PSA: On My Merry Way!

Alrighty! My car is sold, my bags are packed, my visa is in the mail from the consulate in Chicago, IL, and my ticket is purchased! I depart from Cleveland, OH, on Wednesday, 30 May 2007, and arrive in Seoul, ROK, on Friday, 1 June 2007. I'm seriously looking forward to 19 hours (layovers not included) in a big metal tube coursing through the heavens, but anything to leave Cleveland.


Look for regular updates to this blog as hopefully I will actually have some information to share and some wisdom to impart. I plan to post a lot of pictures of the city, the people, and the food. (Aside: Why is it that all Korea bloggers are obsessed with food?)

Again, to those interested, you've got a place to crash on the other side of the planet.

Preventing Buyers' Remorse

I find this hard to believe: Apparently, the government of ROK wants to check the validity of all keyword ads to be placed on the Korean side of the tubenet. Specific search engines are not mentioned in the article by the Korea Times, but surely Goooooogle must be one. I'm all for checking the pr0n-free-ness and violence-free-ness of publicly placed advertisements, but I somehow doubt that anyone wants to do this, especially a for-profit company.

The government says that it wants to make the portals themselves responsible for checking the 18,500 ads per month that would be covered by the regulation. The Korea Internet Safety Commission would take part in the process, though their function is not specified and no methods for the process have yet been revealed.

Personally, I enjoy trying to shoot ducks at the top of my screen to get that free iPod.

From the Korea Times

'Nuf Said

Via Gizmodo

Does it do Korean?

Check out this awesome, expensive translatin' device. Looking very much like a Palm Pilot on the juice, the VoxTech Phraselator V2 can translate what you say into almost any widely spoken language and translate the reply back for you!

Developed for the military, it's freakin' awesome! "Excuse me, driver, please make haste to the liquor store!"

Via Gizmodo.

On Obsolete Languages

Michael Erard, a designer not a linguist, commented on When Languages Die, a book by well-known linguistic anthropologist K. David Harrison. Harrison laments the death of languages due to the specific knowledge lost in the process, from specifics about dates, agriculture, and familial relationships, to the grammatical features of these languages, which are often unique.

Back when I took sociolinguistics in college, we discussed the extinction of languages, and supposedly within the next century, half of the languages now spoken will be forgotten if undocumented. Now, I'm all for the recording of these languages, but languages are constantly evolving, and, much like the evolution of humans caused the extinction of other related bipedal species (neanderthals), a "stronger" language is going to overtake weaker languages, eventually rendering it obsolete.

Strong languages such as English, Mandarin, Spanish, etc., are always going to overtake the hundreds of weaker languages. Economics play a factor, as do subjects of cultural relevance in areas like religion and politics, but so do the abilities of a language to evolve to keep pace with the objects encountered in contemporary developed society. Borrowing dilutes a language's purest form (e.g., Russian), but language maintenance is important to relevance. As an example, French has a group of scholars that are responsible for updating the language to keep pace with technology and other developments, rather than just borrowing a word from another language such as English. This group of scholars is ineffective, but their efforts are often overlooked. It is because of them that the French language, despite the dwindling number of native speakers in comparison with several other languages, has maintained its place as one of the most spoken languages in the world.

In conclusion, maintain languages or record them and let them go. We don't use DOS anymore, but we still use information we gathered from it.

From Design Observer, via Wired.

You Can't Make Me Do It!

While reading some older posts over at the Lost Nomad, I came across this post via the JoongAng Daily. It turns out that if your boss forces you to go out after work, a very common occurrence in many Asian cultures (specifically Japan and the ROK), you can sue him/her/it and make approximately $32,342.

Also, not mentioned by the Nomad, the young lady also filed suit against her boss for sexual harassment for touching her and making inappropriate remarks. She won this suit as well.

Douchebag got fired and fined two g's. Makes working for me sound like an appealing proposition. Send your resumes, favorite cocktails, and bust sizes to ROK & Hard Place.

Books via Mobile Phone!

We all know that Corey loves him some books. Good news for Corey! SK Telecom, the largest provider of mobile communication services in South Korea, has expanded its TouchBook service, which previously only allowed users to look up information such as authors, publishing dates, and other information. But wait! Now, SKT customers will be able to scan the bar codes on books at physical bookstores and purchase them online for less through SKT's mobile Web browser.

Easy books delivered to your doorstep for less. What's not to like?

Via the Korea Herald.

Drinking on the Job

Koesan County, in a misguided attempt to increase its communication with its citizenry, ended up awarding three alcoholics on an all-expenses-paid vacation to Cheju Island.

Somehow, I don't think that canceling the reward program will keep the county's employees from engaging in a little public relations after work.



Link (Yahoo!): South Korea County Cans Award for Drinking Workers

Avoiding Prison in Korea

Poor Cullen Thomas, he could have used this page from the Oxford Picture Dictionary when he was going to court. Click on the image to enlarge it and learn the Hangul for getting yourself an attorney, understanding your rights, pleading guilty, being found guilty, going to jail, eating crappy prison kimchi, and finally being released seven years later (which is, coincidentally, the amount of time that Cullen Thomas was supposed to get). And remember, it doesn't matter how you plead in Korea, the conviction rate is close to 100%. Good luck, suckers.

We Came, We Drank, We Drank Some More!

Dear Friends, Readers, and Enigmatic Strangers,

A sincere thanks to all of you who came out and helped me celebrate my impending departure. I admit, I was most thoroughly sauced (lesson learned: Don't buy Corey tequila), but for those whose presence I realized, I appreciate your willing attendance and lack of dramatic interaction. I had a wonderful time and appreciate the joyous off-sending. I will post some pictures in the next couple of days and I look forward to sharing my journeys with you.

Again, don't hesitate to keep in touch or to impose yourself on me should you find yourself in my soon-to-be-new neck of the proverbial woods. The majority of you are possibly always maybe welcome.

Cheers,

Corey