Super Bad

Once, when I was still in school, I read an article about how various countries change the names of Hollywood films. Germany, apparently, is not just fond of doing this, but they also like changing the meaning.

One of your cinema groups in South Africa has screens dedicated to artsy and foreign language films. I remember wondering what we in English speaking countries do with names that we might not like and if we actually translate the titles accurately.

In Korea the names are often changed as well. You would think that they would translate it, but no, they just give it a new English name and write that name, wait for it, in Hangeul. Sometimes the changes are small, like the recent How to Train Your Dragon, which became plain Dragon. Sometimes those small alterations changes the meaning completely. One older example that still annoys the hell out of me is The Day After Tomorrow which just became Tomorrow. Not exactly the same thing, is it now?

At the time of writing this post the animation Despicable Me is showing in Korean theatres. I can’t say that I like the English title all that much. I completely dislike the international title Meet the Minions. I do, however, like the Korean title, Super Bad. Super Bad does have its problems though.

Firstly, Super Bad is already a not too shabby film from two years back and it was not intended for the animation audience, at all. Secondly, the Korean spelling is, well, so Korean. Even though Korean is perfectly capable of writing super(수퍼) in an intelligible way, most people, for whatever reason, prefer shooper(슈퍼). I dare you to tell your average Korean on the street that super is actually written and pronounced as sUper and see the bemused “Really?” expressions on their faces. Priceless.

(I’m thinking I need to start a little side project of the konglish kind just for films)

As a side note, I heard that some members of Girls Generation did voice work for this film. Apparently they were really good. The script was also changed a bit to make the humour more Korean and I hear they did a really good job with that.

The one mother who studies with me said her son didn’t like it because “when you make the moon smaller it will not become lighter, so how did they carry it.” (I never even thought of that.) My reply was “But, IT’S SO FLUFFY!”

What will you do next?

Every day, for a few days now, two female students have been spending a lot of time in the teachers’ room. They are here during every break, if not for most of the working day. While they are here they are either busy with some sort of punishment or being scorned by a teacher. I have seen the parents of both students here already and all of this is still going on.

Things like this usually blow over after a few days, so I ignore the madness as much as I can. This, however, seems quite intense, has not let down, and even seems to be getting worse. It made me decide to finally ask what was going on.

I only got a small list as I have no interest in fishing out every detail and it includes things like running away (I think meaning from school), getting jobs (middle scholars are not allowed to have jobs) and wearing short skirts (one girl’s skirt is more like the loin cloths I see on some young ladies over the weekends). The one girl was also in trouble not so long ago for fighting. She was in the teachers’ room for a week straight.

What disturbs me most about this is that they got jobs. If they feel such a need to earn money that they got jobs in the second grade already, then I am wondering how susceptible they are to that evil of young girls in Korea responding to adverts from older men.

It is not all that uncommon in Korea for older men to have sex with school girls in exchange for money. This pops up in the news and blogs every now and then and, as I understand it, not a few prostitutes started in just that fashion.

This is not where you want your career to be heading in a country like Korea. Your social status will be down the drain. Over here, be it good or bad, your social status will affect your life in more ways than we can imagine in the West.

Chungju World Martial Arts Festival

If you don’t know this already, then I am telling you now. Most countries in the world have some sort of martial art. The East, however, is where the most famous martial arts originated. Korea has Taekwondo, arguably the most popular in the world. It also has Hapkido, a martial art that forms the base of many self defence programs all over the world.

This weekend at the Chungju World Martial Arts Festival you will be able see not only the awesomeness that is Korean Crazy Kicking (my term that I plan to register), but also some of the lesser know arts from other countries.

If you need things a bit more girly, then go for the dance section of the festival.

You call this research?

The JoongAng Daily posted a story about the new Facebook virus. This is the part that interested me most…

“Facebook boasts of having more than 5 billion users worldwide and there are over 15 million Korean users as of this month, according to facebakers.com”

This immediately intrigued me because it seemed to high because I have not many Koreans who have an account with them. According the site they explicitly mention AND link to, Korea only has 1,463,600 users, not even 1,5 million. Did they really think no one was going to follow that link and poke around?

Samgyeopsal

Samgeoupsal (삼겹살) consists of thick, fatty slices of pork belly meat, similar to uncured bacon. The meat is not marinated or seasoned, and cooked on a grill at the diners' table by the diner themselves. When the meat is finished it is typically seasoned with Gochujang, a savoury and pungent fermented Korean condiment. Another popular way to enjoy a piece of meat is to then wrap it in a lettuce or Sesame leave with extras like garlic slices.

This was at PigMong in Icheon, one half flavoured with oregano and one half with wine. Also on the hot plate is mushrooms, unions, cream maze and kimchi.

For those who like things Raunchy.

Hangeul is an amazing script and it is fantastic at indicating exactly how a Korean word should be pronounced. It is not, however true for writing non Korean words. Korean does not have all the sounds of, say, English e.g. the A sound in “batter”. Also, some English sounds are considered distinct while Korean considers them the same thing e.g K/G or R/L. Another big problem is that the Korean language also has certain rules that allows sounds to be use only in predefined patterns e.g the CH sounds can not be at the end of a syllable, but must be at the beginning, followed by a vowel.

What we see in this photo is a Pizza Hut advert for “Spaghetti Dinner, Smart Lunch.” There are some things that should never be written in Korean and here is one of them. Spaghetti, no problem. Dinner, no problem, if you are using a British type accent. Smart, again, OK if you use speak British like. Then we get to Lunch...

The R/L is very blurry in Korean, but generally a ㄹ at the start of a syllable indicates a R sound. Guess where it is in the word Lunch? Oh, remember I mentioned earlier that CH cant be at the end of the word? The solution is to add a sound, in this case “Ee”.

So, if you are in the mood for a Smart Raunchy, then you are in the right place. Maybe not. ;)

Red Moon Rising

Yesterday evening the moon came up just as the sun went down. We went up the mountain to get photos of red moon rising.

It is amazing how quickly the moon rises. I didn't have my camera ready and when I noticed the moon I scrambled to get the camera and tripod out. By the time I was ready with a stable camera, one minute, the moon had completely risen above the clouds and I missed the peeking moon photo.

Bad Rice Times

Every year, just about ‘round this time, the rice gets heavy and the stalks keel over. Sometimes it happens in small spots here and there. Sometimes it happens in big patches. I’m not rice farmer, but I think this is sort of a sign that it is harvest time for whatever field it happens in.

Last year the rains stayed to late is it was worrisome. This year it is not just raining, it is still down right pissing down. That have left the rice not just fallen over and still damp, but fallen over, lying in pools of water. No telling how much of the harvest will be ruined this year.

We’ll get those Iranians.

My Google Alerts brought me two news stories that, together, are quite amusing.

The first story is about Iran beating South Korea by a single goal in a match played IN SEOUL.
The very next story says that South Korea will be closing a local branch of an Iranian bank.

Eye

The girl was finished with her work and was looking at me helping another student. It looked interesting, so I persuaded her to keep that pose for a photo. When a students is willing to let me take a photo of them in an interesting position, then I feel obliged to print out a copy for them. I am taking this one in tomorrow.

I took this one with my little compact camera, which I have taken to carrying with me all the time. You never know what you will get and like I say, it is not the quality of the camera that makes the photo.

So THAT is what the weather does.

안녕하세요..급식실입니다.
점심은 맛있게 드셨어요~~~??
요즘 태풍의 영향으로 야채상태가 좋지 않아서 메뉴의
변경이 있습니다. 오늘도 케이준샐러드인데 양상추가
생산되지 않아서 참치김치볶음으로 변경되었습니다.
이점 양해 부탁드립니다. 담임선생님은 혹시 학생들이
메뉴에 대해 물어보면 이렇게 얘기를 해주시기 바랍니다.~~~^^
즐건 하루 되세요~~^^

Using Google Translate:

Hello, this is the meals department.

Did you enjoy lunch?

The impact of the typhoons means the state of our vegetables are not good, so the menu may change. Today's lettuce salad with Cajun (chicken??) was changed to fried kimchi with tuna. Homeroom teachers, please let the students know what is happening and ask about possible menu changes.

Enjoy your day.

It looks a bit windy outside.

Apparently it was a Type 2 Typhoon. I can’t find any reference to what a Type 2 is, but this women says it is one, so I choose to believe her. I have no idea if that is good or bad, but when I SMSed my co-teacher telling her I didn’t know how to get to school without getting soaked and having my umbrella destroyed, she phoned back and said that all Elementary Schools and Middle Schools were closed until 10am. Government broadcast.

I was contemplating using the scooter to get to school and miss as much rain as possible, but I was afraid of being blown over.

This is the first time in my life that school is postponed because of weather.

Shiny and new

Remember that day when you arrived in Korea, that day when everything was strange and you had nothing in your apartment? Remember how you went to E-Mart to get some things to make life worth living like new pillows, new blankets, toilet paper and a bit of food? Remember how you stood off to the side at the till while your co-teachers payed for everything? Remember how you left, following your new co-teachers, still confused, like a child in a new country?

Remember how you went grocery shopping and saw a blond foreigner getting all things shiny and new?