Step, Pump!

If you're looking for a laugh today.

Have I mentioned how much I love YouTube?

Signs worthy of a sigh!

Although it has gotten better in recent weeks, I sometimes find myself wistfully in thought, reminiscing about experiences during my year spent in Korea. I miss a lot of things about my time there... the convenience, the friend the independence... But more than anything, I miss the randomness.

Yes, randomness. This was mostly reflected in the many signs found all around Korea. I've talked to some of my friends about the funny signs I came across in menus, on the street, on doors, and even on the subway. But I was recently told that my words would be better supported by pictures. And I wholeheartedly agree.

You have to understand that a lot of these signs have been translated according to sound. That is, they were originally written in Korean, until someone came along and told them how to pronounce the words in English... which later resulted in English signs surfacing, with the words spelled according to sound.

Well, either that, or we can thank Google Translate for these gems. Or... maybe they actually mean what they say. You be the judge.

Most of these photos come from other blogs, and I've gathered them as I've seen fit. I've also included a couple that I took. It's obvious others shared my sentiments, but were smart enough to take photos as evidence.

Enjoy!

xo

Images courtesy of Google Images and StraightFromTheCurls

Tech talk and updates

A gentle reminder for me. Hopefully most of you already realize this.

"She's wired in."

I've never wanted anyone to make that statement in reference to me, but that's what it's been like this week.

Let me start off by apologizing if you've stumbled through, clicked on, or swung by the blog, only to find a message telling you it doesn't exist. As you can see, it very much exists ... much to my original domain registrar's dismay.

After spending a chaotic 48 hours transferring my domain to another company, sorting things out with blogger, and believing that my web world was about to get back on track, Bert decided to get sick... again!

And this time it's not a hard-drive issue. This time, it's with a problem I paid over $100 bucks to have fixed at the Mac store earlier this year. It turns out... not-so-fixed. So Bert's going back to the shop in the next day or so, and hopefully he'll be all sorted out in the next couple of weeks.

At least it happened in Toronto and not Seoul this time around. It always helps when the Apple Geniuses speak the same language as you. 

Speaking of next week... some big changes are coming up! I'll fill you in over the weekend.

Until then, thanks for your patience with me over the past few days. This is more tech stress than I could have ever asked for, but I'm dealing.

In the meanwhile, check out what might quite possibly be the most adventurous cat in the whole world! I'd love to see how many stamps Kitty has acquired on her passport. Too awesome!

xo

Image courtesy of Google Images

Global Belly Laugh Day

Today is Global Belly Laugh Day. So make sure you take some time to get your hahas on at some point. There's nothing better than a good laugh to get you out of the blues... even if it's just temporarily.

Take a cue from Mr. Clooney here. He knows the value of a good belly laugh. 

Here are five great sites to get you started.

Fail Blog
Ever have moments that just make you want to want to go into hiding from embarrassment? Well, so do the victims of Fail Blog. This amazing site features stories from contributors willing to share their facepalm moments with the world. Check it out for a chuckle.

Texts From Last Night
Pretty much self explanatory. People submit their inappropriate, entertaining and silly texts here. Good for a laugh in limited characters.

F My Life
Everytime you feel your life can't get any worse, visit this site to be reminded that it can. Just be glad you're not one of these victims.

I Can Has Cheezburger
If you don't know of this site by now, then you're clearly new to the Internet.

The Onion
Taking everyday news and spinning it until it woven into a comfy ol' sweater.

Image courtesy of Google Images

On a funnier note...

This baby MADE my day! I hope you get as much a laugh out of it as I did. Oh, and if you're not already, get inspired!!



xo
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Learning of Science Skills

This week's grade nine lesson was on asking for and giving advice. The main phrases they needed to focus on were "What do you think I should do?" and "I think you should..."

After introducing the lesson to them and going over the vocabulary, I put the class into groups, giving each team a problem that they needed to advise on. The problems varied from fights with siblings, to issues at school. But one group received the coveted problem of self-esteem. For some reason, every group wanted to advise on this, believing they each had the perfect solutions to the issue.

I gave the class a few minutes to brainstorm solutions, before bringing their attention back to the front of the class. Each group now had to say what their problem was, and then read out five pieces of advice, appropriate to their issue.

As each group presented their ideas, I was filled with pride. I had worked on this lesson plan for a few hours, and was happy to see it actually work in class.

Then, it was my 'self-esteem' group's turn. They started off the presentation well.

"If you've got self-esteem problems, I think you should talk to someone," they said.

"If you have self-esteem problems, maybe you should read books to help," said another.

Then...

"I think you should get help with science skills," another one blurted.

"Science skills?" I thought.

I quickly let this pass, thinking it had something to do with learning science subjects, because they believed science was the best subject ever!

Boy, was I wrong.

My co-teacher quickly pulled me aside and said, "I think you should ask them what they mean by science skills," he said. "I don't like the sound of it."

I went ahead and asked the girls what they meant by "science skills," not expecting any elaborate answer.

My mistake.

The girls struggled to articulate their thoughts through words, so they decided on body language.

One girl grabbed her nose and pretended to cut it with a scissor. She then took that imaginary nose, threw it out, and replaced it with a smaller imaginary nose. She then looked at me with the biggest smile she could muster and said, "Yea? See? Science skills!"

In case that didn't do it for me, another student got my attention and said, "Teacher, you no understand? Ahhhhhh.... OK. It's like this..."

She stared at her friends face and said, "Oh! Your lips! I LOVE! Give me, OK?"

She then said, "Doctor! Doctor!! Chingu lips on me, OK?" (Chingu means friend in Korean).

And then, the reality of all this struck me...

Science Skills = Plastic Surgery.

Who knew?

In every class that followed, I made sure to let the girls know that 'science skills' weren't an option when giving advice about self-esteem.

I can't even tell you how heartbroken and sad they looked when they heard that.


xo
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Image courtesy of snapshots.net

I laugh with you

I've been watching this Korean variety show on TV for the past couple of weeks. In fact, I've been following it pretty diligently. I think it's been on three nights each week. But, here's the insane part - I don't know the name of the show. In fact, even if I did, I'm sure it would have some complicated Korean title, and I'd forget it after the second word.

What I know of the show is this: currently there's six famous Korean celebrities from various dramas and comedy sketch shows participating in it. They're made to perform a series of tasks that range from taking conversational English tests, to going out to the country and farming for a day.

But... it's all in Korean.

Still, when it's on, I can't seem to turn the TV off. I find myself laughing when the audience laughs, and sometimes even understanding what the actors are saying... despite not knowing a lick of Korean.

A friend and I were chatting over dinner a couple of weeks ago, about how we seem to catch on to the k-pop songs so quickly, despite not knowing what they're singing about. She said it's because they're so repetitive and catchy. I think this is true, but I also think it's because we're getting used to the language on some subliminal level. We may not be fluent in it, or even speak it, but on some strange level, it's what's normal to us right now.

A few students asked me to play Lady GaGa's "Pokerface" in class the other day, and I was taken aback by the English-ness of the song. Bizarre? Yes.

Another reason for watching this variety show with such fascination is because of this man:

This is Kim Seong-min -- a Korean actor and overall celebrity. The only reason I know his name is because my girls at school conducted an intensive search on their Naver search engine, for me. I told them I thought a Korean man was handsome. That's all it took. I didn't even have a picture of him.

I didn't know his name when I first wanted to figure out who he was. So my class, full of intermediate grade eight girls, got to work.

"Teacher, where did you see him?"

"I saw him on Sunday night. A KBS variety show."

They pulled up a bunch of images of random actors who were hot on the tube that night. None of them were him.

"Teacher, what's the name of the show?"

"I don't know. I know there's six male celebrities on it."

Another load of images populated the screen. Still, none of them were him. After the circle of girls surrounding the computer grew larger, and the bickering of who this mystery man could be grew by a whole octave, another girl asked me the final two questions.

"Teacher, he is on Korean drama?"

"Yes. I don't know which one."

"OK, teacher, is this man on it?" she asked, as she pointed to the photo of a random comedian who was also on the show.

"YES!"

Ten seconds later, Mr. Kim Seong-min took over my desktop.

My reaction?

"SIGH!!"

My girls' reaction?

"TEACHER, EEWW!! I LAUGH WITH YOU!"

I think she meant "at you," though.

Still, this could have been a lesson plan in and of itself. It's difficult getting my girls to speak when talking about lessons from their textbook. But send them on a mission involving k-pop or TV shows, and boy, does their vocabulary ever grow!

xo
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Photo courtesy of Google Images

Wordy Seoul!

It's been almost two months since I started living in the Land of Morning Calm. And throughout my days here, I've never been short on advice and random quotes. There's people throwing one-liners at me from all corners, on everything from my diet, to Korean love connections. There's a lot to this list, and I'm sure I'll have tons more before the year is done... but here's some teasers.

"No talking. Just flirting... with eyes."
- Sharon's co-teacher's advice to me, on trying to make friends with the cute intern phys-ed teacher at my school.

"Alive octopus make man very happy. Man happy, you happy."
- Mrs. C's advice, during a 'female teachers only' lunch, at mid-terms.

"Kimbap... kimbap... kimbap!! You eat more food! Look at you! Kimbap plus more, you need."
- Mrs. K - the confidence booster, after I told her I ate kimbap for dinner... three nights in a row.

" Your hair... why do you do it different? It's confusing me."
- Mr. S, every time I wear my hair differently.

"You solo?"
- Mr. cute intern phys-ed teacher, during our one and only conversation... a month ago.

Yes, I'm solo. You solo? Let's duet!
(Perhaps I should try this 'flirt with eyes' bit)...

There's tons more, but I'll get to those in time. For now, I hope you've enjoyed these!

xo
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