I am not Watching Super Bowl This Year

The Korean is boycotting the Super Bowl this year. In fact, the Korean will never watch the NFL again, unless the league finds a way to dramatically reduce the level of brain damage that the players suffer. If this means American football no longer exists in the current form--instead evolving into something like touch football or rugby--I'm fine with it. If this means the death of football in America, I am ok with it.

Here is why.

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One of my fondest memories from law school involves 1987 Chicago Bears. Not that I watched the Chicago Bears in 1987--more accurately, the memory involves a virtual simulation of the '87 Bears. 

In law school, my closest friends--let's call them JA, RT, and SW--and I wasted a lot of time together. RT had bought a hacked Xbox from eBay, which came pre-loaded with many classic NES games. One of the games was Tecmo Bowl, a video game from 1988 that primitively simulated the NFL at the time. RT and JA would play Tecmo Bowl together, while SW and I would watch the game, drink beer and crack jokes. 

RT favored San Francisco 49ers, which featured a fearsome aerial attack with Joe Montana. JA would always play Chicago Bears, relying on Walter Payton's running game. But--because we were idiots--the absolute highlight of the game featured neither of the Hall of Famers. For us, the moment we always waited for was when Chicago's safety made an interception of Montana's pass. Then the cheesy, 1980s NES graphics would flash this across the top of the screen: "INTERCEPTION!!!!!" This would be followed by these following letters: "DAVE DUERSON!!!!!!!" 

None of us has ever heard of Dave Duerson, who was a safety for the Chicago Bears in Tecmo Bowl. But that did not stop us from cracking jokes--mostly juvenile puns involving the last name "Duerson." The longest running joke was that each time Duerson made an interception, he would "Duer" RT's mom. The joke kept running because the virtual Dave Duerson would make plays like clockwork. Duerson in our Tecmo Bowl games would make about 10 interceptions a game, largely because of RT's overconfidence in the Niners' West Coast Offense. With SW, a masterfully funny guy, this joke expanded into the ones featuring various places and manners in which Dave Duerson would have sex with RT's mother.

For one Super Bowl, we decided that the four of us should kill 100 cans of Coors Light that day, and play more Tecmo Bowl before the game came on. With about five beers in, I foolishly declared that I would shotgun a can of beer each time Duerson made an interception. I don't remember how many cans of Coors Light I drank in what could not have been more than a 20 minute span, but they were enough to make me black out for the entire Super Bowl game, muttering: "Dave Duerson, you did this to me, you're awesome."

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Where is Korean Rock?

Dear Korean,

I know that you've touched a little bit on Korean rock music-- particularly in your "most influential" series-- but I was curious as to what the rock scene is really like in Korea today. Why is there so little Korean rock music? How are rockers treated today in Korea, considering the dominance of the K-pop idols?

Curious K-Rock fan

Let's address the first question first -- why is there so little Korean rock music?

Answer:  the premise of the question is wrong, because there are tons of Korean rock music. Tons. Let's put it this way: if we played a game where the Korean names two rock songs for every one idol group song, the Korean guarantees that he will win every time. In fact, this is one of the most frustrating things about discussion Korean pop music -- the idea that manufactured pretty boys and pretty girls comprise the entire universe of K-pop. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Nor is this guy the entirety of K-pop.
You had your fun, people. It's time to move on.
(source)

It is true that Korean rock is less visible to the international audience because Korean rock, unlike Korean idol groups, is not systematically pushed abroad by well-capitalized management companies. It is also true that Korean rock is less "mainstream," in a sense that Korean rock sells less number of albums, appear less on television and less frequently heard (if at all) in shopping malls in Korea.

But so what? Isn't being independent, underground and non-commercial more properly within the spirit of rock and roll? Do you know how many number one singles that the legendary rock band Radiohead has? Zero. How about other legends like Led Zeppelin or Depeche Mode? Also zero. Celine Dion has not one, but two, albums that outsold Nirvana's Nevermind, widely considered the greatest alternative rock album ever. Speaking of Nevermind, you would never hear Smells like Teen Spirit in your neighborhood mall. But does any of these factoids diminish the importance or influence of rock music? Of course not.

The lesson here is simple: people like mainstream pop more than rock music. That's why mainstream pop is mainstream. Korean pop music scene is not an exception -- that's why mainstream Korean pop established a beachhead in the international stage first. But that should not lead to the conclusion that rock music does not exist in Korea, or Korean people don't like rock music. In fact, rock music is one of the two pillars that hold up the foundation of Korean pop music, and it has a storied history in Korea. (The other pillar is -- don't laugh -- trot [트로트]. This will be explained in a future post.)

(More after the jump.)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Can You Get by in Korea Without Speaking Korean?

There are some questions that the Korean receives that he is fundamentally unequipped to answer. This is one of them -- can one get by in Korea without speaking Korean? The Korean is unable to answer this question for a simple reason: there has never been a point in his life where he was unable to speak Korean in Korea. Any attempt by the Korean to answer this question would only be a guesswork.

 

Fortunately, there are others on the Internet who are able to provide thoughtful answers to this question. So here is a good one from the always-entertaining Eat Your Kimchi:

The point is, we think the whole reason why someone should learn the language in a country is for communication.  . . .  In our case, we have basic communication down. We can order anything we need at restaurants, ask for everything we need at supermarkets and shops, tell taxis where to go, ask for directions, all that. But we can’t have deeeeep discussions. We can’t talk politics or religion. We can’t tell you what Spudgy did to that teddy bear in the park (you don’t want to know what he did to that teddy bear in the park). We’re not fluent or 100% conversational, but we’re perfectly functional to the point that our local shops think that we ARE fluent speakers. It also helps that we can understand Korean, so even though our responses are basic, we’re still communicating.

So, the question we often face is why don’t we learn MORE Korean. We live in Korea, we plan on living here more, so why not become super fluent? Well, there are a few factors for us to consider. From a very honest personal standpoint, we don’t need to.  . . .  we’re already married and we don’t go out that much, because we spend so much time editing and filming. We’re with each other all the time, talking to each other all the time. More importantly, our Korean friends speak English as well, and want us to speak English with them all the time, because this is their chance to practice it when they otherwise don’t have many opportunities to do so. So from our personal perspective, learning Korean won’t really do that much for us.

Not Speaking Korean in Korea [Eat Your Kimchi]

Admittedly, the Korean's perspective is somewhat different. As the readers know, I immigrated to U.S. and learned English at a relatively late age, and learned English to the level of having above-average language skills, even compared to native speakers. (Sorry to boast, but it was necessary for the context.) 

There is, of course, difference in purposes held the Korean on one hand, and held by Simon and Martina on the other, and the difference probably drives the different life choices we made under similar circumstances. The Korean had a clear goal in making a life in the United States like any other American. I cannot know what the future plan of Simon and Martina are, but I would imagine it would differ a bit from the one I had for myself when I moved to the U.S. In other words, one could say that the bar for "adequate" level of foreign language was simply higher for the Korean.

But, in my opinion, the bigger difference between our approaches is the purposes of our language learning. EYK thinks communication is the point of language learning -- a position from which it follows that the adequate level of language learning is at the point where one can make adequate level of communication. This is a perfectly valid position, and makes a great deal of sense.

Yet the Korean has a different purpose for language learning. For me, the purpose of language learning is not communication; it is for understanding the world around me. For me, it is not enough that I have enough language skills to order food at restaurants, make small talks or do my job. I need to have enough language skills to understand the major events and issues of the society to which I belong, and understand how those events might affect me. I need to have enough language skills to speak with people who are more knowledgeable than I am in a given issue, and read what those people wrote about such an issue. Simply put, I need enough language skills to know what is going on around me.

EYK did allude to this "language bubble," as they termed the state of being unable to understand most of what is going on around them. But the Korean simply does not feel the "calm and peace" that EYK feels in the language bubble. This is likely because of fundamental difference in temperament -- after all, whenever I enter any physical space (be it someone's room, a subway car, a busy street, etc.,) the first thing I always do is to read every single printed word there is to read. This does not mean that the Korean gets annoyed or frustrated when he travels abroad to a country whose language he does not speak. But it does mean that, if I don't understand the language around me, my surroundings lose a little bit of reality for me, as if they are images from a television or artificial structures in a theme park. The Korean can tolerate that for a week or two, but not for a month or a year. 

Lest there is any misunderstanding -- this post is not to suggest this or that about Simon and Martina. The Korean already made it clear that the difference in our perspectives is likely due to our life circumstances and our temperaments. It is, simply, something to consider.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

How do Koreans feel about the Chinese?

Dear Korean,

How do Koreans feel about Chinese people?

barbbui

(source)

Wow, a question about how 50 million people feel about 1.5 billion people? Can it get any easier than this? Writing this blog is such a walk in the park.

All kidding aside, experience has taught the Korean that he should first go over the basics of what this post is, and what this post is not. What this post will do is to provide a general overview of various attitudes that toward the Chinese that can be found in various pockets of Korea. What this post will not do is to give a prediction on how you, a Chinese person, will fare in your trip to Korea, in applying to a Korean college, in a job interview with a Korean company, or in finding a Korean guy who will like you.

(Seriously, can people just STOP with that last question? Please. The Korean begs of you. He is on his knees and rubbing his hands and everything.) 

Having said that, let's jump into this ridiculously broad question, which can only be answered in a very broad manner. Suppose we have a spectrum of attitudes, going from "extremely favorable" to "extremely negative." If one surveys all the attitudes about China and the Chinese people that exist in Korea and put them on a spectrum, the attitudes would be spread from "somewhat favorable" to "pretty negative."

(More after the jump)

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

Ask an Espanol

Belated happy new year to everyone! The Korean traveled to Spain in the first two weeks of the new year. More serious blogging will resume in the coming days. In the meantime, based on his trip, here are some questions that the Korean would have liked to pose to a hypothetical "Ask an Espanol" blog.

1.  Dear Espanol,

During his trip to Spain, the Korean greatly enjoyed bacalao, which is semi-dried cod. But the Korean had thought that Atlantic Cod is on the verge of extinction due to overfishing. Is bacalao in Spain made of Atlantic Cod? Is there any awareness in Spain about the sustainability of cod?

2.  Dear Espanol,

What do espanoles think about Francisco Franco generally? Is there any part of Spain or Spaniards who think positively of Franco? On a similar note, what do Spaniards think about the current king? In particular, what do people make of Juan Carlos's previous association with the Franco dictatorship? How strong is the "republican" movement (i.e. desire to do away with monarchy)?

3.  Dear Espanol,

One theory explaining the sorry state of Korean beer -- which is mostly watery and tasteless -- is that it is pointless to develop beer with strong flavor as beer usually accompanies food. The Korean had thought this theory was crock, until he had a fairly broad overview of Spanish beers, which were also mostly watery and tasteless. Do you think the Spanish habit of having tapas with drinks contributed to Spain's watery beer? Or is there any other reason?

4.  Dear Espanol,

The Korean had a wonderful time in Granada, a city renowned for its tapas culture. Remarkably, when one orders a drink in Granada, a free tapa comes along. But drinks in Granada were no more expensive than the rest of Spain, or rest of the developed world for that matter. And the tapas in Granada were just as tasty as any tapa in Spain. How does this work economically in Granada? Conversely, if this works so well in Granada, why is this wonderful custom not more widespread in Spain?

5.  Dear Espanol,

How are Spaniards dealing with the current economic crisis? Korea came out of its own wrenching economic crisis in 1997 as a completely changed society -- it became more individualist, materialist and survivalist. Do you feel any change in the national character of Spain as it is undergoing the economic crisis?

6.  Dear Espanol,

Why is Japanese food so popular in Madrid? Although the Korean's view is quite limited as he was only in the tourist-friendly area, he must have seen more Japanese restaurants per unit area in Madrid than any other country except Japan itself. But this trend appears to be limited to Madrid -- the Korean did not notice the same frequency of Japanese restaurants in other large Spanish cities, such as Barcelona or Seville. 

7.  Dear Espanol,

Do Spaniards feel any particular kinship with the Spanish-speaking South America?

-EDIT- One more that the Korean forgot to add...

8.  Dear Espanol,

The Korean heard that there is an increased number of Chinese immigrants to Spain, who are getting into small businesses that are more mainstream, such as a tapas restaurant. The Korean did in fact see quite a few Asians running small businesses in Madrid and Barcelona. Compared to the general attitude toward immigrants, how are Spaniards feeling about the immigrants from Asia, if there is any feeling developed yet?

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If you think you have the answer to any of the questions above, feel free to chime in.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.