Lost in Translation? The Case of the Medieval Professor and the Ivory Korean Tower
EXPAT LIFE, Korean Life Monday, February 11, 2013 11:22 32 comments!By 3WM
Anyone who’s first arrived in Korea knows the feeling of stepping off the plane, walking through the airport and emerging to head for one’s new life abroad. And for most of us the usual pattern of culture shock plays out with the initial excitement at everything new, then anxiety and frustration when all that luster wears off, and, if you stay long enough, adjustment and even biculturalism for the long-termers. Sure, there are innumerous aspects of this cultural clash, but there’s no doubt that it takes place.
Halfway into my senior year, I decided I’d had enough. After spending two and a half years in high school trying to keep up with my workload—sleeping erratically, eating comfort food at night to stay awake, and spending the rest of my time glued to my seat hunching over piles of books—I could feel myself slowing down both physically and mentally. My joints creaked whenever I moved. My mind was constantly groggy. So I decided to perk myself up by working out. From that day on, I woke up at six in the morning and jogged for an hour at a gym near my house before going to school.
7D front covers are now signaling that life and style in Phnom Penh consists of the exquisite grotesques of ladyboys and dominatrix Djs. And when you open the pages the content seems to offer a lick of any glittery ass that might reek of celebrity, of shallow image for consumption. As if the pansexual anime of Phnom Pehn isn’t loose enough and we’re all missing it. Really, it’s almost so bad, such a non-read, it becomes contradictory of its goals by making the reader want to stop thinking about having a good time somewhere in wondrous Phnom Penh and wonder if this place is really a world capital? Or, are we living in just another outpost for perma-tourists and woebegone Caucasians? I don’t possess a crystal ball yet I predict the centerfold to become a regular society page called: “Adult Classified: Who’s Loose in the Penh.” Or how about even a smart street profile feature.
We all live in a life-and-death cycle. More people will be born into this world in 2013 and some people will die this year. That’s inevitable, as will be cases of natural disasters, crimes, wars and political scandals. But life will go on and if some people succumb to death before the year ends, then that’s their fate. So be it, even if that sounds harsh–not all aspects of our lives can be under our control.
Lightnin’ (sometimes spelled Lightening) Hopkins (nee Sam John Hopkins) is a blues legend, but he belongs on Funky Seoul Corner because the blues is soulful. Lightnin’ was a prodigious singer, songwriter, and guitarist from the mid-1940s until his passing in 1982. The first thing you may be wondering is how he got the name “Lightnin.” An Aladdin Records executive gave him that name when he first started recording. Apparently the exec felt that Sam was too dull. Thus, Lightnin’ was born.
Once again the North Koreans are scoring a propaganda coup by exploiting the presence of a high-level American delegation. This time it’s Google Chairman Eric Schmidt traipsing off to Pyongyang in the hands of Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor, and Richardson’s long-time adviser, 
With the election of Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye, on Dec. 19, 3WM asked three young Korean women to reflect on the historical event and what they see in Park’s next five years.
As North Koreans reportedly 
The author has been studying North Korea for some 25 years, and for most of this time I have to put up with a rather unpleasant but recurrent experience: people ask questions which I cannot possibly answer. Those are questions about the personal politics in Pyongyang, questions dealing with relations between the political heavyweights in the North Korean leadership, questions about political views of some prominent North Korean officials.
Unknown outside Korea and little known to most Koreans, the Shinchonji Church and the Mannam organization are about as controversial as the Unification Church of the late Rev. Moon Sun-myong, whose funeral was held the previous day at his lavish headquarters estate at Gapyeong northeast of Seoul. Pastor Lee may not call himself “the messiah” or “true parent” of mankind as did Moon, but he preaches an extremist view of Christianity viewed as “heretical” by mainstream Korean Christians. His simple message is that he encountered Jesus Christ on earth through the Bible’s Book of Revelations.
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