Trailor for the Air Show, Coming Soon to a City Near Me

A quick click on the link below will take you to the website of the International Sky Leisure Expo, a big air fair slated to take place in Ansan, where I live. Please watch the video trailer that plays when you first get to the page before reading my comments below. (You don't really need to know Korean to get the gist of this one.)

Coming soon to a city near me!

I presume you've finished watching it. Well, what do you think? Emotional response? I'd guess it falls among the responses below:

1) Wow! Pretty cool. Makes me wanna see the show!
2) Gee, isn't that a bit much for an air show?

Perhaps it makes me a cranky, conservative reactionary to admit that I had the second reaction. Do we really need pulse-pounding music and cinematography more suited for a thriller to advertise an air show?

I fail to see the need to emotionalize every aspect of our lives. It's as if people couldn't get excited about seeing some cool planes without having the emotion pumped into them through their eyes via visual overload and through their ears via an auditory orgy.

I could extend my comments to Korea in general and this culture's love for over-the-top cheese and it's lack of ironic sensibility, but that discussion will wait for another time.

(It occurs to me that I could have summed up this post in three words: I hate marketing.)

Nanosize It!

For all of you out there who may be wondering what all the fuss about nanotechnology is... a group of scientists from UC Berkeley have put together an entertaining and enlightening little musical number. It's called "The Nano Song." For some background, see the original article published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Small Talk in Conversation Class

Today was icebreaker, get-to-know-you, warm up activity day. I sang the Head and Shoulders song with my younger kids, played an ESL version of Simon Says, and then got geared up for the high stakes action of my top level E class.

I should've known that the old "any questions" line was a bad idea. Titus (yes, I named him), a somewhat hyperactive and emotionally unstable sixth grader in my class jerked up his hand and blurted out, "What do you think about pornography?"

This is a mixed age class with second and third grade girls as well as older boys.

I never thought I'd actually use the line, "That's not an appropriate topic for conversation in this class." But I did.

Translation Alone Is Not Enough

From the KORAIL (Korea Railroad) website:

KORAIL wants to be a beautiful bridge that connects people's heart[s], and not just some iron-made transportation.

Translation is often not so much converting MEANING from one language to another as it is figuring out the PURPOSE of a given text and determining the best way to achieve that purpose in the target language. The translator here seems unaware that corny language doesn't do too well in English promotional materials.

What a Punderful Life

I get paid to write prose like this:

“Lucky Spring Package” at the Novotel Ambassador in Busan
For the duration of spring (Mar 1st – May 31st) it’s your lucky day at the Novotel Ambassador in Busan. The package starts at W140,000 and includes access to the gym and pool, discounts on the sauna and the Busan Aquarium, and two lottery tickets. Stretch your luck a bit with an extra W20,000/W40,000 for Half Ocean/Ocean View rooms and W30,000 for breakfast for two. 051-743-1243 is the lucky number.

All in all, though, it's an ad you'd remember, don't you think?

David

Five Views of Mount Fuji

Actually, not all of these shots show Mount Fuji, but they were all taken when my Dad and I took a day trip there on June 16th during my recent trip to Japan. We weren't up for a trip all the way to the top, but we did hike part of the rustic Yoshidaguchi Trail. Since it's not really climbing season until July, we saw all of 2 people on the trail.

(For a more traditional and artistic view of the mountain, try this one.)



First sight, from the bus ride.



Me and the mountain behind me.



Ascent to the shrine



Guardian of the water



My dad, among the bamboo

Everywhere I Go, It's the Same

English, I mean. It's the same, I suppose, in the global sense: it's the language that people use when they can't communicate with each other in their native tongues. Or is that linguistic? Different homes and different dialects but the same lovably idiosyncratic syntax.

Actually, what I mean is that English is just as funky and fresh in Japan as in Korea. Here are a few exhibits from my recent trip. Later posts and pictures will explore deeper things - this post is cheap thrills only.



Exhibit 1: Japanese Product
Ah yes, Kirin Lemon. Nothing explicitly wrong with the English here, it's just the hype of the advertisement proudly affixed to the label. It's a long-time favorite! Maybe it's the vagueness of "many people" that I get a kick out of. Or the fact that Kirin is more famous for its beer.


Exhibit 2: Korean restaurant
The Korean on this plaque, which I found in a quite tasty restaurant next to the dock where I boarded the ship for Japan, says nothing about taxpayers. In fact, it reads "A Sincere Model Restaurant." Presumably the message (only noticeable, of course, to those familiar with both English and Korean) is that taxpayers are sincere. Or that sincere restaurants pay their taxes. Or that taxpayers eat at sincere restaurants. I'm still working on the exegesis of this one.


Your cross-cultural sleuth will return with more scintillating cultural commentary soon!