Starting Over…

by WangKon936 on September 12, 2008

in Korean Diaspora, Korean Sports

Michelle Wie gets a mulligan- sorta. 

She’s entered the LPGA qualifying school.  Something, in my opinion, she should have done five years ago.

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Michelle Wie: Doing something right for a change
September 12, 2008 at 12:00 pm

{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }

1 dogbertt September 12, 2008 at 1:18 am

“Shoulda” is the preferred alternative to “should of”.

(I’m pulling Sonagi duty today)

2 slim September 12, 2008 at 1:26 am

That bugged me, too, and I should have said something.

3 Sonagi September 12, 2008 at 5:45 am

I play teachah on the internet, too.

4 Sonagi September 12, 2008 at 5:47 am

And BTW, I’m sure, Dogbert and Slim, that you both realized that “should of” does not exist in standard English. The correct verb phrase is “should have.” No doubt Dogbert’s joke was his way of drawing attention to the mistake.

5 CactusMcHarris September 12, 2008 at 6:08 am

Wow, I’m in mild joy that there are more grammar nerds out there to keep me company.

6 slim September 12, 2008 at 6:17 am

I view pointing out unsightly errors as the same courtesy as, say, stopping WangKon before he was to give a public presentation with a big piece of seaweed in his teeth.

7 NewYorkTom September 12, 2008 at 6:22 am

The most common mistakes I see on the net:

you’re/your
shoud (could, would) have/shoud (could, would)of
lose/loose
it’s/its

8 dogbertt September 12, 2008 at 6:37 am

I’m sure their our a few others you see alot.

9 thekorean September 12, 2008 at 6:47 am

@7,

You forgot

should/shoud

:)

10 slim September 12, 2008 at 6:53 am

Anyway, seems like a pretty balanced little essay about Michelle Wie (to someone who doesn’t follow her saga too closely) although it appears to let her father off the hook more than many critics would.

11 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) September 12, 2008 at 7:00 am

Should’ve — “should have”. This is the result of American education falling into the hands of the feel-good teachers’ unions. Does spelling count? Damn right it does.

12 thekorean September 12, 2008 at 7:08 am

Does spelling cunt?

Maybe… depending on what you wish to say…

13 Sonagi September 12, 2008 at 7:31 am

Don’t blame the teachers. Some recent changes in education have come from the top down. Memorization is OUT and spelling isn’t really assessed in the NCLB-mandated tests, save for a few usage items.

And you’ll be reassured to know that the NCLB sets very high standards for LEP students, who are required to take all exams if they’ve been in the US twelve months or longer. If nearly 80% of the kids don’t pass, the school doesn’t make AYP. A US public school teacher’s job is a piece of cake. Hardly any stress at all.

14 Iceberg September 12, 2008 at 7:37 am

Is it ok if we spell the golfer’s name “Michelle Weeeeeeeee!!!!”?

15 Darth Babaganoosh September 12, 2008 at 7:56 am

Michelle didn’t make the new Tiger Woods golf game (on the Wii). Plenty of other women golfers did, though. Park Se-ri, for one.

16 redneck hickboy September 12, 2008 at 8:36 am

I spose that if she doesn’t qualify Nike will have had it’s biggest loser ever. What a wild ride.. she’s like the Britney Spears of golf.

Most common spelling error: to /too.

Spelling is important, but a lot of very bright people just can’t seem to master it.

17 cmm September 12, 2008 at 8:42 am

Hardly any stress at all, especially in the summertime, when one has three months off.

18 roboseyo September 12, 2008 at 8:44 am

I heard Michelle Wie wants to be a grammar teacher if this golfing thing doesn’t work out.

Her parents only concern is that she get a job in a public school, and not a “howcanIbragaboutTHIStomysewingcircleladies” hogwans.

19 CactusMcHarris September 12, 2008 at 8:49 am

#13,

You might be interested to know that the Ontario School Board wants to do away with any sort of punishment for plagiarizing, among other things. Seems it hurts the student’s self-esteem.

What’s the penalty for plagiarism in most Korean high schools – does anyone know?

20 Iceberg September 12, 2008 at 8:51 am

What’s the penalty for plagiarism in most Korean high schools – does anyone know?

Entry into a SKY university.

21 WangKon936 September 12, 2008 at 9:20 am

okay… fixed.

Eating humble pie. Happy guys?

:P

22 Sonagi September 12, 2008 at 9:39 am

Three months off? Not in my district. The kids get almost three months, but teachers are required to work a week longer at the end of the school year and participate in a two-week pre-service before school opens. Longer vacation time is reflected in our lower salaries relative to other professionals with advanced degrees. I need the money more than I need the vacation time and beg for summer school work.

Sorry, Wangkon. I won’t derail your thread any more.

23 abcdefg September 12, 2008 at 9:59 am

Eating humble pie.

That’s a big pie. Only those with American lowbrow soaked deep in their roots would commit such an error. I haven’t made that error since gradeschool. But it’s an interesting error, all things considered.

BTW, Michelle Wie sucks. Meh. But that was last year’s boat ride.

24 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) September 12, 2008 at 11:01 am

Longer vacation time is reflected in our lower salaries relative to other professionals with advanced degrees. I need the money more than I need the vacation time and beg for summer school work.

When I was a teenager, I worked at Six Flags Over Mid-America in Eureka, Missouri outside St. Louis. A great many of the supervisors (Six Flags had a quasi-military style rank system, with colored name tags representing rank — after four or five promotions, one became a “supervisor” wearing a new khaki uniform, like a Navy chief) were relatively youngish schoolteachers working over the summer.

Supervisor was a $7.00-9.00 an hour job. That was big time back then from the perspective of a kid — the minimum wage was $3.35. However, Six Flags also had a sit-down diner restaurant where patrons left tips. That was a $10.00-20.00/hour job for me, and getting promoted into management meant a pretty substantial cut in pay.

Restaurant work is actually pretty enjoyable. It was a great place to work.

25 cmm September 12, 2008 at 11:38 am

The Frenchesque working hours are also a reason for lower salaries relative to other professionals with advanced degrees.

26 hoju_saram September 12, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Should’ve — “should have”. This is the result of American education falling into the hands of the feel-good teachers’ unions.

And last time you wiped your arse and got shit on your pinky, it was the fault of toilet-paper manufacturing union.

27 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) September 12, 2008 at 12:34 pm

Damn those unions! They’re everywhere!

28 Linkd September 12, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Teachers need their unions to substitute for professional associations and demand for teachers payment on a par with other professions. The problem is that it is by no means unanimously agreed that teaching is a profession (accountants, lawyers, doctors, pilots, etc must be schooled in a body of arcane knowledge that defines their profession, and testing on this knowledge is sufficient to determine whether they are up to the standard of their profession – no such limitation exists for teaching. Anyone can do it, and except in extreme cases, there is no way to judge who is a “good” teacher.) It is therefore not necessarily true that teachers should be paid on a par with other professionals.

While professional licensing organizations pretty clearly contribute to improving the quality of services rendered by these other professions, teachers unions do not necessarily make for better teachers.

29 cmm September 12, 2008 at 1:09 pm

I hope the debate on teachers’ low pay (boohoo) and status as professionals gets continued on the weekends’ open thread.

Back on topic. Does anyone know if that non-Korean Stanford basketball player with the Latino name is still shtupping Michelle Wie? Or, has her “experimenting” ended?

30 hoju_saram September 12, 2008 at 1:14 pm

Yet students in those countries with higher paid teachers (and stronger education unions) significantly outperform their U.S counterparts in almost every educational standard, including literacy. (Ie, Finland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada).

31 Darth Babaganoosh September 12, 2008 at 1:17 pm

#20, exactement!

32 cmm September 12, 2008 at 1:25 pm

@31 a difference which is nicely wiped away at the post-secondary level.

33 hoju_saram September 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm

@32 By those few U.S students who can afford post-secondary study.

34 cmm September 12, 2008 at 2:47 pm

@33 Yeah, undergrad was a lonely place for my privileged, well-healed self. It was just me and the other well-to-do.

Wait, just kidding. My memory is that I came from a family with 3 kids and parents who didn’t make much money. I (stupidly?) went to a college that was 2 or 3 times the price of my state-funded university with a lot of other kids from similar or worse financial backgrounds. Come to think about it, my parents put me and both brothers through the same expensive (possibly overpriced?) school in a period of ten years.

So I guess I don’t know what you are talking about when you claim that college isn’t affordable in the USA. My not well-off family took the expensive route and got by just fine.

I also remember being PAID to go to graduate school, enough that I bought a house while I was there and saved a few grand for retirement each year. So were EVERY SINGLE ONE of my classmates, whether they were the rich girl from Boston or the poor FOB kids from rural India or China–all were paid the same as me or more.

35 Darth Babaganoosh September 12, 2008 at 3:34 pm

#32, yes, but not at the KOREAN post-secondary level… I still struggle to eliminate the blatant and rampant plagiarism in my uni classes… thankfully this semester, I have several students who studied abroad and help back me up when I tell everyone the consequences of plagiarism back home

36 hoju_saram September 12, 2008 at 3:48 pm

You’re lucky that your parents are generous, selfless and well-off enough to have done this. Some people aren’t so lucky. My folks were poor, but luckily I was able to defer my fees and recieve a government education stipend. I still had to work part-time in the graveyard shift at the local supermarket a couple of nights a week, and go home on weekends to help out on the farm, but it didn’t cost my already struggling family a cent, and I’ve since paid back my fees.

I simply couldn’t have done this in the states, unless I was an exceptional student and got a scholarship (I was good, but perhaps not that good). It necessarily follows that I wouldn’t have been able to go to grad school, either.

Don’t you ever wish that your hardworking parents had it just a little bit easier?

37 Wedge September 12, 2008 at 4:25 pm

#36: Plenty of Americans have paid their own way for tertiary education. In fact, if your parents are poor and you can prove it, it’s a lot easier to get scholarships, thereby lowering your student loan burden. Sorry if that doesn’t fit your America = Heartless Evil Place narrative, though.

Also, during a period of uninsured unemployment I underwent an emergency appendectomy at an evil, money-grubbing non-socialized-medicine American hospital. How much do you think those cold-hearted bastards charged me for the operation and 36-hour hospital stay? That’s right, bupkis. A little program called Medicaid took care of it. [Ducks as American taxpayers throw objects.]

38 redneck hickboy September 12, 2008 at 4:38 pm

I simply couldn’t have done this in the states, unless I was an exceptional student and got a scholarship (I was good, but perhaps not that good). It necessarily follows that I wouldn’t have been able to go to grad school, either.

I paid my way through college in the states 100%. I took Pell Grants, which are still available, which covered roughly half my cost for tuition, books, and housing. I took student loans, and worked very hard every summer fishing in Alaska. At the end, I had about $10k in debt. Not bad. Not great.

I think we can do better. In America, the average student today graduates with very steep personal debt. This is no way to manage education. While I think paying some or most of your own way is the ultimate incentive to do well, it is an increasing disincentive for people to shoulder so many 10s of thousands of dollars in debt right before they ever get a decent paying job.

Then again, I could schpeal on and on about the need for tertiary education reform in the US.

39 WangKon936 September 13, 2008 at 12:27 am

I don’t object to unions for SKILLED labor that seek to find equilibrium with prices and wages. However, I object to unions for UNSKILLED labor, which looks to find disequilibrium with prices vs. wages. Unions for unskilled labor is always looking to find ABOVE market price wages their members… :P

40 thekorean September 13, 2008 at 3:43 am

hoju_saram @ 36

I simply couldn’t have done this in the states, unless I was an exceptional student and got a scholarship

I think you misunderstand the American system. Based on the need, most American colleges guarantee grants and loans. There is no need for being an exceptional student, although it helps. I myself have not paid gotten a penny from my parents to finish both college and graduate school. Of course the fact that I have this crazy ridiculous amount of debt does constrain me to a degree, but there was never any danger that I would miss out on college education because my parents were too poor.

WK,

Unions for unskilled labor is always looking to find ABOVE market price wages their members…

I think that’s exactly why unskilled labor needs union. Otherwise, the market price would drive them towards wages that cannot sustain life.

Yes, I’m an unabashed union lover. Uh oh, here comes Brandon…

41 slim September 13, 2008 at 4:12 am

I probably have equally uninformed and cartoonish views of Australia. I just don’t put them in digital form.

42 Sonagi September 13, 2008 at 7:03 am

hoju saram wrote:

Yet students in those countries with higher paid teachers (and stronger education unions) significantly outperform their U.S counterparts in almost every educational standard, including literacy. (Ie, Finland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada).

To which cmm responded:

@31 a difference which is nicely wiped away at the post-secondary level.

Please support that claim on this weekend’s open thread.

thekorean wrote:

I think that’s exactly why unskilled labor needs union. Otherwise, the market price would drive them towards wages that cannot sustain life.

EXACTLY. The piss wages of the unskilled working poor are subsidized by taxpayers through food stamps, WIC, Section 8 housing vouchers, and other welfare programs and by private organizations through local food banks and charitable programs like the Lions’ Club paying for exams and glasses for needy children. Even proponents of generous immigration policies acknowledge data showing that the lowest wage earners have seen their real incomes drop as they compete with a growing pool of unskilled labor. The federal government does not provide assistance to undocumented residents although their US-born children are eligible. However, some states like Massachusetts, California, and Illinois do have aid programs open to anyone in need regardless of residency status. Sometimes people need to chuck the textbook theories, open their eyes, and look around.

43 WangKon936 September 13, 2008 at 7:35 am

# 42,

Huh what? Food stamps? Something about needy children?

Too busy with my head down eating my caviar… ;)

The real question on my mind is… when is the government gonna repeal the AMT tax!!!! AMT tax… grrrr….

44 Railwaycharm September 14, 2008 at 9:59 am

Interesting how a story about the pissy Michelle Wie quickly turns to the down-trodden English teacher.

45 NES (BANNED SOCKPUPPET TROLL!!!) September 16, 2008 at 8:34 am

Brendon: Should’ve — “should have”. This is the result of American education falling into the hands of the feel-good teachers’ unions. Does spelling count? Damn right it does.

Yes, but we’re “Number 1″ in rain forest studies.

46 NES (BANNED SOCKPUPPET TROLL!!!) September 16, 2008 at 9:15 am

hoju_saram: You’re lucky that your parents are generous, selfless and well-off enough to have done this. Some people aren’t so lucky. My folks were poor…

My dad is the youngest of twelve children from a family of sharecroppers (No Mizar, they weren’t black, and my grandparents were able to buy their own farm later). Yet he managed to put himself through college while married and having children (so did his older brothers). He started out working two jobs, one pulling the guts out of chickens at a processing plant and another cleaning the barf off of toilets as a janitor at the local Elks’ lodge, but he was able to find better work later as an electronics technician. My mother worked as a secretary at some point in between so he could concentrate on studying, but he later obtained a job with IBM and was able to finish school part time with their financial support. He ended up staying at IBM and was promoted from technician to EE. My father is a success of “The American Dream,” which dream is now declining due to the lack of incentive based on increases in the socialized welfare state.

BTW, I was married with a child when I received my bachelor of science degree in 1998, although I did so on scholarships and research grants and finished without debt. I went on to get my Ph.D. (this time with children) and was funded by research stipend, a campus job, and federal student loans. After four years in industry, I make triple what my dad did when he retired in 1991.

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