Another weekend. Another Open Thread.
-
Sponsored Links
-
English Books on Korea (and CDs and DVDs, too)
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
-
Flickr Photos
-
Recent Comments
- Alejandro Marivosa on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- Sonagi on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- Alejandro Marivosa on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- globalvillageidiot on Open Thread #50
- Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- Austin on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- hoju_saram on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- Robert Koehler on Open Thread #50
- Bipolar Mindscrew on Open Thread #50
- gbnhj on Open Thread #50
- gbnhj on Open Thread #50
- SomeguyinKorea on It’s the KGB’s Fault!
- dda on Open Thread #50
- G. Kim on Michael White Story in Korea Times, Korea Herald
- Alejandro Marivosa on It’s the KGB’s Fault!
-
Most Popular Posts
- So, This is Probably Why English Teachers Shouldn't Post Photos of Themselves with Club Chicks
- Lee Pani Releases More Photos
- Tragic Death in Daegu
- Candlelight Rallies are Back
- Open Thread #49
- Lee Pa-ni selected Korea's second Playboy model
- Cool Heads Prevail at the Chosun in US Beef Editorial
- KoAm Housewives Warn Motherland Against US Beef
- Open Thread #48
- Koreans have a "beef" against Korean-Americans?
-
Archives
-
Meta
78 Comments
The latest Obama Girl video, “Super Obama Girl,” takes a wickedly funny swipe at Billary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIiMa2Fe-ZQ
Just got this email from a one Andrew Parker:
Funny stuff. Thankfully, I don’t get much of this kind of feedback.
Connectivity Scorecard
Korea’s relatively low score
One of the most surprising results of our Scorecard is the relatively low ranking of Korea. Korea typically scores very highly on other indices; it is the top performer on the ITU’s DOI, and on the E-Readiness Index, Korea is again a strong performer, finishing 8th out of 69 countries. Using our weights and set of indicators, however, Korea finishes only 10th in the rankings of 16 Innovation driven and emerging economies benchmarked. Korea scores well in the government and consumer components of the Scorecard, which tend to dominate other indices, but quite poorly in business usage and complementary assets and services. Simply put, Korea has spent a good deal of public money to encourage the spread of a very sophisticated broadband infrastructure, and this tends to push up its score on measures where—implicitly or explicitly—such measures are given a high weighting.
However, Korea does not appear to be a top performer in the business arena— indeed, Korean productivity on a per worker basis is much lower than European or North American productivity, and the difference is even more pronounced on a per-hour worked basis given that Korean workers work several hundred hours per year more than their counterparts in Europe. Other sources (not used in computing index scores) confirm that in business telephony usage and spending, Korea lags well behind other Asia-Pacific Innovation driven nations like Japan and Australia in the use of business enterprise telephony solutions. Frost and Sullivan data show that:
• In 3Q 2005, the Korean market for IP telephony generated revenues of $11.8 million, compared to $110.5 million for Japan, and $49.3 million for Australia;
• In 3Q 2005, the Japanese enterprise telephony market generated revenues of $285 million, compared to $41 million for Korea, and $93 million for Australia; and
21
• The differences between Korea, Japan and Australia cannot be explained in terms of population—Australia’s population is half the size of Korea’s, and Japan’s markets are between 6 and 10 times the size of Korea’s, although the population is only 2.5 times that of the Korean population.
I doubt your fan’s real name is “Andrew Parker”.
What’s with angry kyopos using WASP names to troll?
Hey, I know that guy… What a douchebag (kidding! He’s a douchebag sure, but I don’t really know him).
BTW, that email in #2 apparently came after this comment:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/.....ent-132608
I’m going to assume it wasn’t left by this Andrew Parker:
http://blog.andrewparker.net/
The email, however, oddly led me to this site:
http://tarzan-jane.com/
Gotta like the gallery:
http://tarzan-jane.com/cgi/boa.....;key_word=
Which is NOT to say the administrator of that site sent it, either.
“andrew parker” can be an African American, too , because according to my reading of “roots”,
American whites gave American blacks English last names by
well, I reserve that to your own reading.
stop being racist, dogbert.
Andrew Park-Hur.
Compile all NEGATIVE STUFF in Korea? Yeah, why do you have to take those beautiful pictures of Korea and post it all over the internet? It’s waste of bandwidth I tells ya!
#7,
You need to learn to think outside of the box.
It could just as well have been a reference to Bob Barker and Andrew O’Keefe, you know.
@#7:
You had to read Roots to figure out that African-Americans have English surnames?
If your English were better, you’d notice the many non-native errors in grammar and usage that belie the English username.
#9,
Well, they are pictures of old buildings…;)
actually, what “andrew park”er wrote applies to some expats here. but he’s targeting the wrong guy. if there is anyone who is fair and balanced, it’s robert.
I agree with #11. The numerous errors in grammar and usage give away the fact that this is someone trying to pretend they are of Western heritage. This is not a native English speaker. What a sad little man. The surname Parker probably refers to Park (or the more correct Pak). The fact he accused Robert of compiling all of the negatives of Korea shows he hasn’t even properly read this blog. What irony…a Netizen who seems to be ashamed of being Korean. lol.
I’d say that a substantial amount of the “negative stuffs” - tangible things, at least - are piled on Korea by herself. I mean, of course, trash. The first thing that I noticed about this country was the amount of refuse that fills the ditches, empty slots in walls, rice fields and even reused gravel.
Korea needs to get serious about how it treats its leavings.
Is this Andrew Parker email the somewhat “threatening” one mentioned a few weeks ago?
Directed at a wrong guy, but a fair comment to be sure, considering that it only took 2 comments after Robert’s initial one for someone to overgeneralize gyopos (the hypocrisy of someone who wants to be recognized as an individual habitually overgeneralizing people is, once again, glaringly apparent.
Don’t fool yourselves… the email is not entirely without merit.
The email was completely without merit — sure, even I’m scared to look at my comments section sometimes, and if someone wants to bitch about that, fine. I’d probably be inclined to agree. But this:
If you do not like the country which offers you with a decent job and pays you a decent salary,which treats you better than you do deserve, you would better simply leave the country. Be honest, man. If you had stayed in your home country, do you think you could get a job as nice as you have now. I damn doubt it.
is just plain racist.
Regarding Obama:
As some may know, Sen Kennedy, who was very chummy with the Clintons in the past, gave his endorsement to Obama. Furthermore, Obama won by a large margin over Hillary in the latest primaries.
Commentary by one C. Rock: a white woman hasn’t been beaten this bad by a black man since Nicole and OJ.
Ouch.
Kangnam Station, 7pm Friday:
We are massively packed in on the platform, thousands of us. The channels are fully clogged; each arriving train lacks sufficient space to take everyone waiting, and each load of people getting off can’t make it to the stairs before the next train comes and lets more off. Every inch of platform is packed, and every step on the stairs.
You have to control your basic animal instinct to escape, and it occurs to you that any emergency – an explosion, a fire, a scream, or worst, a blackout – would turn every one of these people into a feral competitor for survival. Every one of them would surge for the exits, clawing and climbing to gain the surface. And you would lash out, too, if it came to it. Hundreds may be trampled in a few minutes of panicked animalism.
But oh, she has beautiful hair, and if you just lean forward a bit, and inhale so slightly, you can smell the beauty of the crowd.
Nice “Linkd”. Sex, death and travel all in one.
I also note: The U.S. economy unexpectedly sheds 17,000 jobs.
Ouch.
Am I racist to call you an idiot? Because you surely are.
Dogbert, is that Putin in your Gravatar?
oohh, dogbert, closet commy
Linkd, you really do write well. Frankly, I wish I could write as clearly and expressively, and I’m always impressed with your organization and turn of phrase. You really captured a unique combination of feeling and thought with #21 above.
This is no slight, so please don’t take it as one, but does working on corporate communications ever feel somehow constraining to you? Or, does working on material for others make the process more interesting?
Sonagi - thanks for the Obamagirl link. Great video, although the ending could have been better. Obamagirl’s pretty attractive - I hope we don’t have a future Monica Lewinsky in the making. The original Obamagirl song looked pretty slick, as if Obamagirl might be a real singer somewhere.
Oh, a funny, but true Hillary Clinton story. In 1993, during a trip to Nepal, Hillary crossed paths with Sir Edmond Hillary, and told him, and others during the remainder of the trip, that her mother had named her Hillary after Sir Edmond, as a mark of future greatness. Great story - except that it’s not true - Clinton was born in 1947, six years before Edmond Hillary’s 1953 ascent. When confronted with this fact, Hillary changed the story - claiming that her mother told her a white lie, to inspire her to future greatness. Except kind of hard to believe that many kids would really think they were named for an event that happened 6 years after their birth. One thing I find surprising is how none of Clinton’s rivals raised Monica-gate, Whitewater, Vine Foster, etc. Her “35 years of experience” includes all of that, and Bill is actively involved in stumping for her, yet no one asks him about how he could jeapordize the most important job in the world for a little fun with Monica, or his foolish “What’s the definition of is” question. Despite many accomplishments, the two of them put us through all of that, and yet they get a free pass. You can bet the Republicans will remind the American public - puzzling that Billary’s democratic rivals have not exposed Clinton’s real weakness.
Grateful Dead Members to Reunite for Barack Obama
(San Francisco) Members of the Grateful Dead will host a get out the vote concert in support of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, February 4th at The Warfield Theatre in San Francisco.
Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir, joined by Jackie Greene, John Molo, and Steve Molitz, will play a show together in support of Barack Obama.
The video website Iclips will be producing a live simulcast streamed via the Internet on http://www.iclips.net at approximately 7:30pm PST.
This will mark the first time that the members of the legendary band have performed together since 2004. They have agreed to reunite for this one-time-only event in order to lend support to Senator Obama leading into the crucial super- Tuesday series of primaries held on Tuesday, February 5th.
“sure, even I’m scared to look at my comments section sometimes, and if someone wants to bitch about that, fine. I’d probably be inclined to agree.”
@#23
“Am I racist to call you an idiot?”
Dude.
“What’s with angry kyopos using WASP names to troll?”
Propagating stereotypes, anyone?
Can’t people come up with anything better than “just leave”…its is kind of tired.
Let’s change that around just for fun…
All you Korean _____________’s that say anything bad about ____________, just get the fuck out and go back to where you or your ancestors came from….
The “Andrew Parker”’s of the world can kiss my hairy white ass.
Andrew Parker may be an adoptee too, you know. Like the way some Korean adoptees may have the last names “Kimball” or “Lee.”
The negative impression he has of this site is understandable. Of course, over time, if he’s not an idiot, he’ll learn to refine his view — sort out the assholes who comment here regularly from the non; and perhaps also learn to distinguish this site from other blogs, including Dave’s, including Occidentalism. In other words, more than anything else he is a n00b.
–
That Obama Girl video would have counted as porn in another era, methinks.
Obama got his ass whooped by Hillary in the past debate that took place in Hollywood. Hillary was informative, responded to questions with poise and substance, teaching and showing her command of the subjects she talked about. Obama stuttered a lot and gave in to a lot of empty ad-hominems relating to himself.
I think a Hillary for President and Obama for VP would be a nice ticket.
Check out the Candidates for Change - political humor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEaS-K3j3M8
Hey guys, first time poster but long-time viewer. What is the make up of the political party affiliation for everyone here? Democrat? Republican?
The tone and language of the post by “Andrew Parker” is so eerily similar to the banter being spewed in a racial mudslinging session going on in the comments section at the Koreatimes webboard instigated by a kyopo who goes by several multiple names (proudkorean, wiseguy, 1chris) who is calling for the annihilation of the white race out of Asia. The funny thing is that he started off by accusing any person criticizing Korea of being a “jap” but slowly realized that he was shooting at the wrong target and making himself (and Koreans) look even more stupid. When he finally got confirmation of the nationality and ethnicities of those criticizing him, he let loose an all out war against expat. Check it out. The post by Mr. Parker is almost identical to what he says in the posts at the Koreatimes.
Johny Chung Lee’s Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
Think of all the (gaming) possibilities…
gbnhj- thanks, I’m glad you liked it.
You are correct that what I get to write on behalf of corporate Korea is highly constrained. I’m hired to produce content, not truth. But in my working life I’m nowhere near as restricted as the staff of the PR and IR teams of my chaebol clients. Being self-employed is a condition I would recommend to anyone.
dude, why did you chicken out, and add,
“just for fun”
?
Remember, you can’t say it. You can think it. You sure can’t dish it.
Go back to your fucking country?
Ha !
Canadians came from UK, France. They’re not natives.
The only original Americans are North American Indians. You know, the guys living in nuclear waste sites, the ones in non-friendly agriculture land, exchanging its use for gambling, and white folk condemn them for making a living with cheap casinos.
I think there is a new trend, though, of Europeans going back to their fucking countries of ancestry.
You know, they get tired of living with colored folk in the states, imagining things are better overseas.
“I wanna go to Europe”
“Europe has it right. Drugs should be legal. Whores should be legal. Euro kicks dollar’s ass, etc, etc.”
Uh, go back to Europe?
2 or 3 decades ago, white folk telling non-white folk to go back to their fucking country was a popular and common thing.
You’re doing it now, too. Claiming all this sophistication in western culture and what not.
Pretty cool Discovery Channel series on the top 10 helicopters. Number 10 on the list: The Bell 7 aka H-13 Sioux. All you Korean War buffs should already know about this chopper. Here’s the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQv9merynNI
I have noticed a popular blogger out of Hong Kong, “Hemlock” isn’t able to be accessed in Korea, at least not without a proxy. I can’t get it at work or at home. The link is:
http://www.geocities.com/hkhemlock/papers.html
Can anybody else access Hemlock’s blog? He’s a great read.
Hillary cannot be the nominee of Dem party.
If she becomes one, whole media circus will begin. Cameras will follow Monica Lewinsky(she lives in LA) and ask her about Bill and Hillary.
Things like “How did Bill seduce you ?”, “Did Hillary know?”, “Do they sleep in the same bed?”, “Why not?”, “Did Bill tell you when was the last time he had sex with Hillary?” “Twenty years ago? (When he was drunk?)”
This will be unending soap opera. The public will absolutely eat it up. Especially now with Spears going bonkers (finally?).
In November, when people go to polls, all they will remember will be what Monica say about Hillary.
McCain will become the next president. Rumney is too anti-Hispanic; he cannot win.
Vote for Obama!!!!! Let’s rock Washington. Them bureaucrats have been robbing us. I know, I used to be one.
I am not going to take it any more (Twisted Sisters)!!!!!!
Yay, Baduk! More cowbell!
Monica: Hillary knew about me and Bill. Actually, she sent me an e-mail to take care of Bill. I think she was seeing a woman at the time.
Reporter: A woman? You mean Hillary is a dike?
Monica: You didn’t know? Ha, ha. Even Bill try to say that in a round about way when he was impeached.
Reporter: I did’nt know.
Monica: C’mmon. Wake up. Everybody in Washington knows.
Reporter: What else did she say?
Monica: She was very insistent on my using a contraceptive. When I told her, Bill only goes for oral, she told me to be careful. He can sneak in his Willy when you are least expecting it, she told me.
Reporter: Why do you think she was so insistent?
Monica: I guess, she knew the public would not accept a love child from a president when he is in the office. I mean, shaking up with an intern is one thing. Having an illegimate child is another. People have limits, you know.
….
w
Good looks have its previlege.
Can you imagine Bob Dole having an affair with an intern if he had become a president and how women would react to that?
That little toad ate up a virgin!
But Bill. Bill is swave. Bill is charming.
Women still love him despite his shortcomings. You have to look good, and women forgive you.
You’re a god.
If Bill is pancakes and butter
Hilary is dry toast and soy milk
#2: That’s got 1.5 (oops, more precisely I mean 1.4538) generation syntax written all over it.
Which just goes to show the Marmot can’t win. Some dudes lambaste him for being a pro-Korean propaganda shill, while this chump tells him to go back to Lon Gisland if he doesn’t stop compiling negative “stuffs” on Korea.
All of which means Ol’ Marmot must be doing something right.
I ran across this pearl of wisdom from P.J. O’Rourke the other day, in which he is telling Europeans, as a Replican, why he’d like to sell Hillary get the Dem nod:
“The reason is that she’s the particular woman who taught the 4th grade class that every man in America wished he were dead in. Hillary Clinton is Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. Hillary Clinton is ‘America’s ex-wife.’”
The man is a national treasure. Link:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....0gxotg.asp
As a “Replican?” Maybe a Republican. What happened to preview?
There’s an angry gyopo posting by the name of Justanotherday over at Dave’s at the moment… Also pretending to be white and posting identical crap about American native Indians (he’s even using an inuit avatar as I write this).
He’s also using identical “just go home..” if you don’t kiss the sparkling hubs arse etc. Identical phrasing… Almost word perfect, (since you’re doing detective work, Robert).
He is probably mentally ill, and is becoming more unstable each time the crew over there rip him up more.
I think he’s your “Andrew Parker” 100 percent!
Hey Robert, condolences for your man Giuliani, RIH.
There’s still plenty of room in Obama’s big tent — even for a hanbok-clad white dude in Korea.
Can you feel the fever? Obamania! Settin’ it straight in 2008!
wjk,
How clever…as usual.
And I guess I should not go back to Canada either because I bitch and complain more about the politics and people there than any other place.
#39,
Craig, it worked for me - showed his list of posts done up by ‘Year of the Snake’ etc. Checked it on IE7 from my at-home ADSL.
wjk, if you think Putin is a Communist, you are even dumber than I thought.
And to the deep thinker who thinks “Andrew Parker” is a KAD, well, why would a KAD write in Konglish?
Why is it that Korean computers do not automatically turn ㅈㅈㅈ into www? Does anyone ever write ㅈㅈㅈ on purpose? This is the only thing about Korea I don’t like.
If you are going to only write negative stuffs like this, go back to your country. Hater.
Does anyone ever write ㅈㅈㅈ on purpose?
Sure - that’s SMS shorthand for ‘three chicks in thongs’. I guess I used that, what, a couple of times last week.
Do you know Bill’s definition of safe sex?
When Hillary’s away from home.
Nice article on Chuncheon. Typo on page 31. “Glass and steal” should be “glass and steel”. Proofread next time…
Parker’s language is a lot more Joe Shmoe than Cho Shmoe.
Count this:
“Compile”
“I damn doubt it”
“Be civil”
“Get the fuck out of there immediately”
“Be honest man”
VS this:
“stuffs”
“which offers you with a decent job”
“than you do deserve”
The latter text is either Konglish or just stilted English.
Either way, I didn’t actually write that I think Parker is KAD. I only suggested a possible way to explain his name. I don’t really care enough here to commit to a belief about him.
I have a question one of you distinguished members might be able to answer. I do translation work for Korean companies, and I recently returned to the States. I am trying to find the best way for my Korean clients to remit funds to me. I was thinking of opening an e-trade account since e-trade has a Korean branch, but I’m not sure how badly they would get charged for wiring money into my account. Could they use paypal to transfer the money? I also looked into opening a KEB account which I could just let fill up to something sizable and do a large qire transfer to my US account when I needed it, but they told me I would have to have a proxy come into the bank with a notarized proxy power and a passport to open the account on my behalf.
KrZ - have a look at my website and, if it looks like your kind of thing, send me a self-intro, resume, sample, whatever. Everything is Korean-to-English, and if you have any knowledge of terms used in biomed, chem, banking, finance, telecom, etc. that’s all to the better.
This doesn’t bode well for future world stability:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/107592
@#59:
I would put two expressions, “Get the f*ck out of there immediately” and “I damn doubt it” into the Konglish pile. Neither is natural, but I don’t want to give our little friend tips on how to swear properly in English.
I also thought that “I damn doubt it” doesn’t sound like a natively-constructed expression. Perhaps the emailer was going for ‘I damned well doubt it’.
Another quirk: “you would better simply leave the country”.
“Damn” doesn’t strike me as very Korean. The diction is the sort an American or an Americanized immigrant would use. And “Get the fuck out of there immediately” is just your plain old “Get the fuck out of there” with adverb tacked on at the end. Standard Konglish would be something like “Get out of there now, fucking!”
Konglish has particular flavors. It’s not just any awkward sentence.
How prevalent is Konglish in the 1.5 gen of Kyopos in English-speaking nations such as America, Canada, UK, or Australia?
It’s kind of weird because my two best friends all the way from elementrary school are Korean-American kyopos whose mastery of English is probably higher than my own. Both of them graduated from law school (one from Harvard and the other from Stanford). However, neither of them could really speak Korean that well even though one of them came to the US with his family at age 5 and settled in Wisconsin before moving to the Chicago suburbs. The other one was born in Hawaii and grew up there before moving here to Chicago. As a matter of fact, I speak much better Korean than either of them as I always speak with their mothers in Korean who look regard me as some sort of demigod! Too bad neither had any sisters who were of dating age for me at the time when we were in high school together.:)
On the other hand, I have met kyopo who were born and brought up in places like CA or NYC but still have a weird Korean accent when speaking English. It’s a combination of either an accent or some strange colloquial useage of words not found in everyday American English conversation. I am not sure if any of you know what I am talking about, but I think some of you who have experienced speaking with people such as the type I described might know. My question is “Is this intentional?” or is it something which is not really what it should be? It has really puzzled me because I just find it so weird that someone who has gone through 12 years of schooling in an American educational system can still leave out articles in sentences during conversation.
If any of you guys understand to what I am referring, your comments would be greatly appreciated.
bbudaengi, it’s not intentional. It’s like my parents, uncles, and what not. They all understand and speak with 100% functionality but they haven’t been able to loose the Dr. Shmirnoff constructions.
Lol I still find myself leaving out articles… a research entry I turned in few days ago came back with some correction marks from the editor… all of them about missing articles.
Upon closer looks, I have seen writings of this quality from your average American high schooler (having edited 5 of their writings while watching the Superbowl) with similar expressions. (Before you ask, I coach speech and debate, and this particular speech event can have expressions similar to the ones in the letter) Assuming ‘gyopoship’ is a bit hasty. (Can I get a TM on that?)
In other news… Giants win an upset victory over New England. It was an EXTREMELY boring game until the last 5 game minutes.
abcdefg and bumfromkorea,
Thanks for your feedback and input. However, I think perhaps you guys might have misunderstood me. I mean, I am assuming that your parents or uncles were not born in the US or went through elementary, middle and high school here in the US either? If not, then of course it is understandable that their conversational English, while very proficient, will not be impeccable or with a slight accent.
Also, everyone makes typos and careless errors so I don’t think for a moment that just because of that you would not be proficient in conversational English which is different from written English.
What I am talking about are kyopos who were born and raised here and having been educated only in the American school system since birth. Yet, these same people speak with a weird accent that sounds vaguely “konglish” mixed in with what seems to be sort of an ebonics-based accent with articles missing in conversation. Have you experienced this?
What I am talking about
Also, I would like to point out that most of the kyopos that I met which fit the description above tend to have grown up in more heavily urban areas on either coast (NYC, Mid-Atlantic, or Los Angeles). I do not find this phenomenon as much with kyopos from the Midwest, South, Pacific Northwest, New England, or any of the other “red” states in the interior.
If it’s kyopo kidz from the hood you’re referring to, then it’s got to be that “AZN” inculturation, not different in nature from the regional differences in English one might find among Americans.
Koreans from areas besides LA or NYC tend to speak with a sort of hyper-corrected English accent. (Think Eddy Murphy making fun of “whitey” to get an idea of what I mean.)
Your point is well taken, abcdefg. Thank you.
Your point is well taken, abcdefg. Thank you.
Eugene, a lead vocalist of the Korean rock band Flower, sang a song with male/female voices for fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc-4cDhDmZY
Video of baduk and wjk hanging out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjIK_HiDptk
You guys hear about the latest NBA trade? No not Pau for Kwame. I’m talking about Shaq for Shawn Marion.
Worst idea ever!
http://nbadraft.net/prevenas080.asp
My girl smells like garlic in the morning