Unicode Zip Support!

My computer problems always seem to be different from those of other people (I'll save my video list for another time):
-How can I type in multiple languages?
-How can I change my OS base language into that of another language?
-Why are CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) titles coming in as gibberish? (Unicode!) or Why I can I only see one Asian language at a time?
-Where can I buy stickers for my keyboard so it supports multiple languages?

Considering how much interaction I have with Asian languages, the invention and integration of Unicode has been a blessing to me.

With WinXP I was able to read and write without needing to purchase software that costs hundreds before then.

With an MUI disc I was able to change my entire OS Language into Korean and back into English whenever I want. Now if I don't understand a menu I can simply change the underlining language, see what it means, and go back into Korean.

With those hurdles conquered I have still have issues with unzipping files, zip or rar, with keeping the names intact. One particular file I had this evening involved Korean, English, and Japanese. Winzip will sometimes support one Asian language at a time but will never allow me to keep the source file name in a non-English format. I've found a program, ALZip, that seems to fully support Unicode, supports 36 kinds of compression, has more file option support (reading/writing) than Winzip and is free, and the primary language is in English.

Only in Korea would they name software after eggs~

Please enjoy the "Egg Song" either in English or in it's original Korean~

English Book Mistakes - Part 3

I initially e-mailed the publisher with six pages of notes talking about the various mistakes I have found in their book. Since having gotten the gig I have written another 39 pages of notes and corrections to cover the rest of the book.

It has felt like it took a long time but in all actuality it was only about 25 hours of work.

I'm hoping they ask me to check the second volume in a few weeks~

English Book Mistakes - Part 2

I initially sent six pages of mistakes to the publisher of the English book we are using with our sophomore students. They thanked me for pointing out the mistakes and have incorporated around half of them into the new printing of the book, which commenced within a few days of my e-mail. It seems I am going freelance now as they have offered a deal in which I would finish checking the book. I have accepted and am over halfway done now. My second list of mistakes is currently on page 18.

The book has a lot of old terminology, misspellings, grammar mistakes, Konglish, etc.

My favorite vocabulary terms include "boffo" which is a movie term, and "too maw maw" apparently a shopping term. With that last one I would swear I was living in Singapore and checking for Singlish.

For "online courses" they have said "Open Cyber University" of "OCU."
For a "retreat" they have said "Membership Training," or "MT," which they later say isn't in America and after doing a search I found out this term is only used in Korea.

This book was published last year and yet it references restaurants that have left Korea years ago.

"I love good coffee. You could call me a coffee gourmet." While this term is technically correct it sounds instead like he is saying "You could call me gourmet coffee." Which is similar to my first great mistake in Korean. I very proudly told the teacher "Barbecued meat ate me for lunch."

My favorite mistake in this book, which brought me to tears in the Teacher Room, was trying to ask about someone's feelings; "Are you happy all the time?" That sentence is fine, but it was preceded by the question "How is your mental health?"

Weekend in Pictures

My bike keeps being used by everyone and their brother, which, living at a high school, is a lot of people. I have bought a new lock for my bike. It had me at the spelling of "locker."

A trilingual sign inside the male dorm room at the youth hostel in Seoul. Yet it does not make sense in Korea either.... Please understand that this is the only door~

I met a friend who owns a coffee shop in Seoul. I brought her some fruit as a gift. She felt compelled to give me a gift in return. I got a stick of cheese cake~ ^^ And no, that is not a mistake. It is a stick of cheese cake, not a slice.

Advertisement for a movie where the pictures/painting come alive! The girl is saying "Mom, the pictures are alive!" Notice the "yeah" (peace) signs several of the paintings are flashing.

I still don't understand this. I've seen these posters a lot. It seems to be promoting the newest half of the subway lines in Seoul. Not the old lines. Not all of the lines. Just the new ones. Why?

And remember folks, in certain taxis you can pay with your credit card or metro card. I've never tried but then again I am usually too cheap to ride in one unless I have to.

The one, the only, "The Beer." It is hard to understand the usage of "a" and "the" when they don't exist in Korean.

Sign for a public bathroom on the side of a telephone pole. However, despite the sign, there is no bathroom in that area. I would not suggest using the power pole as the bathroom either; this isn't China folks. Instead, please be respectful and use the brick wall in the alley where no one can see you. That would be the polite thing to do.

Medical store a few blocks from where I used to live. Can you spot the item that doesn't belong with the others? Let's see, back braces, prosthetic limbs, cigarettes. Nope, not sure.

Posters and signs for World Agape. When I read a sign I can usually understand part of it. maybe I can understand the product or what they are saying. But with this sign I understood every word and grammatical device. The literal translation says "If you don't maybe it won't happen."

With the recommendation of a friend I stopped by Ewha University, where it looks like I will be taking a language course in summer. They have had construction near their south gate for some time. I was surprised to discover not a tall building but an underground complex. I took the side with the slope as I really didn't want to go down, gosh, how many flights of stairs is that? Either nine or ten.

Weekend in Seoul

We've got a weekend off. Everyone is going to their hometowns, which means I went to Seoul. I'll be meeting with a friend on Saturday and one of the teachers Saturday night. I've got the hostel booked and checked-in. I hit the bank and got enough money to last me several weeks. I purchased a return train ticket for Sunday so I can still attend church in Seoul and make it back to the last stop before our school bus makes it back to campus. I got a free ride up to Seoul via the school bus. I read half of the book Papa gave me; thank you Papa. I must admit it is interesting reading a book about a murder in North Korea when I am about 50 miles from Pyongyang and less than 20 miles from the most heavily armed border in the world.

I got a new cell phone and it has the features I have most wanted; subway maps for the entire country, English support, and a bi-directional dictionary. I have several 'older sisters' in the country; some of which I work with. The remaining 'big sister' owns a coffee shop and I was able to drop in, say hello, give some oranges, drink some peach iced tea, chat for a bit, and got some encouragement on my Korean. With the coffee shop owner I have only met one other member of her family. With my other "big sisters" I have met 6+ members of their families.

I missed the last subway of the night by about 10 seconds; I saw it, doors closed, rolling away. I "knew" where a bus stop was; and found out I didn't; I then waited for a bus that never came. Walked from 12:30 at night to around 2:30 am, minus 15 minutes on a bus I accidently found. I had $600 in cash, several credit cards, two debit cards, and a US passport in my should bag and still felt safer at 2am than I do in parts of my hometown in the early evening.

I ate wonderful streetvender food and happily chatted with the owner and some of the patrons. A semi-drunk man kept wanting to shake my hand and wanted us to bow to each other. I got really mixed up while walking home yet now know the area much better than I did before and considering how often I come to this hostel, knowing the area well will truly help me in the future.

I was still happy as could be. I haven't spent real time in Seoul since the beginning of December, not counting getting over jetlag or preparing to leave the country again. I tell people that Seoul is my "hometown" and it feels it.

My Own Language Mistakes

I have a list of mistakes in my mind from Taiwan. I have found that with the Chinese language I have an incredible ability to change really run of the mill words into profanity, sexual slurs, and flat-out insults. In comparison my Korean mistakes seems really mild.

First real mistake: "BBQ meat ate me for lunch." (proudly said to the Korean language teacher)
Second real mistake: changed the word for "shoes" into the f-word. Again, I was showing off all of the clothing words I had learned that day.

Other mistakes have been changing the word "magnification" into the term for a snack food ( I thought they were talking about dinner....). Misheard "someone who can listen well" into "a Filipino person." Most of my mistakes make people chuckle... or make them hungry.

Now being afraid of saying the word "shoes," I have stumbled across a few more issues. The word for "color,"used everytime you mention a color (yellow color house, red color car) sounds like the same word for "baby animal" which is spelled the same as a curse word. I had a, dare I say colorful conversation with several teachers over the usage and pronunciation of these words ^^ I have the same grace here that I did in Taiwan; "he's a foreigner, he doesn't know what he's doing."

Mistakes in the English Book

I was surprised with being told I am teaching a new grade 3 days before classes start. One of the nice surprises involved with that is the book that has already been purchased is one that I looked through at a bookstore before and remember really liking. The problem came in as I began studying the book and realized there were a number of mistakes in the book that I am now teaching. This is the second edition which was released only last year yet there are terms not used since the 60's, bad grammar, incomplete sentences, errors in the crossword puzzles, etc.

I actually really like the book but it is not a pleasant feeling that I need to teach incorrect sentences and terms.

I e-mailed the publisher telling them there were mistakes in the book and within an hour they got back to me saying they would get together with the editor and the author to discuss what I viewed as mistakes. I then typed a list of about 40 errors I caught in the first 36 pages and sent it off.

I am happy the book will be getting some fixes and it makes me quite happy that some of my corrections will end up in a published book.