The New, New Digs

For the past week, I’ve been living in what I’ve called the New, New Digs. Like Office Tower, this place is an OfficeTel, designed for a single person to live and work on the cheap. It is, in every way an efficiency apartment. However, unlike Office Tower, it does have a loft and features that lend itself having more than one person staying there.

Here's the entry hallway. What's nice about this location is that there's a mirror on the shoe closet door. Best of all, the motion sensor light won't keep me up all night.

This place also has more shoe storage that I could ever dream of. Perfect for two people.

The bathroom is about half the size of the one in Office Tower, but on the plus side, there are two shower wands AND a large downward shower head. In fact, there's more water that I know what to do with. Another great feature, is that I have pretty much unlimited hot water here, as opposed to the 5 minute showers I used to have to take.

The kitchen is about the same, although this does have a gas stove, which is a Godsend. The washer also has a dryer function too. The pull out island makes up for the otherwise lacking counter space.

It did come with a built-in LCD TV, that I hook up to my computer to watch movies on. That is a gret feature!

Stairs going up...

... to the loft.

This is why I moved. The apartment has two distinct living areas and it makes all the difference in the world.

So there you have it… the tour of the new place. I’ll be posting a video tomorrow!

T-Minus Four

I am down-right giddy.

That’s right, I said it. I can’t believe that in four days Jo will be here. There’s still a lot to do on both our ends, but for the most part, we’re ready to settle down for the next six months here in Dongtan. Tomorrow, KT is stopping by to assist with the installation of my Apple Airport Router.

Since I come from an IT background, it is hard for me to call technical support for something so easy, but the net here in Korea is a little bit different. Each connection is tied to a single MAC address, so every time you change a computer, you have to enter a UserID and Password to access the Internet. Up until now, I’ve had no problem using the connection on my Macbook Pro; however, I’m starting to set things up for the future when we’ll have multiple devices online at the same time.

I tried to get the information that was needed to log onto the KT network with the router, but alas, it took me to a new screen that requested additional information. Information that I was not in possession of.

So tomorrow at 10am, they’ll come to my apartment and spend about 30 seconds typing in passwords so that I can access the net wirelessly. Oh the joy of sitting up in the loft and chatting on Skype! I can’t wait.

Tomorrow is also the day that I’ll be receiving some much-needed sitting equipment. Up until now, I’ve been sitting on the tiled floor or stairs… and quite frankly, my buttocks can’t take it any more. I need something soft to rest my cheeks on. What’s supposed to arrive is some sort of futon that will sit on the floor and allow us to be comfortable. We need this because the TV is bolted into the wall (a flat panel LCD) at such a low-level that anything higher would cause neck problems. A dining table should arrive by the middle of next week.

Once I get the ’sofa’ installed, then I take some pictures and a video to show you where we’ll be living.

Have I mentioned how excited I am to have Jo come??? I can’t wait!

A Foggy Sunday

Greetings on a rainy and foggy Sunday morning. As I sit here on the floor with my cup of coffee, I’m looking out the big window and can’t even see Suwon any more. I love days like this and I can’t wait until the weather cools even more and we get some snow. Somehow, I think being able to see the flakes falling from this vantage point will be amazing!

The move is complete and for the most part I’m settled into the New, New Digs. However, I’m waiting post pictures and the video until I get my sofa and table (which should be tomorrow). Then I can put together something very nice. One thing that I do really enjoy is the fact that there’s an LCD TV installed onto the wall downstairs. For the past week, I’ve been hooking my laptop up to the television to watch various shows and movies. Last night was Mamma Mia! again, complete with a great Dancing Queen routine.

Today, I’m heading into 강남 (Gangnam) to look for a new computer backpack, since mine is starting to fall apart. I am a bit disappointed that it is, since I spent about $200 on it. But the fault stems from the weather proof zippers. I guess they aren’t really used to having someone put it through the paces. I’m also going to be picking up a wireless router. That will be very important for Jo and I. You see we’ll both have computers, but more importantly, Jo is bring with her my Skype Phone (which happens to be called an iPhone).

Once we knew that Jo would be coming out here, I purchased an incoming Skype number for our families to easily contact us, as well as the unlimited US/Canada plan. Right now, the US number I have rings to my computer… but that’s where the router and Skype Phone come into play. It allows the phone to log into Skype without the computer and we can use it like a real cordless phone. It’s brilliant!

There is one spot of bad news… On Friday, while I was doing a little computer work, I spilled 녹차 (green tea) on the keyboard. I’m very thankful that there was no damage to the main computer hardware, but the keyboard didn’t fare so well. There are two keys that no longer function: 1) the little ‘fn’ key that I use to operate the Apple controls and to navigate in Word, and 2) the ‘x’ key. Granted I don’t use the latter that much, but some of my friends have that letter in their email addresses, and I really don’t like having to plug in my eternal keyboard for one letter (or bringing up the virtual keyboard).

So once we have the other computers all set in the new apartment, I’m going to drop the old MacBook Pro at a# in the COE and have it fixed (see… there’s one of the two broken keys causing problems again!!!).

I do hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. How many back in States took part in Black Friday shopping trips? Did you get any great deals? Jo picked up a 500gb Western Digital Passport Drive for $70. That was amazing!!!

Until net time, have a great weekend!

Five Factors For a Great Presentation

I have been in the public eye since 2002, when I started my own business. One of the hardest things I had to achieve was to develop a sales pitch in less than 30 seconds that would entice the listener. While crafting these messages, I was very thankful that while in High School, one of my classes had a Public Speaking and Toastmasters unit. It was there, I developed a sense of style and comfort when speaking in front of an audience.

If it hadn’t been for that class, I would have never had made it as an emcee or broadcaster. I owe a great deal of thanks to Mrs. Patenge and all the hard work she put into that class.

As I get more and more involved with education here in Korea (both in supervising various projects and assisting my students become more comfortable with English), I find the same mistakes being made time and time again. It’s not because those presenting the information are ignorant at what it takes to put on a good presentation, but rather, that they’ve never had a public speaking and presentation course. Therefore, I wanted to take time out during this final week of Term 4 to post some tips for my students and fellow educators as the new term begins in December.

FACTOR ONE: Know your audience

It doesn’t matter if you’re in school or pitching a multi-billion dollar product. When crafting your presentation, you need to keep your audience in mind. Your presentation needs to be interesting to THEM and answer all their questions. If you’re writing a presentation for school, the project needs to address all aspects of the assignment. If it’s for business, ask the client what they need or what to know – then build your presentation around that. If your presentation doesn’t resonate with the audience, then you’ve lost them and there’s no hope of a sale or a good grade.

FACTOR TWO: Have a good conclusion

When presenting any kind of speech, it’s important to wrap things up nicely. This not only lets the audience know you’re through, but give them some closure on the topic. Getting up in front of people and spouting off a long list of fact can lead to a great presentation, but if there’s no theme or conclusion, they just sit out in the cold doing nothing. Taking the time to bring everything together allows the flow of speech to end naturally. It also provides an opportunity to invite the audience to ask questions related to your information and to clarify topics. Abruptly stopping your presentation sends the message that you’re done talking and don’t care about the audience – it’s not something you want conveyed.

FACTOR THREE: Powerpoint is a tool – Not the presentation

If you take nothing else away from this passage, please take this information and hold on to it dearly. Powerpoint is an application to help you present information, it is not a teleprompter. Unfortunately, most people who use Powerpoint use it as such – having every single word they will say appear on-screen. That is the worst thing that can be done. Powerpoint was developed to put key ideas, graphs, definitions, goals, etc. on-screen. It’s the place where you put brief summaries. This is why the most effective Powerpoint slides have six or less words on a line and no more than six lines per slide. Anything more takes the audience’s attention off you and they begin reading instead of listening. Also, if you’re reading everything on the slide, then you’re not looking at the audience. If you’re not looking at the audience… you’re not engaging them. At the heart of a good presentation is a personal connection with the speaker. It can’t be done if all your focus is on the screen.

FACTOR FOUR: Slow your speech

Many times when we get up in front of an audience, we’re so nervous that we just start rambling. It allows us to get through the material quickly, but sounds abnormal. When you give your presentation, actively think about slowing your speech. In most cases, it will still be fast! Slowing your nervous rate of speech also makes you sound more confident and knowledgable – both good things. This is especially important when you’re giving a report for school, since many times one must present for 3-5 minutes. Letting your nervous voice quickly tick off your talking points, will put you in under the mark and earn you a lower grade. The same can be said with a business presentation: if you go too quickly, it may appear that you’re pushy or looking to get onto bigger and better things.

FACTOR FIVE: Practice, Practice, Practice

I can’t stress this enough: YOU MUST PRACTICE YOUR PRESENTATIONS! The reason you do this is two-fold: 1) So that you become comfortable withe material (which goes back to speech rate and eye contact); 2) You can identify errors in the flow of information. There are various schools of thought on what’s the best way to practice. In my mind there are three. First, you can use the old standard “practice in front of a mirror” routine. It’s good, but I personally find it distracting. Another option is recording yourself using a video camera. I really like this, since you have the ability to capture your body language and get to see yourself from the audience’s perspective. The fact that most computers have a webcam or point-and-shoot cameras have a video function make it easy to record and review. The final practice step is to perform your presentation in front of someone and get their feedback.

The above Five Factors aren’t by any means the end-all and be-all of the presenting world, but are a good start for those that will be presenting in school this next term. I hope they’re as helpful to you as they have been to me over the years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Fall Colors

 

It’s hard to believe that nearly a week has passed since I’ve written anything on this site. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to or had nothing to say, but rather that things have been quite hectic over the past week. On Monday evening, I received the keys to my new apartment and promptly started moving the next day.

In all, I’ve made about a dozen trips on foot, bus, or taxi and can now say that I am moved into my New, New Digs. The place really won’t be home until Jo arrives next week, but I should have some pictures and video of the new places up this weekend (I’m still waiting on my new table and chair to arrive). I was so thrilled that I finally had everything in the apartment today, I almost cried a little, since this has been one of the most grueling moves I’ve ever made.

Since my Thanksgiving is almost over (and I’m about to teach a class), I did want to post something nice and quick to everyone to say the following: I hope this year you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Be thankful for what you have and don’t dwell on what you don’t. Take a moment to cherish the friends and family around you and connect with those that aren’t.

I especially like Thanksgiving for this reason. It’s a time to get together with friends and family and celebrate all that is good in life. I really don’t miss the American Thanksgiving, since I get the opportunity to celebrate Chuseok (추석) in the fall. I am still thankful for Jo. She is an amazing woman and I am thrilled to no end that she’ll be here in a week. In fact, I down-right giddy. Anyone who would move halfway around the world to be with their partner deserves the very best, and that’s something I’m going to try and deliver to her each and every day. She is absolutely my everything.

I’m also thankful for my family. They are an amazing rock of support and are there for me always. If you’re in the States (or are an American abroad), I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Update!

Today was quite a little fun day here in the Land of the Morning Calm. First, I’m rounding out the last full week in my OfficeTel before moving into my new place. I shall call it the “New, New Digs” to differentiate it from my current home. Thankfully, I don’t have a lot to pack and I can get everything into my new home relatively quickly. What I am most concerned about is setting up my Internet before the upcoming weekend, since I want to be settled before the end of Saturday.

The other thing that was quite humorous happened at Church this morning. As we were introducing ourselves to one another, the guy in front of me took a half step back and said, “Hey! I’ve seen you on YouTube!” I got a kick out of it, since being recognized in a city of 10 million is still quite new to me.

I’m currently working on a new project for students and business professionals, both in blog form and on YouTube. I hope to have it completed before Jo gets here, but I’m not going to rush it. I’m also looking forward to shooting the next QiRanger Adventure when she does. I have a great location picked out… well two really and it should be a lot of fun. There’s also going to be an “on the road” edition as she and I take some trains around Korea later in December.

Until next time my awesome friends… be excellent to one another.

Teaching in Korea: Slang

Some of the funny things I’ve dealt with over the past year in Korea has been getting used to some of the slang here in Korea. While some is really easy to get used to, some others just seem unnecessary.

For example, in the US and other countries, we use our mobile or cell phones extensively. In Korea, the term really isn’t used that much. Rather Koreans refer to these devices as handpones (because there is no ‘F’ sound in Hangeul). Getting used to that term is really easy.

As an active member of the YouTube community, I often refer to my work there as making movies or making videos. However, those terms really don’t translate well in Korean culture. What does translate is calling those projects UCCs. The term stands for User Created Content. The abbreviation does make sense, but I do have to admit, that I have a hard time using it. I often speaking about making a video with my ex-pat friends and making UCCs when discussing the topics with Koreans.

One of most aggravating slang terms I’ve come across here in Korea is PPT. This term is used to describe Powerpoint presentation. The term is derived from the file extension that Microsoft affixes to its presentation files: presentation1.ppt. The computer geek in me really rebels against falling presentation files PPTs, since there are several different types of programs that can create presentations. Furthermore, I dislike calling anything by its file extension, since they can easily be changed. That being said, PPT is firmly entrenched in the Korean culture and I find myself working today on a PPT file for school.

Another little bit of slang has recently come to my attention: RSP. Anyone who has ever been to Korea, knows that the only game more popular than Soccer and Baseball is Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Seriously.

Any number of things can be won or lost on a simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. However, the youngest generation of Koreans seem to think that actually saying “Rock, Paper, Scissors” takes too long and have shortened it to RSP.

Probably my favorite slang term in Korea is: FIGHTING! This phrase is used for encouragement rather than as a challenge. So if you’re out and about at a team sporting event… you can use this with pride, knowing that it won’t land you in the slammer for trying to instigate a riot.

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Stupid is as Stupid does…

North Korea

Yesterday, I was culling through the news and I saw something that just made me sit back and reiterate how stupid North Korea’s leadership is. The Chosun Ilbo reported yesterday that North Korea’s military has been actively stocking bunkers along the DMZ in preparation to invade the South as late as 2007.

The report comes from a North Korean defector that is familiar with the practice. He asserts that there were more than 800 bunkers (of which 70% are fake) that could arm as many as 2,000 soldiers at each location. That’s an invasion force of over 480,000, which could mobilize easily at the border. Furthermore, the defector asserted that in addition to arms, the bunkers had South Korean Military uniforms to assist the troops into blending in once they cross the border.

Now the thought of almost a half-million enemy troops crossing the border all at once is quite alarming… until you remember that it’s North Korea. I saw that because their weapons are outdated and not as effective as the South’s. Furthermore, when you take into consideration that the South’s army has known about this for years (the invasion plan and that they still practice anti-invasion drills) and that the level of technology guarding the DMZ is far superior than the brute force of the North, one realizes how stupid of a plan this is.

Any bum-rush across the border would instantly be met with such a firestorm, that those troops would be cut to pieces. Now, I think the fighting would be intense and last for a while, but by no means would the North be able to sustain any kind of military action either, as the latest encounter showed. In my opinion, if the North tried to attack the South, a defeat would come relatively quick and result in a unified nation within six months.

Teaching in Korea: 한글

One of the many questions I receive on a regular basis is did I know any Korean before coming here to teach. The answer to that question is a simple, “No.” When I was in Korea in 2008, I tried learning the language, but wasn’t really focused, so my skills really didn’t develop. I did learn how to speak a lot of Korea, which made my stay very enjoyable.

But this year, I took a different approach and have made it a priority to learn the Korean language. This is having a profound effect on my stay here, making it far more enjoyable.

But the question remains, “Does one need to learn Korea before coming here?”

I still stand by my answer that one does not. However, I do think that every person coming to Korea should learn how to read Hangeul (한글). First, the Korean character set is quiet easy to learn. One can master it in about a week (a day if you’re really focused). While you won’t be able to make sense of what’s in front of you, you will be able to know where you’re going… and that’s key because transliterating Korean into English can be a major source of frustration (at least on my part). I say this because if you know the Hangeul, then you know for sure the destination (or what you’re looking for) despite what the English sign says.

Here are a few examples:

강남 can both me romanized as Gangnam and Kangnam. As an native English we read these as two different words, yet they are the same place.

How about 부산? that’s right it’s Busan or Pusan depending who you’re asking.

Like your mobile phone manufactured by 삼성? That’s Samsung, the company, but also Samseong Station.

Each of the above 한글 (Hangeul or Hangul) examples have different spellings yet their pronunciations are the same. Being able to read the Hangeul characters makes it far easier to get around, especially when there aren’t bus routes printed in English. Someone can tell you the stop to get off at and you can actually find it yourself. That is what living in a foreign land is all about. And let me tell you… the first time you do this… it’s an awesome feeling!

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Apple Glitch

For those running Apple Mac OS 10.5.8, there was a security update yesterday (at least in my neck of the woods). After installing the update, and restarting my computer, I found that my beloved Mighty Mouse could no longer be recognized by my MacBook Pro.

This was quite frustrating, since I rely on my mouse quite heavily to swap between workspaces and programs. I did my own research and found that there was a new mouse driver for the Magic Mouse, but was hesitant to install it on my computer.

My solution was to wait until 11pm my time to call Apple Support in the US. After three calls and reboots (I had to stop each call with a reboot because I call over Skype), the final solution was to install this new driver.

It would have been helpful for Apple to include this new driver with the set of updates, since when clicking on “Software Update” it doesn’t list it as required software. If you’re having problems with your mouse, give installing the new mouse driver program and that should clear it right up.