Joaquin Del Mundo

They Still Gossip

Well the drama continues.  I found that there is still gossip about things that happened 3 months ago being spread around the campus about me and my other buddy Ethan.  Well, this is like um, ridiculous.  I heard through my other buddy Denes about what is being said.  Recently, one girl named Miso (미소) was really interested in me, but she keeps making excuses to meet.  I coudn't figure the shit out until I found that her good friend is one of these, IYC girls, or one friend puts it IYC demon children.   Woe beware of the IYC demon children.

Needless to say, I could really careless, because I do have good solid friends, and I also have a sense of self worth that sets me apart from them.  I also have some small sense of satisfaction that they'll lead their small meager programmed lives without much opportunity if life, but I know I shouldn't think like that, it is the wrong way, as it only serves to alienate oneself.  But, yeah, I'm mad, but I met other cool Korean guys that were really nice to me, and maybe I can make friends with them.

Moving On With Life

It is funny, how the more things change the more they stay the same.  After separating from the dream girl, I went into a shell.  I probably still in that shell.  I reverted to my lifestyle of Silicon Valley: isolated and alone, addicted to playing video games or some other form of escapism, dodging from responsibilities of life (a.k.a. procrastination), and completely and utterly disorganized and messy.  In a way, I created a mini-Silicon-Valley lifestyle.  I just have to say, No More!

The one thing I love about Korea, is that it is extremely hard to avoid relationships.  There are so many interesting and intriguing people, whether international foreigners that come to Korea or diverse Korean people themselves.  I have a few friends, that are sincere.  And despite any few bad people, such as the maligned ex-lover or gossiping children of the university, there's so many rich and beautiful people out there.

Stomach Flu and Warcraft

I am sick and stuck at home.  I really wanted to go party this weekend after mid-terms, but that just did not happen.  I got a stomach flu on top of the stuff I have been going through.  I was totally out of commission on Saturday.  There was nothing much I can do except sleep it off and play World of Warcraft.  What better way to forget the your ex-lover by mindless random game playing. 

The recent update to the game added some events and new features.  There's a plague going around, where people turn into zombies, and then they can infect other people.  The game turned into Night of the Living Dead, with zombies controlled by players chasing others yelling out "Brains".  That was quite hilarious.

My character Mixcoatl (named after the Aztec god of the Hunt) was able to tame and get his new epic Core Hound, that shakes the screen when the pet moves.  There were so many new features in the game, I became an addict overnight, experimenting with the changes.

I was in bliss, the maligned Eun-Ji was all but forgotten, and I was happy.  Finally, I was happy, and maybe now ready to meet new people.

Segregation of the Sexes Revisited

After some reflection and discussion with others, I have adjusted some this perspective.  There are two things I realized, is that one it is true there is quite a bit of discrimination embedded into the culture, but this is probably with every culture.  Korea is an extremely group oriented culture (collectivistic), and what might be little friendship groups during grade school days is now taken to the extreme.  The second thing, at college many of the students from a Western perspective could be considered, well, um, immature.  Some have commented that they felt they were in grade school.  This might be due to the fact that many still live at home with parents.

So at Yonsei, while there are grade-school like exclusive girl groups and exclusive guy groups, I've heard that in mainstream society, this is not so severe.  Once the college students enter the work force, things change, and well, we all grow-up.  In the mean time, it is important to be aware of the segregation, and realize that we can step around such barriers, as  not everyone follows along, and always we can find friends outside of college life, into the society at large, which is what many of the more wise foreigners at Yonsei do anyhow.

The Monkey of Shibuya

It was August 18th, 2008, when I arrived from Yokohama after another dramatic separation and reunion with Yukie.  I walked into the Shibuya station, too see a huge crowd of people.  I thought maybe some event was taking place, maybe a VIP, or something interesting.  About 30 police warded off an area like there was some huge bomb threat.  I was surprised to see so many police here.  I couldn't figure out what was going on, so I asked some locals, and they pointed to a small furry critter on top of the electronic train bulletin of Tookyuu Tooyoko line. 

Apparently, some monkey from the mountains wandered down and found his way into the train station.  It was the most bizarre thing.  I found out later that he escaped. 

I found an article on it at Pink Tentacle, which has some excellent pictures, far better quality that my Casio Exilim camera.  I found funny follow-up article: More Shibuya Station Monkey Sightings.

日本語を勉強する。

I decided to make part of today a major boost to study Japanese.  I wanted to start with the KLI (Korean Language Institute) text book, and do a comparison between Japanese and Korean languages.   The languages are so similar with the same grammar rules.  For example illustration:

Korean: Toseogwan eseo jong-gugeo ruel gong-bu hago issoyo.
Japanese: Toshokan de chuukokugo o benkyou shite iru.
Literal: Library (location particle) Chinese language (obj. particle) studying.
English: I am studying Chinese at the library.

The particles, little words used to indicate the function of a sentence clause, essentially function the same.  The progressive tense, which is the -ing form in English, uses a special construction (-go in Korean, -te in Japanese) and smashes it with the verb to "exist".  Thus for "study", they both mean "study doing exists".  If I said, I'm eating, both would have "eat exist" (taberu to tabete-iru and meokda to meoggo-issoyo).

Anyhow, I posted Chapter 3 of on of my texts online at: KLI Book I - Chapter 3 (Japanese).

今天我学习普通话。

Today I study Chinese Mandarin from my Korean book.  I am using Korean to study Chinese.  This started me to focus, and I was able to take that focus, and direct it to my studies to my Korean class.  The session was incredible, I learned quite a bit of Korean today.  At some point I will type this stuff up, and post it for other would be learners of the languages out there.

Some of the focus lately comes from the calm and peace I feel inside my heart.  I have to thank a very special woman that entered my life named 은지 (Eun-Ji).  My mind wonders all over the map, many times to areas of extreme negativity, and hearing her voice brings a sense of peace to my mind.  I never met anyone that had this affect on me, usually the opposite, settling for unstable people that just serve to aggravate my sensibilities.   However, this day was the first real time I was able to focus in Korea.  It is like a bunch of random sticks on the ground, and I pick them up, bundle them together, and this bundle is a set of mental energy focus I can use to direct toward something.  And that something currently at this moment is Chinese.  :)

Once I get busy with the project, I might have some samples like this:

Simple Hanzi: 你什么时候去图书馆了？
Trad. Hanzi: 你什麼時候去圖書館了？
Pinyin: nĭ shénme shíhòu qù túshūguăn le?
Zhuyin: ㄋㄧˇ ㄕㄣˊㄇㄛ ㄕˊㄏㄡˋ ㄑㄩˋ ㄊㄨˊㄕㄨㄍㄨㄢˇ ㄌㄜ?

Alright, enough fascination with a bazillion languages.  I really need to direct my new spotlight of focus to courses that matter.

The Programmed of the World

Today I had a discussion with Denes, this interesting person from Germany with family from the Philippines. We were talking about how even in college most students are just followers, some even arrogant to the point that they just will never get it or truly learn.  He relayed something from a speech he heard that walls are there not for you, but for other people.

This got me thinking about this song called The Logical Song, which talks about programming.  Whether in USA, Japan, or Korea, we all suffer from some level of programming that we must jettison in order to be free or successful, or to learn about yourself.

The Logical Song By SuperTramp:

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the worlds asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

Now watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical,
Liberal, fanatical, criminal.
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're
Acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable!

At night, when all the worlds asleep,
The questions run so deep
For such a simple man.
Wont you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

And here's the song for any interested.

Today I started Jogging

This morning, I got up early and put on my new Adidas Microbounce tennis shoes, and I jog partially up top of hill in Yonsei, near the dormitory (기숙사) called Mu-Ak Housing (무악학사).  Up there was a small path to where they had a wooden structure that is perfect for meditation.  And so that is what I did, I went there and meditated to understand myself.   I had to ask myself: 　私はどして利己的だの?    どして軽率だんの?　心有りたい。心の広いたい。

Vocabulary:
軽率 【けいそつ】(adj-na,n) rash; thoughtless; careless; hasty;
利己的 【りこてき】(adj-na) selfish
心有る 【こころある】(adj-pn) thoughtful; considerate; sensible
心の広い 【こころのひろい】(exp) generous; broad-minded; big-hearted

Essentially my mind moves too fast that I become too self-absorbed.  This comes out as being selfish, self-centered, and inconsiderate.   I don't stop and realize what is happening sometimes.  But then many times, I think I am naturally selfish, as this is how I learned to be in USA.  But in my heart, I am sincere and a caring person.  That is how I want to mold myself to be in Korea.

▲ 무악1·2학사와 달리 개별       운영되고 있는 무악3·4학사 /송은석 기자 insomniaboy@

Segregation of the Sexes

Korea is very dynamic and changing in many directions, but one thing is prevalent in some parts of the society is the segregation of the sexes.  Essentially, guys should only have guy friends, and girls should only have girl friends.  This is sort of a soft social norm, and not absolute, obviously it is possible to have friends of opposite sex, but one has to be careful and cautious.  A guy seen to be talking to many girls or having many friends of the female nature will be automatically assumed to be a player or somehow frowned upon.  A girl that is maybe tomboy-like with many male friends will not be in a good light either.

What will happen, especially in a college like  Yonsei, is that there will be gossip, e.g. "That boy was talking to another girl yesterday, now he's talking to that girl.  He's a player".  Soon the guy may find himself unable to have female friends or date women, or get strange looks, wherever the gossipers spread the word, which in Korea can spread quite fast, even outside the university.  This is what happened to my buddy who lost a girl he liked very much, as she rejected him due to undo gossip from Yonsei.

For Korean guys, maybe they will not get noticed, unless they are well connected or outgoing.  For a white foreigner, everyone will notice, because in a homogeneous society where everyone is of the same race, he or she will stick out.  And for foreigners, the glass is always half empty, meaning a foreigner will not get the benefit of the doubt and be scrutinized.

Personally, I had experienced some of this scrutiny.  At college, I had the unfortunate experience of trying to make friends with some females from IYC (International Yonsei Community), a club that pretends to accept foreigners, but ends up alienating them due to cultural  and language differences.   Soon afterwards, I received strange repulsive looks and found people avoiding me, people that were  one time very outgoing towards me.

I experienced some of the segregation in my classes, where clusters of girls will collaborate and share their notes, but when I try to ask if could get notes or collaborate as well, I'm rejected.  Fortunately, even though there are minority of guys in the class, I started to organize them into our own male study group (and those that don't discriminate against males).  In other classes, I found it easier to coordinate studies with either Korean males or foreigners, but not with Korean females. 

After some rather painful moments, I became a bit more cautious and selective. The rare moment when meet a new friend, I try to meet off campus, so that I won't be seen and gossiped about on campus.  If I do meet on campus, it is wise to meet in a mixed group.