Anyone who has read my LiveJournal for a prolonged period of time will know that I am an avid follower of soccer (football). Other sports that I enjoy include handball, badminton, and archery but those are often much harder to watch on a regular basis -- which is why I am so keen to catch them when multinational events such as the Olympics and ( Read more... )

If you've been following the news recently you've no doubt heard about North Korea's artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island on the afternoon of 23 November. If, by some chance, you aren't aware of what's happened you can get a quick summary of events from any number of sources -- such as Yahoo News and BusinessWeek. Before the start of classes ( Read more... )

There has been a lot of speculation surrounding the North Korean men's national team following their performance at the 2010 World Cup. More specifically, I have seen comments popping up on blogs and social media sites concerning how the North Korean players will either be executed or sent to a gulag upon their return to Pyongyang. While I ( Read more... )

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There has been a lot of talk here recently about the match between Argentina and Korea. During dinner last night some of my coworkers asked me who I thought would win and my guess was that the game would end in a draw, which seemed to surprise everyone. The following class period saw one of my students - a boy in his first year of middle school ( Read more... )

While waiting for my first class to start today I joined a conversation between two women at work concerning the World Cup. Or, more accurately, about Jong Tae-Se (정대세 / 鄭大世). For those of you who aren't familiar with Jong Tae-Se - which will likely be most people reading this blog post - he was born in Nagoya, Japan to Zainichi Korean parents ( Read more... )

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As mentioned in my previous entry there will be several places in Seoul to watch Korean national team games during the 2010 World Cup. However, there are two details that will keep me from catching the games in the nation's capital -- the first is that I don't really care about making the trip south while the second is that many of the weekday ( Read more... )

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several weeks you will more than likely be aware that the 2010 World Cup starts later today with the hosts South Africa taking on Mexico in the opening fixture. You would not believe how ecstatic I am to have the kick-off less than 24 hours away ( Read more... )

The weather here has seen quite a bit variation recently. It snowed twice last week (though technically it was more like sleet), Saturday saw a bunch of yellow dust (황사; hwangsa) find its way over from China, Sunday included perfect blue skies, and today was warm enough where I went around in short sleeves -- much to the envy of my students. I ( Read more... )