2016!

새해 복 많이 받으세요! Saehae bok manhi padeuseyo!

That's the traditional Korean greeting for the new year, which is used for both the Gregorian new year (January 1st) as well as the Lunar new year (the Year the Monkey will begin on February 8th). It literally translates to, "May you receive lots of happiness/fortune in the new year!"

Unrelated to the new year, but related to Korean, is a heartwarming animated short I watched recently called 어머니 (Eomeoni), or "Mother". It's about a mother who is overwhelmed with household chores and how her family pitches in to help. Enjoy!

Mother from StephanieC on Vimeo.

Wow. I can't believe it's 2016. I started this blog in 2012... almost four years ago! I know I don't write much here anymore, but every once in a while I'll come back to it to look at old photos and old stories, and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Months, even years after you leave a place, the impression it leaves can really linger. I am so grateful that I have this blog to look back on my time in Korea. This coming year, I don't know if I will have any opportunity to go back. But I am very grateful for the time I did get to spend there and for the memories I can relieve whenever I want to.

Have a happy and prosperous 2016!

North Korean - South Korean translator app

It should surprise nobody by now that the languages spoken in North Korea and South Korea are not the same. The two countries have been geographically separated for decades, with no free communication allowed across the border between them. In addition to that, North Korea's government initiated purges of the language long ago to get rid of foreign words or borrowings (from English, Chinese, or Japanese) and replace them with pure Korean translations. As a result, while South Koreans might want to eat 아이스크림 ("ice cream", transliterated) on a hot summer day, a North Korean will dream instead of 얼음과자 ("ice snack").

When I visited North Korea last year, I found myself unable to understand much of the Korean that I heard being spoken. Of course, my Korean listening comprehension level is fairly low, but it wasn't just me -- even the Korean-Americans in my tour group who were fluent in (South) Korean had some difficulties. Most of it was due to the differences in vocabulary, but there was also the intonation of North Korean, which would have been considered a mere dialectal difference back when Korea was unified, but is now one of the markers of the two languages' divergence. (The line between "language" and "dialect" is a fairly blurry one, even for linguists.)

Anyway, when I came across this advertisement/PSA for a new app called 글동무 ("classmate"). I like the name -- the whole phrase means "classmate", which directly references the app's usefulness for North Korean students struggling to keep up in South Korean classrooms, and encourages a camaraderie among youth. Also, the first word (글) on its own means "writing" or "knowledge". The second part (동무) on its own can also mean "comrade", but I don't think that was intentional.

I have taught camps and tutored students from North Korea in South Korea before, and I can say that an app like this would be very helpful for most of them. (For others, especially younger students who basically grew up in China while their families were in hiding, it would perhaps be less useful than a Chinese-Korean dictionary, but those already exist.)

And in addition to the app's usefulness, its beautiful, simple design and hi-tech programming (it can use the phone's camera to identify unknown words automatically and offer translations immediately) are really compelling. This amazing app is the brainchild of linguists, computer programmers, and sociologists who saw a need in South Korea and came up with an elegant solution. I hope that the work I will do in the future can be as beneficial as this!

Korean Hip Hop Dance Crew Just Jerk

Hat tip to Glen for sending along this amazing hip hop dance piece by the Korean dance crew Just Jerk. 정말 대단한다고 생각합니다. I'm not usually a big fan of hip hop, but this performance is mesmerizing and, interestingly enough, not exactly immediately identifiable as hip hop. It's actually a fantastic tribute to more traditional Korean dance and music styles. How so?

First of all, three of the four songs come from the soundtracks to movies and dramas set during the Joseon Dynasty (the fourth is a hip hop piece by a Korean artist), and secondly, the costumes are obviously inspired by traditional Korean costumes. For the first half of the performance, the dancers are wearing masks, which makes me think of Korean masked dances, broadly known as 탈춤 (talchum). These kinds of dances always tell a dramatic tale, and similarly, I can see how this piece by Just Jerk has a musical arc and a sort of choreographed story.

It's pretty common knowledge by now that the South Korean 힙합 (hip hop) and 비보잉 (b-boying/breakdancing) scenes are huge, and that Korean b-boy crews win international competitions. There must be something in the water here... although one of my Korean instructors once tried to explain that this American genre's popularity in Korea was due in part to the fact that dance circles and community performance aspect of b-boying were similar to Korean folk dancing styles like 풍물 (pungmul) or 농악 (nongak). I don't quite buy it, but all the same, performances like the one I've shared above do in fact do a wonderful job in connecting the traditional with the young and modern.

Speaking of young, I checked out Just Jerk's Facebook page, and boy, they all look fresh out of college, or maybe even younger. 수준이 아주 높고 타고난 소질이 있는 듯! Also, as I scrolled down their wall, I was really surprised to see that they have toured internationally to do workshops, and one of their recent locations was UC Berkeley! How cool. Cal's huge dance community is always holding workshops, but I didn't know they brought people in from as far away as Korea. 미래에 JJㄴㄴ캘리포니아에 투어 하려고 다시 오고, 저는 공연을 볼 수 있으면 좋겠습니다!

Korean Snack Fix

Skatewing is 홍어, better known as "fish fermented in its own pee." They also have radish kimchi, which I really like! All of these side dishes are in a huge bar in the Han Kook Supermarket, but no tasting, please!

Welcome to the Bay Area, where those who are nostalgic about the great food they had in Asia never have to travel far to find it again. I helped my brother and sister-in-law move into their new place in the South Bay. Luckily for them, not ten minutes away there are a huge number of Asian markets and restaurants, including the enormous Han Kook Supermarket (한국슈퍼마켓) in Sunnyvale. I went to check it out with my aunt and uncle, who told me they like to get Korean side dishes (반찬) there.

The place is like a miniature E-Mart. Most of it is groceries with goods imported from Korea, Japan, and possibly Taiwan, but there are also small sections for accessories, beauty products, and electronics, just like in a typical department store. I amused myself by reading the English translations of snacks and foods that I'd learned only in Korean.

Everyone knows Choco Pie, right? It doesn't need an explanation in Korea. But in America, they have to make sure you know that the stuff in the middle is marshmallow filling, and also that "IT'S FLUFFY." 

My absolute favorite milk shake in a bag, 설레임, has been translated as "snow ice." Well, 설 does mean "snow," but I never really understood what "레임" meant. It certainly doesn't mean "ice," since that would be the more recognizable (and more delicious) 설빙 (Sulbing)! Anyway, I succeeded in getting my family hooked on 설레임.

My family also went to a Korean barbecue place for dinner last night, and it made me more than a bit nostalgic. I got to practice a bit of Korean with the waitstaff and explained what I knew about the different foods we ordered. I'm certainly going to look for my local Korean markets and restaurants in Berkeley; I'm very lucky indeed that I get to spend the next five years in Northern California.

On a related note, I thought this was really cute:

"Enter Pyongyang" Hyperlapse Video Review

Enter Pyongyang on Vimeo.

A friend shared this video on Facebook, and I had to take a look. First impression: it's well-crafted and beautiful as a film. No surprise there, since Vimeo is the video sharing site to go to if you have something pretty to share! I'm a sucker for timelapse and hyperlapse (that is, timelapse + shifts in perspective) videos anyway, so simply watching this was a treat.

I'm a little concerned about the message it's sending, however. The pros are that the video will dispel myths that Pyongyang is completely destitute, crumbling to pieces, and cut off from the outside world. These are pretty much untrue, but that doesn't mean it's, like, a nice place to live. So the cons are that the video can easily give a false idea of what Pyongyang, or even all of North Korea, is like.

Here's what I thought as I watched the video: where is all that light coming from? There is so little electricity available in the city. The cityscape is not that bright at night. The computeres in the grand library are only on for a few hours each day. And where is all that color coming from? Maybe my camera is not as nice as the equipment used for this video, but the dominant color in every photo I took in North Korea is gray.

The subway is exactly how I remembered it, though. Like my tour group, the filmmakers were only allowed to see the few nicest and busiest stations of the two-line system. Even though the platform was grand and lit up, the train was dated and dark inside. I was caught by surprise by a tender moment when the sped-up footage slowed down to show an old man entering the station, and again when it paused to let a traffic cop stop and chat with a lady pushing a stroller, again when a little girl at the roller-skating rink spotted the camera. These brief moments that revealed ordinary human actions and interactions did make me smile.

But again, that does not mean North Korean society is harmonious or normal by any standard. The filmmakers worked closely with Koryo Tours, a North Korean tourism company, so it's not surprising that the footage shown was neat, aesthetic, and even attractive. It's the image a tourism company wants you to see. It's also the fabricated facade that the DPRK's totalitarian regime wants you to see. They don't want you to see that the inside of the gorgeous pyramidal Ryugyong Hotel is skeletal and unfinished, only that the lawns on the outside are green. They don't want you to see the dilapidated apartments in the western parts of the city that have no glass in their windows, only the newly-constructed ones (that, despite their appearances, have their electricity shut off at night just like every other building in the city besides the monuments). They don't want you to see anything outside of the capital city, either: none of the concentration camps, the starving gangs of orphan children in the northeast, the abandoned factories that have produced nothing for decades, the hills stripped completely bare of their forests, the desperate men and women who smuggle food, drugs, and people across the border to China. None of these things are supposed to exist in the Kim dynasty's sterilized image of the Victorious Fatherland. It's not that I expect them to show up in what is essentially a three-minute advertisement, but I'll be frank: the North Korea that you have just seen is not the North Korea that you need to see.

This video used awesome technology and uplifting music to reinforce the idealized image of Pyongyang. I wouldn't call it propaganda, and it's not like anything shown in the video is actually fake. But it's easy for pretty things to convince the world that pretty is all that exists, and I caution any viewer from drawing the conclusion that because a couple of professional filmmakers were allowed to tour the capital of North Korea with their cameras, the entire country is actually brimming with "dynamism and [a] sense of potential."

North Korea is a long way away from really opening up to the outside world, but when it does, I hope that someone with the same advanced equipment as well as a heart for millions of oppressed and suffering people can enter and show us more than this.

Going, going...

A few letters from students, including a gorgeous poster from my third-years!

Should I have made a bigger deal out of my leaving? I've been downplaying my imminent departure so much that I wonder if my students have really digested the reality of it all. I know I haven't, not really. This has been the week of "last classes", and they have mostly looked like this: I pass out class awards, tell the students via riddle or just straight up that I'm going back to the States for grad school, and then show Video Game High School or play Mafia. Then the bell rings, the students leave, and I sit at my desk and wonder if I should be, like, emotional or anything. I think one thing I am going to regret is that I haven't set aside any time to take class photos with my students.

Tomorrow, the second-years are going on a field trip to Jirisan, and I will join them, so there's a good opportunity to "catch up," so to speak. All the photos I take will end up on Facebook, and now that my contract is officially over, I think I can start adding my students as friends. In this way, at least, goodbye isn't really goodbye, since we can easily keep in touch online. Still, what I'll miss the most is physically being with my students, and no social network can replace that.

I'm having my first-year students write letters to the new Fulbright teacher who will replace me this fall. The letters are very cute, and so far they give good insight into the students' personalities. Some students surprised me by writing very thoughtful letters or by writing more than I expected of them. Other students surprised me by writing me a letter instead of focusing on the assignment I gave them. Well, I'm not going to take issue with that. :) I've gotten a few other letters from students, which I will cherish. I'm really touched when students take the time to show me that I've made some sort of impact on their lives, as brief as my time here has been. So yes, even the sheet of paper that says nothing but, "I love you, Teacher! Forever," and a bunch of hearts is going in my keepsakes box.

All of my third-years wrote something in a large card they gave me today. Since it was our last class, and since I like them enough to hand them twenty bucks and permission to go to the corner convenience store, I treated them to ice cream! And we blogged, of course. Ah, these are the students I taught for four semesters. I'll miss them a lot.

Oh! Unrelated: our school cohir had a mini-concert today. One of the songs they performed was called "Flying Free"; it was very beautiful. The other was "Hava Nagila", and I thought it was strange to hear Hebrew being sung from my Korean students' mouths... but my Asian church choir has sung in plenty of different languages before, so I guess I shouldn't make a big deal out of it! I really enjoyed their performance! Check out the videos below.


So... really. I'm looking at nothing but a day trip with students tomorrow, and then Friday, which is just a half-day. The last day. But it still hasn't registered yet.

South Carnival (사우스 카니발) - 몬딱 도르라

This is too good not to share! My friend who teaches in Seogwipo on Jeju Island showed me this music video by a Korean ska band called South Carnival. The song is called "몬딱 도르라"*. Not only is this video cute and vibrant, the song is sung in Jeju-eo! The subtitles are written in Standard Korean, but if you listen closely (and can read/understand Hangul), then you can tell that what they're saying doesn't match up with the lyrics. And this is because Jeju-eo is quite different from Standard Korean.

I don't know enough about ska to consider myself a fan of the genre, but this song is currently stuck in my head for sure. Music is such a wonderful way to preserve language and culture!

*몬딱 도르라" (monddak doreura) is Jeju-eo for "함께 달리자" (hamkke dallija), which means "run together". Unfortunately, 도르다 in Standard Korean can also mean "to vomit," so maybe Koreans who are unfamiliar with Jeju-eo will be confused by the song title.

Taekgyeon Black Belt Test

Today, 저는 목표를 달성했습니다. I achieved a goal.

When I came to Korea two years ago, I wanted to learn a martial art. My first semester of teaching was busy, so I couldn't do many extracurricular activities, but by March 2013, I had made up my mind to pursue taekwondo. However, on the day I looked for martial arts gyms in my neighborhood, the only one I could find with adult classes was a taekgyeon gym. That's how I ended up training in taekgyeon every weekday night for over a year.

It's been mostly fun. Sometimes I was really pathetically confused, and at other times I became very frustrated, but I'm glad that I stuck through with it during the rough times. Even after a long day at school, when I arrive home at 8pm, exhausted, and have only an hour before I've got to trudge to the gym, once I arrive I shake off my fatigue and try to give it my all. I've grown to love taekgyeon: the graceful yet powerful movements, the useful techniques for self-defense, the way it has improved my physique. I'm fiercely proud of being a part of a relatively unknown Korean tradition and have eagerly talked about it with anyone. And after fifteen months of training, it all culminated in a short, ten-minute evaluation (심사) this morning for my first-degree black belt (한동).

For the test, I had to demonstrate the 본때뵈기 (bonddaebwegi) routine that we practice literally every single day. It's a choreographed solo routine that incorporates all the kicks, trips, and steps used in taekgyeon sparring, and even though I've done it nearly a thousand times now, I still mess up sometimes. In fact, I kind of messed up this morning because I was demonstrating it at the same time as some very young kids who were also testing for their black belts, and their rhythm was not the same as mine. Also, I was pretty nervous.

After the 본때뵈기, my sparring partner, a guy in his forties, and I demonstrated kicks (마주차기), trips (마주거리), wrestling (대거리), and sparring (맞서기). For each demonstration, I could tell that I wasn't doing as well as I had done during last week's training. Nerves really can get to me, I guess! But it wasn't so terrible that I made a fool of myself. In fact, I actually rather enjoyed it.

And that was that. I finished my test, and then I sat down to watch the kids do their evaluations. These are elementary school-aged children who are already testing for their second-degree black belts! They're years ahead of me in taekgyeon, but still so cute when they do it!

The older kids also did some demonstrations of higher-level routines and also jump rope routines, which my taekgyeon master incorporates into his training. (I suck at jump rope...) Anyway, I took some videos on my phone of the kids' portion of the test, and you can watch it below.

When the evaluation was over (all in all, it took just over one hour), the kids began running around acting like kids, and we snacked on watermelon and rice cakes before having take-out "Chinese" for lunch. I really enjoy spending time with the taekgyeon kids! They're always inexplicably excited to see me, and they're fun to play with. I'm a little concerned at how much they enjoy tackling and tripping each other, but I guess that's the only way a group of kids that trains in martial arts together know how to bond. That, and playing video games on their phones.

I then went home, took a nap, and went to church. The rest of the day felt as normal as any other quiet Sunday. But I feel... I don't know, 마음이 가볍다? A bit lighter? It's not like I've finished taekgyeon. I'm still going to go to training tomorrow (where we'll play soccer... ugh...) and probably continue right up until I leave. From now on, though, since I've reached my goal of obtaining a black belt, I guess my outlook has changed a bit. I've logged a few hundred hours developing a skill that I came to with absolutely zero experience, and now I'm proud to have passed a major milestone.

Another way in which this marks a sort of climactic point in my grant year is that my schedule for the rest of this semester is now free of anything major. I had my research report due last Sunday and just finished a week of endless speech tests for my students; now, my last big hurdle of the semester is out of the way. There's nothing big left between me and August 7th: D-Day. Departure Day. No more big projects. No more deadlines. Just wrapping up and getting ready to go. The emptiness of my calendar is a bit scary.

So I took my black belt test today. Because I want to continue training in martial arts, I hope that this was just the beginning, but when it comes to my time in Korea, I realize that it actually marks the beginning of the end.

tl;dr: I passed!

PSY, JLC, FOB, and the Transmission of Culture

"Oh. My. GOD!" complains the exchange student played by Kim Sungwon as the audience erupts in laughter. "I don't understand about Korean culture!"

Questionable English grammar aside, this Western student's frustration is very relatable. In the popular sketch "School of Mental Breakdown" (멘붕스쿨) on the Korean comedy show Gag Concert, a brief and hilarious few minutes are spent trying to look at Korea through the eyes of a foreigner. (Well, not in the episode shown above; that one's about American superhero movies, but it's the only one I could find on YouTube.) This school is obviously the parody of parodies, but we can laugh at some of the stereotyped portrayals of one slice of Korean culture, its education system.

This does raise some questions about perspective, however. "School of Mental Breakdown" aired last year, but the memory of Kim Sungwon's outbursts came to me as I chatted with my English co-teachers over cheese and crackers at our semiweekly book club. We're reading Amy Tan's seminal The Joy Luck Club, and the bulk of each period is spent discussing that amorphous thing known as "culture". As I am Taiwanese-American, they were interested in whether the issues of cultural assimilation, immigration, and language that are so central to the stories of the four Chinese families were the same as those that my family and I have faced.

Certainly, there are a few similarities. The language barrier that rises between generations after a geographical shift is one of the big ones. There are smaller tidbits that I cheerfully identified with, too, like the story of steaming live crabs or the childhood hours spent banging away fruitlessly at the piano.

But I had to admit the other day that a lot of the cultural symbols are just as mysterious to me as they would be to your average Western (and non-Chinese) reader of The Joy Luck Club. I am totally unfamiliar with the folklore and mythology so often referenced in the stories; I don't know which of the five elements I was born lacking, and I have never heard of Xi Wangmu. My comfortably middle-class family has never lived anywhere near a Chinatown. And perhaps the biggest difference is that my parents immigrated to the US in the 80s from Taiwan in order to seek higher education, not from China in the 40s in order to escape war.

But then I realized that The Joy Luck Club, which for decades has stayed on high school reading lists as one of a few representative books about Asian-American minority culture, has probably influenced hundreds of thousands of people toward a certain idea of what it means to be a Chinese-American or part of an East Asian immigrant family. And while that idea, within the pages of the book, is at least not contrived or too narrowly delineated, it is also -- dare I say it -- outdated.

I mean, Asian America looks much different now, in 2014, than it did when The Joy Luck Club was published in 1989, let alone in the 1950s when the memorable just-immigrated stories and childhood stories take place. But what does every high school sophomore who reads these stories today come away thinking? If they're not Asian, they now think they understand Asians. If they are Asian, they try to match up their own lives and experiences to the lives and experiences of the protagonists, to varying degrees of success. In neither case is the media self-contained; that is, it will always inevitably be extrapolated onto others (and onto the Other). Comparisons will be drawn. Judgments will be made. Conclusions will be jumped to across the wide chasm of sixty years of change.

Now how does this come back to Gag Concert and Korean culture? Well, before your average Westerner steps foot in Korea for the first time, they may not necessarily know anything about the country. Surely they've heard of kimchi and PSY, and maybe they're aware enough to know that Samsung, taekwondo, and Kim Yuna are Korean and not Japanese. But when we arrive, there's more than enough in this culture to shock us into thinking, "Oh my God, I just don't get it!"

Thus, Korea has made great efforts in recent years to export not just electronics and cars, but also its own culture. Hence the Hallyu Wave, which has globalized Korean music, TV, and celebrity culture, and the breakneck speed at which Seoul has been metamorphosing into an international metropolis. Korea is flinging its influence in every direction while also urging everyone to come in. But not everything sticks, and not everyone stays.

I want to look at the odd things that do stay in the minds of non-Koreans about Korea. Everyone is still kind of at a loss to explain why PSY's "Gangnam Style" was such a global hit -- it now has over two billion YouTube views -- but, well, here he is. Intentional or not, his cultural influence is powerful and not likely to go away soon. Korea wanted the world to love K-pop and gave them BoA, Rain, Big Bang, and Girls' Generation. The world chose PSY.

The American-educated, somewhat goofball rapper, whose past three music videos have poked fun at various aspects of his home country, certainly has something to say. His most recent video, "Hangover", which satirizes Korean drinking culture, has racked up nearly 70 million views in one week. It is impossible to ignore the fact that PSY's entertainment output is influencing the way the world views Korea. I watched and commented on "Hangover" when it was first released, noting at the end of my post that a viewer should certainly not assume that all Koreans drink from sunrise to sunset and get into street brawls. Yet they do drink a lot! There's enough truth in the parody that before you know it, tourists in Seoul are going to attempt to imitate the dozen different ways to down shots of soju as portrayed in the video and ask their Korean friends why they aren't doing the same.

What I am trying to get at here is that Korean culture can never be fully understood just by watching a few videos, listening to a few podcasts, or studying a few books, but the bits and pieces of it that go viral will become representative of it, for better or for worse. Some would argue that PSY's music is not bad inasmuch as it opens doors for people to get better acquainted with Korea, or at least K-pop, once they are first exposed to his earworms. Whatever it takes, right? On the other hand, it's equally likely that viewers will watch "Hangover" and content themselves with the assumption that Korea is a bizarre land of drunken wtf-ery. I mean, this is the country that produced PSY, after all.

To the confused exchange student at the School of Mental Breakdown: OMG! If you want to understand Korean culture... don't watch K-pop videos.

At least, don't just watch K-pop videos. Without a doubt, "Hangover" does provide the casual viewer with visuals and symbols of Korea, like karaoke rooms and cup noodles; it's not a completely vapid party anthem after all. But my point still stands: we cannot necessarily choose the things that represent our culture to outsiders, especially in this day and age when instant fame and influence on the Internet can fall into the lap of literally anyone. Pop culture entertainment may not be the ideal way to raise awareness about you and your community, but it tends to be the most successful or accessible conduit for those who aren't already commanding the stage on a global or national level.

Hm, where am I going with this now? Eh, here are some conclusions. The Joy Luck Club did a wonderful job of representing Chinese immigrants to the US. But it does not represent them all. PSY does a good job of bringing Korean culture to global consciousness. But he does not represent it all.

I hope that we can all be more aware of how media and entertainment (which includes books and novels) shapes our worldviews and influences our perception of anything unfamiliar, whether we like it or not.

Okay, now watch this:

This is a first look trailer for a new ABC series coming this fall called Fresh off the Boat. It's about a Taiwanese-American family trying to adjust to life in Orlando in the nineties. What do you think? From what I saw so far, it's funny, it has a talented cast, and it captures some great moments familiar to me as a Taiwanese-American kid who grew up in the nineties. Already, the very concept is causing a stir, because 1) Asians in media! and 2) that title...

Yes, there will be controversy. Like I've been saying, as scenes and storylines from this new show undoubtedly raise a lot of questions about issues of race, people will start to compare every Asian they know, including themselves, to the high-profile (fictional) Asian family they can now watch on TV every week.

I know that I'll be enthusiastically watching FOB, even if it turns out to be awful, because I'm really excited about having a sitcom family that is so representative of me and my culture. At the same time, I'm not going to stand for anyone who even thinks they can reduce me -- or my family -- to a set of stereotypes derived from a TV show. Remember: "...but not all."

Listen

I'm at the school gym after dinner to fit in a workout before the first night-time self-study period begins. When I arrive, it looks like a handful of third-year students also have the same idea. Well, they're in the gym and sitting on the weight equipment, but as it turns out, they're not exercising. Instead, they're using the gym's sound system as a jukebox and singing along to their favorite K-pop ballads.

"Hi, TK! Hi, HS," I say. "What are you singing?" HS names a song I've never heard of by a singer I don't recognize.

"Oh, that's cool. Hey, have you seen these songs in English?" I ask. Every few months for the past two years, I've burned a CD of random American or British pop music and left it in the gym in hopes that a student will be interested enough to listen to it. I'm up to five CDs now, and I indicate one of them. "Want to sing one?"

"Uh... I don't know any American songs," says HS hesitantly. TK butts in: "Teacher! He doesn't like English!"

HS looks slightly mortified. "No, I like English!" he protests.

"It's okay, HS," I reply. "You know what? It's okay if you don't like English. Really, I don't care."

His face slackens, and then a soft grin appears. "Oh, then, I hate English."

"But even if you don't like English," I continue, "you have to try hard in my class."

"Yes, teacher," says HS.

TK laughs. "Teacher, I also hate English."

"Oh, yeah?" I say. "Well, TK, like it or not, you still have a test tomorrow in my class, and I expect you to do well."

"Oh, yeah," says TK. Then he groans exaggeratedly and buries his head in his hands. He probably hasn't studied at all!

After this lighthearted exchange, I lift weights for a few minutes until I hear the next ballad they have chosen to sing: Beyonce's "Listen" from the Dreamgirls movie. Grinning widely, I go over and join them for the rest of the song.

Listen, I am alone at a crossroads
I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried to say what's on my mind
You should have known
Oh, now I'm done believing you
You don't know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what you made of me
I followed the voice you gave to me
But now I gotta find my own.

PSY - Hangover (ft. Snoop Dogg) - Korean Easter Eggs

Step 1: Watch Korean rapper PSY's newest music video for a song called "Hangover". Step 2: Seriously reconsider your life choices. Step 3: Rewind to watch again, this time taking note of everything in the video that is completely unique to Korea.

Here we go!

0:30 - PSY and Snoop Dogg vigorously brush their teeth. Koreans take brushing seriously.
0:45 - Hite Dry Finish beer.
0:56 - a 편의점 (pyeon-e-jeom), or convenience store, where you can sit and eat the snacks you've just bought, including...
1:00 - small glass bottles of energy drinks with who-knows-what ingredients inside,
1:11 - and 삼각김밥 (samgak-kimbap), triangle kimbap, and cup noodles (라면/ramyeon).
1:15 - a Korean sauna (I don't think they usually have green fountains, though).
1:35 - copious amounts of 소주 (soju), Korea's most popular liquor.
1:47 - hardy 아줌마 (ajumma), or older Korean women who can drink you under the table.
2:03 - 택시 (taxi).
2:04 - I just noticed the illustrated background is Seoul, with Namsan Tower and 63 Building visible. Also, PSY is now playing a bottle of Hite instead of a saxophone.
2:10 - 동일이발소 (dongil ilbaso) means "Sameness Barbershop"
2:28 - 노래방 (noraebang), a karaoke party room, complete with disco lights and a tambourine!
2:39 - PSY is drinking a can of something with PSY on it?
2:45 - the lyrics read, "누군지 한번에 알아낼 너의 단 한사람," from the song "나를 슬프게 하는 사람들" ("People Who Make Me Sad") by 이승기.
2:48 - BOA's "Rock With You".
2:55 - G-Dragon!
3:20 - Disco Pang Pang!
3:33 - Pool halls, where some of my old students now spend all of their free time chalking their cues instead of studying.
3:45 - PSY is eating 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon), black-bean noodles.
3:58 - a traditional bar for 막걸리 (makkeoli), Korean rice wine, where Snoop Dogg looks like he's dressed in somewhat traditional clothes (and PSY is in a Kill Bill-esque jump suit? I don't know who the girl is).
4:10 - the shake-and-chop method of opening soju bottles in order to rid it of poisonous impurities.
4:19 - love shots!
4:20 - opening a bottle of beer with a Korean metal spoon.
4:39 - delivery guys (they are not usually on fire, though) with Chinese food.
4:42 - oblivious 아저씨 (ahjussi), older Korean man.

And that's all I could catch!. What did I miss?

P.S. Please don't get any ideas about what Korean drinking culture is really like from this music video. Please also hope that rappers will stop objectifying women in their videos in the near future. But do enjoy the craziness of the video, because that same craziness is what made PSY a global phenomenon in the first place.

머리스타일, 놀라워 - Meolistyle: No, La, Woah!

JH got up from his end of the table and sat down again with his tray, right across from me.

"Talking is fun," he said. Boom. Day made.

Meanwhile, JM was eating with his eyes trained on the television show playing on the screen in the cafeteria. The show was some sort of reality TV filler that followed the members of one of Korea's most famous boy bands, Infinite. I like one of their members, Hoya, who starred in Reply 1997, but I don't listen to any of their music (1). As we watched them do vaguely interesting things, my eyes were drawn to their hair. All of the members have pretty flamboyant personal style and fashion sense (though I definitely don't think any of them has any control over his public image). One in particular (maybe SungJong?) was sporting a head of singularly unattractive bubble-gum pink hair. It made me laugh out loud, and I looked at JH.

"JH, would you ever want to have pink hair?"

"Never," he said.

"Well, then, if you could dye your hair any color, what color would you want?"

JH thought for a minute, and his eventual answer surprised me: "Gray! Like an old man."

I dig it. (from Pinterest)

I think that could work. Instead of gray, though, I told JH that he might want to go for silver. It's been done!

I also told JH that I'm thinking about cutting all of my hair off, shaving it really close, as it was when I first came to Korea two years ago. The reason is that my black belt test in taekgyeon is in a few weeks, and I'm getting really tired of having my hair in my face all the time when I'm trying to concentrate on my kicks or forms. I use a bandana or a headband to keep my bangs in check, but it's still 불편해 (inconvenient)!

Showing JH and JM my really, really long 앞머리, I quipped that it was so long I could almost braid it. "Do you know what a braid is?" I asked. They didn't. I very, very rarely see any Koreans with braided hair (땋은 머리). I'm not really sure why... it's just not a thing here, I guess. Women always have their hair down. And men generally don't sport long hair, anyway.

This reminded JH of an old Korean custom. He explained that in ancient times, Korean men and women both had long hair and kept it up: women had unbelievably elaborate braids and updos, while men had top knots (상투) (2). According to JH, people would never, ever cut their hair, because they considered their hair to be a part of their ancestral heritage. I find that idea very intriguing.

But then, so the story goes, the Japanese came and cut off all the men's top knots. It's more than a bit symbolic, as Japanese colonialism really did sever Korean culture from its roots. Ever since, Koreans have had more "modern" hairstyles.

The picture I showed my stylist.

And today, hair is big. There's no question about it. Hair salons are everywhere; there are four or five in a ten-minute radius around my house. It is extremely common for anyone to perm and dye their hair, no matter their gender or age. I've seen toddlers in barbershop high chairs and old ladies getting their latest ajumma perm. My taekgyeon master permed his hair last week; on Friday it was straight, and on Monday it was a tangle of loose curls. Of course, people my age like to follow trends, and as far as I can tell, right now dark brown is in, but simple cuts are not. For guys specifically, they're asking for something called 투블럭 ("two-block"), which is equivalent, I think, to an undercut. The sides are shaved close and the top is left to its own devices, sometimes with the help of a perm or wax.

Now, one year ago, I was pretty set against ever changing the super-straight, super black natural state of my hair. In a nutshell, I didn't want to be a trend-follower, I didn't want to possibly contribute to the stereotype that Asians prefer a look that is more natural for Caucasians, and I didn't want to send a message to my students that I was at all dissatisfied with my natural hair. But I did want to change my hair, simply out of... I don't know, call it an early-twenties desire to color outside the lines every so often.

In February this year, I dyed my hair brown. I was literally dragged into Punk Shalom by my friend Katelyn, who told the folks there that I wanted a change and that they could make it happen however they liked. It was, in fact, a very fun experience. When I returned to school the following March, I got double-takes and plenty of compliments.

Before, During, After!

So by last week, almost four months later, the roots were growing out and everything was just getting too long, and I decided I needed another haircut. But then I toyed with the idea of perming (파마) instead. It's another way to keep my bangs out of my eyes, and also... I won't deny it, it's popular.

Thus, I brought paperwork to a salon near my house that I'd been to once before and corrected my students' speech drafts for three hours while sporting curlers and a head saturated with chemicals. Yeah, a perm takes a long time. The result was, as you can see... wavy.

It's not pink or silver, but it's certainly crazier than anything I've ever done with hair -- and that includes bleaching it myself in the dorm bathroom three years ago.

Did I worry this time about compromising my values? No. Do I have qualms about how my friends, family, co-workers, or students will react? Not in the slightest. But am I now wondering about how closely hair is connected with identity, and considering how changes in my appearance may reflect changes in myself that two years of living in Korea have wrought? Yes.

And am I also considering letting my hair continue to grow out until I can make a respectable top knot?

Yes.

- - -
1) This is one of Infinite's most recent music video releases, for a song called "Last Romeo".

My reaction: Eh... 별로. Unfortunately, this video is the epitome of what is popular in K-pop today: angsty, strangely-albeit-immaculately-dressed men pointing at the camera and dancing really well in dimly lit halls, reaching longingly toward the same forgettable girl only to have the entire library explode into confetti from a thousand fake books.

2) Speaking of top knots and taekgyeon, 관장님 told me that when taekgyeon players during the dynastic periods sparred, sometimes the winner would be determined by which man could hit -- rather than the face -- his opponent's top knot first. Illustrations of taekgyeon being played in bygone eras show men with very long queues in the ring, while those who watched wore their hair up. (Actually, he also said that only married men sported 상투...)

P.S. Title of this post comes from an Akdong Musician song, 가르마 (Hair Part): 머리스타일 하나로 다른 사람이 되다니 정말 놀라워. Translation: You can become a different person just by changing your hairstyle, it's amazing.

Korean Food List Challenge

List Challenge: How many of these Korean foods have you tried?

My score was 93 (out of 100). Not bad, I suppose, for having lived in Korea for 2⅔ years. I still have not tried 산낙지 (sannakji/live octopus) or 보신탕 (boshintang). The latter of these is the infamous Korean dog soup (개장국), but 보신 is just a euphemism which means "to preserve health". Another name you usually see in South Korea is 영양탕, or healthy soup, while in North Korea you can often find 단고기집 (dangogi jib/sweet meat restaurant).

I don't know if I'll get around to trying these two foods in particular before I leave Korea. On the other hand, I will eat 칼국수 (kalguksu/chopped noodle soup) or 김치전 (kimchijeon/kimchi pancake) any day. And I could go for patbingsu, or shaved ice, right about now...

Also, happy spring! The 추분, or vernal equinox, was yesterday. I did some spring cleaning this afternoon while listening to music. Here's one of my spring favorites: Roy Kim's 봄봄봄 (Bom bom bom/Spring, Spring, Spring)!

Happy in Seoul

Pharrell's super-catchy funk hit, "Happy" is stuck in my head. If you haven't heard it, watch the video below. People all over the world have been recreating the simple music video -- footage of people dancing happily in public all day and all night -- turning this into something viral. Here is a version from Korean residents of Seoul. It starts off somewhat awkward, but quickly becomes really charming. You can notice some diversity in the people involved, and they actually filmed all over the city. Also, Hong Seok-cheon dances in his kitchen!

Who knew the creepy Garfield man could pop?

Kumamoto (熊本)

Kumamoto Castle. The young lady in the kimono is dressed up for Coming-of-Age Day.

Kumamoto wasn't always called Kumamoto. Those of you who know your kanji/hanja/hanzi might wonder if this city really is the origin of Japan's bears. Actually, its ancient name was 隈本, also read as Kumamoto, but the first character means "corner" or "shadow/shade", not "bear". The origin of shadows? Nah, it's really just a place name, probably kind of a boring one, too, because in 1607 someone thought it would be clever to change the first character to its homophone (熊, which means "bear"), and the new moniker stuck.

That someone, I believe, was Katō Kiyomasa, a daimyo (feudal lord) who ruled in Kyushu in the late 16th and early 17th century. Kiyomasa is an important figure in Kumamoto history; he is also quite the antagonist in Korean history. As a senior commander of the army, Kiyomasa led invasions of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty and captured Seoul, Busan, and Ulsan, among other cities, though the conquest was unsuccessful in the end. He was also an enemy of the Japanese Christians in his domain and brutally persecuted them not long before Christianity was banned outright.

On the other hand, Kiyomasa is responsible for expanding and completing Kumamoto Castle (begun in 1467), which is the main landmark of the city and one of the most gorgeous buildings I've ever seen. The castle keep you see today is actually a reconstruction, since the fortress was besieged during a rebellion in 1877, and the castle was burned to the ground.

Erik and me at Kumamoto-jō.

Erik and Kiyomasa of the tall hat

Walking the grounds of Kumamoto Castle, I noticed several archetypically Japanese things: koi in the river, a woman dressed in a kimono for Coming of Age Day, men in costume as ninja and soldiers for tourists' photos, beautiful artwork on sliding wooden doors inside the museum, a traditional tea ceremony room... It got me thinking about Japanese culture and its portrayal as a monolithic entity to Western eyes.

Google "Japanese culture" and you get a pretty uniform set of images: geisha, sumo wrestlers, Buddha, Shinto shrines, sushi, cherry blossoms, and more geisha. Maybe throw a little Hello Kitty and martial arts in there. (Do the same for "American culture" and you'll see a lot of flags, fast food, and bland diversity-themed stock photos.)

I wondered aloud to Erik if the historical periods in which geisha, sumo wrestlers, ninja, and samurai all came into existence were chronologically close to each other at all. These human icons are, of course, all unique and representative of Japan, but I think we should find it strange to see them juxtaposed, as we would pause at the sight of ninja prowling around a castle in 2014 on the hunt for tourists with fancy digital cameras. Remember Katy Perry's infamous yellowface performance at the American Music Awards last year? "Look at how much she loves and appreciates Japanese culture," they said. "She's dressed as a geisha. There are cherry blossoms falling from the ceiling. Her backup is doing a Chinese fan dance. Ooh, taiko drums!" All of those elements of Japanese (and Chinese) culture appropriated and smashed together to appeal to a Western audience.

Let's turn the tables: I want to see G-Dragon perform his latest hip-hop number on a stage accompanied by Asian cowboys, breakdancers with uh... braided hair extensions, and women dressed like Lady Liberty. GD's a great dancer: he can show off the Charleston, the Dougie, the New York Hustle, and eight beats of perfectly-synchronized tutting with his crew, finishing it off with a square dance as maple leaves and Wal-Mart coupons rain down from the ceiling. "Look at how much he loves and appreciates American culture!"

Erik's apple pie a la mode!

Anyway, cultures collide in odd ways. Erik's favorite dessert in Japan is not mochi or roll cakes but a new McDonald's menu item called "A la mode". It's literally a McD apple pie in a cup, topped with McD soft serve and chocolate sauce. You can obviously make this yourself at any McDonald's, but in Japan it's actually on the menu.

Back to Kumamoto, then. On my second evening in the city, we met up with a friend of Erik's and ate dinner at a great all-you-can-eat shabu shabu place, vowing to consume more than our money's worth!

We followed it up with a night of arcade games. It's been years since I've set foot in an arcade, so I hardly recognized any of the games. A lot of them looked glitzy and super high-tech, including a newfangled rhythm game called "MaiMai" that resembles a giant washing machine. Timed to music, players must tap buttons around a circular screen as colored rings reach them. It looks and feels silly at first, but once you get warmed up and choose a harder skill level, suddenly it becomes really fun. And addicting. I was sad that Dance Dance Revolution was nowhere to be found, but MaiMai more than made up for it. There was also an amazing air hockey game called "Big Bang Smash!" that unloads dozens of tiny pucks onto the court for a minute of pucking madness. It was awesome.

Big Bang Smash! Air hockey on  a sugar high!

What else is there in Kumamoto? I can't forget Kumamon (not the Digimon), Kumamoto's friendly bear mascot! Thanks to Kiyomasa, this city is able to market its namesake with Kumamon toys, Kumamon t-shirts, and Kumamon's smiling visage on everything from cookies to face towels. I don't have any great photos of or with him, even though he is everywhere in Kumamoto, but I did get a face towel... Another mascot is the adorable puppy you see below. I can't remember its name, though, or what exactly he represents. Kawaii-dom, if nothing else.

강아지 (kangaji)! こいぬ (koinu)!

And... I'll sign off with some shots of our beautiful hostel, the "Dyeing and Hostel Nakashimaya". It's part traditional dye store and part traditional inn. Its cozy rooms have tatami mats for sleeping instead of beds and trunks with heavy locks instead of lockers. The lounge area has tons of manga, stunning decor, ancient maps, and modern computers. Every inch of the hostel is exquisite and charming, every figurine placed so that everywhere you look you're reminded that you're in Japan. Even the stairwells were decorated. Again, I wonder how well all the pieces fit together chronologically... is it classy or kitschy? Well, I trust the hostel owners' taste. It was too bad we only spent one night here, but it was enough to leave a solid impression. I highly recommend it.

That's a kid's samurai costume!

Gorgeous paper art.

Oh, and here's a video of some of the arcade games. We're a long way past the days of DDR...

Merry Christmas from Korea!

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
- Luke 2:10-11

A jar of homemade cranberry honey butter I made!

Merry Christmas! (메리 크리스마스!) This is the first Christmas I have ever spent away from home. 그래서 조금 고향과 가족이 그리워요... But I've had a great day and a very cheerful holiday season overall, so no complaints. To get my dose of holiday spirit, there was the Santa Bike Ride and a holiday White Elephant party at a church friend's home. At school, I wiled away free hours by cutting paper snowflakes and trees and showed Elf and Christmas YouTube videos to my students. To top it off, of course, baking Christmas cookies, listening to my Christmas playlist all day, and Skyping with my family, are really what make me feel "at home".

Today, I went to a service at my church, followed by bacon and pancakes at a friend's house, and then ice skating in the afternoon! The day ended with dinner and hanging out with a bunch of 솔크* friends. I'm heading to bed early because tomorrow morning I'll get up early to bake (more!) and go to school to attend my school's festival (it's like an end-of-the-year talent show). After that, it's winter break! 드디어!

Holiday party at a church friend's house last Saturday.

* In Korea, Christmas is all about couples and being romantic. It follows that being single on Christmas Day is considered to be one of the saddest things that can happen to you all year. The Konglish for this is "솔로 크리스마스" (Solo Christmas), which teens have shortened to 솔크. I like this because it sounds like the word "sulk". Got no one to hold hands and watch the pretty snow fall with? No one to buy you chocolate and a new scarf? No one to *gasp* match your red reindeer sweater with a green snowflake one? Too bad! Go sulk about it and better luck next year. Ha.

Pentatonix's "Little Drummer Boy" 
The Piano Guys' "Angels We Have Heard on High"

WestJet Christmas Miracle. Good advertising that brought me to tears.

Taekgyeon Showcase

Last Friday night, I went to and participated in my first taekgyeon showcase. My dojang has a few of these every year, but I've never seen what it's actually like. The showcase is mostly like a recital. All the taekgyeon kids (babies, most of them!) perform the routines they've learned: jumping and 낙법 (fall breaking), kicking, board breaking, sparring, and jump rope routines. Their parents were in attendance, super proud and also heavily involved: there were games incorporating 엄마 and 아빠, like the parents holding boards for their kids to break, as well as an adorable father-child jump rope contest. The last event was a lottery for some incredible prizes, including three new road bikes. It was loud, chaotic, and surprisingly fun!

Adorable taekgyeon babies! A lot of these kids are black belts, haha. Don't mess with 'em.

My moments in the spotlight came twice: I jumped over a soft barricade about four feet tall (in the video below, kids jump over one and two soft blocks; I've been doing four and trying five) and performed 본때뵈기 with the other adults who train at the dojang. It wasn't much, but I was proud to be able to show what I've been working on recently. In the end, I got a little medal for my participation in taekgyeon this past year, just like all of the other kids. Yay!

The guys on the far left and far right are my middle school homies. They hang out and train with the adults every so often, and I like talking to them, usually about American pop music.

I wish I had more photos to show you, but my camera was going nuts that evening. It had been too cold outside and it was too warm inside the dojang, so my lens and internal hardware kept fogging up. It wouldn't stop until the camera became acclimated to the indoor temperature. As a result, a lot of my photos were foggy, dark, and blurry. I wasn't pleased. But I did take some videos later, and I've spliced them into a short video. So here's a bit of what I witnessed at the showcase. Enjoy!

Winds Blow Deep into My Heart

This video is of my 3rd-year students performing the final song of their fall concert. I was bummed that I had to administer speaking tests during that period, so I missed most of it, but thankfully I hurried to the auditorium just after second period in time to catch this gem.

I didn't understand the lyrics of the song, but the melody was touching, and their harmonies were wonderful. I felt so lucky to be there!

After some Googling, I've discovered that the song is "Eres Tu" by 브니엘 (Peniel), which seems to indicate that this is a Christian song. However, the lyrics to "Eres Tu" don't exactly match what my students are singing, so they must have changed the lyrics a little bit.

I've posted the original lyrics (가사) below, and I've attempted a quick and rough translation. Korean speakers, feel free to correct them!

내 귀에 속삭이시던 그 말씀
영원히 너와 함께 하리
지난 밤 나를 부르던 그대 목소리
난 정말 잊을 수 없네

(Something along the lines of, "The words you whispered into my ear are eternally with me; last night, your voice singing to me I can never forget.")

주님의 부드러운 그 음성에
내마음 기쁨에 젖었네
언제나 다시 만날 수 있을까
나 주님 뵙기 원하네

("Lord, the voice of you singing drenches my soul; when can we meet again? I want to see my Lord.")

바람아 내 마음 깊은 곳까지
불어라 주님의 사랑 안고서
아 바람아 불어라 주님 나의 마음 깊은 곳까지
바람아 불어라 주님 사랑 안고서

("Winds blow deep into my heart; I'm held in my Lord's love. Ah, winds blow; my Lord is deep in my heart. Winds blow; I'm in my Lord's loving embrace.")

외로울 때에 위로를 주시고
슬픔과 눈물 닦으시네
평안과 기쁨 내게 늘 주시는
나 주님 뵙기 원하네

("When I'm lonely, he gives me comfort; he washes away sadness and tears. Peace and joy he always gives me; I want to see my Lord.")

바람아 내 마음 깊은 곳까지
불어라 주님의 사랑 안고서
아 바람아 불어라 주님 나의 마음 깊은 곳까지
바람아 불어라 주님 사랑 안고서
아 바람아 불어라 주님 나의 마음 깊은 곳까지
바람아 불어라 주님 사랑 안고서

What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali and Zen Pencils

Zen Pencils plus Taylor Mali! An excellent combination. Taylor Mali is a slam poet whose amazing spoken word piece "What Teachers Make" I first heard last year. Then, this past summer, Zen Pencils, a webcomic that illustrates great quotes, turned it into this. Neat, isn't it?

I don't always consider myself a "real" teacher (no certification and only a year of experience, I mean, come on), but I honestly find this relatable and inspirational. Education degree or no, I've been given a classroom and two hundred students to educate. I respect them and I expect them to respect me, so that leaves everyone else...

Do you respect your teachers?

Power versus Grace

Tonight, 관장님 said in passing that I was doing "power taekgyeon". I had just thrown my wrestling (대결) partner to the ground rather forcefully. At first, I thought he was just commenting on how much stronger I've become over the past few months, but then I wondered if "power taekgyeon" might not be such a good thing. It's not like power yoga, for starters.

Here, look at this short video of various taekgyeon demonstrations set to dramatic music. (It was filmed at the taekgyeon training center that I visited a few weeks ago during the tournament.)

What I get from this video, as well as from this longer, documentary-style video created by the Korean Cultural Heritage Adminstration, is that taekgyeon gives off the illusion of being soft and gentle while being powerful in reality. Hands and feet move quickly and quietly. "It may look soft, but it is a martial art with strong force," says the taekgyeon master in an interview.

This is what distinguishes taekgyeon from taekwondo*. TKD is a fighter's martial art, developed during and after the Korean War specifically for training soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. Taekgyeon, on the other hand, is about fluidity and grace. You don't break things, only subdue. You need to employ power, but you don't overpower. And that's where I think I'm doing it wrong.

I'm still just a clumsy guy trying to stay on two feet while my opponent grapples with me. When he attempts to swing me to one side, 관장님 tells me to use it and trip him using his own attack. I don't know how to do this, so we struggle in a mutual hold for a few awkward moments. What I end up doing is kicking his knee joint inward and pushing down as hard as I can. It's not the slightest bit graceful, but at least my opponent goes down, right? (관장님: "Andrew, no!") Well, I don't think the result is the most important thing in this circumstance. So, I'm going to work on the "soft and gentle" part of this discipline. Only a few more days before I'm off for summer vacation, so I'll also have to find a way to continue training while I'm in Taiwan and at home. (My next tournament is in September!)

- - -

*This and one other big thing: taekgyeon is centuries old, much more historical than TKD. It is believed to have been popular during the Three Kingdoms Period (1st-7th C). Following Korean independence, it almost went extinct, but when the last surviving taekgyeon master, Song Duk Ki, taught all he knew to a few dedicated pupils, it was revived and is now an "intangible cultural heritage" of Korea.