Sunday, July 1, 2012

Korean wave?

I suspect that I'm not the first to comment on this, but it's striking how much the new City Hall Annex looks like a giant wave about to crash onto the old City Hall built during the days of Imperial Japanese rule.

And it looks like the person in the lower right is running for her life. Maybe people who see in this design a tsunami will criticize Korea's cultural insensitivity, as some did regarding a certain misinterpreted city in the clouds.

UPDATE:
Yesterday I had tea at an oldie-time tabang-looking shop in the basement of the Press Building with a friend who works with the mayor. She says most City Hall employees she knows do not like the new building. Yes, they were mocking it in pretty much the same way I was, but they have other more practical complaints as well. And maybe they should start calling it 씨나미청.

...

4 comments:

  1. Sorry this doesn't really add anything meaningful to the post, but I just couldn't help laughing -- be it by design or synchronicity or God's weird sense of humor, this is just hilarious!

    And the expats always complain Koreans don't get sarcasm..!

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    1. Oh.. my... Hananim! You just gave me the weirdest epiphany. Maybe KoKos not only get sarcasm, but maybe they're always giving sarcasm, especially to English teachers.

      Think about it: Start every sentence with, "Hey, Mr Smith who just graduated from college and has no job experience," and imagine sarcastic intent ...

      "... we're going to put you up in a luxury apartment."

      "... you will love working with kids."

      "... kids in Korea love studying English."

      "... this is the best place to teach in Suwon."

      "... you'll get lots of support from your co-teachers."

      "... of course you can live comfortably in Korea without speaking any Korean at all."

      "... you'll get paid every Friday."

      (And now I'm not sure who this post was a dig at.)

      Delete
  2. Ha, remember the game where you add "...in my pants" at the ends of random sentences? Maybe we can start doing it with "_____ with the ESL teacher".

    O.K., I just tried it out with a few statements, and sorry to say, they weren't all THAT funny. Too bad.

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    1. Ha, remember the game where you add "...in my pants" at the ends of random sentences?

      No, I don't remember that game. Perhaps you should run a background check of those around you when you grew up. ;)

      Anyway, regarding for your idea of substituting "in my pants" with "with the ESL teacher," you may have noticed that a whole lot of English teachers (though not necessarily the whole lot of them) think I'm out to get them (see HERE and HERE for examples).

      Some ESL teachers who think they're being mocked can be as humorless as VANKers correcting foreign newspaper articles that mention "Takeshima" being Japanese, and unless it's absolutely necessary (or low-hanging fruit) I tend to not touch it with a three-meter pole.

      Delete

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