Why You Suck

Oh God.

Where does it begin?

Ok, as you all know, I'm writing a frickin' long paper (15 pages people!!!) on nothing but the life of an average Korean high school student. The one subject with no information.

Being pretty desperate and this thing is due in like 3 days, I contacted everyone I knew, even people I HAD NO CLUE WHO THEY WERE like askakorean (who by the way, NEVER ASK HIM ANYTHING!!! he was NO help at all. If you're interviewing someone for something, you don't give one word answers. I mean, is this guy for real? I was on the brink of total stress break down the other day when I found out the due date for this paper is even closer then planned, and no one contacted me yet. And all I get for most of my Q's? "yes." "no." It's like the guy never lived there in his life!
If someone asked me about US  HS I'd give detail and helpful things which were important, not "no" "yes"... He's probably Mexican.


The stress has been rising...I haven't slept in like 72 hours. I finally got back with one helpful source. He just came back from teaching in Korea, and he was REALLY excited to answer my Q's. I mean, he put the actual Korean to shame. (yes, I realize I'm bashing him) he couldn't wait to answer more and keep in touch. Nothing was more relieving then reading that e-mail with 3 pages of long answers. Needless to say, I'm finally getting somewhere. After a month of searching, instead of writing, I was waiting for replies. How sad is that?

As another upside, I have another research paper assigned. So life sucks.

OH and I have to make a presentation on my Korean paper. Joy right? I have a lot now to present, but I'm worried...my teacher's been giving me a hard time with the whole research thing. Not much you can say other then, "Sorry everyone I contacted decided to ruin my life?" I didn't tell anyone I contacted when the paper was due, due to respect. I didn't want pressure, from past experiences, in an interview you never make any signs of rush or say you're under time limit...it makes the interviewee nervous and can forget major things or whiz through am important story which you need more detail. Last time I show respect to anyone online...

Well, I'm going to go write my paper now (type it, rather) and blast the halllelujah chorus on my earphones.

Korea Korea Korea Korea Korea....

All that's been ringing in my head is Korea...

Let's start from the beginning. I became bored with language class, and decided to learn a new language at the same time. Since some cousins of mine are Korean, I decided to learn Korean. It was difficult at first, confusing, since all the languages I've ever learned were closely related to English (French, Spanish, Romanian...?) and then there's this whole new ballpark of words & characters. So, yes, I'm still struggling. (half the time I think I'm swearing when I say little things) But anyway...

Later, a girl at school was going nuts because a new Beast CD had come out. And she's obsessed from Korean Pop. So, she began to educate me on their pop culture, (which she knew pretty much everything about) and she got me hooked. I've planned on going there for the passed couple of years to visit my cousins, but never did, and I really really really want to now. I'm learning their language, some culture (thru W. History, had a Korea Unit) and pop culture. I felt pretty good. Then....I got another idea...

In my writing class, we're having to write a 7-10 page paper on anything we want. ("voice of interest" teach the teacher something she/he doesn't even know) Instantly I knew it was going to be on Korea, but what more? The only thing I could think of was education/economic (jobs). So I got to work. And boy is it depressing. Highest rate of suicide & plastic surgery. Girls' use something called Sang-Ka-Pul glue(?) where they literally glue their eyelids so they have bigger eyes. Growing up I always thought it was bad in the states how girls tried to be someone else, and wanted to be pretty, but at least they would except who they were after so long, and it sounds like in Korea, they can't except that. It's this, or nothing. I may be wrong, but out of 5 sites (from American Exchange Students) videos, etc, they all said the same thing.

So, Korean-language
                  -pop/traditional culture
                  -education

what's next?


Someone asked me why I was so fixated on Korea, and not other Asian countries like Japan. Well, to be honest.....you always think of Japan or China when people say "Asia". Growing up I will never forget meeting a 7 year old girl who lived next door, I remember asking her if she was Chinese, because she was oriental. She shook her head no, and said she was Korean. I had to think for a minute, because I never heard "Korean" much, it was either China or Japan. She had just moved to the states. And my god she was smart. She knew 8 languages fluently and she was two grades ahead of others her age. And then there was me, you know, the little 8 year old next door who was still struggling with multiplication... She was really nice, and I missed her when she moved back home. But going back to the subject...No one knows much about Korea here. (in the states) at my library...we have two books. One on the language, and one for the Korean War. That's it. And this library is the biggest in the state. Googled, I barely received 20 links that were solely on Korea, the others merely mentioned the country.  But yet there's an entire 2-4 shelves on nothing but Japan, history, ecu., eco., etc, etc...same for most countries I've looked up.

I'm back on blogger! Hope to write again soon..........if I have time!