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!

David Rambles On in Strange Tongues

What I have the pleasure of offering you today is a genuine video featuring me and various interviews about my experience as an expatriate living in the Mapo ward of Seoul. Now, unless you're interested in practicing your Korean or simply enjoy seeing me utter my wisdom, no matter how incomprehensible it may be, I don't recommend that you actually WATCH the whole thing.

Later, if anyone is really interested, I could type up a transcript of the video.

(Note: like most Korean websites, this one is not compatible with firefox or other alternate browsers. You will probably have to use internet explorer to watch it.)



DIRECTIONS

STEP 1
Go to http://www.mapo.go.kr/.

STEP 2

Click on the picture of the news broadcast.

STEP 3

Scroll down to the bottom of the page

STEP 4

Click on the picture of the two students (one of whom is me!)

STEP 5

Watch the video! If nothing happens, try clicking the play button.

Thoughts on entering the advanced stage of a language (source):

The first two years of language learning is like walking down a hallway with doors every so often. You come to a door, open it, learn the stuff, and continue down the hallway, learning whatever is behind the doors. However, once you reach the end of the hallway, you open the door and you have a huge, vast wasteland. From there on out you wander the linguistic wasteland learning stuff with no direction and wondering when it's all gonna end.

This pretty much describes my own feelings about my continuing study of Korean. I've learned enough to know how many gaps there are in my current understanding of the language. And it's hard to know which gap to try to fill first.

Still, the challenge remains compelling. With French and Latin, when I reached a fairly decent level of reading proficiency, I basically stopped studying. But with Korean, I want to press forward and continue until I feel I've done just about all I can do with the language. Sometimes this journey feels like a easy lap around the pool, other times like a do-or-die swim across the English channel.

Encouragement is as always welcome!

Poetry Is Painting with Words

As a bit of follow-up to my previous post, I thought I'd add some pictures of the watercolor that Yuna painted to go with the poem. But first, to clear up a few misunderstandings...

1) I didn't write the poem "Green Delight." I just translated it. So unfortunately I can't take credit for the images therein.

2) The link that I included on the post simply has the original text of the poem - the image on that site in no way pertains to Yuna or her illustration project.

And now to our main event.


This sign says: "Intoxicated with 'spring,' poetry // Illustrated poems and contemporary Korean poetry // 100 years of source material on display!"


Here is Yuna's illustration. You can see the Korean on the left and my translation on the right.


And here's a closeup of my translation! Of course, if you actually want to read it without squinting, it's available in the previous post.

The delight is in the making

Me and Sung-Cheol on our trip to Goje Island, Thanksgiving 2007

About a week and a half ago I went on a date to Coex Mall (I posted my impression of this place a while ago). While there, I watched a movie that involved a lot of gruesome deaths, ate a meal that involved a lot of ramen noodles, and walked a kilometer or two underground.

Also, and with more relevance to this post, as I shared a waffle bathed in ice cream with my girlfriend Yuna, I translated a Korean poem into English. Yuna had undertaken a project to illustrate a poem called Green Delight, written by one Hyeon-Jong Jeong. Yuna's illustration of the poem included, of course, a version of the original inscribed in beautiful calligraphy, but she also wanted to add a version in English. Initially, I was just going to check her own translation, but I ended up retranslating it myself.

I would recommend you attribute any felicities in the translation to the grace of the original, any false steps in the translation to the immaturity of the translator.

---
Green Delight (in a Forest in the Spring)

by Hyeon-Jong Jeong

tr. by David Carruth

The sun sinks down in waves
of light, overflowing with its own light.
The sun becomes the crown
of all greens and all flowers,
and it beams on the greens and flowers,
which are its crown.
Like the father of allegory,
like a spring of green,
it beams across all the blue expanse of heaven.
The whole of heaven is pure delight-
it is a temple.
Sun, blue heaven,
green delight of the branches
swaying and drunk on the light and air,
on their own sap,
like water floating in the sky.
So also is the dirt, and in deep places
its fragrant eyes search,
and in secret it gives and receives,
and it smiles.
This fragrance,
this fragrance of the smiling dirt,
it seems to be pouring into my nose.
Fragrance of heaven!
Fragrance of the trees!

---
If by chance anyone would like to compare my translation with the original, you can find it here. Of course, unless you're relatively proficient in Korean, it may not be very interesting to you...

Proverbs the World Over

A few days ago in class, we were learning about proverbs. For the most part, we studied the proverbs that are used commonly in Korea, but for a speaking activity the teacher asked us to think of a few proverbs used in our home countries and translate them (into Korean of course) for the other students in class.

My proverbs were
1) Every cloud has a silver lining.
2) A watched pot never boils.
3) You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Curious about the proverbs provided by my rather international class? Just as I expected! Fortunately, I recorded as many as I could from the discussion. Hope you enjoy them.

*Note: some of these are not so much proverbs as idioms. However, the line between the two is a little blurred, so be a little generous.

Name: Seh-yeon
Country: Uzbekistan

1) You can't catch a fish in a lake without trying.
Meaning: do your best.
2) Measure the cloth seven times and cut it once.
Meaning: if you plan carefully, you won't waste your time.
3) No one prays until lightning strikes.
Meaning: People are more religious when they're scared.

Name: Hyo-jyeong
Country: China
1) Even if you keep studying until you die, you can't learn it.
Meaning: some things take a lot of time to master.
2) If you're stupid, get up earlier to go to work.
Meaning: what you lack in intelligence you can make up for in effort.

Name: Masaheh
Country: Japan
1) For every meeting there is also a farewell.
Meaning: No one can stay together forever.

Name: Lim-pang
Country: Taiwan
1) It's better to give your parents a bean while they're alive then a pig's head (=traditional at funerals) when they die.
Meaning: a dutiful child cares for his parents while they are with him.
2) Steal a pumpkin as a child, steal a cow as an adult.
Meaning: bad habits start young; petty crimes tend to get worse
3) As a watermelon has a lot of seeds, so does a wicked person have a lot of words.
Meaning: Quit blabbing.

Name: Sayuri
Country: Japan
1) Put a cat on.
Meaning: put on an act; hide your true feeling
2) Wrap something long around your neck (?)
Meaning: follow orders; obey your superiors
3) A duck brings onions on its back.
Meaning...?

Name: Mio
Country: Japan
1) Pearls in a pig's ear.
Meaning: The same as English.
*The Korean is "A pig wearing a pearl necklage"
2) Do it fast while the ghost is away.
Meaning: While the cat's away the mice will play.
3) Blue came before dark blue, but dark blue is better.
Meaning: The apprentice has bested his master.

Name: Jiaying
Country: Singapore
1) Go fly a kite.
Meaning: beat it. get out of here.
2) To arrow someone.
Meaning: to pass the buck, to shift the blame
3) Got eye see no Tarzan.
Meaning: to show off in front of an expert.

There's something comical about this ad

Now we return to our featured program...

The other day I went to COEX, the biggest mall in Seoul and most likely in all of Korea. Actually, it's kind of disappointing, despite all of the hype. One would expect that a mall of this caliber would be stunning and slick. In fact, when I visited Fukuoka, a fairly large city in Japan (but nowhere as big as Seoul), I was quite taken with Canal City, a five story shopping complex and one of the major tourist attractions there. Canal City has an innovative design, comprising several buildings connected by walkways that leap across space and separated by fountains and winding waterways below.


COEX, however, is vaguely futuristic in the most boring possible sense. As you roam the confusing halls, you can't help wondering whether you've strayed onto the set of a seventies sci-fi thriller. And sadly, it's rather hard to stray off. If it weren't for the occasional signs, the halls look almost identical and lack any distinguishing features to indicate which part of the mall you happen to be in.

While in the mall, I found a striking advertisement for one of Nike's most recent products - the Dunk line of shoes. Perhaps this has become trendy lately, but I'd never seen the like - an advertisement disguised as a comic book, or better yet a comic book whose theme and purpose are advertisement. Not product placement so much as comic replacement. I've translated one page for your commercial edification.

Have you seen marketing of this sort before? It's strange because it doesn't seem to really work either on an artistic level or on a commercial level. The story - dull; the advertising - ignored. The only plus I can find is that it gave me a chance to do a bit of (admittedly simple) translation.