Happy Korean Independence Day!

On July 4, we celebrate the fact that we’re not British.

On March 1, the Koreans celebrate the fact they aren’t Japanese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Government_of_the_Republic_of_Korea

I’m sure Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio are absolutely stunning in this.  Why aren’t they in the picture?  I can’t wait to hear them sing in Korean.

Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to make this a musical?  What’s next, ‘Hangover III – The Musical ON ICE’?

Last summer, I forced/asked/required the big little Stockdale and the middle little Stockdale to attend Mandarin immersion camp in Shanghai.  In a general sense, they had fun, but they hated the Mandarin immersion part.  After two weeks they made some friends, saw some interesting stuff, but couldn’t say anything more than hello and goodbye. 

The process of trying to learn through immersion completely confused and befuddled them.  The middle little Stockdale told me every time the teacher asked her a question, her reply was just to smile.  The big little Stockdale got so frustrated she was almost in tears.  I just kind of shrugged my shoulders at their experience and told them to do their best. 

Sometimes things come back to haunt you.

For the six months we’ve been in Korea, my need to get some basic understanding of the Korean language has been growing.  A goofy smile and hand gestures can get you someplace, but it really all depends on which hand gestures based on how mad you get.  It’s pretty easy to let your frustrations with yourself spill into a complete and total contempt for this entire country and every single one of its inhabitants, even though the reason you are mad is due to your personal inability to speak the language, not the complete and total lack of common sense from anyone on the entire Korean peninsula.

In an effort to remedy my lingual shortcomings, I enrolled in a three-week intensive immersive Korean language class at Yonsei University.  Supposedly, this is the best place to learn Korean in the country, however that information was provided by people who were born here, which gives them an unfair advantage.  It would be like asking me for the best place to learn English in Kansas City.

While I never ever ever ever ever thought I would exit this class fluent in Korean, I figured that I could probably get to the point where I could read the crazy alphabet and perhaps know enough to ask a cab driver to drive me UP the hill to our apartment, not purposefully leave me at the bottom of the hill by our apartment.

First, let me apologize to the big little Stockdale and the middle little Stockdale.  Immersion is the absolutely positively WORST way to learn a language.  It is like drowning.  When someone is drowning you don’t throw a bucket of water to them.  You don’t throw them a bag of rocks.  You don’t throw them a rabid Thai puppy.  You don’t throw them a totebag.   You HELP them.  You reach out your hand and pull them to safety.  Immersive learning is not helping, it is pulling you up on shore, kicking you in the stomach, filling your pockets with hammers, and pushing you face first back into the ocean for four hours day, five days a week, for three weeks.

I would equate this to trying to teach your dog to speak English by talking to them four hours a day, every day, for three weeks.  At the beginning, your dog knows one English word – ‘RUFF’.  At the end, he still knows one English word – ‘RUFF’. 

Three weeks ago I was confident enough with my pronunciation to speak one Korean word – ‘NAY’.  It means ‘YES.’   If you can guess what is still my only Korean word, please come to Seoul and grab a free tote bag.  I’ll be at the bottom of the hill by our apartment.

This week I start using Mrs Stockdale’s Korean tutor on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Maybe in a month or two I’ll be able to talk to our neighbor’s dog.  He may be small and furry, but he seems to understand Korean pretty well.  Worst case the dog and I can just bark at each other.  At least we both can say ‘RUFF’.

Not much new here.  Korea is cold.  Therefore, I am cold.

UPDATE # 1

All three of the little Stockdales are home from school sick.

UPDATE # 2

Three of the three little Stockdales have the flu and will be home for a school mandated five days of ‘rest’.  The flu is rampaging their school.   Seven kids in the crazy little Stockdale’s class also have the flu.

UPDATE # 3

Two of the three little Stockdales have EACH puked up three doses of the flu medicine prescribed by our doctor and filled by my third world pharmacist ( Remember when barbers did surgery, that is what a Korean pharmacy is like. )

UPDATE # 4

Mrs. Stockdale is conveniently in Singapore of all places.

UPDATE # 5

Mrs. Stockdale has returned from Singapore, however she also has the flu.  ( Note, she is the worst sick person EVER. )

http://www.economist.com/node/21541713

This is a great article on life and the educational system in Korea.   Most of the article easily applies to other places I have seen.

Singapore is much more friendly and encouraging to the young entrepreneur, but their educational system is just as miserably stringent as Korea.  Changing jobs is not frowned upon, but working for a big multi-national company is most people’s goal.  Also, the economy of Singapore is important, but small.  An entrepreneur can only go so far here.

In China, from what I’ve seen and read, the public school system is just as strict, but parents have no choice but to supplement the public system with private tutors because the quality of the Chinese system isn’t up to Singaporean or Korean standards.  The deck is also stacked ( for the most part ) in China against anyone rising out of poverty.  At least Korea has the test to give their kids hope.  There are many entrepreneurs here, but firms with government connections are the dominant force.

That said, if the US really wants to compare our kids to the Asian kids, we have to be willing to make unwelcome changes.  You can’t compare Billy or Sally growing up in Mason, Ohio and playing 3 sports and having time to play with friends or work a part-time job on the weekends with Tae Hok or Lin He who has studied for the SAT during every free moment of every day since they started school at age 7.  ( This isn’t an exaggeration, this is how these kids grow up. )

Now, in absolutely no way am I recommending or advocating the Asian system.  Just the opposite.  America needs to define our own goals and our own objectives.  It is in our best interest to educate our children in a way that brings them up as balanced, happy, AND well-educated.  Our kids should be challenged and pushed more than they are currently, but there is a limit.

Consider Korea, where everything depends on this test, which gets you into a good college, which gets you a job at Samsung or Hyundai or LG or one of the other big conglomerates.  Once you go work for one of these behemoths, you never quit and you don’t get fired.  If you don’t get on with one of the behemoths there really aren’t many options.  If you do get hired, why would you ever quit?  If this is the case, where does the NEXT Samsung or Hyundai or LG come from?  If a country squashes the entrepreneurs, what does the future hold and where does the next great idea come from?

For all that is questionable about the US economy, consider this.  Think about the following companies: Xerox, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, HP, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter.  Each one of these companies was/is the envy of tech world at some time or another.  The big little Stockdale is older than a couple of these companies. 

They are all still around, even if their heyday was in the 1980s.  Some more successful than others.  Some cool, some not cool.  However, all these companies continue to make money, employ a large number of people, and fuel innovation ( either through their own efforts or the opportunities they create for others ).

If every college graduate only wanted to work for IBM, Apple, or Xerox and never left once they were employed there, who invents Facebook if entrepreneurship is a second class profession?  That is what is happening in Korea.

In Korea, it became 2012 a whole bunch of hours ( that’s metric for I don’t feel like doing the math ) before the ball dropped in New York.

In order to celebrate, we went out to dinner with some friends and then hit the karaoke bar.

First, karaoke bars in Asia are strange.  The songs aren’t ‘exactly’ the way they should be and the videos are tad ‘different’ than I remember them.  Let’s just leave it at that. 

Second, although at one time Mrs. Stockdale could play the piano and violin, these days she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.

Happy 2012!

We took the little Stockdales skiing this year for Christmas.  Ok, there was no actual ‘skiing’ by any member of the Stockdale family on this trip, however it was cold.  We would have liked for the little Stockdales to ski, however we knew they couldn’t and wouldn’t learn anything from Mrs. Stockdale or I and we were fairly certain their Korean langauge skills weren’t up to little kid ski school.

The resort we went to was called PyeongChang and it will host the Winter Olympics in 2018.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Winter_Olympics   Based on the size of the ‘mountain’ and the amenities offered, Perfect North Slopes in Cincinnati is a viable candidate to host the 2022 Winter Olympiad.

The best part of the resort was our condo.  Here are fantastic pictures of our wonderful bedroom.

If you’re wondering where the beds are ( like we did ), they are rolled up in the closet and you unfurl them onto the floor at bedtime.

In addition to not having beds, there were also no towels.  Had we known, we would have brought some.

The cold hard floor was about as comfortable as you’d expect and our three-day, two-night trip to the mountains was cut short a night for the sake of warmth, comfort, moisture absorption, and the general well-being of my back.  Regardless, there was still fun to be had (or fun to be curtailed ).

We went sledding.  The person in the lower left hand corner is making sure you don’t go fast.

If you do go too fast, they come and warn you to slow down next time.

The little Stockdales also briefly were able to play in the snow.  At least until this nice man came to warn them that this pile of snow was too dangerous.

There was also a water park at the resort.  It was part Great Wolf Lodge and part nanny state.

The big little Stockdale could go down the big slides because she was tall enough, by a quarter-inch.  However, she could not play with her sisters on the other slides because she was too tall by a quarter-inch.  The middle little Stockdale was a quarter-inch too small for the big slides, but was fine for the little kid play area with the crazy little Stockdale.  The crazy little Stockdale could play on the little kid slide, but there were no adults allowed in the little kid play area, except that children under 100 cm ( that’s 1 meter in metric )  had to have an adult with them, however adults are not permitted in this area.  This all basically meant that you should play and enjoy the water park, but that the only way to do this as a family was if all your children were the same size, except if your children were small, then they were only allowed in the area where you could not go with them, but they could only be there with you.  These rules all make sense if you are Korean because they are written down on signs and posted on walls and therefore obeyed without question.

All these rules were strictly enforced by the friends of the nice man who removed the little Stockdales from the deadly snow pile.  In Korea, kids don’t need car seats, people just randomly walk across roads without any regard for oncoming traffic, but god forbid an adult should cross the red line in the wave pool without a life vest on.  The water is one meter ( that is 100 centimeters in metric ) deep!

As an added bonus at the waterpark, they also offered food safety tips.

Safety being the primary objective, it is perfectly fine to drink beer at the waterpark.  If it wasn’t for Cass and it’s ‘Sound of Vitality’, I’m not sure we would have made it through two days and one night of being prevented from having any fun whatsoever. 

Korea is just a very odd and often contradictory place.  To one extent you can drive your motor scooter down a crowded sidewalk at 30 mph without anyone caring, red lights are suggestions, crosswalks optional, and u-turns can be made at will.  Traffic laws seem to apply to no one.  However, if you attempt to question any of the nazi like safety rules at the water park, you are viewed as endangering the well-being and safety of everyone in the facility.

Someday I’ll get Korea figured out, but it will probably be the day before Mrs. Stockdale packs us up and takes us someplace else.

Greetings from the Stockdales!

The holiday is pretty low-key in Korea.  All the stores were open, most of the restaurants were open, and for the vast majority of Koreans it was just a regular day. 

We had pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve and leftover pizza for dinner on Christmas Day.  However, we were able to return to the tradition of coordinated pajamas for the ladies of Stockdale.

This is the most informative article I’ve read so far.  The status quo is what is in EVERYONE’s best interest and what will probably prevail.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/us-korea-north-exclusive-idUSTRE7BK0FX20111221

However, word on the street is that something fun will happen in April.  That is when the South Korean’s hold their elections.  North Korea does something every election cycle to rattle the cage just for fun.  I predict a commemorative Kim Jong Il tote bag for everyone south of the 38th parallel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16239693

Guessing folks saw that the Stockdales won’t be having a cookout with the Kims (or is it the Jongs or is it the Ils) any time soon.   That said, everything in Seoul is normal.  No riots, no demonstrations, no looting, no celebrations, no tote bags giveaways.  Just a regular day. 

The real question is what happens over the next weeks and months.  My prediction is very little.