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Post-250: [Korean] Where are the Non-Smart-Phone-Using People?

11/30/2014

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I wrote the below in Korean two weeks ago and posted it to an online forum where people exchange corrections. Some Koreans corrected a few errors. An English translation is next to it (on PC) or below it (mobile devices).

스마트폰을 쓰지 않는 사람이 어디에 있을까?
자, 오늘 아침에 대한민국의 수도권 지하철을 타고 가고 있을 때는 다른 승객들을 볼 수 있었지만 앉아 있던 승객들은 나를 볼 수 없는 것 같았어요.
무슨 작고 밝은 스크린 때문이에요.

우리 기차에 앉아 있던 승객들은 24명이었는데, 그때 꼭 23명이 스마트폰을 보기만 (96%) 했어요. "스마트폰 중독"이 있는 대한민국인은 많다고 하죠?

미국 지하철에 있는 스마트폰 습관 비교할 수 있어서 다음
단락부터 쓸게요.

미국큰 도시에도 지하철이 있기는 하지만 2014년에도 미국을 여행하는 어느 서울에서 온 한국인은 미국의 지하철 열차에 들어가자마자 놀라는 것이 있을 수도 있어요: 미국 지하철에 있는 승객들 중에 "종이"신문을 읽는 사람이 많고 "종이"책을 읽는 사람이 많군요! 스마트폰을 쓰는 지하철 승객보다 "종이"를 쓰는 손님이 거의 3배나 있던데요...!

Where are the Non-Smart-Phone-Using People?
Well now, today in the morning, as I was riding in the Seoul area's subway system, I could see the other passengers, but the others, seated, could not see me, it seemed. This was because of some small, bright screens.

There were 24 seated passengers in our train car, and at that time a full 23 of them (96%) were only looking at their smartphones. They do say that in the Republic of Korea, there are a lot of "smartphone addicts", don't they.

In the USA, smartphone use in the subway is very different, so let me write about it next.

In big cities in the USA, we have subways too, but even in 2014 now, a Korean from Seoul who enters a subway car will immediately be surprised by something: A lot of the subway passengers in the USA will be reading "paper" newspapers and "paper" books! As I recall, something like three times as many people use "paper" in the subway [in the USA] as use smartphones....!

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Post-249: Uneventful Thanksgiving 2014 (And, How to Say 'Turkey' in Korean)

11/29/2014

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Thanksgiving Day 2014 passed for me without any indication whatsoever that it was a holiday. That's because it isn't a holiday where I am (not counting the U.S. military bases).

On the plus side, I figured out the amusing meaning of the Korean word for "turkey":
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Post-248: Thinking About Germany and "The Left" Party

11/25/2014

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In Post-246 ("Here Comes Bodo Ramelow") I revisited my time in Germany in 2007, a subject about which I think I've rarely written on these pages. One of the things that impressed me there was the myriad of active political and quasi-political movements whirling around. If you read #246, you can see a slice of this.

I've been thinking more about the election result I mentioned in #246, in Thuringia (a German state formerly of East Germany), a place I passed through a time or two or three. The results of their recent state election:

* 28 seats were won by Die Linke (successor of the East German Communist Party) [31% of seats]
[...]
[T]he Linke "neo-Communists" are a majority of [the new] ruling coalition, so it's only fair that their guy, Bodo, becomes the formal leader.
"Die Linke" (English: The Left), which is the reformed Communist Party, won nearly one-in-three seats in this eastern-German state's legislature. By the way, here is the top banner on the website of party's Berlin chapter:
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From website of the Linke party (die-linke-berlin.de), as of this writing
(It's Herren Marx und Engels. These are life-size statues, put up during the Communist era, and still stand in central Berlin. I passed right by them many-a-time. They are in a big open square which is generally deserted.)

Those in the east voting for Linke are generally older people who actually lived as adults under the Communist East German government. Is this, then, a partial vindication of that system and its government?

Maybe. But hear this:
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Post-247: [My Korean Essay] Methods for Speaking Korean Well

11/22/2014

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I wrote this essay in mid-November 2014. It received a good grade but has some minor grammar mistakes.

An English translation follows.
한국어를 잘 할 수 있는 방법
어학당에서 공부하는 학생들은 많이 공부하는데도 교실 밖에서 한국어를 잘 못 하는 편입니다. 우리는 한국어를 잘 할 수 있는 방법에 대해 많이 궁금합니다. 지금부터 이야기와 취미로 한국어를 잘 할 수 있는 방법에 대해서 설명을 하겠습니다.

첫째, 우리는 한국인 친구나 한국어를 공부하는 외국인과 사귀어서 한국말로 많이 이야디를 해야 한다고 합니다. 한국에 있는 어학당 학생들 중에 한국인 친구가 없는 학생이 많은 것 같습니다. 그래서, 교실이나 숙제를 할 때 밖에는 한국말을 별로 쓰지 않은 것 같습니다. 따라서, 한국어가 "과목"이라고 생각하는 편입니다. 그런 생각은 한국말을 잘 하고 싶은 학생에게 위험한 것입니다. 예를 들면, 한국에서 영어교육 도 이런 문제가 있습니다. 학생이 영어문법을 많이 공부하기는 하지만 고등학교를 졸업까지도 영어로 이야기를 해본적이 별로 없다고 합니다. 뭐니 뭐니 해도, 다른 사람과 이야기하는 것이 제일 중요한 언어를 배우기는 이유라고 할 수 있습니다. 그러므로, 수업 밖에서도 연습을 하도록 한국말로 많이 이야기해야 합니다.

다 음으 로, 취미 생활과 관계가 있는 방법으로 한국말을 연습해야 됩니다. 사람들이 취미가 달라서 많은 방법이 있을 수 있습니다. 예로, 미국에서 온 저는 역사에 관심이 많습니다. 그래서, 한국어로 미국역사에 대한 초등학생 책을 사서 날마다 읽습니다. 다른 취미가 있다면 다른 방법을 이용할 수 있습니다. 특히, 한국 드라마에 관심이 많은 여자학생들은 드라마를 보면서 한국어를 연습합니다. 이런 방법을 이용하면 즐겁게 취미 생활을 하고 한국어도 연습할 수 있습니다.

요약하면, 한국어를 잘 하고 싶으면 이야기른 늘녀야 하고 "한국말로 할 수 있는" 취미린 발전시켜야 한다고 생각합니다.
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Original handwritten essay (after many drafts).
Here is a translation into English of the above Korean original (both written by me:)
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Post-246: Here Comes Bodo Ramelow (Or, Reminiscences of German Politics)

11/21/2014

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A German state will have a "(neo-)Communist" leader for the first time since the fall of Communist rule twenty-five years ago, I read today.

The state will be Thuringia (Thüringen), formerly belonging to East Germany.

The leader will be somebody called Bodo Ramelow (born 1956).
Here he is:
Picture
Bodo Ramelow, Politician
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I know what you're thinking. "He doesn't look much like a Communist."

Or, maybe you're thinking "Bodo Ramelow sounds like a pro wrestler's name."

I agree with both sentiments.
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Post-245: On the Fall of the Berlin Wall

11/20/2014

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As I was writing about "November 11th, 1918" (post-242), another anniversary was being commemorated. The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I think historians of the future ought to use the two (11-11-1918 to circa 11-11-1989) as  bookends, to fence off a coherent era of history. It is convenient, or poetic, or something special anyway, that the period is exactly seventy-one years to the day. Those seventy-one years were an era of wild political-ideological struggle, unseen, really, before or since.
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Post-244: Mao Zedong the Praiseworthy

11/18/2014

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Suh Teacher was discussing a particular Korean word, "훌륭하다". This word means "excellent; stately; honorable; respectable; commendable; admirable; praiseworthy." Listening were the students of our class, 15 in all -- thirteen from China, one Chinese-Malaysian, and me. To make sure students understood how to use the word, Suh Teacher asked, "Okay, then, for whom can we use this word? Examples?" It was an open question to the room.
Very quickly came a girl's exclamation: "Mao Zedong!" (something like "Mao Dzhuh-doong" in Korean, which follows Chinese pronunciation, I suppose). The class did what it often does, which is to laugh in unison. (When these spontaneous eruptions happen, it always seems as if they'd been planned. It hadn't been "planned"; there is just a Chinese Consensus in the room.) (The concept of "Chinese Consensus" has occurred to me before in classes, so I'll capitalize it here so as to dignify it with an implied existence.)

I wondered why they were laughing.

Picture
Chairman Mao "the Praiseworthy"
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Post-243: "The Great Pumpkin Will Appear!"

11/15/2014

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I had the opportunity to see the Charlie Brown Halloween special I'd seen as a young boy.

Linus evangelizes on behalf of the Great Pumpkin, a supernatural being he believes in. He is convinced that the Great Pumpkin will appear on Halloween Night in the pumpkin patch, and plans an all-night vigil. He tries to get others to join him. No one is convinced. Charlie Brown's little sister Sally finally gets involved, but she is completely uninterested in the metaphysics of the Great Pumpkin. Rather, she wants to spend time alone with Linus, whom she likes. The attraction is not reciprocal, but Linus gladly takes her on as another disciple of the Great Pumpkin.
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Linus and Charlie Brown
Charles Schulz (the creator of the Charlie Brown universe) wrote and directed the Halloween special in 1966. It first aired on TV in October '66. Schulz was born in 1922 in Minnesota and was raised in the Lutheran Church. He remained an active Christian till his death.

At one point, Schulz has Linus write a letter to the Great Pumpkin saying:"Everyone tells me you are a fake, but I believe in you. P.S., If you really are fake, don't tell me. I don't want to know." 

Night comes; the Great Pumpkin doesn't show up; Sally gets annoyed and storms off; Linus stays loyal and remains at his post. The next thing we know it's 4 AM, and -- shivering and having fallen asleep still at his vigil post -- Linus is dragged inside and put to bed.

On the morning of November 1st, the show ends with this exchange:
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Post-242: November 11th, 1918

11/11/2014

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As I write, it is November 11th. It was on this day in 1918 that the fighting ended in what we now call "World War One" (famously, they arranged the ceasefire to begin at 11 AM). This is why the USA's Veteran's Day is November 11th.

One of my great-grandfathers was in the U.S. Army at that time, but he never left the USA. I wrote about what I've learned of his experience in post-224 ("My Great-Grandfather's Piece of World War I"). He was at Camp Devens, MA. Here is a picture of one of the companies garrisoned (not his) at Camp Devens in 1918:
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Part of the company photograph of the "43rd Company", Camp Devens Depot Brigade (151st)
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