I guess this is why I travel.
Anyone who follos my facebook knows I have been extremely let down by Korea. It's not a secret, the food is sub-par, the culture is second-rate and the scenary is much blander than the opening credits to MASH lead you to believe.
Under these circumstances I assumed allof northeast Asia to be the same. The constant ads, the perpetual neon, the endless, rude natives drunkenly coughing up phlegm as an ad-hoc pissing contest.
I assumed Japan would be the same. Before you start judging me as closed minded I would like to go on record as saying Korea and Japan have had similar historicak experiences in the latter half of the 20th century. Namely the influx of American dollars and millitary personal making sure that everything in the area is in compliance with the interests of the United States (let's not kid ourselves here). Both have been subject to pressures to forget the glorious past, particularly Japan who's mighty empire once safely cuddled the entire Eastern hemisphere.
Japan didit's own thing though. Using American money as a base they expanded upon what it means to be Japanese in the age of hegemoney. There's something very rewarding about seeing band stickers on a Buddist temple gate. People here sport hair colors of any kind, mohawks aren't uncommon, neither are street performers. Tokyo is amdern city in the best sense of the phrase. Made better by the fact that bideu's are a regular fixture in the restroom scene.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
More Mind Control Evidence
I ate at the 24 hour place and seem to be experiencing mild visual hallucinations.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
I Disagree
It's been about eight months since I left America and I figured this blog was way too heavy with melancholy homesick bullshit. So I figured I should write about the strange land that I am a stranger in.
I highly disagree with the way children are treated in this country. They are overworked, under fed and education isn't liberating it's programming. Fathers do not interact with their children, they merely pay the bills. Mothers play the both the maternal and paternal roles and utterly dominate their children with constant demands for higher grades, harder work and perfect scores. Children are often broken down, unimaginative and tired.
Anecdotal evidence on the topic:
I teach a really advanced class here with students that are essentially fluent. They're great kids and we've had an incredible and rewarding working relationship as long as I've taught the class. They are eager to learn my knowledge of history, politics, religion, literature and life in general and I never once had a discipline problem. I often find myself looking forward to the class.
However last week things took a change for the darker.
Summer vacation started this week, which only means more school just at different places. Attending school for fifty hours a week is not unusual here nor is Saturday school. And in that set of circumstances, these really bright kids increased their time at my school from 160 to 240 minutes. Four hours with three five minute breaks and I taught the last hour and a half.
It was heartbreaking and ego damaging to watch the kids that I enjoy teaching turn from well behaved, enthusiastic young adults to a gang of screeching children. Two kids broke down crying, one young lady just glared at me. My attempts at jokes were met with scorn and my lesson plan almost became null-and-void.
They had more classes after mine.
The students who have never left Korea are often hyper-nationalistic. These are the students who swear it is the best country on earth and view me as the "white devil." Many times have I had the "this is Korea, we should speak Korean" argument thrown at me. It doesn't even phase me now.
The kids who have left want to leave again and can't wait. They cite Korea as a prime example of how to drive people away.
Education is the religion here. If you don't have an education you are nothing. And I find this tragic. Maybe it's St. Wenceslaus Middle School speaking here but at least Catholicism is bad ass and cool. Gothic architecture, The Last Supper, martyrdom, general passionate stuff that you don't get in a ideology based on atomic weight and laws of motion. Even psychology is down played here. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy empirical evidence but I don't see why it deserves to be devoted to so strictly. It takes away all the color.
And what happens to these kids? They go to school for more than a full time job, they work themselves ragged in high school, get blasted in college and just when their social obligations of the objective are paid our old friend mandatory military service hits the scene rendering the average Korean male 26 before he has a chance to chill out before having a family and starting the cycle all over again.
And don't get me wrong, I'm all about strict obedience to a solid hierarchy. Not like this though. Not without even the faintest chance to reflect on it or reconsider it. I'm all about a healthy amount of pushing your kids but not to the point where childhood becomes a cut-throat competition. And this machine has kept the Korean people more or less a people for a long long time. This is not a machine that breaks down easily but if it does the results could count amount the greatest tragedies of the twenty-first century.
I highly disagree with the way children are treated in this country. They are overworked, under fed and education isn't liberating it's programming. Fathers do not interact with their children, they merely pay the bills. Mothers play the both the maternal and paternal roles and utterly dominate their children with constant demands for higher grades, harder work and perfect scores. Children are often broken down, unimaginative and tired.
Anecdotal evidence on the topic:
I teach a really advanced class here with students that are essentially fluent. They're great kids and we've had an incredible and rewarding working relationship as long as I've taught the class. They are eager to learn my knowledge of history, politics, religion, literature and life in general and I never once had a discipline problem. I often find myself looking forward to the class.
However last week things took a change for the darker.
Summer vacation started this week, which only means more school just at different places. Attending school for fifty hours a week is not unusual here nor is Saturday school. And in that set of circumstances, these really bright kids increased their time at my school from 160 to 240 minutes. Four hours with three five minute breaks and I taught the last hour and a half.
It was heartbreaking and ego damaging to watch the kids that I enjoy teaching turn from well behaved, enthusiastic young adults to a gang of screeching children. Two kids broke down crying, one young lady just glared at me. My attempts at jokes were met with scorn and my lesson plan almost became null-and-void.
They had more classes after mine.
The students who have never left Korea are often hyper-nationalistic. These are the students who swear it is the best country on earth and view me as the "white devil." Many times have I had the "this is Korea, we should speak Korean" argument thrown at me. It doesn't even phase me now.
The kids who have left want to leave again and can't wait. They cite Korea as a prime example of how to drive people away.
Education is the religion here. If you don't have an education you are nothing. And I find this tragic. Maybe it's St. Wenceslaus Middle School speaking here but at least Catholicism is bad ass and cool. Gothic architecture, The Last Supper, martyrdom, general passionate stuff that you don't get in a ideology based on atomic weight and laws of motion. Even psychology is down played here. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy empirical evidence but I don't see why it deserves to be devoted to so strictly. It takes away all the color.
And what happens to these kids? They go to school for more than a full time job, they work themselves ragged in high school, get blasted in college and just when their social obligations of the objective are paid our old friend mandatory military service hits the scene rendering the average Korean male 26 before he has a chance to chill out before having a family and starting the cycle all over again.
And don't get me wrong, I'm all about strict obedience to a solid hierarchy. Not like this though. Not without even the faintest chance to reflect on it or reconsider it. I'm all about a healthy amount of pushing your kids but not to the point where childhood becomes a cut-throat competition. And this machine has kept the Korean people more or less a people for a long long time. This is not a machine that breaks down easily but if it does the results could count amount the greatest tragedies of the twenty-first century.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Food Here Again
I have reason to suspect that certain restaurants in the Republic of Korea are working hand-in-hand with the government to distribute mind control drugs to the populace.
It is fair to say that I have a strong stomach. About a year ago in the course of 12 hours I ingested 5 packs of morning glory seeds in a successful attempt to induce hallucinations. These seeds were covered in pesticide and despite my chemical binge I managed to circumvent vomiting.
Yet on three separate occasions in this country I have eaten normal food here and experienced deranged states of mind, black outs, and hyper paranoia.
The first time it happened was in early March. I woke up in my usual state of disorientation and stumbled over to a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant down the street from my apartment. I ate some noodles and sushi and left.
Three hours later I was at work holding a cup of coffee.
What happened and where I went are a mystery. I had never been to the coffee shop who's cup I now curiously sported.
The next two...episodes are directly related. I ate at a bar here, just some standard bar chicken. I went home after a fairly pleasant evening with friends. I arrived at home around three am. The next six hours featured nightmares of the apocalypse, the urge to kill and a level of self loathing that threatened to explode in to a rampage.
Not thinking anything of it I went to bed the next night. I woke up at three a.m. and ate the last of the chicken. The nightmares returned and I woke up at six in the morning and simmered in murderous rage for an hour my dog jumped on my bed. I stood up, put a leash on him and walked out into the morning.
I don't remember what happened over the next hour and a half, I remember muttering "the quickest good byes are best" before throwing the dog in random yard and another blackout before walking into work four hours later.
It is fair to say that I have a strong stomach. About a year ago in the course of 12 hours I ingested 5 packs of morning glory seeds in a successful attempt to induce hallucinations. These seeds were covered in pesticide and despite my chemical binge I managed to circumvent vomiting.
Yet on three separate occasions in this country I have eaten normal food here and experienced deranged states of mind, black outs, and hyper paranoia.
The first time it happened was in early March. I woke up in my usual state of disorientation and stumbled over to a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant down the street from my apartment. I ate some noodles and sushi and left.
Three hours later I was at work holding a cup of coffee.
What happened and where I went are a mystery. I had never been to the coffee shop who's cup I now curiously sported.
The next two...episodes are directly related. I ate at a bar here, just some standard bar chicken. I went home after a fairly pleasant evening with friends. I arrived at home around three am. The next six hours featured nightmares of the apocalypse, the urge to kill and a level of self loathing that threatened to explode in to a rampage.
Not thinking anything of it I went to bed the next night. I woke up at three a.m. and ate the last of the chicken. The nightmares returned and I woke up at six in the morning and simmered in murderous rage for an hour my dog jumped on my bed. I stood up, put a leash on him and walked out into the morning.
I don't remember what happened over the next hour and a half, I remember muttering "the quickest good byes are best" before throwing the dog in random yard and another blackout before walking into work four hours later.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
The Be-ach
It's so easy to forget why I left the homeland. On those nights when there's nothing to look forward to and nothing but memories to look back on. Those nights of crippling isolation. Remembering that I'm forgotten is a drag.
Then their are nights like this. And I remember, I came here to not be like the others. Challenging the British to the traditional American Roman Candle war, watching the sunset with North Korea within the range of sight. Salt water. Lying here on a real, ocean beach. Crabs scuttling around, what might be egg sacks.
The tide here goes out a mile and a half. Something to see, a beach double in size in forty minutes. Some rocks were uncovered, a granite formation. I had to check it out. To my delight it was covered in sharp seashells. So I climbed on it. I cut my foot several times and my hand. I'll probably lose one or the other as I walked to the ocean with blood pouring out of my wounds.
They sell bug-zappers shaped like tennis rackets.
Then their are nights like this. And I remember, I came here to not be like the others. Challenging the British to the traditional American Roman Candle war, watching the sunset with North Korea within the range of sight. Salt water. Lying here on a real, ocean beach. Crabs scuttling around, what might be egg sacks.
The tide here goes out a mile and a half. Something to see, a beach double in size in forty minutes. Some rocks were uncovered, a granite formation. I had to check it out. To my delight it was covered in sharp seashells. So I climbed on it. I cut my foot several times and my hand. I'll probably lose one or the other as I walked to the ocean with blood pouring out of my wounds.
They sell bug-zappers shaped like tennis rackets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)