather!

I took the little guy up the mountain today and we started in coats. Half way through the climb we were down to shirts and I was considering switching to shorts (I was wearing hiking pants which had zippers around the legs so they can convert to shorts).

At the top, in the wind, we wore our coats and I wrapped a beach towel around my son as he ate his pastrie before we began the descent.

The windows and verandah doors are open so a warm breeze is running through the apartment.

On top of all that, KwandongWife returns from a week overseas on business tonight (this may be a mixed blessing as I have to clean wildly before she does get here).

A wonderful weekend to all!

Electrocuted trying to save Lil' Paper-face

I have an evening class at the university that I get to choose the material for. The topic for the past week was 'emergencies'. In the third and final class of the week, I taught a little first aid, specifically the Heimlich Maneuver. I also taught the students to take care of themselves first, before attempting any sort of a rescue. After all, increasing the number of victims by one, by definition, isn't helping the situation.

Upon noticing an incident where someone or some people (or some animals or even plants, I guess) are in danger, first keep yourself out of danger or at least understand the risks.

I taught the students the mnemonic, "No wire, no fire; No gas, no glass". These are things to look out for; I think the 'No glass' part is for completeness. Although I wouldn't want to kneel in broken glass, it's danger or terror value is much less that the others on the list.

Then, I brought the students, one at a time, into the next room where Lil' Paper-face was laying motionless (by a lucky coincidence, on a beach blanket). The first student reached out to see if he was sleeping or unconscious, disregarding the wire that (in the rules of first aid training, and almost as immutable as the rules of horror movies) naturally meant there was an electrical hazard.
The next student then had to rescue two victims. Well, I feel I could teach the steps of artificial respiration but had no intention of doing so; the important next step (after removing the wire and checking to see if they were sleeping) was to call 119 (911 in North America).

The second student performed the steps correctly so the two were saved, although poor Lil' Paper-face just fell to pieces after the class.

Are there established rules or etiquette for interpretation?

Kwandongwife will be traveling with a delegation of the Korean Coast Guard to a few South Asian countries and will be doing all or most of the interpretation. Although her language skills are strong, this is something she has not done before.

We have learned that interpreters should use direct speech and not say, "He said that he...."

Interpreters should say, "....Correction,....", rather than "...I'm sorry,...."

I spent a long time googling and found many sites for interpreting dreams, law, the bible, various computer languages and sign language, but no set of guidelines that human interpreters of spoken language generally follow (Some of the sign language stuff was useful, though). If any readers can offer advice or point me to a website, thanks a lot.

First snowfall of the Fall.

Thursday was cold and the rain and drizzle that fell all day felt even colder. I was not surprised to see Seoraksan snow covered on Friday morning but I was surprised to see how far down the slopes the snow actually reached.
The Korea Times has a photo.

In previous years, the first snow fall was typically later in November with 2003 having the earliest fall: November 14 (probably the first year I recorded dates). My pictures of previous years can be found here.

Middle-aged, Sub-urban Parkour

My commute from home in Sokcho to my university in Gangneung is fairly long and expensive. To get some more exercise and reduce the expense, I often walk from the Gangneung terminal to the university. That's good but it takes even more time. To shorten the walk, I have been trying a few different routes.

I now get off the bus and scurry across the bus parking lot, keeping my eyes open for moving buses. I then squeeze around a fence and go through the Gangneung Information Centre to City Hall Street (I think - you know how Korea is for street names). I legally cross the street and illegally walk up the Southbound lane of Highway 7. Upon reaching the bridge crossing the NamDae River, I take a little set of steps (maybe the bridge is a sort of emergency shelter).

Next, I go to the river and cross on a line of rocks that make a simple good-weather bridge. Once on the south side of the river, I stick to roads to my university.

This route takes about 30 minutes, which is a little faster than walking past the city hall and Doosan Soju, but mostly it is much more fun.

My little guy was sick at the beginning of the week and my sleep was intermittent. In taking my new under-the-bridge route, I found this guy.


This picture is from Tuesday. On Monday morning, the blankets were hanging evenly and smoothly around the styrofoam pad. He looked as if he went to sleep hours ago and hadn't moved at all in a comfortable, untroubled sleep. Tuesday, he still looked comfortable.

I know the guy must have problems aplenty to be sleeping under a bridge. And to be sleeping after 10am, he may well have been stumbling around most of the night, trying to keep warm, looking for food, whatever: still, in this snapshot of time, he looks relaxed.

I mentioned this to my wife and she let me know we had extra blankets and such if I wanted to head out. Probably, she was joking.

In unrelated news, at the Yangyang campus (now only the dormitories are used there), I found this set of pictures.

Today is frickin' miserable, but recent weather has been great but really dry. I have noticed wardens at all the San-Bul Jo-Shim (beware of fires) kiosks on the trails recently and these pictures from 2005's Naksan fire are a good way to encourage caution. Looking at these pictures, I feel most sorry for the poor cow. Normally, steak is dead before it is barbecued.

A review of 'Koreanclass 101'

The EFL Geek noted that a new Korean Language study website has appeared and wondered if anyone would review it. I decided to do so and posted it as a guest author on his site. Find my review here.

36 summits

Today, I made my 36th climb of Cheongdae Mountain. Again, if you are new to my blog or don't keep track of my doings, Cheongdae is not a giant mountain or anything, its just a handy fitness goal.

It was my third climb of November (today is the fourth (day of November)) so I'm well on my way to achieving 52 climbs by the end of the year.

Here is the Kwandongfamily at the summit yesterday. The climb was warm but East-coast Gangwondo's winter winds were back so the peak was cold. I was wearing only a shirt so my back could dry a little before putting on a sweater and vest.




The little guy is ambivalent about the mountain. I think the babysitter takes him up now and again (I mentioned earlier that he may have more summits than I do) and she claims not to carry him. Some days, I carry him a little and some days a lot. Yesterday, I carried him a lot, so I was hot and panting and wet at the peak.

Today, I tried something different. I jogged around the mountain to the other side and then summited and finished at my starting point. I had walked the route on Thursday and took an hour, seven minutes. Today, by no means fast, I managed forty-one minutes.

2 down

Hallowe'en, one of my favouritest days.

Superheroes and politics: a bad combination

Student elections are ongoing and a few superheroes were on hand to 'encourage' people to vote for their favourite candidate. Here I am with my trademark sun-glazed squint/smile.

Perhaps I gave their alter-identities too much homework. Whatever, this beatdown will not go unavenged... (more in a later post)
Who will save me? Check out anti-smoking ninja in this video.

I'm an uncle again!

My sister gave birth to AlaskaKai Beck Monday morning. I just got the news from my mom, after sleeping with the cell-phone all night. Mother and child will return home on Wednesday.

Waiting...

I expected a call during the night from home - well, North America. It should be good news but I don't think the "no news is good news" saying really applies here.

Error-sprinkled ESL textbooks

I am using a textbook made in-house. Production was rushed a bit and the book has a few errors. Looking back over the past five years at my university, I suddenly noticed how many error-sprinkled books ('sprinkled' implies a smaller number than 'riddled' or 'filled' right?) we have used. The books made domestically appear to have more errors. I like the English Countdown textbook (but I am going to list some errors so I won’t name the publisher) for the way it relentlessly repeated verb/subject agreement conversation substitutions. I liked it even though the students had two different editions (one with more errors) with the edition change unmarked or un-noted.

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I want to discuss 'good' errors and 'bad' errors. Good errors, whether deliberately or not, encourage some thought and consideration of content. Bad errors might do the same but are typically spelling and grammatical errors and my students have limited English skills so spelling errors are more likely to be accepted than noticed.

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Here are two errors, one from my current first year book, that appear to be useful.

In the first conversation, a shirt is being purchased for $40.00. After a 20% discount, the shirt is bought for $30.00. Wait a minute, $10/$40 isn't 20%! Here, after filling in the blanks, I ask the students if the salesperson is a good one. If need be, I ask them to check his/her math skills and occasionally used the Korean term "Su-hak", which I think means math. I like the idea of students critically thinking about their lessons - it doesn't have to be listen-and-repeat.

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In the second conversation fragment, we can see that Christmas is apparently on December 31! Some students will complete the conversation without seeming to notice anything amiss but most can pick up on this error.

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In this second photo, we can see many errors I categorize as 'bad'. I apologize for the occasional blurry areas.... I just looked again at the photo - I apologize for the nearly total blurry area! (I describe the picture in detail below but you can also click to enlarge.)

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Many of these mistakes are spelling errors. In the upper left conversation, restaurant is missing the final 't'. I consider this one especially bad as the Korean spelling of the word is something like "restaurang" so the error may not be noticed.

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I hope this post does not have any spelling errors nor examples of my frequent habit of dropping the occasional word. I will run this through spell-check before I post it. Perhaps some of these words, phrases and sentences were prepared with photo or object manipulation software to best set them on the page: that may be why no spell-check was used.

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Let's hop around the photo a little. In the middle, second from the top, we can see "...for you for that that day." Maybe this isn't a terrible error. Its clearly a sign of poor editing but few students will read "that that" without noticing that something is wrong. "High hills" next to it, is funny, at least.

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In the middle is the word "were't". No further comment necessary.

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To the left of that and below it are two fragments worth mentioning. "to Mt. Sorak / to the amusement partk in Youngin / to the Kyungpo beach" includes several errors. Park is misspelled and Kyungpo being a proper name doesn't need 'the' and beach should be capitalized. Students really didn't notice any of those errors until they were pointed out.

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To the right and below, we read about Ken. Apparently, someone took "her" umbrella. I changed "in" to "from" but maybe both are fine. Ken and Mary are on the same page. I guess the sky is brightening (or lightening) at dawn. I am not sure why Mary is frightened by it.

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For completeness sake, I think the man should hike "up" a mountain rather than simply "hike a mountain."

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In conclusion, I have badmouthed books written by management at my university (among others) so if you can send in some job opening information, I might be very grateful.

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More seriously, I like the idea of deliberately-written errors that students can be encouraged to find, discuss and correct on their own or in class. Spelling errors are not appropriate (for beginner classes) but grammar errors could be. So long as students are aware that errors have been added, I like verb-tense disagreement or content errors (such as the math error that literally did not add up.) Other examples for future texts could be placing November in the Spring or lunch at night. Perhaps there could be a conversation about badminton balls, using three chopsticks or riding a bus to Jejudo.

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Here’s to celebrating errors.

Brother-in-law's wedding

The Kwandongfamily went to Kimhae for Kwandongwife's brother's wedding. I took many photos but will only post a few of plants I saw and allow family to choose which pictures are for the public.
These are two pictures of drying garlic. The left was with the flash. Which do you think is better?These bean plants grew on and over a roof at the in-laws farm.


Traffic in Busan was terrible and we almost were late to the wedding. 'We' being the mother, father, myself and two other relatives. The bus, with the younger brother among others, was late.

The wedding went smoothly with a few red-eyes from family but no wailing -sounds like the perfect emotional level.

A group of school children (the bride and groom are both teachers) sang in a cute but halting manner. The lack of polish was cute but there were a few angry faces from the students as they went by. I think the students were a mix from the two different classes (and different schools) so I wonder if the anger was aligned on class lines.

I think of Gangwon as being rural but Kyeongsang has its rustic spots as well. The parents-in-law have no computer and neither do the nearby houses. This isn't bad but noteworthy. There are a lot of tunnels in the area and nearby Changwon has the longest tunnel in Korea. That suggests the area is at least as mountainous as elsewhere.

Superbucks

Although I don't follow copyright infringement stories in Korea particularly closely, this coffee shop in Sokcho caught my eye.

As I understand the situation, Korean courts tend to allow Korean businesses to very nearly copy foreign trademarks but require foreign companies to remain very distinct from Korean brands. The Marmot (actually Dram man) has been following the story. Here is one post of his on the subject.

Push for 5 seconds

This sign has been in a university bathroom (maybe all the bathrooms, I don't know) for months and I was never sure what it meant (click to enlarge). It looked like "5 seconds.....", but what is "Noolleo Ju Saey Yo"?
Yesterday, I was in the bathroom while a Korean English teacher was also there. I asked him about the sign. He said, "Push for five seconds". All I could think about was straining to pee faster. Who goes to the bathroom that fast? I think you would do yourself injury.

It was only after he had finished his job and held the flush mechanism, that he said, "hold this for five seconds". That made a lot more sense. Korean bathrooms often have stronger odours because few Koreans do flush the urinals.

Caught!

After completing the exam, this student was bored and wanted some kicks. The sort of kicks one gets from defacing university property.

Gore's Peace Prize has Sci-fi story written all over it.

I think it's great that he received it and his work regarding global warming is something I respect. I don't mean science fiction as works of bad literature and worse internal consistency.

Still, as I understand it, he received the Prize for educating people about global warming so the world's people can do something about. This will reduce water scarcity in the future. More water available to more people will reduce wars fought over this resource.

Al Gore has won the Peace Prize for reducing conflict in the future - how cool is that?

Partial text of the award can be found at the Panda's Thumb.

26 summits

You may recall that I decided I should hike the big hill behind my apartment an average of once a week this year. I made the decision in August and so have been trying for three or four hikes a week to catch up. I haven't caught up but I am on schedule to make the 52 with time to spare.

Hopefully, the hiking here will prepare me for Seoraksan. It past time that I returned to the park's peak, Dae-chung-bong. I plan to hike up in December from O-saek on the shortest route and again a few times in January before crossing from O-saek to Seorak-dong, a much longer hike.

One funny thing about the hill behind my apartment is that my son may have more summits under belt than I do. The babysitter frequently takes him up, possibly more than once a week. I'm not sure if I should ask or not. I was surprised when I learned they did the hike as he likes me to carry him when we go up. The babysitter says she does not carry him. I wonder what her secret is.

I wrestled with this last point for a while but decided I am not giving away any military secrets. Earlier, I described how an ajumma army had been clearing brush and cutting the grass on the mountain. Recently, the literal army has been up, refurbishing their foxholes and such.

I might make a whole post out of the point but I have to say I wasn't sure if I should mention the military activities on the hill. I finally figured that nearly every hill and mountain in Korea has fortifications to some degree so the simple statement of their existence wasn't a blow to national (or my) security. I gave a speech at Gangneung National University on the subject and told them I just wasn't sure what was acceptable or customary, much less legal. I would welcome comments on the subject. Can I take and post pictures of military fortifications? Would it be wise to give details on fortifications defending my own city? Does anyone care? Have I watched too many AFKN PSAs describing OPSEC? Should I remove a few paragraphs of this post?

Korean Language Podcast

The EFL Geek has found a KSL website that includes free mp3s. Korean Class 101 seems like a well-made site. I registered for the free service which includes a week of premium. I haven't even listened to the content yet but I am already considering paying for basic or premium service.

Chunk Edited out here. No big deal - I felt I had passed beyond humor into rudeness.

I will review my thoughts on the first few lessons in a few days.

Cephalopod Awareness day (And Canadian Thanksgiving)

Apparently, today is International Cephalopod Awareness Day. The website suggests that today is a good day to share stories about our 10 and 8-tentacled friends (hence 10/8 on the calendar).

I was going to try to photoshop a picture for my story. I would have to, because I have never seen the cephalopod in the wild that I can find in most markets in Sokcho. Although I have hiked many times in Seoraksan National Park and even up the little mountain behind my home, I have never seen San Nakkji.

All I can do is imagine the graceful octopus swinging easily from tree to tree. I guess it would hang upside-down so as to not support the head against gravity. Perhaps the tentacles have much-reduced suction cups as tree bark is too rough to permit a good seal.

Yeah, photoshopping would have been better.

HT: to Pharyngula