Joaquin Del Mundo

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.

Fast Food, Education, and Asians

When I read the book Fast Food Nation, I recall reading that Americans spend more in fast food alone than all of education.  Just think if everyone denied themselves McDonalds or other favorite fast food, let's say once or twice a week, and donated that to a school...

    ...maybe things can change.  We are so wasteful to gratify ourselves, we have become a victim of our own success and convenience.  If we could only direct and funnel our resources to help the future, to encourage others, things may change.

Sometimes, I am jealous of various Asian cultures, like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.  There's such a high emphasis on education, both in prevalent society, and governmental support.  Especially, in Korea, they saw the only way to develop quickly, to get ahead, and even overthrow Japanese occupation someday, was to have its citizens become educated.  And in the end, the phenomenal, and I do say phenomenal, growth in a short amount of time, only goes to help illustrate the success of societal focus and push on education.

When I was younger, I was exposed to many Taiwanese, especially the ones that bought up  houses with cash in Cupertino, California.  Cupertino was attractive to Taiwanese because of its famous K-12 school system. 

I then traveled to Taiwan to learn about their success, and I discovered a society, in all levels of society, whether rich or poor, shared common values toward education.  I also heard about government's extreme involvement in education, setting standards, requiring education, etc.  Despite the 4000 and more complex traditional Chinese characters, Taiwan had one of the highest literacy ratings in the world for its citizens.  And for couples, selecting partners, it was common to consider educational background and aptitude or potential of the partner.  The urgency and enthusiasm is just embedded into all aspects of the culture.

In contrast to America, many people don't consider education with selecting a partner.  I joke with my sister that if the partner has a job and doesn't do drugs, then there is potential.  Thus the standards are set quite low.  This just shows that the planning for future, like with education,and children, is absent in the minds of many. 

In different stratified levels of American society, the goals and emphasis on education is different.  A wealthy family, might threaten to disown their children if they do not pursue education, while lower income families might discourage their children from going to school, or at least not emphasize its importance.  For myself, I was told I was lazy for trying to go to college and not work, and I was told that I could never have a white collar job, as that wasn't for "our type of people" (meaning poor people), and this was coming from another white male.  I know everyone's experience is  not the same, but the results are staggering, e.g. dropouts in inner city, etc.  They even talk about some of this in Fast Food Nation, on how Fast Food companies prey on the low income people for recruitment and exploitation.

And lastly, we have our governments, that are more concerned with locking people up than financially supporting education.  Education is always the first to go in budget cuts, as was recently done in California.  Education should be a priority for our governments (state and federal).

Hypocrisy of Obama's Educational Speech

I wrote this in reply to a comment, but I figured this would be better to post as a blog.  Here's what I wrote:

As a student that has struggled with socialization and disability, I am particularly sensitive about all things educational and USA.  I really think that knowledge is one way to escape the barriers in life and fight discrimination, regardless if it is based on ethnicity or class stratification.  Ultimately, if you can help someone gain money, you're employed.   These days youth are getting distracted, loosing hope, going to drugs, gangs, etc. as it appears to be a viable option to survive the current predicament of America youth experience.

Provide a future, provide a way, and students will fall inline.  But it is hypocrisy and ludicrous to say study hard, but we will not support you...

I want to vocalize are shared view, get it to a bigger audience, organize, increase awareness.

I know Obama did not say, we will not support you, but that is the harsh reality of the educational setting in USA.  The politicians pilfer education first, when pruning the budget.  As income in K-12 schools is supplemented by property taxes, impoverished areas get unequal access to education.  Most of people of more affluence areas couldn't care less about this. I recall one engineer I talked with said he did not want his tax dollars supporting some inner city kid.

To recompose my thoughts: the folly is definitely with the government, but also society as well, the sheer selfishness, and lack of focused and determined support for education places us in the predicament we have with education in America.

This is the reality in which Americans live in.

Obama's Speech on Education Strikes a Nerve

Obama gives a speech for kids to take education seriously, which I fully support, but he neglects to discuss about existing unequal education and challenges ahead.  Many kids in America, especially from impoverished urban areas, do not have same quality of education.  While in Walnut Creek, they had $10,000 Sun Microsystems workstations on each desk, an Oakland school had holes in the ceiling and rats running through the classroom.  Fortunately, some organization, maybe ACLU, brought a lawsuit against the state of California for unequal educations, and something was done about it, but I don't know even today there was any progress.  I

In California, during the late 1800s, the government was paying 9 times more to keep people imprisoned than to keep people educated, and after 100 years, the situation was still the same.  I think it is even more grotesque, with The Governator exporting prisoners to other states due to overcrowding, and now recently, taking more than $400 million away from colleges.  This just shows the lack of priority by the state to educate its citizens.  Thus the speech seems almost hypocritical in someways, because regardless if the study studies hard, the government is robbing his education.  In my university, San Francisco State University, we loose 9 days of instruction per semester due to California pilfering the budget for education.

Sure it is nice to give a speech to study hard and take responsibility for education, but in USA, typically, when the going gets rough, the education gets going.  In other words, when there's a struggle with funding, the education is the first to be cut.  The society has a responsibility to educate itself, or else we will become uncompetitive and falls behind significantly to the rest of the world. When US citizens can no longer compete or be worth even the minimum wage salary, in retrospect with the rest of the world, we'll be in serious trouble, much like the strife and struggles in third world countries.

In developing nations, like Costa Rica or before in Korea, the government and society poor tons of money into education, so that their citizens can be competitive, and  afterward more money goes back into the state to develop infrastructure and industry.  India, Brazil, and several other countries, see the only way to succeed is to have a low cost labor force that is highly educated.  After years of developing along this strategy in India, they are quite successful and very competitive in computer industry.  Now where a Java engineer could easily get a salary for $80,000 per year, has to compete with less than $10,000 salary in India for similar skill sets.  This to say the least is a pretty sobering awareness.