Category South Korea
Highly Questionable Modifications Made to the Car I Depend on for Transportation
Because I’m creative (really cheap), I have decided to pursue my racing ambitions through the twin approaches of aerodynamic efficiency and superior suspension geometry. These things, in addition to their inherent spiritual, aesthetic and moral superiority, have the minor benefits of being free or nearly free. The previous two weekends, as such, have been spent […]
Condensed Friendship
One of my professors at Paichai University is an enormous tech-guy and he was very excited the other day because, it seems, Korea is on the verge of replacing its paper books with e-book enabled iPads (or their Samsung/LG made equivalents). My first reaction was, typical of my largely tech-indifferent self, to shrug and go […]
The Art of Ghetto Engineering
I drive a Daewoo. This is sufficiently humiliating on its own, but I add to this by racing said Daewoo in large, public exhibitions of my poor taste and minimal refinement. Alas, even these deprecations are not sufficient and I so go even farther by embracing the ancient art of ghetto-fabrication. This story begins with […]
Getting My Ass Kicked
I’m a pretty big proponent of jumping into novel experiences and then figuring out the consequences later. As such, when Professor Oh Yong-sun of the engineering department invited me for a nice little hike in the countryside I did not worry that I would be the only non-engineer on the trip. It did not concern […]
More Youngam Race Weekend Pictures Courtesy of Chris Marsh
Please peruse these photos from our weekend at the Korean Formula One track.
Looking Back on Looking Forward
Hi, this is 29 year-old Ben and I’ll be writing in italics for the duration of this article. I’ve lived in Korea four years now. This means a lot of the things I found fascinating and amazing at first have become entirely mundane. This normalization of what, four years ago seemed very exotic, makes it […]
Photos From the Yeongam Race Weekend
Here are some photos from my weekend at the Yeongam Formula One Circuit. I should explain the classes before we get going too far. There is TT100 for weak diesel cars and 1.5 liter gasoline cars. Above that there’s the TT200 class for stronger diesels and naturally aspirated 4 bangers of larger displacement. I want […]
Context in Foreign Language
I had gotten to the point I was feeling pretty cocky with my Korean. Granted, I am perhaps a bit (okay, a lot) more prone to bouts of cartoonish egomania than most, but this particular run of overconfidence wasn’t entirely my fault. You see, on the morning in question the nice lady selling me coffee […]
We the Translation, Habitually Done.
As many of you know, East Asia is a wonderful source for colorful mistranslation. If you are unfamiliar with the specifics, engrish.com will surely avail you of all you need to know. However, lest you think the language barrier only works one way, lest you think all your base are belong to us, I submit […]
Woopsies I’ve Made Trying to Speak Korean
Bad subtitles in Kung Fu movies have made the woopsies of Asians speaking English well known. However, what many westerners do not know is that the Placenta and Teeny Weeny stuff goes in both directions. Stuff I’ve said while trying to speak Korean: In conversation with an older woman. “I speak politely to you because […]
