Joaquin Del Mundo

These Days in Korea

I did not quite get the experience I wanted from the study abroad program.  I wanted to learn some Korean, and I was not satisfied with the quality of education from Yonsei's KLI.  Also, I was deeply focused on taking courses that were applicable with my major, and 6 units toward a Korean language that doesn't count for any credit at my home campus did not make sense at the time, especially from a program that I am not enthuisastic about.

So I decided to stay out here a little longer, take some Korean courses from a really good program at Sogang, and take some courses online.  Unfortunately, the community college Foothill will not give me financial aid, as I took too many courses there over the years.  With support from friends, I am able to stay out here, take some excellent Korean courses, and take Microeconomics and Business Information Systems online.  These are challenging topics, and all demand an incredible amount of time, which has caused me some restlist nights already. I have no regrets, love learning, and I like being challenged to focus more on something other than World of Warcraft.

I will rejoin my state university next semester, and I will also do some extensive research to chart my education direction, such as looking at masters programs, undergraduate majors, certifications, and scooping up some more courses from the community college in the cheap.  As I am taking business core courses shared by all business majors, I have some time to define my undergraduate experience.

Educational Shame of America

I have been having a lot of conversations about education in America.  This is quite a complex issue.  One thing that is really bad is the quality of education if really poor.  I recall reading in Forbes magazine that 20% of Fortune 500 companies have to teach their employees basic ABCs and 123s.  I know this is harsh thing to say, but many in USA are not even worth the minimum wage, at least from a global perspective.  In one train of thought, maybe there should be a mimimum requirement of GED or high school diploma to receive the mimimum wage.  Companies have to import educated people from other countries as there's such a dearth of people edcuated with science degrees for example.  USA is becoming uncompetitive in the world due to the lack of educated citizens, especially in areas of science and math.

For the topic of high school diplomas: what does that really mean?  Can the high school realistically quantify the student's knowledge?  Are teachers certified in the subjects they teach? 

There is some momentum to have common state exams in California require for getting a diploma, but there we don't have a mechanism to certify the teachers.  Actually, the problem is trying to attract the teachers, as there's little incentive to do so with a shoe string budget that will not even pay for the cost of living in some areas where they teach, such as Cupertino, California for example.  The emphasis and priority in education just isn't in place right now in USA.  We pay more on hamburgers than education, according to the book Fast Food Nation.

This is a big contrast to places like  Korea, where at one point they realized they would always be exploited by others if their citizens are not educated.  Now they are really successful and many are brilliant students with amazing abilties to study and memorize.

Korea's Real-Name Verification Law is Absurd?

 

I get often annoyed when I cannot post comments on YouTube because in Korea they passed these laws you have to verify your identity before you are allowed to post anything.  Short of biometrics (brain, DNA, fingerprint, etc. scans) this is impossible to do, and so YouTube bans posting comments on videos from Korea.  I think these type of laws are silly.  There's more exacting details in this audio clip from Odeo stream about YouTube vs. Korea.

 
This law stemmed out of the suicides of famous celebrities in Korea such as Choi Jin Shil (崔眞實 or 최진실), where some committed suicide due to gossip on the Internet.   I think though the suicides were something that were more complex than just gossip, related to their personal lives, and maybe even restrictive contracts on some stars that regulate their personal lives.

This also might be related to Minerva, but I think the laws were passed before that incident.  There was this guy named Minerva on the Internet that made financial predictions that came true.  In a gossip happy culture of Korea, many investors would hang onto his every word and this apparently destabilized the market.  Afterward, they found him and tried to convict him for spreading rumors, but ultimately he was victorious thankfully.

I come from a culture where free speech is tantamount toward existence as a free human being.  Though in Korea where gossip can destroy lives to a greater degree than jailing people for crimes in the Western world, there is a different perspective.  Perhaps this seems out of a culture historically ruled by peers rather than by laws, but that is a complex anthropological discussion going back to thousands of years in Korea and to 500 B.C. in China, i.e. Silla Dynasty, Bone-Ranking, Confucianism, Hundred Schools of Thought, etc. 

Regardless of the derivative culture, this still violates human rights, including free political speech.  We'll undoubtedly see in a country that was a militant police state (where affluent families used Japanese colonial policing controls) under US trusteeship, later had two juntas, and exerted autocratic control of political expression abuse this law to curb more political expression.  As an example of a speech controlling atmosphere, these days when I show comedians like Frank Caliendo lampoon the president, Koreans are often shocked that America permits this free speech without any consequences for the comedian.  They told me that someone could never get away with lampooning Lee Myeong Bak, the current president for those that don't know.

Attending Seogang Language Program

I am staying in Korea a little bit longer.  I did not get the experience I wanted with Yonsei.  I really wanted to learn some Korean here, so I now attend Sogang University.  I love their program, but it is exhausting.  I could only get into the afternoon classes, and every weekday from 1:30 to 5:30, I am in the Korean course.  I scramble to find the time to do activities before and after class.  I need to have a lot of energy and be focused to get things done.  This course is very exhausting, and I am finding myself wasting time before and after class.  Eventually I will get used to this.  I hope.

Now about Seogang, for anyone that is considering studying there:   They terms are different, like a quarter system, but at very different intervals.  For example, this term if from September to November, with the next one starting in December.  Each course requires 20 hours a week of class time, and of course, a lot of time practicing to reinforce material learned, as well as homework.  I would say this course takes up pretty much most of your life.  They will go through two books per term.  The costs are roughly $1500 per term, so about $6000 a year.

All in a Logo

So with the whole name thing, I decided to make some logo ideas, maybe I can use with a name card.  What do you think?

FULL MONTE LOGO

LESS IS MORE LOGO

I'm also experimenting with my Chinese name Huazhi.  These are just prototypes, I might use in a logo:

All in a Name

I don't know why I am obsessed with this, perhaps I am trying to carve out an identity in this world.  I was given the name Joaquín (HWAKEEN), which is a Spanish name, whose origins are the Arabic word hakim meaning wise or wise person.

With some help of a friend Patrick, a polyglot affectionately called C3PO by his friends, helped with with spelling in other language that have crossed my paths.  In Arabic Hakim (ḥakīm) is spelled حكيم. In Hebrew I have חכים. And in Devanagari script used in India, I have हकीम.  Also, one of my favorite languages, Ethopic script it is ሃኪም. 

In East Asia people have a hard time pronouncing HU-A-KI-I-N.  Some times they say something like FU-A-KI-I-N, which well, causes all sort of adventures or problems rather that I won't go into.  So, I just use either the French rendition of my name Joaquim (JO-A-KI-M), or the origin name of Hakim (HA-KI-M), which I spell as ハキン in Japanese or as 하킴 in Korean .

As many Asians take on English, Spanish, or biblical names, so that Americans have some hope to both pronounce and recall their name, I thought of doing the same and go native.  As my name has meaning related to the concept of Wisdom, I identified the Chinese symbol of 智 (pronounced as zhi in Pinyin or in Zhuyin Fuhao as ㄓ).  A tutor from Beijing came up with the Chinese name of Huazhi (ㄏㄨㄚ ㄓ) because the first symbol has a similar sound, while the next carries the meaning.  And thus, my name is 華智 in traditionally Chinese characters.

Though both Korea and Japan use Chinese characters, they represent native names with their own pronunciation and indigenous usage of the characters, different from China.  So in the process of going native, I have the name Tomohiro (ともひろ) in Japanese: 智裕.  In Korea I have Jihun (지훈) : 智訓.

They often ask me about the last name.  Gulp!  Menchaca comes from a region in Zacatecas, as was established by someone from the Basque region of Spain, where they do not speak Spanish, so thus the name is of Basque origins.  Someone told me it meant the cavity of a volcano?  Mole was the word they used.  I need to find someone that knows the language for help on this.  Until then, I'll use a last name related to either fire or mountain, or just choose what ever is en vogue at the time.

Is Korea Racist?

There has been a lot of talk of this recently, given the incident where an India guy experienced verbal harassment from a Korean who thought he from some Islamic country.  When they went to the police, the police ordered the Indian guy to apologize to the Korean.  This caused a stir, as Korea wants to become modernized and innovative, this incident seems to be a throwback, and now there is discussion to put forth an anti-racism bill. Now recently, the Korea Times has an article and is asking the question: Is Korea Racist?

My personal concluding thoughts on the matter is that in general Korea is not racist, but  definitely discriminates for very complex involved cultural reasons, where some aspects are shared with other Asian cultures, and some are wholly unique to Korea.  All Koreans go through this form of discrimination, and perhaps segregation, not just foreigners.  Being apart of groups and knowing Korean can help dissolve much of this, and help foreigners integrate into society.

Joys of Speaking a Language...

I was writing to my mother and thought others might appreciate my thoughts in this regards...

And sometimes I talk to random strangers, make quick chit chat, COMPLETELY in Korean.  It is so amazing.  I am just happy that they can understand what I say, laugh, and respond back, and ask questions, and that I can understand.  Mind you, this is only the basics, nothing really advance, but still, it feels good.  And I become less shy, because my purpose is to learn, speak, interact, and they are just tools to that end.  Occasionally, there might be a person interested to be a friend, and life then opens up to new opportunities.

Life is so full of riches and opportunities, but focusing has to be there to organize life, and allow the doors of our lives to be open to receive such friends, and respond back with kindness, love, and respect.

I am can be really shy to talk with strangers, many people are.  I also have to work with confidence and what not, self-image, comfort zone, etc.  Many have to work on these things, so I know I am not alone.  But when you change your perspective, and stay focused, you can find yourself doing amazing things never before imagined.  You have to find your center, something that drives your, pushes your forward, regardless of others people's opinions, or imagination of what those opinions are.  In the end, if you are on track with your goal, things will just happen.  And the positive energy you get from accomplishing those goals will give you passion to not only drive you forward, but to attract others that want to be around your positive and passionate energy.

Challenges for Beginner in Korean

Everyday now I go to Seogang University for 4 hours to learn Korean.  I am just taking Level 1, and already I find it quite exciting.  I have many gaps in my random studies of Korean over the years, and this is really helping me put it together.

One difficult part in Korean is listening comprehension, not because the sounds or words in Korean, but because of liaison and sound changes.  The sound changes between syllable blocks, called patchim, are a bit challenging I think for beginners, but then the challenge adds to the excitement.

Numbers in Korean are challenging by themselves, because in Korean there are Sino-Korean numbers, i.e. words derived from Chinese characters long ago [il, i, sam, sa, o, yuk, chil, pal, gu, ship], and native indigenous Korean numbers [hana, dul, set, net, daseot, yeoseot, ilgop, yeodeol, ahop, yeol].  And there are rules for when to use each number set, such as native numbers for telling time in hours, and Sino-Korean numbers for telling the minutes.

When you combine them or tell things like the time or date, you run into these sound changes.  Take the 6th of the month, which in Korean would spelled "yuk-il" [육일], but because sounds like "yu-gil" [유길].  That's not too hard, as other languages, like French, have this liaison rule, where the final consonant is carried over to the next word or block.

Things get messier for like today's date of the 16th, which sounds like "shim-nyu-gil" [심뉴길], but is really spelled "ship-yuk-il" [십육일].  There's a sound change between the ending "p" [ㅂ] sound and the begging "yu" [유] sound in this case.  This to say the least drives me nuts, but I'm getting it, slowly.

I came across this in other words, like 11 o'clock, which is spelled "yeol-han-shi" [열한시], but the "h" [ㅎ] is weak in Korean, so it gets trampled or morphed, and this becomes "yeo-ran-shi" [여란시].  This happened for the verb "to work", where "il-haeyo" [일해요] becomes "i-raeyo" [이래요] or "to wash" where "mok-yok-haeyo" [목욕해요] becomes "mo-gyo-kaeyo" [모교캐요].

This will take me sometimes and diligence to get accustom to this. ^.^

Community College is Death Trap

I found that the cold harsh reality of community college, is that it might do more damage than good.  Apparently, the support for financial aid at a community college is far more strict that a 4-year university, and you can only take a maximum of 120 quarter units (90 semester units).  For those that come for regions with different terms, a quarter is the same as trimester.

In my predicament, I went to the "community" college for a variety of reasons: recreation, self-improvement, vocational training, and partly in the beginning for computer science major, undetermined with I wanted to get some associate degree or bachelors degree.  It was only later in life, I made a precision plan to get a full undergraduate (bachelor) degree.  I figured this would give me broad exposure to business and broad skill set, develop discipline, build communication and leadership skills, as well as work on ways to cope with learning disabilities.

However, little did I know, going to college in a community college, would jeopardize my chance to get financial aid.  Despite being dirt poor, I will not and can not get financial aid from Foothill Community College, and perhaps from any community college.  When I took courses in various languages for personal interests and took courses for job training at some computer company I was working at, I accumulated too many units, and thus, I am denied financial aid because of my staggering amount of units I have taken, above and far beyond 120 quarter (trimester) units.

So my advice to anyone out there:

Be aware of this issue, maximum of 90 semester units (120 quarter or trimester units).  If you need financial aid, be careful about what courses you take at the community college, especially if your plan is to get a four year degree.  Complete all of your general education courses, and prerequisite courses you can take that satisfy your major.

In the state of California, they have a universal system called IGETC that essentially means your first two years of general education for any undergraduate degree.  In addition to this, if you know what your major is, you can go through http://assist.org, which will detail what courses you can take at a community college that count toward your major.  Note that some of these courses might count toward the general education requirement (IGETC requirement).  After this, take what you want, but make sure to like get through all of this first, so that the community college cannot deny your financial aid.