Don't murder me

Everybody is having the Korean craze, from the drama series to fashion to gadgets to language. OK. I'm no fashionita or techy so I'm gonna get a point to somewhere I mastered more or less. A lot of people had been murdering the Korean language, blame it to ignorance, mistranslation in subtitles and habitual use. So today let us start the new year with an improved knowledge on Hanguk-mal (hanguk: korea; mal:language). First, one must know that each Korean character (called Hangul) has an equivalent English letter in the alphabet. Therefore mispronunciation starts from this confusion because more often an English translation is misspelled thus changing the way it is spoken. 

Here are the commonly used/mispronounced Korean words by foreign speakers.

1. Ramen

    Correct spelling: ramyeon (ramen is a general term for a noodle originating from Japan, when talking about an instant noodle in South Korea you are 

    actually referring to ramyeon)

2. Unni

    Correct spelling: eonni (should be used only by a younger girl when calling an older female)

3. Nuna (should be used only by a younger boy when calling an older female)

4. Hyung 
  Correct spelling: hyeong (should be used only by a younger boy when calling an older male)

5. Oppa (should be used only by a younger girl when calling an older male; may also be a form of endearment by couples but not all the time)

When to use "yo", "imnida", "imnika"?

Korean language is similar to Japanese, where there are terms to signify different levels of honor. All the time, yo, imnida and imnika is used by anybody when talking to someone older regardless of sex or even with a 1 year gap.

"Yo" is the same as "imnida" but it is more friendly and less formal but still tags respect. It is often used by students when talking to a professor they are very comfortable with, to a freshman talking to his senior or when talking to a street vendor (e.g. Annyeonghaseyo) "Yo" could also be used when asking questions. For example, olmayeyo (how much)?

"Imnida" on the other hand is used when talking in front of the class, when attending a conference, when talking to the university president, to a politician or to someone you first met (e.g. Annyeonghashimnikka). "Imnikka" has the same degree with imnida but only used when asking questions and is found at the end of the sentence. (For example, Myot (what) shi (time) imnikka (is it)?

   

3 things to do in Jeju Island

So far, the travel experience to Jeju Island was my best. I can't believe reading the results of the new 7 wonders of the world. Somehow I felt proud to have gone to one of the 7. It's quite sad tough, the irony of life strikes hard. Been in the Philippines most of my life but never been to the underground river of Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Well, looking back, conditions had been more favorable for a Jeju adventure. It was winter and our university's training ship was off to Jeju for the maritime student's monthly drill. I was lucky to rode for free plus the meal which was more like of a naval taste.

To be biased about it, Jeju is one, if not the most, beautiful place in South Korea. I bet Koreans agree with me on this. In fact it is favorite among drama and movie directors alike. It has a very windy summer, array of flowers during spring, pronounced deep blue waters during autumn and a mixture of everything during winter. A complete Jeju experience could be best defined by three things.

Of all places in the country, Jeju-do (as Koreans call it) is relatively warmer during winter because it is positioned lowest. We took off at Seogwipo, the part of Jeju where the falls and large stone formations were. It had numerous displays of a statue called "hareubang" which means grandfather (to-do number 1). We only had a map, a good walking shoes and a camera to keep the memories. We were clueluess about the rest. We did not plan where to sleep, where to eat, in fact we did not know anything. We were asking questions all the time and that was the key for any carefree expidition.

After walking around, we decided to ride a bus off to Jeju City which is the center for most of the activities in the island. We were strolling in the biting winter until sunset. We decided to take a taxi and asked the driver to take us to any public bathhouse. Things like these are not dangerous to do in South Korea, especially in Jeju where people are generally friendly and crime rate is zero. Like most wandering Koreans, we warmed ourselves into the hot pools of the bathhouse and slept to regain energy for the next day's adventure. When we checked out early in the morning, we found snow scattered all over the streets and Halla-san (the highest mountain in the country excluding that of North Korea) was pure white. From Jeju City, we took a bus and visited some historical village at the foot of Hala Mountain. Unluckily, it was closed for renovation, which left us wandering again. We were walking for more than 2 hours until we decided to make a detour in a remote tangerine farm (this should be second on your list). Our pure intent were only to take pictures but to our surprise the owners handed two bags full of tangerine. We had too much tangerine on that day, believe it or not up to now I feel as if I had enough tangerine for the rest my life.

We were on our way back to Seogwipo, exhausted and cold as we finally head home. We got a second surprise. We found a horse ranch and the scene was simply irresistible. Lots and lots of horses and lots and lots of snow. The place was bright all over, we were so overwhelmed. The place was very quite, it was just us and the horses. We were busy making some snowman when suddenly we lost track of our tangerine. Just in the nick of time we saw notorious crows munching on our precious citrus. My friend ran as fast as he could to scare them away but the ground was so slippery with ice. He decided to take a handful of snow on the ground and throw right at the fiery birds. I followed him instantly but I was useless. I could not help myself from laughing out loud over our ill fated tangerine. Lucky day for us, those crows only managed to have a few and left us with still a half full bag of the seedless fruit. 

Later that day we found ourselves chasing the bus, hoping to catch up with the training ship. We can't afford to be left behind. Our 2 day ramble had mostly long hours of walking, very few gobbles with food and a whole sense of the unknown. Jeju is quite small and buses are available in an hourly bases. The population is not large, very few establishments and the rest is beauty. I will definitely go back, very soon.

The Secret World of Arrietty

Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend. Who knows better than Studio Ghibli and Disney? Since 1984 he has showered us heart warming stories and explicit animation. The last film he wrote and directed for Studtio Ghibli is Ponyo. Among all creations of Hayao, Ponyo will always be my favorite character. I think Ponyo is the epitome of the Japanese expression 'kawai' (かわいい) which means cute.  One of the most recent Hayao masterpeice is The Secret World of Arrietty although it is sometimes called The Borrower Arrietty. Just to emphasize, this film was writtend and produced but not directed by Hayao. Unlike Ponyo, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service and many others which are both written and directed by him.

The story of this 2010 film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi revolves around the girl named Arrietty who is living in a not-so-different world together with his mother and father. Their species are in danger of speedy disappearance so extra precaution not to be seen by humans must be taken. However a little boy named Sho sees Arrietty in the lawn for the first time and thus the journey begins. It is also called Borrower Arrietty because these small creatures often borrow tangibles from humans such as sugar, tissue and the like. Arrietty's first borrowed material was a pin which she showed off to her mother. All this time the family thought they were the only ones left, turns out there are others living in some distant land. Perhaps I had expected too much on this film, something as adventurous as magical and adventurous as other Hayao films. I must say the climax of the film was not clearly highlighted. I was neither able to see depth nor the complexity. To top it all, for me Spirited Away remained on the top list among all Hayao animations and Ponyo will and forever will be, the cutest.

Eat like Koreans do

A typical Korean meal is composed of rice, the main dish (which is usually meat) and lots and lots of side dishes termed as "pan chan" (반찬). We were on our way to Busan to attend the gala night of World Ocean Forum. It was past noon so we decided to munch on food available in one resto at the bus terminal. We had 5 side dishes mainly composed of beans, radish, lettuce and one leafy vegetable each picked differently. 

Contrary to common knowledge, kimchi does not only refer to pickled lettuce. In fact the word "kimchi" means "pickled" itself. This means there could also be types of kimchi other than lettuce. The fifth side dish was the soup which is often considered a side dish too. Last August 2009, I went to the countryside of Anda and experience the traditional "chuseok", also called as thanksgiving day. My labmate's mother stated that historically,  Korean side dishes are usually picked using chopsticks while spoon is exclusively used for rice and soup. Modern practice uses chopsticks for rice too. Korea's chopstick are unique because they are made of metal and flattened, opposite to the round and wooden chopsticks of the Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese.

According to my Professor, Koreans suffered a lot during the 19th century. During this time people barely eat and life expectancy was very short. To make up for the hard times, the all new extravagant Korea made each meal into a feast. The many side dishes made them feel they eat like the kings. Since they are served to people in excess, most of these are wasted indiscriminately. There had been notions by the government to pass an ordinance to minimize the pan-chan served in restaurants, food shops and the like. Food establishments worry that costumers may give negative feedback, thinking they were not served right. This lifestyle became a tradition up to the present. Maybe Korea has little to worry since solid waste management is prioritize in the country. Part of the scheme is a heavy out pour of funds on bioethanol production. The solid waste management lab in  MMU, a lab next to ours, was doing the exact thing. My friend used to gather food waste from the school cafeteria. Ingenuity indeed.

71: Into the Fire

I always thought that PS I Love you was the best movie of all time, the setting was perfect, the story was perfect. I cried my heart out watching that movie, feeling the imperfect yet undying love of Holly and Gerry. Until last night I watched 71: Into the Fire  (also known as 보화 속으로) and found myself in a fetal position sobbing. I downloaded this movie last summer but never paid attention because it appealed to be dragging in the beginning. This Korean movie was released June 16, 2010 which became a major box office hit and had a gross revenue of around $20 million.  

It was based from a real-life story of 71 student soldiers who defended the Pohang Girl's Middle School and slowed down the advance of North Korea soldiers for 11 hours. The fact that they were student soldiers, they lack the skills and war tactics. The 71 soldiers were lead by Oh Jung-bom which was played by the Bigbang rapper TOP who had only been to the real combat once.

The rest were teenagers, untrained men and few criminals who wished to see a real battle. Kwon Sang Woo played the role of Kap-Jo whose parents were killed by communists and chose to live a life without regard. Cha Seun-won played as Park Mu Rang,  commander of North Korean forces who wishes to advance to the Nakdong River. Colonization of the Nakdong river spells the end of South Korea and is therefore on top priority. Most of the South Korean troops and its American allies defended the river, leaving the 71 student soldiers all by themselves. 

For me endings are as important as beginnings because it could either spoil or stride the movie and I think I just saw the most heart-warming ending. It's all embedded in my head now. I must say TOP was the most impressive because he was the most amateur in terms of acting but he kicked himself gracefully. The picture shown below was a tear jerker, watch to movie and find out why.

   

Crazy over Asia

I have been soaking myself to lots and lots of Asian series lately. City Hunter, Protect the Boss, Code Blue and the most recent Greatest Love. If ever you're interested, you can always watch these series online at http://otaku-streamers.com/ which has also numerous anime streaming list. However you must sign up for unlimited viewing. I do not usually go online streaming since it's quite time consuming. What I do is I download each video via the very convenient internet download manager. Let me recognize my computer genius Vietnamese friend for introducing this ultra fave dload manager. It is fast and easy compared to torrent, however it may slow down your computer system. 

There is also http://www.epdrama.com/ which has fewer anime list compared to that of otaku-streamers. Both otaku-streamer and epdrama gives you high resolution downloads. Only, otaku-streamer downloads faster and groups each series per episode while epdrama divides each episode into either 5 or 6 parts. Based on personal experience, otaku-streamer often encounters more webpage problems compared to epdrama so I often do dloads via epdrama for Japanese and Korean series. All of my anime dloads are from otaku-streamers. The downside for both otaku-streamer and epdrama is that scrolling is slower since they show numerous video list in their homepage. What I do is I go to http://mysoju.com/ for suggestions of what Korean or Japanese series is hot for the month. Mysoju is not ideal for dload because their videos are usually flv in format, has very poor resolution and therefore ideal for online streaming. For anime suggestions, I go to otaku discussions such as those available in otaku-streamer. The users will usually name their best slice of anime for example, and most of them has a common answer so you can never go wrong. 


For more drama and anime list, you can also visit www.crunchyroll.com and  www.dramacrazy.net respectively.  

Friends Forever

I often hear grown-ups say that if they will be given a chance to go back in time, they would rather choose high school. They had the best time of their life, lots of friends, no strenuous study load and flirty flings perhaps? I can never relate to them because my wee hours in high school was spent in the library. It was a brat's world and a naive girl's ground for inferiority complexes. We had our graduation last 2004 and I revisited only after 6 long years. It was September last year where I have to become a resource speaker for the senior's career orientation. I was entering the gate and everything was nostalgic. I confessed to my listeners that if there is one thing I am forever grateful during my high school life, that would be my friends. We shared a synonymous verve and we would like to put it "birds of the same feathers are birds." We were sophomores then, playing cards in the lobby. I must believe destiny is not exclusive to the lover's lane. We just found ourselves liking each other, laughing and sharing stories to our heart's content. 

Jo Ann's debut. Standing: Franco, Jo Ann; Sitting from left: Joseph, Claudius, Diana, Faith, me, Francis, Ivy, Frenchy

Summertime spells swimming, of course with "money and permit issues" involved. We had no extra work and dwell heavily on our parents. It was a perfect time for swearing such things will be spared in the future. College was fast but we manage to be present on each others birthdays and fiestas. Eating was the name of the game.

We are "big" girls and "big" boys now. I just realized that indeed "money and permit" issues were spared. However, it is not only destiny that we share from the lover's lane. I'd like to put our present status as "it's complicated". After 2 years of hiatus, Joseph is still not reaching. Either we had deeply hurt him, or he is simply career driven that he is not able to make time, there is only one thing I am sure of. Despite the bitterness and painful exchange of words, he will be remembered.

In the middle, Joseph during his last summer outing with us

We have issues concerning about time and as to who does and does not give effort to the group. This is neither counting the blessings nor insensibility. We agreeably call this "abnormality syndromes". We don't think alike but we live with each other. We are 24 years old and this year is our 10th together.

To indicate some degree of accomplishment, I must call ourselves young professionals. Claudius is currently working as a registered nurse while chasing his American dream. Frenchy is working in an outsourcing company at the same time trying to settle her weight issues. Diana worked in a bank but looks for greener pasture in another outsourcing company. Jo Ann finished nursing and continuously acing on fulfilling career paths. Francis is a living example of my-hobby-my job and spends time grooming his posture. Franco kept his coll as always and is into maritime industry. Ivy travels around Philippines, munching on audits and the like. Faith had been lady-like and has work in the bank ever since. As to for me, I am into a more quantitative pedagogy fighting in awe to my students. Lastly, Joseph, whom we are clueless of his whereabouts. All in all, we are immature and insane. We would not end here. As we will move forward, we will be more self reliant in the years to come. This blog is without labels, and only for the purpose of sharing what the half of my life has been. I would like to end it showing the video I made last April 2010, this was the time when they set for Camiguin while I was still away. I was envious when I first saw their pictures but my heart melted after seeing my nickname imprinted on the sand. This was meant to express my gratitude. 

PS. Have just checked my facebook post of this video, it had 10 likes and 217 comments. Turns out our biggest fans were our older brothers and sisters. OM! could this mean that though they put a sad face on our frequent meetings, they still appreciate our undying loyalty for each other?

Marian and Vince Prenup

I have this friend Frenchy, a long time gal and high school mate, who buzzed me proposing a prenup project. Of course she knew I am a desperate photographer and should I also say she has high hopes for me. Maybe because we're too close, we love our own (haha). Marian, the bride, is her best friend and my heroic friend wants this prenup be a wedding gift. In a nutshell, I was the sacrificial lamb. I was absolutely thrilled, as it has always been for first timers.  I thought this could be a stepping stone of my ever changing journey. These are just some of the pictures I took last April 17, 2011.

The shoot was at Papa Kits, Lilo-an Cebu. That day was like heaven and hell. The heat was scorching but we were so fond we did not realize our skin were already sun kissed. The couple requested some photos for display, of which I took the liberty of editing. I chose this one as the banner picture.

This one is the backdrop for the picture taking of A-list-hollywood-star-fever guests.

Later that night, I posted some photos on Facebook then Risa came claiming that Vince, the groom, was her high school mate. To top it all, it was one small world. Marian and Vince shall wed this coming Saturday, May 6, 2011.

Island Hopping

It was fun today. Our family and the extensions all went to Mactan Island for some culminating summer getaway. Unsatisfied with our beach resort, we decided to go island hopping. Our first stop was Supa Island. It was beautiful, though it did not have a long stretch of shoreline. There were newly developed corals and the rock formations were also defined. The water was crystal clear, enough to temp us to jump right after the boat anchored. After the plunge, we dig ourselves to authentic Cebuano food. Of course the lechon was there. Then we headed to Olango Island. It’s one of the rare islands in the Philippines where migratory birds rest during winter season. The water was clear but was dominated by sea grasses and algae. I think the island is better off for birds. I did not have my camera or my phone. Although I did not have photographic memories of those islands, I was happy I detached my self from the “connections”. Sometimes it’s the only way to breath and find peace. We all went back home, exhausted not because we had too much fun but because it’s work again tomorrow. Who does not hate Mondays?

BOHOL, without the adds!

Bohol is perhaps one of the most favorite island destinations among locals and tourists in the Philippines. Thanks to its fine stretch of white sand beaches, a province and a paradise at once. Parallel to these is the best choice for Bohol to be one of the most heavily studied and fought between business sharks and active environmentalists. Your Bohol trip won't be complete without the tarsier encounter, which by  the way is not a monkey. It is a primate and its not endemic to Bohol. So now lets travel Bohol minus the beaches and Chocolate hills but still get the same fulfilling experience. First is the travel from Tagbilaran going to Bilar, one of Bohol's biodiversity pride. It will pass through the man-made forest which is a project of DENR. That was a very sunny day but being in the forest feels like the sun is about to set. 

Then we reach the Bohol Biodiversity Complex, which is maintained by the SWCF.

Here you can hold conferences, workshops etc. at a very low price. Guaranteed no mosquitoes because the ecosystem they have is completely balanced. So there is enough frogs to kill the dengue causing insects.

Nothing energizes your day, than a load of delicious breakfast. Together with the friendly people, we dig in to a sumptuous egg omelet and freshly baked bread the Bohol way. You can also try the native cake exclusive only to Bilar, which is a cassava mixed with rice and coconut.  

Then the trail starts. In some instances, we have to cross small tributaries of the Bilar river. 

We also passed the entrance to the Bilar cave but since we did not have the equipment we were not able to take a glimpse of the treasure down below. Along the way, we spotted beautiful wild plants as well as fauna. 

We saw a very huge centipede, which already has a body about 1 inch wide. This species is an indicator of a healthy environment. I saw one of this kind in only the forest of Leyte and beside the river of Matutinao, Badian in Cebu. 

It is also in the Biodiversity complex I saw a Kaong tree, and its the real thing.

Not those canned by Dole ready for fruit salad on Christmas eve. The best way to end a trip in Bilar is to have a memory tree. It is called as such because you get to put your name beside on the tree and its guaranteed to be there till your grandson's generation.