Kimchi Western

What is a kimchi western you ask? You remember the classic spaghetti westerns right? Movies that were set in the Wild West, but were really filmed in Italy. Sounds like a crazy idea, but some of the most enduring westerns are spaghetti westerns. Where would we be without the likes of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" or "Fistful of Dollars"?

Apparently, Korea is trying its hand at making western-style film. Borrowing (none too discretely, I might add) from the Italian, the title of the movie is "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird." The title makes perfect sense... in Korean. The Korean word for "weird" means something more along the lines of deviant, but what kind of title is "The Good, the Bad, and the Deviant"?

I say the film is western-style because it is not set in the American west. One might rightly ask, "how is it a western if it is not set in the west?" and that is a good question. Look at the poster for the movie, looks pretty western eh? The trick here is that to Koreans, this IS set in the west. Think of what is west of Korea. CHINA! so the movie takes place in China, Manchuria to be exact. Clever, eh?

The movie is set in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The plot follows three outlaws as they run rampant- robbing trains, riding horses, and shooting things- everything that is typically done in westerns. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I really want to see this movie. If you go to youtube, you can watch the trailer here.

You watched the trailer right? You want to see it right? Even if it gets horrible reviews, I will probably find some way of seeing it. Or maybe I can just wait for their next movie. "Fistful of Won."

Not Even 10 O'clock

It isn't even 10 o'clock yet, and I have been taken three calls. Why is that strange? On the first call I took, the caller ID read "LDS Church Office." The second call was just your standard law school call, but on the third call of the day, the caller ID read "United States Government, D.C." This could be an interesting day.

The Article Translated

Keep in mind that Koreans have a different idea of what makes in into an article. Here is my basic translation of the written about the Korean speech contest.

This year, BYU held its 21^st annual Korean Speech Contest. The Contest was held April 11^th in the BYU Conference Center.

The Korean Speech Contest was the brainchild of two of BYU’s most passionate and visionary professors in the Korean department, Kim Cha-Bong and Lee Ho-Nam. They created the contest as a way for students to hone their skills in spoken Korean.

Roughly 50 students of Korean, professors and various members of the Korea community gathered together as the meeting began. Kim Hui-Jeong, dressed in elegant tradition Korean attire, welcomed the group with her rendition of the Korean classic “Arirang” played on the kayageum.

Nathan Markel conducted the meeting, and welcomed everybody to the competition. He introduced the given topic of the contest, Korean culture. Many in the audience were pleased when he announced that after the contest, there would be a barbeque afterwards. In honor of the Korean culture, bother Korean-style ribs and kimchi were prepared.

He also introduced the judges for the event: Professor Heo Yang-Hoe, a professor at UVSC, Gwan Guang-Hak, a teacher at the local Korean language school, and Professor Julie Damron, a BYU professor of linguistics and Korean.

This year, the competition was split into three different groups: beginner, advanced, and open. Most speakers chose topics that reflected the differences between American and Korean culture they had observed in their travels to Korea, and continued study of the Korean language. Topics ranged from Korean etiquette, the flavors of Korean food, to the importance of friendship in our lives.

This year’s top honors went to Jarom Hillery with is speech titled “The Korean Alphabet and the Phagpsa Script.” His speech examined the origins and unique characteristics of the Korean alphabet. Jarom is currently majoring in Korean, and has been studying the language for over 5 years. In 2006, he traveled to Korea as an exchange student and studied at the Korean Language Institute at Sogang University. In the speech he commented that “King Sejong created the Korean alphabet with the idea that even a fool could learn it in 10 days, but even after 5 years of study, there is so much I do not know.” In a later interview he revealed his plans for the future: “I plan to continue my study of Korean, and I hope to some day work for a company founded in Korea.”

Original Article By:
Sung Daye

And So It Ends

Well folks, the unthinkable has happened. Since my last correspondence with club live, I had been patiently waiting for an email confirmation that my zune had shipped; I never received such an email.

Apparently, that did not deter Live Search Club from sending it out anyways. My parents were confused when a package arrived for me a few days ago. They sent it home with Besta, and Besta tried to get a hold of me.

Sadly, I was at a LSAT prep class when they called. Happily, Roni was able to get the message. When I came home from my class, Roni said that Besta wanted us to go to their place. She did not allude as to the reason. I was very surprised, relieved, and happy to discover a package shipped from Live Search Club!

After nearly 8 months of waiting, I was finally able to get the zune. And my verdict? I've decided to keep it. Despite being made by microsoft, it is actually a pretty cool little mp3 player. I really like that they allowed me to update to the latest firmware without having to pay. I don't have a very big music collection, and so 30 GB is more than enough space to store pretty much all of my music. I guess it wasn't a scam after all!

I'm a Winner!

Every year (for the past 21 years) the BYU Korean Language and Culture Club hosts a Korean speech contest. It usually happens during the winter semester. For two years, I have tried to enter into the contest. I have always found out about the contest after the deadline. This year, however, I was able to submit a speech in time for the contest.

There are quite a few native Koreans here at BYU, so they do have rules about who can enter teh contest. You can't be a native Korean speaker, and there are different categories that depend on the length of time the language has been studied. I entered the advanced division, which is basically the one for returned missionaries. The prizes vary from year to year, and have ranged from a trip to Korea to gift certificates at a local Korean restaurant.

The topics are supposed to be about some aspect of Korean culture, whether it be food, history, language or anything in between. My speech was about a possible relation between an alphabetic script written during the Yuan Dynasty in China and the Korean alphabet, written 200 years later (I know most of you are thinking, "wow... really interesting stuff there Romgi..."). You don't have to memorize the speech, but you kind of get bonus points if you do.

Speaking of points, each speech is rated by the judges based on content, relevance, difficulty of vocabulary, correct use of vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation (there may be some other categories... I'm not really sure).

So I memorized my speech, and I won! This happened almost a month ago, so you might be asking yourself why I am writing about it now. Provo has a fairly well established Korean community, and they have a newspaper that is published monthly. I am in the paper, as it talks about the speech contest. The girl Roni tutors is the girl who wrote the article. If anybody wants a translation of the article, just say so in the comments and I'll post a translation.

How the Mighty Have Fallen

I estimate that most of you have at least a passing knowledge of star wars. It has been shaping the culture of nerds for quite some time now. Have you heard that they are making a new star wars movie? If you have, I am sure that you already know that it is going to be done completely with computer animation. I was skeptical of the idea at first, but had convinced myself that if would be OK. I mean, George Lucas founded Industrial Light and Magic!

I saw a preview for the movie today. I must say, I am underwhelmed. I understand that not all CG movies go for realism. But to be honest, the animation just looks shoddy. To me, it is like they forgot they weren't making a Saturday morning cartoon. This isn't Veggietales.

I also understand trying to create a stylized work. But style doesn't mean you have to sacrifice quality (well... not always). For example, I think that the movie Flushed Away is a great example of using computer graphics, but maintaining a unique style. The characters keep the claymation look, but still look really good. Compare that to the poster on the left. Seriously, Look what they have done to Yoda! He looks like a twelve year old drew him! These graphics look like they don't even match up to the Star Wars video games.

What do you guys think? Am I way off base here? Or is this really as bad as I think it is?

A FITting End

Probably everybody that would read this blog already knows, but just in case you did not know, I won the Biggest Loser (he he... I almost typed "lobster") competition. The prize money came out to $270 for the men's division. I've been at a loss as to what to do with the money. I have already saved up for an iPod Touch (I am waiting patiently for the next generation of iPod Touch to come out... I'm hoping for bluetooth). I already bought a Wii (complete with a great game thanks to Roni's parents!). I already bought a pretty awesome watch (thanks mom and dad). I couldn't figure out what else to get!

I finally decided that because I earned the money by losing weight, I might as well get something that will help me to keep it off, and to help me get fit (that is where the title comes in. Do you get it? FITting, like fit...). I've decided to get a new bike! I went out bike shopping the other day, and I hadn't ever realized that the price of bikes varied so much. I mean seriously, it can go from cheap to expensive with surprising ease.

I wanted something that was a step above walmart, but not something I could win the Tour de France in. I decide to go with a hybrid bike, which unlike a hybrid car, involves neither gas nor electricity. Rather, a hybrid bike is a bike that lies somewhere between a road bike and a mountain bike. They are deigned for comfort, and cost a whole lot less. I am waiting for the bike shop to assemble the bike, then I will be be the proud owner of a new bike.

And You Are Defining That How?

I don't know how many of you read the news regularly, but there is one story that has been bugging me from the first time it appeared. An Austrian man lured his daughter into the basement of their apartment complex, drugged her, and kept her locked in the basement for 24 years. It gets worse. He fathered 7 children with her, and when one of them died, he just tossed the body in the furnace, as if it were a piece of trash.

He told everybody that she had run away with a cult, and nobody doubted it. He raised three of the children, and told everybody that his daughter had abandoned them on his front porch years earlier.

The man is now saying that he is not a "monster" and that the media is blowing this whole thing out of proportion. How exactly is locking somebody in a cellar for 24 not a monstrous act you might ask. His response? "I could have killed all of them -- then nothing would have happened. No one would have ever known about it."

This statement blows my mind! The saddest part about it is that he is right about part of that statement. Nobody would have known if he killed his daughter and her kids. This guy doesn't seem to realize that what he did was wrong, and I think that is perhaps the scariest thing about it all.