With the new policed comment regime, we here at the Marmot’s Hole (OK, the Oranckay and I) felt it might be a good idea to start an open comment thread on the weekends.
If you’ve got something to say on any topic, this is the place to do it. Go to town.
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59 Comments
If anyone has the full U.S. government Romanization/transliteration system used for FBIS, including double consonants, please post a link. I think I have it right, but want to make sure. Thanks.
I haven’t looked at FBIS for quite a while… Do they use McCune-Reischauer?
No, a U.S. govt. developed system. Some parts are very similar to McR, but a few differences. Click on my name to go to my blog and see what I’m speaking of.
I hate the alienation and loneliness that is the by-product of our impersonal, post-modern society.
Japan must apologize for this!
Whoo-hoo, open thread! Party!
Yet another romanization system!? Oy.
For anyone who’s interested, there’s a good, brief summary in Wednesday’s Christian Science Monitor on the history of Christianity in Korea, here—based largely on the testimony of Samuel and Eileen Moffett.
It’s really just a cursory overview—and there probably isn’t much new information for those who are familiar with the subject—but I thought I’d mention it all the same.
Richardson, if the system is as you have described it, then it seems the only difference with McCune-Reischauer is in the use of apostrophes (o’ and u’) in place of breves (ŏ and ŭ)—is that correct?
If so, that’s a remarkably simple and elegant solution to the age-old problem of depicting ㅓ and ㅡ in the roman alphabet. o’ and u’ look better than o^ and u^, can be typed easily (as opposed to ŏ and ŭ), and are consistent with the use of apostrophes in ch’, k’, t’, and p’. It’s so simple—I like it!
…And have a good weekend, everyone!
The U.S. govt system is very close to McR, as far as I’ve been able to tell, and the apostrophes are much easier to use, but I’m not sure about all the double consonants as I haven’t an example using them; I’m guessing due to some other possible usages being eliminated. Again, if anyone knows of more examples on the next, please post a link. Thanks.
#6: yeah, but it still can’t be used in web-address URLs, which don’t
accept apostrophies; you can’t register http://www.ch‘ungch’o'ngnamdo.com —
and Ch’ungch’o'ng-namdo looks pretty funny in itself. The 2000 MCT
system is much better for the 21st century…
the alphabet is just not cut out to do a 100% job. Now it’s looking more like Vietnamese language being romanized.
The good thing about Hangul is the vertical stack, so things are compact, saves space.
Been on the road a lot recently. The Maxwell House kiosks at the tollway rest stops serve a decent cup of coffee.
Is there a better deal than a love motel? I don’t think so. Nowadays you’ll see signs in the room stating it’s a CCTV-free zone. I still check.
Anyone try this gasoline substitute sold from the back of vans?
I keep seeing vans parked beside country roads. Flickering heart-shaped LEDs mounted on the windows. Whore vans?
I own one of those GPS devices that warn you when approaching a camera. Nifty, especially at night. Read a while ago that speed-zones were being installed; time your travel from point A to B. Hope my GPS will warn me about those.
Horizontally of course. Vertically is another matter.
> Read a while ago that speed-zones were being installed;
> time your travel from point A to B.
Really? How can they identify your car both times with such precision?
They take two photos of every single car driving past, at points A & B?? Must be a very advanced technology if that’s going to work…
Marmot’s Hole Open sounds like a pro golf tournament.
“Really? How can they identify your car both times with such precision?”
They’ve been in use for some years in the UK,
“The SPECS digital cameras read the number plate for every vehicle on entry to, and exit from the speed-managed zone. An average speed is recorded by calculating the time taken for the vehicle to travel the distance between entry and exit cameras. If a vehicle is travelling over the speed limit a violation record will be stored for enforcement by the City of London Police. The cameras do not flash and all the data is stored digitally so there is no need for film in the cameras.”
>>>I hate the alienation and loneliness that is the by-product of our impersonal, post-modern society.
Japan must apologize for this!
There is no written evidence that Japan forcefully alienated or made lonely anyone, and self-styled witnesses who claim alienation and loneliness are by definition isolated from the situation of which they claim to speak, calling into question their accounts of the alienation and loneliness.
I’m not saying that people aren’t alienated and lonely…I’m just calling for more research into the role of alienation and loneliness pimps in this whole regretable affair.
Re: The speed cameras - From the Chosun a while back:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....90028.html
“Sectional monitoring uses two unmanned cameras at either end of a stretch of road to check how long it takes a vehicle to pass between them. After dividing by the distance, the system knows the average speed of the vehicle. And the cameras can also perform spot checks, photographing the same car up to three times in one stretch. The police plan to slap maximum fines and demerits on drivers caught speeding in all three checks. “With more and more cars using GPS systems, many drivers slow down only for the surveillance cameras and speed up as soon as they pass. This new system should put an end to that practice,” an official from the National Police Agency said.”
Best remedy to alleviate blueness of the balls?
1. Wack it
2. Cold Shower
3. Exercise
4. Heavy lifting
5. View breasteses at the Marmot’s Hole
6. Ice the balls
7. Heat the balls
8. Soak the balls in kimchi chiggye
9. Demand that Japan apologize to your balls
10. Dip your balls in soju and set them on fire
Discuss.
#15 & #17 — thanks, Arghaeri & Nomad. I hadn’t heard this. Gawd, that would be a dastardly thing for the coppers to install… Except if they do it Korean style, putting up warning signs 500 m before the check-zone begins, so we have plenty of time to slow down. I’m sure they will do that, to avoid public outrage — it’s how Korean law enforcement works. And the posted speed-limits on the Expressways are just unrealistically and unnecessarily low, by about 20%…
I was absolutely astounded a few weeks ago to drive from Gwangyang City way down on the central South Coast (was visiting Baekun-san) to my home in NE Seoul in just four hours! On a Monday 4-8 pm, no traffic jams, and no camera caught me speeding (not that i was, mind you), and nothing unsafe happened. That used to be a really difficult & scary 10-hour drive, i distinctly remember. Just saying, the expressways/highways system of this nation has gotten SO much better in the past decade… hallelujah for the lesser blessings!
” I have big breasteses ”
real audio. Real quote. From somebody in the 2000’s.
espn radio had a lot of fun with it.
Yes, the tollway system has gotten much better, and even the rural roads have been widened–sucks being stuck behind a cement truck driving up mountain roads. Once you get a few kilometers away from the urban areas the roads are pretty empty. I drive the new tollways 100 and 45, and the speed limit is 100 or 110. Ridiculous. I’m more than happy to pay a few thousand extra for 160 - 180; this speed ought to be an option, except for trucks and buses. Of course the virtue of lane discipline needs to be learned and adhered to.
BTW, I’m seeing more cameras w/o those warnings.
Every few nights here in CONUS, the Lehrer News Hour on PBS shows pictures of US war dead from Iraq/Afghanistan at the very end of the hour. Tonight (Friday 9 March US PST) they showed approx 9 pictures; one of whom caught my eye, as he appeared (to me) to be clearly of Korean-only ethnicity.
From LA Times obit section: “Louis G. Kim, 19, of West Covina [California]; specialist, Army. Kim was killed Tuesday when his unit was attacked with small-arms fire in Ramadi, Iraq, west of Baghdad. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.”
This local newspaper story supports (without entirely confirming) my conjecture that he was of Korean-only descent:
“He was a sweet boy, always so nice and had a lot of friends,” [his mother Bridget] Shin said in Korean. “My heart hurts.”
http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_5320058 (I reckon “sgv” means “San Gabriel Valley”).
I assume him to be a US born citizen since nothing was said on this subject. I don’t know if he’s the first US soldier of direct Korean-only ethnicity to die in Iraq/Afghanistan.
Probably not, but he’s the first I’ve noticed, so I’m curious to know from those of you in the ROK and/or fluent in the language as to whether or not this gets any coverage in ROK/Korean language media, and what the media have to say about it.
Say, does anyone have any historical maps of disputed territories that they’d like to show?
Well, talking about standards for the romanization of Korean and their use in URLs, how about the 99% of Korean sites that are no longer capable of working with the latest version of Windows, not to mention that they only work with Internet Explorer and Windows?
Thanks to almost all Korean sites’ use of “Active X”, these sites do not function with other browsers or operating systems. If one tries to access the javascript map of seoul that is in Seoul City’s website, on any other browser, it does not work because of this problem.
In short, why does all of Korea cut themselves off from the rest of the world by using non-standard technology, that also has known security weaknesses, in their internet sites? If Korea is so modern and wired, why is their not better standards for site building in Korea?
R. Elgin,
Surely you do not dispute that map, merely because of problems with javascript! Regardless, I direct your attention to famed cartographer Little Bill’s map of Seoul (near bottom of page). I offer this as irrefutable proof that Seoul City is well represented on maps, regardless of any possible problems relating to javascript-based red herrings.
Show me your maps!
Paul H wrote:
“I assume him to be a US born citizen since nothing was said on this subject. I don’t know if he’s the first US soldier of direct Korean-only ethnicity to die in Iraq/Afghanistan. “
Why is this significant? I know this is a Korea-centric blog, but I find these sorts of “firsts” meaningless unless we are talking about a first who overcame historical discrimination or exclusion.
Discipline — Korea — discipline — Korea
Does not compute; does not compute; does not compute.
Zfiifft. Abnormal program termination.
Marmot’s Hole Open sounds like a pro golf tournament.
Or the best bestiality porn movie in the world.
Mmmm. Beasts.
Kevin
Damn, just lost 10,000 won to the wife. I thought “virtue” would have been picked on first. Thanks, Sperwer.
Sonagi raises an interesting point. Of course we all know that George Washington Carver was the first to invent the peanut, but who knew that Tyra Banks was the first black woman to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated? Or was she the first woman of color to wear a bikini? Anyway, important. And Sung Hee Lee’s naembi was the first Asian naembi in a Playboy spread. I remember the parade held in her honor when we she returned to the fatherland. “Hurruh! Ours is good enough, too.” Clothes removed. Legs spread. Barriers broken. And to this day she honors her people’s aversion of the baekboji by only trimming. Good on her. Respek.
Korea’s first cameltoe. Photo from so long ago it may be the world’s first–scroll to the bottom of the page. Is cameltoe NSFW? Don’t know. What’s the Korean word for cameltoe? Use McCune-Reischauer, if you must.
While such firsts may not be significant to you, they are important to Korean Americans and the various Korean-American communities from where these soldiers came from.
Paul H. refers to U.S. soldiers “of direct Korean-only ethnicity”. What’s with the convoluted terminology? The preferred nomenclature is “Korean American”.
Paul H. wrote:
Your pointing out his mother’s poor English is a stroke of genius! Without your astute observation, I doubt nary a soul (especially on this blog) would ever guess in a million years that someone with the last name Kim is Korean. Thank you for sharing your brilliant powers of observation and insightful analysis with us!
Paul H. wrote:
If Specialist Louis G. Kim is the first Korean-American casualty of OEF/OIF that you’ve noticed to date, I daresay you haven’t been paying attention for the past 4 years. To date, Louis Kim is the 13th and the latest casualty of OEF/OIF.
Coverage by Korean media of KA casualties in OEF/OIF have been non-existent to scant, probably for the same reasons that the Chicago Tribune/New York Times/LA Times/Washington Post and other U.S. media rarely mention coalition casualities, unless they are incidental to Americans killed or wounded. However, the Korean-American media has provided extensive coverage of every KA KIA in OIF/OEF to date: (check out KoreAm magazine, for example.)
In case you didn’t know, the following are the 13 Korean American KIAs to date in support of OIF/OEF starting with the first:
2004:
1) Marine Lcpl. Brad S. Shuder, 21, El Dorado, CA
Unit: 2-1 Marines, 1st MarDiv, 1st MEF,Pendleton
KIA: 4-12-2004, Anbar Province, Iraq from enemy mortar fire.
2) Marine Cpl. Bum R. Lee, 21, Sunnyvale, CA
Unit: 2-4 Marines, 1st MarDiv, 1st MEF, Pendleton
KIA: 6-2-2004, Anbar Province, Iraq during combat operations.
3) Army Pvt.Jeung-jin Na Kim, 23, Honolulu, HI
Unit: 2-17 FA, 2nd ID, Camp Hovey, Korea
KIA: 10-6-2004, Ramadi, Iraq, small-arms fire during combat operations.
4) Marine Cpl. In-Chul Kim, 23, Warren, MI
Unit: 9th Com Btn, 1st MEF, Pendleton
KIA: 12-7-2004, Anbar Province, Iraq, vehicle accident.
2005:
5) Army PFC Min-soo Choi, 21, RiverVale, NJ
Unit: 6-8 Cav, 4th Bde, 3rd ID, Ft. Stewart, GA
KIA: 2-26-2005, Abertha, Iraq, IED.
6) Army PFC Samuel S. Lee, 19, Anaheim, CA
Unit: 1-506 IN, 2nd ID, Camp Greaves, Korea
KIA: 3-28-2005, Ramadi, Iraq, non-combat incident.
7) Navy QM2 (SEAL) James Suh, 28, Deerfield Beach, FL
Unit: SDV-Team 1, Pearl Harbor, HI
KIA: 6-28-2005, mountains of eastern Afghanistan, MH-47 Chinook helicopter crash.
2006:
Marine Lcpl. Kun Y. Kim, 20, Atlanta, GA
Unit: 3-8 Marines, 2nd MarDiv, II MEF, Lejeune,NC
KIA: 4-2-2006, Anbar Province, Iraq, combat ops.
9) Army Sgt. Kyu H. Chay, 34, Fayettville, NC
Unit: 1-3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Ft. Bragg, NC.
KIA: 10-28-2006, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan, IED.
10) Army PFC Jang-ho Kim, 20, Placentia, CA
Unit: 1-26 Inf, 2nd BCT, 1st ID, Schweinfurt, Germany.
KIA: 11-13-2006, Baghdad, IED.
11) Marine Lcpl. Minhee Kim, 20, Ann Arbor, MI
Unit: 1-24th Marines, 4th MarDiv, USMCR.
KIA: 11-1-2006, Anbar Province, from small-arms fire during combat operations.
12) Army Sgt. Jae S. Moon, 21, Levittown, PA
Unit: 2-12 Inf, 2nd BCT, 2nd ID, Ft. Carson, CO
KIA: 12-25-2006, Baghdad, IED
2007:
13) Army Spec. Louis G. Kim, 19, Covina, CA
Unit: 1-26th Inf, 2nd BCT, 1st ID, Schweinfurt, Germany.
KIA: 2-20-2007, Ramadi Iraq, from small-arms fire during combat operations.
H.Kim wrote:
“While such firsts may not be significant to you, they are important to Korean Americans and the various Korean-American communities from where these soldiers came from. “
But why should Korean-Americans care more for dead Korean-American soldiers than American soldiers of other ethnicities? I know other ethnic communities display the same interest, but as an American, I believe in giving equal weight to the sacrifices of all soldiers, regardless of ethnicity, religious affiliation, or gender. I am an Irish-American woman, and I don’t give a rat’s a** who the first Irish-American female casualty was. I am as sorry for the loss of this young man’s life as much as I am sorry for the loss of every other human being, American, hyphenated American, Iraqi, whoever.
Seouldout (11): The high point off cross-country bus trips between Seoul/Incheon and Daegu has become grabbing a cafe Americano at the Maxwell House rest stop concessions. When did that start? It seems it wasn’t that long ago that there was some kind of major overhaul of the rest stops. And the expressway network overall just gets better and better year after year. At least those tolls are being put to some use.
Sanshinseon (9): I should have kept my mouth shut. I know better than to raise the spectre of romanization!
H. Kim (31): May they rest in peace.
Approx. 1.5 million ethnic Koreans
in the US puts them at approx. 0.5% of the population.
As of 9 Mar 07 there have been 3190 US casualties in Iraq and another 371 US casualties in Afghanistan. Those 13 Korean-Americans are 0.37% of US casualties.
I recall someone sometime ago suggested that the Korean-Americans weren’t doing their part. I’d have to disagree. May they rest in peace.
@ sewing. Don’t know if a decent cup of coffee is the highpoint cuz there’s the whore vans ya know, and road rage, and debris dodging, but it’s better than the noxious vending machine spew, though that cuppa joe makes a decent ashtray.
I thought the high point was driving beside the tour buses with the dancing ajummas in the aisles.
…That and the non-machine-vended cup of coffee….
I noticed a couple of articles in the Times and Herald in the last few weeks concerning Koreans who are becoming more solitary and actually enjoying these moments of peace alone. The authors seemed to have come to the conclusion that this was a sign of depression.
I have talked to my students about fear, darkness and depression and I’d say one in three responded that their greatest fear was being alone.
Coming from a Western society where finding time of solace in a solitary atmosphere, away from the noise and quickened pace of city life does not have any stigma of despair. I find this notion of the loner to be bewildering. In a society where it is seldom that an individual can even behold an unobstructed horizon uncluttered by buildings, where even at three in the morning you have to dodge traffic and other pedestrians, I would think that moments of escape were healthy. Finding a place to be alone, serene, to gather your thoughts without traffic noise and sceaming children, to gaze at the distant landscape and dream of tomorrows would be tantamount to mental health.
I see the urgent need to seek out other humans continually, almost desperately as a sign of neurosis and a stronger indication of mental instability.
iheartblueballs,
They’re your blueballs to do with as you please, but I’m feeling really let down, man. I used to covet those blue balls. I looked up to them. But then you mentioned the thing about a fuzzy plum, and now you’ve put those cute little pictures (foxes? kittens?) on the balls. It’s really messing with my head.
I wonder if I’m the only one who finds this change disturbing. Blueballs should be blueballs, and nothing else. (I’m sorry for being so conservative.) It makes me wonder, now that I think about it, if anyone has ever tattooed their balls. That would hurt, for sure!
Gravatars:- with Firefox (for Macintosh) I only get a little box with the word Gravatar in it, no actual gravatars. Everything fine on Safari.
Any advise?
Basically I just want to see these strange happenings with Ihearts balls
#37, well said.
What was I thinking?
I think someone earlier was wondering that if a traffic specialist was presented with an assortment of car pictures from one checkpoint and then a hodge-podge of pictures of cars from another checkpoint, how does this person match them up? Does he or she simply have to match the liscence plate numbers which would be time consuming and extremely tedious or is there some electronic distinguishing ping-back which allows them to match these cars up in order to verify their speeds automatically? If so that might be some interesting stuff.
As far as coffee at rest stops, what can I say? Good coffee at rest stops… Mmmmmm.
I do think we need another variation for Romanizing Korean. There isn’t nearly enough road sign confusion here as it is. Here’s a thought…How about we indoctrinate the sign-maker for more than fifteen minutes on the translations so they know that there is a distinction between the hard initial consonant “k” sound and the softer “g” sound of the second consonant. The same goes for “p” and “b”.
And wouldn’t it be nice if all deaths in this
God forsaken conflict in Iraq had an impact?
As far as iheartbluetballs, your balls are sooo…colorful!
There. I don’t know what I was thinking.
In reply to #31 of H.Kim:
1) Quote: “Paul H. refers to U.S. soldiers “of direct Korean-only ethnicity”. What’s with the convoluted terminology? The preferred nomenclature is “Korean American”…”
Reply: After seeing Louis Kim’s picture on Lehrer News Hour casualty summary, I became curious as to the number of US military war fatalities who are of “only Korean” ancestry. Some of these could potentially have been non-US (ie ROK) citizens serving in US military.
As opposed to those US military fatalities of mixed (Korean/other racial) ancestry (these latter would almost certainly all be US citizens).
Defining my listing as “Korean American” would include both categories above, but would leave out the possible Korean-ancestry-only-ROK-citizen US military fatalities (admittedly a small possible subset).
Also, since I’m not a Korean linguist, I was trying to stay away from the term “gyopo”; I’ve noted (but didn’t try to follow) the controversy over the definition of that word here on this blog.
Why is this subject important? Don’t know that it is, though perhaps a sociologist would take an academic interest. I’m groping towards a comparison of my figure with that of ROK military fatalities incurred in Iraq/Afghanistan, in support of their US ally (or, the relative lack thereof; I think the recent death of the young ROK sergeant in the suicide bombing at the gate into Bagram airbase is the first, no?)
In your list of thirteen, the first name (”Shuder”) sounds like a soldier of mixed race; the other twelve have ethnic Korean names, of course one or more mothers could have been non-Korean.
2) Quote: “Your pointing out his mother’s poor English is a stroke of genius! [followed by other elaborate sarcasm]…”
Reply: Huh? I quoted the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reporter’s story exactly. The female reporter translated (or had translated for her) the mother’s Korean into English; the reporter then quoted the English translation.
The mother’s simple words as given in English are grammatically correct, and also heart-rending (or would and should be, to anyone who is not hypersensitively searching for imagined offense).
In fact, they could have been uttered by any grieving mother who had lost a young soldier son, in any land, at any time in history. I suggest you try to choke back your sarcasm for at least a moment, then go back and take another look.
3) Quote: “…If Specialist Louis G. Kim is the first Korean-American casualty of OEF/OIF that you’ve noticed to date, I daresay you haven’t been paying attention for the past 4 years. To date, Louis Kim is the 13th and the latest casualty of OEF/OIF ….
Ok, so I missed the first twelve. Mea culpa, thanks for the correction.
At least I finally noticed one; I guess in my naivete I figured I might get some credit for that. I’m afraid though that most Americans without a personal/family connection may not be aware of the name of even one American soldier who has died in Afghan/Iraq.
In your particular world-view, are only those Americans of some (or all) Korean ancestry allowed to notice and comment on Korean and KA issues? Not sure what it is exactly that puts such a burr under your saddle.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as “KoreAm” magazine; I suppose I should have guessed, since there’s a specialty niche magazine for every subject these days. That must be how you came up with the names and death circumstances of the thirteen so quickly; the magazine must keep a running count.
Well, may God be with the families of the thirteen. Their sacrifice should be honored (and emulated) IMHO by the “old country”, as well as the new.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Bon Bon the “grape drink with peeled grape sac”. For those of you overseas who haven’t tried it, it isn’t grape juice. It has whole grapes, minus the skin and the seeds. In a can! Though immersed in liquid for months or years, the grape retains its grape-like shape and grape-like texture, so it isn’t like drinking snot. Like shikhae is. In all my years of drinking Bon Bon I’ve never found a piece of skin or a seed. Talk about quality control. (If it isn’t doing so already, Haitai ought to start making airplanes and nuclear reactors.)
The real mystery is how they got the skins off and the seeds out. Legend has it there’s a gaggle of toothless grannies who suck grapes all day long. Imagine the help-wanted advert. Or maybe it’s a secret sisterhood or coven, and “the knowledge”–that’s what I like to think they call it–is passed down through the generations of grannies.
Whilst riding the subway, I’ve been studying grannies. Looking for the toothless ones. Much like the grannies who are permanently bent over due to a lifetime of compulsive floor sweeping with too-short brooms, I reckon grape-sucking grannies would have some tell-tale disfigurement. Like a sour puss face.
When I spot a prospect I hand her a grape. “Halmonim, mahni tuhsaeyo.” I reckon that years of grape sucking and grape spitting would habitualize a Bon Bon granny to not swallow, but since none of them have been spitters I guess I haven’t found a real Bon Bon granny.
Perhaps it’s an urban legend, or maybe it’s now automated w/ grape-sucking robots, or possibly all the grape sucking has been offshored to Thailand or India, where NGO’s train women alternatives to the brothels where they once worked. But maybe, just maybe, there still exists a Bon Bon factory here that still employs the old-world skills. By toothless grannies.
If any of our esteemed lurkers are Haitai execs, please let me know.
> Sanshinseon (9): I should have kept my mouth shut.
> I know better than to raise the spectre of romanization!
Naw it’s quite OK, sewing. Needs to be brought up once in awhile, probably always will be. That topic actually needs more serious informed discussion than it gets; as globalization of things Korean proceeds, it gets ever more important. Richardson and i have been chatting about it some over on his blog…
I just want to log my official complaint against South Korea for requiring a national ID number for online transactions. It makes it impossible for us non-Koreans and kyopo who live outside of Korea (and have never lived in Korea) to buy Korean books, etc from online sellers, even though we have a working credit card and the seller ships overseas. Talk about stupidity. It means Korean businesses just make less money. 감사합니다.
By the way, glad to see my gravatar finally working for the first time. If you signed up for one and are still having problems with getting it to display, go back to the Gravatar website and re-designate it to your email account. That is what I had to do.
I wonder if you get a national id with F4 visas?
Not that that would help you, but just curious what kind of benefits come with it.
Regarding Uri Onara’s comments, #46-47:
How difficult is it for a foreigner to get a KID#? Has anyone gone through the process?
Uri Nara wrote:
“I just want to log my official complaint against South Korea for requiring a national ID number for online transactions. “
Someone’s already beat you to it. There was an official petition circulating amongst the foreign community a few years ago.
@nerdieboy and Hwarang:
There are two kinds of IDs: one for Korean citizens and one for Korean nationals. Both IDs contain the same number of digits, and I believe both use the same algoritm, yet for some reason, most computer systems recognize only Korean IDs, including the computer system at my old university. It was annoying to have to handle in person transactions that Korean nationals could take care of online just because I failed to be Korean.
Contrast this with America’s national ID number, the Social Security card, which even undocumented workers can obtain for $100.
@Seoulout:
The Koreans are throwing away the most nutritious parts of the grape. The skins are loaded with resveratrol, a very powerful anti-oxidant, and grape seeds have such anti-oxidant power that they are ground into extracr and sold in health food stores. By tossing the skins and seeds and eating only the sugary pulp, Koreans are rendering this healthy fruit as nutritious as a candy bar. The reason why Koreans throw away the most anti-oxidant packed part of fruits like grapes and apples is that Korean farmers, like farmers in the US and the developing world, probably spray their fruit heavily, and some of that pesticide soaks into the flesh and thus, can’t be scrubbed away. Organic fruit wasn’t available when I was in Korea.
Smokin’ Sonagi Sez:
> There are two kinds of IDs: one for Korean citizens and
> one for Korean nationals. Both IDs contain the same number
> of digits, and I believe both use the same algoritm, yet
> for some reason, most computer systems recognize
> only Korean IDs, including the computer system at my old university.
Yup, and i’ve just been having the same problem with http://www.PayPal.com — last year they transferred my incoming dollars to my Korean (Won) account just fine, but suddenly as of January 1st 2007 the Korean government has required them to demand a Korean ID number — i enter my Alien Registration number with the same number of digits, but it’s rejected every time –i spend my own money on the phone, PayPal says that it’s my Korean bank’s problem, and my bank predictably says that its PayPal’s problem! Result is, i can’t get my money.
I’m sure that i’m not the only PayPal user living in Korea that has this problem; been waiting for somebody on one or both sides to fix this, but here at March 11th no action has been taken. Has anybody out there in Marmot-Cyber-World figured out a way to get around this yet…?
Maddlew (37): That was very interesting. In a country with so many beautiful, sparsely populated mountains and forests that are so conducive to solitude and contemplation away from the din of the cities, that such solitude may be seen as a sign of depression is surprising and revealing.
Seouldout (44): Speaking of which, you’re definitely spending too much time alone driving the lonely wilderness of Route 45 country, to come up with doozies like that.
IHBB (18): Looking at options 6 through 10, I’m wondering if you aren’t in a permanent state of agitated agony to even come up with such possibilities! It seems like you need some more time alone to, er, relieve some tension….
@ sonagi,
Nah, they’re not.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the grape skin seamstresses. Hunchback dwarfs, society’s refuse much like the grape skins they collect from rubbish bins. Under the dim glow of the Christmas tree lights they’ve scavenged, they stitch together thousands of grape skins with their dexterous, yet stubby fingers. It is said that their stitch work is so fine, so precise that the seams can’t be detected by the ordinary human eye. So straining is this work that most go blind. It is their only hope that they finish one grape-skin sheet to earn enough for their dowry. Or buy their parents’ freedom from the money lenders.
Exported to Japan to supply the ever growing demand of the spa industry, these grape-skin sheets wrap only the most discriminating. In Japan the most highly prized grape-skin sheets are those known as the “sheets of a million tears”. It is believed that the tears the seamstresses shed as they stitch every minute stitch endows the grape-skin sheets with the power to make the infertile fertile.
If any of our esteemed lurkers are from the International Labor Organization, could you help out? More powerful light bulbs, perhaps?
H. Kim,
Thanks. Now average Americans must recognize KoreanAmericans as a part of the country. These KA soldiers died for America. For America! Now, no Americans can say, “KAs are in the country but they are just visiting. They are not a part of America.”
Sonagi,
KAs are very small minority. Cut some slag. We have to watch out for each other. Minority, especially a small minority, can be attacked. Even by a major newspaper. If you have some question about this statement, just look at some articles about Korean Dog-eating. Would the mainstream newspaper write such a degradating story if it were Englishmen instead of Koreans? The majority of newspaper readers are the majority. And, a minority, especially an esoteric one, suffers degradation and exaggeration.
How Koreans feel this week -
With Kim GyeKwan, the NK emissary to the US, smiling and saying “the US sees things our way”, many in SK are bewildered. Some cheers. But, careful people like me are afraid. Very afraid.
These meetings between the US and NK bring into memory the Paris peace talk where the US sold out VietNam. Peace Talk! It was a disguised “sell-out”. South Korea may be going through the same process. The pullout of the US troops and sudden collapse of SK government followed by NK invasion.
I pray that these things get delayed. But, they may happen within five years.
Today’s Chosun editorial written by Kim DaeJoong in Korean, “Korea is left alone in the street (full of Nuclear-armed nations)” is very pertinent.
http://news.chosun.com/site/da.....00333.html
He again advocates SK go nuclear. Many people in Korea realize this is the only way to protect the country when NK, Russia, China have nuclear weapons and Japan has strong capability. I believe Japan already has nukes, lots of them. So, basically, Korea is the only one standing naked rubbing two balls when other countries are well-armed.
I’ve set up a free NCAA tournament pool at Yahoo for anyone who’d like to participate. Click on my name and check out my blog for details.
(Sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but Marmot is The Godfather of bloggers in Korea, so it seemed to make sense to post here.)
Funny how they seem to have hit you and nulji especially hard.
What - no maps? Surely someone disputes the territoriality of some place somewhere. Shocking!
Well, if no one else is going to post any, then you might like to check out a blog entirely devoted to showing off and describing some truly strange maps.