If you’ve ever thought about getting into promotions and organizing local, cultural events, than Korea is where you will find nirvana. Korea is a densely populated country, in fact, as far as large sized countries go, it’s second only to Bangladesh. Ergo when there is an event or a small town hullabaloo to attend, it often attracts quite a crowd. Now, I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but it’s almost as if you don’t need to have much of an allurement to draw in the Korean masses. A traditional Korean toothpick jamborre would probably cause millions to flock to a secluded hamlet for the festivities.
It was about 3.5 hours quicker to walk to the winter festival than wait in a vehicle on this two lane road.
Case in point was the 15th annual Taebaek Winter Festival a group of us attended during the last week of January. It was what one might expect at a winter festival, save the 343.7 million other Koreans who decided to take in some ice sculptures, snow and sledding.
There's more disorder voting in the state of Flordia than there is sledding in Korea.
I have to say that I miss a good old Canadian tobogganing. After seeing all the orderliness and rules here in Korea, I have to conclude that a little chaos is what makes the sledding experience. I am all for kids walking right back up the middle of the hill (you only have to get hit once to learn to walk along the sides). In Korea there are whistles, line-ups and precautions to make sure you don’t go too fast. I am not sure if this country missed the winter memo on sledding, but attaining terminal velocity is the only objective when going down a hill on a lubricious piece of plastic.
This was the post line-up after we bought tickets, but the pre line-up to see Van Gogh's work.
Another example of how a Korean crowd can hamper a good outing was the Van Gogh exhibit. The Korean Museum of Art is fortunate enough to be hosting a collection of this Dutch artist’s masterpieces. A group of us decided that it would be silly not to attend while Vincent’s works were in town. Apparently half of Seoul also didn’t want to feel silly either. So we had to fight through the crowds to catch a glimpse of the artwork. It took forever to get around the 67 piece exhibit. Van Gogh, more like Van Stop... oh snap. Since I had plenty of time to look at the pamphlet while walking around the museum, I learned a few little things about Mr. Van Gogh. He did all of his art work in only 10 years. I guess that means after I finish this blog and my stint in Korea I only have 9 years left to etch "Horsewood" in the literary canon. Perhaps readership might improve if slice a little piece of my ear off?
In conclusion, you can’t escape people in this country. It’s small enough that you can drive from one end of the country to the other in six hours and one side to the other in four, yet big enough to house almost 1.5 times the population of all of Canada.
While others spent most of the weekend wondering why a 24 year old was wearing snowpants... this one moment silenced all the critics.
I would also just like to comment on how difficult it is to learn this recalcitrant language we know as English. Often foreign teachers make comments about our students not being able to understand simple concepts and construct fluent sentences. But when you stop and examine the language we take for granted it really is hard to blame our little pupils. Nothing is for certain, and rarely is there a definite rule. While I could list hundreds of exceptions, I have to admit that teaching vocabulary and phrases about space and the planets has been difficult. The articles “the” and “a” are already difficult enough to explain and understand.
Student: “I have the dog at my house.”
Try and explain why that should be “a” dog.
Student: “Apple is delicious”
Teacher: “You can’t say 'apple.' If you can see the apple or if you are talking about a specific apple then you say ‘the apple’, but if you’re just talking about any apple than it’s ‘an apple.’ Do you understand?”
Student: “What does specific mean?”
Teacher: “Apple is delicious... good answer.”
I think you can see why it’s hard enough to understand the difference between those two, but then there are weird planet exceptions.
Teacher: “What planet is this?”
Student: “Earth”
Teacher: “Good. Now make a sentence with earth.”
Student: “Earth spins once in 24 hours.”
Teacher: “Good try, but we say, ‘The earth spins once in 24 hours,’ because there is only one earth.
Teacher: “What planet is this?”
Student: “Jupiter”
Teacher: “Great. Can you use it in a sentence?”
Student: “The Jupiter is big.”
Teacher: “We don’t say The Jupiter.”
Student: “But there is only one Jupiter.
[long pause and tumbleweed]
Teacher: “What is this?”
Student: “Sun”
Teacher: “The Sun.”
Student: “When I grow up I want to go into the space.”
Teacher: “We don’t say ‘the space,’ we just say space because it isn’t specific.”
Student: “But what about ‘the’ atmosphere?”
Teacher: [almost inaudible whisper] "um... shit..."
Student: "Teacher, What shit mean?"
*****Curtain*****
Libidinously,
Woodrow
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