Disqus - Latest Comments for victorymanual

Re: Translation Challenge – 8층에도 매표소가 있습니다

Alex B. — Thu, 22 May 2014 15:13:57 -0000

English sign register: Additional ticket booth located on the 8th floor

Direct translation: There is also a ticket booth on the 8th floor ->

Re: Some believe Friday is doomsday on the Mayan calendar; the Mayans don't

Alex B. — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:01:31 -0000

My milk doesn't expire until December 26. Disprove THAT!

Re: The 7 Stages of Gaijinhood Revisited

Alex B. — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 03:06:57 -0000

That graph is interesting because it's also the exact same graph when the Y-axis is the amount of books you read and the X-axis is how thick your neck is. The thicker your neck, the fewer books you read, until you get to a point where you say, "Damn, why is my neck so thick? I better read up on it."

(Demetri Martin)

Re: What’s the hardest language to learn in the world?

Alex B. — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:07:55 -0000

Motivation is important - I agree. In fact, back when my website was written in English, I wrote in a post about the idea of 1% of successful students of Japanese. 99% of the people who try to learn Japanese end up failing. The 1% succeed because they had the motivation to do so.

What you're saying is that languages are different - Some areas are easier than others depending on which language you're talking about. I was just describing my own experience holistically - From the perspective of an English speaker, some of the universal grammar switches take longer to flip the other way. I am not trying to say that Japanese (or Chinese, Arabic, or even Navajo) is impossible to learn, but that it takes more time for the average learner to find their groove in the language.

Re: What’s the hardest language to learn in the world?

Alex B. — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:25:48 -0000

I get what you're trying to say, but there are languages that are more difficult than others relative to your L1. Generally speaking, the more cognates, phonological similarities, and grammatical similarities, the quicker you can learn the language.

Luckily, I went for Japanese for my L2, so going back to Spanish is a breeze.

Re: Canned Yakitori

Alex B. — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:34:08 -0000

Can you think of anything that tastes better when it comes in a can? I mean, when was the last time you ate or drank something and thought to yourself, "That would have been a lot better had it been canned"?

Re: Creative Comic Conversations

Alex B. — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:00:47 -0000

I've done these sorts of activities before - They can be very fun. It's more effective if they have a lot of input to go on, though, or else the students might possibly make errors that stick with them; habitual mistakes.

Some of your students have a great lexicon. Either that, or they have some pretty decent dictionaries - "declared my love for", "gained a little weight", "how do I know", "don't behave so childishly"...particularly the 'so' in the last one - It's a pretty abstract concept. Most students would mistakenly write, "don't behave too childishly."

I haven't seen you in action, but I get the sense that you're in your element, Deas!

Re: Long Time, No Post

Alex B. — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:39:47 -0000

Here's something to post about to get you back on track - It seems like the Japanese sprinkled throughout Heroes is getting worse and worse as the show progresses. It's like the actors aren't even trying at all, anymore. (Besides James Kyson Lee, who continues to improve.)

Re: Setsubun Protest

Alex B. — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:43:01 -0000

Great post, Deas.

I just want to touch on a couple of points. The protests are completely legitimate regarding Japanese territories, and I agree with them on their antagonistic stance towards America as a hegemonic powerhouse (or, demonic ogre, in their interpretation). However, I feel that mentioning Guam is outside of their cause. I don't think Japan had a much better history there:

"During the [Japanese] occupation, the people of Guam suffered terrible atrocities, including torture, beheadings, and rape, and were forced to adopt the Japanese culture." (http://catalogue.nla.gov.au... via Wikipedia)

Soc'd for good measure!

Re: NihongoUp Japanese Study Tool Review

Alex B. — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:19:34 -0000

What I mean by "learning system" is actually more of an approach. This sort of never-ending multiple choice test is probably the least productive method for learning I have seen developed in recent years. (The audio-lingual method is another.) I never said that repetition isn't important, but the right kind of repetition is. I get repetition through narrow-reading (different sources with the same vocabulary terms in different sentences and contexts). If you look at what I go through on systems like Smart.fm, you'll see that I have multiple "Goals" that overlap, each with different contextual clues, and I read unrelated books where the target terms pop up again unexpectedly. That's ideal repetition, and that's what takes the most effort for me to put together for teaching language.

Like I said in my post, I do appreciate developments made towards Japanese learning materials, but I personally wouldn't suggest NihongoUp to learners at this phase of its development. (It may help people, but it is probably less effective than other systems.)

Actually, just the implementation of an open-ended fill-in-the-blank format and the option to disable any sort of speed-timer might push me over the line of opposition and make me want to recommend it to learners. $5 isn't an arm and leg, but I do perceive things in terms of their worth. Value is still value. I'm still open to reassess the software when it's updated.

Re: NihongoUp Japanese Study Tool Review

Alex B. — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:47:55 -0000

My biggest gripe is the multiple-choice format, both as a Japanese learner and as a language instructor. It's not a learning system. Also, the time limit is not conducive to productive learning. It's actually better to spend time looking at it. (It's a characteristic of memory) The system could be easily adapted to account for these features, and it could be a potentially useful tool. As it is now, I'd recommend waiting for version 2 before anyone makes a purchase.

http://www.victorymanual.co...

Re: Japan Times Article

Alex B. — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 04:08:41 -0000

デイズさんは久しぶりにブログ界に戻りましたね。

So, I'm sure you already read my comments over at JapanSoc, but I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your article, being a fan of the 俗語 myself. My criticism still stands, however - There is no way to universally define "proper" language, so if I was the editor in charge of your article then I might have swapped the wording in your introduction.

P.S. - I've sort of returned to the ブログ界 myself. See you around the nets, and perhaps in person if you ever find yourself in my neck of the East Asian woods.

Re: Korea is “strange” – Jon Huer

Alex B. — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:07:24 -0000

I'm pretty sure that Jon Huer is living in his own alternate universe where his opinion becomes natural law. I've decided to try to ignore his articles in the Korea Times from now on, because I can easily see myself repeating the same criticisms of him each week, and I don't have the time or energy to waste on someone so self-centered who has nothing academic or interesting to add to Korean studies.

Re: Is Korea going back in time?

Alex B. — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 08:29:56 -0000

I just don't like to type the same thing twice so I tend to just link to what I wrote in past articles for people who want to look into it more, but I'll try to keep your suggestion in mind for posts from now on. I noticed that James is always glad to have your input on his posts, and so I hope to have more of your input around here as well in future posts.

By the way, I tried to subscribe to your Morning Calm feed about two weeks ago, but it seems to be broken. It's really strange because I can see the feed when I try to subscribe to it, but Google Reader isn't getting anything from it. (I just tried it again now and got the same result) If you have any ideas about how I might fix this on my end I'd really appreciate it!

Re: Don’t listen to Jon Huer

Alex B. — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:55:28 -0000

Brian - I think we're pretty much on the same page regarding Jon Huer.

MKL - Sounds like you experience pretty much the same thing that I put forward in the article.

Re: Mysterious area near Seoul, Korea

Alex B. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:19:16 -0000

You know, I've often wondered what OS Kim Jung-Il et al. use. Are they Linux fans?

Re: The first rule of the Korean National Assembly is…

Alex B. — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:43:37 -0000

Well, I wouldn't say that violence permeates the country in every aspect of life, but there is certainly a competitive spirit at play that can be annoying to some foreigners and endearing to others depending on the situation. I've grown to appreciate everything except the terrible road wars.

Re: The first rule of the Korean National Assembly is…

Alex B. — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:25:31 -0000

I don't think Koreans even understand this phenomenon in Korean politics. My wife is embarrassed that this sort of news even exists.

It's often said that South Korea is in a perpetual state of war in all aspects of life (having never officially finished their own civil war) - Driving is a "road war", entrance exams are "test wars", and so you can probably translate that over to the highly polarized ideological divide as a sort of "political war".

Re: The Pink Shirt Phenomenon in Korea

Alex B. — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:49:16 -0000

See, you've highlighted the cultural difference perfectly there. You don't wear flashy colors because you feel that, "it's not fashionable for western men." But in Korea, it is fashionable. However, Western men try to apply Western cultural norms to Korea, and that's where we end up with expats blogging about "how gay Korean men are."

Re: Misuda and the foreign man debate

Alex B. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:30:26 -0000

Well, that's pretty much what I meant when I wrote that they were, "miscalculating their own roles in the very same criticism they’re dishing out."

Re: Misuda and the foreign man debate

Alex B. — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:46:36 -0000

Oh, by no means do I mean to let the Korean media off the hook, and I've made comments on other blogs stating as such. However, it's one thing to criticize the media, but it's another to argue that what's in the media is representative of a majority opinion in Korea.

If you read through the reactionary comments on the Korea Beat piece, you'll see that a lot of it is directed at Koreans and not the Korean media. (Take, for example, the comment left by Korea Rum Diary; or his whole blog, in fact) Going through expat blogs I read a lot of, "THIS is what Korea is," sort of matter-of-fact statements that are just as bad as the Korean media sources that portray all foreigners as criminals.

What the panelists said on misuda obviously struck a chord with foreign males in Korea who don't have the opportunity to appear on the same stage. Looking back over what the misuda girls said, though - There isn't anything really outrageous in it, and it's much milder than some blog posts and comments I read. Actually, my wife felt that what the girls were saying was actually more critical of Korean women in that they were saying something along the lines of, "Korean girls will fall for any foreigner."

Re: What if we didn’t watch the news?

Alex B. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:54:47 -0000

I mentioned in the post that this is not unique of the expat community in Korea. I've seen it all before, and it typically stems from miscommunication.

A lot of the people (but definitely not all) who complain about the "way things are" actually don't speak Korean very well, and their perceptions are fuelled by the limited amount of English material, hearsay, urban myths, and plain old imagination.

I try my best to keep everything in perspective. I'll be the first to acknowledge that there are racist people in Korea, because no matter where you go you'll find a minority group who fit the description. It's the same worldwide. But I'll definitely not accept that racism is widespread in the country. Basing arguments off of what you read in the Korean media is the same as basing arguments off of what the expat blogging community says - It's skewed information that most certainly doesn't represent the general reality.

I'm glad you brought up those questions on Brian's blog, and I'm glad to see other expats support your view as a legitimate consideration.

Re: Misuda and the foreign man debate

Alex B. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:55:48 -0000

You'll have to excuse me for not accepting your very narrow perspective as universal truth, Billy.

This is exactly the sort of thing I talked about here.

The expat community of Japan and Korea share similar features. For one, each community has a subdivision of “if you’re not with us, you’re against us or stupid” attitudes towards the issue, and quite often one might even be called an apologist for even mentioning something good about the host country or its citizens. There are also underlying accusations that people who “go native” or try to integrate themselves within society are sellouts.

You can sit there seething over an overblown yet extremely small portion of Korean society, or you can live happily and succeed in life. It's your time, though - Spend it how you like.

Re: Misuda and the foreign man debate

Alex B. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:36:36 -0000

I'm actually trying to watch it now, but the buffering is killing me.

You can catch the episodes on bada.us

I really appreciate you taking the time to translate the main points of interest!

Re: Controversial media reform bill in Korea

Alex B. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:36:06 -0000

I think there are different consumer types, and it really plays into personality. All of the marketing "experts" tell me I'm a "classic denial case", but I am honestly not persuaded directly by commercials and marketing. That might be because of my personality, or because I'm also interested in marketing and consumer psychology, but I know enough of the tactics, and I know when I'm being sold to.

I said I'm not "persuaded directly", because a good advertisement (and by good I mean one that shows me something that actually benefits me in some way that I had been wishing for) will make me want to research the products more. In that sense, perhaps you could say that marketing is effective, but not in the way most people imagine. But I don't make purchases lightly. I research everything, read comments and reviews, pros and cons. I'm not easily caught up in consumer trends. (I don't own an iPhone or iPod, but I do have an iRiver SPINN which I researched, found to be cheaper, and satisfied the basic requirements I was looking for as a study tool for Korean media on the go.)

Korea (and Japan, for that matter) on the other hand - If you pay close enough attention to fashion, hairstyles, accessories, and gadgets, you'll notice consumer trend waves. This is particularly true of 13 - 30 year olds, and even amongst elementary kids these days (but they are obviously limited in spending cash). I've never done research on this, though - This is all personal observation. But I do see a connection between collectivism and spending habits in a country as small and connected as Korea.