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Geek Branding
2008-03-01 16:05:00
EFL Geek has a cool new look for himself.  I hope he’s not reaching for my beer.
More About: Branding

Are You a Green Korean
2008-02-29 09:29:00
Look at these 17 signs that you’re a green Korean and tally the points.
More About: Green

Shriya Will Pay…!
2008-02-29 09:22:00
For the ultimate Korean blogger inside joke post…
More About: Shriya

SK Telecom Will Turn Off Your Phone
2008-02-29 02:10:00
I just received this from Mike Mackenna: Hey everyone, wanted to let you know about your chance to fight the man, in this case represented by a crappy Korean cellphone company. Because some people were using phones not registered under their own names for scams, SK Telecom has decided to turn off the cellphones of anyone who doesn’t confirm that the cellphone is registered under their name by March 31st. Obviously this will be a problem for foreigners like me who bought phones from other foreigners and never had the registration switched. SK Telecom doesn’t allow you to change the registration unless the original owner is with you, which I can’t do because the original owner isn’t in Korea. The Joong Ang Daily, the English newspaper here that comes with the International Herald Tribune, published my letter about this today (http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/v iew.asp?aid=2886775), and they’re also interested in doing a story about it. You can email ...
More About: Phone , Turn

New Section: Events
2008-02-29 01:57:00
Now that there are enough events feeds out there (that I have found), I’ve set up an “Events ” column under “To Munch On.”  As of now, it uses primarily Korea Gig Guide and SeoulSteves. Any other tips on events feeds or any other worthy blogs to add to the ZenKimchi aggregators would be much appreciated.
More About: Section

New Feed: Korea Gig Guide
2008-02-28 10:26:00
Everyone’s talking about the Korea Gig Guide today, created by our friends at Korea Pop Wars. I’m adding it to the Pop Culture feed right now. I’d really like to start a separate events feed.
More About: Feed

Incheon Airport #1… So Nice
2008-02-28 05:59:00
ROK Drop has related to us that Incheon Airport has been ranked the #1 airport in the world by the Airports Council International for the third year straight. I’d agree.  It’s a pretty good airport.  And we all know my opinion is more relevant than the ACI.
More About: Nice

Yellow Dust Alerts are Back
2008-02-26 00:34:00
I’ve put links to yellow dust levels back under the weather box. This time I have posted links to both the USFK site and the yellow dust page on the Korean Meteorological Association site. I’ve noticed that since a year ago, the KMA site has gone through some major improvements, especially in its English section. I’d love to figure out how to get their weather maps on the ZenKimchi page. Hmm… that’ll be another weekend’s work…
More About: Back , Yellow

Great Old Stuff
2008-02-25 14:41:00
Korea Beat posted links to these–the oldest photos of Koreans.  Gusts of Popular Feeling picked that up and added more historical Western accounts of Koreans with more links to pictures for context.  Oh, this is such interesting stuff.
More About: Great , Stuff

“Hagwons like P, M, S and so on have name recognition”
2008-02-25 14:26:00
This stuff just writes itself. Korea Beat has a summary of English policy proposals from Lee Myung Bak since his candidacy as well as the controversies that have arisen. Another prime quote: “Does chairman Lee think that writing ‘orange’ not in English but as 아린지 or 오렌지 is really going to make for better pronunciation?” For those of you who don’t read hangeul, he’s asking if writing “orange” as “arinji” or “oraenji” will matter for pronunciation.  Of course it won’t matter, as long as they keep sticking that extra “ji” syllable at the end. But that’s part of the rules of hangeul, and you’d have to change hangeul itself to write “orange” as “orange.”
More About: Recognition

Korean University Job Listings
2008-02-24 13:43:00
Joe SeoulMan has not only posted a list of Korean universities. He’s added their recently posted salary and benefits info to many as well. A few folks are contributing to his list. If you have any information, please give it to him. Looking at some of those sals and bens, I don’t think they’re aware of the tighter pool of applicants thanks to the new Immigration regulations. Someone would still work for 1.9? Seriously, my hagwon job pays in the top tier of these mo’ fo’s, gives a higher housing allowance and comes without all the political bullshit.
More About: University , Listings

Eat the Taco, Not the Taco Bell DOG
2008-02-21 00:34:00
Oh, this doesn’t bode well for Korea’s reputation. And I’m not helping by spreading it. Anticipate this to be added to The Metropolitician’s Wall of Bad Ajosshis. A 52-year-old man was caught for attempting to eat his landlady’s pet dog. The man, identified as Park, took the pet Chihuahua into his room, while his 69-year-old landlady Jeon was in the bathroom. He then killed the dog and attempted to cook it at the boarding house in Jongno, Seoul, Monday afternoon. Park tried to scorch the dog before cooking it in his room, but his clothes in the room caught fire and emitted smoke. His neighbors called the firefighters and his attempt to cook the dog was detected by neighbors and firefighters, according to police. Police quoted Park, drunk when apprehended, as saying, “I did so because I was hungry.” He was booked without physical detention on charges of theft.
More About: Bell , Taco Bell

Gerry “Takeshima” Beavers Speaks
2008-02-21 00:20:00
Matt at Occidentalism has posted an interview from Zero which features Gerry Beavers .  If you don’t remember, Gerry was fired from his Korean university for posting historical Korean maps on his personal blog that challenged Korean conventional wisdom that the Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo–Korea, Takeshima–Japan) did not historically belong to Korea.

Crazy Middle Schoolers
2008-02-21 00:13:00
James at The Grand Narrative has been disturbed by a new tradition among graduating middle school students (part 1, part 2). The tradition has usually involved throwing flour or eggs on graduates. But now scissors are getting involved. How? Do not watch this video at work.
More About: Crazy , Middle

Metropolitician Column in OhMyNews
2008-02-20 04:15:00
Michael “The Metropolitician” Hurt now has an opinion column in the major Korean newspaper OhMyNews.  More info on his site.
More About: Column

It’s a Backwards World, Huh?
2008-02-19 10:26:00
Don’t you love this racially ham-handed opening to a Korea Times article: In the reversed world of today where the best golfer is black and the best rapper is arguably white, could the best Korean footballer be wearing the colors of the North, not the South? Thanks, Brian, for pointing this one out.
More About: World , Backwards

No, Honey, You Watch What You Want
2008-02-19 08:23:00
Web 2.0 Asia talks about a passenger side in-dash LCD display that Hyundai will introduce into their cars.  The cool thing is that the passenger can watch one thing while the driver can see something else, like the GPS, on the same screen.  It shows different views based on the angle of the viewer. Cool!
More About: Watch , Honey

Google Korea Revamped
2008-02-03 02:02:00
GI Korea at ROK Drop reports on an MSNBC report that Google Korea is changing its web site to be more suited for Koreans. So I guess we can look forward to more Flash animations and ActiveX plug ins.

Seoul Survivors #59: The End…?
2008-02-02 04:17:00
“Male dog penis wine is better than female dog penis wine.” The final Seoul Survivors podcast ended up being a three-hour three-parter affair. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 I put a question mark in the title because Jennifer and I are working on something for the future–possible revival.  Details are being hammered out.  Stay tuned. Also, we finally found out Karl’s last name, as he’s quoted by the BBC on a story that has nothing to do with Korea.

I’m Not Pretty Enough for MIT
2008-02-02 04:11:00
I found this on Joe Seoul Man.  Miss Korea 2002 has been accepted into MIT, according to the Choson Ilbo.  The power quote: The letter from MIT stated that Ms. Keum is an outstanding student with a great deal of potential and possesses both beauty and intelligence. Maybe with the No Child Left Behind program universities have resorted to different criteria for admission.
More About: Pretty

“I hope the media improves its protrayal of foreigners”
2008-02-02 03:24:00
The New Zealander who took the pictures in the daycare naked punishment scandal is interviewed by Oh My News.  Korea Beat has the translation, and it’s a good interview.  Makes me proud to be a Kiwi. Okay, I’m not a Kiwi, but I have Kiwi friends.
More About: Media , The Media , Hope , Foreigners

“Our” Xenophobia
2008-02-01 11:06:00
Korean blogger Seoul Searcher examines the Korean word uri 우리, meaning “our,” where it is used in place of “Korean” in many phrases. I had been intrigued by that for a while.  I thought it sounded a bit self-centered on my HanaTV menu to have movies in yeong-eo 영어 (”English”) and uri-mal 우리말 (”Our Language”).
More About: Phobia

Klogic
2008-02-01 03:55:00
Amanda of Amanda Takes Off has some fine moments of Klogic (Korean logic) about windows. Confused Foreigner (me): Mellanie, why is the floor heat on? Mellanie (very rude Korean co-teacher): Because it’s cold outside. Confused Foreigner: Then why are all the windows and doors wide open, and why is the air conditioning on? Mellanie: Because it’s hot inside.

“Dude, He Finally Did’ya”
2008-01-31 10:35:00
I love Amanda’s Korean lessons.
More About: Dude , Finally

Whitey’s Last Minute Contract Signing
2008-01-31 10:31:00
This is so typical.  Whitey , whom I’ve met and has been in Korea for a while, has had to deal with an experience that many of us go through–the last minute “Bballi!  Bballi!” This one is particularly hilarious because he teaches for the government and worked out the details of his contract before Christmas.  Today they called him after work and told him he needed to come back and sign his contract immediately.  Urgent! No, it wasn’t urgent between Christmas and this afternoon.  It wasn’t urgent this morning while he was at work. It was urgent after he had left work to go home.
More About: Contract , Minute , Signing

One of Those Rare Good Teaching Jobs
2008-01-30 11:46:00
I’m reposting this because it’s gotten buried. We have a rare opening at our school because we’re expanding. The openings are rare because the teachers know it’s a good gig. Our school has a reputation in Anyang and among the ESL community as being one of the most desirable jobs in Korea.  It’s Canadian-owned, and there are no BS politics to deal with.  You won’t get screwed here. We’re posting this publicly because we have specific criteria, particularly we are only looking for F-series visas right now. To give you and idea of the types of projects we do that are mentioned in the ad, here are two of them: Here’s the job ad from my boss: CANADIAN ENGLISH ACADEMY Anyang, South Korea OVERVIEW Hi, my name is Chris Patch, and I am the owner of CEA. I am looking for someone with an F-series visa who has a good attitude and experience teaching (Korean experience preferred). Our current teaching hours are 2:30-8:30 M-F with ten minute...
More About: Jobs , Teaching , Good , Rare

Amanda Puts on the “Hi” Defense
2008-01-30 01:31:00
Good on Amanda for taking a good tactic on annoying boy-turds who say “Hi” to whities behind their backs to impress their friends (not with their English skills, obviously). I do this a couple of times myself. It’s great to feel superior to children. The Apple Thief Ajumma story is funny too.
More About: Defense

Say Hello to My Little Friend
2008-01-27 15:41:00
There are times that Korean news is just way more entertaining. [HT to Korea Beat]
More About: Friend

English Subtitles in Korean Theaters
2008-01-25 06:05:00
Socius in Daejeon relates that more Korean films will have English subtitles in the theaters themselves.  I remember once seeing a Korean film, Taegukgi, at the COEX theaters with English subtitles, but then again, Jackie Chan was the guest that day, and he sat in front of us.
More About: Subtitles , Titles

Superbowl Fans in Korea
2008-01-24 11:45:00
It’s a surreal place to be. (And I wish I could join.)
More About: Fans , Korea , Superbowl