DAE-GU

I was born and grew up in Dae-gu. It is the third largest city of Korea and has very long history.

And the population is almost 2,500,000. Yes, it is a pretty big city. Although I really love my hometown, I can not answer promptly if you ask me what is Daegu's famous thing.

Hesitation.....

It looks like a just city.. not special...Let's see...A-ha!

There is one thing I would like tell you.

Pal-gong mountain lies to the northeast of Daegu and many Daegu people love this place. The location is easy to access and the climbing trail is not very hard. Many Buddhist temples are located in there with beautiful nature. There is a special Buddhist statue, Gok Ba Wu(Hat Rock), it is famous for its unique feature. People believe that make a wishes faithfully in front of this statue, one of them comes true so we can see many people are praying at there.

Appositives economize the words

I can see lots of appositives in the news magazines.
I think the use of appositives is economic way to deliver information. Writers can put in many information without subjective and verb so that they can save ink and paper. And readers can save time. HA!

I took some examples from the Newsweek.

1)Non-restrictive

* Bhutto, Pakistan's former prime minister, then proceeded to name several senior security officials she considered to be enemies, Zardri said.

2)Restrictive

* Association under the formal name"dissociative identity disorder"- it is rare enough that most therapists never treat a case.

*Hunter needed eight operations over the next week to drain her infections, and an intravenous drip of two powerful new antibiotics, Zyvox and Cubicin.

I tried, but I failed.

On Saturday, in a bus , I was listening what four black boys are saying.
They were so loud, that I could hear only their voices. However, as title showed, I totally failed.
Instead of natives', I got sentence from my book.

*I was drinking soda and it went down the wrong pipe.
This phrase means when we eat food, it pass the respiratory track not the esophagus.
I often experience this because I am impatient.
*We had a blast.
It means "we had a really really good time."
Is it common expression?
*He is a total sleazebag and a womanizer
he is a really bad guy and playboy ->Is this common??

Dreamy Wedding??

First of all.. I congratulate you,Niki


In Korea, the meaning of wedding has changed compare to the past.
Hmm.. my parents got married about 34 years ago and they met through matchmaker.
My father said he was so poor that they couldn't have wedding ceremony, only exchanged rings.
After sharing rings, they have went though many things together and raised three children.
In early time, there was quarrel and disaggrement between them.
Now, all son and daughters live independently, my parents are relient upon each other and
enjoy their lives. Even though they did not start from ardent love, now it looks warm and eternal.
Nowadays, young Korean usually get married with whom they really love.
However, some people think the wedding in economical view. Doctor, lawyer, some(?)teachers and government emploee are preferred jobs for match because they are finacially stable.
And it sounds funny, some people divorce as soon as they married because of marriage expenses.
Well, I am a little bit skeptic about the Korean wedding culture and I have not thought about dreamy wedding,, sadly.
When I meet someone to love , that will be the time to think about it. Maybe...

Delicate shades of meaning

Small episode...
About 5-6years ago I was a nurse at a one hospital in Korea.
One day a foreign woman-maybe American or Canadian- visited hospital and she had symptom of bloody urine.
A doctor ordered 'foley catheterization' (insert the catheter into urethral canal) and I undertook the patient. That time I was very very poor at English, I tried to prepare the words for the woman. But, during I had been implementing the insertion, all things that I was able to speak to her were just simple words. I said "lie down" "open two legs" "It will be little painful"
She looked so anxious and I really wanted to give her emotional support, but it was beyond me. Finally, when the catheteration was done, I wanted to tell her I finished it.
So, I said to her "It's OVER"
Short pause..
She said "finish?"
I got confused and said "Yes, yes"
'Over',' finish', 'end' , etc. I thought they had same meaning and function. After that episod I realized my English could be different from natives', even I use their language.
Untill now, this remained as most difficult aspect of English to me.

Koreans never die;they only fade away

I went to Korea town on my trip to Chicago. Because Jae-ho really wanted to go there and constantly had talked about many things we can do in Korea town. (I am not intend to blame Jey just he inspired us to go there) So...my expectation also had been getting bigger and bigger. BUT! when we arrive there, we could hardly see Koreans on the street, we could see many Mexican or Hispanic people. Korean restaurants and traditional shops were rare and its features looked like 1980' of Korean. Great disappointment!! I really wanted to show our traditional products and taste Korean food to two NON-KOREAN members of my team. I was so sorry to them and me. In spite of failure to find Korea in Chicago, I was happy with Niki and other friends and the beer at the restaurant where we ate lunch.(I forgot the name)

What the heck is my forte !

Niki said that the topic for this Friday is pretty easy. But my brain didn’t work for the topic. I had to think about what is my forte for a long time. After serious consideration, I found that I don’t have perfect skill while I have tried to learn various skills. 5 years ago I had started to learn English, and a few month later I could do short conversation but it didn’t improve any more. 3 year ago, I learned playing piano and my playing is clumsy. 2 years ago I started to learn swimming, I have poor swimming form. Recently, I have been learning tennis for 3 weeks, my racket hardly hit the ball. And I know my tennis skill will be hardly improved. In spite of poor progress, I am really enjoying learning.
If I should pick a forte, in any case, I would like to say “enjoy learning something even though I usually get poor result”
Now I’m thinking about to challenge Niki’s billiards……or Rena’s Japanese.


あ a い i う u え e お o か ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko が

Nature of the Universe

When I saw the subject, the word which came my mind was BIG BANG. I don't have much knowledge about this theory,however, I know it means big big big explosion. Before the BIG BANG, the Universe was a tiny point. Even though I can't understand the theory, sometimes I think how the planet and various creatures could be existed??
Maybe this clip can give a small clue.
-> http://play.pullbbang.com/player_pum.swf?vid=575604

sentece- in-context

A : Hey! What a messy room yours is.
B : Don’t say like that. I love my room.
A : And what are these stuff piling in the corner with dust?
B : Oh! They are video games. I’ve been buying all these old D-battery-powered
Video games from the 80’s.
A : You are pathetic!

Explanation : I can not know what this sentence exactly means. So I just imagined.
old D-battery-powered Video games means very old fashioned and it is not common. B is a queer who excited with unusual things.

This is YK's blog

: )