Saturday, December 5, 2009

Eungyeol Lee - Magician


Eungyeol Lee is an award-winning magician and the first Korean to win the FISM World Champion of General Magic.

Taken from the TEDx Seoul website:


“At the young age of 21, he became the first Korean magician to perform abroad. In 2003 he was the winner of the World Magic Seminar held in Las Vegas, and in 2006 he was first Asian to place first at the World Magic Olympics. Since then he has been awarded countless major prizes proving the potential of Koreans on the global magic scene.”

Lee had the audience sitting at the edge of their seats during his performance on stage. He draw a picture of a bird on a canvas which he “turned into” a real parrot that flew into the audience. It flew back to him on stage and was placed in a “time machine” where it came out a third of its size.


This was a hit with the audience:

Jonathan Zittrain - Social Theorist

There was another TED video presentation, this time by Jonathan Zittrain who is a social theorist. His presentation was titled, “The Web as random acts of kindness” which touched on issues about the Internet being made up of millions of disinterested acts of kindness, curiosity and trust.” 


Here is the video presentation:




Yeonho Oh - CEO (OhMyNews)


Yeonho Oh is a journalist and CEO of the citizen-reporting generated OhMyNews.com

Oh decided to become a journalist because he felt that the media failed to show the reality of our daily lives. He wrote an article on the negative view of advancement of technology, but he later realized that he should, in fact, become familiar with it [technology] to enable him to deliver more news to more people. He learned that the internet allowed anyone to become a journalist.

At 2:22, February 22 2000, OhMyNews was launched and was the first internet-based newspaper that proposed that “every citizen is a journalist” which of course counters what has traditionally been practiced by print news media. Oh emphasizes that “Any type of MEDIA should be a MEDIATOR.”

Speaking about OhMyNews on the TEDx Seoul website, Oh says:



“Now every citizen can participate in the creation of news, and we seek to create a new news culture with new news for a new world. This is especially meaningful for Korea, where the news has historically been dominated by conservative voices. Now we can create a news media playing field with balanced representation from both the conservative and progressive camps.”

Doojin Hwang - Community Architect



Doo-jin Hwang studied architecture at Seoul National University and Yale.
From the TEDx Seoul site:
He first became involved in traditional Korean residential architecture or hanok (한옥) through a hanok renovation project, and now he is known as the modern hanok architect. His works include the modern Yeolinchek building and Chunwondang, numerous hanok projects as well as Kahwaehyun, where the modern and traditional are brought together. These works have been published in a monograph entitled The Return of Hanok



Hwang says that, When the western barbarians invade us, not to fight with them is to reconcile and to reconcile is to deceive your own country. He spoke a lot about modernization and westernization saying that, to learn something from the outside world is to be re-born.



Speaking of Korea in the 20th century:



"Its an age of negation
Modernization = Westernization

Everything we wear and eat changed
We became part of a global community
We lost many things (not only hanoks)"


Jaram Lee - Pansori Performer



Jaram Lee is a Pansori (traditional Korean music) performer. She is passionate about storytelling and singing and says that there are many people who are like her – standing outside the fast-moving trends of the world.

When telling a story on stage, it has to be true. It means you are living,” says Lee.


While Pansori itself is not tradition in Korea, because of the painful memories during Japanese colonial times, many Koreans talked about their bad experiences, but it was also during this time that Pansori began to be protected.



Lee believes that
the importance of song or performance lies in its ability to comfort pain and uplit the midst of people coming together. Not only is Pansori music, it is also a performance. It is a story that heals.”


Even though she is a traditional musician, Lee tries to adapt the traditional form of storytelling to make it relevant to today’s generation.




They say dynamite comes in small packages and if you see and hear Lee perform, you’ll understand excactly why. She was a hit with the audience and wrapped up her presentation by saying:
Where we start from should always be the truth. What significance do we want to put into it? That’s what kindles me.”




Here is a clip of Jaram's performance:



Friday, December 4, 2009

Today I'm grateful for...

Friday, December 4 2009
Today I'm grateful for...

  1. ...my co-teacher teaching 2 classes for me while I had to meet a deadline.

  2. ...my co-teacher translating the lunchtime conversation for me.

  3. ...my mum, brother & online friends listening to my vents.

  4. ...my gym instructor asking me if I was OK - "Condition down?"

  5. ...it being Friday!

Have a good w-end, everyone! Love x


Wearing a bindi 'coz I'm a virgin?

Brief Background

My current principal (woman) started at the beginning of this year and the vice principal (man) started at the beginning of this semester. I don't know them as well as I know the previous principal and vice who I was fond of. I only really see them during lunch time when we eat together in the teacher's room along.

Also, I have 2 co-teachers: Mr Oh and Soonhwa. Mr Oh is one of the head teachers so he sits together with the principal and vice principal at a separate table - just a few feet from where I sit. Remember everyone speaks Korean, except if a teacher is talking directly to me. The principal & vice don't speak English.

My Bindi's

For a few years, I've been wearing a bindi everyday. I have dozens and usually match the colour to whatever I'm wearing for the day. Bindi's are a significant part of the Indian culture. For example, a red dot symbolizes that a woman is married. There are many other stories behind the bindi, but to put it simply to people - it's Indian fashion, or as I say here in Korea "Indo pashin" That is, after all, what the bindi has evolved to.

My students are always curious about my bindi's and are very observant when I don't wear one (usually on days when I'm feeling slightly out of balance with myself).


Today at lunch

As I take my seat at lunch, the vice principal walks past saying something to me in Korean while he's pointing to the middle of his brow. He's referring to my bindi. The only word I catch in Korean is "morning" I don't understand what he's saying, and none of the other 8 teachers sitting at the table translate for me. They just sit with their heads bent and start eating their food. This frustrates me because my Korean is not that fluent to understand everything.

I greeted the vice principal this morning and he thought that I wasn't wearing one [bindi]. He assumed that I put one on before coming to lunch. He was mistaken. As he's taking his food, he starts asking questions about my bindi. One teacher tells him that I change it everyday according to what colour clothes I'm wearing. So he becomes curious about how many I have.

Enter Principal

The principal enters and the she's invited into the conversation by the vice (about me) They take their seat next to Mr Oh. I'm trying to eat quickly because I have a deadline to meet, but I can hear snippets of the conversation from the next table. I hear "Indo-saram" (Indian person) and "Nam-Aprika" (South Africa). Of course I ask Soon-hwa if they are talking about me. She nods her head and says she'll tell me later.

'Coz I'm a virgin?

When we're done with classes for the day and sitting in the office, Soon-hwa asks me about my bindi. She wants to tell me about what the principal and vice were talking about. She doesn't look very happy and says that since lunch time she has been trying to think how to tell me this.

"He (vice principal) thinks it is for burden"
"Burden?"
I can't understand her.

She doesn't mean "burden". She means "virgin". He [vice] used a Korean word meaning "female virgin".

My vice principal thinks that I wear a bindi because I'm a virgin.

Am I hearing correctly? Those words just don't fit in a sentence together.

"vice principal" / "bindi" / "virgin"

It gets worse

Apparently he went on to say that boys will probably be very happy when they see me ... knowing that I'm a virgin.

I can't believe I'm hearing this.

Soon-hwa tells me that she was very angry at lunch time, but couldn't tell me at the time. She was upset further that none of the other teachers at my table (all women) reacted to this.

She goes on to tell me that if it was said to a Korean teacher, there would be "big problems".

Why I'm pissed off

  • How can a conversation ABOUT ME being a VIRGIN happen right next to me without me knowing? Of course, they were speaking in Korean.

  • The vice principal is old enough to be my father. I hardly know him. He's my superior. I'm the foreign teacher. Why is he talking about such things?

  • Why didn't the principal (a WOMAN) stop this conversation?

  • How can this be a topic at lunchtime in front of my co-teacher, Mr Oh?

  • Why didn't anyone else tell me this? Or react?
Need to vent

I tell my friend, Sarah - also a teacher. She doesn't react much. But that's just her. She doesn't show much emotion. And besides, she's not really surprised. To top it off - she'd rather talk about her new boyfriend. So I listen to her and show happiness and excitement for her.

Hit the gym


But I still need to let off steam. So I head to the gym. Seo-gyun is there, but I try to ignore him. Hopefully he'll get the hint. After a while, my gym instructor comes over to me and says, "Condition down?" I want to scream - F*ck YES! I really appreciate him asking me that.

A few hours later

Talking about it and now writing about it, I feel a bit better. There's a lot more I want to say and elaborate on, but I will do that in another blog. There are many things going through my mind - did Soon-hwa translate correctly? What if she misunderstood?

But there are still other things that are frustrating me. I will write more about that maybe tomorrow. For now, I have to take a break and relax.

Peace...