Holiday is over! Noo!
So, our 4 day weekend is coming to an end, what has been going on?
Well, there was a crazy week at school. With it being the week before the biggest holiday of the year, the place was in more chaos than usual (if that's possible) and the students doubly so. Some of them were, in fact, right shits. But I did discover that the Korean teachers buy their own sticks with which to discipline the students - and that we're free to do so too. I'm not sure how far to go in this direction - is an electric baton too far? Sometimes I'd say yes, others, it's a close call.
I was blown away by the weirdness again. See, I corrected a student's speech. They were going to enter this competition and I was asked to help them with their entry. One of the things they got wrong was to place 'the' in front of positions in the middle of sentences, e.g. the first, the second, the third, and so on. It's not 'He came the second'. My corrections were corrected pretty swiftly by a pissed off Korean teacher as, apparently, they know it is wrong but the students MUST be taught that this is the correct way to use the language, until they reach a certain level.
How weird is that? I know this is wrong but I will go to the trouble of teaching you something that is incorrect, until you reach a certain level of proficiency. If the idea was 'that's too complicated so we don't bother correcting them until they're a bit better', that'd make sense. But to actually teach something that's incorrect? That's fucking stupid.
To make up for that frustrating telling off, I did have a wonderful moment in a class. There was a misprint on one of the worksheets I had to use, printing 'bomb' instead of 'tomb'. That in and of itself is funny enough. But then, when I explained this the kids loved it and laughed hard. As the laugher died down, one of the girls, who is always very quiet, pointed to the bomb I drew on the board and shouted, complete with faux-American accent, "Fire in the hole!" I nearly pissed myself with laughter. I guess she saw it on a movie or was a huge 'Sudden Attack' (Counterstrike) player.
I haven't been able to write more Psionic Six - I've been far too busy writing for RPGs. I feel bad and need to say hi on autoclover soon.
The plot line on 'That Musou Show' has been barreling along at an incredible pace. Queen Bee was possessed by an evil spirit and was killed, Bumble Bee Tits got married to a monk and the died - although I missed how, tuned in just in time to see him carrying her corpse through a field of flowers to slow music - and Chinstrap has an evil brother (?) with long grey hair. And some old dude, who was a minor character, has become a lot more important in terms of screen time, although I've yet to see him do much other than boss his magic wielding generals about. Awesome!
Also on TV, I saw something very strange. Everyone remembers the Buckeroo rip-off that was 'Ali Baba and his bucking camel' right? Well I've seen, more than once, an advert for it taken right out of the 80s. What makes it worthy of note is that it plays the opening to the inspector gadget, y'know, the bit with the siren. Weird.
Doo-da-doo-da-doo.Doo-da-doo-da-doo-doop-doop.
Love it.
We've tried to make the most of the holiday and are not looking forward to going back, however, it's only a 3 day week and tomorrow is our first pay day. Awesome! We visited what is apparently the largest electronics market in Asia. I was chuffed to see Korean Dreamcasts, Saturns and N64s, as well as a lot of new stuff. The focus is quite strongly on online gaming still, with X-Box apparently beating PS3, everywhere we went. But it was great to see some consoles other than handhelds. I'm thinking I'll wait until I can go to Japan though before buying anything big, likely at the end of the year (Aug 09). By then I'll have more money and I know the stores are more reputable and the ranges much larger. A Japanese Saturn/Dreamcast/NeoGeo Aes/SNES would rock! Can anyone recommend a good store anywhere in Japan?
Speaking of general open, questions, in the last few weeks I've had a large number of Russians friend me here on LJ. I can't read their blogs and babelfishing doesn't help much. If any of guys want to say 'hi' or tell me what the fuck is going on, please do Komrades! I have no idea what's going on, although the thought of being a minor online celebrity the other side of the iron curtain does have some appeal. Maybe I'll get a cameo in the next Nightwatch movie....
Well, I'm tired and confused, and sensing that some of the above is garbled, so I'm signing off.
Well, there was a crazy week at school. With it being the week before the biggest holiday of the year, the place was in more chaos than usual (if that's possible) and the students doubly so. Some of them were, in fact, right shits. But I did discover that the Korean teachers buy their own sticks with which to discipline the students - and that we're free to do so too. I'm not sure how far to go in this direction - is an electric baton too far? Sometimes I'd say yes, others, it's a close call.
I was blown away by the weirdness again. See, I corrected a student's speech. They were going to enter this competition and I was asked to help them with their entry. One of the things they got wrong was to place 'the' in front of positions in the middle of sentences, e.g. the first, the second, the third, and so on. It's not 'He came the second'. My corrections were corrected pretty swiftly by a pissed off Korean teacher as, apparently, they know it is wrong but the students MUST be taught that this is the correct way to use the language, until they reach a certain level.
How weird is that? I know this is wrong but I will go to the trouble of teaching you something that is incorrect, until you reach a certain level of proficiency. If the idea was 'that's too complicated so we don't bother correcting them until they're a bit better', that'd make sense. But to actually teach something that's incorrect? That's fucking stupid.
To make up for that frustrating telling off, I did have a wonderful moment in a class. There was a misprint on one of the worksheets I had to use, printing 'bomb' instead of 'tomb'. That in and of itself is funny enough. But then, when I explained this the kids loved it and laughed hard. As the laugher died down, one of the girls, who is always very quiet, pointed to the bomb I drew on the board and shouted, complete with faux-American accent, "Fire in the hole!" I nearly pissed myself with laughter. I guess she saw it on a movie or was a huge 'Sudden Attack' (Counterstrike) player.
I haven't been able to write more Psionic Six - I've been far too busy writing for RPGs. I feel bad and need to say hi on autoclover soon.
The plot line on 'That Musou Show' has been barreling along at an incredible pace. Queen Bee was possessed by an evil spirit and was killed, Bumble Bee Tits got married to a monk and the died - although I missed how, tuned in just in time to see him carrying her corpse through a field of flowers to slow music - and Chinstrap has an evil brother (?) with long grey hair. And some old dude, who was a minor character, has become a lot more important in terms of screen time, although I've yet to see him do much other than boss his magic wielding generals about. Awesome!
Also on TV, I saw something very strange. Everyone remembers the Buckeroo rip-off that was 'Ali Baba and his bucking camel' right? Well I've seen, more than once, an advert for it taken right out of the 80s. What makes it worthy of note is that it plays the opening to the inspector gadget, y'know, the bit with the siren. Weird.
Doo-da-doo-da-doo.Doo-da-doo-da-doo-doop-doop.
Love it.
We've tried to make the most of the holiday and are not looking forward to going back, however, it's only a 3 day week and tomorrow is our first pay day. Awesome! We visited what is apparently the largest electronics market in Asia. I was chuffed to see Korean Dreamcasts, Saturns and N64s, as well as a lot of new stuff. The focus is quite strongly on online gaming still, with X-Box apparently beating PS3, everywhere we went. But it was great to see some consoles other than handhelds. I'm thinking I'll wait until I can go to Japan though before buying anything big, likely at the end of the year (Aug 09). By then I'll have more money and I know the stores are more reputable and the ranges much larger. A Japanese Saturn/Dreamcast/NeoGeo Aes/SNES would rock! Can anyone recommend a good store anywhere in Japan?
Speaking of general open, questions, in the last few weeks I've had a large number of Russians friend me here on LJ. I can't read their blogs and babelfishing doesn't help much. If any of guys want to say 'hi' or tell me what the fuck is going on, please do Komrades! I have no idea what's going on, although the thought of being a minor online celebrity the other side of the iron curtain does have some appeal. Maybe I'll get a cameo in the next Nightwatch movie....
Well, I'm tired and confused, and sensing that some of the above is garbled, so I'm signing off.