One of the books that my academy teaches is about the Elián González affair, Elian Gonzalez: Caught Between Two Countries (it's out of print, so don't waste your time).
Not only is it difficult to explain such a complex, international relations issue to elementary students that are learning to comprehend English, but the book is just boring and a non-topic for the kids... Until now:
President Obama's improved ties for the U.S. and Cuba
Immigration: Teen vs. Japan
These current events don't make the book anymore fun or the topic more interesting to young Korean children. It is just nice to see that the world keeps spinning when you aren't thinking about it.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Seoul Music
It seems there is a serious lack of popular western-artists concerts in Korea. It is well know that most popular bands seem to shun this peninsula to play in Japan or for any number of other reasons. Now, I know Oasis visited April 1, but playing on Wednesday night is not a way to attract the working class, especially when the weekend dates are clearly saved for Japanese shows.
Luckily there is not a lack of lesser-know artists from the west or Koreans that have embraced the western-style music that want to play. Last Saturday's Club DGBD concert was a fun frolic into Korean-punk mix, Western-electronic, and some combination of the two.
The bands:
This was not my favorite band by a long shot. It just wasn't my type of music, so no knock to their ability. Their MySpace page has some well edited and enjoyable tracks. It just seems the songs that I heard were just screaming. I couldn't stand more than a few songs from their set before I had to leave and give my ears a break.
Ambient rock band from Korea. They all seem to be very skilled with their own instruments, but the group lacked harmony and came off as a collection of noise. Great potential for the future.
These guys were a great instrumental band. The duo did a great job of incorporating the drums, guitar, and synthesizer. They had great harmony and I would definitely have bought their CD if I had seen it. I'll be honest, I was debating leaving the show early until one of their wives told me to wait and hear them; a great tip well headed.
A trio of girls that knew how to play. I won't lie, this was the group that I wanted to see at the show. Their uploaded tracks sounded good and I'm kind a sucker for all-girl groups that play well. I came into their set halfway through, but everything I heard was very good.
A great punk-rock group from Korea. This band was most like the kind of music that I thought the whole show would be like. All the members were skilled at their instruments and they all seemed to be having fun. They played well as a group, but they all had their own sound. I would definitely try and hear them again.
Luckily there is not a lack of lesser-know artists from the west or Koreans that have embraced the western-style music that want to play. Last Saturday's Club DGBD concert was a fun frolic into Korean-punk mix, Western-electronic, and some combination of the two.
The bands:
This was not my favorite band by a long shot. It just wasn't my type of music, so no knock to their ability. Their MySpace page has some well edited and enjoyable tracks. It just seems the songs that I heard were just screaming. I couldn't stand more than a few songs from their set before I had to leave and give my ears a break.
Ambient rock band from Korea. They all seem to be very skilled with their own instruments, but the group lacked harmony and came off as a collection of noise. Great potential for the future.
These guys were a great instrumental band. The duo did a great job of incorporating the drums, guitar, and synthesizer. They had great harmony and I would definitely have bought their CD if I had seen it. I'll be honest, I was debating leaving the show early until one of their wives told me to wait and hear them; a great tip well headed.
A trio of girls that knew how to play. I won't lie, this was the group that I wanted to see at the show. Their uploaded tracks sounded good and I'm kind a sucker for all-girl groups that play well. I came into their set halfway through, but everything I heard was very good.
A great punk-rock group from Korea. This band was most like the kind of music that I thought the whole show would be like. All the members were skilled at their instruments and they all seemed to be having fun. They played well as a group, but they all had their own sound. I would definitely try and hear them again.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Like a King in Hong Kong
Hong Kong was great for Lunar New Year. It was especially great because we got a four day weekend with Monday and Tuesday off for festivities (I hear that in China, workers get up to a week off). We had to make up the missed days with extra classes on Wednesday and Saturday, but so is life in Korea.
Saturday we left Yeonsu at 6am in a taxi with falling snow (-7C/20F)
The 8:50am Cathay Pacific flight out of ICN got delayed for about an hour and a half due to de-icing the wings several times. When we finally arrived in Hong Kong it was about 2pm to cloudy 12C/54F weather. We stayed at the Yess Inn Hostel which was small, but clean, inexpensive, and central for our needs.
Throughout the rest of our trip we saw monkey mountain (where 50 monkeys were originally released to eat a toxic fruit that would poison the water supply and there are now over 2000) , Victoria Peak, Maccau, and various streets and alleys.The really nice place was being able to get western items like Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lays potato chips. The food was great from restaurants as well like Agave (better than On The Border for Mexican food), some Chinese place that was diner style in speed and quality, and Fernando (a popular Portuguese restaurant in Maccau). The ferry between Maccau and Hong Kong was inexpensive at ~$300HKD (~$38USD). Unfortunately we missed the parade due to being in Maccau and the fireworks due to an obstructed view. Either way I would return.
Saturday we left Yeonsu at 6am in a taxi with falling snow (-7C/20F)
The 8:50am Cathay Pacific flight out of ICN got delayed for about an hour and a half due to de-icing the wings several times. When we finally arrived in Hong Kong it was about 2pm to cloudy 12C/54F weather. We stayed at the Yess Inn Hostel which was small, but clean, inexpensive, and central for our needs.
Throughout the rest of our trip we saw monkey mountain (where 50 monkeys were originally released to eat a toxic fruit that would poison the water supply and there are now over 2000) , Victoria Peak, Maccau, and various streets and alleys.The really nice place was being able to get western items like Pabst Blue Ribbon or Lays potato chips. The food was great from restaurants as well like Agave (better than On The Border for Mexican food), some Chinese place that was diner style in speed and quality, and Fernando (a popular Portuguese restaurant in Maccau). The ferry between Maccau and Hong Kong was inexpensive at ~$300HKD (~$38USD). Unfortunately we missed the parade due to being in Maccau and the fireworks due to an obstructed view. Either way I would return.
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