If you want to bitch about Gov. Palin, this would be the place to do it.
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
Open Thread #67
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on September 20, 2008 at 10:59 am, filed under Open Thread. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
62 Comments
First!!!!
in the style of “Wow! Korea”
HEY! What’s this? It looks like a comment board.
What’s that?
A comment board! It’s amazing! Marmot has Comment boards. I can type something, and then it goes onto the WEB PAAAAAGE!
(and don’t you just want one of them to burst out with
“HOLY FUCKING SHIT! This jimjilbang cold room IS FUCKING COLD! ” and then punch an old lady in sheer wonderment)
have a good weekend, all.
I find the Kyopo to be a curious creature. For all purposes they are same as the expats. They are US or Canadian citizens, English is their first language, they were raised and educated in the US or Canada, and last but not the least their criticism of Korea can be as harsh as criticism by the expat. But they act like they are Koreans, and seem to have a longing for Korea, when in fact they aren’t Koreans.
Why the inconsistency? Why can’t they make up their minds?
about 3 years ago, I saw the lowest interest rates pretty much ever in my entire life.
I never knew that 3 years later, I would see this would cause top tier investment banks to go bankrupt.
investment banks were investing in ordinary renters who wanted to become homeowners with the historically low interest rate.
pretty much anyone and everyone I know became a homeowner. Even young people in their 20s with middle class jobs were becoming homeowners.
I haven’t kept up whether or not these people kept those homes.
well, the govt is essentially bailing out the renter who should be a renter, and the investment banks.
this will prevent people in Manhatten from jumping out from their windows.
lesson: everyman a homeowner is not meant to be.
AK: a more curious creature is the person who travels thousands of miles just to be miserable.
If a Canadian has a longing for Scotland, and the bridge is only 150 years, can he put it on a T-shirt?
AK @3,
To quote my man Charlie Brown:
“If you have to ask, you won’t understand.”
What is the difference between a Chinese bank and an American Investment Bank?
(A) The Chinese bank has money in it. The US bank doesn’t.
(B) There is no difference. They are both supported by the Chinese state.
China’s also loaded down with bad debt. Bad news there just takes longer to get out.
This is interesting - where is the “smart money” going?
On the other hand,
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....wD938M0J80
They’re all bankrupt enough to be a threat to the solvency of the United States itself, if not the world. Why would you call that the “smart money”?
Smart money, eh?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....-shri.html
It was meant as more of a joke - based on the fact that Goldman and Morgan Stanley are the ones left standing (at least so far), and they gave more to Obama than McCain, while Merrill, now deceased, bet harder on McCain.
Of course Wall Street, like all other business sectors, donates heavily to both sides.
Does anyone know of a reasonable way to find an Korean estate lawyer that can handle living wills and property transactions related to such?
To quote my man Charlie Brown:
“If you have to ask, you won’t understand.”
Well that’s a slick way of putting it.
However, I don’t see what’s there that cannot be understood. Unless of course the Kyopos don’t want to discuss their inability to stop the fence sitting routine.
South Korea’s now a developed country according to the FTSE. link: http://online.wsj.com/article/.....lenews_wsj
Might be a useful tidbit to point out to any local bellyachers when they complain about their homeland’s woes saying Korea’s a ’small country’, or Korea’s ’still developing’.
I always thought this video was interesting, “Money as Debt”
http://video.google.com/videop.....2583451279
And this girl is allegedly cute, but this is just painful to watch (and listen to):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcLXCUDujFQ
On second viewing of the music video part, I think she might actually be retarded.
Dear AK,
Why the constant hardon for Kyopos? Did one leave you at the alter?
@#18.
Nah. I just don’t like those snobs.
Is Canada a stripped down version of America?
i really didn’t understand why the govt didn’t bail out Lehman’s, so I asked my brother, who still has a job in accounting with a top 3 firm in NYC.
essentially, they didn’t fuck up enough in sheer volume and size, and didn’t fuck up early enough like Fannie and Freddie.
yeah, highly educated finance people decided to “invest” on American renters who became homeowners and furthermore decided they would be masters to new renters by even buying a 2nd home, soley to rent out and “supplement” income,
but who is really responsible for these renters becoming homeowners?
the American renter. And the banks who loaned money to them.
this low interest for borrowing was meant to be used by corps to hire people and keep doing business after 911 and the dot com bust.
instead, the average joe bought houses he couldn’t keep.
thus, banks have all these houses as assets, but can’t sell them to anyone, because no one wants to buy it or can buy it.
there ought to have been a law at least prohibiting these renters turned homeowners from buying 2nd and 3rd houses simply to game the low interest situation, banking on becoming profitable landlords.
oh, and I think Obama is selling you empty promises, now that America has decided to have the govt assume these houses.
i have no way to reason it out for you, but it’s probably impossible in the next 8 years for America to clear this debt and also generously establish the wellfare state.
so, Obama’s only promise that he can or may keep is that he will retreat from Iraq and be a Clinton, preferring to airbomb day and night.
having ground troops is not the way to convert money into pure killing. Airbombinb is. What’s the chances of a bomber/fighter pilot getting shot down with a hand carried land to surface missile?
plus, Obama promises you no free trade with Korea.
what a deal.
i think even some college students were on it. Instead of paying rent, they would “buy” a house, and bet on they would be “selling” this house at a handsome profit after 4 years.
don’t know if the won the game or not.
#19,
That was my experience at Yonsei KLI when they would come over for the summer to better their Korean. In Korea they were Americans and in America they were Koreans. However, that experience was also clouded by the immaturity of youth.
#20,
In some ways, yes it is. In others, no. There’s good, bad, and boring. Is it not the same way in The Land of the Black-Haired Foreigner*?
*I trust my Korean isn’t too inertiad.
**I’m a foreigner in Canada, so perhaps your question should be directed to a Canadian.
maybe America should discount its outstanding to debt to China, having clear, clear, crystal clear evidence of weapons technology theft and spying, industrial technology theft and spying.
or, maybe America should sent a thick bill.
or, maybe America should send their own spies, which they probably do.
but, if you get caught in America, you get to have a court process.
In China, you are probably executed, your organs sold overseas.
Canada seems to be not worth spying on.
at least Russia made its own Migs. The Chinese make look alike F-somethings.
Kyopo blah blah. Please, spare me the whole generalized tripe. I have lots of Kyopo friends who are great guys, and they’re quite comfortable with their American-ness.
Hey, have any of you seen Michael Palin’s travelogue series, “Full Circle” ?
Looks like it would be fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....hael_Palin
Anyone who has ideas about the lack of patriotism of Kyopos, their crushing ID crises, etc…. take a gander at Anthony Kim.
What a stud.
He put on a hideously gaudy bejeweled red white and blue belt buckle Sunday and ate Sergio Garcia for LUNCH in his singles match.
I have a lot of Kyopo friends who are quite comfortable in their American-ness, thank you very much. Please spare me the generalizations.
RA or DA gathering to watch the upcoming debate on a big-screen anywhere?
Alter….Ego?
Unless you mean altar, of course…
Isn’t it sad, the state of the English language these days?
@redneck hickboy
Oh, I don’t know. I mean, whenever I go to a baseball game, I have to sing the 애국가 in the bathroom stalls afterwards to rid myself of that dirty feeling you get when you sing the National Anthem. (I play a little 자치기 afterwards, what with baseball being waaaay too American and all) After coaching kids from my old high school for a civics competition (We the People, hurrah!), I just had to come online and start writing stuff about how I hated America and loved everything Korean under the pseudonym Pawikir-
Umm… I said too much.
@Brendon: indeed, it’s (not its) a sad day when the non-natives write better English than (not then) the natives…
Meh.
Why should we bemoan the state of ‘the English language’ when the situation above only relates to one person’s apparent inability to spell or type correctly? Even if all posters here were to mispell every word worth anyone’s concern, it wouldn’t affect the relative state of the English language itself.
Still, Brendon’s question, although confusing, most likely seems meant to criticize or draw concern toward how posters are using English in ways which violate protocal and practice of English language use, as some would see it.
So, has someone spelled a word differently, and without authority? Well, no shame there - that is in fact how the spelling of most words evolve. Not only spelling, but meaning evolves as well: ‘auburn’, which now describes a light-brown type of hair, comes from the Latin root ‘alba’, meaning ‘white’, and as ‘alborne’ was originally used to describe hair of that color; in this case, both spelling and meaning have evolved.
Or, are the grammar structures used by posters not to your liking? Well, grammar evolves over time as well. As a young student, I was taught that the second conditional form of the verb ‘to be’ is ‘were’ in its first-person inflection; nowadays, ‘was’ is also considered acceptable in some cases, and is showing up in textbooks from Oxford and Cambridge. It still seems odd to me, but I don’t make the rules - we all do.
For me, grammar and/or spelling mistakes made by posters are a small concern or hassle when compared to any logical inconsistancies they might make. Grammar mistakes can contribute to logically inconsistant statements - and that seems to be the only time when grammar really poses problems on a blog.
Otherwise, what the dilly-o, vato?
protocol
inconsistancies -> inconsistencies
inconsistant -> inconsistent
Thanks for the corrections, dda. They’re always easier to spot after they show up on the blog, aren’t they?
For all the disdain in which many of Lafayette’s heirs hold our mother tongue, it’s nice to see one Frenchman who cares to help.
hey #34,
“mispell” –> “misspell”
Funny video about Cindy McCain and her drug use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BResO4oudI8
@38 спасибо, брат.
(and yeah, I can pronounce that…)
Sam Harris on Sarah Palin:
Yes. A plain, unscrupulous lie, very much like her favorite one about “The Bridge to Nowhere.”
The rest of Sam’s article can be found here:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/160080/page/1
Cindy McCain + drug use = Botox?
‘Hey’ to you, too, abcdefg, and thanks for the correction. It’s really refreshing when one can help others with words they’ve mistyped or misspelled, isn’t it?
Now, by way of thanks:
‘Yes - a plain, unscrupulous lie, very much like her favorite one about “The Bridge to Nowhere.”’
Is DDA French? He reminds me of my Uncle who is always correcting (or more correctly, trying to correct) my English. I guess he wants to show how smart he is. K-students do this all the time, too.
I was never any good at French at school, which is a shame as there are times when I would really like to be able to say ‘pedantic prat’ in that romantic language of turncoats.
Story of your life, eh? You remind me of that spoiled kid who wanted to look refined and classy by using long words. But unlike you, I can say “petit trouduc prétentieux”, and in a few more languages.
I am always amused by people trying to justify their butchering of their native language by thumping their chests and clamoring their being a native. Sure thing. An illiterate native, is all.
dda, I learned French, too.
Never used it.
We don’t have immigrants from Quebec, hopping across the Niagara Falls.
Actually, I assume the more correct geography is Toronto.
small something pretend?
see? 4 years of uselessness.
I can barely understand TV5 news.
chansons, if they are popular enough to be bought, a good listen, but overall, and all,
Doritos avec nacho fromage?
useless. Useless.
Learn English and learn it well, if you need a 2nd language.
my highschool French teacher was a big time NEA member, always late to 1st class, overmade use of skits for points, and loved chewing up classtime to “open discussion” about politics.
NEA trash.
wjk, it’s easy to see your teachers have failed you.
Everyone is vulnerable to economic crises via over leverage…
Japan went through much of the same shit in 1989…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.....ice_bubble
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P116564.asp
Everyone is vulnerable to economic crises via over leverage…
Japan went through much of the same shit in 1989…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.....ice_bubble
Everyone is vulnerable to economic crises via over leverage…
Japan went through much of the same shit in 1989…
What’s Margret Cho been up to lately?
http://www.vh1.com/video/play......vid=261781
au contraire DDA, you appear to have made two assumptions, that I do not use English correctly, and that I am not multilingual. In fact, I am a professional writer and value highly the correct use of language. But there is a time and a place, just as I don’t wear a suit and tie when having sex with my wife in the garden, I enjoy the more relaxed use of language in my free time. I have never bothered to learn French as it is irrelevant in the modern age. That, and the fact that mastery of it would present little challenge, is the reason I never learned French.
Thanks for the language lesson, but doesn’t “petit trouduc prétentieux” mean “detestable little pretentious twat” or something similar? Not a very good translation of ‘pedantic prat’.
BTW, are you a waiter? You remind me somehow of a waiter I met in Paris in 2006.
Did the waiter make you salivate?
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....ent-167188
A little glace. (That means “icing”, for those of you who don’t parlez-vous)
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/.....ent-102999
I don’t get the reference, Linkd, however that was a very funny thread for watching Mizar5 get taken down.
If they hadn’t banned smoking in bars we wouldn’t have these economic problems.
I wonder how many years before Korea bans smoking in bars and restaurants?
Professional-writer-at-leisure LAKalbi queries: “doesn’t “petit trouduc prétentieux” mean “detestable little pretentious twat” or something similar?”
It can be translated as “pretentious little asshole,” so at least DDA didn’t imply you are a big asshole
And y’all should drop the slams on the French language given that you’re writing in a language that is about 30% French.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.....nch_origin
My holiday with John McCain
http://www.counterpunch.org/dubey09232008.html