SEOUL - NOVEMBER 5, 2000
Where to begin today. Well, I've had a few interviews at Goldmans, but haven't heard from them this week. I may be going the route of teaching English instead. Actually that would give me much more control over my personal schedule, rather than a substantial block of hours committed to being in an office type of setting. On another note, yesterday I paid my rent. My bank account is seriously in trouble already. I really need to be making some income quickly, I have just enough money to survive this month and pay December rent, but after that, I will be going into credit card debt. Also, I have my heart set on a three week travel around Java in Indonesia's Java, so in January when I come back from that, I will definetely be into credit card debt. Somehow it will all work out alright. Worse case scenario is that I have to work extra hard this Winter, or if I take another Korean language semester, I will have to work much harder this Spring. But it is a little unsettling to have to be worried about finances already, especially since I've only been here for five weeks so far.
On to other things. I made some previous notes regarding Korean to the Mongolia, Turkish, Chinese, and Japanese languages. Incidently, everyone in my class is of one of these, except for me and the Portuguese guy. Anyhow, here is the official note on this, as quoted from the Lonely Planet's Guide of South Korea:
Korean is a member of the Ural-Altaic family of languages. Other members of the same linguistic branch are Turkish and Mongolian. In reality Korean grammar shares much more with Japanese than it does ith either Turkish or Mongolian. Furthermore, the Koreans have borrowed nearly 70% of their vocabulary from neighboring China, and now many English words have penetrated the Korean lexicon. - Lonely Planet
So that is the official word on the Korean language. So that is why the Chinese and Japanese students seem to know the vocabulary almost as soon as its introduced. They probably just throw the Korean accent on it, and its all good. There are a few English words too, once they've been Korean modified, they are hardly recognizeable, but its nice to instantly know words like 'television', 'radio', 'internet' and whatever else which has been adopted. Actually those are recognizeable. When I lived in Pusan, I lived in an apartment called "Tay-Gyun-Hah-Pi-Taow-Na". It was all written in Korean characters, and it was three months when someone told me that I acually lived in an apartment called "Ta-Gyun Happy Town". The words "happy town" were completely distorted within the Korean characters of the language.
Yesterday I was watching the Olympics on television. Women's archery was on. Incidently, South Korea are always the best in the world in the field or Archery. Its always amazed me too. First off, South Korea is a very crowded place. There are around 45 million people in this country. Its not a very big place either, Seoul in the northwest to Pusan in the southeast takes about 50 minutes to fly by plane. The majority of the country is also extremely mountainous, so that means that all of these people settle into the few places where the mountains don't interrupt daily life too much. So I always wonder how this country develops some of the world's best in Archery? Granted I'm in Seoul, but there is hardly enough room to walk on the streets around here, much less practicing with a bow and arrow.
Anyhow, the Archery was interesting. One thing I wanted to mention about it, was the women. I was watching it on TV, and all of the Korean women, except for one, were completely decked out with full makeup, bright lipstick, and, well, basically like they look everywhere in Korea. I wouldn't have been surprised if they would have shot their bow and arrow wearing high heels too. The interesting aspect of it, was when they pull back the bowstring, they rest it against their lips (all of them did this, it must be the style of how to shoot the bow). Anyhow, when they pressed it against their lips, the lipstick would smear in this straight line down their chin. It was just interesting, because they must have known that that is what happens when they wear lipstick and shooting a bow. But they wore the extremely thick lipstick anyhow. I just found it interesting, because its a very Korean thing for the women to always keep up their appearances and strive for the sexy, glamourous look, even when, or many especially involved with shooting a bow and arrow on international television for the world to see them.
Actually, thinking back to my days in Pusan. When I taught there, there were mirrors everywhere throughout my language school. Also, nearly every woman I'd met always either carried mirrors or had a mirror at their desk. Plus, in Korean society in general, there just seems to be alot of mirrors around, even down in the subway, and at many stops going into or out of the subway, there are full mirrors. I've always found it interesting because everywhere I've always seen women checking their makeup, and seeing how they look. They will walk by and momentary be mesmerized by their own image (in the subway, or when I was at my school in Pusan, everywhere). I've seen people stand their checking out their backside and frontside, to see how they look coming as well as going, everything. Its an intersting aspect of Korean society, because in USA, its kind of embarrassing or seen as vain to spend time in front of a mirror. In fact, if I'm the bathroom, and another guy is in there too, I'd actually be a little embarrassed to look into the mirror, and be seen as self-conscious or given into insecurity or vanity, or whatever American society is so shy of this. But in Korea, its very normal and natural to be concerned about your appearances.
To read the Next Journal Entry: November 10, 2000
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